Second Brother rushed back from Tianjin, while First Brother was still in Jiamusi and hadn't returned. Second Brother saw that the once-strong-as-an-ox little brother was now as thin as a stick and on the verge of death. He couldn't help but shed old tears. He shook the fried dough twists in his hand like a rattle: "I've brought you something good, authentic Shibajie fried dough twists."
Li Dafa managed to utter a few words from his throat: "I can't eat them."
So his Second Brother took a knife and smashed the fried dough twists, cooked them with milk, cooled them to a warm temperature, then helped Li Dafa up and let him lean against his chest, just like holding a baby.
Second Brother scooped up a spoonful of the fried dough twist paste and fed it to his little brother. Li Dafa tasted the sweet flavor. He tried hard to swallow it, and the blocked mountain path by the monster finally opened a little. The fried dough twist paste flowed into his stomach bit by bit like a small stream. Li Dafa felt a bit of warmth. His Second Brother said, "You're getting better. Look, you can eat now."
In the evening, Elder Sister and Second Sister were both there. The family made dumplings. The cabbages in the field hadn't even fully formed heads yet, but Second Sister pulled them out, peeled off the outer leaves, and used the small cabbage hearts to make cabbage dumplings, which were Li Dafa's favorite.
Encouraged by having eaten three spoonfuls of the fried dough twist paste, Li Dafa still took a full three minutes to eat just one cabbage and meat dumpling. After eating it, it felt as if what he had eaten wasn't a dumpling but a Monkey King, and his stomach was churning.
Second Brother discussed with the two sisters: "Being able to eat the fried dough twist paste might be a flash in the pan. He's really on his last legs. You two should see about preparing for the afterlife. Check if there's anything else that needs to be dealt with so that we can have everything settled while he's still aware."
Elder Sister said, "There are still three mu of land with a ten-year contract. There are six years left. Why don't we sell it first? If he really doesn't make it, the land will surely be taken back. It's better to sell it and use the money for the afterlife arrangements."
Second Sister said, "There's also a grove of poplar trees. Let's cut them all down. If we sell them now, they won't be worth much. If we wait until he's gone and the neighbors snatch them up, he'll be so angry that he'll climb out of his grave."
Elder Sister went to tell Li Dafa about these ideas, and Li Dafa nodded in agreement.
The task of selling the land and the trees was left to Second Sister and Second Brother to handle. Elder Sister was old, so she went home to rest. Elder Sister was indeed the eldest in the family, while Second Sister was actually the fourth in the ranking.
The contract for selling the land was brought over. It was written in brush by Second Brother-in-law, who had a junior high school education. Li Dafa looked at the black words on the white paper: 200 yuan per mu per year, and for three mu of land with a six-year contract, the total amount was 1,800 yuan. He frowned: "It's too cheap."
He saw the name Zhao Youcai on the signature, and his face twitched like a twisted Tianjin fried dough twist. His wrinkled old hand was about to tear up the contract, but suddenly his hands holding the paper shook violently, and the sound coming from his mouth was as terrifying as a monster's: "I won't sell! I won't sell!" With that, he suddenly stood up, landed steadily on the ground from the bed. His cotton long underwear and long johns were loose and baggy, as if there were only bones left, but this skeleton was undoubtedly angry and powerful. He waved the land contract and shouted: "Even if I die, I won't sell it to this bastard!"
Zhao Youcai was his lifelong enemy!
The hatred between the two originated when they were both young men. Two strong young men went to work as construction laborers in the county town together. They earned eight yuan a day. After work in the evening, sometimes there was an extra job of unloading red bricks from a truck. The pay was calculated separately, 50 cents for unloading one truck of bricks. Li Dafa was strong and never missed a chance to earn an extra penny. Zhao Youcai liked to wander around the streets of the county town pretending to be a city youth after work. Occasionally, he would look down on the made-up city girls and secretly curse them as slutty. So, he didn't do the brick-unloading job eight out of ten times. The old man who kept track of the work hours was old and had poor eyesight. He took one character from each of the two poor boys from the same village and combined them to form "Facaicai" (meaning "get rich"), and they were like good brothers without any difference.
