Example 22: Beggar ghost (thanks to Zhengyi Shunyun for kindly providing)

It's been a long time since this happened, but I still remember it vividly.

It was five years ago, my first year as a thug.

Like most of the rural areas at that time, our village was very poor surrounded by mountains, there were no wide asphalt roads as it is now, and there were no western-style villas, high-rise buildings, and each family was a small one-story low bungalow, and about 20 small houses were built in rows at the foot of the mountain, and there were forty or fifty people, old and young.

At the end of the year, there will always be some wandering beggars in our village, and every family asks for alms, and beggars ask for alms, which was a very common situation in the early years, but a strange thing happened that year......

Original:

When I was fifteen years old, I was still a gangster, and I had a bunch of iron buddies in school, who were good at fighting and making trouble, and were the most rebellious thorns in the eyes of teachers, and I was very "famous" at school. Later, I felt that it was not interesting to mess around all day, so I simply dropped out of school and returned home, because it was the end of the year, I was not in a hurry to go out, and I stayed at home honestly.

The days were boring, and soon the end of the year came.

I remember that it was a very cold day, and I was downstairs smoking cigarettes and chatting with my friends in the village, when I saw an old woman on crutches and carrying a black burden staggering towards our village.

When she walked into the village, I saw clearly that this old woman was a wandering beggar, which is very common in the countryside, and every time the New Year comes, there will be wandering beggars to beg.

The old woman, who had gray hair and was about seventy, wore a tattered cotton jacket with patches all over it, and staggered into our village with a wooden stick.

I have seen a lot of such beggars, who were young and vigorous at that time, and very ignorant. Seeing her walking towards us, I disdainfully spit out a smoke ring, glanced at her from the corner of my eye, and scolded impatiently: "You are also not interesting, rich people don't ask for it, our village is already very poor, and if you don't get down to the ground for three days, you stinky beggars will be gone." ”

The old beggar looked at me with pitiful eyes, and did not go away because of my words, but still begged me and my friend for it, and my friend and I got tired of taking some money and sending her away.

I gave her money and sent her away, and I wish she had left the village as soon as possible for such people, for to be honest our village is very poor, and everyone is working for a living, and there is no extra kindness to give to these beggars who come every year.

The old beggar took the money and did not leave the village, but walked slowly towards the gate of my house.

"Hey, there's still the end?" I flicked my finger off the cigarette and chased after her and yelled at her, "Hey! What do you mean, this didn't give you money just now, you have to go to my house and ask for it again, right? There's no such way to ask for money! ”

The old beggar looked at my angry face, looked at me aggrieved and frightened, left my house, and walked to a house next door to me with a stick.

There are three people in the family next door to me, my husband works outside all the year round, only my mother is at home, and my son is younger than me, only 12 years old.

The husband is not at home, and the mother is living extremely poor, and the aunt is very unhappy when she sees the old beggar coming to ask for food, which is not that the aunt is ruthless, but at the end of the year, there are more beggars, and their own lives are tight, and they naturally do not want to see beggars.

The aunt walked out, rummaged in her pockets for a while, and gave the old beggar five cents with a calm face, which at that time was very reluctant for a housewife who had a fine plan for oil, salt, firewood, and rice.

The old beggar stooped down to take the money and said something grateful.

The aunt hurriedly sent her to hurry up, who knew that the old beggar was in the same place, muttering vigorously, but she refused to leave.

Now my aunt next door was not happy, and she counted impatiently, "Why are you old beggar so ignorant, and this money is also given to you, what else do you want, do you want to rely on our family?" ”

After such a fuss, people in the neighborhood thought something was wrong, and many people gathered around, and my friend and I walked over together.

The old beggar was visibly frightened when she saw a large crowd of us coming around, and she did not leave, but looked at her aunt with pleading eyes.

The onlookers, seeing that the old beggar was not leaving, began to discuss and ask what was going on, and one of them asked: "Xiao Zhen (aunt), what's going on?" ”

The aunt replied impatiently: "Let's see what is going on, after giving her money, she still depends on me and doesn't leave, and I want a quilt, where is the extra quilt for her in our house!" It's really inexplicable, begging for money and food, and I haven't seen a quilt before. ”

When the people in the village heard it, it was also, on this cold day, which family had extra quilts to give alms, and they were not enough, and this old beggar was too good to make sense!

