Cat Gu Notes

From the beginning to the end, the old man did not show up, only the faint coughing sound came.

Chu Haiyang pushed the leopard: "This is Uncle Ling letting you go. Go quickly, go to the doctor's house and take our package, and wait by the river east of the stockade. We will say goodbye to him and come."

The leopard fled quickly with its tail between its legs, and the other three made a speechless gesture behind him at the same time.This man was just recovering from a serious illness, instead of lying obediently in the doctor's house, he insisted on going out for a walk.Stepping on the mud while walking, he pulled out a wooden sign and scraped it. It didn't matter after scraping, a tigress came whistling in the wind.

The leopard thought about the wooden sign: it was long and pointed, with messy ghost symbols on it, nothing.

After waiting by the river for a few minutes, he saw Xia Mingruo and the others running, followed by the doctor.

The doctor said, "I'm going to the village for a meeting anyway, why don't we go together."

He whistled, and someone on the river heard it, and leaned over with the wooden raft. The doctor grabbed the penny and jumped up: "This is the fastest way, go down the river, and you can go to the village before dark, just walk back." It will take two days."

Old Huang screamed miserably.

The doctor asked, "What's wrong?"

"Afraid of water." Xia Mingruo replied.

"Cat spirits are also afraid of water?"

"Because it is not a pure cat essence," Chu Haiyang said, "it also belongs to the category of five poisons."

"What a tortuous life experience." The doctor praised.

Leopard squatted alone at the front of the raft, and finally turned around and asked, "Is there something wrong with the stick?"

Chu Haiyang nodded: "Yes."

"What's the problem?"

The doctor answered for Chu Haiyang: "The wooden sign is a sign to remind others that there is a corpse below. The old lady of that family just passed away the month before last, and she is now buried below."

The leopard fell back in fright: "You...you mean I took someone's tombstone to scrape mud?!"

"Almost," the doctor smiled, "so she's going to hit you."

"That...that!" Leopard was unwilling, "Why does this family bury the dead behind the house! We outsiders don't know!"

"It's not like a family is buried like this, and it's not buried for a long time. It's buried until she dies." The doctor said.

"Is it really a burial?" Chu Haiyang asked.

"I don't quite understand your proper terms," ​​said the doctor. "From my observations, after the death of family members, both male and female, they are buried in the shade behind the house and poured with boiling water three times a day. The bones are picked out—of course the meat is rotten—washed, wrapped in a white cloth, brought to the patriarch’s house for a ceremony, and then put into earthen jars and buried in the mountains.”

"Where in the mountains?"

The doctor approached and lowered his voice: "You know, Yongcui Mountain is a relatively closed environment. Of course, outsiders cannot participate in this kind of thing. But in 1968, when the old patriarch in the village passed away, I secretly followed him during the funeral. There is a big cave over there. The patriarch’s bones are held in coffins, and the young men hang them on the cliff with thick hemp ropes around their waists, and slowly hang the coffins into the cave.”

Xia Mingruo patted Lao Huang and said, "Oh, it turned out to be that hole, no wonder, no wonder."

"Then let me ask you one more thing." Xia Mingruo said, "Do you know anything about the white fur on leopards?"

"I also think it's strange," the doctor said with his head propped up. "It's obviously a genetic disease of the Yi people in Pusu, so why did he suffer from it?"

"What?" Chu Haiyang and Xia Mingruo stood up at the same time, the wooden raft shook, and the doctor said nervously, "Don't move around! It's about to turn over!"

"Genetic disease?"

The doctor nodded: "Well, the Pusu Yi nationality branch is very small, and there is probably only such a village in the whole of China. In fact, the adults in Pusu village have tufts of white hair on their backs, more or less, so they usually not only In 1966, when I came here, there were 110 households in the village, but now there are only 81 households left. I also made a report on this during the 1975 disease census , but there has been no reply. Well, what's the matter?"

The other two thought to themselves: Comrade Cheng, this is not a problem.

"Don't believe it, come here," Chu Haiyang hooked Xia Mingruo's neck and pulled him aside, "Tell me again the theory of raising Gu that your father fabricated."

"Bastard!" Xia Mingruo glared angrily, "my father is rigorous in his studies, and every word and sentence has been rigorously verified!"

"Okay," Chu Haiyang said, "tell me the theory he fabricated after rigorous research."

"My father made it up like this," Xia Mingruo moved closer to him, "Gu worms can be transmitted from mother to child... Oh my mother! No way!"

"What do you think?" Chu Haiyang asked back.

"Whether it will or not, I'll scare people first." Xia Mingruo walked towards the front of the raft with a sly smile. After a while, the leopard's howl was mixed with Lao Huang's screams, echoing mournfully on the calm river.

The water has turned a bend, and the green hills on both sides of the Taohua River are continuous, and there are terraced fields between the mountains, shining like a mirror in the setting sun.Three or four miles away is Yongcui Township, but the leopard is refusing to come down when it reaches the bank.

