My hometown, Kobinzawa, is a large village cluster in the northwest of Aomori Prefecture.

Although the village is large, there are only fields and mountains as far as the eye can see, and there is only one road in and out of the village, and the whole village is surrounded by forests and mountains.

I've lived in Xiaobinze for as long as I can remember, and I don't feel any dissatisfaction with the isolation of my hometown, and I never feel that there is anything wrong with it.

The villagers had a good relationship with each other, and when I was a child, the people in the village would treat my children as if they were their own and take care of each other. To be honest, I like the simple countryside like Xiao Binze.

To the east of Kobinzawa is the Aoyagi family, which has been uninhabited for many years.

Mr. Aoyagi of that family went to Tokyo a long time ago to make a living, and it is said that he made a lot of money.

In my impression, for Xiao Binze at that time, the old house of the Aoyagi family was definitely a mansion.

When Mr. Aoyagi did not return, the keys to his house were kept by the village chief. Because it is spacious and magnificent, it will be used in the village as a gathering point for occasional drinking parties, controlled and used by the village chief, and I have been there a few times by my parents as a child.

The villagers would also use one of the Aoyagi family's houses as a public storehouse, piling up worthless items that they couldn't put at home.

When the adults of the village gathered at the old Aoyagi house to drink, they would praise Mr. Aoyagi, who was still in Tokyo at the time.

said that he went out to make a lot of money, and he was very promising, thanks to his blessing, even the people in the village also had a bright face.

Maybe I chose to go out and work hard in Tokyo, and that's when I sparked.

Xiao Binze has always been so harmonious and calm.

Until, Mr. Aoyagi returned.

I heard from the villagers that Mr. Aoyagi went home this time because of his mother. His mother was sick, and I don't remember exactly what it was. I only know that when I was in Tokyo, Mr. Aoyagi spent a lot of money to treat his mother's illness and sold his house in Tokyo.

Later, his mother's illness should have improved, and the mother and son, who had no place to live in Tokyo, simply moved back to their hometown of Kobinze.

In the countryside, Mr. Aoyagi's mother was also able to recuperate.

After their mother and son returned to Xiao Binze, the right to use the old house of the Aoyagi family was, of course, returned to the original owner.

The miscellaneous items piled up by the villagers in their homes were also vacated.

The people in the village seem to welcome Aoyagi's mother and son back and are very welcoming to them. But privately, I've heard a lot of talk, including my parents, who also murmur and complain to their neighbors behind their backs—

"That family, really, it's all this time, why are you coming back?"

"Sure enough, the money in Tokyo is not so easy to make, and of course I will come back in disgrace when I run out of money."

"Don't say that, even if you don't have any money, you're still from Tokyo. Look at the one in their house, that car. Tsk, didn't you say that all the houses in Tokyo were sold? Why do you still drive the car back, isn't it just to show off in front of us countrymen. ”

"Hehe, Tokyoite."

“……”

The people in the village will privately call Aoyagi's mother and son "Tokyo", that kind of look, that kind of tone, is definitely not praise.

Because there were so many discussions, I was still impressed.

However, I am still in my teens, but I have a good memory of Mr. Aoyagi. I have the impression that he is a very stable, cheerful and polite person, and he is about forty years old when he first returns to Xiao Binze.

Probably because he had just moved back, he was often asked to help with chores such as weeding and lifting heavy objects. Mr. Aoyagi doesn't complain either, and always does things happily.

He probably wants to have a good relationship with everyone and wants to reintegrate into his hometown.

As far back as I can remember, the first time I had direct contact with Mr. Aoyagi was a few months after he returned.

That day, I was walking back to Kobinzawa from the school in Hakkoda Town, when I suddenly heard a horn behind me and someone calling my name.

When I looked back, I saw Mr. Aoyagi's car.

I still remember that car very clearly, it was an old Toyota AA, which was a rarity at the time, and I couldn't even see it in Hakkoda .

Mr. Aoyagi rolled down the window and greeted me: "Xiao Wang, I'm tired from walking back to the village, do you want me to send you?" ”

It takes about an hour to walk from the school in Hakkoda to Kobinze. Even as a child, I could see that the people in the village, including my parents, didn't really want to see Aoyagi's mother and son. But I liked Mr. Aoyagi, who was always smiling, so I happily accepted his invitation to get in the car and ask him to take me back.

