Chapter 93 Customs
I felt that Ding Ding was a little paranoid. He could associate so many things with a surname. I immediately rolled my eyes at him and asked, "What do you mean? Are you hinting that I have a younger brother?"
Ding Ding's eyes widened and he said, "Tan Xi, you are so amazing. You found the key point so quickly. Why didn't I think of this? I thought it might be a distant relative of yours!"
I looked at him helplessly, not knowing whether I had overestimated Ding Ding or was just being stupid. I thought I was following his line of thought, but I had dug a hole for myself.
But if you think about it carefully, this makes sense. Even Mrs. Jiu's relatives can appear in this place, so if someone from my family really is here, it wouldn't be surprising at all.
We walked forward for a while, and the old man suddenly stopped, stood under a dilapidated house, looked inside, and said, "We have arrived. This is Xiao Yu's fourth brother's house. Her older brothers and sisters were too old and had already been buried. The few who are still alive are also sick. Only her fourth brother is still in good health."
I followed his example and looked inside. The house was very short, and a lot of dirt had fallen off the wall. A lot of weeds were growing in the gaps between the tiles on the roof, making it look like a dilapidated building.
The house only had a crooked wooden door, and the couplets on both sides had faded and turned white, looking like they hadn't been changed for a long time. And the house had no connections at all. I stood outside the door and looked at it for a while, but couldn't see anything clearly.
The old man walked to the side and knocked on the door. The sound of "dong dong" echoed loudly, and dust kept falling on the side of the door. He shouted at the top of his voice, "Brother Yu, are you home? It's me, your brother. I brought someone to show you."
He shouted for a while, but there was no echo in the house. The old man turned around and looked at the old woman, saying that it was strange, because usually at this time, Fourth Brother Yu would be here.
I frowned, wondering if this person was the kind of person who could predict the future. Because he didn't like Mrs. Jiu and knew we were coming, so he just hid himself?
But the little ghost came closer, stood behind me, and said, Tan Xi, can't you smell it?
The old man and I turned to look at him at the same time, with confusion on our faces, and asked, what's that smell?
The little ghost raised his hand and shook it in front of his nose, as if he couldn't stand the smell. He said that the person in here was probably dead last night. How could you not smell such a strong smell?
The old man and I looked at each other, and then at Ding Ding. He was also looking at the little ghost with surprise, as if he was the only one who could smell the smell he was talking about.
We didn't even have time to recover from the little ghost's words. Instead, the old woman was the first to react. She slammed the door hard and shouted anxiously , "Fourth Brother Yu, please open the door!"
She knocked hard, the sound was deafening, and finally the little ghost sighed, dragged her, and kicked the wooden door hard. I only heard a loud "bang", the wooden door was so old that it was kicked down by the little ghost!
Finally, a ray of light came into the room, raising a cloud of dust. I covered my mouth and nose and took a look inside. I saw that the room was not big, only about ten square meters. In the middle facing the door, there was a table and a few low wooden stools. There were also a few dirty porcelain bowls and teapots on the table.
But what was even more shocking was that there was indeed a person lying behind the table. He looked like he was asleep, lying there motionless.
The old man and the old woman were very panicked and ran in quickly, shouting the man's name over and over again. But when they felt his breath, their hands trembled slightly and the expressions on their faces froze.
Ding Ding and I didn't go in, we just stood outside the door and watched them. The little ghost frowned, walked forward, glanced at the four-legged creature, and said, "It was a natural death. It seems that although he lived an ordinary life, he didn't suffer much when he died."
When the old man heard this, he suddenly raised his head and asked, "How did you know that? Fourth Brother Yu was usually in good health. How could he die so quietly?"
The kid retracted his gaze and said that no matter how healthy he was, it was not surprising considering his age.
I stood outside the door and looked at Ding Ding. This man was his relative. Although he probably didn't have much affection for him, he must have felt bad seeing his relative die.
Ding Ding kept looking at the dead man's face. After a while, I heard him say in a low voice, "This man should be ten years older than my mother. He was at least seventy years old. He died of old age. There is nothing to regret."
As he said that, he took a step inside and said, "Should we notify other people now to prepare for the funeral?"
But after he finished speaking, the two old men didn't react at all. I looked at them strangely and saw that they were sitting on the ground dejectedly, with no expression on their faces, as if they had not recovered from the excitement just now.
