It was just after noon, the hottest time of the day.
There was not a trace of cloud in the sky, and the vicious sun hung alone in the sky, burning with anger and burning the dirt road with a dazzling white light. The trees and weeds all withered under the scorching sun.
Son, he lowered his head listlessly.
The hot weather makes people feel groggy, so in the afternoon they all go inside and lie down on the mat, enjoying the coolness and comfort brought by the fan or air conditioner, and taking a beautiful lunch break. Only those who know how to hide among the branches of trees
They were all in high spirits, making noise at the top of their voices, disturbing people.
"Change it to Xiaomi..."
The loud cries suddenly resounded in the sky above Zhuge Village, and they still carried a little charm, melodious. The cicadas in the whole village were so shocked that they all fell silent and carefully looked around.
status.
Under the old locust tree next to the cross street in the middle of the village, a young man wearing shorts and a vest with a shaved head was standing on a stone bench with one foot and one foot on the ground. He opened his mouth in a high-spirited and slightly narrow-minded manner.
After shouting a few times, he sat back on the stone bench in some frustration, leaned against the trunk of the old locust tree, lit a cigarette and started smoking. On a hot day, even after shouting just two times, the young man felt
There were beads of sweat all over his body, as if he had just taken a shower, and there were clear wet marks on his pants and vest.
Under the wall behind the old locust tree, there is an old 28-year-old bicycle leaning against it. There are two bags of corn on the back rack, and a small half bag of millet is firmly tied on top. There is a steel scale tied to the crossbar of the bicycle.
Hanging from the handle were scales and a plastic kettle.
Obviously, no one will come out to exchange for Xiaomi during this hottest time period.
The reason why he shouted twice was purely out of boredom.
You know, during this period of the afternoon, he had to be extremely bored and endure the scorching heat to kill time. After the sun had passed and everyone got up from their lunch break, he could continue to do business and replace the remaining millet.
, and then he can go home satisfied. For him, after exchanging the remaining twenty kilograms of millet, he can earn three more yuan. Three yuan can buy two bottles of cold beer, or one bottle of cold beer.
Plus a pack of cigarettes…
Oh, having said that, let me give you a brief introduction: The young man who switched to Xiaomier is called Xu Zhengyang, and he is 21 years old this year.
After Xu Zhengyang graduated from junior high school a few years ago, he did not continue to go to school. Instead, he and a few buddies in the village who also did not go to school lived together, occasionally going out to work and earn some money. Of course, most of them had a playful mentality.
When I was working, I spent three days fishing and two days drying nets, so I couldn't make much money.
The economic conditions of Xu Zhengyang's family in the village are considered to be debtors, so after a few years of fooling around, he finally got a sense of responsibility. No, since last year, he has been working in a small job such as changing millet.
Business. Although I can’t make much money, I can still earn six to seven hundred yuan after a month of busy work. I earn more than other buddies who work on construction sites, and I am more relaxed and free.
Speaking of which, you may think that Xu Zhengyang is nothing special, isn't he just an ordinary rural young man?
This is true. He is an ordinary person. He has no obvious advantages and no abilities that are different from ordinary people. He has an average IQ and average appearance. He vomits after drinking too much and is in pain after being beaten... But again,
Having said that, to be fair, how many young people are willing to put aside their dignity, ride an old bicycle, and do a small business of hawking in the streets? Besides, in any village in these ten miles and eight villages, there is a junior high school student of Xu Zhengyang.
Classmates, especially female classmates... At this point, you should be able to understand something?
Therefore, among Xu Zhengyang's buddies, except for those who are still in school, some of them would rather work hard as laborers with the construction team than take off their worthless faces to do this kind of work.
It's so shameful and embarrassing to run a small business of hawking in the streets.
Xu Zhengyang's attitude towards this is completely different. In his words: "Brother, don't steal or rob, just do your duty and make money. What's the shame? Besides, dude, this is called 'I'd rather be a chicken head than a chicken'."
Fengwei, we are also a boss..."
