Chapter 37 Successive misses

When Huang Zongxi returned home this time, he would reunite with his wives, concubines and children after a long absence. However, he was not in the mood to chat with his wife and children because he was anxious about raising wages. After briefly inquiring about the current situation, I turned on the lamp and went to bed.Early the next morning, he got up again and walked across the west courtyard to look for his younger brother.Unexpectedly, it still hasn't been found.This time, Huang Zonghui was really not in the room.The sister-in-law, Mrs. Liang, apologized repeatedly for what happened at night, saying that her husband was indeed not there, and that she had not gone to the lobby to greet her uncle because she was ill these few days and let Huang Zongxi in. She went to the house, saluted and served tea, but she still couldn't tell where her husband went. She just complained that in the past half a month, Huang Zonghui often didn't come home all night. I don't know if it's true or not to go to Hua'an Mountain to press for rent.The thin and frail woman kept begging her uncle to tell her about her husband.Huang Zongxi saw that he couldn't answer the question, so he had to turn around and walk out. "But, where can I see Zewang?" He raised his head, looked at the long alley illuminated by the morning sun, and thought to himself, "Well, I heard that all the food collected is stored in the ancestral hall. Just now the third brother My daughter-in-law also said that he often stays there at night. Then, why don't you go to the ancestral hall to take a look?" After making up his mind, Huang Zongxi went back to the main courtyard, called Huang An and a few soldiers to follow, and went out of the house together. Go to the village.

By this time, it was broad daylight.The moderate rain that came at night has stopped.But the sky is still gloomy, and the potholed village roads are still muddy.Huangzhupu is located at the confluence of Yaojiang River, Lanxi River and Yanshui River, and its location is relatively remote. Although it belongs to a prefecture near the sea in name, it is actually hundreds of miles away from the sea.Ordinary residents have almost no other livelihood besides farming.In addition, the distribution of acres is not good, with droughts and floods, so most of the families are relatively poor.In such a large village, it is rare to have a few tile-roofed houses. Most of the villagers live in houses made of moso bamboo and straw.But Huang Zongxi has long been accustomed to all this, and will never arouse any special feelings again.Right now, if there was anything that disturbed him, it was that he suddenly remembered the battle on the Qiantang River last August, in which many people in the village died.In any case, they were all soldiers brought out by himself.Moreover, it has only been less than two months, so it may be difficult for the villagers to forget this incident.So what do they do to themselves?What about the families of the war dead?Will you forgive yourself?Or... Since he was going to meet them soon, but he still didn't know how to remedy and comfort the pain of the other party, Huang Zongxi couldn't help feeling a little hesitant in his heart, and his steps slowed down.

However, gradually, he felt something was wrong.Originally, this period was the busiest time to get up early in the morning. In normal times, every household would carry water and clean as usual; through the bamboo fence, you could hear chickens crowing, pigs humming, and dogs biting. On the thatched roofs, there will also be wisps of blue cooking smoke.But at this moment, in the fence walls on both sides of the village road, although there were occasional chicken crows and dogs barking, there was no other movement, especially no one moving.Moreover, this situation is not limited to one family, and it is the same for several families passing by in a row.

"Huh, that's weird, where are they? Why are they gone?" Huang An's voice came from behind. Obviously, he also found that the situation was a little strange. Huang Zongxi didn't answer, turned around and pushed open the firewood gate of a nearby house, and found that the yard was indeed empty, only the stagnant water on the ground and a few pots and jars placed randomly; When a stranger came, its wild eyes showed doubts, but it did not stand up.Huang Zongxi hesitated for a moment, then approached the room, but saw half a bamboo stick inserted horizontally on the door knocker.According to the custom in the village, this means that all the masters have left and no one is at home.

