"No one has come to my small place for a long time, which is a rare thing."
The old man made way for Wei Yuan to come in, closed the door, and sat on the wooden chair under the locust tree. He looked at Wei Yuan with a pair of cloudy eyes. Wei Yuan sat on the stone next to him and smiled: "This shouldn't be. Didn't anyone come to visit you before?"
The old man shook his head: "Everyone I know is dead, and the descendants gradually stopped coming."
"Speaking of which, a few young people came yesterday, but they didn't come in and left."
"By the way, I almost forgot, I have to make you a cup of tea. Look at my memory. "
The old man got up again and went back to the house. He made tea while complaining about something. Finally, he brought out two steaming cups of tea in the kind of old porcelain cups. Wei Yuan held the tea in his palm. Seeing that he didn't drink the tea, the old man just thought that he looked down on his ordinary stuff. He raised his hand and drank a sip of tea, and smiled: "I don't know what you came to ask me, an old guy?"
Wei Yuan said: "Ask about someone."
"Who?"
"The best girl who ever sang in the whole Jiangnan Road."
Dang.
The teacup in the old man's hand fell over, and the hot tea dripped onto the ground.
He looked at Wei Yuan who was sitting upright, opened his mouth and said, "...How do you know?"
Wei Yuan said, "I know something by chance."
It seems that because of this sentence, the old man's expression became a little tired. He closed his eyes and seemed to become older in an instant. After a long time, he whispered, "Well, it's good that someone knows. I thought I would take these things to the coffin."
"This matter has to start from the last few years of the Ming Dynasty."
...…
Jiangnan has been prosperous since ancient times. This is a fact recognized by everyone in Shenzhou.
And on the Jiangnan Road, there are two theaters. They think of each other as opponents and have been fighting for many years.
In the past few years, your family has been in the limelight. In a few years, my family will be the leader. The fight is lively and passionate.
That winter, it was a rare sunny day and there was no snow on the road.
The mother of Chunxiaolou brought back a little girl.
She is beautiful and has a good voice.
When she first performed on stage at the age of sixteen, she astonished the audience with her skills. It was like a phoenix crying in Kunshan, and she overshadowed the celebrities of several nearby theaters.
The girl was called Qi Niang, and she became famous overnight.
Many dignitaries came to listen to her singing.
The red silks sent by her patrons were tied on the wooden building one by one, as lively and lively as red clouds.
According to the past, Qi Niang would continue to sing until she was in her twenties, and then she would either retire to teach new people or marry a good family man to be a pure woman. But things are not so good. If everything was perfect as the storyteller said, there would not be so many regrets in the world.
In the year when Qi Niang found her lover, the Japanese pirates invaded the border.
The wave from the west rushed into the Ming Dynasty, which had been under the rule for five hundred years.
The dragon that had been entrenched in the east took a nap and was stabbed by a dagger.
After that, Emperor Wuzong of Ming Dynasty was furious and led the army in person. He had written a will, which was the ancestral precept of the Ming Dynasty that the emperor should guard the country and die for the country. The emperor led the army in person, and China was naturally furious. The whole country was united, and after several years of stalemate, it developed rapidly, and finally defeated many coalition forces at the shore of the East China Sea at all costs, letting the world hear the dragon's roar.
But such things are still to come.
That year, the Japanese pirates took advantage of the Ming Dynasty's border defense and marched straight in. One of them even entered Jiangnan.
They were complacent and felt that they were about to defeat the former overlord. After entering the extremely prosperous Jiangnan, they indulged in pleasure, wanted the best wine, the best food, the best women to accompany them, and listened to the best music. Qi Niang was young, but her integrity was strong, and she would rather die.
But that day, more than 30 people in Chunxiaolou knelt in front of her door, and even her mother who brought her back begged her.
In the end, she went to accompany those Japanese pirates.
No one died in Chunxiaolou.
After the Ming army swept away the Japanese pirates, Jiangnan returned to peace, but rumors and gossips came. Everyone knows that it is difficult to force others to sacrifice for themselves, so they have to discredit that person and find a moral high ground for themselves.
So the news came from nowhere, saying that Qi Niang took the initiative to accompany the Japanese pirates.
Then the whole city was in turmoil.
After the intense tension, there needs to be a channel to vent, and the voice of reason will be drowned out by such venting behavior.
Some people began to throw rotten eggs and rotten leaves in front of Qi Niang's door.
Many people began to abuse her as a whore without integrity.
But Qi Niang was still waiting, waiting for the man who had promised her a future and was studying abroad.
Waiting and waiting, until no one listened to her singing, until the red satin on the wooden building faded.
That man did not come back.
