Chapter 50: The Wasteland

Anyway, it's just a matter of pulling out the grave grass. Since I saw it, if I flicked my sleeves and walked over blindly, I couldn't do it.

I rolled up my sleeves, squatted down, and pulled it up. Although it rained the first day, the soil next to the tombstone was very hard, and the rain could not penetrate it at all. It took a lot of work for me to pull out the grass and wipe the sweat from my forehead, I got up and looked around, and saw that the fog had almost begun to dissipate, but the sun had not yet risen, and the trees on the top of the mountain looked like they had been washed by water, and the birds and finches were fluttering their wings and flying around the trees.

I turned around and was about to leave when I glanced down and saw a woman standing in front of one of the row of tombstones at the foot of the mountain. The cemetery is open during the day, and many people come to visit the grave every day.

The woman was carrying a small broom in one hand and a bulging bag in the other, and it seemed that she had come to sweep the grave. I was about to withdraw my gaze when the woman raised her head and looked at me. With such a pair of eyes, I suddenly felt that this woman was a little familiar, and then, I remembered... That night at the funeral home, I cast a spell to find the body of Old Man Liu, which was the birthday of Old Man Liu who asked this woman, she was one of Old Man Liu's children...

The woman recognized me and looked away in a panic. Looking at the monument in front of her, it was very new, I thought, it should be Old Man Liu's. That day, after telling Liu Fatzi the entrance to the basement, Xiang Feng and I left. It seems that after Old Man Liu's body was taken away and cremated, the ashes were buried here...

I hummed softly, and said in my heart, none of the children of this old man Liu are good. After the old man Liu died, this woman ran over pretending to be sad, looking sad and miserable, and came over with a broom to sweep his grave, as if he was so filial, what did people do when they were alive? I guess she probably wanted Old Man Liu to bless her with wealth in the Spirit of Heaven, so she came here...

Thinking of this, I decided to stimulate her hard. Stretching my hand to my mouth, I shouted at the woman, "Sister, sweep Uncle Liu's grave?" ”

The woman didn't dare to look at me, and lowered her head and said 'um'.

"It just so happened that I would give Uncle Liu a few sweeps by the way..."

I don't care if this woman agrees or not, I'll leave after that. Around the bottom row, in front of the woman, I looked at the tombstone, and sure enough, the name of the old man Liu was engraved.

A nameless fire sprung up from the bottom of my heart, grabbed the broom in the woman's hand, and brushed it a few times in the small clearing in front of the tombstone.

"Uncle Liu, Xiao Leng has come to see you. You raised a bunch of white-eyed wolves before you died, and you didn't enjoy much happiness. Now that I'm gone, the relationship with them is over, so let's break it. Bless them with wealth, that's delusional, right? It's almost the same to curse them for suffering, don't worry, people are doing it, the sky is watching, people without conscience will not end well, sooner or later God will clean up..."

I looked at the woman with my peripheral vision, and saw that her face was pale, her lips trembled, and I didn't know whether she was angry or frightened. I felt a sense of revenge in my heart, and was about to say more, when the woman let out a low sigh, crouched down, put her bag on the ground, and reached for the zipper with a trembling hand.

Seeing her pitiful appearance, I felt a little unbearable, so I didn't continue.

The woman unzipped it, took out a plate and two apples from her bag, put the apples on the plate, and placed the plate in front of the tombstone. Then he lit three sticks of incense and inserted them into the brick gap in front of the plate.

After placing some other tributes, the woman spoke, "Dad, this little master is right, we are a group of white-eyed wolves, and sooner or later there will be retribution." Mom died early, and it was you who pulled us up with hard work. But when you're old, we see you alone, living alone in that dilapidated building, and you're not even as good as a beast... It's all to blame for the cowardice of my daughter, Dad, you know, of all the children, I am the most timid and the most cowardly. married a strong, domineering husband. At that time, several times, I wanted to take you to my house to take care of you, but my husband said that I didn't care about the other brothers and sisters, and I didn't allow me to take care of it. When I argued with him, he kicked me and broke my leg, and from then on I didn't even dare to mention it again. I don't dare to run over to see you, because if my husband finds out from your neighbors, he will beat me to death... Today, I secretly bought some things and came to see you, not to get your forgiveness, I don't deserve your forgiveness at all, I just want to come and see you. Originally, I wanted to buy some paper to burn for you, but the people in this cemetery said that the paper was broken last night... Dad, are you okay down there? Is there enough money? Dad..."

That night, I saw this woman's kind face, so I asked her for Old Man Liu's eight characters. At this moment, seeing her crying while talking, kneeling on the ground, screaming one after another, I felt a little uncomfortable, and the resentment against her immediately dissipated.

I took out my handkerchief and handed it to her, "Sister, I apologize to you for my previous words, I blamed you for my mistakes..."

After persuading her for a while, the woman finally stopped crying and took the handkerchief. I shook my head and sighed, my eyes falling on the bag next to the woman, and I saw that there was still some leftover tribute in it.