At the end of the year when the money was distributed, Li Dafa's brick-unloading money ended up in Zhao Youcai's pocket. Li Dafa frowned deeply. He had worked hard to earn money, but in the end, the one who worked less got more than he did.
Li Dafa followed the线索 to find Zhao Youcai. Zhao Youcai was like a mythical beast that only ate but never excreted. Naturally, he couldn't get his hard-earned money back.
Later, their fields were adjacent to each other. After the autumn harvest, when they were plowing and making field ridges again, the field ridges of Zhao Youcai's field wriggled like a yangge dance into Li Dafa's field, which meant he had invaded Li Dafa's land. At first, they just argued verbally. Zhao Youcai cursed Li Dafa for being a bachelor who couldn't get a wife, and Li Dafa cursed Zhao Youcai for having three daughters and being a family with no male heir! When they got really heated up, things got out of hand. Once, they rolled around in the field like muddy monkeys. Li Dafa stuffed a handful of soil into Zhao Youcai's mouth, and Zhao Youcai stuffed a handful of soil into Li Dafa's mouth. Just when they were shoving soil into each other's mouths, the village chief shouted: "The soil in the field is public! If you eat too much, you'll be fined 250 yuan each!"
After the fight, the two families had nothing to do with each other. Now that he was about to die, his land was actually going to be sold to his sworn enemy! Let him eat dirt!
He pointed at Second Sister and cursed: "If you sell it to that bastard, I'll smash my head against the wall right now, and you can just come and collect my body."
He pointed at Second Brother and cursed: "You've been away from home for so many years that you don't even understand right from wrong. Don't you have a mouth under your nose? Did you come here just to collect my body?"
He spoke much more clearly than ever before. Because of his anger, the sarcoma on his neck was trembling.
Second Brother had never seen such a scene. When he was a kid, he often scolded this little brother. Now, his little brother was dying, and everything had changed.
He thought about how he had traveled a long way back, changing buses five times on the way, plus taking a tuk-tuk once to get to this small mountain village, only to be treated so harshly. He was full of grievances but couldn't argue with a dying man. So, he turned around and left.
Just as he left the village, it started to drizzle. On the way, he met an old man driving an ox cart. The old man asked him to get on the ox cart and gave him a plastic sheet to cover his head. The ox cart creaked and groaned as it carried him for a while and was about to turn to another fork in the road.
Second Brother got off the cart and thanked the old man profusely: "If you ever come to Tianjin, come and find me. I'm not in the city center but in Jinghai County in the suburbs. Do you know the famous Daguozhuang? Our village is thirty li away from Daguozhuang, and the feng shui is great. I'll treat you to a meal."
Then, he walked five li alone in the drizzling autumn rain. The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. He wasn't sure if the water on his face was rain or tears. He was going to his Elder Sister's house in the town to ask her to get him a fair deal.
When he got to Elder Sister's house, he found that most of his anger had dissipated. Then he remembered that he had come to visit with ten carrots in his hand, and he felt a bit embarrassed.
He had to tell Elder Sister about the land-selling matter truthfully. Elder Sister said: "Fifth Brother is about to be buried. What's there to argue about? It's better to do as he wishes. He regards the land as his own daughter. We should at least find it a good home."
He told Elder Sister about the kind old man driving the ox cart he met on the way. Elder Sister's husband said: "You're really honest. He'll probably never make it to Tianjin even if he drives an ox cart loaded with gold and silver. Even if he does make it to Tianjin, the ox carts, horse carts, and cars will block the main roads first, and he won't be able to reach your place. You can save that meal."
Second Sister was angry, but she couldn't run away. If she did, there would be no one to take care of this little brother.
So Second Sister had to cancel the contract with Zhao Youcai. She found a new buyer. The new buyer was Fatty Wang, who ran a small grocery store in the east of the village. Fatty Wang had a capable wife. She would feel itchy all over if she didn't work for a day. Her family's five mu of land was a sign of her extraordinary working ability.
