Quincy's Quiet Contemplation Chapter 4

Rowan Lao is really dark, like something baked in a brick kiln. When people see him, they can't help but touch his face to see if the blackness can stain their hands.

After his mother's death, Rowan Lao and his father both lived in Spencer Wang's house. Like saplings in the wild, they grew taller in the wind. At the age of fifteen, they already had a tall door leaf, broad shoulders, and two eyebrows connected. They started to follow their father to Nangou. Poppies are grown there. At that time, Spencer Wang was serving as the party secretary of Zhengyang Town Office, and he and his Concub!ne went to live in the town, leaving his eldest wife at home to manage the fields and forests. The eldest wife likes Rowan Lao. Every time she goes into the ditch, she always stuffs a few steamed buns and a lump of garlic into Rowan Lao's trousers. Rowan Lao's father said: Oh, give me so much! The eldest wife said: Is he tall and strong? He took Rowan Lao's hand and placed a small peach wood sword in his palm. The peach wood sword can ward off evil spirits.

There are many trees in the area under the jurisdiction of Zhengyang Town, and the trees are all tall. There are camphor trees and pine trees that are 40 to 50 feet tall. The trees are tall, so there are cows, wild boars, and bears in the forest, which are also big animals. Bears like to appear in places with poppies. Every time Rowan Lao's father goes to the poppy field in Nangou, he always puts a pair of bamboo tubes on his arms and asks Rowan Lao to put a pair of bamboo tubes on his arms as well, saying that if you meet a bear, the bear will hold your arms and laugh until you are about to faint, and you can pull your arms out of the bamboo tubes to escape. Dad also said that you should go quietly and not make any noise. But Rowan Lao is happy when the poppies bloom. The poppy flowers are so gorgeous. When the sun shines obliquely over the ridge, the flowers are reflected on the stone wall, creating colorful images. He gets inexplicably excited and roars loudly, saying that the dark clouds in the sky will definitely rain for a while. Dad scolds Rowan Lao: Sooner or later you will attract bears! When the Mid-Autumn Festival really came, they encountered a bear in the poppy field. The bear held down Rowan Lao's arm, and Rowan Lao's foot was still kicking the bear's abdomen. Dad shouted anxiously: Play dead, play dead! Rowan Lao did not play dead, but he did not move again. The bear began to laugh, laughing half-dead. Rowan Lao opened his eyes and watched the bear laugh until the bear fainted from laughing. He pulled his arm out of the bamboo tube and said: Stupid bear! He also wanted to use a knife to cut the bear's paw, but Dad pulled him away quickly.

But just this time, on the way to escape, Rowan Lao's father slipped and fell off the cliff. The cliff was three feet high. There was a tree stubble at the bottom of the cliff. It was just that tree stubble. His head hit it right on it. By the time Rowan Lao ran down to check, why is dad headless? Look again, dad's head was knocked into the cavity. When his father died again, Rowan Lao became an orphan. Spencer Wang helped bury the man and said to Rowan Lao: You are a poor little person, come with me to eat food. To eat food is to carry a gun, and people who carry guns and become soldiers are also called food boys. Rowan Lao became the food boy of the Zhengyang Town security team.

Rowan Lao has a gun. It seems to grow from his body and he can use it freely. He didn't need to clean the gun. He said that the gun must be fed. When he saw an eagle fighting an eagle, a swallow fighting a swallow, or a dog lying on the road in the alley, he would scold: avoid it! The dog didn't know how to avoid it, so he got hungry for the gun, so he fired it. The bullet was dipped in saliva. When it hit the dog's head, it exploded and a tongue burst out.

