When I saw the red-headed rope on the dormitory's desk, my curiosity became even stronger. I had to figure this out.
After leaving the dormitory, I went to the classroom first, because You Xiaoqing and I made an appointment to meet here first, and then go out of school together.
When I got to the classroom, You Xiaoqing was sitting at the desk doing the questions. When she saw me coming, she asked me to wait. After she finished the question, she followed me, and I said, "Why don't you study at school? ,I go by my own."
I said this not to be out of temper, but I really didn't want to delay You Xiaoqing's study.
But You Xiaoqing misunderstood, and immediately put down the pen and said, "Okay, anyway, I know how to solve the next steps in my mind, so I won't write it here, let's go, I'll go with you."
It was already early autumn, the weather was getting colder, and it was getting up early again, so I put on a coat, so that my peach blossom mirror would be in place. I have developed a habit of not taking it with me. If you wear a peach mirror, you always feel insecure.
After we left school, we went shopping on the streets of Longan Town. The yellow paper is actually quite easy to find. There is a shop selling "dead people" things on this street, and there are some bought in there. These yellow papers are of average quality and all It was made by ordinary paper mills, so it could barely be used to draw talismans.
As for cinnabar, the two of us are in trouble. Red ink can be found, but no ink has cinnabar in it, and there is no place to buy cinnabar in general.
Cinnabar is actually a medicinal material, so I wondered if I could find a Chinese medicine shop in the town and buy some from the pharmacy.
The main street of Long'an Town is not long. After turning twice, there are pharmacies, but they all sell western medicines, and there are no Chinese medicines at all, so we had to ask on the street to see if anyone knew where to buy Chinese medicines.
In the end, we were really asked and told me that it was an old lady with white hair. According to the direction she pointed us, we arrived at an old residential area in Longan Town. It was left in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. The town was preparing to develop tourism projects, and it was no longer allowed to be demolished.
Stone houses and adobe roads, walking on such ancient town roads made me feel a lot more comfortable.
You Xiaoqing seemed to be very happy too. Once, he even pulled my hand involuntarily, which made my heart throb. After all, I was already an older child at that time, and I didn't feel the same way about the opposite sex as I did when I was a child. Just simply love it.
After You Xiaoqing pulled my hand, although he let go quickly, the feeling seemed to stick to my palm and could not fall off.
After walking around this old residential area for a while, and asking a few local residents, we also found this old Chinese medicine shop.
The door of this store still uses removable door panels instead of sliding doors. The door is very high. In the center of the door is a very old plaque with three big characters "Xiangwentang" written on it. , looks very old-fashioned.
It's a pity that a white plaque with "Long'an Town Clinic" written on the pillar next to the door seems to be out of tune with this "ancient style".
Standing at the door and not even going in, there was a strong smell of medicine inside. Obviously we were not looking for the wrong place.
When we entered the store, we found that there were traditional Chinese medicine shelves on the north and east walls of the pharmacy. The exquisite Chinese medicine drawers above gave me a glimmer of hope. There should be cinnabar here, right
On the west side of the pharmacy, there is a counter for bookkeeping, and there is a table in front of the counter. Next to the table sits an old man who is over sixty years old. He has the same head shape as Qi Baishi and wears a pair of Reading glasses, it seems that he should be the doctor in this store, and he is the only one in this store.
Seeing us coming in, he was stunned for a moment, probably because we were so young and we were holding yellow paper in our hands.
Before we could speak, he opened his mouth and asked us both: "Prescribe medicine or see a doctor?"
I thought about it and said, "Get the medicine!"
He asked me, "You are not feeling well there, what medicine are you taking, come here, I will give you a pulse."
I hurriedly explained that I wasn't feeling sick and just came to buy some cinnabar.
Hearing that I was just here for cinnabar, the old Chinese doctor was stunned again, glanced at the yellow paper in my hand, and then stood up and asked me, "Who did you buy it for and what is it for?"
If I said it was used to draw talismans, I wonder if the old doctor would think I was insane. Just when I was about to say something, the old doctor said, "Which master did you buy it for to make a talisman?"
Older people know a lot about this, so I didn't hide it. I nodded immediately, and the old doctor said again: "I have lived in this Long'an town all my life, and I basically have all the 'yin and yang' here. You know, their talismans have now been changed to red ink, and no one has added cinnabar. Could it be that you bought it for a foreign gentleman? Is there something strange happening in this town?"
I listened carefully to what this old doctor said, especially when he used the word "you", so he must know about a strange thing before "you".
And this old Chinese medicine doctor has lived in Longan Town for so many years, so he must have heard of the mass suicide incident in Longan Middle School ten years ago, right
So I asked the old doctor, "Grandpa, what's your name, can I ask you some questions?"
