Chapter 12: No Will and No Power

Li Dafa's second sister prepared tea in the outer room, waiting for the real buyer to make the final decision.

However, Chen Xiaomei did not hammer down. She said to her second sister: "As long as the person is still breathing, the house cannot be changed. After he is gone and the matter is handled neatly, it will not be too late to sell the house at least after the 57th day."

The second sister certainly knew that the soul of the dead will come back before the 57th day in folk customs. After the 57th day, it is considered that the soul of the person has really been sent away.

Chen Xiaomei wanted Li Dafa's soul to have a home to live in after it came back.

Chen Xiaomei left two thousand yuan for her second sister, saying: "This is for the two sisters. You are old and still taking care of the patient. It is not easy. Buy some nutritional supplements to take care of your body. It is a blessing for Li Dafa that you two are in good health."

The second sister pretended to refuse, but still accepted it.

Money is always a good thing. When you are powerless to do something, money is the best way to express a little peace of mind in the secular world.

The second sister regarded the money left by Chen Xiaomei as a down payment for the house, so when someone came to inquire about the house, they all said that the house had already been sold.

Li Dafa's two sisters discussed it and decided to use Chen Xiaomei's money to prepare clothes for Li Dafa to send off his old age.

So the second sister went to the clothing store, garment processing store, leather shoe store and underwear store in the town, bought a new down jacket for Li Dafa, customized a new Zhongshan suit, bought new leather shoes, new autumn clothes, autumn pants and socks, and spent a total of 999 yuan.

The second sister said: "Look at this number, it's really strange, 999, go, go, go, people are going to die, and God won't keep them."

The eldest sister showed the new clothes to Li Dafa and said: "They are all new and good, except for a Zhongshan suit, which is troublesome to make by hand. Wear it when you are better."

Li Dafa knew that these were his old clothes to send off, but when he heard it from his eldest sister, he felt sad and relieved.

The eldest sister's grandson is in the fifth grade. He often doesn't see his grandmother after school. The boy said, "My uncle is so pitiful."

Occasionally, when he sees his grandmother, the boy asks, "When will my uncle die?"

Later, when he still can't see his grandmother after school, the boy spit fire from his mouth: "Why hasn't my uncle died yet? I hate him so much. I can't see my grandmother every day. I really want to strangle him to death!"

Zhen Huan has not finished playing yet. Li Dafa sometimes raises his eyes to look at it, and then his eyes sweep across other corners of the room. Finally, his eyes are motionless. He knows that the Zhen Huan in his life is gone. Sometimes he breathes quickly and his body shakes violently. The eldest and second sisters think he is going to die, but he recovers, opens his eyes and looks, and doesn't speak.

Li Dafa was declared near death by the pot cover, like a fish jumping out of boiling water, and fluttered for more than 20 days. An old man in the village died after lying in bed for seventeen days without eating or drinking. Because he kept dragging his feet and refused to see the King of Hell, his daughter-in-law was unwilling to take care of him. He died on the kang in the middle of summer, with maggots crawling all over his body...

Li Dafa broke this death record. Except for the lingering smell of urine in the room, he was still living decently. His two sisters still wiped his face every morning. Since the second sister announced that the house had an owner, few people came to see him. When people talked about Li Dafa, they no longer had sympathy in their tone and asked, "When will Li Dafa die?"

A pair of old nurses, two old rags, they could no longer squeeze out moisture, they were exhausted physically and mentally. The eldest sister had been complaining of headaches these days, couldn't sleep at night, and lost two circles of weight.

The sun had risen long ago, and the birds went out to find food. The eldest sister sat by the bed and wiped Li Dafa's face. While wiping, she suddenly fell to Li Dafa's side, half of her body on the ground and half of her body by the bed.

Li Dafa was originally in a daze, but suddenly he woke up. Seeing his elder sister sleeping on the bed, he made a sound in his throat, but he was powerless and his elder sister remained motionless.

He wanted to reach out to touch the wooden stick to knock on the bed, but when he reached out his hand, he found that the wooden stick was far away from him and he couldn't reach it. He didn't know where he got the strength from, and he moved his body little by little, and finally touched the wooden stick, but found that his palm had no strength.

