Burning fire

Zhou Qizun held his breath, carefully observing Ma Boyuan's reaction, for fear that this corpse-like living person would suddenly pounce on him.

Ma Boyuan stared at Zhou Qizun's trouser legs for a while, then suddenly stretched out his hand, and rubbed it with his fingertips. His fingertips were stained with cold blood, and he laughed.

With harelips, every time I laugh, it's uglier than crying.Ma Boyuan said creepily: "I like blood red the most."

"Brother Zhou, have you ever seen the sunset by the river? When the sunset is the most beautiful, the sun is not orange red, but blood red. When it is reflected in the river, it is really 'blood flowing into a river'. When I was young, my grandma always took me to see it. Really It's beautiful, it's stunning."

Ma Boyuan's tone was too cold, far away, as if separated from the world: "Such bright red makes me tremble all over, and my hands and feet are cold."

Ma Boyuan suddenly changed his expression, his face was covered with a thick layer of sadness: "But grandma is gone, and my sunset is gone."

"It's all them, it's all them!" Ma Boyuan said, becoming fierce, "They all killed grandma!"

"Who? Who killed your grandma?" Zhou Qizun stared into Ma Boyuan's eyes, trying to divert Ma Boyuan's gaze. At the same time, he slowly moved his legs away, "How did your grandma pass away?"

Ma Boyuan shivered suddenly, he was stunned for a moment, then grinned at Zhou Qizun: "Brother Zhou, I'll go find you a medicine box."

After he finished speaking, he stood up and walked into the hut at the back.

Zhou Qizun sat on the ground, even breathing very lightly.His eyes quickly swept around and observed the surroundings.

The so-called "Ma Boyuan's home" - as a place where living people live, is too deserted and simple.

There is a yellowish white above the head, except for a secluded lamp.The lamp has no lampshade, only a small light bulb is exposed, this light bulb is dying, the color of light is gloomy, and it falls to the ground white.

The living room is not too small, but there is no furniture, except for the easel and paint at the corner of the window, there are only a pair of mahogany chairs by the wall, and a mahogany table.

Seeing a faint light reflected on the smooth mahogany tabletop, Zhou Qizun retreated to the wall with difficulty and looked up.He discovered that there was a pitch-black hole in the roof. The hole was round and square, about one meter in diameter.

Zhou Qizun narrowed his eyes, and vaguely saw something dangling at the entrance of the cave.

—It's a hooked snake.The hook snake coiled on the roof of Ma Boyuan's house.He should have been thrown down from this hole just now.

Zhou Qizun stuck the back of his head against the wall, hitting a hard metal ridge.Looking back, there was a photo hanging behind the back.

The photo is not big, and the location is not up or down, which is somewhat strange.Zhou Qizun thought, maybe Ma Boyuan didn't like to see it often, but he really wanted to hang it up, so he chose such a strange and inconspicuous position, he had to bend down and squat down to see it.

The photo is a little old, with a thin transparent film on it.Zhou Qizun wiped the metal photo frame around with his fingers, and there was no dust.This old photo should be cherished very well.

The picture shows an old woman and Ma Boyuan.Ma Boyuan was a little smaller then than now, but he looked like a young boy. Little Ma Boyuan wore a mask, covering half of his face. Judging from his bent eyebrows, he smiled happily.

Sure enough, covering the harelip, he is a handsome boy.

"Brother Zhou?" Ma Boyuan came out from the back room at this time, holding a medicine box in his hand.

Seeing that Zhou Qizun moved his position, Ma Boyuan paused, his eyes slowly followed the blood on the ground, and finally fell on Zhou Qizun's face, "Brother Zhou, why did you go there?"

Ma Boyuan walked over and knelt down in front of Zhou Qizun. He opened the medicine box and looked down: "Let me help you treat the wound."

Ma Boyuan took out a bottle of medical alcohol, he opened the alcohol bottle, leaned to the left for a while, and turned to the right for a while, and dawdled with it for a while without touching Zhou Qizun.

Ma Boyuan's harelips turned even uglier: "Brother Zhou, I'd better find a pair of scissors and cut your trouser legs."

Ma Boyuan: "Don't worry, there's still time, Brother Liangxuan must wrap it up before he comes back, just wait."

