Chapter 2 second quarter

Mrs. Xu couldn't help being fascinated by the back of the man working in the field. The man, with his bony upper body naked, was turning his back on her to loosen the soil with a rake.A large cross-shaped tattoo was tattooed on the sweat-drenched back and neck, but the pattern had long faded and blurred.There are terrible scars all over the dark skin... —He must have had a terrible past... Aunt Xu thought of her husband.He was much shorter than this man, but his back was as strong as a piece of black iron.Whenever she watched her husband go to the fields, she felt a sense of comforting warmth, anxiously waiting for the night to come, hugging his sweating body tightly in the dark room...

Aunt Xu's eyes were moist.She wiped away tears vigorously, shaking her head.This is not her husband who has been dead for two years, she forbids herself to dream about it. In the afternoon more than two months ago, when this man appeared in front of her house for the first time, she was really taken aback. She had never seen such a tall beggar. "Could you give me some water?" The mouth with sandy beard and chapped white lips asked her in a hoarse and low voice. "I'm so thirsty." Mrs. Xu still can't explain why she let this man into the house that day.Maybe it was because of the man's big and clear eyes that melted her guard.

He drank a whole jug of water.Drink it slowly, as if tasting the water carefully.She gave him two more tortillas, and he stopped after eating one. "are you not hungry?" The man was silent for a while, as if he was thinking about something long ago. "It's fine if you don't starve to death." There was a strange tenderness in his tone. "Every time I eat, I think of someone; when I think of her, I can't eat." Is it crazy?Mrs. Xu became a little scared again, and her daughter was also very scared, hiding in the bed in the room and not daring to come out.

"Where do you come from?" She couldn't help looking at his big battered cloak and at his bare, dusty feet. "...Many places." The man still looked thoughtful. The two remained silent for a while.The man stood up suddenly, put his palms together between his eyebrows, and bowed to Mrs. Xu. "thanks……" Mrs. Xu was thinking that he was going to leave, when he said, "I'm a little tired from walking, I want to sleep." Hearing the word "sleep", Aunt Xu's heart was beating wildly. "But here..." "Not here." The man pointed to the door. "Outside, somewhere shaded by a canopy will do."

"If you don't dislike..." Before Mrs. Xu finished speaking, the man stepped out of the door, lay down by the wall next to the door, curled up in the cloak, and soon fell into a deep sleep. Only then did Mrs. Xu look at the big bamboo box that the man had unloaded in a corner of the room.She was curious, but didn't have the courage to open it privately. The man just slept outside the door that whole day. Xiao Mo didn't dare to come out of the room until dusk, hugging her mother in a panic.When Aunt Xu was cooking, Xiao Mo stuck her head out of the door and stared at the strange man who was sleeping deeply with her big beautiful eyes...

That night Mrs. Xu slept with her daughter in her arms, and she couldn't fall asleep for a long time.There was a hatchet next to the pillow. The next morning, Mrs. Xu woke up and was about to go to the fields when she realized that the man had already woken up and was standing outside looking up at the dimly lit sky. "Morning." The man said without looking back.Aunt Xu didn't know how the man knew she was looking at him. "Are you hungry? There's more..." "I want to thank you for your hospitality." The man turned his head, his eyes were brighter than the stars. "Is there anything I can do for you?..."

From that day on, the man went to the fields for Mrs. Xu every day, and he also lived here from that day on.Although he still slept outside the door every night, she knew that rumors started to spread in the nearby houses.She didn't care. After her husband died, these guys did nothing to help their mother and daughter. The man still eats very little.He ate only corn, sometimes half a root, sometimes whole.She advised him to eat more so that he would have strength in the field, otherwise it would be easy to damage his body.He just shook his head. Mrs. Xu gave him some clothes left by her husband to wear, washed the cloak for him, and mended the torn places.She cleaned the place outside the house where he slept and spread out a bamboo mat.All he said was, "Thank you."

