Chapter 26 is revealed

The story tends to be complete and nearing the end.

We've taken a look at the lesser-known stuff from start to finish.

A few decades ago, a group of naked peasants carried a load of turnips into the city at night, and they stripped naked for two reasons:

First, because of the heat.

Second, because of the provincial cloth.

Those old people who still have some memories of distant things, if they have not completely forgotten the miserable life of the past, can appreciate the full meaning of the word "provincial cloth".

The bare-bottomed men saw a strange sight in the night: two men in black swayed along the long street, both wearing fat black robes, high felt hats, and a few pieces of yellow paper with calligraphy on their foreheads, hanging down their faces. There was a strange-looking old man in front of him, carrying a bamboo basket and shaking a black bell, and he was leading the two people behind him forward, while throwing paper money.

"What are they doing?" A bare-bottomed young man asks an older man.

The old man looked frightened and said, "Scream at the dead." ”

The young man continued, "What do you mean?" ”

The old man replied, "It is to drive the corpse, the two in black clothes in the back are dead people, and the one walking in front is the corpse chaser." ”

A person accosted: "Brother Thumb, aren't you quite bold, do you dare to snatch the hat worn by the corpse?" ”

The young man said, "What is there to dare to do, you wait." ”

This young man is Big Thumb.

Big Thumb quickly caught up with the three people. He crept up from behind, and the corpse catcher spotted him alertly, and immediately shook the brass bell, and the two corpses stood motionless by the wall.

The corpse chaser said softly: "Hurry in the middle of the night, and the living avoid it." ”

Thumb found that there were indeed two dead men leaning against the wall, with sallow faces, closed eyes, and yellow paper with drawings on their foreheads. Brother Thumb uncovered the talisman, and the dead man suddenly came to life, and a powerful fist stretched out from under the robe, hitting Brother Thumb right on the lower abdomen.

Big Thumb bent down in pain, and it took a while for him to stand up and find that they were gone.

Brother Thumb pondered for a long time, and felt that it was very strange, a dead man would never walk, let alone hit someone with his fists.

He followed the paper money on the ground all the way, and never returned.

After death, people pay attention to the fallen leaves and return to their roots, and they must be buried in their hometown. The last wish of a foreigner who died in a foreign place must be to bury his ancestors, and his filial sons and grandsons must be moved back to their hometowns, but people are very taboo about corpses, so there are no boats or carriages willing to transport corpses. Coupled with the fact that transportation is not developed, the roads are rugged, and the mountains and rivers are often required, which gives rise to the unique and mysterious profession of chasing corpses.

Chasing out corpses is actually carrying corpses. The corpse chaser led the way in front, and the apprentice followed behind with the corpse on his back, walking day and night, walking like a ghost on a deserted road or a secluded alley, shaking copper bells, and throwing paper money is actually a trick, creating a gloomy atmosphere, so that people dare not approach it.

The corpse chaser must meet three conditions: short, ugly, and bold.

At dawn, Big Thumb found them in an inn. The corpse chaser confessed the secret to Brother Thumb, he claimed that his surname was Meng, a native of Xiangxi, and he accepted two dwarfs as apprentices, and these two dwarfs were Ding Busan and Ding Busi. Brother Thumb said that he would not say anything, and he would not embarrass them.

Big Thumb became the third apprentice of the corpse chaser.

Big Brother has parents, but he is an orphan. His father drank heavily all day long, his mother remarried to another country, and his home was not home, at that time he was just a grass in the field, no one cared about him, and his whole life was over as soon as his childhood passed, just as everything was dark when it was dark. He could have been like the neighbor's child, from the age of 14 to help the family paste matchboxes, a day to paste thousands of matchboxes, a paste is several years, and then marry a wife and have children, with a lifetime of hard work to build a house for the child, he is old, the child grows up, the child repeats this spring, summer, autumn and winter endless ordinary life.

He chose to run away from home and embark on another unknown path.

The corpse chaser had a daughter who weighed 240 pounds, she was Meng Ni, and her weight later increased to 350 pounds. The corpse chaser wanted to recruit Brother Thumb to be a son-in-law, but Brother Thumb refused. He didn't dislike her being fat, he said this: "I hate women." ”

After the death of the corpse chaser, Brother Thumb, Meng Ni, Ding Busan, Ding Busi, the four of them formed a red and white ceremonial instrumental music team, and when they met weddings and funerals, they blew suona and beat gongs and drums. In the countryside, there is a group of such people when they get married or mourn. Because of the peculiar appearance of these four people—two dwarfs, a woman fatter than a pig, and an ugly bastard—they were so popular that as soon as they appeared, they attracted people's attention, so much so that the dutiful son who came out of the funeral forgot to cry, and the newlyweds forgot to laugh.

