Li Deng, a young man in coarse cloth and rotten clothes, ran all the way down the street, holding the old winning money given by the old shopkeeper tightly in his palm.

On the small street where the shadow of the black tide moved, the figure of the young man flew quickly, like a flash of knife light.

The winning money in Li Deng's hand is not like the winning money of ordinary categories purchased by "asking money shops" on the street, this winning money is not from that shop, but the old man himself cast it many years ago.

This seemingly old and mottled winning coin, although the quality is not very good-looking, but the effect is much higher than the winning money sold by the "money shop", every year on July 14, this old shopkeeper with a secret origin will use this kind of coin to go to the desolate "clothed mound" at the entrance of Red Candle Town.

Li Deng was able to run on the side street unharmed, scaring away the tide of black shadows, all thanks to the old winning coin in the palm of his hand.

At the end of the street to the west of Red Candle Town, there is a shop called "Please Money Shop", which specializes in selling all kinds of winning coins and paper money for sacrifice or burial.

This shop on the west side of the street is the same as the shop where Li Deng is located, the business is cold and bleak all year round, and no one cares about it, and it is on July 14 that the business will be exceptionally good.

"Please money shop" is also opened by an old man, the old man is a stuffy gourd, does not like to talk to people, on weekdays like to move out of a carved old rattan chair to sit on the threshold to bask in the sun, leisurely, will be in the hand of an old yellowed old book, the book is broken and rotten, just like the old man, has been devastated for a long time.

Most of the people in the town smile or reach out to say hello when they pass by the shop, and most of the time, the old people smile and wave their hands, and rarely say anything.

Over time, the people in the town became commonplace, and rarely disturbed the old man's old age.

In the town, the only person who can chat with this stuffy gourd is the young Li Deng.

Because the shop that sells lamps on weekdays is deserted, Li Deng will take advantage of the old shopkeeper not to care, secretly run out, because there are not many friends, Li Deng likes to run to this shop, together with the old man basking in the sun, most of the time, an old man and a young man are "speechless", a dull old man, a vigorous teenager, just basking in the sun on the threshold of the shop.

Li Deng was once curious about what the yellowed old book in the old man's hand recorded, so he opened his mouth to borrow it from the old man to take a look, and the old man was not stingy, and let Li Deng flip through the old book. Li Deng's parents died early when he was young, and his family was poor, but he was very literate, thanks to this old man, when the shop was free, the teenager would come here to read the old man's books. But this time Li Deng took the book, flipped through it and read it for a long time, and he didn't see a reason, he only knew that the things written in the book were amazing, what "Zi is silent, strange and confused", "one inch of God is three feet in the sky" obscure words and sentences, Li Deng, who has not read many books, did not understand the meaning of these concise words and sentences, and then stopped reading.

Once when the two were chatting, the old man inadvertently mentioned that he wanted to recruit Li Deng to be an apprentice in the money shop, doing long-term work, and the salary was similar to his sales lamp shop, but the work was easy, don't wipe the lamp every day, add oil and wax to the lamp or something, as long as the money is collected on July 14, the two can still have a chat partner, which is much better than not seeing a figure in the lamp shop all day long.

However, he was rejected by Li Deng, Li Deng's approximate meaning is that his parents died early when he was very young, and he often ate the last meal without the next meal, and went everywhere to rub hundreds of meals, but fortunately, the gray-haired old shopkeeper was willing to take him in, Dou Mien, this truth is still understood, so Li Deng can't do anything to promote rice hatred, and he can't leave this shop that helped him when he was poor because he grew up.

The old man didn't force it in the end, but said something strange.

"There is such a thing as luck, you can't force it. ”

Li Deng said with a smile: "When the old shopkeeper dies one day and the shop can't be opened, he will come here to eat again." ”

At that time, the old man casually flipped through the books in his hand, and responded with a smile: "It's difficult, when the old immortal dies, I will already become a lonely ghost." ”

Li Deng could only smile and say something he heard on weekdays, "Bad people don't live long, good people live for a thousand years." You are old and strong, if you want to open a little, don't think so far..."

