under hope

Today is April 3rd, which is also the memorial day for my grandfather and father.

Five years ago, the father and his son went to sea to salvage fish for the Republic's garrison, but they did not come back alive.

He was only fourteen when he watched the soldiers of the Republic bring back the blood-covered body in a speedboat.

Grandma passed away early, and the family was not very wealthy, let alone losing two of their pillars.

The huge impact broke the mother's fragile psychological defense, causing her to suffer from severe mental illness.

Fortunately, after the war, the government of the Republic sent monthly pensions to their family.

He poured half a bottle of coconut wine in front of the tombstone, bowed deeply, and then sat cross-legged on the ground and drank the remaining wine in the bottle.

This coconut wine was made by my mother, and both my father and grandfather liked it. I didn’t expect that this would be the first time for the three of them to drink.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In order to take care of his mother, he gave up his studies and relied on selling fish to make a living. Going to sea all year round made him very haggard.

The girls he had an ambiguous relationship with at school also cut off contact with him early. His only concern now is his mother.

After drinking the last sip of coconut wine, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to the tombstone.

After roughly cleaning up the surrounding garbage, he lowered his head and walked towards the hut on the beach.

"Ah Sheng, you are back, sit down quickly! Your father brought back a roast chicken from the market today. Don't you always miss it?"

Seeing him push open the door and come in, a petite woman came up to him enthusiastically and pulled him to the dining table. He looked at the empty plate in front of him and smiled, taking advantage of the gap where his mother turned to take the plate and took half of it. The grilled fish was placed on the plate.

The mother placed four small plates on the four directions of the table, and then filled four bowls of rice.

After the mother finished her work, he moved the bowls and chopsticks, observing his mother while eating rice

"Lao Zhang, Ah Sheng will be in the third grade of junior high school next year. Let’s buy him a better schoolbag. Now there is no way to make up for it."

My mother was eating rice and talking to the empty seat on the left.

"Well, although Ah Sheng didn't mention this matter, children still want to save face."

The mother nodded to the left and looked at him with a smile.

The mother's smile was still so beautiful and contagious, and he gradually understood why his father fell in love with her. He heard from his grandfather that his mother was originally a child next door. He has been playing with his father since he was a child, and they often fight and mess around. He often goes to sea with the uncle next door.

One day, the uncle next door suddenly stopped going to sea, refused to answer the phone, and locked the door. Tightly, my mother didn’t go to school that day.

Grandpa thought it was strange. When the sun was about to set, grandpa and his father knocked open the door of the neighbor’s house.

They found that the body of the uncle next door was blocking the door. At that time, it was still My mother, who was in junior high school, was frightened by the uncle's death and huddled under the bed shivering.

After examination at the hospital, it was found that the uncle died of a heart attack. He should have suddenly fallen ill when he was about to go out.

Grandpa accepted the helpless man at the time. My mother and my father often stayed with her at her bedside when she had nightmares.

My father said that my mother had a very cute smile back then. He married her just because he wanted to protect her smile. My father got married at the age of 20, four years apart from his mother. age

"Yes, Dad, Ah Sheng is indeed a sensible child."

When he came back to his senses, his mother was talking to the empty seat on the right again. He sighed softly and silently picked up the rice.

He got up early before it was fully light. He laid several traps yesterday. He wanted to catch some crabs, which was his mother's favorite food.

He walked into the utility room as usual and reached for the clip hanging in the innermost part.

I wonder if it was because he went to bed late and got up early all year round that his energy was a little slack. He staggered unexpectedly.

Grandpa's old coat was knocked off the shelf by him, revealing what was hidden behind it.

"A box?"

He was a little surprised. In order to prevent his mother from noticing the changes, he deliberately kept the arrangement in the utility room the same as it was five years ago, and tried not to move anything that could be moved.

"Didn't you know there was such a thing?"

He took down the box with both hands and placed it on the workbench.

It was a small iron box, covered with scratches and white marks from friction, and it was not locked.

"Grandpa's stuff?"

He only had the impression that his grandfather had the habit of storing things.

He opened the box with doubts, and all kinds of objects appeared in front of him.

A puppet, wearing a red skirt, wearing high heels, with his hair tied in three strands, but But no facial parts were engraved on it

"Is it a toy that my mother had when she was a child?"

He thought like this and stretched out his hand to play with the puppet's arms.

Suddenly, a piercing scream sounded in his ears. The sound almost tore his eardrums and made him dizzy.

In panic, He looked at the puppet and was surprised to find an angry expression on its face.

He quickly threw the puppet out.

The puppet fell heavily to the ground, and the scream disappeared.

He turned to look at the door, except for the door I don't know when it was closed, but no one noticed that he was here.

