True Lies（三）

The next day was a sunny day, windless and cloudless, ideal for sacrifices.

All the surviving members of the Jia family gathered on the field that to dry the wheat and prepared for the sacrifice. In the centre of the wide and clean drying field were two tables were placed next to each other, serving as an altar. A layer of bright red cloth was spread out on the table, which was particularly striking in these desolate surroundings. The head of the pig slaughtered yesterday was cut off, tied with the same bright red ribbon and placed neatly in the centre of the altar. In front of the pig's head was a large censer, and on either side of the censer were two brand new candlesticks. The plates placed around the pig's head were filled with the offerings that the Jia family had collected.

Since the founding of Jiajia village, the annual sacrifice after the autumn harvest has been unshakable. This is not only a sign of the Jia family's gratitude to heaven and earth, which have always nourished them, but also an expression of their sincere prayers for good weather and good harvests in the coming year. However, compared to the abundance and liveliness of previous years, this sacrifice seems very simple and even shabby.

Jia Shenpo tightened the straw rope tied around her waist tighter and tied the straw in her hand, staring at the gray ground with her head bowed and full of worry. Just as the Jia family abandoned the land, the land also abandoned them. What they said and did was without reverence, and the human heart was as polluted as the river. How could they expect to find protection through sacrifice? She looked up at the sky anxiously. Even though the sky was cloudless, she had a feeling that something heavy was pressing down on the sky above Jiajia Village and would would collapse at any time.

When did this village's problem begin?

Jia Xiande, the village chief, walked to the altar, lit the candles and incense, kowtowed three times, then stood up and bowed respectfully to report to the heaven, earth and ancestors. Jia the witch also lit the grass in her left hand, then shook the bell with her right hand, chanting the spell handed down from ancient times while walking slowly clockwise around the altar. The adult men in Jiajia Village lined up behind Jia Xiande according to their generation names, with solemn expressions. Jia Youfu, who was in the "You" generation, stood alone in the first row. Although he stood fairly straight, he occasionally laughed foolishly at inappropriate times. He thought everyone was playing a game because his wisdom was taken away by old age. Women and children were not allowed to stand in front of the altar, and they all stood neatly on both sides of the drying field.

As an outsider, I looked around the entire drying field, unable to find a suitable place for myself. So, I scanned the crowd, anxiously searching for the figures of Jia Xinyuan and Jia Youyu. Just as I was about to give up and leave in disappointment, I saw them walking along the path toward the yard.

I saw them, and they saw me.

I quickly waved my hand and eagerly ran toward Xinyuan and Youyu, feeling a sense of security wash over me. Youyu also waved his short arm in response. I reached them and grabbed Youyu's small hand. Jia Xinyuan glanced at me sideways and continued walking. After not seeing him for some time, his figure seemed even thinner, with his right arm straight at his side, holding a crimson brick.

"My brother is going to do something big..." Youyu suddenly leaned close to my ear and whispered mysteriously.

"What big thing?" My throat hurt terribly, and my voice sounded as harsh as wind scraping against discarded tin.

I stared earnestly at Youyu's proud face, genuinely curious. He, however, shook his head, deliberately keeping me in suspense. Seeing my impatience and almost losing interest, he finally spoke up.

"My brother is going to kill the Black and White immortals!"

Youyu's words startled me, making my heart skip a beat and my head buzz with pain.

"Last time, he only managed to chase them away. Now they've come back and are lingering in our village, refusing to leave. My brother says he's going to finish them off once and for all this time!"

After conveying this irresponsible and erroneous information with his eagerness to show off, Youyu turned away and stretched his neck, eagerly looking toward the drying field as if waiting for a good show to start. My heart pounding, I also turned to look at the yard.

By this time, Jia Xinyuan had already reached the altar.

The sight of him startled the village shaman, Jia Shenpo, causing her to stop shaking her bell. Jia Xiande, noticing the cessation of the bell's sound, straightened up and looked around, seeing Jia Xinyuan standing beside him. The rest of the Jia family, sensing something amiss, also straightened up and raised their heads. Everyone stared tensely at the suddenly arrived Jia Xinyuan, even stifling their coughs to avoid breaking the silence.

Jia Xinyuan squinted his eyes, looked at Jia Shenpo, looked at Jia Xiande, and then glanced at the people on the drying field.

"Xiaoyuan, the new generation is at the back." Jia Xiande called his name affectionately, showing the kindness of an elder, for fear of irritating him.

