On the Avenue

When boys are eight or nine years old, dogs are annoyed.

Chen Shi is already eleven years old, past the age of being annoyed by dogs, but he is naughty and mischievous, and has become a bully in Huangpo Village. Wherever he goes, chickens and dogs are disturbed. Even ducks have to lay eggs before passing by him. It can be said that people hate him.

This morning, after Chen Shi finished his breakfast, he put down his bowl and chopsticks and ran out excitedly, shouting: "Grandpa, I'm going out to play!"

Grandpa is tall, wearing a black robe embroidered with large peony flowers. He stood in front of the altar in the main hall, lowered his head, and responded in a muffled voice: "Don't run too far, don't go to the river, come back early at noon..."

"Got it!"

Chen Shi ran away without a trace without waiting for his grandfather to finish his words.

In front of the altar, Grandpa still faced the altar, chewing slowly, and after a long while, he rolled his Adam's apple with difficulty and swallowed the food. Then, he put the candle in his hand into his mouth, took a bite, and chewed it slowly.

There were two candlesticks and an incense burner on the altar. The candle on the other candlestick had been eaten to the point that only the wax at the bottom of the candlestick was left, and the incense in the incense burner was emitting curling smoke and was about to burn out.

Grandpa put down the half-eaten candle, took out a few incense sticks, lit them, inserted them into the incense burner, took a deep breath of smoke, and showed an intoxicated look.

Behind the incense burner, there was a black spirit tablet.

The spirit tablet was written with Grandpa's name.

Liufang Zude, the spirit tablet of Chen Yindu of the Chen family.

"If you are full, you won't eat people."

Chen Shi beat the dog of Yuzhu's grandmother's house until it screamed and the big black dog surrendered. He also took three or four dogs in the village to fight with the dogs in the neighboring village. After returning from the victory, he climbed up the tree to take the bird's nest. He was pecked all over his head by the mother bird and almost fell from the tree.

A moment later, the boy carried a dead snake and frightened Erni at the east end of the village into crying for her parents. Soon after, he came to the melon field of old lady Wuzhu to steal melons. He was chased by the murderous old lady Wuzhu for three miles before he was barely able to get rid of her.

This was Chen Shi's plain morning.

At noon, Chen Shi came to the Yudai River outside the village. Although he was sweating from the heat, he still resisted the urge to go into the water.

There were sounds of playfulness in the river. Three boys of the same age as him were having a water fight in the middle of the river, and they were very happy.

They were three water ghosts who drowned the year before, so Chen Shi didn't dare to go into the river to play.

The last time he jumped into the river to play in the water, he was dragged into the deep water by these three guys. One hugged his feet, one hugged his waist, and one strangled his neck, almost drowning him.

Grandpa jumped into the river and beat the three water ghosts severely before saving him.

"Chen Shi, come and play together!" A child waved to him.

The other two children, with innocent smiles on their faces, also waved to him: "Come and play! It's fun to have a water fight with four people!"

The older child laughed and said: "Don't be afraid, it's not deep at all, it's only up to our waists!"

"Come down quickly! What's the point of playing alone?"

...

Chen Shi ignored them and turned to an old willow tree on Huanggangpo.

The three children were still standing in the middle of the river, but there was no more noise or smiles on their faces, and they slowly sank into the river.

"Bad seed of the old Chen family, sooner or later you will be drowned as a scapegoat!" a child cursed angrily.

The river water gradually wiped over their lips, noses, eyes, and heads, and finally the three children disappeared.

A pair of feet slowly dropped from the willow tree and swayed in front of Chen Shi.

A scholar hanged on the willow tree, and when he saw Chen Shi looking up, he spit out his scarlet tongue at him, which was about a foot long.

Chen Shi didn't care. The scholar had been hanged for a longer time. His body had long decayed, and only his soul was still hanging here.

He came to the willow tree, put a piece of watermelon in front of the stone tablet under the tree root, and kowtowed to the stone tablet: "Godmother, I came to see you again. I brought you a piece of watermelon. It's so sweet."

The stone tablet was his godmother. When Chen Shi was very young, his grandfather said that the child was good in everything, but his life was not strong enough. He had to worship a godmother with a strong life to support him. So he took him to the crooked willow tree and let him worship the stone tablet as his godmother.

