Xie Shuang never knew the name of the boy who drowned in the river. But the way he looked when he died followed her all his life, until she left this world that was not too suitable for her.

When young children encounter something they cannot understand, their first thought is naturally to seek explanations from their parents.

The day she told her mother about her strange dreams, there happened to be a guest at home.

The guest was a gray-haired old lady.

The old lady looked at people strangely, and kept muttering something that others couldn't understand.

After she arrived at Xie's house, she asked Xie Shuang's parents to tell all the doors and windows of the house to be closed, and to strip Xie Shuang's second brother naked and lay him flat on the bed. A brazier was placed in the middle of the room.

When she had arranged the things, the old lady threw a few pieces of paper money into the brazier, and after muttering something, she danced and sang and danced like crazy.

She sings very loudly, the lyrics are still some strange pronunciations, and when she sings, she has to close her eyes and wave her arms in the air wildly, circling around the brazier. From time to time, I have to clap my hands and stomp my feet, pointing at the second brother on the bed and yelling at something.

It was at this time that Xie Shuang told her mother about her dream.

After hearing her nightmare, her mother not only hugged her and coaxed her as usual, but gently said "don't be afraid", but slapped her without thinking.

The force of that slap was not light, and Xie Shuang, who was beaten, stood in place in a daze for a long time, but couldn't react.

There were countless stars twinkling in front of her eyes, and there was a "buzzing" noise in her ears all the time, and she didn't even notice that her mother covered her eyes and cried sadly after beating her.

It wasn't until the old lady stopped jumping and chanting words, opened her eyes again, and pointed at the second brother on the bed and yelled at something. The mother came to her senses. leaned over to the old lady, pointed to Xie Shuang, who was standing aside in a daze, and whispered something.

The old lady looked at Xie Shuang with a goosebump-inducing look for a while, and then took a cup, burned a piece of talisman paper in it, and poured it into the water for the second brother.

When the old lady left, she took away the eggs that the Xie family had accumulated for three months. There is also a stack of banknotes of various denominations.

That night, the second brother recovered from the gibberish, trembling and convulsions that lasted for several days.

After that, no one in the family mentioned the drowned boy in blue. The Xie family's life seems to have returned to its original peace, everyone can do whatever they want, and everything is back on track.

Except for Xie Shuang.

The two brothers in the family no longer take the initiative to tease her, and they don't even take the initiative to talk to her, and every time she asks to go out with the two of them, all they get is a negative answer and a look that they can't avoid.

And the head of the family. Xie Shuang's father, who often looked at her in distress, lit a cigarette and sighed until the cigarette was finished. Then the father would throw the cigarette butt on the ground, crush it with his toes a few times, and finally point to Xie Shuang's forehead and shout a few "debt collectors".

Only her mother is occasionally willing to take the initiative to talk to her, but only occasionally. Every time I held her. A deep fear could be seen in the mother's eyes.

Little Xie Shuang grew up slowly in such an environment.

I don't know how the rumors got out.

When she found out that no one seemed to have ever taken the initiative to play with her. The children in the village, whether they were older than her, younger than her, or the same age as her. He would already spit on her every time he saw her, or throw something at her, and run away as fast as he could.

By the time she was seven or eight years old, she could clearly distinguish the malice of the people around her, and even learned to avoid stones, wild fruits, or other debris flying towards her when she encountered a half-grown child waving at her.

In the years that followed. She still occasionally dreams about the death of people she knows or doesn't know. And these dreams often become reality the next day.

Xie Shuang, who grew up, also understood little by little what was different from others, and the reason why the people in the village avoided her like a flood beast.

At first, she would also tell her dreams to others, and after getting countless disgusted eyes and frightened backs, she also learned to deal with most dreams in silence and calm. And keep them deep in your heart. Even if someone took the initiative to ask, she would be silent.

The days of isolation lasted until the age of sixteen.

At that time, she had already graduated from junior high school, maybe because her relationships were so bad that there was nothing else to do, and her grades were not bad. Even after a final effort before the high school entrance examination, I stepped on the line and got the provincial key admission letter.

