From behind the mound stretched out a hand, a woman's hand, slender and pale, perhaps not very white, but rather fairer in the contrast of the night.

My friend Li Duo and I often travel together, spending almost half of the year traveling, and we always like to avoid the big cities and seek out the remote and ancient villages.

There are many villages and towns along the way, but this one has to be said.

It is more of a huge cemetery than a village, because there is hardly any smell of living creatures here, and only graves are everywhere.

The entrance to the village is very wide, and the vast expanse of dry grass does not have much joy even in the winter sun, most of them curl up like dead and dehydrated insects, and you can faintly hear the sound of cracking when you step on them, like stepping on a large field of shavings. There was a two-man-wide and rugged path beside the meadow, and on the other side of the path were graves, some of which were triangular brackets made of weeds and dead branches, and some of which were graves with broken stone monuments.

In places like this, where there are many obstacles that obscure the view, you can often see farther, but all I saw was a cow grazing grass with its head down, and the whole village, not to mention people, seemed to have no houses.

The occasional sound of the wind in my ears made the sun warmer, but I felt colder. Finally, I saw a person, an old man, an old man staggering towards us.

"Uncle, may I ask what kind of place is this?" I pulled Li Duo over and asked. The old man hung his head down and hunched his back. He wears an almost faded sheepskin jacket with his hands tucked into his cuffs and fat black cotton trousers. Wearing heavy round cloth shoes. I was startled when he looked up, almost shriveled into a worn-out ball, with a pair of narrowed triangular eyes embedded in his head, a look of inexplicable sadness on his ravine-ravine face, his lips were dry and cracked, revealing bloodshots, but he didn't care, his dry and curly hair was dirty. Stick together piece by piece. "It's called Tomb Village." The old man's voice was muddy, as if he was talking with a mouthful of water. "Graveyard?" Li Duo asked in surprise. The old man replied with an "um". "There are no houses here, just cemeteries. Graves of the living, roads of the dead. The old man explained, and walked forward slowly, the sun casting his lonely back on the narrow road.

"Let's go forward. Maybe you'll find someone else to ask. Li Duo suggested. That's all there is to it.

Walking more than ten meters away, I couldn't help but look back and look at the old man. But he's gone! In such an empty area, it was definitely not out of my field of vision, and my shili was very good, and it didn't take long for me to separate, and the old man disappeared out of thin air!

But he was not seen on that road, and there was no sign of him.

Is the tomb of the living, the road of the dead? I whispered something to myself. Keep moving forward.

I don't know how long we walked, but all we saw were piles of graveyards. Strangely enough, there were no sacrifices or any signs of worship. Could it be that they are all lonely graves? Li Duo muttered quietly.

The village was huge, but there were just the two of us walking around, so I had a problem – how should we stay overnight?

The sky began to dip into ink, and there was less and less light for the eyes to see. Li Duo suddenly let out an "ah", pulled me, and pointed to the side with the other hand. I followed her finger and saw that it was a tomb.

Very ordinary tomb, with a bluestone monument standing behind it, and a circular burial mound behind it, however, it is much larger than the ordinary ones I have seen. But what was not unusual was that from behind the mound stretched out a hand—a woman's hand, slender and pale, perhaps not very white, but rather white in the contrast of the night. Then came a stuffed thing, I looked closely, it turned out to be a human head, her hands supporting her upper limbs, as if doing push-ups, although the body was thin but very athletic, and in a few moments her whole body came out of the grave. I felt very strange that the girl seemed to have been born from a grave.

Then I saw the light, though it was muddy and dim, but I was sure it was the light of a candle and not the pupils of a man or some animal. Sure enough, the girl pulled out another person, short and stocky, and holding a candlestick in his hand.

As if playing hide and seek, three people came out of the huge grave.

"Ah, there are outsiders." The girl shouted crisply, her voice was very good, like a bell blown by the wind, but with wild unruliness, like a miscellaneous fruit that grows in the mountains, sweet and crisp with sourness.

"Don't scream, don't startle people." It was a calm middle-aged man's voice, he was very tall, although he couldn't see his face clearly, he felt that the whole person was like a thick door panel.

The candles have moved over and I can see them clearly. A young girl, a middle-aged couple, it seems, they are a family.

"Mom, weren't they scared by us?" Seeing that the two of us didn't speak, the girl walked over and put one hand around the middle-aged woman's arm, and the other hand covered her mouth and laughed. The middle-aged woman's hair is neatly combed at the back, although her body has been blessed, but judging from her upright facial features, she must be as beautiful as this girl when she is young.

The mother smiled and waved her hand at the girl a little reproachfully, but did not speak.

"You're a foreigner, aren't you? I'm sorry I didn't know our rules, and I scared you. "The middle-aged man's Mandarin is very good.

I immediately nodded at him and smiled, "It's nothing, it's just a little weird." ”

So, the family invited us into their home, the big burial mound.

I never thought I'd make it to the grave alive. It was a weird feeling, and I was even in a trance as to whether I was alive or dead.

