the last priest

It is not difficult to find out this, the village is not big, when Cha Wenbin went to Tibet, someone hanged himself at the east end of the village, about a month ago.

There is a family at the east end of the village, the head of the household is surnamed Yu.Lao Yu has three sons and a girl under his knees. His wife died early, and he raised four children by relying on his own work as a blacksmith.

Bamboo is produced in the northwest of Zhejiang Province. There are large tracts of bamboo forests here. Farmers relying on mountains and mountains have invented bamboo strips from this plant with excellent toughness. The daily utensils such as baskets, baskets, barrels, and plaques made of bamboo strips have continued. for thousands of years.Lao Yu just relies on a bamboo knife to support his family. The bamboo strips are so insignificant and extremely sharp that he relies entirely on the strength of his fingers to do this job.It is precisely because of this that Lao Yu's fingers could not be bent when he was in his 40s, and he was basically disabled by the time he was 50.The swollen joints, the rough skin, the thick fingernails, and the scars stuck to the scars made his hands feel no warmth even when he dipped them into the hot water.In winter, when Lao Yu suffered the most, his fingers and palms began to crack, revealing the bright red muscles inside, which could only be wrapped in a towel.

It is such an old man who built three new houses for his three sons and married three daughter-in-laws. When the youngest girl was married, he did not fall behind in the village. It can be said that all his hard work was spent on his children. body.

And now his three sons have their own families. It is time for this man to enjoy his old age when he has a full house of children and grandchildren. He has worked hard for most of his life to support his descendants, and now it is the turn of his children and grandchildren to respect him.

But in real life there is indeed such an unfilial son and a white-eyed wolf. The boss said that he was the first to start a family independently, and the old Yu should be under the care of the two younger ones; the second said that his house is too small to live in; He is the youngest, and the problem of providing for the elderly should be left to his elder brother.Poor old Yu worked hard all his life. At dusk, he was kicked around like a football by his three sons. Only the youngest daughter took the old man back to live with him occasionally, but she was a married girl after all. To make trouble, I went back to the old house by myself with a sore stomach.

Old and handicapped, Lao Yu was no longer able to work as a bamboo craftsman, and the family's land was divided among his three sons early on, and his only property was the three-story adobe house.Because of disrepair for a long time, it often rains heavily outside and light rain inside, an earthen stove, a bed when he got married, two wooden boxes and a few bamboo knives are all his belongings.

When Lao Yu was young, he was famously honest in the village, but unexpectedly he ended up like this when he was old. People in the village couldn't see it, and those who were enthusiastic would send some food every now and then.The village also asked the three sons to coordinate his affairs, but failed several times, so they bought the subsistence allowance for him, and could only buy some rice to make ends meet.

The biggest difficulty is actually injuries. Even with rice, it is difficult for Lao Yu to get a bite of hot food with his hands.Three or four years have passed by in this way, and at the beginning of spring of that year, the village will set up a bamboo and wood processing factory, and Lao Yu's old house will be expropriated.

The three sons who had never been in contact with each other ran to Lao Yu's place every day when they heard that they were going to be demolished. The three daughters-in-law couldn't wait to hire a sedan chair to carry the old man to their home.In fact, Lao Yu knew in his heart that they were thinking about the demolition money.The cadres in the village also took his situation into consideration, and said that they would pick a new piece of land for Lao Yu to build a bungalow, and the remaining money would be reserved for his retirement.

The three sons went to the village committee to make troubles all day long, and the people who made troubles couldn't start the project. In the end, Lao Yu came out and compromised: just give the money, and don't want the house.He did this in order not to embarrass the cadres who took care of him. Lao Yu is a good man.

Of course, the money didn't go into Lao Yu's pocket, and the three brothers fought over how to divide the money, using kitchen knives and hoes.That day was also doomed to be a little different from usual. The weather in April and May, there was a rare snowflake in Northwest Zhejiang at noon, and the sky was gloomy and scary.Behind Lao Yu were the three sons with bruised noses and swollen faces shouting at each other, the sound of tearing between the daughter-in-law, and the sound of banknotes rattling.

At noon, someone saw Lao Yu entering the woods with his bamboo knife. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the construction team was about to demolish the house. When they opened the door, they saw Lao Yu hanging on a hemp rope, with both feet Straight up.There is a coffin under his feet, which was ordered from his grandfather a long time ago when he was still able to use his ability. On both sides of the coffin, there are two wooden poles for poles, pasted with red paper. He has prepared everything for himself. up.

It was a washed and whitish blue Chinese tunic suit, and the patching was quite unprofessional. It is said that it was bought in the year he got married, and it was the only one he could get out of it, but it was very clean.

Lao Yu left just like that, and his three sons had to come forward to organize the funeral, because there was a share of money for funerals there, which was not a small amount of income. For this matter, the three brothers fought again. But no one shed a single tear for Lao Yu.

Since Zha Wenbin was not there, there would naturally be no Taoist priests for this funeral. It is said that such a fatal event must be invited, but in order to save money, it can be avoided if possible.In the end, Lao Yu was buried, and the two remaining pieces of wood were sold by his son to the carpentry factory, and the rope was lost halfway.

It was Mrs. Zhang in the village who told the story. She was the old women's director, and she was also responsible for delivering rice and oil to Lao Yu before his death.Of course, Zha Wenbin also knew him, because in the past he would ask Lao Yu to order some things. For example, the lanterns he often used were made by Lao Yu.

Even Uncle Chang slammed his fists on the table after listening to Mrs. Zhang's statement and said, "I'm not filial, I was struck by lightning!"

