First of all, let's talk about me, I was born in 1943, the year of the liberation of the country, I started to go to private school, but within a few years I didn't go to school because the old school was banned. My father was arrested in 1959 because he was a gang member, and died of a serious illness less than a year after he was imprisoned.

At that time, the prison people sent back the father's body, and the family organized the funeral and took stock of the family property. My mother remarried after being widowed for a year, and before remarrying, she entrusted me to my father's half-brother, my uncle Chen Bingli. My uncle was in the teahouse business, and I had been working as a handyman in my uncle's teahouse until I was seventeen years old.

Frankly, even though I knew that it would be difficult for my mother to live as a woman with a child, and even though I knew that few people would accept a widow with a teenage child in my thinking at the time, I still complained very much about my mother, who shared my ups and downs, but she chose to bear it alone when she was in trouble.

Since it was the early stage of liberation, the phenomenon of great unity between the army and the people on the surface could not change the truth that every small place has a river and lake. One day the army suddenly rushed to the teahouse and began to arrest a man who was dressed as a common man, and after a fight, the man dressed as a common man suddenly took out a dagger from his bosom and waved it at the army man, and one of the soldiers shot him.

If I'm not mistaken, it was the first time I saw a dead man, and a man dead before my eyes. As a common man, I always think that the army is to eliminate violence and peace, since this person was killed by the soldiers, then there must be a place where he should die, sure enough, after the army took away the body, one of the political commissars dressed as a person said to his uncle, the person who was just killed was a chess piece planted in the local area by the Kuomintang reactionaries ten years ago, and he was a spy bandit, and you have sheltered the spy bandits in this place, and if you don't know about it, you will not pursue it, we have eliminated the enemy today, and made another contribution to Chairman Mao.

At that time, my uncle and I were already trembling with fear, and my uncle could only nod his head again and again in the face of this political commissar's words. In the next few days, the teahouse has not been open for business, and my uncle told me that there was such an incident in the store, and there were still dead people, and even if it was opened, no one came to drink tea, and everyone avoided it.

But in fact, I know in my heart that my uncle, like me, is afraid in my heart, afraid that after opening the door, someone will be asked about the ins and outs of this matter. But just a few days later, something strange happened.

That night, as usual, after my uncle and I had dinner, we cleaned up and down the shop, and the blood stains left on the ground by the man who had been shot earlier had almost been cleaned, and then I talked with my uncle for a while, and then went back to sleep. In the middle of the night, I heard the sound of porcelain being broken.

The sound was strange, like the sound of someone holding the bowl in their hand and not holding it steady, so the bowl fell to the ground and was broken. At first there was only one sound, but soon there was a second sound, and then the sound of the bowl being smashed began to appear densely, as if many people were breaking the bowl in their hands at the same time. I was going to open the door to see what was going on, was there a burglar in the store?

If it's a thief, it should be sneaky for fear of making a move, how can it be so blatant? But when I opened the door and walked past the sound, I passed by the door of my uncle's room, but he grabbed me at once, and then pulled me into his own room. I was about to ask him what had happened, why didn't he check on such a big movement, but I saw my uncle's face pale and trembling, just shaking his head, feeling like he wanted to speak, but he couldn't say it.

After a short while, the sound of smashing bowls on the way basically did not stop, and I felt that if someone was deliberately smashing the bowls, the bowls in this life would make him fall cleanly, and then finally stopped.

I heard that there was no sound, so I asked my uncle if he wanted to go and see it, but he shook his head vigorously and grabbed my sleeve with his hand, and it seemed that he did not want me to go. In the middle of the night, my uncle and I kept this posture, no matter what I asked him, he shook his head and didn't answer, but judging from his expression, he obviously knew something, maybe he wasn't ready, maybe he didn't think how to speak, we just sat like this until the rooster crowed and the sky began to dawn.

Seeing that it was getting dark, my uncle let go of my sleeve, but he spoke for the first time that day, telling me, you sit here and don't move, I'll take a look. With that, my uncle opened the door and walked towards the place where the sound of the bowl had been heard last night.

The teahouse was so big that it was easy to tell, and the sound was coming from the lobby. In the lobby, in addition to ceramic things such as teapots and wine cans, there are 8 teacups with gaiwan tea on each small square table, because there is no hospitality these days, so all of them are upside down from the bottom of the mouth, so that they do not have to be cleaned once a day. And the night my uncle and I sat stupidly, I thought that the sound of smashing bowls must have come from the lobby, and those that were smashed must have been this huge pile of bottles and cans.

