At midnight, a terrible dog bark broke the silence of the night sky. The crisp barking of the dog tightened one by one, and without warning it woke up the sound sleep in the alley.

At first, it was a dog that barked incessantly, and then the dogs in the village followed suit. The big black dog in the kennel, hearing the mixed noise, also bent its ears, and came out of the kennel without knowing what happened, shook the long hair on its body, put its two front feet on the windowsill, and followed in a loud and low voice.

Xiaohong's mother heard the barking of the dog, she suddenly woke up from the dream, thinking that someone had lost something and caught a thief in the alley, out of curiosity, she squinted her eyes, tilted her ears and listened carefully, but she didn't hear anything except the sound of the dog barking.

A dense black cloud, gathered on all sides, swirled low in the night sky, like an ominous omen, enveloping the alley in an instant. Xiaohong's mother put her head close to the pillow in a daze, she just wanted to sleep again, suddenly felt her scalp explode, her back was cold, her heart was a little hairy, and she suddenly became energetic again. It was dark inside the room, and she felt figures shaking everywhere, and suddenly became frightened for some reason.

She covered her mouth and quietly touched Sun Guodong, who was sleeping, with her hand in a panic: "Dad, wake up quickly!" Wake up! Why is our big black dog barking so badly? ”

"What's so strange about the dogs in the tun not barking that night. I have to go out to buy groceries tomorrow, you don't sleep well, you get nervous for no reason, what do you want to do? You don't want to sleep well, you don't want people to sleep, you really have nothing to do. They call them, what do you do with them? If you want to listen to you, don't bother me anymore! Sun Guodong closed his eyes, turned over slowly, turned his face to the other side, and fell asleep again with snoring.

"You know sleep! It's all in vain to tell you. If you don't believe it, you get up and listen, I think this dog barks very strangely, as if there is something bad in the alley! The dog barks in the middle of the night, either to catch the thief, or to share the spoils! Don't pull it down! ”

"I think this spiritual head is not enough for you, who has something to do in the alley, what does it have to do with you, you are like a Mu Guiying all day long, you can't fall for a while, you are so old, you are nervous every day, and you don't let people save a little worry!" Xiaohong's mother saw that Sun Guodong was really angry, and she stopped nagging. She listened for a long time with her eyes closed, and she could hear the eyelids and lower eyelids fighting, so she simply fell asleep.

At dawn, the barking of the dogs gradually stopped. Xiaohong's mother got up to cook, she came to the chicken coop, bent down to open the fence gate, and was just about to turn around to leave, when she faintly heard intermittent cries coming from the northeast corner of the alley. It was a woman's cry, whimpering, very sad. The nightmarish voice didn't feel like something had been lost, nor like it had been reprimanded and wronged. The voice was not loud, and it came eeriely from the mouth of the alley, and at first glance, she was cold, her hairs stood on end, and she suddenly had goosebumps.

"What the hell is going on in the alley?" Xiaohong's mother felt strange, either a dog barked or someone cried all night, she wanted to find out, she stepped out of the house, and walked quickly to the courtyard gate.

But as soon as she walked to the door, she saw Zhiman's mother squeezing her eyebrows and blinking towards her, and when she walked in front of Xiaohong's mother, she mysteriously came over and said to Xiaohong's mother's ear: "Xiaohong's mother, it's not good, Da Yan's father died of medicine in the middle of the night last night!"

"How is this possible, yesterday afternoon I saw him at the market with Kan Dashan, a donkey meat vendor, and he made everyone laugh so much that he was about to burst into laughter. Da Yan's father is usually competitive and has never been subservient to others. A person with such a cheerful personality, what is there he can't think about, but he has a good life, why is he still short-sighted? Although Xiaohong's mother had a half-red face with Da Yan's mother, she was taken aback when she heard Zhiman's mother say it.

She pushed open the two iron doors, walked quickly to the outside of the courtyard, stood on tiptoe, and looked at the door of the big rock house, and sure enough, she saw a bundle of waxy yellow shredded paper, hanging out of the wall. Xiaohong's mother gasped, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Last night, Da Yan's father pushed pai gow with someone in Houtun, and as a result, he lost all his girl's bride price. After coming back at night, he was scolded by his wife again, and felt that he had no face to see people, so he slammed the door and left. At that time, his wife was angry, and she didn't care about him, and when it was dawn, her wife got up to cook and went to the barn to scoop rice. As soon as he entered the door, he suddenly found that he had drunk a bottle of strong pesticides, and even cried and howled to call for help, but he was already dead. You say, this lively person said that he would die, but it's a pity that he didn't say how old he was, and if he threw away this mother, how would he live in the future? Zhiman's mother babbled and said, her face full of sadness.

"No, it's not good to earn it again if you lose all your money! A well-known old man, really has no ambition, why is his heart so small, full of carpenter's skills, the family has no money to spend, with a chisel axe and saw, go out to earn money, and drink medicine to die, what kind of ability is death? Leaving orphans and widows, how many people are pitted? Xiaohong's mother stared at the courtyard door of Dayan's house and said angrily.

The crying in the alley is getting louder and louder, there are Da Yan's mother, Da Yan's, and Da Yan's three sisters, mixed with the chatter of the three aunts and six mothers-in-law, which is very miserable. Their howls one after another attracted countless pairs of curious eyes to mourn. Xiaohong's mother and Zhiman's mother were also caught in the crowd and walked towards the gate of his house.

The door of Oiwa's house was open, and his father's corpse, head in, feet out, resting straight on the table in the center. He was covered with a white sheet. There is a lantern lit in front of his head, and a soul leader chicken squatting at his feet, and the whole person seems to be asleep, no matter how the people next to him cry, they will not wake up. The outsiders all pulled their necks and watched quietly, seeing that people were sad.

Xiaohong's mother relented, she wanted to step into the courtyard to comfort and comfort Da Yan's mother. As soon as she thought of the festival between the two of them, she stopped again. She didn't want Da Yan's mother to misunderstand herself, so she hurriedly squeezed out of the crowd, returned home and said to Xiaohong: "Xiaohong, I'll go out with your dad to buy vegetables in a while, I'll leave you a hundred yuan, and after breakfast, I'll send it to Da Yan's mother." Remember, give her the money and come back immediately, don't stay at his house for long, do you hear? Xiaohong's mother told her again and again, for fear that something would go wrong.

"I'm not going!"

"Killing people is not enough, there is no hurdle that cannot be overcome, people are gone, don't worry about the past! Go ahead, don't look at the big rock, aren't there still a few children? When her mother said this, as if to comfort herself and persuade others, Xiaohong stopped talking. After breakfast, she went to Dayan's house......

Da Yan's death cast a lingering shadow on the entire alley. After there is a conflict between neighbors, they don't care about each other anymore!