Article | Da Vinci Chen

All my memories of Mr. Da Chen come from the ghost stories he told.

Mr. Da Chen, named Liangsheng, means a good person. Mr. Da Chen is an out-and-out farmer. Born before liberation, I am now eighty-three. He is the eldest in the family, so I call him Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen is the eldest and has the biggest temper. He will yell at anyone he doesn’t like. His eyes bulge, and the whites of his eyes instantly take up half of the eyeball. He has not changed since he got older. . Fortunately, I had some brute strength when I was young, which was of some use. It won’t be impossible to survive.

Mr. Da Chen also has four younger brothers, but his relationship with them is average. The second child had a weird temper. When he was five or six years old, he was adopted by a relative. The relative had no children and only had one daughter. The daughter married the second child when she turned eighteen. The second child was a carpenter when he was young and helped others make longevity materials, that is, coffins. After he turned sixty, he devoted himself to Buddhism. His bedroom was full of Buddha statues and he rarely interacted with the villagers. I often passed by his house and said hello to him, and he nodded in response. After he began to believe in Buddhism, he and his wife began to separate. When the third child was twenty years old, he married a woman from out of town. After getting married, he would go to the woman’s house. Sometimes he would come back once a year, sometimes once every two years. His accent had completely changed. The third child’s wife, I It's rare to see her, because she comes back almost once every ten years on average. The last time she saw her was Mr. Chen's mother, the biological mother of the second child, when the third child's mother held a funeral. When the third child came back to see me, he would share with me how to maintain good health. He could cure stomach problems and lumbar disc herniation by stroking the five fingers. I still don’t know what he does for a living. The fourth child became a soldier when he was 16 years old. He went to the army. He didn’t know what kind of branch he was in. He was discharged from the army three years later and returned to the village. He was wearing two military uniforms at the bottom of the box. There was also a picture of him in military uniform when he was young in a frame hanging on the wall. appearance. After returning from the army, he became a full-time farmer, and then got married to an ordinary rural woman. She was calculating and greedy for petty gains. I have never seen my fourth wife look like she was when she was young. She should be as ugly as she is now. The fifth child is the youngest, only five years older than the eldest child, Mr. Chen. A carpenter makes furniture for people. He married another woman from the town and lived in a very poor life for the first half of his life. He lived in rented houses. Until he was fifty years old, his wife's younger brother, his brother-in-law, suddenly became rich. From then on, the fifth child also became rich. I lived a well-fed life and worked as a small administrator in my brother-in-law's factory. I wore a big gold chain on the outside of my turtleneck. I also began to gain status at the dinner table. I could give advice and everyone at the table would nod. Echo, agree.

Only Mr. Da Chen, in addition to his brute strength when he was young, could earn the most points in the commune when he was young, support his own children, and by the way raise a child only five or six years older than him. The fourth and fifth children. Mr. Da Chen had no skills except for his bad temper and brute strength. Until he was seventy years old, Mr. Da Chen said that he felt that his strength was exhausted and could not work in the fields. Finally, when he was seventy years old, Mr. Da Chen The autumn is also lost. Only his bad temper and age make Mr. Chen unremarkable. Unlike his second brother, who has faith, he occasionally gets the job of making coffins. It's not like the third child who went to a distant place, which is quite mysterious. Unlike the fourth child who was once a soldier, he is now a powerful farmer. Unlike Lao Wu, he is a rich man who can wear a big gold necklace. Because Lao Wu was rich, he would give Mr. Da Chen some personal money every year when he came back, as a way of repaying his kindness in raising him. The fourth child has no money to give, but he will send his most sincere blessings on the 30th night.