But this uncle was gone for a while, and I stood in the door and called out to my uncle, but he didn't answer me. So I couldn't help but walk over too, only to see my uncle sitting silently on a stool smoking a cigarette, and the ground was full of teacups and teapots that had broken into small pieces.

Although I had expected it for a long time, I was still shocked by the mess in front of me. I quickly began to check the doors and windows, and found that there was no damage or signs of someone turning in, so what was the matter with the debris in this place. Uncle smoked in distress, and with the unusual behavior of the previous night, I knew he must know something in his heart.

When my mother entrusted me to my uncle, I knew that if my mother took me with me, I would inevitably suffer a lot of anger in the future, so I was also grateful to my uncle for taking me in. Although it was my father's brother, he didn't have much contact over the years, but at such a time, he was willing to leave me by his side to help out.

So I also hoped to be able to help my uncle share his worries, but seeing that he didn't say a word, I was also very anxious. Then I crouched down next to my uncle and said to him, "Uncle, tell me what happened last night, if you know, I'm your family."

This was probably the first time I had spoken to my uncle in the voice of a family member, and I really didn't believe that he would have a grudge against anyone. My uncle looked at me and was silent for a while, and then spoke. Kid, our teahouse had an evil incident last night.

Evil things? What an evil thing. I asked. My uncle told me, "Do you remember the spy who was killed by a soldier in our teahouse the other day?" I said remember, this kind of thing happens right under my nose, and it's impossible to forget it.

Uncle said with a sad face, I counted the days, last night should be the first seven of the dead man, and the first seven are usually to return to the soul. He died here with us, and he was still shot to death, so he must have been unwilling, so he took advantage of his soul to make a big fuss with us last night.

Although I went to the old school and didn't have a long time to accept the new ideas, my uncle's words suddenly made me not know how to answer. Because I think it's ridiculous. This soldier killed so many people in the battle, and most of them were killed by guns, why didn't this happen? So I asked my uncle, uncle, you can't talk nonsense, this person is dead when he is dead, where did he come from, it was all made up by those cows, ghosts, snakes and gods to scare the people.

Last night it was either a wild cat or a mouse, smashing our stuff, and you scared yourself.

I tried to comfort my uncle in my own way, and while I believed that the debris was not caused by a wild cat or a mouse, it was difficult to convince me that it was a dead man's ghost coming back to make a fuss.

But my uncle spat on me, and then said, you little, what do you know? You came out of the room last night and wanted to come and see, and I grabbed you, do you know why? I asked, why? Uncle said, that's because I know it's a ghost throwing a tantrum and smashing things, if you walk over like this, collide with the dead soul, and make more trouble, not to mention, you will still be in danger!

I couldn't help laughing and said, uncle, don't think about it, you guys are old ideas, you always think that those strange things are goblins, ghosts made up, the more you think about it, the more you believe it in your heart.

Although I was smiling, I was still a little touched by my uncle's behavior of stopping me last night because he was worried about me. But my uncle said, "I am not talking nonsense, for I saw the dead man before the sound began."

When my uncle said this, I was speechless again. Uncle is a very sincere person, usually honest and accustomed, even jokes rarely joke with people, occasionally a tea guest amused a few words, and the uncle just smiled stupidly. At this moment, he said this, although it was unbelievable, but I began to believe it a little.

My uncle then told me that when I slept until midnight, I suddenly felt something strange in the room where I was sleeping. There was no light in the room at that time, and my uncle was sleeping in a daze, but he felt that the voice was getting closer and louder to him.

I quickly asked my uncle what kind of sound it was. Uncle said he couldn't describe it, it felt like someone was panting at a very rapid pace. It is also accompanied by a feeling of hoarseness similar to that after shouting too much, this feeling of urgency, a bit like the feeling of a person who is particularly angry but unable to speak. My uncle said that something like this happened in the store, and he was furious in his heart.

Thinking of honestly doing a small business and giving people tea, it can be regarded as accumulating virtue, who would have expected that people would be shot and die in front of themselves. But when this voice appeared, my uncle didn't think about it in that direction, and he was in a daze at the moment and just wanted to figure out what the sound was, so he propped himself up and planned to turn on the light to see, but the moment he got up, a sudden feeling of tightness suddenly appeared on his face.

My uncle said that it was like a sudden gust of wind after a sweat. The first reaction after waking up was to think about whether he was dreaming, but he found that his body had sat up, and the voice was still echoing in his ears, and the feeling on his face was so real, the uncle was frightened, and quickly struggled to rush over and turn on the light in the room, the moment the light was turned on, the eyes were very dazzling because they had been in the dark for a long time, even so, the uncle suddenly saw his bed, standing a slightly hunchbacked, shrugging shoulders.