Chapter 5 Four barren mountains

Four barren mountains In winter, women are as easy to get together as pine trees, and there are women sitting on the kang in Wang Po's house.Fifth Auntie was weaving hemp shoes, and she lost a needle in the mat to laugh. When she was looking for the needle, she made ridiculous poses. She stood up like a nimble dove and hopped on the kang. , she said, "Who stole my needle? The puppy stole my needle?" "No! The little uncle stole your needle!" The newly married sister-in-law of Lingzhi always likes to say such things.Fifth Aunt walked over to beat her. "Don't beat me, you'll find a pockmarked son-in-law if you beat someone up."

Wang Po made noises like this in the kitchen; Wang Po always has a burst of humor and joy, which is different from other old women in the village.Her voice came from the kitchen again: "How many pairs of hemp shoes has Fifth Aunt weaved? How many more pairs should we weave for my little husband!" The fifth aunt sat there and made a face. She said: "How can there be an old woman like you, who is almost fifty years old, and still say such things!" Wang Po said solemnly again: "You are all young, how do you know anything, make up a few more pairs! The little husband will be curious."

Everyone laughed!But Fifth Aunt did not dare to laugh, she laughed inwardly, lowered her head, and pretended to be looking for needles on the mat. When Aunt Lingzhi returned the needle to Aunt Wu, the house was safe.The sound of Wang Po scraping fish scales with a knife in the kitchen was mixed with the sound of snow outside the window wiping the window paper. Wang Po washed the frozen fish with cold water, her hands were like carrots.She walked to the edge of the Kang and dried her hands by the brazier.The woman with the spot on her nose and the newly dead husband put down the little rag, and searched for a smaller piece among the rags; she mended quickly.Her face is a bit like a queen's wife, with high cheekbones, and her eyes are like colored glass deeply embedded in the eye sockets that look like small holes.And like Wang Po, the eyebrows are prominent.That woman didn't like to hear some coquettish words, so she began to ask Wang Po: "Is the husband from your first family still alive?"

The two hands that were drying were a bit fishy; a fish scale fell off, making a small noise, and smoke was rising slightly.She buried the smoke with ashes from the side of the basin, she shook her head slowly, but did not answer the question.The smoke from burning fish scales was a bit unbearable, everyone wrinkled their noses or rubbed their noses with their hands.The spotted widow felt a little regretful that she should not have asked this question.Sitting in the corner was Fifth Aunt's elder sister, she wore a hemp rope on the soles of her shoes, and her voice rose and fell monotonously.

The kitchen door squeaked as it cracked because of the ice. "Ah! How do you buy these black fish?" Everyone knew that it was Aunt Li from the fishing village who had come.After hearing the voice, one can imagine her tall body. "It's almost Chinese New Year? Do you really have the money to buy these fish?" In the cold air, the sound waves were very crisp; as soon as she stepped into the inner room, she saw people sitting on the kang. "It's all gathering here! Little wives!" She was born so thin.Her waist looked as if it was about to break in the wind; her breasts were so high, like two opposing small ridges.Looking at it from an angle, her stomach seemed to be a little uneven.The middle-aged woman leaning against the wall and breastfeeding her child observed and asked, "Second Aunt, don't you have it again?"

The second aunt looked at her waist and said: "It's like you! I hold it in my arms, and my stomach is still full..." She was lying on purpose, and after a while she told everyone frankly: "It's been three months! Can't you see it?" Aunt Lingzhi touched her belly, and she smiled evilly: "I'm so useless, why don't you sleep with your arms around men all night?" "Who said? Your new wife is like that." "New daughter-in-law...? Huh! Not necessarily!" "It looks like we are all old! That's not a big deal. You are young, that's what matters! Young husbands are fresh!"

Everyone is fantasizing about themselves for the seduction of words, everyone has a little heartbeat; or everyone's face is burning.Even the fifth aunt, who is not married, feels mysterious and uneasy!She walked shyly through the kitchen to go home!Only the women are left together, and their words are even more limitless!Wang Po also joined this group of women, but she didn't say anything, she just helped and smiled. In the countryside, you will never know, never experience the soul, only material to enrich them. Second Aunt Li asked Aunt Lingzhi in a low voice, but people could hear her in a low voice!

