In front of the North Gate

Shi Jichang has been at home doing nothing for a month, because the private school in the town has been closed since last month.

Shi Jichang didn't know the specific reason, he only knew that he didn't need to go to school anymore.This can't be considered a happy thing, because Shi Jichang is more willing to read some idle books than to go to school.

But this happiness only lasted for a few days, because after today, Shi Jichang was ordered not to go out again.

The happy thing has become a painful thing, he is really too boring.

The Shi family has a big business, but the eldest son, his father, loves him very much, and only married his mother, so there are very few children in the family, only Shi Jichang, Shi Jilan, and Shi Jiling.

Shi Jilan is only three years younger than Shi Jichang, but teenage girls and boys can't hang out together. Shi Jichang doesn't see Shi Jilan at home every day. It is said that he is hiding in the boudoir Learn embroidery.

"Pedantic," Shi Jichang commented on her behind her back, "What is wrong with learning, learning the dross of feudal society."

Shi Jichang was different, very advanced. He watched Shi Jiling, who had just turned four years old, play in the mud in the backyard.

Shi Jiling has been playing for more than an hour, and she is much more obedient than Shi Jilan. After pinching a mound of dirt that she doesn't understand, she will call sweet brother and show Shi Jichang.

Shi Jichang laughed, patted her head and said it was well piled.

The accident occurred when Shi Jichang said "well piled up" for the fifth time. As soon as he finished speaking, a figure fell from the courtyard wall.

Shi Jichang was startled, without even thinking about it, he picked up Shi Jiling who was on the ground and looked vigilantly at the person coming.

He didn't expect that the person who came here looked as old as him. He was a boy, wearing a coarse blouse, and said something inexplicable: "They came to the village to take pictures!"

"Ah?" Shi Jichang tilted his head.

Shi Ji Ling belatedly started to cry, and the crying attracted the nanny, and the nanny saw the extra boy in the yard, and called the servant again.

It was only when the boy followed his servant that Shi Jichang saw that there was a large black stain on the back of the coarse blouse, almost covering his entire back.

Shi Jiling was carried away by the nanny, Shi Jichang simply followed and asked him, "What's behind you?"

The boy said, "It's blood."

Shi Jichang stopped in his footsteps.

On this day, the Shi family compound welcomed the largest number of people since it was built—they were a few survivors from one neighboring village, and all the people from another neighboring village.

The lights in the compound were on until midnight, and the old, young, sick and disabled were settled. The young and middle-aged were all guarding the door with hunting muskets and various hoes.

Shi Jichang didn't sleep either, and the boy covered in blood was placed in his room. The boy was called Yegou, but Shi Jichang thought it was a bit vulgar, so he called him Xiaoye.

He asked Xiaoye: "What exactly is taking pictures?"

Shi Jichang's family is rich, and when he was in the town, he saw foreigners taking pictures.Taking pictures doesn't kill people, it doesn't bleed.

Xiaoye turned her head to look at him, frowning tightly.Shi Jichang felt that he didn't want to remember, so he turned around and said he was asleep.

But Shi Jichang couldn't sleep, he stayed up until midnight, when he went out, he saw someone patrolling around the wall at the gate of the courtyard.

Unspeakable tension shrouded Shi's compound inside and outside, even Shi Jiling stopped playing in the mud, and threw herself into Shi Jichang's or mother's arms every day.

Father couldn't catch it, because he was buying more muskets.

More than half a month has passed like this.

After a long time, Ji Chang felt a little absurd, as if all these dangers were just imagined by everyone.

"What danger can there be in taking pictures?"

Thinking this way, he sneaked out of the courtyard gate. He was taller, so he easily followed Xiaoye and climbed over the wall without trying.

Shi Jichang's parents' room was just beside his yard. When he landed, Shi Jichang heard gunshots and a woman's scream at the same time.

His mother quickly opened the door, and was taken aback when she saw his gesture, but she didn't have time to say anything, because soon, more gunshots rang out.

Shi Jichang saw Xiaoye run out, and took the bow and crossbow he had left in the room, which he played with when he was a child.

"Xiaoye!" Shi Jichang called him, but was caught by his mother, dragged and hid in the depths of the flower bed.

