Chapter 2 second quarter

In the afternoon, Xiumi was just about to go upstairs to take a nap when a woman in a red coat came outside the door, she looked to be in her twenties, her face was numb.She said that she walked for a long time, and even the uppers of her shoes were out of line.This woman is from Beili, about twelve or three miles away from Puji.Mother asked her to come in for tea, but the woman refused, saying that she only had a few words to say, and then she had to hurry back.Leaning against the courtyard door, she told her mother what happened yesterday. It was around evening, and it had been raining for a long time before she remembered that there was still a sieve of soybeans drying on the roof of the pigsty, so she went to serve it in the rain.From a distance, I saw a person huddled under the eaves, carrying a box and leaning on a cane, sheltering from the rain there. "I didn't know he was your master at the time. It rained heavily and quickly, so I asked him where he came from. He said he was from Puji Village. I asked him where he was going, but he just refused to say I asked him to sit in the house and wait for the rain to stop, but he refused. I took the soybeans back and told my mother-in-law about it. You can lend him an umbrella anyway. I will look for him with an umbrella, where is his shadow? The rain was heavy and urgent. In the middle of the night, my man came back from the second uncle’s house after drinking, saying that it was Pu Two lantern-carrying men came to Jicun to look for a lost master, and I knew that the person hiding from the rain must be your master, so I came here to report to you.”

After the pockmarked woman finished speaking, she was about to say goodbye and leave, but her mother tried to persuade her to stay, but the pockmarked face only said that she would go back to harvest the wheat, and left without taking a sip of water. As soon as the woman left, her mother urged Baochen to find someone along the way.Bao Chen was about to leave when Hua Erniang next door smiled and led a person in. The last visitor to the home had nothing to do with the father's disappearance.This is a man in his forties, with a mustache, neatly combed hair, a white coat, a pair of pince-nez, and a large pipe dangling from his mouth.

When his mother saw him, the haze on her face was swept away.While asking questions, she let the guest into the living room.Xiumi, Magpie and Cuilian also went to the hall to meet him.This man crossed his legs and smoked in the hall, looking very complacent.For the first time since her father went mad, she smelled tobacco.The man's name was Zhang Jiyuan, and it was said that he came from Meicheng.Mother asked Xiumi to call him cousin, but later changed her name to uncle.At this time, the man named Zhang Jiyuan suddenly spoke: "You can call me cousin." Mother smiled and said, "This way the generations will be messed up."

"Let's mess it up." Zhang Jiyuan didn't care, "Everything is messed up these days, so let's mess it up." After speaking, he laughed like no one else was there. Another madman.He picked his nails, shook his legs, and shook his head when he spoke.As soon as Xiumi met him, she couldn't help being startled. He has fair skin, high cheekbones, dark eye sockets, deep and thin eyes, exuding a feminine beauty.Although the appearance is a bit pretentious, but upon closer inspection, his expression is cold and depressed, and he doesn't seem to be a person living in this world.

He came to Meicheng to recuperate from illness, and he will stay in Puji for a while.Since he was recovering from his illness, he refused to stay in Meicheng, but why did he want to go to the countryside?When grandma was alive, she also went to Meicheng several times with her mother, but she never saw this person.According to my mother, this cousin has a lot of background. He has been to the East and stayed in Beijing and Beijing for many years.As soon as Zhang Jiyuan came, his mother talked with him in the hall until it was time to light up the lights, and then ordered dinner.She also asked Cuilian to clean up her father's attic in the backyard, to let him rest.At the dinner table, Baochen and Magpie treated him very respectfully and called him Uncle.His mother called him Ji Yuan, but Cuilian ignored him and didn't look at him seriously.That Zhang Jiyuan talked eloquently, talking about the situation outside, he opened his mouth about reform, but kept his mouth about revolution; for a while, "the bones piled up", and for a while, "the blood flowed like a river", making Baochen sigh: "I am afraid that the way of the world is about to change."