Ma Boyuan was about to get up, but Zhou Qizun quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"No need." Zhou Qizun snatched the alcohol bottle from Ma Boyuan's hand, without batting an eyelid, poured it on his thigh, spilling most of the bottle, "Okay."

"Hey!" Ma Boyuan was shocked, and quickly snatched the alcohol bottle back from Zhou Qizun's hand, "It hurts! It hurts! This hurts!"

"Yes, everyone suffers."

The sudden pain stimulated Zhou Qizun to wake up a lot, his eyes became sharper, and he held onto Ma Boyuan tightly.

Zhou Qizun dipped his hands in alcohol, and pressed on the wound on Ma Boyuan's chest: "Ma Boyuan, do you hurt?"

Ma Boyuan bowed his waist immediately: "It hurts."

"That's right." Zhou Qizun smiled, "So we are the same, we are human beings."

Zhou Qizun: "And where's your brother Liangyan? Have you seen him? What does he look like?"

"Yes..." Ma Boyuan covered his head in pain, "It's a cloud of black air...in the black air is..."

"We are different from him, aren't we?" There was a sharp pain in both eyes, Zhou Qizun blinked, and actually saw a pair of black things moving in Ma Boyuan's eyes!

It was something like two black tadpoles, jumping around in Ma Boyuan's eyeballs!

Zhou Qizun suppressed the surprise in his heart, blinked hard, and looked again, and saw that the "black tadpole" had already swam away, and now one was between Ma Boyuan's eyebrows, stuck in the crevice of his frown, while the other was happy around his harelip Turning around, as if joking and mocking.

"Ma Boyuan, for whom are you wearing filial piety?" Zhou Qizun tried to reach out and touched the other filial piety plaque on Ma Boyuan's arm.

"I... grandma." Ma Boyuan replied blankly.

Zhou Qizun tapped his knuckles hard on the photo frame behind him with his backhand, and there was a "boom".

Ma Boyuan immediately raised his head in response, and the moment his eyes touched the photo, Zhou Qizun noticed that the corners of his eyes drooped slightly, and his eyes softened.

Ma Boyuan swayed, his knees were naturally loose, as if it was a conditioned reflex, so he just knelt down.

——It turned out that he didn't bend over and squat down to look at this photo. He knelt down to look at this photo.

Zhou Qizun immediately asked, "How did your grandma die?"

Ma Boyuan opened his mouth slightly, his big harelip was so large that he couldn't even take a breath, his face was splattered and his cheeks twitched.

Ma Boyuan actually cried: "They killed grandma! Together, they killed grandma bit by bit!"

"Who?" Zhou Qizun continued to ask, he found that the two "black tadpoles" had become smaller, and they jumped up more nimbly, trying to slip into Ma Boyuan's mouth.

"All of them, all of them are murderers!" The "black tadpole" was eaten.

Ma Boyuan let out a "wow". He cried so hard that he was out of breath and spoke intermittently: "The... Mrs. Liu, Mrs. Liu... from East Street has seen grandma, she I saw grandma... alone, in the back mountain, hurt her foot by the river, but she didn't..."

"Ma Boyuan, speak slowly, don't be afraid, don't cry." Zhou Qizun said patiently, "Grandma said that a man can't cry, right?"

Ma Boyuan nodded vigorously, and immediately took a deep breath and fell down.He choked back his sobs: "Grandma called her, but she... ran away."

"There is also Wang... Grandpa, he saw grandma go and buy medicine alone. They have known each other for many years, but he didn't even ask or ask a word."

"Xiao Hao was only six years old, he was only six years old and ... threw stones at my grandma, he broke her head, called her ... called her 'a dirty old man' .”

"He, he doesn't deserve to live, he should be smashed to death with a stone."

Zhou Qizun remembered that when he first arrived in the small town, he had heard about it from the six and four elders who were sending funerals, and it became clear that Ma Boyuan was responsible for the continuous death in the village for half a year.In other words, Ma Boyuan did it with the power of the evil claws.That's their deal.

"Grandma was alone in the back mountain for seven days. For seven days, no one rescued her. She disappeared, and no one wanted to find her... They, they all saw it."

