"Hasn't anyone questioned these rules over the years?"

When Shao Dong pondered for a long time and didn't figure out why, Meng Qing raised such a question.

The old man still shook his head and said: "Question, no, no one in our village has ever questioned what our ancestors left us, whether it is good or bad, it must be something that our ancestors have spent a lot of time proving, including their lives, that will never harm us." Why should we question it?"

I have to say that Xihe Village's respect for their ancestors is definitely incomparable to other places in China, because many people have actually forgotten their ancestors.

It's not an insult, but it's true.

Look at Xihe Village again, how good you listen to the old man, the rules set by the ancestors, no matter from which point of view, will not harm you, there is no doubt about it.

However, what about in this day and age?

People earn money and live a good life, but they just forget their roots.

Countless people want to go to the city and settle down in the city, not to mention their ancestors, and their parents have forgotten that they are still in the mountains.

Empty nesters, empty villages, this is modern man.

I don't know why, Shao Dong heard the old man say this, and he felt a lot, perhaps, this is the culture of our country.

Of course, now is not the time to discuss our national culture, Shao Dong came back to his senses and asked: "Old man, judging from your experience of living in Xihe Village for decades, who do you think it is possible that this person who murdered Xu Laohan's family is?"

"This old man doesn't dare to talk nonsense. The old man waved his hand again and again, he didn't know if what he said would hurt others, although he was annoyed that the murderer had broken the rules of Xihe Village, but the simple character had already been deeply engraved in the bones of these people. Of course, the murderer cannot be counted among them.

After coming to this Xihe Village a few times, Shao Dong also found that most of the people in this village are simple, but there is such a more serious person who is unwilling to let go of the resentment in his heart.

"Then do you know who has a conflict with Old Man Xu's family?" Seeing that the old man said this, Shao Dong didn't force him, changed his way of saying it, and continued to ask.

For this problem, the old man did not reject it, and said: "If you really want to say contradictions, there must be something, the old man often says, teeth and tongue are still fighting, not to mention us little people." ”

"Yes, not to mention the villagers, even the old husband and wife who have lived together for decades still have some conflicts, which is really nothing. ”

Shao Dong followed the old man's meaning and said, he knows, this kind of old man, you have to guide him to say it, otherwise he will feel bored.

This is a means of inquiry, different ages, different personalities, different methods.

For example, the elderly, they like to remember the past, which is what they have experienced, and it is also a kind of testimony that shows that they once existed, or it is their bragging capital. But if you talk too much, the younger generations in the family don't like to listen to it.

But they really like to remember the past, because there is no reblooming day, and no one is young.

is old, to put it bluntly, it is not far from death, and if you don't remember it, it will be too late.

After Shao Dong's guidance, the old man thought for a while and said: "If you really want to talk about it, there are not a few people who have had conflicts with Xu Laohan's family, such as my uncle's family, and there have been many conflicts with their family.

Isn't this Xu family all from outside, before my uncle's field, either passed down from generation to generation, or their own wasteland, as a result of a few decades ago to carry out land reform, according to the head, the Xu family is our Xihe Village surname, the population is naturally the largest, the old Xu family has the most, and my own uncle's family, because of the small population, but the land of their own family is divided.

The reason why the two of them had a conflict was because Xu Laohan's family had a piece of land not far from my uncle's house, and it was passed down from generation to generation.

Speaking of which, when there was no land reform before, where did Xu Laohan's family have any land, no, as soon as the land was divided, it immediately changed, which made my uncle angry.

It's just such a little thing, until Xu Laohan's father passed away, and my uncle said that everyone is dead, even if it is, the land has never been replaced. ”

After the old man finished speaking, he added: "Actually, it's not that the land is good, it's that my uncle has been working on this land for hundreds of years, whether it is in a disaster year or a good year, he has fed their family and has feelings." ”

Actually, this is also understandable, after all, a piece of land raises them a lineage, and it is indeed emotional.

It is conceivable that at the beginning, after their vein took root somewhere, it was indeed not easy to cultivate grain and feed a large family by themselves.

As a descendant, it is reasonable to feel the kindness of my ancestors and want to exchange this land back.

Shao Dong also knew who his uncle was, and it was no surprise that it was the old man surnamed Jiang who told them that he had long suspected that Xu Laohan's father had died a simple death.

"It's understandable, after all, it's not a bad thing to cover the ancestors, isn't it. After agreeing to a sentence, Shao Dong said again: "What about that?"

"That's a lot. The old man said: "There are still a lot of things like this in our village, but whether it is the four families who have taken root here for a long time, or the outsiders who have come here one after another for various reasons, they attach great importance to the rules of Xihe Village."

So over the years, there have been no major conflicts, so there is no record of the mediation meeting in the village.

