in the dark

The town is not big, except for one main road which is paved with cement, the other small roads are full of gravel.Rough red brick houses stand sparsely beside the road, perhaps due to the small amount of land, the local houses are surrounded by their own yards or vegetable gardens, except for that, basically every short distance A small brick kiln can be seen.

This is consistent with the situation shown in the information provided by He Yang - the town is called Kiln Town, and most of the villagers make a living by firing bricks and tiles in their own small kilns. This kind of business is easy to say and not too difficult to make money , It mainly depends on whether you can receive a large order. Of course, the premise of receiving a large order is that the bricks and tiles fired by this kiln are of high quality, and the size of the kiln can burn the amount required by the customer within the specified time.

"The town is full of old people and children." Song Nan'an said, looking at the children who were playing like little sparrows by the roadside.

The two had just passed a dozen or so houses. In fact, what the local Liu Zhonghui said about Yaozhen being poor and soiled is not an accurate generalization. No matter how poor a place is, there will be one or two households whose family conditions are better than others. .

Walking along this road just now, although all the low-rise brick houses and piles of firewood were piled up next to the houses, one or two relatively clean and atmospheric buildings can be found. It's not as good as the villas and mansions of wealthy families in the city, but it's not bad.

Song Chan walked beside Song Nan'an and looked around. Suddenly, two children rushed out of the path beside him. They looked stiff as if they were scrambling for something.

The girl with shofar braids ran ahead, and she didn't pay attention when turning, and accidentally bumped into Song Chan's leg. A small meteorite hit the earth, and the little girl squatted on the ground. Song Chan was stunned for a second. , and then hurriedly squatted down and helped the little girl up from the dry mud: "Are you all right?"

The little girl looked about six or seven years old, her face was flushed, she sniffed her nose, wiped the dust off her buttocks, and replied crisply: "It doesn't hurt. I hit my brother, I'm sorry. "

"It's okay, walk carefully next time." Song Chan bent his lips and smiled.No wonder people often say that the children of the poor are in charge of the family early, and they can tell right from wrong at a young age and even take the initiative to apologize, which is really good.

"What's your name?" Song Chan asked.Song Nan'an stood aside silently.

"Small name is Xiaojin, and older name is Li Jin." The little girl replied solemnly.Just as Song Chan was about to ask some other questions, an aggressive boy chased after him.

"Give it back to me!" The little boy was not at all afraid of the two adults standing in front of him, and he suddenly yelled at the little girl, looking very fierce, like a little lion.

"This is mine!" The little girl turned around, as if annoyed, her voice was very shrill.

"I don't care, you give it to me! Otherwise, I'll tell my mother-in-law!" The little boy said confidently, "If you don't give it to me now, you will still give it to me later!"

"This is mine!" Ozu kept repeating this sentence, hiding a new-style pen in his hand behind his back.

The two children were arguing a little fiercely, and they were not very sensible, so their voices were loud.Not far away came an old woman in a flowered padded jacket.

"Don't quarrel, don't quarrel!" Song Chan didn't care so much. Seeing the two children arguing, he quickly made peace: "Who is this money? What is the relationship between you two?" He asked the two little kids with a gentle smile, then turned around to look at Song Nan'an who was standing quietly behind him, and made a gesture of assurance: "Wait a while, it will be ready soon!"

Song Nan'an didn't urge, but just nodded lightly and waited aside.

"This is my pen! It's really mine!" Ozu curled his lips and said to Song Chan with a pitiful look on his face.

After listening to Ozu, Song Chan asked the little boy, "Ozu said it was hers, what do you think?" Don't listen to one-sided words, since you have decided to be a peacemaker, you have to be the most fair one.

The little boy snorted softly, neither saying yes nor no, turning his face away from Song Chan.

Song Chan knew it in his mind, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Oh, you have such a temper!" He raised an eyebrow at the little boy: "Are you a man?"

The little boy turned a blind eye, still stubbornly turned his head and did not make a sound or move.

Song Chan was stunned, scratched his head and laughed.Children nowadays are really difficult to deal with. Not only are they all devil kings, but they are also so stubborn that it is difficult to communicate. You have to change the way, otherwise you will play the piano to the cow for a long time, and such trivial things will waste time. Done!

