"Has no one questioned these rules over the years?"

After thinking about it for a long time in Shaodong and not figured out the reason, Meng Qing raised such a question.

The old man still shook his head and said, "Question, no, no one in our village has ever questioned what our ancestors left us. Whether it is good or bad, it must be something that has been used by ancestors for generations, including life to prove it, and it will never hurt us. Why do we question it?"

It has to be said that Xihe Village’s admiration for its ancestors is definitely incomparable to other places in the country, because many people have actually forgotten their ancestors.

This is not a swear word, but it is a fact.

Look at Xihe Village again. How good you heard from the old man, the rules set by our ancestors will not harm you no matter where you look at them. There is no doubt about this.

However, what about this era?

People make money and their lives are not bad, but they just forget their roots.

Countless people want to go to the city and set up a house in the city. Not to mention their ancestors, their parents have forgotten that they are still in the mountains.

An empty nest elderly person, an empty village, this is a modern person.

For some reason, Shaodong felt a lot after hearing what the old man said. Perhaps this is the culture of our country.

Of course, now is not the time to discuss our country's culture. Shao Dong came to his senses and asked: "Old man, judging from your experience of living in Xihe Village for decades, who do you think the person who murdered Old Man Xu's family might be?"

"This old man dares not say anything." The old man waved his hands repeatedly. He didn't know if the words he said would harm others. Although he was annoyed that the murderer had broken the rules of Xihe Village, his simple personality had long been deeply engraved in the bones of these people. Of course, the murderer could not be counted as it was.

After coming to Xihe Village several times, Shaodong also discovered that most of the people in this village are simple, but there is a serious person who is unwilling to let go of the resentment in his heart.

"Then do you know who has conflicts with Old Man Xu's family?" Seeing that the old man said this, Shao Dong didn't force him. He changed his words and continued to ask.

The old man was not opposed to this issue and said, "If you really want to talk about contradictions, there must be some. The old man often says that teeth and tongue are fighting, let alone us ordinary people."

"Yes, let alone the villagers, even the old couple who have lived together for decades still have to have some conflicts. It's really nothing."

Shao Dong followed the old man's words and said, "He knew that you should guide him to talk about this kind of old man, otherwise he would feel boring."

This is a means of inquiry, with different ages, different personalities, and different methods.

For example, the elderly like to remember the past, which is something they have experienced, and it is also a testimony that demonstrates their past existence, or a capital for them to brag. But after talking too much, the younger generations at home don’t like to listen.

But they really like to remember the past because flowers have no rebirth and no more youth.

When you get older, to put it bluntly, it is not far from death. If you don’t remember it, it will be too late.

After some guidance from Shaodong, the old man thought for a while and said, "To be honest, there are quite a few who have had conflicts with Old Man Xu's family. For example, my uncle's family has had many conflicts with their family.

Didn’t the Xu family come from outside? The land of my uncle’s family was either passed down from generation to generation or was built by myself. As a result, land reform was carried out decades ago. According to the population, the Xu family is the big surname of our Xihe Village. Naturally, the Xu family has the largest population, and the old Xu family has the largest distribution. However, because of the small population of my uncle’s family, they have divided all their land.

The reason why the two families had a conflict was that the old man Xu's family had a piece of land not far from my uncle's house, and it was passed down from generation to generation. Originally, he wanted to exchange another piece of land with his hometown, which was about the same size as Xu's house, and they all looked like five-point land. However, the old man Xu's family said that he would not change anything, and said that it was given by the state, so he would not change it.

Speaking of which, when there was no land reform in the past, Old Man Xu's family had any land. So, the land immediately changed as soon as it reached, making my uncle angry.

It was just a little bit of a matter, and it was not until Old Man Xu's father passed away that my uncle said that everyone was dead, so forget it, the land was never changed."

After the old man finished speaking, he added: "Actually, it's not that the land is so good. It's just that my uncle from the family has worked on this land for hundreds of years. Whether it's in the year of disaster or good fortune, they have supported their family and have feelings."

In fact, this is understandable. After all, it is indeed affectionate to raise their family members by piece of land.