Zha Wenbin has always disliked meddling in other people's housework, but Lao Yu was really wronged to go away, especially when Aunt Zhang told him that Lao Yu's eyes were wide open when he died, and he couldn't close them no matter what. It was hairy, and finally his youngest son covered his face with yellow paper.

"Come with me, Uncle Chang, I will give you an explanation for this matter later on." Then, he took a few people to prepare to go out, Susu pulled Uncle Chang out and said: "Can you Take us to see it too?"

Cha Wenbin paused for a moment, then said coldly, "Follow if you want."

Lao Yu's three sons live very close to each other, and the three two-story small buildings are not bad in the village. They were all built by Lao Yu with bamboo sticks, but now he has never really lived in them for half a day.

Walking to the eldest son's house, before entering the door, he heard the sound of quarreling outside the house, and Chaozi raised his foot towards the door and kicked it. With a "bang", the iron door was kicked back and forth and kept shaking.

The door opened, and a woman in her 30s opened the door. There was still dirty spittle around her mouth. It must be her who was scolding just now.

A standard rural shrew look: with hands on hips, leaning back slightly, staring at Chaozi fiercely with wide eyes and cursing: "Where did you come from such an uneducated dog? Don't inquire about..."

Susu and Uncle Chang were stunned by this series of village scolding. There is no such tough woman in Hong Kong. If I had known it, I would not have followed her. Her finger poked Chaozi. There is no way to retreat.

Probably because she got a little annoyed, Chaozi finally grabbed the woman's hand, twisted it lightly, and said, "I don't hit women, let your man come out." What is his background, a small catch in fighting It wasn't enough to deal with a village woman with her hands. As soon as the woman suffered from the pain, she immediately changed her tactics, threw her buttocks on the ground, and kicked her legs non-stop, until a quarter of an hour forced a big hole in the ground.

The remaining hand kept patting his thigh, and the tears were faster than Oscar's tears, and he cried while crying: "Oh! Someone is playing hooligans, bullying women! Come on! Foreigner Come to bully the locals!"

Her voice could be compared to the loudspeakers in the village, and after being yelled at like this, a man with a hoe rushed out of the room immediately.There was still a bright red five-fingerprint on his face, and he was about to wield his hoe, but he saw Cha Wenbin in the crowd, and he had seen a few others, all of whom lived in the Cha family, and he was stunned for a moment Well, this Zha Wenbin is not easy to mess with. Ten years earlier, cars were parked in front of his house. I heard that the high officials in the provincial capital all called him Master.

The raised hoe didn't work either when it was put down or when it was smashed down. His wife saw that her man was cowardly, and she became more aggressive.At this moment, many people in the village came to watch the excitement. Seeing that Cha Wenbin was here, everyone began to tell him about the power of this woman, and advised him not to provoke her.

Zha Wenbin took a step forward, gently removed the man's hoe, then glanced at the sloppy woman on the ground again, and said, "Da Yu, I'm here today for nothing else. I owe you money once." Your father is a favor, and I want to pay it back. He made all the lanterns I used when I was alive, and confiscated a penny. He once joked with me that if he left, he would ask me to do it for him. A while ago I went out, and he was gone when I came back. Tomorrow happens to be your father's seventh 'seven'. You tell your three brothers to go to the old house with your wives and mothers. You have prepared all the incense paper tributes that should be prepared. Turn around I asked Mrs. Zhang to write you a note."

After finishing speaking, Zha Wenbin was about to leave, but unexpectedly, the woman on the ground hugged his leg and started to yell at his man again, crying, "You are useless, you just watch your wife being bullied like this!" Ah, you heartless thing united with outsiders to bully me..."

The spectators had already surrounded Yu's house, and Yu Da was neither on the left nor on the right.At this time, a huge figure took a step forward, picked up the hoe in Yu Da's hand, gathered it in the air, and gently broke it off. With a sound of "click", the handle of the hoe broke into two pieces, and Da Shan threw the broken hoe on the ground, which scared Yu Da to a dumbfounded look, what a lot of strength!

It was too late and then it was too late, a beautiful figure also jumped up from the crowd at this moment, Yu Da's snarky woman felt a burning pain on her face before she recovered her senses.

With a "slap", Susu rubbed her hands and stared at the village woman on the ground with her trademark smile and said, "They don't beat women because they are men, but I am a woman, so it's okay to hit you. "

The big Yu and his wife were left dumbfounded, and Zha Wenbin left without looking back, and the surrounding villagers also left one after another amidst a burst of laughter. The Yu family's son had long been disliked by them, and today someone finally came out to replace him. Old Yu let out such a bad breath.

On the way, Susu stuck out her tongue at Zha Wenbin and said, "Brother Wenbin? You don't mind if I call you that?"

Cha Wenbin didn't speak.

"If you don't speak, then I'll call it that!" She happily walked around in front of her.

Cha Wenbin finally showed a long-lost smile. He stared at the elf-like girl and said with a smile, "Your slap is very refreshing."

Yu Dalian notified the other two brothers at night, and when they heard that Cha Wenbin was going to stand up for the old man, the three brothers all fainted.Not to mention Zha Wenbin's prestige and interpersonal relationship in this area, as far as the three people living in his family are vicious, especially the big man with a face full of flesh.There is a child in the village who is disobedient at night, and the old people will scare him with such a sentence: "If you don't sleep, if you don't sleep, the ugly face of the Cha family is coming!" This sentence is more effective than any panacea. As long as the children hear Dashan The name is more cute than seeing a wooden stick.

Such a master, they can't afford to offend. People are like this, and the more evil people are, the weaker they are, the weaker they are.That night, the three brothers started to buy things according to the note sent by Mrs. Zhang. They slaughtered pigs, lamb legs and chicken feathers. Torn down!