"Boss, is this okay?"
The old Taoist sat in the back and pointed at the old man lying on his lap and spoke timidly.
The old man was still in a semi-comatose state, but he was able to open his eyes. However, he only opened them for a short while before closing them again, and his speech was also intermittent.
He woke up.
Awake indeed.
But this awakening,
In fact, strictly speaking, it can be regarded as a last gasp.
He woke up.
It's almost time to leave.
He was still alive and holding on. Zhou Ze previously thought that it might be because of his strong vitality or the good medical conditions plus some blessing from God. But now thinking about it, maybe there was really something that he was worried about, and this thing made him unwilling to close his eyes like this.
Xu Qinglang was driving the car. He was driving very fast but also very steadily. He had to be steady because if he braked suddenly or made a big turn, the old man behind him would be carried away in one breath.
It was a crazy thing to kidnap a patient from a sanatorium, especially a patient who was dying and had been in a coma for a long time. However, Zhou Ze did not regret it and did not have any psychological burden.
Although the old man didn't explain it clearly, his attitude was already clear.
Three Villages,
It has always been in his heart and has never been erased.
In fact, human beings are forgetful animals. We always subconsciously blur out the things we don’t want to see and erase the memories that make us painful.
Many people are calm and indifferent to the passing away of the elderly people who served as comfort women. However, they do not know that their departure is slowly closing that period of history from us.
Some things, in fact, cannot be forgotten.
When they arrived at the street of Xingren Town, Xu Qinglang got out of the car, and then he and the Taoist priest carried the old man out.
"Brother, hold on a little longer, we're almost there, almost there."
The old Taoist encouraged the 99-year-old brother.
Xu Qinglang felt the old man's hand on his shoulder and exerted slight force.
The old man looked at Zhou Ze with his half-open eyes. His eyes were very cloudy, as if covered with a layer of gauze. His body was already exhausted. He was going to go down and rest. He also needed to rest.
"The villagers are all here." Zhou Ze said seriously, "I don't know what they are waiting for, but since you woke up after hearing me say the words 'Sanxiang Village', it means I didn't find the wrong person, and you are also worried about them."
Saying,
Zhou Ze reached out and tidied the old man's hair, which was not much to begin with, and then helped him button up his hospital gown.
The old man has already regained his vitality.
The right and wrong, merits and demerits, will be judged by future generations.
It is difficult for modern people to empathize with and evaluate the turmoil of those years.
At least, one thing can prove that when the old man served in the Tongcheng Security Corps, he did not become a deserter or a traitor. When a Japanese division landed at the harbor near Tongcheng, there was no Chinese regular army in Tongcheng.
However, the Japanese army suffered a lot of losses just by relying on the local armed security group and the spontaneous resistance of the residents. In fact, the local armed forces had planned to counterattack the city gate more than once. When the large forces and the main focus were transferred to the southwest,
In this isolated Japanese-occupied area, there are still people resisting and gunshots are still being heard.
The old man was still looking at Zhou Ze. As he looked, he began to cough. His teeth were almost all gone, and he seemed very weak when he coughed, but he was smiling.
Then,
He stretched out his hand with difficulty, as if trying to reach Zhou Ze.
The old Taoist was distressed as he watched from the side, thinking, "Brother, just be careful, and don't get yourself hurt outside before you even get in."
Zhou Ze stood there without moving.
He let the old man's skinny hands gently grab the clothes at his chest.
The old man grabbed it with great difficulty.
Then, Zhou Ze felt his chest being gently pressed twice.
There,
It is the position of the heart.
After the old man finished this movement, his whole body drooped down, as if all his strength had been drained away, and his breathing became disordered.
"Go in, hurry up."
After saying that, Zhou Ze began to circle around this position, then rushed towards the road, and then he disappeared.
Xu Qinglang took out a piece of talisman paper and stuck it on his forehead. Suddenly, the spot on his forehead began to turn black. Then he followed suit, turned around a few times at that spot, and rushed forward.
The old Taoist also turned a few circles at the end, and then rushed forward.
Hey,
Didn't go in.
Hehehehe.
The old Taoist smiled so much that his whole face wrinkled like a chrysanthemum, and he was truly overjoyed.
