"Ah, this is a long story. My hometown is really poor and shabby. It used to be very poor and shabby. In the past few years, the local government has been engaged in construction, land acquisition and so on. Many people there are really resentful. It's quite big. When I passed by, I was walking on the road and saw many people looking at me like that. It was broad daylight and the street was lifeless. Some people were sitting or standing at the door, looking at people like that. How can I put it... It was like watching a dead cat or dog. The house in my hometown is still there. I went there for five or six days and lived there. On the first morning, I woke up choked. There were still some fields and some people there. They were burning straw, right next to my house, and the smoke... I thought it was a fire at first, but when I went over to see it, they were burning straw. They were burning it and throwing something into it. When I was a child, I went to Minqing City with my parents. Only my grandparents stayed in my hometown. Later, my grandparents left and our family did not go back. Really, I am not familiar with the people there. I don’t understand the local dialect very well, and they may not understand Mandarin either. , I asked them, and they just looked at me like that, and then continued to throw things there. There were also a few old women who sprinkled those things on me. I think it was that... "
"What did they spread?"
"I do not know."
"What kind of thing is it?"
"It looks like rice, but bigger than rice grains. I really don't know what it is."
"Besides this, what else happened?"
"There are dogs. They... I was walking around the village, and one of them seemed to have seen me. He pulled a dog out of the house, hung it directly from the tree at the door, strangled it... The dog keeps barking, which is very pitiful, and the country people don’t know how to raise dogs. They are not the pet dogs in the city. They look very cute and beautiful, and they are all hairless. The ones with a little hair are also dirty. It was stained. The dog's eyes were still red and its tongue was hanging out. They hanged it directly. They watched me do this and hung the dog while looking at me. They even took out a knife. , a kitchen knife, but it is larger than an ordinary kitchen knife. Just like this, I cut the dog's belly open with one cut, and the contents fell to the ground... I felt like vomiting just looking at it. They looked at me while they were cutting. , staring at me, not looking at the dog. I..."
"Is there something you've done, or something your family has done before?"
"No! When I was a child, I went back with my parents, and when I held funerals for my grandma, I remembered that it was not like this! I thought they were very xenophobic, and maybe they regarded me as that kind of profiteer. That's not true! I am. Because of the land expropriation there, the land and house in my hometown were also expropriated, and I needed to go back to go through the procedures. On the first day I went there, I greeted the neighbors and other things, and brought some small gifts, which were products produced by our company, for them Yeah! They just closed the door, you know? It was like that kind of thriller, I knocked on the door, they opened the door, took a look, slammed it, and then closed the windows, curtains and everything. I was baffled! I left, and again Looking back, I can see them opening the curtains a little to look at me. Just like that... "
"Did you leave after seeing the dog killing?"
"No, because the land acquisition has not been completed yet, I am in no hurry to leave. I go home and stop running around. If I am not at home, I go to the village committee or the police station. Anyway, I don't have to deal with them anymore. . But, that night, when I was having dinner, there was a knock on the door. I was almost scared to death. Several of them were standing outside, all middle-aged people like me. One of them was when my grandma was mourned. , I have also seen and drank with him, but he has that expression now, that expression with a straight face, looking at an enemy. They knocked on the door very loudly, just smashing the door, and then a few people were like this The door was blocked. I took a stick and opened the door, but it was opened just a crack. The door chain was still fastened, so I asked them what they wanted to do.… "
"How did they respond?"
"He, the person I just mentioned, had an enamel bowl in his hand, and inside it was... When I first looked at it, I didn't know what it was. It was dark and looked slimy. It was very... How can I put it, it’s disgusting, and the smell is also disgusting... That stink is not a stink... He said he would give me food, but of course I refused!"
"Um."
"Then...then he..."
"Just what?"
"He said that Maozi made this specially and gave it to me."
"Who is Maozi?"
"The guy who came with them was standing behind. They moved away, and I saw... he was covered in blood... there was blood. It was the one who killed the dog... that person... that thing... him Then he said, Maozi specially slaughtered his rhubarb for me to eat... Me, I almost vomited, really almost vomited. All of them looked at me with the same expression, that kind of want The expression of smiling or not is very fake and abnormal at first glance! I accepted it... "
"You accepted it?"
"Yes, I took it, but I didn't eat it and fell down right away. That thing was really disgusting. I don't know if it was because it was not cooked well or if there was something wrong with the dog... That dog didn't look healthy. Dog. Anyway, it’s... Oops!"
Snapped!
"That's it. I poured it out, gave the bowl back to them, and closed the door. I looked through the peephole and they looked at each other and laughed. I felt like they were going to kill me... They were trying to kill me. Leave me...I stayed in a small hotel. Isn't this a village? It's about an hour's drive away. This is another place that's a little more prosperous and has a hotel. When I live there, let the village committee or something like that , if you need anything, call me and I’ll come over.”
"Well. Did you encounter anything else later?"
"No, that's it. I haven't dealt with them since."
"Are the people in the village committee normal?"
"Well, they're normal."
"You started having nightmares after you returned to Minqing City?"
"Yes, I started after I came back. That thing was the thing that got into my throat. I thought it was like smoke. It was the smoke I saw that day. But when it got into the throat, it went down, to the esophagus, and then down, then It feels just like dog meat...it's slimy and has a weird smell..."
"Did you go back to your hometown alone?"
"Yes, it's just me. Ah, no, I'm the only one in the back. At the beginning, on the first day, my wife was there. We originally wanted to travel for a few days, similar to a farmhouse, but when we got there , on the first day, my wife felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave. I sent her away directly and then went back. I didn’t expect this. I used to, more than ten or twenty years ago, It really wasn’t like this when my grandparents passed away.”
"May I ask, how did your grandparents die?"
"I'm old and have a bad stomach. They live in the countryside. Don't they have those kind of wild vegetables and wild mushrooms? They eat wrong. When the villagers contacted us, they died in the hospital. This must be true. My grandparents are very popular in the village. Our family arrived in Minqing very early, and the conditions at home are very good in the village. Every year when I go back to my hometown, my parents bring a lot of things back, and they are also very helpful to the village. People inside.”
"Then because your grandparents passed away, you completely lost contact with your hometown?"
"Huh? This... hiss..."