Shi Jichang didn't expect his mother to be crying.

Mom said, "You have to live."

In fact, Shi Jichang didn't hear this sentence exactly. There were too many gunshots and too much noise. There were also banging on the door, shouting, cursing, all of them were very noisy.

Shi Jichang saw the shape of his fucking mouth.

Tears slid from the corners of her mouth, illuminated by the flames that spread out after a loud bang.

Then he fell into the warm embrace that he seldom fell into after he was a child, and his ears were covered.

That day was June.Even at night, the weather was hot, but Shi Jichang suddenly felt cold.

Soon there was a kicking sound outside the door.

Before he had time to react, the courtyard door was violently pushed open, and a man with a mustache came in with a gun he had never seen before, as if he knew where they were before he came in, and walked straight in front of them.A long bayonet was attached to the top of the gun.

"You guys, come here!"

Shi Jichang heard him speak with a very strange accent.

Before Shi Jichang moved, his mother screamed, "I'll go with you, let my son go!"

Shi Jichang still didn't move, he couldn't react, and saw another strange man with a strange accent barge in, one grabbed his mother, and the other grabbed him.

Shi Jichang finally remembered to resist, but was kicked in vain.Hear his mother screaming in a crying voice.

In Shi Jichang's subsequent decades, this scene was always replayed frame by frame.

Sometimes in a dream, sometimes in the blue sky, there will always be a point in time that makes him recall this day inexplicably.

They were dragged to the wide lawn outside the Shi family compound.

The night was very dark, with only a little moonlight and the unextinguished light from the courtyard.But Shi Jichang could still see clearly the black corpses lying on the ground.

He was caught passing them quickly, not knowing if they were still warm or were quickly blown away by the wind.

When passing a certain corpse, Shi Jichang saw his crossbow.

"Stand still!" The man pulling him said with a strange accent, "We're going to take a picture!"

Shi Jichang felt very bewildered, he still didn't understand what taking a picture was, and there were crowds of people all around, and everyone stood together very tightly.

"Look this way!" Then someone shouted, as if they really wanted to take a photo.

But when Ji Chang didn't have time to turn around, her mother hugged him.

The gunfire rang out again.

No longer across the courtyard door, it is louder, denser, and more terrifying.

But no matter how loud it was, it couldn't block the sound of people around him falling down one after another, as well as the screams of fear and pain before falling down.

Shi Jichang only felt his mother jumping on him suddenly, and with a muffled grunt, pressed him down with the last of his strength.

Shi Jichang seemed to be able to answer the doubt just now.

It turns out that after a person dies, they don't immediately become cold.

Because the mother's body was still warm, pressing him tightly, and the same warm blood was pouring on his body.

Shi Jichang suddenly understood where the blood on Xiaoye's body came from, and also understood what taking pictures is.

He also remembered that his mother wanted him to live, so Shi Jichang didn't move until the gunshots stopped.

So when he heard the familiar cry from Shi Jiling, he didn't move either.

Through the gap between his mother's corpse, Shi Jichang saw Shi Jiling running towards them on short legs.

The child seems to be born to be afraid, but he doesn't know what to be afraid of. While calling "Mom and brother", he stopped when he met some people with guns.

Shi Jichang saw Shi Jiling opened her beautiful big eyes, looked up at those people, and asked them, "Where's mother?"

The man laughed and said, "Mother's over there, mine, I'll take you to find it."

Shi Jiling didn't believe him, so she cried again and refused to go with him.

The man said something that Shi Jichang didn't understand at the time, but he understood later, and the man said, "Then look for it here."

Then he lifted the bayonet and pierced Shi Jiling's body.

She was still so small, her body was not as long as a bayonet, and the moment she was penetrated, she lost her voice.

And the man had to step on her to pull out the bayonet again.

The man walked towards them again, and the sound of bayonets piercing human flesh from above was heard again and again.

Maybe he learned the lesson from Xiaoye's village last time. This time, he stabbed the ground for a very long time. During this period, Shi Jichang also heard a few screams and cries, trembling and desperate.

But Shi Jichang still didn't move, he looked at Shi Jiling's body lying in a pool of blood, and called in his heart the name that he had called countless times before, but he couldn't call it anymore.

Lingling.