"You're the police officer investigating the fire upstairs, right?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm a resident of this community, and I know their family." The old man pointed to the outside of the corridor: "I am seventy-nine years old this year, and when the frost has fallen, I will be eighty." ”

"Is there anything you can do?"

"I've been asked to tell you a story to the officer." The old man looked at the charred house: "When I was young, I also had a family and children, but now, I am alone." ”

"I'm sorry, I'm still investigating, your story, can I hear it another day."

"Does the officer think that my old man is interfering with the case, or does he think that my old man is too curious and is talking nonsense? The incident I want to tell the police officer about is really not helpful to your case, but this story is told to you by a girl named An Ning. ”

"Tranquility?"

"Yes, her name is An Ning, and I have seen her ID card, and it does have these two words on it." The old man sighed: "I have lived in this courtyard for a long time, and when Xu Ling and his wife moved over, I sat under this building to enjoy the shade. At that time, they had not yet given birth to children, and the young couple was kind and loving, which was really enviable. Later, Xu Ling divorced his wife, leaving two daughters for his wife, and I often saw his wife walking downstairs with that little daughter in her arms.

Children under the age of one always love to cry, and we are not a single-family villa. His wife is a very particular person, and she always walks around the neighborhood with her child in her arms for fear that her daughter's crying will disturb the neighbors. Winter, summer, autumn and winter, it's all the same. This woman with a child is really not a happy thing, I have seen her holding the child in the community while secretly wiping her tears.

I also want to go over and persuade Xu Ling, so I will use what I have personally experienced. But I heard that he remarried after divorcing his wife and had a new family. I searched, at this time, it was a little inappropriate for me, a stranger, to tell a story, so I gave up.

About two years ago, the girl named An Ning came to this community to inquire about Xu Ling's wife. At first, there were still people who told her, but all they said was how hard Xu Ling's wife worked with the child, how the junior who hooked Xu Ling away was not a thing, how damn it, and so on. Later, even if the girl came, she didn't ask anyone everywhere, she just hid in an inconspicuous place, quietly looking at Xu Ling's wife and daughter.

Later, I learned that she was the daughter-in-law that Xu Ling married later, that is, the woman Xu Ling was looking for outside by many people in the community.

One day, the weather forecast said there was no rain, but suddenly it started. The girl didn't bring an umbrella, and she was embarrassed to stand in the corridor and be watched, so I saw that she was quite pitiful, so I sent an umbrella over. Since then, she has brought me something every time she comes to the community. Sometimes it's oil, sometimes it's rice, sometimes it's noodles, and sometimes it's an envelope with some change in it. It's not a lot of money, but it's all her heart, and I know that she gave it down.

She was probably embarrassed and worried that I wouldn't accept those things, so she would sneak in front of my door every time she came, knock on the door a few times and leave. The reason why I knew it was her was because on two occasions, I opened the door in time, saw her back, and heard other neighbors in the community.

About two months ago, she came to deliver something to me again, knocked on the door and didn't leave, but stood in front of the door, waiting for me to open it. As soon as I opened the door, she said something to me. She said that she had heard stories about me from others, and she didn't mean to try to break through my old scars, but just wanted to implore me to tell the police if one day she was gone, or if Xu Ling was gone.

I don't know what she meant, but I promised her at the time.

The most important thing in being a man is to be trustworthy, and since you have promised others something, you should do it no matter what. I know you're very busy, busy investigating all kinds of cases, and I'm not in a hurry, you can listen to my story at any time. ”

"It's okay, I've got time now."

"This story happened forty years ago." The old man squinted his eyes and spoke softly.

Forty years ago, the concept of preference for sons over daughters was still very serious, especially in some remote / vinegar slippery - literary debuts/places, thinking that raising a daughter was raising money and goods. At that time, medicine was not as developed as it is now, and there were no instruments to distinguish between men and women, and even if there were, it was not something that ordinary people could afford to spend.

Forty years ago, not to mention the illegal identification of the sex of the baby, even the prenatal examination was very rare. Many people do not even enter the hospital gate from the time they conceive a child to the time they are born. At that time, many people would cover the child with a cloth after the mother gave birth to the child, or soak it in a basin of water and drown it, or take advantage of the darkness to find a place where no one was and throw it away. For them, children seem to be only used to pass on family incense, rather than the continuation of the relationship between husband and wife.

