C25

The Park Service claimed that the park was closed every day because of the fact that its predecessor was the tomb of the Revolutionary Martyrs of the Northern Army and that some important documents and cultural relics needed to be protected.

Although this was the official version, the people did not think this way. Some people thought that the Miasagang Park had too much yin energy, which would have a negative impact on the park at night. Others thought that this was the hub of the huge underground construction of Zhengzhou. In short, there was a lot of stuff to talk about, and everyone just wanted to talk about it after the meal. No one would have the time to pursue this issue.

However, along with the continuous postponement of the closing time in recent years, some rather strange things had indeed happened in the Bian Sha hill. Although these things could not be reported in the newspaper, when the residents nearby mentioned them, each person could tell two or three stories from their mouths.

When I was a child, I was a devoted listener of these stories. Whenever I came to my maternal grandma's house, I would hear rumors about the Beshakwan Park from the mah-jongg aunts and uncles in the courtyard.

Of course, there was no lack of lies. What happened in other places had been forcefully taken by them to the head of the Bi Sha gang. But after hearing so much, I can tell which ones are true and which ones are false. But there are two or three things I've heard from at least ten people, and almost the same version, that are the only things to be believed and discussed.

The first thing that happened was in the late eighties, when the Beshagung Park was still closing at eight-thirty. One day in early autumn, a young man asked his girlfriend to come to the park.

The sky got dark early in October, and although there was a slight chill in the air, there were only a few people. The two of them could confidently hug and kiss each other, doing things that they were too embarrassed to do in public.

The young man came early, just after dark, at six o'clock. At this moment, the social atmosphere had just been released, and there was no lack of intimate lovers in the park. The young man was afraid that he wouldn't be able to take advantage of the terrain if he was late, so he didn't ask the girl to stay at the entrance to the park, but in the woods, not far east from the gate, where there were a few benches for the tourists to rest when they were tired.

The little guy only thought that as long as he came early and occupied a chair, the two girls would have a place to sit after a while. As soon as he entered the park, he went straight for the woods. When he looked in front of him, he found that there was no one sitting on the bench, except for the person sitting on the other side. So the boy went to the deepest part of the forest and sat down on a bench, waiting for his girlfriend.

The position of the bench was especially good. At that time, the park's wall was still made of brick, so it was not very bright. The other two benches were at least 20 meters away from the park. It's the perfect place to date.

The more he thought about it, the more beautiful he became. He wished that the girl would immediately pounce on him and bite him. Everyone knew that it was normal for a girl to be late for a date when they were dating. The young man had waited for more than half an hour, but the girl still hadn't arrived. He could no longer sit still. But to wait at the door, he was afraid that someone would snatch his seat when he returned. He had no choice but to take out a cigarette to relieve his boredom. Otherwise, when the girl came, he wouldn't give her the chance to smoke.

The boy took a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth. He rummaged through his pockets, but he couldn't find a lighter. This really was too impatient to smoke, so the little guy looked around to see if there was anyone else who was also smoking so he could borrow a fire.

When he did, he saw a man in black with his back to him, leaning against a wall a dozen meters away, puffing and puffing. The youngster hastily moved closer and said to the man one meter away, "Big brother, I'll have to trouble you to borrow a fire." The man replied with an "Oh" and threw a black object back without even looking at it.

The boy took it and looked at it. It was a match, but it was damp to the touch, and he didn't know if he could rub it.

He wiped four or five of them consecutively before he finally managed to get a better match. With a "Hua" sound, green flames instantly shot out of the match, startling the young man.

Lighting a cigarette, the little guy wanted to return the match to the man, thinking that it was fine if you used a match every day, but this autumn's wind was so strong, and it was still very humid, so it didn't take too much effort! The man waved his hand in a magnanimous manner, indicating that he didn't want it anymore. Then, he walked to the side.

Back on the bench, the boy looked at the matchbox. It was too dark to see. Thus, he casually put it in his pocket. Since he didn't bring any fire today, he might still be able to use it when he wanted to smoke. Although it wasn't easy to draw water when the time came, it was still better than always looking for someone to borrow fire.

After taking a few puffs, he felt that the smell of the cigarettes today was off. Could it be that he had bought a fake one? As a result, the little guy held the cigarette in his hand and looked at it carefully. When he looked at it, he saw that the cigarette butt that was sizzling out was actually also glowing with green light.

