Chapter 15 Diao Tianxia Twelve

Diao Tianxia Twelve (1) If you are a minotaur on the hillside, If you are a horse-faced demon on the small road, For a while I lost my way, Come to this land, Came to the hometown of farmers, Then disperse with the powder gun smoke, Then go away with the drumbeat of joy. We've never seen it here, The eagle snatches away a man's eye, The strange thing about the plague god killing people. Our place has always been an auspicious place. ——Ancient Song of Yunnan Zhao's ancestral hall was finally completed. All the villagers came to congratulate Zhao Tianjue.Zhao Tianjue smiled happily on the surface, but his heart was empty, as if he had no soul.Because the gate on the hall is still empty, with its mouth wide open.Gao Shimei has worked hard to carve the wooden lattice door for 15 years, but where is she?When Gao Shimei was supposed to be happy, sad things came to Gao Shimei's heart again, and his body suddenly felt a sense of collapse. He was in more pain than anyone else, and the blood in his heart seemed to be drained.He was sullen and insensitive.

In the evening, his father Gao Yingkai brought his troupe to sing a Yunnan opera.Some good friends of Zhao Tianjue also brought Yi, Hani and Dai girls to dance.Zhao's ancestral hall is full of joy inside and outside.Gao Lizhi couldn't see her father, so she searched everywhere. Gao Lizhi saw flocks of crows flying out of the mountains, covering the big trees near Zhao's ancestral hall.The more lively the singing and dancing, the louder the crows were, as if they didn't know where to fly. Several big mice crawled out of the hole, crossed the stage, and lined up in a long line, biting each other's tails, completely ignoring the existence of people, as if they were performing a show, and at the same time seemed to be running for their lives.Gao Lizhi was very strange. He counted one, two, three, and four, and there were 7 of them in total.Mrs. Ma also saw more than a dozen mice crawling out of the main room of her house.Startled, she ran into the room, not daring to look at them.Outside the ancestral hall, hens crowed like roosters, each crowing sharper and louder.

Gao Shimei went to bed early and didn't want to smoke or sleep.When Gao Lizhi came to his bed, he said to Gao Lizhi: "Tonight, I'm in a panic. I always feel that something is going to happen." Come to steal our things?" In the middle of the night, Gao Shimei was drowsy and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach.He hurriedly got out of bed, walked out the door, and rushed to the toilet.It's very quiet around here.Suddenly, there was a "woo", and a strange sound came, but there was no wind, let alone the sound of any animal.In short, he seemed to have never heard such a voice.He raised his head, and saw that the cloudy sky was full of strange-shaped clouds, which were purple or not, red or red, unpredictable, blue and white for a while, and red and green for a while, like a fire. .There was deathly silence all around. At that time, Gao Shi Meixin also panicked inexplicably, pounding wildly, with a particularly strong sense of fear.He fled into the house in a hurry, bolted the door, and heard a loud "squeak... squeak", as if the sky was falling and the ground was falling.He was in a daze, when he heard another "bang", the ground suddenly shook, and he didn't know anything after that.

When Gao Shimei felt a gust of breeze blowing in front of her face, she realized that she had been thrown from the upstairs window into the green bean field outside, her body still wrapped in the quilt.He immediately stood up and ran to the bottom of Zhao Tianjue's building in one breath, shouting and digging with all his might. Zhao Tianjue crawled out of the ruins and fled to a safe place.At that time, he didn't know that there was a big earthquake, and he stood numbly, watching people crawl out from the rubble of the earthen wall, and then gathered to his side.At this time, an elderly man told him that a man came to his collapsed house just now and called his name anxiously, maybe he is still calling now.Zhao Tianjue asked, "Is it a man or a woman?" The man replied, "I can't hear it, the voice has changed." Zhao Tianjue ran home before he had time to ask further questions.Soon, aftershocks occurred again, and a house on the street collapsed. Zhao Tianjue happened to run there and was buried under the earthen wall.

That night, because of the cold weather, Ma put a small oven for heating on the bed and slept with it.During the earthquake, Ma was buried and could not move her body. The charcoal fire in the small oven cooked and scorched her crotch alive.Ma's screams pierced the sky, which was heartbreaking. At dawn, Gao Shimei dug Ma Shi and Yang Yishan out of the adobe respectively, but they were both dead.Gao Shimei looked for Zhao Tianjue everywhere, searched the room where Zhao Tianjue lived several times, but found no trace of Zhao Tianjue.It was not until three days later that Zhao Tianjue's body was dug out from the street.Then, sad news came from Nilang Town that Gao Shimei's father, Gao Yingkai, had his neck broken by an adobe in the earthquake, bleeding profusely, and died moaning a few days later.I heard that Mu Yingtian also died in the earthquake.