Mr. Da Chen originally had nothing, but he was lucky enough to marry a virtuous wife when he was young. When his wife was sixteen, she was introduced to the marriage by Mr. Da Chen's uncle. I often ask Mrs. Da Chen why she thought of marrying him. She said that at that time of that year, there must have been heavy rains for several days, and floods occurred in the surrounding villages. Mr. Da Chen’s uncle was a private school teacher. When he was teaching in their village, he met Mrs. Da Chen. He said to him: "Girl, I have a nephew who is your age. Are you willing to marry him?" ’. Mrs. Da Chen was not Mrs. Da Chen at that time, her surname was Yuan. Miss Yuan did not answer immediately and ran to ask her parents. Miss Yuan's father and mother said: 'Young lady has reached her age, Teacher Chen, we can trust you. ’ Then Miss Yuan followed Mr. Chen’s uncle in a boat, rowed through the flood water after the rainstorm, and came to Chen’s house. She married Mr. Chen in a daze and became Mrs. Chen.

There is no such title as Mr. or Mrs. in the countryside. This is all because they are all acquaintances of mine, especially Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan, so I call them this.

After Miss Yuan married Mr. Da Chen, she started a new life. Mr. Da Chen was strong at that time and could earn the most points. This is what Miss Yuan told me. Ms. Yuan also had brute strength at that time and could earn the second most points. In addition to raising Mr. Chen's father and mother, the two of them could also support other family members in their extended family, especially the fourth and fifth children who were young at the time. Mr. Chen has a bad temper, and he has the same temper in front of Ms. Yuan. The difference is that Mr. Chen listens to Ms. Yuan's words but not to anyone else. When Miss Yuan talked about the past, she told me that Mr. Da Chen was very honest, and to put it bluntly, he was stupid. He only knew how to work hard by himself, but he didn’t know that at that time, he was actually eating from a big pot, and it was useless to work hard. Sometimes I can be so tired that I vomit blood, but I still just need the leader's order to do it recklessly. After finishing his work, he also liked to eat big meals. He ate as hard as he worked hard, and once he almost burst his belly.

After all, Mr. Da Chen didn’t burst his belly because he was eating so hard, but it was because he was working so hard that something happened. Once, he worked too hard and dislocated his right arm, so he had to find a country doctor, a barefoot doctor, to set the bone. The barefoot doctor couldn't do anything, so he finally broke the bone to the opposite place. He went back and forth several times. Mr. Chen stamped his foot in pain. Finally, the barefoot doctor roared and the bone clicked. ‘Okay. ’ said the barefoot doctor as he wiped his sweat. Mr. Da Chen stopped stamping his feet and thanked the doctor. A month later, Mr. Da Chen discovered that the bones were connected backwards and the entire elbow was bulging. For the rest of his life, Mr. Chen lived with a right arm that could not be bent. For this reason, Mr. Da Chen learned to eat with his left hand. Ms. Yuan asked me: "Do you think he is stupid or not? He can't even tell if he is in pain." ’ I said he was stupid. I asked Ms. Yuan why she didn’t go to the barefoot doctor to settle the score. Ms. Yuan said that it was hard to find anyone in those days. However, ten years ago, Mr. Da Chen met the doctor who gave him the wrong hand on the street. However, he no longer recognized Mr. Da Chen and everyone because he had Alzheimer's disease. Mr. Da Chen put his hand in front of the barefoot doctor and said loudly, you picked this up for me back then, what the hell are you going to do now. The barefoot doctor didn't know who Mr. Da Chen was and was relatively speechless. Mr. Da Chen had a bad temper but was not violent. I could only stare at the barefoot doctor angrily and then let it go. Nothing is lost in time. Mr. Da Chen continued to live the rest of his life with his right arm that could not be bent.

