Folk custom: At the beginning of the wedding, the bride takes off her painted skin

Chapter 172 Killing a Pig

Huangliang Village, village entrance.

The setting sun in the evening passes through the gaps in the old locust trees and falls on the ground, forming mottled tree shadows.

Several men from the village were sitting under the roots of the tree, shirtless, smoking cigarettes, talking about how wonderful the weather was this year and how tall the crops in the fields were.

A little further away, under the wall of the village head's house, there were still a few half-year-old children sitting around, talking quietly.

A little girl with two braids pointing upwards, her face was red and she was clenching her little fists.

"I'm going to tell you a secret, but you must not tell it to anyone. Even if...even if you tell it, you can't say it was me, Yaya."

"Okay, Sister Yaya, just tell me quickly."

"Yes, Sister Yaya, don't we still believe you? You have the strictest mouth."

Yaya's black eyes rolled around in a circle, and finally landed on a little boy who was covered in dirt and had two white pearls hanging from the tip of his nose.

"I believe you, it's just the rice bug...it has the biggest mouth!"

"That's it."

The kids all agreed.

Liang Mi jumped up angrily, put her hands on her hips, sniffed and said loudly: "Zhou Yaya! I knew you were just bullying me. You have no father and no mother. Humph, I won't play with you anymore."

"Also, I, Liang Mi, have the strictest mouth!"

After saying that, Liang Mi sniffed and ran away.

The adults under the shade of the tree also heard the noise, turned around to take a look, and then laughed.

It's just children playing around, just watch, listen and laugh.

As soon as Liang Mi left, Zhou Yaya and the remaining friends gathered together and muttered: "Brother Daoxuan, didn't his father leave last month?"

"Yes, this is no secret. Everyone in the village knows it." A little boy was about to retreat.

Zhou Yaya hurriedly pulled him back, "Look, Huzi, you are in a hurry. I haven't even gotten down to business yet."

"Then you should tell me quickly!"

"After Brother Daoxuan and his father left last month, their family ate meat for several days." Zhou Yaya lowered her voice and said.

"what?!"

"I've eaten meat for several days!"

"Gudong~"

The remaining children swallowed.

Zhou Yaya continued: "Now you know why I let Liang Mi go? He has no father and no mother, so what's the use of hearing about it."

"What I mean is, why don't you go back and ask to see which of your parents is willing to die... so that you can eat meat."

"Sister Yaya, do you want to ask?"

"I will definitely ask."

Behind the wall, Liang Mi ran away quickly after hearing the secret.

……

"Brother Daoxuan, Zhou Yaya said that after your father died, your family ate meat for several days."

Liang Mi was lying furtively next to a tall boy, her little eyes rolling around, and she had to suck on him several times just to say a word.

Li Daoxuan was lying on the haystack in the grain drying field, with a piece of straw in his mouth, and he spat it out.

"After a simple incident, no one will be able to eat meat for several days."

"Oh, that's right. It's a pity that I lost my parents early, otherwise I would still be able to eat meat."

Li Daoxuan kicked him away, "You heartless thing, if your parents hear this, they will crawl out of their graves and give you a few big ass bags."

Liang Mi smiled and climbed back again.

"Brother Daoxuan, do you still want to see the outside world?"

When Li Daoxuan heard this, he turned back and looked outside the mountain, with a hint of hope in his eyes.

"Think about it, why don't you think about it? I even dream about it..."

"I also think, brother Daoxuan, how about you wait for me a little longer. When I grow up a little bit, I will go out with you to see the outside world."

I don't know what he thought of, but Li Daoxuan suddenly became angry. He knocked Liang Mi on the head, jumped off the haystack, and walked back to the village.

When I returned home, a woman was feeding chickens in the yard. When she saw Li Daoxuan coming back, she was happy at first, and then started to curse:

"I just know that I'm running around without getting home. Your Uncle Wu has been here three times and you haven't even given him a reply."

Li Dao

The woman put her hands on her hips and said, "You haven't found any success in killing pigs? Look at your uncle Wu, you have built a house with white walls and blue tiles in the village. How many people in the village can afford to live in this?"