"It's so early, why don't we go to the field?" Huang Zongxi wondered, put his ear close to the crack of the door and listened, only to hear the sound of "cuckoo" coming from the corner of the wall next to the door, like a hen cuddling a nest, But no human voice could be heard.He had no choice but to back away, still a little unwilling, and went to the back of the house to look around, but he couldn't see anyone.However, he was always skeptical, so he led Huang An and others out of the courtyard, and then walked into the next door.Unexpectedly, the situation was almost the same as that of the family just now. The few chickens and pigs were all locked in the pen, but no one could see them.In this way, Huang Zongxi couldn't help but take it seriously, and hurried out of the door again, looked left and right, only to find that the winding village road, as far as he could see, was actually empty, only a dirty old sow, Dragging its dry, flabby breasts, it staggers in the muddy water.He didn't have time to think, and immediately walked to the opposite house.However, as if the villagers were all conspiring together, he still couldn't see a single person.And this family is even worse, not even a chicken or a pig can be seen; they raised their hands and slapped the door a few times, but there was no response.

"Ah, why are all the family members gone? Even if they go to the fields, the old people and children will not follow them!" Standing in the empty yard, Huang Zongxi looked at the bewildered soldiers. I couldn't help shivering—"Could it be, could it be that something happened that scared all the people in the village away?" However, he immediately denied this guess, because he clearly remembered that he came out of the house just now When I was there, I saw someone walking here from a distance. "Then, what's the matter? It couldn't be—oh, it couldn't be that they saw me coming, so they left on purpose, right?"

Just as he was wondering and wondering, suddenly, as if answering him, there was a sound in his ear, it was a cry of a baby: "Woo-wa-wa-wa-wa-" high-pitched and violent. Huang Zongxi turned his head reflexively, this time, he almost didn't jump up.Because he recognized that the cry did not come from anywhere else, but just from inside the bamboo door that he had slapped vigorously just now, but no one agreed! "Ah, so there is someone!" he thought, and immediately stepped forward.Although the door leaf was buckled backwards, he didn't care about it anymore, pulled out the wooden plug on it, and stepped in.Sure enough, in a bay to the east, the owner's family of seven or eight people, big and small, was hiding in it.Hearing the menacing footsteps of Huang Zongxi's master and servant, they all turned their faces in panic.

"What are you guys doing? Why didn't you answer when you knocked on the door? Didn't you open the door? Huh?" Huang Zongxi asked sharply.He couldn't help being furious at having been duped for no apparent reason. "Oh, oh, please calm down. I don't know...it's not Allah..." The family hurriedly stood up and stammered. "You still say you don't know? The uncle almost broke the door just now, can't you hear? Are you deaf!" Huang An chimed in as if quarreling. "Oh, no, it's not that I don't know, it's—it's..."

"What is it?" "I don't know, my slave's son told me to do this." One of the white-haired old men replied with his head down. "Your son?" Huang Zongxi asked suspiciously, and then looked around, only to find that in this family, although there were seven or eight members of men, women, old and young, there was only one headed man nicknamed "Big Head". "Then, where did his slave go?" "I don't know. Allah didn't know. Before dawn, his slave left without saying where he was going." Huang Zongxi glanced at the other party and knew that this little old man with a bitter face was not lying.Speaking of which, the vast majority of the people in Huangzhupu Mancun have the surname Huang, and every household is related.The family in front of him and Huang Zongxi are still distant uncles and nephews, and they have always been honest and responsible.But why just hid in the house, pretended no one was home, and said that the "big head" ordered it?This is really unpredictable.

"So, what about the houses next door? Are they also like you?" "Next door? My slave, my slave doesn't know. Really, really!" Huang Zongxi stopped asking.He looked at the house again, and found that the family he had frequented in the past seemed to have changed a lot in the six months since he left.He remembered that the thatched house was only demolished and rebuilt last summer in order to marry the "big head" a wife.It happened that he had just escaped from Nanjing Prison and came back with his family to congratulate him.At that time, a lot of new furniture had been added to the house, and even the quilt had been replaced with new ones.But now, all the new belongings are gone.There was a pile of black and torn cotton wool on the bed.Neither the adults nor the children had any decent clothes, and they all looked dark and thin, their eyes were dull and listless, and one of them was lying on the bed and didn't get up, as if he was suffering from illness...

