Original toffee

I am a girl with an older brother and a younger brother, so my father didn't love me very much since I was a child, and only asked my mother and I to stay at home every day and do our own things.

A Niang loves me, she often steals my father out to make snacks and sew beautiful clothes for me, but I dare not wear them out, otherwise my father will find out, and then I will be scolded and beaten.I only dare to put it on when A Niang just finished making the clothes, turn them around, and then put them in the box and lock them.

A Niang said I was good, and then hugged me and cried.I didn't know why she was crying, so I could only hug her foolishly and put my hands on her back.

When I was seven years old, my father had an accident on the mountain.At that time, his family was poor, so he went to hunt tigers for money, but never came back.

Auntie cried for three days, but I didn't cry.When I heard the neighbors passing by, they would say in a low voice, oh, that idiot in their family doesn't understand anything, and he is so cruel that he doesn't know how to cry.

Are you talking about me?But I'm not stupid, I really can't cry.

Later, the younger brother caught fish in the water, lost his footing and drowned. A Niang was not in good health, so she cried for another three days, and then followed him.

My elder brother had just got married at that time and became the daughter-in-law’s door-to-door son-in-law, leaving me alone to guard the old house, go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables every day, and raised myself until I was 15 years old.

People in the town said that I was a loser and a fool, and my sister-in-law was strict with me, and Jiben cut off contact with me—I was so lonely that I had to adopt a puppy to raise.

Why do you say that digging wild vegetables to support yourself is only 15 years old?Because one night when I was 15 years old, someone came to me and said he wanted to teach me how to make medicine.

The man was wrapped in a black robe, so tight that he couldn't see his appearance, but he was a man——I agreed to him.

I have been studying this medicine for two years. During this period, I never went out again. All the food and drink supplies were brought by that person when he came to see me at night. He said that when I grow up, I will know what kind of things I have done. choose.

I didn't understand what he meant, and even felt that this sentence was inexplicable, so I asked him why he said that.

"You are really a fool."

Although I couldn't see his face, I still felt the compassion in his words.

It was inexplicable.

Then he left and never came back.

"Be good for yourself" were the last words he left behind.

And I became a little witch in the town, ignorantly living by myself every day.

They all said I was a witch.

Throw things at me and spit on me when I go out.

But I...but I didn't do anything wrong...

The puppy grew up slowly, and I didn't like to go out more and more.

That person stopped coming, but he also sent me a letter every month, saying some strange things, but I never replied——

[Girl, you haven't prepared the new medicine this month, you need to use the sad tears of the dead, you know? ]

[Why are you still so stupid?Have you grown up yet?A fool. ]

[Girl, don't lose your share if you keep a dog. ]

[Others bully you for being stupid, have you ever wondered why you are stupid?Did I teach you potions to pass the time! ]

[Girl, do you want revenge? ]

I put the letter paper on the candle and burned it slowly, then picked up the black cat lying on the ground, put it on my knees, and stroked its shiny black hair one by one—the puppy grew bigger and bigger, and also Not afraid of life, once ran out to the town, and never came back.Although I am 19 years old, I am still afraid of being alone, so I have to keep the kitten I picked up by my side.Cats don't like strangers, and they don't know how to go out to play. It's nice to be with me.

[Do you know that in the winter when you were five years old, you were pushed into the lake by the children in the town, and you became a fool when you were rescued.Do you really not hate them?I feel sorry for you sometimes. ]

The man wrote me again, and this time I wrote him back.

The crow flew away hoarsely, and I hugged my cat, finally feeling the cold.

That kind of cold was bone-piercing, like someone sprinkled a handful of ice and snow that had been frozen for thousands of years in my bones, it was so cold to the bone.

"I want to save some money," I whispered to the cat, "and then I'll buy you a toy, and I'll buy myself a dress..."

I remembered the skirt my mother sewed for me before.But I don't have a mother anymore, and I don't have a skirt anymore.

The cat may not understand what I said, but it just blinked a pair of big red golden eyes, and slowly fell down on my lap.

Someone from the town came to see me. It was an old man with a big white beard and a wrinkled face that looked like tree bark. He looked very unfriendly.

When he came in, he first looked up and down the room and me, who was very cramped with the cat in my arms, and said after a while, "Girl, you mean you know how to mix medicine?"

I know he is an elder. I saw him at my father and mother's funeral. He doesn't like me, and I don't like him either.

I nodded.

"Did you know there was a bubonic plague in town?"

I shook my head truthfully.

But he seemed to be angry, even his beard was shaking: "You! You!"

At this time, someone came in again, a short man with a wretched face and a hoarse voice, like a dying crow: "Little girl, can I borrow your cat?"

I don't know what they're up to, but I know instinctively that I can't trust them.

So I hugged the cat in my arms tightly, bit my lip and shook my head.

"Little girl, don't be ignorant of good and bad."