In this way, Mr. Da Chen, with his unbendable right arm, and Miss Yuan raised the entire family. Mr. Chen can still earn the most commune points, and Miss Yuan is second. The only regret is that they have no children. People in the village said that Miss Yuan was a stone girl, a woman who could not give birth to children. Everyone in the village is laughing at the joke. Women who cannot have children have no status. Miss Yuan has no status at all. It's just that she still has brute strength, which is still useful. At first, some people suspected that Mr. Da Chen was stupid and did not know how to give birth to a child, but people will always grow up. Thirteen years later, if he still cannot give birth to a child, it is not a problem of lack of knowledge. In order to gain status for Miss Yuan and to have a child, Mr. Chen searched everywhere for a recipe to give birth to a son, but he couldn't find any. Finally, Mr. Chen's mother came up with a brilliant idea. It was better to divorce Miss Yuan and marry another one. Mr. Chen had no idea and asked Miss Yuan if he could divorce her. Miss Yuan said nothing and just cried secretly all night. Mr. Da Chen was stupid, he was confused about everything, but he made the smartest decision in his life that night. The next day he told his old lady with bound feet: He can live like this for the rest of his life. The old lady with little feet couldn't do anything to him, because she knew that her son might never marry another woman, so she didn't mention this wonderful idea again.

Maybe God is really kind sometimes. The next year, Mr. Chen and Ms. Yuan gave birth to Xiao Chen. The whole family felt like they had found a treasure, and Ms. Yuan no longer had to endure other people's strange looks from now on. Mr. Da Chen has also entered another stage of life. Mr. Chen was not particularly happy about Xiao Chen's appearance. Firstly, he was stupid, and secondly, everyone said that Xiao Chen was actually someone else's child, which was another brilliant idea thought up by his mother. In this way, there will always be someone to take care of him, Littlefoot said. Mr. Da Chen didn't believe this. Xiao Chen was their flesh and blood, so Mr. Da Chen took Miss Yuan and Xiao Chen into another stage of life.

When Xiao Chen was ten years old, Mr. Chen suddenly said in front of everyone one day: 'Our family of three is going to separate. ’ Mr. Da Chen has his own ideas. If he and Miss Yuan’s points only support the three of them, their lives will be much easier. At that time, the young Lao Si and Lao Wu went to see Miss Yuan in tears. Miss Yuan was a woman with a heart as good as gold and promised to wait until Lao Wu turned 18 before we separated the family. Lao Wu smiled happily, and Lao Si secretly happiness. Mr. Da Chen was shouting outside that he must go out separately. The whole family sitting there did not dare to speak because of his yelling and cursing. Mr. Chen has a bad temper and no one dares to say much. But Mr. Chen listened to Miss Yuan, and Miss Yuan said he would talk about it in three years. Three years later, when the old man turned fifty-eight, Mr. Chen took Miss Yuan and Xiao Chen and separated them. I found a place and built a small earth house with bricks made of earth. When the house was built, Mr. Chen set off a firecracker to celebrate the move. Shortly after moving in, Mr. Da Chen's father also passed away that year. Mr. Chen set off another bigger firecracker to send Dad off. Mr. Chen said goodbye to his father. He himself became the oldest male in this big family. Everyone advised him not to leave. ‘My house is all built. ’, without any nostalgia, Mr. Chen took Miss Yuan and Xiao Chen to firmly start a new life.

Mr. Chen has endless strength, and Miss Yuan has the ability to manage a family. Together they started a new journey in the small earthen house, and the two of them earned the first and second most points. That year, the old man had just drawn a circle in the south. However, in that era of underdeveloped information, Mr. Chen's circle had no other impact on his life. Everything is as it was before, except for a corner of the small earthen house occasionally broken by rain. Mr. Chen hopes that when Xiao Chen reaches the age of sixteen, he can follow his younger brother Lao Wu and go out to learn the carpentry trade. In order to help Xiao Chen adapt to adult life as early as possible, Mr. Chen asked Xiao Chen to learn the craft of making coffins with his second uncle, Xiao Chen's second uncle, three years in advance. Xiao Chen has become lazy and careless under Miss Yuan's pampering since he was a child. Mr. Da Chen is different. He thinks boys should endure hardship and learn skills earlier. Miss Yuan said, I can help you bear your hardships, and I can also bear your son's hardships. Let him grow up a bit. Mr. Chen did not listen to Miss Yuan this time and sent Xiao Chen to his second son's house when he was thirteen years old, asking him to teach Xiao Chen the carpentry craft. ‘I can only make coffins. 'The second child said to his biological eldest brother. Mr. Da Chen said: 'It's not gold, not copper, not iron. The coffin is made of wood, and it's also a carpenter's craftsmanship. ’ Xiao Chen had no choice but to drop out of school at the age of thirteen and began a painful apprenticeship. His palms were beaten every day, and there were bruises on his back.

