For many days since then, the relationship between Meng Dongxue and me has always remained at the stage of just looking at each other and smiling. In fact, it wasn't much different from before, but because that night in the cabin above the cowshed, she and I had a brief intimacy. Maybe that was why I was at a loss.
I am a person who knows almost nothing about women, so I have no way of guessing what Meng Dongxue is thinking. At least for me, I feel quite conflicted. Since Ji Youan and her roommate went back, I still sleep in the main room every day. Whenever Meng Dongxue goes out early and comes back late, even though I don't want her to notice my care and attention, I still can't help but look at her from time to time. The only way she leaves or returns home.
I once thought about it, otherwise I could just pierce the layer of paper, which would save me the whole day of guessing. But I didn't have the courage to say it. I finally discovered that I wasn't afraid of telling her, but that I was afraid of being rejected. Being under the same roof will be even more embarrassing then.
I just thought about it for many days, and my energy was greatly reduced. After Ji Youan was rescued by me, he naturally couldn't help but talk about my luxury in front of others. So I noticed that many educated youths looked at me differently, but their attitudes gradually changed. Yes, in such a village, even if people like me belong to an alternative existence, they can still be gradually respected by everyone.
Finally one day, the captain of the production team came to me and said that his little nephew seemed to have hit something dirty and asked me to help. I agreed without hesitation without knowing anything about the situation.
Because I need a reason to stop thinking about it for the time being, or even to leave here temporarily.
Maybe it was because I agreed so readily that the production team leader was a little surprised. His family lives in the village, and his nephew who got into the accident this time is the child of his sister. Her sister married in another village, which is about half a day's journey from us. So now I not only had a reason to divert my attention, but also a reason to temporarily leave the village to do some work.
I agreed without even asking about the matter, and made an appointment to go to their house in Cuntou to wait for him the next morning.
I didn't even tell Aunt Xu about this, I just told her that I had to go out. When I just started polishing the next day, I left Aunt Xu's house quietly. This short journey of just over a mile actually gave me a feeling of escaping from suffering, and it was extremely easy to walk.
The production captain’s surname is Li, and everyone in the village calls him “Captain Li.” Different from the village head, the village head is responsible for managing the miscellaneous affairs in the village and coordinating the family affairs of the villagers. The production captain is only responsible for farming and harvesting. In that era, each household was required to hand over a certain share of grain to the country every month or quarter based on headcount and political composition. In return, each household would be awarded "work points" to assess whether each person's monthly work was up to standard. . Qualified people can be allocated some grains that they did not grow at home, as well as meat, wine, cloth and other items. Not only that, but they also get money.
It sounds wonderful, but in fact, what we do is still the same things that the landlords did back then.
On the way to another village, Captain Li told me what happened.
His nephew is 8 years old this year. Because he started school late in rural areas, he only sent the child to the central primary school in the town in September this year. The past month was uneventful, and the children were working hard at school. The village is not far from the town, so the children go to school every morning and have to go home after school in the afternoon to help with some housework. There is not much that an 8-year-old child can do, so he can only help cut pig grass or feed poultry and livestock. Only after completing these tasks can he start doing homework.
Captain Li said that just a week ago, the child came home from school as usual and helped his family cut bamboo in the back mountain, but he did not come home all night. When the family had dinner in the evening, they saw that the child had not come back, so they became very anxious. The whole family mobilized and even gathered nearby villagers to search for the child all over the mountains and fields, but could not find it. I continued to search during the day the next day, thinking that I might be able to see more clearly if there was light, but I still couldn't find it.
Captain Li told me that the countryside is a small place, and the whole village will soon know about a little thing like sesame seeds and mung beans. Although everyone is worried about the safety of their children, some random speculations are inevitable. Some say that the child was snatched away by a wolf, or that the child was thrown down the mountain after encountering a poisonous insect or snake. Some even said that the child was deceived by a stranger with candy.
In just one day, speculation and rumors were circulating. This is a very big blow to his sister's family. Although other people's speculations have not been confirmed, those situations are exactly what he is worried about. I interrupted Captain Li and said, didn’t you report the missing child? Captain Li said, of course he reported the case, and the police comrades came, but my sister’s village is quite large because it is close to the town. People in the neighboring villages are somewhat unfamiliar, and I don’t know if it is. I ran to a neighboring village to play or something. In such a large area, most of it is wilderness and farmland. It is really difficult to find an eight-year-old child.
