Butcher Zhang's grandfather quickly came to his senses, and he slammed the sugar gourd in his hand at the sheep like crazy, and then used his hands and feet to attack the sheep. At this time, the people around also rushed up, and finally pulled the sheep away, and the sheep was already full of blood; Look at the child on the ground, his throat has been bitten and broken, his little hands cover his bloody throat, his legs kick wildly, and he struggles in pain.

Butcher Zhang's grandfather hurriedly picked up his son on the ground, and ran like crazy, howling in a terrible voice: "Langzhong, ...... Fast...... Save my son."

But it was too late. Before he ran to Langzhong, the child was already out of breath.

Zhang Butcher's grandfather returned home with his youngest son's body gradually cold. When his wife saw this tragic situation, she fainted at that time. But Zhang Butcher's grandfather seems to be a soulless walking corpse, and he is very indifferent to all the qiē around him. The crying family and the wife who fainted on the ground, as if he didn't see or hear it at all, just carried his son's body to his room and locked it from the inside.

For two whole days, there was no movement in the house, and the family was very worried, but they all knew the temper of Grandpa Zhang's butcher, and no one dared to break in.

On the morning of the third day, the door of his room creaked and finally opened. The two servants, who had been squatting at the door of the room and had slept all night, suddenly woke up, quickly stood up, and bowed to their master, who had come out.

When the two servants peeked at their master, they couldn't help but be taken aback. Because of Zhang Butcher's grandfather, in just two days, it seems that he has changed into a person, and his hair, which is still very black, is almost half white, and the wrinkles on his face have become many and dense. Butcher Zhang's grandfather didn't speak immediately, and stood at the door for a long time before he ordered the two servants in a hoarse and deep voice: "Dispose of your little master's body, but don't bury it directly,...... After being burned on dry firewood, the ashes are buried." He said it very coldly, calmly, coldly, calmly to the point of being a little creepy.

Zhang Butcher's grandfather suddenly became the very cold-blooded, very bold, and thoughtful executioner he used to be. The first thing he wanted to find out was the sheep.

But after checking and checking, he found that the strange sheep that bit his son to death actually took advantage of the darkness and the people were panicking, and they didn't know where to flee.

Zhang's butcher's grandfather checked for a few days, but there was no progress. What's even more strange is that Lao Li, the servant of the family, can't be found at any time.

Later, another servant told him about this series of events:

One day, about two months ago, it was the turn of the servant Lao Li to be on duty in the morning, so the sky was brighter, and he had to get up to clean the yard, carry water and chop wood, etc. But when he opened the courtyard door, he found a sheep lying at the door, he looked around, but found no one, so he thought that it must be someone's yard door was not closed properly, and the sheep ran out.

This Lao Li is very greedy and cheap, and when he saw that there was no one around, he hurriedly led the sheep into the yard and secretly raised it in the side yard. The side yard is where the servants live, and there are pigs, ducks, chickens, etc., so it is also a place to provide meat, eggs, milk and other food for the Zhang family, so this courtyard, the Zhang family generally does not come.

Lao Li lied to other servants that it was a relative's sheep from a relative in his county and gave it to him for the New Year at the end of the year. Except for the three or four servants who were close to him and knew the truth, everyone else believed it. So, Lao Li originally planned to wait until he went home for the Chinese New Year to take the sheep away.

But when the little young master was bitten to death by a sheep in the market, the sheep disappeared mysteriously unconsciously. No one knows if the sheep did it, but this coincidence will make people think that the sheep is very suspicious. And Lao Li was afraid of joint and several liability, so he found an opportunity to slip away.

After learning about these situations, Butcher Zhang's grandfather did not become as angry as the servants expected, but only sighed deeply and said faintly: "Maybe this is karma." Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he hurriedly asked the servant, who knew the situation better, "Have you noticed any difference between that sheep and ordinary sheep?" ”

The servant thought hard: "Different place...... by the way, that sheep's eyes are very different from other sheep, not the kind of round and big sheep's eyes, but Mimi's, a little slender, weird-looking, quite human, oh, by the way, a bit like human eyes, and the hooves are also different from ordinary sheep, that sheep's hooves, divided into five petals, look closely, a bit like human toes."

Zhang Butcher's grandfather nodded his head in understanding while listening.

The servant's voice suddenly became a little excited, as if he remembered something terrible: "By the way, master, there is another thing that is very strange, once, I saw an old hen laying eggs next to the sheep, but I didn't expect that the sheep actually pounced on it, bitten the chicken to death, and tore it up, I was scared stupid, and went back to tell Lao Li that it was a strange sheep, let him quickly dispose of it." Lao Li was also a little surprised when he heard it, but he was so greedy for money, how could he be willing to let go of a sheep that was sent to the door for nothing? ”。

The death of his youngest son changed Grandpa Zhang's butcher a lot: after quitting mutton for many years, he began to eat mutton again. However, unlike before, he used to eat mutton to enjoy the deliciousness, but this time he started eating mutton again, as if to vent his anger: he would stuff mutton into his mouth and curse vaguely with his mouth full of food;

He closed the pawnshop and opened a mutton shop, which sold much cheaper than other butcher shops, so that every day there were many customers, but he never raised the price, as if he was not to make more money, but to sell more meat and kill more sheep.