Regardless of whether he is rude or not, any adult would not be able to help but give a thumbs up and praise this boy for his ambition and potential. For this reason, some female comrades have even considered privately talking about their own daughters.
As Xu Zhengyang's daughter-in-law, they firmly believed that Xu Zhengyang would definitely be successful in the future.
But how many young people can understand it?
Therefore, when Xu Zhengyang's male and female classmates when he was in school in the village saw Xu Zhengyang hawking on the street in their respective villages, in addition to greeting him politely, they felt a little contempt in their hearts, feeling that Xu Zhengyang was really shameless.
Hey, how do you do this kind of business? You can’t make it big...
Enough chatting, let’s get back to the topic.
It is said that in this hot day, there was not even a soul on the street, and Xu Zhengyang's business could not be done for the time being. So he got bored and shouted a few times with a mischievous attitude and made some noise to disturb others' lunch breaks, and he became more and more bored.
I was so overwhelmed. I originally wanted to finish smoking a cigarette and take a nap against the tree trunk, but the weather was so hot that even the stone bench under my butt seemed to have been steamed, as if it was burning my buttocks.
Xu Zhengyang stood up reluctantly so that his buttocks could get some air. He raised his head and squinted his eyes to look at the sky through the lush branches and leaves. He muttered and cursed: "God damn it, it's so hot..."
I don’t know if the God in the dark got angry when he heard Xu Zhengyang scolding it, but as soon as he finished muttering, a rumble of thunder came from the west.
Xu Zhengyang raised his hand to cover his forehead and looked west. An anxious look immediately appeared on his face, and he spat and cursed: "Fuck, it's going to rain!"
I saw gloomy dark clouds rising in the sky to the west, rolling and rapidly swallowing the clear sky.
Xu Zhengyang hurriedly jumped to the bicycle, grabbed the handlebars, turned around, pedaled off and drove towards the east of the village.
When doing this kind of business of exchanging grain, you are afraid of getting people soaked in the rain. It doesn't matter. The key is that if the grain gets wet, you will have to spend several days drying it before you can sell it.
The village where Xu Zhengyang's family is located is called Shuanghe Village. It is about eight or nine miles away from Zhuge Village, which is not too far. However, the road conditions along this road are not good. Most of them are bumpy dirt roads.
Carrying 1,890 kilograms of grain, it took less than half an hour to ride home.
Thunderstorms in summer come very quickly. One moment it is clear skies and the scorching sun is high. The next moment there are storms, thunder and lightning, and heavy rain pouring down.
So Xu Zhengyang kept thinking in his heart: "God, don't be anxious, don't be anxious, give me half an hour, don't say it's going to rain, I won't care if you kill me..."
Unfortunately, he knew that God would not slow down the rain just because of his words.
So along the way, Xu Zhengyang was sweating and pedaling his bicycle with all his strength, racing against the dark clouds behind him that were rapidly swallowing up the clear sky. The rumble of thunder kept ringing behind Xu Zhengyang, making him feel like a bullock.
The watchman driving the car was waving his whip and making a loud whistle to drive him to run quickly.
From a distance, you could already see the houses on the edge of the village, but Xu Zhengyang couldn't let go because the dark clouds in the sky finally surpassed him and swallowed up the entire sky, making the world suddenly darken and gloomy.
The thunder became louder, like two huge kicks clicking in the sky directly above our heads, and it was deafening.
The snake-like lightning flashed through the dark clouds, demonstrating the power of nature and shocking the tiny creatures in the world...
A few raindrops fell on Xu Zhengyang's face, reminding him that a downpour was coming soon.
"Damn it, don't bother me! Can you wait another two minutes?"
Xu Zhengyang became anxious and kicked his feet faster.
When he was still more than a hundred meters away from the village entrance, Xu Zhengyang rode his car and rushed to the entrance of the Tutu Temple on the roadside. Although he had already arrived at the village entrance, his home was at the east end of the village, and there were still four or five people there.
100 meters. And heavy rain will fall at any time. I am afraid that he will be soaked until he gets home. This is not a big deal. The food carried on the rear rack of the bicycle is the key!
