Chapter 3 third chapter

In Liuzhier Guilong's heart, there is nothing terrible. He is sixteen years old. After sixteen years of wind and rain in the wasteland, he feels that he has grown up.When I was a child, I didn't know what it was like to wear trousers. The only thing that covered my body was the red velvet dog rope around my neck, and an ancient coin that symbolized auspiciousness was hung from the end of the rope.Rolling in the mud in summer, swimming in the turbulent stream in autumn, wearing only a small padded jacket in the heavy snow in winter, with the buttocks exposed, blue and purple from the cold, and there are holes torn by sharp winds everywhere. , like pieces of fish scales.The old lame man has never been used to raising his only son, he always wants to keep the baby safe, so he must be hungry and cold!The mantra, saying that the baby's family is less than twelve, don't wear pants for him, it doesn't matter if the second half is frozen.

That's how Guilong grew up. He swam in the pond like an otter in hot weather, and ran naked on the snow in winter. The yellow wolf's snot often flowed to his lips, so he wiped his sleeves. After one winter, his cuffs seemed to be painted Hard and shiny like wax.But I have never been ill, and I have never tasted Mr. Lei Er's decoction.Now, his arms are as thick as a sapling in the new wind, and his skin is as black as a handful of black silt. He will no longer get lost in the wild forest of Miza, and he will not be afraid of the flood that passes through like an angry dragon during the flood season. tongue, he knew by heart all that his father and mother had told him about the soul in the wild.

Sixteen years of loneliness are short in the eyes of an old man, but they are long for Liuzhier Guilong.In the darkened distant memory, he remembered those summer nights where the years could no longer be distinguished. The family sat under the melon shed by the side of the square, the moonlight shone on their faces, the melon leaves were dripping with dew, and the sound along the river With the sound of frogs beating drums.The smell of tobacco was choking, and it was the first time that his father told him the story of Hongze Lake.The story shocked him so violently and brought him into a distant and strange world.In a blink of an eye, the dark treetops and the stars behind the treetops are shaking in the moonlight, and the sky often flashes under the feet of the sky, and the faces of people are reflected in pale white like silver snakes, as if God is about to be there At that moment, at that moment, a flood was used to create a large lake with white waves.Afraid?Little Guilong.Mom's arms are so warm, and her voice is calm and sad: Don't be afraid, good boy.God only punishes those evil spirits, ah, God does not punish good people!

I would rather listen to my mother's story than listen to Wang Xiao, who is greedy and rewarded. A poor child who sells tofu married a princess.I heard that the hunters on Zhang Fudui hunted the priceless badger blanket and sold it for only half a penny.Listen to Wu Tang, a clean and honest official, governing the county.He remembered how the light mist from the small oil lamp in the lamp hole outlined her smiling face. As the days went by, he got to know the wasteland under his father's fingers. He could recognize Leizhuang, Shijia Tubao, and Qingshi House in the smoke rising from the forest. Cattle can be put in ghost ponds.When he was ten years old, he mixed with the group of hunters from Zhang Fudui, and listened to their drunken voices explaining how to prevent wolves at night when the bonfire was burning.His ability to sing slang songs and crack his whip was praised by many rough hunters.Uncle Fa Cai, the foreman of the Orion, was my mother's distant cousin, and he would often reach out his big black-haired hands to grab his waist and lift him up out of thin air like a lamp grass.

If you want to marry Yinhua from my family, you have to be hired first, go and steal a gourd of wine from your father and let me drink it!Uncle Fa Cai's wide laughter was still ringing in the distant darkness, with the smell of wine, smoke and fresh leather.And Yinhua is a heart-pounding name. The otter skin hood and rabbit ears make her white face look rounder against the background of the silver characters.It was another year since she came to the swamp with the hunting cart, and Uncle Fa Cai took her to the temple to worship the gods, which made him embarrassed for the first time without pants, and desperately pulled the hem of the front of the little padded jacket.Later, he always remembered the way she sat by the bonfire that night, her round white face was covered with a layer of night, and the light could shine through his ten years of past time.Mom wanted to get closer and closer, so Dad accepted the betrothal gift, which was no longer a gourd of wine, but silver jewelry and two bolts of fine gauze red foreign cloth entrusted to the old peddler in the county town.After all, he put on his first pair of cotton trousers when he was eleven years old, and his heart was overflowing with warmth. Standing on the river in the snowy weather, his forehead was still dripping with sweat.

Now, he has really grown up, and the peaceful days have also undergone waves. His mother was buried in the ground, which made him hate the Japanese devils.But Dad is still alive, and whenever the primitive savagery in his heart surges like a flood, Dad's face looks so old and sad.He often lowers his head and touches the small cigarette stick to the ground, and the wrinkles on his forehead seem to be shouting: Ah!Liuzhier, wait, just wait, that's all, he had no choice but to calm down the anger in his heart, staring at the sky above his head for nothing, recalling the story of the great lake.

After the Vulcan Sacrifice, the strange neigh was talked about for a long time.Some people thought it was the horse whistle put down by the Japanese devils again, and some thought it was the horse thief who had plundered Leizhuang and hadn't retreated yet. In any case, the old man no longer doubted what Guilong saw, and he himself heard the neighing of the horse. Dad, let me go out with the gun.Guilong said: Devil, Erhuang has already deceived people to the point of deception, and the Eight Routes forced people to resist him. Could it be that a few bandits and hairy people also want to ride on people's heads and shit? !