The old man closed the book and laughed, his face wrinkled, like the vicissitudes of a century-old tree.

The boy laughed too, his smile bright, like a young sapling sprouting.

When night falls today, the shop is still not closed, the black shadow outside the shop is densely gathered, the old man stands at the door of the shop, the black shadow lingers in front of the door, it seems to be extremely coveted in the shop in the dazzling array of winning coins, but he does not dare to make a mistake, so he has to be restless in front of the threshold.

The old man stood at the door of the shop, ignoring the restless shaking black shadows, looking into the distance with his vicissitudes of life, and finally stayed in the shop that had not yet closed the door and a row of lamps were placed at the door.

When the old man saw a young man rushing out of the shop, he slowly turned around and closed the wooden door.

After closing the door, the black shadow hovering at the door instantly dispersed, like a frightened black crow in the dark night.

The old man is waiting for the boy to come to buy the sacrificial money, every year on this day, the boy is the last to come to buy the money, so the old man left a door for the boy today, but after seeing the boy rushing home, the old man no longer waited.

The money that the old man sells to Li Deng every year is the best in the shop, but the price is the lowest coin, which the young man does not know.

Li Deng ran all the way down the street, and after several corners, he came to a remote humble house in the easternmost part of the street.

This humble house was purchased a few years ago, the old house in the town before, in order to make a living, was sold at a low price a long time ago, and the old house was also one of the few belongings left by Li Deng's parents for him, but the young Li Deng at that time failed to keep his parents' legacy in order to eat.

This simple wooden house, the wind does not block the rain, when it comes to rainy weather, the roof is like an open skylight, it rains heavily outside the house, and it rains lightly inside the house.

But fortunately, there is a place to rest, and the north wind is cold in winter, so it is good to be able to block the wind. In the rainy season in summer, it doesn't hurt to leak a little rain, just cooler, Li Deng has always comforted himself like this.

This burrow, like the thick body hair on the man's legs, is a little ugly, but it can block the wind in winter and hide the cool in summer.

In fact, Li Deng understands, and most people in the town also understand that for an orphan who has nothing to rely on, it is a great blessing not to be starved to death, and it is not easy to have a humble room of his own.

Ask yourself, how many people can be like Li Deng who is helpless at a young age who not only does not starve to death, but also has a family that he earns with his own hands, and there are not many such people.

So the neighborhood loves this teenager very much.

Li Deng pushed open the low wooden door, saying that it was a wooden door, but it was actually a fence door, and after Li Deng walked into the room, the first thing he did was to light the lamp, and then placed it on a wooden table with jagged corners.

On the wooden table, in addition to an oil lamp, there are two simple wooden signs, both of which have a line of upright font and a dragon and snake font.

This is the spirit card of Li Deng's parents, and the words carved on the spirit card were carved by Li Deng in a wooden workshop on the street, and the handwriting is strong and powerful.

These two wooden plaques were chiseled by Li Deng from the beam of the ancestral house, and the wooden plaques chiseled down were angular and angular, so Li Deng found some sharp tiles to carve the wooden plaques and make them into a spirit card style, and then went to the wooden workshop to ask someone to carve the spiritual characters.

The craftsman of the wooden workshop was also a simple and honest person, and he also liked Li Deng, so he helped Li Deng reshape the two pieces of wood into the style of a delicate spirit card.

Generally, this kind of wooden workshop will not give people to create a spirit card, which is unlucky, but Li Deng's hardships and hardships, the craftsmen of the wooden workshop also saw it in their eyes, and felt that this child was pitiful, so he didn't care about anything auspicious or unlucky, so he thought it was to accumulate yin virtue for himself, so he helped build two pieces.

The craftsman carved the name of Li Deng's parents for the spirit card one by one, the craftsman carved very carefully, for fear that a careless handwriting is slightly deviated, ruining the child's ardent hope, two spirit cards, the craftsman carved two incense sticks of time.

He has been a carpenter all his life, and he has never treated wood so carefully in his life, and it was the first time he carved wood so carefully.