Jia Xinyuan shook his head, walked closer to the altar, and took out the brick that had been covering the side of his body.

"Ah!" Jia Shenpo shouted nervously.

Jia Xinyuan glanced at her, swung the brick violently, and overturned the incense burner on the altar and the candlestick on the right side, with a smug smile on his face like a child who succeeded in a prank.

The incense burner fell on the altar, and the incense ash was scattered all over the table. The candlestick tilted, and the wax wrapped around the wick splashed out, sticking to the half-closed eyes of the pig head. The candle fell on the table, bounced slightly a few times, and the flame danced gracefully on the red cloth. The flickering flames ignited the suppressed anger in Jia Xinyuan's heart, causing him to pour all the incense oil on the table onto the red cloth. The scattered flames suddenly spread like a snake.

"This is terrible!"

The sudden explosion of fire on the altar caused an uproar in the drying field.

Jia Xiande tightly grasped the burning incense in his hand, and his head was blank with fear. For a moment, he didn't know whether to put down the incense or continue to hold it in his hand. This time he was completely finished! He secretly exclaimed, unable to move.

"Catch him!" I don't know who in the crowd gave the first order, and the men in the second row of the Yi family rushed forward in a hurry and held Jia Xinyuan. They took off their clothes again, slapped the flames on the altar, and shouted to get water quickly. Jia Xinyuan stared at everyone unconvinced, lying on the ground with his buttocks, fluttering his hands and feet, trying to break free from the hands of those who grabbed him. He kept kicking his legs, kicking the ground to dust. The people who were already coughing non-stop, ate the dust, and coughed so hard that tears and snot ran down their noses. Jia Xinyuan, who got the chance, tightly grasped the brick in his hand and waved it randomly, and several people close to him were attacked by the brick several times.

Jia Yiren, who was also from the Yi generation, stood there calmly, looking at the chaotic scene in front of him, rolling his eyes, and quickly making small calculations.

"Brother, put an end to them!" Youyu clenched his fist, waved it into the air, and shouted excitedly.

Jia Wenmei, who was drowned in the crowd on the other side of the altar, stared at Jia Xinyuan who was resisting the crowd. Ever since the villagers said he was crazy, her parents locked her in the room and did not allow her to go out to meet Jia Xinyuan. But this physical isolation could not prevent her from being closely connected with Xinyuan in spirit.

Jia Wenmei's mother stood aside, noticed her eyes and smile, and immediately grabbed her hair and cursed.

"Shameless thing! I should gouge your eyes out!"

Wenmei had long been accustomed to her mother's abuse and intimidation, so she did not refute. She has always been like this, only using silence to fight back against her mother.

"I am afraid that I have committed a great sin to give birth to such a thing as you! If I had known earlier, I should have strangled you to death when I gave birth to you..." The person who always regarded raising children as a business that could not lose money was now crying and shouting in front of everyone, as if she had suffered a great injustice.

Good smash! It should have smashed these people's heads sober! So as to avoid playing tricks every day and scaring yourself! Jia Wenmei ignored the monologue her mother had casually arranged, and ignored the strange looks and pointing around her. She just silently supported Jia Xinyuan in her heart.

"Bring a rope, tie him up!" A man who was hit several times by Jia Xinyuan was so angry that he asked for help in pain.

Jia Xinyuan hit the last person who was pulling him until he let go, then wiped his face and stumbled to his feet. His eyes were covered with blood, sweat and dust. In his eyes, the people on the drying field became twisted and swaying black shadows. He gasped, threw away the bricks, stretched out his hand, and tried to find support for his tired and painful body, but touched the thick and hot red tablecloth.

"Let you worship!" Jia Xinyuan shouted, and then pulled the red tablecloth hard.

The candlestick on the left also fell on the altar, adding fuel to the fire. The weather was dry, and those who took off their clothes to beat the flames not only failed to put out the fire, but also burned the clothes in their hands. Someone dug some dry soil from the field and tried to put out the fire, but it had little effect.

"Where's the water?! Where's the water?!" Jia Xiande, who had come to his senses, shouted anxiously.

"Where's the water!"

"It's not for drinking, go get some from the river. Hurry!"

"I told you to worship! I told you to play tricks, I'll burn them all." Jia Xinyuan looked at the burning fire and clapped his hands excitedly.

"Oh, you are so heartless!"

"Why is no one watching this madman?"

"It's over, it's all over now!"

