A knife in love

Chapter 670

Sun Guangming saw that these villagers were already frightened. Although he comforted them with good words, Chief Du just sighed and shook his head, urging Sun Guangming and Li Qiufeng to leave Taniguchi Village as soon as possible.

Sun Guangming had no choice but to turn his head to look at Li Qiufeng.But I saw Li Qiufeng standing there, looking thoughtful.

Sun Guangming thought that if he wanted to do business in Taniguchi Village, he had to hide it from these villagers.Otherwise, they would become suspicious and secretly report to the yamen. Although the arresting officers were full of rich people, Sun Guangming never took these people seriously.But if the government intervenes, it will always be troublesome.In these years, he and Su Yan have been to Tanikou Village several times, and each time they will send money to Chief Du, so when he sees Sun Guangming, Chief Du has always been very affectionate, and the accommodation and food have always been arranged properly. Even when I met my own father, I was not so kind.But this time he was uncharacteristically persuading Sun Guangming to leave as soon as possible.

Sun Guangming had ten taels of silver in his pocket, which was originally intended to be given to Du Lichang, but there were several villagers behind Du Lichang, so it was not good to openly hand over the silver.At this moment, seeing Du Li grow up shaking his head, Sun Guangming was anxious, but he couldn't turn his face openly. He thought to himself: "This old guy is pretending to be righteous at this time. I think it's because he didn't get the money. Pretending to be in front of me, making irresponsible remarks. Why don't I leave first, and after the villagers have dispersed, I will sneak back to the village and give him the money when there is no one else, this old guy will naturally turn a blind eye Just close your eyes and don't come to hinder me from doing things."

Sun Guangming made up his mind, and when he was about to speak, he suddenly heard Li Qiufeng say, "What did the person who died early this morning look like?"

Sun Guangming was taken aback, thinking that Li Qiufeng's question was too abrupt.Chief Du Li said that the death happened four days ago, and the second person died three days ago.That night, two policemen stayed in the village, and no one was killed in Taniguchi Village.In terms of time, the dead person should have happened a few days ago, but Li Qiufeng suddenly asked about the situation of the dead person this morning. Did he remember the wrong date?

Sun Guangming hesitated, but the expressions of Du Lichang and others changed drastically. They all looked at Li Qiufeng as if they saw a ghost.Du Lichang's face was pale, and the corners of his mouth twitched a few times, as if he wanted to speak, but he didn't say it.Behind him, a man in his thirties had a terrified expression, and said in a trembling voice, "You, how do you know that this morning..."

Before he finished speaking, a villager next to him turned his head and gave him a fierce look.The man knew immediately that he had made a slip of the tongue, so he hurriedly shut up.

When Sun Guangming saw the appearance of the crowd, his heart trembled, and he immediately knew that Li Qiufeng did not remember the date wrongly, but that these villagers deliberately concealed it.He stared at Chief Du Li and said, "Chairman Du Li, did someone die in the village again this morning?"

Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Chief Du sighed, and said, "To tell the truth, another person was hanged to death on the big tree at the east end of the village early this morning. Just now the uncle asked about the death. What a person looks like, I can only say that it is similar to the previous two days, and he is also a man in his 30s, hanging upright from a tree, bleeding from his seven orifices..."

Sun Guangming was startled, and said, "Why didn't Chief Du tell me?"

Du Lichang looked embarrassed, hesitated for a moment, and said: "Uncle Sun is not an outsider, and I don't need to hide it from you. After two lives were killed in a row a few days ago, although it has nothing to do with the people of our Taniguchi Village, the county magistrate is very serious. Angry, I was already about to arrest the squad leader, Mr. Wang. He said that if another person was killed, Gukou Village would have to pay for the funeral expenses. I justified a few words, and Mr. Wang slapped me and pointed at my face. Nose scolded for a long time, and finally said: "It must be that the villagers in your ghost village are not old-fashioned, causing anger and resentment. Otherwise, why didn't these two people hang themselves in other places, but why did they come to you to hang themselves?" Master Sun, don't you think the Yamen is unreasonable?

"The two policemen stayed in the village the day before yesterday. They ate the big rooster from Cao's family in the village. They forced me to buy two jugs of wine for them. The chicken and the wine cost about three renminbi. Early this morning , the son of the Zhang family saw a man hanging from a tree again. If he reported to the Yamen, all the money sent by the dead man would have to be paid by the people of Gukou Village. Master Sun, you have seen it too. There are only thirteen people left in our village. There are no more than thirty or forty people in each family, and every family is so poor that I am afraid that they will not be able to come up with a hundred yuan. If the government sends people to make troubles, everyone will have to be like those three dead ghosts. They were all hanged to death, but they were clean. Therefore, after we found another person hanged on a tree this morning, we discussed it and decided to bury the body secretly and not report to the police, so as not to get into trouble..."

When Du Lichang said this, he glanced at Li Qiufeng, with fear in his eyes, and then squeezed out a few flattering smiles, and said to Li Qiufeng: "How does this old man know that another person died this morning?"

Li Qiufeng sneered, pointed to the villager who ran away after seeing the two in front of the dilapidated house, and said: "This big brother is hiding here sneakily. He is more afraid of seeing us than seeing ghosts. I ran away, nine times out of ten the village head sent me here to watch the wind. If it wasn't for troubles in the village, why send someone to guard here, for fear that outsiders would enter the village?"

