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My great-grandfather's house had a yard, but the door of the yard was never closed, and it was open day and night.

At this time, the knock on the door outside the house was quite urgent, and it didn't take long to wake up my great-grandfather, and when he got dressed and opened the door, the village chief and several villagers were standing outside the door, including the village chief, all of whom looked sleepy, as if they hadn't slept well last night. My great-grandfather hurriedly ushered them into the house.

When the village chief and the others arrived at the house to explain their intentions, my great-grandfather's face changed, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

It turned out that these villagers, including the village chief, all heard the children's crying after the third watch last night, and more than one child, a group of children, crying quite miserably, listening to the sound seemed to come from the direction of the barren slope, because at this time the village knew about the things in the barren slope soil cave, suspected that the ghosts of those children were crying, and they were all frightened, and they didn't dare to close their eyes all night.

No, a few people got together early in the morning, and the village chief brought me to my great-grandfather. But the strange thing is that my great-grandfather did not hear the cry last night, he got some food after the third watch, drank until the fourth watch, and then fell asleep dizzily, during which he did not hear any sound.

Later, my great-grandfather learned that these people were all born in the "yin time", and it was easy to provoke these unclean things, and it was not surprising for them to hear the cry of their children.

What is the "cloudy time", that is, after the third watch, between eleven o'clock and one o'clock.

At this time, my great-grandfather suppressed the doubts in his heart, and said with a smile to the village chief: "What's the matter, what's the matter, those children's souls are sealed in the jar, and the head catcher in our county has already sent someone to bury them, it won't be their ......."

"Who could that be?" My great-grandfather's voice fell, and the village chief asked.

My great-grandfather thought for a while and said, "Wait until today's third watch, I will personally go to the barren slope to see where it is, and now I can't tell what is going on, but you can rest assured, what is the matter, you should go to bed tonight, that is, if you hear something, you will be in it when you hear it." ”

A few villagers didn't seem to be very satisfied with my great-grandfather's statement, but my great-grandfather's words undoubtedly reassured them, and they thought that as long as my great-grandfather said that it was okay, then the eight achievements would be fine.

After the village chief led a few villagers away, my great-grandfather frowned tightly, he said that it was okay just in the hearts of the village chief and a few of them, and at the moment, it seemed that this matter was not good.

My great-grandfather went to the back room and took out his master's cigarette pouch, put tobacco on it, and smoked it in one gulp.

My great-grandfather generally didn't smoke, and only took a few puffs when he encountered tricky things, firstly to dispel his sorrows, and secondly, to hope that his master Wang Shoudao would have a spirit in heaven and could give him a little inspiration and tell him what to do.

My great-grandfather was smoking a cigarette while thinking about the affairs of the barren slope, and the head of the county government clearly said that the altars were buried, and those altars were still sealed, so where did the cries of these children come from?

My great-grandfather smoked a house full of second-hand smoke, and he couldn't figure out what was going on, and his master Wang Shoudao didn't even appear to tell him what was going on and what to do.

However, my great-grandfather was sure of one thing at this time, that is, someone had moved the altar and might release the ghosts of those children, which was the last thing my great-grandfather wanted to see and face.

At noon, just as my great-grandfather was preparing lunch, he suddenly heard someone calling out to him from the yard.

"Mr. Liu, is Mr. Liu at home? Mr. Liu, is Mr. Liu at home? ”

My great-grandfather heard the familiar voice, and hurriedly went out of the door to take a look, and saw a person standing at the gate of the courtyard, dressed as an official, and looked at his face, and knew that it was the head catcher of the county government.

In fact, my great-grandfather had the heart to go to the county government after lunch at this time, and ask how to deal with the jars of the head catcher.

The head catcher was alone, and he didn't bring his subordinates, but at this time, my great-grandfather saw that his face was pale, and the whole person looked very depressed, as if he had encountered some catastrophe.

My great-grandfather hurriedly introduced him into the house, didn't my great-grandfather just want to cook, took out some dry goods that he had saved a few days ago, a jar of old wine, and fried two simple hot dishes, and the two of them ate and drank.

After a few glasses of old wine, there was a hint of redness on the pale face of the headcatcher, he put down the wine glass in his hand, sighed and said, "Mr. Liu, I came to you this time, it can be said that I have nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace." ”

In fact, there is no need to catch the head and say, since I saw him for the first time, my great-grandfather knew that he was in trouble, and hurriedly asked: "What is the matter with the official, although he said, as long as I can help you, I will definitely help." As he spoke, he picked up the jar and poured it again for the headcatcher.