"We're afraid we won't survive tonight..."

There was a lot of chatter on the drying field.

Jia Youfu looked at the commotion and thought the show had officially begun, so he laughed happily.

"I'm crazy? I'm crazy? You're the ones who are crazy!" Jia Xinyuan sneered a few times, staring at everyone with anger, his eyes like hooks.

"When I told you that the water was polluted, no one believed me, and you all ganged up to scold me. Now that death is imminent, you are anxious. But you are playing tricks here? Damn it, damn it! Hahahaha... Bah! It's really hard to persuade the damned ghosts with good words..."

Everyone was frightened and turned pale when they heard Jia Xinyuan say the word "die".

"Brother, put an end to them!"

Youyu, who was standing with me, saw his brother laughing, and he also chuckled and cheered for him.

I also wanted to laugh with Youyu, but I pulled the corners of my mouth and couldn't laugh. I even felt sad. In my eyes, Brother Xinyuan has always been a gentle person, although he is taciturn, melancholy and lonely. However, at this moment, he was so angry at the ignorance of the crowd that he lost control, and like the bright red cloth burning around him, he exuded a weird beauty of destruction.

In an ignorant environment, being awake becomes a sin. In the illusion created by lies, reality is an unbearable thorn. The truth is not pleasant to hear, and it even pierces the heart and lungs and is merciless.

The Jia family is greedy for the honey made of lies, expecting miracles that come without effort, and is unwilling to face the cold and cruel reality, unwilling to face their own ignorance, and even more unwilling to be self-reliant and solve problems. What they always do is to unite and find ways to label normal people who are different from them as "madmen", and then naturally drive them crazy and destroy them so that they can continue to live a life of drunkenness and debauchery. This trick of deceiving oneself and others is blatant but surprisingly effective.

They treated the crazy woman like this; they treated Jia Xinyuan like this.

Jia Yiren had been observing every move on the drying field. Just as Jia Xinyuan was cursing in frustration, he looked at the blazing flames on the altar, quickly calculating in his mind, and suddenly came up with a good idea to defend his authority and make his position unquestionable and unshakable.

"Oh, Lord Black and White immortals, you can't do this!"

My adoptive father, who had already deeply implemented the spirit of a gangster, suddenly cried and screamed, and acted alone. His superb acting skills were comparable to those of Jia Wenmei's mother, or even better.

"Please be kind, please be kind! Don't catch me, good adults. You see who I am... It's none of my business..."

Jia Yiren cried and shivered, and kept pulling his healthy arm in front of his chest, as if there was really a chain around his hand.

The drying field fell silent for a moment, and everyone shifted their gazes from Jia Xinyuan to Jia Yiren in horror.

"Damn it, it's all that lunatic's fault," he shook his legs slightly in a slightly artificial way, "It's not me... Oh, I'm not scolding you, how dare I! I'm scolding that lunatic. Don't arrest me, I have old people and young children to support, and my family depends on me to support them, it's so pitiful..."

Jia the witch stared at Jia Yiren, and fell into deep doubt. Only the burning straw in her hand and the fragrance of the straw could make her feel a bit of reality.

"Ahhhhh..." Jia Yiren cried sadly again, his body shaking wildly and strangely. If I hadn't heard him proudly showing off his intelligence and mocking the stupidity of the Jia family at night, even I would have been almost fooled by his wonderful and realistic acting skills.

"I know."

Jia Yiren suddenly stopped shaking again. He spat fiercely, raised his sleeves, wiped his nose and tears, and left this sentence on the drying field without knowing why, and then limped away.

Twenty years later, I looked back at Jia Yiren's various behaviors after he was named "God" by the villagers, and unexpectedly found that my adoptive father was not as honest and stupid as I thought he was. Instead, he could be called smart and could often see through the essence. Moreover, he was extremely talented in using public opinion to create momentum. However, our family has always been on the edge of Jiajia Village, with little influence, and our words have no weight, and are not taken seriously.

Jia Yiren's tone of reluctance and his lonely back pushed the atmosphere of the drying field to a climax. In contrast to him, Jia Xinyuan's self-destructive crazy behavior and sad speech suddenly seemed pale and powerless.

People in the drying field were panicked, and some timid ones were so scared that they cried.

Water and ropes came late after the performance ended.

One ear of the pig head on the altar was burned. The smell of meat and incense mixed together, making the burning altar present a mixed smell of mediocrity and ethereal nothingness. However, when the river water rushed onto the altar and extinguished the fire, only the pungent and unpleasant smell of sourness remained in the drying field.

