Chapter 17: The Past
I was a little incredulous, I looked at the photo several times, and carefully checked the address in the text message, and finally confirmed that the photo was not someone else, it was my godmother.
Speaking of godmothers, we have to start with a strange illness when I was a child. When I was seven years old, when I was playing with my friends in Murakami, I didn't know how to go crazy, and I ate desperately with mud, and my stomach became a small drum.
My parents were terrified and took me to the county hospital with my hands tied, but whether it was vomiting or catharsis, the mud seemed to have taken root in my stomach, and I didn't see it at all.
The doctor had no choice but to recommend surgery, but the family couldn't afford the surgery, and my parents didn't dare to agree.
If people don't eat and eat a belly full of mud, where can they live? I lost weight at a rate visible to the naked eye, and soon I was so thin that I couldn't survive.
Just when my parents were ready to prepare for my future, my aunt came to visit relatives at home, knew about my situation, and said that this must be an evil spirit, and asked my parents to take me back to my grandmother's village to find a goddess for help, that is, my godmother.
No one can tell the origin of the godmother, she suddenly appeared in her grandmother's village in the spring of that year, lived in a waste brick kiln at the entrance of the village, and never interacted with the people in the village.
But I don't know from which day, there were rumors about the godmother in several nearby villages, saying that she was a very powerful goddess.
Since then, when the people in my grandmother's village encounter a major or minor incident, they will come to the door to ask for advice, and the godmother is also very effective, and her reputation is getting louder and louder, that is, my mother has not returned to her parents' house for a long time, and she doesn't know about it.
My parents took me to my godmother, who patted my stomach with her thin hand, and when she heard the sound it was no different from slapping on a piece of mud, her face changed and she asked me how much my parents were willing to pay.
Of course, my parents are willing to say anything, and the godmother set a rule for them, saying that it is okay to treat me, but this month I have to live with the godmother, and my parents can come to visit during the day, but no matter what they see, they can't stop it.
Of course, my parents agreed, so my godmother took out a shovel and asked my father to dig a deep pit in the open space in front of the brick kiln, put an old-looking coffin in it, stripped me naked, poured a bowl of runic water, put it in the coffin, and then covered the coffin board and buried it.
My parents couldn't understand it, and my godmother explained that I was caught up by a starving ghost, or a very powerful one, and the hungry ghost wanted to hurt people and was hungry, so he would desperately eat mud to fill his stomach and at the same time he could also support people to death, if my parents hadn't tied me up, my stomach would have burst by now.
The godmother put me in a coffin and buried me in the soil because she wanted to confuse the possessed starving ghost and make it think that I was dead, and that his anger would disappear, and his strength would be reduced, so that it would be possible to save me. The godmother told my parents not to worry, saying that every day during the day, the grave would be opened for me to breathe, and I would not suffocate.
The next day, my parents went to my godmother's place again, opened the coffin, and found that I was lying in it as if I was dead, but there was a puddle of smelly and dirty black mud behind my buttocks, and my stomach was much smaller.
The godmother also didn't let me clean up the filth, she said that if she wanted to deceive the starving ghost, she had to get as dirty as possible, and when she was done, she would go to the river to wash it up, and then she poured a bowl of runic water into me, and sealed the coffin again.
In the first few days, my parents could still go to visit every day, but then they were busy with farm work in the fields, and the family could not stay at my grandmother's house all the time, so my parents went home.
After a month, they went to find the godmother, and found that I was already well, and I was sleeping on the godmother's bed, but I was so thin that I couldn't recognize my appearance at all.
The disease was cured, of course, my parents were very grateful, and the godmother said that my life was too weak, easy to be targeted by ghosts, and it was difficult to feed, and she also gave me a cheap name called Goudan, and even the word "hidden" in my name was also changed by her, saying that it would not be easy to be targeted by dirty things when hidden.