So after Xiao Chen finished making the coffin every day, he would cry in front of Miss Yuan. Miss Yuan could do nothing but wipe Xiao Chen's wounds and cry secretly every day. In this matter, Mr. Da Chen turned into a bastard who ate the weight. Xiao Chen learned to make coffins for three years, and was beaten for three years. Miss Yuan cried for three years, and Mr. Chen became a bastard for three years. As soon as he turned sixteen, Xiao Chen took his luggage and said goodbye to Miss Yuan and Mr. Chen, saying that he would go to his fifth uncle to learn the real carpenter's craft. Xiao Chen knew that Uncle Wu would remember the kindness of Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan in raising him and would not be cruel to him. Before Xiao Chen left, he cried and hugged Miss Yuan, vowing to turn the small mud house into a big brick house. Then he told Mr. Da Chen that he had succeeded in his studies in the past three years, and he would make Mr. Da Chen’s coffin in the future. Da Chen didn't hear clearly and watched Xiao Chen leave. Xiao Chen took his luggage and rushed to Hainan. It was a distant place that was not only rich in coconuts and mangoes, but also houses in that era. It was a gold mining holy land.

The year after Xiao Chen left, Mr. Chen and Ms. Yuan started the next stage of their lives. In a small earthen house, two people began to live together and looked forward to a life of one person. Another characteristic of time is that most of it has no memory. For individuals, most of it is repetition, blank and repetitive blank. I asked Mr. Da Chen what else he remembered from that time. Mr. Da Chen always shook his head and said he couldn't remember anything. Then he always says to me: ‘Do you want to hear a ghost story? ’

Mr. Chen’s ghost story is the worst ghost story in the world. I only remember one thing so far. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I came to Mr. Chen. As usual, I asked him some things about the past. He said I don't remember. Why don't I tell you a ghost story. Mr. Da Chen then said: ‘One day, I drank.

At that time, I was assigned to work the night shift, and I was afraid that people from neighboring villages would come and steal our watermelons, which were planted around a cemetery. I stayed up until midnight. I was thirsty and didn't want to drink water. I thought I might as well steal a watermelon to eat. Then I saw no one was around. When I was preparing the watermelon, I heard a voice not far away. I stood up immediately. It seemed that Someone came to steal the melon. I quickly shouted who it was. But no one responded. At that time, I no longer dared to steal melons, so I walked over to check. Nothing. At this time, I seemed to see a figure standing beside the grave in the distance. I was so frightened that I broke out in a sweat. When I looked carefully, I saw a tombstone where the figure was standing. That tombstone belonged to my father. I thought that my father had come to talk to me, so I felt relieved. I knew that he was He must have had some objections to my previous move out, and he came to me to argue with me. I was scared at first, but then I thought he wouldn't do anything to me, so I braved it and went over. I walked all the way thinking about how to talk to him. I wanted to tell him that I was not targeting anyone by breaking up, but I just felt that when people grow up and start a family, they have to separate. I will say sorry to him. But when I walked up to him, he was nowhere to be seen. I told my dad’s tombstone that I was sorry. Then I slept next to him all night. ’

‘Then what? ’

‘Then it was gone. ’

‘What a ghost story this is! ’

‘This is not a ghost story, this is a real thing that happened to me. I have never seen my father since then. I hope he rests in peace and I'm fine. ’ Then Mr. Chen looked at the moon, touched his face, and said, ‘Look, the moon is out. Did you know that after death, people go to the moon? ’

I retorted: ‘How can the moon be so small and hold so many people? ’

Mr. Da Chen said: ‘The moon is very big, bigger than the whole of China. sure. ’

This is the worst ghost story I’ve ever heard.

