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Chapter 108 Eight Cave Village (Thirty-five)
The old lady's words made the three of them stop their movements successfully. Looking at the face as thin as old Jiang's head, Wen Liang didn't feel too embarrassed. Grabbing a handful of unkempt hair, he laughed dryly.
"Haha, so you recognized us. What did you mean by that just now? Do you know who killed your wife?"
There was no words, the old lady just sat there hunched over, and after a long time said: "Yes, although I heard that you had some conflicts with Lao Jiang in the ancestral hall, but it was just a quarrel, why would it be serious enough to hurt you?" His life."
She let out a long sigh, looking forward with her turbid eyes, she was able to see things more clearly than most normal people, "We are an old couple who will spend our lives peacefully, but Lao Jiang is rather rigid. After hearing that there were outsiders in the village, one I can't turn my muscles, so I killed the black dog and poured blood on you...he broke the rules first."
The old lady raised her eyes and found that the faces of the three people were full of doubts and puzzles. She guessed that they probably didn't understand what the rules were.
"Killing dogs is a taboo in the village, let alone taking dog blood and using it to splash people. Old Jiangtou must have been instigated by others. Otherwise, based on his personality, no matter how you think about it, he would not provoke you so recklessly. .”
"Before he went out, I came out of the house and saw the guy from the Zhao family just leaving by the path over there. After that, he went to the ancestral hall and made a fool of himself."
The old lady was very depressed, she knew these secrets, but as a lonely old lady like her, no one would believe her even if she told it.
"I haven't seen Old Jiangtou since then. At noon the next day, the Zhao family carried his body into the yard. I didn't know he was dead until then."
Outside the shabby glass windows, dry and sharp branches swayed in the wind, making strange and harsh sounds when they hit the glass, as if someone was scratching the dusty glass with the tips of their fingernails.
"They didn't tell me the specific cause of Old Jiangtou's death, they just vaguely said that his body was found on the old locust tree at the entrance of the village."
With trembling hands, the old lady took another sip of the already cold water, and said rather self-deprecatingly, "I still heard from the neighbors in the neighborhood that it was the three outsiders who killed him for revenge."
"Grandma, it's not us..." Looking at the old lady's eyes with faint tears, Xie Jin thought of his deceased grandma. He subconsciously wanted to explain, but found that no matter what he said now, it was a bit inappropriate.
"Oh, I don't know." The old lady collected her emotions, pinched her nose severely, and sighed heavily again, "Is it because of this that the three of you came to me? Now that you know what I'm thinking, Let's go."
She got off the bed tremblingly, her rickety back made her walk very staggeringly, and the wind outside has been relentless since just now, she pushed open the door, and her whole body was submerged in the yellow sand, "I still want to guard the first seven for Old Jiang. Even the casket couldn't save his life this time."
"Wait, I still have something to ask you." Wen Liang followed her out of the house, and the silhouettes of the two were instantly blurred by the sand and dust, only the conversation that was almost scattered by the wind came into the house.
Xie Jin didn't hesitate, he pulled Ji Duan and chased after them. They covered their faces with their hands to prevent the yellow sand blown by the wind from blowing into their eyes. In the dust, Wen Liang and the old lady stood beside the coffin outside the house, talking about something.
"Why didn't you listen to the rumors in the village, but instead believed that the three of us outsiders didn't kill your wife?" Wen Liang squinted his eyes halfway, the old lady's stooped body was not half his height, "Or, you old couple are here, Life is hard too?"
The old lady smiled wryly. She wiped away the yellow sand that got into her mouth, and slowly touched the coffin containing the corpse of Lao Jiang's head. No matter how hard it is, can it be harder than being alone?"
She touched the edge of the coffin, but the lid was not closed. She reached into the coffin, and what she touched was Lao Jiang's body whose head was so cold.
The old lady braved the wind and sand, and under the stunned gaze of the three, she slowly climbed up to the edge of the coffin. Because they were so close, Wen Liang could even hear the muffled sound of her bones moving.
"Grandma, what are you doing!" Xie Jin saw that the old lady was already halfway into the coffin, and rushed forward to pull her, but was thrown away by the old lady unexpectedly.
The skinny old lady exerted all her strength at this time, "Don't touch me, I want to lie next to Lao Jiang."
She stubbornly put her other leg into the coffin and sat in the coffin. Her voice became hoarse due to the amount of sand poured into her, "I know you didn't kill anyone, so just pretend you haven't seen me today, so go away."
"You can't be preparing..." Ji Duan's body was obviously not used to the wind and sand, he coughed hastily, and the hand holding the corner of Xie Jin's clothes couldn't help tightening, "Uncle, Uncle Xie, she can't be preparing End your life here!"
The old lady's fragmented chuckle came from the wind, she scratched the edge of the coffin with her withered fingers, "Since you found out, why don't you do me one last favor?"
She looked at Wen Liang who was closest to her. Although this white-haired young man looked frivolous, he should be able to help. "Can the firewood you brought back for me be lit after I lie down?"