Qi Niang threw herself into the well wearing the wedding dress she had sewed.
It was the autumn of that time, and there was a huge snowfall.
The already faded red satin, now as white as the white banners at a funeral, danced on the wooden building.
......
After the story was told, the old man poured himself another cup of tea, and had already drunk most of it.
The tea in Wei Yuan's hand was not touched at all.
"So..."
He stroked the teacup and said, "Did the man let her down?"
The old man wiped the tears that appeared at the corners of his eyes and said:
"Yes, he let her down, but he didn't let her down."
"He joined the army as a student soldier."
"When he resisted the crazy main force of the Japanese pirates, he wrote a lot of letters to Qinniang."
Wei Yuan said, "Why didn't he come back?"
The old man was silent for a while and said, "...Because he died, died in battle."
"In just three days, the pension report and those letters will arrive in Jiangnan, and Qinniang won't have to die."
Wei Yuan was silent, put down the teacup, and said, "Can I see those letters?"
The old man nodded, staggered up, and slowly walked back to the house. He took out a small box from the most conspicuous place. There was a gray-white photo and a stack of letters in it. The handwriting was strong, and the last few letters were stained with deep marks.
The old man handed the things to Wei Yuan: "Look, look, these stories, you can't forget them."
"Even if I die, someone has to know them."
"I still owe Qi Niang three kowtows, I want to say sorry, I was afraid of death at that time, I couldn't speak for her..."
Wei Yuan took the box and looked at the photos of that era on it, gray and white, a young scholar with a bright smile, and a shy girl, that belonged to their past, this is the last knot of the evil spirit.
As long as it is burned and turned into talisman water, it is enough to cause great damage to the evil spirit.
And if it is burned in front of the evil spirit, it can even cause the evil spirit to have a mental breakdown on the spot.
The voice of the Qi Family Army's soul rang in Wei Yuan's ears, and he pleaded hesitantly:
"Sir..."
Wei Yuan looked at the words on the letter, which contained passionate attachment, expectations for the future, and love for the land under his feet. He nodded slightly and hummed. He did not mean to burn the letter, but carefully put the box away, adjusted the piano case and sword case behind him to an angle that was easy to use, and then looked at the old man who sat back under the tree and said:
"Can the old man still walk? I want to see the Chunxiao Tower."
"Isn't this the Chunxiao Tower?"
The old man looked at his hands with turbid eyes and murmured:
"This is not the Chunxiao Tower . "
"I also want to go there, take a last look."
"But the sun outside is too glaring, and I can't walk anymore. I've tried many times, but I can't get out of this yard."
Wei Yuan said, "I'll help you."
He went out for a while, found a black cloth umbrella in an old shop, came back, opened the umbrella, and then helped the old man with one hand. The old man also stood up, once, twice, and stood up suddenly. Wei Yuan quietly looked at the old tree behind the old man, retracted his left hand, pulled out the broken sword that the soul of the Qi family army was entrusted to from his waist, held it in his backhand like a dagger, and cut a thin branch.
The branch shook.
Wei Yuan took back the broken sword and helped the old man walk forward.
Push open the door.
With the help of Wei Yuan, the old man walked a few steps, stood still, and sighed: "I haven't been able to walk out for a long time. The sun is still a little poisonous, but fortunately, I thought I couldn't walk, but I didn't expect that I could walk so fast. It seems that I stayed in that small place for too long."
Wei Yuan held up the umbrella and looked at the sky.
It was cloudy today, and the light gray clouds were very low, and the sun was not visible.
He looked back slightly, and under the old locust tree behind him, on the wooden chair, the old man closed his eyes.
The breathing has stopped for a long time, perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months, or perhaps a few years.
Recalling what the old man said before, saying that he hadn't walked out of this yard for a long time, and that he still had the crouching tiger waist card on him, Wei Yuan knew the old man's condition as soon as he entered the door, so he didn't drink the cup of tea.
He looked at the old man's back.
The obsession is indestructible, the soul is not scattered, trapped in a square inch, called earthbound.
But what binds the soul is the earth, or the things in the heart that are unwilling to let go?
The old man walked more and more relaxed, and walked faster and faster.
It was as if he had left behind something.
Wei Yuan stroked the zither case with his left hand behind his back, held an umbrella with his right hand, and walked out.
There is a tree in the garden, named Kun, and there is a ghost under the tree, which must be a locust tree.
Under the locust tree, a vague shadow, wearing ancient clothes, with the three words "Mr. Huai" embroidered on the cuffs, bowed slightly to Wei Yuan.
Creaky——
The wooden door moved without wind and slowly closed, sealing the old man's body and story in this small courtyard.