C3

Glass parked the car on the road, and we walked up the path. It took us three minutes to see Uncle Fu's house from a distance. It was a small courtyard. Naturally, the walls of the courtyard were also made of earth, just like the old houses. The courtyard door opened to the north, directly opposite the main house, which was also the main house. To the east, there were two side houses supported by the courtyard wall. According to custom, it should be the kitchen and the house where the cattle and sheep were kept.

Glass was very excited as she walked along this path. She would kick the rocks on the side of the road and dig her way through the grass. She hurriedly said, "What a winding path."

"Glass, don't talk too much later. There are many taboos against rural people, so don't make others feel disgusted!" I am worried that the glass is a city person, moreover is a small family, the son of a rich family, has always been rebellious, the mouth has no cover, so it is better to remind.

"Don't worry, I understand!" This guy obviously wasn't paying attention when he said that. He didn't even look at me.

While we were talking, we came to the front of the yard. There was an open space outside the yard, and a pile of dung was piled up in the northwest corner. To the east of the clearing, there were a few trees that had been cut down. They were wild mulberry trees, and they looked like they had just been cut down, because the marks on the stumps were still fresh.

"Look at that blind man!" said Glass suddenly, pointing in the direction we had come from.

I followed his hand and found myself walking down the same path. He was about fifty years old and wore a single hat with a green border. He wore a dark blue Chinese tunic, the blue one was a little black, and he held a thin bamboo pole in his hand. As he knocked on the road in front of him, he slowly walked forward, looking very focused. It was only when the man got close that I could see his face. It was round and a little fat, with a mole above the left corner of his eye.

I have seen this man before, he is the fortune-teller from the eastern part of the village, but I can't say that I know him, because I only know his surname is Li. As for his name, I really don't know it. In the villages around us, the mention of the leopard cat was known to everyone. As for how the leopard cat was blind, there were two versions of the story in the village, but they were quite similar. One was that the leopard cat had helped people tell their fortune when they were young, and had peeped too much into the mysteries of heaven to send a leopard cat to blind them; the other was that the leopard cat had scratched too much of Feng Shui in the early days to make people see him blind. Although it was slightly different, it was all related to the leopard cat, hence his nickname. As for the fact that I didn't dare to say anything about his fortune telling, it was only because it sounded like it. But this person really isn't simple, there isn't any place he couldn't go with just a bamboo pole, and I've personally seen him walk for dozens of miles to get to the market.

The leopard cat stopped before the entrance of Uncle Fu's courtyard. The expression on its face seemed to be very grave. After a while, the president let out a long sigh. I think he knows the whole story, but he can't say it. I walked toward him, the glass right behind me. The leopard cat seemed to hear our footsteps and turned to us.

"Uncle Li!" I called out to him as a form of greeting.

When the leopard cat heard this, her expression changed as she smiled and said, "But Erlang is back?"

I was surprised that he still remembered my voice even after not seeing him for so many years. "You still remember me?" I thought back to when I went to university to ask him about my studies.

"His eyes are out of sight, but his ears are extremely sensitive, so he can still remember the sound." The leopard cat suddenly changed her words. "Erlang, come here!"

I hurried up to him and said, "What do you always tell me?"

The leopard didn't say anything. She just touched my forehead with her hand, then down my cheek to my chin, then down my neck to my shoulder. "Okay," she said.

I was confused and didn't know where the good word came from. So I asked, "Uncle Li, can you tell me what's the best way?"

After saying that, she turned around and walked away. After she walked about six or seven steps, she suddenly turned around and said, "Erlang, take care of that friend beside you. From the sound of his footsteps, I feel that he's too lacking in temper and is likely to provoke some trouble."

I only wanted him to send me home. Who would've thought that he would get involved with me instead of joining in on the fun. Now that the leopard said he was short of temper, it only increased my worries, but I couldn't quit because of the dream.

When I saw that the leopard was gone, I said to the glass, "You'd better go back to the car. You heard what the leopard said."

When Glass heard this, she became anxious, "Don't say that, we're already at the door. Furthermore, I am taller and fatter than you and stronger than you. Since you are fine, how could I possibly be alright? "

"That's not it. This has to do with a person's fate, and not his body's obesity." Anyway, I was determined not to let him into this yard, and the glass was determined not to let him in. We bickered and nobody gave in.

At this moment, a person hurriedly walked out from the courtyard. I took a look and discovered that it was Uncle Fu's biological brother, Uncle Fu. When Uncle Lai saw me, he was stunned. "Erlang, why are you here?"

I said I'd come to see Aunt Guihua.

"Did you see the leopard cat?"

"Oh, I just left. I shouldn't be too far away." "No," I said.

"Why did you leave, really," said Uncle Li. "You go in and sit down, and I'll go look for him." Then he went after the road.

"Liu Siniang, the reason I didn't let you in was for your own good. I was the one who brought you here, I don't want anything to happen to you here. I can't bear this responsibility." I said seriously.

Glass started, as if she had never seen me so serious. She knew I would be furious if she kept making a ruckus, so she lowered her head and thought for a moment. "Okay, I'll go back to the car. Call me if there's anything." With that, he turned around and left.

Looking at his back, a rock dropped from my heart. I thought to myself, Thank god you've finally left. If something were to happen to you here, even if I die three times, it wouldn't be enough to save your life. Glass walked to the front of the car, not forgetting to wave her cell phone at me as she went in.