And most of the work of killing sheep is operated by him, unless he is too tired to hold on, he lets others do it. He also began to have almost the same nightmares: dreaming of the sheep's bloody mouth and the pair of sheep's eyes like human eyes, dreaming of his youngest son's little hand covering his bloody throat and struggling on the ground in pain, dreaming of the strange sheep, tearing and eating chickens with a hideous face.

Excessive fatigue, suppressed grief and anger in his heart, and lingering nightmares, made Zhang's grandfather quickly collapse his body, and in the second year after the death of his youngest son, he also fell ill and died soon after, and left his last words before his death that he would be a butcher for generations to come.

But the strange thing is that the nightmare about the strange sheep has been passed down from generation to generation from the grandfather of Zhang Butcher's great-grandfather, although these descendants have not personally experienced those related events, but the content of their nightmare is strikingly similar to a strange sheep with similar human eyes, full of blood, tearing chickens, or a child, clutching a bloody throat, struggling painfully on the ground. And every time I dream, I break out in a cold sweat.

By the time Butcher Zhang finished talking about their family's strange experiences, the sun had already risen very high. It was getting less and colder outside, and Butcher Zhang was still basking in that terrible memory. He told me that he had been plagued by this kind of nightmare since he was a child, almost every day as soon as he closed his eyes, he would have this kind of dream, a few years ago he had been unbearable to endure such torture, swallowing sleeping tablets to commit suicide, but fortunately the dose was not large, and it was sent to the hospital in time, so he was lucky to be rescued, since he had a child, he chose to be strong, although every day, it is still very tormenting.

I didn't expect their family to have such a bumpy and painful experience. When I was a child, I seemed to have heard my grandfather say that four of the two generations of the Zhang family had hanged themselves. The village said that it was because the feng shui of their ancestral tomb was not good, and after listening to Zhang Tuhu's account today, I guessed that the reason for their suicide was that they couldn't bear the torture of that nightmare!

After he finished talking completely, Zhang Butcher felt a sense of relief, and his feelings were much better. It's no wonder that "confiding" is one of the most effective ways to treat psychological problems.

The floor was littered with cigarette butts we smoked, and I looked at my watch, and it was past ten o'clock in the morning. At the end of the year, it was the busiest time for Zhang Butcher, so I was embarrassed to occupy more of his time, so I said: "Uncle Zhang, I'm really sorry, I delayed you for so long, and you still have so much work to do today."

Zhang butcher took out the cigarette in his hand and said: "Obviously, don't say that, in fact, you helped me today, this meat-eating strange sheep has always had a constant relationship with our family, hey, it's all fate, I have never told others, even your Aunt Zhang, we have been married for more than ten years, I haven't told her, you are the first, but say it, my heart is much brighter."

Before Zhang Butcher left, we went to the sheepfold again and took a closer look at the strange sheep that ate chickens, mainly to see if this kind of sheep had the characteristics of the legendary strange sheep and whether it had the same eyes as people? Is it that the hooves are five-petaled and somewhat like human toes?

I hadn't paid any attention to the sheep's appearance before, but I thought it was very white and very intelligent. I remember last year, when I was herding sheep on the hillside behind, my dog followed, and I wanted to do it on a whim, just like on TV, throwing things out and getting the dog to come back, and I thought it was cool. So he threw the whip out of my hand and shouted to the dog, "Go, pick it up." After shouting repeatedly for about a minute, the dog was still at a loss, I don't know why I yelled at it, I was a little angry, what a stupid dog. Something unexpected happened: a sheep walked over slowly, and then took the whip on the ground back with his mouth, and that sheep was the strange sheep that eats chickens today.

At that time, I was very surprised, I didn't expect this sheep to be so smart, and when I went home for dinner, I even told my parents about it. I remember my dad said, this is not particularly strange, these cows, sheep, are very spiritual, he saw similar incidents when he was a child, a family in the village was ready to slaughter a cow, and when they were ready, the knife used for slaughtering could not be found, but everyone remembered that it was clearly placed on that table, why was it gone? Later, it was discovered that a calf was holding the knife in its mouth, and a few tears were rolling out of its big round eyes, and it could not bear to have its mother slaughtered.

And today's strange sheep that eats chickens should also be very spiritual.

When the two of us looked at the sheep carefully, we both felt a chill down our backs The eyes of the sheep, sure enough, are a bit like human eyes, Mimi's, even the color of the eyeballs are similar, is it the legendary strange sheep, no, this sheep was bought by my father at the sheep market in the town two years ago, and it was still very young at that time, I watched it grow to such a big size. Could it be the offspring of that strange sheep, that's really true.

We took another look at the sheep's hooves, and fortunately, they were not divided into five petals and looked a bit like human toes, as the legend says, but they were still very different from ordinary sheep's hooves.

But according to the original plan, it will be killed tomorrow for the New Year. I had an urgent discussion with Butcher Zhang, and finally decided that it was better not to kill this sheep rashly, so as not to cause unexpected trouble.

After that, Zhang Butcher went home to do his business. That night, I made up a reason to convince my dad not to kill the sheep for the New Year.