Chen Shi needed to come to worship his godmother during festivals and offer offerings and incense.

This is often the custom in the countryside.

The country people worship godmothers. Some godmothers are ancient trees, some are stones of unknown origin, some are temple gates in the mountains, and some are unknown broken stone statues on the hills. They just pray for peace and not to be invaded by external evil.

Grandpa once said that this stone tablet has an ancient origin and must have supernatural powers, which can protect Chen Shi, so he asked Chen Shi to worship her as his godmother.

However, Chen Shi knelt down to worship his godmother in the past two years, but he did not feel any supernatural power.

The stone tablet is old, and a few words can be vaguely seen, such as "grandma" and "only".

There are other words, which are buried in the soil. The stone tablet is entangled by the roots of the old tree and cannot be dug out.

After worshiping his godmother, Chen Shi said to himself: "Godmother, grandpa is getting weirder and weirder. He always has his back to me. I haven't seen his face for a long time. He also eats with his back to me, and I don't know what he eats... Several chickens in my house died yesterday morning. It was not bitten by weasels. Weasels dare not come to my house to steal chickens..."

The stone tablet did not respond to him.

But I don't know if it was because of dazzle. Chen Shi seemed to see the words on the stone tablet, and there was a faint light flowing for a while, but then it disappeared.

The young man didn't care. He took out a few incense sticks, lit them, and inserted them into the soil in front of the stone tablet.

Seeing the scholar hanging from the tree, he kicked his legs in anxiety.

"You have your share too."

Chen Shi took out a stick of incense, lit it and placed it at the scholar's feet. The scholar hanging on the tree smelled the incense and looked intoxicated.

Chen Shi stretched out comfortably and lay lazily under the tree, with his hands behind his head, not afraid of the scholar hanging from the tree and the water ghost in the river. I don't know when he started to see these "people" that others couldn't see, and he had long been accustomed to it.

"Grandpa has almost made lunch, but in recent times, the food he cooked has become less and less delicious. The chicken he cooked yesterday was still raw, and it was bloody when served. Godmother, I always feel that grandpa has been a little a little bit lately. Something’s wrong, it seems like it’s going to eat me.”

Chen Shi held a straw stalk in his mouth, his eyes were dazed, and he had a maturity that was different from his age. He whispered, "Last night, grandpa boiled medicine for me again and asked me to soak it in the medicine jar, but the fire was too high. It's so hot that the water is boiling. I think he wants to cook me..."

After a while, the scholar ghost hanging on the tree finished inhaling a stick of incense, relaxed, and said: "I'm fine. Xiao Shi, you can ask now."

——Xiao Shi is Chen Shi’s nickname. Some people in the village call him Xiao Cheng, although it is often sarcastic.

Chen Shi let go of his worries, took out a volume of ancient books, and while reading, he asked: "I still don't understand this passage. The Master said: Whoever made the figurines first has no descendants? How should I explain it?"

Huangpo Village is located in a remote area, there are no private schools, and the Chen family is very poor. Chen Shi has no place to study, but fortunately, the person who was hanged from the tree was a scholar. So Chen Shi dug out some ancient books from home, and when he had something to do, he went to the willow tree and asked the scholar for advice.

After the scholar-ghost had inhaled the incense, he would answer his questions. Therefore, even though Chen Shi was in his teens, he had already read poetry and books.

"The meaning of this sentence is that the Master said that the first person who offended me has been beaten to death by me."

Scholar Ghost explained, "Master wants to tell us that we must eradicate the root causes of things, especially those who offend us."

Chen Shi nodded in confusion, read it word for word, and then asked: "Now that it's come, let's make peace with it, how should we interpret it?"

"Since the enemy is here, don't leave and bury him here."

"Then this sentence said in the river: The deceased is like a man, and he does not give up day and night. How should we interpret it?"

"The Master stood by the river and said: A truly powerful person should stand by the river like me and watch the corpses of the enemies drifting down the river day and night. The Master was so powerful that he killed the enemy's corpses. The river is full. We, the scholars, must learn more from the Master."

…

After Chen Shi asked all the questions that he didn't understand, the scholar and the ghost answered fluently, which made the young man admire him very much. He raised his head and said: "When I grow up, I will be like the Master, and convince people with virtue! By the way, Zhu Xiucai, you are so talented and knowledgeable, why? Will you hang yourself here?"

