Banquet

The people in the small town are hardworking and simple. The day just broke, and the smoke from each house is already rising.

The tofu flower seller pushed a cart, the pancake seller carried a big pot, and all kinds of middle-aged people of similar ages, carrying poles and vegetables, gathered in the vegetable market to set up a stall.

"Mai, I came here to buy vegetables so early."

Amai matured earlier than children of the same age.

When the other family’s children were still sleeping on the bunk waiting for their mother to call their mother to coax them, she would get up to boil water to cook medicine and feed chicken porridge. pile of things.

"Morning, Aunt Zheng, do you have beans?" Ah Mai smiled a little.

Aunt Zheng swiftly picked out a few beans and stuffed them in. Just as Ah Mai was about to pay, Aunt Zheng held him down and whispered: "Silly girl, just accept it, don't shout."

Ah Mai lowered his head and said softly: "Thank you, I will make up lessons for Xiaohu later."

Aunt Zheng smiled like a flower and said yes repeatedly.

After being presented with beans, Ah Mai bought some pork offal, and the folks she met along the way gave her things, some were a small piece of sweet potato, and some were a few handfuls of garlic.

She accepted them quietly, thanked them one by one, and then earnestly exchanged with them what she had, or to give the children extra lessons, or take care of the children, clean up and so on.

After Ah Mai left, the women mourned in a low voice.

"I heard that he is also a child from the city."

"I heard that his mother ran away with someone, and I got married and gave birth to a son."

"It's not something that people raise. My mother is paralyzed on the bed and doesn't care about things. Send her daughter back."

Low and high voices, sentences of sympathy or regret.

Ah Mai listened to the same sentence every day, and she also sighed for the girl in their mouth.

What was her previous name? No one called it for a long time, and she couldn't remember if it was true or not.

Her name is A Mai now.

As usual, Ah Mai left the vegetables and offal at the aunt's house next door, asked her to take care of grandma, and then walked to the school.

The earth walls are made of red bricks, and the ground is made of yellow mud.

Ah Mai stared at his gray shoes in a daze, and suddenly a shadow enveloped him.

The man was not tall, with delicate features. He seemed to be sick, and his face looked a little pale.

He handed Ah Mai a pair of shoes.

Those are a pair of rare dancing shoes, the uppers are white like wings.

Ah Mai watched quietly, but did not take it.

The man put the shoes on Ah Mai's table, coughed softly and left.

In the afternoon, the shoes were gone.

Ah Mai looked around in a panic, and then saw it in the trash can.

The snow-white dancing shoes were grayed out by unknown footprints, just like the shoes on her own feet.

A few children crowded around and sang in a hurry: "Sick tuberculosis, little □□, get into bed and have a baby."

They ruined the color.

Amy's eyes filled with tears.

She lightly touched the pair of shoes, then squatted on the ground hugging herself.

"Don't be afraid, I killed them for you."

A shadow in the void said softly.

Ah Mai raised his head, wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, and walked quietly towards the group of children.

The children didn't know the meaning of the words in the song, they just felt that she was different from themselves.

So those who didn't understand were taken by nonsense, and a song was made up out of nowhere.

The girl smiled slightly, she was as beautiful and pure as a white gardenia, she walked to them, her red and swollen eyes glowed with watery light: "I raised a blue turtle, do you want to see it?"

As if bewitched, the children nodded slightly.

Since that day, the town's morning market has lost several women.

Aunt Zhao, who sells vegetables, set up a vegetable stall and shouted for business.

A person walked slowly on the path.

She tied a ponytail today and wore a small dark blue floral long sleeve.

This dark floral dress must have been cut from the old man's closet.

The dull color, coupled with the plain and pale face, gave people a chill that pierced into the bottom of my heart.

"Mai is here." Aunt Zhao's voice was timid.

The surroundings are not as lively as usual, deserted.

Friends who were acquainted with each other in the past have not come over for the past two days.

The owners of nearby stalls didn't come, and there were only stretchers and tricycles left.

The weather was not good, it was gray.

Aunt Zhao faced Ah Mai, she was as quiet as usual, but her heart became hairy.

"Where did everyone else go?" A Mai asked suddenly.

The voice seemed to come from the ancient forest, quiet and deep.

"Hugh... Resting. Do you want to buy anything today?" Aunt Zhao asked tremblingly.

A Mai tilted his head, making an innocent expression.

She murmured, "I want to buy some tofu, boil it and mix it with minced meat."

Aunt Zhao watched Ah Mai leave step by step, and suddenly slumped to the ground. She thought of the missing children in the town these days, and slowly had a terrible association.

According to the usual time, when Ah Mai returned home, grandma was leaning against the door to bask in the sun, being taken care of by her neighbors.

Her legs had shrunk due to not seeing the light for a long time, and a little bit of rewarding sunlight was projected from the shadow of the tree, and soon, the sunlight disappeared.

Ah Mai was only in elementary school, and she was small and thin, but she was still able to pick up the old man and staggered back to bed.

