One day in September, I got up early to practice Qigong with Master as usual. Because of the summer, it always gets bright early. When we thought we were going to spend a new day peacefully, a close gunshot and noisy shouts tore through the tranquility of that early morning.
The house where my master and I lived was on the outskirts of the city with a hill behind it, and it was located on a ridge four to five meters high. Below the fort ridge is a ladder ridge that slowly goes uphill. The gunshots and shouts came from this direction.
I was young and good, and when I heard the sound, I wanted to go out to see, but before I could step out of the door, I was grabbed by the master. He shook his head at me and motioned for me not to go out. Not far away came the scream of a frightened woman, and then a rough voice: Whatever you are looking at, go home!
Soon, the footsteps got farther and farther, and the street became quiet again. This kind of quiet was different from the previous mornings, because the huge gunshot just now must have woken up everyone nearby. According to common sense, at this moment It should be noisier, but it is precisely because of this inexplicable silence that makes people feel uneasy.
Master asked me to stay at home, but he tentatively walked out of the house quietly and looked around cautiously. Then he quickly returned to the house and closed the door. Normally, as long as Master and I have someone at home, the door will not be closed because people in need of help often come to visit us. But Master's anomaly today made me even more sure that something was going on. So I asked Master anxiously what was happening outside. Because I had a vague feeling of ominousness at that time. Now that I had heard the gunfire, today, almost 20 years after liberation, could it be said that there are still spies who have not been eliminated?
A few years ago in my uncle's teahouse, a man was shot to death very close to me. Although that man was a spy, that scene was firmly imprinted in my mind, so at this moment I heard the gunshot again. The sound made me feel even more scared. I have been a teacher for several years and have seen many people in life and death. People who are not even afraid of ghosts are particularly panicked at this moment.
The master said that there was a dead man lying on the ladder sill below, who had been shot to death. It seems that the trouble has finally reached our area.
I know what Master is talking about. In that era, although communications were not developed, if something big happened, people would quickly spread the news to every corner of the city. Master told me early on not to wear a robe when going out, just wear casual clothes. I always thought that this profession required a low-key relationship, but I didn't take it seriously. But starting from the second half of last year, some people's emotions suddenly became particularly radical. Once they became radical, they began to ignore the consequences.
Those people first appeared at the end of last year, and starting in May of this year, they suddenly appeared in large numbers on the streets. They were both male and female, and most were about the same age as me, or even younger. Most of them are wearing military uniforms, but they are not soldiers. Their arms were wrapped with a red armband. They began to arrest some unarmed people in an organized manner, and scolded each other for their crimes in the street. If the other party denied it, they would be beaten to the ground immediately until they Admit the so-called "crime".
This is a wonderful era, when some people take to the streets and begin to use violence arrogantly and use extremely inflammatory words to trample on the personality of the other party and judge the other party as guilty. Faced with a large number of people, everyone knows that a good man will not suffer the immediate consequences. So most people bowed their heads and surrendered. When we have just emerged from thousands of years of dynastic power and war, many people are accustomed to accepting the situation. Similar things have happened before, are happening now, and may not happen in the future.
But is there really no law for beating people to death in the street?
The body of a person who was shot to death was not collected and disposed of after his death, but was left exposed where he was. This is not a good thing for Taoists like Master and me, because if someone dies unjustly and is not afraid of those who killed him, he is very likely to turn into a ghost and harm others. I asked Master, what should I do now? We are the only two people around here who understand this, so we can’t ignore it.
The master let out a long sigh and sat on the stool with some dejection. After a long time, he said, can we take care of it? Today only this person died here, what about other places? How many people have died? Can we take care of them all? The reason why these people died is because they were considered guilty by other people. If we intervene, then we will also become guilty people, do you understand?
I don't understand, I just know that people shouldn't be like this, no matter dead or alive.
Master said that since last year, the world has changed again. Do you still remember what we saw at the beginning of January when we went to the city to buy new year's goods? I nodded, of course I remembered. That place is called Seven Archways. There are houses and shops on both sides of the road, and the archway is in the middle of the road. Originally, this place was quite lively on weekdays, but when I went to do New Year shopping with Master that day, I was even more crowded.
I thought that everyone was out buying new year's goods, so there were so many people on the street. However, just under the archway, I heard a burst of noise and shouting. A man wearing a black cloth jacket, who looked to be in his sixties, stood upright under the archway with his head lowered. His legs stood at attention, but he couldn't help but tremble slightly. His hands clenched into fists were hanging down by his sides, and a big sign hung on a hemp rope around his neck with two words written on it: Landlord.