Don't be brave, Liuzhier.The old lame scolded, "Young man, you are a monkey, and you don't know the heights of the sky and the earth, your musket is not worthy of shooting rabbits!" Before Liuzhier Guilong went out, traces of the white horse hiding its head and showing its tail were found everywhere in the marshes.It was an unusually tall horse, and it carried an unusually tall man on its back. The old lame man rode a donkey to shout fire at night, and brought back many different rumors, confirming the rumors back and forth.That horse has been seen in Jingjiahong and Leigou.The end of October is the windy season on the Red Grass Wasteland. The devil blockade on the front line of Zhang Fudui has not moved forward. Commander He under the banner of the Central Committee is still guarding the Wu Family Village, and the Hongze Lake Detachment of the Eighth Road in Huli Shadow.During the period of no-care, the people in the swamp were all worried about the horse. Some people saw it galloping like a white flash in the sky. On the wet soil, but the face of the man on horseback was not seen.

It looked like a ghost, Shi Qi of Tubao said: For three nights in a row, when a big star appeared in the corner of the fort, I saw it standing near the Jingjiahong fork. , it looks like a blur, before you poke your eyes and take a closer look, it's gone in a flash! The people in Leizhuang didn't see the white horse, but the cowherd boy found several piles of wildfire remnants near the wolf altar, which were extinguished by stones and damp tree roots.If there really was a man and a horse staying in the marshes, Bai Er, the long-term worker of Lei Laoshi's family, deduced that the man must have spent the night near the wolf altar. It was cold and frosty, and he lit a fire to leave ashes.

The old lame man rode a donkey to the bluestone house, and Erhei'er in the mill room spoke even more frighteningly: Uncle lame man, do you think it's evil? !The other night, I took a break from grinding and was about to unload the mule and lead it to the trough. As soon as I grasped the reins of the mule, I heard a snort from behind me. When I turned my head, a big man whose head could touch the door frame was leading the ghost horse. Standing blocking the door, there was no light in the room, and it was dark, only his shadow fell in the sky outside the door, with the butt of the horse pistol protruding from his shoulders, and the quick-action gun still stuck in his waist.I was taken aback, and the man spoke in a Shandong dialect: Hey, buddy!I'll buy some beans for horse food!Shaking his hands, he threw a five bucket long sack.I threw away the reins of the mule and went to pick beans. I had a full load of four buckets and five liters. The man took a step and held it in his hand without even turning his shoulders.This is money!said the man.When there was a clatter, a piece of silver landed on the grinding plate, and it was clear from the sound that it was fake.I said: One dime and six cents is one dou, four dou and five liters is seven cents and two cents, what should I do if I have no money to find it?He said: Let’s do it next time!As soon as I turned around, I got on the horse by the door, and when I came over and chased it out again, I couldn't even hear the sound of the horse's hooves, let alone the shadows.

With Er Hei'er's description like this, the old man was also confused.In terms of stamina, no one can compare to Erhei'er when he walked all over the swamp; his muscles and muscles rolled into a ball, like a nest of restless meat mice. Shi Gun'er usually carries wheat and beans on his back, and his face does not change when he carries a hundred catties on his shoulders.But in Er Hei'er's mouth, he described that guy as a giant, who paid cash to buy beans, not a horse thief, but who was he from? At the end of October, the wind turned and blew violently every night, blowing away the little sunshine in Xiaoyangchun without a trace.The old lame's eyes were so tearful that he couldn't look at things against the wind. He shrank his head like a toad all day long and squatted in the corner of the room, panting and coughing.Liuzhier Guilong read it and persuaded him: Father, I have said it several times!You are busy with this and that during the day, and you have to go to the wilderness to drink the north wind at night. The sky is getting colder and colder, and the wind beats people like a stick every night. From tonight, let me knock on the clapper and shout for fire. Let me do it for you. Not afraid of the cold, the eyes and ears are more sensitive No, the old lame coughed and said, "Although the man riding the white horse is not a horse thief, his name and surname are unknown, do you know which road he is from?"It's better for me to go out, I'm old, and even if my bones are torn apart, I can't be used as firewood Gui Long bit his lip, his black eyes rolled: Dad, do you believe that there is such a coincidence in the world that I will run into him when I go out? !Even if it happens, he is not a bandit, what will happen to him? ! The old lame smiled, he really couldn't stop his son, he took over the fireproof clapper from his father when he was fourteen years old, didn't Guilong knock on a season of clappers the year before last?Let him go. Guilong lit up the square lantern and went out, just when the moon was dark, the limelight swept