Sitting on the Chang'an Star that Lu Binchuan drove in person, we all felt tired and paralyzed, and we didn't have anything to say. After returning to his Binchuan restaurant for a full meal, Ah Xia was let to rest in the bedroom by her enthusiastic sister-in-law. I followed Brother Binchuan, and squeezed into a box with Uncle Er and Uncle Okawa to lay on the floor, but I still slept very soundly.

I slept until nine o'clock the next morning, when I got up yawning and heard the muffled hum of my ears that were still asleep, and I felt pain all over my body, especially the calf that had been poisoned, which was even more bruised and swollen and painful. Staggered to the yard, Ah Xia got up early and was helping the eldest brother and his wife pick up vegetables with Uncle Dachuan. When she saw me come out, she hurriedly ran over and helped me to the table, brought out the porridge she boiled and fed me.

When I saw the eldest brother and his wife and the older workers, seeing that she was virtuous, I only looked at the two of us laughing, and I suddenly felt a little uncomfortable, and I barely ate a few bites, and hurriedly said to Ah Xia that I should eat it myself. Ah Xia also noticed that something was wrong, and sat back on the small bench in the courtyard with a red face and continued to pick lettuce. It happened that the eldest brother's mobile phone rang, and it turned out to be a courier from his daughter-in-law at the door, and Uncle Dachuan saw this, so he took the opportunity to give Ah Xia a step and asked her to go out at the door to help the eldest brother and his wife take off the package.

Ah Xia naturally understood the intention, flicked the ponytail briskly, I came to the door, and when I passed by, she gently put down two cooking cakes brought from the stove room, smiled gently at me, and ran away.

Seeing that I had a great appetite, Brother Hamakawa came over and added two more baked cakes to me, and simply sat next to me and chatted with me. He had basically learned the general situation from Uncle Okawa. While feeling sorry for his old classmate Liang Hu, he still couldn't help but regret it: "Greed is really deadly!" ”

I listened to his emotion, and I couldn't help but echo it. When I think of the tragedy caused by all kinds of human sorrows during the journey, I suddenly remember a story I heard when I was a child.

A long time ago, there was a mother and son who depended on each other. The mother is old and sick, unable to work, and has a hard life, and the sons are thirty years old, and they have not yet found a wife, so they only rely on selling grass to make ends meet.

One day, the son went to the north of the village to pull weeds as usual, and found a cauliflower snake more than seven inches long in the grass, which was covered in injuries and could not move. The son was moved by pity, and carefully rescued the snake home, rinsed and applied the medicine, and after a while, the snake woke up, and nodded at the two of them, expressing its gratitude. The mother and son were very happy to see this, and hurriedly made a small wattle basket for it, and carefully put the snake in it. Since then, the mother and son have been carefully cared for, the snake wound has gradually healed, and the snake has grown up, and it always seems to be talking to them, which is very cute, adding a lot of little fun to the monotonous and lonely life of the mother and son.

As the days passed, the son continued to threw the grass, the mother remained at home, and the little snake was in the basket all day long. Suddenly, one day, the little snake felt bored in the house, crawled into the yard to bask in the sun, was illuminated by the sun, became thick and long, like a beam, this situation was seen by the old lady screamed and fainted. When the son returned, the snake had returned to the house, returned to its original form, and said anxiously: "I lost my temper today, and scared your mother to death, but don't be afraid, you quickly take off three small pieces of skin from me, get some weeds, and put them in a pot to fry into soup, and let the eldest mother drink it." The son said, "No, it will hurt your body, so let's find another way!" The cauliflower snake urged: "It doesn't matter, you hurry up, I can withstand it." The son had no choice but to do so with tears in his eyes. After the mother drank the soup, she soon woke up, and the mother and son were grateful and puzzled, but no one said anything, and the son thought about the golden light in the snake basket every night, and felt that this snake was extraordinary.

It is said that the emperor at that time ignored the government all day long, and the life in the palace was day after day, nothing new, and he felt bored, and if he wanted a night pearl to play, he posted a notice, and whoever could offer one would be rewarded as an official. When this news reached the ears of his son, he went home and said to the snake, who pondered for a while and said, "You have been very good to me for the past few years, and you have saved your life, and you always want to repay it, but you have never had the chance, and now you can finally do something for you." To tell you the truth, my eyes are two pearls of the night, if you gouge out one of my eyes and dedicate it to the emperor, you can be promoted to become rich, and your mother will be able to spend her old age in peace. The son was very happy when he heard this, but after all, he had a relationship with the snake, and he took it for patience, and said, "It is too cruel to do that, and you will not be able to bear the pain." The serpent said, "It doesn't matter, I can withstand it." So, the son gouged out one of the snake's eyes, and the next day he went to the capital and presented the jewel to the emperor. In the evening, the jewel became more and more strangely bright, illuminating the whole court, and the emperor was very pleased, and made his son a great official, and rewarded him with many gold and silver treasures.

