There is a large stone table at the entrance of Shizhuo Village, with a chessboard carved on the top and six stone piers at the bottom.

It is said that during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, two Taoist priests traveled here and suddenly became interested in chess. They cut the rocks into tables and chairs and invited little ghosts from all over the world to sit and watch chess together.

A game of chess was played for three days and three nights.

After the chess game was over, the two Taoists disappeared, and the little ghosts from all directions stopped harassing the villagers, and the place became peaceful.

Nowadays, the four corners of the stone table have been cracked, and the texture of the table has long been blurred by wind erosion. Only two of the six stone piers remain. A locust tree has grown up next to the original stone table, and its roots have become thicker and more twisted, tilting the stone table.

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A group of old men and women were sitting under the locust tree. Some were knitting clothes, some were picking up shoe soles, and some were smoking cigarettes and coughing. They occasionally exchanged a few words, but they were not interesting in conversation.

Looking from a distance, you can't see them clearly, because the old man's skin and the bark of the old locust tree are almost the same color.

Even if you get closer, if you don't take a closer look, you will mistakenly think that they are just a ring of forked old tree roots.

Zhao Mengyao walked past here wearing long sleeves, a hat, and a silk scarf, dragging her suitcase.

The old people under the locust tree stood up one after another. Although the person who came was covered up and down and did not show his face, he could still identify the girl from which family just by looking at his clothes and body shape.

"Girl from the Zhao family, are you home?"

"Why don't you let your grandpa pick him up?"

"Didn't your grandfather just leave the village the day before yesterday and didn't come back together?"

"But have you eaten?"

Different from the greetings and care shown by the elders in other villages to their juniors, the elders here showed a touch of caution and flattery towards Zhao Mengyao.

There is only one family named Zhao in Shizhuo Village, who lives at the east end of the village.

Nowadays, people who have earned money in the village are eager to build two-story or even three-story small foreign-style buildings. However, instead of building on top, the old Zhao family expanded in all directions, adding circles and circles, and the brick bungalows that were once built have been added.

There are several large courtyards that you can enter.

Ordinarily, it is against the rules to build a house in such an area, but the old Zhao family first supports the lonely elderly people in the village, and secondly adopts abandoned children in the neighborhood. If they really want to make it official, they will open a nursing home and a nursery in their own home and expand the building.

The house is also impeccable.

In a few years, these old people under the locust tree will have to shamelessly go to Lao Zhao's house to ask for three meals a day.

Lao Zhao's family is not prosperous. Four generations back in the family, there is an ancestor, who is the oldest person in the village today. At that time, he recruited a son-in-law and gave birth to a son. The son gave birth to an only daughter. Then he recruited a son-in-law and gave birth to a son.

There are twin brothers and sisters, one of whom is Zhao Mengyao.

Nowadays, the only members of the Zhao family are the ancestor, his son Lao Zhaotou, and the twin brothers and sisters.

There are obviously four generations, but only four people are left.

The old Zhao family was rich. According to legend, during the Republic of China, the ancestor of the Zhao family was invited to tell fortunes by a certain general. Later, before the general retired and became an apartment in Tianjin, he specially arranged for the ancestor to be given to him.

He was sent back to Stone Table Village, along with several boxes of gold and silver.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the old Zhao family did spit out some things, but there were rumors in the village that the real family wealth had been buried underground long ago. No, as soon as the limelight changed, the old Zhao family started to tremble again.

But even if there is no such thing as hiding gold and silver, the ancestor of the Zhao family and his son, Zhao Tou, are also famous fortune tellers from all over the country. The mother and son usually do not accept ordinary customers at all. Every few months, they either have fortune-telling stalls.

People dressed in gangster attire come to the door to ask for help, or they drive directly into the village with a car or a jeep. How can the cashier be paid so little?

Zhao Mengyao opened the door of her house and walked through the courtyard. Under the corridor in the east wing, there was a row of old people sitting, all with gray faces. They were neither noisy nor making noise, just staying there quietly.

In the west wing is the nursery. There are a few children with obvious mental retardation and crooked eyes who are playing, but they have added some movement to themselves, and they are no longer so lifeless.

There was a strong smell of decoction coming from the east and west wing rooms. If you walked in at this time, no matter whether you were an old man or a child, you would be sure that many of them would be lying in bed suffering from illness.

As the elderly get older, it is normal for them to get sick. There are many male babies among the abandoned babies. Many of them have congenital diseases, so the chance of early death is even greater.

Therefore, the old Zhao family often went to mourning to vacate the place, but it did not arouse much suspicion from outsiders. After all, no one really cared about the lonely old man and the abandoned baby.