all the horizontal clouds on the zenith, it was so dark that not even a single star could be found.People are not aware of the strong wind at the bottom of the river, but when they go up the slope, the wind is astonishing; the whole swamp is like an open ragged bag, the wind pours in from the north, and the wind blows in the low-lying wilderness. He was stranded by the dense forest, and he kept circling around the forest. call!Woohoo!woo woo woo The sound of Lin Xiaosheng in the distance surged, and the nearby Lin Xiaosheng rushed back again, as if even the sky was split by a sharp knife.The howl of the wind echoed the howl of the wolf, and each sound became sharper and worse, and the howl of the wolf tried to overwhelm the howl of the wind, but it was still suppressed by the sound of the wind all over the field, turning into intermittent whimpers. Although Guilong is familiar with this deserted road, he has rarely seen such a dark sky and such a strong wind. It changes the wilderness and makes people feel dizzy.The black donkey under him walked quickly, and in a blink of an eye passed two or three fire ban signs. On the wooden pole above the head, the square lamp seemed to be flying a kite, circling in circles, and countless withered and yellow dry leaves were blown by the wind. Flying and dancing in a small circle of broken light, like a yellow butterfly born in early autumn.After a while, the wind blew through the small hollow padded jacket, and it lost even a little heat. The cotton padded jacket was old, and the cotton was like a piece of stiff suet. The buttons were all loose and couldn't be fastened at all, and the dried leaves fell from the neckline to the bosom, making people itchy all over.Guilong tightened his belt, raised his collar, and thought, it was a good thing that he didn't let his father come. It's really hard to go out in this weather, so he had to urge the donkey to go faster, and it would be fine when he reached the depression. The cold wind also seemed to wake up people's hearts, and the old things in Heili seemed like last night.It was the first time I took over the fireproof clapper, and walked alone in the dark at night, full of stories about wolves, will-o'-the-wisps, and charms. Once the donkey entered the darkness, the wind did not blow, and people shivered a little.Such a novel story, isn't it?Floating in the dark night was a man walking with a string of tinder ropes. He deliberately held the burning fire in his palm. As he walked, his shoulders were caught by the front paws of that thing. The man knew it was a wolf. Ruo Guo I couldn't hold back, and turned around, then? !A wolf will bite your neck off in one bite.The man remained calm, picked up the tinder head with his hands behind his back, blew it in one gulp, and shrugged back, burning a big oozy bubble on the mouth of the thing, dragging his tail, and ran away whining like a ghost Of course it wasn't true, Dad made it up to coax the child, but at the time, hearing it so hard made the hair stand on end. The will-o'-the-wisp sounds even scarier to people; the will-o'-the-wisp is green, greener than a cat's eye, blazing and rolling in the wind, like a nest of hairless milk badgers, with their noses outstretched and arching; people who walk at night encounter it , it nails people, are you quick?It's also fast!you slow?It's also slow!If you want to stop, it will circle you around the Shijia Tubao. In the past, there was a little ghost father who loved to gamble. He often rode a black donkey to go out at night. He went to Leizhuang to find someone to gamble on Pai Gow. The little ghost father didn't care about it, he made a bet with people: "When I meet a ghost, I will draw a sky card in my waist and it will come out bright, and he will burn paper if he has a ghost, so I will carry it!"That night, the moon was black, and the black donkey walked to the deserted road, stopped its hooves, and barked poorly with its neck straight.The little ghost father said: Heijialu has penetrating eyes, he must have seen a ghost!No wonder I smell a ghost.Just as they were talking, seven or eight groups of will-o'-the-wisps rolled over and blocked the road.The little ghost father smiled and pointed at the will-o'-the-wisp and said, "Oh!Look at the situation, do you want to stop me from pushing the two villages? !The will-o'-the-wisps ignored it, and it's better to get out, or get out.The little ghost father stared and said: Since you are afraid of gambling, you should get away for me, whispering like this, trying to short-circuit? !Turned over and got off the donkey, took the donkey mat, it turned out to be a linen bag, grabbed seven or eight piles of will-o'-the-wisps and stuffed them in the pocket, made a tight wrap around the head, Lei Zhuang didn't go, Ride the donkey home, pass!Pass!Knock on the door and knock out his wife and ask: What is in your pocket?The little ghost father gave her a push and said: Go, go, wipe the table and put the Pai Gow on; I packed a bag of ghost friends and came back to push a few tricks!His wife scolded him for being crazy and tuberculosis, wiped the table, put Pai Gow on it, and then went to bed.The little ghost daddy untied the bag and released the ghost. He made his own dealer, played cards in the air, and pushed it until the fifth watch in a daze. Deep, go, go!The other said: "Hey, it's great, it's