The little monkey looked at the silly look of the old Taoist priest and turned slightly to indicate that it didn't know the old man.
Entering Sanxiang Village again, Zhou Ze looked up and found that the moon in the sky had almost turned blood red. It was not like this when he came in half a day ago.
It seemed that the massacre he had committed in the ancestral hall might have intensified something, making the situation here even more urgent.
Therefore, if the old man carried by Xu Qinglang is unable to resolve the situation and break the impasse, then Zhou Ze, as a ghost catcher, will probably have to call the little loli to guard the exit together.
Will we be able to successfully guard the gate and prevent these evil spirits from wandering into the human world
Hard to say.
Xu Qinglang also came in carrying the old man on his back. As soon as he came in, he felt the person he was carrying sink. Xu Qinglang's eyes widened immediately, somewhat incredulous:
No way.
Dead
Grandpa, don’t scare me, you’re not even a hundred years old yet.
Xu Qinglang anxiously wanted to turn around to check on the old man on his back, but he suddenly saw Zhou Ze looking behind him calmly.
"Put it down." Zhou Ze said.
Xu Qinglang slowly put the old man's body down from his back, turned around, and saw a young man standing behind him.
The young man was wearing a black military uniform, a rifle on his back and a hat.
It's a very typical security corps uniform, and it even has patches on some places, making it look a bit worn out. This attire is very common in the recently popular anti-Japanese war films.
He is dead,
Is this his soul
Old man,
Oh no,
The young man looked at Zhou Ze and Xu Qinglang, nodded slightly, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, as if he was missing them or remembering them.
Two lines of tears dripped down from the corners of his eyes.
He is dead,
But the tears were not shed because he was dead,
In fact, death was a relief for him. He had been lying in bed for too long. Before he fell into a coma and lost consciousness, he had actually held on for too long.
He didn't know what he was holding on to. His comrades who had walked out of the war together had left one by one, and in the end, he was left all alone.
He was almost 100 years old, but he didn’t live to be 100 years old. He still had people he cared about, promises he kept, and…
A favor owed.
What the old man didn't know was that nine years ago, when he was not yet in a coma, a man named Li Shi had planned to drive to the nursing home to find him. He could have come here nine years earlier.
But the poster who posted the message could not defeat his own fate after all. The fact that he was sent to Sanxiang Village actually meant that he would not live long.
Li Shi, in the end, couldn't escape his own death.
Perhaps, nine years ago, the villagers in this village had not yet gone mad to this extent, and there were still people who could... speak and communicate.
They told Li Shi some things, and Li Shi also planned to go out to help them find the person they had been waiting for.
At this time, Zhou Ze saw the old man and the little girl walking towards the village entrance again.
The old man and the young both walked in a rather stiff manner. The little girl was pinching her own candy figure and pulling it constantly, while the old man was carrying a hoe with a green face.
There was a faint red light in the corners of their eyes, and drool was constantly flowing from the corners of their mouths.
It's getting more and more serious.
here.
The young man walked forward, along the ridge of the field, and came to the road.
He was not afraid at all because he had no need to be afraid.
The debt that has remained in my heart for nearly eighty years,
today,
It's liberation.
The young man was already nearly a hundred years old, but at this moment, he still took off his hat, waved it vigorously, and shouted:
"Uncle Xu, Ah Hua!"
Just like eighty years ago!
The old man was stunned when he heard the voice.
The little girl suddenly paused.
One old and one young,
It fell into stillness directly.
Xu Qinglang stood beside Zhou Ze with his hands on his hips, and asked worriedly, "Is everything okay?"
"We can only try." Zhou Ze said.
After a while,
The red in the old man's eyes began to fade, and he shouted, "Xina Kangzi (young man), Xiao Chenzi hey, you're back!"
The expression on the little girl's face also changed from sinister to innocent, and she ran towards the young man happily: "Uncle Chen, you're back!"
Both the old and the young ran to the young man, unable to contain their joy.
The young man turned around and glanced at Zhou Ze and Xu Qinglang standing in the distance, then nodded heavily to the old and young in front of him and said:
"Well, I'm back, I'm back!"
