Chapter 30 is about greed

1

"I can't hide anything from you, since you still don't want to take me away, then let me smoke another bag, it's worse to leave this cigarette than to kill me." The old lady picked up the dry tobacco pouch pot on the table of the Eight Immortals again, lit it, and a smell of smoke instantly floated in the lobby. "If there's anything you want to ask, just ask."

It was the first time I faced the old lady so closely, his skin was a little dark, he was lean, the skin on his body was sunken because of his age, his arms and calves were very thin, his skin was boneless, the only difference was that the arm of his right hand was thicker than his left hand, and there was a clear texture of muscles, which was the traces left by years of practicing calligraphy. He was wearing a dark brown sweater and a navy blue overalls and pants today, because he was thin, and his clothes and pants looked very fat.

Being asked by the old lady like this, Yun Ximing and I were really a little overwhelmed, and we didn't know where to start asking. I thought about it before I spoke.

"Old lady, is that legend you told us true or false?"

"Of course it's true, I'll show you something." The old lady walked into the bedroom, and after a while came out, holding a thick ancient book in his hand, and I saw that the cover was neatly written "Jia Family Tree". The old lady put the genealogy on the table of the Eight Immortals, waved his hand to make Yun Ximing stand up, and sat down on the Taishi chair opposite me.

"This is the genealogy of our family, and on the first page is written the ancestral motto of our family: be kind and smile, and do not enter the living. This ancestral precept was later reframed and filled in, and all the people in our family lived according to this ancestral precept and guarded the land. We didn't quite understand what the old lady said, so we listened to him continue in confusion.

The old lady pointed to the green dragon plaque on the table of the Eight Immortals.

"This flat word, is our Jia family's previous ancestral training, in the Ming Dynasty when our Jia family opened a pawnshop called Jia Classical in the capital, our ancestors are very good at doing business, and the people in the court are also very dealing, slowly the business is getting bigger and bigger, and the people in the same village have all started the pawn business. Our family's ancestral motto is a flat word, fairness, balance, a bowl of water is flat, Tong Su is not bullied, and never collects a penny from any owner. Maybe it's just that the heart is good, so our family's business is very good, and then the Qing soldiers entered the customs to change the dynasty, and our family's business is still thriving, until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was an incident. At that time, Qianlong had reached the end of his life, and our pawnshop was also famous in the capital at that time, and then a female employer came to pawn, she was a box, which was the first time that our ancestors were greedy, because this thing was too rare, it was a 10,000-year-old agarwood carved box. ”

"10,000-year-old agarwood!" Yun Ximing and I exclaimed in unison. 10,000-year-old agarwood is extremely rare, it can be said that there is no other in the world, agarwood is rare, and it is even more rare to want to have a piece that can be carved into a box.

"Yes, 10,000-year-old agarwood, the value of this inconspicuous box is almost worth all the belongings of our Jia family at that time, so the ancestor of our family had evil thoughts. At that time, the female employer asked to do the work, that is, it could be redeemed in the future, and the employer also repeatedly instructed that this box must not be opened, and the contents should not be pawned, but should be temporarily kept, and redeemed together with the box in the future. Sent away the female employer, our ancestor closed the three shops in the capital overnight, dismissed all the guys, and returned to his hometown, he may think, he went back to his hometown, this female employer could not be found, this precious box can be taken for himself. However, tragedy has only just begun. The old lady paused, took a puff on her cigarette, and continued.

"I don't know if it's retribution, it's not long, all the pawnbrokers in our village have returned to their hometown because of the business downturn, and the ancestor of our family has a strange disease, after the illness is cured, he became bloodthirsty, and finally one night he went berserk, and almost killed the whole village overnight."

"And then?" Yun Ximing asked

"Later, you must not have imagined that the female employer who pawned at that time came over, she seemed to be a master, she saved the few remaining clansmen of our Jia family, I don't know what spell was used, the ancestor of our family sealed, she told the people of our family, to build a swastika tomb, and then plant the tomb with laughing grass, as long as the laughing grass is not destroyed, we will never have to worry about this bloodthirsty curse will come back."

"And what about the box? What's in the box? I asked.

"I don't know, this story was also told to me by my grandfather, and it is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation in the family, but I think the box must have been taken away by the female employer." The old lady lit another bucket of cigarettes.

"So because the village secretary wants to develop tourism in the village and dig up your family's ancestral grave, you don't hesitate to burn the laughing grass and grass that you have been caring for for many years, and you want to kill him?" Yun Ximing asked sharply.

"Hehe, because I'm going to kill people because of digging graves? How many times has he already died. I didn't set it on fire, it was an accident, and when I killed him, the sparks in the smoke pot lit up the grass. Do you think that the broken porcelain pieces you dug up from the tomb are the burial of our Jia family? Our Jia family did almost wipe out the whole clan at that time, but after all, it is still a rich family on the rich side of the rich family, and I won't tell you that the two ancient tombs you are opening now have been stolen by them, and in order to hide the traces of this tomb that has been stolen, he spread the news, attracting ignorant migrant workers who dig cables, making you think that this tomb is also an ancient tomb with no value. ”

"They? You mean the village secretary? Now that you know all these things, why don't you stop it, he is stealing the graves of your ancestors. I asked rhetorically.

"It's him, but it's not him, you also said that it's the ancestors, the ancestors are the dead, and the dead will never be as important as the living. In order not to let the whole village decline, our ancestors kept all those craftsmen, scattered their money, and let their children intermarry with them, which is why there is now this village, but people are greedy, and after a long time, the descendants of those craftsmen began to eat away at our family's wealth, and they grew up for months, little by little, and finally did not let go of the things in the tomb. The village secretary is just one of them. I killed him purely because of retribution, retribution. ”

After the old lady said this, he began to smoke heavily, never mentioning the murder again, no matter how we asked, he only admitted that he killed the person, but never mentioned the motive for the killing, and our conversation fell into a cold war.