amazing, push one bank, spread one bank, luckily the rooster is about to crow, otherwise, put on your pants, and you can't get out with bare buttocks!"The little ghost father woke up and took a look, my mother!A table full of ghost burnt paper There are more stories about charms. My father said: If a dead livestock is buried on the ground without bleeding, it will definitely become a scary charm.When the monster appeared, it went up to the sky and down to the ground, a black and strange shadow, panting, the sound was like a blacksmith pulling a bellows.If a person encounters a charm, he will feel that the sky is spinning, the earth is spinning, and he can't tell the north, the south, and the east.Lei Waizui behind Lei Zhuang is the scum of the Lei family who was frightened to death by the charm. In the middle of the night, he took a hoe and wanted to assassinate his uncle, but as soon as he arrived at the village, he met a charmer.That charm was turned into by the old yellow dog of his uncle's family.His family uncle was kind-hearted, the old yellow dog died, he was reluctant to throw it away, and buried it by the side of the wheat field, and did not charm anyone else, but he charmed Lei Weizui, who deserved to be killed.The dead body of Lei Waizui was seen the next morning. He crawled around the threshing floor, leaving sand and dust marks all over the ground. When he died, his mouth was open, his eyes were staring, and he was clutching two handfuls of mud with both hands. Froth is gathering at the corner of the mouth Whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo Those distant stories come back in the miserable wind, fragmented and clear, hanging on the swaying dead branches piece by piece.The night in front of me is a desolate and savage black river. It has flowed mercilessly since I was a child. People live in the wilderness, and the days are only day and night, spring and autumn, winter and summer, like that. Monotonous cycle.The joy, fear, and novelty of the past, all of them naturally fall back to the root soil like leaves, like a puff of smoke, sixteen years have passed, those joys, fears, novelties, and return to plain .Absurd legends teach oneself what is right?What is evil?what is trueWhat is fake?People, live by guarding the fields, be lonely, and keep yourself in peace!Dad often said that common saying: People don't have a guilty conscience, and they don't fear ghosts and gods!To put it bluntly, the ghosts, wolves, and charms in the swamp are not scary at all, but the evil spirits that live in the world in human skin are the most terrifying! Let's take the Japanese devils as an example; Liuzhier Guilong can't figure this out, each has its own country, so it's not good for each to guard its own land? !Insist on hitting others with guns!It's like occupying other people's fields without a land deed, and it doesn't make sense to travel all over the world!Evil spirits, no, domineering, no matter right or wrong, they are all evil spirits! Accidentally swallowed a breath of air, choked and coughed, Liuzhier Guilong looked up, and at some point, the light in Li Deaf's hut was already behind him, and the black donkey was familiar with the road, so he turned the corner without shaking the rein , Facing the north against the wind, walked onto the sand and gravel flat beach. The terrain of the flat beach is open, and in the daytime, one can see the reeds and sesame-like water birds in the lake a few miles away at a glance, but in this dark night, the surrounding fields are like splashed ink, and nothing can be seen.There is only a circle of light with a radius of one zhang, with mottled black shadows flowing in the light, the wind blowing against the face, making people's eyes full of melancholy, just listening to the donkey's hooves stepping over the rough sand and stones, making the sand and stones slip and roll randomly , clanging into one piece. After passing Pingtan and entering Sixinghongkou, the wind stopped, and Liuzhier Guilong said to himself: "The wind was so strong just now, it's a strange thing that I didn't blow out my square lamp, otherwise, I would have done it alone." I'm afraid I can't touch Hongkou!The square lantern is just like a lantern, it's also very evil. It's not easy to put it out when the wind is strong, but it's afraid that it will have a ghostly wind, like a ghost's claws, pinch it from top to bottom and it will go out. As soon as Er Guilong finished speaking, a gust of wind slid down from the top of the forest, and the flame of the square lamp flickered twice before it was really extinguished. There is a ghost!Liuzhier Guilong said angrily: You want to make me go to the underworld, but I just don't point you. In fact, when the donkey goes to Hanhongaoer, it doesn’t matter if the square lamp is lit or not. The four surnames, Hong and South, are a little slanted. The title of Hong is in the lower section of Leijiagou. The step is the wolf altar, you can feel it like wearing a blindfold on a black donkey, not to mention that there is a person riding on the donkey's back! Liuzhier Guilong urged the donkey to walk for a while, the clouds at the top of the zenith seemed to be thinner, and to the west, two or three small stars leaked out from the gaps in the clouds, blinking at people as if there were nothing there, in the high altitude Follow the donkey on the top of the