This incident was undoubtedly explosive news in that small village. After all, this is a remote village where most children go out to work after junior high school, and even college students have never been out of a village.

The last time someone was admitted to the provincial key was three or four years ago.

The summer vacation after the high school entrance examination was probably the happiest two months of Xie Shuang's life.

Although no one still wants to talk to her, and no one wants to play with her, at least when the adults in the village see her, they will still say true or false: "Xiaoshuang, amazing!" ”

Her two older brothers had already dropped out of school at this time to work, and she was the only child left in the family, plus the bonus of test scores, and her parents' attitude towards her during that time was much better...... At least it's much better than before.

The most important time, she fell in love with someone.

It was a boy from a provincial town, and he happened to be in his second year of high school at the key high school she was going to. His mother, an art teacher, took her students to the mountains during the summer vacation, and brought her son with her because she was worried that she would have no one to take care of him at home.

Xie Shuang met him in the evening. She went home along the embankment, and the boy was sitting on the embankment, blocking her only way, throwing small stones into the river and playing. He sat there, watching the little stones fall into the water, splashing a little bit of water, and a little lonely smile appeared on his face.

She stood beside the boy and watched for a moment. The boy didn't seem to notice her, and kept throwing stones into the river.

"That ......" Xie Shuang whispered to the boy in front of him, "Excuse me, can you let me?" ”

When the boy heard this, he turned around, smiled at Xie Shuang, quickly stood up, and whispered to her, "I'm sorry." ”

The sunset of the day was orange. A large cloud on the horizon was dyed red. The golden sun fell on the ground, on the river, and on the boy's body.

He was wearing a plain white shirt with black-framed eyes, and the lenses reflected the golden sunlight, making it impossible to see his eyes.

For Xie Shuang, who has never left the village and has only seen some bear children who have nothing to do and go up the mountain and down the river, rolling around in the mud. He was simply clean like someone from another world.

Under the boy's polite gaze, she bowed her head deeply and ran past him as fast as she could, not even daring to say a word more than a "thank you".

When she got home that night, she stood in front of the mirror and observed her face.

Strictly speaking, she doesn't look bad, even if she is placed in a big city. She can also be called a beautiful little girl.

It's just that at that time, she didn't have a clear concept of beauty. In her impression. The sought-after girls at school seem to like to wear colorful makeup, dye their hair like a colorful shuttlecock, apply different colors of nail polish to their ten fingers, and bring some shiny jewelry.

But she didn't have the money to dress herself like that.

The girl in the mirror has long black hair and a high nose. Because of the few days of the holiday, I ran outside every day. The skin has already turned sunburned.

It seems that she can be regarded as a sunny girl, but she may be because she has not communicated with people for a long time. At this time, even if you are facing the mirror, you will still subconsciously lower your head and avoid the sight in the mirror.

Not only that, but she also has a thick layer. The bangs, which almost drooped to the tip of her nose, completely blocked her sparkling eyes. When she looked at herself in the mirror through the gap in her bangs, the girl in the mirror was looking back at her with a thief-like look.

Not cute at all.

Thinking so, she raised her hand to lift the bangs she had left for a long time to the top of her head. With the position where the bangs just hung down as the dividing line, the skin on her forehead is much fairer than below, and the dividing line in the middle can almost divide her in two. Above the brow bone, there is a slender scar, which has just crusted over, and there is a little pink near the wound.

It was a wound that was scratched by a three-year-old child brought by an aunt in the village a few days ago.

"It's even uglier!" She stood in front of the mirror and whispered to herself.

As it got dark, there was a sudden noise outside the gate, and her parents were home.

She immediately put down her bangs and went to greet her parents.

In the days that followed, she would go to the embankment where she had met the boy every day, creating some kind of carefully calculated "coincidence", just to see the boy say "hello" to her or simply nod and smile at her.

I just had to see him and I was happy.

Such a sweet little secret was buried in the heart of a teenage girl, and in that sunny summer, the long pages of rapid budding and upward growth were crazy.

