Chapter 7 Section VII
Seeing that Chen Xiuji was too far away to be seen, Xiumi asked her about the proprietress in oblique ways.The mother said: "Last night, I heard from the boss that the wife of the boss took her son to her mother's house to help collect cotton by chance. I couldn't see him this time." In other words, neither his wife nor the child died.Xiumi went to ask Baochen again if he saw a well in the courtyard?
"Yes." Baochen said, "I fetch water from the well to wash my face every morning and evening, what's the matter?"
When they returned to Puji's house, the magpie had already gone to bed early.When the door was called open, the magpie panicked and said to her mother: something happened in Xiazhuang.
Asked what happened, the magpie tossed and couldn't explain clearly. At one moment, she said that the head was chopped off, and the blood was soaring high; Some officers and soldiers.Some of them were on horseback, some were not, some were holding guns, some were holding knives, and they were making a fuss like a hornet's nest had exploded.Finally, she talked about the tiger again: "As soon as that little thing heard that someone died in Xiazhuang, he pestered me to take him to see it. I didn't take him there, so he cried for a whole day. sleep."
Seeing her incoherent speech, mother stomped her foot with a hammer here and a stick there, angrily: "You are talking useless words! So who died in Xiazhuang?"
"I don't know." Magpie said.
"Speak slowly, don't worry." Bao Chen said, "Where did these officers and soldiers come from? Whose head did they behead?"
"I don't know." Magpie just shook his head.
"Then what did you say just now, the head was cut off, and the blood was so high."
"I also heard people say that it was early in the morning that officers and soldiers from Meicheng surrounded Xiazhuang. On the big tree at the head of the village. The bastard at the blacksmith shop told me. The two brothers and the brave people in the village rushed to Xiazhuang to see it. Where dare to go?"
Hearing what he said, Baochen hurried back to the room to watch the tiger.
Cuilian said: "Hey, what else do I care about, when in this world no one will die? What's more, they are dead in Xiazhuang, what do we care about? My stomach is so hungry, I should get some food to eat first. "After speaking, I will take the magpie to the kitchen to make food.
"Wait a minute," the mother grabbed the magpie and looked straight at her, "Have you ever seen her uncle?"
"At noon, he came back once. I asked him, why did you come back alone first, what about Madam and the others? Have you seen the master? He kept a straight face and didn't speak. Not long after, I saw him coming from upstairs. I took something from the boss and put it in the stove and burned it. I asked him what he was burning, and he said, it’s over, it’s over. I asked him what’s over? He said, everything is over. After a while, he ran out again. I don’t know Where did you go?" Magpie said.
Mother didn't ask any more questions.She looked at her own shadow on the ground, then at Xiumi, and said after a long time that she was a little tired today, so go to bed first, and don't call her for dinner later.
That night, Xiumi stayed up all night.As if angry with herself, she leaned against the north window all night, looking at the deep woods in the backyard.The attic was dark all night.After finally surviving until dawn, she wondered whether she should go to Mr. Ding's house to find out the news, but before she could go downstairs, she heard Ding Shuze and his wife yelling in the yard.
They talked with their mother behind closed doors in the hall.Not long after Mr. Ding arrived, Granny Meng and Hua Erniang next door followed, and finally even the treasurer of the Puji pawnshop and the village security guard also came to talk to her mother. What they said to her mother, Xiumi did not know. .It was almost noon when the mother sent them out one by one.When Mr. Ding was about to leave, he stood by the threshold and said to his mother, "That Xue Zuyan really deserves to die! A few days ago, I asked Xiumi to deliver a letter to him, urging him to rein in the precipice and find his way back, but he relied on his father to do it in the capital. Senior official, you only took my words as a deaf ear, and actually gathered a bunch of dubious rebels in the countryside, plotting to bring chaos to the world, what happened in the end? Isn't it just a "click" knife, and you're dead..."
Hearing what he said, Xiumi knew that Xue Juren of Xiazhuang had been beheaded.
