Falling back to gl

Gaoqiao Town is more than 100 kilometers away, and it takes about two hours by car.

It was after five o'clock in the afternoon when we left the village, and it was after sunset when we arrived in Gaoqiao Town, and the sky was dark.

After parking the white Volkswagen outside the town, Ji Cen'an walked in and found Zhou's house behind the old street on the east side of the town.

A low one-storey house with more than half of the wall peeling off. The surface looks like a dilapidated house waiting to be demolished, but the inside is fine and well-kept. The rental conditions are much better than those in urban villages.

Ji Cen'an came to the door temporarily and did not inform in advance.Not even a phone call.

The work and rest in the town is not as good as that in big cities. It basically stops working when it gets dark, and the darkness falls. There are no street lights near Zhou's house, so we can only hurry there before night falls.

When Ji Cen'an knocked on the door, the grandparents and grandchildren of the Zhou family had already gone to bed and rested. When they opened the door and saw her, both the old and the young were stunned. They didn't know how she found her. Three accidents happened to Chen Qirui.Startled suddenly, my mother stretched her long neck to look out, but she didn't find anyone else, and her face turned pale immediately.

Xiaoyu's child stood behind the door and looked out. Seeing that it was Ji Cen'an, the boy immediately widened his eyes, looked around curiously for a while, ran over first, and opened his mouth to shout: "Auntie." Then rushed up to hug her thigh, The steps staggered and fell into her arms.

At this time, I didn't recognize him anymore, I haven't seen Ji Cen'an for several days, and Ji Cen'an is still very strange.

After catching the child, Ji Cen'an picked Xiaoyu up by his arm with one hand, and greeted his mother, "Auntie."

Then explain why.

The door-to-door visit was a half-way idea, and the real reason must not be confessed.

Hu made up an excuse, and I thought about the excuse on the way-I was passing through the town on business, so I came to see my grandparents and grandchildren.

Mom felt relieved and welcomed Ji Cen'an into the house politely.

The two parties are acquaintances. It is not difficult to inquire about the past more than [-] years ago, and it is easier than finding an old lady.

I went in, exchanged greetings, and the follow-up investigation went extremely smoothly.

The old man was not on guard against Ji Cen'an, and didn't doubt the truth of what she said, but when he heard that she came to the town to visit the grave during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he came all the way here, and believed it.

Ji Cen'an lied: "I didn't grow up here, and I don't know the place. Only when I came here did I know it was here."

I didn't hear anything wrong, my mother asked a few questions, and was busy cooking fermented glutinous rice eggs, so she had to entertain her warmly.

It was a guest, not to mention a friend of my daughter who had taken care of me in the hospital.

After the fermented glutinous rice eggs were cooked, they were served while they were still hot, and my mother asked earnestly, "Which one is yours, Xiaocan?"

Curious whose grave she was visiting, thinking she had never seen it before.

Ji Cen'an was also honest, and said directly: "Second Master's house."

pat-

The bowl fell to the ground and instantly shattered.

No name or surname was mentioned, no specific door or household was mentioned, it was just a general name.

But these three words are enough to make the old man stunned, and he froze in place in astonishment.

Looking at the broken pieces of white porcelain on the ground, Ji Cen'an raised his eyes, met his mother's surprised gaze, and said softly, "Auntie, let me ask you for some news."

……

After nightfall, the remote town was silent, and it was pitch black all around.

Zhou's house has five rooms, with the living room in the center and utility rooms and rooms on both sides.

Small places are not so particular, Ji Cen'an was arranged to spend the night in A Chong's wedding room.

After coaxing Xiaoyu to sleep again and tidying up the floor of the living room, my mother came in, found a stool and sat down, stared at Ji Cen'an with cloudy eyes for a moment, sighed helplessly, and told the truth one by one.

I don't quite remember the details, so I can only pick and choose, and talk about the ones I still remember.

"At that time, there was no Ah Chong, her father had just arrived here, and Qi Rui was only a little older."

"One year, Qirui's father was working in Guangdong. He went to the construction site to do construction. He accidentally fell off the shelf and disappeared. His mother... used to have a lot of people who didn't get the certificate. .”

"There is no one in the Chen family who is too old to raise a baby."

"Second master... Chen Er came back at that time."

……

"His name is Chen Zhanzhong, not from the Chen family."

"Qirui's grandma picked it up, don't throw away the unwanted ones."

"One year younger than Qi Rui's father."