Maybe it doesn't matter.

The inside is wider than I expected, somewhat similar to the caves in Shaanxi. But it is round, like a huge iron pot held upside down, and the tomb is about three meters high. The length and width are four meters each, and it must have been a lot of effort to dig this at the beginning, and the entrance was nearly two meters from the inside, although there was a mound of earth to step on, it was not easy to climb up. The walls are very smooth, and although they are made of mud, they are still very dry. With a gray earth color, it doesn't have a smell, but the air is dull. Slightly depressed.

"You must be very strange, weishenme, we have to live in a grave." The girl said to us with a hearty smile. She shook her head, her whole body making a crunchy sound, listening to her. It's like eating a sweet and crunchy apple.

I took a closer look at her. Wrapped in a dark blue cotton skirt with beautiful patterns, and some silverware hanging on her body, it is no wonder that there is a noise. The girl is very beautiful, her facial features are slightly immature, her skin is also fair, and she wears a silver ornament on her wrist, which is very beautiful. It's just that it seems that the ornament is heavy. It left a bruised bruise on her wrist.

"Don't mess around." The mother dragged her away, and the girl was somewhat reluctant. But still gone. It turns out that there is a passage next to it, which is probably the way to the inner room, and I have to bow my head if I want to go there, it seems that it is the girl's room.

This place can be called a home, and there are all kinds of daily necessities, tables, chairs, benches, tea and food. The man gave us two matchbox-sized white desserts, which seemed to be made of glutinous rice and were very sweet.

"This place is called a cemetery village, there are many people like us who live, everyone lives in such a tomb, everyone will not go out during the day these days, and they will not come out until night to breathe, I didn't expect outsiders to come, it didn't scare you, right?" The middle-aged man has a broad face and thick eyebrows, a high nose and a square mouth, and a heroic face, but his eyes are slightly lonely, and he seems to have something on his mind.

"Won't anyone be there during the day?" I asked. The man nodded affirmatively.

I suddenly remembered the old man, who spoke and looked very strange, and suddenly disappeared down that road.

"Weishenme has such strange rules?" Li Duo asked curiously. Actually, I want to ask too, but sometimes people may not want to tell you, in other words, if they want to say it, they don't have to ask.

Sure enough, the man's face was embarrassed, and he seemed to be a little hesitant, he squinted to the side, it seemed that the girl was still chatting with her mother, so he said slowly, "We have lived in this village for many years, and no one knows when this rule was set. The men did not dare to come out during the day and did not show up until night, but these people survived, and the village is what it is today. So at this time of the year, everyone will hide in the haode grave that has been built a long time ago to commemorate it, and it is very warm here in winter, and over time it has formed a habit, and outsiders do not understand it very well, and it is often rumored that we are a ghost village here. ”

I said "oh", and the man told me that in fact the family had their own house, but it was still some way away, and it would take more than an hour to get to the feet.

I asked the man what he meant by "the grave of the living, the road of the dead", and the man was taken aback and asked me how I knew. I didn't tell him that the old man said it, I just said that I heard it myself.

"The time is coming soon, and you'll find out soon." With that, he beckoned inside, and the girl and her mother came out.

"I'll take you with me, and I'll know what it means, 'Tomb of the living, road for the dead.' It's a coincidence that you come here, and it's only this time of year that you can see it. He said slowly, and crawled out of the grave again.

Sure enough, there were scattered lights outside, like fireflies, but it was winter, and I was on the edge of the grave, and there was no poetry at all.

As the fire gathered up, we sat down with the men, and there were probably hundreds of them, all dressed in the same clothes.

There was just an old man, with his head down and coughing incessantly, and he seemed to be somewhat similar to the old man he saw during the day. Everyone was silent, just surrounded the old man, moving slowly, they all walked on both sides of the road, only the old man walked alone in the middle of the road.

I don't know how long I walked, but when I came to a desolate stone mountain that was not high, the path ended here.

The mountain is very weird, there are many large and small holes at the foot of the mountain, each about a meter high and a meter wide. It is not clear how deep it is, and every hole is sealed with stones. They came to an unsealed hole, and the old man himself walked in.

He didn't say anything. It's just that it walks very slowly, and under the light of many torches, the night seems brighter, but the old man's back is still gray.

He stooped down and sat inside, next to a young man solemnly placing a bottle of water and a bag of food.

I still don't understand what they're going to do.

Soon, all the people were holding a stone and piling it up in front of the old man.

It turned out that they were going to seal the hole. Let him die inside! When the old man drank a sip of water and nibbled on a mouthful of dry food, all that awaited him was death. I tried to stop them from being buried alive, only to be held by a big hand.

When I looked back, it turned out to be the girl's father, and his appearance was ugly, and his face looked as if it had been kneaded by several hands. He struggled to pull me and Li Dole back.

On the way back, I asked him what was going on? The man explained to me slowly. I gradually calmed down my surprise and anger.