After the carving of the spirit tablet was completed, the craftsman handed it over to Li Deng, without mentioning any money or not.

Li Deng insisted on giving money, maybe this is a small thing for a craftsman, but for Li Deng, this is the biggest thing in his life, more important than eating and living.

At Li Deng's insistence, the craftsman took a copper plate, and when the craftsman took the copper coin, he felt that the copper coin was very heavy, not even a grain of silver or a grain of gold.

Finally, Li Deng respectfully thanked the craftsman, who held the copper coin in his hand and remained silent for a long time.

After Li Deng placed the lantern, he carefully picked up the parents' spirit card, lifted the rotten cloth sleeve and gently wiped the spirit card, and then slowly placed it behind the lamp.

Generally, large families have a lot of attention to worship deceased family members, such as bathing and burning incense, plain clothes and offerings, the order of the old and the young, worship rituals, inviting people to sing offerings, the amount of money that is beaten, the quality of the goods, and so on.

Li Deng's house is surrounded by walls, he can't afford to buy tribute incense, he doesn't have simple clothes and robes, and he can't afford to ask someone to sing and confess.

So Li Deng didn't pay attention to those, and after lighting the lamp, he took out the old tired money given by the old shopkeeper and gently put it under the lamp.

It is called the "money collection festival" to prevent other lonely spirits and wild ghosts from coming to "grab food".

Li Deng's money for his parents was not much, so he was naturally afraid of being divided by other lonely ghosts, so that his parents would get very little.

After Li Deng "hidden" this quaint winning coin, he took two steps back respectfully, knelt on the spirit card money, and kowtowed to his parents.

Li Deng kowtowed a total of six heads, and each knock was sonorous and powerful.

The last kowtow, Li Deng didn't get up for a long time, under the young man's kneeling posture, tears flowed out of his eyes, and then the young man secretly lifted his sleeves and gently smeared them between the corners of his eyes, his movements were very secretive, as if he was afraid of being seen.

He just didn't want to be seen by his parents.

The boy was still lying on the ground, and on the wooden table, the lights flickered, and a large black shadow swayed, as if a black cloth had been torn apart.

Around the house, there were also large black shadows swaying, connected into a ripple shape, and the black shadows wandered restlessly, coveting the old coins under the lamp, but they did not dare to approach the lamp.

The young man didn't realize it, and still secretly wiped his sleeves.

After a long time, the boy got up, and there were no tears in the corners of his eyes, but a heartfelt smile on his face.

The boy walked over to the table and sat down on a lump of wood, his body straight, and he sat upright.

The boy looked at the flickering lamp in front of him and talked to himself.

"Daddy, the child is doing well, now he has his own house, although this house is not as big as the ancestral house, but the shelter is not worse than the ancestral house, this room, the winter is very warm, the summer is very cool, really good. ”

"It's not hard for children these years, don't worry, eat well and dress warmly. ”

Then the young man looked down at the tattered clothes on his body and grinned, "My mother said that the rags are the best way to protect from the cold, and the children remember it." ”

"In the town, everyone is very good to me, the craftsman of the woodmill often helps me, and the grandfather who asks for money often tells me some principles of life, although the old shopkeeper is a little stricter, but he has never owed the child wages, so the child has lived well over the years. ”

"When the child grows up, he will take care of himself, so you don't have to worry. ”

"The child wants to know if you are doing well over there, whether you are being bullied, Dad, you have to protect your mother and don't let her be wronged. ”

As he spoke, the young man was a little bitter and asked softly, "Dad, mother, do you miss me?"

Then the boy raised his sleeve and wiped his tears, "I miss you so much..."

The boy sat alone at the table, the room was half-dimly lit, and the moonlight was half-bright outside the window, and he said a lot.

The young man who had never lit the lamp for so long didn't feel sorry for the wax money at all, he just wanted to talk to his father and mother for a while.

In the money shop, an old man sat at the table, did not light the lamp, and secretly listened to the young man's thoughts, and the old man burst into tears.

Where is this money hiding sacrifice, this lively young man on weekdays is obviously secretly hiding his thoughts.