After the meal, Cuilian washed the dishes in the kitchen by herself.Xiumi sneaked in to talk to her.They talked for a while about the crazy woman's handkerchief, and then they talked about Baochen and Miss Sun.Cuilian spoke with gusto, and Xiumi half-understood.When it comes to the guest who just arrived this afternoon, Cuilian is also at a loss and can't figure it out.Cuilian said: "His surname is Zhang, your mother's surname is Wen, and he has no sisters. He is a kind of relative in your family. I'm afraid you can't catch him. I have been in your family for many years, and I have never heard of this person." He said he came to Puji to recuperate. Does he look like a sick person? When he walks, he makes the water tank buzzing. The strangest thing——"

Cuilian stretched out her neck, looked out, and then said: "The strangest thing, your mother just came back from Meicheng yesterday, since the little beard is sure to come to Puji to recuperate, why didn't you come to Puji to recuperate yesterday? Your mother came back together? Besides, when the old man went out, the mustache followed, as if the two had made an appointment, don't you think it's strange? " Xiumi asked again, is it true that the "rivers of blood" that my cousin mentioned at the dinner table today?Cuilian said: "Of course it is true, the world is going to be in chaos now."

When Xiumi heard what she said, she suddenly fell silent, thinking about her thoughts alone.Seeing her standing by the sink in a daze, Cuilian dipped her fingers in water and flicked her face. "Tell me, what would Puji look like if he got into a mess?" Xiumi asked. "Hey, everything can be predicted, but this 'chaos' can't be imagined." Cuilian replied, "Every 'chaos' is very different, and we don't know what it is until it becomes chaotic of." Through the window in the north room of the bedroom, she could see the attic in the back yard.In the shade of the big, leafy trees, the attic looked low and shabby.It is said that the reason why my great-grandfather chose this place to build a garden was because he fell in love with these big trees and a clear stream beside the trees.At that time, Puji was just a small village of more than a dozen fishermen. The stream was brought in by the great-grandfather's garden, so that people could fish while sitting in the courtyard.When Xiumi was a child, she saw a charcoal drawing in which flocks of wild ducks were inhabiting the creek, and even the walls and roofs were covered with wild ducks, as well as migratory birds flying south for the winter.According to the mother, when she and her father came to Puji, the stream had dried up, but there was a wisp of water meandering among the pebbles, big and small, which were scorched by the sun.It's just that the reeds are still growing wildly.Later, my father built a rockery with Taihu Lake stones on the stream, built a pavilion and a loft on the mountain, and built a firewood house next to the rockery.There is a row of impatiens planted at the bottom of the wall of the firewood room.Every time the flowers bloom in late autumn, Cuilian will pick some petals and mash them to dye her nails.

Zhang Jiyuan occupied her father's attic, which caused Xiumi to somewhat have the illusion that her father had not left.The attic lights were on all night and all night.Except for two meals a day (he doesn't eat breakfast), he seldom goes downstairs.Cuilian would go upstairs to clean his room every morning, and every time she came down from upstairs, she would take the initiative to report the latest news to Xiumi. "He's fast asleep." Cuilian said on the first day. "He's picking his nails." The next day, Cuilian said nonchalantly. "He's shitting on the toilet." On the third day, Cuilian fanned her nose with her hand. "It stinks to death, bah bah bah."

On the fourth day, Cuilian's report became lengthy and complicated: "This idiot looked at the clay pot used by the master in a daze. He asked me where the clay pot came from, and I told him that it was the pot that the master used. Bought from the hand of a beggar, the idiot kept saying "Baby, baby". This clay pot was originally used by beggars to beg for food and serve porridge. The master has been using it to wash his hands and face. What is so rare. I am about to leave , he stopped me again, and said, "Sister, go slowly, I'm here to ask you about someone..."