By the end of the holiday, Xie Shuang's heart was already covered with a towering tree. The lush foliage of the trees covered the poor soil below, giving her a large area of cool shade.

The day before school started, she passed by the embankment for the last time.

Be sure to ask his name today.

Even if he doesn't tell me, say to him, "My name is Xie Shuang." ”

Along the way, she said this to herself in her heart.

But when she really saw the boy, her tongue was knotted again in disobedience.

It was the boy who took the initiative to say hello to her.

He said, "Hi, I seem to see you every day." Can you tell your name? ”

"I'm ......" Xie Shuang stared at the smiling boy in front of him, and heard the sound of his heart beating suddenly.

She clenched her fists so hard that her nails dug deep into her palms, causing a slight pain.

"My name is Xie Shuang, thank you, the frost of autumn frost." She straightened up and shouted at the boy, "What about you, what's your name?" ”

The boy seemed to be startled by her sudden amplification of volume, glared in surprise, and did not make a sound for a while.

That's too bad, I guess what's your name.

It's like interrogating a prisoner, and he must be reluctant to talk to me.

Xie Shuang thought with remorse in her heart.

"My name is ......," the boy replied with a smile when he came back to his senses.

But before he finished speaking, the two heard a sharp and piercing car horn, accompanied by the characteristic "whine" sound of motorcycles.

A man shouted loudly in the noise: "Two children over there, get out of the way, don't get in the way!" ”

Before the man could finish speaking, the speeding motorcycle had already arrived in front of the two.

The two of them had to take two steps back and make way for the motorcycle.

The motorcycle drove past Xie Shuang like a wild, leaving a choking cloud of dust that blurred her vision.

But this did not delay her from seeing the boy who was still standing in front of her step into the air and roll down the embankment.

The concrete embankment had only been repaired for two years, and before that it was a meandering river lined with tall trees.

The boy didn't even let out a scream, and fell down the steep embankment into the river.

Xie Shuang stood on the river embankment, looking at a small whirlpool that appeared in the middle of the river at some point, and suddenly felt chills all over his body, like falling into an ice cave, and even his soul seemed to freeze for a few seconds.

In the center of the whirlpool stood a boy in a blue shirt with a puffy face and distorted facial features.

He couldn't see Hitomi Ren in one of his eyes, only a large area of whites, and at this time he was staring at Xie Shuang viciously, revealing a strange smile.

The smile hung on his deformed face, and it looked like a twisted horror.

Xie Shuang and the boy in the river looked at each other for a few minutes before they reacted violently, and after screaming, they began to shout for help at the top of their voices.

The embankment was not far from the farmland, and she only shouted a few times before she saw someone running in the direction of the embankment.

Unfortunately, by the time those people ran to the river and figured out the situation, the boy who fell into the river had already disappeared into the water without a trace.

That night, the entire embankment was lit up. I don't know how many people are by the river, looking back and forth in the river for the boy who fell into the river.

Just like the overboard incident more than ten years ago.

The only difference is that this time, the body did not surface on its own, but disappeared.

Of course, these things don't have much to do with Xie Shuang anymore.

After witnessing the whole thing, she once again had a high fever and fell into a confused coma.

Of course, this is not the end of the matter.

During the short half month that she was unconscious, seven or eight people fell into the water in the same place one after another.

Without exception, they all fell into the river and disappeared in the blink of an eye, and none of the bodies surfaced on their own after a few days of drowning, as is the case with ordinary drowning.

The shadow of death loomed silently over the entire village, causing panic in the hearts of the people.

Adults warn their children not to go near the riverbank. And they themselves would rather take a detour than walk on the high embankment.

But even so, the accident did not stop, but intensified.

By the day Xie Shuang woke up, the number of people who had fallen into the water was already ten.

On that day, a fortune teller happened to come to the village and helped them do a ritual by the river, overtaking the souls in the river.

Of course, this matter did not end with the three-minute ritual after the whole process.

(To be continued.) )