Chapter 4 Four

The next day, when Xiaoyue woke up, the sky was brightly white. After she fell asleep, the boredom in her heart disappeared with her thoughts, but when she woke up again, the boredom returned.She didn't get up immediately, and still fell asleep lazily.For half a year, every time she woke up early in the morning, this kind of boredom would hit her heart, and it would affect her mood throughout the day; she often judged her mental state of the day by her mood at this time.Now, she was looking forward to getting a scolding from her father. There was no sound of Dad coughing in the house or in the yard.Rhythmic chugging sounds came from the bullpen one after another.She sat up and licked the hemp paper on the torn pane with her tongue. Only then did cow dung come out there.The sick cow has been able to stand up, is tied to the plane tree in the corner, and uses its tail weakly to drive away the brave and hateful attacks of flies and mosquitoes again and again.Caicai held his trouser legs high, stood in the dung mud, dug out a piece vigorously, flung it vigorously, and threw it out of the fence gate of the cowshed with a sound of "Hang Chi", and a huge pile was thrown on the open space. .The small black mosquitoes immediately covered the top layer.

"Ugh_--" Xiaoyue sighed and slowly fell asleep again.For Caicai's hard work, whether she appreciates or pities her, sympathizes with or resents her, even she can't explain the complex and rich content contained in this "ah". In the past ten years, when my mother passed away, my father dragged her to live a hard life.That scene was really horrific.Every day when Dad went on the boat, she was hung around his neck.When the ferry was about to take place, Dad tied her waist with a rope and tied her in the cabin.In winter, the wind is strong on the river, and there is a brazier in the cabin. Dad untied the sheepskin jacket, hugged her in his arms, taught her what ice is, and said how fish are not afraid of freezing, and they swim under the ice; I told my father it was not cold, but the word not cold was so cold that she said it was "not cold and cold".In the evening of summer, when no one was ferrying, the setting sun shone on the beach, and her father taught her to make sand castles by the water.The castle was beautifully built, but it collapsed when the water rushed in, and she was so sad that she cried.

"I want a castle! I want a castle!" "The castle went away on the water," said Pa. "Aren't you coming back after leaving?" "If you leave, you won't come back." "Did Mother also leave by sitting on this water?" Dad just hugged her, hugged her tightly, and stared blankly at the river flowing down one whirlpool after another. The willow trees on the river bank floated out clusters of red root hairs, and a few of them had broken stems. The reeds trembled in the flowing water. "Yes, Xiaoyue, mother left on this water."

After Dad finished speaking, he hurriedly hugged her, went to the sandy beach at the shore to pick up those sand chicken eggs, took them home, fried them with pumpkin flowers in an iron spoon, and fed her. Since then, father will not take her on the boat, but leave her with Cai Cainiang. Cai Cai Niang is a widow.Four years after her husband passed away, she and Caicai were still wearing white shoes to keep their filial piety.As soon as Dad got to the river to ferry, he sent her there, and when he came back from the river, he took her home.Caicai's mother loves Xiaoyue, and father also loves Caicai. Every time she comes home, she puts a few pea corners in her pocket, and everyone shares a few evenly.Xiaoyue often saw her father and Cai Cainiang sitting under the toon tree in the yard, talking and wiping away tears.She was so frightened that she didn't know what was wrong, so she wiped away tears for her father and Cai Cainiang.After staying like this for two years, my father stopped sending her to Caicai's house.She asked Dad why, but Dad didn't speak, just sighed.She started to go to school. At school, she heard her classmates say: how good are father and Caicai's mother, and they are going to get married.She went home and asked her father again, who told her not to listen to anything, but she went to her mother's grave and cried a lot.But during the holidays, the two families still walk around.The clothes in winter, winter, summer and summer are all made by Cai Cai's mother; the second material of wheat harvest is also cultivated and harvested by Cai Cai's family.

It was only then that I looked like a thin cat, and I was constantly suffering from illnesses. People said, "I am afraid that the rope will break at a thin point."Cai Cainiang was worried day and night, and she always dressed him in flowered clothes and braided his hair, trying to tell him that "men occupy the woman's place" to avert disasters.Xiaoyue always wants to shame him and call him a "fake woman".The two had a fight, and she beat him until he cried. "Xiaoyue, how do you beat Brother Caicai?" Dad scolded her. "He is a fake woman, ashamed, ashamed!"

"He will be your son-in-law in the future! Xiaoyue, do you want it?" "Son-in-law? What is a son-in-law?" "It's just marriage." "If he wants to keep his braids, I won't!" It made both father and talented mother laugh so hard. This happened when she was seven years old. Later, she and Cai Cai grew up, and I heard people in the village talking about it. It turned out that the father and Cai Niang wanted to merge the two families into one family, but Cai Cai's uncle disagreed, so the matter fell through.If the affairs of adults cannot be beautiful, they all hope that they can become in-laws in the future.People in the village knew about this, and often made fun of Xiaoyue and Caicai in front of them, so that they no longer dared to stay together, and they all gradually separated.However, until they had grown up to this age, the two elders had not seriously mentioned this marriage.

In the past two or three years, my father has obviously aged, and he always coughs in the morning and evening, and his health is getting worse day by day.Only then did all the hard work of their family.Xiaoyue could see his thoughts: he completely put himself in the position of a son-in-law.Dad also often finds opportunities for them to stay together and talk.However, when it was only the two of them, Cai Cai stopped daring to look at her and broke out in sweat. "He's too honest." Xiaoyue lay on the bed, recalling how she was when she was a child, only to realize that although she looks much more vigorous now than when she was a child, and she no longer wears floral clothes and braids, her temperament has not changed at all.