"He only wanted to take you in because you were strong and capable of doing this. You don't know what is good or bad."

Li Daoxuan irritably opened the door and went out again.

Looking at his back, the woman who was feeding the chickens was a little surprised, and seemed to regret that she had talked too much again.

After leaving the house, Li Daoxuan just passed by a courtyard. Suddenly he thought of something, walked in, and came out after a while.

As soon as he leaves.

Zhou Yaya was tied to a tree in the yard of this house, and she waved at her with a broom like a girl.

"If you still eat meat, you just hope that we both die soon, right? You have no conscience."

Zhou Yaya cried angrily.

"Li Daoxuan, you bastard, you are so old and you still come to complain, you are shameless!"

"And Liang Mi, you are such a big-mouthed person."

While Zhou Yaya was crying, her father came over again and took away the broom from her mother's hand.

Zhou Yaya seemed to have seen the hope of life, crying and said: "Dad, please save me, mother really beats me, she really beats me."

The woman stared.

The man took the broom and said helplessly: "You rest for a while, I will fight."

Zhou Yaya sang a cheerful ditty. Even if he walked far away, Li Daoxuan could hear it. The corners of his mouth turned up and he smiled happily.

That night.

At the end of Huangliang Village, inside the abandoned mountain temple, Li Daoxuan and Liang Mi were lying on a pile of straw in the corner.

Scattered on the ground beside them were the corns they had stolen.

Roasted over fire, it was very fragrant, and the mouths of the two people who ate it were all very black.

This is also Liang Mi’s home.

Liang Mi himself has a family, but he doesn't know when he started to stop going home and has been living in this mountain temple.

"Millet bugs."

"What's wrong with Brother Daoxuan? Haven't you had enough to eat? The Wang family's chickens don't come back to the cage at night..."

"Who told you to know how to sneak around at such a young age?" Li Daoxuan knocked Liang Mi on the head again.

Liang Mi hugged her head in pain, bared her teeth and muttered: "You were the happiest when you stole the corn just now, and you only picked the big ones."

"What did you say?"

"I think Brother Daoxuan is right."

The two of them were silent again, both looking at the summer night sky through the hollow roof, the stars were vast and endless.

"Millet bugs."

Li Daoxuan shouted a second time.

Liang Mi turned to look at him doubtfully. Liang Mi always felt that something was not right with "Brother Daoxuan" today.

"Brother Daoxuan, what's wrong with you?"

Li Daoxuan sighed and scratched his hair irritably, "I might not go out."

"what?"

"I want to kill pigs with Wu Faxue. My mother is getting older. I am the only child and my father is gone. If I leave again... no one will know if she dies at home."

The luster in Liang Mi's eyes gradually faded. He lowered his head and remained silent for a long time before saying "Oh."

Liang Mi couldn't understand.

He has no parents.

"Brother Daoxuan, when will you go?"

"Tomorrow, I'm afraid that in a few days, I won't be able to make this decision again."

"Xiao Mi Chong, I can only see the outside world for you if you help me... I, I can't go there."

"it is good."

Liang Mi nodded vigorously.

Li Daoxuan did not knock on his forehead again this time, but gently rubbed it, then got up and walked towards the outside of the mountain temple.

Just at the door.

Liang Mi suddenly shouted: "Brother Daoxuan, do you really like killing pigs?"

Li Daoxuan stopped and was thinking about this question, but he couldn't think of an answer. He just waved his hand and said, "Who knows?"

"Maybe."

"Brother Li, stay away from Zhou Yaya's house..." Liang Mi said again.

Li Daoxuan turned around, thinking that Liang Mi was just an angry play between children, and turned around and left.

After he left, Liang Mi didn't know what she thought of, and immediately shrank into a corner, her face turned pale and she was trembling.

the next day.

Li Daoxuan prepared a piece of bacon left at home and went to the home of Wu Fa, the butcher in Huangliang Village. After this day, there was a new butcher in Huangliang Village.

This is also the day. Liang Mi left Huangliang Village.

……

Two years later.

