"I know that this woman's temper is up, and she can say anything bastard, so I didn't hold back and gave my daughter-in-law an ear scraper. I also moved my hand in a hurry, but when the ear scraper went out, I knew what it was. The voice struck not only her face, but also her heart, and she stared at me with a gaze I had never seen before, paused for a moment, and turned to go out. I was also stupid at the time, just watching her go out in such a daze, let alone reaching out to pull her, I couldn't even say anything to keep her. ”

The old man shook his head, sighing heavier and heavier.

His mother was patriarchal, and because the family conditions were not good at that time, she was worried that she would have no food if she opened her mouth more, so she ruthlessly covered her little granddaughter who had just reached the full moon to death. Chang Tai didn't go through that era, and even if he did, he couldn't imagine how a grandmother would do it to her little granddaughter.

He looked at the old man, maybe time had taken away his pain, but the scars of the past were still there.

"I was only talking to my daughter-in-law, but the way she looked at me made me feel very uncomfortable. It is said that a man's feelings for his child come after the child grows up, because he has not gone through the hard work of a woman to conceive a baby in October, and there is no way to establish a blood relationship with the child from the beginning. But in the end, it was my daughter, my first child, and even if the so-called father-daughter relationship had not yet been born, it was difficult for me to accept that she was strangled to death by my mother. I'm going to go to my mother, and I'm going to ask her properly. She is my mother, as long as she says I don't, I will believe her. ”

"Actually, you have doubts in your heart, don't you?"

"Yes, although it is my mother's own granddaughter, but since the child was born, my mother has not looked at her properly, and even complained all the time, saying that she is a scourge and a burden, as if she is my mother's enemy. But on the day of the full moon, she suddenly changed her attitude, and even took the initiative to hold the child, and said that she would take her to meet relatives. My daughter-in-law was reluctant at the time, but according to the rules of her hometown, the child had to see someone when she was full moon, and she reluctantly agreed with the idea that the ugliness of the family should not be publicized. But who would have thought that this grandmother could really be ruthless and kill her own granddaughter. ”

The old man patted his leg as he spoke, and the expression on his face finally fluctuated.

"Did your mother admit it?"

"Admit it, as soon as I opened my mouth, she knew why I was going. Before I could finish asking, she confessed. The emotion on the old man's face was forcibly wiped away again: "She said that she was for my good, and said that if she gave birth to a daughter, she would have to raise her, and she would have to raise her like a son." can't lack food, can't lack drink, finally raised up, and ended up becoming someone else's family. said what to raise her, the family is not rich, it is better to let her die early and reincarnate early. Listen, is this what a mother should say? Is this what a grandmother is supposed to do? I looked at my mother's face when she said that, and I really wanted to hit her in the heart. Isn't she a woman herself? If her mother, my grandmother was like her back then, can she still have her now, can there still be me? The girl was so bad before, she was low, and she begged the matchmaker to introduce me to her daughter-in-law. Inheritance? As far as our poor family has something to preach. ”

"And after that?"

"Although my mother did that kind of thing, but how can there be a reason for a son to beat his mother in this world, I held my breath in my heart, and I only thought that I would never see her again in the future, so I went out of her door. After going out, I looked at the dark sky outside, and my heart was very uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable, and I thought of my daughter-in-law. She gave birth to her daughter with great difficulty, but she was killed by her mother-in-law, can she not be sad? I thought, I have to go to her, I have to apologize to her. I followed the road in the village to my old father-in-law's house. ”

The old man looked up at the sky, as if time and space had traveled all at once.

"The moon is bright and the stars are scarce, and that night is really such a scene. The night was dark and windy, but the moon in the sky was bright and the stars were sparse. I walked out of the village and walked along the crooked path to my old father-in-law's house, and as I walked, I thought of my daughter, and I thought of my daughter, and I remembered some other things.

I remembered that there was a small depression on the side of the road, which was equivalent to what we now call mass graves, and some children who had starved to death, died of disease, and even cats and dogs would be thrown into it, or buried in it. When I was a child, I always listened to the old people, and I was very afraid of passing through that place. Later, when I grew up, I felt that life was difficult, and there was no difference between living and dying. Besides, I haven't seen a ghost until I'm in my twenties, so naturally I'm not feudal and superstitious. ”

"I haven't seen it, which means that my heart is calm."

"I haven't seen it, which means that the heart is calm. It seems like...... It seems that this is the truth. The old man stared at Chang Tai's eyes: "In the past, when I walked that way, although I also had a diaphragm in my heart, I was never afraid, but that night, I suddenly felt the kind of yin wind that people often say, and I felt afraid." I always felt like there was a pair of eyes staring at me. Just as he was about to pass through the deep recess, a gust of wind arose, and the dark clouds obscured the moon, but soon the dark clouds were blown away by the wind again. The moon was still bright, but the color had changed to red. I heard the baby's cry, not one, but one.