Later, she also heard that the government's spies had been eyeing him for a long time, and they wanted to arrest him a long time ago, but because of Master Xue's power in the capital, they didn't do it for a while.On the Double Ninth Festival of this year, the guards in the palace brought a pot of golden wine to Xue's mansion. Mr. Xue knelt on the ground and only cared about thanking him, so he smashed his head. Walk.They said that they had to see him drink the wine with their own eyes before returning to the palace.Only then did the old man realize that it was a jug of poisoned wine.The old man pretended to be crazy and foolish, crying and shouting, but refused to drink.Finally, the guards got impatient and pressed him to the ground, pinched his nose, and poured down the pot of wine without leaking.The old man didn't even have time to catch his breath, he kicked his feet, his seven orifices bled to death.As soon as the news of the old man's death arrived, the state capital here immediately sent troops to arrest him.A large group of people rushed to Xiazhuang, rushed into Xue's house, and blocked Xue Juren and the prostitute Xiao Taohong in the bedroom.
Li Daodeng and Xue Juren, the president of the Meicheng Association, have always had a close relationship.This time he was ordered to round up, and he deliberately made it easier for him.After the officers and soldiers surrounded Xue's house, Li Xietong went to the left and right, entered the house alone, sat down on the grand master's chair, raised his knife horizontally, and clasped his fists and said: "Brother Nian, I have repaid the kindness I have received for many years. run!"
That Xue Juren was shivering under the quilt, and when he saw that there was a way out, he jumped out of bed neatly, rummaged through the boxes, and packed up the gold and silver.Seeing that he was very busy, Li Xietong just shook his head there.In the end, Xue Juren took everything that should be taken, but forgot to put on his pants.He also asked Li Daodeng if he could take the prostitute Xiao Taohong away with him.Li Shoubei smiled and said: "Brother Xue is also a sensible person, why are you suddenly confused now?"
Xue Ju said: "Brother, what you mean is——"
At this time, Xiao Taohong on the bed suddenly sat up, and said with a sneer: "You are a person who does great things, and when you die, you still have those greedy sex dreams. Now that you have escaped, how will Brother Li go back to work?"
At this time, Xue Ju knew that Xiao Taohong was also an eyeliner arranged by the government, and was frightened and turned around the table.He turned around like a donkey for a long time before he said, "Brother Li, you still won't let me go?"
Li Daodeng really couldn't bear to look at him, so he had to turn his face away.That little Taohong said urgently: "What Li Xietong means is that if you run away, he will have a reason to kill you, so as to save you the pain of five hundred and eighty knives."
When Xue Juren heard this, he froze there.If you go, it's not, if you don't go, it's not.In the end, Li Daoden lied to him and said, whether you can get away or not, it all depends on your luck, as long as you can go far and fly high, and the sky falls, my younger brother will carry it for you.As soon as Xue Juren heard this, he quickly put on his trousers, ignoring the gold and silver treasures, and walked outside, no one stopped him along the way.When he rushed to the door outside the courtyard, Li Daodeng had already arranged two swordsmen outside the door, one on the left and one on the right.With the knife in his hand, Xue Zuyan's head jumped up, and blood sprayed all over the wall.That little Taohong walked outside the house like a normal person, and said to the onlookers: "I thought he was some kind of great hero, but he is also Chen Shubao."
In the evening, when the family was having dinner around the table, Zhang Jiyuan came back suddenly.Holding a pipe in his hand, he walked in unsteadily as before.His eye sockets were black, his hair was wet from Qiulu, sticking to his forehead in strands, and the cloth shirt on his back was torn.The magpie served him a meal, and that Zhang Jiyuan took out another handkerchief and wiped his face. He pulled himself together, pretended to be okay and said, "I'm here to tell you a joke."
There was no answer at the dinner table.No one spoke.Only the tiger laughed and said: "You learn to bray like a donkey first." Zhang Jiyuan felt a little uncomfortable, he looked at Baochen, looked at his mother, even the magpies were lowering their heads to eat without raising their heads.He glanced at Xiumi again, and she was also looking at him helplessly.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Xiumi answered with a livid face, "Cousin, do you have any funny jokes? You might as well tell them."
She saw her mother glaring at herself fiercely, but she also pretended not to see it.Put down the chopsticks, hold your chin, and listen to his story.Xiumi wanted to lighten up the atmosphere and help him out, but she didn't expect that Zhang Jiyuan would be hurt by this.He tried his best to hide his panic.Looking left and right, hesitant to speak, the joke was boring and boring, it was upside down, obviously it couldn't go on, but he had to bite the bullet and go on, making a few people at the dinner table, you look at me, I look at you .It happened that Baochen let out another loud fart, which made everyone hold their breath.