This instrumental ensemble was also the predecessor of the circus.

After a while, the instrumental music team accepted a new member, his name is Han Baosan, nicknamed "Sanwen Qian", can juggle, can play the flute to make a cobra dance, and has the experience of traveling south and north rivers and lakes to sell art. At the suggestion of the three cents, a circus appeared.

Here's what Sanwen Qian said when describing a splendid future:

"Make a lot of money, buy whatever you want, order a table of wine and food, just eat one bite, travel every day, and play all the good times can't be enough."

As we said earlier, Sam Wen Qian looked like a murderer, with small eyes almost hidden by unkempt eyebrows, always showing fierce eyes, wide back, looped legs, strong muscles, and calloused hands indicating that he had suffered a lot. Although Sanwen is very ugly, Brother Thumb thinks he is simply a beautiful man.

Big Thumb hates women, and that's because he likes men.

At that time, the free love of a man and a woman would be regarded as immoral, even if a husband and wife held hands on the street, they would be despised and ridiculed, and homosexuality was undoubtedly a greater sin at that time, an act that was reviled by thousands of people, and a big secret that could only be buried in the bottom of the heart.

If it's not a blasphemy of love, we have to say - Brother Thumb is in love with Sanwen.

He fell in love with him.

What kind of pain and struggle did they have between them?

What kind of thrilling process did you go through from temptation to rejection to acceptance?

How many dark clouds does it take for a man to create and hide the fleeting lightning in another man's heart?

They wandered the world, peonies bloomed in other places, and apples fell to the ground in other places.

In 1980, they bought a basket of rotten apples, and Thumb peeled an apple, which was not a very bad one of the baskets of rotten apples. The apple was placed on the table and kept for the pennies.

Since that apple in 1980, they have remained single until their deaths, and they have never married a wife, but they have a son. Sanwen Qian picked up a freak in the garbage can, he named the abandoned baby Han Shaojie, Ding Busan and Ding Busi called him Young Master Han, Meng Ni called him Big Head, and Sanwen Qian and Big Brother called him a son.

Young Master Han is withdrawn, introverted, and shy, this child's only hobby is to wear a raincoat, only when it rains, only when he wears a raincoat, can he cover the big tumor on his neck, and can not be watched or ridiculed like a normal person. We forgot to say one thing - on November 21, 2000, the day he expressed his love for the first and last time, before he walked into the steamed bun shop, before he met the girl who sold steamed buns, he had asked the police to put on a raincoat, but because the sun was shining at the time, it was not raining, and the police refused this seemingly ridiculous request.

There were no more than ten words he had spoken to her, but each sentence had a fragrance, which was fragrant in the years behind the bars after Young Master Han.

There is only one horse in their circus, and of course, all circuses have nothing to do with horses, horses are used to pull carts, tents, and all kinds of props. Later, the horse died, and they ate it. When this grass platform team walked to the border, two new members were added: Ma Youzhai and Shanya.

Ma Youzhai can do tricks, and Shan Ya is a monkey artist. The main reason why Thumb asked him to join was that they provided new transportation, and Shan Ya told Thumb that there were elephants in the tropical jungle in the mountains nearby, and they waited in the mountains for a week and caught a baby elephant.

The baby elephant pulls the cart, grows bigger and bigger, and eventually grows into an elephant, and eventually dies as well.

The elephants died, and they ate for a whole winter. The elephant gets smaller and smaller, and finally only a skeleton remains. They took out all their savings and bought a truck that was about to be scrapped. Yamaya worked as a driver, when his legs were still intact, and the truck sometimes got stuck in the mud, and he used a jack to fight the storm.

One winter, when they were on the bridge, the truck stalled, and the mountain corner blocked the wheels with stones, and Ma Youzhai climbed under the car to repair the problem. Because the ground was icy, the stones slid, and the truck slowly retreated downhill, and if the truck was not stopped in time, Ma Youzhai under the truck would be crushed to death, and the whole truck would fall into the trench under the bridge.

Everyone shouted, and in the midst of the danger, Shan Ya stuck his leg under the wheel of the car, the truck stopped, and Shan Ya became lame from then on.

Later, when Shanya was arrested, Ma Youzhai asked the cannon to do everything possible to rescue Shanya.

The father and son had this conversation:

Paozi said: "Uncle Yamaya is in prison, how can I save it?" Unless they call someone, they all take guns and rob the prison. ”

Ma Youzhai said: "Then rob the prison!" ”

Paozi asked, "Why do you have to save him?" ”

Ma Youzhai replied: "My life was bought by one of his legs." ”

"The chances of success are slim. ”

Ma Youzhai said: "I just want him to know." ”

Cannon asked, "What do you know?" ”

Ma Youzhai said: "Know that I am not ungrateful. ”

Yamaya heard a gunshot in prison, everything understood, and he jumped off the building, not to escape, but to commit suicide.