After the emperor got the orb, he was very proud and played with it for days. When the queen saw it, she also wanted one, and as a last resort, the emperor ordered to find the jewel again, and said that the prime minister's seat would be left to the second person who offered the treasure, and the son thought, I will get the second eye of the snake to offer, and the prime minister will not be mine? So he went to the emperor and said that he could still find one, and the emperor happily made him the prime minister. But I never expected that when the son asked the guard to get the second eye, the snake would not give it anyway, saying that he had to see his son, so the son had to come to see the snake himself. When the snake saw his son, he bluntly persuaded: "I have already given one eye to repay you, and you have made a fortune, so don't try to seek my second eye." Do not be greedy. But the son had already been obsessed with officials, and he could still listen to it at that time, and said shamelessly: "Don't I want to be a big official one day?" How can you be worthy if you don't give it to me? Besides, I have already told the emperor about this, and the official seal has also been given to me, so if you don't give it, it won't end well. Sacrifice yourself to fulfill me! ”

As he spoke, he paced forward, insisting on getting his second eye. When the cauliflower snake saw that he had become so greedy and cruel, he was already angry, so he said, "Okay then! Take a knife and go! But you're going to put me in the yard and get it again. The son could not wait, nor did he think much about the snake's words, but as soon as he agreed, he put the snake in the sunlit yard, and turned back to the house to get the knife. When he came out to gouge out his eyes and take the orb, the little snake had turned into a beam, panting at him with its mouth wide open. The son's frightened soul was gone, and it was too late to run. The serpent was not soft-hearted either, and swallowed this greedy man in one bite.

As the saying goes, "the human heart is insufficient, and the snake swallows the image (image)".

As we all know, elephants are behemoths. The snake is a slender and slender reptile, with a small belly, and it is almost the same as swallowing a frog or a rat, and it is a bit too self-sufficient to swallow a huge elephant in one bite. "The snake swallowing the elephant" is always used as a metaphor for those things outside of manpower, and its intention is only to warn people not to "lack people's hearts", but to "be content". Think about Gao Maocai, Lin Hui, Feng Jinhua, Liang Hu and Zhou Yan, who died unjustly, as well as Feng Shui Zhou and Boss Mi who secretly planned and plotted treasures, which one doesn't have a home and a room, food and clothing, a job, and a residence? For the sake of obsession, he covets something that is actually dispensable for life. It can really be described as "lack of people's hearts".

Using this attached story to summarize the confused lives of fools who died in vain due to greed, I think, approximately, it is quite appropriate.

As I was sighing with emotion, I suddenly heard Ah Xia's voice outside the door:

"Excuse me, are you Comrade Yang Qingxia?"

"Huh? Well, I am. You are—" I couldn't help but wonder, did Ah Xia have an acquaintance in Qingchuan? Wait a minute! Homosexuals?! Suddenly woke up, quickly raised his eyes, and saw a man and a woman and two heroic policemen, who had been recognized by Ah Xia, had already shown their documents, the man saluted Ah Xia as standard, and the woman had already grabbed her arm and pushed her into a police car parked on the side of the road!

"Ah Xia!" I couldn't help but scream, but I couldn't help but lose my strength, and as soon as I got up, I fell to the ground. Ah Xia heard me call her, turned her head through the car window and saw me fall to the ground, shook her head in distress, and was driven out of my sight by the police car in an instant.

I just felt like a mess, and hurriedly explained the situation to Uncle Okawa and Brother Hamakawa, who heard the movement and came out to see the situation. Uncle Okawa comforted me when he heard this: "It should be the family members of the archaeological team who saw that their family members had lost contact with them and called the police. A few of us are not in the establishment, the public security comrades do not have our information, and Xiaoxia's information is in the unit, so it is naturally much easier for the police to find it. After speaking, I borrowed a phone from Brother Binchuan, and even found a few acquaintances, and finally learned about the situation from Deputy Captain Liu of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Nanhua City Public Security Bureau.

It turned out that Lin Hui's husband Zhang Long saw that she hadn't returned for half a month, and he couldn't get in touch, and Director Zhao of the Cultural Relics Office didn't give a reasonable explanation, so he called the police in a hurry. So Uncle Dachuan asked a few of his acquaintances to help take care of Ah Xia during the investigation, and then turned around and comforted me: "Xiao Li, don't worry. Xiaoxia was probably just taken to the investigation team to understand the situation, make a record and go home. She's so clever, isn't it easy to write a leaky report? ”

I was a little relieved when I heard this, but I couldn't help but ask, "They won't extract a confession from her, will they?" When Uncle Dachuan heard this, he laughed heartily and replied: "Believe our people's police, Xiaoxia has not done anything illegal, she will definitely be fine!" Besides, a few of my old friends are also paying attention to this case, and they will definitely take care of her then, so don't worry. ”

I was relieved, and then I stood up, and was about to get my ears up and rush back to Nanhua to listen to the news, but my eyes were dark, my calves were weak, and I fell to the ground.

When I woke up, I was already lying on Brother Hamakawa's bed, and Uncle Okawa was still talking to someone on the phone outside the door. My ears woke up, and he sat on the edge of my bed with his back to me, playing a game on his phone. I stood up and wanted to ask him what was going on, but as soon as my foot hit the ground, I noticed that something was wrong: my previous poisoned calf, it seems, I can't feel it!