Du Lichang looked embarrassed and mumbled speechlessly.Sun Guangming hurriedly took out two ingots of silver from his bosom, handed them to Du Lichang and said, "Du Lichang, you know who I am, you old man is very clear. This brother Li and I have a fateful friendship, Du Lichang You can rest assured with all the big brothers. I will take Brother Li around to see the scenery of the ancient battlefield in Changping. I will leave in a few days and will not cause any trouble to the village. The two ingots of silver will be collected by Du Lichang Okay, buy a thin coffin for the dead man to bury. I heard that the hanged ghosts are all ghosts. If you have resentment in your heart, it’s not good to come back and make trouble. If you don’t have enough money, Chief Du Li just ask. If there is a little leftover, Chief Du Li will distribute it to the elder brothers of the villagers."

The land in Taniguchi Village is barren, and these villagers dig food from the ground, and it is not easy to fill their stomachs every year.On weekdays, it is all about chopping firewood and sending it to the county to sell, which can be exchanged for a hundred and ten Wen.Therefore, most of the villagers have only seen copper coins, not silver.Seeing that Sun Guangming was holding two large silver coins in his hands, his eyes lit up immediately.Du Lichang is a well-informed person in the village, but he has never seen such a large piece of silver. Although he refused, his eyes fell on the two ingots of silver, and he couldn't move away.

The two made some concessions, but one really wanted to give it, and the other pretended not to.In the end, Du Lichang held the two ingots of silver tightly in his hands, and he refused to let go, saying: "Every time... this time, Mr. Sun will pay for it. You and this young man can rest assured that we will definitely give the two ingots to you." Find a clean house to live in. If you need anything, just ask Master Sun to do it."

He wanted to say "Master Sun spends money every time", but after thinking about it, Sun Guangming gave him money in private a few times before, but this time there are several villagers behind him.As expected of him, he was the most knowledgeable person in Taniguchi Village. As soon as he thought about it, he changed his words and said, "Master Sun has cost me money this time", and finally covered up the matter.

The two exchanged some polite words, Li Qiufeng said: "Has the man who hanged himself been buried yet?"

Du Li grew up with silver, and his attitude changed drastically. He was not as nervous as before, and said with a smile: "Young master, I learned that we put the corpse down from the tree early in the morning. I originally wanted to report it to the police, but later Everyone discussed it, and it was better to carry it to the back of the Chitou Temple and bury it. Since this person committed suicide, he must have been an unfortunate person. In the Chitou Temple, there is an enshrined Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who is a high official in charge of hell. This person was buried there. In the next life, we will definitely be able to give birth to a good family, which is considered a little bit of our best intentions. It's just that the last two deaths, a few broken mats in the village were taken to roll up the corpses, this time I couldn't find the mats for a while, so the body has not The burial was only carried to the pile of rubble at the east end of the village and placed temporarily. After we found the mat, we carried it to the Chitou Temple and buried it. Since Uncle Sun is willing to do good things and donate money to bury the body, we will first go to the left carpenter's house in the neighboring village Make a coffin and choose a place for burial."

Sun Guangming said with a smile: "Chang Du Li is really a kind person. If the money is not enough, Du Li Zhang will just open his mouth."

The two said a few more words, and Du Lichang heard that Sun Guangming had another companion, so he hurriedly called a villager to invite Su Yan, and then he took Sun Guangming and Li Qiufeng to the village .

Li Qiufeng followed behind Du Lichang and Sun Guangming, looking around while walking.Standing outside the village just now, he just felt that the village was dilapidated, but he couldn't see clearly whether the village was big or small.After entering the village, I realized that the scale of the village is huge, with no fewer than three or four hundred houses.Although most of these houses have been dilapidated and collapsed, the prosperity of the year can still be seen.The whole Taniguchi Village runs from north to south, and the houses are arranged in long strips from west to east.There are two east-west avenues in the village, and what Li Qiufeng and others are standing on is the one on the south side, which is about two feet wide.The other avenue is located on the north side, separated from the avenue on the south side by two rows of houses.Through the dilapidated courtyard walls and houses, you can see that the road on the north side is full of decaying grasses and bushes, and it seems to have been abandoned long ago.Although the road under our feet is uneven, it is generally tidy, and it seems that people often walk on it.

A group of people walked for half a stick of incense, and came to a house that was still considered neat.Du Lichang stopped in his tracks and said to Sun Guangming: "Master Sun, you lived here when you came to the village a few times ago. Today, you are still a nephew playing lanterns, so you can stay here as usual. The two men in the yamen a few days ago The famous arrester also stayed here overnight, and the women in the village have already cleaned it up, so it's pretty clean."

Sun Guangming smiled and said: "Then bother Du Lichang." Du Lichang said he didn't dare, and brought Sun Guangming, Li Qiufeng and Su Yan into the yard.

The scale of this house is not small, the yard is about twenty paces from east to west, the main building has white walls and black tiles, and the doors and windows are neat. Although it is a bit old, it is quite grand.It's just that the left and right wing rooms are dilapidated, and the doors and windows are gone.The cold wind blew in through the open door, making strange humming noises.

(End of this chapter)