Liu Xujiao squinted his eyes and looked into the temple, but the light was too dim to see anything clearly, so he had to give up.
At this moment, a gust of wind suddenly swept from behind him, and drilled down his neckline and into his neck.
Liu Xujiao turned around and saw that the fog had gathered again above the river, gray, and vague, which made a wave of fear rise in his heart for no reason.
"Smack."
The old boatman's hand suddenly fell out of the straw mat and hung down on his chest.
"I don't know what the cause of your death is?
But I brought you back to look for your family, and I ask you not to do anything weird.
He silently said as he thrust his stiff arm back in, and his steps were much faster, and he kept running towards the place where there was a light.
After running for a hundred feet, he finally came to the other end of the bridge, and just wanted to take a breath, but he was frightened by the two black shadows at the head of the bridge, one on the left and one on the right, and did not dare to continue walking.
Liu Xujiao stared at the two black shadows with bated breath for a long time, but finally laughed out loud, because those two things were neither human nor ghost, but they were two stone dogs, they were half a human high, and each stone dog had a red cloth wrapped around its head, which looked like two women rushing to the market at first glance.
Liu Xujiao secretly blamed himself for his cowardice in his heart, he was a fourth-rank official guard with a sword, how could he be scared like this by two stone dogs, if it was known, wouldn't it become a big stain on his life.
He smiled and shook his head, looked at the dim light in front of him again, and secretly quickened his pace, the light of those oil lamps was not only the light of fire in his heart, but also popularity, after an afternoon of tossing, he was finally going to see a living person except himself.
So he pulled the straw mat on his shoulder upwards and stepped into the world full of fireworks.
In front of him was a market, where there were many vendors, some selling food, some selling silverware and jade, and some selling clothes and fans, all kinds of lively and lively.
More than the vendors, of course, were the bustling crowds of visitors, who stood in front of the stalls in droves, asking for bargains incessantly.
Liu Xujiao was surprised in his heart, he had grown so big, traveled to so many places, and had never seen such a lively night market, he forgot that he was still carrying a newly dead person on his back, and stepped forward to grab a child's arm and asked, "Child, you don't need to put a lot of time during the day, why do you come out at night to catch the market." ” The child bit a string of sugar gourds, and didn't look up at him, "You call it ignorant, I heard the old people say, in the past, this night market was much more lively than now, at that time, everyone didn't bring silver, and every family exchanged their things at home for other people's things, and I heard that sometimes they could exchange them for pearls the size of a fist." ” "It turned out to be a matter of tradition."
Liu Xujiao nodded.
"Hehe, admit that you have seen less" The child raised his head, and when he saw the grass on Liu Xujiao's back sweeping, he opened his mouth wide and didn't close it for a long time, and even the sugar gourd in his hand fell off.
"You're carrying the old Yan on your back?"
"Sure enough, he's from you."
Liu Xuzhu swept the grass down and opened it lightly, as if he was afraid of disturbing the deceased.
"Old Yan Tou, Old Yan Tou is dead."
Seeing the upright corpse, the child screamed, it didn't matter, the market behind him was silent for a moment, and the lights reflected the frightened faces, all of them looked in the direction of Liu Xujiao, half-open mouths, motionless.
"Is it really an old man?"
I don't know who took the lead in saying the first sentence, and the crowd seemed to be awakened by this sentence, and the tide gathered around, layer by layer around the straw mat, and surrounded the two songs of the living and the dead inside.
"How did he die?"
A word floated out of the crowd.
"I hired his boat to go south, but it capsized, and by the time I got him out of the water, he was out of breath."
Liu Xuzhu looked at the stunned people around him, and tried his best to explain things concisely.
"That's right, it's really raining a lot during the day today."
"This is the old Yan man, he has been running on the river for decades, in his words, it is more customary to float on the river than to walk on the ground, how can he capsize because of a little wind and waves, and how can he drown under the water like this?
Young descendant, tell me, what's going on?
An old man who was about the same age as Old Man Yan and also looked like a boatman asked.
Liu Xuzhu paused, "He seems to have been entangled in aquatic weeds, and I couldn't pull him under the water at that time." ” "It makes sense to say this, after all, he is also old, and he is entangled in aquatic weeds, and he may not be able to break free for a while."
Hearing that the old man had closed the coffin, the others all nodded, sighing at the corpse one by one.
"But" Liu Xuzhu hesitated for a long time, but decided to express the doubts in his heart to them.
"But what?
Could it be that the death of the old Yan Tou is still strange?
” "It's not weird, but I don't think it's right, because I thought he was fine before, although he was scared, but he could still hold his breath in the water, and he looked like a person who was used to water, but after I swam a few times, he suddenly fell unconscious, and it seemed that people couldn't do it in an instant."
He was greeted by silence again, Liu Xujiao looked at them, and wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by a shout from far and near.
"Daddy, Daddy."
The crowd made way for a young man and woman to get closer, and when Liu Xuzhu saw that the woman had a big belly, he knew that they were the son and daughter-in-law of Lao Yan'er.
The young man saw the tragic situation of his father's bleeding from the mouth and nose, knelt on the ground with weak legs, and took a step forward and kowtowed, "Dad, it is Tian'er who is not filial, so that you can't enjoy happiness at home at a young age, so that you can't see your grandson born with your own eyes, Dad, you went so suddenly, you didn't even leave the opportunity to fulfill your filial piety to your son, what can you let your son do in the future." ” The woman was also about to kneel, but was helped up by the person next to her, "You are pregnant with a belly, don't hurt the child, this child is what the old Yan Tou values the most, but you must take care." ” Liu Xujiao looked at Yan Tian'er, who was crying, and also remembered his father who had gone early, and couldn't help but feel sad in his heart, and couldn't help but sigh.
The person next to him seemed to notice that he was only wearing a coat that had not yet dried, so he hurriedly went to the market to bring a few dry clothes for him to put on, and said to Yan Tian'er, "This young man risked his life to save your father from the bottom of the river, if it weren't for him, Old Yan'er's body might not be found, but thank him well." ”