Even if he is an old bachelor, he hopes to find a daughter-in-law in his lifetime, and no one wants to be unlucky when he is alive, so there is only one person who is willing to wear old clothes for me, and that is my father's colleague Uncle Liu in the salvage team. Even my cousin doesn't care about me, and it's good that Uncle Liu can give me clothes to wear.

If you have to climb relatives and bring the deceased, Uncle Liu is my cousin, his name is Liu Gui, and he is my mother's cousin who doesn't know how many generations apart, in fact, in the countryside, people in a village with the same surname are barely a family, and they are called by generation. But one generation of relatives, two generations of sparse, three generations of hatred, even if the grandfathers are cousins, when it comes to the grandchildren, the relationship is very light, for a dog, a chicken, and even a pig running to the field arched cabbage, can be beaten and scolded.

Uncle Liu and his own brother were fighting for the widow back then, when he was 18, young and vigorous, he beat his brother so that he did not dare to return to the village, and won the possession of the 28-year-old widow at the time, but the woman had cervical cancer and could not have children, and died five years later. Since then, he has not been able to find a daughter-in-law, doing the work of digging up corpses, being grumpy and robbing his brother's woman, and killing the woman, these three reputations are enough for him to fight a bachelor for the rest of his life, there are few women in the village, and the socket will never be enough.

When I was six years old, all the children of the same age in the village went to school, and I naturally had no books to read, and many young people did not know that at that time, the so-called nine-year compulsory education still had to charge tuition, 258 for a semester of primary school, more than 500 for a semester of junior high school, and some tuition and miscellaneous fees, so it was naturally impossible for an orphan like me to enjoy education.

Even though the town says they can waive my tuition, I have to buy books, right? In those years, everyone in the countryside was barely fed, and the meat was reluctant to eat, and the money earned was basically handed over to the state, which can be described as a harsh tax and a tiger, what public grain profits, water conservancy fees, education surcharges, plus at least two children in each family, it would be good to be able to eat enough.

On the fifteenth day of July that year, I will never forget that although they all said not to go out on Halloween night, I was hungry, and it was not dark in the evening, so I went to the edge of the stone mill, stood on tiptoe and looked, and there was nothing in the bowl except a dead fly. I stood there in a gray shabby long-sleeved tunic and watched the adults at the end of the day, talking and laughing and telling each other to eat noodles tonight, and it was best to add a white water egg.

No one saw me swallowing, no one heard my stomach gurgling with hunger, I never wanted eggs, I never went to anyone's chicken coop to steal them, I just wanted to eat noodles, even if it was noodle soup. When I waited until the moon came out in the evening, no one brought me food, and when it was dark, they wouldn't go out.

I climbed up the stone mill, holding the broken bowl, taking advantage of the moonlight, walked back to the ancestral hall, wanted to sleep, but couldn't sleep, I got up and went back to the village, found the neighbor's vegetable field, wanted to find a cucumber to satisfy hunger, but found several vegetable fields, all gone, cucumber is a good dish, every family is very clean, this season cucumber is about to wither, even the melon baby did not see, plus the light is not good, I didn't find anything.

picked a chili pepper and stuffed it into his mouth, and immediately burst into tears, and quickly vomited. At this time I heard a rustling sound in the grass, faster and closer, my scalp was numb, and when I heard the sound it was a snake, I was so frightened that I ran out of the vegetable patch. I'm naturally afraid of mollusks, caterpillars, snakes, earthworms, and I get goosebumps all over my body when I see them.

I remembered that my uncle's family had planted winter melons, and there should always be one in this season, so I climbed over a small hill and arrived at his vegetable patch, which used to be my vegetable patch, but now nothing in this world is mine.

The winter melon is large and easy to spot, I found a small one, picked it and held it in my arms, and at this time I heard a dog barking in the house.

"Dog thing, get up, someone is stealing melons!" Aunt Tang shouted.

I ran away with the winter melon in my arms, and squatted under the tree in the grove, but my cousin did not chase me. I shaved off the skin of the winter melon with my teeth, and ate it in a big gulp, the winter melon had no taste, and the small melon seeds were still a little astringent and bitter, but I was very hungry, and I ate half of it in one go, and my stomach was overwhelmed, but the stomach was very uncomfortable, and there was always an unpleasant green and bitter taste gushing out, and suddenly my mouth was sour, and I vomited.

Just as I was about to go back with the remaining half of the winter melon, there was a sound of wooden branches breaking in the woods, very light and light, slowly approaching me, I was scared to pee, desperately running, but I didn't lose the melon and the broken bowl, I finally ran to the ancestral hall, just pushed open the door and was covered by the person behind me with a snakeskin bag, I struggled desperately, calling for help, but this is a little far from the village, and even if they heard it, they would not come out to save me.