In this way, a few years later, Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan lived in their small earthen house as usual, and could see Xiao Chen once a year. Xiao Chen is already twenty-two years old, and Mr. Chen said he is old enough to get married. So he went to a neighboring village to find a girl. After the Lantern Festival that year, Xiao Chen took Mrs. Chen with him. The two of them carried their luggage and said goodbye to Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan together. Miss Yuan cried when she said goodbye to Xiao Chen and Mrs. Chen as she had done for the past six years. Mr. Da Chen also stood in front of the door to say goodbye, just like he had for the past six years.

Mr. Da Chen felt that he had entered another stage of life, from looking forward to a person's return home to looking forward to a couple's return home. Watching Xiao Chen get married, the next step is to have children. He looks forward to the arrival of his grandson. Because he and Miss Yuan can't wait to have their grandson. In this way, the small earthen house can be lively and lively, without letting the moss in the house make the surroundings deserted. As expected, two years later, Mr. Xiao Chen's eldest son and Mr. Da Chen's eldest grandson were born in Hainan. On the day when Xiao Chen brought Xiao Chen home, Mr. Chen bought a ninety-nine-ring firecracker from the market to celebrate the arrival of a new life. Mr. Chen and Ms. Yuan particularly loved this new life. From then on, there were more cries and laughter in their lives, just like Xiao Chen came to the world and came to them twenty-four years ago.

Their lives have entered a new stage, from looking forward to a pair of people coming home to looking forward to three people coming home. Even during the Chinese New Year, even Mr. Chen could only get along with Xiao Chen for a short time. Perhaps because he was nearly sixty years old, he lost a little bit of his bad temper and started to become a little gentler. She loves her eldest grandson very much. Ms. Yuan said that this was Mr. Chen's attempt to make up for all the harshness he had treated Xiao Chen in the past. This time, watching Xiao Chen leave with Mrs. Xiao Chen and the newborn Xiao Chen, Mr. Chen cried so much that he stayed in the room and did not come out.

Until Xiao Chen gave birth to a son two years later, Xiao Chen left Xiao Chen to Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan in their small earthen house. He took his wife and another Xiao Chen to Hainan to pan for gold. So the annual farewell became three people sending three people off. Time is like moss, like growing legs. It has crawled all over the circle unknowingly. Year after year, Mr. Da Chen knows that he has entered the next stage of his life. Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan take special care of Xiao Chen. Mr. Chen’s regular program is to tell ghost stories to Xiao Chen. I often ask Mr. Da Chen, can such a young child understand ghost stories? Ms. Yuan said that telling ghost stories to a three-year-old child was really scary. She had never seen anyone so stupid.

Mr. Chen doesn't care about this, because he seems to have no other skills except his bad temper and increasingly weak strength. This skill was specially developed for Xiao Chen. But it often scares me into a cold sweat. Xiao Chen can't speak yet and doesn't understand anything.

Xiao Chen picked up a little girl to raise when he was four years old, because Xiao Chen felt that boys would not be good to his father in the future. I think Xiao Chen came to the conclusion from his own situation that his relationship with Mr. Da Chen has never been good. He didn't want his two sons to tell him angrily that they would make him a coffin themselves. The appearance of the little girl made Mr. Chen give most of his love to the little girl. I think Mr. Chen would also draw the conclusion from his situation and think that the boy would eventually say something vicious about making a coffin by himself.

