Although the town where Chunyu Xi's hometown is not very lively, there are still some ancient buildings from decades ago that have not been demolished. This is a local feature. Those college students who come here to sketch are here to paint those old houses.
The three of them rested for a night and recovered their spirits. The next day, after breakfast, they prepared to visit Chun Yuxi's hometown. Chun Yuxi's home was on the edge of the town, a little far from the center of the town, almost near a village under the town, so they had to take a car to go there.
It is not as convenient to take a taxi in the town as in the city, but money can buy you anything, so with the boss's money strategy, they quickly found a car to take them to their destination.
Chunyu Xi was looking at the unfamiliar road outside, and just as he felt a little emotional, he heard the crunching sound of Guo Qian and Guo Rong eating snacks next to him.
Guo Qian: "Dad, do you want to eat too?" He put the bag of snacks in front of Chunyuxi. Chunyuxi had no choice but to eat with them. While eating, he comforted himself that he had exercised too much in the past two days, so it should be okay to eat some snacks.
When he arrived at the old house, Chunyu Xi discovered that it was still intact. Even after more than ten years of wind and sand attacks, the exterior walls were still almost the same as before. Moreover, several families nearby were still living there. Under a big tree nearby, a few elderly people moved bamboo chairs and sat there chatting.
Guo Rong and Guo Qian followed Chunyu Xi with their unfinished snacks, walked past the talking old people, and under their gaze, came to the locked door of the old house.
Chun Yuxi was just about to push the door open when one of the elderly people behind him suddenly called out in a local accent, "Who is it? No one lives in that house. Who are you looking for?"
Chunyu Xi hadn't spoken this language for a long time, and was a little unaccustomed to it. He answered in a slightly odd tone, "I used to live here."
Several elderly people looked at him in surprise, as if they couldn't remember who he was for a moment. After a while, an old lady suddenly said, "You are Xixi from Alan's family, right? You are so big now! Do you still recognize me? I am Granny Niu who lives in the house over there."
Few people come here. After recognizing Chunyu Xi, several elderly people gathered around. Not only that, several older women came out of the house. The group surrounded the three of them and talked to them in a buzzing voice.
"When you left, you were so short, like a little girl. Now you are so tall. Is it good for you to develop well outside?"
"It's been so many years, why haven't you come back to take a look? This old house has been uninhabited for a long time, and the lock is broken. When we have time, we go in and sweep the dust."
"This is your wife and son, right? You might as well bring them back to your hometown. You've been married for several years, right? The child is very good-looking, and looks exactly like you when you were a child. Look at his eyes!"
After everyone talked for a while, they were satisfied and invited them to have lunch at home. Chunyu Xi recognized these familiar childhood neighbors again, and finally agreed to go to the house of Grandma Niu for lunch, then he got out of the encirclement and took Guo Rong and Guo Qian into the old house.
The old house was empty, with almost nothing left. The floor was covered with dust, and weeds were growing wildly in the cracks between the bricks. It was a desolate place that was different from the appearance. After walking around, I came to a small locked door. When Chunyu Xi's mother died, he took her ashes away. His father didn't like the things in this house, so he gave most of them to people around him. There were also some things he didn't want to throw away, and some large furniture that he couldn't move, which were all locked in this room.
Seeing Chunyu Xi looking at the door lock, Guo Rong asked him: "Why? Want to go in and take a look?"
Chun Yuxi was a little sad: "It's a pity that this key has disappeared long ago."
"What key do you want?" Guo Rong pushed him away, stepped forward, held the rusty iron lock with one hand, and knocked and pulled with the other hand to remove the old lock, "That's it."
Chun Yuxi: “…” His technique was so sophisticated and professional that he doubted whether this friend had worked in some strange profession part-time before.
Guo Qianxian entered the room first. The room was not dull at all, because the roof in one corner was broken, with broken tiles lying on the ground. A few beams of sunlight shone in from the hole, and moss grew in the corners of the wall.
"What's in these?" Guo Qian squatted in front of the cabinet and touched the dark brown boxes and cabinets curiously.
Chunyu Xi folded up his sleeves, took off his watch, put it in his trousers, and then began to open the boxes.
"Wow!" Guo Qian leaned over the box and stood on tiptoe to look inside. Guo Rong also leaned over to look and found that the box was full of costumes, some for adults and some for children.
Chun Yuxi touched the colorful costumes at the bottom of the box, leaned against the box and recalled: "My mother used to like to sing opera. When I was a child, there was a stage in the village. People would be invited to sing during festivals, and my mother would go occasionally."
He loved his mother at that time the most, and in order to cheer up his always depressed mother, he would put on his mother's large costumes and jump on the bed. He was very cute when he was a child, but his health was not very good. According to the local customs, his family would dress him in girls' clothes, saying that it would be easier to raise him. His mother knew how to make clothes, so she made him a few small costumes. When they took him out, the women liked to tease him and coax him to play.
In fact, think about it, the place where he grew up has more than just those unpleasant memories. It's just that for many years, I don't know why I care about it inexplicably and don't want to come back. Maybe I don't want to see that things have changed. And now I come back because Guo Rong and Guo Qian gave him a special power.
