only in this mountain

There is an unwritten custom in the village. When a new daughter-in-law enters the house for the first time, she will invite unmarried young men and women to drink with her at home. Zhang Huai is not only a relative of Zhang Yunde in a certain sense, but also a single young man, so he Of course, it also appeared at the banquet.

Good-looking people are born with unique advantages. Whenever you sit there, shy and lovely girls will glance at him. In time for the National Day holiday, young girls in the county and town also come back. , Quiet, elegant, bold and unrestrained, all kinds of dazzling.

Jiang He and Zhang Huai were separated by more than half a table, seeing him being held back from drinking by the girl next to him, he was extremely disappointed.During the period, there were still people who wanted to match Zhang Huai with that girl, but Zhang Huai's expression was so calm that it was impossible to see what he had in mind.

"I'll take you home." After the banquet was over, Jiang He was about to go home, Zhang Huai pulled out his chair and followed.

"It's such a short distance, and I'm not a girl, so you don't need to see me off." Suspecting that he smelled of alcohol, Jiang He pushed him, but he didn't know why he was angry, so he turned his head and left.

One can't do bad things, even losing one's temper. Jiang He had just taken two steps outside when a black cat scurrying by the side of the road startled him.With a lump of blood in its mouth, the black cat gave him a wild look, and then jumped onto the courtyard wall in a flash.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Huai quietly appeared behind him, making Jiang He tremble again in fright.Jiang He didn't ask him why he still came out, but frowned and asked, "What's in its mouth?"

Zhang Huai replied, "It must be a mouse."

The next day, the police station brought Zhang Daming's body back. There is no funeral home in the town, and the hospital's freezer is not a morgue for the police station after all.A case like this has never happened in a small town like this for decades. The police at the police station have no experience in handling cases, and because Wen Yanyan's brother has been staying at the police station to make trouble, the director had no choice but to find Zhang Yunyuan and ask them to come out of the village. Qian first appeases the family members of the deceased.

However, in this way, there are other people in the village who are not happy, neither the person who killed himself, nor the road that he proposed to build, so why should he share the responsibility when something goes wrong?

Zhang Yunyuan's family was pushed to the forefront of the storm, especially Zhang Huai, who was abused openly and secretly. In the end, Zhang Huai's grandfather came out and said a few fair words: "You say that people are doing things and the sky is watching. How many things have you done for the village in the past few years? You all knew it when the school was built. It was you who said that the children were always bullied in Shangyan Village. There were too many children and the teacher couldn’t manage them. Many children were delayed, and Zhang Huai ran away. It took dozens of times to settle the matter of the school. The new teacher couldn’t teach the children well, and you told him that he didn’t want to do it. Zhang Huai persuaded him to come back. Otherwise, how could your child have a good teacher now. In the past Many people think in a negative direction. Education is to fundamentally change the ignorant ideas of the past. If you stand on a high starting point, you will be able to see farther in the future and have a better destiny. It's meaty. Whether it's building a school or building a bridge or canal, which one of Zhang Huai's things do you think is not for everyone's consideration? When this happens, it's not what anyone wants. Everyone is in the same village, look up Don't bow your head and see, accumulate some morals for yourself, and save some for this child."

When the shoes are worn on one's own feet, only one knows whether they fit or not, but others will see if the shoes bleed. How can one's grandson be willing to let him be wronged.

The village committee gave out 1 yuan to Wen Yanyan, and Zhang Yunyuan posted another [-] yuan, but this is insignificant for a family that has lost its main labor force. A cancer patient For a blind man and an underage boy, the future life is still as difficult as can be imagined.

Next, I began to think about the burial. Although the case was not solved, the corpse had already started to stink. Rural people pay attention to burial.

Zhang Daming's son is still young, and several uncles are not good at funeral things, so Zhang Yunyuan and several old people in the village helped complete everything from setting up the mourning hall to ordering the coffin to choosing the tomb site.

However, the date of the burial has been fixed, and after searching all over the village, there are not enough young and middle-aged men who can help the spirit. Many people are more jealous of people who died in vain, and are afraid of being contaminated with evil spirits. In the end, Zhang Yunyuan promised to give them double rewards. Seven people agreed.

Originally planning to find no one to bite his teeth, Zhang Huai stood up and said, "I'll follow the day after tomorrow."

On the morning of the awakening, there was a drizzling rain in the sky. Just as everyone carried the coffin out of the door, an earth-shattering cry suddenly sounded: "Brother, my poor big brother! Why did you die suddenly!"

A figure quickly ran to the coffin, holding the coffin and crying loudly.

"Brother, I haven't even seen you for the last time. Which bastard killed you...Brother, my dear brother..."

