After Zhang Hazi’s previous foreshadowing, I already knew that the words he asked must have profound meaning.
Zhang Hazi asked me if I had seen any women in the village, and it turned out that most of the women in the village died following the craftsmen fifty-five years ago.
Now he asked me if I had heard the cries of children in the village. Doesn't that mean...
There was a wind blowing on the ridge, which turned into a heat wave after being exposed to the high temperature. But when it hit my face, it was like a stinging ice pick, stinging my cheeks and eyes hard.
After the craftsmen died, their wives also died within seven days. This incident itself deeply hurt me and reminded me of the incident five years ago. Before Ling Jiang died, you decided The smile appeared in my mind and could not go away for a long time.
Now that Zhang Hazi asked such a question again, I didn’t even have to think about it carefully. I knew that I had indeed not heard any cries from children along the way. This made my already tense heart feel pricked again. Shredded.
Because I can never forget that in Ling Jiang's belly, she is still pregnant with my child. If she hadn't used her body to seal the coffin, my child would be able to cry and make noise now, or help his parents make soy sauce.
When I think about the fact that these children in the village may also die along with their parents, I feel as if my heart is being squeezed tightly by someone's hands, and it may burst at any time. The feeling of being a father almost made me hysterical.
I looked at Xie Bugui hurriedly, staring at him with a fierce look in my eyes, and said, where are the children in your village?
Xie Bugui seemed to be frightened by my sudden posture. He was stunned for a moment, then pointed at himself, and then at the young people behind him, and said, this is me too, we want to figure it out. Drop problem.
I thought about his various answers, but I didn't expect this one.
I asked, what do you mean?
Zhang Hazi continued, what he meant was that they were the last group of young people in Xiejia Village.
I still don’t understand what he means. What is the last group of young people?
Zhang Hazi looked at me helplessly and said, to put it another way, they are all infertile!
Hearing these four words, I didn't know why, I breathed a big sigh of relief, and then said without emotional intelligence, that's good, that's good.
My original intention was that it would be fine as long as the man-made disaster did not affect the children, but because of my urgency, I ended up saying only these three words.
I think Xie Bugui's face must have looked ugly when he heard this. When I came to my senses, I no longer dared to look at his face.
So I quickly explained. After I finished explaining, I dared to raise my head and glance at Xie Bugui. But his expression did not ease. On the contrary, it was even uglier than before when he said that all the women in the village would die within seven days.
He said, now do you know why these young people support digging graves?
I know, isn’t it just because of infertility? In fact, we still have to believe in science in this matter. I personally think it is better to go to the hospital and have a look than to cause trouble for the ancestors here.
Zhang Hazi and I were sure that Xie Chuanyin's identity was different, so we stayed to fight with him. But you are different. You are still young and have a bright future. There is no need to waste your life in the village.
But Xie Bugui shook his head and said, it's not that you think it's infertile.
After he finished speaking, he led us up for a while, and then pointed to a pile of tombs in front of us, but said nothing.
I followed his fingers and looked over, and then I realized that the tomb over there was different from anything I had seen before - a normal tomb, and a small tomb next to it.
It can be said to be a small grave, but it doesn't look like it. Instead, it looks like a shovelful of soil accidentally dropped when building the grave. All in all, it looks very incongruous and weird.
I told Zhang Hazi what I saw. After he heard it, his face turned ugly instantly. Then he said to Zhang Hazi with a sullen face: The old are buried and the young are not buried. Have you craftsmen ever forgotten? old?
The so-called "burial for old age" means that after a person dies of old age, he must be buried, and he cannot just find a place to throw it away without conscience; and "no grave for young people" means that after the death of a young child, he cannot erect a grave. A monument should be erected on the grave, let alone moved into the ancestral grave.
In many places I have visited in the past five years, there is such a custom. Most people build graves and monuments for children who died in infancy. This will bring misfortune to the family, especially his parents. It is difficult for him to have another child. Even if you have a baby, it will still be affected.
As for not being able to move into the ancestral graves, the rumors I heard said that it would affect the fortune of the entire family, so you should never move into the ancestral graves.
But in fact, these claims are completely unfounded, because after I heard these rumors, I asked Zhang Hazi for advice. He said that the reason why graves and monuments cannot be erected is for the benefit of the children themselves.
Erecting a tomb and a monument is equivalent to giving this child a home, and the child itself loves home very much. When it can't distinguish between the yin house and the yang house, it will always stay here. But it is alone here, without its parents around, and over time it will generate strong resentment, which will affect its reincarnation.
To put it bluntly, it is for the sake of the child not to erect a grave or monument, so that after it dies in this life, it can end this fateful relationship as soon as possible, so that it can find the next destined home without worries.
Xie Bugui's behavior in their village seemed to be that he was reluctant to leave the children, but in fact he was imprisoning them here. No wonder Zhang Hazi was so angry.
However, Xie Bugui shook his head and said, if only the youngest son died in infancy, we would naturally not dare to do this. But whenever a youngest child dies in the village, their mother will follow him within a short period of time. The elders in the village said that the mother could not bear to part with her baby, so she had no choice but to bury them together.
If that's the case, it's understandable. After all, with his mother by his side, he can take Yao'er to the land of eternity as soon as possible.
But what I don’t understand is why are there all these large and small tombs in this circle of hills?
Xie Bugui looked solemn and said, that's because in our generation, the next generation, without exception, will not live to be three years old!
As soon as these words came out, there was like a thunderbolt in the clear sky, making me almost unsteady on my feet. If Zhang Hazi hadn't supported me in time, I would have fallen halfway down the mountainside.
I asked Xie Bugui, why is this happening?
He said, if we knew what was going on, why would we let you come over?
It turns out that he had other motives for inviting us over.
However, I have no clue about the current situation and have no idea how to solve it.
Xie Bugui glanced at Zhang Hazi and I, and then said, now you know, why are all the young people in the village willing to help dig graves?
