Chapter 22 The Northland is a vast expanse (5)

She got better soon.I can tear roe meat to eat, and I can play with my mother in the open space in front of the house.The newcomer was very kind to her, and made paper airplanes and ships for her, but he often had a sullen face.His face is as smooth and white as Xue Ye, his eyes are small but soft, just like the eyes that Mum didn't treat her.I heard from my mother that she was lucky to have this person that day, otherwise she would freeze to death.Mother said that this man entered this forest to die.He originally wanted to lie quietly in the forest in the wind and let Snow Flower bury him quietly, but unexpectedly he met Lu Hua who fled away.It was he who saved her.But Dad found them in the early morning of the next day and rescued them all.

Luhua resented him from the bottom of her heart.If it wasn't for him, she and Mum would have left here long ago, perhaps in a world without darkness.So, as soon as she met him, she turned her head alertly and wearily. The small back room was reserved for him.She often heard Dad arguing with him in that room.Pa had a very rough voice, and his voice was very weak.Together, Pa was like a lion to a poor bunny.Niang said that the trouble outside the mountain was caused by that person, and she called him a "scumbag".He was cornered and wanted to die.Lu Hua doesn't understand how people can become "scumbags", because he doesn't look like Mum, and he doesn't sound like Mum.It seems that strange things always happen outside the mountains.

The night is still so long.I don't know how many bear oil lamps were extinguished by my father, but they were still shining yellow.Since the stranger came, the mother's face is not so gray, and when she is working alone, she still hums a little tune.It seemed that she had found a lot of happiness and joy that she had lost in this person.However, Lu Hua didn't cry like the first time she heard her mother sing.She has no tears to shed for a song like this: A pair of mandarin ducks, Both on the water, Butterfly, yes, Right to shake nectar. She tied Mother's jute rope full of knots.She calls the bumps stars.She likes that the stars are as numerous as little yellow flowers.

Pa went hunting in the mountains with Mum and sometimes the new guy.When Dad went out with him and came back, he was always empty-handed, not even a rabbit.Dad grumbled and scolded the dog for being useless angrily.Later, Dad didn't take him there.When Dad went out by himself, he always said to her: "Don't run out, work at home with your mother." Dad's eyes aimed at that person maliciously.She had a vague premonition that new unhappiness had arisen between her father and mother. The sun was blindingly white that day, and Pa was out hunting.Lu Hua wiped the bear oil lamp on the kang, leaving her hands black and stained.Mother sat by the fire wall, thinking blankly.At this time, she heard the man calling from the back room:

"sister in law--" Mother was startled, and quickly glanced at Lu Hua, her face was not very good-looking.She walked towards the back room with slow and light steps, like autumn leaves floating on water. For some reason, a great interest arose in Lu Hua's heart.She pricked up her ears to hear what they were saying.However, she only vaguely heard something like "When the reeds are white...Wei Meizi..." and so on.She didn't know why she still had white hair, was it because her hair was white before?Like a fairy?Then she was once a fairy?Her heart was pounding violently.She tiptoed down, quietly went around to the door of the back room, and stood there silently listening.

"What happened next?" the man asked. "I, kill, kill him. After that, I took a jute rope and went to the old pagoda tree at the head of the village, trying to hang him."