At that time, Mr. Aoyagi's mother was sitting in the passenger seat, and she was a very kind grandmother.

They seem to have come back from the hospital in Hakkoda and Grandma Aoyagi has to go there regularly for checkups.

"The car, it's amazing."

I got in the car and was curious about the two Toyota AAs.

"Actually, it's not that powerful, it's just a second-hand car. In order to facilitate the trip to the hospital, I purchased it before I came back. ”

Mr. Aoyagi just said that.

Along the way, he told me a lot about Tokyo, and he said that he didn't actually make a lot of money in Tokyo as the villagers said, and that life in Tokyo was actually very hard, but Mr. Aoyagi talked about televisions, shopping malls, underground trains, and high-rise buildings......

He described a world that I had never seen or touched, and it made me yearn for Tokyo.

"Xiao Wang, as long as you study hard, you can also go to the outside world to see." Mr. Aoyagi said this to me with a smile as he drove.

After that, on the way back from the school, I occasionally met Mr. Aoyagi's mother and son, and they would still invite me to the car and give me a ride.

When I returned to Kobinzawa, Mr. Aoyagi would invite me to his house and treat me to a snack.

I had a great time there.

My parents were also aware of my contact with Mr. Aoyagi, and although my father had told me not to be with outsiders all the time, he didn't stop him too much.

Until that happened—

On that day, the people of the village gathered again for a drink, and the venue of the drinking party was, of course, Mr. Aoyagi's house. Mr. Aoyagi was semi-forced to drink a lot of wine, and soon became unconscious.

After the meeting, my father came home and said in a smug tone: "The people of Tokyo can't do it, so I only drank half of it and left us countrymen to fall asleep by ourselves." ”

The next day, a huge commotion broke out in the village with a lot of noise.

Originally, on this day, Mr. Aoyagi and the village chief agreed to take the village chief to Hakkoda by car. But because Mr. Aoyagi was drunk the night before, he probably didn't tell his mother about it, so he didn't wake up in time in the morning.

The village chief waited for him at his house until noon, and was so angry that he felt that he had been scorned and insulted, and he was furious.

I followed my father to the old Aoyagi family house to the east, which had been fenced off by the villagers.

The village people, who are always in a friendly mood on weekdays, scolded the Aoyagi family with a red face:

"It's so unbelievable!"

"Do the people in the city look down on us!"

"Get out! Bastard! ”

It's just that Mr. Aoyagi, who overslept, was scolded by the villagers and scolded him bitterly, and finally had to kneel down to apologize to the village chief.

But this did not end there.

The most powerful person in Kobinzawa is the village chief, perhaps at his behest, or perhaps the villagers agree according to the rules of the countryside - Kobinzawa implements the "village eight points" for Aoyagi's mother and son.

The villagers completely ignored the existence of Aoyagi's mother and son.

Even if Mr. Aoyagi greeted the others, they would only sneer and sneer, look away with disdain, and say, "Oops, oops, it's strange, is it a fool from somewhere?" ”

Or when he meets Mr. Aoyagi on the road, the villagers will walk past him and take the initiative to find fault, yelling: "Don't get in the way, do you want to die!" ”

This kind of childish isolation and bullying is not at all like something that a normal-thinking adult can do, but everyone in the village is unifying and continuing this kind of behavior, as if everything is logical.

My parents were the same, they yelled at me more than once, "Don't go to Aoyagi's house again, don't ride in his car anymore, and don't associate with him!" If you dare to get in touch with that kind of unruly person, our family will also become that kind of fate! ”

Mr. Aoyagi probably knows this, too.

Anyway, after that, even when I came back from the school in Hakkoda and met Mr. Aoyagi's car, he never stopped to invite me to get in the car.

I really haven't been to the Aoyagi house again.

Later, everyone in Xiao Binze still lived in harmony with each other, but they were still isolated from Aoyagi's mother and son, and the good people in the village would also look for Mr. Aoyagi's stubble from time to time.

Mr. Aoyagi apologizes every time, and he has become the outlet of the entire Xiao Binze. Once that village-wide isolation and bullying takes shape, all the malice inflicted on him seems to be famous.

After a long time, I grew up.

