End

Twenty-ninth of the lunar month

Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year's Eve, our annual Spring Festival in China, since entering the month of Layue, the master has nothing to do, in fact, it is equivalent to the master let me take a vacation, all year round, it is time to stop and live a few days of stable life, after the twentieth month of the month, but whenever there is a lively New Year fair near us, my father and I will always go to buy some New Year goods, part of it, for our own use, part of it, after the year, entertain relatives and friends who come to visit relatives and friends, in preparation for the material shortage after the year, we countrymen are very particular, The Lantern Festival cannot be opened for business until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which is said to be unlucky.

On the morning of the twenty-ninth day, my father and I made a paste to paste the Spring Festival couplets in and out of the courtyard wherever there is a door, looking at it called a joyful atmosphere, it is really quite a New Year's scene, there is a taste, real, I am busy with my family, I ran to the master's house with a smoke.

Master's house, Master and his son Huzi were also busy with Spring Festival couplets inside and outside the house, I ran up to help, Master kicked me, teasing me, 'You stupid bastard, why did you go earlier, only come now"

I looked at Master with a smile and said, "Didn't I just finish posting it at home?" As long as I open my mouth to call Master, Huzi will look at me and smile, and then, gently call me a second egg, he may not be adaptable, according to the previous generation, he should call me an uncle when he sees me, in our countryside this clan is quite strict hierarchy, no matter how old you are, just open your mouth to call people according to the generation, there are seventy or eighty-year-old people called how old children, little grandfathers, there are also three-year-old children called dozens of years old adults and big brothers, now it's good, he and I are at the same level, and Huzi is receiving a university education, He has an opinion on these traditions, but he does not deny them, and he finds them somewhat ridiculous, even funny, to a certain extent.

After pasting the Spring Festival couplets, Master, Master, Huzi and I, sat in front of the coffee table under the eaves, chatted a lot of things, I, Master, Shiniang is a faction, we belong to the mountain faction, it is nothing to carry a gun in the mountains all day long to beat rabbits, and there is a mouth of meat to eat, Huzi himself is a faction, is a mountain faction, the outside world is very helpless and exciting, he has received a university education, his thoughts and thinking are much broader, and he can see far, he is destined to have something to do in the future.

Huzi asked me what my ideals were, I said that my biggest ideal now is to marry a daughter-in-law and have a baby, Master and Mrs. laughed when they heard it, I thought that the knowledgeable Huzi would laugh at me, he said, very good, the most real, the greatest happiness in life is to want to live the life you want, no matter what stage of life you are in, you can't give up your pursuit and forget what you want?

When I was deeply impressed by Huzi's faith and passion in life, a cry of women and children interrupted us, my heart suddenly sank, tomorrow is the New Year, at this time to hear the cry is unlucky, I turned my face to the door to look at a disheveled and crying middle-aged woman led a man and a woman into the courtyard.

"This sister-in-law, why are you crying" I got up to greet him, and the master also stood up from the coffee table with a shocked face, and the middle-aged woman glanced at me, and knelt down in front of the master until she walked under the eaves.

"Brother Xingze, you want to save our family, my man has been working for almost a year, and he hasn't come back yet, it's the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month today, and I can't see anyone alive, I can't see a dead body, and I haven't heard from me at all."

"Children, quickly kneel down for your Uncle Xingze, please help us find your father" The two teenage children heard the voice, crying and kneeling on the ground, one holding my thigh, the other holding Master's thigh, and said in a slurred voice, 'Please, Please', I saw this and helped the two children up from the ground, I know that this is taught by her mother in advance, the reason why they do this is that they are afraid that our master and apprentice will not help them, but how can we not help, generally speaking, these people who encounter difficulties, will not easily come to disturb the master unless they have to, they are obviously forced to have no way, besides, tomorrow will be the Chinese New Year's Eve, it is the day of family reunion of thousands of families, at this time her man has not returned, how can they live with orphans and widows this year, the problem is here, it is said that these people who are working abroad have returned to their hometowns one after another after entering the moon, Du Layue has not come back on the twenty-ninth day, and he can't be contacted, which is enough to explain the problem.

