Everyone followed his gaze and saw that Ah Chong, who was still asleep just now, had woken up at this time, and was leaning weakly against the door frame. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Ah Chong stared at the old man and said coldly, "Grandpa Li, what retribution?" What happened to my mom and dad? The teenage boy gave an aggressive look.

Zi Yang knew that Ah Chong was the most taboo for others to talk about his father. The old man also knew that he was speechless, and turned his head in embarrassment.

Ah Chong's gaze turned to the old village chief and asked aggressively, "What's wrong with my father?" How did they die? ”

The death of Ah Chong's father and mother is a mystery, the people in the village have always been very shy about talking about it, Zi Yang and their children of this age only know that Ah Chong was born and his parents died suddenly, as for how to get there, they never dared to ask more, and the adults never said.

The old village chief glared at the old man and said viciously, "You can't catch your stinky mouth!" ”

The old man lowered his head and counted the ants on the ground, and the old village chief glanced at Ah Chong helplessly, coughed and said: "Child, you are not young anymore, there are some things you should know - in fact, I am also to blame for this, and I am blamed for being useless as the village chief......"

The old man who looked down to find the ant raised his head and said, "Alas, how can you blame the old village chief for this, you ...... back then?"

The old village chief shouted angrily: "You know an egg! ”

The old village chief refilled the pot of cigarettes, stabilized his mood and said slowly: "Back then, when Ah Chong was born, there was a great famine, and every household couldn't open the pot. Your father is a man, but no matter how iron a man is, he can't stand up to having no food! Your father has to take care of your ignorant uncle, and he has to take care of your mother—people who are not driven to the point of despair will not do that kind of thing! ”

Ah Chong asked, "What did my father do?" ”

The old village chief took a puff of cigarette and said to himself: "Back then, there were a few outsiders in the village, dressed very brightly, and they sold grain from house to house, and they didn't need money to sell food, but they had to exchange things for it. ”

The old village chief asked himself and said, "What is it?" It's some broken copper and iron left by the ancestors, what incense burners, porcelain and the like, they call them antiques, saying that this thing is valuable and can be exchanged for food. ”

"Our Li family is a big surname in this area, how many years have our ancestors been here, every family has something left by their ancestors, those things are left and can't be eaten, and they are not even willing to throw away the boogers that they picked out when there is a famine, so they can sell a bag of noodles and houses, not to mention what their ancestors left behind, so everyone frees up their family funds for some food."

"I remember that I exchanged a pig trough for half a bag of wheat," the old man said again, and the old village chief glanced at the old man, and the man immediately did not dare to squeak.

The old village chief continued: "The grain that was exchanged back then really saved a lot of people, but your family has a foreign surname and moved here later. Your father was a mason, and he was only in his early twenties, so he didn't have much money. In the days of famine, no one asked your father to work, and your family had nothing to exchange for food. This family of four is about to starve to death.

Later, I don't know what means your father used to get food from those outsiders. ”

The old village chief stopped at this point, took out the tobacco from the cigarette pouch and continued to smoke. A middle-aged man who looked relatively old said, "Could it be that Ah Chong's father is really?" ”

The old village chief ignored him: "One night, I was so hungry that I couldn't sleep, and I squatted at the door thinking about things. At that time, there was no one on the street, and everyone was lying at home and did not dare to move, for fear that they would be hungry if they moved. At this time, I saw Ah Chong's father secretly walking to the back mountain alone with the working guy. I was curious, so I quietly followed him, and the scene I saw that night...... It's terrifying when I think about it now. ”

The old village chief took a hard puff of his cigarette, and his eyes suddenly became misty in the smoke. "I'm old now, I'm so confused that I can't even remember my daughter-in-law's name, but I still remember what happened that night clearly."

"I saw Ah Chong's father from a distance crawling to the back mountain, suddenly stopped in a chaotic stone hill, stunned for a while, and suddenly bowed to the open space, I think people are hungry like this, you still have time to worship the ancestors? If you look closely, isn't this the old cemetery? ”

When the old village chief said this, everyone else couldn't help but shudder, although there have been rumors in the village that Ah Chong's father used to do something, but they have never seen it, this is the first time to hear the old village chief talk about this matter, and even Ah Chong's eyes widened when he heard it.

At this time, the old village chief had fallen into a self-forgetful memory, "Ah Chong and his father knelt down for a while, and began to plow the ground there, Peng, Peng, I was so frightened that I lay on the ground and didn't even dare to move." Ah Chong's father planed for a long time, and then he buckled the rope and turned over the things below, and after a long time, he wrapped a bag of things with a bag, and then rebuilt the graveyard, and after a few bows, he went back, and I was so scared at that time, shaking like sifting chaff, both legs were cramping, and the legs and stomachs were turned to the front. Ah Chong's father heard my voice and came over and shouted, 'Village chief? ’”。

The old village chief's eyes were blurred when he said this, and he seemed to have returned to that night back then.

"At that time, he scared me out of my body by saying a word to the village chief, I was trembling and speechless, but I didn't expect him to fall to his knees in front of me, 'Village chief, I'm sorry for the villagers.'" The old village chief sharpened his voice to learn Ah Chong's father's voice, which looked particularly terrible in the silent night.

"I didn't see that he looked like he was trying to harm me, so I relaxed a little, and the two of us knelt and the other lay on our stomachs, and we chatted on the old grave.

