It is said that the scud flies fast and has a large amount of food. You can eat a bucket of rice in one meal - it is to cook rice with a bucket of rice, and eating it all is called "eating a bucket of rice". As the days go by, they will eat the days poorly.

Scud has no brothers and sisters, no wives and children, and after the death of the old father, the mother and son depend on each other for their lives, relying on the ancestral two acres of thin land to survive.

One year there was a great drought, and the crops were scarce. This time, Scud's days are even more difficult to mix. Usually, the bran and vegetables can make do, but in the end of the year, there is not even a star at home.

According to local custom, longevity noodles are eaten on the morning of the Chinese New Year's Eve. But Scud's family eats bran dumplings. Scud, who usually doesn't ask about family matters, knows that there is no white face at home.

Scud is a filial son, and he couldn't bear to let his mother eat bran vegetables for the New Year, so he said to his mother: "Mother, I will go to my cousin's house in Beijing to borrow it." ”

His mother said: "Son, today is the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, how can we open our mouths to others?" As long as you don't feel uncomfortable, let's spend this year like this! Anyway, I can't leave the New Year here. ”

Hearing his mother say this, Scud felt even more uncomfortable, and said, "Mother, don't worry, I promise to let you eat white-flour dumplings on the fifth watch of the New Year." With that, he went out the door.

After a few spinners, Scud arrived at his cousin's house in the capital. Who knows, I haven't seen him for two years, and my cousin's family is not having a good time, the old are old, the young are small, and the tattered clothes can't cover the skinny bones. Seeing this, where can the scud still open his mouth? After a few words of greeting, he excused himself and left his cousin's house.

At this time, it was past noon, and it was time to make dumplings for Chinese New Year's Eve. Scud was upset, kicked his legs, went around the city, and when it was dark, he rushed back.

Scud ate bran dumplings early in the morning, and the water and rice did not touch his teeth one day. When I walked to Cangzhou, my stomach was rumbling with hunger.

When I saw a house on the side of the road, the light and candle were shining brightly, and I knew that it was a rich family. It was also his stomach that forced out the idea, thinking: He is a big family, a little more is not too much, a little less is not less, I will steal his offering, fill my stomach first, and then bring a curtain of dumplings to my mother, and this year will pass. Thinking so, I sneaked through the door.

In every big family, there are vigils. The New Year's Pass is guarded more tightly. Scud sneaked into the back of the courtyard to take a look, and saw that there was a vigil walking back and forth in the courtyard, and for a moment he could not do anything, so he went under the offering table under the hall of the house, and wanted to wait for an opportunity to act.

Who knows, this family is very educated, and the old and the young don't sleep. Soon, the family gathered in front of the hall, and the old man told the children and grandchildren about the achievements of their ancestors and instructed them to follow their ancestors and start their own businesses.

The scud hid under the offering table, separated from them by a curtain of cloth, let alone do it, and he didn't dare to take a sip.

When the old man finished his lecture and handed over the child, the family began to cook dumplings and set off firecrackers.

A child accidentally fell on his head in the hall when he was holding firecrackers outside, and the firecrackers were scattered on the ground. One of the firecrackers went down under the table, and the boy went to pick it up.

As soon as he lifted the curtain and found someone, he shouted: "There is a thief!" When the family heard this, they all gathered around. When the Scud saw that the stuffing was exposed, he came out.

When the old man saw it, he pondered it in his heart, and said to his family: "There is no outsider, it's your uncle, you can go with your business!" ”

Then he said to Scud, "Uncle, come into the house!" Then he asked for food and drink, and he had to drink from the Scuds. During the banquet, the old man asked the reason, and Scud truthfully told the situation at home, the lack of a way to borrow and his personal thoughts.

The old man was deeply sympathetic. After drinking, he let him eat dumplings, and asked his family to prepare some rice, noodles, meat, and snacks for him, and said to him: "It is past midnight, and when it is clear, I will ask the worker to send you back." ”

Scud said, "No, I can walk alone." ”

The old man said, "You can't take anything." ”

"Thanks to the old gentleman's wrong love," Scud said, "I don't want this thing, but I beg the old gentleman to give me two bowls of hot dumplings that have just come out of the pot, and rush back to let the old lady eat them in the fifth watch." ”

"From here to your house, hundreds of miles away, can you hurry back?"

"Hurry back!"

When the old man saw that he was telling the truth, he asked his family to cook two new curtain dumplings for him, put them in a bamboo basket, and said to him, "You should take these dumplings back to honor your mother first, and when the day comes, I will let the working messenger bring things to you." ”

Scud took the bamboo basket, thanked the old man, and stomped on the road. When I got home, there was just five watches in the village. Take out the dumplings in the bamboo basket, which are hot and cold.

The old mother asked about the situation, and said with tears in her eyes: "Child, if you go to steal from someone's house, not only do they not blame you, but they also take care of eating and drinking, this is a great benefactor." As the saying goes, the grace of a drop of water, when the spring reciprocates, you have it in the future, but you must repay others. ”

Scud nodded, taking it to heart.