Lingzhi's sister-in-law is a newlywed after all, she was suddenly ashamed!Can't speak.Second Aunt Li's tits trembled, and she pushed Aunt Lingzhi with her hands: "Say it! You are young, do you want to do that every night?" At such a time, the woman who is two miles and a half came in!Second Aunt pushed Aunt Lingzhi, "Quickly ask her!" That silly woman always speaks without end: "More than ten times." Everyone in the room was crying with laughter!The child rose from his mother's arms, crying loudly. Second Aunt Li was silent for a while, then she stood up and said, "Yueying wants to eat salted cucumbers, I forgot, I'm here to get cucumbers."

Second Aunt Li took the cucumbers and left, Wang Po went to cook dinner, and others went home one after another.Wang Po fried fish in the kitchen herself.For the smoke, the room does not feel lonely. The fish was on the table, and Ping'er didn't come back, nor did Ping'er's father. In the dim light, Wang Po ate by herself, with the heat accompanying her. Yueying is the most beautiful woman in Diayu Village.Her family is also the poorest, and she lives next door to Aunt Li.She is so gentle, never heard her laugh loudly, or shout loudly.Born with a pair of affectionate eyes, everyone who touches her eyes is as happy and warm as falling into the wool.

But now that's completely gone!Every night, Second Aunt Li heard the screams from the next door; on a cold December night, the humming from the next door became heavier! The snow on the mountain was blown by the wind as if it was going to cover the small house next to the mountain.The big tree howled, and the wind and snow covered the small room.A big tree leaning on the side of the mountain fell down.As if afraid of being smashed by all the sounds, Han Yue retreated to the horizon!At this time, the voice from the next door was even more mournful. "You...you give me some water! I'm dying of thirst!"

