My aunt snorted and said to me, now that everyone is dead, you still ask if these are used? I told my aunt that if it was really due to us, we would also like to give that Zhang Ma a little compensation. Aunt relentlessly called and said, compensation? If you want to compensate, you can't just compensate her, you have to compensate all of us, the neighbors.

I glanced at Hu Zongren, and Hu Zongren also frowned at me, we all know that aunts and aunts of this age like to have nothing to do the most, and more than half of the people who join in the fun are people of this age. And Hu Zongren and I can't really make up for anything, anyway, it's a blank check, it doesn't matter.

So I said to my aunt, this is not impossible, but you have to tell me about the situation of that Zhang's mother first, you are all living well, just by your mouth, I have to believe you? At this time, a man came over and said, it's not that you really killed people, it's just that you burned paper in front of our building, which made us neighbors feel very uncomfortable, so we almost lived on the ashes shelf in the cemetery, and there were people who came to worship every day, which is like Sazi's words. I turned my head and asked him, did that mother also give us an opinion on burning paper before her death? No one spoke. So I asked, are there any other family members in Zhang's mother's family now? What floor does she live on? Is her family present now? Still no one spoke, and it took a while for someone to come out and say, Zhang's mother lives in 402, and her children are not around, and now there is only a widowed old man left in the house.

I looked up at the fourth floor of this building, and just now I saw people on the two balconies on this side, and those people are all around us at the moment, so I guess that 402 should be a room on the other side, and Zhang's mother's family is not at the scene now. The neighbors asked twice before, but they didn't answer, presumably because they felt that as outsiders, it was inconvenient to talk about other people's family affairs, especially the old man who had died. Thinking that Hu Zongren and I would continue to confront these neighbors here, and it was estimated that we would not be able to find any new information, so I walked to Hu Zongren and said to him, let's withdraw first, and then talk on the way.

Hu Zongren nodded, and then began to clean up the money paper he had just thrown on the ground. I also said to everyone, please rest assured, we really won't burn paper here in the future, we will apologize to everyone here for the trouble caused to the uncle and aunt, we will clean it up, everyone is also angry, a misunderstanding, misunderstanding! After that, I bowed to everyone, thinking that an apology is a big deal, isn't it just my upper lip touching my lower lip? Then I helped Hu Zongren to take all the paper ashes left behind before to the garbage heap and throw them away, and then pulled Hu Zongren towards the road we had come.

Hu Zongren asked me, does this matter? I said of course we have to take care of it, but now that we're making such a fuss, there are so many people here, how can we continue to investigate? Hu Zongren looked at the time and said, it's not too early now, if we don't hurry up, maybe we won't be able to finish it today. I said don't worry, you go out with me to buy a bottle of water, and then buy a band-aid, let's smoke another cigarette and come back slowly, at that time the crowd is estimated to disperse, let's go directly to 402 to find that Zhang's mother's family to understand the situation. Hu Zongren probably didn't think of a better way, so he could only rely on me. I bought water because I was thirsty, Band-Aid because of the wound on my brow bone, and I smoked because I was addicted. I can always find some excuse to spend the extra time, if I think it's too much.

After shopping outside, I smoked all the way back, and it looked like almost 10 minutes had passed. Sure enough, as I expected, the crowd was often in the mood to join in the fun, and after there was no one to perform for them, it naturally dispersed. As evening approached, the sky began to get a little darker. When I walked downstairs, I could even hear the clatter of a spatula and an iron pot colliding in the kitchen of one of the houses upstairs, and occasionally I could hear someone coughing when choking on oil fumes from stir-frying. Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one around, Hu Zongren and I walked into the corridor first, and I turned around and found a small handful of grave soil, and sprinkled it from left to right at the entrance of the corridor to form a boundary, because after all, we are going to visit the place where the deceased lived before his death, based on the fact that it was not very friendly to us before, the band-aid on my eyebrow bone can be my witness, so it is better to be careful, because if you need to escape, this is our only passage.

Then Hu Zongren and I started to go upstairs, and the lights in the corridor were the kind of voice-activated lights that would turn on when you stomped your feet, but because the sky was still bright, the lights were not obvious, which also showed that the lights here at night were actually only enough to see the road, not to mention illuminating. On the way upstairs, Mr. Yang called Hu Zongren, and Hu Zongren briefly told him about the situation and what we were doing, saying that your other colleagues have left, and several places are closed, so you'd better find a place to wait for us, and we'll look for you when we're done here. After hanging up the phone, Hu Zongren and I also walked to the fourth floor.