It can be imagined that after they took root in some place, it was indeed very difficult to open up land and grow grain and support a whole family.

As a descendant, it is reasonable to be grateful for the kindness of his ancestors and want to exchange this land for this land.

Shaodong also knew who the uncle he was talking about was. If nothing unexpected happened, the old man surnamed Jiang who told them that he had long suspected that Old Man Xu's father had died not simple.

"It's understandable, after all, the ancestor Gai Huai is not a bad thing, right?" After agreeing, Shao Dong said again: "What else is there?"

"That's too much." The old man said: "There are still a lot of things like this in our village, but whether it is the four great masters who have long been rooted here or the foreigners who came here for various reasons, they attach great importance to the rules of Xihe Village.

So over the years, no major conflicts have occurred, so there is no record of the mediation meeting in the village.

But there are quite a lot of trivial matters, most of us at our age know a little.

For example, the old man Xu's family and the Zhang family at the west end of the village had a quarrel because of digging ditches. The Wang family and the old man Xu's family almost started fighting because a cow ate the seedlings in the field. And...

For things like this, not to mention the old man Xu’s family, every household has it. You can’t kill people for such a little thing, right?”

The old man knows a lot, but he doesn't believe that the people who killed Old Man Xu's family would be for these reasons.

Of course, not only did he not believe it, but Shaodong also did not believe it, but he knew that whether he believed it or not, the investigation must be investigated.

Moreover, from the old man's words, it is not difficult to hear that the old man is unwilling to accept that the murderer is from the village.

Whenever he said one, he would deliberately or unintentionally drag them down, which might not even be discovered by the old man himself.

However, these are not actually the purpose of Shaodong's trip. What he wanted to know about this trip was not what he wanted to know. Seeing that the old man had not mentioned the aspect he wanted to know for a long time, Shaodong took the initiative to ask: "Old man, can you tell me what happened to Old Man Xu and their old Mr. Xu's family?"

For some reason, when talking about this question, the old man was stunned for a moment, didn't say anything for a long time, and even lowered his head and took several sips of the old cigarette pole.

Shao Dong did not disturb the old man's thoughts, but just waited quietly for the old man to express his opinion. Time passed slowly in the old man's breathing and mist.

"Forget it, I shouldn't have told you outsiders this. I'm not afraid of you making jokes. In the past few decades, that matter has been regarded as a taboo by our village. Even ourselves, we will never talk about this matter again on weekdays. But since you are policemen, you are here to help us solve the case. I want to solve such an example, and it's nothing."

I don’t know how long it took, but the old man seemed to have figured out something. He sniffed the old cigarette pole and said, “Actually, that matter cannot be just about the affairs of the two families. It’s a bit complicated to say. How can I say it? It should be the affairs of the whole village.”

"What's the specific situation?" Shao Dong asked hurriedly.

The old man made a memory look, and after a while, he said, "To be honest, it is not that Old Man Xu's family and Old Master Xu's family are incompatible with Old Master Xu, but that most of our villages are incompatible with Old Master Xu.

Speaking of which, it is just a simple thing, because of the death knell.”

"Death knell?" Shao Dong felt a sudden slap in his heart when he heard the old man say this. He felt that he was about to get to the point.

The old man sniffed the old cigarette pole again and said, "Yes, it's the death knell. Speaking of this, we have to talk about the history of the Xu family's fortune.

If the Xu family can develop into one of the top major families in the village in the shortest time, it is all due to their ancestors who got married back then. You said, what kind of marriage is that we are a little bit bigger?

But the Xu family just did it. Back then, there were too many babies in every household. The ancestors of the Xu family married their Xu family's daughter to all the families in the village. Whether it was Jiang, Zhang, Wang, Yang at the beginning, or the small family that came in later, as long as it was some of our Xihe Village, the Xu family could get a relative.

And the incident back then was because Mr. Xu's grandfather married Mr. Xu's sister to the old Zhang family.

There was no problem with this, but two things happened that affected our Xihe Village for decades."

"What two things are there?" Shao Dong asked anxiously.