Only then did I realize that, at some point, there were crowds of people outside the door, all of them looking in, with an indescribable twist and irony mixed with anxiety, anticipation and disgust on their faces.

"Demon girl!" Someone yelled outside, followed by another yell, and everyone raised their hands and roared loudly.

I took a step back in panic, the cat in my arms was hugged too tightly, and it meowed dissatisfied, with a high-pitched voice.

The eyes of "Old Crow" flicked back and forth between me and the people outside the door with great interest: "Little girl, life is hard, lend us the cat, and we will naturally repay you."

I pursed my lips.Reason tells me I can't do this, but I... I still really want to fit into this town...

I lent the cat out.

"Old Crow" and the Elder promised to return it to me.

I also gave them vials of plague remedies.

I don't know if it's the right thing to do.

[idiot!How can you trust them!It's fine if you don't reply to me, take a look at what you wrote in your reply!They bully you, humiliate you, if you don't double teach them to pay back, and... I tell you, if you do this today, you will definitely regret it tomorrow!Besides, do you know what that cat is!That's mine... pissed me off!Why did you borrow it out! ]

As soon as the elder left, the man called the crow to deliver a message, a message.

I was a little flustered when I heard his distraught voice.

But what is right and what is wrong, I...how do I know...

I'm so stupid.

My cat didn't come back.

Cats are bad luck and everyone in town hates cats.

They threw me a small bag of gold coins, and threw my cat to death in the river, right in front of my face.

When it died, the blood flowed all over the place, and the amber eyes were dull, but they were still open, and they kept looking at me.

I can't forget those eyes in my dreams.

Do not look down.

I regret.

Why am I so stupid.

[Girl, do you want revenge? ]

I sneaked out to collect my cat's body and was found by the townspeople.

They threw me in the river, then broke into my house and took all my potions.

But I didn't die, I was blocked by a stone and crawled back, like a poor ghost crawling out of hell to die.

I knocked on the door of the elder's house and begged him to let me go.

"Girl, you are a witch, and the witch should be burned at the stake to be exonerated."

I shook my head vigorously and finally calmed down.

The elder looked at me and smiled very proudly: "Girl, live a good life, some things are your own fault, you can't blame others."

I looked at him resentfully, and for the first time understood what the letter that man wrote to me meant.

too late.

I stood up and pointed to the elder: "Remember what you said - when the sun rises, the evil spirits will return to the world, and you will all go to hell and be tortured in purgatory for hundreds of generations!"

Didn't you say that I am vicious, that I am a witch?Then I won't make it easy for you, I will be a vicious witch.

The corner of the elder's mouth twitched, and the crutch in his hand stomped fiercely on the ground: "Demon girl, you..."

I took a step back, but someone grabbed my arm and threw me hard on the ground.The elder looked at me condescendingly, with two deep decree lines on his face: "Girl, it's you who don't know what's good."

It was almost dawn, and the woodpile had been set up, so all the townspeople were awake.I was tied to the pyre by them, and I looked at the torch in the elder's hand from a distance.

Such a dirty face.

A crow hovered above my head, I recognized it, it was the man's crow.

He will not come to my rescue.It is my fault.I regret.

The sky was getting brighter, and the sun slowly revealed a little orange light from the horizon.

The elder yelled loudly and raised the torch in his hand.

The beating flame on the torch, the warm color, the original hope of mankind, is now used by sin to wash away the slandered sin.

"You want them to die?" He suddenly appeared, and the crow landed on his shoulder like a dream.

I couldn't speak, I just looked at his back, a gust of cold wind passed by, and the hem of his black robe raised a beautiful arc.

"Oh, I guessed wrong." He turned his back to me, his tone was very calm, "What you want is that they die badly."

The square was filled with blood in an instant, and killings were everywhere.

People wailed and fell, twitching on the ground, and the elder also fell in front of me, looking at me ferociously with cloudy eyes.

He raised his hand.

The torch fell on the pyre.

fire.hot.

My field of vision was distorted by the high temperature, and I saw the man use his hand as a knife, slashing fiercely on the townspeople's necks, and then turned around.

We are far away from each other.

He said something, and I understood his mouth shape——

"Do you regret it?"

I shook my head, nodded again, and then my vision went dark.

When the sun was high, the town was in ruins, stained with the blood of sin, without any vitality.

The flames in the square have been extinguished, and the witch has gone with the wind. No one remembers the lonely and innocent fool.

The man squatted down, gathered the fly ash on the ground, and raised his head to wipe away the tears that did not exist in the corners of his eyes.

"Fool... why do you want to do this..."

"You listen to everything I say, and you agree to teach you medicine. How come you have come to this point..."

"Fool, you are really a fool."

"You can lose even a bit of my soul that I left with you."

The fire was rekindled, and quickly swept through the town, and the flames soared into the sky, reflecting the bloody haze on the horizon.

A black cat emerges from the fire, its amber eyes full of flame.

It took one last look at the town that was about to be reduced to ashes, flicked its tail, and walked away on catwalks.