forest; after the square lamp is off, people looking at the bright place in the dark can barely see a little, the shadow of the sky, the shadow of the tree, and the curve of the cliff with clumps of dead shrubs, although it is all dark. Yes, there is always a difference between depth and distance.Although Liuzhi'er Guilong's eyes are not like his father's, just now the wind blows against his face for a while, he feels a little sore and wet, and he can't keep track of the distance in the dark, as if wrapped in a dark cloud. It seems to be the wolf altar over there?Isn't that the black branch of the old tree? !Liuzhier Guilong's eyes were dazzled, as if he saw a pile of fire, raging and trembling, sticking out his red tongue in the boundless blackness, the tree trunk was spinning, black shadows squeezed black shadows and passed across his face, the flames Suddenly it disappeared in a cluster of thick dead bushes.Strange? !The donkey hadn't turned out of the bottom of the pond, so it couldn't be the lights of Leizhuang, and besides, the lights were never so bright, and they couldn't shoot so far through the trees. Suddenly I remembered, who could be lighting the bonfire in the dark?With such fierce winds and the fire ban season, it is dangerous to start a fire in the wild. Isn't it a matter of cutting off one's head and holding it in one's hand as a ball?who? !Thinking of this in my heart, I screamed, learning my father's voice and the two words he used to shout: the sky is dry, the things are dry!Be careful with candles!The tail sound dragged on for a long time, and went straight to the distance.The sky is dry, the things are dry, and the candles are careful!The echo echoed in the distance: Be careful with the candle!Be careful, it seems that there are countless little ghosts stealing human language in the darkness with hollow and illusory voices, humming and twisting into one piece.Heijiao donkey walks through the broken part of the forest, and the wolf altar is in front of you. The bluestone altar built by Yiyi is not high, but with the addition of Hongyi, it looks taller. When people look up at the bottom of Hong, the open-air square altar is like a hanging altar. Same in mid-air. That's right, there is a pile of fire burning on the altar, the head of the flame jumps two or three feet high, and moves with the wind, reflecting the crumbling sacred wolf stele really brightly.Liuzhier Guilong has been in the dark for a long time, and when the fire is pierced in his eyes, the fire is no longer like fire, but like living coral shining on the waves of the water, which is illuminated by the sun and turned into a liquid, dazzling bright red. Here , there, from the forest to the sky, everywhere is fiery red, fiery red, flickering in the darkness, real and unreal. Who is lighting the wildfires?It was Liuzhier Guilong who complained, got off the donkey, and climbed up to Hongyan, finally climbed to the wolf altar, and was about to move a rock to press the fire, when suddenly he heard someone speak from behind the God Wolf Monument, under the root of the old tree : Hey, little brother, don't crush it, there are sweet potatoes burning inside!There was a strong Shandong flavor in the voice, stuffy and gloomy, as if the nostrils were not well ventilated. Liuzhier Guilong was taken aback, but he still didn't turn the corner, just thinking where did such a big guy come from?Half human is not a ghost, why didn't I see him when I climbed up the altar?Roll your eyes, my mother!Under the shadow of the ancient tree, it wasn't that ghostly white horse tied to it. That's good, the whole marshes were talking upside down, and I just ran into it tonight!When the matter came to an end, Guilong was suddenly not afraid anymore, and said bravely, "Hey, man!"Are you a human or a ghost?Why are you wandering around the swamp like ghosts and ghosts?There are a lot of trees and wolf forests here, and the fire ban is banned every October. Have you seen the fire ban signs buried along the road?Once the fire is set on fire, it will burn you into a bone awl, and it will be hard to admit it to Lord Hades I used to rest in the small earth temple.The man's voice said: "The temple is too small, people can't stretch their legs in the nest, so they have to spend the night in the open air. If we don't light a fire in this cold night, can people freeze into stone?"Don't worry, I can't burn a tree!Master Vulcan and I are brothers and sisters, we are old friends! Liuzhier Guilong let out a breath, sat down on a bluestone along the altar, turned towards the back of the stele and said, "Aren't you a horse thief?"A few days ago, Zedi was robbed by horse thieves. The weird one laughed: "Little brother, to tell you the truth, those horse thieves worship me as their ancestors, and I may not want them."I was born as a hunter. When the devils came, I was forced to be a guerrilla fighter. I was the reincarnation of Zhong Kui, and I took the hearts of the Japanese devils as food!The laughter suddenly sank for some reason: Don't mention the brave man back then, little brother, I've run into a ghost, and now I'm alone! In the middle of the west of the lake, Liuzhier Guilong's eyes lit up: Are you going to cross the lake? But the lake.The man said: I am going to die, I am also dead in the east of the lake!I'm not a genuine old Central Committee, I'm just a