The Land of Unforgettable Death (End)

Yinsui, who had a sleepless night, didn't even bother to put on her coat. She ran to the window, opened the curtains and looked down. After her mother's accident, she wanted to move to the first floor to live with her grandparents, but the two old people refused to agree, so she had to give up.

The sky outside the window was dark, and the two loquat trees in the yard were dim.

The hunchbacked old man walked out of the shed, holding a big rooster with flapping wings in his hands, and the sound of his cloth shoes clattering from the backyard to the front yard.

The light in the kitchen was on, it must be grandma boiling water.

"You woke up so early, go back to sleep for a while." The old man stopped and asked the girl who pushed open the living room door and walked out.

Wearing an ankle-length nightgown with golden angels blowing trumpets all over it, Yinsui, looking listless, scratched his messy black hair with his hand, casually pulled over a chair and sat down, resting his chin on the backrest and talking to his busy grandfather with drooping eyelids.

"Killing chickens again." They killed them not long ago.

A rare smile appeared on the old man's face: "I wasn't sincere enough last time, so I'll pay my respects to my ancestors again today."

The more he looked forward to this worship, the more uncomfortable Yinsui felt. The last time, he killed the fattest chicken, and the last time, he took out all the decorations with the blessing of "prosperity" left over from the New Year at home and hung them up.

The rooster blood splattered in the yard was no different from human blood. When hot water was poured on it, it flowed away along the sewer. The word "Fu" on the door was ostentatious and dazzling, and the small red lanterns like persimmons still hung on the branches of the leafy fruit trees, displaying "good luck and good fortune" upside down, but in vain.

"Sui Sui, eat breakfast first."

She had no appetite at all, so she took the steaming black sesame paste and said, "Okay." She put the spoon into her mouth and poured it into her stomach, her eyes glancing vaguely at the scene that was commonplace to every rural person in the yard.

Qiong Qing bent one knee and stepped on the high platform to help catch the chicken. She pinched the base of the wings with one hand and pressed the chicken's head down with the other hand, easily subduing the struggling rooster.

The kitchen knife flashed with a cold light and slashed horizontally along the place on the neck where the hair had been plucked in advance. Dark red blood immediately spurted out into the iron basin, leaving a few sticky marks on the edge of the basin. The chicken claws with sharp nails stretched out and kicked around randomly, but the wrinkled and weathered old hands did not move at all.

This was a chicken bigger than they had expected. Seeing that the iron basin was about to fill up, Yinsui quickly replaced it with a new one, and as he did so, his fingertips inevitably dripped with warm blood, which felt sticky to the touch.

"Stand away, don't get your white clothes dirty." Jianlin picked up the sacrifice whose vitality had been completely drained, shook it casually a few times, and squeezed the little blood out of the body.

Then pour boiling water, pluck the hairs, and serve until cooked.

"Go play in your room later. Your grandma and I will come."

Qiong Qing was in an unusually good mood today, and she wanted to tease him, "Your grandfather is about to have a private conversation with his ancestors."

The old man, who couldn't take a joke, put his hands behind his back and said angrily, "Isn't he one of your ancestors?"

The old couple were distant relatives in terms of blood relationship, but tracing back to their roots, they did have the same ancestors.

"Look, your grandfather loves to be so serious and prudish, and he gets so angry when you make a joke."

In order to prevent mosquitoes, the doors and windows of the room where the elderly live on the first floor are covered with fine green gauze.

The things on the table were pushed to both sides. She climbed onto the platform and knelt on it. Through the small fluorescent green hole, the silhouettes of the two old men walking around were as thin as two pieces of collage. The whole ancestor worship ceremony was like a shadow play.

Jianlin sighed: "Shall we start?"

"Um."

One last try, one last time.

In a red and white patterned porcelain basin, a plucked rooster was crawling with its eyes open, its bare neck resting alone on the wide edge of the basin, its head tilted to one side.

Their knees knocked against the floor tiles, incense ashes fell, and they tried their best to straighten their backs to show their willing piety.

In the past, ancestor worship was just a formality that was done step by step and almost instantly, but this time I wanted to break my head and get a bruise on my forehead.

Next comes the most important part of burning paper money. The wind blows up ashes and unburned paper scraps, forming a vortex of yellow and black.

Yinsui, who was observing secretly, shook his head and had the illusion that the world was upside down.

Waiting until only ash remained in the brazier, Qiong Qing walked into the bedroom and stroked her granddaughter's hair: "It's almost over."

End...end what?

From Qiong Qing's excitement, she understood that it must be a good thing, but Yin Sui felt an inexplicable fear approaching. Further questions would easily bring psychological pressure to the elderly. They were already under a lot of pressure because of feeling indebted to her, so she focused on analyzing his expression and chose to remain silent.

The next morning.

The long-sealed door bolt was pulled out, and with the dull clanging sound of the iron door, the long-lost world opened to this home.

Yinsui, with sleepy eyes, glanced at his grandparents' faces in confusion.

Qiong Qing smiled and gestured for her to look outside the door: "When have I ever lied to you?"

“…”

An elderly man from the same village who was strolling in the morning was surprised when he saw her look. He said in amazement: "Your granddaughter is up so early, while my granddaughter is still fast asleep in the house, eating and sleeping like a piglet."

As if she was getting to know the village all over again, she carefully observed everyone's expressions. It was really as if nothing had happened. Everyone looked natural and kept silent about the recent abnormalities.

"Children of their age should get more sleep to grow taller."

"Haha, that's true. I think Sui Sui has lost some weight again. She should eat more."

"He's still making up for it. This child is a picky eater." Qiong Qing agreed.

The old man chatted for a long time before continuing his walk.

Yinsui walked out of the door slowly. The pear trees planted in front of his house were about to be harvested, and the weeds on the roadside took advantage of the window period when few people trampled on them and sprouted lushly.

Many familiar faces came and went on the road.

The sun rises in the east, and the sky is filled with colorful rays of light.

All living beings are like a newborn calf between heaven and earth. Even with its bloody fetal membrane still clinging to the old night, it is about to raise its hooves and tremblingly chase the world.