Chapter Twenty-Three: The Dumb Old Man

I burped again, and the strength of the wine was rising one by one, and I was a little dazed. I scratched my head and my heart said, Huh? I clearly remember that the little fox followed me out, and I hugged it, is it an illusion? … I took a few steps back, and saw a row of footprints not far away, which looked like foxes', heading down the road to the west.

"Little fox..."

I screamed as I followed the footprints to the road. I didn't take a few steps when I heard the voice of the little fox in front of me. When I stepped forward, I saw a person lying next to the haystack against the wall of a house, covered with snow, motionless, and the little fox was pulling at his clothes.

I let the little fox dodge aside, grabbed the man's shoulder, and turned him over. I saw that it was an old man, about sixty years old, with a scruffy beard on his face, his eyes closed, a dogskin hat, and a dirty coat. I reached out and tried it, and now the old man still had breath.

"Hey, uncle, wake up!"

I shouted in his ear, but there was no response. Looking around, I saw that the gate of the house in front of me was locked, and there was no one at home. Xindao said that if this old man was allowed to lie here and cool down at night, he would definitely freeze to death.

"Little fox, are you waiting here, okay?"

The little fox snorted twice, arched the old man's face, and lay down beside him like a guard.

I ran all the way to the small shop in the north of town, bought two bottles of wine, and then ran back to the place where the old man was lying. I didn't care about panting, I quickly unscrewed a bottle of wine, poured some wine on my hands, rubbed it, wiped it on the old man's temples and palms, and rubbed it like this for a while, and I helped him massage his chest again. Finally, the old man slowly woke up.

"Uncle, where are you from? How to lie here? …”

No matter how much I asked, the old man didn't say a word, his eyes were blank, and he didn't know where to look.

"Uncle, let's go, go to my house to warm up, eat something, and I'll send you home when the time comes, okay?"

The old man neither nodded nor shook his head, I fed him a sip of wine, let the little fox hold his back, lest he fall, turned and squatted on the ground, and gritted his teeth to carry him up.

From a distance, I saw Yang Shujun standing at the door of the master's house.

"Xiao Leng, if you don't come back, uncle, I'll drink your star sister's wine..."Yang Shujun shouted, and then 'huh', "Why did you carry someone back?" ”

"This uncle wandered from nowhere, fell in the snow, and was about to freeze to death..."

"Hurry up, go home!"

When I came to the house, Master didn't say a word, but assisted me in helping the old man take off his coat, help him sit on a chair, and take a bed quilt over him. Morning Star filled half a bowl of vegetable meat, picked up a piece of tofu, blew it cold, and fed it to his mouth. The old man chewed a few times, swallowed, his eyes lit up, and his mouth opened open, signaling that he wanted more. The way he looks makes people feel very pitiful.

After eating some vegetables and meat, and drinking half a bowl of soup, the old man's complexion looked much better, and he fell asleep deeply.

"Why does it smell?" Yang Shujun snorted and said.

I sniffed hard, and there was a stench, and I looked at the old man, and my eyes fell on his feet. The old man was wearing a pair of torn boots, and I took a lot of effort to help him take them off, only to see that his feet were full of chilblains, and they were already festering and bleeding pus, which was shocking.

The master made a basin of hot water, added disinfectant to help the old man soak his feet, and then applied some ointment for chilblains to his feet and wrapped them in bandages. In the evening, the old man awoke. When we asked him where he was from, he would only yell at us, like a dumb man, rummaging through his pockets and finding nothing to prove his identity.

After dinner, the snow was still falling outside, and it was 'fluttering'.

"It seems that this uncle has a problem with his intelligence, he should have been out for a few days, and his family must be dying in a hurry." I said.

Master said no and drank tea quietly. Morningstar leaned next to me, holding my arm.

"Xiao Zhang, is there any way for you to know where he is from?" Yang Shujun asked.

Since I don't know the old man's life, I can't tell where his family is through the guΓ² door bureau.

"I'll try." Master said.

After speaking, the master got up and stood up, and pulled a button from the old man's coat, "Leng'er, go, take me to the place where this old man is now." ”

With snow everywhere and a bright white, the night looked like a dull morning. When I came to the haystack by the wall of the courtyard, I pointed to the ground, "This is it." ”

Master asked me about the old man's specific posture, took out a handful of incense, lit it, and put a piece of talisman paper into the ground one by one, until a human figure was inserted, and the master put a piece of talisman paper on the head of the 'incense man', pinched the button with two fingers, and erected it in the middle of the talisman paper.

I didn't know what Master was going to do, so I watched with wide eyes, only to see Master take a deep breath, stare at the button, and slowly release his fingers. As soon as the finger was released, the button fell down, once, twice... By the sixth time, the button was finally firmly on the rune paper. I didn't even dare to get out of the atmosphere, and if I shook it slightly, the button would fall, and Master would give up all his efforts.