The old man had a strange smell, like the smell of saliva mixed with food.

Ah Mai was not very happy, and said seriously: "Did you not eat seriously today? You can't be good only when I'm around, and the neighbors and aunts are also very hard."

The old man couldn't speak, she put her arms around her granddaughter, as if she knew her hard work, hesitated, then nodded gently.

In the next few days, Ah Mai helped elsewhere, sometimes earning some extra money, sometimes getting some vegetables, and she left a little for herself, grandma, and the yellow dog.

Oh yes, she adopted that yellow dog and named it Rhubarb.

As for other vegetables and meat, she gave them to the neighbor next door who took care of her grandma. As a thank you, Aunt Liu had a kind face and would politely refuse each time, but she insisted on giving them away.

It was Friday, and school ended early that day, and she came back earlier than usual.

The business in the market became less and less, and every household closed their doors tightly, as if to ward off evil spirits.

Ah Mai only picked up a bag of slightly yellowed green vegetables, and walked towards home full of regret.

Before I went in, the woman came out of the room cursing and panting violently.

"You old bastard, don't you know how to eat, and you still need someone to serve you!"

The old man's face was pinched and deformed by the woman, and his mouth was forcefully gouged open.

Her toothless mouth shriveled like a black hole.

The old man was paralyzed from the lower body, struggling feebly with his hands, trying to get rid of her.

The woman randomly poured a bowl of food into her mouth. Seeing that she was swallowing slowly, she picked up the soup on the table and poured it in, just like raising a pig.

She didn't have time to swallow, and the saliva just dripped down, mixed with the food, and flowed onto her body.

A string in A Mai's mind suddenly broke. She ran to the old man, beat the woman hard, and then screamed hysterically.

The cry was shrill and mournful, as painful as a baby bird being ripped open.

The shadow slowly enveloped her, and Ah Mai's mouth was suddenly covered gently.

That breath carried the lingering medicinal smell of a sick bed, and was as deserted as ever.

Ah Mai slowly calmed down, and then slowly let go of the hand covering her.

The man came in quietly, like a shadow.

The woman was about to speak when she was suddenly crushed to the ground.

She panicked and wanted to call someone.

The man sat on her, suppressed her struggling hands, held an ax, and flashed coldly.

The skin only felt a burst of coldness.

Then the gurgling blood, like a river flowing endlessly, spread.

Ah Mai stretched out his hand slowly, covered the old man's eyes, and said softly, "Don't look."

The big yellow dog came back with the bone in its mouth, groaned softly, and lay down at the door.

There was also a bag of vegetables scattered at the door, which was spread messily on the floor.

The next day, Ah Mai was busy all day in the house.

At noon, just as she was about to go out, Aunt Zhao ran over in a panic and asked anxiously, "Did you see my little tiger?"

A Mai shook his head and asked, "What's wrong?"

Aunt Zhao froze, held the door and said fearfully, "I've been looking for him all morning, but I haven't seen him yet."

Ah Mai teaches Xiaohu English.

The children in the village are not that interested in foreign languages, and the teachers in charge of teaching are not very good.

But Amai is different.

When she came to the village, she spoke English very well.

The small village is remote, and foreigners came to do archaeology by chance. One time when they lost their way, they met Ah Mai. When Ah Mai showed them the way calmly, Aunt Zhao saw him.

Since then, as long as the children in the village do not understand English, the adults in the family will come to Ah Mai to teach them.

Xiaohu is also one of these children.

He is very obedient and obedient, except that he is a little stupid.

The 26 letters were repeated over and over again, and he couldn't recite them except for copying them with humming.

Other than that, he was a very good boy.

He is also very kind to A Mai, and when he gets a beautifully packaged candy from an adult by chance, he will secretly keep a piece and give it to A Mai, so that she can taste it too.

This action is the same as his mother.

Aunt Zhao grabbed the door, her whole body was about to collapse.

Ah Mai raised his head slowly, paused, and said softly: "I'll go look for him, you wait here for me."

She no longer entrusted her grandma to outsiders to take care of her. After that day, every time she hugged the old man, she would hold herself firmly like a child, as if she was going to lose her in the next second.

When Ah Mai came in, the old man was sleeping.

She gently put the old man's exposed hands back into the quilt, then looked at the old man seriously for a while, then turned and went out.

To the north of the town, there are various stone monuments, chastity archways, filial sons and daughters monuments, etc. in the winding alleys.

There is a Yizhuang here, where coffins and wreaths are placed all year round.

As soon as Ah Mai pushed open the door, a gust of drafts blew over.

Sombre, clammy taste.

Inside the Yizhuang, in a hut, a white light was on.

Ah Mai pushed the door open and went in, almost couldn't help closing his eyes because of the light.

The person holding the kitchen knife suddenly stopped and looked at Ah Mai.

Ah Mai took down his knife and said coldly: "Ah Che, you can't kill anymore."