After Village Chief Li finished telling the story, the cigarette in his hand was just extinguished, and the last trace of cigarette ash fell to the ground, and then the cigarette butt also fell. Peng Ligang took out his cigarette from his trousers and pocket, handed one to Village Chief Li, and took out a lighter for him to light it. Peng Ligang himself lit a cigarette, took a deep puff to calm his emotions, wiped some tears from the corners of his eyes, and blinked a few more times, making himself look like he had cried.

In fact, this story is not touching, and some are just sad, and there are no other words to describe except to see sadness. When Village Chief Li talked about several places in the room, Peng Ligang gritted his teeth. When Peng Li first went to college, he was a typical angry youth, often shouting things like "donate a month's living expenses if you fight Taiwan, and donate your life if you fight Japan." I thought that when I was twenty-seven or eighteen years old, those childish thoughts would no longer appear in my mind, but I never thought that I would be activated by such a story.

"Village Chief Li, what did the Japanese soldier mean by what he said before he died, did you go and ask others about it?" Peng Ligang took a few puffs of cigarettes, felt that he was about to choke before he stopped, swallowed a few saliva and moistened his throat and asked.

"A few years after that incident, another group of people from outside the village came to the village, and they brought us food and taught us children to read and write, and we later learned that they were the children of the new government. The Communist Party was very good to everyone, but no one dared to say it, and everyone agreed to treat it as a secret and bury it in a coffin in our generation. As for that sentence, we asked the young people in the village to inquire later, and it was indeed a curse before death. Village Chief Li lowered his head and smoked, and the smoke made him look much older.

"What the hell does that mean, you say, please understand." Peng Ligang slowly calmed down and asked.

"If you turn into a ghost, you will come back and kill everyone." Village Chief Li replied very simply, and continued to bury his head in smoking after speaking.

"Have there been any other strange things happening in the village since then?" Peng Ligang still didn't give up and continued to ask.

Village Chief Li no longer answered, the cigarette in his hand had been smoked, he took out one from the cigarette case on the table, lit it and continued to be silent. Peng Ligang knew that he couldn't ask anything, so he had to say that he would go out first, got up and walked out of the inner room. In the lobby, the two corpses were still parked on the ground, and the white cloth was covered with the corpses, which didn't look so terrifying. The village chief's wife had woken up, knelt down beside the two corpses and began to cry, crying with despair, sadness and helplessness. Su Ya just knelt quietly next to Li Keming's corpse, she was already fairer than others, but at this time it seemed that her face was bloodless, and her expressionless face made people look a little uncomfortable, very much like a mask hanging on a person's head.

The sadness in Peng Ligang's heart couldn't help but arise spontaneously, and he didn't want to stay here for a moment, so he took Li Shiyu's hand and ran out of Village Chief Li's house in the rain. The two trotted all the way back to the house where they were arranged, and as soon as Peng Li entered the door, he took off his clothes and lay on the old wooden bed, staring at the red wooden beam above his head. Li Shiyu casually put the wooden doorkeeper on, took off the clothes and skirts that had been soaked by the rain, took out clean clothes from the duffel bag on the ground and threw them on the bed, and walked to the bed after choosing. Li Shiyu took off all the wet underwear on her body, and then picked up the clean clothes covering Peng Ligang's body and prepared to put them on.

"What did Village Chief Li tell you, how did you become a different person after you came out of his house." Li Shiyu asked while buttoning her corset while looking at Peng Ligang, who was lying on the bed with a lost expression.

Peng Ligang didn't say anything, quickly sat up on the bed, hugged Li Shiyu from behind, put his head on her shoulder and said nothing. Li Shiyu was holding the clean panties in her hand and was about to change them, but she felt two lines of warm liquid sliding over her back on her shoulders. Peng Ligang is crying, this is Li Shiyu's first reaction, since the two got married, Peng Ligang has been smiling and frolicking every day, and he has never seen him cry, but this time Peng Ligang is really crying, which makes Li Shiyu somewhat overwhelmed. didn't care about putting on underwear, turned his head and kissed Peng Ligang passionately.

The two separated when they couldn't breathe, Peng Ligang closed his eyes tightly and didn't speak, and lay back on the bed, but there were no more small tears in his eyes. Li Shiyu slowly got dressed, guessing that Village Chief Li must have said something important to Peng Ligang, and Peng Li would become like this just now. Peng Ligang, who had never spoken, suddenly told the story that Village Chief Li told him, and he didn't care whether Li Shiyu wanted to listen to it or not.

