But I have to say that my buddy was smart. He walked a few steps forward and saw a small shop. Although the door was closed, there was light coming through the cracks in the door, so the people inside must not have slept. Besides, it was still early, only seven o'clock.
I went up to knock on the door. The shop owner, a man in his thirties, closed the door when he saw that I was not from the village. I pushed the door open and said with a smile, "Let's buy something and leave."
"What are you buying?"
I looked inside the shelves and saw that some cigarettes and liquor were covered in dust. That must be because they were too expensive to sell. I pointed at the cigarettes and liquor and said, "I want three bottles of liquor and five packs of cigarettes."
The boss was startled, and then let us in. He was wrapped in a worn-out military coat, and didn't close the door, thinking that I was leaving after buying something, so he quickly slipped into the counter. It was quite warm inside, with a charcoal brazier on the floor. The last thing Shanxi lacks is coal, and this thing can generate a lot of heat when burned.
I took the cigarettes and alcohol without paying the bill and said to him, "We got lost and can't find a place to stay. We want to have some drinks here to warm ourselves up before we go on. Is that okay?"
The boss rolled his eyes, implying that if we didn't agree, we wouldn't buy it. He nodded reluctantly and said, "Drink it and leave quickly." He muttered something and ran out of the counter to close the door.
I winked at them, and they squatted on the ground and opened their wine. The boss was tactful and brought five large and small red flower bowls, and each of us poured a bowl to drink. Although we didn't say anything, we all knew that it was so warm here, so we might as well stay here to the end, drink more wine, and then buy food to wait until dawn.
The boss just sat at the counter and stared at us without saying a word. The only sound in the room was the occasional rustling of the charcoal brazier. Suddenly, a baby's cry broke the silence in the room, and we were all startled. We turned around to look in the direction of the sound. There was an inner room on the left, with a shiny black sheet hanging on the door. The boss's wife and child must be in there.
After the cry, the child kept crying. It sounded like a baby, but the cry was weird no matter how you listened to it. The sound was so ugly, just like a knife scraping on an iron plate, making people feel uncomfortable.
The boss frowned, looking particularly impatient, and shouted towards the inner room, "Tell this damn kid to shut up. He's been howling all day long. If he keeps howling, I'll throw him into the ravine."
The Shanxi dialect was spoken too fast, and we didn't understand it for a while. Lu Fei translated it for us in a low voice, and then we understood it. Shen Bing and Qu Mo immediately showed their indignation. Isn't it normal for a child to cry? This bastard is such a jerk.
I looked at Lu Fei, but I didn't think so. The child's cry was too weird, and I always felt scared and had a bad feeling. Lu Fei and Wang Zijun also tilted their heads to look at the door of the inner room, and seemed to have noticed something was wrong.
The door curtain suddenly opened, and a woman came out holding a baby in her arms, crying, "Daguo, look, he's pooping again. If he keeps pooping like this, he'll die!"
As soon as this woman came out, I suddenly felt a cold breath coming towards me, but it was immediately melted away by the warmth of the charcoal fire in the room.
"Just take it away. This useless thing will be thrown away if you keep it." The boss shouted angrily.
I really felt something was wrong, so I stood up. Lu Fei and Wang Zijun also stood up. Although Qu Mo was still squatting, he stared at the child and his expression suddenly changed!