"I asked him who he was looking for, and the mustache laughed twice, and said in a low voice: In the Puji area, have you ever heard of a six-fingered carpenter? I told him that there is one in the carpenter village. It's a pity that it's not six fingers. He asked me again, is there any in the neighboring village? I replied: "There is a six-finger man in Xiazhuang, but he is not a carpenter. And he died two years ago. Why is he looking for a six-finger man for no reason?" ?” On the fifth day, Cuilian came down from the attic without saying a word. "What is that idiot doing today?" Xiumi asked. "He's not here," Cuilian said, "but there's still a lamp on the table, but he doesn't know where he's gone." This is the first time Zhang Jiyuan disappeared in Puji.Mother is not in a hurry, nor does she ask.When Cuilian asked, her mother's face darkened, and she said, "You don't have to worry about his business! He'll come back after going out for a few days." At noon that day, Magpie was teaching Xiumi how to make needles, but Zhang Jiyuan came out from nowhere and surprised them. "Whose pants are these?" Xiumi heard Zhang Jiyuan asking behind them. Xiumi turned her head and saw that what he was pinching was her own underpants.She forgot it on the back fence the day her father left.After a heavy rain and several days in the sun, the underpants have already hardened into a pancake.She saw the idiot shake his trousers open and stand there looking carefully from side to side.Xiumi was anxious and shy, trembling with anger, she jumped up and rushed towards him, grabbed her trousers, and went upstairs. As soon as Xiumi went upstairs, she heard the sound of horseshoes.Following the prestige, she saw that the cavalry of officers and soldiers had raised dust all over the sky on the avenue outside the village, and was rushing along the river to somewhere west.In the midday sun, she saw the tassels on the hats of those officers and soldiers were as gorgeous as pig blood, following the galloping horses, undulating up and down, and swaying back and forth. She started bleeding again.At first it was a little brown, like a vermilion mole.Then the color deepened and turned black, and the viscous blood made her thighs greasy. She had already changed into a pair of underpants, but the blood leaked out again after a while.For the whole morning, Xiumi lay on the bed and did not dare to move, she was worried that if she moved, the blood would not stop, which would eventually kill her.The first two times, the bleeding stopped suddenly after three or four days, but now it comes again.Abdominal pain like twisting, drowsiness, as if a stove iron was stirring her intestines.This time, she dared not look in the mirror anymore.She would rather die than take another look at that bleeding, ugly wound. She thought of death many times.If she had to die, she would not want to spend her life with a white silk, a well, or a bottle of poison, but she couldn't think of any other way to die.Then how should we die? "Yellow sand covers the face" is sung in the drama. I don't know what kind of death it is. Whenever she sees Yang Yanhui in the drama singing "Huangsha covers the face and the body is incomplete", her legs will tremble with excitement. , exchanging tears and tears, since they are going to die, they should be vigorous.At noon yesterday, when she was going upstairs, she happened to catch a glimpse of the cavalry of officers and soldiers passing by the village. Seeing those flying horses, the sky full of dust, the cherry-like crown, the fiery red tassels and the shining saber, she She will be mesmerized, and the wonderful sense of comfort will flow down her skin like a tide and overflow her head.She felt that she also had such a steed in her mind. It was wild and restless, and as long as she let go of the rein a little, it would gallop wildly without knowing where it was going. Xiumi sat up from the bed to change cotton balls.The cotton ball has turned black.She suddenly felt that all the objects in the room were black, even the sunlight outside the window was also black.After sitting on the toilet for a long time, she went to embroider again, embroidered two stitches, suddenly became upset, and when she got angry, she went to the drawer to find a pair of scissors, and cut the red silk for embroidery to pieces. No, you have to find someone to ask. She didn't want to tell her mother about it.Of course, she can't count on Sixth Master Tang, the doctor in the village. This bad old man usually doesn't speak when he treats patients.If he uttered a word out of the blue, the patient would most likely be doomed.One of his favorite words is: Prepare the coffin.He was so happy when he said this. Among the three remaining members of the family, Bao Chenzhai was the most reassuring because of his honest heart, but unfortunately he was a man, how could he tell such things to him?Magpie is a person with no