At that time, she had already learned from Mr. Ding Shuze that Zhang Jiyuan was not her cousin at all, but a wanted party criminal wanted by the court.He came to Puji not to recuperate his illness, but to secretly contact his party members to conspire to rebel and cause trouble.The teacher also said that the Xue Juren Xue Zuyan was the leader of the rebellious party. Although he was beheaded immediately, the six or seven revolutionaries who stayed at his house that night have all been captured and are being taken to Meicheng. , if there are one or two tortures that can't be tortured by cramp and skinning, you must confess your cousin."
Since Zhang Jiyuan is a rebel, where did his mother meet him?And how can a key criminal arrested by the court, who is neither relative nor relative, be allowed to live at home for half a year?Xiumi's mind was full of these messy things.
Zhang Jiyuan finally finished the joke, took a few more mouthfuls of food, and then told everyone seriously that since he came to Puji in spring to recuperate, he has lived here for half a year.Thank you all for your love, and now I have almost recovered from my illness.There is no never-ending banquet in the world, and one must leave Puji.Mother seemed to have been waiting for him to say this, and seeing that he proposed to leave, she didn't intend to keep him, but only asked when he was leaving.
"I plan to leave early tomorrow morning." After Zhang Jiyuan finished speaking, he stood up from the table.
"That's fine." Mother said, "Go back upstairs and rest first, I have something to say to you later."
After dinner, only Xiumi and Tiger were left in the hall.She absent-mindedly played with Tiger for a while, then Bao Chen came and took him to sleep in the counting room.Xiumi went to the kitchen and said she wanted to help Cuilian and Magpie put away the pot, but she couldn't get in her way.Cuilian was also full of preoccupations, and accidentally scratched a big hole on the edge of the pot with her finger, so she was not in the mood to talk to her.Xiumi stood in front of the stove for a while, and had no choice but to come out of the kitchen. She went to the patio, and saw her mother walking from a distance from the backyard with a shaded lamp in her hand.Xiumi was about to go upstairs to sleep when her mother stopped her from behind.
"Your cousin asked you to go upstairs to him." Mother said, "He has a few words to ask you in person."
"What is he going to ask me?" Xiumi was taken aback.
"He told you to go, so you go. He won't tell me, how can I know?!" Mother sternly said, without even looking at her, she held up the lamp and left.Xiumi waited until the light on the wall faded away, then stood in the dark porch for a while, and said bitterly in her heart: What's wrong with her?You are not happy, but you are angry with me!The chirping of crickets at the foot of the wall disturbed her.
The door in the attic was open, and the lamps lit up the wet staircase, and the thick autumn mist rose and surged in the light.It was the first time Xiumi came to the attic in the backyard since her father left.The ground is covered with yellow leaves, under the porch, on the flower beds, and on the steps.
Zhang Jiyuan was playing with the earthen cauldron left by his father in the room.My father bought this clay pot from a beggar. It was originally the beggar's beggar. I don't know why he was so fascinated by it.He looked at it over and over, and murmured to himself: "Baby, baby, it's really a baby."
Seeing Xiumi push the door and come in, Zhang Jiyuan said: "This treasure has some history. You come and listen to its sound." After finishing speaking, he tapped on the lower wall with his fingers lightly.There was a sound of clashing Langpei and Pei from the tile cauldron, which was so beautiful and heart-warming.Xiumi felt that her body was like a feather, lifted gently by the wind, and floated across mountains, streams and rivers to an unknown place.
"How is it?" Zhang Jiyuan asked him.
Then, I flicked its upper edge with my fingernails, and the cauldron made a sound of gold and stone, like the sound of bells and chimes from an ancient temple in Jungu. Circles and circles, like ripples on the surface of water, slowly rippling away. It goes for a long time; it is also like the mountain wind entering the forest, the flowers and trees are swaying, the green bamboos are making noise, and the flowing water is endless.She seemed to see the monastery deserted and quiet, with clouds chasing each other, for a moment, she forgot all her worries, not knowing what year it was.
Xiumi was dumbfounded when she heard it, and after a while, she thought to herself, there is such a beautiful sound in this world, it seems that there is another clean place outside this world.
Zhang Jiyuan put his ear to the side of the cauldron and listened like a child, blinking at her.No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a desperate court criminal.