The master squatted on the ground, slowly pinched the trick, recited the incantation in a deep voice, pointed at the button sharply, and shouted, "Go!" ”

The button scrambled away from the rune paper, through the gap between the two incense sticks, and rolled out for a long distance before falling into the snow.

"The old man's home is in the southeast, about from hereβ€”" Master stood up, counted his steps to the button, pinched his fingers and calculated, "It's about seventy or eighty miles from here..."

Master called me twice before I came back to my senses.

"Leng'er."

"Huh?"

"You drive tomorrow, with Xing'er, and send the old man back to his house."

"Okay, no problem."

When I woke up early the next morning, I saw that the snow outside had stopped, the north wind was howling, and the sky was overcast. Yang Shujun sang in a frozen pitch-changing voice while removing snow from the roof.

Morning Star had already gotten up before me, bought the mutton stuffing from the morning market, and wrapped the dumplings. After the dumplings were cooked, a bowl was served to me.

"Eat slowly, no one will rob you, like a child." Morningstar snorted.

I snorted my breath and smiled wickedly at her. After eating dumplings, come to a bowl of hot dumpling soup, which is called the original soup into the original food, which is refreshing. While burping, I helped Morning Star feed the uncle, and the old man had a good appetite and ate a dozen dumplings in one go. The master gave him his coat, and Yang Shujun gave him a cotton hat.

"Uncle."

"Ahh

"I'll take you home later, okay?"

"Ahh

Carry the old man into the car and let Morning Star watch over him. Master said, 'Be careful all the way.' I waved at him and Yang Shujun, and the car went out.

No one cleared the snow on the road, and the ditches were rolled out by the vehicles, and the sky was very overcast, and the cold wind blew snow foam from time to time and hit the windshield. Looking ahead, the trees on the side of the road look like huge and rickety white mushrooms from a distance.

After driving seven or eight miles to the east, I came to a junction, and turned south to a dirt road, which was very difficult to walk. It staggered until it was nearly noon, and we came to a three-way intersection that went downhill to the east. Looking east along this downhill road, I saw a village in the distance. Extrapolating from the distance, the old man's home may be in this village.

In front of the village is a river, and the riverbed is covered with a thick layer of snow, like a wide white ribbon that winds its way. The loudspeaker on the other side of the river is playing Pang Long's "Two Butterflies" at 'Wow La La'.

After crossing the bridge, we came to the village, because it was the time of dinner, the village road was empty, and the chimneys of every house were spewing cooking smoke, and the wind was blowing around. After walking around the village, I finally saw a man standing on the roof of a house to sweep the snow.

"Big brother, I'll ask you something." Getting out of the car, I pulled out a cigarette and threw it at the man.

He reached out and caught the cigarette, looked at it, and put it on his ear, "What's the matter?" ”

By this time, Morning Star had helped the old man out of the car.

"Is this uncle from your village?" I asked, pointing to the old man.

The man stared at the old man up and down for a while, scratched his head and said, "It seems that yes, our village is too big, it should be in the east, you go to the east and ask..."

Back in the car, I drove east along the stumbling village road, and after driving for a while, I stopped in front of a house with an open gate. This house is much more magnificent than other buildings in the vicinity, with high walls and red doors, and from the inside, the snow in the courtyard is clean, and there is a welcoming wall facing it. There was a farm cart parked by the wall, bulging in the car, and I don't know what it was, covered with canvas. The sound of shouting and drinking and guessing fists, mixed with the aroma of wine, wafted out in bursts.

"Let this uncle be in the car, let's go in first and ask." I said to Morning Star.

When I came to the courtyard, I was about to go around the farm cart with the morning star in my arms, when a vicious fat dog suddenly jumped out from under the cart.

I was startled, and in a flash, I got in front of the Morning Star. The dog lay on the ground with its teeth bared and roared, and I bowed over to confront it while reassuring Morning Star in a deep voice, "Don't be afraid. ”

As soon as the words were finished, the dog pounced on me. I pointed at the dog's neck and kicked it hard. The dog kicked me like this, fell four or five meters away, and slammed into the wall, barking strangely.

As 'Dong Dong' stepped on the ground, a middle-aged man with a pimple on his face walked out with a toothpick in his mouth.

"The dog you hit?"

"Yes."

"Who told you to hit it?"

I smiled, "Big brother, the dog is so fierce, it should be leashed..."

"I ask you who told you to fight?!"

Morning Star gently pulled me, smiled and said, "It's okay to teach a dog who doesn't have a vegetarian zhΓ¬, there's no need to teach people like the owner of his dog, Ah Leng, let's go." ”

I nodded, and at this time, a gust of wind swept into the yard, blowing the canvas in the farm car 'hula' up, and I finally saw the thing under the cover, it was actually a coffin!

The middle-aged man was about to do it, but somehow he suddenly froze, staring behind me with wide eyes. When I looked back, I saw that the old man had stepped out of the car at some point, and was standing in the doorway...

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