Captain Li went on to say that on the afternoon of the second day of his disappearance, news finally came that the child had been found in a bamboo forest about ten miles away from home. However, when he was found, he was naked and lying between several trees. Between the thick bamboos, he was lying on his side, holding his knees with his hands and his head buried between his arms. The whole person looked like a ball. Moreover, the child did not respond when he was found. He thought he was dead at the time, but he soon woke up. When people asked what happened to the child, he seemed confused, as if he did not know what happened in the process. thing.
Judging from what Captain Li told me, if a person suddenly disappears while walking in the mountains, and after being found, he has no memory of the mountains, such as how he got there, or why he was not wearing any clothes, If I have no memory of the matter, I initially judge that the child has two possibilities. The first is that after all, he is young and his soul is not fully grown, so it is easy to be squeezed out by some evil things wandering in the mountains. This method is the same as that of the child named Liao Yuxuan at the funeral of the Wang family in the village. Another possibility is that ghosts are attacking the wall.
The so-called ghost beating the wall most often refers to a person circling back and forth in a place but unable to get out. It's like entering a maze. What you see in front of you and what you are actually walking on are not actually the same path. This situation mostly occurs in rural areas with graves and mountains. In the past, transportation was inconvenient, and many people had to pass by some scattered graves after returning home after a busy day. At this time, it was very likely that ghosts would appear. However, ghost wall-breaking is basically harmless to people. At most, it is just strange, and it will not have any bad impact on people afterwards.
However, it is worth mentioning that in rare cases, ghost attacks can also cause harm. It depends on the motivation of the "ghost" who makes people appear to be ghosts. For example, some people walk at night and end up in a cemetery inexplicably, and then their memory goes blank. When they come back to their senses, it is already dawn, and they realize that I slept in a cemetery last night. This situation is somewhat similar to what Captain Li's nephew encountered. But there is another one that is more dangerous. The ghosts attack the wall in the same way, but the results are completely different. For example, someone is walking on the road smoothly and sees a straight road ahead. When he steps on it, he realizes that it is a cliff or a river. As a result, most people will die. The initiators of this kind of ghost wall-breaking are mostly evil spirits, and they never appear once. The victims are either dead or injured.
Captain Li's nephew was not injured, but there was no way to guarantee whether the ghost he encountered was good or evil, because after all, he was naked. It was already the end of the year, and the countryside was already colder. In addition, places like bamboo forests were relatively humid. , it was even bone-chillingly cold at night, so if the child was naked all night, even if he didn't die, his vitality would probably be damaged.
But I have not told Captain Li these speculations, because at present I just think it is possible, but it may not be true. So I asked Captain Li to talk about what happened next.
Captain Li told me that after the child was sent home, his parents cried and scolded him at the same time. This child is relatively sensible. In the past, when he saw his parents sad, he would definitely comfort him or cry with him, but this time he did not respond at all and his expression was dull. , unable to concentrate, feeling very numb to things around me.
I asked, does he still remember that this place is his home and these two people are his parents? The reason why I ask this is because of the sudden change in temperament, which may also be caused by being possessed by a ghost. But Captain Li said, of course they knew each other. After returning home, everything was like an ordinary child. He had three meals a day and played and slept when he needed to. It was just that his parents were worried about his condition and temporarily asked for leave from the primary school in the town. So for more than a week, I have been at home.
Hearing what he said, I was a little confused. I originally made a preliminary judgment on the child's symptoms based on Captain Li's description. But every time my judgment first appeared, he refuted it with other facts. Captain Li said that although the child felt nothing unusual, as a family member who got along day and night, how could they not notice that the child suddenly seemed to be a different person?
So the child's mother secretly went to an 80-year-old "Sesame Woman" in the village without telling the child's father, and asked Sesame Woman to help see what happened to the child when he fell to the ground. As a result, Sesame Woman said she saw the child's hands, feet and waist. , were all entangled with thick ropes, and were being pulled far away, but the child did not notice that something was pulling on him.
I was shocked. If the fantasy that Madam Ma You saw was accurate, then this child might be close to death.