The bed board made a slight humming sound, as if it came from the distant heaven. This sound was like a bird coming back to wake up the elder sister. She opened her eyes and saw that Li Dafa's skeleton had moved out of the quilt, and he was gasping for breath.

Li Dafa saw that the elder sister woke up, and suddenly tears came out of his eyes. He made an unclear sound in his throat. The elder sister understood that he was afraid that the elder sister would die. If the elder sister died, it was Li Dafa who killed her.

The eldest sister said: "My blood pressure may be a little high, I will be fine after taking some medicine, don't worry, I held you when you were a child, and I will accompany you when you are old."

Li Dafa talked for a long time, and her eldest sister, the translator, understood: "Eldest sister, you and second sister have suffered a lot, you are both so old, you should enjoy your life, but you still serve me day and night, I really feel uneasy if I don't leave quickly. I can't visit you in May, Dragon Boat Festival and August 15th, you take care of yourself."

Local custom is that May, Dragon Boat Festival and August 15th are for the mother's family to visit the daughter. Every year, Li Dafa goes to the second sister's house first and then to the eldest sister's house. Just like the food he likes, he always saves the best for last. He likes to stay at the eldest sister's house for a while, drink and chat with his sister, brother-in-law and nephew until late, and then ride the broken golden deer home alone. The ground is cold. The eldest sister went to Guogai's clinic to take her pulse. Guogai said that her spleen and stomach were weak and she needed to take Chinese medicine to regulate it. The eldest sister knew the old machine of her body well, and asked the pot cover to measure her blood pressure. Chinese medicine is a difficult grandmother to serve, so she has no time to boil it.

The blood pressure monitor showed that the eldest sister's blood pressure was 170 on the systolic and 100 on the diastolic, as if an airplane was about to soar into the sky, so she decisively suppressed it.

The eldest brother-in-law came to take his wife home, and he was dissatisfied: "If you keep on like this, he will not die, but you will break down his old bones first."

Before dawn, the magpie chirped in the tree. Early in the morning, Liu You's wife came running over and told the second sister on duty: "The team will come to measure the house and the yard this morning. I heard that it will be demolished in the early spring of next year, and we will try to build the building by the end of the year."

Liu You's wife continued the old tradition and always called the village committee the team.

The second sister asked: "Where are we going to sleep this year after the house is demolished?"

Liu You's wife said: "I heard that a simple tent is set up outside the village, one for each family, just like people abroad going on vacation. Bullshit, foreign accent, where do pigs go on vacation? My little pig, find a new home."

After breakfast, there was indeed a bunch of messy people standing in Li Dafa's yard. The village chief who arranged Li Dafa's funeral was smoking a cigarette.

The village chief walked into the house with a cigarette in his mouth and looked at Li Dafa. The room was soon filled with the smell of cigarettes. Li Dafa was awake at this time, smelling the cigarette, inexplicably happy, and blinked at the village chief.

The village chief said: "Do you want to smoke one too? Are you tempted? Hold on for now, there are more important things. You will build a building next year. You should live well and try to move upstairs next year."

Li Dafa knew that sooner or later, his body would have to go up the mountain to be with those ancestors who were sleeping in the sky. He had no intention or strength to move upstairs.

His body rose and fell like a hill. Obviously, he was a diehard when it came to the new socialist countryside. The diehards were always excited.

The second sister hurriedly asked the village chief to leave and negotiated righteously: "Village chief, it's a good thing that you demolished the house, but this good thing has nothing to do with my old five. He must feel uncomfortable when he thinks that you demolished his big north house as soon as he closed his eyes. Just measure whatever you want. What's the use of telling a dying person?"

The village chief thought it made sense, so he waved his hand and said, "Measure the big north house first, then the big fence, and then the yard. Look carefully, don't mistake six for nine, zero for eight, if you measure less, you will have less money."

So his men quickly pulled out the tape measure and measured every corner where the mouse had been.