"You are the daughter-in-law of Cao Laosi of Shanhou Village" People in the villages of Sancun and Wudian in our countryside basically know each other, perhaps, sometimes they can't be named when they meet, but they are all familiar faces, and they know that they are from that village by looking at their faces.

"Yes, I'm Brother Xingze, you want to help us" The woman seemed to be crying all the way, choking on the cold wind, pouring phlegm out of her throat one by one, breathing quickly and slowly, obvious shortness of breath, this is all urgent.

"Tell me, the situation, I'm just going to help you this year" As soon as the master's words came out, the woman was moved and knelt down in front of the master again, I just wanted to help her up and found that she had fainted, I, Master, Huzi hurriedly curled up her limbs, and the master pinched her human acupoint, and after a while, I heard her cry and gasped for a lot, and she woke up.

"Big brother, that's the case, my fourth child has been working outside with the construction team in the village since the beginning of the year, he brought back two money to our mother in the first half of the year, two letters, and a phone call, the second half of the year until now, there is no news of him, I thought he was waiting for the New Year's money to come back, who knows that today is twenty-nine and has not come back! My mother is afraid that something big will happen, so I came to find your eldest brother."

"Fourth daughter-in-law, did you say that the fourth child took a late car, maybe he will come back in the evening?"

"No, big brother, the people in our village who worked with him have all returned, but he hasn't come back, and they say that they haven't seen the fourth child for several months, and they don't know where the fourth child has gone."

"What do they say, you ask?"

"They said that they thought that the fourth child had found a place to make a fortune and left them to eat alone, and some said that the fourth child's bed cover was still on the construction site, and they thought that he threw down the bed cover and went home early."

"Big brother, do you calculate where the fourth child went, the bunk was left on the construction site, and no one went home, they hadn't seen him for a few months, as if the world had evaporated"

Master and I both heard something strange, to put it bluntly, people have been missing for almost half a year for no reason, the cover is left in the place where he works, he does not return home, he does not see anyone alive, he does not see the corpse, there is no news at all, there is no need to go deep, Cao Lao is forty or nine times an accident, and the hope of living is very slim, even very small, and there are two possibilities for him to have an accident, one, an accident on the construction site, and two, he encountered a tragedy on the way home to visit relatives, which is also reasoning for the time being, and he does not dare to draw conclusions.

"Fourth daughter-in-law, let's go, I'll go back to the village with you and ask those who work with the fourth child, and see what they say."

Before leaving, the master explained to the master and Huzi that they should be optimistic about the family, don't worry, if tomorrow Chinese New Year's Eve, our master and apprentice can't come back, let them and my father and mother spend together, so that it can be more lively.

Shi Niang nodded to show that she understood, but she still couldn't help crying, Shi Niang suddenly looked at me and said, 'Erdan, take care of your master', I heard a sour nose and cried, but at this moment, I felt that I had grown up by myself, I could protect Master, I turned around and promised Shi Niang, I know, it should be a cheerful atmosphere for the New Year, but it suddenly became heavy, I went home to greet my father, and then followed Master to drive to Shanhou Village.

When we arrived at Shanhou Village, Master and I were standing on the street, and the woman threw the child at me and Master and hurriedly went to find the strong men in the village, and after a while, we found a group of strong men and old men, who were either wooden or smoking, and when they saw me and Master coming, they were curious and didn't know what to say!

"Fourth, where has this gone, and he won't come back now, the old and young masters in the village are very worried about him," said an elderly man who took a puff of dry tobacco.

"Brothers, brothers, you are all going out to work with the fourth child," Master said as he greeted them and handed them cigarettes.

"Yes, yes, yes, we still sleep in the same room, we grew up together" They either refused Master's cigarettes or accepted them, but they all thought about the questions seriously, as if they were ready to answer Master's questions at any time.

"When did you find out that the fourth child was missing?"

"It's supposed to be July, yes, it's July, and it's still very hot."

"How did you find out that the fourth child is missing, have you looked for it?"