idea, timid and ignorant.After much deliberation, Xiumi decided to ask Cuilian for help. Cuilian was originally from Huzhou, Zhejiang. Her parents died early, and she was sold to Yuhang by her uncle when she was eight years old. She fled to Wuxi when she was twelve, and lived in a nunnery.One night, she and her master Master Minghui went to steal silk from a boat in the canal. Unexpectedly, once they got on the boat, they would not be able to get off.That boat took them to Neijiang in Sichuan for more than two years.A blessing in disguise, Master Minghui became pregnant on the boat and gave birth to a pair of twins. Since then, she has become the wife of the boat owner, haunting the cusp of storms.And Cuilian began a longer escape career.She stayed in five brothels and married four men, one of whom was a eunuch.When Lu Kan redeemed her from a brothel in Yangzhou, she had already traveled more than half of China, as far as Zhaoqing in Guangdong. During those years in Yangzhou, she escaped three times in total, and failed each time.She seems to be addicted to running away.Lu Kan once asked her: "Why do you always run away?" Cuilian replied: "I don't know, I like to run." "Where are you going?" "I don't know, let's run away first." Cuilian replied. After Lu Kan was dismissed from office, he once called her to his study for a long talk.He said to Cuilian, "You don't need to run away this time, I'll give you some money, and you can go wherever you like." Unexpectedly, Cuilian cried out as soon as she heard it: "Aren't you driving me away explicitly?" Lu Kan said: "Don't you want to go by yourself, you can't be tied up usually?" Cuilian said, "I don't want to go." Lu Kan finally understood: she doesn't want to leave, she wants to run. After arriving in Puji, she sneaked away again.More than a month later, she came back crying with disheveled hair and bare feet. This time she was forced back by migratory locusts and famine, and almost lost her life. She was so thin that even Lu Kan almost lost her life. Didn't recognize it, both legs were swollen.After taking care of his body, Lu Kan came to see her in her room with a pot of tea.Lu Kan pursed his lips and asked her with a smile: "You won't run away now, will you?" "It's not certain." Cuilian said, "If I have a chance, I'll still run." One sentence made Lu Kan spray the tea in his mouth all over the wall on the spot. Finally, Granny Meng gave Lu Kan an idea.She suggests that there is only one way to prevent Cuilian from escaping.Lu Kan hurriedly asked her what she could do, and Granny Meng said, "Your family can buy another maid." Lu Kan was puzzled, "It's okay to buy two more, but this can't stop her from running away." Granny Meng Said: "Master, think about it, that Cuilian has been used to running since she was a child, the more you stop her, the more she will run. She doesn't think you don't have enough food and clothing, but she can't control those feet, just like the big sucker. Smokers can't control their own hands. If you want to stop her smoking, you have to stop her addiction." "What kind of decision?" "It's still the same sentence, buy another girl." Granny Meng said. "What did mother-in-law say?" Lu Kan was still a little confused. "While you bought her in, you said to Cuilian, we have bought a new servant, you can leave whenever you want, and we won't point at you anymore. In this way, she will never run away again. Your lord Think about it, every time she wants to run away, she thinks, people tell me that I can leave at any time, and no one stops me, and the family has bought a new servant, so running away is meaningless. Master, think again, every time you run away It was all allowed in advance, what's the point of her escaping. After a long time, this addiction will be broken." When Lu Kan heard this, he nodded again and again.It's a clever plan, admiration, admiration, I didn't expect this illiterate country woman to have such insight.So, I immediately asked her to help in the search, as long as the person has thick hands and feet and a gentle personality, if the price is right, it doesn't matter the appearance, once found, she can bring him to see. Granny Meng giggled, and said, "I've already prepared for you, as for this person, as for the money, you just have to give me some as you see." Granny Meng went back after finishing speaking.After a while, he dragged a distant niece from his family over. Xiumi still remembers the scene when the magpie came to her door.Holding a calico package in her hand, she stopped in the courtyard, lowered her head, bit her lip, and rubbed the moss on the ground with her feet.Granny Meng went to pull her, but she didn't move.When Granny Meng got anxious, she slapped her twice.The magpie doesn't cry, and doesn't dodge, it just doesn't move. Granny Meng scolded: "You stay at my house all day, one person has to eat three people's food, let my family go to drink the northwest