People, that's it, I'm obviously scared to death, but I don't want to poke my head out to see. I was like this, and I craned my neck into the recess, and I saw one bulging little grave bag after another, and each one of them had a little doll guarding in front of it. I just wanted to sneak a peek at that, but I didn't expect that the eyes of those little dolls were all looking at me. I was so frightened that my pants were wet. ”

The old man smiled self-deprecatingly and looked away from Chang Tai's face.

"I know you're a police officer, and you can't believe these things, but I did see it, and I was really scared. When I came to my senses and was about to flee, I saw a little baby, lying naked on the ground, but strangely enough, her head was actually lifted, and then she was biting a red rope in her mouth, looking at me motionless. Those eyes, I recognize, belong to my daughter's. I also recognize the red rope she was biting in her mouth, and it was put on her hand by my daughter-in-law. The old family said that the children in the confinement are easy to attract evil spirits, there is nothing else at home, and my father and mother do not give Zhang Luo, so my daughter-in-law braided a red rope with red thread for the child to wear on her hand. My legs limped, but I wasn't scared much. What are you afraid of, that's my daughter. She just looked at me like that, not crying or making trouble, but looking at my eyes, it was like looking at an enemy. ”

"You are a man, a husband, a father, you should be the one who protects their mother and daughter, but you have disappointed them."

"Yes, it's my fault, it's my failure to protect her, and I didn't protect my daughter-in-law." The old man hung his head: "So, I have suffered retribution." ”

Chang Tai knew that the old man's narration was not yet finished, so he just waited quietly, waiting for the old man to finish all the stories.

"Knowing that she was my daughter, my poor little girl, I still knelt down for her. I confessed my mistake to her, I said I was sorry, I said I didn't know my mother would hurt her. My mother is patriarchal, but I don't, I really don't, I think sons and daughters are raised the same. No, I didn't have such a high level of consciousness at that time, I just didn't seriously think about having children, so I didn't think that my daughter-in-law had any difference between having a son and giving birth to a daughter, and there was anything bad about it. She is my daughter, I have hugged her with my own hands, fed her water, coaxed her to sleep and washed her diapers, I love her.

She just looked at me like that all the time, and then there was a gust of wind, and it was so strong that it almost squinted my eyes, and when I opened it again, she was gone. Until now, I don't know where she was buried in that deep depression. I asked my mother, but she wouldn't tell me, and I couldn't find it. ”

"An Ning why you want to tell me this story?"

"I'm not done yet." The old man was tired of standing, so he walked directly to the opposite side and sat down next to the stairs: "I stumbled and ran to my old father-in-law's house, but they told me that my daughter-in-law didn't come back after leaving in the afternoon." I didn't dare to say anything about the child, I just said that she was in a bad mood, and in the evening we had a couple of words, and she left. She is still pregnant with a child, where can she go in the middle of the night? We went from dark to dawn, and finally found her in a grove at the head of the village, but she was dead. She chose a hawthorn tree and used her belt to tie her neck to it. Hawthorn, in our place is called Hongguoguo, my daughter's nickname is Hongguoguo, because when she was born, her whole body was red, especially that little face, just like Hongguoguo.

My daughter-in-law died, she hanged herself, and the child in her womb, whether it was a son or not, was gone. Because of the death of my daughter-in-law, my father-in-law led his relatives to the door and almost demolished our house. The matter is so big, it is natural that there will be no more girls in the village who are willing to be my daughter-in-law, even if it is a widow whose husband has died, will not marry a man like me. My daughter-in-law is right, my mother has no grandchildren in her life, and I have no sons in my life. ”

"People's memory is the most unreliable, and people are also the most forgetful, and when things are over, you still have a chance to start a family, but why didn't you start a family?"

"Because my father and mother are dead." The old man's expression was complicated, and he couldn't tell whether he was crying or laughing: "On the morning of the eighth day after my daughter-in-law was buried, my father and mother were found lying in that deep recess. My father's face was blue, as if he had frozen to death, but at that time, it was not yet winter, and even if it was cold at night, he would not freeze a big living person to death. My mother was kneeling in the middle of a pile of small grave bags, her mouth stuffed with dirt, and she choked herself to death. The death of my daughter-in-law, the death of my father, and the fact that my daughter disappeared after the full moon, the people of the village quickly made up a story that was very close to the truth. They said that my daughter, who had just completed the moon, was killed by my father, and that my father's death was so strange because my daughter came back to seek revenge. ”