Ah Chong's father said that he saw the villagers exchange things for food with outsiders, and there was nothing at home that he could take out to exchange, thinking that there were many old graves on the abandoned stone hills in the back mountain, maybe there were valuable burial guys. After staying up for a few days, he was really hungry, so he ran to the back mountain at night, and dug up those wild graves that had not been worshiped for a long time, and really dug up some porcelain, so he exchanged these things for food with the strangers.

Ah Chong's father said, there is no way for people to be forced to this role, I am a seven-foot man, I can't watch my wife and children starve to death! ”

Speaking of this, some people in the room have already begun to sigh for a long time, except for Ah Chong and Zi Yang, who are still young, the older generation has more or less experienced that time, remembering the tragic situation of the famine back then, everyone sighed.

When Ah Chong heard this, he was physically exhausted and almost sat down on the ground, and Zi Yang's mother hurriedly brought a blanket over and surrounded him. He turned to the old village chief and said, "Then later, the old village chief, you ......"

The old village chief wiped a handful of tears and said, "Me? What else can I do? In those years, the living couldn't eat enough, who could take care of their ancestors! Besides, he dug a wild grave without an owner, and our ancestors didn't move. ”

"Later, I said to Ah Chong's father, you go, I didn't see anything tonight. Ah Chong's father knocked my head a few times, and left without looking back, and I rested there for a long time before I had the strength to get up."

"Later, for a while, do you remember the distribution of relief food in the village?" The old village chief tilted his head and asked everyone, probably because he was indeed old and a little confused.

Someone next to him immediately chimed in and said: "Yes, yes, the old village chief is still powerful, other villages didn't have this treatment back then, so our old village chief has the ability to get relief."

The old village chief knocked on the Taishi chair with a cigarette pouch and said, "Bullshit relief food, those grains were bought by Ah Chong's father with his life!" The crowd was amazed again.

The old village chief continued: "Back then, there weren't many things that every household could exchange for food, and the price of those outsiders was getting higher and higher. After slowly tossing and turning, the outsiders did not come, and everyone was bored at home waiting for death. “

"One night in the middle of the night, I heard someone knocking on my window outside, and Ah Chong's father's voice said outside, 'Village Chief, I have exchanged for food, I will put it at the door, you can give it to the big guys'"

Everyone suddenly realized that if the old village chief hadn't said it tonight, no one would have known that there was still this hidden secret back then.

The old village chief took two puffs of cigarette, was silent for a while, and said: "You all know what happened later, the hard days have come to an end, and the famine has passed. The village is finally starting to live a peaceful life.

Since then, Ah Chong's father rarely shows up in the village, and everyone's life has gradually improved, and the bricklayer work has increased, Ah Chong's father often walks the streets and alleys to work, and those who go out early and return late rarely meet with the villagers, sometimes they don't come back for several days, and the villagers rarely see him. ”

Ah Chong continued to ask: "Then, how did my parents die?" ”

Uncle Li, who was squatting on the ground, owed a debt and wanted to speak, but was stared back by the old village chief.

The old village chief tilted his head and thought carefully: "What year did you go?" I can't tell. I remember one day, Ah Chong's mother went to the street everywhere and said that his man was missing, and asked everyone to help find it, at that time, everyone was busy with spring ploughing, and no one paid attention to Ah Chong's mother's shouts. Within a few days, Ah Chong and his mother were a little crazy. ”

Ah Chong choked up and shouted, "Why don't you go and look for it." ”

The old village chief said with a guilty face, "It just rained in those days, it was a good time for spring ploughing, sowing seeds for a few days, no one wanted to miss the solar terms, and every household was busy in the field." Who cares about other people's affairs. Besides, your father used to help people outside at that time, and it was common for him not to come home for a few days, and everyone thought your mother was making a fuss. ”

Later, Ah Chong's mother said when she saw people that Ah Chong's father was captured by bad people, save him, save him. I also felt that something was not quite right, was it an old mistake and caused trouble outside? ”

"I remember that just a few days before Ah Chong's father's accident, a few people came to the village to look for him, and one of them seemed to have come to the village to exchange food. Hey, old man, do you remember this? ”

Uncle Li, who had been eager to interject before, nodded again and again at this time, "I remember, that day I happened to be chatting with the neighbor of Widow Wang's on the street, and I saw with my own eyes a man with a scar on his bare head and a few people to Ah Chong's house. Not long after entering Ah Chong's house, Ah Chong's father was blasted out, and the two seemed to be quarrelling. I thought, it's been a long time since anyone in the village has come to exchange food, what are these people doing here? Is it that Ah Chong's father owes people money and hasn't paid it back? Seeing that they were all puffed up, I didn't dare to go up and ask......"

The old village chief nodded and said, "Well, the person who exchanged food is not authentic, and he doesn't look like a good person." I was worried that Ah Chong's father still had some connection with these people, so I didn't want to ask about it at first. “

"After a few days of delay, Ah Chong's father has not appeared again, and I also felt that something was wrong, and then organized the young adults in the village to search everywhere, and finally found Ah Chong's father's body in the ravine next to the old cemetery, and his body had been broken. Ah Chong's mother recognized the corpse as Ah Chong's father from her clothes, and she couldn't think about it for a while, so she hit her head and died on the stone. ”