As soon as I entered the house, my dad collapsed on the couch and sighed.

My mother poured a cup of hot water and handed it to my dad: "Dad, what's wrong with the old Wang family, it was fine yesterday, why ......?"

My dad looked at the water cup in his hand, and he didn't have the heart to drink it, so he put the cup aside and took out a cigarette and lit it: "Alas, the stove is burning at night." The smell of soot in the house, a family of four, was all poisoned. ”

At that time, there was no collective heating in the building, and in winter, every household would stock up on honeycomb coal and build their own stoves for heating. During that time, carbon monoxide poisoning often occurred in our small county.

My mother also sighed: "Alas, the eldest daughter of the old Wang family, she will be admitted to high school next year, if this happens, it may affect her studies." If you want to say that Lao Wang is too, it's not winter yet, what kind of stove to order? ”

"I'm afraid that the old Wang family won't be able to survive this time." My dad pinched his cigarette and said sullenly, "When I carried people out, the family of four was already out of gas." ”

My mother looked sorry: "It's a good family, why did this happen." ”

My dad still had a half-extinguished cigarette butt in his hand, and he remained silent, his brow furrowed tightly, as if he was trying to remember something.

After a long time, my dad lit another cigarette, shook his head and said, "Something is wrong, something is wrong." When Lao Liu and I went in to carry people, Lao Wang and his family of four looked like they were staring, sticking out their tongues, and their hands and feet were shrunk together, not like they were poisoned at all, but like they were strangled to death. ”

When my dad said this, my mom was scared, "Dad, don't scare me." When I first moved here, I heard that there had been people dead in this building, and Lao Wang's family would not have been ...... I guess I was killed by that. ”

My dad glared at my mom: "Don't talk nonsense! What kind of life, that's all old superstition......"

Halfway through the words, my dad didn't go on, he must have felt that there was something strange about the old Wang family, but my dad couldn't say what was wrong.

Not long after, there was a knock on my door and my dad was told to go out and discuss things.

In the afternoon of the same day, a lot of public security officers came to the building. Listening to Liu Shangang, Lao Wang's family died when they were sent to the hospital, and they couldn't be saved, and then the people in the building called the police.

When I was young, I didn't know how to be afraid, so I mixed in the crowd with Liu Shangang to watch the police investigate the case.

There were a few burly police officers guarding the door of Lao Wang's house, saying that they were blocking the scene, and a few people looked around the house and took a few photos from time to time.

During this period, there was also a person who looked like a leader to ask questions everywhere, but the questions were the same, such as who reported the case and who was the first to discover the scene of the crime.

Liu Shangang and I watched for a while, and felt bored, so we got out of the crowd and went to the patio to smash sandbags and play.

There was also an old man who came with the police, tall and thin, wearing an old blue-gray military uniform, which looked like a telephone pole from a distance. I saw him enter Lao Wang's house with my own eyes and inspect the scene with the police, but since he entered the house, his eyes have been looking towards the ceiling, and he is still chanting words.

I didn't play with Liu Shangang for a while, and the old man also came to the patio and beckoned to me from afar: "Little doll, come here, come here, grandpa will give you a piece of candy to eat." ”

As soon as I heard that there was candy to eat, I threw away my sandbag and ran over happily, and Liu Shangang ran faster than me, and reached the old man like a gust of wind.

The old man took out two pieces of toffee from his pocket, opened one of them and stuffed it into Liu Shangang's mouth, and said: "When I see you like this, I know that you are a small chatter, so give you a piece first and plug your mouth." ”

Don't say it, Liu Shangang is really a nag, he has been since he was a child.

Liu Shangang chewed the candy cubes, shouting "delicious, sweet" while chewing, and the horns of his mouth kept dripping down.

The old man smiled and shoved another piece of candy into me, and I took two bites, only to find that the candy was like a cowhide band, and it didn't taste at all.

I glanced at Liu Shangang, who was enjoying himself, and wondered at the time: "Why is my piece not sweet?" ”

Hearing me say this, the old man smiled very brightly: "Hehe, isn't it sweet? It's not sweet! ”

I spit out the sugar in my mouth, and pretended to be angry and gave the old man a white look, and turned his head to leave. But then the old man took out another piece of candy from his pocket, and I couldn't see when he peeled off the candy wrapper, and the piece of candy was stuffed into my mouth.

The candy is sweet and has a strong aroma in my mouth, I have never tasted such delicious sugar.

The old man smiled at me and asked, "Is it sweet?" ”

I originally wanted to say "sweet", but when I remembered the "cowhide band" that the old man had just given me, I made a very indifferent look and pouted: "It's okay." ”

"Hehe, it's a big ghost." The old man patted my head with a smile and asked me with a smile, "What's your name?" How old are you this year? ”

Without thinking about it, I replied, "My name is Zuo Kang, and I ...... this year Hmmm......"

