Chapter 8: The Carpenter's Tale
I never expected this, Master was right, since the old man was a local, and he was the last person from Jiazi Village, how could he not know about the past of this place? I actually ignored the most important question, it was really stupid, fortunately the master can always take care of the overall situation, but after the old man stopped, he was silent, and his eyes slowly moved to the window, not knowing what he was looking at or thinking.
"Old man, you ......"
As soon as I called out to the old man, the old man immediately waved his hand to stop me from continuing, and turned his head to look, and the master also shook his head at me slightly, signaling me not to speak.
After a while, the old man sighed deeply and said: "It happened in the sixth year of Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty, I was only eight years old at the time, and I naturally knew about a disaster that happened in Jiazi Village, and I naturally remembered it, until now, it is still like yesterday's day, deeply imprinted in my heart, even if I want to forget, I am afraid that even if I die, I can't forget it!" ”
In the last few words, the old man's tone was extremely heavy, and he revealed a touch of sadness and helplessness. Master walked slowly to the old man's side and said, "Yesterday is gone, and today is alive, so why be persistent? ”
"Sir, how sad is it that the lives of the four hundred and eighty-three people in the village should be ended in seven days? How painful is this? Even if I don't want to be persistent, I'm afraid I can't help it......" The old man didn't finish speaking, he was already in tears, and then he wiped his tears with his sleeves tremblingly, sighed deeply again, and said: "Now that I am old, I remember the long past even more. ”
Hearing the old man slowly talk about the cause of the disaster that year, my whole body stiffened......
Jiazi village last existed in the late Qing Dynasty Guangxu six years, that winter, just the fifth day of winter, because the year is approaching, there are households to make a living in other places carpenters rushed back, the late Qing Dynasty, the decline of national fortunes, the rich and the poor, who can have a craft to make a living, is also a skill, and the carpenter is envied by the villagers of Jiazi Village, in and outside the year, the carpenter can see the white ingots, this at the end of the year, maybe how much money is earned.
Who knows that the carpenter not only brought his belongings, but also brought home three people, a young and beautiful little daughter-in-law, and two sons, this, this is a big event, the carpenter arrived at home before the butt is hot, the whole village quickly ran to the carpenter's house to see the rarity.
To say that the carpenter is thirty-five years old, but still single, fatherless and motherless, just relying on a carpenter's work to support himself, this year's situation, from the field ran back with a beautiful little daughter-in-law, in addition to two sons, the older is about twelve or three years old, the younger is also seven or eight years old, this is really a flower blooming in all directions, is surprised and glamorous, the villagers have said that the carpenter is blessed, either no wife, or all of a sudden wife and son, this thing is really rare for the villagers.
After learning from the carpenter's mouth, the villagers realized that on the way back from the wooden, he met the mother and son who were in a famine, and after careful interrogation, they learned that the little daughter-in-law's family had died of a man and was helpless, and the people in their village had to go to other places to make a living, so she had to leave home with her two young children, hoping to think of an endless way to feed these two children.
The carpenter was moved by compassion for a moment, and was determined to take in the mother and son, so he recklessly told the woman what he thought, and the woman saw that the carpenter was honest and loyal, so she did not make any more excuses, and came home with the carpenter.
In this way, the carpenter picked up a wife, and piggyback on two sons, this is really a big bargain to buy one get two free, the villagers have shouted for the carpenter to make do, the happy event to officially do, so that the carpenter will live a good life with a woman in the future, how to know that this happy event, not to maintain a month, there was a big disaster.
"What misfortune?" Hearing this, I couldn't help but ask anxiously.
"Ergou, don't talk too much!" Master immediately glared at me and motioned for me not to interject.
The old man was silent for a moment, then continued.
I don't know what happened, but one night, the villagers quietly surrounded the carpenter's house, and tied the carpenter's wife with a rope, saying that this foreign woman had brought disaster to the village.
The villagers told the carpenter, saying that your wife is an ominous person, and that she is carrying an infectious disease, and that the three aunts and six women who had been in contact with her before are now lying at home unable to move, covered with rotten sores, if not, how could the people in the village be infected?