……

"It was not like now. It was not easy to lose children, and there were no institutions in the town that could take children in like cities."

"I can't find which family it is from. Qi Rui's grandma is reluctant to part with it. She is afraid that she will starve to death if she throws it out again, so she keeps it at home and adopts it. It happens to be a companion for Qi Rui's father."

"But that kid is tough. He has been difficult to manage since he was a child. He has been playing rough and always causing trouble. When he was young, he committed crimes outside and was imprisoned."

"The Chen family severed ties with him and kicked him out."

……

A clichéd and old-fashioned story, simply put, the son who was picked up became lame, but after being kicked out of the house, the prodigal son turned back, went outside and eventually became famous.

It's a pity that going to jail in those days was a big deal, especially in a small town with fearsome people. No matter how successful Chen Zhanzhong became later, Chen Qirui's grandma still couldn't accept him.

"It is said that he went abroad and made his fortune abroad."

"It seems that the reselling business has made a lot of money."

"When he came back for the first time, he brought a girl. She was fair and young, about eighteen or nineteen years old. She seemed to be Miss Jiao from a rich family, and she came from the city."

"I want to get married when I bring it back, and let Qirui's mother decide when I enter the door."

"But he is so angry..."

Chen Zhanzhong does things too casually, without considering the situation of other people, and often thinks that what happens is what happens when he goes to jail. Originally, the imprisoned incident was a rift between the two generations, and then there was an elopement marriage, which is tantamount to fire. pour oil.

What's more, the so-called rich family in the city didn't agree to this marriage. They didn't agree with the innocent little daughter to be with a shabby little boss who had been in prison. The rhetoric deceived her daughter, and she firmly opposed it.

In the end, whoever imagined it, Chen Er actually abducted the girl directly, planning to hold a banquet under the witness of her adoptive mother and lead Miss Jiao to live abroad after the wedding.

Since then, the Chen family couldn't tolerate Chen Zhanzhong even more. The conservative Chen Qirui's grandma couldn't break up the loving mandarin ducks, so he drove Chen Zhanzhong away again. money.

Later, around the winter of the second year, Chen Qirui's grandmother died.

Because of this, Chen Da hated Chen Zhanzhong, thinking that the old lady was kind-hearted all her life, but she was so angry with her second child, and worried about him for two to thirty years. She couldn't enjoy the filial piety of her adopted son until she died, so she hated Chen Zhanzhong and even went to her grave. They didn't want him to come, and they still didn't forgive this brother until he fell to his death in an accident.

There was no one else in the Chen family, so Chen Qirui could only entrust it to Chen Zhanzhong, so Chen Zhanzhong rushed back from abroad with his wife, Miss Jiao, and planned to take Chen Qirui back to offer incense to his ancestors.

As for why they stayed at Jiang's hotel, it was because Ms. Jiao had just given birth at that time, and there were other pregnant women in the accompanying team. A middle-aged man died in the Chen family. The old customs believed that the bad luck of the dead was unlucky for children and pregnant women, so they arranged This group of people went to Jiangjia Hotel to stay.

"A lot of people came, and there were a lot of small cars."

"After the funeral, most of them left, leaving only Chen Er and a few."

……

"The other woman gave birth on the second night after the funeral, but it was a pity that she was stillborn."

"Ugh."

"It's also good luck, poor."

"I didn't see it either. I don't know if it was bumped by Qi Rui's father. I was sick at home and didn't go out. It was my family and A Chong's grandfather who helped run."

"Ah Chong's father didn't go there the next day, and accompanied me to the hospital to get an injection. There was a fire there for some reason."

"Not a single one was rescued, all of them were buried inside."

"The fire burns too fast, and it's too late to save it."

……

"The family in the city came to deal with it later, and they didn't take Chen Er and the others back. They were all buried here. Anyway, a few supervisors came from the police station. They asked my family to ask questions, and then asked Jiang. The old man of the family closed the case without finding anything."

Ji Cen'an was reticent and asked in a low voice after a while, "What about Chen Qirui and Jiang Tian after that?"

"I didn't pick it up, I kept it." Mom waved her hand, feeling a little emotional, "Xiao Tian still has grandma, and someone is taking care of him, so he will definitely not leave. Qi Rui... Qi Rui lived with everyone. The child He can go to the ground, and it’s not difficult to take him with him. It’s not too much trouble to raise him, just have more chopsticks and more bowls. Moreover, the government will also help him after he is in junior high school, and the state will support him to study, which is okay.”