Mr. Chen took Little Chen and the little girl to stay in the small earthen house until Little Chen was seven years old and going to school. At that time, another Little Chen also came back from Hainan. Xiao Chen, his wife and another Xiao Chen left Hainan completely that year and returned home, where they have been until now. I meet them now and ask them to explain why they no longer went out to pan for gold. Xiao Chen said that there were only coconuts and mangoes there, but no houses. Moreover, my parents, Mr. Chen and Ms. Yuan, have also begun to grow old. I was very moved when I heard that, but later I realized that there was really no gold there. That year, Xiao Chen used the money he earned from his many years of wandering to build the first two-story brick house in the village. He fulfilled the promise he made to his mother, Miss Yuan. Xiao Chen said that from now on, he would stay in this house with his three children, a wife, and two old people and never go out again.

Because of the brick house, that year, Mr. Chen and Miss Yuan took Xiao Chen and the little girl out of the small mud house and moved into a two-story brick house. The small mud house is still there. I can still see it when I pass by it, but it is dilapidated, the roof has collapsed, and there are only three walls, because the other wall was borrowed from someone else.

In the year after he moved out of the small earthen house, Mr. Da Chen gradually lost his strength. He found that he seemed to be getting old. During the autumn harvest of that year, he was carrying a load of rice. When he got home, he suddenly put it down and said that he had no strength anymore. From then on, he said goodbye to farm work and no longer worked hard. And he found that he seemed to be unable to defeat Xiao Xiao Chen. Because Xiao Chen lost most of Mr. Chen's favor, he often quarreled and quarreled with him and became disobedient. Mr. Da Chen verified his idea that the boy was useless in the end. But after all, he is his eldest grandson, and he will still tell ghost stories when the time comes. Because he was reluctant to tell ghost stories to his little granddaughter, a little girl. At this time, telling Xiao Chen a ghost story can be used to scare such a young boy. It's just that Xiao Chen has long understood that Mr. Chen's ghost story is the worst ghost story in the world. If you tell it to ghosts, they won't believe it.

When Mr. Da Chen entered the next stage of his life, his mother also passed away. Mr. Chen became the eldest person in the family. As soon as I left, my relatives came to pay my respects to her, and they almost lost contact with her after that. Mr. Chen is getting older and can no longer walk such a long way to visit his mother's relatives. Mr. Da Chen felt like saying goodbye to a world he once knew.

This year, in addition to the death of Mr. Chen’s mother, there were countless nights when Mr. Chen told ghost stories and Xiao Chen and another Xiao Chen listened to ghost stories. Because in this year, Xiao Chen raised a lot of egg-laying ducks again, saying that this was gold mining, but the gold needed to be guarded. Mr. Chen took up this task, taking Xiao Xiao Chen and another Xiao Chen He lived in a small wooden house next to the duck shed and was responsible for guarding the ducks from being stolen by others. When nothing happened at night, Mr. Chen, Xiao Chen and another little Chen lay on a wooden bed covered with straw and started telling ghost stories. Countless nights, sometimes the stars shine, sometimes it snows, but only the beginning of the ghost story has never changed, it always starts from a long time ago or a year or one day. These ghost stories are the worst ghost stories in the world. None of them can scare people, only ghosts.

But there is a ghost story that gradually narrows the distance between Mr. Chen and Xiao Chen who were once estranged by the arrival of a little girl, Xiao Chen's sister and Mr. Chen's granddaughter. Xiao Xiao Chen fell in love for the first time in his life when he was sixteen years old. After falling out of love, he had to live or die. Xiao Chen started a hunger strike after falling out of love. I have advised Xiao Chen that falling out of love at this age is actually normal, and even if they don’t break up, they will eventually break up.

But Xiao Chen just couldn't turn around at that age. Mr. Chen didn't know what broken love was. Seeing that Xiao Chen didn't eat, he made a bowl of instant noodles and brought it to Xiao Chen. Of course, Xiao Chen didn't know how to eat it. No one understood the feeling of falling out of love, even if the smell of instant noodles made him swallow his saliva. Mr. Da Chen walked up and said: Let me tell you a ghost story.

Xiao Chen didn’t want to hear it, but he didn’t want to speak to stop it either.

