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

Dayou shook his head slowly, and replied: "I have been sick since I went home in the mountains, and I have been lying in bed for more than a month, and I have never seen the southern barbarian again. ”

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

Dayou nodded and replied, "Yes, about three months after that, 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 flashed, she seemed to be thinking about something, and she seemed to be hesitating about something, and lowered her head.

After a long while, Da Youcai slowly raised his head and said, "There's something weird...... One day, I went home from the field, and as soon as I entered the door, I saw a bowl of washed mountain red on the table, so I asked Xiaozhen where I could get it. Xiao Zhen said that we came to the back of the house, and I don't know when I will grow a mangrove tree in the mountains, and the tree will bear fruit with a thick thumb. 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 went 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 as tall as ...... thumbs" Speaking of this, Dayou's face suddenly turned pale, and continued: "I, I don't know what's going on, I saw that tree, just, I felt that it was the son of the southern barbarian......" Speaking of this, Dayou hugged his head, as if he didn't want to say any more.

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

After pausing for a while, Dayou hugged his head and replied: "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, I felt ashamed......"

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 room 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 of the wing room.

After my grandmother entered the house, she didn't go to see Xiao Zhen's mother and son, and walked directly to the jar and clay figurine in the corner.

The jar and the clay figurine were held in the arms of Xiao Zhen's mother and son, and after the mother and son were carried up the mountain, my grandmother put them in the corner of the wing.

At this time, my grandmother took the jar and the clay figurine to the platform outside the wing, and ordered Xinyangzi to let his apprentice bring a basin of water, and she raised the jar high with both hands, and slammed the jar on the platform with a loud bang, and the jar fell apart.

Bending down to pick up all the pieces of the jar, my grandmother carried her clothes to the back of the wing room and scattered all the pieces behind the house.

At this moment, Xinyangzi's apprentice brought water, and my grandmother turned out from the back of the house, crumpled the clay figure and threw it into the basin, and then stirred the water with her hands, and dissolved the clay figure in the water until the water diluted the clay figure, and the water turned into a pot of muddy soup, which was picked up and splashed at the door of the wing.

People may not understand what my grandma is doing, but my grandpa does. Seeing this, my grandfather approached my grandmother and asked in a low voice, "Zhi'er, why did you break our own rituals, didn't you summon that ghost back?" ”

My grandmother sighed under her breath and explained to my grandfather, "It's not a ghost, it's a spell, someone used the child's ghost to cast a spell...... I thought that the two of them had heard about some evil arts, killed a child in someone else's family, and exchanged their lives for a child for themselves, but I didn't expect that this matter was not as simple as I thought. ”

As soon as my grandmother said this, there was a loud cry of excitement from the room: "Wake up! Wake up ......"

My grandmother ignored my grandfather and turned and walked towards the wing.

In the wing, Xiao Zhen and the child woke up, but the two of them were all dumbfounded, as if their souls had not gathered. My grandmother tore two paper figures with yellow paper, waved the paper figures around the chamber, and then lit the two paper figures and circled them on the top of the mother and son's heads, and without stopping for a while, the mother and son regained consciousness.

At this time, the sky was already bright, and the child was clamoring that he was hungry, and everyone was a little relieved when they saw this. Xin Yangzi hurriedly instructed his apprentice to make breakfast.

After breakfast, my grandmother pulled Dayou aside and asked, "Is that hawthorn tree still there?" ”

Dayou nodded.

My grandmother looked at him and said, "Let's go, let's go to your house and see the hawthorn tree." ”

Dayou nodded again. Hawthorn, that is, mountain red.

The village of the couple is not too far from Huanghuadong, in a small ravine in the north, and the feeling of the village is ...... It's similar to the tethered horse village in the past. Tethered Horse Village, you may have forgotten, is where my grandfather met the red fox, where my grandmother was born.

You can't take a donkey cart in the mountains, a few people can only walk, but fortunately, the road is not too far, five or six miles away.