That rich family in the city never appeared again, not to mention taking Chen Qirui to help raise them, and there hasn't even been a shadow of them since.

No one knew what Chen Zhanzhong was like outside, let alone other aspects. A fire took away everything, leaving nothing left.

After so many years, the misery of the Chen family seems to be nothing to talk about after dinner, no one cares about what is there and what is not.

The dead are dead, those who are buried in the ground cannot be resurrected, how should the important children live.

The next progress is like plain water. As time goes by, the tragedy has become a thing of the past.

Later Chen Qirui left the town and never came back;

A Chong also grew up, but he really didn't have the talent for reading. In addition, the family had no money, his mother was sick, and the money his father earned wasn't enough for medical treatment, so he embarked on the road of giving up studying, working part-time, and falling in love and having children;

Jiang Tian was the only one who made adults feel at ease, and lived as the elders expected, but unfortunately, in his second year of high school, the old man in Jiang's family fell ill with cancer. Teachers and adults tried hard to persuade him, but it was not until the old man of the Jiang family passed away that he returned to school, re-entered high school, and only entered college at the age of 23.

"Cancer, it's not easy to cure, it's impossible." My mother said, and she kept sighing when she talked about it. .Children have strong self-esteem and don’t want to drag others down, so they have to stop reading. The old one is gone, so kind people continue to study for him, which helped him a lot.”

Ji Cen'an asked, "Which kind-hearted person?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen it. My family is responsible for stamping the materials for Xiaotian's family. He is in charge of these things. I can't do it. I don't have the ability to manage them. I can't read or understand those things. And that The funded ones don’t want to show up, and everyone has never seen what it looks like.” My mother shook her head, she didn’t know much about it, she only knew a little bit, “But when he goes to college, that person will stop helping and never contact him again. Pass this way. Xiao Tian relies on applying for loans and working to study, he works very hard and supports himself."

Jiang Tian was about the same age as Ji Cen'an. He was 23 years old at the university, and he is now a junior, which means he was admitted to the university three years ago.

And the kind-hearted people's support to him happened to stop three years ago, and it happened to be around the time when Ji's family had an accident.

Ji Cen'an's lips were dry, the rosiness had long since disappeared, leaving only an ugly layer of paleness.

At this level, you won't fail to understand the cause and effect, and you already understand it.

The rich family in the city is the Cheng family, Miss Jiao is the Yuluo that the old lady in the village calls in the afternoon, and the other pregnant women in the ancestor worship procession are her "mother" Cheng Yuzhu.

The whole thing is that once the former rascal Chen Zhanzhong made his fortune, he hooked up with the Cheng family's ignorant second lady, but the Cheng family disagreed, and refused to agree to the marriage from top to bottom, so the second lady decided to marry him. Run away with Chen Zhanzhong.Then the raw rice was cooked and cooked, and it was too late when they reappeared, and both of them had their children.Maybe the Cheng family still didn't let go at that time, so Cheng Yuzhu went to Gaoqiao Town to visit under the guise of raising a baby, and apparently deceived the Cheng family.

As for why the fire broke out, where Cheng Yuzhu was when the accident happened, what happened when he left, and whether he was accompanied by his companions, no one knew.

But if Cheng Yuzhu gave birth to a stillborn 25 years ago, why is she still there?

Ji Cen'an pursed his lips and frowned.

A Chong's mother sighed again, feeling very sorry.

After being quiet for half a minute, Ji Cen'an hesitated, looked in front of him, and asked, "A Chong's father... what happened to Uncle and the others?"

Don't mind telling her, my mother said: "Shanghuo was hit by a car and couldn't be saved. At that time, he and Junhao were both working in your bar, and one day they went out to get goods, and what happened at the intersection."

Junhao, Ah Chong's boyfriend, also Xiaoyu's father.

With sadness on her face, my mother recalled: "At that time, we were still living in the same house you had been to. Her father was still happy during the day, thinking that Xiaotian was going to college, and called me before leaving to tell me Come back tonight to talk about something, probably telling me which school Xiaotian went to, but who knows... oh..."

Ji Cen'an's fingertips twitched unconsciously: "Have you found the driver who caused the accident?"

Mom looked bitter, and shook her head again: "No, I ran away and never caught anyone."

The driver who caused the accident was a loner with a criminal record and escaped on the first night of the incident.In the end, the case can only be temporarily closed, and the Zhou family has not received a penny of compensation from the driver.