Li Daoxuan has become the most popular butcher Li in Huangliang Village. His knife skills are extremely clean and neat, whether he is killing pigs, cows, chickens or fish.

And similarly, in the eyes of the matchmakers in Huangliang Village, he is also very popular...

is the day.

Li Daoxuan, who was nearly 1.9 meters tall, bent down before walking into his home, holding a pig intestine on a straw rope.

"Mom, mother, I'm back, hehe."

A woman with gray hair wearing an apron walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on the apron as she walked, "Look at you, and you brought these things back. Uncle Wu didn't tell you, did he?"

"No, what can he say to me? I paid for it."

Li Dao

"Drink less. Look at Zhou Yaya's father. He drank to death. Alas, wine is not a good thing."

Mother Li said, but still carried the pig intestines to the kitchen.

Looking at her increasingly stooped back, Li Daoxuan also sighed leisurely, turned around and went out again.

Along the way, every house with a girl of the right age would affectionately shout "Daoxuan Daoxuan".

Li Daoxuan lived up to their expectations and responded to them whenever they talked about marriage.

Li Daoxuan would change the subject and promise to buy meat cheaper for everyone.

Make it cheaper for everyone, and then make the price higher before selling the meat, so that no one loses and everyone is happy.

This is also the way of doing business taught by Wu Fa to Li Daoxuan.

Walking all the way from the beginning to the end of the village, Li Daoxuan returned to the mountain temple where Liang Mi originally lived.

He didn't go in either. He just passed by the door and took a look. He knew that Liang Mi still hadn't come back.

Li Daoxuan sighed again. Now he no longer expects Liang Mi to see anything. He only hopes that Liang Mi can come back safely.

Liang Mi was only eight years old when she left.

Just as he was thinking about going back, he found a red figure behind the mountain temple, and he was startled.

"scare--"

He took a step back, but after taking a closer look, he realized that the red figure was actually a girl in a red dress squatting there.

"Yaya, what are you doing squatting there?"

Li Daoxuan was eighteen, and Zhou Yaya was only twelve.

Zhou Yaya heard the sound, looked back, said nothing, and started drawing on the ground again.

Li Daoxuan saw the little girl crying. He walked forward and found Zhou Yaya drawing on the ground.

A simple drawing drawn with branches on the dirt.

Although simple, Li Daoxuan could tell at a glance that the painting was of a person strangling another person with a rope.

"What are you drawing?"

Zhou Yaya raised her head, tears streaming down her eyes, "Brother Li, can I believe you?"

Li Daoxuan hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "I think it's okay."

Zhou Yaya shed more tears, but still didn't cry at all, "I finally know why Liang Mi didn't play with me before."

What Liang Mi said before leaving came to Li Daoxuan's mind.

He reminded Li Daoxuan to stay away from Zhou Yaya's family.

"why?"

Zhou Yaya pointed to the painting she drew on the ground and said in a slightly crying tone: "This is my mother, this is my father."

Li Daoxuan looked along and swallowed.

"You mean, your mother strangled your father with a rope?"

"My mother, she is a ghost!"

Zhou Yaya finally cried loudly.

Li Daoxuan didn't know how to coax people, so he just let Zhou Yaya cry loudly. There was no one around anyway, so no one would hear her cry.

After a while, she stopped sobbing.

"I finally know why Liang Mi has been living in this mountain temple."

Zhou Yaya looked inside along the cracks on the temple wall. The head of the statue inside fell off, leaving only a broken golden body.

Li Daoxuan also understood.

They all feel that the temple can protect themselves, and even if it cannot, it can still give them peace of mind.

"How...how did you find out?" Li Daoxuan asked.

Zhou Yaya wiped the tears on her face, with a hint of fear in her eyes, and said, "Actually, I felt something was wrong with my mother long before that. She..."

Zhou Yaya swallowed her saliva and said: "One time I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, and she was sleeping next to me. I glanced at her, and... what I saw, Brother Li, do you know what it was? I saw it A white skeleton.”

"I was so frightened at the time that I couldn't believe it. I shivered, but in the blink of an eye, my mother was lying next to her intact again."

"I was so scared that I couldn't sleep all night, but I didn't find anything unusual, so I just assumed it was me and I was wrong."