Hearing this big news, the carpenter was dumbfounded, but immediately begged the villagers, maybe they were mistaken, if his wife brought an infectious disease, then how could he be okay with her for so many days, and how could she not have the slightest illness, maybe it was those villagers who were sick themselves, and they forced the culprit to their wives, which is simply slanderous and corrupted......
Where can the villagers tolerate the carpenter's rebuttal, everyone insists that the carpenter's foreign wife is an ominous person suffering from infectious diseases, and must catch her, and deal with the carpenter's wife according to the village's method of dealing with the culprit, there are three methods, one is to tie a boulder and fall into the deep river and drown, the second is to be buried alive in the ground after being bound, and the third is to tie it to a wooden pillar and burn it with firewood. This is absolutely impossible.
The carpenter thinks that the villagers have wronged his wife, and his heart is like ashes, but with his own ability, how can he confront so many villagers, if it is not good, it may also harm the children, when it is difficult to choose, the carpenter hugged his wife with tears in his eyes, determined to die together.
At first, the villagers wanted to drown the carpenter's wife with water, but they were afraid that the carpenter's wife would have an infectious disease, and if the water source was polluted, wouldn't it be that the villagers would lift a stone and shoot themselves in the foot, so the villagers discussed a different way overnight, that is, to burn to death with fire, which was a tragic death, and that was a tragic scene.
When the fire on the fire frame was blazing, while the villagers were not paying attention, the carpenter rushed into the fire alone, and his wife hugged him to death, he said that he wanted to die with his wife, how could he live alone, since the villagers wronged them, they were powerless to argue, and even more powerless to resist, so they had to die together, leaving the stupid village where black and white are not distinguished, good and evil.
But while the fire was raging, no one thought that the woman's eldest son would try to save his mother, but as soon as he rushed into the fire, he never came out.
To say that this person is a good man who deceives the heavens and does not deceive the sky, the so-called heaven is not endless, the fire is burning, the sky is unexpectedly raindrops, cold raindrops, mixed with biting snow slag, hit the villagers' faces painfully, soon the ice rain is getting bigger and bigger, the absurd fire, the fire of stupidity is extinguished, but the three people inside, a family of three, are dying, especially the woman's eldest son, because of his young age, his body bones are more ineffective than adults, he was burned to death first, the skin and flesh on his body fell off, and the flesh and blood were blurred, In that scene, I'm afraid everyone will cry, it's too cruel......
The carpenter and his wife were also burned beyond recognition, their skin was open, and there was black smoke on their bodies, and the villagers were so frightened that they fled in all directions, they thought that this was the will of God, and the sky was endless, maybe it was really the villagers who were mistaken, and wronged the carpenter's family, but this tragedy still has to end, the villagers gathered again to discuss how this tragedy ended, if they now say that they have wronged the carpenter's family, then the outsiders will not sue them for a group of people to kill the family, so the villagers gritted their teeth in unison, The carpenter's wife who bites the carpenter to death is an ominous person, as long as he unifies his tone, even if it spreads, it will be fine.
This fire was extinguished by a rain, and the third method had to be buried, but if it was too close to the village, the villagers naturally felt that it was inappropriate, so they had to get the three people out of Jiazi Village, and buried them on the barren slope five or six miles away.
The villagers dug three pits on the barren slope and buried the three blackened corpses in them.
Soon after, a rumor spread in the village, some villagers said that in the middle of the night they saw a blackened corpse standing outside the window, and cursed their family loudly through the window, so frightened that their family did not sleep all night, and the villagers were afraid, superstitious to them, thinking that the carpenter's family was looking for them to take revenge.
Let's talk about evil, not long after, something really happened in the village.
There is a family, in the middle of the night heard someone knocking on the door, for some reason, the man in the family seems to have a little courage, only holding a kerosene lamp to open the door, under the reflection of the lamp, the man actually saw the carpenter's wife, standing outside the door intact, but he just wanted to ask something, only to see the carpenter's wife covered in black smoke, blink into a black corpse, teeth and claws to strangle the man, the reason is self-explanatory, because this person is one of the masterminds who took the lead in burning the carpenter's family of three.