After looking at some old things, Chunyu Xi found that there was nothing interesting left in the old house, so he closed the box again.
"We still need to get a lock and lock the door." Although the neighbors would not come to take these things, there would be naughty children who would run in and rummage around when they saw the lock on the door was open.
Guo Rong took the lock that he had just opened, hammered it a few times, and locked it back. Chunyu Xi didn't believe it, so he pulled it with his hands, but it didn't budge.
"how did you do that?"
Guo Rong smiled mysteriously: "This is my family's unique skill." When she was a child, the lock at home was broken, and her parents who were addicted to gambling didn't care about anything, so she tinkered with it herself. She used a broken lock for several years without a key.
We had lunch at Grandma Niu's house at noon. The old lady became very talkative and talked about Chunyu Xi's mother's opera performance in the past. She also talked about how Chunyu Xi, when he was a child, also wore a small opera costume and sat under the stage waiting for his mother.
"What a cute baby!"
"As well-behaved as your son!"
Guo Rong was confused by the compliments from so many people that his son looked like his boss. He looked at his son and his boss carefully for a long time and asked, "How do you look alike? Why can't I see it?"
Guo Qian immediately said, "Mom, good-looking people all look alike. You and I look like mother and son, and dad and I look like father and son, so you look like husband and wife!"
Guo Rong and Chunyu Xi: “…” What this clever little guy is thinking is obvious to everyone.
The two looked at each other, did not respond, and turned to consider their next itinerary together.
"Would you like to walk around and see the scenery?" Chunyu Xi asked.
Guo Rong: "I applied to find an internet cafe in town so that I can spend two days playing games freely."
Guo Qian: "Me too!"
Chun Yuxi: "Will you die if you don't touch the computer for a day? Do I usually miss you guys playing games? No, I have to go out and have a look during this great holiday. There is a famous Taoist temple nearby, I'll take you to worship there."
Guo Rong looked depressed. "What's so good about the Taoist temple? It would be better for us to play games instead."
Guo Qian: “Yes, yes!”
Chun Yuxi: "I pray to you and hope you can get rid of the entanglement of that psychopath Li Ye as soon as possible."
Guo Rong stood up in a second and said, "Okay, let's go."
Guo Qian also looked serious, "Let's go!"
Guo Rong: "Hey, why do you say the same thing as I say?"
Guo Qian: "The girl who took me to play games last time said that the essence of human beings is a repeater."
Guo Rong: "Is your dad not good-looking enough? You played games with the little sister instead of him? I remember you were not like this before."
Chun Yuxi knocked on their heads one by one and said, "Alright, stop making fun of me. I'll deduct your salary as a warning."
The three of them were wandering around the town, while the two men sent by Li Ye were on their way.
Although he had a bad start, Li Ye did not give up. He did not have the blessing of the world's luck now. On the contrary, he had a vague feeling of being rejected by the world, so it was not easy for him to succeed in what he wanted to do. However, everything depends on human efforts, and he did not believe that if he failed once, he would fail every time.
After receiving the news that Chunyu Xi and the other two were missing, Li Ye first suspected that they had noticed that he was following them, so they were deliberately hiding. So he spent a lot of money to hire a private detective to investigate their whereabouts. After finally finding out, he immediately asked the two men to rush to H City.
"That place is remote, and there are many uninhabited areas along the national highways, let alone surveillance. We should find an opportunity to hit Chunyu Xi to death, throw him into the mountains and bury him. We guarantee that no one will find him for thirty to fifty years." The two men made a plan, rented a second-hand van, prepared ropes and other tools, and went there.
Although Chunyu Xi said he was going to visit the Taoist temple, he still gave the two Internet addicts half a day to play games before that. He found an Internet cafe in the town, threw the two in, and then went to do his own things without worry. He went to rent a car. The Taoist temple was far away and on the mountain, so it was impossible to walk there. After thinking about it, he decided to rent a car to go there by himself.
This exquisite man went to rent a car, and seeing that the car was not very clean, he went straight to wash the car. After a whole afternoon of hard work, he went back and forcibly dragged out the two people who were addicted to games in the Internet cafe, and took them to a fishing village for dinner.
When he was washing his car, there was another person washing his car there, a tall and strong man. They both thought each other looked familiar, and after chatting, they found out that they were classmates in junior high school and even sat at the same table. After many years of separation, the two boys who were equally thin and laughed at by other classmates have now changed a lot, one is tall and long-legged, and the other is tall and strong.
The two hadn't seen each other for many years and were quite happy. Chun Yuxi's classmate was from the local area and his family opened a fishing village. He strongly invited Chun Yuxi, and it was difficult for him to refuse, so he took Guo Rong and Guo Qian with him.
Of course, there can’t be no wine at the dinner table for adults. After a few people drank the wine, they talked about going to the Taoist temple to worship tomorrow. Chunyu Xi’s old classmate patted his chest and said, “Hey, you should have told me earlier. My parents go there every week. One of my cousins is a Taoist priest in the temple. He has a proper Taoist priest certificate. We will take you with us tomorrow! You can stay at home today!”
The author has something to say: Green Night: I don’t believe in evil!
—I advise you not to believe in evil.