The voice was so weak that it was almost broken: "Your mouth is dry!...Give me the water bowl!" There was still no response within a short period of time, so the weak and sad little ring stopped!Weeping, humming, the next door seemed to hear her tears, bit by bit. During the day, children gather on the hillside, climbing up the branches and sliding down the icy path. They have various postures: — rolling down backwards, down with legs spread apart, there are also adventurous children, Slip down with your head down and your feet up in the air.Often they have to go home bleeding.In winter, for the village children, as tyrannical to flowers and fruit.Each of their ears will swell with pus in spring, and their hands or feet will be split. Village mothers are always as enemies to their children.When the child secretly put on his father's cotton hat and ran out, the mother chased after him, beating and scolding to get it back, and the mothers tortured the child forever and went crazy. Wang Po is dating Fifth Aunt to visit Yueying.Walking through the hillside, Ping'er was there.Ping'er secretly wore Daddy's big felt boots; he fled from the hillside!The boots hung from the child's feet like two giant bear paws.Ping'er stumbled!Rolling down the hill!The poor child with those black and disproportionate feet rolled down like a ball and fell on the big tree trunk at the root of the mountain.Wang Po fell on Ping'er like a gust of wind, like wild beasts in the mountains trying to prey on small animals.Finally Wang Po lifted up her boots, and Ping'er went home barefoot, making Ping'er walk on the snow, as if making him walk on fire, so he couldn't stay.No matter how far the child traveled, Wang Po still said: "A pair of boots will last through three winters. Where can I buy them if they are worn out? Your father didn't even wear them when he went to the city!" Yueying saw that Wang Po didn't have time to speak, so she hoarse her voice first. Wang Po put her boots under the kang and wiped her nose with her hands: "Are you better? Your face is a little bloody!" Yueying pushed the quilt a little, but the quilt was still covering her shoulders. She said, "I'm done with the calculations. Look, I can't even lift the quilt!" Yueying was sitting on the kang, be careful.The dark room was like a shrine, and Yueying was like a female Buddha sitting in the shrine.Surround her with pillows on all sides, and it's been like this for a year.Yueying failed to fall asleep for a year.She was suffering from paralysis, and at first her husband prayed to the gods for her, burned incense, and ran to the earth temple to ask for medicine.Later, even the temples in the city went to burn incense; but the strange thing is that Yueying's illness was not cured by these cigarettes and ghosts.In the future, the husband felt that his responsibility had been fulfilled, and Yueying got sicker and sicker every month, and the husband felt sad!He scolded: "It's really unlucky to marry a wife like you! It's like marrying a little ancestor to come to worship you!" At first he beat her because she argued with him.Not anymore, hopeless!In the evening, when he came back from selling vegetables in the city, he cooked and ate by himself. After eating, he fell asleep and slept until dawn; the suffering woman sitting beside him called until dawn.It's like a person and a ghost are put together, they are not related to each other. Yueying spoke with only the tip of her tongue rolling.Wang Po approached her, and at the same time, the unbearable smell became stronger!A stronger one emanates from that pile of dirty things.Yueying pointed behind her and said: "Look, this is the brick that the dead ghost got me. He said I was dying! I don't need a quilt anymore! With bricks supporting me, my whole body was thin and empty.That heartless man, he tried to torture me! " The fifth aunt felt that the man was too cruel, so she threw the bricks completely on the kang, and Yueying said again in a broken voice, "I can't do it! How can I do it, I'm about to die!" Her eyes, the white eyeballs, had turned completely green, as had the neat row of front teeth, and her hair, scorched, clung to her scalp.She was like a sick cat, lonely and hopeless. Wang Po wrapped a quilt around Yueying's waist, and Yueying said, "Look under my body, it's so dirty!" Wang Po went down to the ground and put a pot of fire with sticks, and the brazier was placed behind Yueying with smoke.When Wang Po opened her quilt, she saw that some excrement had flooded the small pelvis.Fifth Aunt supported Yueying's waist, but she was still calling out heart-wrenchingly! "Oh, my mother!... Oh, it hurts!" Her legs stretched out in front like two white bamboo poles parallel to each other.Her skeleton was correctly formed at a right angle on the kang. This human figure is completely composed of lines, only the head is wider, and the head seems to be a part of the body. A lantern hangs from a pole. Wang Po wiped her body with wheat straw, and finally wiped her with a damp cloth.Fifth Aunt hugged her from behind, and when she wiped her buttocks, Wang Po felt that a small white thing fell on her hand, as if she would crawl. Taking a closer look by the light of the fire beside the brazier, she knew that they were some small maggots. She knew that Yueying's buttocks were rotten, and the worms were active there.Yueying's body will become a cave for the bugs!Wang Po asked Yueying: "Does your leg feel a little pain?" Yueying shook her head.Wang Po washed her leg bones with cold water, but she didn't feel it. The