guerrilla fighter. The army ordered Balu to pull his legs and tear the board apart. The Japanese devils are also looking for me, and they want to stuff me into Xuzhou's electric grinder to grind me into a mess!The bandits wanted to sharpen my gun and horse, and clamped me like three sticks, forcing me to go south, intending to fight through the red grass desolation against a gust of wind, etc. I took a breath and worked hard again! Liuzhier Guilong shook his head: If you want to think about the red grassland, you have to wait until the twelfth lunar month. There are many wolf dens in the grass. You have to wait for the heavy snow to cover the grass head and cover it with a frozen shell, and then move southward along the way. That's it. It's also very dangerous! Not afraid of danger.The man said: I am crooked, and I am used to hanging my life on the muzzle of a gun all year round.Don't talk about wolves, grab the Japanese devil, and skin him alive, until he looks like a roasted red lobster! For the first time, Liuzhier Guilong was a little hairy, and that crooked Hu mani laughed shrilly and hoarse for a while, his voice was hardly human.The black donkey kicked its hooves and brayed twice, and the fire in front of it dimmed, turning into a strange and miserable red, as if it had told the story of the stranger who didn't show up. There is a temple of fire in the east.Guilong said: You'd better take your horse to the temple, you can't spend the winter in the open air.Let's go, I'll pull some wheat straw to make a bed for you, there's wine in the urn beside my father's bed, scoop up a bowl for you to drink. That's a good time!Crooked Hu Mani'er slapped his hands in the shadow behind the stele: You have to turn off the fire first, don't be intimidated by my appearance. Don't scare me!Guilong said: You went to grind the house that night and asked Er Hei'er to buy beans to feed the horses. Er Hei'er said that you were against the door frame. I wanted to take a look. Is Er Hei'er lying? Slowly, the man lowered his head and led the horse out; he was really a rare big man, in this cold night, he was wearing only a thin gray military uniform, the shoulders and back were all torn, and the cloth strips were hanging upside down Looking forward, revealing the shoulders of the stone sculpture and a handful of muscles that cannot be squeezed.The military trousers on the lower body have been washed with a lot of water, and they are washed to a moon-white gray, covered with grass thorns, mud spots and sweat stains.One of the two leggings was left, and it was tangled around the ankle indiscriminately; the straw sandal under the foot was broken, and the rags were tied horizontally.The carbine is hung on the shoulder, and the bullet belt in the waist eye is used as a belt. There are two box guns, a pick and four grape bullets made in Japan. Look at my face, little brother.Crooked Hu Lai'er said: "Do you still look like a human being?" ! Liuzhier Guilong raised his eyes again, and couldn't help taking two steps back.That face looked like a human face under the purple firelight!The nose and eyes are indistinguishable, all scars and raised scabs of muscle, like a deformed pumpkin.The left eye was suspended by a constricted scar, making it into a big ball that could never be closed, with the eyeball half protruding outside and spinning around.His right eye was buried in a gray iron-colored pillar of flesh, and it seemed blind even if he was open.One ear had been cut off in the upper half, and the other was fine, but shifted, nailed upside down on the scab with the eye and ear facing back. This is called a wound inside a wound.Crooked Hu Manile smiled, with unnatural convulsions all over his face: Humans are made of flesh, if you want to beat the Japanese devils, you have to sacrifice your life for your life!My life has died seventeen or eighteen times, and the days after that are picked up! Liuzhier Guilong's eyes were wet, and for the first time he felt tears in his heart. Crooked Hu Lai'er lifted a stone weighing seventy to eighty catties and pressed it on the fire. The fire is extinguished, only the wind is still howling angrily in the forest For the guests his son brought back from the dark land, the old mangy felt as uneasy as if nailed with grass thorns; for many years, except for the shacks fleeing famine, Zedi had never seen any strangers.Crooked mangy is as ferocious and savage as a black bear. He ate three lazy dragon rolls and one ear of hot pot vegetables for a meal. After the meal, he drank wine as tea. On his hedgehog-like mustache, sweat was dripping all over his face.But the old lame man didn't say anything, just puffed on his cigarette, staring at that face through the rising smoke. The Zedi people were terrified.The old lame said: You shouldn't hide your head and show your tail for many days, causing people to talk about it. If you put up the old central brand early, we're afraid that we won't be able to vacate the old man's cabinet and offer you up? Hey, crooked mangy sighed strangely: You can't protect the people, but disturb the people instead, that's not what people do!I'm a crooked man and I'm in dire need, Father Meng gives me a few bowls of full food, it's enough!I just plan to buy a new pair of straw sandals, mend my clothes and go on the road. If I stay for a long time, the news will spread and the people