Li Xiaojiu, for some reason, had a rather interesting name.
Li Dali, Li Xiaojiu's father, had a good drink. When he opened the door, he saw a drunk man holding a wine bottle. It was said that drunkards only cared about alcohol, so the first thing Li Dali saw was not the drunk man, but wine. Li Xiaojiu's grandfather felt that his grandson could not drink like his father, so he named it Nine!
Li Xiaojiu, who was only six years old, hadn't started his studies yet, but he was already able to let go of his pride.
There was a small river beside Tianling Village. Both sides of the river were tilted down, about three to five meters. It was not very tilted, but if one did not pay attention, it was likely to slide directly into the river.
The river was muddy and yellowish, but there was no pollution in the era of 900. In summer, it became a place for children to avoid the heat.
But because of the news that many children were drowned in a certain place, every time Li Dali heard that Li Xiaojiu ran into the river to take a bath, he couldn't help but beat him up.
On this afternoon, as usual, Li Xiaojiu ran to the riverside with a big buffalo and ate grass as usual. It happened to be the time after the students of the previous class had finished their school.
At this time, all the children studying in the village would go to the river to take a bath. Coincidentally, there were four or five of them now, and Li Xiaojiu caught up with them!
"Hey, let Niu IX go. Do you have the courage to be more restrained than anyone else?" It was Second Dog who spoke. When he was born, his father saw two dogs when he opened the door. One was male and the other was female!
It was summer now, so Li Xiaojiu must have been tired to the point of sweating when he came out with the cow.
But when he thought of Li Dali's fierce expression when he lost his temper, he could not help but shrink his neck. "No... no, Dad won't let me take a bath in the river!"
"Coward, you don't dare to compete with me!" The other child who spoke was called Big Bull, who was the same age as Li Xiaojiu, and also released the cattle.
"Hey, big cow, your cow ran to the rice field!" Second Dog patted the big cow on the shoulder and shouted.
"I'll beat you to death, beast!" The big cow cursed and ran to the shore with its butt naked.
These words were learned from the adults.
In that era, parents and children were the only people in the village to rely on, although there were not many left after they finished paying.
Although Li Xiaojiu was very angry about being called a coward, he did not dare to go down, because Li Dali told him that two children from other villages were drowned in the river the day before yesterday, and their bodies had not been found!
"Hey, Little Jiu, come down. Let's go and play with the droplets later!" Li Xiaojiu was holding the bull's hand and walking up.
"Really? But I still can't do it. My parents are in that field. If they see me, I will be miserable!" That was the real reason.
Speaking of playing with the droplets, Li Xiaojiu was very interested. He already had three of them in his family, and most of the time, he relied on them to win more than a dozen. Later, he bought them at the price of ten of them, and he was unwilling to give up the remaining three.
"I'd better wait for you on the fan bend!" Li Xiaojiu didn't dare to go down the river, so he could only hold the cow's hand to the fan bend.
The curve was a turn on the upper bank of the river, shaped like a fan!
Of course, Li Xiaojiu wanted to be like other children, but he could do nothing about it. Although his parents were around, it was different to have a fan in the corner of the river.
"I don't think I'm afraid to take a shower here. I don't need to go deep into the water!" Li Xiaojiu tied the cow rope to the tree trunk by the river, took off his clothes, and was ready to take a bath on the shore.
As a result, something tripped under his feet. He glided directly and sat down on the ground.
"Ah!" At the same time, he felt something on his butt. He stood up and was about to see what was going on. He didn't expect that something worse would happen. He stepped on nothing and fell to the ground. This time, his luck was not so good. He hit his head on the stone and fainted directly!
"Little 9th, Little 9th, wake up. Why are you lying inside naked?" After an unknown period of time, Li Xiaojiu felt as if someone was shaking his body.
"Are you crazy? Have you found a child?" A voice came from the river bank. It was Li Dali's wife, Li Xiaojiu's mother, Zhou Ya.
"Crazy woman, the child is injured. It's cold outside. Come and help him put on his clothes!" Li Dali patted Li Xiaojiu on the back and said.
The couple was very interesting. Although they didn't quarrel much, they always liked to call each other crazy.
The sun had not yet set, but for some reason, the chilly wind on the bank of the river made people feel chilly!
"Little Jiu, we're men. It doesn't hurt. I'll buy you a Papa later. You two!" Seeing that the child didn't stop, Li Dali coaxed him.
The fried Papa in the tank was made of sticky rice and yellow sugar. Then he picked up a piece the size of a child's fist and threw it into an oil pan to fry. It was fragrant and crispy. It was worth a penny!
Li Xiaojiu didn't cry when he heard that there was a greasy father to eat. "No, I want... I also want to have a bead of liquid. Just now, Second Dog said that he wanted to play with me when he got back!"
"Ah? Little Jiu, don't talk nonsense!" Zhou Ya came over and looked at Li Xiaojiu with a worried look. There was a woman beside her.
"Ergou? That's not right, isn't it? At noon, Ergou ran away from school with a few classmates and took a bath in the river. Didn't he drown?" The woman was called Li Mihua. It was strange that she and her husband were the oldest in the village, the same generation as Li Xiaojiu.
Upon hearing this, Li Dali's face fell. He raised his head and said to Li Mihua, "How can you believe a child's words? Ma Huahua, we've found Xiao Jiu. You go back to your work first. Let's have dinner at my house tonight!"
"Oh," Li resolveed Li resolvefully. Without saying anything else, she turned around and left.
Li Dali looked at Li Xiaojiu seriously. "Little Jiu, children can't lie. Do you understand? When did you see them?"