I hurriedly asked the ear what was going on! The ears shrugged vigorously, indicating that they did not know. Uncle Dachuan just walked in after the phone call, bumped into me and woke up, and said to me straight to the point: "Xiao Li, you have a big deal." I just sent the photo of your injured leg to a master who understands medicine, and preliminarily judged that the Gu poison in you had been nourished by soaking in cold water, and the cold qi had been nourished and aggravated a lot. In this way, if you don't go back to Yanbian with me for medical treatment now, you will still be alive within three days. I'll ask Master Xiao Lu to drive us. We will book the ticket on the way! ”

When I heard the bad news, my heart was half cold, Ah Xia had just been imprisoned, and my condition was getting worse, how is this good? In desperation, we had to obey Uncle Dachuan's arrangement, and after lunch, we immediately took Brother Binchuan's car to the provincial capital and flew directly to Changchun. And Er took a bus back to Nanhua to inquire about Ah Xia's news.

After getting off the plane, it was eight o'clock in the evening, fortunately, Uncle Dachuan's friend was interesting enough, and had already prepared a car and waited at Longjia Airport, and we took another four or five hours in the car, and at one o'clock in the morning, we arrived in front of the mysterious master's house.

This is a traditional old courtyard house, the frame pattern is not too strange, and the door railing decoration is also relatively regular. As soon as we entered the door, someone came to greet us, and I was on crutches, so naturally I couldn't salute, so I was embarrassed to say thank you. Uncle Okawa should be a regular customer, so naturally he didn't see the outside, but only smiled and bowed his head lightly to the doorman, and hurriedly led me into the inner courtyard.

I saw that in the middle of the courtyard dam, near the rockery, next to a set of stone tables and chairs under the plum tree, facing us sat a woman with the hairstyle of a noble lady in the Republic of China period and a classical middle-waist cheongsam. I saw her in a beautiful posture, like a girl, holding a wine glass, facing Mingyue, holding Marlboro between her fingers, and pouring herself a drink. When he heard the footsteps, he didn't even turn his head, but only said fiercely:

"You still have the face to come back?!"

I heard her suddenly come out of this, first startled, and then thought that something was wrong, we came from afar, although it was disturbed late at night, but it was not angry as soon as we met, right? Could it be that Uncle Dachuan, who has always been tactful, has offended her? was puzzled, and couldn't help but turn his head to look at Uncle Dachuan, who knew that when he turned his head, he found that the doorman who respectfully led us in before, I don't know when, ran away without a trace.

In the empty and lonely courtyard, only the cold woman and the two of us were left.

In the middle of the sound, Uncle Dachuan broke the silence, stepped forward with a smile and apologized: "Siniang, don't be like this, don't I have something to ask you for?" ”

"Hmph, do you have something to ask me?" The woman sneered and said, "Then when it's okay, forget the old lady?" You foolish head, you can't even forget who you are, right? ”

As soon as I heard this mother-in-law speak unpleasantly, Uncle Dachuan didn't know how to answer for a while, and couldn't help but be angry: "This master, please pay attention to your words!" Don't think that others let you drag you, and don't talk about the courtesy of guests? If you weren't a woman, I'd have slapped you a few times! My uncle acts above board and is upright! A good man doesn't change his name, his husband doesn't change his surname, and he is capable of going up and down, what's wrong? After speaking, I felt a burst of joy in my chest, and then looked at Uncle Dachuan, I thought I had spit out a bad breath for him, but who knows, he was careful and calm all the way, and he actually showed a trace of panic, as if he was complaining about me talking nonsense!

"Hmph, I said 'Zhong Dachuan', I haven't seen you for half a month, but the wings are hard to tie up, and even the name is loud, and you have brought a guy who dares to argue with the old lady, are you asking for people's attitude?" As he spoke, he casually took a sip of wine, spit out a smoke ring, and still didn't look at us.

"Damn, you mother-in-law, how can we provoke you, you say it directly, don't beat around the bush like this! If it's inconvenient, we'll leave! "I was standing the side, and my legs were cold and painful, and I couldn't help but shout for a long time.

When the woman heard this, she naturally didn't say much, called the doorman who was hiding next to her, and said lightly: "Since words are not speculative, then go back and forth from where." Lao Fu, send off! ”

I saw that she gave an eviction order, sneered, turned around and was about to go out, but saw that Uncle Dachuan was still stunned in place, thinking that he still wanted to help me intercede, and impatiently beckoned him to: "Uncle, forget it, people's shelves are very big, let's find another way." As he spoke, he was about to pull him with a limp, but the woman said coldly:

"Jin Dachuan! If you dare to go out, don't go back to this home after you have the ability! ”

"Cut, let's go, who's rare—huh! Family? I replied instinctively, and suddenly felt that something was wrong, and suddenly reacted, and after a long time, I couldn't help but ask Uncle Dachuan in embarrassment: "Uncle, this, it's your-"

"Well, Siniang is the uncle and my generation of medical practitioners." Uncle Okawa looked at my face full of the word "embarrassment", and naturally heard the disbelief in my tone, so he had to rub his hands, scratch his head, and smile bitterly.