sunny as rain

13-year-old Ye Shiyu had two close encounters with death.

The first time was when there was a family at the west end of the village. The old man in the family disappeared. A group of spectators gathered around, only to hear someone shouting "Fake corpse! Fake corpse", the crowd dispersed like birds and beasts, Ye Shiyu The toes that had just stood on tiptoe were put down immediately, being pushed and shoved by people, and hurriedly ran out.

He himself didn't know why he ran, but he was just curious about what kind of person the corpse was, whether it was similar to the zombie in the VCD, but unfortunately he didn't pay attention in the end, because it was completely nonsense.

The second time was when his uncle died, and Ye Shiyu hit his head on the coffin board. Although he was far away, he could still see the corpse clearly.

The corpse was silent, quietly swollen and purple, and even had a smell of rotting meat. If you had to describe it, it was very similar to the smell of overnight pork and moldy fruit. Weird scent.

This smell is disgusting, but it is indeed the smell of life stopping.

In Ye Shiyu's little head, he really couldn't understand why people changed so much after death, and the distance between death and life was only a few hours.

Ye Shiyu always felt that when this person was lying in the coffin, his heart belonged to another world.

Most of the rural areas are standard three-room tile-roofed houses. There is a living room when you enter the back door, and there is a stove on the left and right. There is a big black iron pot on the stove. The east room is on the left side of the entrance, the west room is on the right side, and the front door is a rectangle. Every family in the courtyard has such a layout.

The front and back doors are often facing each other, and because of the natural atmosphere, neighbors are generally reluctant to go through the front door, even though they only have to walk a few more steps. Therefore, the front door is locked with a big iron chain and is not opened very often all the year round.

On this day, for the first time ever, the front door of Ye Zhilan's house, Ye Shiyu's eldest aunt, was wide open, openly welcoming visitors from all over the world.

Ye Zhilan's husband died. This man's name was Zhou Yingwu, and he was nicknamed "Parrot". It's not that he was full of venomous tongues, it was simply because this man was not only handsome, but also eloquent and eloquent. From the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, down to kindergarten children, they were all tamed by his mouth.

Zhou Yingwu's body was parked in the east room, which is called "end of life".

There is a dirty cotton mat under the entrance. Relatives and friends kneel on the mat and kowtow to the portrait before entering the door, and cry a few words loudly to the portrait. It is generally difficult to hear how artificial the crying is. Out of respect for the deceased, it is necessary to cry A few times.After kneeling and standing up, he could see the body in the freezer. The 2-meter-long freezer was placed in the center of the room, next to the kang. The body was covered with a white cloth, making it impossible to see the remains.

Ye Shiyu was led by his mother Jiang Yahui to the west room. On the kang that occupied half of the room, a white-haired old lady sat cross-legged, holding a rusty big bag wrapped in rags in her twitching hand. The scissors, with extremely long blades, opened and closed creakingly, and were cutting white linen cloth according to the figure of the person in front of them.

After cutting, the family member bows down and bows his head, raises his hands up to the top of the head, catches it respectfully, and hands it to the visiting relatives and friends in the same posture.

Ye Shiyu caught the filial piety clothes in a daze, and was helped by the enthusiastic neighbor aunt to put them on. After putting on the filial piety clothes, the white cloth strips were wrapped around the head, and a slipknot was tied on the left side of the forehead, paying attention to the left short and right long.

The strips of white cloth were too long and the texture was rough, which somewhat blocked the line of sight. Ye Shiyu's head was hanging low, looking listless.

The nosy auntie talked a lot, and sighed from time to time, "This person, he didn't exist if he said he didn't, and he disappeared at a young age."

Whether it's their own parents or other people's parents, they always predict sad and bad things from time to time. The children are tired of the things the adults say, because they always predict disasters, disasters, etc. If there is a power failure, they will Keep predicting the date of the next power outage.

Zhou Yingwu's death was also in their prophecy, as if there was a traceable death, the sadness would be worn away by time.

There was a chubby middle-aged woman who said "ah" when she saw Ye Shiyu. This is not the son of Ye Laosan's family, he is so handsome.

After finishing speaking, he moved Ye Shiyu's chin with his hands and feet, looked left and right, and clicked his tongue: "This child looks like a pink doll, and his eyebrows and eyes look like makeup. He is ugly and filial. It's a shame to attend a funeral." I can’t make up, but I have to see the whole body, at first glance I thought I had painted my eyebrows and lips.”

Ye Shiyu's father was the third child in his family, so everyone in the village called him Ye childe. Many people didn't know his name was Ye Zhihui.

