(A few classmates and friends came to the house this afternoon, saying that there is a class reunion next Sunday, I have to go, I don't want to go, a few people persuaded me for a long time, and then a few people drank wine in my house, and tossed until the evening, there are only drafts here, and there are few pitiful, I also accompanied them to drink a bottle of beer, and my head was a little uncomfortable.) ）

Seeing that Dayou was like this, my grandmother sat on the futon next to him and persuaded him: "Brother Dayou, don't think so much, you are unintentional, the southern barbarian ......" My grandmother said this, swallowed the words back, she wanted to say that the southern barbarian was to blame, but she couldn't speak.

Dayou raised his head and glanced at my grandmother, his eyes were already red from crying, his voice was hoarse, and he asked my grandmother, "Sister Bai, do you think I will go to hell after I die?" ”

My grandmother sighed softly, shook her head ambiguously, and diverted the subject. My grandmother asked, "What happened then, have you ever seen that Nanban again?" ”

Dayou slowly shook his head and replied, "I have been sick since I returned home from the mountains, and I have been lying in bed for more than a month, and I have never seen that southern barbarian again. After I recovered from my illness, I went to his door to see that the door was locked, and no one was complaining. ”

My grandmother thought for a moment and asked, "Jane should have been pregnant in the autumn of that year, right?" ”

Dayou nodded and replied, "Yes, about three months after that incident, Xiao Zhen will be pregnant." ”

My grandmother asked again: "Did anything strange happen to the family in the days when Xiao Zhen was pregnant with the child?" ”

"Strange things?" Dayou looked at my grandmother, her eyes flickering, as if she was thinking about something, and she seemed to be hesitating.

After pausing for a while, Da You said, "Yes...... That day, I went home from the field and saw a bowl of washed mountain red on the table, so I asked Xiaozhen where I could get it. Xiao Zhen said that we can get it from the back of the house, and I don't know when a mangrove tree in the mountains will grow behind the house, and the thumb will bear fruit. When I saw that the fruit was red and big, I wondered, how could such a small fruit tree bear such a big fruit? I ran to the back of the house to see, there was really a mangrove tree in the mountains behind the house, five or six years old children are so tall, and their thumbs are so thick......" Speaking of this, Dayou's face suddenly turned pale, and continued: "I, I don't know what's going on, I saw the tree, and I felt that it was the son of the southern barbarian......" Dayou hugged his head, as if he didn't want to continue.

My grandmother asked, "Have you eaten the fruit?" ”

After pausing for a while, Dayou hugged his head and said: "I didn't eat it, but after I returned to the house, Xiaozhen had already eaten several, and said that it was sour and sweet and delicious, and I wanted to eat it...... Later, Xiaozhen became pregnant...... I didn't dare to say these things to anyone, I was afraid ......"

When my grandmother heard this, she immediately stood up from the futon, said in a hurried tone, and said, "Let's go, go back and see your daughter-in-law and son!" With that, my grandmother walked out of the hall quickly.

In the right wing of the main hall, Xiao Zhen and the child were lying on the bed, still unconscious, and my grandfather and Xin Yangzi were two, one person and one bench sitting at the door.

After my grandmother entered the house, she didn't go to see Xiao Zhen's mother and son, and directly found the jar and clay figurine in the corner. The jar and the clay figurine were held in the arms of Jane and the child, but after Jane's mother and son were lifted up, my grandmother put them in the corner.

My grandmother took the jar and the clay figurine to the platform outside the wing room, and told Xinyangzi to let the apprentice bring the basin water, she raised the jar high with both hands, and slammed it on the platform, and the jar fell to smash with a bang, and my grandmother bent down to pick up all the pieces of water in the jar, and carried them to the back of the wing room with her clothes, and scattered all the pieces behind the house.

At the same time, Xinyangzi's apprentice brought the water, and my grandmother crushed the mud figure and threw it into the water, stirring the water with her hands, until the mud figure melted in the water, and the water turned into a pot of muddy soup, and picked up the pot of muddy soup and splashed it at the door of the wing.

Seeing this, my grandfather approached my grandmother and asked, "Zhi'er, why did you break the ritual?" Didn't you summon that ghost back? ”

My grandmother sighed and said to my grandfather, "It's not a ghost, it's a spell, someone used that child's ghost to cast a spell." I thought it was the two of them who heard about some evil arts, killed a child in someone else's family, and replaced themselves with a child, but I didn't expect it to be so simple. ”

As soon as my grandmother said this, there was a loud shout of excitement from the wing: "Wake up, wake up......"

My grandmother ignored my grandfather and walked straight to the wing.

In the wing, Xiaozhen and the child woke up, but the two of them were all sluggish, my grandmother tore two paper figures with yellow paper, waved the paper people around in the wing, and then lit the two paper figures, and circled around the top of the mother and son's heads, and the two people gradually regained consciousness.

By this time, it was getting light, and the child was crying out that he was hungry. Xin Yangzi hurriedly ordered his apprentice to cook.

