Chapter 620: Village Eighth

My hometown, Xiaobinze, is a large village gathering place in the northwest of Aomori Prefecture.

Although the village is large, there are only fields and mountains as far as the eye can see. There is only one road in and out of the village, and the whole village is surrounded by forests and mountains.

I have lived in Xiaobinze since I can remember. I have no dissatisfaction with the isolation of my hometown, and I have never felt that there is anything wrong with it.

The villagers have a good relationship. When I was a child, the villagers would treat children of my age as their own children and take care of each other. To be honest, I really like the simple countryside like Xiaobinze.

To the east of Xiaobinze is the Aoyagi family, which has been uninhabited for many years.

Mr. Aoyagi of that family went to Tokyo to make a living a long time ago and is said to have made a lot of money.

In my impression, for Xiaobinze at that time, the old house of the Aoyagi family was definitely a mansion.

When Mr. Aoyagi did not come back, the key to his house was kept by the village chief. Because it was spacious and grand, the village used it as a gathering place for occasional drinking parties, and it was controlled by the village chief. When I was still a child, I was taken there by my parents several times.

The villagers would also use a house in the Qingliu family as a public warehouse to pile up some worthless items that could not be placed at home.

When the adults in the village gathered in the Qingliu old house to drink, they would also praise Mr. Qingliu who was still in Tokyo at the time.

They said that he made a lot of money and was very promising. Thanks to him, the villagers also had a bright face.

Perhaps the idea of ​​choosing to go out and fight in Tokyo was germinated at that time.

Xiao Binze has always been so harmonious and peaceful.

Until Mr. Qingliu came back.

I heard from the villagers that Mr. Qingliu went home this time because of his mother. His mother was sick, and I don’t remember what the specific illness was. I only know that when he was in Tokyo, Mr. Qingliu spent a lot of money to treat his mother and sold his house in Tokyo.

Later, his mother's illness should have improved. The mother and son, who had no place to live in Tokyo, simply moved back to their hometown, Xiaobinze.

In the countryside, Mr. Qingliu's mother could also receive treatment.

After the mother and son returned to Xiaobinze, the right to use the old house of the Qingliu family was of course returned to the original owner.

The sundries piled up in their house by the villagers were also vacated.

The villagers seemed to welcome the return of Qingliu and his mother and were very enthusiastic towards them. But privately, I have heard a lot of discussions, including my parents, who would complain to the neighbors behind their backs-

"That family, really, why are they coming back at this time?"

"As expected, money in Tokyo is not so easy to make. Of course, they will come back in disgrace when they have no money."

"Don't say that, even if they have no money, they are still Tokyo people. Look at their car. Tsk tsk, didn't they say that they sold their house in Tokyo? Why did they drive the car back? Isn't it just to show off in front of us country people?"

"Haha, Tokyo people."

"..."

The villagers privately call Qingliu and his son "Tokyo people", and that look and tone are definitely not praise.

Because there are so many discussions, I still remember it vividly.

However, as a teenager, I have a good memory of Mr. Qingliu. I remember that he is a very stable, cheerful and polite good man. He was probably in his forties when he first returned to Xiaobinze.

Probably because he had just moved back, people in the village often asked him to help with weeding, moving heavy objects and other odd jobs. Mr. Qingliu did not complain and always did things happily.

He probably wanted to get along well with everyone and wanted to integrate back into his hometown.

As far as I can remember, the first time I had direct contact with Mr. Qingliu was a few months after he came back.

That day, I was walking back to Xiaobinze from the school in Hakkoda Town. Suddenly, I heard a horn behind me and someone called my name.

I turned around and saw Mr. Qingliu's car.

I still remember that car very clearly. It was a very old Toyota AA. It was a rare thing at that time, and it was not even seen in Hakkoda.

Mr. Qingliu rolled down the window and greeted me: "Xiaowang, you must be tired walking back to the village. Do you want me to take you?"

It takes about an hour to walk from the school in Hakkoda back to Xiaobinze. Although even as a child, I could see that the villagers, including my parents, did not like Qingliu and her son. But I really like Mr. Aoyagi who always smiles, so I happily accepted his invitation and got in the car to let him take me back.

At that time, Mr. Aoyagi's mother was sitting in the passenger seat. She was a very kind grandmother.