"In the village. All the people, as long as they are dying, will be moved there, everyone will leave some water and food, seal the door, and let him finish in the hole, everyone is like this, and I will do this in the future. My daughter will too, so you don't need to be angry and confused. ”

"It was this time last year. I also buried my father-in-law in it with my own hands. His voice was small, and the words flowed as the Adam's apple squirmed up and down, and the girl next to him and his wife were silent.

I couldn't understand their customs, and suddenly I remembered the old man during the day.

Because I saw it again, he was not far ahead, still bent over and staring at us with his sleeves folded, no, should I say staring at the man. He was standing on the path, the path that the old man who had been buried in the grotto had just walked.

The man saw it, and so did the girl and her mother.

They all froze in place. The old man walked slowly towards the place, while the family retreated.

"Ah Gong!" The girl seemed to be agitated and shouted to pass, but was desperately pulled by her parents.

The old man stopped and stood there motionless.

"Abba, I'm sorry for you, don't look for children." The man suddenly stood in front of his wife and daughter and said sharply.

The old man remained silent, but pointed to the girl who was being held by her mother, and continued to move slowly, as if trying to grab the girl's hand. "Ah Gong, Ah Gong!" The girl cried and cried out, and reached out, but was pulled away by her parents.

I hurriedly walked over. When the old man saw me coming, he suddenly slowly retreated down the road and gradually disappeared.

The family was terrified, especially the girl, who kept crying and calling out for her grandfather.

Back at the tomb, the mother managed to put the girl to sleep.

"There's nothing we can do about it...... "The man grabbed his hair in pain, and his wife gently stroked her husband's broad back, her eyes overflowing with tears.

"The family is very poor, and even the tuition fees for her daughter's school are not enough, she likes to sing, and the mountain songs are very good, and the children around her like her, but I don't have the ability to send her to school, and her grandfather has an unknown illness, and the money is like being thrown into a bottomless pit, and it is not good to see.

Seeing that I could not live, I had to kneel in front of the old man with her and beg him, I knew that there would be retribution for doing so, and those who entered the grave of the living would not be able to get out, and no one could force them unless they were willing to go in, and the people of the village knew that if we begged the elders of the family to enter the living grave, we would be scolded to death and driven out. Our village has always had the elders and young, no respect or humility, the old people are very respected in the village, and the child and her grandfather also ran the horse gang when he was young, sold gold, sweated and shed blood for the village, everyone respects him very much, and no one of the same generation is more respected by the people in the village than him.

"He was old and sick, and he couldn't even speak, but he loved this granddaughter very much, and if we hadn't been able to, he wouldn't have done it, and when we begged him, he couldn't speak, but kept pointing at his granddaughter.

So we told the villagers that he had agreed to go to the living grave, and when they came to ask, he nodded with difficulty, but he kept crying.

"The stone wall I built for him with my own hands, it's been a year, he can't still be alive, I'm not afraid of anything else, I'm afraid that he will capture my daughter." The man wept silently and hugged his wife.

"Ah Gong!" Suddenly, a girl's shrill screams were heard inside, and we hurried inside.

The old man was actually here, he touched the girl's head with one hand, and held the girl's hand with the other, without any expression on his face. I was so worried that I even wanted to rush over and rescue the girl. Li Duo grabbed me tightly, and she shook her head and pointed at the girl.

The girl looked at her grandfather with tears in her eyes, and I suddenly felt that the old man would not hurt her.

"Don't, don't!" The girl's mother knelt on the ground, and the man knelt down as well.

The old man did not speak, but removed the ornament from the girl's hand.

It's actually a movable thing. He placed the ornament on the edge of the bed and slowly walked out of the grave again. After a long time, the couple got up and hurriedly hugged their daughter, fearing that she was missing something.

I picked up the ornament on the edge of the bed, found that the weight was wrong, and pushed it with my hand, and found that it was movable.

It turned out to be hollow, and it contained something resembling sand, to be precise, golden sand.

The couple looked at the gold in amazement, and took down their daughter's other silver ornaments, which were said to have been given to his granddaughter by the old man before his death, and they all contained golden sand.

Only then did the couple understand the reason why the old man had returned, and they hugged their daughter and cried.

Every other year, the deceased would walk back to their hometown along that path to see their families, so the people of this village would hide in their graves at this time, symbolizing not seeing their deceased family members in the sun.

I asked Li Duo that she would understand what the old man meant. Li Duo said with a sad face, although the old man's eyes were indifferent, they were more reluctant.

The next day, we left the cemetery.

The couple took their daughter to the place where the old man was buried, and went to worship him. Perhaps there will never be so-called hatred for relatives, but only care and understanding. As for that path, maybe everyone will go up there, so will I, and so will you.

PS: Today, the teacher is a little tired, and the plot still needs to be conceived, but I can't bear to let readers and friends make a book shortage, so I take out my favorite stories and share them with my friends! Thank you for your tips and support from the book friend 1869594817 and Fallen DE Love! (To be continued......)