After such a long time, A Chong and his mother have let go of it, but it is inevitable that they will still feel sad when the old things are brought up again.

My mother is uneducated, so she is not a fool. Since Ji Cen'an even reported that her family belongs to the second master's family, she must have something to do with that family in the city.

It can't be a relative of the Chen family, the Chen family has no such relatives.

But my mother didn't think too much about it. Ji Cen'an was also a girl from a poor family. She only thought that she was a distant relative of Miss Jiao's family, and thought she was here for Miss Jiao.

Mom asked, to explore the specific relationship between her and Miss Jiao.

Ji Cen'an didn't tell the truth, and used the excuse of being a distant relative.

Xu Shi really believed it, but Xu Shi didn't want to delve into it. Mom nodded and took a deep look at Ji Cen'an. She sighed and pointed out where Chen Zhanzhong and Miss Jiao were buried, and told Ji Cen'an the approximate location.In fact, I don't really want to mention these things, and I feel uncomfortable talking about them.

"Qi Rui doesn't come back very often, and he doesn't have anyone to take care of him. Last year, Xiaotian helped his parents to take care of the grave. This year, I don't know what happened. If you are worried, you can go and have a look. I will accompany you. Can."

Ji Cen'an didn't respond to this sentence, his voice was suppressed: "Okay."

Mom got up and stopped sitting.

"Should I cook another egg for you? I didn't eat it just now, or something else?" the old man asked thoughtfully.

Ji Cen'an refused: "Don't bother you, I'm not hungry, I ate in the car."

A Chong's mother: "Then call me if necessary."

Ji Cen'an: "Okay."

Don't bother her, the old man goes out.

Once the door is closed, the room is clean.

Ji Cen'an sat by the bed, looked around, and leaned back against the wall after a while.

An hour or so later, when the dusk was completely covered and the grandparents and grandchildren in the house were fast asleep, Ji Cen'an got up.With a blank expression on his face, he took out all the cash on his body and pressed it on the table. The man walked out at night, and left without a word.

The car didn't enter the town, and it left quietly.

Early the next day.

Pushing open the door and seeing the stack of red banknotes, Ah Chong's mother looked a little lonely, but she didn't say a word, and she didn't call her daughter in the city.

Xiaoyu poked his head out, and when he woke up, he didn't find Ji Cen'an, so he looked up suspiciously and asked the adult, "Where's Auntie, are you missing?"

The old man lovingly patted the back of the child's head without explaining.

Urban village, bar.

The business in the school season was good, and the passenger flow resumed after the summer vacation, and the turnover of the bar last night was high.

At this point in time, the store is closed for business, the cleaning work is done, and the daytime is the time for loading and moving things.

Zhang Linrong was in a good mood, so he went to the store while blowing a little tune, and brought the drinks one by one.

The bar hasn't hired enough new employees recently. During the day, only he, the boss, does the work by himself and can't order others.

After moving the goods, Zhang Linrong was so tired that he was sweating profusely. His fat body couldn't bear the high-intensity labor. He was half dead for such a little work. He was panting and out of breath when he sat on the stool.

This fat man is hypocritical, with a bad mouth, and he can't help but swear at the air, his temper is terrible.

After resting enough, he went into the back kitchen to drink a bottle of ice water, turned around and came out again.

In this gap, there was an unexpected guest in the store silently.

When he came out and bumped into him head-on, Zhang Linrong was terrified, his mung bean eyes widened instantly, and the fat all over his body trembled violently.

The other party stood there, like a living king who came to ask for his life.

Zhang Linrong is so stupid, he can't turn his head, he still remembers the beating he received last time, and stumbles: "You, you do it, what are you doing..."

Ji Cen'an stretched out his hand and handed over a group photo belonging to the elder brother's parents, and asked in a deep voice, "Have you seen these three people?"

The fat man was about to shut down: "No, no... I haven't seen..."

Ji Cen'an: "Three years ago, did any strange things happen here, or did someone who doesn't belong here come to you?"

"It's a strange thing... I don't know, I," Zhang Linrong said with a sad face, "I'm the one who runs a bar, so I don't have strange things every day, and I don't belong here."

With a cold and indifferent face, Ji Cen'an reminded: "It's like the one who came to me last time."

"It seems...it seems, probably..." Zhang Linrong hesitated, his eyes were evasive, and he was sloppy. When he saw the evil spirit in front of him swinging an iron stick, he shouted suddenly, "Yes, yes, yes! There is one, there is one. !have!"