——It turns out that "seven" means this.I chose to die on the day with "seven" in order to avenge my grandma.

Ma Boyuan gritted his teeth, this ferocious expression is too terrifying, not for a teenager, he looks like some kind of bloodthirsty beast: "There are so many of them, they have all bullied grandma, and they all have capital punishment!"

The air froze for a moment, and Zhou Qizun suddenly asked softly: "Do you like your grandma very much?"

"I like it, I like it the most in the world." Ma Boyuan said without hesitation, "I don't want to beat my parents, only grandma cares about me."

"Grandma moved to such a remote place for me and dragged me to grow up. It was she who discovered my talent for painting. She picked up soda cans, collected junk and sent me out to learn painting..."

Ma Boyuan's whole body is like a pool of stagnant water, cooling and rotting there: "Learning to paint requires a lot of money. She sends me money twice a month, just because I am afraid that I will be bullied when I go out alone. She also said that she wants to save money for me." To have surgery so I don't have to wear a mask and I'm just like everyone else."

Zhou Qizun sat beside Ma Boyuan motionlessly. He quietly waited for Ma Boyuan to say the next sentence. When he couldn't wait, he asked shallowly, "And then?"

"Then?" Ma Boyuan's eyes were glued to the photo, his tears dripped down with bright red blood, the blood was diluted and faded by the tears, "then she fell ill."

"Skin diseases, snake sores (note), and lung diseases." Ma Boyuan covered his face, unable to look at the smiling face of grandma in the photo, "She didn't tell me, she only bought the cheapest medicine, and took the right amount... ...She was so uncomfortable, she even went to the mountains to dig wild vegetables, just to sell more money..."

"They see it all, they see it all!" Ma Boyuan shouted out of control, "But no one is helping her, no one is even willing to approach her!"

"They despise her, despise her for having blisters and pustules all over her face and body, despise her smell of garbage, and say that she should die long ago because of a terminal illness. They say...they say grandma is crazy, she is wishful thinking Her ugly grandson can become a great painter."

Ma Boyuan laughed suddenly, a short and sharp laugh that pierced the air fiercely: "People in this world always despise others for being dirty. They look dirty, their clothes are dirty, and their ailments are dirty, but they never feel that their own is dirty. Dirtier heart."

"They, they..." Ma Boyuan lost his strength, and he collapsed on the ground. "The mayor called me and told me that my grandma was gone, burned and cremated. I was stupid."

"According to what you said, your grandma fell down the mountain for seven days, didn't you know?" Zhou Qizun asked.

"We only talk on the phone once a week. My grandma wants me to learn painting with peace of mind and don't waste money. She says everything is fine with her, but she cares if I'm being laughed at by the people in the city. Sometimes I lose my temper with her... ...I am not a thing.

"It was only later that I figured out that she was suffering from an unbearable illness, and I was afraid that something was wrong. I was still waiting for her call that day, but what I was waiting for was..."

"I can't draw anything anymore...I want to die." Ma Boyuan closed his eyes, "But at this time Brother Liangxuan appeared, it was he who helped me, let me see the truth, and helped me take revenge... ...."

The more Ma Boyuan talked, the more he became short of breath, and he was already angry: "Blame them...blame me. When I kill all of them one by one, I will... go to grandma... Atonement..."

Ma Boyuan fell silent, he tilted his head slightly, and then remained motionless.

"Ma Boyuan?" Zhou Qizun leaned over and looked at the exposed skin on Ma Boyuan's face and hands, looking for the two "black tadpoles", but he couldn't find them.

"Ma Boyuan?" Zhou Qizun tentatively pushed Ma Boyuan gently.

With this push, Ma Boyuan's body stiffened, his neck and calf stretched stiffly, and he suddenly opened his eyes!

As if a spring had grown under his body, Ma Boyuan bounced off the ground and rushed straight at Zhou Qizun!

The author says:

Snake sores: also known as spider sores.Herpes zoster (herpes zoster) is an acute skin and mucous membrane infection caused by varicella-zoster virus (herpes varicella-zoster virus, VZV).Clinically, it is characterized by sudden onset, unilateral distribution, and densely clustered herpes along the nerve band, with obvious pain, and postherpetic neuralgia lasts for a long time, especially in elderly patients.