The scholar ghost sighed and choked with sobs: "Today, the court is dominated by traitors and villains control literary fortunes. I am full of economics but I failed to pass the exam ten times. I have insulted the learning of the saints and am ashamed to see my family. I simply hang myself here. It's all over."

As soon as he said this, the sound of wheels suddenly came.

Chen Shi closed the book, stood up and looked around, and saw a few horses on the country road, surrounded by a delicate and gorgeous carriage, heading this way.

Sitting immediately was a muscular man, wearing a red flying fish suit. He was very capable, his eyes were like a torch, and he was scanning this way.

"Sir, there is a child!" One of the men sat on a horse and bowed to the person in the car.

"Kid? Hello, kid. Hello, kid."

A female voice came from the car and said with a smile, "The child is simple, has no scheming, is easy to handle, and will not cause trouble. Fang He, go ask that child."

"yes!"

A man in a flying fish suit dismounted and quickly came to Chen Shi. He took out a piece of broken silver the size of a finger. With a kind smile on his face, he said gently: "Little boy, this piece of silver will buy you candies. Brother, I want to ask you something." , have you ever seen some children when you were playing in this village? They are the kind of children who look strange, like... a group of porcelain dolls!

Zhu Xiucai hung on the tree and said vigilantly: "Xiao Shi, don't pay attention to him! This person is the Jin Yiwei in the city, a powerful eagle dog, and he has evil intentions. Jin Yiwei's money is called life-buying money. If you take his money, be careful to lose your life." !”

Although it is still the Ming Dynasty, the imperial power is sluggish and local dignitaries have emerged. The royal guards are no longer the royal guards, but have become the bodyguards maintained by the families of the world's nobles, and they mostly work for the world's nobles.

Chen Shi stared at the broken silver in the hand of the man in the flying fish suit. He wanted it very much, but he shook his head and said, "My grandfather said you can't take things from strangers."

The man in the flying fish suit became more friendly and said with a smile: "My name is Fang He. We didn't know each other just now. We were strangers. But now that you know my name, don't we know each other and are no longer strangers? This is what I give to you. The reward is not something from a stranger, right?"

Chen Shi nodded happily and caught the broken piece of silver.

Fang He smiled: "Since we are friends, can you tell me if you have ever seen those children who look like porcelain dolls?"

Chen Shi nodded: "Are the children you mentioned less than a foot tall and appearing in groups?"

Fang He showed joy, nodded hurriedly, turned around, and his voice was trembling: "Sir, that thing is really here..."

Before he finished speaking, a figure suddenly flashed past in the carriage. Chen Shi felt a scent of fragrance coming to his face, and saw a dignified and beautiful woman in purple clothes appearing under the tree.

The other men in Feiyu suits hurriedly dismounted and hurried to the tree, surrounding Chen Shi and the purple-dressed woman.

The purple-dressed woman had a beautiful face and fair skin. She wore Feiyu suit on the upper body and horse-faced skirt on the lower body, which was also purple. She looked a little excited, but pretended to be calm and smiled lightly: "Little brother, have you seen those porcelain dolls? Where are they?"

Chen Shi did not answer, but looked at the purple-dressed woman's shoulder with a strange expression.

The purple-dressed woman was slightly startled, and looked at her shoulder sideways, but did not find anything wrong.

"Little brother, the master is asking you a question!" A man in Feiyu suit stepped forward and shouted, showing his majesty.

Chen Shi retracted his gaze. The reason why he looked at the woman's shoulder was because the scholar's feet happened to be on the woman's shoulders at this moment.

The position where the woman stood was exactly where the scholar was hanged.

The purple-clothed woman glanced at the man who spoke, her face darkened: "How dare you!"

The man in the flying fish suit quickly retreated.

The purple-clothed woman said with a pleasant face: "Little brother, we are from Xinxiang, we are not bad people..."

Chen Shi looked up, met the woman's eyes, and smiled sweetly: "Big sister is so beautiful, even more beautiful than Zhu Youcai!"

The purple-clothed woman was very happy to hear this: "This child can talk, and we can leave him a whole body later. It's just that the name Zhu Youcai doesn't sound like a woman's name. I think it's a beautiful woman, but it's a pity that the country bumpkin gave her a vulgar name."