"Where are the troops? Have they returned? I heard yesterday that the Japanese devils were still killing people in the city, and the bodies were hung on the city walls."
"The troops are back." The young man shouted, "We are ready to fight the Japanese!"
"Okay!" The old man waved his fist and said, "Come on, before you left, you told us to help collect food for the troops when they come back. We collected all the food in our village and hid it under the ancestral hall. The Japanese came here a while ago but couldn't find it."
"Does everyone have any food at home?" the young man asked worriedly.
"Hey, everyone is here voluntarily. Let's get some wild vegetables to fill our stomachs. No one will die if they go hungry for a while. Of course, we are hungry, but that's okay."
The old man held the young man's hand and walked towards the village, while the little girl was picked up by the young man, looking very happy.
Zhou Ze heard this conversation from a distance.
Some touching,
The old man said that it's okay to be hungry for a few days.
But they have been hungry for eighty years.
Being hungry for a while is indeed all right for people;
But the hunger that lasts for eighty years is enough to make even ghosts unbearable. It is an unimaginable torture!
"Little Chenzi is back, the main force is coming back!"
As soon as we entered the village, the old man shouted.
The entire Sanxiang Village was instantly in an uproar.
The old woman who was sitting at the door and sewing the soles of shoes with her drooling eyes shuddered, stood up, and shouted:
"Little Chenzi is back!"
The widow who was drawing water from the well and chewing her hair immediately spat out the hair in her mouth.
The face is full of spring,
Revealing a touch of her own charm, she twisted her waist and shouted:
"Little Chenzi, if you don't come back, my breasts will become smaller due to lack of money. When that time comes, I can't find a man and you have to take me in!"
In the tile-roofed house, the man who was boiling water immediately dropped the firewood in his hand, grabbed his wife's hand and rushed out of the house.
The villagers gathered together.
They gathered together, surrounded by young people, and walked towards the ancestral hall.
The blind old man who was sitting at the door of the ancestral hall stood up tremblingly. He heard the sound and the movement. Little Chenzi, who had been recuperating in the village before, came back.
He said that the main force will fight back soon.
He said that the Japanese devils wouldn't last for many days.
He asked everyone to help prepare food for when the main force returned.
The blind old man threw away his walking stick, knelt on the ground of the ancestral hall, and fumbled with his hands on the floor tiles. Then, he lifted up a few bricks and found the place where the old man was.
Put your hand under the tile, when the crowd rushed to the entrance of the ancestral hall,
The blind old man held up the white rice in his hand.
Shouted:
"Xiao Chenzi, food!
The villagers prepared food for the large army.
We have been hiding.
The devil didn't find it.
Just keep it for the main force!
You guys are full, so you can fight the devils!"
The young man stood at the entrance of the ancestral hall, watching the rice grains slipping through the blind old man's fingers.
Slowly raise your head,
He cried.
At that time, he was full of confidence. While recuperating in the village, he told his fellow villagers that the main force would return soon.
The folks believed it.
But in reality,
The main force did not return until nearly seven years later, but the villagers did not wait until seven years later. In fact, less than a week after he recovered from his injuries and went out to find the main force, the news that this village was sheltering the wounded leaked out.
The Japanese and puppet troops rushed here and massacred the entire village, young and old, to serve as a warning to others.
This is also the reason why he did not want to fight a civil war and finally revolt.
some people,
Still waiting for him,
Wait for him to come back.
The Japanese have been driven away, and it is time for him to go back.
"Really... can one have such a deep obsession?" Xu Qinglang was shocked.
“There must be external factors that have an impact.”
Zhou Ze looked up and saw that the blood moon in the sky was slowly becoming clearer, and the evil spirit in the village was slowly dissipating;
At the same time, a crystal-clear object fell from the sky and landed in the pile of thatch in front.
Zhou Ze walked over and searched, and found a bronze ring from the thatch pile. There were strange patterns on it, and it felt heavy when he held it in his hand.
I didn't finish what I just said.
Zhou Ze picked up the ring and continued:
“But external things are still external things. Some obsessions are deep in our bones, and even external things cannot stop them.
otherwise,
Eighty years ago, we would have been extinct.”