Those who have seen the funeral procession in the countryside probably know that it is said that eight people carry the coffin, but there are more than eight people. First of all, the coffin must be fixed on a shelf, and the coffin cannot touch the ground during the process of carrying the coffin, because the coffin and the people are already there. It was very heavy. In order to be strong, the wooden frame was also made of pine wood, which was extremely heavy, so in addition to the eight main coffin bearers, relatives of the deceased would also help.

When the man ran over, the two people in front of the coffin didn't react. When they were pushed away, they instinctively backed away, knocking the people behind them astray.

"Zhang Erbai?" The old man presiding over the funeral narrowed his eyes and stared for a while, and finally called out a name.However, the scene was already in chaos, there were cries one after another and the screams of the crowd falling down. When the crowd completely quieted down, the drizzle had turned into continuous heavy rain.

Zhang Erbai is Zhang Daming's younger brother who has not been in contact with him for more than ten years. He has not returned to the village for more than ten years, but he is not returning home at this time.In fact, he has been living in the surrounding villages with no fixed place to do anything. Ten years ago, he was beaten up by their father for molesting his sister-in-law and kicked out of the house.

There have never been any secrets in the small village. There will always be people who tell the news, and then all kinds of rumors spread in the village.There is a widely circulated version in the village that Zhang Yuze is actually Zhang Erbai's son, because Zhang Erbai also liked Wen Yanyan back then, but his parents preferred to give all the dowry money to his brother.

Now that Zhang Daming died suddenly, Zhang Erbo was not sad at all when he heard the news, on the contrary, he still wanted to buy some firecrackers to celebrate, but now he still remembers how hard his father beat him for his elder brother, his legs were almost beaten lame.He deliberately chose to come back on the day of Zhang Daming's burial, just to watch Zhang Daming's jokes.

The rain didn't stop until noon. After discussing with several old people and Wen Yanyan's family, Zhang Yunyuan decided to bury her tomorrow morning.Zhang Erbai refused after hearing this: "No, the murderer who killed my elder brother has not been found yet, so he cannot be buried! You can rest assured, my elder brother will not rest in peace!"

Zhang Erbai used to be lazy and failed to inherit his family's tofu business. After being kicked out of the house, he wandered around the village and countryside for more than ten years. He has long been like those rascals. No matter where he wanders, he can mix with the local snakes. , he is different from his dead brother who was thin, short and often mentally ill. He has been tall and big since he was a child, with a savage face and a ferocious expression.

The old people did not dare to talk to him, and left with a sigh.Zhang Yunyuan told him the truth for a long time, but he just refused to let go.Wen Yanyan, a woman's words are insignificant, and her mother's family dare not speak out even if they are soft or hard.

After returning home with Zhang Huai, Zhang Yunyuan said to him helplessly, "Go to town again in the afternoon and ask about the progress."

"We will let you know if there is any progress. We are also eager to solve this case. We just registered the floating population in several nearby villages yesterday. Next, we will start with people who have criminal records. By the way, the corpses have not yet been released." Let’s bury it, the county attaches great importance to this case, so it will ask the superiors for instructions, probably send a special case team to investigate, and probably dissect the corpse, you go back and do ideological work for the family members, so that they don’t want to be buried.”

After a farce, it turned out to be like this, Zhang Huai didn't know what expression to make.When he returned from the town police station, it started to rain again. He was walking on the road when he heard someone calling him, and turned around to see Jiang He running towards him with an umbrella.

"Why don't you take an umbrella when it's raining so hard?" Jiang He ran out of breath, holding a white plastic bag in his hand, and raised the umbrella to cover Zhang Huai's head, but Zhang Huai was too tall, and he himself Instead, most of his body was exposed to the rain.

Zhang Huai took the umbrella, lowered his head and stretched his arms to embrace Jiang He, and asked him as he walked, "Have you gone to buy medicine?"

Jiang He's face was a little red, and his voice was hoarse: "My throat feels uncomfortable, it seems that my tonsils are inflamed."

Zhang Huai asked again: "You don't have a fever?"

The two bodies were tightly pressed together, Zhang Huai's wet clothes soaked Jiang He's clothes, and through the two layers of wet clothes, his body temperature gradually spread to Jiang He's body, and Jiang He felt as if he was suddenly starting to have a fever .

The rain was heavy and fast, and it didn't show any signs of abating in the evening.Jiang He had dinner at Zhang Huai's house and wanted to go back in the rain, but Grandpa Zhang stopped him, saying that the road would be difficult at night, and he insisted on staying at home overnight.

Zhang Yunyuan frowned while smoking a cigarette and said, "It's not that he can't leave. What is a big man afraid of? If he can't, let Zhang Huai send him back."

