Thankfully, someone else came after a while.

The man, like his father, timidly asked if he could borrow a place to roast the fire, saying that he was too cold to roast and wanted to bake for a while and wait for his body to warm up before leaving.

Grandpa was just about to reply, thinking that he was also roasting by the fire and was not qualified to invite others, so he shut up.

The five men still didn't speak, but moved away enough to sit in a position like a grandfather.

Naturally, the man sat down happily and stretched out his palms to bake the fire.

He probably also wanted to find a companion to walk with, so he asked everyone, "Are you going to Tibet or Sichuan?" I'm going to Sichuan, and if any of you go to Sichuan, we can go the same way. The man's voice was like a broken gong, and his voice was very loud.

The five men remained deaf to the warm invitation.

Grandpa thinks it's strange, could it be that these five people are all deaf? He looked at them one by one and saw that something was wrong with them. But he couldn't tell what was wrong.

Grandpa was afraid that the newcomer would be cold, so he said, "Zhuo No, I'm going to Sichuan, so I can go with you." "Zhuo is not Tibetan, it means friend. Grandpa felt that the five people might not understand his words, so he deliberately called the newcomer in Tibetan.

The five of them turned their heads together and glanced at their father.

It seems that they do understand the Tibetan language. Daddy thought to himself.

The newcomer, though not a native in terms of his attire, knew some simple Tibetan. When he saw that his grandfather could go with him, he nodded happily and said, "Then rest for the night, let's go together tomorrow." ”

Daddy nodded in agreement.

It may be that the wind is relatively strong, it may be that the ground is humid, or it may be that the temperature at night is too low, and Grandpa has been roasting with them for a long time and still has no intention of warmth, but feels colder than just now.

In view of this situation, Grandpa did not dare to leave this fire, for fear that after leaving here, he would freeze to death on the road.

Daddy glanced at the new man, who didn't seem to be very cold when he came, just holding his arms and breathing, but now he shrank with his hands to the flames and shivered, like a little hedgehog that had been caught.

The five people seemed to be lukewarm, and the temperature was just right. An eerie smile appeared on one of them. The other, much older-looking man, glanced at the man, who immediately put away his smile. The eerie smile melted and disappeared like a snowflake on his face, leaving no trace.

Daddy looked ahead, but he couldn't see the lights or the house, but he looked back, and the road he came from was drowned in darkness, and when he looked up, a lonely moon hung like a voyeuristic eye, which was as empty and cold as the eyes of the five people. Daddy looked down again, the flames licking the air like countless snakes, and the firewood crackled beneath the flames.

Looking to the left, the pitch-black mountain stands tall, blocking half of the sky, and it is definitely impossible to climb it. Looking to the right, the sound of the gurgling water is as always, and it will definitely not be able to cross, and if you get wet clothes, you will freeze to death faster if you don't drown. Grandpa felt that the place where the fire was baked was a little delicate. There is no shop in front of the village, and there is no road to go left and right. In case these five people are bandits who kill people and steal goods, they and the newcomer will become fish on the chopping block, rabbits in traps, and can only be slaughtered.

Thinking about it in his heart, the more Grandpa felt that these five people were secretly killing. Perhaps there were sharp knives hidden under their loose clothes, sacks under their buttocks, and blackened blood between their fingers.

Maybe they're wanted murderers. The reason why they ignore others and don't reply is because they are afraid that someone will find out their identity.

At this time, the voice of conversation sounded behind Grandpa.

Grandpa hurriedly turned his head to look as if he was looking forward to a savior, hoping that they would join in. In this way, the number of people is more advantageous, and even if the five people want to do something, they will not act rashly.

The sound of speech is getting closer, and the footsteps are getting clearer. Finally, two people came out of the darkness. The two were obviously local, spoke the local dialect, and wore local clothes.

But when the two men found the people gathered around the fire, they seemed to be suddenly frightened, and their steps suddenly slowed down, and they pointed and whispered something that Grandpa did not understand.