The old man's traditional Chinese medicine shop doesn't usually come here, and since he is the only one in the shop, it is probably very boring, so he looked like he was willing to chat with us, so he asked You Xiaoqing and I to sit next to the table. .
After sitting down, he introduced himself and said: "My name is Cui Lainong, and my family has practiced medicine for three generations. This Xiangwentang was founded by my grandfather in the late Qing Dynasty, and it has been passed down to me for the third generation. It's a pity that my children and grandchildren are all I don't want to take my job, I'm afraid that after it spreads to my generation, Xiangwentang will close its doors."
I persuaded Che Lainong to let things take their course, and then asked him, "Cui Lao, you just asked what strange things happened in this town. So, what happened in the town before? ?"
Ji Lai Nong did not rush to answer our questions, but smiled and said, "Should you two introduce yourself first?"
I forgot about this, and quickly introduced the names of You Xiaoqing and I, and told him that we were students of Longan Middle School.
After revealing my identity, Du Lainong asked me curiously: "Are you students? Then why do you buy yellow paper and cinnabar, and who do you use as a talisman?"
Before I could tell him to lie to him, You Xiaoqing pointed at me and said, "It's him, he's the master's disciple. He's amazing. In our hometown, he's caught 'ghosts' several times."
Eh, I blushed a little when You Xiaoqing boasted, but Master Liu told me not to declare my abilities, but it didn't seem to be so, but You Xiaoqing helped me to say it.
Hearing You Xiaoqing's words, Rui Lainong looked at me and said, "You two don't make fun of me. Although I'm old, I'm not confused."
You Xiaoqing wanted to explain, so I quickly interrupted her and said, "Chu Lao, if you don't believe me, forget it. We bought yellow paper and cinnabar to draw talismans. It's not like you can tell us about the strange things that happened in this town."
Rui Lainong listened to me and said with an expression of understanding: "I understand, Master, it's usually mysterious, if you ask me about strange things in this village, then you have to learn from your Longan Middle School. Speaking of."
To save time, I'll just say that we already know about the "Basou Flower House" and give a rough overview of what we know.
After listening to us, Du Lai Nong shook his head and smiled: "What you heard is only part of this story, there are other things in it, such as the origin of the old lady who sold the red headband, and the predecessor of your school, It's all about that."
I didn't expect that we would have an unexpected harvest from buying cinnabar this time, so I asked Lai Nong to quickly continue to talk about the origin of the old lady who sold the red-headed rope, and he said: "Speaking of the origin of the old lady, we have to start with the predecessor of your school. …”
This is what I know, according to the account of Thurrenon.
Our Long'an Middle School was originally a very small school, and there was a hospital in front of the school, and the boys' dormitory building where we lived was a building left over from that hospital, which was used as an inpatient department at that time. of.
Where there is an inpatient department, there are dead people, and where there are dead people, there will be more or less resentment.
Regarding the history of that hospital, Lai Nong didn’t tell much about it. He only said that it was built in the 1960s, but in the mid-1970s, the hospital was moved to the easternmost part of Long’an Town because of one incident. It is now the Longan Township Hospital.
As for the strange thing that Cherinon said, it probably went like this.
In the mid-1970s, specifically that year, Lai Nong couldn't tell. That year, Long'an Town Hospital accepted a seriously ill old woman, and the hospital performed an operation on the old woman, so she had to be admitted to the hospital. more than twenty days.
When the old woman is hospitalized, her children and grandchildren will naturally take turns to come to the hospital to take care of her.
Anyone who has taken care of patients, especially elderly patients, should know that it is a very tiring and annoying thing.
One day, it was the wife's third daughter-in-law's turn to come to the hospital to take care of her. This old woman is a bit tricky in her usual affairs and has a bad relationship with all the daughters-in-law, especially this third daughter-in-law. I heard that she had grown up with the third daughter-in-law not long before she was hospitalized. There was a fight, and he almost moved his hands.
Before the 1990s, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was basically the most prominent point of contradiction in rural families. At least most of the family problems I have seen were caused by this.
On the first morning when the wife's third daughter-in-law went to the hospital to take care of her, the two quarreled again for unknown reasons. As a result, the third daughter-in-law threw the cup and left in a fit of rage, making the old lady almost angry. was sent back to the operating room.
This matter later spread to the ears of the old lady's third son. After all, he is the old lady's son. This will be spread to the ears of outsiders. Everyone must be saying that when he was his daughter-in-law, he took him along with him, and he was also called He was unfilial, so he beat up his daughter-in-law after hearing about it.
And this beating turned into a tragic occurrence.