Because it is a life-saving grace, my parents let me worship her as a godmother after I got better, in fact, I also want to climb up to the godmother, and then do something to let the godmother take care of it. Since then, every year during the Spring Festival, my parents will take me to my godmother-in-law.
Of course, my mother told me all these things, I have no memory at all, not even the memory of before the age of seven, my mother said that I was lucky to be able to pick up a life, and it is normal not to remember things.
But I don't like godmother, because she looks horrible, and has always been my nightmare, and her face is covered with sarcomas the size of peanuts, densely packed, similar to monsters in cartoons.
Every time I came to the door during the Chinese New Year, she would hold my hand affectionately and let me eat this and that, but when I saw her face, I was sick to my stomach, where can I still eat?
When I was a child, I told my parents more than once that I didn't want to go to my godmother's place again, and every time I got a beating, my mother scolded me, if you didn't have your godmother's protection, maybe you would have died a long time ago.
I couldn't resist being beaten by my parents, so I put all my hatred on my godmother; In addition, when I was in school, my nickname was known by my classmates, and from elementary school to high school, I was always the laughing stock of my classmates, so my hatred for my godmother became deeper and deeper.
When I went to college, I would stay at school to work during the winter and summer vacations, and I would only go back for a day or two when I went home, just because I didn't want to go to my godmother's place again for the Chinese New Year.
I've avoided my godmother for six years, and I haven't seen her again in the past six years, and my parents always mention it when they call, saying that my godmother has been asking me about my situation and asking me when I'm going to come back to see my godmother.
Seriously, I don't know what it's like in my heart, after six years, the anger of my youth has long been gone, maybe more guilt, and I don't dare to face my godmother.
I didn't expect to hide for so long, but in the end I couldn't hide, and getting the news of my godmother from a Xiangjiang feng shui master always made me feel like I was dreaming.
Godmother is very weird, this is the consensus of everyone, she is rarely close to people, and she will disappear from time to time every year for a period of time, and then suddenly appear, now that I think about it, she disappears from time to time, maybe she went to the field to solve problems for others.
It's just that since the godmother is so capable, even the masters on the other side of Xiangjiang respect her, why should she live in a small mountain village and live in a broken brick kiln to live a hard life?
Before getting on the bus, Yuan Ling and I bought a lot of gifts in the supermarket near the station, saying that the first time we couldn't come to the door empty-handed.
It's like I'm calling myself a girlfriend, to be honest, I don't understand what Yuan Ling thinks, how can she look at me like a poor dick?
But if she wants to do this, I can't stop it, and I also have a little joy in my heart - men have dreams of being chased by Bai Fumei, and those West Chambers in history are not all poor scholars who meet Bai Fumei privately?
When my parents saw me come home suddenly, they were obviously very surprised, and when they saw Yuan Ling, who looked like a star, their surprise turned into surprise, and they were so happy that they couldn't close their mouths, and greeted Yuan Ling as a daughter, and they ignored my own son.
Not to mention that my parents are excited, everyone in the village also came to see the strangeness, it has been less than an hour since I got home, and at least a dozen waves of villagers have come to the house, Yuan Ling is not shy at all, she behaves generously, and the eldest aunt in the village also praised my mother for being blessed, praised me for my ability, and brought back such a good daughter-in-law.
The excitement finally passed, and I found an opportunity and said to my parents with a serious face: "Dad, Mom, I'm going to go to my godmother's tomorrow." ”
The father's hand, who was pouring tea, shook suddenly, and the hot water spilled on the instep of his foot, he didn't care, turned his head and looked at me with an ugly face: "Haven't you been to your godmother-in-law for several years?" Why is it going again all of a sudden? ”
I didn't want my parents to worry, so I avoided it and said lightly: "I just want to be a godmother, go and see, it's nothing." ”
Father and mother glanced at each other, their eyes were complicated, the father smoked a cigarette, and after being silent for a long time, he gritted his teeth and said, "No, you can't go." ”
"Why? What the hell is going on? "My gut told me something had to go wrong.