Soon, a once-in-a-century drought struck. An undodgable plague swooped down at the same time.

A year and a half later, Shi Pengcai, the son of reading glasses, stood on the second floor of the teahouse with a cup of tea, looking downstairs with dull eyes.

Drought and plague have taken most of the town's lives. Those who are still alive are yellow-skinned and listless—they are tormented by hunger and sickness.

Shi Pengcai looked at the few people downstairs who were sparsely approaching the teahouse sickly, and walked away. He lifted his teacup and took a sip of tea, and found that the tea was already cold.

Shi Pengcai turned around and shouted: "Pillar, pillar, exchange hot tea." ”

An old man wore a worn-out chef's hat on his head, patched and black. As soon as he heard Shi Pengcai's shout, he grabbed the armrest of the chair with both hands and stood up, looking very struggling.

The old man hunched his waist and walked slowly with a limp, his feet seemed to be sucked on the ground, and it was already quite difficult to lift his feet. He walked to the stove, grabbed the kettle with both hands, and pushed his waist forward, and a kettle was lifted.

The old man sighed, "The pillar has already left, it's been more than half a month, why don't you change your words." ”

"Let's go?" Shi Pengcai frowned. He knows what exactly "go" means. The old man taboos the word "death", so "go".

Shi Pengcai sat on the stool, his eyes rolling as he watched the steaming water pour into the teacup, "Yes, they're almost dead." ”

When the old man heard the word "death", he was stunned. The pot stopped in mid-air. He looked at Shi Pengcai with cold eyes. He wanted to get angry. But when he saw Shi Pengcai tilting his head, his face yellow and waxy, and staring listlessly at the teacup with half-open eyes, he suddenly felt pity.

After all, Shi Pengcai grew up under his watch, although he was not his own son, but he was better than his own son. "This man is fine. The old man often praised Shi Pengcai at others like this.

"Hey, people, let's go. The old man paused, as if swallowing and foaming with difficulty, gritted his teeth again, and was fierce, "Death, everyone is dead, my old bones can't move, you should also find a few young people to help you clean up the teahouse." I'm old. ”

The old man coughed, fists pounding his back and went downstairs.

The air in the room suddenly became heavy. People seem to have gone underground.

Silence, terrible silence. Shi Pengcai remembers that every time in the second half of the night, the teahouse was closed, the door panel was nailed, and the noisy whole building became very quiet. The whole building is like being enclosed, cut off from the outside world. Shi Pengcai remembers that once it snows, few people go out to drink tea, and at night, the dark streets, the dark teahouses, only the big snowflakes fly down from the eaves, like a wall, and isolate the teahouse from the outside world: silence, a strange silence.

Shi Pengcai, who has lived in the hustle and bustle of the city since then, can't stand the silence. From the noise suddenly fell into silence, the noise still lingered in the ears and did not disperse, but the surroundings were extinguished, each fell asleep, and the people went to the empty building: the difference was huge.

Shi Pengcai slowly raised his head, he felt that his neck and spine were stiffened, stiffened into a stick, and his head was an uncontrollable scoop on the stick. The scoop suddenly leaned back and tilted to one side. Shi Pengcai leaned his back against the edge of the table and tilted his head in a daze.

"Bronze pillar, you're finally back. Someone downstairs shouted, and Shi Pengcai didn't feel his body tremble. Shi Pengcai was frightened.

Downstairs, the street, which had been quiet for too long, was instantly activated.

People poured in from all directions. They seemed to emerge from a crack in the stone. I don't know where they usually hide.

Shi Pengcai stood at a window on the second floor and looked down.

A bronze pillar stood in the middle of the street, surrounded by a crowd of people.

An old woman on crutches grabbed the hand of the copper pillar, "Bronze pillar, have you found that monster? The people around were pandering to "yes, yes".

Tong Zhuzi sighed, "Old Lady Tang, it's a pity that I'm too useless to find it and avenge my father." ”

Old Lady Tang frowned, and looked at the person in front of her who looked like a beggar with very incomprehensible eyes. However, Old Lady Tang sighed, lifted the crutches and poked them on the ground, and said viciously: "Monsters are monsters, how can it be easy to find, but he has caused us big guys so miserable, right?" ”

Mrs. Tang began to cry.

The copper pillar looked aggrieved. But, just with a dark face, he didn't speak.

"It's nothing else, it's good to be back. An old man next to him looked the copper pillar up and down, "How did you live for such a year and a half, you must have suffered a lot." ”

Tong Zhuzi: "When we arrived at the snowy mountain, the dry food had been eaten, but the thing was very strange, when we were so hungry that we couldn't hold on, a rabbit would appear, and we survived by beating rabbits and eating rabbit meat." ”

"Amitabha, it's the blessing of the Buddha, the monster is not easy to find, just come back safely. Let's go home and take a look, we have suffered a great disaster, and now it is a big change, go home and take a look. ”

Watching the crowd disperse around, Shi Pengcai suddenly remembered something. Quickly turn around and go downstairs.

Tang Huang was boiling water in the corner of the first floor. In the darkness, the red tongue of fire of the wood stove swallowed and spit out, illuminating Tang Huang's face.

A few wisps of green smoke burst out from time to time with the overflowing flames, choking Tang Huang with squinted eyes and tilted his head and coughed.

Shi Pengcai stepped on the wooden stairs downstairs and made a muffled sound of "bang, bang".

Tang Huang pushed a piece of firewood into the stove, raised his head to look at Shi Pengcai, who was anxiously going downstairs, and said casually: "You slow down, slow down, the house is dark, and my heart is falling." ”

Shi Pengcai went downstairs and walked into the parchment roll room.

Tang Huang looked at Shi Pengcai's back and sighed. He seemed to remember something, and fumbled around the table next to him for a moment. Nothing can be seen in the dark. The light reflected in the furnace also flickered and flickered.

He finally touched a square object, picked it up, approached the fire, and saw that it was indeed a sea of matches

He slowly raised his buttocks, straightened his waist, and got up from his seat.

He slowly slumped to the ground, afraid of touching something in the dark.

Walking to a large table, he stopped and pulled a match from the matchbox. With a "flutter", the fire mass on the match head was as big as a peanut grain, illuminating a pull on the table

He saw the oil lamp. He put the matchbox on the table, took off the lampshade again, turned the wick out a little, pressed the match on the twist, immediately threw away the match that burned his hand and threw it aside, and took a step forward to make up for it. The matches on the ground were extinguished.