The doors and windows of the house were wide open, people were coming and going, busy, Ye Shiyu stood on the side of the yard, at a loss.The hollow draft made Ye Shiyu's brain ache.

People die quickly, but things disappear slowly, which is why funerals are full of red tape and full of love and longing.

In the aisle in the middle of the courtyard stood a large dark brown fir coffin, which was covered with yellow cloth, which was similar in color to the silk clothes of ancient emperors, and the texture was soft and silky.

After a while, eight or nine strong men came and worked together to carry Zhou Yingwu into the coffin.

Zhou Yingwu was wearing a navy blue Zhongshan suit and an octagonal hat of the same color. His cheeks were swollen, his eyes were closed, his lips were slightly parted, and his exposed skin was dark purple, which was inexplicably creepy.

Ye Shiyu looked at the eldest uncle who was close in front of him, and he couldn't connect with the person who liked to walk with his hands behind his back, bent over and laughed together in his lifetime. He didn't look like him at all, they were two people at all.

Someone once calculated that the top three most stressful situations are mourning, after being fired, and moving, and mourning ranks first.

Ye Shiyu is young, so far he has only experienced mourning.

His impression of Zhou Yingwu is still a few months ago. Zhou Yingwu asked him to run errands to a small shop to buy a pack of cigarettes. He gave him 10 yuan, 5 yuan for a pack of red plum cigarettes, and gave him the rest as pocket money. money.

Normally, this would be a good job, even if he didn't want to run errands to buy cigarettes, he could force himself to go, but that day he was stubborn and refused, no matter how Zhou Yingwu tried to persuade him, it was useless.

Finally, Zhou Yingwu entered the room angrily, and Ye Shiyu was criticized and educated by his own father when he turned around, saying that he did not respect the elders.

Ye Shiyu really didn't want to go to the small store, a bunch of people were nestled in there chattering, the parents and the west were talking about each other, chatting, but there was nothing serious about it.

Not to mention the smell of smoke in the room, the sound of playing mahjong is deafening. Men and women hold cigarettes and touch cards, swearing, complaining about bad luck, or disgusting each other for playing cards too slowly.

A person entered suddenly, and everyone in the room stared eagerly, like a radar scanner, looking from top to bottom, insisting on seeing everything clearly, and asked a few hypocritically on the face, "Are you Who is the child? How old is it? What is your grade? What are your parents doing at home?”, as soon as the child leaves, they also talk about the child’s parents.

Ye Shiyu thought in his heart, "It's none of your business." Many years later, Ye Shiyu, who was already working, came up with a better adjective, "It hurts to be idle."

The small store is where gossip and rumors gather in the countryside, and all kinds of bad things can be arranged for you in a well-designed and lifelike manner.

Ye Shiyu really regretted it, didn't it just be a pack of cigarettes, and he couldn't afford to lose two taels of meat by helping to buy it. Who would have thought that now it has become a lifelong regret.

Someone next to him covered his nose and whispered, "Why does this corpse smell?"

Someone rushed to talk: "You don't know, the freezer rented by the funeral home was inexplicably broken last night, and it was only discovered in the morning that the body had been left there all night. It must be smelly in summer."

Ye Shiyu couldn't smell anything at this meeting. According to them, it should be the smell of corpses slowly decomposing, and it must not smell good.

It was time to build the coffin, and the black and white portraits were placed in front of the coffin. There was a symmetrical lamp on the left and right, and the wicks were crackling. There was a brazier for burning paper in the middle. Mutter a few words and shed a few tears.

There are restrictions on spending money during life, but unlimited enjoyment after death. No one's children will deduct money from the dead person's money, and paper money is not expensive.

Ye Shiyu followed until the evening, and suddenly realized that he hadn't seen his eldest aunt Ye Zhilan all day, but only saw his two brothers busy, looking very sad.

After the meal, there will be a night sacrifice in the evening, with sacrifice dishes.

Several immediate family members sat in a circle, and on the middle table were several plates of finely crafted sacrificial dishes. They pretended to make two gestures with chopsticks, and put them into the bowl. Each sacrificial dish had to be picked several times.

It is said that the craft of making sacrificial dishes is about to be lost. The colors of the sacrificial dishes are well matched, and the pasta can be carved lifelike and lifelike.No wonder this table of sacrificial dishes costs thousands of dollars, which is not cheap.

In the evening, Ye Shiyu sat next to the coffin in a daze, knelt on the ground from time to time and burned some paper money, with a heart hanging in his heart, silently thinking that the eldest uncle had gone well all the way, not forgetting to apologize for the pack of cigarettes that he didn't buy, and even I made a wish in front of the coffin, such as my parents being healthy and my academic success, but I didn't know that this was not offering incense and worshiping Buddha.