Fatty Wang came to sign the contract in person. At this time, Li Dafa was lying on the bed again. He was sprawled there like a naughty and lazy dog, with no strength at all.
When he saw Fatty Wang, he wanted to smile with satisfaction, but his wrinkled face couldn't cooperate with his thoughts. He could only show his teeth. Back when he was penniless, Fatty Wang dared to sell him oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and baijiu on credit. He thought that Fatty Wang was the best person in the world.
The best person in the world saw Li Dafa's appearance and his eyes turned red. He sniffed hard but finally didn't shed any tears. Fatty Wang signed his name and pressed his fingerprint. Li Dafa also tremblingly pressed his bright red fingerprint. Fatty Wang paid for the three mu of land. The money for the three mu of land was wrapped in red paper from the grocery store.
Finally, Fatty Wang took out his wallet again. Li Dafa thought that Fatty Wang was a civilized person. Country people usually don't use wallets because they're afraid that thieves will steal them. But Fatty Wang always used a leather wallet. He was a civilized and cultured person.
Fatty Wang took out 200 yuan from his wallet and placed it on Li Dafa's pillow, saying: "The land was sold at a good price. I'll leave an extra 200 yuan for you to buy some nutritional supplements."
It was Li Dafa's turn to have red eyes. Li Dafa tried hard to hold back his tears and finally didn't let them fall. Later, those poplar trees were also bought by Fatty Wang. Fatty Wang was reluctant to cut them down and wanted to wait until they grew into a beautiful canopy.
Some of Li Dafa's concerns were finally settled.
Li Dafa groped in the pocket sewn on the side of his long johns for a long time. With one hand, he laboriously held up a square bag wrapped in a handkerchief and handed it to Elder Sister, saying: "There's still money in this savings account. You take it. Add it to the money from selling the land and the trees and divide it among yourselves."
The total amount of money from selling the land and the trees was 8,000 yuan. This was Li Dafa's life savings. Second Brother firmly refused to take a single cent, on the grounds that Fifth Brother was being taken care of by the local sisters, so the money should be divided between them. The male members of the family were all far away and had no right to the money. Second Brother lived near Daguozhuang and his living standard was close to that of Daguozhuang. So, the two sisters each got 3,000 yuan, and the remaining 2,000 yuan was set aside for emergencies. After the person died, all kinds of expenses would be shared by the four siblings.
The village chief came to visit. He said to Second Brother: "He has no children. After he dies, let's leave him a whole body, buy a good coffin and bury him in the old forest on the mountain. The village committee will just turn a blind eye."
The village chief didn't avoid Li Dafa when he said this. Li Dafa was very afraid of being cremated. He had heard that in the big furnace of the crematorium, the ashes that finally ended up in the urn might not be his own. Thinking about being mixed with other male and female ghosts and not being pure, he was even more afraid. Especially of female ghosts. He was afraid of women when he was alive, and if he died, he would have to live with strange female ghosts in a small box day and night. What if he met an unreasonable shrew? The underworld would be really boring. When the village chief said this, he was relieved. He moved his head to show his agreement.
After sending the village chief away, the three siblings got together. Second Sister said: "No, it must be cremated! In the future, if someone with bad intentions reports this to the authorities, it will be a big deal. For example, that Zhao Youcai. We've offended him by selling the land this time. Do you think he'll let us off easy? Burial in the ground is illegal. If you break the law, you'll either go to jail or be fined 30,000 or 20,000 yuan. Are you going to pay or am I?"
A few years ago, a man in Second Sister's village who died of liver cirrhosis was secretly buried. He was reported by the villagers. One month after being buried, he was dug out again, covered with corn stalks, doused with gasoline, and cremated on the spot. Second Sister went to watch the fun. She smelled the choking smell of corn stalks, the pungent smell of gasoline, and the strange smell of human fat mixed together. She also saw the burned head, with two black holes that might be the eyes... She had nightmares for a month because of this.
So, they decided that when Li Dafa died, he must be cremated. Anyway, he was going to die, and any objection would be invalid.
Everything was ready except for the person's death.