Sure enough, as soon as Xu Zhengyang pushed his bicycle into the Earth Temple, dense rain poured down from the sky.
Xu Zhengyang leaned his bicycle against the wall where the white dust had long since fallen off. He gasped for air. He reached out and patted the grain bag on the back rack of the bicycle. He found that there were not a few raindrops on it, and he felt relieved immediately. Look.
Looking outside the temple, the rain curtain was so dense that the line of sight was less than ten meters away, and the light was even gloomier, as if it was evening.
After regaining his composure, Xu Zhengyang didn't mind being dirty, so he sat down on the altar in the Earth Temple and lit a cigarette. He was lucky to have made it back in time, otherwise he would have been completely drenched by the heavy rain.
.
Tick tick tick tick...
Because it has been in disrepair for a long time, it rains heavily outside the temple, and it rains lightly inside the temple.
After sniffing his nose, a stinking smell filled the temple. Xu Zhengyang looked around the temple with a cigarette in his mouth, curled his lips, and couldn't help cursing in his heart: "Damn, who the hell is full after eating?"
I had nothing to do, so I went to this temple to poop and pee... Look at the pile of shit here... Oh my god, there is still a piece of dry shit pressed against the back wheel of the bicycle."
"Fuck, there's shit on my feet too. What a damn unlucky person!"
He seemed to have forgotten that he had also pooped and peed in this earth temple.
According to the elderly in the village, this earth temple has been built for decades. Anyway, it has been outside the village since Xu Zhengyang could remember, and by that time, the temple had been abandoned for who knows how many years. In short, it is
Even the old people in the village can't remember who built this temple, and who came here to burn incense and make offerings.
Because the Tutu Temple is next to an old kiln pit from earlier years, the geology here is not suitable for farming. Therefore, it was able to survive the period when the villagers were opening up wasteland a few years ago and is still surviving to this day. Although it is always shaky, it is extremely strong.
Standing upright, it has become an emergency public toilet for villagers farming outside the village, or for passers-by, or for children in the village to play, and occasionally in emergencies.
Absolutely natural public toilets, dirt and filth will be dried and digested by nature over time.
Of course, the environment is really not good.
Xu Zhengyang looked at the heavy rain outside the door with a grimace and curled his lips, praying in his heart that the rain would stop quickly, and then he would leave this ruined temple as quickly as possible. It was really no place for human beings!
"go out!"
A slight but urgent sound suddenly sounded in the dark temple.
Xu Zhengyang was startled, stood up suddenly, and looked around. There was nothing else in the temple except rotten branches, grass, bricks, dirt, and excrement everywhere!
Who is speaking?
"Get out quickly!"
The voice sounded again, this time it seemed more anxious, with a hint of threatening anger.
Xu Zhengyang's heart suddenly rose to his throat. He was so frightened that he had seen a ghost in the daytime! The unknown fear made him not run away from the temple immediately at this moment. Instead, he froze in the middle of the temple, his eyes widened.
The little baby was jumping so hard that he almost cried.
"out……"
Before the voice that came out of thin air could finish shouting, a thick bolt of lightning struck diagonally from the door and silently penetrated Xu Zhengyang's chest.
Xu Zhengyang didn't even have time to make a sound, he fell to the ground with a plop, and his head was knocked heavily on the god's steps. Of course, at this time, he could no longer feel any pain.
Before his consciousness disappeared, he only had time to think of two words in his mind: "Dead!"
In the dark Earth Temple, the mottled clay statue of the Earth God, less than one meter high, trembled slightly on the steps, shaking off some dust. The air twisted and fluctuated strangely a few times, and a man wearing shabby and shabby clothes
A scruffy and thin old man appeared out of thin air and sat on the divine steps next to Xu Zhengyang's head.
"Alas..." The old man with a ravaged face sighed heavily, with a trace of frustration and sadness in his cloudy eyes.
Suddenly, the old man stood up, tremblingly walked to the door, looked up at the gloomy sky with heavy rain pouring down, and yelled angrily: "Fuck, God, you're screwed!"