Speaking of which, this story happened twenty years ago.
There is a strange custom in Liu Village, a small village located on the endless plains, that is, the newlywed daughter-in-law is not allowed to go to the pond at the end of the village on the first day after her wedding.
This custom has been around for a long time. The strange thing is that the First Theater helps ghosts . On the plains, only Liu Village has this custom, and even in Zhangjiazhuang, which is only five or six miles away from Liu Village, there is no such saying.
This custom has been passed down from generation to generation, and no one has violated this custom for decades. The new wives are happy to do nothing anyway.
There is a young man named Guoli in the village. His parents died when he was young, and he grew up relying on charity from his fellow villagers. The village gave him land, and Guoli relied on his intelligence and ability to live a prosperous life. I have a girlfriend named Xiaoxia, who is from another village and is already busy getting married. Even though she doesn't know a few Chinese characters about "National Ceremony", Xiaoxia is a high school student. The two have a good relationship, and Xiaoxia often comes to help Guoli with housework. Xiaoxia's mother often said that Xiaoxia, before she got married, would go to the national ceremony every day and make people gossip, but Xiaoxia was a well-educated person and ignored that.
Before Xiaoxia and Guo Li got married, Guo Li told Xiaoxia about the village customs, but Xiaoxia thought it was superstition. Moreover, Guo Li is an orphan. If Xiaoxia doesn't go to wash her on the first day after her wedding, should she ask Guo Li to do it? It makes people laugh out loud when a man does something like this.
After the wedding banquet was held in a lively manner, it was already midnight by the time those lively young people left. After working hard for a long time, Guo Li and Xiaoxia fell asleep on the bed. Before falling asleep, Guo Li said: "Don't go to the pond at the end of the village to wash things tomorrow morning. Wait for me to go."
Xiaoxia woke up early in the morning.
When I woke up, I saw Guo Li still sleeping soundly, thinking that Guo Li was too busy preparing for the wedding. So she quietly got up, went to the kitchen and took half a basket of potatoes, two pickled duck eggs, a lump of pickled vegetables, and took the two people's dirty clothes, and went to the pond at the end of the village to wash things.
Xiaoxia was washing her clothes and thinking about her future life, feeling very sweet in her heart.
Just as she was thinking about it, Xiaoxia saw a handkerchief floating on the surface of the pond. Who is it so early? It must be the sister-in-law or aunt in the village who should say hello. Xiaoxia raised her head and looked around. There was no one by the pond.
Look at the small handkerchief in the pond again, it has floated not far from Xiaoxia. The handkerchief is very delicate, not ordinary cloth, but silk. The white handkerchief is embroidered with pink lotus flowers, green lotus leaves, and two colorful mandarin ducks. The more Xiaoxia looked at it, the more she liked it. It was not very far away from her, and it seemed that she could reach out and grab it, so she stretched out her hand to grab it. But after fishing and fishing, it was always a little short of the small handkerchief.
Thinking about Xiaoxia, she was about to give up, but the small handkerchief drifted closer to Xiaoxia. Maybe she could catch it this time. Xiaoxia looked at the delicate little handkerchief and really liked it, so she moved her body towards the pond and reached out to catch the handkerchief again. But it was still a little bit off, just a little bit off. Xiaoxia moved her body a little further into the pond. Finally caught it, Xiaoxia grabbed the handkerchief and was about to pick it up when she suddenly felt her feet slip and she fell into the water.
Guoli woke up from his sleep and found that Xiaoxia was no longer around. He remembered that Xiaoxia might have gone to the pond at the end of the village to wash things, so he hurriedly wanted to go to the end of the village to visit.
Guoli was getting dressed when he heard someone calling him outside, and it wasn't Xiaoxia's voice. Guoli hurriedly walked out, only to see several women standing at the door. They were all sisters-in-law and aunts from the village.
After listening to the chattering of several women for a long time, Guo Li finally understood. It turned out that these women saw Guo Li's clothes and baskets by the pond at the end of the village, but no one was there. After thinking about it, he wondered if it was Something happened to Xiaoxia.
Guoli didn't have time to listen to the discussion of these women and ran towards the end of the village as fast as he could. Sure enough, by the pond at the end of the village, there were baskets and clothes from the Guoli family, but Xiaoxia was nowhere to be seen. A lot of people had gathered by the pond, all talking in low voices. Guoli asked for a long time, but no one had seen Xiaoxia. Everyone thought that Xiaoxia fell into the pond.
Guoli and the young people in the village jumped into the pond to fish for it, but they couldn't catch Xiaoxia.
Guo Li hoped that Xiaoxia just had something to do and left and would come back soon. Uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters in the village also gathered around Guo Li's home to comfort the sad and distracted Guo Li.
