The sun is dazzling, but the temperature is not high.
The air in Huai Village seems to be wrapped in a layer of air-conditioning, and even at noon, the hottest day, there is no trace of heat.
After lunch, Huan Xiao watched Sun Zhaoren tidying up her room.
I saw Sun Zhaoren skillfully taking out a photo album and a box of dried flowers from the drawer that had been wiped clean of dust.
There are very few photos in the album, only a few of them, which are group photos of several boys and girls. The people in each photo are smiling happily.
The photo is a bit old and has started to fade.
The most eye-catching thing is that the girls in the photo are pretty and cute, with supple skin. They don't look like children from the village, but more like they were raised in the city.
But the box of dried flowers didn't look very good, and the beauty of the flowers had even been lost due to poor preservation.
The color of the dried flowers has long been stripped of its delicate color by time, leaving only a vaguely discernible appearance.
Insects had begun to rot inside the petals, but Sun Zhaoren had no intention of throwing it away.
"Xiao Huan, look, this is a wreath."
Sun Zhaoren held up the withered and faded wreath in his hand with moved eyes. It was not beautiful, and no one would pick it up even if it fell on the roadside.
Huan Xiao sat on the chair boredly, wondering what Sun Zhaoren was doing. Sun Zhaoren was fine in the morning, but now he was different.
"Let me tell you a story...do you want to hear it?"
With memories in his eyes, Sun Zhaoren's face lost the usual irritability.
"Want to listen"
Hearing this, Huan Xiao straightened her back instantly and acted as if she was listening carefully. Are you finally planning to tell her the story behind this village? She has been waiting!
Seeing her such a positive look, Sun Zhaoren smiled, withdrew his gaze from Huan Xiao, slowly flipped through the album and said:
"This is a story that has been circulating in our village for a long time."
"It is said that once upon a time, there was a pair of beautiful sisters in a family. They were inseparable since childhood, and they were the sisters with the best relationship in the world.
Originally they thought they could live like this forever, but one day, bad news came.
The village will sacrifice one of the two sisters to the mountain god, so that the village will have a good harvest every year and ward off bad luck. Because the candidate has not yet been decided, the parents of the two sisters argued endlessly about this, and in the end there was no result.
One day, my younger sister said to her elder sister: 'Sister, let's escape from the village', but my elder sister hesitated, 'What will happen to our parents if we escape? 'My sister was silent after hearing her sister's words. Yes, if they run away, what will happen to their parents?
'Yes! Sister, let’s take our parents and escape. Anyway, this village is already sick.'
My sister's suggestion gave her hope. This was a solution that had both ends. So the two sisters found their parents and told their sister's suggestion. However, what they couldn't understand was that their parents refused and explicitly demanded that one of the two sisters must go to worship the mountain god. The parents said that they cannot offend the mountain god. The mountain god is a god and is everywhere. If they escape, they will be severely punished by the mountain god!
The selfishness and indifference of their parents made the two sisters feel cold. They were unwilling to dedicate themselves to the greed of the villagers, so the two sisters planned to escape from the village according to their original plan..."
Sun Zhaoren's story was told smoothly, but Huan Xiao could see the sadness in Sun Zhaoren's eyes... Obviously, this story was more closely related to Sun Zhaoren.
When Sun Zhaoren paused, Huan Xiao asked:
"Did the two of them finally escape from the village?"
"...No, just a few steps away from the village entrance, they were caught by the villagers who came to hunt them down. Their parents locked them in their home... In order to prevent them from escaping, their parents deliberately repaired the door of their home. It’s very low, and it eventually became our custom in Huai Village.”
Sun Zhaoren said, squeezing the flower wreath's hand a little harder.
After coming back to her senses, she seemed to regret telling this story, so Sun Zhaoren put away the photo album and the wreath as if to cover up, and said to Huan Xiao:
"The final ending is nothing special. One of them became a sacrifice, and the other survived and spent the rest of his life in regret and self-blame."
"What a strange story. Why didn't the protagonist succeed in escaping in the end? And the story has a moral. What is this story trying to tell us?"
Huan Xiao asked doubtfully.
Hearing this, Sun Zhaoren raised an ugly smile on his lips and said softly:
"This story tells us that people cannot be selfish and must be willing to give, otherwise something unfortunate will happen to her."
"That's not right...even if the two sisters don't escape, the ending will be no different from this."
Huan Xiao's words were not recognized by Sun Zhaoren. She said:
"Of course there is a difference. There is a big difference between giving willingly and being forced to give. Although this is not a good story and will not make people who listen to the story optimistic and brave, it is still passed down in our village."
"Okay, so in the end, does the elder sister survive, or does the younger sister survive?"
"My sister survived"
Seeing that Huan Xiao had no intention to continue questioning, Sun Zhaoren showed a meaningful expression, turned to Huan Xiao and asked:
"Aren't you curious why my sister survived in the end?"
"……Why?"
Under the warm orange light, Sun Zhaoren's face illuminated by the sun was not alive at all, but instead became a little scary.
"Because it was my elder sister who was afraid of death and killed her, so the villagers who received the sacrifices did not trouble her again."
When Sun Zhaoren said this, it was as if he was looking for a random answer to fool Huan Xiao, and it didn't look like he was serious.
Seeing this, Huan Xiao didn't know whether to take it seriously or not.
If this is the ending, wouldn't it contradict what was said at the beginning that the two sisters have the best relationship? If they really have a good relationship, who would be willing to kill the person they love?
...While the room was silent, the sound of crutches tapping the ground and footsteps could be heard outside.
It's Grandma Sun who's back!
Opening the door, Huan Xiao saw Grandma Sun holding a bamboo box in her hand.
Huan Xiao walked out and said:
"Grandma Sun is back. Do you want to eat some plums? I just picked them this morning."
"No, I'm full of fragrant meat, who wants to eat plums?... Well, I brought some fragrant meat back by the way. Xiaohuan, come here, I'll give you this. It tastes amazing and will definitely make you have endless aftertaste!" "
Grandma Sun, who was on crutches, enthusiastically placed the bamboo box in Huan Xiao's hand.
As soon as he took it, Huan Xiao could smell the aroma in the air, which was obviously coming from the fragrant meat in the box.
Huan Xiao opened it curiously and saw a plate of ordinary meat and vegetables.
Is this a specialty of Huai Village? It doesn't look like anything special.
"Wait a minute, Xiaohuan!"
Before Huan Xiao was ready to make a move, Sun Zhaoren rushed out of the room and snatched the bamboo box away.
Seeing that Huan Xiao didn't eat, Sun Zhaoren breathed a sigh of relief, then closed the box and said to Grandma Sun:
"Nai, even if you like to eat, why do you want Xiaohuan to be like you? Aren't you doing harm to others?"
Unexpectedly, Grandma Sun looked unconcerned and said:
"Zhao Ren, don't be so hasty. It's just fragrant meat. Everyone in our village eats it, and no one has done well after eating it. Seeing how nervous you are, you might think I was poisoning you."
Grandma Sun obviously didn't think she was at fault, but felt that Sun Zhaoren, her granddaughter, was too nosy.