After the long story was told, Peng Ligang lit a cigarette to relieve his uneasy mood. I thought that Li Shiyu would also cry together, but who knew that Li Shiyu laughed and rolled over the bed, and the trembling appearance of the flowers and branches made Peng Ligang very depressed. Li Shiyu turned over and rode on Peng Ligang, and scolded arrogantly: "You fool, Village Chief Li must have lied to you." A small village like this is so far away from the county seat, and it is deep in the mountains, can Japanese soldiers come here, you don't use your brain to think about it, you are still a financial person, you really studied in college for four years in vain. ”

Peng Ligang thought about it, and he was right. On this day, Mucun wanted nothing, and there was no reason why the Japanese soldiers would come here for no reason. Peng Ligang felt that it was not interesting for Village Chief Li to lie to himself, and this story must not have been made up temporarily, otherwise it would not have been possible to tell it so truthfully. So there is the truth of this story, but now that the people in the village are killed for no reason, it must not be the work of some ghost, someone must have used this legend to kill people.

Outside the house, the rain still doesn't stop, and summer always starts much earlier in the south than in the north, and it's also extremely hot. The brick house itself was not very well ventilated, with walls on all sides, and the only two vents, doors and windows, did not make the room cooler. Peng Ligang smoked a cigarette, thinking back to the scene when each deceased person was killed, as well as their posture and surroundings when they died.

"This must be a planned murder carried out by someone in the name of legend, and for what reason did the murderer want to kill them? Could it be that the murderer has a great grudge against Village Chief Li, so much so that he wants to kill two people in his family in a row. Peng Ligang said to himself while smoking a cigarette.

"Instead of thinking about it, you should think about why the murderer killed the three of them. It is said that Zhang Xiangui should have no connection with Village Chief Li's son and Village Chief Li's mother, why the murderer killed an old lady in her eighties, it is really puzzling. Li Shiyu shook her head, pretending not to understand, looking like a rattle.

"You're right, if you think about it from the matter of moving the village, Zhang Xiangui will definitely support the relocation of the village, because he can get benefits from your company. However, Li Keming was very resistant to the relocation of the village, and it seemed that he often had disputes with Village Chief Li over the relocation of the village. Village Chief Li's mother rarely shows up, and she has no say in the matter of moving the village, why did the murderer kill an old man in his eighties? Peng Ligang couldn't figure out the murderer's motive for killing, so he lay on the bed and tossed and turned.

Li Yushi sat on the bed and shook for a while, feeling a little tired, and then lay on Peng Ligang's chest, looking sideways at the mahogany beam above his head, he suddenly felt a little scared, and couldn't help but squeeze into Peng Ligang's arms. whispered, "Do you think it has something to do with the woman who hanged herself in this room?" Maybe it was her ghost who came out to kill people, maybe the people in the village had offended her before, so they weren't sure they would be released after death. “

"What kidding, there are no ghosts in this world at all. If you want to say that there are ghosts, they only exist in people's hearts, and the murderers who secretly harbor ghosts must want to kill these people for something. If it's the murderer, there will definitely be some flaws, as long as you think about it, you can understand it, as long as you think about it, you will definitely be able to figure it out. Peng Ligang kept repeating the last sentence, his voice getting quieter and quieter, as if he was seriously thinking about something.

The two fell asleep in a daze, Peng Ligang had that dream again, and this time he clearly saw a woman hanging from the beam, and the woman was naked, just when Peng Ligang wanted to see the woman's appearance, he woke up.

There seemed to be someone knocking on the door outside the door, Peng Ligang pushed Li Shiyu next to him, Li Shiyu hummed, turned over and continued to sleep, Peng Ligang had no choice but to put on his shoes and get up to open the door. When I opened the door, I realized that it was completely dark. Standing in the doorway was a relatively young woman, about twenty-seven or eighteen years old, holding a plate in her hand, covered with a transparent plastic sheet, and containing rice and vegetables underneath.

The woman held an umbrella in her left hand and a meal in her right hand, and although she had no expression, she looked pleasant. Peng Ligang hurriedly got out of the way and invited her in, then walked to the side of the bed and pulled the switch on the light. Peng Ligang asked softly: "Why didn't Sister Hong come, wasn't the food always delivered by her, is there something wrong at home?" ”

The woman put down the plate and replied as she brought the food to the table, "No, Sister Hong just said that she was a little unwell, so she asked me to send it over." When Mama Du came to ask me to go to her house just now, I saw Sister Hong lying on the bed, as if her body was really not very comfortable. “

"That's it, then I'm sorry for you, I'll go with my wife to visit Sister Hong after dinner, can you please take me to her house, we haven't been to her house since we came to the village. Since he is the one who takes care of our daily life, we should still visit her. Peng Ligang said.

The woman put down her meal, held the wooden plate to her chest, and nodded gently. At this time, Peng Ligang had clearly seen her face, the woman was very delicate, and her complexion was fair and shiny. Such a feminine woman is extremely rare to see in the north. Peng Ligang thought of a word at this time, "goodness is like water", this word is really appropriate to describe her. If there is anything that is not satisfied, it is only her figure, not very tall, Peng Li just estimated that she was about 1.6 meters away, and her lower body had begun to gain some weight, obviously she had given birth.

