If anyone else said this, I would have regarded it as a joke. After all, such a simple person is probably no longer in the world. But if Lin Yingxue said this, I would have to believe its truthfulness.
Looking at Lin Yingxue's expression and eyes when she spoke, she seemed to have an inexplicable emotion when she said this, and I was actually infected by this inexplicable emotion. The hand holding the candied haws bought for Lin Yingxue just stayed in the air, and even stretched out towards Lin Yingxue faintly, as if there was some kind of power in the dark that made me give the candied haws in my hand to Lin Yingxue.
However, just as my hand was about to reach Lin Yingxue, Zhang Qishan's smile flashed through my mind. In that instant, I felt my heart suddenly ached. I forced my hand back, lowered my head and finished the string of candied haws in three or two bites. Then, I sat in the passenger seat, chewing the candied haws in my mouth, not even daring to turn around to see Lin Yingxue's expression.
The car started again soon. Lin Yingxue and I didn't say anything. We parked the car in front of the house and returned home together.
My mother was still as enthusiastic as ever when she saw us coming back. She immediately asked if Lin Yingxue had eaten and where we had been today. Lin Yingxue also started chatting with my mother. I saw that they both felt like they had met too late and completely left me out. Now that I had nothing to do, I went out alone to meet some of my old friends to catch up.
In this village, I have a group of friends who I have grown up with. Although we have rarely met each other in these years, it has never affected our friendship. When I left after the Chinese New Year about a year ago, some of them were still in college, some were idling at home, and some had already entered society. Now that I have left home, I really want to see them. This group of friends should all be at home during the Chinese New Year. If they are free tomorrow, I will call them all out for a drink and reminisce.
Among this group of friends, the one I have the best relationship with is "Captain". Of course, this is not his name, but his nickname. I remember that it was when I was in junior high school. Once, a few of us went to his house to play with him, but found that he was secretly doing some youthful exercise in the bedroom. None of us said anything. We just watched the whole process with a smile, and then suddenly appeared. I vaguely remember the captain's shocked and tearful expression at that time, and from then on, he had another nickname called Captain.
I don’t know if it was because our actions that time were too abrupt or because of his acquired character, but he is very easy-going and often considerate of others. That’s why we have the best relationship. When I need help, he is the first person I think of.
The captain's house is not far from mine. After walking a few steps, I arrived at the captain's door and knocked gently. The captain's mother opened the door for me and recognized me. She immediately invited me in for dinner. Her enthusiasm was still as great as before. The captain also came up to me excitedly and gave me a big hug. He put down his bowl immediately, took out a few cans of "Brave the World" from the refrigerator, and took me into his house to drink and reminisce.
When I saw the captain for the first time, I suddenly remembered what my father had told me before, that you can observe a person's profession by his habitual movements and details, so I began to look at the captain for some reason.
After not seeing each other for a year, the captain seems to have gained some weight, and his back seems to be more bent than before. There is a thick layer of calluses on the protruding bones of his right wrist, which is obviously the result of not exercising often and often sitting in front of the computer to play games. Because his right hand has to control the mouse, it often rubs against the mouse pad, resulting in calluses.
It is obvious that the captain did not go out to work this year, but has been spending his time at home playing games.
I suddenly realized that it was actually very easy to guess a person's occupation by doing this. Why didn't I do this before? It turned out that I was far from enough in observing the details.
When I entered the captain's room, I was greeted by a strong smell of foot odor. I didn't care much and sat with him at the table in the bedroom, drinking and chatting about what happened in the past year.
As expected, the captain did not go out to find a job this year, but has been living off his parents at home. I originally wanted to persuade him to settle down and find a job as soon as possible, but he told me that he was actually waiting for an opportunity. His cousin contracted an orchard in Urumqi a few months ago. When winter is over and spring comes, he will go to Urumqi to help his cousin. The money he will earn then will definitely not be comparable to what he can earn from working now.
Since he already had a plan, I could only congratulate him on making a lot of money so that he could treat me to a big meal. Later he also asked about me, and for some reason, I didn't want to tell my friends that I had joined the special case team, so I said that I was still working in a factory. The captain smiled and said that when he settled down there, he would introduce me to him to work with him and make money together.