Just thinking about it, Song Nan'an, who had been observing for a while, said in a cold tone, "Brother steals sister's things?" It was a standard Song affirmative sentence.

Song Chan turned his head and looked over, only to see Song Nan'an's face was calm, as if he didn't say that sentence just now.

Song Chan put his tongue to his cheeks and smiled, was he playing reasoning or something?Can't push the big case? Push the relationship between the children and practice your hands?All right, anyway, he believed Song Nan'an's conclusion, so he turned his head and asked, "Why can't you let your sister be your brother?"

"Ms. First, have you heard it?" Song Chan continued to the little boy in a half-joking tone, not daring to put too much blame in his mouth, after all, the child is too young and...not belong to his family.

"Hmph!" The little boy curled his lips, and his two thick black eyebrows frowned.

"What's the matter, this is it?" The old woman in a cotton-padded jacket from a distance came over, "I heard you two arguing from afar!"

"Grandma! Pen!" The little boy preemptively said, "I want it!"

As soon as the little boy's voice fell, Ozu hid the pen in his hand deeper, and seeing that the visitor did not show the enthusiasm he had just explained to Song Chan, he just lowered his head and remained silent.

"Go home first! Hurry!" The mother-in-law ordered the two children, and then said to the two: "Sorry, the two children are disobedient, so I will take them home first."

Song Chan stood up, afraid that Ozu would suffer, nodded and explained: "The two of them seem to have a conflict because of Ozu's pen."

The mother-in-law in the cotton-padded jacket just smiled, and led the two children into the alley.

"It doesn't seem to be handled well." Song Chan pouted, a little bit of blaming himself, and he wanted to turn around, but he didn't know that there was a big brick lying on his right foot, and he was accidentally tripped and his whole body tilted backward. down.

It's really too big and I'm not mentally prepared.

Song Chan secretly yelled that he was not good, and when he realized it, he had already bumped into Song Nan'an.Seeing this scene, his first reaction was to rush to hold something with both hands to support himself, but he ignored the injury on his left hand in a hurry, and the pain came immediately after he stretched out his left hand.

Hearing a "hiss", Song Chan immediately retracted his left hand reflexively.

Just when he thought he was about to fall to the ground and hit a rock, he suddenly realized that he was hugged——Song Nan'an put his hands around his waist, and his warm breath was blown by his left ear.

"Are you a child?"

The voice came from behind him, and Song Chan's scalp turned red all the way to his toenails.

This frighteningly close range is fucking amazing!

"I... I, I..." I didn't know why after a long time, Song Chan jumped up like an electric shock.

"This stinky brick!" Someone who stood firm spat angrily, and kicked Brick a few times as if he was an ignorant person to give himself a little heart that was beating endlessly. buffer time.

——"Is your hand okay?

——"Didn't hurt you?"

The two asked in unison.

Song Chan used a carefree tone to cover up his still nervousness: "Who am I! I was nicknamed Dumb Brother, so what is this little injury! It's okay, it's okay!"

"It's you—"

"Mother-in-law is biased! I hate my mother-in-law!" Song Chan, who was about to ask Song Nan'an again if he was okay, immediately fell silent, and the two looked into the alley at the same time.

Not far away, the little girl named Ozu was crying and gradually disappeared, and the old woman in a flower padded jacket was walking slowly in the alley holding the little boy's hand.What the little boy was holding in his hand was the pen that Ozu held just now!

"Hey, how does this parent work!" Thinking about it, Song Chan immediately lost his temper. He had just reminded that the pen belonged to a girl, and it changed hands in a blink of an eye.No wonder the little boy was so confident when he spoke that he didn't know how to be refuted. It turned out that he was spoiled like this!

Could this patriarchal thought be too serious?Or is this little girl not their own?

"Song Chan." Seeing that he wanted to chase after him, Song Nan'an immediately stopped him: "This is someone else's business."

Song Chan hesitated: "I..." After taking a breath, he was really angry: "I can't understand this kind of family." This is how I lived in the Song family back then, and I was always the first to be blamed when I made a mistake. He was the one who was the first to be suspected of missing something at home. The only thing that made him feel relieved was that Song Nan'an and Song Jiaoye never looked down on him, but the attitude of the relatives and servants at home was chilling.

