It wasn't until dawn that the uncle got up cautiously and glanced out of the window, probably seeing that there was nothing unusual outside, so he touched the kang again, stood up and looked into the courtyard. I noticed that my uncle's expression became very strange, a little frightened, but more than happy. Later, as I grew older, I knew how to describe my uncle's mood at that time, one word - the aftermath of the catastrophe.

I also stood up in bed and was shocked when I saw what I saw outside the window.

The two old hens in the yard were dead, and they were so miserable that they were torn into several pieces, and their entrails were spilled everywhere, and one of the chickens, whose head was still intact, and whose eyes were wide and round when he died, and the ribs of a chicken were torn open in the middle, and a row of mutilated ribs were exposed.

The whole yard is bounded by a clothesline, one side is full of chicken blood and internal organs, and the other side is very clean, and even the chicken blood splashed here.

The uncle looked at the courtyard for a long time, until his eyes fell on the red line of the clothesline, and suddenly let out a long breath.

If there were no red ropes left by the old firewood, the people in the house would probably not end up much better than the two hens in the yard.

That day, my mother was frightened, although my mother grew up in the countryside, she had seen chickens killed, and she had killed chickens herself, but the death of those two chickens left a big shadow in my mother's heart, until today, my mother has never raised chickens again, let alone eaten a bite of chicken.

I was also so frightened that I stood in front of the window for a long time without composure.

At this time, the two men in the family became the backbone of me and my mother, and my father asked my uncle to accompany me and my mother at home, and then walked through the bloody yard alone, and went to the mass grave mountain alone to find the old firewood.

However, my dad came back not long after he left, and Lao Chai Tou followed my dad into the courtyard gate. When he came, Lao Chai Tou was still carrying a very narrow and long burden.

Later, I heard Lao Chai Tou say that he didn't sleep all night last night, for fear that something would happen, but he couldn't stay at our house, if he was there, that thing might not come, but it didn't appear, and Lao Chai Tou couldn't do anything about it, if he left it alone, it would be a scourge after all.

Because of this, as soon as the sky was bright, Lao Chai Tou came in a hurry, and happened to meet my father not far from my house.

After entering the yard, Lao Chai Tou glanced at the two dead chickens on the ground, and muttered: "It's really a troublesome thing." ”

When he walked over the clothesline, Lao Chai Tou easily knotted the red thread tied to it.

When my dad opened the door of the house, he turned his head and said the only thing he had said to Lao Chai in the past two days: "Uncle Chai, look at this yard, do you want to clean it up?" ”

Lao Chai Tou waved his hand at my father: "Don't worry about these things, let Yangyang's mother cook a meal, and I want meat and vegetables to match, I will be useful." ”

When Lao Chai Tou spoke, he looked directly at my father, and I have gradually become accustomed to this kind of look from Lao Chai Tou. But my dad was obviously very uncomfortable with Lao Chai Tou's eyes, and kept twisting his face to the side to avoid meeting Lao Chai Tou's eyes.

As soon as Lao Chai Tou finished speaking, my dad hurried into the house, as if it was not only Lao Chai Tou's eyes that made him feel uncomfortable, but also something else.

After my dad entered the house, he picked up the broom and pinch next to the door and cleaned it up in the yard.

At that time, no one, including my uncle, knew how old Lao Chai Tou was, he looked like an old man, and the folds on his face were as deep as the lines on the bark of a tree, but no matter what he did, his hands and feet were very nimble, and his strength was surprisingly great, much greater than that of the village farmers in their thirties.

Lao Chai Tou first gathered up the corpses of the two hens, and then found a sack from the pergola, and put them in, and the chicken blood quickly ooped out of the surface of the sack, but Lao Chai Tou didn't care at all, I saw that the blood seeped out of the sack and sprinkled indiscriminately on Lao Chai Tou's feet, but it didn't get on Lao Chai Tou's clothes at all, as if the blood was deliberately trying to avoid Lao Chai Tou.

And I remember that when I got up in the morning, the blood on the chicken's body had already coagulated and blackened, but after being put into a bag by the old firewood, the blood seemed to melt again, and the color was very red, that bright red.

Lao Chai Tou carried the sack out of the yard, and soon came back, when he came back, the sack no longer knew where to go, but saw that he was holding a handful of very fresh loess in his hand. He sprinkled the loess evenly in the four corners of the courtyard and brought a bucket of water from the well. Our bucket is huge, and when it's filled with water, even my dad can barely lift it with two hands. But with only one hand, Lao Chai Tou easily lifted a bucket full of water.

Uncle leaned against the window and watched, and couldn't help sighing: "Tsk, the old firewood has the strength to say it." ”

At this time, the old firewood head was holding a bucket in his right hand, and his left hand was dipped in some water from the tube, which seemed to be sprinkled in the yard at random, and there were words in his mouth.