"Great Minister, it's not Allah... It's really bad luck for the Allah family. There was still Aguo, who was born in August and died in the war. So... Alas!" A trembling female voice rang out intermittently. the patient. Huang Zongxi was slightly taken aback: "A Guo?" But then he remembered that among the seventeen volunteer soldiers from the same village who died in battle in August, the youngest son of this family, A Guo, was indeed among them.He still remembered that it was a young man who had just turned seventeen, usually reticent, and never turned his head when things went wrong.Therefore, even how he died in that battle, no one can tell after the fact... Even so, when he learned that the other party was the family member of the deceased, Huang Zongxi's previous indignation immediately lost momentum, and he continued Guilt and anxiety arose from the bottom of my heart.He looked at the miserable faces hesitantly, and wanted to say a few words of comfort, but finally felt that it was useless, so he waved his hands: "Well, I... just got home last night, and today I just came out to see Look at everyone, there is nothing wrong, you all rest!" After saying that, he greeted Huang An and others, and went out again. "It turns out that this family is a family member who died... so what about other people, is it the same?" Standing in the middle of the muddy village road, looking at the two huts that were still quiet until now, Huang Zongxi pondered. I thought, if I wanted to go over and ask, I was somewhat afraid of encountering the situation just now, so I had no choice but to turn my head away and continue walking forward. "Hey, Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Huang!" When Huang Zongxi and his party took about ten steps, the father of "Big Head" suddenly called out from behind and rushed up. "Hey, Grand Master!" He came to the front, stopped panting, stretched out his arms, pointed to Hua'an Mountain behind the village, and said, "Grand Master, 'Big Head', and them, you can find them elsewhere. Those who can’t reach it are hiding in the mountain temple!” About to find that Huang Zongxi was staring wide-eyed, unable to recover for a long time, the old man lowered his head and said in a low voice, "They, they, are hiding from the Grand Master, and even told Allah to hide and not show his face..." Huang Zongxi originally wanted to ask: "Who are the 'and them' referring to?" Hearing this, he felt a "thump" in his heart, and immediately choked. "Well, you...you mean, they're hiding from me?" He asked mechanically and vaguely, and at the same time felt that there was still some kind of hope that he had been hiding in his heart before, and finally let out a burst of hope. sound.He opened his mouth, intending to make an excuse, but bit his lip tightly, and turned away silently. "...I said, even if someone died, there is no reason to close the door and see no one. It turned out to be for this—yes, there were a little more casualties in that battle. But I thought so Is it? I also hope that no one will die, but it can’t be done! At that time, even I was putting my life on the head of the knife! In the end, they still didn’t understand, and they all hid and didn’t meet me..." "They, they are afraid that your great husband will come back and ask for food and salary..." Just as Huang Zongxi was smiling wryly in his heart, complaining to himself, this sentence suddenly came into his ears. "Hmph, what did he say? If that's the case, what else can I say?" Huang Zongxi thought weakly and coldly, but didn't immediately understand the meaning of this sentence.However, as if suddenly being stabbed by a needle, he trembled all over and quickly raised his head, but still suspected that he heard it wrong: "Are you afraid that I will come back and ask for payment? They?" Seeing the old man nodding his head timidly but affirmatively, he let out an "ah" and was stunned again.However, this sudden realization was only for a moment.For the real intentions of the villagers in doing this were so surprising and shocking that his earlier fear of not being forgiven, whether it proved necessary or not, seemed to have become, by comparison, It doesn't matter anymore. "Mother Xipi! Let me tell you, why did the third child never show up, and he couldn't be found? He was afraid that I would ask him for food and pay! He also hides with the people in the village and won't meet me!" Because the mystery that has been haunting him since last night suddenly has an answer, and this answer means that his trip is likely to return empty-handed, it means that there will be great chaos ahead-and then there will be great chaos, failure, and bloodshed And death, Huang Zongxi's blood boiled again with anxiety and anger.Although the "big head" father's toothless flat mouth was still opening and closing, as if he was telling something, but he didn't have the heart to listen, so he turned around suddenly and shouted "Go!" Leading the servants, they rushed towards Hua'an Mountain in a panic.