There were footsteps at the gate of the courtyard, and then in the nest on the sycamore tree, magpies were chirping, and someone was calling: "Miss Xiaoyue!" It was soft and sweet.Xiaoyue knew immediately that it was the door. Menmen used to come to her house often, and his father hated him for just seducing her to go out to play, and scolded her a few times.If he wanted to come in the future, he would startle the magpie on the tree with a stone, and when Xiaoyue came out to look, he would lie on the corner outside the door, waving his hands, stamping his feet, winking.Now, though grown up, he still plays tricks like this.What are you doing so early? She was about to answer when she heard the sound of "dongdong" footsteps all the way to the bottom of the window. She hurriedly pulled the quilt to cover her body.

"Is it the door? Xiaoyue hasn't woken up yet. What can I do with her?" Only then did he ask questions in the bullpen. "Oh, that's right! You startled me. Are you shitting? That's physical work!" "This kind of work can exhaust people to death!?" "Okay, that's right. Why did you come to help so early?" "Neighbor." "Are you really trying to become a son-in-law?" "What are you talking about!" Xiaoyue sat up, poked a big hole in the window paper, and watched the two young men standing in the yard talking.The two people are about the same height, but how different they are! The door is clean, with a cigarette in his mouth; Cai Cai is covered in excrement and mud, and his white shirt has become rotten due to the erosion of sweat and soil. It was gray and crumpled, like a rag.People are afraid of comparison: talents are not decent in any case.

Xiaoyue felt somewhat sour in her heart. "Is Cai Cai my future son-in-law?" She sat silently under the quilt, staring blankly at a lonely pillow beside the bed, trying her best to find the benefits of Cai Cai. "After all, he is strong and honest. If he really wants to be his wife in the future, treat me well!" She looked out of the window again, and the spiders under the eaves had formed a huge web, and the dewdrops on it made each section of the web seem to be plated with mercury, and the sunlight was jumping in the mesh. The two boys were still standing in the yard talking:

"Is there so much shit out this morning?" "We can go out after dinner." "You've worked hard! Once the land is divided, their family will lack someone who can do their best. You have a chance to perform! A circle of dung is equivalent to earning back a little finger of your daughter-in-law. You can do it a hundred times. The daughter-in-law is all yours! Cai Cai, you have a good memory, don’t you think about it, how much does the daughter-in-law earn?” Cai Cai's face was flushed, and he couldn't speak out. Xiaoyue became angry all of a sudden, and cursed through the window: "Menmen, don't fart, what are you doing to that honest man?! Who won't do someone a favor?" Menmen stuck out his tongue and said to the window: "He's honest? He just doesn't eat excrement when he excretes! Who doesn't help others? Miss Xiaoyue can really talk, but that's why she doesn't excrete excrement for other families, and why don't others come here to make so much effort?" ?” Xiaoyue was at a loss for words. Menmen was laughing and laughing in the courtyard, and only ridiculed them when they pointed them out. "Menmen, do you intend to bully others?" "Miss Xiaoyue, how dare I? I'm here to ask you when you will sail on the river. I want to go to Jingzi Pass." "No boat!" Xiaoyue said angrily. "Miss Xiaoyue, are you really angry? I'll wait at home. When you go to the river, call me on the way!" Menmen made a smiling face in the courtyard, walked out the door, and hummed some opera. After Xiaoyue got dressed and came out, she bent down to dig up the dung again, without raising her head.Seeing his honest and frivolous appearance, Xiaoyue became more and more annoyed: "Caicai, were you dumb just now? Can you make everyone so mean?" "Let him speak." "Let him say it? You can take it, but I can't!" Just then she lowered her head to dig the excrement again, Xiaoyue grabbed the head of the shovel, threw it in the yard with a "boom", and shouted sharply: "You only know to do it, do it, who told you to do it?!" Just stood there, not knowing what to do.At the end, looking at Xiaoyue's face, she couldn't say a word again.Xiaoyue said, "I'm not promising!" She turned around and went into the room to wash her face, plop, puff, one face was washed, and the basin of water was also splashed. Monk Wang entered the courtyard.He went to pick up the dung early in the morning.When passing the three-acre land of my family, a large bundle of grain seedlings came out, and as soon as I entered the courtyard, I threw it on the ground with a "wow", and said to him: "When I was planting, I said it was too thick, but you always refused to listen. Now it grows like a forest. Once it enters the ground, the wind is impenetrable. Is it blocking the onions? The sky is so red, and if there is another drought, I can only wait to feed the cows." Only then said: "Uncle, we need to plant thicker ones. I specially changed this variety." "I know that 'White Horse Yam' is a new variety, and it's so rare." "This kind of seed is different from 'Baimaya'. It does not rely on single plant to increase production, but relies on close planting." Xiaoyue became angry again in the room and said: "That's why it didn't grow well. What did you do then? Is this your home, or someone else's? You let others do everything, aren't you afraid that others will criticize you?" Monk Wang was stunned for a moment, and asked back: "What did the others say? Are you the outsider?" "Not an outsider, who is it?!" Xiaoyue can't wait to get angry at her father: Is this the son-in-law you think? Is this how you call him? She hates her foolish father and also hates her honest talent.Father is demanding this future son-in-law with his nature, so he is imitating father's way of doing things and being a man. Is the future son-in-law the same as father is now? Monk Wang bent down and coughed again, coughing dryly again and again, his body shrunk into a ball, his face was black and blue.Xiaoyue didn't say any more, opened the courtyard door and left. Monk Wang finally let out a mouthful of phlegm, spat on the ground, and asked: "where are you going?" "I'm going to the boat!" Monk Wang looked at Caicai suspiciously: "Are you arguing?" "No." "Then what's the matter with her?" "have no idea." "Damn girl! I'm used to having such a bad temper." As he spoke, he coughed so hard that he couldn't straighten up.