I have a lot of affection for this kind of old and dirty corridor. Because there was a time when I was a kid who lived in this environment. I had just learned how to smoke with a bunch of bad boys, but I didn't dare take them home, so I hid them in the hallway. The piles of debris piled up by the residents, and the milk crates in the newspaper boxes, became the best places for me to hide my cigarettes. But then I thought about it because someone was as smart as I was, and he hid his own cigarettes in the place where I usually hide them, so when I went to hide them, I found a pack of cigarettes that were placed there, and I thought that it was so easy to be discovered, which means that this place is not safe, so I stole his cigarettes and wrote a huge "Humph!" on a small note. "Words, put them there.

It's just that I still don't know who hid the pack of cigarettes there, and I don't even know the expression on the face of that person when he saw the note.

Facing the house number, we found 402, and the iron door of the house was different from what I had expected at first. Usually in the 90s, most people install doors, will choose the kind of iron security door with higher insurance, and the kind with cat's eye. But this family is just a simple left-right pull iron fence gate, and inside the iron gate is a wooden door painted yellow. Hu Zongren whispered to me, such a retro door is really rare, even if we don't know who lives here, just from the door, if there is not a poor man living inside, it must be an old man. I nodded, and reached for the iron fence gate, but I was very light, just trying to see if I could pull it open. Sure enough, the door was not locked at all, and I could easily open it even without a key, which means that there are people in this house at present, and they don't lock the iron door outside, just to make it easier for them to enter and exit.

Out of politeness, after all, it was the first time to visit, and I would definitely have to mention the sadness of the people in this room later. So I reached out and slapped the iron fence gate a few times, making the sound of the pieces of iron colliding with each other. After slapping like this a few times, an old voice came from behind the wooden door, coming... Here it comes...

The door was opened by a thin, but tall man with a chestnut fluff hat, who looked to be about 70 years old. Wearing a beige gray knitted sweater, there are some open lines and wormholes on the sweater, and it is quite casual to think that you are alone at home. The uncle didn't know us, so he opened only half of the wooden door through the iron door, and he asked slowly, who are you, who are you looking for? I quickly identified the old man in front of me, and realized that he was not among them when Hu Zongren and I were making trouble downstairs this afternoon. So I immediately accompanied the smiling face and said, hello uncle, we are street staff, today is a visit, I want to come to comfort you, see if you are doing well. After speaking, I stretched out my foot and kicked Hu Zongren, and Hu Zongren immediately echoed and said yes, yes, you see this point, we are about to get off work, and we know that you are at home at this time, so I took the liberty to disturb you.

Through the iron door, the old man looked me and Hu Zongren up and down, although we both tried our best to squeeze out a harmless smile, but the old man still asked us slowly, are you here to sell things? I don't buy anything. After saying that, he was going to close the door, and I hurriedly said Uncle, you misunderstood, we are not selling things, we really want to know something from you, it is about your wife and mother Zhang.

The oral statement of the arrogant aunt downstairs before, coupled with what we saw with our own eyes after we knocked on the door, it is actually obvious that the old man in front of us must be Zhang's mother's wife. Sure enough, as soon as I said this, the old man showed a trace of sadness, but he was unwilling to accept our sympathetic expression, he still didn't open the door, just asked us, everyone is gone, and there is still something to say. In fact, I can open the iron door and break in, Hu Zongren I also believe that he has enough ability to dig out everything about Zhang's mother from this uncle's mouth, but we never dare to do this, the world we originally lived in is dark enough, plus a trespasser, this is not necessary for the two of us to be human beings. Hearing the old man say this, I told him, in fact, our street will soon have a census, Zhang's mother is already so old, but we also heard that she left early some time ago, and everyone knows that Zhang's mother was a good person before her death, so our leaders ordered, we want us to take special care of your family, we need to do some information to understand, and it can be regarded as our street to do something for Zhang's mother.

I don't know if this street has done anything for Zhang's mother, but then the old man opened the door and said to me and Hu Zongren, young people come in, it's windy and cold outside!