In the northern Jiangsu area, although the land is not fertile, especially if it doesn't rain for a period of time, the dust will fly up, making you look dusty when you go out, but the soil here is very suitable for growing watermelons, peanuts, and apples, and the yield is high and the taste is extremely good. tasty. Especially watermelon, before the 1990s, almost every household had to grow it. At least one or two plots of land were kept for their own consumption, and as many as a few acres of land were sold to supplement family income. Xiaolizhuang Village can be regarded as a watermelon planting base. The small village with only about 50 households has a watermelon planting area of more than 200 acres. The main variety of watermelon is "Xiao Xifeng", and the largest is only It can grow to about two kilograms, and its taste is as sweet as honey. It is also called small honey pot and small honey jar.
The surname Lu is the only surname in Xiaolizhuang Village. Lu Qingming is the second eldest son in the family. Because he was born on the Qingming Festival and belongs to the Qing generation, his parents gave him this name. He just turned 35 years old in 1990. , although he is 1.81 meters tall and extremely strong, he has never been able to find a wife because of his squinting eyes. He has three major characteristics. First, he has a huge appetite and can eat eight or nine in one meal. If you eat steamed buns or four or five large bowls of noodles, you will be nicknamed "Rice Tong"; second, although you have not graduated from junior high school, you are well-spoken and often make witty remarks, and you will be nicknamed "Er Neng Neng"; third, you are brave. He was so big that people nicknamed him "silly and bold". His brother Lu Qingrong had two children, and the family had a heavy burden, so he planted three acres of watermelons to earn some money for the children's school fees. However, compared to his younger brother, he was as timid as a mouse, and the important task of looking after the melons was left behind. When it comes to his younger brother, Erneng Neng is happy to accept it because he can eat at his brother's house openly. Xiaolizhuang's watermelon base is located immediately to the north of the village. There is only a small river ditch and a path between the village and the base, running east-west, giving people a sense of endlessness. Every household's watermelon patch will be built in a triangular shape. The small grass hut is a temporary habitat for melon watchers. It is occupied by people during the day and night to prevent people from stealing the melons.
One night in June, after Er Neng was able to eat ten noodles with steamed buns at his brother's house, he strolled to the watermelon patch to look at the melons as usual. That night, the moon and stars were sparse, and there was a slight mist rising from the fields, accompanied by the chirping of crickets and frogs, creating an idyllic scene.
After walking to the watermelon field, he went to another family's watermelon field to chat with others. He chatted for more than an hour, which made his mouth dry. Then he left and returned to his brother's watermelon field, where he smashed a watermelon and ate it. After getting down, he ducked into the small thatched hut. Within a few minutes he was snoring like thunder. The sound was so loud that it could drown out the cry of frogs.
Around two o'clock in the morning, I woke up due to the need to pee. I was sleepy and ready to pee. But his right arm seemed to be suppressed by something, and he couldn't pull it out no matter how hard he tried. He felt like there was someone sleeping next to him. He was still sleeping in such a small place. He must have been a coward from another family. When he arrived, he was completely sleepless, with his squinting eyes wide open, ready to scold him. Taking advantage of the bright moonlight outside, I took a closer look and saw that she was a woman. Her long black hair covered most of her face, and only one eye was exposed. She was looking at him with wide eyes. She was so beautiful. Ah, I was just happy and didn't want to twitch my arm anymore, so I let him rest on my pillow. The urge to urinate seemed to be gone now, and I looked at the big girl in front of me with a smile.
After about a few minutes of this, Er Neng could feel that something was wrong. He never saw this girl blinking her eyes or heard even a little bit of breathing. Then she took a closer look at her ghost watermelon wearing his wife's clothes . Now The weather was dark but he was wearing thick clothes. He stretched out his left hand and tidied the girl's hair to see whose girl it was. Suddenly, he was stunned. The girl's face was pale with a hint of cyan, her mouth was covered with mud, and her other eye was staring. The round shape is unblinking, and no matter how stupid you are, you can tell that it is a female corpse.
After all, he was brave. It only took him a moment to regain his composure. He supported the girl with his left hand and slowly took his hands out from under his body. He walked out of the small thatched hermitage and called a few people watching the melons nearby. They all used flashlights to look at the melons carefully. Looking at this girl. Suddenly someone shouted, isn't this from Qiancun? His wife's ghost, Xigua , was a distant relative of his. He died a few days ago and everyone was buried. How did the body get here? A few brave people went to the Qian village with this man and called his parents. It turned out that it was their daughter. They went to the daughter's grave and took a look. There was a big hole on the grave with some fresh flowers next to it. After digging the grave, we found that the lid of the coffin was still tightly sealed, but when the lid was opened, there was no body of the daughter. This is really a strange thing in the world, and it is puzzling.
Speaking of the cause of this girl's death, it is quite pitiful. It was the result of an arranged marriage. The parents received a gift of 10,000 yuan from the boy's family, which was an astronomical figure at the time. The boy was burned beyond recognition in a fire when he was a child. The girl's money-hungry parents were so greedy for money that they betrothed their beautiful daughter to someone else. The daughter took medicine and committed suicide in anger. People around her said that this was her daughter's demonstration to her parents that she would rather live with a cross-eyed person than marry that guy who is neither a human nor a ghost.