Mantra

Chapter 75

The old lady's words can surprise me.

I am quite familiar with the old squad leader's family background. If the old squad leader can get married, it is both unexpected and reasonable.

When I was a soldier, although I didn’t meet the relatives of the old squad leader’s family, he told me that the only surviving close relative in his family was an older brother named Zhao Haikun. This older brother married a wife in his early years, but he never had children.It must be about 40 years old by now.From now on, only Zhao Haipeng, my old squad leader, is left in the Zhao family.

Because Zhao Haipeng was a soldier, he has never found a partner, which has become a big worry for the Zhao family.The old squad leader even told me that when he came home in previous years, his brother and sister-in-law forced him to marry a wife and go on a blind date, which caused him to feel a little dark. Therefore, he chose to escape and choose to go home less to avoid this matter.

But the specific reason, I don't think it's that simple.
However, the old squad leader also said that he is actually looking forward to married life. If possible, when he finishes his service and stabilizes, he will find a woman he loves and spend the rest of his life.When the time comes, we must notify all the people in our company to come to drink the wedding wine.

I remember these words vividly!I don't know if he forgets, but I can't forget anyway, because I'm waiting for the money.

Later, we were inexplicably discharged from the army suddenly.Different from the normal discharge ceremony, our company only had a hasty dismantling order, no flowers, no applause, and only the heads of the soldiers held high.

Unyielding head.

Later, the old squad leader returned to his hometown.Continuing the experience of his ancestors going out to work and earning money by handicrafts, I didn't know that he had returned to his hometown when I heard him say on the phone that we should come to Lunan Zhaojialou to find him, and there was an urgent matter. body.

The urgent matter this time turned out to be marriage.But from the voice and tone of the old squad leader, it seems like a forced marriage?

Why!It doesn't matter, it's always a good thing to be able to "leave the order". The old squad leader is almost forty, so there is nothing to be picky about. Isn't it the same for an ugly wife who turns on the lights at night?
So, I also smiled happily at the old lady, not only for the old squad leader, but also for myself.

After so many days, I finally heard a happy event, and this is a good sign!
When I was happy, I expressed my joy in words, so I hurriedly thanked the old lady, turned around with Hongye and prepared to go back to the pickup.

I can't wait to tell Zhao Hong the news, and at the same time, I want to discuss with him how much money I should take.

But when the two of us turned around and were about to leave, the old lady said goodbye to us with a smile behind her back: "You go slowly! Son! Come! Say goodbye to my brothers! They are about to go on the road!"

The hoarse voice of the old lady made me shiver.

What do you mean we're about to hit the road?And she is obviously alone, I didn't see her son just now!

Shocked by hearing this, Hongye and I both had doubts at the same time, then turned around and stared blankly at the old man in black.

At the same time, the two of us were surprised to find that the old lady was waving the white-faced figure in her hand and waving goodbye to us.

The "white-faced man" raised a hand at some point, as if he was really saying goodbye to us!

Could it be that the son the old lady mentioned was the white doll in her hand?

I looked at the old man with a haggard face, and the white doll with a prudent face in her hand, and my whole body trembled.As if a ladle of cold water had been poured over his head, he trembled for a while.

"Let's go!" Hong Ye tugged at my hand and said with the same palpitations: "This old lady is not normal, she takes a white-faced doll as a child"

After listening to Hongye's words, I came back to my senses. Afterwards, the two of them ran out of the alley like hiding from the plague, and ran towards our pickup truck.

When I got near the pickup truck, as soon as I saw Zhao Hong, I quickly told him the news of the old squad leader's wedding.

Zhao Hong's expression was the same as mine, the same excitement and surprise.

Zhao Hong also said: "This old squad leader is really true. He didn't tell us on the phone when he married a daughter-in-law. He did a good job of keeping secrets! Are the brothers outsiders?"

"Hehe!" I told him with a half-hearted smile, "Isn't this hard to understand? I guess it's because the teacher can't do it. I'm afraid we have too high expectations. Praise him."

Zhao Hong waved his hands and said, "It's a good thing to get out of the order! Who would praise him? Forget it, let's not think about it so much. Let's go to the old squad leader's house! It's late, and I guess we won't be able to catch up with the bridal chamber."

In this way, we drove along the road indicated by the old lady and ran all the way to the southeast corner of the village.

About a third of the way down, we came to the port of an alley.

Inside, it should be the home of the old squad leader, and the pickup truck can no longer go in.

The alley was not deep, but there was a corner, and it sounded very lively inside. Although I couldn't see anyone, I could hear the yelling and music coming out of the alley clearly.

Those voices were so clear that I immediately judged that it was joy, and it was the sound of holding cups and punching during the banquet.

Standing at the entrance of the alley, I looked in with my head.

It seems that the old squad leader... is really married.

For a moment, I seemed to see that the whole village was congratulating the old squad leader, and the old squad leader was also wearing a big red flower on his head, guarding his ugly wife, and looking forward to our arrival.

Excited, Zhao Hong suddenly patted me on the shoulder and said, "Call the old squad leader?"

I stopped him and said, "He definitely doesn't have time to pick it up, let's go directly! Let Hongye and Ah Si watch Wang Hou and Che."

So, we asked Xian Hongye to take the unconscious Wang Hou to the parking lot.And Zhao Hong and I walked into the alley while counting the money.

Soon, we turned the corner of the alley and came straight to the door of a compound.

In front of the courtyard gate with gray tiles and red bricks, I immediately saw a man with gray temples.

