"Holy!" I kicked my bag to the ground and turned on the light.

The leather bag lay on the ground and scolded her mother, but the old woman was not surprised, and grinned with a mouth full of gums, "Little rabbit, be quiet." ”

"Milk, grandma. Are you a human being, a ghost? "I thought to myself, there can be someone at this point in time.

The leather bag also got up "eh", and when she saw an old woman sitting on the kang, she instantly stopped talking. "Ahh Hell yes! ”

The old lady smiled again, her face full of wrinkles and squinted her eyes, "Don't shout, don't shout." Don't let the two of them hear it again. Then, as if remembering something, he took out a hundred dollars from his pocket, "Look, I'm human." ”

I looked at the old lady, and then at the money she had in her hand, and thought that there was no need for this thing over there, "You, you are really human." ”

"Hehe, I can't lie to you, stinky boy." The old lady casually put the money on the kang table, "I thank you for my son." ”

"Your son?"

The old lady said to Nunu in the direction of the East House, "The one who sleeps in the East House is." ”

"You mean the village chief is your son?" Hearing him say that, my attitude improved.

"Well, the youngest one." The old lady nodded.

"No, you said you were his mother, but we've been at his house for a long time, why haven't we seen you?" Leather bag asked.

"I'm in the middle of the east room, where I live."

I looked at each other noncommittally, the old lady said that the village chief was his son, and the village chief did give a hundred yuan privately, which no one knew except us, which made sense; But since he is so filial, why didn't he see the old lady on the table for dinner, and he didn't introduce the old lady when the guests came to the house.

We really didn't pay attention to the inconspicuous little house, when we were introduced by the village to meet his daughter-in-law, he was busy peeling onions and garlic, cooking on the fire, and no one paid attention to this small side room that we thought was a sundries.

The old lady saw our doubts, coughed dryly and said, "Old woman, I am eighty-nine years old this year, and the head of this village is my youngest son. I have lived in this valley all my life, and my sons and daughters have come ahead of me one by one. The old man sighed, "Who would have thought that my old bones would be so forbidden to toss, and in the end, there would only be an old son left." But since I entered this house, I found that my daughter-in-law did not welcome me, gave me less food and clothing, and I also knew that I was a dying person, so why bother to give them that trouble. So I told my son, just clean up the east room and let me live, I don't need to be served by you for food and clothing, and don't add my dishes and chopsticks for cooking. So I lay down in the east room every day, right next to the kitchen, and when I was hungry, I ate leftovers, and when I was thirsty, I got up and drank cold water. ”

I've heard Bao Er say that Bao Bao grew up in a family that lacked father's love. As soon as he heard the old lady say this tonight, he was furious, "Grandma, do you want us to fight each other?" Don't worry, although I was a little injured, I can still deal with those two unfilial sons. ”

The old lady was busy smiling and waving her hand, "Good grandson, dissipate your anger, dissipate your anger." Then he pulled the leather bag and sat on the bed, "I'm my age, I'm already angry, and these little things are not worth worrying about." ”

I lit a cigarette, pursed my lips and said, "Then what are you looking for us in the middle of the night?" ”

The old woman seemed a little excited, her cheeks were as thin as cicada wings under the light, "It is said that there should be no regrets or regrets in old age, but today's arrival has reminded me of my memories." I really can't sleep at night, old woman, and I have something to ask you. ”

"Old man, you say."

The old lady then puffed up her lips for a long time, "Have you really been up that mountain?" ”

I was stunned when I heard this, it turned out that the old lady didn't sleep in the middle of the night to ask about it.

"I haven't seen my father for as long as I can remember, I was raised by my mother." The old lady was teary-eyed, "I heard my mother say that I still have an older brother who has just become an adult, but unfortunately I don't remember it anymore." Originally, our village was not here, but only built on the mountain, not far from the base of the mountain. At that time, the residents of the village did not have much financial resources, and the residents here mainly lived by hunting, and my mother told me that once my father and brother went out hunting, they never returned. The old lady was a little emotional, and at this point in the story she choked up and could no longer speak.

"Hey—the Si people are dead, rest in peace for the deceased." I wondered if the old lady couldn't sleep at night, maybe she wanted someone to talk to.

The old lady shook her rickety head, "No, no. Ever since my father disappeared, strange things have happened one after another. ”

"Strange thing, what's weird?"

