Plague Doctor

The night was like water, and summer frog calls came from the vast fields, one after another, one after another, like thunder.

An MPV drove past on a deserted road. After entering this remote area, the traffic became less and less. There was a small, desolate village far away along the way. In this early morning, everything was quiet. Only the occasional barking of dogs showed that there were still people in the village.

The two children who had fallen asleep in the car woke up because of the sound of frogs. They had basically lived in the city since they were born, and they knew the sound of car engines and horns, but they were still full of interest in this kind of natural sound. Curious.

"What is that screaming?" asked the three-year-old Cai Yatou.

"Frog." Yu Qi stroked her daughter's head and said, "It's the kind of frog in "The Frog Prince"."

"Quack, quack, quack," the six-year-old son Xiao Hutou called in imitation. The croak brought joy at the same time.

But Guo Pengbin, who was driving the car, still stopped him: "Don't disturb your grandma, grandpa and grandma." The three old people fell asleep leaning on the backs of their chairs. After nearly ten hours of jolting, they couldn't stretch their legs and feet. This was very difficult for them. Their aging bodies are an ordeal.

Little Hutou lowered his voice, just leaned forward and leaned into the ear of his father who was in the front seat of the driver's seat, and quacked again.

Guo Pengbin ignored his son, smiled and murmured to himself: "We're almost there."

The mobile phone navigation shows that there is less than ten kilometers left to the destination Hewei Village, and we will arrive soon.

Along the way, Guo Pengbin was responsible for driving at full speed, and Yu Qi was responsible for checking the news on his mobile phone without further incident; Citigroup gave many explanations for what happened in New York, and the Tianji Bureau also issued a statement condemning the Will of Life Alliance No matter how powerful the enemy is, they will fight to the end.

Those statements and statements have made the world more aware of the complexity of the world we live in, dark forces, aliens, dimensional invasions...

To be honest, Guo Pengbin and Yu Qi didn't really understand much, but they knew that their guess was right, and even the Tianji Bureau could not guarantee everyone's safety.

Moreover, strangers are still emerging in various places, and the weird howling is becoming more and more frequent.

Yu Qi knew it was because she kept browsing a website that provided warning maps. Whether it was a stranger or a patient, wherever a new howling occurred, it would be displayed as a red dot on the warning map. The red dots in Dongzhou were already densely packed, more than ten times more than when they set out.

As for Hewei Village, their destination, there are no red spots yet, nor in this area.

When there were only the last five kilometers left, Guo Pengbin stopped the car and called Uncle Quan again. Uncle Quan was less than sixty years old. He was a person in the village who had a mobile phone. The call was quickly connected. Guo Pengbin asked: "Uncle Quan, we are almost there. Did anything... happen in the village today? Is there any strange noise?"

"Strange scream? No." Uncle Quan's words came from the mobile phone, "It's still like that. Where have you been?"

"We're almost at the end of the village." After Guo Pengbin ended the call, he said to his wife and others and continued to drive.

Even though the road here was terrible, the five kilometers were completed quickly. Through the windshield and the light of the headlights, the couple saw the yellow mud houses that made up the village. Someone was shining a flashlight on the roadside at the end of the village. , it should be Uncle Quan and the others. Guo Pengbin couldn't help but said happily: "Here we are, here we are, wife, wake up mom and the others."

The two children looked around curiously. Yu Qi woke up a few old people. Everyone heard the shouts of several people waiting at the head of the village in front.

"Peng Bin!" a middle-aged man shouted, shaking the flashlight in his hand, with joy in his voice: "Here it is."

The headlights of the car made their figures a little blurry. As they got closer, Guo Pengbin saw their faces clearly, Uncle Quan, Uncle Hong and Uncle Bo. Uncle Quan is a relative, while Uncle Hong and Uncle Bo were both his father's good friends during his lifetime. I haven’t seen you for some years...

At this time, Guo Pengbin suddenly had some complicated and inexplicable emotions. He should have returned to the village a long time ago.

The car slowly slowed down and stopped. Mother Guo had rolled down the window and looked out to say hello to these old acquaintances whom she might not have seen for a long time: "I'm back. Pengbin said it's dangerous outside recently." , there are a lot of messy diseases, so just come back and stay for a while.”

"You can live here as long as you want." Uncle Quan nodded cheerfully, his dark face full of smiles, "Your house is still there. I put some sundries there before, but I moved it to you today. It has a bed and a stove. ...But you have lived in the city for a long time, so you may not be used to it..."

"How could it be?" Guo Pengbin said quickly. The two yellow mud houses were definitely transferred out a few years ago. They didn't have to live in them at all. Fortunately, Uncle Quan was an honest man. "It would be good to have a place to live." Now, I’ll have to ask more of you, Uncle Quan, from now on.”

The two children looked around. He took everyone out of the car first, and then introduced the three uncles, "Hurry up and call someone."

This time, Little Hutou and Cai Yatou were well-behaved. Although they were young, they seemed to be sensible. They called the three uncles, which made Uncle Quan and the others smile even more.

The one who is most likely to be uncomfortable living there is not his father-in-law and mother-in-law. They are older. Even if it were not the current situation, it would be good to live in a countryside with fresh air for a while. The one most likely to be uncomfortable living there is his wife. , still Yu Qi is not that kind of unruly woman, she is also very polite at this time.