Li Dafa, lying on the bed, knew that the new policy was coming, and the farmers would be driven out of the bungalows and move into the high-rise buildings, which fully reflected the new look of the new socialist countryside. He believed that ordinary people were powerless under the tide of the times, and he, a dying man, was even more powerless.

In the past, he would have jumped three feet high, or even risked his life to beat these good-for-nothings away with a shovel. Now, he lay quietly, listening to the loud conversations and laughter of people outside the house. He wanted to curse: Bastard, you just acted recklessly after a few days of peace! How long will you continue to do this!

The river flowed quietly, and he just lay quietly.

After the village chief and his men finished measuring, they brought a scribbled area map and said to Li Dafa's second sister: "Sign on behalf of Li Dafa. If Li Dafa can survive until next year, he will be given subsidies based on the measured area. If he can't survive, there will be no compensation next year and the land will be taken back."

The second sister is a smart person. She said: "Does the village represent the country? Let's put it this way. I am only the fourth child in the family and have no say. Li Dafa is like this. If there is anything, I have to discuss it with my brothers and sisters. I have discussed it and it won't be too late to go to the village committee to sign."

The village chief thought about it and nodded in agreement: "Okay, but it's just three days. After three days, whether you sign or not will automatically take effect without objection."

A group of people left. The second sister, a smart person, knew what next year meant. Li Dafa was on the road to death with continuous rain and clouds. One day, a big sun would explode out of thin air. Death is something that can come at any time. If he dies, the house will be taken back by the village committee, and they will not get a penny.

When something important happened, the eldest sister went home to rest for a few days, and the second sister couldn't find anyone to discuss it with. She called the scholar over.

On the fourth day...

On the fifth day...

My second sister did not go to the village branch, the village chief came by himself.

As usual, the village chief went to see Li Dafa with a cigarette in his mouth. Before entering the house, he put out the cigarette, threw it on the ground and twisted it with his leather shoes, and half of the cigarette was sacrificed. He said to Li Dafa: "Live well and try to live in a building next year. If you can't live in it, I will keep it for you."

This made Li Dafa's heart heave again. Buildings are a taboo for the diehards.

The second sister asked the village chief to leave the room again, and said righteously: "What do you mean by this? You keep using the house to provoke my fifth son. You know that my fifth son can't stand the demolition of a good house, and he gets angry when it's mentioned. It's obvious that you can live in the building but he lives in the fields." The village chief smiled and said, "You and Li Dafa have misunderstood what I meant. I have good news for you. There is a new policy from above. As long as you have a household registration in this village, even if you die, the house you live in will not be taken back, and the land will not be taken back. If there are no direct relatives, the brothers and sisters at home can dispose of it freely." The house that was originally going to be taken back was suddenly safe, and the second sister's heart finally returned to her stomach. The fruits of victory were hard-won, and it must be celebrated. She called Xiucai and said, "I'll make dumplings at noon, come and eat." Xiucai came to eat dumplings happily. If the eldest sister was here, he would be embarrassed to come and eat often, because when the two sisters took care of their younger brother, the eldest brother-in-law would stay at home and be a bachelor. The scholar likes to dip dumplings in old vinegar. After eating a plate of dumplings with old vinegar, the scholar's lips are soaked in vinegar and turn white. His white mouth stands out on his caramel-colored face, like a clown in a Lu opera. He chews one dumpling at a time and says three words: "Done?"

The second sister likes to dip dumplings in chili oil. After eating a plate of dumplings with chili oil, the second sister's lips are red from the chili. Even without lipstick, she can see the flaming red lips. The second sister also eats dumplings one by one and says a long string of words: "There is nothing I can't handle. Of course, the main reason is that I have Zhuge Liang to support me."

Although two different seasonings are prepared for eating dumplings, old vinegar and chili oil always get along harmoniously through the dumplings. Some people say that only two people who admire each other will have the passion to go on together. Old vinegar and chili oil are a perfect match for the screen couple.

The scholar's white lips suddenly smacked: "Will the Chen family buy our house? Isn't 60,000 too cheap?"