Mr. Da Chen said: ‘Every time I finished work, I always ate a lot. Once I almost burst my stomach. But I still want to eat it, do you know why? ’

Xiao Xiaochen did not respond.

Mr. Da Chen continued: ‘Because one year, I drank. I was assigned to work the night shift, and I was afraid that people from neighboring villages would come and steal our watermelons, which were planted around a cemetery. In the middle of the night, I was thirsty and wanted to drink water. I thought I might as well steal a watermelon to eat. When I was preparing the watermelon, I heard a voice not far away. I stood up. It seemed that someone had come to steal the melon. I quickly shouted who it was. The figure spoke, it's me, Mr. Chen. Chen Laolai, you know, the man who lived next door to us used to starve to death. I asked him, aren't you dead? He said, I also want to eat melon, I am hungry. I'm a starving ghost. I have to crawl out to eat every day, and you happened to be here today to ask for a watermelon from you. Do you know what I'm saying? ’

Xiao Xiao Chen still didn’t speak.

Mr. Da Chen continued: 'I said, the watermelon is cold. You are already cold enough underground. I will make you a bowl of instant noodles. ’ Then he smiled with his mouth half open.

Xiao Chen couldn't hold himself any longer, and then he resolved it with himself. After serving Mr. Chen's instant noodles, he cried while eating and said: 'This ghost story is terrible. ’

Mr. Da Chen said: ‘Never starve to death, it’s very uncomfortable. ’

Since then, the relationship between Mr. Chen and Xiao Chen has become better and better. After Xiao Chen got over the shadow of broken love, he became sensible and discovered for the first time that there was more than just himself and the girl he liked in the world. There is also his family, Mr. Chen who loves him. That year, Mr. Chen watched Xiao Chen take Xiao Chen to college. From then on, Mr. Chen entered the stage where he began to look forward to Xiao Chen's return once a year, just like he looked forward to Xiao Chen twenty-four years ago. . During the confinement period in recent years, Mr. Chen, like many elders in the world, prepared all kinds of snacks he liked and waited for little Chen to come back. Mr. Chen asked Xiao Chen where he went to school. Xiao Chen said it was far away. Mr. Chen said that the train would take a day. Xiao Xiaochen said that one night would be enough. Mr. Da Chen said, "You have drunk ink, but you can't fool me. It will take at least a day and you have to take a ship." Mr. Da Chen remembers that Xiao Chen used to have to cross the sea when going to Hainan.

Mr. Da Chen did not realize that his memories had begun to intertwine, and at this age, many things would become blurred. Sometimes when I go back and see Mr. Da Chen, I will ask him if he still remembers ghost stories and if I can tell him one. Mr. Chen seemed to have lost interest and said it was scary. I know Mr. Da Chen’s true thoughts. He knows that his life is beginning to count down, and he may become the person in his story soon. When I met Mr. Da Chen, I also asked him what kind of ghost he would become after he leaves this world. Mr. Da Chen said, don’t think about that kind of thing. Then he added: ‘I don’t want to come out to scare you after I die. ’ After the joke, Mr. Da Chen lay in the winter sunshine and began to close one eye to rest, because he could no longer see the other eye, and his hands began to shake uncontrollably. I wonder if he will think of what he has done in the past eighty years in the sunshine.

Three years later, when Mr. Da Chen was eighty-three years old, on an ordinary afternoon, he fell to the ground while using crutches to cross a five-centimeter-high hurdle in the house. I broke my butt and hip and have been confined to bed ever since. Doctors don't want to come to see me, and they don't even dare to give me painkillers because I'm old. Mr. Da Chen didn't realize that his end was approaching at that time, because I came to see him. When I tried to help him turn over, he thought I was going to help him sit up. He told me that I can still stand up now. If it hurts, you need to lie down for a while. Mr. Chen was very happy to see me because he said he hadn’t eaten for a long time. I asked Xiao Chen what was going on, but Xiao Chen pretended not to know. Miss Yuan, Xiao Chen's mother came over and said that he couldn't eat while lying down and just wanted to drink tea. I told them that people who are lying down need to turn over frequently to avoid bedsores.