As if she didn't feel that her idea would be too shocking, the old lady continued, "Lao Jiang and I have guarded the earth tombs for others all our lives, and in the end we want to experience the feeling of cremation, we don't want to end up in that kind of thing. "
"Wait a minute, we didn't promise to help you commit suicide." Wen Liang felt a headache. He didn't expect that they were only planning to sell favors, but they ended up running into such a thing. "And that kind of thing? What does that thing refer to?" ?”
"You will know soon." The old lady looked at the sky full of yellow sand. The roots of her eyelashes were almost covered with dense sand, but she didn't feel any pain. "Every seventh day, that thing will accompany the sky Yellow sand appears."
She slowly lay beside Lao Jiangtou's corpse, and kept muttering, "This is the life of the tomb keeper, this is the life of the tomb keeper."
"No! We will not grant you this request!"
As soon as Xie Jin opened his mouth, he was attacked by the oncoming yellow sand. He retched twice, spat out the sand in his mouth, and shouted at the old lady, "Even if your wife dies, you must at least bring with you. We will not agree to miss him in his old age!"
"It doesn't matter if you don't agree, it's a dispensable request anyway." The old lady's dull hoarse voice came out of the coffin, "I'm just begging you, it's your business to answer or not, and I just need to lie here and wait. It's enough to meet Lao Jiang again in the underworld."
How can there be such a stubborn old lady!
Xie Jin was shocked and anxious. He wanted to ask Wen Liang and Ji Duan to help, but neither of them moved, "Let's work together to carry her out, Wen Liang? We can't let her starve to death in this coffin alone, isn't it Ji Duan? ?"
No one answered, the wind and sand whistled against the bodies of the three of them, and the stones mixed in them cracked on the coffin, making people feel annoyed.
"Speak, why don't you talk?" Xie Jin was a little anxious, so he stretched out his hand to pull the old lady by himself, and was stopped by Wen Liang as soon as he stretched his hand halfway.
"It's just like you said." Wen Liang put his hand back to its natural drooping state while Xie Jin was stunned. "If she wants to die, she will still choose to climb in even after we lift her out."
"But, you can't just watch her die!" Xie Jin was surprised by Wen Liang's excessive calmness, and he didn't care about the sand that kept pouring into his nose and nose. He waved his arms excitedly, "It's better to take her to a familiar villager's house, It's better to lift her out, we can't just watch her die."
Maybe the old lady's back was really like his death. Xie Jin was very emotional. He looked at wen liang unbelievable, and tears burst into an unconsciousness. "You, you are the legendary Daoist Daoist/Person! "
"Uncle Xie, wen liang ..."
"Calm down Xie Jin." Wen Liang raised his hand and put his hand on Xie Jin's shoulder, exerting force with all five fingers at the same time, the indescribable pain spread to the whole body with the shoulder, "I'm just a famous Taoist priest, I can't control a person's life or death, I can do it The only thing to do is to make necessary persuasion to ensure that the other party can change his mind."
Looking at the old lady lying in the coffin and repeating the words just now, like a stunned old lady, Wen Liang asked Xie Jin, "Have you ever thought about why she begged for death after Lao Jiang died, and why she offered to let go If we set fire to their coffins, what would she call that thing?"
"I...but!"
The wind became more arrogant than before. The sand and stones that hit the face were like irregular blades, constantly scraping the tender meat on their faces. Xie Jin was staggered by the sudden gust of wind, and the words in his mouth not only did not say anything. When he came out, his tongue seemed to be bitten by himself.
The smell of blood seemed to fade a little in the gust of wind. Xie Jin couldn't open his eyes. He opened his arms to touch, and then he felt himself being drawn into a familiar embrace.
"Don't move, your eyes are fascinated by the sand." Ji Duan's voice sounded in his ear accompanied by a cough, followed by a gasp. Ji Duan seemed to see something extremely terrifying, and hugged Xie Jin in his arms Tighter.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Xie Jin wanted to open his eyes, but felt that his eyelids had been covered with a layer of sand at some point, making the tender meat jerky and painful.
"Don't talk, don't talk first." Losing his sight, Xie Jin could only feel that Ji Duan was taking him back with his sensory awareness. With a creak, they seemed to return to the small brick house just now. .
"Wash the sand out of his eyes with water, and there is also a bottle of physiological saline in the bag, it may hurt." This is Wen Liang talking, Xie Jin touched randomly, and finally touched the edge of the table corner.
With the sound of the iron basin colliding with the table, Xie Jin felt that someone had opened his upper eyelids. He stood up as instructed, only to feel a cold liquid flowing into his eyes. Crazy pain.
Xie Jin instinctively wanted to open his mouth to shout, but he suddenly remembered Ji Duan's instructions just now, and hurriedly blocked his mouth with his hands.
However, this pain was nothing compared to his eyes, so he kept this position until the blurred light and shadow returned in front of him.
"Okay, let go of Uncle Xie, it's clean." Ji Duan held up the hand bitten by Xie Jin himself, and poured the remaining saline on it for disinfection.
Xie Jin, who had just regained his sight, hadn't recovered, his eyes were a little out of focus, until he saw Wen Liang's back standing in front of the window and the scene outside the window, his pupils shrank suddenly.
Quietly revealed that the attitude of Xie Jin and Wen Liang towards the old lady here will correspond to the attitude at the end of Badong Village)
Uncle Xie got sand in his eyes, it hurts...