The man was curled up, sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a black suit, hunched over, and saw us coming.

His expression was as surprised as ours.

Then... isn't that my old squad leader? !
Why is he in a wheelchair?His legs... what happened?
The old squad leader's old and weak body was completely unexpected to Zhao Hongquan and me, so that at the moment we met, we were both excited about reunion and full of sadness and surprise.

We haven't seen each other for more than three years. We have changed a lot. The old squad leader is old and sick, and we... are not children anymore.

That feeling makes my heart cool and my nose sore.

But we must be men, and we used to be soldiers, so we didn't cry.

In the silence, everything is kept silent, and when we meet again, it seems to hear the sound of the bugle...

The two of us walked up to the old squad leader with dull expressions, looked at each other for a while, and knelt down with a "gudong" sound!

Immediately afterwards, we hugged his broken body under the monitor's complex eyes, weeping, venting, and wailing.

While wiping away our tears, we poured out the depression in our hearts to our heart's content, pouring out the longings we hadn't seen for three years and the hardships we had experienced.

Crying bitterly, I said to the old squad leader: "Squad leader! How did your leg hurt! Why didn't you tell the apprentice?"

Old squad leader: "Actually..."

Zhao Hong interrupted: "That's right, monitor! Why do you keep everything from us? Don't you even tell us something as big as marriage?"

"This……"

"Squad leader! You will have a daughter-in-law in the future! You have to live a good life. This leg injury needs to be healed slowly, and you have to have confidence!~"

"I……"

"Old squad leader! Tian Buer is right! Don't take it to heart, my sister-in-law is ugly! It's the same when you turn on the lights at night! My second uncle told me that a good wife is a wife who can bear children! The rest is nonsense of……"

"Um?!!!"

... Just like that, we don't know how long we cried hysterically.

It wasn't until our sobs subsided a little that the old squad leader patted us on the back with embarrassment and said, "That...you misidentified the person? I... am not Zhao Haipeng."

"What?" I raised my head with tears in my eyes, and looked blankly at the old squad leader sitting in the wheelchair.

How can it be? !
The person in the wheelchair immediately told us after seeing that we stopped crying: "I am Zhao Haikun...Zhao Haipeng is my younger brother. The squad leader you are talking about...is he?"

After listening to Zhao Haikun's words, I suddenly felt like I was petrified instantly!

This man is so lost!
In all fairness, this Zhao Haikun was carved out of the same mold as my old squad leader.But if you look closely, you can see many clues and differences.

Compared with the old squad leader in my memory, Zhao Haikun is obviously much older, and his whole body is also much thinner.

Most importantly, Zhao Haikun is in a wheelchair.

In fact, if it hadn't been for three years, if it hadn't been for my emotional surge.It wouldn't be such a big oolong.

It's all right now, I've made myself unable to step down, and if Wang Hou and the others find out later, they won't decide how to praise or criticize me.

However, compared to our embarrassment, Zhao Haikun, the elder brother of the old squad leader, was much more magnanimous. He laughed and resolved our embarrassment, and then returned to his somewhat decadent normal state. He pointed at me and said, "You It's Tian Buer, right? My younger brother has been nagging you for the past few days, and you can come today... Our Zhao family is very happy."

Zhao Haikun's words finally gave me the leeway to get off the donkey.

So I quickly nodded and said haha: "It's me! Uncle, where is my master Zhao Haipeng? I heard he got married today? The whole village is here? I want to see him!"

Hearing this, Zhao Haikun stretched out his arms slowly, pointed to the door behind him and said: "He just worshiped, go in...you can see him. I will lead you there."

Zhao Haikun's words made me happy again, and then we pushed his wheelchair and walked together into the yard with gray tiles and red bricks.

In the courtyard, the first thing we saw was a banquet with seven or eight tables full of people.

Sure enough, as the old lady said, on this special day today, all men and women in the village came to the Zhao family compound for dinner.In an instant, I felt the lively atmosphere rushing towards my face.

However, in this lively "wedding celebration", I found many disharmonious factors.

Also because of these factors, my mood quickly changed from joy to surprise, and from surprise to horror!

What shocked me the most was that in the busy courtyard, I came up and saw a huge white banner, on which was written in black pen: "Congratulations to Zhao Haipeng, Wang 'XX', happy marriage!"

Dark marriage? !How could my old squad leader be married to a ghost?Could it be... is he dead?
At this time, Zhao Haikun, who was sitting in a wheelchair with an indifferent face, suddenly said to us, "The second child has been dead for three days, and you haven't been able to see him for the last time!"

"Three days?" With a look of incomprehension on my face, I asked repeatedly: "The old squad leader has been dead for three days?!"

Zhao Haikun nodded to me expressionlessly and said: "Today is the third day. After finishing this ghost marriage, the second child... will be buried the next day."

After listening to his words, I felt as if I had been struck by a thunderbolt, and I sat down in an instant.

How can this be? !
If the old squad leader had died three days ago... Then who called me yesterday afternoon?And the most critical question is, the old squad leader said he had something urgent to solve and asked me to help, but suddenly, he just went there without warning?

Faced with the death of the old squad leader, my heart was like a knife, so that I swayed, and in the surprised eyes of everyone at the banquet, I shouted "Huogongyu" from the bottom of my heart!

In grief and distress, I could only use the traditional voice of sending away the "abbot" in the Wu Zang Temple, and shouted at the huge white banner:
"The pillars of my Confucius Temple! It's collapsed!"

(End of this chapter)