Good people can hate the cruelty of the butcher, but they can't hate an elderly mother who collects the body on the execution ground, which is a sign of mother's kindness, and maternal love makes no difference, even if the object is a hateful and hated murderer.

Everyone watched with complicated eyes as she staggered into the execution ground on the creaking snow.

The old woman couldn't tell the difference between the east and the west, and squinted her eyes and wiped the snowflakes falling on her forehead with her hand, trying to find the location of her son.

The butcher had already heard the words of the old mother, turned around sharply, turned his head to look over, and when he saw his mother, he couldn't help but cry out sadly: "Mother! I'm here, I'm here! ”

The old woman seemed to be frozen, and she heard the voice but did not move forward. Standing in the cold wind like a dead tree and old branches, trembling, after a long time, he stepped on the snow step by step to the middle of the field, and came to his son under the gaze of everyone.

The white-haired old woman put the basket in her hand on the ground and said, "You rebel, I thought I would never see you again in my life, but after thinking about it all night, I still came to collect your body." Your dead dad confessed to let me pull you up, and I did it. However, I didn't expect you to go to the underworld like this to see your dead Lao Tzu, what kind of face do you have? What kind of face do I have? ”

Speaking of sadness, the old man raised his hand tremblingly, snapped, and slapped his son in the mouth. The butcher fell to his knees with his head up, without any dodge.

The butcher cried and said, "Mother, you have not come, and I have no way to tell you, but I can tell you now, - Mother, I have been wronged!" I really didn't kill anyone, you old man knows about me and Chunya, how could I rape her? How could you be willing to do that? She's like my own sister! She's my heart, how can I do something like that......? ”

The old woman slapped him again and said, "Are you still stubborn at this moment? The yamen said that you forced her to have no face to see people, and she was hanged with a rope, and her father came to theorize, and you hacked people to death with an axe and stabbed to death with a pig-killing knife. You have been hard-hearted since you were a child, and I know that you are a ruthless lord when I see you kill pigs. When you were ten years old, you learned to kill pigs with your father, and the first time you killed a pig, you didn't even blink when you stabbed the knife into it. Hands never trembled. Privately, your father told me that someone in his business has taken over, and he can rest assured that you will be a good butcher stronger than him. Your dad didn't look away, but he didn't expect it. But you use your ability to kill pigs to kill, to kill like pigs! It was Chunya's father-in-law who killed him, you brute, how can I say you? ”

Speaking of sadness, two more people slapped his son in the face.

The butcher had already burst into tears, kneeling straight on the ground, still not dodging, his swollen lips blocked the smoothness of his speech, but he could still be heard clearly: "Mother, I really didn't kill him." I didn't force Chunya to rape either, believe it or not! I'm going to die, and when I'm dead, I'm going to go to Lord Yama and tell me my grievances. If you come to collect my body, you must find a grave and bury me, and don't let the wild dogs dig up my bones. I used to leave your old man alone in the village and didn't take care of it, because I was not filial. Your old man came to collect the body for me, I am ashamed of you, I will still be your son in the next life, if you are not blessed, you can be a cow or a horse. I must be filial to you. ”

With that, the butcher slammed his head on the snow with a thud, and the snow splashed everywhere, and he put his hands behind his back. Tied up, unable to stand up straight, banging his head on the snow and kneeling and crying.

The old woman's slap raised in mid-air slowly put it down, and she called out "Evil Barrier"! His knees weakened, and he sat down in the snow with a thud, hugging his son's back. Burst into tears.

On the prison platform, Lu Jinping's thick eyebrows frowned slightly, looking at this scene on the court, he didn't know what he was thinking.

The two officials next to him saw them hugging together and crying, so they said sharply: "Okay, hurry up, the execution time is coming soon, hurry up and retreat outside, cut off your head, and then come to collect the body." ”

The old woman turned around, quickly wiped away her tears, sat up on her knees, and said, "Poor master, please give me a little more time, and I will let my son drink a glass of wine and eat something." ”

The official said sharply: "No, the hour has come, exit immediately, hurry up!" ”

The old woman knelt there and begged, and the other official sighed and said: "Old man, don't worry, when he was brought out of prison, he had already drunk the severed head wine and eaten the severed head chicken, and he was full of wine and food to go on the road, and he couldn't be hungry, so you old man should retreat quickly, don't delay the official business of the yamen, then you will have to eat a lawsuit." ”

The old woman cried and said: "My son has not been by my side for more than ten years, and today he is leaving, and when he goes to the underworld, who can only know whether he can be a mother and son again in the next life?" Let me give him another glass of wine and a piece of meat, please. ”

"Nope."

As soon as he said that, he heard Lu Jinping's voice coming from the prison beheading platform behind: "There is no need to stop it, untie the rope of the death row prisoner, let him drink wine and eat meat, and then execute him after he is done." Make it. ”

As soon as the two officials heard the order of the prisoner, they dared not obey, and hurriedly untied the ropes on the death row prisoner, but their hands pressed on his shoulders to prevent him from hurting people.