My friends and I also coaxed on the side, laughing at the frightened old beggar with disdain, and now I still vaguely remember the old beggar's pale and trembling face, and I felt guilty.

Some anxious people in the village began to shout at the old beggar, "You are really shameless, ask for money and leave quickly, you see that every family in our land is so poor, which family has extra quilts for you, if you want a quilt, you should go to the big family outside, don't rely on our poor place." ”

In fact, I know that although the people in the village are not rich, there is still a bed of extra quilts, but the problem is that the quilt is a valuable thing in the countryside, and it is naturally generous to lend it to the neighbors, but if you really want to give a quilt to a dirty old beggar, no one is really willing, maybe in our current opinion, a quilt is only two or three hundred yuan, which is nothing, but in the conditions at the time, the environment at that time, it was also a helpless thing.

In winter, it gets dark early, and the sky soon gets dark, everyone persuades a few words in the cold wind, and they are panicked, and they are ready to disperse, and the aunt herself is ready to enter the house, and the old beggar is in the yard, and she can't get rid of her anyway.

At this moment, the old beggar suddenly collapsed to the ground with a weak leg, her whole body trembled and twitched, and her mouth made a hoarse voice, shouting: "Cold, cold, cold! After a few shouts, he fainted.

When everyone saw this situation, they hurriedly went home, thinking that more is better than less, and whoever does this is considered unlucky, this old beggar has made it clear that she is going to rely on this, and it is useless to persuade more.

When the aunt next door saw this, she was even more upset, and stood in the yard and scolded: "It's really unlucky! Why did you invite such a shameless old beggar, you want to die far away! "After that, the door was closed.

The first night passed as usual, and the next morning, I remembered the old beggar who had fallen in the yard, opened the door and glanced at the courtyard of my aunt's house, and found that the poor mother-in-law was gone.

Like me, the aunt next door didn't think much of it, thinking it was the middle of the night.

It was Saturday, that is, the children's weekend, the aunt's son came back early in the morning, the aunt boiled eggs, made a lot of delicious food for the son, the mother and the mother were in a happy mood for the day, the old beggar brought the unhappiness, forget all about it.

In the evening, the aunt's son suddenly had a high fever and fell unconscious, and was sent to the hospital overnight with the help of the villagers.

I just rushed home from the hospital in the middle of the night, and the child's whole body was hot again, which made the aunt anxious, called a few neighbors next to her, and asked what to do with tears in her eyes.

At that time, our village also had a palace and a child's body, but the palace was very small, and at the same time there was no Master in this village, and I remember that the Bodhisattva was the king of the Southern Dynasty and the four generalissimos at that time.

At the beginning, no one thought of this, and at that time I didn't understand this, and I was very disgusted with it, so I didn't believe it at all.

Everyone came to the aunt's house, discussed it with a lot of gossip, and tried a few local methods, but it didn't work, the child's high fever has not gone away, and the aunt has been crying and crying, and the atmosphere is very depressing and tense.

This toss soon dawned, only to hear a few roosters outside, the child's high fever seemed to subside in an instant, the whole body was not hot, and there was no more nonsense, everyone was relieved, and they went home to rest.

On the new day, nothing happened, it was still the same as usual, the day of everyone was busy and the children laughed and laughed, and the aunt's children seemed to be completely fine, playing outside for a day, as if everything that happened last night was like a dream, no high fever, no tears.

Night came quietly, the people in the mountain village packed up and fell asleep early in winter, and the whole village was dark, and it was particularly cold in the quiet mountains.

In the middle of the night, the child of the aunt's family got up, pushed the mother who was sleeping next to him and said, "Mom, I want to pee!" ”

Because the aunt was too tired during the day, she didn't even turn over, squinted her eyes and said in a daze: "You are not too young, go by yourself, open the door, and let go at the front door." ”

Although the son was a little scared, he was very helpless when he saw that his aunt was unwilling to accompany him, and went out with a hazy sleepiness.

The aunt didn't care, she slept in a daze, and she didn't know how long it was, out of her mother's nature, the aunt habitually hugged the son next to her.

"What about the kids? What about children? The aunt was speechless in a hurry, hurriedly turned on the light, hurriedly put on a piece of clothing and went out of the room to the front yard, but what made her frightened was that her son was not in the front yard at all.

A mournful cry broke the silence of the night sky, and the lights of the mountain village lit up one by one.