The headcatcher stared blankly at the wine glass, and when my great-grandfather had filled it for him, he grabbed the glass and smoked it up.

"Mr. Liu, I came to you today and wanted to tell you two things, this is the first one, Lord Futai reported to us that please reward the fold, the court approved it, and the county magistrate specially showed me the ......"

When my great-grandfather heard this, he smiled and said, "That's a good thing." ”

"What's the matter...... the head catcher shook his head, and then said: "I heard from the master, over there, in Tianjin, because of the disappearance of the child, the common people killed a few foreigners, burned a few churches, those foreigners, it's really a thing, don't let go, if you want to start a war with our Qing Dynasty, the cannon ships are all driving over...... When we went up, Zeng Guofan Zeng was negotiating with foreigners, and I don't know how it got into the hands of Zeng Zeng, so Zeng approved four words and sent it back to us. ”

"What's that?" My great-grandfather asked.

"Silence." The headcatcher slammed his glass on the table.

"What do you mean?" My great-grandfather asked again.

"Silence does not mean to say, shut up, don't mention this matter in the future, keep your mouth shut, don't publicize it, alas......" The head catcher sighed again, he was obviously too drunk at this time, and he talked a lot.

"Mr. Liu, I won't tell you, I still expect this case to soar, look at it now...... It's over, it's over, it's nothing, it's silent...... The master also said, Tianjin burned the church, killed foreigners, if the foreigners know that the disappearance of the child is our own family, then they will be even more unaware, Zeng told us to shut up, it is right to do miles, as the saying goes, miles are good, family ugliness should not be publicized......"

My great-grandfather poured the wine glass full again, took a sip of it, and continued: "Later, because of our fold, Master Zeng felt that he was at a loss, and he didn't want to make a big deal about it, so he paid compensation, and paid 460,000 taels of silver to foreigners. 100,000 silver is not worth it! ”

At this point, my great-grandfather and he sighed at the same time.

The head catcher continued: "Mr. Liu, if you see through it, we Chinese will harm our own people, you say those cult elements, ah, you have the ability, your mother is grinning, why don't you harm foreigners?" Why don't you see what the foreigners are bullying us into? will bully their own people, and they will be misgiving! ”

The head catcher was really drunk at this time, his face was red and his neck was thick, and what he said was reasonable, and it could be seen that this head catcher was a very upright person.

An illiterate grass farmer like my great-grandfather, who only nodded his head at this time, knew these truths, but he couldn't say them.

After the two of them drank for a while, my great-grandfather asked the headcatcher, "Official, you just said that you want to tell me two things, what is this second thing?" ”

At this time, the head catcher was holding a peanut to be sent to his mouth, listening to my great-grandfather ask him, he was immediately stunned, and then as if he remembered something terrible, his hand trembled, and the peanut "horn" on the chopsticks fell on the table.

The head catcher simply threw away his chopsticks, got up from the stool, grabbed my great-grandfather's hand, and said, "Something strange happened here, I want to ask you for help......

The head catcher looked a little panicked at this time, which made my great-grandfather feel very bad, and hurriedly said: "Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry, tell me something slowly." ”

My great-grandfather comforted the head catcher a few words, and the head catcher sat back on the stool, lowered his head and muttered for a while, and said to my great-grandfather: "Three days ago, the government office came to the government, and the lord of the government sent an order to us to dig out all the things in the hole and hand them over to the government office. ”

"You're going to dig?" My great-grandfather hurriedly asked.

"Dig up, go up and down and die orders, who dares not to dig ......" The head catcher sighed and continued: "Early the day before yesterday, I took a dozen brothers to dig a front day, along the original hole, and dug up the outer layer, and then more than a dozen of us moved things out, and when we moved those jars, one of my brothers accidentally fell to the ground and broke a ......."

When the head catcher said this, my great-grandfather's face immediately changed, and he sobered up a lot.

The head catcher was unconscious, and continued, "As soon as the jar was broken, strange things followed, and the brother who broke the jar was like a madman, pulling out the knife in his waist and cutting when he saw someone, there was me in the cave at that time, and there were four or five brothers, except for me who reacted quickly and didn't cut him, the rest of the brothers all cut him, and my brother slashed while scolding, or a teenage child's voice: 'Hack you to death, tell you to dig my heart!'" 'Mother, that brother's appearance can scare us to death......"