Rural anecdote: the old man who picks up dung

In the early mountainous countryside, there was a habit of collecting dung. The dung pickers are generally elderly people who can't do manual labor. Being idle at home is also idle. The dung collected at home, dried and mashed will grow into a good banker. This is a story about an old man in Li Jiayu village. It was just dawn this morning. After the cock crowed twice, he got up from the kang as usual, tied a piece of cloth around his waist, picked up the old dung basket, picked up the dung fork and went out. The old man is very diligent in collecting dung, and he is afraid that he will get up late and the dung in the village will be picked up by others.

Pushing open the gate of the fence, the alley was still dark, and a gray line could be faintly seen on the ground. With the old man's years of experience, in this hazy place, he can accurately distinguish which tuo is mule dung and which tuo is donkey dung at a glance. Cow dung is a big lump, and dog dung is more like human excrement; Mule dung is slightly larger than donkey dung. The old man dragged the dung fork in the morning light, and his eyes were as sharp as an eagle, sweeping the prey on the ground. The old man walked two hutongs in a row, but he didn't pick up a lump of dung, let alone cow dung, or even dog dung. The old man wondered: Did someone pick it up in front of me? He slammed the dung fork on someone else's back wall several times, which attracted several barking dogs. Then, other yards followed the messy barking of dogs. The old man walked out of the alley into the street. He finally found a lump of cow dung under a century-old locust tree. The old man mumbled and walked up. "Boy, hide here!" "The old man dumped the dung fork three times, five times and two times, and pulled the dung into the dung basket. Just as he was contentedly picking up the dung basket and preparing to leave, there was a sudden sound of hooves behind him. The old man turned around and saw a burly horse coming. He rode a man at once and couldn't see his face clearly. The old man was puzzled: Who was riding in the morning? He stood under the locust tree and watched the tall horse pass by, then he walked along the horse's route. The old man thought, this horse has come all the way from the entrance of the village, and has not left a pile of feces? At this time, the wind blew from the entrance of the village, and the old man felt an unusual cold. He hugged his body tightly, and the dung fork was in the creaking nest. He walked along the street until he reached the entrance of the village, and didn't even see a lump of horse manure. The wind at the entrance of the village was too strong, so the old man hurried back to the old locust tree and walked in the direction of the horse. After a few steps, the old man saw a backpack under his feet. He picked it up and carried a heavy bag on his back. He knew that it must have been lost by the rider in the past. The old man opened the bag, felt it, and then leaned in to have a closer look. Boy, it turns out that the two backpacks are full of neatly folded bills. The old man didn't think much, picked up his backpack and hurried home. When he got home, the old man closed the doors and windows, found a ladder and hid his backpack on the roof. Hide the money, the old man is lying in bed again. He was both surprised and scared. Even if there was a slight barking of dogs and crowing of chickens, he trembled all over, thinking that the man riding a big horse had gone back to the village to find his lost money. For seven days in a row, the old man didn't go to collect feces again, and didn't even go out at home. His children came to see him and asked him if he was ill. The old man just said that he was ill and had no strength. In this way, all the children knew that the old man was ill, so they took turns waiting in the hospital bed. The old man pretended to be ill for half a month. When the old man decided that the stranger on horseback would not come back for his money, one day, he called all three children to his side and told them what happened that morning. But the children didn't believe it, thinking that the old man was sick and confused, and curled his mouth and smiled bitterly. In a hurry, the old man kept pointing to the ceiling of the roof: the money is on it, on it … The old man instructed his eldest son to resist the ladder and climb up the roof. Sure enough, there is a colorful backpack. He took off his backpack and opened it in front of the old man. But there is nothing in the backpack, only a handful of paper ashes. The old man grabbed his backpack with both hands and stared at the scraps of paper in fear. At this point, he understood everything. Then, the old man really fell ill and died in less than a month. There is a saying in the countryside that after seeing a ghost, people should tell it to one hundred people by word of mouth, so that those who meet a ghost will save their lives.