"This treasure is also called 'Wangyou Cauldron'. It was originally made of bronze and was refined by a Taoist priest in Zhongnan Mountain for more than 20 years. Many southerners don't know it, so they call it a tile cauldron." Zhang Jiyuan said, "People who are proficient in temperament often use it for divination, but by listening to its voice, you can predict the future of good and bad."
Hearing what he said, Xiumi suddenly thought that she was in a trance when she heard the sound of the kettle just now, and felt like a feather floating in the air, and finally landed on a deserted grave.Seems like an ominous sign.
"It is said that this object has a big secret, that is, in winter, when it snows, the cold air will condense into frost—" Zhang Jiyuan was talking, when Cuilian opened the door and walked in.She said the madam had asked her to come and put some oil on the lamp.But she looked at the lamp and saw that it was still full of oil, so she pulled a hairpin from her head, picked out the wick, closed the door, and went downstairs.
Zhang Jiyuan looked at her and smiled.She smiled at him too.The two seem to be saying, I know why you are laughing, but neither of them wants to tell the truth.For some reason, she suddenly felt that her mother was very pitiful.Her hands and body were covered with sweat.She tapped the cauldron wall lightly with her fingers, and the sound made her feel sad.The voice made her feel like she was in a lonely Zen temple.The Zen temple is rarely visited by people, the water outside the temple is gurgling, the willows are slender on the moor, and the peach trees in the mountain depression are all in bloom, like a snow window reflecting the setting sun.Swimming bees and wild butterflies, humming, buzzing, flowers blooming like they want to talk, and flowers falling thoughtfully.Something is disappearing inch by inch, like water receding from the sandy shore, or like incense turning to ashes.Then think about the hustle and bustle of the world, which is completely boring.
She sat at the table in a daze, only thinking wildly in her mind.Inadvertently, when I looked up, I found that my cousin was looking at me greedily: bold, ambiguous and presumptuous, with pale face, frowning, and the whole face was distorted by pain.He licked his upper lip with his tongue, as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't make up his mind.
"Are you really a rebel from the imperial court?" Xiumi asked.She pressed her hand on the table, and there were wet water spots on the table.
"What do you think?" Zhang Jiyuan asked her back with a wry smile.
"Where are you going?"
"To be honest, I don't know either." Zhang Jiyuan said, and after a while, he said again: "I can see that you have countless things to ask me. Is that so?"
Xiumi nodded.
"Originally, I could tell you the answer exactly. Just now, just before you went upstairs, I made up my mind to tell you the truth. As long as you want to know, I can tell you. Whatever you ask, I will answer What, there is absolutely no concealment. Who am I? How did I know your mother? Why did you come to Puji? What is the relationship with Xue Zuyan from Xiazhuang? Why do we have to fight against the court? Who is it? You want to know the answer to all these, don’t you?” Zhang Jiyuan took out a crumpled handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his face, and continued:
"However, for some reason, in the past few days, I feel that what we are doing is very likely to be wrong at all, or it is not important to me at all, and it can even be said to be worthless. Indeed, Worthless. For example, there is one thing, while you are doing your best, at the same time, you clearly suspect that it is wrong, and it has been wrong from the beginning. Or you have been struggling for something The answer, sometimes, you think you have found the answer. But suddenly one day, you find that the answer is not in your mind, it is somewhere else. Can you understand what I said?"
Xiumi shook her head blankly.She really didn't know what he was talking about.
"Okay, let's not talk about this," Zhang Jiyuan patted his forehead, "Let me show you something." He took out a delicate small box from the package next to the bed, and handed it to Xiumi. hand.It was a delicate little brocade box.
"Is this for me?" Sumi asked him.
"No." Zhang Jiyuan said, "It's inconvenient for me to carry this thing with me. You keep it for me, at most one month, I will come to Puji again, and then you will return it to me."
Xiumi took the box and looked at it from both sides.It's satin suede, royal blue, like a woman's jewelry box.
"One month at most." Zhang Jiyuan sat down at the table, "If I don't come back after a month, then I won't come again."
"Why didn't you come?"
"That means that I am no longer in this world." Zhang Jiyuan said, "At that time, someone will naturally come to you, and you just need to give this thing to him."
"What's his name?" Sumi asked him.