They seemed to be coming back from the hospital in Hakkoda. Grandma Aoyagi had to go there for regular checkups.

"The car is so amazing."

I got in the car and was curious about the two Toyota AA.

"It's not that amazing, it's just a second-hand car. I bought it before I came back to make it easier to go to the hospital."

Mr. Aoyagi just said this.

Along the way, he told me a lot about Tokyo. He said that he didn't make a lot of money in Tokyo like the villagers said, and that life in Tokyo was actually very hard, but Mr. Aoyagi talked about TVs, shopping malls, underground trams, high-rise buildings...

What he described was a world I had never seen or touched, which made me yearn for Tokyo.

"Xiao Wang, as long as you study hard, you can also go see the outside world." Mr. Qingliu said to me with a smile while driving.

After that, on the way back from school, I would occasionally meet Mr. Aoyagi and his son, and they would still invite me to get in the car and give me a ride.

Back in Xiaobinze, Mr. Qingliu would invite me to his home and treat me to snacks.

I had quite a happy time there.

My parents also knew about my contact with Mr. Aoyagi. Although my father said, "Don't stay with outsiders all the time," he didn't stop me too much.

Until that happened——

That day, the villagers gathered together for a drink again, and of course the reception was held at Mr. Aoyagi’s house. Mr. Aoyagi was semi-forced to drink a lot of wine, and he soon became unconscious.

After the meeting, my father returned home and said in a proud tone: "Tokyo people are not good at it. They only drank half of the drink and left us country folk to fall asleep."

The next day, a huge commotion broke out in the village.

Originally, on this day, Mr. Aoyagi and the village chief agreed to drive the village chief to Hakkoda. But because Mr. Aoyagi was drunk the night before, he probably didn't tell his mother about it, so he didn't wake up in time in the morning.

The village chief waited for him at his house until noon. He became angry because of this. Feeling that he had been slighted and insulted, he flew into a rage.

I followed my father to the old house of the Qingliu family in the east, which was surrounded by villagers.

The villagers, who were usually a group of amiable people, blushed and cursed at the Qingliu family:

"That's outrageous!"

"Do the people in the city look down on us?"

"Get out! Bastard!"

Just because Mr. Qingliu overslept, the villagers scolded him fiercely, and finally had to kneel down to apologize to the village chief.

But this matter did not end there.

The most powerful person in Xiao Binze is the village chief. Perhaps under his instruction, or perhaps the villagers reached an agreement based on rural rules - Xiao Binze implemented the "eight points of the village" against Qingliu mother and son. .

The people in the village completely ignored the existence of Qingliu mother and son.

Even if Mr. Qingliu greets other people, they will only sneer, look away with disdain, and say: "Oh, oh, that's strange, where is this fool calling?"

Or if you meet Mr. Qingliu on the road, the villagers will walk past him and actively seek trouble, shouting: "Don't block the way, do you want to die?"

This kind of childish isolation and bullying is completely unlike what a normal-thinking adult would do, but everyone in the village continued this behavior uniformly, as if everything was going according to plan.

My parents are the same. They yelled at me more than once: "You are not allowed to go to Qingliu's house anymore, you are not allowed to ride in his car, and you are not allowed to interact with him! If you dare to contact that kind of unruly person, Our family will end up like that too!”

Mr. Aoyagi probably knows this too.

Anyway, after that, even when I came back from Hakkoda’s school and encountered Mr. Aoyagi’s car, he never stopped to invite me to get in the car.

I really haven’t been to Qingliu’s house again.

Later, everyone in Xiaobinze still lived in harmony with each other, but they still isolated Qingliu mother and son, and the troublemakers in the village would find trouble with Mr. Qingliu from time to time.

Mr. Qingliu apologized every time, and he became the outlet for the entire Xiao Binze. Once that kind of village-wide isolation and bullying took shape, all the malice inflicted on him seemed to be justified.

It's been a long time like this, and I have grown up slowly.

I remember one day, when the villagers were gathering at a cocktail party at the village chief’s house, Mr. Aoyagi, who rarely appeared in everyone’s sight, took the initiative to come to the door. He looked very angry:

"Who punctured my car tire? If I didn't have a car, I couldn't take my mother to the hospital. If you have anything to do with me, but don't touch my car, my mother needs that! That incident before I have sincerely expressed my humility, and I also want to get along well with everyone!"