I didn't pay attention for a while, I raised my head and hit the coffin board, almost knocking out tears this time.

At this time, Ye Zhilan came out, her drooping eyes at '[-]:[-]', bloodshot, red and swollen from crying, like two blood-congested walnuts embedded in the eye sockets.

Ye Zhilan has short hair, is extremely thin, has not fair skin, and has inverted triangle eyes. She looks like a dry old lady in her 50s, but she is very popular in the village, so she may be so ugly that people have no sense of distance.She has been a women's director for many years, and she is more tactful in dealing with people, a bit like a big sister, which makes people feel at ease and at ease.

Ye Zhilan had never cried in her life, and Ye Shiyu, who had always been a strong person, cried like this, and was almost thrown into the house by her.

I had to cry seven times at night, and two rows of white plastic stools were placed next to the coffin.

The wind was so strong that the portrait was almost blown to the ground, and the blue flame of the ever-burning lamp was also blown out by the wind. The eldest son, Zhou Peng, held the wick and lifted it up twice, causing the flame to soar upwards.

Humans are so strange, they can cry when they feel hurt and hurt themselves, but once they are forced to cry a few times within the specified time, they can't cry, and even forced to laugh, even if they cry, it seems hypocritical affectation.

This is the same reason that Meursault's mother in "The Outsider" died, and Meursault couldn't cry. If you don't cry, you will be wronged. You don't respect and don't care about the dead.

The public consciousness is so absurd and boring, but the individual consciousness is pale and weak. Most people default to crying when their loved ones die, or else it means that you are not sad enough and have a hard heart.

No, there was no relative nearby, desperately squeezing tears out, holding a tissue and kept saying, I can cry, wait and wait, and make crying aloud a task.

Seeing that Ye Shiyu was too young, Ye Zhilan slapped him on the forehead, and said ferociously: "What are you doing here to join in the fun, hurry up and go to sleep, it's so cold at night."

Ye Shiyu showed professionalism, refused to enter the house desperately, and cried after holding back for a while, but Ye Zhilan suddenly laughed, and shouted: "Okay, your uncle didn't love you for nothing in his lifetime."

Crying for seven levels, as the name implies, you have to cry seven rounds, but you don't necessarily have to cry alone.

Ye Zhilan knelt down and burned the paper money for a while, then went back to the house, and several relatives around started discussing the topic of 'how people are gone'.

Ye Shiyu was very interested in this topic, so he listened with pricked ears.

Zhou Yingwu has no other interests and hobbies, but he walks in a liquor factory where he must drink baijiu every day, three meals a day, and no one can persuade him.

As long as people are willing, people with anorexia can fall in love with eating, and alcoholics can naturally quit drinking. The key is that Zhou Yingwu has no willingness to quit drinking, but is willing to sink, and he smells of alcohol all day long, drinking like mud.

Later, Zhou Yingwu felt unwell and went to the hospital for an examination. Coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, and high blood pressure combined into one, and the symptoms became worse. He stayed in the hospital for a while. Dare to ask him for a drink, Ye Zhilan confiscated all the tobacco and alcohol in the house, but the alcoholic can always steal the alcohol, his nose is smarter than a dog, he can find it wherever he hides.

Until one day, feeling uncomfortable again, Zhou Yingwu packed a small bag by himself and was going to the hospital. He could take a minibus at the gate of Qiaotou for 6 yuan per ticket.

At that time, Ye Zhilan saw that he was in good spirits and full of energy, so she didn't pay much attention to it. She asked her eldest son Zhou Peng to accompany her to the hospital, thinking that she would go to the hospital to find him after finishing her work.

Unexpectedly, after this trip, what came back was a corpse.

It is said that she died as soon as she entered the hospital, and the emergency rescue failed. Ye Zhilan didn't even see her husband for the last time, and Zhou Yingwu didn't say a word, the last sentence was "Okay, you don't have to go there , I went to the hospital by myself and came back after getting the IV drip." At the end, she smiled at Ye Zhilan, a really nice smile.

Later, Ye Zhilan recalled that there was something wrong with this smile, Zhou Yingwu never smiled at her like that.

Zhou Yingwu told Ye Zhilan a lot of lies, but in every lie, there was something that made her feel extra real, just like a person who had too many nightmares felt real.

The first half of Zhou Yingwu's last sentence was true, but the second half was false.Ye Zhilan happened to believe Zhou Yingwu's lie once more, and was unable to see him for the last time.

She always told herself to be strong and look forward, and Zhou Yingwu could always look back at her in the end.

Who knew that this smile turned her into a stupid widow.

The author has something to say: Open a new article, please collect it!I want to seriously tell you this story.