whole lower body seemed to be external to the paralyzed man, and it was another object.When giving her a glass of water to drink, Wang Po asked, "Why are your teeth green?" Finally, the fifth aunt went to the next door to borrow a mirror. At the same time, she looked at the mirror, and she burst into tears with grief.But there were no teardrops on her face, as if a cat had been run over suddenly, her unbearable voice, a voice without warmth, began to squawk. She said, "I'm a ghost! Die soon? Bury me alive!" She tore hair with her hands, her spine shook, and for a long time she was fussing.Now it stopped, she was so weak, her head was slanted on her shoulders; she fell asleep like that lightly. Wang Po lifted her boots and walked out of the small house by the mountain.There were pedestrians walking on the horizon on the deserted mountain, she was dizzy!Because of the strong light, because of the paralyzing smell, because of the troubles of birth, old age, sickness and death, her train of thought was blocked by waves of troubles. The fifth aunt greeted Wang Po when she entered the gate.Leave a longer journey for the old woman who has experienced a variety of lives to go! Wang Po tightened the blue cloth scarf on her head and sped up the speed. Xue was also screaming wildly at her feet. Three days later, Yueying's coffin was carried across the barren mountain and rushed to be buried, and was buried under the barren mountain. The dead are dead!The living figure out how to live.In winter women prepare summer clothes; men think about how to start next year's farming. That day when Zhao San came back from the city, he came home wearing two sheepskins. Wang Po asked him, "Where did you get the sheepskins?—Did you buy them?... Where did you get the money for?" Zhao San seemed to have something on his mind, but he didn't say anything.Staggering past the stove, the red flames were immediately bright, and he walked out. He hadn't come back late at night.Wang Po ordered Ping'er to find him.Ping'er's feet were already difficult to move, so Wang Po went to Erliban's house. He was not in Erliban's house, he went to Fishing Village.Zhao Sankuo's big throat leaked from the window paper of Li Qingshan's house, Wang Po knew that he had drunk again.When she pushed the door, she said: "What time is it? Don't you go home and go to sleep?" Immediately, the other men in the room also closed their mouths.Wang Po felt unexpected.The woman from Qingshan was also not at home, nor was the child.Zhao San said: "What are you doing here? Go back to sleep! I'll go...go..." Wang Po looked at Zhao San's face, and saw that there was no place to sit around, she turned around and came out, her heart wandering: - Why isn't Qingshan's daughter-in-law at home?What are these people doing? Another night.Zhao San put on his newly made sheepskin jacket and went out.Came back in the middle of the night.Clothed in the moon knock on the door.Wang Po knew that he had drunk again, but when he was sleeping, Wang Po didn't smell any alcohol. So what to do out there?Always come back in anger. Second Aunt Li brought her child here, and she asked, "Is the land rent increased?" Wang Po said, "I haven't heard of it yet." Second Aunt Li made a definite expression: "Yes! Don't you know yet? The third brother goes to my house every day to discuss this matter with his father. I think something must happen in this situation. They calculate every day and night, just Even me, they hide. I heard them say last night when I was standing outside the window! 'Kill him! It's a bad thing.' Who do you think they want to kill? Isn't it killing people? " Second Aunt Li stroked the top of the child's head, with a pitiful look: "You have to persuade Third Brother, if something happens to them, how can we pretend to live like us? The child is still young!" The fifth aunt and other village women brought their little bundles and came on a date. When they stepped in, they were all smiles.But immediately they changed, when they saw Second Aunt Li and Wang Po were silent. I also told them about the incident, and they immediately became depressed, and they had no leisure at all!There was no laughter at all, everyone thought about it stupidly, and asked a few words in horror.Fifth aunt's elder sister, she was the first to walk out with her big round belly twisted, and she walked lonely one after another.They seemed to be a flock of fish, when suddenly a fishing rod was thrown, and they all went in different directions! Second Aunt Li still didn't leave, she wanted to tell Wang Po how to ruin this dangerous event. Zhao San often doesn't eat at home these days; Second Aunt Li comes here three or four times a day. "The third brother hasn't come back yet? His father hasn't come back either." Until the next afternoon when Zhao San came back, he beat Ping'er when he entered the door. Because Ping'er's feet were sick, a group of children gathered at home to play.A little rice was placed in the center of the courtyard, a long board was supported by short sticks, and a long rope was tied to the stick. The rope was pulled in from the threshold, and the sparrows went to peck the grain, and the children squatted at the threshold to watch, what? When the birds are in heaps, then the children twitch the ropes.Many hungry sparrows perished under the longboard.The kitchen smelled of sparrow feathers, and the children had eaten many of them in the hearth. Zhao Sanjiao was annoyed, he watched a chicken being stopped by children.He kicked the board over!He sat on the edge of the kang