In the early years, wedding hazing was very popular in rural areas. However, some uneducated people would flirt with the bride and bridesmaids when drunk, turning a good wedding event into a bad habit.
In 1999, my mother was just a sophomore. She was invited to be a bridesmaid at a cousin's house. But at the wedding banquet, an unsightly wedding hazing occurred. My mother, who is the most beautiful and also a college student, was harassed the most severely. In the chaos, she actually disappeared. The next day, she was found barely alive in the woodshed. My grandfather was so anxious that his eyes were about to split. He went to reason with the cousin. But the cousin said that my mother wanted to climb the social ladder and went to drink with city guests. When drunk, who knew what had happened? It was none of his business.
My grandfather wanted to argue, but was beaten up by the cousin who called people and was thrown out. Since then, my family has become the laughing stock of the village. The villagers said that women who love to show their faces are definitely not good things. If they don't get married and have children at home and run out to study, they must have been played rotten. My grandfather lost all face and didn't dare to go out.
But misfortunes never come singly. My mother's stomach actually grew visibly. My grandfather was so anxious that he gave my mother medicine and folk remedies. But even so, her stomach didn't get smaller at all. My grandfather called her a bitch and said that she couldn't protect herself and was made pregnant by someone. Instead, she protected the bastard well. My mother washed her face with tears every day. My grandfather was still angry and kicked my mother's stomach. As a result, she immediately bled a lot and miscarried a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. My grandfather directly strangled the baby girl. When he was about to strangle me again, my mother kowtowed desperately and begged him, saying that no matter how the child came, it was a life and a piece of flesh that fell from her body. Since one was already gone, she had to raise me no matter what. My grandfather scolded her as crazy and wanted to throw me to the back mountain to feed the dogs. As a result, as soon as he went out, he was stopped by Cripple Zhang from the town.
Cripple Zhang has a face full of pockmarks and buck teeth with a slurred speech. He held a thick stack of money and said he wanted to buy me. My grandfather was shocked. With such thick hundred-yuan bills, it must be at least seventy or eighty thousand. He asked Cripple Zhang what he wanted to buy a baby for? With this money, wouldn't it be better to buy a wife? Cripple Zhang only asked if my grandfather would sell me. If not, he would ask at other families. My grandfather was dazzled by the money and immediately nodded in agreement. He exchanged money with the "goods" on the spot. Since then, Cripple Zhang has become my adoptive father.
Cripple Zhang is not ordinary. He is a corpse carrier in the town and specializes in sending corpses to the crematorium for people. There are happy funerals, tragic funerals, sick funerals, premature funerals, and resentful funerals... Happy funerals are easy to handle. A coffin and a roll of cloth can bury a person. But it's not so easy for those who die suddenly from tragic, sick, premature, or resentful causes. As the saying goes, those who die suddenly cannot enter the door. For such funerals, even the funeral band that plays the suona is unwilling to go. Within eighty miles around, only Cripple Zhang dares to take on such jobs.
Cripple Zhang told me that he bought me back because my life is cheap and tough. When he showed me a corpse for the first time, I was so scared that I didn't sleep for three days and three nights. I also saw little people on the beam staring at me and laughing. After I finally got better, he actually threw me to the back mountain in the middle of the night again. In the mountains in the town, you can see a grave every few steps. In the middle of the night, there are still "people" lying on the grave and licking the offerings. I was almost scared crazy. My pants were soaked through with urine. After that, Cripple Zhang took me to work. When I saw the dead, I didn't dare to say I was afraid anymore. Because Cripple Zhang said that if I couldn't train my courage, he would let me spend the night hugging the corpse.
When I was eight years old, Cripple Zhang sent me to primary school. He thought that the more characters I knew, the bigger business I would take on in the future. People can't stay in the town all their lives. Carrying corpses also needs to carry noble people in the city. But during my school days, I couldn't hold my head up even more. The town is small and can't hide things. My classmates all knew that I was an abandoned baby bought by Cripple Zhang. They called me a wild child without a mother. I ate dead people's offerings every day a