I remember one day, when the people in the village gathered at the village chief's house, they rarely took the initiative to appear in everyone's field of vision, and Mr. Aoyagi took the initiative to come to the door, and he looked annoyed:

"Who poked my car tires? If I don't have a car, I can't take my mother to the hospital. You guys have something coming at me, but don't touch my car, my mother needs that! I've been honest about the previous incident, and I want to get along with everyone! ”

However, the people in the village who gathered together were just laughing, and they didn't take Mr. Aoyagi's anger at all.

"Who knows, idiot!"

"Outsiders from Tokyo still want to trouble us? Get out of here, you're not welcome here! ”

"Your mother's old immortal, hurry up and find a place to bury it as soon as possible!"

“……”

It's another unreasonable scolding, and the more you scold, the more ugly it becomes.

Mr. Aoyagi seemed to want to say something, but in the end he didn't say it, and just left silently.

After he left, the people in the village did not forget to ridicule again: "Obviously I didn't make any money, what do you show off when you drive the car every day?" If you have the ability, I'll move back to your city, really. ”

At that time, I already had the ability to survive independently......

Maybe I should really leave Xiao Binze.

Not long after that, I went to Tokyo.

I made some money in Tokyo, and after two years I bought my own car, also a Toyota.

I thought I should go back to Kobinzawa, but for some reason, I wanted to see Mr. Aoyagi, who I hadn't spoken to in years, rather than visit the people in the village with whom I had always had a good relationship.

At that time, Mr. Aoyagi's mother had passed away. I heard that it was because of the long-standing illness, but I don't know the details.

I just heard that Mr. Aoyagi became crazy after that.

His home in the old mansion was full of strange symbols, and his behavior became very strange, and he was seen wearing only a crotch cloth on a cold day, laughing at the door of his house. There are also people who have seen him more than once haunting the barren graves where children who died early in Xiaobinze and even Linxian County.

In the face of the crazy Mr. Aoyagi, the villagers still scolded him when they saw him at first, but later they also felt that he behaved strangely, and even if they saw him, they avoided it from afar.

I remember that day, I drove back to Aomori.

There was a delay on the road, and by the time I got to Xiao Binze's vicinity, it was already past one o'clock in the morning.

The road back to the village has widened a lot, but there are no street lights, and it is dark.

As I slowly drove through the riverside woods, I suddenly heard someone calling me.

"Xiao Wang!"

It was a familiar sound.

I pulled the car over, rolled down the window, and saw a figure dangling out of the woods.

That's Mr. Aoyagi.

By the light of the headlights, I saw that he was much older than before, his body was thin and his mental state was not normal, but I still recognized him.

Mr. Aoyagi was dressed strangely, he only wore a set of crotch cloth, and each hand held a mallet and a strangely shaped iron ring.

"Aoyagi...... Mr. ”

"Ah, hope, it's really you."

He stood and smiled at me, saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth.

I don't know how Mr. Aoyagi recognized me in the car in the dim environment.

"You're in Tokyo, hope. Cars, hehe, you're having a good time, hope. ”

Mr. Aoyagi is probably really crazy, his tone is slurred, and I can't see a normal look in his eyes.

"Do you want to get in the car, I'll take you back to the village." I asked him, "It's cold right now." ”

"No, no, I'm not going back. I'm going to ...... ...... also," Mr. Aoyagi shook his head, "Oh, Xiao Wang, you should leave, leave Xiao Binze." It's not good here, it's very ...... Not good. ”

I was about to say something more, but Mr. Aoyagi turned his back.

"How long are you going to be back, Xiao Wang?"

"I don't know, just see. Two days later, I left. ”

"Uh-huh. Am I right before? As long as you study hard, you can also go to the outside world to see, and children like you should go outside. He said.

I don't know why, but Mr. Aoyagi's tone was a lot clearer when he said this.

But I couldn't see his expression at that time, and I didn't have time to stop him again.

Just watched his thin figure and swiftly shuttle into the woodland by the river.

I saw him resolutely step into the river......

I hurriedly got out of the car to look for him, but after about half an hour, I saw him appear wet on the other side of the river, wave at me, and signal me to leave.

That was the last time I saw Mr. Aoyagi.

It was also the last time I saw Xiao Binze.

After that time, only about two months later, I got the news when I was still in Tokyo: Xiao Binze disappeared like that, and there was no living thing left in Xiao Binze.

So far, before I write this rambling, I've read a lot of books about curses.

I probably know what the crazy and desperate Mr. Aoyagi was doing that night, it was-

Worship when you are ugly. (End of chapter)