"You don't need to know his name," Zhang Jiyuan smiled, "He is a man with six fingers. You have to remember that his six fingers are on his left hand."
"What if he never comes?"
"It's yours. You can take it to a jeweler's and have a goldsmith make you a necklace or something."
"What is this thing? Can I open it and see?"
"Please go ahead." Zhang Jiyuan said.
Cuilian pushed the door open again and entered.She was carrying a footbath in one hand, a towel on her arm, and a jug of water in the other.She walked in without knocking.She put the kettle and footbath on the ground, put the towel on the back of the chair, and said to Zhang Jiyuan: "Madam told me, it's getting late, go to bed. The water has been heated twice for you." Then, she Turning around, she said to Xiumi, "Let's go."
"I'm leaving?" Xiumi glanced at her cousin.
"Let's go."
Zhang Jiyuan stood up.Their faces are very close together.This time, Xiumi could see clearly that there were some pits and pits on his face.
Xiumi followed Cuilian to the downstairs.She could feel the attic door slowly closing behind her.It was pitch black in the yard.
Xiumi did not hear the rooster crowing.When she woke up, she saw that the lights in the room were still on, but the sunlight shining on the wall had turned dark red.There is a faint chill in the air, autumn is already deep.Lying lazily on the bed, she heard her mother calling magpies.When the mother called the magpie, she always ran around the yard like lightning, so as to appear in front of the mother in time at the first time.Mother asked Magpie to remove the quilt and bed sheets from the attic in the backyard and wash them.
She knew that Zhang Jiyuan had left.
With Zhang Jiyuan's departure, the family returned to its former tranquility.From late spring to late autumn, for Xiumi, what happened in this family was more than all the things she had experienced before.But to others, these things are like light frost falling on the tiles at night, and in the morning, when the sun shines, they disappear without a trace, or in other words, these things never happened.
Baochen was outside all day to press accounts, leaving early and returning late.Villages farther away will also be delayed for a day or two.After collecting the bill, he also stuck his head in the accounting room as usual, his abacus crackling.Even when he ate and walked, his mind was full of those accounts.Cuilian vacated several firewood huts next to the attic in the backyard and cleaned them up.Use reed mats to form rice hoards one by one, just waiting for the tenants to bring in the millet that should be handed over.The mother ran to the tailor shop with the magpie all day long, and they were already arranging cotton clothes for the family for the winter.Only Xiumi and Huhu are free all day, roaming around in the garden, and occasionally she will be taken by her mother to the tailor shop for measurements.Sometimes when I feel really bored, I go to Mr. Ding Shuze's home to study in class.Ding Shu has already sent his mistress Zhao Xiaofeng to the door to urge the end of the year.
On the day of Lidong, the outside of the yard is full of carts and food loads to deliver millet.Granny Meng brought her husband to help.Erniang Hua next door held a large seven-star scale in her hand, yelling for two catties, and was busy weighing the scale.A round wooden pole passed through the scale and was carried by Wang Qidan and Brother Wang Badan.Baochen had to keep accounts and make plans, so he was extremely busy.Mother was very happy, walking up and down the house, going to the kitchen for a while, going to the barn in the backyard for a while, and entertaining the tenant farmers who came from afar with snacks.Cuilian and Magpie were busy chopping meat and cooking, and the chopping boards in the kitchen were ringing non-stop all morning.
The tenant farmers crouched in a row along the wall with their poles in their arms.When Baochen called his name, he rushed over to have a look at Libra.At this time, Hua Erniang always smiled and said to them: "I see it, report the number."
After the tenant farmer reported the number softly, Erniang Hua went to approve it again, and then loudly reported the amount in taels. Bao Chen sat at the table in the courtyard, quickly flipped through the abacus, and reported the amount again, and the account was settled.Then the sacks full of millet were sent to the warehouse in the backyard.Granny Meng ran back and forth in front of and behind the yard on tiptoe, and Xiumi didn't know what she was up to.
One of the tenants, Wang Aliu, was 28 catties short when he checked the scale.Hua Erniang said: "Why is it you every year, who is short of catties and little taels." She asked her mother how to deal with it, "He is responsible for playing tricks every year. This year, when the weather is good and the weather is good, it is still short. I see you Take back his six mu of land and forget it." In one sentence, Ah Liu pulled his mother-in-law into apologetic smiles and bows.
