At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we finally walked into this legendary town. If we hadn't known the legend beforehand, and if we hadn't stood on the hillside and inexplicably felt the dead energy of the entire town, I would have just walked in. You would think this is just an ordinary, run-down town.
Just like countless small towns that have existed and disappeared in the history of China, except for making people feel desolate from the heart, no one can stop this pace.
In late autumn, the sunshine at 4 o'clock in the afternoon is no longer warm enough, and in this town where the northwest wind blows from time to time and stirs up dust, the sunshine seems a little blurry.
There are not many traces of the times here. Everything appears in front of us like an old photo. Typical buildings from the 1950s and 1960s, vague slogans on the walls, and even slogans left from special periods. Still staying in this town.
As the driver said, after walking in this town for more than ten minutes, we didn't see many young people. Most of them were old people walking slowly, and occasionally there were a few children. In the afternoon, except for a few canteens, There wasn't even a restaurant open in the entire town.
"Where are you going to stay tonight?" Brother Chengxin gave up hope of finding a hotel or anything like that in this place.
"Let's stay overnight." I said helplessly. In fact, I really wanted to take a look at the shack where Lin Jianguo lived in legend. He did such mysterious things in it. I really wanted to explore it and see if I could What clues can be found, even if so much time has passed, it should be... Unfortunately, although this town is not big, it has a dazzling number of alleyways. I don't know where Lin Jianguo's shack is exactly, so I don't know. Might have found it.
In fact, I don’t know if it still exists after all this time? It was only when I saw how old this town was that I came to this idea.
Now that we have decided to stay overnight, we no longer wander around the town, but sincerely want to find a family to stay overnight. However, we have encountered unprecedented difficulties in this town because no one is willing to let us stay overnight. , even if it’s a house that looks very big, with a yard, I don’t want to.
People in this town seem to be very defensive. An old man even said to us: "There are almost no outsiders coming here in our town, and there is nothing to see. You should find a car to go somewhere else. Here Almost no outsiders stay here overnight.”
Even those of us who hit a wall felt embarrassed and strange at the same time. Even Brother Chengxin couldn't help but cursed: "Why are the people in this town so strange? Don't they even have relatives in other places? Then come the relatives." What should I do? Drive him away too?"
But he didn't want his words to be heard by an old man who didn't look too old. He suddenly said: "Returning relatives means having relatives in other places. Those who can think of ways to get out have all gone out. Who stays here, farmers?" After all, we have a land to live on, what is there here?”
This sentence actually expresses the sadness of this town. In the past, this place should be supported by the timber transportation office. Now let alone this place, even if there are not many timber transportation offices in China, this town has been lost. The biggest support was that no other industries were developed, so this was also the reason for the failure.
However, this gave me an excuse to strike up a conversation. From the way the old man answered our conversation, it could be seen that he was not as defensive as other people in this town, so I said: "Uncle, can you make money with that?" Earn? How about letting the three of us stay overnight and give us one hundred a day?"
"Are you bad people?" The old man looked at the three of us several times. Fortunately, the three of us looked human-like, at least we wouldn't make people think we were bad people.
Ruyue said with a smile: "Uncle, do you think we look alike?"
The old man didn’t know what he was thinking. He pondered for a while and said, “Forget it, I’m an old man alone, with no children and no money. You can’t do anything for me. I can earn a few money from you and buy some things.” If you want to drink, come to my place.”
"Really, thank you very much, uncle." Ruyue was very happy when she heard that the accommodation matter was finally settled.
But I always feel that the people in this town have a sense of decadence even when they talk, and they are very weird and very defensive, but that kind of defensiveness is just because they don’t want you to get close to their lives, not because they are curious about who you are. What are you doing here? Who are you? They are indifferent and have almost no curiosity about people.
How could the people here become like this? At least in the story, I think this is an ordinary town, and the people in this town are also very ordinary people, and they don't exist in this state.
I was confused, but this kind of thing cannot be solved in a short time. At this moment, the old man who was leading the way suddenly turned around, looked at us somewhat mysteriously, and said: "Since you want to live here, I can't stop you. But I want to say first, the night here is different from other places, so don't make a fuss."
"Ah?" Brother Chengxin, who was walking beside me, was startled, not because of how scary these words were, but because of the old man's sudden turn around and his mysterious expression, which surprised people.
But after the old man said this, he didn't allow us to say more or ask any more questions. He just put his hands behind his back and walked ahead. The three of us could only look at each other in confusion and helplessly followed. Fucked him.
After all, he is a native of the town. This old man is extremely familiar with the town. In his eyes, those crooked alleys are as if they don’t exist at all. We can hardly keep up with his pace because of our fast pace. Several times we had to ask him to stop and wait for us young people to keep up.
However, there was a small episode on the way, that is, the old man seemed to have met an acquaintance. Seeing him walking the three of us in the town, his face immediately darkened, and the old man seemed to have met an acquaintance. The uncle took him aside to talk.
The dialect here is very strong. We basically use Mandarin to communicate with the people here, and they can barely speak Mandarin clearly. However, once they talk in dialect and avoid us, we can't understand them at all. What are you talking about
It's just that I've traveled to many places. Although I can't understand what they say, I can barely understand one or two sentences in their dialect. In addition, my hearing has always been good, so in this case, I actually heard two mock sentences. From the vague fragments of sentences, I came up with this short paragraph of conversation through my own imagination.
"Why do you agree to anything just to make money?"
"Unlike you, I don't have children or relatives. What should I, a lonely old man, have to worry about?"
"You have no conscience."
"What's so heartless? I won't take them in... They..."
I only heard this short section of the conversation, and I really couldn't hear the rest clearly. But the more I listened, the more confused I became. It was a wrong move to accept us from another old man's mouth. Yet
They talked for about five or six minutes. I don’t know what method the old man who agreed to stay with us finally used. In short, it seemed that he persuaded another old man. The old man looked at us with a strange look, and then became a little resentful. He left without saying anything more.
The old man who agreed to stay with us took a look at our expressions to make sure that we did not understand the conversation between them and that there was nothing unusual about our expressions. Then he walked ahead and led the way.
Why is everything here so weird? In the story, this is obviously a normal town! Along the way, I didn't have a chance to tell Brother Chengxin and Ruyue. I had to wait and see if I could find the time to tell them after they settled down.
In the midst of his wild thoughts, the old man finally stopped. In front of a yard that looked a bit dusty, like a scrap collection station, he turned around and said to us: "Here we are, my home is here. There are enough rooms. You can live here wherever you like." . Just two things to remember, the first is one hundred yuan a day, and the second is that no matter what happens at night, you don’t make a fuss and don’t cause me any trouble.”
What the old man said was emphasized again, which made us confused, but we have seen more, so we didn't say anything.
And the first day in the town started like this.