Grandpa Zhang blew his beard and stared at his eyes, and said, "Your heart is made of stone, and you don't even know how to feel sorry for the child. Zhang Huai's child is too obedient and never complains. I just saw that he walked in the wrong posture. After asking, I found out that someone stepped on his foot when he was carrying the coffin this morning, and I asked him to take off his shoes to show me, but the child was stubborn and refused to show me, and he didn’t know how bad the injury was.”

After staying in the village for so long, although Jiang He couldn't hear every word that others said, he could know that Zhang Huai seemed to be injured. He was usually slow, so he didn't notice Zhang Huai's abnormality.

Seeing what Zhang Yunyuan wanted to say, Jiang He waved his hands and said, "Don't bother, I can go back by myself."

At this time, Zhang Huai came back with a flashlight: "It's raining so hard, what are you going to do when you go back? I'll sleep with grandpa tonight, and you stay in my room. I'll give you the flashlight. You might use it at night." He said These words cannot be rejected in the slightest, not because of his strong tone, but because he has always maintained a consistent tone when speaking, soothing and steady, and the care revealed in his words makes it absolutely impossible to refuse.

"But the second idiot..."

"Dogs are not so delicate, so it's fine for one night."

Zhang Huai's room is not big, with a bed, a wardrobe, a bookshelf, and a desk with a computer and bottles and jars on it.Although he was curious, he would not touch other people's things casually. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he was stunned for a while, covering his face with a smirk, and then Zhang Huai suddenly opened the door and came in: "You haven't taken your medicine tonight, have you?" He brought it for him and poured him a glass of warm water.

Jiang He's eyes were wet, and he really wanted to ask why he was so kind to him, but he didn't dare, because he was afraid that he would be too affectionate.Zhang Huai is just like what Zhang Yunde said before, he looks neither hot nor cold and treats everyone the same, but in fact he is really a very gentle person.His character should be more like his mother, because no matter how you look at it, Zhang Yunyuan is a rough person.Thinking of this, Jiang He couldn't help but feel a little funny, so Zhang Huai asked him why he was laughing.

"I was thinking that your mother must have taken a fancy to your father because your father is good-looking." Zhang Yunyuan is 30 years younger and looks exactly like Zhang Huai.

"Probably, my mother is from the Miao nationality. She kept telling me that my father would marry her because he was bewitched by love."

"Then your mother..."

"I fell ill and passed away when I was in college. That was the first time I saw my dad cry."

The sound of rain outside the window continued, and the sudden silence in the room made the air a bit chilly. Jiang He may not understand the pain of losing his partner, but he knows the feeling of losing a loved one. His grandma also passed away the year he took the college entrance examination. It's hard to accept the fact that grandma has passed away.

"Ah-"

"Go to bed early after drinking the medicine. If the quilt is thin, there is still a thick one in the cabinet. If you don't feel well tomorrow morning, go to the health center to buy some cold medicine."

"it is good."

Turning off the light and getting under the quilt, there was only a fresh smell of washing powder on the pillow and quilt, probably Zhang Huai replaced it with a new one before he came in.Somewhat disappointed, he hugged the quilt and rolled a few times on the bed, and his whole body was covered by the quilt before falling asleep.

In the morning, he was so weak that he didn't want to get up. Jiang He had a habit of staying in bed. He vaguely heard someone calling him, and then felt a hand gently covering his forehead: "I have a fever, you can go to sleep later." He narrowed his eyes and glanced at it. In the gray sky outside, I turned over and continued to sleep again. I don't know how long after that, the voice of talking came from outside again.

"You said that I provoked someone, so I had a good breakfast at home, and that Zhang Erbai came to smash my house without saying a word, and said that I hit Zhang Daming, and insisted that I plead guilty and pay for it. I didn't hit him at all, besides He wasn't killed by a car, so why did he find me on my head?"

"Old Wang, don't be angry, we all know it has nothing to do with you, Zhang Erbai is just a gangster, if he wants to make trouble again, we will go to the police."

"I, Wang Hulu, dare to do things bravely. If it is really me who bumps into me, I will die!"

"Don't get so angry, it's not worth making such a vicious oath for that kind of person. He just wants to extort money. Don't give him another chance to go to your house. Go to your daughter's place first these few days."

Zhang Yunyuan had just sent Wang Gourd away, when suddenly there was an explosion from outside: "Village chief!"

"What's wrong? Zhang Erbai..."

"What do you mean? Just now when I went home, I heard from my sister-in-law that my brother's body was going to be cut open. The murderer has not been found since he died. Can you be more heartless?"

"What happened, what body was dissected?"

"Don't pretend, didn't you tell your son to tell my sister-in-law? You can ask your good son!"

When Jiang He heard that the matter was related to Zhang Huai, he quickly put on his clothes and ran outside. As soon as he went out, he heard Zhang Yunyuan say: "You usually treat those animals as a job, but now you hang out with that boy's dog all day long! I really don’t know what ecstasy soup that kid poured into you! Tell me, what’s going on! Why did you cut Uncle Zhang’s body open?”