However, the villagers gathered together just laughed and paid no attention to Mr. Aoyagi's anger.

"Who would know something like that, idiot!"

"Outside Tokyoites still want to cause trouble for us? Get out of here, you are not welcome here!"

"Your mother, that old woman, should find a place to bury her as soon as possible!"

"..."

Another round of unreasonable curses, and the more he curses, the worse they sound.

Mr. Aoyagi seemed to want to say something, but in the end he didn't say it and just left silently.

After he left, the villagers did not forget to ridicule him again: "You obviously didn't make any money, so what's the point of driving your car every day to show off? If you can, just move back to your city. Really."

At that time, I already had the ability to survive independently and felt...

Maybe I really should leave Xiao Binze.

Not long after that, I went to Tokyo.

I made some money in Tokyo, and two years later I bought my own car, also a Toyota.

I think I should go back to Xiaobinze for a visit. I don’t know why, but rather than visiting the villagers with whom I have always had a good relationship, I want to see Mr. Qingliu, whom I haven’t spoken to for many years.

At that time, Mr. Aoyagi's mother had passed away. I heard that he died because of a long-standing illness, but I don’t know the details.

I just heard that Mr. Aoyagi became crazy later.

He painted strange symbols all over his old house, and his behavior became very strange. Some people saw him wearing only a loincloth and laughing in front of his house on a cold day. Others saw him more than once, haunting the graves of children who died young in Xiaobinze and even Linxian County.

Facing the crazy Mr. Qingliu, the villagers still scolded him when they first saw him, but later they felt that his behavior was very strange, and even if they saw him, they would stay away from him.

I remember that day, I drove back to Aomori.

There was a delay on the way, and when we arrived near Xiao Binze, it was already past one o'clock in the morning.

The road back to the village has been widened a lot, but there are no street lights and it is pitch black.

As I drove slowly through the woods along the river, I suddenly heard someone calling me.

"Xiao Wang!"

It was a very familiar voice.

I stopped the car, rolled down the window, and saw a figure coming out of the woods.

That's Mr. Aoyagi.

Through the light of the car lights, I saw that he was much older than before, his body was thin, and his mental state was very abnormal, but I still recognized him.

Mr. Aoyagi's clothes were very strange. He only wore a loincloth, and he held a mallet and a strange-shaped iron ring in each hand.

"Aoliu...Mr."

"Ah, Wang, it's really you."

He stood and smiled at me, saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth.

I don’t know how Mr. Aoyagi recognized me sitting in the car in the dim environment.

"You went to Tokyo, Wang. Car, hehe, you are doing well, Wang."

Mr. Aoyagi is probably crazy. His tone is vague, and I can't see a normal look in his eyes.

"Would you like to get in the car and I'll take you back to the village?" I asked him, "It's very cold now."

"No, no, I won't go back. I still want... and..." Mr. Qingliu shook his head, "Oh, Xiao Wang, you should leave, leave Xiao Binze. It's not good here, it's very... not good. "

I wanted to say something more, but Mr. Aoyagi turned his back.

"How long will you be back, Xiao Wang?"

"I don't know, just taking a look. I'll be leaving in two days."

"Yeah, yeah. I was right before, right? As long as you study hard, you can also go see the outside world. Children like you should go outside." He said this.

I don’t know why, but Mr. Qingliu’s tone became much clearer when he said this.

But I couldn't see his expression at that time, and I didn't have time to stop him.

Just looking at his thin figure, he quickly shuttled into the forest beside the river.

I saw him resolutely walk into the river...

I quickly got out of the car to look for him, but after searching for about half an hour, I saw him appearing wet on the other side of the river, waving to me, gesturing for me to leave.

That was the last time I saw Mr. Aoyagi.

It was also the last time I saw little Binze.

After that time, only about two months later, I received the news while I was still in Tokyo: Xiao Binze disappeared inexplicably, and there was no living thing left within Xiao Binze.

So far, before I write these long words, I have read many books related to curses.

I probably know what the crazy and desperate Mr. Aoyagi was doing that night, it was——

Visit when you are ugly.