The children are in the middle, the old people are protecting the children, the women are on the outside, and the men are on the outermost. This is the agreed plan, and we strictly follow it to this day.
Protecting children, no matter how backward the civilization or how remote the place, this approach is consistent. This is something engraved in the bones, because children are hope.
I held a hoe in my hand and stood on the outermost edge. Standing next to me was Liu Peng. He was trembling. He asked: "Zhao Jun, are you afraid?"
I'm afraid, but now I have another thought lingering in my mind, which is: "Why doesn't this hoe have any sense of weight?" It is real in my hand, but I just feel that it is illusory.
I even have an illusion that I can't explain, as if everyone here has an invisible thread behind their backs, and where they stand is predetermined.
I didn't answer Liu Peng for a long time. I just patted my head helplessly, trying to get these strange and torturing thoughts out of my mind.
Liu Peng no longer cared whether I answered or not. He just said to himself: "Why do I feel like I am going to the execution ground and waiting to die? Is that dream true? I hope the old village chief doesn't come."
I was speechless and just tightened the hoe in my hand. Only in this way could I find a sense of security.
Everyone was trapped in a tense mood. Even the youngest child stopped crying at this time, as if a terrifying aura was gradually spreading into the place from the outside.
It's dark outside. Only this ancestral hall has the light brought by the torch. Looking at the dark night, one can't help but feel that as long as you walk out of here, you will be swallowed up by the dark night. The outside seems to be full of infinity. of terror.
Despite this, everyone still suppressed the fear that grew in their hearts and tried hard to squeeze out a little bit of courage.
I don’t know why, but I can feel the emotions of the people around me in such detail, but I find it difficult for me to integrate into them. It’s like a novel where I don’t have a character, I was inserted abruptly. So I was like a spectator.
Maybe I shouldn't be here. I looked at the huge dark shadow in the distance, which was the outline of the mountain in the night that I had to pass when leaving the village. I suddenly felt that I should be there.
Is it there? No, that's not right, or the whole thing has nothing to do with me at all? !
No, it was too complicated. I couldn't understand this feeling. I clutched my hair in pain again and thought for too long. I forgot the time and didn't notice that someone was saying that it was already 12 o'clock.
My arm was suddenly grasped by Liu Peng beside me. He swallowed his saliva and told me: "Zhao Jun, it's 12 o'clock."
I turned my head and looked at him. His eyes were full of fear, deep fear, the kind of fear that was engraved into his soul, as if it had been engraved countless times.
countless times
But I didn't allow me to think for too long. Someone shouted: "Listen, what's the sound?"
The ancestral hall suddenly became quiet, and my emotions began to truly integrate into this tension for the first time, just like in a horror movie, the evil spirit that has been harming people is finally coming out.
'Dong' 'dong' 'dong', there was indeed a sound. I heard it clearly. It was the sound of unhurried footsteps, approaching here step by step. The footsteps were very calm and not deliberately heavy. , but it is so clear, as if it is stepping on people's hearts.
"It's the old village chief..." I heard a choking voice next to me. When I looked, it was Liu Peng who was standing next to me crying. He was crying like this, but the hatchet in his hand was It got even tighter because I could clearly see the veins popping out on his hands.
"The old village chief hugged me when I was a child. Why did he want to kill me?" Liu Peng said while wiping away tears.
A very absurd feeling suddenly arose in my heart. How could someone so familiar to me, someone with whom I had such intimate memories, be like this? He wants to kill the people here. Aren't the people here also ready to kill him? However, what kind of memories should we think about at this time? Are you looking for some psychological comfort
I feel more and more like I'm outside, but the footsteps approaching step by step remind me that I am a part of this place.
Liu Peng's words seemed to have caused a chain reaction, and everyone began to talk about the past with the old village chief. But at this moment, talking about such a past gave me a sense of black humor.
Just like a pair of lovers staring at each other affectionately and murmuring love words, but each other holds a knife in their hands and has penetrated deeply into the other's belly.
Is this how life is? The intertwining of love and hate, entanglement of grudges, has obscured one's simplicity and right and wrong. Then, everything begins to become chaotic, relatives turn against each other, lovers become enemies, and in the world of mortals, perhaps only a true heart can see simplicity in the complex, and see the most basic right and wrong, so as to avoid these causal entanglements and not appear. Today's ridiculous farce, while shouting warm memories, will not stop at the same time!
"Only the original heart can distinguish right from wrong! It is not interfered by external objects, not tied up by emotions, not involved in cause and effect, and does not bear sins." A piece of insight made a voice suddenly sound in my mind, telling me this sentence, Confirm my sentiments.
That voice is so kind. Who is it? Suddenly, I couldn't help shouting: "Who is it?"
As my voice fell, a gust of wind blew up. The footsteps were less than ten meters away from the gate here. Liu Peng, who was already crying next to me, said: "Zhao Jun, who else could it be? It's the old village chief." Already?"
This sentence pulled me in from a bystander again, yes, what is your true intention? I am now fighting against the old village chief with everyone. Why do I have so many strange thoughts
The strong wind blew the clothes of everyone here fluttering, silence, deathly silence, as if the only sound of footsteps was left in the world. My heart seemed to be in my throat, it must be beating very violently.
However, my eyes suddenly widened in fear. It must be beating very violently? Why would I make such hypothetical remarks? Shouldn’t a person have a normal heartbeat
This discovery made me really scared. I stood in the strong wind and reached out to my heart with some trembling hands - there was no heartbeat!
Am I a dead person? What am I
Suddenly, my head began to hurt violently, and something was about to come out. I looked around in horror, wanting to say something, but at this time, the urging footsteps had stopped at the door.
"Woooooooooo..." A woman began to cry loudly, no longer suppressing it.
Then, the children began to cry. Finally, the string that had been tightened stopped at the door with the footsteps and was disconnected. The fragility emerged, and the women and children couldn't help but begin to succumb to fear.
The men watched all this silently, but wiped away the tears just now. Women are often more flexible and stronger. But at times like this, men must be stronger.
Protecting women and children is a responsibility given to men by God. If you don't show courage and be stronger at this time, then you might as well cut your own eggs and become eunuchs.
Every man's eyes began to become firm, and they all looked towards the temporarily silent door. When it opens, the disaster will begin.
A loud bang sounded on the door, and a huge hole was opened in the door of the ancient ancestral hall!
Through the hole, people could clearly see a face behind the hole.
What a frightened face it was. It had obviously been swollen by blisters. Some of the flesh had fallen off, but some of the flesh had shriveled up inexplicably. It was black and stuck to the face. The hair was stranded here and there. It was obvious that a lot of strands had fallen off, and the remaining hair was stuck to the scalp.
Because a piece of flesh on the left side of the face was missing, the teeth in the mouth could be seen, and the rolled flesh could also be seen, but just like that, there was an obvious sneer on that face.
Can you imagine a tattered corpse sneering? My whole body couldn't help but tremble!
The scariest thing is not this, but the eyes. The whites of the eyes are actually yellow. Isn’t that the white of the eyes that animals only have? But the eyes, why are the eyes red
And those eyes actually have eyes. Although at first glance, those eyes look cold and heartless, but they still have eyes. Their eyes are cold, not the boundless death energy of a dead person.
And that kind of coldness makes people tremble from the bottom of their hearts!
This face scared everyone present.