Both of them were silent for a while.

Song Nan'an saw that Song Chan was silent and lowered his head, and said in deliberation, "Even if you can help, you can only help this time."

"I'll help once too." Saying that, Song Chan walked into the alley.

Song Nan'an watched his gradually walking away figure and followed him.

The alley is narrow and slender, and every ten meters or so, you can see a more slender path on the left and right sides.The two stood in place and hesitated for a long time talking, let alone Ozu when they caught up again, even the mother-in-law and the little boy had already disappeared.

"I can't find it." Song Chan was a little regretful. At that time, he should have done it immediately when he had an idea. Now it's better, hesitantly hesitantly, hesitation is gone.

"It should be nearby." Song Nanan said after thinking, "Since I can hear the noise of the two children, my home should not be too far from here. Girls don't go far away from home."

"Can I...can I call a few times?" Song Chan raised his eyelids to speculate on Song Nan'an's attitude.Shouldn't you disagree with him calling a few times?

Song Chan didn't know what happened to him today, he had tossed so long for a little girl who was not related to him, maybe it was because his experiences were somewhat similar to hers.I felt that I was quite pitiful at the beginning, but now I see a child who is as pitiful as myself, so I want to do my best to help.

Song Nan'an took a look at him: "It's up to you."

As soon as the words fell, Song Chan directly opened his voice and began to shout: "Ozu!"

"Ozu! Where are you?"

"Ozu!"

After shouting several times without getting a response, Song Chan suddenly realized something.If the mother-in-law in the flower padded jacket heard it, she would definitely think that she was a human trafficker who abducted children, right?

Suddenly, a small voice came from an unknown corner.

"Brother." I saw a pair of black eyes in Ozu's flushed eyes looking at the two, "I'm here."

Song Chan walked over immediately, squatted in front of the little girl and asked with concern: "Are you okay?" He touched the frizzy shofar braid as he spoke.

"It's okay, I was at Grandma Han's house just now." Xiaojin laughed suddenly, like a little sun, and said to Song Chan: "Are you going to Grandma Han's house for a while?"

"Ah, no need, no need." Song Chan was taken aback by the question, and then hurriedly refused.They came here with something to do, time is money, ah bah, I was wrong, Song Nan'an's time is money.

"Grandma Han is a very nice person. Every time something unhappy happens, I will go to Grandma Han's house." Ozu said seriously: "She is always at home alone, brother, we can go and chat with her."

"This..." Song Chan really couldn't bear to refuse, thinking that it would be a good choice for someone who knew the situation to tell me about the situation of this little girl's family, so he turned his head and looked at Song Nan'an to ask for advice. his opinion.

"I'm not in a hurry." Song Nan'an gave an affirmative answer.

Song Chan was overjoyed, winked his eyebrows and almost burst out of laughter, the oversecretion of dopamine in his brain naturally made his mouth like a floodgate that couldn't be closed: "Thank you! Thank you, big brother, for understanding my little brother!" force.

Song Nan'an glanced at him and stopped talking.

So the two followed Ozu to Grandma Han's house.Not far away, just in the alley that turns left, less than 20 meters away.

Song Chan talked with Ojin all the way, while Song Nan'an kept observing the surroundings.

When I walked outside the yard, I saw two evergreen trees in front of the door. Many red ribbons were hung on the trees. There seemed to be yellow runes and blurred writing on the ribbons.

Entering the courtyard, what comes into view is not the main house, but a brick and tile kiln on the left that seems to have been abandoned. The layout of the kiln is small, and it should only be used for small-scale production of bricks and tiles.

"Grandma Han! I brought my two older brothers over!" Xiaojin yelled crisply, leading Song Chan into the simple brick house.

Song Nan'an, who was behind the two, stood at the door of the house and stopped moving forward. He stared at a mirror hanging above the door—the mirror was round, and there were many handwritings on the mirror, all of which were written in red paint. of.

Song Nan'an stood at the main entrance and turned around to look out. The gate was facing a narrow road with many weeds growing beside the road.So what is this mirror used for?Avoid evil?

It seems that this town really believes in ghosts, gods and Buddhas.

"Come in." Song Chan, who had already entered the room, saw Song Nan'an standing at the door, and called out.

Song Nan'an turned around and entered the house.