Jia Xinyuan never expected that Jia Yiren's ridiculous pretense of madness would overshadow his true declaration of desperate efforts. He looked around the drying field blankly, hurried off the stage, and once again stayed away from the crowd, falling into a long period of self-doubt and self-denial. The rope that arrived late was of no use from then on.

Jia Xinyuan had completely lost hope for this village.

When night fell, almost the entire village could not sleep peacefully. Except for Jia Yiren and Jia Youfu who were snoring, and me who was suffering from a sore throat and could not sleep, the rest of the people were anxiously thinking about what Jia Yiren knew. They kept their eyes open and racked their brains, thinking from night to day, but they could not figure out the reason. The only thing that can be confirmed from Jia Yiren's words and deeds is that the entire Jiajia Village will be irretrievably heading towards death, and no one can escape by luck. Everyone is doomed.

This disaster caused by everyone was attributed to ghosts and gods, and then attributed by ghosts and gods to individuals who were involved with ghosts and gods.

Realizing that their own death was inevitable, the Jia family became angry in extreme fear. They cursed Jia Xinyuan, who smashed the altar, saying that he was a complete lunatic, an evil devil, and a jinx who harmed people, and even blamed all the faults on him. It is said that his mother, who was like a jinx, gave birth to a son who was even more unlucky. Not only did he harm himself, but he also harmed the entire village.

After something happened, people are often used to looking for reasons from others. However, tragedy is never caused by a certain person.

Because of this incident, I couldn't face my brother Xinyuan and Youyu for a long time, and gradually stopped playing with them. And my days, after a short period of leisure, became busy again.

After the farce of the sacrifice, the rumors that had been spread before became the absolute truth that could not be shaken in the hearts of the Jia family. They no longer paid attention to the polluted fields and water sources, and no longer trusted Jia Xiande and Jia Shenpo. They cared about nothing except life and death; they didn't listen to anyone except Jia Yiren. Jia Yiren's status in the village became higher and higher, and he was firmly believed by the Jia family to be the reincarnation of an immortal. They spent all the money that should have been used for litigation and medical treatment on Jia Yiren to seek his protection.

Jia Yiren was not so bad that he felt at ease taking other people's money for nothing. Just as Jiajia Village invisibly divided people into different classes, he also divided his followers into different classes.

For those who gave more money, he would personally go into battle, pretending to recite a spell, or stretch out his intact right hand and grab a few handfuls of air. Then he would tell the believers that he had already arranged with the Black and White immortals and could let them die later. However, when a person will die is an unknown number, and no one knows the exact time. That is why Jia Yiren's lies have never been questioned. Most people in the village don't have much money. Whenever this happens, Jia Yiren would ask me to shout a few times at the top of my voice, and then swing the peach branch casually, turn a few circles, and perfunctorily deal with it.

For this reason, Jia Shenpo also warned him specifically.

"Life and death are serious matters, and there is no room for jokes. It's fine if you don't believe it, but why bother pretending to be a ghost in the village and cheating people of their money? Such a lack of respect will be punished!"

"Retribution? Ha," Jia Yiren sneered at her words, "Damn it, this is their retribution, not my retribution!"

Jia Yiren's words, as well as his subsequent change, made me have to suspect that he was actually taking the opportunity to retaliate against the people of Jiajia Village. After saving enough money, he ignored the believers and went to the town alone. He was gone for two days, and then he came back in the afternoon when it was snowing heavily, pushing a brand new bicycle. On the back seat of the bicycle, there was a sack of food for the winter.

He fulfilled his promise to the crazy woman and bought back the bicycle. But the crazy woman, who had long been buried alone under the tree, could never go back to her hometown that she missed so much.

After buying the bicycle, Jia Yiren showed not the happiness and satisfaction after realizing his dream, but the desolation of losing his spiritual support.

The continuous blizzard came to the village, and he stayed in the house and never went out to play tricks again. That winter, many people in Jiajia Village were frozen to death and starved to death.

Jia Yiren became the Jia Yiren I knew again.

When Jia Youfu, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, got up in the middle of the night and ate the raw potatoes piled in the woodshed, and ate more than a dozen of them until he died, Jia Yiren began to seriously think about my future. His attitude towards me became gentler than before. While winter was still going on, he used his intact right hand to prepare clothes and dry food for me with difficulty.

