At this time last year, I was sent to the countryside for a year of training by a great organization, and they were euphemistically called "village cadres." At that time, the village was planning homesteads, and as a temporary deputy secretary, I participated in it.
At this moment, a dilapidated old house became a very disharmonious place in the village and caught my attention. The house was dilapidated and uninhabited, so why not demolish it?
Just when I wanted to know the story of this old house, the villagers were very shy about it, especially the women, who were reluctant to say much. They knew it, but they kept it secret. Why didn't they tell me that? This aroused my curiosity even more. What secrets does it contain?
After more than a month of dull life in the village, I finally couldn't stand the torture of curiosity anymore and decided to dig out the secrets of this old house. I am a grown man who never gossips, but I never expected that I would burst into unparalleled gossip spirit in my thirties. After many side-by-side inquiries, I looked for insiders as a breakthrough point, and through the fragmented narratives of the village party secretary, the single old carpenter Uncle Li, the goddess Shen, and others, a gradually clear clue emerged in my mind: how the gentle and quiet daughter-in-law had an unclear relationship with her father-in-law, why the sister-in-law was so infamous, and why several men mysteriously passed away in just a few years...
A year later, I left that village, but the old house could never be erased from my memory. What was even more indelible were the people and things that happened in the old house.