Wang A Liudao: "To tell you the truth, my wife has suffered two illnesses in succession this year, and a new child has been born. The six acres of land have been abandoned and three acres have been left unused. The missing rent will be made up next year, just don't accept it My field." After that, he held down a child next to him and made him kneel down and kowtow. The child was stubborn and refused to kowtow. Bleeding, crying, running all over the yard.Xiumi saw that the child was still wearing unlined clothing, with a piece of patched trousers torn, and when he ran, the rags were torn apart, revealing two small buttocks.Xiumi looked at the tenant farmer's wife again, she really looked sick, her face was sallow, and she was wearing a man's ragged cotton jacket.The cotton-padded jacket had no buttons, but was tied around the waist with rags, and there was a baby in her arms, standing there crying.
When the mother saw this, she was moved with compassion, and hurriedly said to Hua Erniang: "Take it, and ask him to make it up next year." Wang Ah Liu was so grateful, knelt on the ground and kowtowed his head.He took his wife and walked over to bow to Baochen.Baochen turned the abacus around and said, "No, no, no. This shortage of rent, plus last year's and the year before, is a total of 127 catties. I won't add any interest to you. Be diligent next year." I'll pay it back together, so I can pay for you." Wang Aliu had a contrived smile on his face, hurriedly agreed, and walked away backwards.
Granny Meng carried a basket of zizizi, and went to the well to peel it.Seeing that she couldn't intervene in anything, Xiumi went to help her and gossip with her mother-in-law.Granny Meng said, this Wang Ah Liu is really pitiful, his land has never been barren, but he just likes to drink, and he will die when he sees it.All the things that could be sold at home were sold out, and the wife was tossed like an animal.Of the six children, three were lost.After finishing speaking, I sighed endlessly.Xiumi suddenly asked: "How can the food grown by other people be delivered to our family in such a good way?"
When Granny Meng heard this, she was taken aback for a moment, and then she laughed.She didn't answer Xiumi's question, she just shouted to Baochen: "Tilt your head, do you know what this girl said to me just now?" Baochen seemed to have heard what Xiumi said, just grinning .It happened that my mother passed by here, and Granny Meng said to her mother again: "Guess what your girl said to me just now?" The mother said: "What did she say?" Mi learned to say it again.Hua Erniang, who was looking at the scale, giggled, and the weight slipped to the ground, almost hitting her foot.Xiumi saw that the tenant farmers standing by the door also looked at her and smiled.The mother said: "This girl in my family, don't look at her so big, she doesn't have a heart at all. I have eaten all these years for nothing, how can I know anything?"
After her mother left, Granny Meng stopped laughing and said to Xiumi: "Silly girl, they planted your land, and if the food is not sent to your house, why not send it to my house?"
Xiumi said, "Why don't they plant their own land?"
"You're getting more and more confused." Granny Meng said, "They poor fellows, don't talk about the land, I don't know if they have a needle at home."
"Where did our land come from?"
"It may have been handed down by the ancestors, or bought with money, and some of them could not repay the debt, so they paid it off." Granny Meng said, "Silly boy, you grow up like you are living in a fairyland in Taoyuan. You don’t understand anything, but you are still a literate person.”
Xiumi still wanted to say something to her, but Granny Meng had already stood up, brushed off the dust from her body, and carrying a basket, she went to the well to fetch water to wash the mushrooms.
When eating at noon, my mother was worried that those peasants would dirty the house, so she asked someone to carry the Eight Immortals table to the patio.When the sixteen or seventeen tenants saw the tables and stools brought up, they all gathered around and took their seats.That Wang Ah Liu filled a bowl of rice, but he didn't eat it himself. He just went up to add vegetables to the bowl, and the bowls were piled up like the top of a pagoda.Wang Aliu left the dinner table and looked around for his son.The child was lying on his mother's lap by the haystack outside the gable, as if asleep.After wandering outside for a long time, Wang Aliu turned to the gable, squatted down in front of the haystack, and gave the rice bowl to his wife.The woman shook her head while waking up the child lying on her lap.The child didn't pick up the chopsticks when he saw the food, but grabbed it with his hands and ate it.The snot dragged long and hung into the bowl, and he ate it wholeheartedly.
