Chapter 9 Salt

It was nearly midnight. Xiaozhu, who was weak due to severe convulsions, finally stopped crying. Under the straw-like quilt, he let go of his mother's nipples. "Mother, it's time to catch a cold when you get up, just lie down and sleep like that." The elder sister Ayou stopped the hard-working mother. "Why, hasn't your father come back yet?" Naijia asked, getting up and staying up with Ayou to do the rest of the night's work.The two were working diligently by the fire. "What happened to father? Why hasn't he come back yet?" "It's still the first month of the month, really!"

"Headed by my mother, the family didn't even eat a piece of rice cake for celebration. In such a cold day, they had to stay up late and work." "Men are meant to be social..." "Even if you are the head of the family, you don't work, you always drink, and you bully your mother when you come back. I, I'm really angry..." Ayou has reached the marriageable age.Generally speaking, it is the age when you should get married.But she didn't leave her mother behind to choose to marry. She knew the family situation, not to mention new clothes for the New Year, even rouge and gouache, she never thought about it in her dreams.

"You are right," said the mother with tears, "your father is such a man, if not, Hiji would have grown into a fine young man, and you could have married. But, you see, I have I see, if my husband doesn't choose carefully..." "Mother, I haven't thought about getting married yet. I will always be by my mother's side." "Girl, how can you not marry? Don't tell your current father, I have left the usual money for your wedding expenses from the money given by the king when your late father Yaemon was injured in the war. I have carefully saved up some thread ends, and I have seven balls of thread, I want to use that to knit a narrow-sleeved casual dress for you..."

Ayou interrupted his mother, "Ah, mother, it seems that someone has come into the outer room." "Is it your father?" Ah You stood up and looked into the outer room, "No." "Then, who is it?" "Who is it?...Don't talk." They felt very weird, and Ayou held his breath. "Mother." It was Hiji's voice.In the darkness, Hiji had been standing in the outer room, not intending to come in. "Oh, isn't this Hiji?" "...Well, it's me." "Why, what's the matter, come back at this time?" "I got the china shop fired, so I'm back."

"Huh? Fired..." "Forgive me, mother, forgive me..." Hiji sobbed in the darkness of the outer room.Naijia and Ayou stumbled over. "I was fired, what can I do now? Well, come in first. Why do you always stand there?" Naijia wanted to pull Riji's hand, but Riji shook his head and said, "No, I won't go in. I'm leaving soon. If I sleep by my mother's side for one night, I don't want to leave." Riji was fired suddenly, and his mother found it difficult to return to this poor and complicated place, but it hurt her heart to hear that he couldn't come in, and he was about to leave in the middle of the night, and she looked at him in surprise. He said, "Where are you going? Are you going now?"

"I don't know either, but this time I'm going to serve the samurai, so my mother and sister will definitely be at ease." "To serve the samurai?" "Mother, although you said that you don't want me to be a samurai, I still want to be a samurai. Yabuyama's uncle also said so. I want to be a samurai now." "Even if that's the case, you should come in first, and discuss it with your stepfather tomorrow morning." "I don't want to see him." Riji shook his head. "Mother, I may not come back for about ten years. You have to take care of your health, okay?... Sister, don't marry yet. I'm sorry, but please bear with me. If I succeed, I will definitely repay you." , I want my mother to wear silk and satin, and buy a brocade dress for my sister."

Neither mother nor daughter spoke, just whimpered.Hiji was already sensible enough to say such things.Just thinking about it made them feel so sad, and their eyes were full of tears. "Mother, here is the two liters of salt given by the owner of the porcelain shop. I will keep it for you. This is the salt I earned from working for two years. Sister, you can put it in the kitchen later." "……thanks, thanks!" Mother folded her hands together and bowed to the salt that Riji put there.Then he looked at it with emotion and said, "This is the salt you earned for the first time by labor when you left home."

Hiji felt very satisfied.Seeing his mother happy, he was so happy that he was about to float.So, he vowed in his heart that he must make his mother happier than this. By the way, become salt, become the salt of your home.No, not just my family's salt, but the village's salt, no, it's better to be the world's salt. Hiji murmured in his heart.If you express your thoughts without any hesitation, people in the world will say that you are bragging. Therefore, this makes Hiji have the habit of not easily expressing his thoughts. "Goodbye, mother, sister, I won't be back in a short time." Hiji kept staring at his mother and sister and retreated to the door of the outer room.

Just as Riji was about to cross the threshold with one foot, Ah You suddenly stood up and shouted: "Ah, wait a minute, Riji, wait a moment." Then Ayou begged his mother, saying: "Mom, the money you mentioned just now. It doesn't matter if I marry, no, it doesn't matter if I don't marry. Then give the money to Riji." Mother suppressed the crying sound with her sleeve, went inside, and then took out a consistent money to Riji. "No, don't!" Riji shook his head, Ayou turned his sister's concern into scolding, and asked Riji how he could do without money if he wanted to go out and make a living.But for Hiji, there is one thing he wants more than money.

"Mom, I want my father's knife more than this one. Give it to my grandfather." Hiji did not forget the knife his father showed him when he was seven years old.But the mother seemed to be shocked, and persuaded: "Money can protect you, knife, don't think about it." Riji noticed it immediately, and asked, "Is there any more?" "Ah, no more." Mother said sadly.That knife was sold long ago, and Chikuami was asked to exchange it for money to buy wine. "Well, that's fine too. Mother, the rusty knife in the warehouse should still be there, right?"

"Ah... that one is still there." "Can I take that away?" Riji looked at his mother's face, and persisted despite some concerns. Sure enough, he also remembered the time when he made his mother cry because he clamored for the old knife when he was seven years old. "..." Niga also remembered what happened at that time.Don't be a samurai, don't be a warrior, she prayed so earnestly for Hiji's future.Now she already knows that although it is a child born by herself, it may not be able to grow up according to her wishes, and there is nothing she can do about it. "Take it. But Hiyoshi, you must never draw your sword on someone." "Ah? Can you really give it to me?" "A friend, go get it." "It's okay, I'll go get it." Riji went to the warehouse, stepped on the sundries inside, took down a waist knife hanging on the wall, and immediately stuck it in his waist.Riji seemed to go back to the past, seeing himself who cried and cried when he was seven years old growing up in an instant. "Riji, mother wants you to go back again." Ah You put on his shoes and came to the warehouse to tell him.When I came back, my mother lit the lamp in the shrine, filled a small wooden bowl with a pinch of millet and the salt that Riji had brought back, and bowed with palms together. "You sit there." She made Hiji sit on the transom of the room's entrance, and took a razor from the shrine. "Mom, what are you doing?" "I will give you Xingyuan dress. Although it is a formality, it is also a celebration of your leaving home." She said, shaved Riji's hair, then soaked it in water with new straw and tied it with the broken hair and gave it to Riji.This is a touch that will never be forgotten in his life, and this moment has been engraved in his blood by Riji.While feeling sorry for the rough hands of his mother who sometimes touched his cheeks and ears, he also has the self-consciousness of "I am already an adult". From nowhere came the frequent barking of wild dogs.In this deep quagmire of the Warring States period, the only thing that is still increasing is the barking of dogs. "Mother, goodbye!" Riji walked out.After he finished taking care of himself, his throat choked up, and he couldn't say anything else.The mother prostrates herself before the altar.Ah You hugged Xiaozhu who started to cry and chased him out. "……Goodbye!" Hiji's figure gradually turned into a small black dot, and he kept walking without looking back.Perhaps it was because of the frost that the night was very bright.

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