"At that time, I was still in my arms, and my mother asked the neighbors to look for it. Unexpectedly, all the villagers who went up the mountain disappeared and never came back. ”

"All missing?!" Leather bag and I were in unison.

"Well, all missing. Until the end, there was not a single young man left in the village. "The old lady said it very plainly, but I felt creepy.

"Didn't you report to the police?" I asked.

The old man sighed, "Where is there an official to report, warlords from all over the country are fighting, fighting back and forth, and the official has already run away." ”

Although I am not highly educated, I still heard the old man talk about some modern Chinese history. At that time, the world was in turmoil, and the warlords were busy grabbing land and being the emperor of the soil, who had the leisure to care about the life and death of others. I nodded, saying yes.

"Could it be that it was eaten by a mountain beast?" Leather bag asked.

"Impossible, although this mountain is dangerous, it is also a poisonous snake and a mountain tiger. Even if you eat people, you can't find a trace of it, and you can't go missing one after another. ”

On the contrary, when the ancestors chose a place to live, the first consideration was safety. If this place was particularly dangerous, I don't think the people of that time would have chosen to settle here.

"Then since there is no problem in the mountains, and there are no ferocious beasts, why did the men of the village disappear for no reason?"

The old lady rubbed her eyes, "At that time, there was an old scholar in the village, and he was very old. He said that it was the mountain god who was powerful, and that someone in the village had beaten prey that should not be beaten, and that was the youngest son of the mountain god, so he took the young and strong men of the whole village as hostages. So the old pedant sent people to the village to go from house to house, but in the end they found no strange creatures. It is nothing more than some roe deer, a common species in the mountains. ”

As an aspiring young man born under the red flag and growing up in the spring breeze, I naturally don't believe his nonsense, but what I have encountered in the past few days has really made me vague.

Before I could speak, Leather Bag replied first, "What happened then?" Is it true that the mountain god took the villagers away? ”

The old lady sighed, "I don't know, I listened to my mother a lot of things when I was young. ”

"Alright, the old lady's day is by the way. This was all years ago, don't take it too seriously. I comforted.

"But since the disappearance of the strong laborers of the village," the old lady did not seem to hear what I said, "there have been many snakes in the village. People wake up early in the morning to find a lot of patches on the stove, next to the water tank, and on the quilt. ”

I shook my legs in disgust, and the old woman continued, "The hunters in the village say that this is a poisonous snake that has run down from the hill ahead. The poisonous snakes ate our chickens and ducks, bit our livestock, and bit several people. So we began to move the whole village under the leadership of the old pedant, and my mother and I were mixed in with the crowd of people who were fleeing. Since many families were left without men, the women could not go far, and they thought about their missing men in the hope that one day they would return, so they moved to live in the village of Jigong, not far from the mountain. ”

"Jigong Village, it turns out that the place where we live is called Jigong Village. What a name! I took another cigarette.

The old lady then smiled, "I don't know, anyway, it's not far from here is Jigong Mountain, and this Feilai Peak is actually a small peak belonging to Jigong Mountain." Strange to say, the old scholar fled with the villagers, and a large number of poisonous snakes chased after the buttocks, and when they arrived near Jigong Village, the poisonous snakes suddenly stopped chasing, turned around and began to run back again. ”

I was amazed, "Maybe they're not interested in human flesh anymore?" ”

The old woman shook her head, "I don't know, I just remember that it rained so hard that day, and there was thunder in the pouring rain." As soon as the vipers heard the thunder, they looked up the hill behind them and ran back. ”

"Rain? Grandma, how is it better than yesterday? Leather Bag chimed in.

"Yes, yes, it's like the rain last night, it's very heavy. Ever since we moved to this place, it has been raining so heavily every once in a while that the village elders say that it was the mountain god cursing and spitting on us. ”

Leather bag and I glanced at each other, noncommittal. The heart said that this mountain god is really big enough, and he scolded you for a hundred years.

The old lady sighed, then returned to the original question, "Young man, I ask you. Have you really been up that mountain, and have you seen anything up there? ”

I was about to answer, when suddenly the door of the house was slammed open, "What are you two yelling about here without sleeping in the middle of the night!" ”

Before the person arrived, the sound arrived first, it was the white turban uncle, I had the heart to reply, your mother didn't sleep in the middle of the night to tell us ghost stories to play, this blames me! But when I looked back, the old lady who was sitting at the head of the bed was gone.