Go in and see, I thought, and maybe that will solve the mystery of my dream. As soon as I entered the courtyard, I felt a chill run down my spine and a cold sensation rose from the soles of my feet.

How could this be? Am I hit by the Yin Qi here? But then he thought, don't scare yourself. What are you afraid of, with so many people in the living room? I adjusted my state of mind and took a few more steps forward. Suddenly, a "hua hua" sound rang out above my head. I abruptly raised my head to look. It turned out to be a white poplar tree. The tree was planted in the northwest corner of the yard. It was quite dense, and the trunk of the tree needed at least two people to come over. As the yard was small, it basically covered the entire yard.

No wonder he felt a chill all of a sudden. It was because this poplar tree blocked all the sunlight, so the courtyard was clearly colder than the outside. I looked up at the tree. When I looked back, a white figure flashed through the leaves and disappeared. When I subconsciously looked back, there didn't seem to be anything special. Could it be that the leaves were swaying, and a ray of sunlight just happened to penetrate in, so I was seeing things? That's the only explanation, I thought.

"Erlang, why are you in a daze? Hurry over."

I turned around and saw that my mother was standing in front of the door of the living room, calling for me. She probably saw me in the room and was afraid that I was too young to understand anything, so she quickly called me over.

"Oh." I replied and quickly walked over. Just as I turned around, I suddenly had a strange feeling that someone was staring at me from behind. I turned my head and saw that there was no one there. At this moment, the white poplar tree whooshed again.

I came to the main room, the main house, which was divided into three rooms, east, west and middle. It took me a while to get used to the dim light, so I was able to see the furnishings. The furnishings in the room were actually very simple. There was a long table at the back of the room opposite the door. There were two tea bottles on the table along with other miscellaneous items wrapped in plastic bags. No one knew what was inside. One of the rooms to the west contained a canopy in our local dialect, woven of reeds, about twenty centimeters wide, which was placed round and round, wrapped in a layer or two of plastic cloth, and poured the grain into it. Because of the tendency of the grain to flow outwards, the overlapping parts of the two circles were pressed tight, and sometimes a thick layer of wheat bran was placed at the very bottom to prevent moisture. A room to the east was separated from the one in the middle by a cloth curtain. It was probably the bedroom inside.

Right now, Aunt Guihua was lying on a small bed in the middle room. The bed was placed vertically in front of the door, which meant that her head was facing the door and there was a square table in front of her. When I saw them put Auntie Gui Hua like this, I knew that this time Auntie Gui Hua might really leave. According to the customs, only those who were about to die or were already dead could be placed like this. If a normal person were to sleep like this, they would definitely be scolded by their family.

I looked at Aunt Guihua who was lying on the bed. She was lying flat on the bed with her clothes on, probably because it was still very hot, so I didn't cover her with a blanket. Her face was haggard, devoid of any color. Her face was dark, with high cheekbones. There was not a single bit of flesh on her face. Only the slight rise and fall of her chest indicated that she was still alive. I looked at it for a while and kept feeling that something was wrong. So I whispered, "Mom, do you feel anything wrong?"

Mom was stunned, then glanced at me. "What's wrong? Don't speak nonsense!"

"No, I keep having the feeling that something is wrong with her posture." "Yes, her head is wrong, her head is too upturned." "I don't know," I said.

"Is it too much of a problem? Look at what you're saying, you didn't even sleep properly when you were young. "

"You don't believe that she will change back after you put her right."

His mother did not believe him and stepped forward to put Auntie Gui Hua's head straight before retreating immediately. "Kid, be careful —" Before she could finish her sentence, Aunt Guihua suddenly jerked her head back, as if someone had yanked back her hair. When his mother saw this, she didn't dare to say anything else. She quickly looked at the others and found them sitting at the side discussing something. The meaning of the conversation didn't seem to notice at all. He really didn't know if these people were here to look after the people or to gather and chat.

I rubbed my eyes because I was wearing contact lenses, which made it hard to stay in this environment for too long. At the same time, I felt an itch on my forehead and scratched.

"Erlang, what are you scratching your forehead for?" Mom asked.

"It's a little itchy, isn't it just scratching once? What's there to be surprised about?"

"Just once? "Ever since you entered this room, you've been scratching yourself. Come here, let me take a look. If you can't do it, then hurry back home." It was clear that Ma didn't want me to stay here. She walked over to take a look and shouted, "I'm almost bleeding from the scratches, and you're still saying that it's alright?"

I touched my forehead and felt that the two bruises on my forehead had swelled up. Those two scars were from when he was a child helping his grandfather with some white matters. It turned out to be two birthmarks, and they were knocked onto the wall unerringly. The scars on them later fell, leaving behind two white marks. Since this imprint was especially similar to the two eyelids, similar to the legend of Erlang Shen, my little name, Erlang, came from here. Therefore, this Erlang wasn't the Wu Erlang in the glass mouth, but Yang Erlang.

No, my eyes were too dry, so I closed them to let the tears moisten them. Unexpectedly, just as I closed my eyes, I felt as if my whole body had been electrocuted. I felt numb for a moment, and my legs couldn't support me as I fell onto Aunt Gui Hua's bed. Startled, my vision went blank. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't. I could only hear their frantic voices.

"Help him sit down and rest. Slow down!" It was his father's voice.