In those years, the Communist Party occupied Yan'an in northern Shaanxi, and the plains outside the mountains were full of chaos. Although the Qinling Mountains were not yet in chaos, they implemented a joint security system to take strict precautions. Spencer Wang went to various villages to teach, and arrived at Panyuping on March 24th. Panyuping is on Mangshan Mountain. There is an ancient mule and horse road there, and pack teams and porters often pass by. Just like harvesting wheat, you must also harvest wheat straw. There are also the most bandits on Mangshan Mountain. Some of these bandits had guns, and some used a piece of wood wrapped in red cloth to pretend it was a gun. There were also some farmers who were supposed to be farmers in the mountains. They were digging potatoes in the fields during the busy farming season. The porter asked: Brother, I have a question! The answer is: Are you not from Qinling? The porter said: How do you know I am not from Qinling? The answer is: Qinling people have square faces and gong voices, but you are thin and muscular, but you still have a strong accent. The porter said: Hey, where can I find water if I am so thirsty? The answer is: There is water in my gourd, you come and drink it. The porter saw that there was indeed a gourd filled with water at the end of the field. He thanked him a few times and took out a purse from his backpack as a reward. When he bent down to pick up the gourd, he received a blow on the back of his head. After the potato digger took the property, he dug a hole in the ground and buried the porter, saying: Is your head made of egg shell? Continue peeling potatoes. It was not safe on Mangshan Mountain. Spencer Wang said to Rowan Lao: Be careful. The old black terrier had a thick neck and said: Who robs me? I still want to rob him! I stayed at the Bao Zhang's house in Panyuping at night. Spencer Wang and the Bao Zhang were drinking in the house. Rowan Lao took a gun and sat in the yard to keep watch. In the middle of the night, it was as dark as a blind man. Suddenly he saw a bright spot on the wall of the courtyard and thought it was The cat was shot with one shot. There was a thud on the other side of the wall, and someone shouted: Killed! He really killed someone. Several idle men in the village learned that Spencer Wang was at the Bao Zhang's house and that Spencer Wang was a fat man and wore trousers with waistbands that were longer than the legs. They leaned on the wall of the courtyard and peered in. One of them had a cigarette in his mouth, and the bullet came from It entered the man's mouth and blew open the back of his head.

Three months later, the security chief of Panyuping came to the town hall and said that the grass on the grave of the man who had been shot was growing like green flames. Spencer Wang asked Rowan Lao: Have you ever had nightmares? Rowan Lao said: No. Spencer Wang said: You'd better go to the grave and burn some paper. Burn some paper. Rowan Lao went there. He didn't burn the paper, he peed, and he even nailed a peach wood prong to the grave.

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In the second half of the year, three strange things happened in Zhengyang Town.

One case involved an old woman in Chagu Village. Her son and daughter-in-law were stung to death by a leopard wasp while hunting pigweed in the mountains, leaving behind a young grandson. When her little grandson cried, she would put her nipple into her mouth. Her milk had dried up and she couldn't suck out milk. The little grandson still cried, and she kept saying: Be good, listen to your mother-in-law! The grandson didn't understand it, but a cat in the house heard it more and called her "Po." Once she was talking to the villagers about the weather in the lane, and the cat came running and said: Po, po. The villagers were startled, thinking that the cat was a monster, so they strangled the cat to death when she turned away from her. When I was singing Yin songs in Chagu Village, I saw this old woman and she was very sad when talking about her cat. I left Chagu Village and went to Santai County, and she took her grandson with me to Santai County to seek refuge with relatives. At that time, the corn seedlings in the field were half as tall as a person, and it was raining continuously. We walked together, and she carried her little grandson on her back, and tightly grasped the little grandson's stretched out feet on both sides of her waist with both hands, and kept nagging: "Put your arms around my mother-in-law's neck." Hold on tight, the wolf won't be able to snatch you away from behind! I asked about her cat again, and she said: Some people can have pig mouths, and some can look like monkeys, so why can’t cats speak human language? ! I just laughed and saw that her little grandson looked like a cat, with pointed ears, protruding eyes, and was rubbing his nose with both hands. This little grandson later settled in Guofenglou Town, Santai County. His name was Liu Xueren, and he was a commune cadre.