Just as I was counting how old I was with my fingers, I suddenly found that the old man was staring at me with a pair of big eyes, which were straight and bright, almost discharged.

I was startled by the old man's expression, and goosebumps all over my body suddenly rose.

Even the smile on the old man's face seemed to me to be very terrible, and he smiled even brighter, and he stretched out his hand to touch my head, and I was so frightened that I burst into tears.

The old man's hand stopped in mid-air, and he asked me with a frown, "Why are you crying?" I'm not a ghost. ”

Hearing him say this, I remembered what my mother said in the morning, what is it, what is it, what is it, is it a ghost? At that time, although I was young, I had heard a lot of ghost stories, and it happened that during that time, I had only seen the opening of the film once, and I was so scared that I didn't dare to go to the toilet by myself for several days.

At this time, all those gods and ghosts suddenly came to my mind, and the more I thought about it, the more scared I became, and the more I was afraid, the louder I cried.

As soon as I cried and made a fuss, the people gathered at the door of Lao Wang's house came to the patio one after another.

The first one to come to the patio was Liu Shangang's father, who quickly picked me up, and then yelled at the old man: "What are you doing? ”

The old man had an innocent expression: "I didn't do anything." ”

"Didn't you do it? Why didn't you scare the child like this? When Liu Shangang's father shouted at the old man, many people had already gathered in the patio.

The people who live in the tube building are all employees of a factory, whether they are working or living, they are all allowed in a small circle, although the neighbors will quarrel over a little trivial, but no matter who encounters something, it is these neighbors and neighbors who come out for you.

The old man estimated that he had seen a lot of people, and he was afraid of suffering, so he sighed, turned his head and left the tube building, and before leaving the gate, he muttered: "Alas, there is no fate, and I can't force it." ”

No one knew what he meant, but he didn't bother to guess.

Not long after the old man left, the police also evacuated the scene, and in the end, Lao Wang's case was characterized as an ordinary carbon monoxide poisoning accident, but everyone knew that things were not so simple.

However, as time passed, life in the building gradually became more stable.

Everyone thought that this was the end of the matter, but since then, I have not had a few illnesses since I was a child, but my body has become very weak, and I will have an illness almost every few weeks.

When I first got sick, without exception, I had a stomach ache first, and then I started to catch a cold, and then a simple stomach ache turned into acute gastroenteritis, not only diarrhea, but also vomiting, almost everything I ate and vomited, and a small cold also became a high fever.

Watching me change from a chubby mound to a skinny one, but my dad and my mom were so anxious that my mom simply quit her job as a milk delivery and concentrated on taking care of me at home.

When I was most sick, it happened to be the time when the efficiency of the factory was not good in 94, and I often couldn't even pay my salary, and at that time, almost all of our family's savings were handed over to the hospital, and life gradually became difficult.

But for me at that time, life was not difficult, I couldn't feel it, it was nothing more than less meat when eating, and there were no new clothes to wear except for the New Year, anyway, even if there was meat to eat, I couldn't eat much, a boy, I didn't care if there were new clothes to wear.

On the contrary, I was quite glad that I was sick at that time, although it was very uncomfortable to pull and vomit, but at least I didn't have to go to school, I didn't have to do my homework, and I just lay in bed and watched TV every day. For six or seven-year-old children, television is definitely the most indispensable thing in life.

But a high fever soon after, almost killed me.

The winter when I was seven years old was very cold, and our place was relatively dry, and the wind blew on my face, like cutting with a knife, first it was cold, and then it hurt hotly.

Since the beginning of winter, I have a high fever, which has not subsided for more than a week, and one day my mother took my temperature and took out a thermometer to see, I actually had a fever of 42 degrees.

My mom quickly called my dad, and when my dad came back, I was in a daze, my mom wrapped me in a coat, and then my dad carried me to the hospital.

I only have a vague impression of what happened later, I only remember that Liu Shangang and his father drove the noodle packing truck in the factory, pulling me and my dad to the hospital to infusion water, I don't know when I arrived at the hospital, I fell asleep on the way, and I didn't even wake up when I got the needle.

But there's one thing I remember very well. When my dad carried me out of the building, my face was resting on my dad's shoulder, and I could see the window of a house on the fourth floor. The light in the window was very dim, but I could clearly see that an old lady in an earthy yellow cotton jacket was standing by the window and staring at me, her hair was all white, her figure was extremely thin, her back was bent, her face was wrinkled and wrinkled, and she looked like an old tree that had died for a long time.