Was the scream an hallucination?

But the tinnitus caused by the sudden high volume still existed, and he was a little confused. He picked up the puppet, and there was no change on his face. He was even more confused..

He picked up another statue.

Strangely, he remembered that his family did not believe in gods and ghosts.

The statue seemed to be made of coral, exuding a faint salty smell, and the texture was not very smooth to the touch, but The carving was very detailed.

He looked at the appearance of the statue - a human body and a snake's tail. No, it didn't have any human characteristics. If it had any, it was the hands with webbed feet.

The statue had an exaggerated dorsal fin and a thick body. , the curled up snake tail and the six small holes that looked like eyes, the whole thing gave him a very bad feeling.

Especially the six small holes that looked like eyes, just by chance they met, it made him shudder.

Just as he was When he wanted to put it back, his vision suddenly went dark. He was a little panicked, but he quickly recovered his vision.

Looking at the statue he was holding tightly in his hand, he felt a little scared.

It was getting late, and he would put all the statues in his hands. He put all the items he took out back, and rearranged all the messed up items back to their original positions, then picked up the clips and bucket and left in a hurry.

Strange to say, it should be morning, the sun has not yet risen, and the beach is But there was a strange high temperature.

As soon as he opened the door, a heat wave hit his face, and big beads of sweat kept dripping down his cheeks.

He put on a hat and braved the heat wave without hesitation. When he got out, he just hoped that the crabs would not be steamed.

The sea water turned black, the waves hit the beach from time to time, the sky was between dawn and darkness, and the entire beach was silent, not even the calls of seabirds.

He was about to Bu rushed to the place where the trap was set yesterday and took a look.

The plump crabs were huddled together in the small cage. He was very happy, and his mother would be very happy.

Without further ado, he started to move the crabs. Go to the bucket, one, two, three... Huh?

He found that there seemed to be something under the belly of one crab. Was it holding eggs?

He thought so while turning the crab over with a clamp.

"vomit——"

After seeing clearly what it was, his stomach was churning and he couldn't stop retching. what is that? what happened? It's so weird, everything that happened today is so weird!

Both that inexplicable old box and the contents inside are so strange!

He kicked over the bucket, poured out the strange crabs, and ran towards home.

The tiny tentacles constantly wriggling on the crab's belly made his scalp numb. The disgusting sight could not be shaken from his mind, and he returned home in a daze.

"Eh? Mother?"Looking at the hut in front of him whose ground was soaked by the black sea water, he was stunned for a moment.

"mom! mom!"He shouted frantically, kicked open the door with great force, and continued to call his mother loudly:"Mom! Mom, where are you? mom!"

Suddenly, he heard the sound of something swimming across the water, followed by a slight gasp.

He immediately stopped shouting, gently picked up a harpoon from the utility room, and carefully identified the sound. source of

"hiss——"

That voice appears again! It's mother's room!

He didn't think any more, tried his best to calm down his anxious mood, and slowly leaned towards the direction of the sound.

The door to his mother's room was ajar, and there were red blood stains floating on the sea water. He couldn't bear it anymore, and rushed in holding the harpoon tightly.

"ah?!"

Standing at the door, he was shaking with anger.

Lying on his mother's bed was an ugly monster covered with barnacles. It had fish eyes but hands and legs similar to humans.

The monster was pressed against it. Under him were his mother's messy clothes.

He suddenly lost his mind and stabbed the harpoon into the monster's back. The sharp barbed prongs and his powerful thrusts pinned the monster to death. On the bed.

The monster danced its limbs wildly, and its sharp claws scratched his arms and wrists, but he still did not let go.

Seeing that the harpoon could not be pulled out, he broke the harpoon and used the sharp section of the broken section. He continued to stab the monster under him.

The monster's limbs twitched and stopped resisting, and intermittent whimpers came out of its throat.

When he thought of his petite mother being eaten alive by this monster, he stabbed harder and harder. The green blood flowed from The stinging place burst out, and soon his whole body was covered with this smelly liquid.

The monster stopped moving. He pulled out his mother's clothes from under the rotting monster corpse and held it tightly in his arms.

"Mommy mommy……"

He cried lowly in a hoarse voice.

His limbs could no longer exert their strength, and his head was a little dizzy. He collapsed in front of the bed, hugging his mother's clothes tightly in his arms, and fell asleep deeply.

A few weeks later, a seaside cottage was cordoned off by police, where they discovered two bodies.

According to the police officers who investigated the scene, they found two bodies, a man and a woman.

The female body had a harpoon pierced through her back and was stabbed multiple times in the back.

The eyes of the male corpse were missing, and there were scars on his arms. He was holding a half-human, half-snake statue tightly in his hand.