I was naturally touched that the captain was so considerate of me. After drinking another can with him, I got straight to the point and asked, "I heard that there is a curse in the village recently. What is going on?"
When the captain heard me ask this, his face immediately turned ugly. He looked around as if he was afraid of something. He hesitated for a long time before saying, "Actually, this is not a secret. Do you remember when we went on an adventure to hunt for treasures together in junior high school?"
The captain's words immediately brought me back to my childhood memories. I nodded and said, "Of course I remember, but we have organized treasure hunts so many times. Which one are you talking about?"
The captain sighed, stood up and walked towards his computer desk, then took something out of the drawer and put it on the table. I took a look and it was an antique copper coin.
There was green rust on the copper coin, and the surface was faintly black, making it look very old. When I first saw the copper coin, I just felt that it looked a little familiar, but I couldn't remember it for a moment. I held it in my hand and looked at it carefully for a long time before I finally remembered that this copper coin was something we dug up in the farthest place when we went to treasure hunt in junior high school.
I remember it was the time when we were about to take the final exam in the third year of junior high school. The five of us, the captain, Xiaopang, Monkey, and Dong Ge, were bored at night, so we decided to go treasure hunting in the woods near the village. I don’t know what we were thinking at the time, but we always felt that this was a very fun thing to do. Dong Ge was two years older than us at the time. He said that during the last treasure hunting expedition, he saw an ancient tomb that seemed to be from a long time ago, so he organized us to go dig tonight to see if we could find any treasures.
A newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger. At that time, I had no idea what tomb robbing meant. Although I was a little scared to go there late at night, I did not refuse because there were so many friends accompanying me. I followed Brother Dong into the depths of the woods.
At that time, only Brother Dong had a flashlight in his hand, and we all followed Brother Dong and walked deep into the woods. After walking for about ten minutes, I was already starting to worry whether we could find the way back, when Brother Dong finally led us to our destination.
Under the light of Dong Ge's flashlight, I saw that under a big tree in front of me, there seemed to be a bulging mound of earth. The mound was covered with weeds, and other than that, there was nothing. It was completely invisible that this was a tomb, and there was not even a tombstone.
Dong Ge was the most courageous. He led us forward and said, "I came here when I was a child. My father said that this was an ancient tomb, but it was later robbed by someone from somewhere. Now only this mound of earth remains."
The monkey was very clever and asked immediately, "It's all been stolen, what are we digging for? Do you want to take the dead body back with you?"
Brother Dong rolled his eyes at the monkey and said, "If you want a dead person, go dig it up yourself. No matter what, let's dig it up and see if there are any treasures left inside. You can take them back as a souvenir. If you don't want to dig, just stand aside. Don't be jealous when you find something."
The monkey really didn't want to dig it, so he turned around and asked me, "Ji Wen, I think this thing is pretty weird, why don't we just not do it?"
At that time, I was quite timid and had a fear of things like tombs. In addition, it was a dark and windy night, so Monkey and I quietly stood aside, while Dong Ge, Xiaopang and the captain were responsible for digging the mound.
Seeing them digging enthusiastically and without any sign of fear, I felt a little regretful and wanted to join them, but was held back tightly by the monkeys who were so scared that they dared not speak.
The three of them dug for about twenty minutes and had turned the mound into a small pit, but they still didn't dig out anything. Just when Monkey and I were bored and sleepy and wanted to ask them to go home, Little Fatty suddenly seemed to have seen something horrible. He was so scared that he sat on the ground and screamed!
"Clothes! There are clothes buried in here!"
Monkey and I were so frightened by Little Fatty's behavior that we lost all our sleepiness. Brother Dong pulled Little Fatty up with contempt and said, "With your knowledge and courage, you might as well have just stood aside and watched. This thing is called a shroud, the clothes worn by the dead. But it's strange, why did they dig out the dead body before even digging out the coffin? Could it be that the tomb robbers were so ruthless that they even stole the coffin?"
The captain and Xiaopang were so frightened that they dared not to do anything, so Dong Ge continued to dig down alone. Eventually, he dug out the entire tattered shroud that had no color left, but he did not see any traces of bones.
Dong Ge picked up the shroud in confusion, but then a few things fell out of it. Dong Ge immediately took a flashlight to shine on the ground and found that what fell out of the shroud were three ancient copper coins.