After breakfast, my grandmother said to Dayou, "Let's go to your house and see the hawthorn tree." "Hawthorn, that is, mountain red.

The village of Dayou and his wife is not too far from Huanghuadong, and in a small ravine, the village feels similar to the village of tethered horses in the past. Tethered Horse Village, that is, where my grandfather met the red fox and my grandmother was born.

You can't take a donkey cart in the mountains, a few people go on foot, my grandmother originally asked my grandfather to stay in Huanghuadong, my grandfather was so competitive that he had to follow. Because of my grandfather's legs and feet, a few people walked for most of the day to arrive.

Dayoujia is no different from those in the mountains, with stone courtyard walls, stone houses, wooden rafters on the roof, and artemisia grass on the rafters, in general, quite cold.

After coming to Dayou's house, my grandmother didn't stop, and directly asked Dayou to lead her to the back of his house to see, and my grandfather and Xinyangzi also came.

The house of the big family is leaning against the mountain, but there is still a short distance from the mountain, and it is actually loess on this small distance, it seems that the two of them have cultivated it, and there are a few kinds of green vegetables planted on it, like the vegetable garden of the big family. When my grandmother saw a hawthorn tree, as tall as a five- or six-year-old child, and as thick as her thumb, it looked like a small hawthorn tree that had shrunk countless times, and its branches had leaves.

My grandmother looked at you suspiciously, and asked, "Is this leaf three years old, and it hasn't grown at all?" ”

Dayou looked at the hawthorn tree's pale face and nodded, "It's not long, but since I knotted the fruit once, it hasn't bore fruit again, and I don't dare to pull it out, so I keep calling it here." ”

My grandmother nodded, looked around, and said to Dayou, "Otherwise, you go find a hoe and shovel and dig up this tree to see." ”

Dayou didn't know what my grandmother was going to do, so she nodded, went back to the front, and didn't have much effort, coming back with a hoe in one hand and an iron chisel in the other.

My grandmother looked at him and asked, "Do you dare to plan?" ”

Dayou hurriedly shook his head, and my grandmother said again: "Then you go back to the house first." ”

Dayou went back, my grandmother handed over the hoe to Xinyangzi, and the iron drill to my grandfather, and stood far aside.

My grandfather asked my grandmother what was buried underneath. My grandmother said from afar, you plan, you will know if you plane.

My grandfather saw my grandmother standing still from afar, and basically guessed what was buried underneath in his heart, and worked with Xin Yangzi to plane it.

It was probably less than two feet deep, and my grandfather and Xin Yangzi screamed at the same time.

My grandmother hurriedly asked what had happened, and my grandfather replied with a look of fear: "Dig out a child's corpse, this hawthorn tree grew out of the child's eye sockets......"

When my grandmother heard this, she was also shocked, and she could imagine what it would be like for a tree to grow in her eye sockets, "Is that kid rotten?" ”

"It's not rotten, it's good." My grandfather replied, and then my grandfather said, "Zhi'er, if you stay away, I'll pick up the child with the Taoist." ”

My grandmother said, "I'd better come over and have a look." "Although my grandmother is afraid to see the corpse, but she can't help it at this time, this must be an evil art, don't let my grandfather have anything to do with Xinyangzi.

My grandmother came over with courage, and by this time, my grandfather and Xinyangzi had already picked up the child and the tree from the soil.

My grandfather was more bold and wiped the dirt off the child's body and face, and my grandmother looked down and gasped. This hawthorn tree is a one-rooted, and the one that grows out of one of the child's eye sockets is particularly terrifying.

At this time, Xin Yangzi spoke, "This kid seems to have something in his stomach, and when he hugged him, he touched the hard object in his stomach." ”

My grandmother's face turned pale, and she looked at my grandfather and then at Xinyangzi, "Then, let's untie his clothes and take a look." ”

The clothes on the child's body are basically almost rotten, not so much untied, but torn.

After the clothes were torn, my grandmother looked at his belly, and there was a big hole in the belly that hit his chest and lower abdomen, and after the cut was made, she sewed it with hemp rope.

My grandfather raised his hand and pressed it on the child's belly, and said, "This child really has something in his belly, it looks like it was put in for you." He turned to my grandmother and asked, "Zhi'er, what do you think of this?" ”

My grandmother's face turned pale, and she dared to ask my grandfather, "Brother, what do you say?" ”

My grandfather rubbed his face with the hand that had just touched the child's belly, "I see, I need to cut the child's belly open with scissors, and see what is inside." ”

My grandmother's face turned paler, my grandfather was right, in fact, my grandmother knew to do this, but my grandmother couldn't say it. My grandmother nodded silently.

My grandfather was about to go back to the front yard to look for scissors, and Xin Yangzi hurriedly said, "I'll look for it, your legs and feet are inconvenient." ”

Xinyangzi went, and my grandmother looked at the child's corpse on the ground, with a look of regret, and said: "This child, I'm afraid it's the son of the southern barbarian......"