Grandpa let me go, picked up the flashlight and walked into the yard. He carefully observed the surroundings of the jujube tree.
There was a black date stone beside the wall. Grandpa reached out and picked it up, looked at it in the light, smelled it, and turned back.
"Where do dates come from? Can you climb such a tall tree?" Grandpa looked at my mother.
"I don't think it's right either. Binbin said that Uncle Zhao from next door came back to pick it for him. Is there no one here? I guess it fell from the tree and he picked it up." My mother said.
"What, Old Uncle Zhao, he's back? No way, he's seriously ill and is in the county hospital. He can't come back...?" Uncle Du and Aunt Du were shocked.
Aunt Du and her sister work at the county hospital, and they talked about this a few days ago. It is said that old Zhaotou is so pitiful. He has no children at this age and will die soon. He doesn't even have a family around him.
Grandpa suddenly interrupted him: "Stop talking, Xiao Du, it's okay. The kid Binbin ate some unclean dates and was frightened by the crow outside. I'll give him two more antidote pills later." That's okay.
"I'm sorry to bother you all today, please go back first. I will thank you all after Binbin recovers."
Grandpa stood up and forced a smile, winked at Uncle Du and began to see off the guests.
Uncle Du saw that grandpa's face was still very heavy, so he couldn't ask more questions. He and my dad sent the others away, and after a few words of comfort, they went home.
"Dad, Binbin is really fine. Look at him. How scary is it?"
Although my mother knew about grandpa's medical skills, she still asked worriedly.
Grandpa turned around and closed the door, sat on the kang, touched my head, and sighed.
"My grandson is not sick at all. His situation is very troublesome. I don't have time to tell you in detail now. In short, Binbin will suffer a little, but it may be a blessing in disguise."
My parents didn't understand what was going on, but when grandpa said this, they felt half relieved.
Grandpa immediately asked my mother to take out some glutinous rice, wrap a towel around my neck, find some cinnabar, apply it on my body and start massaging me.
Then I asked my mother to prepare things quickly. If she didn’t have any, she would go to the neighbors to borrow: a bottle of liquor, a few fish... Then she would go to my Uncle Du’s house to kill the big rooster and collect the chicken blood.
After my mother left, grandpa shook his head: "I didn't expect that my grandson would be involved in such a thing. I'm afraid Lao Zhao is already dead. What Binbin saw must be a ghost."
When my dad heard this, his face turned pale with fright.
"Dad, what are you talking about? Where did the ghost come from? Uncle Zhao is still in the hospital. Don't talk nonsense!
"I wonder if Binbin has an evil disease? He was possessed by the Great Fairy (folk legend says he was possessed by an animal). Is it because of something evil?"
At that time, there were many strange things and hysteria in the countryside.
"Nonsense, I don't know what disease Binbin is suffering from? Let me tell you, the dates Binbin ate must have been given to him by Lao Zhao. Those two dates are not ordinary dates. They were bred from corpses and resentment. There should be something buried under the tree to avoid attracting crows.
"If you had studied medicine with me, you would have understood this a long time ago. Tell me, none of the three of you are good. In the future, I will have to rely on my grandson for my abilities."
Grandpa glared and reprimanded him loudly. I don’t blame him for being angry. The ancestral motto of our Zhou family is that the core medical skills should not be passed on to others. Unfortunately, my father, brother and sister are not that good.
My uncle and my father were born with blood sickness, and even if they were beaten to death, they would not learn medicine. My aunt, on the other hand, did not have blood sickness and was excited when seeing blood. However, she got married early and started killing pigs with my uncle.
Besides, she is also a girl, and like my cousins, she cannot be an heir. If it weren't for me, this medical skill would have been lost.
"No, dad, don't worry about the ghosts and cure Binbin quickly?"
My dad blushed and took a towel to wipe my sweat.
"Okay, there's no need to wipe off the sweat now. You go too, go to your sister's place and bring me the butcher's knife, and prepare a shovel, gasoline, and an axe.
"Also, go to Old Liu's house in Xitou and ask him to make a paper man about the same height as Binbin. Remember, it doesn't matter if he looks like it or not. You have to do it quickly."
Grandpa hesitated for a moment and deliberately lowered his voice: "Nine times out of ten, that thing will come back at 2:30 this morning..."
Grandpa ignored my dad’s horrified expression and directly gave the order to die.
My dad got on his bicycle and went straight to my aunt's house. As for Lao Liu's family, they were the ones in the village who specialized in dead people.
The paper figures and horses made by his family are very vivid and very fast. It takes less than an hour to make a boy.
When we came back, my grandfather asked my mother to watch me at home. He took my father to the courtyard of Lao Zhaotou. He first drew a circle around the jujube tree with glutinous rice and inserted it in the four corners of the southeast, northwest and northwest. Four chopsticks.
I dug another pit of about half a meter in the yard, found some bricks and built a simple Bagua stove in the pit, added wood to it, set up a large water tank on top, and threw six fish into it.
Add water and seasonings, and prepare a large pot with a lid tied with a rope.
The more my dad looked at it, the more unreliable it became, and he complained in a low voice: "What is this for? Treating a disease or cooking?"
Grandpa was furious: "What are you talking about? Let me tell you, you want to save my grandson? It all depends on these things! Hurry up, you have delayed my grandson's affairs. How can I deal with you?"
My dad didn’t dare to say anything and just did whatever he was asked to do. First, he helped my grandpa use chopsticks to insert two rows from the entrance of the courtyard to the front of the vat, leaving about three meters in the middle to form a smaller version of the passage.
A few bricks were placed in front of the water tank to make steps, and two candles were placed on both sides of the door of Lao Zhao's courtyard.
After working for more than an hour, grandpa took my dad back to his yard.
My mother had already cooked the meal, but she couldn't eat it herself, so she sat next to me with a sad look on her face.
My dad and grandpa also had little appetite and barely ate something.
Grandpa saw that the time was almost up, took a few drops of blood from my middle finger with a silver needle, and touched it on the paper man's head, heart and pubic area. He also used cinnabar to draw a few symbols on the paper man's body, and then put me on My parents called together and whispered instructions.
"Remember everything! In order to save my eldest grandson's life, no one should be afraid later, just do as I say..."
…
At about two o'clock in the morning, the courtyard door of my house was wide open and the lights were on in the house.
I was lying naked on the kang, covered with a piece of clothing painted with rooster blood. Standing on the ground was a paper man about the same height and build as me, wearing my old clothes.
My mother stood in a secret place inside the door, also wearing a piece of clothing with chicken blood, holding a small peach wood sword tightly in her hand.
Grandpa and Dad were nowhere to be seen.
The clock on the wall pointed to two-thirty.
Sudden,
Bang bang bang!
The paper figure on the ground moved, turned around slowly, as if it was tied by a rope, and walked outside step by step.
A thin figure appeared at the entrance of the courtyard. This man had sparse hair and a skinny face. He was none other than Lao Zhaotou who appeared in the morning.
Old Zhaotou paused at the door of the courtyard, grinned at the light coming from the window, walked in with a very uncoordinated posture, and stood outside the door.
A strange fishy smell poured into the yard, which made people sleepy.
My mother leaned against the wall and looked at the paper man walking over, covering her mouth tightly and not daring to scream. When the paper man came to the door, my mother pushed the door open a crack with her hands. , the paper man walked out lightly and stood in the yard.
Under the dim moonlight, an old man and a paper man looked at each other. Their two stiff faces had expressions that had not changed for thousands of years.
Old Zhao circled around the paper man, waving his hands and looking very excited. He came closer and sniffed with his nose, then turned and walked out of the hospital.
The paper man followed him step by step.