In the short time that he had not yet fallen to the ground in the air, the things that had disappeared reappeared. He remembered that they were lighting a bonfire in the snow outside the tent, the snow was still falling, they were drinking, Ma Youzhai was holding the neck of the mountain, and the big brother was holding the arms of Sanwen, one was a brother, the other was a lover, and the circus was their home.

Ma Youzhai: "I want to bow to you." ”

Shanya: "Not a brother now?" ”

Ma Youzhai: "We have to hold a ceremony." ”

Brother Thumb: "Let's make money, let's go to my hometown and do fruit business with the Burmese people." ”

Ma Youzhai: "We have a forest farm, all of which are red pines, you can pack a forest farm, and you can also hunt." ”

Shanya: "There was a mine in my hometown, there used to be, but now there are none, now there are only stones. ”

Big Thumb: "The income these days is not as much as before. ”

Shanya: "What if there is no income, what if no one comes to the circus?" ”

Sanwen Qian: "Big deal, I'm going to be a beggar." ”

Big Thumb: "I won't let you be a beggar, I'll let you have a lot of money." ”

Shanya: "If we disband, we won't see each other at that time." ”

Ma Youzhai: "There is no feast in the world that will not be dispersed. ”

Shanya: "At that time, it was only the little cigarette pack with me, and you didn't know what to do." ”

Now that the story is coming to an end, it is impossible not to talk about another member of the circus family - the small cigarette pack. The drug-addicted monkey spent several years at the zoo before being released into a wildlife sanctuary.

Also, we must not forget the thief, the child who stole a bunch of bananas at the zoo: Barang.

Balang's mother, Guli, grew old rapidly, causing her skin business to plummet, and sometimes not a single prostitute looked at her for a month and a half, and she eventually had to take Balang back to her hometown. They grow cotton, they grow lavender, and in order to keep the child from being naughty, Guli sends him to school. This should be a terrible ending for Balang.

When this happy little elf wanders in the lavender fields, and when he is in a daze in class, he sometimes thinks of his little dog brother, the little boy named Want Want, who should be back home!

Let's talk about Menny's ending.

For a long time, Mennie felt like the happiest woman in the world, and she was loved by two men. Both men are dwarfs and look exactly the same, when did their love arise?

What were they thinking as they walked with the corpses on their backs?

How did winter pass?

How do the flowers bloom quietly?

How does the dawn shine on the orange trees in May, and how does the rain wet the sorghum in October?

As long as there is love in the heart, all the secrets are known.

They use the voice of magpies to convey lovesickness, the flowers of spring and the fallen leaves of autumn to convey letters, and the moon and stars and even the whole universe to confide in their hearts. When the corpse chaser decided to marry Meng Ni to Brother Thumb, the two dwarfs, one wept in the south of the city and the other in the north of the city.

They give birth to each other, the elder brother gives birth to hatred, and the younger brother gives birth to love. The two of them are as passionate as fire, but they are as cold and merciless as the two poles of the world. My brother didn't talk to Meng Ni for three days, and three days was already the limit of what he could bear. On the fourth day, Ding Busan asked Meng Ni:

"Ni, are you going to get married?"

Menny replied, "I will marry you." ”

After Ding Busan left, Ding Busi ran to Meng Ni and asked:

"I know you want to be a wife to Big Thumb, right?"

Mennie replied, "I will be your wife." ”

She loves two men and she can't choose between her brother and her brother. It wasn't until later that she realized that it was her brother she really loved. She once took Ding Busi to the Civil Affairs Bureau, and she said to the person in charge of marriage registration: "I want to get married." The people from the Civil Affairs Bureau asked her, "What about your husband?" I mean, what about your fiancé? ”

Her husband is under her skirt.

This shy dwarf refused to come out, he refused to hurt his brother.

Many years later, Ding Busan died, Ding Busi was shot, and Meng Ni was already Granny Meng who killed dogs and sold meat, and Granny Meng retrieved Ding Busi's body from the execution ground.

In that village where acacia flowers are in full bloom, Granny Meng lay on a pile of straw in the neighbor's house and slept for a while, the winter noon sun shone warmly, the straw stack was on the side of the road, and many passers-by saw her fat body. She was napping as if no one was around, snoring like thunder, and people couldn't understand why she slept here, but people clearly remembered that it was the last time they saw her.

A year later, the local road was built and demolished, and people found that the door of Granny Meng's house had been nailed from the inside with wooden bars. Through the dilapidated termite-eaten windows, you can see that the plastic flowers on the tables inside the house are covered with dust and cobwebs. The demolition workers split the door open with an axe – the lonely old man was found dead, lying on the bed, reduced to a skeleton, and a skeleton lying beside her.