"Who is it, have you eaten?" Li Shiyu yawned, rubbed her sleepy eyes and got up from the bed.

"It's to bring us food, Sister Hong is sick, let's go to her house after we finish eating, let's get up and eat." Peng Ligang turned his head and said to Li Shiyu, who was sitting on the bed.

Li Shiyu put on her shoes and walked over, and the woman with the plate turned around and was about to leave, Peng Ligang suddenly stopped her and asked, "What do you call you?" ”

"Call me Fang Lin, my family lives next door to Sister Hong's house, I will come over to collect the bowl after you finish eating in a while, and then I will take you to Sister Hong's house, you can eat slowly." The woman named Fang Lin nodded slightly and said.

Peng Ligang also nodded at her, and Fang Lin turned around and left Peng Ligang's house. Peng Ligang also sat down at the table and began to eat, Li Shiyu was also very hungry, picked up the bowl and ate it in a big gulp, completely ignoring the usual image of a lady. After eating half a bowl of rice, Li Shiyu found that Peng Ligang's mind was not on eating, as if he was thinking about something, and he never swallowed a mouthful of rice in his mouth.

"Hey, aren't you still thinking about that beautiful woman just now, you haven't seen enough just now, right?" Li Shiyu elbowed Peng Ligang's abdomen.

"Oh, no, I was thinking that the woman named Fang Lin just now shouldn't be from the village, didn't you notice that she seemed to be wearing light clothes just now? It is said that the women in the village probably don't know how to put on makeup, and few of them know how to put on makeup. Peng Ligang hurriedly swallowed the food in his mouth and said.

"When you say that, I think of it, the women in this village we have seen don't seem to wear makeup, even if some people can wear makeup, few people should understand foreign light makeup like this." Li Shiyu also seemed to notice the light makeup on Fang Lin's face, pursed her lips and said suspiciously.

"Maybe the man in the village married him from outside, forget it, don't care about this, let's go to Sister Hong's house after eating first." Peng Ligang said.

After the two finished eating, about half an hour later, Fang Lin came over with a plate and two umbrellas in her hands. Fang Lin handed the umbrella to Peng Ligang and Li Shiyu, put away the dishes and chopsticks on the table, and left the house with the two.

After walking more than ten meters to the front of several connected houses, Fang Lin pointed to the house where the lights were on in the West Winging, indicating that it was Sister Hong's house, and then said to Peng Ligang and them, and went home. The husband and wife walked into Sister Hong's house with an umbrella, and the door of the lobby was open, but the lights were not turned on. The two put their umbrellas in the lobby and walked into the Westinghouse, which was lit up.

The furnishings of Sister Hong's house are the same as those in Village Chief Li's house, no matter which room you enter, there is a threshold of about 20 centimeters high. Because this kind of door is embedded in the wall, it is not very high, and Peng Ligang had to bend down and walk in. When Peng Li just lowered his head, he suddenly found that the threshold had been wet with water, and there was still some wet mud on the wooden threshold, which seemed to have just come in from outside.

"Sister Hong, we came to see you, are you feeling better?" Li Shiyu stepped into the threshold and shouted loudly into the room.

Hearing the "creak" of the wooden bed, Sister Hong hurriedly responded: "Ah, it's your two in-laws, come in and sit, come in and sit." ”

Peng Ligang also walked in and looked around the room. The house is almost no different from Village Chief Li's house, the newspapers plastered on the old yellow walls, the most eye-catching are probably those big posters, which are the big posters of Jacky Cheung and Aaron Kwok more than ten years ago, but they look very old. The ground is still uneven and muddy, and the large and small "wraps" on the ground are like tumors.

Sister Hong walked out from behind the white gauze tent, wearing the kind of clothes with diagonal buttons in the Republic of China, and walked out while tying the buttons. The hair didn't seem to be completely dry, and the loose hair was still tangled.

"Why are you still stunned, please sit down, I'll pour you tea." Sister Hong, Zhang Luo Pengli, just sat down with them, turned around and walked towards the back room.

Peng Ligang took a closer look at the inside of the room, but it looked the same as just now, and there was nothing unusual. It's just that this room is relatively large, and the whole room is divided into two sections by a large yellow wood cabinet, and then it is blocked by a white gauze tent, and the situation behind it is not visible. And the green mud under his feet, just after he couldn't see anything, the water trail on the threshold seemed to stop there.

Peng Ligang wandered around the room boredly, and when he walked to the front of the large cabinet, he found a small rusty iron cylinder on a small square table, which contained some medicines. Peng Ligang picked up a few casually and looked at them, most of them were cold medicines, but there was no box, only the inner packaging. Peng Ligang flipped over again, Li Shiyu suddenly came over, hit the back of Peng Ligang's hand hard, and told him not to move, but accidentally knocked over the rust cylinder containing the medicine, and most of the medicine contained in it turned upside down.