"Looking for ah, at first, we thought that the fourth child came back to visit relatives, maybe a few days to come back, who knew that at the end of the year he did not go back, later, we around the construction site also looked, did not see anyone, after a long time, we thought that he first went home and then went to work elsewhere."

"Did he leave you with any words before he left?"

"No, he's just a stuffy gourd, usually a man of few words, he knows how to work, but, then again, if he really goes somewhere else, he should also leave a sentence, take the cover away After all, they are all old and young masters of a village"

"Before the fourth child disappeared, did he have any unusual behaviors and behaviors?"

"No, the fourth man is like an animal, so he knows that he doesn't know how to be tired of working, which is why we are willing to take him with us when we go out to work."

"Hey, by the way, I remembered something," said the man who claimed to be a child with Cao Laosi.

"In the first half of the year, we had a holiday on the construction site, went out to play, the fourth met one of his junior high school classmates, the fourth classmate said that he made a fortune doing a small business in the city, and asked the fourth to follow him quickly, saying that he would make a fortune, we heard that it was called an envy, and then the fourth disappeared, and we all thought that the fourth went to his classmates."

"No, the fourth child is not that kind of person, he has been working with you for many years, he can just say and leave, not even a word, the fourth child can't do this bastard's business" The fourth daughter-in-law denied.

"That's right, the fourth is not such a person, although the fourth usually talks little, but he will tell me anything big or small," the fourth said uncertainly.

Since these reasons have been ruled out, the problem must be on the construction site, and the Master then asked, "Have you ever had any problems on the construction site, such as hurting people or something?"

"Yes," they said almost in unison.

"Say it quickly"

"In September, a project manager at our construction site organized workers to work overtime at night, fell from the thirteenth floor and died, the fall was bloody and fleshy, and his head was like a broken watermelon.

"Also, a builder took a simple elevator upstairs, the elevator rose a few floors, the cable broke, and he fell to a high paraplegia, and I heard that he is still lying in the hospital!"

After hearing this, the master fell into deep thought, he may have analyzed something from the answers they gave, but if he didn't go to the scene to find out in person, Cao Laosi's disappearance was already a mystery.

"Brothers, Xingze has a lot of begging for mercy, I'm sorry for everyone, but the fourth is now missing, and I bother you to choose one, we will drive to the construction site where you work to find the fourth, who of you is willing to lead the way"

"I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go with you" As soon as the master said this, they scrambled to be the first, and they all squeezed up to go, which is not surprising, the countrymen are very united, not to mention that their own township brothers are missing.

"I'll go, let the young people stay at home for the New Year," an old man in the crowd pulled off the dry tobacco in his hand and stood up.

"Big brother, at your age, your body can't stand the toss, you better stay at home, I think let the fourth child take us there"

"Well, it's good for the young man to be smart, let him go with you, you can bring a few more people," said the old man.

"No, just have a leader, the fourth daughter-in-law, you stay at home and take care of the children, I will do my best to help you find the fourth, you can stay at home with confidence"

Cao Laosi's daughter-in-law did not agree, she had to go with us, she said that she always had a premonition that something bad would happen, and said that Cao Laosi would not be able to come back, and she also said that even if Cao Laosi died, she would bring him back......

The fourth daughter-in-law, why do you say this unlucky thing, the fourth is good, maybe he will come back in a while, everyone persuaded and said, besides, Xingze in Shangen Village is a person with some ability, you have to believe in others, they persuaded and pulled the fourth daughter-in-law to go home.

Looking at her desperate crying, I looked at the sour feeling in my heart, to know that the induction between relatives is the most sensitive, once there is this kind of induction among the direct relatives, it can show that the missing person is more auspicious and less, why do you say that, because in our yin and yang industry, there is such a saying, after a person dies, his soul will look at all his relatives before he is willing to leave, no matter whether it is separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, none of them will fall, this is why when our relatives pass away, we will be inexplicably panicked in our hearts, Shortness of breath, always feeling that something bad is going to happen, this is when the deceased loved one comes back to see us, or touches us and says goodbye to us.

Of course, Cao Laosi's daughter-in-law is completely out of fear and fear, and it is still difficult to determine whether Cao Laosi is dead or alive through her behavior.