After the first lunar month, the earth melts away from winter and becomes warmer.
At the entrance of Taoshan Village, seven o'clock in the morning.
A middle-aged man wearing a gray sweater squatted under a big locust tree and ate the crispy noodles he had stolen from the village canteen yesterday evening.
It's delicious and full of comfort.
Little did he know that this pack of crispy noodles had expired long ago, and the canteen owner deliberately asked him to "steal" it.
On his feet were a pair of old cracked yellow leather sneakers, and his pants were baggy and worn.
My hair was greasy and caked on top of my head, and I didn’t even clean up the poop in my eyes.
While eating the crispy noodles, he wiped away the green mucus hanging from his nostrils.
From time to time, he stretched his head to take a look at the village with a simple and honest smile.
"The third son of the Su family, why are you squatting here so early in the morning?" A passing villager joked at him: "Have you laid eggs?"
The middle-aged man responded with a silly smile: "Squat, squat on a tractor and go to town."
"Are you going to the town to find a wife?" Several villagers winked and said, "Yes, the ladies in the town are more lively than the others."
"That slim waist and long legs make her walk like she's doing a Yangko dance."
"If you find a wife, don't forget to notify us to have a wedding banquet."
The middle-aged man nodded desperately and said, "Okay."
Everyone laughed loudly and left in whispers, carrying the farm tools and joints.
At half past seven, the sound of a tractor was heard on the dirt road in the village.
The middle-aged man dropped the bag of instant noodles that he had already finished and rushed out to wave.
"Hey, Third Brother." Li Changgen, who was driving the tractor, braked suddenly and said with lingering fear: "Going to town?"
"Yes." The middle-aged man rubbed his hands, climbed into the back car like a skinny monkey, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Get off at the three-way intersection."
Li Changgen stood up and said, "Find a corner and sit down. The dirt road is difficult to walk on."
No one responded, and the madman was nowhere to be seen.
Li Changgen smiled bitterly, started the tractor and continued driving.
His wife Wang Cailian, who was sitting next to him in the simple co-pilot, complained: "You are blind, and you stopped the car when you saw Su Laosan. He is a lunatic. If something happens to him when he goes to town, how can he explain it to the Su brothers?"
"It's okay. It's not the first time that the third child has gone to town." Li Changgen said unconcernedly: "Besides, he's just not very bright, and he's not really crazy."
Wang Cailian took a small bite of the biscuit and muttered: "Wandering around the village every day, smiling weirdly at the stars and the moon at night. Uncle Mu Sheng died without shedding a single tear. If this is not really crazy, what is a lunatic?"
Li Changgen opened his mouth and motioned for his wife to feed him a biscuit, chewed it carefully and said: "A real lunatic kills people, sets fires, commits crimes and commits crimes. Do you think the third child has it?"
"He was just stimulated, and his brain went up and down."
"In the words of the old goddess in the south of the village, this is a sign of losing one's soul."
After Li Changgen finished eating the biscuits, he asked Wang Cailian to give him some saliva, and said with his cheeks pumping: "The third child and I were classmates in elementary school. He is the smartest one of our generation."
"It's a pity that when I was thirty years old, I got seriously ill and was sent to a foreign hospital for treatment by Uncle Musheng."
"Well, let me do the math. I left the village at the age of ten and came back when I was thirty-five."
"It was like this when I came back. It's been ten years and it hasn't gotten better."
Li Changgen couldn't help but sigh: "We asked Uncle Mu Sheng privately, and he said that the third child's life was saved, but the root cause of his mental disorder was left behind."
"Of course, I probably don't have any extra money to treat him."
"The Su family is not a big family and cannot withstand this kind of trouble."
Li Changgen sighed and said: "So, as long as a person lives, he must be healthy and safe."