"Big sister."

"Huh?"

I pointed to the bag and said, "May I lend you some tribute?" ”

"Absolutely."

I nodded, and said to myself, since I promised last night to bring some tribute to the tomb above, it must be done.

The woman picked up the bag first, "I'll help you carry it." ”

"Don't bother."

The woman insisted on helping me carry it, but in desperation, I had to follow her, and she followed me and walked up. When she came to the monument, the woman stared at the monument up and down, and suddenly let out a 'huh'.

"What's wrong?" I asked, confused.

"It's... This tomb..."

"What's wrong with this tomb? Do you know this man buried in the tomb? ”

"No, I don't know," the woman shook her head, gesturing with her hand, "I know this person." ”

The woman was referring to the man who erected the monument.

"Oh? Who is he? ”

"He's my former boss."

"Boss?"

"Hmm..."

The woman told me that she used to work for a state-owned enterprise, but in the 90s, she was laid off. In order to make ends meet, she entered a small private factory and processed lighting ornaments in it. The boss of the factory is this surnamed Ling, about forty years old, burly and tall, silent and introverted, very manly and charming, and many single female workers in the factory secretly like him. It is said that Boss Naling once got married once, and his wife died in a car accident, leaving him a daughter. His daughter was very smart and beautiful, very young and sensible. It's a pity that it's too thin, as if I heard that I had a strange disease, and I died later...

I looked at the tombstone and said in my heart, the boss's daughter is engraved on the tombstone, this is called 'Ling Xiao'.

"Boss Ling, where are you now?" I asked.

"It's long gone."

"Missing?" I frowned.

"Well, I was in that factory, and within a few months, the boss disappeared, and he didn't see anyone alive or dead. At that time, many people said that the boss ran away with the salary, I think it is unlikely, the equipment in the factory is the boss's own, and those equipment are worth more than the salary... Later, the police intervened in the investigation, and when nothing was found, the court sold the equipment at a price, paid the employees, and confiscated the rest of the money..."

I looked at the tombstone and said to myself, no wonder this tomb looks like it hasn't been swept for years, so it is. I think that Boss Ling must have paid enough management fees for many years back then, otherwise, this tomb would have been treated as an ownerless lonely grave...

After burning incense and paying tribute in front of this tomb, I heard Xiang Feng calling me from afar, so I said goodbye to this woman, and gave her my phone number, saying that if she knew something about Old Man Liu from her other brothers and sisters, or from other people's mouths, she would call me.

Back at the gate, Xiang Feng told me that he had signed a written agreement with the leader of the cemetery, and that he would send money to compensate for the loss of the paper. Actually, we didn't have much money, but we didn't have that much cash with us.

Leaving this cemetery, Xiang Feng and I returned to the compound where Zhu Bin and the others lived. Zhu Bin had already made a set of red bedding for that Xiao Jiu according to what Xiang Feng said, and arranged for his younger brothers to take turns guarding it. For the rest of the day, we still went to look for the building I saw in Xiao Jiu's eyes, but we still couldn't find it, so we had to give up. After another night in the compound, we decided to go back first. As for the search for the building, I left it to Jubin and them. Although Master Ben couldn't draw the building, I thought that since there were 'monsters' in the building, there must be no one living in it, so I asked Zhu Bin to look everywhere to see where there were houses where no one lived...

The next morning, Xiang Feng and I left the city. Master, Uncle Yang, Old Man Yang, the three of them are still in Taihang Mountain, Old Man Yang's mobile phone still can't get through, I really don't understand, such a village, so many living people, how can they suddenly say that they disappeared and disappeared, Wanjin Mountain, or the Gao Qien behind him, no matter how powerful it is, there is no way to get a village away, could it be that the village has encountered a time tunnel and run to another time and space? …

I drove to the wind, thinking wildly in my head along the way. When I returned to Xiaoqing's house, I saw Morning Star and Yuxin sitting in the yard, playing checkers. Xiaoqing squatted on the ground beside her, holding her head and shaking, not knowing what she was doing.

"You're back?"

"Hmm...," I smiled and looked away, "Haruko-chan!" ”

"Huh?" Xiaoqing was startled.

"What are you practicing?"

"I've been watching advertisements on TV these days, and I'm afraid I'll get it too, so I'm going to do it..."

"Has my computer been fixed?"

"No, where did you pick up that broken computer, people said it couldn't be repaired..."

"Ah Leng, come on."

Morningstar came over to me out of nowhere, and whispered to me.

"What's wrong?" Coming into the house, I asked.

Morningstar looked me up and down, "Ah Leng, are you alright?" ”

"Silly girl," I raised my arm and laughed, "Isn't that good for me, what can I do?" ”

"The night before, I had a nightmare."

"What nightmare?"

"I dreamed of a cemetery."

I was startled, "Cemetery? ”

"Well, I'm trapped in a room in that cemetery..."

"Yet... And then what? ”

"I can't get out even if I want to, I'm so helpless, I'm so helpless, I can't control it and cry..."