My premonition that I would not stay in Jiajia Village for a long time was confirmed.

I was picked up by Jia Yiren in the late autumn of 1993, officially became a member of the family in the spring of 1994, and was abandoned again in the spring of 1999.

Jia Yiren knew that the Black and White immortals was fake, and death was real. He felt that he would not live long; he also felt that if he did not send me away, I would not live long either. Perhaps, his action allowed me to live for another twenty years, but it also made me fall into confusion and emptiness of constantly looking for something during my subsequent wandering.

As soon as the spring of 1999 came, he changed my clothes, carried a kettle and dry food, and sent me out of the village.

When we walked out of the village bridge, we met the village peddler again. He usually came out to sell groceries at ten o'clock, but that day he came out pushing a tricycle before dawn. At the beginning, Jia Yiren also met him when he led me into the village. The scene that had been five years ago reappeared. However, we are no longer the same as we were five years ago. The windmill that once swung on the handlebars of the tricycle and exuded a moving brilliance has faded and become dull. The bell hanging on the small wooden box can no longer make the crisp ding-dong sound of that time.

After passing by the peddler, Jia Yiren suddenly stopped, asked me to stay where I was, and turned around to chase the peddler. When he came back, he was holding the faded windmill in his hand.

"Here you go."

This was the first time he treated me as a child who needed to be pampered.

I took the windmill and gently blew away the dust on it. Suddenly, I didn't want to leave. I think death is nothing to be afraid of. What is really scary is that no one cares about me, no one loves me, and no one remembers me. Compared with death, I am more afraid of loneliness and helplessness.

Jia Yiren took my empty hand and continued to move forward. My steps, however, became more and more impatient.

"Put the money inside your clothes, in the pocket close to your chest," he muttered as he walked, "Don't show the money outside so that bad people can see it. Don't take food and drink from strangers; don't respond to them when they call you. Spend money sparingly. If you really have no money, go pick up scraps and sell them to make money..."

Jia Yiren said a lot, but I couldn't listen to him. I broke free from his hand and turned away angrily.

"I'm not leaving!"

Jia Yiren looked at me silently for a long time with his head down, and then pushed me forward arrogantly.

"Don't be sour!" Seeing that I was lying, he scolded angrily.

"I'm not leaving! Don't even think about sending me away!"

I grabbed Jia Yiren's right hand tightly, trying to threaten him.

"Damn it, I'm not your father! I can't afford to support you!"

"I don't want you to support me, I can make money myself! I can sell scraps, and I can cry! My throat doesn't hurt anymore. Whoever dies, I will cry for him, as loud as I can. I don't want you to support me, I can make money. I will support you!"

Jia Yiren was suddenly stunned.

"Don't leave me..." I begged him pitifully.

Jia Yiren gently shook his right hand that I was holding tightly, but he couldn't shake it off.

"Go away." He turned around and faced the other side.

"If you don't leave, you'll die here."

Faced with his choked words and tears mixed with dust on his cheeks, my willfulness suddenly deflated.

"You've always been very obedient," he added, fearing that I would make trouble again: "You're a sensible child."

Willfulness was useless. I was defeated by obedience and sensibility, so I loosened my hands, stood on tiptoe dejectedly, took off the bag that Jia Yiren was carrying on his shoulders, and held it in my arms.

"I'm leaving..."

The only answer I got was Jia Yiren's silhouette that still refused to turn around, and the hot tears that kept flowing down his cheeks.

I really would rather not be so obedient and sensible.

"Although you said you're not my father, I hope you are from the bottom of my heart."

Feeling that I was about to cry, I turned around and continued to walk forward alone. Worried that my will was not strong enough, I ran again. I could hear the whirring sound of the windmill, the clanging sound of the train, and Jia Yiren's faint cry of sorrow.

While running, I recalled the scene of my first meeting with Jia Yiren.

After I got rid of the traffickers at the station in Mingyu Town, I had been avoiding the crowd and wandering aimlessly for more than two months, and my shoes were worn out. One evening in late autumn, I sat on the dusty roadside, starving and worried that I would not survive the winter. Just as I was thinking about where to sleep at night, a sentence suddenly floated over my head.

I looked up and saw a blurry face.

Jia Yiren saw that I was stunned, so he patted my face and handed me the kettle in his hand.

After following him to Jiajia Village and living there for a while and learning some simple language, I knew what the first sentence he said to me when he saw me squatting on the roadside was.

He said.

"Hey, kid!"