But like trivial things, it's really a lot, and most people of our age know a little bit about it.

For example, when Xu Laohan's family and the Zhang family in the west of the village quarreled because of digging a diversion ditch, and the Wang family and Xu Laohan's family almost fought because a cow ate the seedlings in the field, and there were ......

Something like this, not to mention Xu Laohan's family, every family has had it, you can't kill people for such a small thing, right?"

The old man did know a lot, but he didn't believe that the person who killed Xu Laohan's family would do it for these reasons.

Of course, not only did he not believe it, but Shao Dong also didn't believe it, but he knew that whether he believed it or not, the investigation must be investigated.

Moreover, from the old man's words, it is not difficult for him to hear that the old man is not willing to accept that the murderer is from his own village.

Every time he said one, he was intentionally or unintentionally dragging them out, which may not even be noticed by the old man himself.

However, these are actually not the purpose of Shao Dong's trip, what he wants to know about this trip is not these, seeing that the old man has not talked about the aspect he wants to know for a long time, so Shao Dong took the initiative to ask: "Old man, can you tell me what happened to Old Man Xu and their old man Xu's family?"

I don't know why, when this question was mentioned, the old man was stunned for a moment, didn't speak for a long time, and lowered his head and smoked several puffs of the old cigarette stick.

Shao Dong didn't disturb the old man's thoughts, just quietly waited for the old man to make a statement, and the time passed slowly in the old man's clouds and fog.

"That's it, I shouldn't have told you foreigners about this, I'm not afraid of your jokes, in the past few decades, that matter has been regarded as a taboo in our village, that is, we ourselves, and we won't talk about it anymore on weekdays, but since you are the police, you are here to help us solve the case, I want to solve such a case, it's nothing. ”

I don't know how long it took, the old man seemed to have figured out something, smacked the old cigarette stick, and said: "Actually, that matter can't just be said to be the matter of the two of them, this matter is a bit complicated, how to say it, it should be the business of the whole village." ”

"What's the situation?" Shao Dong hurriedly asked.

The old man made a look of reminiscence, and after a while, he said: "If you really want to talk about it, that incident is not that Old Han Xu's family and Old Man Xu don't deal with it, but that most of our whole village don't deal with Old Man Xu."

Speaking of which, it's just a simple matter, just because of the death knell. ”

"Death knell?" Shao Dong heard the old man say this, and his heart chuckled, he had a feeling that he was about to get to the point.

The old man smacked the old cigarette stick again and said, "Yes, it's the death knell, and when it comes to this, it's about the history of the Xu family."

If you want to say that the Xu family can develop into one of the largest households in the village in the shortest time, it is all thanks to their old ancestor who got married back then.

But their Xu family is doing it, not every family has more babies in those years, the ancestors of their old Xu family were stunned to marry their Xu family's daughters to all the families in the village, whether it was Jiang, Zhang, Wang, Yang, or the small surname family that came in later, as long as it is a family in Xihe Village, their Xu family can climb a relative.

And that incident back then was because Old Man Xu's grandfather married Old Man Xu's sister to the old Zhang family.

This was originally no problem, but two things happened that affected our Xihe Village for decades. ”

"What two things?" asked Shao Dong eagerly.

The old man seemed to have fallen into a deep memory, and after a long time, he took a sip of the old cigarette stick, sighed, and said: "The first thing is that since Old Man Xu's sister married into the old Zhang family, she married into the same vein, and many people died one after another, and in the end, she and her two children were left." However, this old man Xu's sister is also a bitter person, and she is stunned to pull her two children to grow up alone. ”

The old man seemed to fall into a memory, remembering the woman who used to be an iron lady who did not move in the wind and rain.

And Shao Dong almost stood up in surprise, isn't this the kind of person he has been looking for?

The family has suffered an important change, which has hit the parties very hard, and now looking at it this way, the sister of the old man Xu, and her two children, must have suffered a big blow.

After all, watching one's loved ones leave one by one, this blow is absolutely fatal.

When Shao Dong was thinking about these problems, the old man said: "This is the second thing, it should be regarded as a merit, you also know that in that year, the grain output was low, and it was not for nothing that every household starved to death, but this sister of the old man Xu was an amazing person, she was stunned to think of some ways to make the grain into a poop look, although the taste is not good, but take a bite to eat, and then a bowl of cold water, stunned can make people full."

In that era of scarcity of materials, you don't know how many lives she saved with this method. It is no exaggeration to say that if it weren't for the method she came up with, we in Xihe Village who are over sixty years old would not have much left. ”

For the old man's statement, Shao Dong nodded, although he had not experienced that era, but he still knew about the Great Famine, in that era, gnawing tree bark, eating Guanyin soil, as long as it was satisfying, no one did not eat it, but even so, countless people still starved to death.