The old man was very handsome when he was young, and there were many girls who liked him, but the old man's parents chose a "good birth" girl for him to be his wife.

"My wife, don't say that from a modern point of view, even when I was young, she wasn't good-looking. Physique, it is more appropriate to use the word strong, how can it look, it doesn't look like a girl's house, but like a man. But that kind of girl, in that era, is more suitable to be a wife. First, she is at peace and will not mess around outside, even if she can look down on others, others may not be able to look down on her. In my mother's words, it is to marry into the family and live in the backyard. Second, she has the strength and can work. I can do all the work in the field at home, and I can be regarded as a good hand at living. Third, it is good to give birth to children. As for what the specific standard of this good birth is, I don't know where it came from, but at that time, the people in the village said that she was good at giving birth to a child, and at first glance, she gave birth to a male baby. Growing up, my mother arranged almost everything, including marrying a daughter-in-law. ”

The old man shook his hands.

"At the time, although I didn't like this daughter-in-law very much, I didn't think she looked like a girl's family. But in her life, she didn't say that she took care of both home and outside the house very well, and slowly, she also had some feelings for her. A year after we got married, we had a child, a girl who looked a lot like me. But my mother was angry when she saw it. At that time, the conditions in my family were not good, and one more person was equivalent to one more mouth to eat, although it was a girl, but the girl's mouth was also a mouth.

Although my daughter-in-law didn't say anything, she didn't want to, and after arguing with her for a while, my mother calmed down. It's been a makeshift in the confinement. But on the day of the child's full moon, my mother said that she would go out to show her relatives of the same clan and clan, and this walk would take several hours. She didn't come back until it was dark, but she came back empty-handed. I asked my mother, what about the child? My mother said that the girl who lost money gave away the film, and it was difficult for people not to dislike it, and she was willing to ask for it. He also said that my daughter-in-law is out of confinement, and her body is almost raised, so hurry up and add another boy to our family.

My daughter-in-law was so angry that she immediately rushed out of the house, grabbed my mother's hair, and forced her to ask her to bring the child back. My mother refused to live or die, and sat on the ground and lied, saying that the child was given to a passing foreigner, and that my daughter-in-law forced her to death, and the child would not come back. Because of this incident, there was a gap between my daughter-in-law and my mother, and I was clearly told that there would be no my mother if there was her, and there would be no her without my mother.

To be honest, I also blame my mother, who is also my child. But the mother is the mother, and no matter how much she complains in her heart, she can't help it. Just when I was in a dilemma and didn't know what to do, my mother secretly found me and said that I would not deal with her, that is, I didn't want my mother to have a daughter-in-law, and then coaxed my daughter-in-law to give birth to another child as soon as possible.

At first, my daughter-in-law didn't want to pay attention to me, and always forced me to go out to find the child. A month, two months, half a year, a year, time passed day by day, and my daughter-in-law probably died of her heart, knowing that the child really couldn't be found, so she got better with me. It didn't take long for her to get pregnant. I secretly told my mother, and my mother secretly found someone to calculate it, and the husband who told the fortune told me that my daughter-in-law must be pregnant with a male baby. ”

"All happy?"

"It was supposed to be a happy event, but when my daughter-in-law was four months pregnant, something happened. That day, she got up early in the morning and said that she had something to do when she went back to her parents' house. I didn't go back with her because of something at home. Her mother's house is in the village next door to us, and although the middle road is a little harder, in fact, it is not very far. According to the usual habit, I went in the morning, and I should have come back at noon, but that day, I waited until about eight o'clock in the evening, when my daughter-in-law returned, and the whole person became very strange, her face was very white, her body was very cold, and she looked at me like she was looking at a dead person.

I asked her what was wrong?

She said that my mother lied to us, and my mother did not give our daughter away at all, but covered her to death and buried her on the side of the road.

I said how is it possible, even if my mother is the kind of patriarchal person, it is impossible to cover her own granddaughter to death. My daughter-in-law just laughed, a very creepy kind of laugh. She said that she saw our daughter, and on her way back to her mother's house, my daughter grabbed her trouser leg with her hand and told her everything my mother had done to her. I didn't believe what she said at the time, I thought she was a psychopath, maybe she listened to what my mother-in-law said, and deliberately went home to find trouble.

I asked twice, and she continued to smile at me, and said that my mother would never have a grandson in her life, and I could not have a son. She said that our daughter would not let us go. ”