There is a crazy old man in the village. He has no children or any relatives. He lives alone in a shabby thatched house at the end of the village. He has white hair on his head and a messy white beard on his face. No one in the village knows how old he is, not even his grandparents. They only know that when they were children, the crazy old man looked like this. It still looks like this.
When the villagers were fishing for Xiaoxia by the pond, the crazy old man was also among the crowd. He said to the villagers: "Don't fish for it, don't fish for it, you can't catch it!" He was so crazy, who would believe what he said? What's more, everyone thought what he said was unlucky, so they drove him away from the pond without explanation. At this moment, everyone at Guo Li's house had finished consoling Guo Li and was slowly starting to leave, when they saw the crazy old man swaying over. As he walked, he said loudly: "I told you a long time ago that I couldn't catch it. , you see you don’t believe it.” After listening to the old man’s words, everyone couldn’t help but wonder, could it be that Xiaoxia really walked away and was seen by the old man? Everyone couldn't help but gathered around the old man and asked him. The old man shook his head, touched under a tree in front of Guoli's house, sat down, and said: "Seven days! Accurately seven days! You go and see again!" What's going on? Under everyone's questioning, the crazy old man told a story, which was a legend about a strange custom in the village. But because it had been so long, no one in the village knew how this custom came about.
According to the crazy old man, in the old days (the specific time cannot be verified), there was a rich old man in Liu Village. From the time he married his first wife, by the time he was almost fifty years old, he had married six Wife. The strange thing is that among these six wives, none of them has given birth to a boy and a girl. Seeing that Liu Laocai was almost fifty years old and had no incense, Liu Laocai was unwilling to do so. So he was still trying to find a wife who could "lay eggs".
Not long after, the matchmaker helped Liu Laocai find a girl named Xiaoxiang. Xiaoxiang lives in Wangjiayin, dozens of miles away. Her family is so poor that she has no food to eat. Her brother is almost thirty and is still single. He has not succeeded in dating several girls. People think he is poor. Although Xiaoxiang's family is poor, she was born white, clean, and happy. Liu Laocai and the matchmaker secretly went to see Xiaoxiang. Liu Laocai liked it so much that he rubbed his hands and told the matchmaker that he would agree to it no matter how much money he spent.
Xiaoxiang originally had a sweetheart who asked her to marry Liu Laocai, but she refused to die. But her parents and brother were greedy for Liu Laocai's money and forced Xiaoxiang to get on the sedan chair.
Xiaoxiang married into Liu Laocai's family, and Liu Laocai's six wives hated her to death. On the morning of the first day after Xiaoxiang got married, six old wealthy women asked Xiaoxiang to get up and go to the pond at the end of the village to do laundry. Xiaoxiang is really a girl with backbone. She threw all Liu Laocai's clothes into the pond, then she put down her braided hair and braided it into a girl's braid. He just closed his eyes and jumped into the pond, drowning himself in the pond.
But since then, every newly married daughter-in-law in Liu Village drowned in the small pond as long as she went to wash things in the pond on the first day after her wedding. The strangest thing is that the body of a new daughter-in-law who drowns in a pond cannot be fished out. However, on the seventh day after drowning, the body will float up on its own, and the body that floats up will not be swollen or deformed. Just like when you were alive. The strangest thing is that the floating corpse always holds a handkerchief, which is quite precious silk. The white handkerchief is embroidered with green lotus leaves, red lotus flowers, and two colorful little ones. mandarin duck.
Since then, this custom has existed in the village. People in the village say that Xiaoxiang, who drowned in the pond, is looking for a companion, especially those frustrated women who have to work by the pond as soon as they get married.
After everyone heard what the crazy old man said, they couldn't help but feel a little cold, because now everyone thinks it is true. Otherwise, in this vast plain, only this small village has such a custom, and there are no other villages? Moreover, in rural areas where the daughter-in-law is regarded as the labor force of the family, it is really unjustifiable to prevent the new daughter-in-law from going to the pond to wash things. Everyone said nothing and walked away silently. No one told Guoli about this legend.
On the seventh day, Aunt Mao Gen went to the pond to do laundry early in the morning. As soon as she got there, she saw Xiaoxia's body in the pond. Aunt Mao Gen ran into the village screaming. By the time Guoli arrived at the pond, Xiaoxia had been fished out. Her body was neither floating nor swollen, as if she had fallen asleep. Her face was still a little rosy, and her hair and clothes were neatly dressed. But her body was already cold.
Guoli saw Xiaoxia's right hand clenched tightly and opened it to take a look. Xiaoxia was holding a handkerchief in her hand. It was made of silk and had a white base embroidered with pink lotus flowers, green lotus leaves and two colorful flowers. Little mandarin duck.