This can be said to be the most tragic natural disaster that our country has experienced since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

After the old man finished speaking, he looked up at the roof blackened by firewood, and said silently: "But it is such a woman who saved our Xihe Village, but when she was buried at the end, few people went to help." ”

After speaking, the old man couldn't help sighing, maybe he was emotional, and his tears couldn't help but fall.

But Shao Dong and others are puzzled, why is such a woman dead and buried, and the people in the village don't help?

By all accounts, the people of this village are not the kind of people who are ungrateful.

At that moment, Meng Qing asked, "Why?"

Before the old man could speak, Shao Dong asked again, "Because of the death knell?"

"Yes!" said the old man excitedly, "because of that damn death knell!"

It can be seen that the old man is a little emotional at this time, and the elderly like to reminisce about the past, but their feelings are beyond their control.

Shao Dong was about to wait for the old man to calm down before asking, but Meng Qing was obviously full of doubts and continued to ask, "What is the specific situation?"

The old man rubbed his eyes and said, "When she passed away, the people of the old Zhang family discussed it and clamored to ring the death knell for her.

To be honest, the regulations of our ancestors did not stipulate that the death knell can only be sounded after the death of a man, and the condition is that there is no restriction on gender, as long as it is required by the conditions, it is okay.

Think about the sister of Mr. Xu, a woman who was forced by life and had no choice but to get a kind of poop, and she saved the whole village, this kind of credit has made a great contribution to our village, right? Moreover, after they studied this method, they did not hide it, and directly told the whole village the method.

To put it bluntly, this is the grace of life! But when the rest of the village heard this, they blew up the pot, saying that there was no precedent for a woman to sound the death knell and so on.

Originally, this kind of rhetoric is nothing, indeed, since the records of our Xihe Village, we have not sounded the death knell for women, which is reasonable and well-founded.

But I don't know who it is, and a sentence suddenly popped up, saying that Mr. Xu's sister was a broom star, and she killed her father-in-law and mother-in-law as soon as she entered the house, and her husband died not long after.

It was fried all of a sudden, and Old Man Xu was originally practicing kung fu, so he wanted to find someone to compare and compare.

I don't remember who went to the village with Mr. Xu in the end, anyway, when they came back, both of them drooped their heads. ”

The old man's parents said a lot, but Shao Dong heard two key things.

First, Mr. Xu's sister's family did have a painful experience.

Second, someone once prevented the death knell from sounding for Old Man Xu's sister.

"In the end?" while Shao Dong was thinking about these questions, Meng Qing asked again.

The old man shook his head and said, "Where is the last?" In the end, it didn't satisfy most people, but everyone was embarrassed to make such a fuss, so in the end, when Old Man Xu's sister was buried, except for Old Man Xu's family and a few families surnamed Zhang, the rest of the families didn't go. It can be said that this is the greatest humiliation to a person who once had the grace of life for us. ”

Speaking of hitting here, the old man's mood is a little heavy.

There were some things he didn't say, for example, that he was one of the people who was very opposed to sounding the death knell for that woman.

In fact, at the beginning, there were many people who had this kind of thought.

It's not that they're ungrateful, it's just that they're too pedantic, and they refuse to set that precedent for sounding the death knell for women without finding a precedent in the records.

It's just that no one thought that it would end up like this.

It was the pedantry of that time, and to this day, the old man regrets it.

Shao Dong, who had been thinking about the problem for a long time, raised his head and asked, "Then what does this matter have to do with the Xu Laohan family?"

"Old Han Xu's family?" the old man shook his head and said, "Actually, if you want to talk about this matter, it really has nothing to do with Old Han Xu's family. But from another point of view, it has nothing to do with the Xu Laohan family. ”

"What kind of statement is this?" Shao Dong asked puzzled.

Because the old man said this confusingly, Shao Dong didn't understand, what does it mean to have a relationship and it doesn't matter?

At that time, our village was divided into two groups, one group was mainly the old Zhang family and the old man Xu's family, and advocated and supported the death knell for that woman.

The other group is us, and we are all unanimously opposed to setting a precedent for a woman.

But Xu Laohan's family is special, they are the only ones who are neutral. Regardless of the outcome, they do not express any opinion. ”

"Neutrality?" Shao Dong could understand the meaning of the word, but he didn't know what neutrality meant in Xihe Village at that time.

When the old man heard Shao Dong muttering this word, he shook his head and said with a sigh: "Actually, whether the whole village is against it or neutral, as far as their Xu Laohan family is concerned, they are the least qualified to choose neutrality. ”

"What's the reason for this?" At this moment, Shao Dong was really confused.