wind, and then let that shameless old ghost at home get on your body, when the time comes, you will be wet." The dough was sticky to my hands, and I couldn't even shake it off. I managed to persuade Mr. Lu to find this good family for you, you son of a bitch, a dog biting Lu Dongbin, you don't know a good heart." After finishing speaking Another slap. When Granny Meng saw her parents coming from the backyard, she smiled all over her face. She cut the magpie's hair and stroked her back, and said, "Good girl, you can cultivate such a family. The dead parents, there are spirits under the nine springs, and they will laugh from ear to ear in the underworld." Then, Granny Meng walked up to her mother on tiptoe, and said softly, "This child, you have a temper. Wen Liang, it doesn't matter if you want to be beaten or scolded, and you are a cow or a horse, except for one thing, the master and madam must never mention the word 'arsenic' in front of her." "Why is that?" Mother asked. "There is no point in talking about this. I will talk to you slowly when I have time." After Granny Meng finished speaking, she took the bag of money from her mother, shook it in her ear, and said happily gone. When Xiumi came to the east wing, Cuilian was lying on the bed and sleeping.She saw Xiumi standing beside the bed in a daze, blushing and panting, with tears in her eyes, she was startled.He hurriedly got up from the bed, helped her sit down on the edge of the bed, poured her another cup of tea, and then asked her what happened. "I'm going to die." Xiumi suddenly shouted. Cuilian was taken aback again: "Okay, why are you suddenly going to die and come back to life?" "I'm going to die anyway." Xiumi grabbed the curtain on the bed and rubbed it in her hands.Cuilian touched her forehead, it was a little hot. "What's the matter, tell me, and I'll give you an idea." Cuilian said, and went to close the door.There were no windows around the house, and when the door was closed, the room immediately became dark. "Speak slowly, I will take care of the big things for you." Xiumi made her swear that she would never tell this matter.Cuilian hesitated for a while, then she closed her eyes and swore.She swore five oaths in a row, and each one was more cruel than the last. In the end, she even scolded eight generations of her own ancestors. Xiumi still refused to speak, and sat on the edge of the bed, crying profusely, shedding tears on her chest. The skirts are all wet.Cuilian was always an impatient person, just now when she was swearing, she scolded her ancestor several times for no reason, thinking to herself, since as long as she can remember, she has never seen a single shadow of her ancestor.My heart was sour, and I also shed tears. She vaguely remembered that when her uncle came to Huzhou to take her away, it was raining heavily, and the raindrops fell on the pond, like boiled porridge.Speaking of which, there used to be a pond in front of my house.As soon as she made the oath, she remembered her origin. She always thought that her memory of her hometown was blank, but now she finally understood that she did have a home in Huzhou, and there was a pond in front of her door. It seemed to hear the sound of rain many years ago.Her tears flowed again. Cuilian cried silently for a while, both sad and happy. "It doesn't matter if you don't say anything," Cuilian said, poking her nose, "I'll take a guess, and if I get it right, you just nod." Xiumi glanced at her and nodded vigorously. "I haven't guessed yet? What are you nodding your head for?" Cuilian smiled, and guessed wildly.She guessed seven or eight times in a row, but she still couldn't guess. Finally, Cuilian became a little anxious and said, "If you really don't want to tell me, why did you come to me? I'm tired right now, my waist It hurts so bad." Xiumi asked her why her back hurts, and if she caught a cold at night. Cuilian said, "It's not that time yet." "What is 'that'?" Xiumi asked her again. Cuilian smiled and said, "You will have to get the things on women sooner or later." Xiumi asked her again if it hurts.Cuilian said: "It doesn't hurt too much, but my stomach is so bloated that I can't get anything out after sitting on the toilet. It's bothering me." Xiumi asked her again, what is coming?Is there any way to cure it?Cuilian replied impatiently: "Bleeding, it will be healed in three to five days, why treat it? It's not good to be a woman, you have to toss it once a month." Xiumi didn't ask anymore.She raised her fingers and calculated the account in detail. After a long time, she murmured: "So, it has been two months since the master left?" After she finished speaking, she nodded and said softly: "So... ..." She picked up a headband from Cuilian's pillow, looked at it in her hand, and laughed: "Where did you get this hairband?" Cuilian said that it was bought at the temple fair in Xiazhuang on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, "If