They say that I am a lone star, that I deserve to die, but I want to live, to live to go to the grave of my parents, to be able to squat in the corner of the wall in the middle of the night to miss them, to bask in the sun in front of their grave and sleep peacefully, if I die, I will never remember them, I don't believe that people can be reunited when they die, otherwise those who have lost their loved ones, why should they live in the world instead of reuniting with their loved ones.

The man was very strong and broad-shouldered, and he carried me on his shoulders and ran without taking a breath. I hit him on the back with the broken bowl in my hand, but like a child tickling, the bowl didn't break, I could feel him going up the hill, his steps were steady, where was he going to take me? Did you bury me alive?

I remember running for as long as he stopped, slowly lifted me, and his breathing became rapid. No matter how much I cried and begged for mercy, it was useless, in short, he didn't say a word, my head was covered by a bag, I couldn't see anything, I could only smell a smell of smoke on him, the men in Angelica Village seemed to smoke, it was not a useful clue.

Suddenly my body fell from the sky, the snakeskin bag fell off my head, and by the moonlight I seemed to see a burly black figure standing on the edge of the cliff of the Guillotine Mountain, and I couldn't see my face clearly, and then I fell into the cold water, and my body seemed to be broken, and I passed out.

In my dreams, I felt like I was in my mother's womb, which was a strange feeling, and no one would remember what it was like in my mother's womb, but at the time I felt like that, and I was not still afraid. The water went in my nose and mouth, and I drank and spit it out, and I could breathe, and I was still swimming, and I had never been in the water because I was afraid that people would see the black scales on my body.

I don't know how long later, I opened my eyes and found myself lying in the water, and there was a female corpse under the water, her face was pale, as if she had been coated with a layer of white lime, only a little red mark on her lips, and the soft red Hanfu swayed with the undercurrent under the water, and her appearance was so clear. At first, I thought it was my mother, but she suddenly opened her eyes, and her green eyes stared at me, so frightened that I looked up from the water, and the moon in the sky woke me up, and I realized that I was in the pond of Guillotine Gorge.

At this moment I felt something wrapping around my feet and dragging down, I tried to run away, but I was dragged deeper and deeper, the corners of the woman's eyebrows were slightly raised, as if she was smiling at me, her long hair wrapped around my feet, and I was getting closer and closer to her.

I grabbed my hair with my hands, trying to untie it, but it didn't work, but it became more and more entangled, and tightened, until it reached my neck, and I looked at the half of the bowl in my hand, and when it fell, it broke, and only half of it was left in my hand. I tugged at my hair with my left hand, and with my right hand I used the cut to cut the long hair that was about to burrow into my mouth, whether it was useful or not.

The hair was not cut, but accidentally cut the little finger of the left hand, blood came out, like a red smoke into the hair, the woman's expression suddenly became hideous, the hair wrapped around my body suddenly burned, the blue flame quickly spread under the water, along the hair towards the woman, the woman stretched out her pale hands, the curved nails had to be more than a meter long, she pulled suddenly, pulled herself into a bald head, just now it was a little glamorous, suddenly it became extremely ugly, I saw the pale scalp slowly sink to the bottom of the water, disappear.

I swam as hard as I could, and soon I surfaced. I took a deep breath and looked at the moonlight overhead, the moon was far away from me, I didn't know how to go up, I couldn't go up here, the cliff was estimated to be two or three hundred meters high, I could only swim against the current to the mouth of the Guillotine Gorge, because the more upstream I was, the lower the cliff became, as long as I reached the mouth of the Guillotine Gorge, I could climb ashore.

I don't know how long I swam, but when I was tired, I grabbed the gap in my cantilever and rested, and several times I fell asleep and was drifted away by the current, but the strange thing is that I didn't choke on the water. When I was hungry, I got into the water, and in the cracks of the stone wall, I felt some crabs, small fish, small shrimp and other things to fill my stomach, and there was no light at night, although the moonlight was bright, but it could not be compared with the day. But I really wanted to see it in the water, but every time I entered the water, I was scared and shivered, maybe the water was too cold, or maybe I was worried that the female ghost would catch up.

In this way, until the moon goes down and the sky is getting brighter, I think that there will be a while, the people in the village will have to go to the wharf, maybe they will see me, the fishing boat wharf is not far from the mouth of the Broken Head Gorge by the river, the only road in the village is on it, the further upstream, the lower and thinner the woods on the side of the road, walking on the road can see the middle of the water surface of the Broken Head Gorge, as long as the passers-by glance here. At that time, it was all dirt roads, and later the state subsidy and villagers raised funds to build a cement road through the village.

When the sun came out, I swam towards the middle, and I couldn't see it from passers-by against the cliffs.