The executioner sitting under the big oil umbrella didn't expect Lu Jinping to make this decision, he was stunned for a moment, raised his hand and took the ghost head knife from the apprentice's hand, held it in his hand, and looked at the death row prisoner vigilantly.

Qu Butcher's hands were free, rubbed them, and said to Lu Jinping, "Thank you, master." ”

The butcher turned his head to look at his mother again, called his mother, and couldn't help but burst into tears, unable to speak.

The old woman sighed, tore off the blue cloth of the bamboo basket, took out a porcelain bowl from it, took a pot of wine, poured a full bowl and handed it to her son. There was also a knife of fat in the basket.

The butcher propped his hands on the ground and knocked his head a few times and said: "Thank you, mother, the child is not filial, did not serve your old man, but you still come to treat me like this, think about it is really ashamed, I wish you a long life and a long life." ”

The old woman choked and shook her head and said, "I am just such a son as you, you are dead, where did I go to Fushou?" Hurry up and drink and eat, and then go on the road to find your father in the Netherworld. ”

The butcher nodded, stretched out his hands to take the bowl of wine from his mother's hand, tilted his neck, drank it cleanly, then grabbed the bowl with his right hand and threw it back, threw the bowl into the snow, and then stretched out his right hand to grab the piece of fat in the basket, stuffed it into his mouth, and did not chew it, but forced it to swallow. This bite was too big, choking his eyes round, and he almost held his breath, and then swallowed the fat meat in his stomach.

At this time, the scribe who was in charge of observing the hourglass saw that the last grain of sand had fallen under the hourglass, so he prolonged his voice and said in a loud voice: "Noon has arrived!" ”

According to the rules, at this time, Lu Jinping's errand was to lift the big vermilion pen on the table, put a tick on the verdict, and then throw the vermilion pen off the stage, and issue the order for execution. Then, the scribe next to him would follow Lu Jinping's gesture and shout, "Execution!" The executioner below will come and cut off the head of the condemned prisoner to the ground, completing the execution.

However, the scribe in the torture room didn't see Lu Jinping pick up the tick pen on the table and order the execution, and looked at Lu Jinping with some surprise, but Lu Jinping crossed his arms, sat on the soft couch, staring down in a daze.

At this moment, the official had already set up the old woman outside the cordon, and the butcher of the death row prisoner who knelt down in the field had been re-tied and tied up by the officer, one hand pressed on his shoulder, and the other officer grabbed his hair, pulled forward, exposing his neck, and waited for Lu Jinping to order the execution, and the executioner fell to the ground with the ghost head knife in front of him, completing the last critical step, but all the preparations were complete, but he did not wait for Lu Jinping to make the decision to execute.

The crowd of onlookers began to talk in a low voice, and together they looked at the prison beheading platform, where the young prison officer still did not move.

Shi Jingsheng, the son of the deceased who had been kneeling in front of the offering table not far from the side, also looked at Lu Jinping on the beheading platform in astonishment, he didn't understand. He had been waiting for the head to hit the ground, and he used to put the head on the table to pay tribute to his father, but Lu Jinping did not give the order for a long time.

Yunzi, who was on the side of the prison platform, was also a little anxious, and turned his head to ask his brother. Because they were on the side of the prison beheading platform, the pergola blocked their view, and they couldn't see Lu Jinping's appearance at the moment, so they didn't know what Lu Jinping was doing in the prison beheading shed, so they couldn't help but ask a little anxiously, turned their heads and asked the brother next to them, "Sir, what's wrong?" Are you asleep? ”

The cloud vulture said: "I don't know, maybe I am, but how can I fall asleep at this moment, waiting for him to order killing, what is the matter if I fall asleep like this?" Wouldn't it be a big joke? ”

Yunzi was very anxious, but he couldn't see it, and he was even more anxious after listening to his brother's words, so he really fell asleep? The people under him didn't dare to call him, he couldn't look at Lu Jinping like this, thought about it, quietly took out a round stone with bones, shook his wrist, and shot into the air with a whoosh, under the cover of snowflakes in the sky, no one could see what it was.

The small round stone drew an arc in the air, and with a thud, it landed on the pergola of the prison platform, and then it rolled and fell on the platform with a click, and it flicked twice and did not move.

Of course, Lu Jinping did not fall asleep, but fell into a deep groan, he had been thinking about one thing just now, and he was hesitating what to do. At this time, he heard something rolling on the roof of the pergola, and saw a small round stone rolling down from the pergola on the platform in front of him, and found that it was a thumb-sized stone marble, and then he knew that Yunzi was using this method to remind him, and he couldn't help but smile at the corner of his mouth. This spirited guy can actually think of a way to remind himself in this way.

It was this reminder that made him make up his mind, stood up at the moment, walked to the front of the stage with his hands behind his back, glanced at it, turned his head to the scribe in charge of the herald on the side, and said, "Suspend the execution and bring the prisoner back to the main prison for confinement!" (To be continued.) )

PS: I wish you all book friends a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!