The newcomer waved excitedly to the two of them and shouted, "Zhuo No, come and bake the fire together!" ”

The two men shrank back as if they were hiding from a plague patient, waving their hands in unison.

Then the two of them quarreled as if something was going to do, one was going to do something, the other was against what to do, pulling and pulling, pushing and shoving.

Grandpa saw it in a fog.

The last person persuaded the other person, they bypassed their grandfather and them, and instead of taking the good road, they stepped on the edge of the road and hid.

As they had passed, one of them looked back frequently, and the other pulled him forward for fear that his companion would come back.

Grandpa thought to himself, are they afraid of these five people? Did they know these five people?

Grandpa's heart is not steady. He stood up, patted the dirt on his body, pretended to be uncomfortable, grabbed the belt of his waist and said, "Ouch, this urine is suffocating, I'll go to the forest to pee and come back." With that, he ran to the foot of the hill on the left and hid behind a tree.

Grandpa hugged the tree and looked at the situation next to the fire, and the six people did not suspect that he was here to relieve himself, and they were all quietly roasting the fire.

Daddy hurriedly stood on tiptoe and ran towards the two locals who had just passed.

When it comes to daddy running, it's a must. Everyone in Thrush Village knows that Daddy runs as light as a cat, and he once performed a show of catching a cat at night. Daddy will also escape, when the Japanese invaded, he once caught Daddy and tied Daddy in the barracks. The next day, the Japanese soldiers saw a pile of rope on the chairs in the barracks, but they didn't see their father. Later, he taught my grandfather the art of escape, and my grandfather personally demonstrated the method to me, which was indeed very ingenious. The family, including my grandfather, never knew where my grandfather learned these thaumaturgical skills.

This is like when he is so old that he needs someone to help him, but he can suddenly run to the door and grab Xiaomi, which I can't understand, but I have to believe that it is true.

But my grandfather has a different view on catching millet, and he thinks it's because my grandfather loves me.

Sometimes, the love of elders can make them burst out with extraordinary power.

Because after grabbing the millet, my father lay on the old bamboo chair like a snakeskin shed for many days, as if there was only an empty shell left in his body.

It is undeniable that Daddy's steps are indeed lighter than those of cats. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen my dad suddenly appear in front of Xiaomi without realizing it.

Daddy caught up with the two sneaky locals with cat-light steps.

The two men were very surprised to see their grandfather chasing after them.

"Zhuo No, why don't you bake the fire together?" Daddy asked.

Seeing that he was the only one coming, the locals were not as frightened as before, and warned in suffocated Chinese: "If you want to bake the fire with them, you will never leave here!" ”

Grandpa had already guessed that the answer was like this, but he was still taken aback and hurriedly asked why.

The locals said, "Don't you notice that the more you roast, the colder it gets?" ”

Grandpa felt the same way, nodded again and again and said, "Yes, yes." But isn't that because the temperature is too low? If you don't have a fire, it's even colder. ”

The man whispered mysteriously, "It's not that the temperature is low, it's that there is something wrong with those five people." They were the frozen ghosts who had frozen to death here before. ”

"Frozen to death?" Daddy was surprised.

The man hurriedly covered his father's mouth and looked nervously behind him, afraid that the frozen ghosts would hear his father's voice.

The man lowered his voice and said, "Don't let them hear it!" When we passed by you just now, we didn't dare to expose them, because we were afraid that they would retaliate. In principle, they only harm outsiders passing by, but if they are angry, they will also harm the locals. ”

Daddy nodded, and the man let go of his hand.

"How do they hurt people? Like just now, people get colder and colder, and finally freeze to death? Daddy asked.

The man nodded, "Yes." When they die, it is because the heat from their bodies is taken away, so when they die, they will try to steal heat from the body of the living. They would pretend to be roasting in a remote and cold place, and when passers-by joined them, the living people who baked the fire would get colder and colder, and the heat would be sucked away little by little, and finally they would freeze to death like them. ”