Chapter 93

As for the headache, even the doctor couldn't tell what the cause was.

After sending the doctor away, grandmother Zhao slapped her face on the spot.

She looks like she is in her fifties, with her gray hair neatly tied behind her head. With a long face, the eyelids are a little sunken, and when the face is pulled, it becomes a triangular eye, which looks particularly unfriendly.

Without Mrs. Zhao's words, Mrs. Sun said: "Zhao'er, it's not that my fourth aunt is talking about you, you girl likes to make a fuss. Could it be that you deliberately torment us all, even if you don't like it..."

Before she finished speaking, she was pulled by the man Xue Qinghuai.

"Okay, let's say a few words less, Zhao'er is not ignorant, besides, the dog is already sick, so it's better to find a doctor to take a look, and the family can rest assured."

"I said less and said less, and I didn't say anything..."

"You also said..."

The couple went out while chatting and tugging. The eldest aunt Yang smiled at Zhao'er, and then said to the mother-in-law: "Mother, let's go too, let the dog rest well."

Mrs. Zhao glanced at the dog on the kang, snorted coldly, turned her head and left. It can be seen from her posture that she is very angry.

In fact, it is true. The Xue family can't be called a rich family. It costs at least one or two hundred dollars to invite a doctor from the town. ! In particular, the doctor's pulse just now confirmed Zhao's guess that Xue Gouzi was deliberately pretending to be ill, and it was only strange that she was happy.

Let Mrs. Zhao see that the two little boys in the second room are deliberately torturing the family, but since the eldest daughter-in-law has come forward to persuade her, Mrs. Zhao will naturally not say more.

Generally speaking, among the three daughters-in-law of the Xue family, Yang is the one who wins Zhao's heart the most. The eldest has an unusual status, and Zhao is willing to show the eldest daughter-in-law some face.

After Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Yang left, only the third uncle Xue Qingbai and the third aunt Zhou were left in the house. The two were not used to talking much, and they didn't stay long, Zhao'er thought that the third uncle had worked hard just now, so he sent the two of them out with a smile.

When he turned his head and came back, he saw Xue Gouzi lying on the kang with his eyes open, his eyes staring blankly, as if he had lost his mind.

She didn't think much about it, she came to the side of the kang and patted his head: "Dog, don't think too much, they don't believe that you are sick and have a headache, sister believes you. Take care of your illness and don't think about it anymore. "

Xue Gouzi glanced at her, his mouth was dry and his throat was tight: "Zhaoer..."

"What's wrong? Is there something uncomfortable?"

Feeling these undelicate but very warm hands touching his head and face, Xue Gouzi had a sense of reality and gratitude that he had never had before.

She wasn't dead, and neither was he.

Although he didn't like some of her daily actions, and even hated her as his child bride-in-law, but he never thought of letting her die, so how could he be the one who killed his wife and son.

But Xue Gouzi was still very flustered, because that dream was too real. After going through that dream for more than seventy years, it seemed that he had also experienced that life. But after waking up from the dream, the vicissitudes of life have changed, and he dare not look back.

"Zhaoer..."

"Why!"

"Zhaoer..."

"Um."

"Zhaoer..."

A hot stream suddenly flowed out unconsciously from the dry eye sockets.

This scared Zhao'er quite a bit, and he didn't care to think that the little man would never call her that, let alone let himself get close to him. He hugged his head into his arms and asked him anxiously up.

Seeing that he didn't speak, but just buried himself in his arms and cried, Zhao'er couldn't help but wonder if those people made him think too much just now. According to Zhao'er, the little man has a lot of things on his mind, and he never speaks out, otherwise he wouldn't have this serious illness.

She patted him on the back, hugged him like she did when she was a child, and comforted him: "Don't be afraid, dog, even if they don't send you to study, sister will send you there, and sister will send you even if she sells everything." go."

*

After all, Xue Gouzi had just recovered from a serious illness, and after experiencing such an incident, he fell asleep after drinking some porridge for dinner.

Zhao'er covered him with a quilt before tidying up the basket she had just brought back.

The back basket is full of needlework and cloth, which are rags that Zhao'er bought in the embroidery workshop in the town. The reason why I started this business was because I used to recruit children to carry the finished purses for the women in the village to sell in the embroidery workshop.

There is no adult in the second room. Although the family is in charge of eating, after all, the pen, ink, paper and inkstone used by Xue Gouzi to study, as well as the clothes, bedding and some odds and ends of the two people on weekdays, etc., all need money.

Wanting to ask for money from Mrs. Zhao is more expensive than ascending to the sky, and although the uncle Xue Qingshan is determined to treat his nephew as if he were his own, but Zhao'er usually only sees the big family's child with greasy lips, and Xue Juncai never Lack of pens, ink, paper and inkstones. In contrast, the little man was as thin as a bamboo pole, and he picked up a bald pen that Xue Qingshan didn't use back then.