in Zedi will suffer. I can't afford it. In this way, Crooked Hu Lai'er spent the night in the Fire God Temple. The north wind was a bit anticlimactic, and it blew vigorously at night, sweeping away the fallen leaves on the field in front of the temple. In the morning, it was like a lazy cow's tail, weak and weak, and could not even shake the dust.The sun walked quietly behind the stratus clouds, a light bluish white, and fell on the stone platform in front of the temple gate.Crooked Hu Mani'er sat cross-legged on the futon, beside him was a small flat bag filled with green hemp, with a shovel stuck in the crevice of the stone, and a hemp rope hanging from the shovel handle, and he was carefully beating the straw sandals.Guerrillas, straw sandal soldiers!He rubbed his saliva into his palms and said: Climbing mountains and wading rivers, marching on the road, you can't do without this thing! The old man squatted opposite, biting the dry pipe, the small skin bag containing the tobacco leaves under the cigarette holder shaking, not in a hurry to smoke, just staring blankly at the crooked face of the man; those intertwined scars showed different colors under the sun One piece of red, one piece of purple, one piece of blue, and one piece of black, are more ferocious and frightening than the painted-faced Huang Tianba on the wild stage. It was really a bargain.The old lame was full of admiration and pity: You have caused a lot of injuries. Can not remember!Crooked Hu said: The three seals on the earless side were cut by Japanese knives. At that time, when the devils first arrived in southern Shandong, I hadn't launched a guerrilla attack yet!A row of kneeling people, men and women, old and young, with their knees sunk in the mud and a grass ditch in front of them.The devil's leader put his hands on his hips and gave orders with his golden teeth. Two devil soldiers, one tall and the other short, wielded Japanese katana, and slashed both ends towards the middle like weeds. , kicked into the ditch!Every time the ghost soldiers cut a person, they shouted: Bali!I closed my eyes and only listened to Bali screaming all the way over the wailing of dripping blood.When it was my turn, the devil stopped chopping and swiped the Toyo knife over my scalp, making it numb from the back of my neck to my asshole, and all the blood from the knife dripped on the tip of my nose.You ask how fast the Toyo knife is?A tree as thick as a bowl, with a knife cut down to the skin, looks as if it has been planed. If the devil's blade hadn't been chopped off, how could I sit on my neck and talk to you? !It has long since become a blood watermelon. Liuzhier Guilong was sitting on a wooden block by the side of the square. Hearing that the Dongyang sword was so fast, he couldn't help biting his tongue, touching his neck with his hands, and staring at the crooked mangy's half of his ear. go!go!The old lame chased his son and said, "Lead the black donkey away for me, put a bucket of bran in the trough, and feed two liters of beans to the horse."This is an oriental horse, isn't it?He turned to Waihu Manile and said, "Look at how tall it is." Copper mules, iron donkeys, paper horses!Crooked Hu Lai'er said: Sichuan horses and mouth horses in our country still have the stamina of a mule, but this kind of ghost horse has a big frame and a fast start, and its mother is too delicate!Douer can't live without it.This horse is ridden by the devil's leader, Shaozuo Shanzhuo, a little prince with a Liu Rendan Huer, oh, he is so proud of dragging a foreign knife, and he goes out of the city for a walk every day at dawn.I lay down on the top of the chaotic grave, Li Ping shot him like a hammer, and the reins fell, and yellow smoke was dragged all the way.The ghost whistle and guns on the top of the city didn't cover me, so the horse changed hands!Shan Zhua lost his left arm, and posted notices everywhere, offering a reward for the capture of the hairy monkey who robbed the horse Hey, don't touch it, little brother, be careful that it will kick you somersaults! The white horse didn't intend to kick Guilong, it just greedily ate the horse feed. If it's really a devil's horse, you'd be a burden to ride it!The old lame scratched his scalp with the end of his cigarette pipe, as if trying to come up with an idea: There is a blockade all the way to the south, can you ride it and fly into the sky? ! I work on one person and take responsibility on the other, and Crooked Hu said: I must not leave the horse behind and implicate this party.Don't look at the peace and tranquility here, there will be great chaos soon, take care of yourselves.I am standing alone, sleeping alone, life and death smoke, I don't care. I was thinking of you leaving the horse at the Fire Temple!The old man said: "There is a fire god here, and no evil ghosts can't stand the sky fire!"When it came to Tianhuo, the old man frowned brightly, and explained how Tianhuo burned the Anhui army and devils.Crooked Hu Lai'er was playing straw sandals while listening.After listening to it, he sighed and said, "Father, if you talk about the god of fire, there are still people demolishing temples in the world!"Bazi in the north demolished the temple, leaving not even a single brick or tile.They demolished the Dragon King Temple, threw the golden body of the Dragon King into the river, said that he came from