Besides, the old man in Cangzhou, when he came to see Scud, his speech was straightforward, his face was kind, and he seemed to be a friend; second, seeing that he acted strangely, he walked in the dark, and suspected that he was either a fox or a fairy; Third, I am afraid that he is a spy of the bandits, and he will harm himself in the future.

Out of this kind of complex psychology, when it came to dawn, I really let the anti-long-life set send things to Scud's house.

The driver went back to learn his tongue, which was exactly the same as what Scud said, and the old man was relieved. In the future, he received two more helps.

With the help of the elderly, the Scud family survived the famine year safely.

The old mother said to Scud: "Son, such a great kindness, we are a poor family, and we can't repay it with things."

"In the future, our mother and son will do more good deeds. I burn more incense and worship the Buddha at home, praying that God will bless his family with wealth and longevity; If you are visiting a little outside, if there is a place where his family can use you, no matter how dangerous or difficult, you must do your best to help. ”

Scud nodded, and took it to heart again.

After the New Year, in order to make a living, Scud sold fish from the Bohai Sea to the capital to sell. He carried two big fish baskets in the dark, which not only saved the freight and the money for the store, but also saved the money for the store, plus his fish was fresh and easy to sell, and the business was not bad. In addition to filling his stomach and feeding his old mother, the rest of the money was used to help the poor.

Every year on Chinese New Year's Eve, that is, on the evening of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, he hung two chickens and two fish on the gate of the old man in Cangzhou, and left without saying hello.

The next day, on the fifth watch of the Lunar New Year, the family saw it and reported to the old man: "There are chickens and fish at the gate." The old man said, "Take it in!" "It's over. Every year, the old man tacitly acknowledged it, and the family did not ask.

One year on Chinese New Year's Eve, Scud went to hang chickens and fish for the old man, and saw a "flying corpse" lying at the old man's door.

It turned out that the life of the poor was insecure during this period, and people who froze to death and starved to death on the road often occurred during the ten winter months.

In order to deal with these dead bodies, an unwritten rule has been formed among the people: whose dead bodies are lying on the ground, whose family must report the case, and after investigation, it is confirmed that they are starving or died of natural causes, and no one claims them, and whoever is responsible for burying them in a thin coffin;

If the dead body is lying at the door, the government will not say anything, and it will have to be buried in a thick coffin. That's a big problem.

The dead themselves are "mourners", let alone an irrelevant outsider? As a result, the dead body is regarded as a symbol of great bad luck and is avoided as if it were a plague.

If you find it early, you will move away from it while people don't know it, or move to the land or door of someone's house that is not right with you. Therefore, people call dead corpses "flying corpses"

When Scud saw that a dead corpse had "flown up" to the benefactor's door, he knew that he had not yet been discovered, so he hung the chicken and fish on the gate, carried the "flying corpse", lifted his long legs, spun around, and walked out of a hundred and ten miles and threw them on a sand hill.

Who knows, this matter caused a lawsuit, and the old man's son almost died for it.

It turned out that this "flying corpse" was not from somewhere else, but a daughter-in-law on the old man's street. This daughter-in-law is not very decent and has an affair with the old man's son. When he was in a quarrel with his neighbor, he was exposed by his neighbor in public.

The daughter-in-law felt that she had no face to see anyone again, so she hanged herself on the door of the neighbor on the night of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve.

When the neighbors found out, they felt that their lives were at stake, and whether they threw her at her house or stopped here, they would not be able to get out of the lawsuit.

Remembering that the daughter-in-law had an affair with the old man's son, he moved the dead body to the old man's door, and did not dare to hang it on the door for fear of being seen.

When the daughter-in-law's man disappeared from the woman, he sued the county government. Based on the clues provided by the plaintiff, the county magistrate sent a message to the neighbors. The neighbor lied that in the evening of the Chinese New Year's Eve, he saw this daughter-in-law enter the old man's house. Then came the old man's son.

The old man's son didn't know what was going on, so he naturally couldn't say it clearly. A neighbor gave "ironclad evidence" there, and he was severely punished.

Under the heavy punishment, the old man's son couldn't resist it, and confessed to "forcing the rape to refuse, and beating him to death with a stick." When he was escorted to find the body, he said that he was hiding here, and then he said that he was buried there, and he did not point out the place where the body was buried.

Scud unknowingly carried away the "flying corpse" for the old man, and he didn't take it to heart. Kicking his legs and going home for the New Year.

After the New Year, when I went back to the capital to do business, I heard about it. I thought to myself, I wanted to solve the crisis for my benefactor, and I didn't want to hurt his son and eat the lawsuit. I'm the one involved, and I have to make it clear.

So, I rushed to Cangzhou to report the case. The process of discovering the "flying corpse" and the whereabouts of the "flying corpse" were all told in 1510.

As soon as the county magistrate heard that there were new clues about the case, he hurriedly took the scud with him to the sand and soil post hundreds of miles away to investigate.

The winter of that year was particularly cold, and on the night of the first day of the new year, there was another heavy snowfall, and the dead bodies were sealed under the snow. When Scud arrived with the county magistrate, the snow was removed, and the body was still intact.

The deceased was neatly dressed, and there were no scars on his body except for a hemp rope and a rope mark around his neck. This excludes the confession of "forcing rape and beating to death".