Carving the World Twelve (2) Zhao's ancestral hall has also become a ruin. After Gao Shimei invited Li Bang to Nilang Town to bury his father, he returned to Xinlin Village in despair, picked up some useful things from the ruins, and built a hut outside the village.They started the hardest days. In a few days, they will not be able to uncover the pot.In order not to let Gao Lizhi starve, one night, Gao Shimei managed to find paper and pens, let Gao Lizhi stand aside with an oil lamp, and drew a picture of "begging" according to him, and prepared to get it the next day Nilang town betrayed.He believed that his paintings would fetch a good price.Indeed, this painting is novel in conception and profound in meaning.On the screen is a big and splendid house with carved beams and painted buildings, and a lazy cat lying in the doorway is full of food and drink, and sleeps soundly.Beside the cat are the fish and rice that the owner sent him that he can't finish eating.At the foot of a wall not far from the cat, a scrawny little girl, holding an empty broken bowl, looked at the pampered lazy cat alone.Gao Shimei focused on depicting the little girl's eyes, highlighting the temptation of the lazy cat's mouthful of food to her in a sluggish way, so as to arouse people's sympathy.Gao Lizhi looked at it and said to her father: "Have you ever tasted the taste of starvation? The eyes and lips of that little beggar you painted, not only do not look like a hungry person? On the contrary, they look like a thief waiting for an opportunity to steal."

Gao Shimei said: "Why have I never been hungry? When we walked out of the factory in Gejiu, we drank porridge and ate wild vegetables. We were so hungry that we ate chicken soup noodles and dried beef in our dreams." Gao Lizhi couldn't help laughing, "Daddy, you have never been a beggar, so of course you don't know how it feels when you are dying of hunger. A few years ago, I was a beggar, and I was lying on the side of the road with my mind in a daze. How long can you live, how dare you eat chicken soup noodles and beef jerky in your dreams?" Gao Shimei benefited a lot from her daughter's words.He said: "In order to make the "Begging Picture" more vivid, what should I do?" Gao Lizhi said: "Aren't we going to be unable to uncover the pot soon? Why don't we just follow the plan, we just don't eat anything and paint in hunger." Gao Shimei agreed with her daughter's opinion, locked herself in the house, did not eat or drink for three days and three nights, and repainted "Begging Picture" after thoroughly understanding the taste of hunger.As a result, Gao Shimei used her personal experience to paint the little girl's eyes envious and lifeless, confused and dull.Coupled with pale face, chapped lips, and thinning hair.Gao Shimei was also deeply moved by her "Picture of Begging". He remembered Gao Lizhi's past, and he regarded the little girl in the painting as his own daughter.Although a merchant offered ten gold for this painting, Gao Shimei did not sell it.Later, some people continued to increase the price, determined to win, but they failed to impress Gao Shimei's heart.He said: "No matter how poor I am, I will not sell my 'daughter'."

In desperation, in order not to starve to death, Li Bang hastily recruited two young apprentices——Li Waizui and Wang Deafzi.They came together to bid farewell to Gao Shimei, and they will flee to Tuanshan Village, Lin'an City tomorrow.Because the "Zhangjia Garden", "Xiucai Mansion", "General Mansion" and so on are being built there, a large number of craftsmen are needed.This news was provided by Wang Deaf, and it was true and reliable, because he had a younger sister married to Tuanshan.Gao Shimei and Li Bang, master and apprentice, finally had dinner together, persuaded each other to have a few drinks, and then parted reluctantly.

Gao Shimei fell ill, he was lying in a thatched hut, Gao Lizhi waited on him.Gao Lizhi brought the medicine, but he didn't drink it and knocked the bowl to the ground.Gao Lizhi went to decoct the medicine again, brought it here, and asked Dad to take the medicine.Gao Shimei said: "If I don't take it, my disciples will abandon me. What's the point of my life?" Gao Shimei knocked the medicine over again.Gao Lizhi went to decoct the medicine again, brought it here, and asked Dad to eat it.Gao Lizhi cried.She said to her father: "Tang Monk went to the west to learn the scriptures. After ninety-nine and eighty-one difficulties, he finally got the scriptures. We built the Zhao's ancestral hall and carved lattice doors. It seems that it is impossible without going through seven, seven, forty-nine kalpas." successful."

Gao Shimei was deeply moved by her daughter's words.He drank the medicine his daughter sent him.From then on, the father and daughter depended on each other for life, and spent a period of time eating wild vegetables and drinking gruel in peace. Gao Shimei is determined to rebuild Zhao's ancestral hall and re-carve the lattice gate to repay the great kindness of his father-in-law Zhao Tianjue and mother-in-law Ma's family.But where does the money come from? One day at noon, Gao Shimei received a post to report a funeral.It is said that Cai Guanghua, the big pot head of the Washao gang, died of illness in Kunming, and the funeral was also held in Kunming, and Gao Shimei was invited to attend.