Zhang Huai led the two idiots and was about to enter the door, but Zhang Yunyuan's words made them both a little dazed. He stopped, looked at his father with pursed lips, and didn't say a word.

Zhang Erbai on the side has been alone for decades, and he knows how to make the most of the timing. Taking advantage of Zhang Yunyuan's aura, his tone became even louder, and he almost rushed to Zhang Huai: "You boy really don't know how high the world is, and you don't know how to deal with it!" When will it be your turn to speak?"

Zhang Huai said neither humble nor overbearing: "Uncle Zhang's murderer has no clear clues so far, and the cause of death has not yet been determined. The police at the police station said that special investigators will come down in the next two days, and they may conduct an autopsy on the body. Please don't bury him for now."

"My elder brother died so badly that he didn't even leave the whole body! After all, it wasn't because of you, you built that broken road, and you lost two lives! People in the village have walked that road all their lives and have never been out. If something goes wrong as soon as you build a road, what the ancestors left behind must be able to stand the test of time, and what cannot be moved must not be moved. You young people think that drinking a few more years of ink will make you superior, and you don’t take it at all. Take the lessons of the fathers seriously! You took the lead in repairing the road, and if something goes wrong, can you not be responsible?"

He vented to Zhang Huai in the tone of a person who had experienced it. It seemed that he was complaining for his brother, but in fact he had been emphasizing one focus, which was to pursue accountability.He didn't care about the fact that his brother died, but he was thinking about what benefits the dead could bring to him. After all, his sister-in-law had already taken 5000 yuan.

The ghost stories circulating in the village in the past few days are more or less related to that road. Although Jiang He's fear of ghosts has risen again, he doesn't think that road is the decisive factor that caused the two tragedies.At that time, he didn't know the real reason why Zhang Huai insisted on building the road. He only knew that he felt sad for him when he saw him being blamed for not saying a word.So Jiang He couldn't help but said: "What you said is so unreasonable. The ancients said that building bridges and paving roads is beneficial for thousands of years. Those who dare to open up roads must be wise men with unique vision and foresight. A thankless ignorant young man?"

Zhang Erbai froze for a moment, probably because he didn't know why some people here spoke differently from them, but seeing Jiang He's inconspicuous appearance, he sneered nonchalantly: "What merits are not utilitarian? If there is no oil and water for roads and bridges, who will you be?" Ken is doing nothing, not to mention how selfless he is, it’s not like he has nowhere to go.”

Jiang He also laughed, and said, "Then look around you, and look at Zhang Huai's house. Which part of their house is more luxurious than others?"

"It's useless if I don't talk to you about it. If Zhang Huai hadn't built that road, my elder brother wouldn't have had an accident on that road."

"Unless no one has been to that place before, or even if your elder brother died there without road repairs, you will find a reason to blame others."

"—Where did you come from, boy, do you have a place to speak here!"

"Is there something wrong with what I said? This kind of thing cannot be controlled by manpower. Your brother can't take care of himself. Others push him to the road to kill him. Isn't the most important thing now is to find the real murderer and let the dead rest in peace. ?”

"You—" Zhang Erbai swears an ugly swear word in embarrassment, and suddenly rushes to Jiang He and slaps him, "Little bastard, who are you teaching? Did I talk to you? What are you shouting about! You If your mouth itches, believe it or not, I will give you two slaps!"

Grandpa Zhang, who heard something wrong in the house, just came out when he saw Zhang Erbai was about to hit someone, he yelled, and stood in front of Jiang He.Zhang Huai moved faster than him, and had already grabbed Zhang Erbai's wrist.Furious, Zhang Erbai stretched out his other hand to push Zhang Huai, but Zhang Huai remained motionless.

"Uncle Zhang, please pay attention to your words and deeds, now is a society ruled by law."

The second idiot, who was a little dazed by the noise, suddenly barked, Jiang He was the only one present who understood, and it was telling Zhang Erbai to go away.

Zhang Erbai shook off Zhang Huai's hand viciously, took another bite on the ground, and said, "Okay, you guys have the guts!" Then he left aggressively.

"You child, what are you doing so impulsively, what are you doing with that kind of prickly head?"

Grandpa Zhang sighed and patted Jiang He on the shoulder.

Just now, Jiang Daxia, who was upright and fearless and forced to stand out, now looks like a small shrimp, with a sore nose.It was also the first time for him to face such a strong and unreasonable person. He who was not very timid was really frightened by Zhang Erbai's fierce appearance just now.

"Zhang Huai is right, why should he be blamed." His nasal voice became more and more serious, and he actually cried after he finished speaking.

"Silly boy, you are right, why are you crying..."

"I... just can't help it..."