But when I saw Mr. Da Chen, he had already begun to develop bedsores, and the broken bones made him reluctant to turn over and move. Every night, Mr. Chen's painful moans and his pleas for someone to come over and urinate were heard. Mr. Da Chen was embarrassed at first, but in the end he could only eat, drink, and drink with the help of his family. He lost his dignity. This time, Mr. Chen even lost his bad temper.

Seeing Mr. Da Chen like this, I began to feel that death was around me. I told Mr. Da Chen that everything would be fine and he would be fine if he applied medicine on time. But I already know that this is not optimistic. Because at that time, Mr. Da Chen had begun to eat very little, and the skin where he fell had begun to turn blue, purple, and black. When I was leaving, I went to say goodbye to Mr. Da Chen and said that I was going abroad to a more distant place now. Mr. Da Chen didn't know where it was, but he just wished me well and told me that there were strong winds and waves on the boat, so be careful. Before leaving, I held his hand and said, why not tell a ghost story. After repeating it several times, Mr. Da Chen finally heard what I said clearly, smiled, and said he would talk about it after I got better.

I said yes.

Mr. Da Chen held my hand and said; 'Last time you asked me what kind of ghost I would become in the future, I thought about it. I will not become a starving ghost, because don't worry, I can eat. of. I won’t become thirsty, because don’t worry, I will drink water. I would become a coward. I'm afraid of death, afraid of never seeing you again, afraid of turning into a ghost, and I dare not come out to see you. ’ Then he turned his head to the side and said no more.

Miss Yuan scolded Mr. Chen: ‘Don’t scare him. ’

What Miss Yuan doesn’t know is that all the things about Mr. Chen about ghosts cannot scare people.

Not long after, Xiao Chen told me that Mr. Da Chen was gone. It was one o'clock in the afternoon in a foreign country and I didn't know what to think or say. When I returned from work in a foreign country, Mr. Da Chen had already been buried. The coffin was not made by Xiao Chen. What Xiao Chen said when he left when he was sixteen years old was not fulfilled. Because Xiao Chen was idle at home, he had already abandoned his carpentry skills. It wasn't Lao Er, Da Chen's younger brother who did it, because Lao Er had retired to his bedroom to eat fast and chant Buddha's name for many years and no longer cared about life and death. Only when Xiao Chen ran to ask him if he had chosen a good place to bury his father, the second child said that the place was chosen by the boss himself. It is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and you can see the road across the river. That road is The road that people in the village must take when entering the village and returning home is unmistakable. Xiao Chen is very satisfied. I think Mr. Da Chen would also be very satisfied. He had chosen the place where he would be buried five years ago and opened up wasteland. He had a lot of quarrels with others about it, with his eyes staring and his bad temper. One year I met Mr. Chen, and he happily told me that he had chosen a good place to go to the moon.

Holding paper money, ingots and firecrackers, I came to Mr. Da Chen’s tombstone. In front of it was the small river. From here, I could see the way home. The river was cold. I didn’t know what Mr. Da Chen would do. You won't feel cold. Sitting in front of the tombstone, I thought of all the things about Mr. Da Chen, the ghost stories he told me since I was born, the ghost stories he told me when I was sixteen years old when I was heartbroken and on hunger strike, and the ghost stories he told me while lying on a wooden bed covered with straw. Ghost stories, ghost stories when it snows, ghost stories when the sky is filled with stars. I sat until night, when the moon rose, and I sat in front of Mr. Da Chen's tombstone. Maybe Mr. Da Chen was really what he said, he became a coward and was no longer willing to come out and talk to me. So I said to the gurgling water in front of me, hoping that when the river flows day and night, it can help me tell Mr. Chen: 'Grandpa, thank you for the ghost stories you told me and all the memories you told me about your life, and , the distant place you go to, I can't reach even by boat. ’

[End]