Gao Shimei decided to go to Kunming to attend Cai Guanghua's funeral.However, due to her extremely weak health, her daughter Gao Lizhi was worried and worried that her father would have troubles on the road, so she advised her father not to go.But Gao Shimei insisted on going, so Gao Lizhi had to accompany his father to take care of him on the way. Diao Tianxia Twelve (3) That is, in those few days, the Empress Dowager Cixi in Beijing also died.Gao Shimei and her daughter rushed to Kunming after untold hardships. As soon as they entered the city gate, they felt that the atmosphere was extraordinary. There was nothing red in sight, and almost everyone wore white hats on their heads, which was very depressing. A look of helplessness.Could it be that everyone in Kunming is wearing hemp and filial piety for Cai Guotou?That's okay?Cai Guotou is not the emperor.What exactly is this matter about?When Gao Shimei was wondering, an old man knocking on a gong came over and shouted as he walked: "Lafayette, Empress Dowager Cixi has passed away, everyone in the city must wear white mourning, no red clothes, no red lanterns, Can't sing, can't..." Immediately afterwards, a group of men appeared in front of them, standing in two rows, carefully checking the attire of passers-by.Gao Shimei saw the little red heart on top of the melon-shaped hat on the head of an old man being forcibly removed by those people.The embroidered shoes on Gao Lizhi's feet were also forced to stand still because of a small red flower, and had to be taken off by force.Gao Lizhi's feet are "three-inch golden lotus", and she can't walk without her shoes.Therefore, Gao Shimei pleaded with those men, "Please do me a favor! My daughter has small feet, and she can't take off her little shoes." The group of men refused to let go, and said loudly: "What can't you take off? If your daughter She is wearing red pants today, and we will help her take them off too." Gao Lizhi couldn't help crying while watching her little shoes being taken off.At this time, an old lady came out from the nearby shop, holding a piece of black charcoal in her hand, she said: "Don't cry, don't cry! Girl, I'll help you." The man snatched the shoe from his hand, rubbed it hard with charcoal until the little red flower was wiped into a little black flower, and then handed it to Gao Lizhi to put it on. Cai Guanghua’s funeral was unusual. All the guests who came to the funeral, whether they were government officials, big bosses, young men, or even beggars, were all treated equally. They were given foreign felt hats, black suits, black leather shoes, black umbrellas, and white gloves. and a Parker pen.Dress up every guest as a personable "English gentleman".People familiar with the matter said, why did the Cai family do this?The main reason is to distinguish them from those who wear white mourning for the Empress Dowager Cixi on the street, so the Cai family decided not to wear white clothes or hemp hats, and the funeral will be held according to the rules of foreigners.People familiar with the matter also said that the Cai family has gold and silver. When this solemn, huge, black and white, and well-organized funeral procession passed through the streets and alleys of Kunming, it caused a shock in the whole city. There were all kinds of spectators standing on both sides, and they all looked at them with surprise, envy, and eager eyes. .In Kunming City, who has seen such a high-level funeral procession?Who knows if the deceased is a big man who calls the wind and rain?Who has seen those poor men who drive horses all the year round become so foreign and beautiful?Who has seen what kind of funeral can have so many court officials attend?People in the whole city felt that it was an eye-opener, some passed it on as a good story, and some passed it on as a strange story. Before the funeral, Cai Jiajun, the youngest son of the deceased Cai Guanghua, was immediately fascinated by Gao Shimei's adopted daughter Gao Lizhi.He looked at Gao Lizhi fascinatedly, as if looking at a rare work of art.Gao Lizhi was a little apprehensive, but seeing that Cai Jiajun was a handsome man, tall, with well-developed back muscles, and polite to all visitors, he didn't think he was a bad person, and quickly got used to his fiery style. look.After the funeral, Cai Jiajun left Gao Shimei and his daughter alone, and played with them in Kunming for a few days, allowing them to have a good time and eat well.But on the last night before Gao Shimei planned to return to Nilang Town, Cai Jiajun took advantage of Gao Shimei's inattention and suddenly put his arms around Gao Lizhi's waist.Gao Lizhi's whole body was shaken, and he tried his best to break free from his tighter and tighter arms.Probably out of the instinct of a little girl who has never been touched by a man, she screamed.Cai Jiajun had to let go, but he didn't feel embarrassed, but turned to Gao Shimei, who was taken aback by his daughter's scream, and said, "Master Gao, aren't you going to rebuild the Zhao's ancestral hall and re-carve the lattice gate? I can Do me a big favor, how much money do you need, just tell me, I will give it to you. But you have to promise to marry Gao Lizhi to me. To be honest, I like her so much, I have never liked a woman like this, since I saw From that day on, Gao Lizhi, I felt that she was my person, connected with me by flesh and blood. Master Gao, you must promise me, you must make up your mind." As soon as Gao Shimei heard this, she immediately expressed her objection, and was willing to compensate Cai Jiajun for the money they spent in Kunming in the future.But Cai Jiajun used both soft and hard methods, and finally forced Gao Shimei to agree to this "marriage".Gao Shimei said to Cai Jiajun: "First, Gao Lizhi is a poor girl, you must treat her well. Second, make sure that Gao Lizhi will be the eldest wife." Cai Jiajun fully agreed to these two conditions. Diao Tianxia Twelve (4) Gao Lizhi cried bitterly, she refused to leave Gao Shimei desperately, she kept begging Gao Shimei not to sell her. Cai Jiajun gave Gao Shimei a lot of silver, plus a stack of bank notes, and then took Gao Lizhi away.Gao Shimei watched Gao Lizhi slowly disappear into the distance...