Ding Ding reached out to help them up, but the old man waved his hand and refused. He sighed and said no... I think we are almost half buried in the ground, but I didn't expect that I could see Fourth Brother Yu again in the end.
I found this strange. Even in this remote area, if a neighbor passed away, it shouldn't be difficult to take a last look at the body. But from the tone of the old man, it seemed that there were some customs here that we didn't understand.
The old man shook his head and slowly stood up, looking at us with a desolate look in his eyes. Finally, he sighed and shook his head, saying that there was no other way. It seemed that you couldn't leave today. If you go out now, the outside of the village will be in turmoil...
I was happy to hear him say that. I had no intention of leaving anyway, so I quickly responded, "How about this, uncle? Do you think we should notify their families first to deal with the bodies?"
The old man walked slowly past me. At that moment, I felt that he was like a man in his seventies or eighties, much older than before. He turned his back to us, shook his hand, and said, "No, we don't have such a custom here. There will be something... to deal with it. I will go and ring the bell now..."
When we heard this, the three of us stared at each other in confusion, not quite understanding what he meant. We just watched the old man slowly and unsteadily walk away, not understanding why he was ringing the bell.
We waited for the old woman to get up. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said, "I see that you kids are not bad people who do evil things, but no one here is willing to take in strangers in their home. You can't leave now. It's not safe outside the village. The only way is to stay in this house. After tonight, leave tomorrow."
I was a little confused by what he said. The old man had just said that things were not peaceful outside the village, but he had asked us to leave before, but now that he saw the body, he asked us to stay. Moreover, I had never heard of this custom of not having a funeral. Could there be some story behind this?
But the old woman seemed unwilling to talk more, and only told us to help, saying that when the bell rang, we should carry the body outside the door. Also, fix the door, and if you hear any noise at night, don't be curious and come out of the house to check, and the night will be peaceful.
We were still puzzled. The little ghost raised his head, narrowed his eyes slightly, laughed, and said, "Mother-in-law, we don't understand what you mean. Besides, someone just died in this house, and we don't know him, so how dare we live here?"
The little ghost said this very sincerely, but I knew he was just pretending. A person who drives a ghost car to send ghosts away and is afraid of places where people have died is really seeing ghosts.
But this set of rhetoric was enough to deal with it. The old woman held her hands in front of her body and kept rubbing them, as if she had something to hide. After thinking for a long time, she sighed and said that after we die, the next night, something will come to collect the body, and the next day everything will return to its original state, and the body will disappear forever.
When I heard her say that , I felt as if there was a god of death in this village who not only took away people's souls but also their bodies.
But the little ghost still looked incredulous and said, "Grandma, we are not three-year-old children. Why are you saying these things to scare us?"
The old woman looked dazed. After thinking for a while, she said with some embarrassment, "I am not trying to scare you. I have never seen what kind of thing will come. Look around the village. There is not even a cemetery. There are few windows on our houses. We are afraid that when that thing comes, we can't help but peek. Some people were curious in the past, but they disappeared with the corpse and never appeared again. We don't know where that thing came from. Anyway, as long as someone dies, it will know and come out at night. It is probably hiding outside the village now..."
I gave a dry laugh and said, Mother-in-law, what you mean is that if we leave the village today, we might meet him when we go out, but how do you know? It will be fine if we stay in the house.
The old woman wiped the sweat from her forehead and said that we have watched it since we were young. When someone died, they would carry the body outside the door, and then ring the bell to tell everyone that the thing was coming. Everyone hid at home and dared not make a sound. The next morning, everything was fine except that the body was gone. We believed that it was God who took them away, so we couldn't peek outside, otherwise we would blaspheme God's majesty and even the living would be taken away!
When I heard this, I had no idea who was preaching this tune, even bringing up God. But the old woman was very cautious, thinking for a while before speaking each word, and there was indeed a sense of fear of blasphemy.
I glanced at Ding Ding and Xiao Gui. They were also in deep thought and didn't say anything.
Actually, it doesn't matter for us to live here, but we feel a little uncomfortable when we think about the death. I was just about to say a few words to the old woman when I heard a noise coming from somewhere in the village. The sound of clang clang clang clang was shocking to the soul!