Through the window, Cuilian and Magpie watched and laughed.Cuilian first chuckled, and after laughing for a while, her face suddenly darkened.Tears came out of my eyes again.Xiumi thinks that Cuilian thinks of her home in Huzhou again, or remembers her parents, and feels sad.Unexpectedly, Cuilian shed tears for a while, put her arms around Xiumi again, and said seriously: "Sister, if one day, I beg for food at your door, you also put this bowl of rice for me to eat. "
"Why do you think of saying such a thing?" Magpie said, "You are here well, why are you begging again?"
Cuilian just raised her sleeves to wipe her tears and ignored her.After a while, he said in a daze:
"When I was in Chenzhou, I met a fortune-teller. That person also had a child with him, and the child was starving to death. I saw how pitiful the child was, so I gave them two steamed buns. I was about to leave , the fortune teller stopped me. He said that he should repay the favor of a meal. He said that he has no skills, but fortune-telling and fortune-telling are also effective. He told me on the spot I asked him to calculate my birth date. I never even met my parents when I was born, so I don’t know what horoscope is. He starved to death and was eaten by wild dogs. I asked him if there was any way to avoid the disaster. Fortune tellers are human, unless you find someone who belongs to the pig to marry, you can avoid this disaster. But I can see that this age is getting worse Where are you going to marry someone who is a pig?"
"That's what the fortune teller said, how can it be taken seriously?" Xiumi said, "Maybe that fortune teller is a pig, and he deliberately used these words to scare you, and you don't know if you marry him. "
Magpie said: "I remembered, the tiger in Baochen's family is a pig."
Her words made Cuilian laugh out of tears, and said: "Don't tell me you want me to marry him?"
Cuilian finally stopped her tears, and said to the magpie: "Where is your hometown? How did you end up in Puji? I heard from Granny Meng that you can't hear the word arsenic, so what's going on?" "
When the magpie heard the arsenic, it couldn't help trembling, its eyes were staring, its lips were purple, and it just stood there trembling.It took a long time to shed tears.She said that when she was five years old, her parents had a land dispute with a neighbor. Seeing that the lawsuit was about to be won, someone poisoned the noodle soup, killing her parents and two younger brothers on the spot.She ate little, and a neighbor pinched her nose again, poured a spoonful of feces into her mouth, and vomited for a long time, "this saved a dog's life."They all knew that when they met a strong man, their relatives were afraid of getting burned, and no one dared to take her in, so they went to Puji and went to Granny Meng.
"No wonder I see that you have to wash and wash your own dishes every time you eat." Xiumi said, "Are you always worried that someone will poison you to death?"
"It's all the fault of Da Xiaoluo. I know it won't happen, but I'm still suspicious." Magpie said.
"They are all miserable people." Cuilian said with emotion, she looked at Sui Xiumi with her eyes: "No one can compare with you, you have a good life in the previous life, and you are reborn in such a family, carefree, what? Don't even think about it."
Xiumi said nothing.I thought to myself: How do you know what I am thinking, if I say it, I am afraid it will scare you.When she was thinking this way, she didn't know in her heart that a disaster was approaching her.
Zhang Jiyuan had been away for more than half a month, and few people mentioned him again.One day in the twelfth lunar month, Xiumi woke up in the middle of the night.She suddenly remembered that Zhang Jiyuan gave her a satin and velvet brocade box before leaving.She hid it in the closet and never opened it to look at it.What exactly is in there?This question danced in her mind along with the rustling snowdrops on the roof.At dawn, she still couldn't suppress her curiosity to find out, got out of bed, found the brocade box from the cabinet, and opened it gently.
Inside the box is a golden cicada.
At about the same time, Zhang Jiyuan's body went down the river, bypassed a sandbar, and turned into a long and narrow inland river under the embankment.One of Puji's hunters found him.At that time, the river was frozen, and his naked body was frozen together with the reed stalks on the river.Bao Chen had to have someone cut through the ice before dragging him to the shore.Xiumi looked at him from a distance, and it was also the first time she saw a man's naked body.His brows were still furrowed, his body was tightly wrapped in ice, and he looked like a bunch of candied haws.
When the mother rushed to the river, she didn't care about the eyes of the people, and the ice floe on his body hadn't melted yet, so she threw herself on him, caressing the corpse and crying loudly.
"I shouldn't have forced you to leave. It doesn't matter if you leave, I shouldn't curse you to death." Mother cried.
Notes:
Notes: