Chapter 46 Guagua is distracted

On the other side, Xiang Yao came out of Nie's house.

Seeing that it was still early, and thinking that Nie Baichuan would not look for her right away, she strolled along the path, hoping to gather some gossip.

As the saying goes, "A thief never leaves empty-handed." Since she is a little thief who steals melons and has already come out, of course she has to seize every opportunity to search for any melons.

Xiang Yao put his hands behind his back, his eyes darting around.

At this time, there are quite a few people working in the fields, but there is not much to do, just applying fertilizer and pulling weeds.

Everyone was busy with their own things, and not many people were chatting seriously.

Xiang Yao slowed down and listened for a while, but didn't hear anything valuable, so he had to leave.

Just when she thought that this trip would be fruitless and was about to go straight home, she saw a group of elderly people walking hurriedly in the same direction not far ahead.

Judging from the direction everyone was heading, it seemed like they were heading towards the threshing ground.

Whenever there is such a phenomenon, there will usually be gossip!

Xiang Yao cheered up and quickly caught up with the old men and women in front and followed closely behind.

"Fifth Grandma, where are you going?" Xiang Yao asked as he walked beside an old lady with a cane.

This old lady is also a family member. She is about seventy years old and has a high seniority in the team.

People of Xiang Yao's generation all call her Grandma.

Fifth Grandma's ears probably weren't very useful. She looked at Xiang Yao and thought she looked familiar, but she couldn't tell which family the girl came from.

She shouted back, "What did you say? I didn't hear you clearly!"

Xiang Yao leaned closer and shouted in her ear, "Fifth Grandma, I'm asking you, where are you going?"

As soon as her loud voice came out, the Fifth Grandma frowned again and said loudly: "Why are you talking so loudly? I can hear you!"

Xiang Yao: ...

Xiang Yao was speechless...

Fortunately, the fifth grandmother was a kind-hearted person. She said excitedly, "Let's go to the threshing ground!"

Xiang Yao asked loudly again: "What are you going to do in the threshing ground?"

Grandma Wu: "The daughter-in-law of the Siqing family is distracted! We have to go and check it out!"

"Distracted?" Xiang Yao repeated in confusion. What the hell is this?

The fifth old lady was too impatient to answer her and took small, quick steps with her cane.

She is an old lady who already walks slowly and unsteadily, so she must not miss out on the fun!

Xiang Yao saw that she was concentrating on walking, and was afraid that the old lady would fall because of her questions, so she stopped asking her.

However, an auntie came up behind and spoke enthusiastically: "You young people don't even know what it means to be distracted!"

Xiang Yao's eyes lit up, and he nodded and said, "Yes!"

She smiled and politely called out, "Aunt Yang, why don't you explain to me what you mean by distraction?"

Aunt Yang smiled with great pride, thinking that it was a matter of honor to be asked questions by Xiang Yao, a cultured man who had graduated from high school.

He immediately explained, "This is distraction. It's a common occurrence here. It's like a spirit passing by and choosing someone to possess!"

She sighed, "What a pity! Even after the "Four Olds" campaign, the gods didn't come to our side. No one in our team has been distracted for a long time. I heard that other teams have had some!"

Xiang Yao nodded, somewhat understanding.

Isn't this the usual trick used by those witches in the countryside in the past...

Even gods don't come here...

I'm afraid they are afraid of being criticized/struggled against, so they don't dare to use these superstitious methods!

However, Xiang Yao was quite interested in this kind of thing. She had never come into contact with it before, so she asked curiously:

"Aunt Yang, what are you doing when you're distracted?"

She had read novels before, and there were similar stories about "ghost possession" in the novels. It was nothing more than a family member wanting to talk to a deceased family member, so they would seek help from a fortune teller who knew how to do this.

Then the deceased person possessed the witch's body and talked to the people in the family.

However, the "distraction" explained by Aunt Yang was not the kind that Xiang Yao saw in the novel.

She said, "It depends on what kind of god it is!"

Xiang Yao widened his eyes: "Huh?"

Aunt Yang was very satisfied with her expression. She walked forward quickly while speaking rapidly:

"The weather god came once before and said it would rain the next day, and it really rained the next day."

"The god of marriage also came and wanted two young people in our team to get married. Look, they're Ertie and Yunhua. Yunhua's family originally refused to agree, but after this incident, they agreed."

Aunt Yang also knew that these words should not be publicized loudly, so she lowered her voice and continued:

"During the famine, there was an unmarried widow in the neighboring brigade. She said she wanted a son to carry on the family line for her deceased husband."

“Then I happened to meet someone who was distracted and said he was going to give her a son!”

Xiang Yao opened her mouth slightly and couldn't help asking, "And then?"

Aunt Yang said mysteriously, "Not two months later, the widow really got pregnant, and when the baby was born, it really was a boy!"

She raised her chin. "At first, no one believed it. They all said privately that maybe this widow had secretly had a child with another man in the team. But the boy and the widow's man actually looked more and more alike! Now no one said that anymore!"

Aunt Yang stuffed so much information into Xiang Yao's mouth that he was a little overwhelmed.

Of course, she still didn't believe in the idea of distraction. There were many similar methods throughout history, and basically there were reasonable explanations for them.

For example, if we know it will rain tomorrow, it is not difficult to judge the weather in a short period of time.

When Xiang Yao was a kid, her textbooks taught her that clouds in the sky and phenomena on the ground represented what kind of weather would happen next...

For example, when it comes to marriage, who says that it’s not just two young people who are determined to be together and don’t want to go against their families, so they come up with a way like this to convince their families?

Is it possible that the woman compromised, but because she was very concerned about her reputation, she came up with this idea to save face?

As for the widow praying to God and getting pregnant out of nowhere...

Xiang Yao grew up studying biological science. How could it be possible for an egg to combine into a fertilized egg and gradually grow into a baby without sperm?

This was conceived by divine inspiration. Excuse me for being frank, but some powerful figures thousands of years ago had already used this trick.

Of course, Aunt Yang believed it at first sight, but Xiang Yao didn't dare to say it directly.

She asked, "Aunt Yang, what kind of god is this wandering spirit today?"

Aunt Yang's expression was exaggerated: "I heard that he is a god who can heal diseases!"

Well, if it weren't for the fact that these country folks hadn't read many books and had little culture, this god who could heal illnesses would be at least as powerful as Sun Simiao or Li Shizhen...

Xiang Yao originally came here to eat melons. Now that he knew about this, of course he still followed Aunt Yang and decided to go and take a look.

But she still felt that this was not a good thing, and silently decided not to squeeze into the innermost part.

You know, when Zhang Juhua scolded her before, she used the excuse of breaking feudal superstitions, which scared Zhang Juhua to death.

If you get caught for openly practicing superstition like this, it will be a big deal!

Although the old men and women usually walked slowly with hunched backs, Xiang Yao followed behind this series of elderly people and was unable to overtake them.

When they finally arrived at the threshing ground, Xiang Yao thought it would be crowded. After all, it was usually quite lively when people came to watch the fun.

But what was rare was that with so many people gathered around, it was completely quiet, with few people talking.

Xiang Yao and Aunt Yang were standing behind the crowd.

Aunt Yang didn't dare to squeeze in because there were so many elderly people in the room, for fear that they would get sick and be asked to pay for the medical expenses. So she had to stand at the back, looking forward with her head raised.

Xiang Yao spotted the escape route and stood in a place closest to the road on the other side.

Fortunately, the elderly are generally not tall, so it does not affect her vision.

The crowd only saw an unpainted wooden chair and a mottled table in the middle, and on the chair sat a thin, petite middle-aged woman.

This woman is probably the wife of Siqing mentioned by the Fifth Grandma.

The woman's thin face had a serious expression, and she was not at all panicked or timid despite being stared at by so many people.

I think I have already said the opening remarks, and now I have already entered the stage of distracted treatment.

Just when Xiang Yao was wondering and the Siqing daughter-in-law did not show any other abnormalities, an old lady shouted, "It's my turn, it's my turn," and rushed forward to stand in front of the table.

Siqing's wife glanced at the old lady indifferently and told her to put her hands on the table.

The old lady immediately put her wrinkled hands on the table obediently. Siqing's wife first felt her pulse and then looked at her face seriously.

Everyone held their breath, as if they were undergoing a medical examination, and no one dared to breathe loudly.

It was not until Siqing's wife fell silent for a moment, shook her head gently, and sighed that everyone's suppressed anger became even more difficult to release.

Then some people whispered--

"Why is Siqing's wife shaking her head? Is Old Lady Xie dying?"

"Maybe it's a serious illness. I don't know if Siqing's wife can cure it!"

"What's going on? Old Mrs. Xie is usually full of energy, and her hands and feet are nimble, but she doesn't seem to be suffering from any illness..."

"What do you know? Illness is like a mountain falling. Some illnesses are so severe that you don't even feel anything at ordinary times!"

"quiet!"

Siqing's wife shouted loudly and majestically, and all the rustling sounds disappeared in an instant.

Everyone returned to a state of not daring to make a sound, for fear that Siqing's wife would find them noisy and refuse to treat them later.

Seeing that everyone was quiet, Siqing's wife nodded with satisfaction and said to Old Lady Xie:

"Your illness hasn't reached your body yet, but it will soon. Once it does, it'll be like the King of Hell knocking at your door. There's no hope."

Old Mrs. Xie was so frightened by Siqing's wife's words that she trembled and immediately lost all her energy and spirit.

She asked in a trembling voice, "Wife Siqing, what is wrong with me?"

Siqing's wife looked at Old Lady Xie carefully again. Old Lady Xie didn't dare to move, letting the other person's gaze linger on her face. A layer of white sweat broke out on her back.

After a while, Siqing's wife said mysteriously, "This is a secret from heaven. It cannot be revealed."

Old Mrs. Xie’s legs felt weak.

Just at this moment, someone squeezed in and brought a stool.

Someone helped Mrs. Xie sit on a stool, but she didn't even look to see who helped her.

He just stared at Siqing's wife, afraid of missing any expression on her face.