"Father, mother, Xiao Yong!"

I was so scared that I almost cried.

They remained motionless.

The knocking on the door became louder.

Dada dada...

Dada dada...

"Let's go together!"

"Let's go together!"

"Let's go together!"

More and more hands pounded on the door, windows, and outer walls.

There was also something beating on the roof.

The whole house seemed to shake.

On the kang, my father, mother, and Xiao Yong trembled along.

Their bodies twitched, and they began to mutter, but it was no longer their usual voices.

"Let's go together!"

"Let's go together!"

"Let's go together!"

A rope quietly descended from the ceiling beam, and a noose hung from the rope.

Round and suspended in front of my eyes.

Through the rope, I saw the day of the acceptance banquet.

The villagers toasted me one by one, my father drank too much and bragged to others, saying that our family's ancestors' graves were emitting green smoke and producing top scholars generation after generation.

Xiao Yong kept his head down and just ate, and my mother was overjoyed.

Xiaowen and Qiuge also had too much to drink and came to toast me.

Three of us took out our acceptance letters.

Xiaowen was accepted, Qiuge was accepted, and several other siblings were also accepted.

We were all going to study in the city.

Xiaowen and Qiuge carried their bags, and the other seven or eight people followed behind. We left the village together, bathed in the morning sun.

Qiuge turned around and saw me, waving and calling me.

"Brother, let's go together."

She smiled sweetly.

I stepped forward and went with them.

Let's go together.

To the city.

After graduation, the government assigned jobs, units provided housing, we got married, had children, and lived like city people.

We had a market, department stores, a bookshop, a park, and a cinema.

Anything we wanted to buy, eat, or play, we could.

Dressed in fashionable clothes, nine to five work schedule, medical insurance when we were sick, and retirement benefits when we retired.

No need to wake up early or work late, no need to brave the wind and rain, no need to travel to the city for medical treatment.

How great.

How great.

A wave of blissful dizziness swept over me, and I felt like I was about to fall asleep.

I faintly heard a rooster crowing.

I opened my eyes.

I found myself half-kneeling at the entrance of the ancestral hall.

Except for the lunar New Year and funerals, the ancestral hall was usually closed, secured by an iron chain.

Now, the chain was wrapped around my neck.

The iron chain was cold, and it hurt my neck and chin. Due to lack of oxygen, I had no energy left in my body.

The crowing of the rooster echoed repeatedly.

I twisted my body, and my neck was freed from the iron chain. I sat on the ground, feeling sore all over as if I had been beaten up.