Zhao'er has always been a strong one, she couldn't bear to wrong the little man, so she could only find money everywhere by herself. There was no opportunity to make money in the countryside, so she went to the town to look around, as long as it was within her power and did not require capital, she would try to do it.

In the past few years, she has collected vegetables from the village and sold them in the town, picked up work from the embroidery workshop and assigned them to women with good craftsmanship in the village, and usually went to the mountains to find mountain products to sell.

And now this business has been done several times, Zhao'er has a sweet mouth and a thick face, the boss of the embroidery workshop can't hold her back, so he sells the unwanted rags to her in bags. She took it back, sorted and cut it, and then asked the women in the village to help make purses and other things, and she could earn a lot of money by reselling them in the embroidery workshop. It is much better than before just receiving the purses made by others, and earning a penny for a few purses.

If he hadn't made some money by doing this business, he didn't know when Xue Gouzi would recover from his serious illness. Mrs. Zhao would have given up the money to get the medicine for a long time ago, and Zhao'er used his own money to catch the medicines later. I still have to hide it, for fear that other members of the Xue family will find out.

Thinking of this, the corners of Zhao'er's mouth tightened.

She has always been agile in her hands and feet, and seeing that she picked out some usable cloth heads, she stopped tossing about. I chose clean ones and spread them out on a square table, and cut these strangely shaped cloth heads into a uniform shape with scissors.

This is Zhao'er's own calculation based on how much fabric is needed to make a purse, no more and no less, she will not take out these rags for people to see.

It is not easy for country people to earn a penny. If someone finds out, the designated way to earn money will be robbed within a few days.

Zhao'er also wants to use this to make money for the little man to go to the town to study, so that she can only go to see Xue Jun, and her little man can also go. Zhao'er has always been prepared with both hands when doing things, and she knows in her heart that the big house will never let such a good thing happen to the little man.

It is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself, and it is better to rely on yourself than to rely on mountains and rivers.

Zhao'er has understood this truth since she was seven years old when she was going to be exchanged for money by her grandmother and father.

After Zhao'er finished what she was doing, seeing the little man was fast asleep, and seeing that it was already dark outside, she wrapped the tidy cloth in something, and hurried out with it.

Under the night, Yuqing Village was exceptionally peaceful, and the light silver moonlight shone on the trails in the village. Although the road was still unclear, it was not completely dark after all.

Zhao'er walked all the way and didn't even startle a dog.

This is not an ability that ordinary people can have. You must know that in places like the countryside, almost every household has a dog. Dogs are very alert at night, and whenever someone walks past the door, they bark wildly. Even if a petty thief came to the door, he would have been scared away by the dog long ago.

Zhao'er also developed this ability after walking a lot at night.

Of course, it was also related to the sunspot following her legs.

Heizi is a country dog, but it is stronger and bigger than ordinary dogs. There are not many dogs in Yuqing Village that can beat Heizi, and it is because of Heizi that Zhao'er dares to walk alone at night.

She went all the way to a family's house with ease, and it was strange that the other party knew that she would come at this time and left the door open for her. As soon as she entered the door, the family's dog rushed over. Before she could reach her, a black shadow rushed over and threw the other person to the ground. The dog was so frightened that it fell on the ground and stopped barking.

Zhao'er gloated at the side: "I don't have a long memory!"

At this time, a person came out of the house, and he smiled as he walked up to the front: "This black man is here to bully our family Wangcai again, Zhao'er, come in and sit down."

"Aunt Osmanthus, I won't go in, I'm still rushing back."

Zhao'er handed over the things in his hands to the visitor, took some things from the other person, wrapped them in cloth, and then went to the next household.

Zhao'er went to five families.

She is anxious to make money, but there are few women in the village who are good at needlework, and she needs to find someone who is tight-lipped and reliable. shit money.

The reason why she said that was because when she collected vegetables from the village and sold them in the town, she was publicized by people who didn't know the door, causing her to be pointed at all day long. She was not afraid of being pointed out, but these things finally reached the ears of the little man, and some villagers made fun of him, which caused a lot of conflicts between her and the little man. And after that, she won't receive any vegetables in the village, even if someone sells them to her, it will be at a high price.

In the end, she had no choice but to go to other villages to collect vegetables. It was not a waste of time. Since then, Zhaoer has developed a memory.

When Zhao'er came home, Xue Gouzi on the kang was still sleeping soundly.

She went to get some water to wash her face and wipe her hands before getting on the kang. The second room only had this kang, and she had slept with Xue Gouzi since she was a child, and she was used to it.