Standing next to him were still the young men wearing military uniforms and red armbands, with one hand on their hips and the other holding a red pamphlet high. He loudly denounced this man's crime. In fact, such landlords are not uncommon after liberation, because many people have complied with the country, returned the land to the people, and moved to the city to find another way to make a living. They do the same job as everyone else, and at least until this year, I thought most of them weren't bad. Maybe in their eyes, his land was actually deprived of him, but in my opinion, it was he who was deprived of his land by this group of people who looked like soldiers.
There were many people around, but no one dared to step forward. Perhaps Master knew that although I had a calm temper, I could not bear to see injustice, so he quickly took me home. So that day, I didn’t buy a few New Year’s goods, but I felt depressed for a long time. Today, Master told me that what happened outside our door just now was actually the result of the escalation of the incident at the beginning. I pulled you away at that time because no matter which side you are on right now, you will not get the slightest benefit. Maybe Your conscience and sense of justice are satisfied for a while, but you will lose more because of it.
Master said sincerely, children, although we are angry about some things, there is nothing we can do about them. Knowing that there is nothing you can do to do it, you can't say it's wrong, you can only say it's stupid. I said, but we can't just leave the body there, right?
Master suddenly got angry and said to me angrily, "Then what can you do to help me if you go?" Can we still drag the body back home? These people are just looking for trouble. Why do you still hit the muzzle if you know this? Where there is life, there is hope!
So I stopped talking. I knew that Master was not afraid of causing trouble, but was doing it for my own good. Master saw that I was silent, so he softened his tone and said, Master has many ways to deal with a few hooligans, but if the whole country is like this, Master is not Qiu Chuji, who can make a country prosperous with one word, even if he is, he can't save it.
Master's words were filled with helplessness. One night at dinner some time ago, he told me that a Buddhist temple on the other side of the river in the north of the city was smashed by this group of people. The temple was originally small, with only a few monks, and this group of people was even more powerful. Ancient temples were burned to the ground, and monks were even forced to return to secular life and eat meat. But Master only told me about such an incident and did not express his attitude, leaving me filled with indignation. But Master said that some things will have retribution in this life. It’s not that they won’t be repaid because the time has not yet come.
I stopped reading and went back to bed silently to fall asleep, feeling very uneasy in my heart. That day, Master and I locked ourselves in the room, and I couldn't sleep until late that night. So when the master wasn't paying attention, he secretly got up and put on his clothes, pretending to go to the hut, went around to the back of the house, slid down the hillside behind the hut, and walked a few dozen meters to the bottom of the fort. of ladder.
What I originally thought was that there was no one around late at night, so I would go and take a look at the place where the dead person was. Because there must be resentment gathering in that area at the moment, I would disperse the resentment and then go home. This prevents us from being afraid if it is haunted in the future, but it would be bad if the neighbors around us were disturbed.
But when I approached that place, I saw a body lying in the middle of the road from a distance. This means that those who beat the person to death did not come to collect the body, let alone notify the family to collect the body. The people around me were also afraid of getting into trouble. They were probably just like Master and me, so they kept their doors closed all day long.
I felt a little sad and looked around, but there seemed to be no one there. The moonlight was very good that night, so walking at night was not a problem at all. So I slowly leaned against the wall and approached the body. The body was lying face down, so I couldn't see his face. He had been shot in the vest and the blood on the ground had dried. I didn't dare to touch his body, and there would be too much noise if I were to perform the ritual of salvation, so I could only quietly scatter rice around him and light incense to dispel the resentment here. Then he squatted next to the corpse and silently burned some travel money.
Then I returned home the same way I came. Master didn't realize that I had sneaked out and was still sleeping soundly. After the sneaky tossing just now, I was indeed tired and fell asleep quickly. However, the next morning, while I was still sleeping, I heard a loud noise. Just when I was about to open my eyes, I heard Master yelling angrily: What are you going to do?
Before I could turn over, a hand suddenly grabbed my hair and dragged me from the bed to the ground. My head hit the ground hard, and stars suddenly appeared in my eyes. A man reached out to hold my hands and feet, and pressed my head with his knee. I was shocked and frightened, but I couldn't see what the person holding me looked like. Only his voice came to my ears:
"You're a lackey of a remnant of feudalism. Were you the one who burned paper money for that villain last night?"