My grandfather's legs and feet are not good, my grandmother wants him to stay in Huanghuadong, but my grandfather's competitiveness this time came up again, I have to follow to see the excitement, my grandma is actually very accustomed to my grandfather, although I feel sorry for him to walk the mountain road, but I am reluctant to leave him in my heart, so I let my grandfather follow. However, because of my grandfather's legs and feet, it took a few people to walk for more than half a day on the mountain road.

There are not many families in the small ravine, roughly about 20 households, one in the east and one in the west, few are next to each other, and some are across the mountain, but this is also quite clean, away from the crowd and hustle and bustle of the world.

Dayou's home is next to the mountain, with the mountain in the background, which is a fairly flat place in front of the mountain, with a persimmon tree and a walnut tree at the door.

The yard of the house is no different from those in the mountains, the stone courtyard wall, the stone house, the roof is framed with wooden rafters, and the rafters are covered with artemisia grass, in general, it is quite cold.

After coming to Dayou's house, my grandmother didn't stop, and she didn't even drink saliva, and after Dayou settled Xiaozhen's mother and son, she directly asked Dayou to lead her to the back of the house to see the hawthorn tree, and my grandfather and Xinyangzi saw this and followed.

The back of the house is close to the mountain, but there is still a short distance from the mountain, and there is loess on this small distance, and it seems that the two of them have cultivated it, and there are a few kinds of greens planted on it, like a small vegetable garden.

At the back of the house, my grandmother saw a hawthorn tree, as tall as a five or six-year-old child, with a thick thumb, with branches and leaves on it, and at first glance, it looked like a small hawthorn tree that had shrunk countless times.

My grandmother looked at you suspiciously, and asked, "This tree has been around for three years, hasn't it grown at all?" ”

Dayou's face was not good-looking, and he nodded, "It didn't grow, but since I knotted that fruit, I haven't had any fruit, and I don't dare to pull it out, so it's been growing here." ”

My grandmother looked at the hawthorn tree again and said to Dayou, "Otherwise, you go find a hoe or something, and let's dig up this tree and see." ”

Dayou didn't know what my grandmother was going to do, so she nodded, went back to the front, and didn't take much effort, bringing a hoe and an iron drill.

My grandmother took the hoe and the hammer and asked him, "What might be buried under this tree, do you dare to plan?" ”

Dayou hurriedly shook his head.

"Then you go back to the house and wait."

When 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's down there?" ”

My grandmother said from afar, "You plan, you will know if you plane." ”

When my grandfather saw my grandmother standing still from afar, he had basically guessed what was buried underneath in his heart, and he worked with Xinyangzi to plane it.

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

My grandmother hurriedly shouted at them, "What's the planing?" ”

When my grandfather turned around, his face was full of fear, and he replied to my grandmother: "There is a dead child buried under the tree, this is too evil, this hawthorn tree grows out of the child's eye sockets......"

My grandmother was trembling when she heard this, she had never heard of a tree growing in her eye sockets, but you can imagine what it would be like for a tree to grow in her eye sockets.

After a long pause, my grandmother calmed down and asked, "Is the child rotten?" ”

My grandfather replied, "It's not rotten, it's a zombie." Then, my grandfather said, "Zhi'er, if you don't hide a little farther, I'll take the child up with the Taoist chief and take a look." ”

My grandmother didn't speak, but I saw Xinyangzi and my grandfather working together to carry the dead child up from the pit. My grandmother watched from afar, my grandfather was holding the child's head, Xinyangzi was carrying the child's legs, and the child's body was like a stake, straight and straight, and he didn't even bend. From my grandmother's place, I could only see the side of the child's corpse, and I saw the hawthorn tree standing on the child's corpse like an arrow!

When the child was put on the ground, my grandfather turned around and asked my grandmother, "Zhi'er, what should I do now?" ”

My grandmother frowned and hesitated for a moment, then quickly made up her mind and said, "Don't move, I'll come and see ......."