Li Shiyu scolded Peng Ligang and hurriedly put back all the medicines scattered on the table. Suddenly found that there were several special medicines among them, Li Shiyu picked them up and looked at them, and said suspiciously: "Isn't this a contraceptive medicine, how could Sister Hong put it here casually?" “

"I've kept you waiting, so let's have a bowl of hot tea." Sister Hong's voice came from the back room, and Li Shiyu hurriedly put the medicine in her hand back into the tube.

The two quickly sat back in their chairs, pretending that nothing had happened. Sister Hong came over with tea, moved a small square table next to her, and put the tea on the table. Then Sister Hong walked into the back of the gauze tent again, took out a brass key, opened the big cabinet, took out a few plates of melon seeds and other foods from the cabinet, and brought them to the square table together.

"Come, eat some fruit." Sister Hong said.

Peng Ligang and Li Shiyu were both stunned and didn't understand this sentence. Sister Hong suddenly realized that the two of them might not understand, so she added another sentence and said, "Fruit is the meaning of snacks, snacks and the like." Why did you come to my house all of a sudden? ”

Peng Ligang and Li Shiyu suddenly realized, Peng Ligang picked up a piece of sweet potato chips and put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times, and it tasted good. Suddenly, he thought of something again, and said, "We heard from Fang Lin that Sister Hong is not feeling well, so let's come over and see that you are better now." I don't know when the rain here will stop, it's been raining for three days in a row, which is really annoying. “

"It's really bothering you, it's a lot now, it's actually nothing, there will always be some every month, and I ask you to make a special trip at night. In fact, the climate here is like this, because it is in the middle of the valley, the heat coming in from the entrance of the village cannot be dispersed around, and the heat continues to rise into the air, forming clouds and rain, so the rain will not stop, and it will be good if the heat disperses in two days. Sister Hong shook her chair back and forth and said softly.

"Sister Hong, how do you know so much professional knowledge of geography? By the way, what were you doing when Li Keming died at noon today? Peng Ligang was very curious, why did Sister Hong know so much about climatology.

"Hehe, I saw it all from children's books. Midday? I'm cooking at home at noon, what else can I do. Sister Hong's answer was very casual.

"And what about around eight o'clock last night? Sister Hong, I don't mean anything else, mainly because now there are three people in the village in a row, so I want to ask what everyone was doing at that time. Peng Ligang said that he had no malicious intentions, but just wanted to find out.

"I know that now that three people have died in the village in a row, everyone will be a little scared. If you say that ghosts kill people, everyone doesn't believe it, so there will still be some speculation about others. Highly educated people like you are naturally less likely to believe in any ghosts killing people. Sister Hong nodded and said. Signaled that he understood what Peng Ligang meant.

"So what were you doing last night, can you tell us?" Peng Ligang asked again.

"After cleaning up last night, I took a bath in the back room, and it didn't take long to hear someone in the village shouting who was dead, so I hurriedly put on my clothes and ran to see it, and then followed Zhang Xiangui's house." Sister Hong replied.

Peng Ligang recalled carefully, and it seemed that he didn't see Sister Hong at Zhang Xiangui's house last night. said: "The two of us also went to Zhang Xiangui's house last night, but we didn't seem to see you, Sister Hong." ”

"I came later, following the crowd, maybe you didn't see me, and I came back early, just went to see it and came back. After all, it's a woman, and you'll always be scared when you look at the corpse, not to mention that there is no man by your side, unlike your wife who has your protection. A trace of sadness flashed on Sister Hong's face, as if she was lamenting that her husband was not around to protect her.

"Sister Hong, what about your husband, I don't seem to have heard you mention your husband's affairs." Peng Ligang suddenly remembered that he had never seen Sister Hong's husband since he came in, so he glanced around and asked.

"My husband passed away last month, and he was crushed to death by a boulder rolling down the hill behind." Sister Hong replied a little sadly.

"I'm sorry Sister Hong, I didn't know your husband was ....... You're still very young, why don't you look for one again, it's better to go out and face than to stay in this small village. Peng Ligang didn't know why he would say such a sentence.

Li Shiyu also felt that it was very inappropriate to say such things at this time, and pinched Peng Ligang's back hard, and Peng Ligang also realized that he had said the wrong thing. He hurriedly said: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I said the wrong thing, please forgive me." ”

"It's nothing, the person is dead, not to mention that I am only thirty years old now, and it is not easy to support this family on my own, and it is not impossible to find another one. It's just that now that my husband has just died, it's not suitable to find another one right away, and besides, my mother's figure is not very good, so I don't feel at ease to let him stay here alone. Sister Hong waved her hand, indicating that it was nothing.