you like it, just take it." "Then I'll use it." Xiumi put the headband on her hair, stood up and was about to leave, Cuilian grabbed her and said suspiciously: "Hey, you didn't ask me to tell you something ?" "Why did I ever want to tell you anything?" Xiumi blushed, but only smiled. "Hey, that's weird, didn't you want to wipe your tears just now, and you wanted me to swear, so that I scolded my ancestors for no reason." "It's okay, it's okay," Xiumi giggled, and waved her hands towards Cuilian, "Go ahead and sleep, I'm leaving." After speaking, she opened the door and ran away like a gust of wind.Xiumi ran back upstairs to her bedroom in one breath, let out a long breath, then fell on the quilt and laughed hoarsely.She nearly burst out laughing.The boredom and worries that had been pent up in my chest for more than two months were gone.She felt that her stomach didn't hurt as much as before.She scooped up water to wash her face, put on a red headband, changed into a new dress, put on rouge and powder, took photos in front of the mirror again and again, and then grinned.She felt so full of energy, she walked up and down the stairs a few times like a calf, and ran downstairs again, scurrying around the yard, she seemed to have never felt so relaxed. The magpie was cleaning the pig's head in the kitchen.She used a pair of tweezers to pluck the pig hair.Xiumi barged in without talking to her, grabbed the pair of tweezers and said, "You rest for a while, I'll pull it out for you." Pick up pig hair.The magpie said, "Let me do it, and be careful not to stain your new clothes." Xiumi pushed the magpie and said with a smile, "I just like to pluck pig hairs." Magpie didn't know what happened to her today, why she loved to do this job for no reason, just looked at her, and stood under the stove in a daze.Xiumi plucked her hair carelessly for a while, then turned around and said to the magpie, "It's okay if the pig's beard can't be pulled off, and even its eyelashes are slippery, so they can't be pinched." Puchi" laughed.Just as she was going to teach her, unexpectedly, Xiumi threw the tweezers into the basin and said, "Forget it, you should do it." After speaking, the figure flashed and disappeared immediately. Xiumi came out of the kitchen, worried that she had nowhere to go, when she suddenly heard the sound of abacus crackling in the yard. Bao Chen is making plans in the account room.He was planning the abacus with one hand, and flipped through the account book with the other hand dipped in saliva, and the other end was still tilted to one side.Xiumi held onto the door frame and poked her head in.Bao Chen said, "Xiumi didn't sleep well today?" Xiumi didn't speak, just walked into the room, sat down on the chair opposite him, looked at him sideways for a long time, and then said: "Your head is so crooked all day, can you read the words on the account book? " Bao Chen smiled and said, "Head is tilted, but eyes are not." Xiumi said: "If you insist on turning your head straight, what will happen?" Bao Chen raised his eyes and looked at her for a while, wondering how she could have such a strange idea.Shaking the tilted head, he said with a smile: "Girl, even you are here to make fun of me, this head is crooked, can you straighten it?" Xiumi said, "I'll try." After speaking, he stood up, hugged Bao Chen's head and turned it around twice, saying in his mouth: "I really can't turn it around. Bao Chen, don't settle accounts first, come and teach me how to plan." Baochen said: "Okay, what do you want to learn to do with abacus? Which girl did you see planning to do it?" Seeing that he refused, Xiumi simply picked up his abacus and shook it, causing Baochen to cry out. Crying: "It's a good account, it's all messed up when you disturb it." After finishing speaking, he still smiled. Seeing that Xiumi had no intention of leaving immediately, Baochen took out a pot of cigarettes to smoke. "Girl, I'm here to ask you something, and you can give me an idea." Xiu Mi asked him what happened.Baochen said that he planned to go back to his hometown in Qinggang and take his son to live with him. "Huzi is over four years old, and his mother is paralyzed on the bed again. I'm afraid he will run around and fall into the pond. Take him here, and I'm afraid your mother won't agree." "Just take it, it's fine." Xiumi said nonchalantly.As if she had already asked her mother about it, and her mother had agreed.After a while, Xiumi seemed to remember something, and asked Baochen, "What's your son's name?" "Call him Tiger. His mother likes to call him Tiger." "Is his head tilted?" When Baochen heard this, he was angry and anxious, and it was not easy to have a seizure.I thought to myself, this girl took some wrong medicine today, she didn't sleep at noon, she only made fun of me.He laughed dryly again, and said solemnly: "Not crooked, not crooked, not crooked at all."