As night fell, the crickets chirped softly in the grass, and the so-called township was just a slightly larger village.

The three walked slowly, and Chu Haiyang spoke to Xia Mingruo in a low voice: "Let's assume that the maggots attached to the bones are only passed down in his ethnic branch, and outsiders must also touch the bones to be infected. If people are alive, If the muscle and skin are still there, it won't affect others, right?"

Xia Mingruo nodded.

"That's also touching the bones, why didn't the two of us appear like leopards?"

Xia Mingruo turned his head and thought for a while: "Could it be that I was bitten by Lao Huang?"

"...So I've been bitten by it before," Chu Haiyang said, "But... Hey! Don't believe it!"

Xia Mingruo had already hugged Lao Huang and screamed: "Old Huang—tell me! You tell me you are just an ordinary cat! Chairman Mao—my poor Huang—"

The doctor whose morality is obviously a bit deviant even advised: "Hey, everyone has his own life, Comrade Xiao Xia, you want to prescribe some..."

Xia Mingruo saw it, it was great, someone encouraged him, and he became more involved in the performance.

Finally, there was a natural sound to stop all this, and the tweeter on the telephone pole rang.First there was an agitated march, and then there was an incomprehensible local mandarin by the announcer of the township radio station: Socialism is good, socialism lasts for thousands of years, how many catties of rice, how many catties of potatoes...

And then, some local news:

"Cheng Jingjun!" the announcer shouted at the top of his voice, "Cheng Jingjun! Lin Shaohu called you today! Say it! He wrote hundreds of letters and didn't reply! You have no conscience! Say it again! If you don't go back, he will come to Yunnan! Even death will drag you back..."

The doctor covered his face and fled in front, Xia Mingruo followed behind.The doctor slipped into the township government compound against the wall, and Xia Mingruo also followed, and immediately saw an acquaintance.

"Teacher Sun!"

Sun Minglai patted the table and stood up and shouted, "Xia Mingruo!"

Chu Haiyang just came in, and it was too late to hide.

"You two little comrades!" Sun Minglai sighed, "It's so urgent, why not wait for me for a day or two?"

The two lowered their heads and did not speak.

At this time, the loudspeaker rang again: "Comrade Chu Haiyang! I have a telegram from Beijing! Hurry up and get it from the radio station!"

Chu Haiyang Zhang Er Monk—— went there confused, and came back with a telegram in his hand, but unfortunately there was only one word on it: "Return!"

In the telegram, one word costs seven cents, and two words cost four cents. The old man carefully calculated and calculated the cause and effect of the decision without mentioning it, so as to maximize the effectiveness of one word.

So, the next day, Chu Haiyang and Xia Mingruo somehow returned.

The doctor stood by the river to see them off.

Xia Mingruo asked him: "When are you leaving?"

The doctor said vaguely, "Wait a little longer."

Xia Mingruo said: "Lin Shaohu is coming."

The doctor finally went berserk: "Fuck Lin Shaohu!"

Xia Mingruo ran wildly, and then jumped onto the raft with Chu Haiyang's hand in hand, and fled the waves.

【Central Plains】

Beijing, the pomegranate tree in the canopy fish tank, Mr. Fat Dog and Fat Girl.

Of course, Li Changsheng didn't have such a good life. The old man was sweating profusely in the tube building, with gauze wrapped around his head.

During the Great Dog Days, Xiao Shi gathered a group of people in the toilet of Tongzilou. The "mellow" smell was pervasive and could be smelled three streets away. Xia Mingruo held his nose and finally marched to the destination. Seeing that everyone else had run away, Xiao Shi was the only one left standing firm. .Then he said: "It's all a good place chosen by your grandson, tell me, what's the matter?"

Wearing an eight-layer mask, Xiao Shi said furtively, "Don't tell others, the old man was looking for someone to fight, but he accidentally bumped into him."

"Hey, wonderful!" Xia Mingruo said, "Is there a winner or loser?"

"Of course the old man won," Xiao Shi said. "Back then, he led the working team to dig [-] graves in Beiyao, Luoyang. His perseverance was like that of a jackal."

Xia Mingruo wanted to go out of the toilet and knock on the old man's door, but was stopped by Xiao Shi: "Don't, you're still angry, don't catch you and lecture you forever."

Xia Mingruo stuck out his tongue, Xiao Shi asked, "Where are others in Haiyang?"

"At his father's place."

Chu Haiyang's father was writing a suicide note, and when he wrote "I am ashamed of the country and the construction of the four modernizations, I will use my life to give an account to the party and the people", tears poured down my face.

Chu Haiyang asked, "Dad, why are you crying?"

"Ocean..." The cultural relic scientist raised his tearful eyes, "Your father is a sinner of the nation! That Panchi..."

"The Pan Chi Knife fell off the shelf, I just picked it up,"