The youngster was so scared that he immediately threw away his cigarette. He hurriedly looked up to find the man. He could only vaguely see that the man had entered the deepest part of the forest corner. The boy immediately followed to see what was going on, because it was a dead end and there was no way out. If it was a piss or a piss, there was only a free public toilet less than 100 meters away. The lights in the public toilet were very eye-catching at night, so there was no need to solve it here.

When the boy walked to the corner of the woods and the park wall, he found that he couldn't find the man at all. He just disappeared into thin air.

The little guy was scared out of his wits, and the girl didn't wait any longer. She ran home on her hands and knees and told everyone that she had met a ghost in the park, but no one believed him. The little guy angrily flipped over the table, smashed things, and locked himself in the house, not allowing anyone to come in.

Just like that, a month passed. The family saw that he was still not getting better, so they had no choice but to call for a car from the mental hospital, intending to send him in. While he was tidying up the coat he had been wearing for a month, the match fell out.

The boy's grandfather, an old revolutionary, recognized the box of matches at a glance. It had been made by an ocean fire factory in Henan during the warlord era. With the Japanese invasion of thirty-seven years ago, the firewood factory had collapsed after not more than two years in the middle of the war. When I was young, I used to use this brand every day.

Now everyone understood. It seemed that this little guy had really met something he shouldn't have and believed his words. The little guy no longer lost his temper, but he was unwilling to step foot in the front gate of the Bashang Park ever again. Although his temper was good, his brain was often not enough for him, making him seem a little stupid.

When they had finished, the adults would say that there was something wrong with the man in black's matches, and the boys would light their cigarettes with his matches, and every time they took a drag, some of the spirit would be sucked out, causing them to lose their sanity.

Whether the match was a problem or not, at least I still believe in the truth of the story. Because that young man had lived in his grandma's courtyard, many people had heard of his story about that man in black. Everyone knew that this was the reason why he lost his mind for a while, and at that time, he would smash things almost every night, so everyone in the academy would hear about it.

If his family was able to be smashed or was worth a lot of money, then his girlfriend would naturally leave him. His family felt that he was too embarrassed to make a fuss every day, so they moved to the west side of the country. A few years later, he heard that things were slowly getting better again. His family had found him a living, called him a master, and went to a construction company to open an excavator.

The second story happened in the early nineties, right when we first started making a ruckus after 80. The kids were everywhere in those few years, there were at least 10 or 20 of them in my grandma's yard. In every group of children, there would always be two or three who were particularly annoying.

No matter how much the children of other families loved to play, they would not dare to disobey the adults. The living space was limited to that courtyard, and without the permission of the adults, they would absolutely not dare to leave. But there were only three or five children in my grandma's yard, and across the road was the Beshagung Park. When the holidays came, they would dive into the park in the morning, eat lunch when they were hungry, and then run back inside after eating. No matter how loud the adults were, no matter how much they beat them, they would not listen.

After a long time, their family's elders stopped emphasizing such things. Since it was useless even if they wanted to beat them up, just go and play if they wanted to. The park was close to home anyway, but the children had to be careful when crossing the road.

After I went to high school, I heard this story from my uncle.

As I mentioned in my last story, there was a small forest to the east of the north gate of the park. It was a place for lovers to talk about love, and it was not much fun for the children. They were more interested in the west side of the park, where there was a small mountain, about ten meters tall.

At that time the park had not been renovated to the hill, and there were no roads to be repaired on the hill for visitors to climb up and down. There were weeds and rocks everywhere, and there was a small fortress at the top of the mountain.

Even though it looked dirty and messy to adults, and there might be snakes, it was a paradise for children to play. A group of teenagers would climb up and down this hill every day to play war games, pick the dogtail grass, and chew the sweet roots. They would never get tired of it.

The fortress at the top of the mountain had undoubtedly become the most sacred place in the children's hearts. Fortunately, due to the age of this fortress, it had already been stuck in the soil for several tens of centimeters, blocking the only stone door completely. In fact, even if he didn't block the door, he wouldn't be able to open it without at least three or five adults inside. The bunker was over three meters tall and slippery. Other than the two observation holes, there was nothing else. So the adults weren't too worried about the children playing around the bunker, because they couldn't climb up or get in.

What happened next was something that the adults later heard from the children. The children had told the same story, so they all thought it was more believable.

One afternoon, a few particularly crazy children were playing a war game on a small hill in the park, with one side guarding the hill and the other side attacking it from above. The weapons were nothing more than pebbles, sand, branches, and so on. At that time, toy guns were quite expensive anyways. Usually, people wouldn't be willing to buy them for their children.

The children were fighting happily when they heard someone calling from inside the bunker.