The old man seemed to be trapped in deep memories. After a long time, he sucked an old cigarette pole, sighed and said, "The first thing is that since Mr. Xu's sister married to the old Zhang family, many people have died one after another, and in the end she and her two children are left. However, Mr. Xu's sister is also a poor person, and she has grown up with her two children alone."

The old man seemed to be trapped in memories and remembered the woman who used to be like an iron lady who was unmoved.

Shao Dong almost stood up in surprise. Isn’t the kind of person he has been looking for?

The family suffered an important change, which hit the person involved a lot. Now, Mr. Xu’s sister’s family must have suffered a big blow.

After all, watching your relatives leave one by one, this blow is absolutely fatal.

When Shaodong was thinking about these problems, the old man said again: "If you want to talk about the second thing, it should be considered a merit. You also know that in those days, the grain production was low, and every household had starved to death. However, Mr. Xu's sister was an amazing person. She thought of some ways to make the grain look like a cake. Although it tasted bad, after taking a bite, a bowl of cold water would make people full.

In that era of scarcity of supplies, you don’t know how many lives she saved by her method. It’s no exaggeration to say that if it weren’t for the method she came up with, we who are over 60 in Xihe Village would probably not be much left now.”

Shao Dong nodded about the old man's statement. Although he had never experienced that era, he still knew the Great Famine. In that era, as long as he could eat tree bark and Guanyin soil, no one would not eat it, but even so, countless people still starved to death.

This can be said to be the most painful natural disaster our country has experienced since its founding.

After the old man finished speaking, he looked up at the roof that was darkened by firewood and said silently: "But it was only such a woman who saved our Xihe Village. At the end of the burial, few people went to help."

After saying that, the old man couldn't help but sigh. Maybe he was moved and tears couldn't help falling down.

But Shaodong and others were puzzled. Why didn’t the villagers help if such a woman died and was buried?

From all aspects, the people in this village are not the kind of ungrateful people.

At that moment, Meng Qing asked, "Why?"

Before the old man could speak, Shao Dong asked again: "Because of the death knell?"

"Yes!" the old man said excitedly: "It's because of that damn death knell!"

It can be seen that the old man is a little emotionally excited at this moment. Older people like to recall the past, but they can't control their feelings.

Shao Dong was about to wait for the old man to calm down and ask again, but Meng Qing was obviously full of doubts and continued to ask: "What is the specific situation?"

The old man rubbed his eyes and said, "When she passed away, the people from the Zhang family discussed it and clamored to ring the death knell for her.

To be honest, our ancestors' regulations do not stipulate that men can only ring the death knell after death. The conditions are that they do not restrict gender. As long as they meet the requirements of the conditions, they are fine.

Think about Mr. Xu's sister, a woman who was forced by life and had no choice but to make a bastard, saved the whole village. This kind of contribution has made great contributions to our village? Moreover, after they developed this method, they did not hide it and told the whole village directly about it.

To put it bluntly, this is a life-saving grace! But when the other people in the village heard it, they were furious and said that there had never been a precedent for women to ring the death knell.

This kind of argument was nothing. Indeed, since there was a record in Xihe Village, we have never sounded the death knell for women. This is reasonable and well-founded.

But if you don’t know who it was, a word suddenly appeared, saying that Mr. Xu’s sister was a broom star. She killed her parents-in-law as soon as she entered the house, and soon she killed her husband.

Then it was a thrill. Mr. Xu was originally a kung fu practitioner and wanted to find someone to gesture.

I don’t remember who went outside the village with Mr. Xu in the end. Anyway, when I came back, both of them had their heads hanging down."

The old man said a long story, but Shaodong heard two key things.

1. Mr. Xu’s sister’s family did have a painful experience.

2. Someone once stopped ringing the death knell for Mr. Xu’s sister.

"What's the end?" Meng Qing asked again while Shaodong was thinking about these questions.

The old man shook his head and said, "Where is the last one? In the end, it was not enough to satisfy most people, but it was so embarrassing that everyone was embarrassed. So, when Mr. Xu's sister was buried in the end, except for Mr. Xu's family and several families with the surname Zhang, the rest of the households did not go. It can be said that this is the greatest humiliation to a person who once had the grace of life for us."
To be continued...