Li Daoxuan patted her back gently, fearing that she would be scared to death.

"Any more?"

"Also, one day it was too hot. I rushed home from outside and found my mother washing her hands, but the hands in the basin turned out to be a pair of skeleton hands. I was so frightened that I froze in place, but as soon as I In the blink of an eye, her, her hand was back to normal again.”

Li Daoxuan was also a little surprised when he heard this, "What about this time? How did you know that your mother killed your father?"

"Just...that night." Zhou Yaya's eyes revealed a trace of memories, "That night my father came back from drinking at Uncle Wang's house. As soon as he got home, he lay on the bed and fell asleep, doing nothing."

"My mother, she was very angry. She said that my father only drank alcohol and did nothing. It was a sin to live."

"Then she brought back a rope from outside, which is what our family uses when killing New Year pigs. While my father was sleeping, she strangled him to death."

Zhou Yaya was a little lost in thought, still thinking about it, and spoke subconsciously.

"I remember my dad struggling desperately, struggling desperately, but for such a big man, he was not as strong as my mother."

"My mother dragged him to the foot of the bed and strangled him for a long time. I was watching from the side. I was so frightened that I didn't dare to move."

"My mother asked me to help, but I didn't dare to move because my mother's head... was a skull."

When Zhou Yaya said this, her face turned extremely pale.

Li Daoxuan shook her hard, and she woke up in a cold sweat. She was panting heavily.

Li Daoxuan said in a deep voice: "Actually, it's not safe here. If your mother comes to see you... I suggest you go to your uncle's house to stay for a few days and talk to your uncle about this matter."

"Okay... okay. Then Brother Li, you can send me there."

"it is good."

Li Daoxuan nodded vigorously, he was still willing to help with this small favor.

The journey was uneventful, and Li Daoxuan safely sent Zhou Yaya to her second uncle's house before he left.

On the way home, Li Daoxuan was thinking about the possibility of this.

Zhou Yaya's frightened appearance should not be fake, and the probability of lying was low, but he didn't really believe in ghosts.

Growing up, he had only heard about ghosts from some old people, but he had never seen one himself.

And if Zhou’s mother is really a ghost, why has she only killed Zhou’s father for so long?

Halfway through, Li Daoxuan suddenly felt that if he asked his mother, he wouldn't be able to find out anything. It would be better to ask Master Wu.

As the village's pig butcher, he should know more.

We all came to Wu Fa's house, where we had finished dinner. Wu Fa, who was tall and thick, was sitting in the yard enjoying the cool air. A girl who was also "big and thick" was fanning him.

When she saw Li Daoxuan coming, the girl shouted "Brother Li" and immediately ran away with a blushing face.

"What are you doing here if you don't have dinner at home? I don't have enough food for you." Wu Fa said angrily.

"I'm not here to make a living with Master. I have something else that I want to ask Master."

"Oh? What can happen to you kid?"

Wu Fa had never heard Li Daoxuan say this before, and he suddenly became a little interested.

Li Daoxuan said exactly what he had just heard from Zhou Yaya, but before he was halfway through the words, he was interrupted by Wu Fa.

He looked very angry, stood up and cursed: "Ghost, where did the ghost come from!"

"Damn it, if you dare to come, I will chop it with a knife!"

"Come and chop one, come and chop two."

Having said this, Li Daoxuan knew that nothing could be learned from Wu Fa.

Like himself, he doesn't believe in ghosts.

Li Daoxuan nodded in agreement, left and returned home.

When he returned home, Li's mother had already prepared the meal and was waiting, but Li Daoxuan did not drink again tonight.

Looking at his mother's old appearance, Li Daoxuan still didn't tell the matter, because he was afraid of frightening his mother.

That night.

Li Daoxuan was resting at home when he suddenly heard someone knocking hard... not knocking, but banging on the door.

When he got up, the man was already outside his window.

He slapped the window hard and said loudly:

"Doxuan Daoxuan, get up quickly, there is a ghost, there really is a ghost!"

The person who spoke... was Wu Fa!

(End of this chapter)