Zhou Ya squatted beside Li Xiaojiu and looked at him worriedly. She would rather have misheard him just now.
After all, Li Xiaojiu was still a child. The child's heart was very pure. He told the truth about seeing Doggy and the big cow.
"Crazy son, what... what do you think we should do?" Zhou Ya was almost scared to tears by Li Xiaojiu's words, but she suddenly saw a red scratch on Li Xiaojiu's arm.
She quickly grabbed Li Xiaojiu's arm and asked, "Little Jiu, where did you get it from?"
But when you looked at it carefully, you found that it was not a scratch. The red print was big red and looked like a tattoo. At first glance, it looked like a snake, especially the snake tongue at the front.
"Crazy boy, when did our child have a tattoo?" Zhou Ya, who had been scared, asked Li Dali with concern!
"I... I don't know either. Why do I have a bug in my hand?" Li Xiaojiu didn't know anything. Besides, the shape of his hand was not obvious.
Li Dali was a little worried now. He solemnly grabbed Li Xiaojiu's shoulder and said, "Son, don't talk when you go back, and don't tell the villagers that you saw Second Dog. If anyone asks, just say that you didn't see anything!"
Zhou Ya didn't ask any more questions and quickly helped Li Xiaojiu put on his clothes.
"Mom, be careful. My ass hurts. I was stabbed in the ass by something just now!" Li Xiaojiu stood up and reminded Zhou Ya.
When Zhou Ya heard this, she quickly hugged Li Xiaojiu and looked at him. Other than sand and mud, there were no other wounds on his butt.
"Maybe it hurts. Be gentle!" Li Dali said.
"Xiao Jiu, let's go back. I'll help you with your wound!" Before Zhou Ya could finish her words, Li Xiaojiu turned around and ran away.
Seeing Li Xiaojiu's back, Li Dali's face darkened. "Ergou and the others were drowned at noon. My son said he saw it just now. Do you think it's true?"
Zhou Ya, of course, did not know how to answer. The child's words were not scheming. "In my opinion, how about you ask the old Taoist priest at the entrance of the village?"
"That won't do. Isn't it telling the whole village that our son has seen a ghost? Besides, sometimes children's words can't be taken seriously. Maybe it's just a dream for Little 9th to see Second Dog." Li Dali immediately shook his head.
If word of this got out, Li Xiaojiu would have no children playing with him in the village.
Originally, Li Dali didn't want to spread the news, but things went contrary to his wishes. Li Mihua was a famous big mouth in the village, and she couldn't be stopped when she got up in the middle of the day.
That night, everyone in the village knew that Li Xiaojiu had seen a ghost. Everyone in the village was whispering about Li Xiaojiu in front of and behind the house.
"Let me tell you, Li Xiaojiu fainted by the river in the afternoon. He must have been knocked out by the ghost of Second Dog!"
"That's right. Hua-er said she saw it with her own eyes. Li Xiaojiu's head is still red!"
"Oh, are the deaths of Second Dog and the others related to Li Xiaojiu, so they came back to take revenge?"
It was really a rumor in the article. In the end, things would become more and more exaggerated.
Li Dali and his wife also knew that the news had begun to spread in the village, but no one said it in front of them.
In the evening, Li Dali specially stir-fried a pot of rice with eggs and rice rice with rice rice. The eggs were from his native chicken.
It was said that the cooked rice with sticky rice was for children, so they didn't wet the bed at night. It was a fact.
"Crazy son, his son will go to school next year, and the tuition fee will be hundreds of yuan!" Zhou Ya said to Li Dali while eating.
"Hmm," Li Dali said. "Our family doesn't have much income. I think it's time for Jiang to grow. I'll go to the town tomorrow to see if there are any Jiang seeds!"
"I think it's better to get some sugar cane from my parents' home. My mother said that the sugar cane was very expensive last year. It costs five yuan and one pound!" Zhou Ya said.
Some people in the village felt that the tuition was expensive. In order to relieve their burden, they were unwilling to send their children to school, especially those without education.
Li Dali shook his head and said, "It's better not to do that. If your little crazy woman knows about it, she will make a scene."
The little madwoman was referring to Zhou Ya's third sister. Although she was married, every time Zhou Ya went back to get something, her third sister would also ask for it. If she lost it, she would make trouble in Zhou Ya's parents' home. It had happened more than once before.
After taking a shower, Li Xiaojiu went to bed and Zhou Ya told him a story!
After coaxing Li Xiaojiu to sleep, Zhou Ya went out, leaving Li Xiaojiu alone.
But after that night, in some sense, Li Xiaojiu had changed a lot. The innocence of a child was still there, but in his mind, some memories that he had never had before appeared.
In the pitch-black room, a faint red light suddenly flashed, and the blood-red mark on Li Xiaojiu's arm moved.
This tattoo-like blood-red mark could actually move? How did it appear on Li Xiaojiu's arm?
The blood-red mark moved towards Li Xiaojiu's head. It didn't take long for it to reach his forehead before it slowly seeped into Li Xiaojiu's head.
Li Xiaojiu's originally slightly smiling face suddenly changed. His brows were tightly knitted, and after a while, he broke out in a cold sweat.
About an hour later, a blood-red mark slowly appeared on Li Xiaojiu's forehead. As if something had emerged from the surface of the water, it slowly slid down his arm. Not long after, the room returned to darkness...
While Li Xiaojiu was in a daze, he suddenly felt that many strange memories had appeared in his mind. For a moment, he found it hard to digest them. For example, meditating, reciting scriptures, walking, and so on. When ordinary people looked at these dizzy things, Li Xiaojiu understood them at a glance.