and lit a small cigarette pipe, while Wang Po put the breakfast out of the pot.He said, "I've eaten it!" So Ping'er came to eat these leftovers. "How are you preparing for things? Do it as soon as you can." He was surprised.How could the news be leaked?Wang Po said again: "I know, I can still get a gun." He couldn't imagine his wife having such guts.Wang Po really found an old foreign gun.But Zhao San had never used a gun.At night, after Ping'er fell asleep, Wang Po taught him how to load gunpowder and how to load a cannon. Zhao San gradually felt that he could respect his woman!But more secret things are never told to her. Suddenly five new scythes were found in the cowshed.Wang Poyi thinks this matter is not far away! When Second Aunt Li and other village women crowded in to inquire about the news, Wang Po's head sank and she said, "That's not the case. They wanted to go hunting a hundred miles away and get some animal skins." We share." It was on the eve of the Chinese New Year, and it finally happened!Red blood stains the snow at the end of the north; but something is wrong!Zhao San has been a little out of order these days, a pear-wood pole broke the thief's leg bone.He went to call Erliban, intending to throw the thief into the pit and bury it in snow. Erliban said: "No, in spring, dead bodies are found in the pit and there is a wind, that is life!" The people in the village listened to the excruciating cries and came out in all directions to search.Zhao San dragged the one-legged man around the corner, but He can't hide him.In Zhao San's terrified mood, he was willing to find a well and put him down. Zhao San got blood on his hands. The whole village was alarmed, and the village chief went to the city to report to the police. So Zhao San went to jail, and Li Qingshan's "Sickle Club" would be weak without Zhao San!Destroyed! At the end of the first lunar month, Zhao San was helped by his master to release him from prison.At that time, his hair was very long, his face was also gray, and he was a bit old. In order to make compensation for the thief with the broken leg, he took the only cow to the market to sell.Maybe the lambskin jacket was sold?Never see him wearing it again! When Li Qingshan and the others came at night, Zhao San repented and said: "I did something wrong! Maybe it was the disaster I should have caused: it was about dark when I was drinking, and I heard Ping'er yelling that someone was stealing firewood. Mr. Liu said a few days ago that he wanted to increase the land rent. I refused. I said that we would unite and not increase it for him, so he left! He came again a few days later and said: "It must be increased. Otherwise, I will call you Get out! I said yes! Wait for you! The person in charge, he said: You still want to rebel? Don’t get out, your haystack is about to catch fire! I just think it’s that kid who came to light my woodpile I ran out with a pole and broke my leg! I am willing to break it, but who would have thought that it was a thief! Haha! The thief is out of luck! Even if it is cured, he will still be lame!" He seemed to have forgotten about the "Sickle Society", Li Qingshan asked him: "How should we get rid of that scoundrel Liu Erye?" It was what Zhao San said: "Kill him! That evil disaster." This is what he used to say, but now he doesn't say that anymore: "So what if he shovels and hoes? I invite disaster, and Liu Erye also said a lot of good things to my boss. I was wrong in the past! Maybe it's the victim now." punished!" He doesn't speak so heroically as before!There was a bit of remorse on his face, shame and anxiety.Wang Po was sitting on the side, and the curly hair on the back of her head seemed to be angry after hearing this: "I have never seen such a man, at first he looked like a piece of iron, but later he looked more and more like a pile of mud! " Zhao San smiled: "One cannot be without a conscience!" So the conscientious Zhao San went to the city every day to get some cabbage and send it to the owner, and to get some ground beans to send to the owner.In order to deliver this kind of dishes, Wang Po fought fiercely with him, but he absolutely kept his conscience. One day the young master came out and stood on the doorstep as if admonishing him: "It's dangerous! If you don't say a word for you, how can you spend three years in prison? That thief is not lucky! You see I'll do it for you, there's no need to pick up his leg, let him die and it's over. You can save the money for selling the cow, we are "didong" and "dihu", how can we look at the past ..." In the middle of the conversation, there was a pause, and the young master left the conversation elsewhere: "However, the rent has to be increased this year. Aren't the neighbors on the left and right have increased their prices? The landowners in Didong are old, but they have to... less Add a little." In a few days, the thief was carried out from the hospital, but it was over when he really died!Return half of Zhao San's cattle money, and the other half is used for miscellaneous expenses by the young master. It's February.The snow on the mountains took on a doomed tone.But there are pedestrians on the barren hill.gradually 1①The owner, that is, the landlord. ——Author's original note The manure-bearers carry their burdens across the desolate mountains.The dormant worms of the farmers woke up again.Gradually, the dung delivery car is also busy!Only Zhao San's car didn't have a ox handle, and Ping'er was sweating and hanging on the shaft with his father.This is how the land rent increases!