The old lame man walked peacefully and gracefully.
When he was buried, everyone in Taoyuan Village came to see him off. The coffin bearers were the clan leader Wang Erhu and several other village elders.
Shuguan wore sackcloth and mourning, and walked at the front of the procession holding a soul-calling flag.
Along the way, the villagers kept crying.
A lot of people were really crying.
The old lame man's life was really lackluster. The most glorious things he ever did were just two unproven prayers for rain.
And all the commendable achievements of the old cripple are limited to a small mountain village. They are nothing more than better planting of land, stronger building of houses, and more beautiful embroidery.
The old cripple has never left this valley.
So Taoyuan Village is his whole world.
When he died, the whole world he lived in shed tears for him, which was awesome.
The old cripple is also a very awesome person.
Shu Guan was the only one who did not shed tears. His tears may have dried up on that sunny afternoon.
The old lame man was buried at the foot of the hillside covered with peach blossoms. He watched blankly as the coffin was put into the pit. Then he knelt down, dug up a handful of loess with both hands, and sprinkled it on the coffin lid. .
So Wang Dahu and others next to him began to shovel soil into the pit with shovels.
The coffin containing the old cripple's body was gradually covered by loess.
Shu Guan knelt motionless, watching the coffin disappear from his sight, eventually turning into a grave mound slightly raised on the ground.
The old cripple left this world forever.
In a sense, he finally left the valley that had trapped him all his life.
Then it seemed that many people came to me and said something to me, and some people even patted me on the shoulder or arm.
But Shu Guan didn't quite hear what those people said. He was still in a daze. He had been in this daze since the old lame man died, as if he had lost his soul.
The people around gradually disappeared. Wang Dahu and the others stayed with Shu Guan for a while, and then they all said goodbye and went home. The last person to leave was Zhang Yadan, the most beautiful girl from Taoyuan Village Chief, who hugged her gently before leaving. Looking down.
In the past, Zhang Yadan's behavior would have made Shuguan a little happy, because this was something he had been longing for since he grew hair there.
But at this moment, Shu Guan didn't feel anything. He didn't even know that Zhang Yadan had hugged him, although just a few days ago, he and the old cripple were discussing going to Zhang Yadan's house to propose marriage.
Finally, by the stream, at the foot of the peach blossom slope, and in front of the new grave, Shu Guan was the only one left.
When the sun was about to set on the other side of the cliff, Shu Guan finally came to his senses. Then he cut down some tree trunks in the peach forest and built himself a simple small tree house next to the old cripple's grave.
Whether it is China in the previous life or in this world, there is a custom of observing the seventh day for deceased relatives.
Seven days of resting, because it is said that the seventh day after death is the night of soul rebirth. The soul of the deceased will return home on this night to take one last look at his family. Therefore, the deceased can only be buried after the first seven days.
Then there are two weeks, three weeks... It will not be until the seventh week that the soul of the deceased will be dissipated in the body and go to the underworld.
However, usually the next two seven days are spent at home, but Shu Guanxiang stayed by the old lame man's grave for thirty-seven-twenty-one days, which can be regarded as the last journey with his grandfather.
Although he knew very well that the so-called Shouqi was just a superstitious legend on earth, but in this different world, who could tell clearly!
After setting up the wooden house, we had something to eat, but it was still early. Shu Guan was very tired, but still didn't want to sleep, so he sat on a rock outside the wooden house, took out the cigarette rod from his belt, and ordered a pot for himself. cigarette.
Naturally, I used the old cripple’s cigarette stick.
A few days ago, the old cripple promised to make Shu Guan his own cigarette rod. Unfortunately, not long after agreeing to Shu Guan, he went back on his word in a way that Shu Guan could never blame him.
So Shu Guan buried his mobile phone with the old cripple, but kept the old cripple's cigarette rod.
Always leave something as a souvenir.
To put it in a more literary way, it means letting the things that have been with you for many years accompany each other.
Smoking the cigarette that the old cripple had smoked, he sat next to the grave where the old cripple was buried, staring blankly at the stream that he and the old cripple waded through under the night sky not far away.
It has been seven days since the old cripple died, but Shu Guan's sadness is still as deep as the night.
This was the first time in his two lives that he truly felt the grief of losing a loved one.
At this moment, he didn't think about how he could continue to live in Taoyuan Village alone after the old cripple he had depended on for many years died, or what kind of life he should give himself.
Time and the stream flowed quietly, and he stared in a daze until late at night. Then he finally stood up from the rock and walked into the wooden house in a daze.
He was really tired these days. Amidst the huge sadness, he also had to take care of the old cripple's funeral. In fact, Shu Guan had not slept much for seven days in a row. Today, he finally took care of the old cripple's funeral. over.
So after entering the wooden house, Shu Guan almost fell asleep.
...I don’t know how long I slept, but Shu Guan opened his eyes drowsily and glanced outside the wooden house. The sky outside was still dark.
How many hours have you slept?
Or did he just sleep until the next night?
A strange feeling suddenly arose in Shu Guan's heart, and then he stood up involuntarily, lowered his head and walked out of the wooden house.
The moment he raised his head, he saw the old cripple.
The old cripple stood on a peach tree in the peach forest on the hillside.
It was mid-February, and the spring had just entered the valley. The peach blossoms had not yet bloomed. Only some small buds emerged from the branches sporadically, hiding among the green peach leaves.
At this time, the old lame man was standing on his lame leg, with a peach leaf swaying in the night wind under his feet.
Shu watched the old lame man.
The old lame man was also looking at Shu Guan, his eyes cold, as cold as the bright moon above the cliff.
Shu Guan had never seen such an old lame man.
It's not that the old lame man's appearance has changed. The old man standing on a certain peach leaf of the peach tree was lame, blind, and his left chest was deeply sunken. He looked exactly the same as before his death seven days ago.
But in Shu Guan's eyes, the old cripple seemed to have become a completely different person.
It was a purely sensory difference. Shu Guan had lived with the old cripple for eighteen years, and he knew that his feeling was never wrong.
Especially the way the old cripple looked at him from the peach tree was so cold and heartless. The light shining in the normal eye at this moment was even weirder than the one with only the whites.
Shuguan opened his mouth and wanted to scream, but found that no sound came out of his mouth. At the same time, he also found that his body seemed unable to move.
An inexplicable panic surged from Shu Guan's heart.
At this moment, he actually felt a little afraid of the old man who had raised him since childhood.
The old man and the young man, who were not related by blood but shared the same affection as their grandparents, looked at each other in silence for a few seconds across a peach forest.
Then I saw the old cripple suddenly waving behind him.
The next moment, Shu Guan saw a strange thing flying out from a cliff in the distance.
Then he quickly saw what it was.
That's a dragon!