On the fifth day, when she brought corn to the field for him to eat, she finally had the courage to ask, "What's your name?" The man thought for a while, and suddenly seemed to remember a relative, and a warm smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. "You can just call me 'Dahei'..." At night, when she handed him back the cloak, washed and mended, he fondled the linen surface of the cloak affectionately. "Do you like it very much?...It is supposed to be very beautiful, right? Did you buy it far away?" "I wove it myself." Dahei said. "Learning for a long time..."

"Really? ... Then why not weave a pair of shoes too?" "I think..." Dahei sank into that thoughtful expression again. "Touch every inch of land you walk with your flesh..." Aunt Xu couldn't understand the meaning of the words, but she didn't ask further... At this moment, Dahei had put down his mud rake and walked over.Aunt Xu smiled and handed him a cloth towel to wipe his sweat. "Mom!" Xiao Mo shouted at this moment, and ran over with a cloth bag for lunch, with an innocent smile on her face.Aunt Xu also laughed, this baby is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life.

Xiao Mo's cheeks as red as persimmons were wrapped in a scarf.Under the sunlight, the thin calico dress was somewhat transparent, showing the petite body that had begun to show feminine curves.Mrs. Xu looked at it, both happy and worried. "Uncle!" Xiaomo put down the cloth bag after arriving.She held a book in her other hand. "Uncle, eat quickly! Teach me after eating!" "I'm not hungry, I'll teach you first." Dahei smiled, wiping the dust off his hands with a cloth towel. Xiaomo happily sat on the ground, opened the book and put it between her thighs, and began to imitate the ink on the book, writing on the ground with her fingers.Dahei also sat next to her, read to her word by word, and explained the meaning of each word.

Since half a month ago, Xiao Mo was no longer afraid of this sudden man.That day, she secretly opened the bamboo box while her mother and Dahei were going out to the field.When Dahei came back, she stood in front of him with a book covered in sheepskin in her hand, and for the first time mustered up the courage to speak to him: "Can you... teach me to read?" Dahei smiled at the time, took the book and flipped through a few pages, then closed it and put it on the table. The disappointed Xiaomo was about to cry almost immediately. But Dahei went to the bamboo box, rummaged for a while, and took out another book. "This book is shallower, I will teach you this book first..." Seeing her daughter concentrating on writing on the sand, while Dahei was squatting beside her teaching... Mrs. Xu was inexplicably moved. When Dahei gently held Xiaomo's little hand and taught her to write, Mrs. Xu saw her daughter's face turned redder, and she looked at Dahei with admiration in her eyes.Aunt Xu was not surprised, she was once a young girl. Mrs. Xu just thought: In this kind of place, no matter how many characters a girl can read, it's useless.Already thirteen years old, Xiao Mo's future depends on whether she can find a good husband, a man who is not too poor but will cherish her.It's better to marry to the state capital. Aunt Xu has never been to the state capital in her life.She didn't want her daughter to be like her, spending her life in such a poor place and marrying another poor boy... Aunt Xu originally saved some money, and was going to hire a good matchmaker for Xiaomo and arrange some decent dowry.But years of severe drought, the crops from the fields were only enough for the two of them to eat, and the tax and food collected by the government were not waived at all. Mrs. Xu could only hold back her tears and pay the money instead of food.She knew that that little money was not enough for the adults in the government to treat guests to a meal. Last year, the money was gone, and the crops were still in short supply, so she had to follow other families in the village and borrow from Master Qin in Zizhen.Several families have already embezzled the land from Mr. Qin because they could not pay back, and became his tenants who worked for Mr. Qin.What is even more unfortunate is that Xu Sanshi's family was forced to sell their wife to the Qin family as a servant, and that night they were taken over by Master Qin's youngest son. When Xu Sanshi found out, he was so ashamed that he hanged himself... Mrs. Xu looked up at the cloudless sky while biting the wheat cake. ——If it doesn't rain, it's over...