Niu Benwang, who kept company with wintersweet during the day and left after dark to avoid suspicion, didn't know that today's farewell would be forever.
When they were in front of the door, Lamei stood inside, wearing a mourning filial piety on her body. According to the rules, no one could be sent out of the door at this time.
She stood just inside the door, holding the door panel with her hand, watching reluctantly as Niu Benwang took the cow that the two of them had fed together almost since birth, and walked away, looking back three times, a little further away. Ben Wang turned back and waved, "Go back and lock the door at night. I will come to see you early tomorrow morning."
"Well, brother Benwang, please walk slowly, I'll be waiting for you!"
The wooden door was closed, and the lights in the room were extinguished soon after. The moon in the sky quietly watched everything being performed on the earth, silently.
More than ten years ago, in Niujiatun, there was no electricity, let alone televisions and lights, and no running water.
People only went to sleep in small groups and chatted about household matters, and went to bed early and got up early. The village was already dark and silent very early.
A black shadow quickly climbed over the low wall of Lamei's house, which was more than one meter high and made of broken bricks, and got into the house. After a while, a cry of surprise came from the sleeping Lamei, and she was trapped without an exit. No matter what, the sound in the house was not quiet, but it could not reach the ears of the neighbors who had their doors and windows closed.
That night, Niu Benwang didn't sleep soundly. He always felt that something had happened, which made him feel very sad. He tossed and turned on the kang until dawn, grabbed his clothes and headed towards Lamei's house.
The strange thing was that the courtyard door of Lamei's house, which was usually opened early and on time, was closed today. He pushed it but didn't open it at all.
Niu Benwang held the cow with one hand and smashed the door with the other, "Wangmei, are you up? I am Brother Benwang, please open the door!"
People around also got up early. When they heard the sound of the bull galloping, and saw the cow that was closely tied to the bull galloping, leading them wherever they went, they knew that the sweetheart of wintersweet had come again.
Many women were envious of Niu Benwang's attitude towards wintersweet. They looked at the man next to them with disgust, holding a rice bowl and snoring for breakfast. The more they looked at her, the more unhappy they became.
"Look at other people, and then look at you, how come I haven't met a man who knows how to hang around his own woman!"
The man eating the porridge glared at his mother-in-law with disdain, and said angrily, "Stop talking nonsense, why don't you look at your legs that are thicker than the wintersweet waist, the big face plate that holds hands like a millstone, and look at the cow running." Wang Hao, you go directly to him."
None of these comments attracted Niu Benwang's attention. He was very anxious and didn't know what happened to Lamei today.
Just when he was anxious to climb over the wall and take a look, Lamei whispered in a hoarse voice through the door, "Go back, I don't want to see you, and don't come to me again!"
This was the first time Niu Benwang felt the sourness of being rejected after tasting the sweetness of love. Yesterday, he was still a good wintersweet, but today he was rejected thousands of miles away. He begged and made noise, and used almost all the means at his disposal. But I couldn't get Lamei to open the door.
In the end, Lamei also dropped her harsh words, "If you don't leave, I will die for you!"
From that moment on, no one else in the village, let alone the rush of cattle, saw wintersweet go out again.
But there is no airtight wall in the village. When the cow, which is often led by the cow and cannot eat anything, runs around near Lamei's house, more and more villagers point at his back and say bad things about Lamei. Silly, Wintersweet is a frivolous person, there are men in the yard at night and so on.
At the beginning, Niu Benwang could only pretend to be stupid, until one day, some men in the village made fun of Lamei's innocence. Niu Benwang heard this and rushed to fight with the National People's Congress. Beat to death.
When this incident broke out, Niu Benwang became so stubborn that he rushed to the door of Lamei's house and almost broke the door with a hammer.
"Lamei, come out. Come out and tell them and me. These are just gossips made by others to bully your honesty. You are not like that. Come out..."
In the end, Uncle Niu and Aunt Niu came after hearing the news and took him home, and everyone heard the heartbreaking crying coming from Lamei's house for a long, long time...
It was a night of heavy rain when the accident happened. There was a terrible sound in the yard of Lamei's house. There were both men's and women's voices. Because of Lamei's reputation and such rain, there was no such thing. People go out and take a look.
The next morning, the door of this house was open, and a few people boldly went in to take a look, and then ran out screaming.
I heard that everything in the house was smashed to pieces, and there was a stain of blood. The only thing missing was the wintersweet who rarely went out.
A great living person just disappeared. Many people said he left with his sweetheart, and some said he might have died.
Niu Benwang was as if he had lost his soul. He had no expression and could not speak. He was like a wandering soul all day long. People in the village even said that Niu Benwang was crazy!
More than ten days later, someone was cutting grass on the grassland next to the reservoir. From a distance, he saw something that looked like a big fish or a turtle floating in the reservoir.
Out of curiosity, I paddled over in a shabby boat to get a bargain, but I was almost scared out of my mind!
It's actually a dead person! A woman is floating on her back in the reservoir. What looks like a turtle shell from a distance is the bulging belly of the female corpse!
When Grandpa Seven talked about this, he looked sympathetically at Niu Benwang, who had become hoarse from crying, and advised him, "Okay, don't cry anymore. If this matter is really related to what happened back then, you should be happy, a little bit." If the makeup artist is here, he can also help the wintersweet child."
And I frowned. The last sentence of Grandpa Seven, about the female corpse with its belly turned upside down, made me fall into deep thought.
There are many types of corpses in the water, and they are not under our decorator's control, at least not when they are in the water.
There are specialized corpse fishermen, so to speak, every line is like a mountain. This means changing from land to water, whether it is rivers, lakes, seas, small ditches, or large sea wells. Anyone who is touched by water must hire a corpse fisherman...
Grandpa's ancient book only briefly wrote a few words about corpses in the water.
The corpse floating in the water is also called water drifting. The book says that if the back is turned to the sky, the country is peaceful and the people are safe; if the belly is turned to the sky, it is a great injustice; if the head is erect, it will be a big disaster; if the soles of the feet are raised to the sky, it means turning back to the shore!
The meaning is easy to understand. The most and best thing to deal with is the one with the back facing the sky. It is a bit difficult to do it with the face facing the sky, but it is not impossible. The one standing upright like standing in the water is another matter. It is best to think about yourself. If you have the ability to do it again, but the head and feet, haha...
The four words "turn back and go ashore" are not meant for the corpses to come ashore on their own, which is not that cheap. Instead, the words "turn back and go ashore" are telling the corpse collectors who see such corpses to leave them alone, don't touch them, and don't get close. Only by turning back can they save their lives!
You can probably think of some of the dangers involved.
I asked anxiously, "What happened next? How did you deal with it?"