The night is already very deep. There are no young people in the village all year round. There are very few cars. Some of the vehicles are agricultural diesel tricycles. Most of the roads between the houses are dirt roads, and these yellow mud houses are built relatively densely. Their car m

PV can't drive in.

At that moment, the car stopped at the entrance of the village. Several men, including Guo Pengbin and Uncle Quan, took out boxes of luggage from the trunk and moved them to two yellow mud houses in the village.

When Yu Qi saw the two adjacent yellow mud houses, even though she had been mentally prepared and understood what the situation was, she still felt a little uncomfortable.

Both houses are the same height, with old and dilapidated yellow mud walls, old and dilapidated tile roofs, and an equally old and dilapidated wooden door. Outside the house, there is a small, desolate yard covered with endless overgrown trees. The weeds taken care of by people were piled with some water tanks, firewood and other debris.

The telephone poles plugged into the roadside outside the house are crumbling, and there are wires leading to the two old houses, but because they are in disrepair, Uncle Quan and the others are not sure whether they can still have electricity.

After entering the house, Guo Pengbin turned on the old electric switch mounted on the wooden board. The electric lamp entangled in spider webs could emit a dim light, which made them all breathe a sigh of relief. With the current temperature, it is difficult to sleep well without electricity or a fan. Don't even think about air conditioning, but there is no fan in the house. Fortunately, Uncle Hong also has an unused floor-standing electric fan at home, and Uncle Quan also has a small fan, so they enthusiastically moved it over and lent it to them, so the problem was solved. this problem.

There is tap water. After the old water pipes were drained out, the water quality gradually became clear. However, the "kitchen" is basically an old stove in the house and a few cooking pots in the yard outside; and there is no independent bathroom. The toilet is a small hut on the wasteland not far outside the yard.

With such a living environment, it may be okay to live for a few days, but if you live for a long time, there will definitely be many problems...

When Uncle Quan and the others were not paying attention, Yu Qi sighed, not covering up the disappointment in her heart, and said to her husband: "We need to do a lot of renovations, at least there must be a separate bathroom... Our house can't cut off the monthly payment." Woolen cloth……"

Guo Pengbin hesitated to speak, but in the end he said nothing and continued to move his luggage inside.

There are two yellow mud houses, the family and his mother live in the larger one, and the father-in-law and mother-in-law live in the smaller one next to it.

Uncle Quan, Uncle Hong and Uncle Bo were busy and busy. In this midsummer season, even if the night breeze was cool in the early morning, they were sweating all over. They were shirtless and had fat bellies, just like when they were working in the fields. . It wasn't until everything was done and the family had settled down that the three uncles left to go home.

Before leaving, Uncle Quan said: "You stay here first. If there is anything missing or something that needs to be repaired, tell me tomorrow and I will take you to the town to find someone to fix it."

"Okay." Guo Pengbin nodded in agreement. In fact, he just wanted the entire village to be closed off and have no contact with the outside world in the short term, including the town closest to here.

After Uncle Quan and the others left, it was time for everyone to go to bed and rest after running around for a day.

At first, the two children looked curiously here and there, asking their parents a lot of questions, but after all, they were young children, and they soon became tired. Yu Qi coaxed the two children to sleep inside the house. On the small broken wooden bed near the door, which had the best ventilation, the borrowed old standing fan that made a creaking sound was turned on.

She told the two children a fairy tale, let them sleep peacefully, and went to another yellow mud house to help her parents pack their things.

Guo Pengbin's mother thought it was too hot in the house. After seeing her grandchildren, she moved a bamboo mat and spread it on the freshly cleaned ground in the yard outside, just like she had done many years ago, and slept there. As an old peasant woman, she could bear the darkness and mosquitoes around her, but she only wanted the refreshing night breeze.

Guo Pengbin stood at the door of the yellow mud house and looked at his mother sleeping on the ground. After a while, he started snoring and fell asleep.

He looked at the bottomless night, his mind churning, and after sighing, he walked towards the wooden bed over there.

Cai Yatou also fell asleep, but the little tiger's head was still turning around and peeping in. When she saw him coming, she whispered: "Dad, I can't sleep..."

"What's wrong?" Guo Pengbin sat on the edge of the bed, paying attention to avoid the position where the fan blew. In fact, after driving for a day, he was highly concentrated and tense all the time. He was already exhausted and almost fell asleep when he sat down. "Is it hot? The bed is too hard? The fan is too noisy? Or is it outside? Are the frogs noisy?”

The little tiger head shook his head when he heard this, "I just can't sleep..."

"Are you homesick?" Guo Pengbin whispered, reaching out to caress his son's young face, "This is home. Dad grew up here and slept in the bed you are sleeping on now... …Dad knows, you still can’t get used to living here, but something happened… We all have to be brave, you know?”

The little tiger seemed to understand, but finally nodded and closed his eyes hard, with a determined look on his small face, "I know, I am a man."

"Well, go to sleep..." Guo Pengbin couldn't help but smile. Maybe it was because the room was really too stuffy, and even his heart, which had been cold from time to time recently, felt a little warmer.

Love the Plague Doctor.