My mother heard the sound and welcomed me into the house.

There was a small oil lamp lit on the table, emitting a dim and warm light. My father and Xiaoyong were still sleeping on the kang, making slight snoring sounds.

Looking at everything familiar, I felt at ease in my heart.

This was my first summer vacation in college.

Originally, I was supposed to come back as soon as the vacation started. The teacher introduced me to help out at a fertilizer factory for a few days, so I wrote a letter to my family about the return date.

But the factory's work was simpler than I expected, so after finishing it, I came back three days early.

I thought I could surprise my family, but to my surprise, my mother looked at me with a frightened expression:

"Why did you come back?"

It turned out that two days ago, my mother went to the county post office to send me a telegram, asking me not to come back during the summer vacation.

At that time, letter writing was slow, and telephones were still rare. In case of emergencies, the first thing people thought of was sending a telegram.

But when my mother sent the telegram, I was already on the train, so I missed it.

"Why can't I come back?" I asked.

"Stop asking questions. Tomorrow morning, let your father take you to the county, and quickly take the train back," my mother seemed anxious.

After saying that, she sighed again, probably feeling sorry for the money spent on the round-trip train ticket.

I became even more puzzled.

My mother didn't say anything else. She cooked a bowl of noodles for me, and even added an egg specifically, asking me to eat quickly and sleep.

But I became more worried. While eating the noodles, I asked again:

"Did something happen at home?"

"There's nothing wrong at home, it's about you," my mother seemed worried that something might overhear her. She looked around, leaned closer to me, and lowered her voice:

"When you came back, did you encounter anything?"

I remembered the paper figure funeral I saw just now and didn't want my mother to worry, so I didn't say anything and just asked:

"What could I have encountered?"

After asking, I suddenly realized.

The deity in the yard that the villagers worshipped, except for during the New Year, they rarely burned incense. Why were they burning incense today?

I said:

"Is it because someone had a funeral in the middle of the night?"

My mother nervously asked:

"Did you see it?"

I felt anxious in my heart and said:

"I saw it. Whose family had an accident?"

My mother had a worried expression.

"Ah, if you didn't insist on coming back today, this wouldn't have happened. Just stop asking,"

In our village, we try not to discuss the deceased during the mourning period, as it is said to upset the dead and may invite trouble.

I finished eating the noodles, but I still felt hungry. My mother made another bowl for me.

While eating the noodles, I kept thinking:

"Who died? What does it have to do with me?"

At that moment, I felt something strange in my mouth, as if something was tangled up.

I pulled out a strand of hair.

The hair was hidden in the noodles and kept stretching as I pulled, reaching a length of about two feet.

No one in our family has such long hair.