the sea, and invited him to go back to the sea!Poor that golden body swirling with the waves, dripping like a floating corpse!They are going to demolish the Fire God Temple, are they afraid they won't chop up the Vulcan Lord and use it as firewood?The world has changed, Dad. What did you say?You said the Hongze Lake detachment dared to demolish the Temple of Fire? !The old man stretched his neck so that he couldn't grow any longer, stared and choked, and said: In the early years, the Beiyang soldiers were so fierce that they could eat human flesh raw, they still had to pay homage to the gallbladder! (Note: In the era of warlords, one god was usually enshrined in the army, which is called the gallbladder.) You won't believe it, Dad.Crooked Hu Lai'er smiled miserably: You just don't have to worry about me!Those water monsters in the lake are much more difficult to deal with than devils!If the swamp land were not destroyed in their hands, it would be a good fortune! The old lame blinked stubbornly: I don't believe that they are more powerful than the devils and Erhuang horse thieves. At best, they are asking for donations and taxes! Faced with such a stubborn mind that can't be split with three axes, Waihu Mani'er stuffed all his words into it.The tall warm shop, the warm wine, the taste of home for the first time after leaving home, the wine did not make people drunk, but the affection between the old mangy father and son did, and they couldn't see it across the Tulong River. Flood and drought swordsmen outside the sky. Weaving the days into straw sandals, I can be regarded as a hasty passerby on the marshes, maybe three days, five days, the horseshoe is far away, and maybe I will never look back.In the early years in my hometown, didn't I want to guard the old house for the rest of my life just like the old man?Those smoky years drifted away and never came back.The name Lunan is so strange, moisture wells up in the eyes, those bare rocks stand heavy and peculiar in the sky, resisting all shaking with a primitive and barbaric meaning; even in spring, the fine grass is not green. On the rocky and angular hillside.In the eyes of childhood, the sky is barren and the land is wild. I often run in the sage reeds covering my shoulders, raise my eyes in the wind, look at the wild geese in the sky, and guess how lonely and cold the devils are outside the endless mountains. After coming here, after being beaten by the Japanese sword and crawling out of the pile of dead people, the family is over!Five or six years of running around, five or six years of wandering, I don't know where to go?Anyway, there is only one life, so bet on it for a win and see if you win or lose enough. The new straw sandals were put on, and just about to mend the clothes, the old man brought a set of cotton-padded jacket and trousers: I said, bro, you really can't wear that worn-out military uniform anymore!I rubbed the silt of the yellow cloth god's mantle that I replaced last year, two pieces are three feet eight, I dismantled a small mattress to use as a fetus, made up with this set of cotton-padded jacket and trousers, and asked someone to sew it up, and you can wear it!How to survive the winter in unlined clothes? ! Thank you for being thoughtful.Crooked Hu Lai'er said: "Thank you, let's say thank you!" 我跟石家土堡的石老爹說起你，老癩子說：石老爹意思跟我一樣，不等天落雪，封實野地，你萬不能獨闖紅草荒盪子，沒人能鬥過那些餓狼。 歪胡癩兒笑出一口野性的白牙：我想試試看，老爹，我說過不願在這種時刻牽累你們！ 十一月初的夜晚，滿野落寒霜，老癩子父子倆在夢裏被馬嘶聲驚醒了，有人屈起手指輕彈者柴笆門。 who?老癩子扒起身，摸火點燈。 I.老爹。 應聲沒完，六指兒貴隆就一骨碌爬起來，襖也沒披，鞋也沒趿，奔過去把柴門開了，一陣冷風撲進來，把燈燄掃成豆大的綠點兒，歪胡癩兒還穿著那套破軍裝，倒掮著馬槍迎門站著。 噢，我的爺！老癩子伸手擋住燈頭叫說：進屋撥火烘烘寒罷，你這人！怎不把棉襖褲穿上？ ! 不了，老爹。歪胡癩兒嗓門有點黯啞：我要走了。棉襖褲我穿著，拿軍裝幔著了。 how?要走？ !老癩子楞了楞說：今夜就走？ ! 有一天我會回來！歪胡癩兒晃了晃肩膀。 三個人默默的對望著，半晌沒說什麼話。幾顆疏疏亮亮的寒星在歪胡癩兒身後的黑裏遙遙的眨著眼，白楊樹的枝梢上還掛著一兩片殘葉，響著夜風尖細的流咽，在彼此的靜默裏，聽見白馬在濛黑裏噴鼻的聲音。又一陣風把燈焰掃熄了，只有濛黑的星光勾勒出歪胡癩兒肩膀以上的輪廓，浮動在淡黑色的天上。 多保重，老爹！歪胡癩兒腳步聲響下石級，拐入火神廟那邊去了，門楣上幾粒疏星仍在閃爍著，描出白楊的枝影。一陣嘆噫的風掠過茅簷，一隻早醒的寒雞發出淒涼的啼叫，應和著逐漸遠去的馬嘶，就那樣，歪胡癩兒靜靜的來，又悄悄的走了。 老癩子父子倆呆站在門前，不久之後，他們聽見歪頭泓那邊傳來一響槍聲。天保祐他，不要讓他遇上狼！老癩子說。兒子沒答話，他兩眼早就溼了幾天裏，他不止一回仰望過那蠻野的大漢，他是一座敦敦實實的黑山，他也夢過從歪胡癩兒嘴裏流出來的故事，滾流在墨刁刁的黑夜中成一條淒荒蠻野的黑河，夢見那些骷髏，拖腸子找腿的逃難人，燒著的大火和紅眼野狗狺狺的白牙。如今，他走了，在淒寒的黑夜裏，走回他故事中的世界去了。忽然之間，他害怕起來，滿眼都是形象，滿耳都是那樣的聲音：講荒嚒？講旱，塘灰漫過人膝蓋，沙雲能擋得太陽！井挖八丈不見滴水，赤毒毒的地上能孵出雞蛋來！講澇，龍王睡在人屋脊上，遭了風涼，一天要打八個噴嚏，一個噴嚏水深三尺，黃河倒了口，凹地裏，旗桿斗裏養魚蝦。蝗蟲一落，幾十里不見綠。冰雹下地，房頂變成馬蜂窩！鬼子出門，天上起的是紅霧！八路一到，太陽全哭黑了眼眶兒。 你聽過那種亂法兒沒有？他記得歪胡癩兒啞得分叉的喉嚨：城裏豎鬼旗，鄉角住八路，真空地上土匪橫行！老中央退了，老天爺眼也閉了！癬疥到處流傳，瘟疫遍地都是。在東的，朝西逃。在西的，朝東跑，沒一處是安身地。有的死在田裏，有的倒在路上，白眼朝著天！喝野草汁兒的，死時臉也青得像草葉兒。吃石粉的，死時臉也白得像塊石頭。路邊上，野狗啣著人骨頭走，也有沒斷氣就叫野狗分了家，上半截身拖著腸子爬，逢人便央人幫他找腿。那吃大攤的饑民也像蝗蟲樣，樹林，橋孔到處為家，土塊拿當枕頭，露天就是被蓋，死了也沒人收埋！什麼是你的？田地收了糧，不是你的！一年餵大幾口豬幾隻羊，不是你的！你走路，有人短你！你穿衣，有人剝你；有隻鐲子，砍去你的手省得抹；有隻金牙，也有人扳著你腦袋敲！什麼是你的？ !你死了，一身骨頭架兒也讓野狗塞了牙縫！什麼全不是你的！ 那算什麼樣的故事？那不是故事，是一種粗啞可怖的嘶喊聲。歪胡癩兒講述它們，那隻被傷疤吊起的眼裏，曾射出一種奇異的光采，黑得像一口望不見底的深井，那些話語像活泉一般，從他灼熱的肺腑中湧突出來。許多陌生的，遼遠的泡沫圍著廟堂的燈焰舞躍著，使周圍變得悽慘陰沉。 他走了！戰慄的感覺使六指兒貴隆回到童年某一個分不清年月的時辰；春頭上，爹跟媽拎著野菜籃子出門，把自己遺留在小屋裏。黃昏來了，殘陽的影子穿過簷下的圓窗射落在土牆上，越爬越高，越高越淡，金紅、淡紅、淺紫、黯橙、玄紫終於消失在橫樑下面。風來了，夜來了，屋裏沒燃燈，黑沉沉的一片。一個人縮在床角上，風在長簷下嗚咽，狼在旱湖上尖嘷，偷食的老鼠在樑上磨牙，那許多浮在黑裏的聲音彷彿是一隻巨大的魔手，要把小屋撕裂，把自己攫進半空裏去一樣。許久之後，聽見自己，嚶嚶啜泣的聲音，像一隻蜜蜂在夢魘中振翅。那一種朦朧的恐懼和戰慄，又在今夜重臨 寒夜裏的狼嘷聲是尖銳而綿長的，六指兒貴隆說不出他恐懼著什麼，他只是從歪胡癩兒的聲音和眼神裏，汲取了一種深沉古怪的憂愁。 日子推移過去，沒有什麼風帶來什麼消息。點下麥種的田地要鬆土了，經霜的蘿蔔要收成了，做完了最後一些農稼活就是冬閒季了。澤地上的人們幾乎把歪胡癩兒忘記了，老癩子偶然跟人提起那騎白馬的侉漢來，總嘆著說：可憐，他拗著勁要闖紅草荒盪子，馬去不久，又聽槍響，又聽狼嚎，也不知怎樣了聽話的人總悲憫的搖著頭，眼神裏表示出那侉漢子一定凶多吉少，翻遍古老的傳說，從沒有單身人敢闖過那片紅草荒地。連六指兒貴隆也相信歪胡癩兒死了。當他凝望著泓南那片無盡的草野時，他就想起林中的火焰，歪胡癩兒奇異的臉和他倚在小廟台上所講的那些故事，他重新感覺到一種無依無靠的孤單。