Strange to say, the water spilled from the old firewood dried up as soon as it touched the ground, and the chicken blood that was originally solidified on the ground also disappeared one by one with the drying up of the water stains.

The more I watched, the more amazing I felt, and the more I wanted to know what Lao Chai Tou was doing. But at this time, my dad came out of the kitchen, and when he saw me lying on the windowsill, he called me to help in the kitchen.

In normal times, my dad rarely goes into the kitchen, but this time my mom is really frightened, my dad can't cook, just sit in the kitchen with my mom, I arrived in the kitchen, I saw my mom's face was very pale, but the hands and feet were still as sharp as ever, picking vegetables, washing vegetables, stir-frying, all the movements were almost the same as usual, except for every move seemed to reveal a trace of weakness.

At that time, it was difficult for me to understand my mother's mood at that time. The tragic scene in the courtyard was repeated in her mind over and over again, like a slideshow, and it was not controlled at all. My mother's hands and feet were cold at the time, but when my father said that Lao Chai Tou wanted to prepare some wine and food, he didn't say a word and went into the kitchen.

Five meat dishes, five vegetarian dishes, these ten dishes, my mother was forced to support the physical and mental torment to finish, until about an hour later, when Lao Chai Tou entered the house, my mother breathed a sigh of relief, and then it was like a sudden deflate, if it wasn't for my father's hand to hold her, almost collapsed to the ground.

Lao Chai Tou was also startled, hurried to my mother to take a look, and then breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that I was frightened, it's okay, and it will be fine after a while." ”

While talking, Lao Chai Tou happened to see the ten dishes on the stove, and when he looked at my mother again, there was obviously more respect in his eyes.

My dad helped my mom back to the kang to rest, and Lao Chai Tou also followed, pinched out a small pinch of tobacco from his dry tobacco bag, handed it to my dad, and said, "Let Yangyang's mother eat it, don't worry, this is not the dry tobacco I usually smoke, it is a herb that blindly nourishes the spirit." ”

Although my dad still has some mustard in his heart for Lao Chai Tou, but that's because of me, aside from this layer, my dad trusts Lao Chai Tou in his heart. After taking the tobacco, I didn't think much about it, so I fed it to my mother.

After eating Lao Chai Tou's "tobacco", my mother soon became groggy, as if she was going to fall asleep in an instant, but she still held on and didn't want to fall asleep, I felt that my mother was struggling to even open her eyes, but she still forced her eyes to open, looking at Lao Chai Tou with a very worried look.

Lao Chai Tou sighed: "Don't worry, with me, Yangyang will be fine." ”

After hearing this, my mother closed her eyes, and really fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes.

After that, Lao Chai Tou asked my father and uncle to prepare dishes and chopsticks, saying that they wanted to eat.

At first, my uncle wanted to warm up the leftovers from last night, but Lao Chai Tou brought my mother's fried five vegetarian dishes to the table, and then ignored my father and uncle, and ate alone.

Except for Lao Chai Tou himself, no one knew what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd, and he obviously said that the wine and food were kept for use, but he actually ate the vegetarian dishes.

Lao Chai Tou ate unusually fast, and ate most of the five dishes in three strokes and five divided by two, and then leaned against the window to smoke. The window he leaned against was just south of the house, and the hot sunlight shone through the window and fell on the old firewood. Lao Chai Tou seemed to be very uncomfortable with being exposed to direct sunlight, and it didn't take long for the skin on his face and neck to turn red.

The uncle was puzzled by Lao Chaitou's actions, and tried to talk to Lao Chaitou, but Lao Chaitou seemed to be suddenly deaf, no matter what the uncle said, he didn't respond.

And the cigarette that Lao Chai Tou smoked at this time is indeed different from usual, when the tobacco burns, there is no choking smell in the past, and there is rarely smoke, but it has always exuded a very fragrant smell, that taste, a little inhalation will immediately enter the internal organs, making people's mood become extraordinarily calm.

Lao Chai Tou leaned against the window like this, slowly twitching his eyes, his eyes staring out, but his eyes seemed to have no focus, and he didn't know where he was looking. Since coming to my house, Lao Chai Tou has been carrying that long burden, and he doesn't know what is in it.

My father and uncle didn't dare to disturb him anymore, and they didn't know whether the leftover dishes should be eaten by Lao Chaitou, but later my uncle still heated the leftovers of the hot evening and ate them for breakfast.

At noon, the sun was exposed, and Lao Chai Tou's face and neck were about to be sunburned and peeled, but he still stood silently like that, only when his uncle wanted to help him close the window, he stretched out his hand to block his uncle, and then he didn't speak, just stood silently.