I followed that hand down, and behind that hand was the forearm, which was now exposed from the clothes, looking as white as paper under the light.
As I looked further back, this arm was connected to the corpse of a woman, who was now disheveled, sitting in the coffin, raising her head and looking at me with her grayish eyes.
I was instantly scared and let out a loud scream, grabbing the coffin board with both arms and climbing out with all my might.
When I shouted, Huzi seemed to react. Before I could climb up, Huzi jumped out first. After jumping out, he grabbed one of my arms and pulled me out with force. He half-squatted on the ground, using his feet to push against the coffin board. With such force, he actually pulled both me and the corpse inside out. Huzi shouted loudly: "Old Chen, hold on, we have encountered a blood gourd."
At that time, I still didn't know what a blood gourd was; I only felt that I had encountered a ghost.
At that moment, I had no other thoughts besides fear. One hand was gripping the outer coffin board, while the other held the flashlight, and my wrist was being grabbed by Tiger.
What I wanted to do most right now was to quickly pull my body out.
But the blood gourd was simply too strong. Just as Tiger pulled me out a little, the blood gourd suddenly exerted force and directly pulled me back into the coffin. My body pressed right onto the blood gourd.
The flashlight fell to the side, just shining on the face of the blood gourd.
At that moment, the blood gourd's eyes were no longer gray-white, but turned completely black.
Her hair was disheveled; she shook her head, revealing her pale face.
And at that moment, I was laying directly on top of her.
It also exerted too much force, landing heavily in the coffin.
I turned to run, but the blood gourd grabbed my belt from behind. I pulled too hard, and the blood gourd actually yanked my pants down. This was troublesome; if my pants came off completely, it would be beneficial for escaping, just a bit colder.
Unfortunately, my pants had slipped down to my ankles, and I couldn't take a step. I stumbled and fell directly into the coffin. When I turned around, the blood gourd had already pounced on me, opening its mouth towards my neck.
I suddenly pushed out with both hands, gripping her neck tightly. She opened her mouth, aimed at my neck, and was about to bite down.
I shouted: “Tiger, save me.”
I turned my head to look up, where was Tiger’s shadow? At that moment, I couldn't care less about scolding Tiger for being disloyal; my heart was filled with despair. It was obvious that this blood gourd had immense strength; I couldn't hold on for much longer.
The stalemate lasted for more than ten seconds; my arm was getting sore, and just as I was about to give in, I suddenly felt it was raining. After this rain came down, the blood gourd suddenly let out a terrible scream, and its body softened, trembling on me as if it had been electrocuted.
I hadn’t come to my senses yet when the flashlight lit up above, shining on my face. I heard Tiger shout: “Old Chen, what are you dazed about? Hurry up and come out!”
I had no idea what was happening, I opened the blood gourd and started to climb up. Tiger reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me up. Once I got up, I began to pull up my pants.
Then I heard Tiger say: “Thanks to Master Tiger being a virgin, Old Chen, if it weren't for my virtue, you'd be in trouble today.”
At that moment, I finally understood what that rain was. I said: “Damn, why does this rain smell like urine?” “I haven't drunk much water lately. Just make do with it,” Tiger said, shining the flashlight into the coffin, where the blood gourd was lying face down, motionless. Tiger said: “Old Chen, seal the coffin.”
I was so scared that I was stunned; after all that commotion, I had no strength left, but I couldn’t just do nothing.
I could only grit my teeth and push the coffin lid back on, while Tiger used an axe to hammer down the coffin nails one by one. Then we pulled the lid back, pushed it in, and sealed it. Afterwards, we filled the pit with river sand.
After this set of actions was completed, the eastern sky began to brighten.
The strong wind continued to blow, quickly erasing the traces we had made. It looked as if nothing had happened.
Looking at Tiger's face, covered in sweat and dirt, it was already a mess. You could tell from him that I was in the same state.
Tiger and I sat on the riverbed, leaning against each other. He said: “Old Chen, come to Beijing with me. I estimated that a gold hairpin and that sign could be worth at least ten to eighteen thousand. We would have the capital to do some small business.”
I said: “Can I do it without a household registration? Wouldn't that make me a drifter?”
Tiger said: “If you don't go back with me, we’ll split these two things. Let's just draw lots; whatever we draw is what we get.”
As he spoke, Tiger casually picked up two stones, one large and one small. He turned his hand over, then stretched out both hands and said: “Old Chen, whatever you grab is what you get; the larger one is the sign, the smaller one is the hairpin.”
I reached out and pointed at my left hand, and he let go with both hands; I chose the larger one.
He took the sign out of his bag and handed it to me. This gold sign was about four centimeters wide and seven centimeters long, with unreadable characters on it. Tiger said: “It seems to be Khitan script; this thing is likely from the Liao Dynasty. Don’t sell it as gold; it’s a cultural relic.”
I nodded, rubbed the sign on my sleeve, and stuffed it into the pocket of my coat.
After we returned to Dalonggou, the sky was already bright. Tiger went to ask the captain for leave, saying his stomach was twisting in pain and he needed me to escort him back to Lu County.
Actually, this was the trick we used in school; after discussing it, one pretended to have a stomachache while the other pretended to escort him home. Then they would go to the riverbank to fish.
I left Dalonggou with Tiger, carrying our luggage back, first returning to my home.
My home was cold and empty; besides me breathing, there wasn’t even a rat.
What a glorious wealthy family; just a few decades, and by my generation it has become like this. It's hard not to sigh.
After Tiger saw my family's situation, he earnestly said: “Old Chen, you should go to Beijing with me. Just look at you, all alone at home; what’s the point? What can you achieve here in your whole life?”
I said: “What can I do in Beijing?”
Tiger said: “Once you have capital, you can do anything. We can rent a place and open a bookstore. Now, the martial arts novels by Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Wo Long Sheng are so popular; we could both rent and sell, making two to three hundred a month in Beijing wouldn't be a problem.”
“After all, that's not my home,” I said.
Tiger sighed, saying everyone has their aspirations. Then he wrote me an address and said, “Old Chen, if you get tired of staying at home, go find me in Beijing. I’ll definitely arrange for you.”
I hummed in agreement, then went to borrow a scoop of white flour from my aunt and made a pot of dumpling soup, and Tiger and I ate it at my family’s kang table.
The next morning, I sent Tiger to the roadside, waiting for the bus to Lu County, and bid him farewell.
After I returned, I collected manure for half a month and chopped some firewood. I borrowed some food from neighbors to get by, but over time, no one lent me any more. What to do?
There was an old man selling things at a stall, and after looking at the items, he shook his head, offering me thirty yuan, asking if I would sell.
I was really frustrated, thinking this small place just doesn’t work; they don’t recognize the value of things. This item, even if it were iron, should be worth more than this price.
When it came time to farm, other families had their own teams, some pulling livestock, some managing plows, some planting seeds, some fertilizing. I was all alone, unable to farm at all. If I wanted to farm, I didn’t even have seeds or fertilizer; what could I do?
At that moment, I realized that I couldn’t survive here at all.
I wrote a letter to Tiger, asking how he was doing and telling him about my situation. #BTC行情 #Tether审计
Half a month later, I received Tiger's reply. He told me to immediately take the train to Beijing and gave me a phone number, asking me to call him after buying the ticket so he could pick me up at the train station.$BNB $ETH