Zhao Mengyao has disliked the smell of her home since she was a child. The smell is both stinky and rotten, which often drives her crazy and wants to light a fire for it and burn down the entire wing.

Even if I'm a little older and know the purpose of these people, I still feel disgusted in my heart.

Fortunately, my great-grandmother was very open-minded and not only allowed her to study, but also allowed her to take exams in other places. She only hoped that she would bring home a man with a good face and good luck.

"Mengyao, why are you back?"

It was her brother who asked the question. They were obviously twins, born front and back, but her brother Zhao Xilu had a vicissitude that seemed to be that he was nearly thirty years old.

At this time, Zhao Xilu was boiling medicine. A total of eight small stoves were placed in front of him. He was holding a fan in each hand and was very busy.

In the corner behind Zhaoxi Road, there is a dirty woman with chains tied around her body. She is a madman, holding a rag doll and feeding it all day long.

From the outside, it seems that the Zhao family adopted her out of kindness.

But in fact, Zhao Mengyao knew that when she first entered high school, this woman had given birth to two children for her brother Zhao Xilu, giving birth to a boy and a girl respectively. However, the first one died within a hundred days, and the second one died within a hundred days.

The two of them didn't even make it past the full moon.

The woman went crazy and was locked up here.

When Zhao Xilu gets up in the morning, he will take her to the courtyard to bask in the sun, and when he returns to the house at night, he will take her back inside.

Zhao Mengyao doesn't like this brother. Although he has always been kind to her, she just feels that he is hypocritical and ruthless and not as straightforward and kind as herself.

Obviously there are people invited to help at home, but his brother still has to do it himself every day.

It would be fine if she didn't know what those things were used for, but her brother knew very well, and his talent for casting spells was much higher than hers.

But now, she could only cry aggrievedly to her brother:

"Brother, I have been cursed."

As she spoke, Zhao Mengyao took off her hat and rolled up her sleeves, revealing the festering skin.

When Zhao Xilu saw this, he was startled and hurried forward to check.

"How did you do this?"

"I've been cursed."

"Where is grandpa? Didn't grandpa go to find you?"

"Isn't Grandpa back?"

"No, you haven't seen Grandpa?"

"I saw it, but I thought grandpa asked me to sign the two alimony agreements and go home."

"You..." Zhao Xilu frowned, "Mengyao, please sit in the room first."

"Where's my great-grandmother? I want to see my great-grandmother."

"Great-grandmother is seeing guests and cannot be free now."

"I'm already like this, what other guest can be more important than me?"

"Someone from my family is here."

"My family?"

Zhao Mengyao was stunned. She had heard about her family. There were two rows of offerings in the ancestral hall of her family. One row was empty, and the other row was her parents and grandmother. They could only be placed in the corner of the lower corner.

The empty space in the center is reserved for the family. Even if the family's memorial tablet cannot be placed, the space must be reserved for them.

When she was a child, Zhao Mengyao asked naively: "Why can't we put my family's memorial tablet?"

Great-grandmother smiled gloomily and replied: "Because I think we are unlucky."

Our family is in Jiujiang, and what is different from a small family like Shi Zhuo Zhao is that our Jiujiang Zhao family is a real master of the world. There was a Dragon King in the Qing Dynasty.

However, according to the rules of the rivers and lakes, if a clan member succeeds in crossing the rivers or there is no successor for a hundred years, the Dragon King's family's plaque is still not qualified to be hung.

Therefore, our family only calls ourselves Jiujiang Zhao family, but we do not call ourselves Dragon King Zhao.

Sometimes, if the family's background and strength are not strong enough, forcing the Dragon King plaque to appear may lead to trouble.

"Then I...then what should I do..."

"Mengyao, I told you to go to my room and wait. I'll be here right away."

"good."

Zhao Mengyao had no choice but to enter the courtyard first, cross the corridor, go through the small door, and arrive at her brother's room in the backyard.

The furnishings inside are very simple, with the study in the north, the living room in the middle, and the bedroom in the south.

There is a nest under an old-fashioned wooden bed in the bedroom, and a grain basin and a water basin are placed in front of the nest.

Not long after, the door of the house was pushed open again, and Zhao Xilu led the woman in.

"Mengyao, take off your clothes."

Zhao Mengyao hesitated.

Zhao Xilu took a deep breath: "Then I won't care about you, brother."

"No, brother, you have to help me."

Zhao Mengyao took off her clothes, and the corners of her mouth twitched from time to time while taking off her clothes, because many ulcers and clothes were stuck together, and taking off her clothes was like tearing off a layer of skin.

"Mengyao, come into my study."
To be continued...