Heizi slept under the kang, just now when he invited his son into the house, he slid in at his feet and chose a random place to lie down. It seems that the dog's eyes have been closed, but in fact the two ears are standing up, and they move from time to time.

Before Zhao'er lay down, she bullied herself over to look at the little man, and touched his forehead, before falling asleep in peace.

*

Compared with the second room because of the sparse population, there are only two rooms and one kang, the treatment of the first room is obviously much better. The entire three east rooms were occupied by the big room, and at this time in the east room, Mrs. Yang was talking to Xue Qingshan.

Yang narrated what happened during the day, Xue Qingshan immediately frowned after listening.

He was not at home during the day, so naturally he didn't know what happened at home. Nowadays, some respectable families will invite scholars to preside over their weddings and funerals, but where rural families can afford to hire scholars, some will invite children to make up the number.

No matter how they are all scholars, they are different from ordinary people.

Today, Xue Qingshan was invited by a family in a nearby village to have a wedding. It doesn't matter what the etiquette is.

But the people in the countryside are poor, so the happy money will not be too much, at most a few tens of pennies.

Xue Qingshan likes this kind of work the most. Every time at this time, he will randomly assign articles to memorize for the students in the school, and then go out for a whole day, and no one will say anything. What he likes is not only having money to take, but also when this time is his happiest time.

He was sitting in the position of the guest of honor, and the men who came to have a wedding banquet were all proud to have a conversation with him.

He is the master of Tongsheng!

Of course, it would be even better if Tongsheng could be replaced by a scholar, Xue Qingshan would have dreamed of it. But for so many years, he has more or less self-knowledge, so he can't help pinning his hopes on his son.

It's a pity that someone is blocking this way now.

Xue Qingshan drank a lot of wine, his chubby face was flushed, and he was holding his breath in his heart, so he spit and scolded: "What kind of moth is this son of a bitch, I really want to open a dyeing workshop just to give him some color. !"

Yang sighed faintly: "Who told you that you agreed to the second child so easily at the beginning, but now it's hard to get off the tiger because of our talents."

"In that situation back then, the second child seemed to be honest, and he wanted to accompany his elder brother when he was about to die. If I knew that he was paying attention that day, I would have found a way to shut him up, but so many people I was present, and the accident happened because of me, if I don't even agree to this matter, how can I gain a foothold in front of others."

Of course, Mrs. Yang knew this truth, but she couldn't calm down. Just because of that bullshit promise, Da Fang kept her hands tied. Her son wanted to go to the library to study, but he had to hide and beg the other party to show his respect.

She was always proud and arrogant, so naturally the more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became, her eyes sparkled, but she sneered on her face: "Because he fell ill suddenly, originally Dad planned to make decisions for us, so we can only endure it. But he has been sick for these days, and today he has such a scene, and my mother is already annoyed. I asked the fourth daughter-in-law to tell my mother that the dog is probably pretending to be sick. I think my mother has already decided that he is pretending. sick."

Xue Qingshan's eyes lit up: "That's good, I'll go talk to my parents tomorrow and let them put this matter into practice." He put his arms around Yang's shoulders with a smile, and said: "My wife is smarter. , Prepared a backhand early."

Yang gave him an angry look, and the two of them rested together, without speaking for a whole night.

It is the time of spring plowing, and the plan of the year lies in spring. If you are lazy at this time, you will cry when the grain is harvested in autumn.

Zhao'er woke up at this hour on time, and opened his eyes to find that the little man was still asleep.

Not long after she fell asleep yesterday, the little man developed a fever again. After being busy for most of the night, luckily the fever subsided in the middle of the night.

She sat up, raised her hand to touch the little man's forehead, and made sure that her hands were not hot, then put on her clothes lightly and got off the kang.

The first thing to do was to open the door, and Heizi, who had been restless for a long time, got out with a swish. Zhao'er also walked out of the room, seeing Heizi hurriedly running out of the courtyard to pee, she shook her head with a broken smile.

At this time, someone has already got up in the courtyard, it is the Zhou family of the third bedroom and his eldest daughter Xue Tao'er.

Today it's the third room's turn to cook. The Xue family's rule is that apart from the housework of each room, the work in the office is shared equally. One day per room, in rotation.

The room responsible for cooking is not only responsible for the food and drink of the whole family, but also takes care of the livestock in the family. The Xue family raised two big fat pigs, and it was not an easy job to just serve these two ancestors every day. Not to mention feeding chickens, carrying water, and chopping firewood, so the female family members who do housework on this day do not have to go to the fields to work.

It seems to be fair and just, but in fact everyone inside knows how.

The eldest aunt Yang claimed that the man was a child student, and she was exceptionally superior at home. Since Xue Qingshan passed the child student examination, she never touched housework again. The key is that Mrs. Zhao is also looking towards her, so it's not easy for others to question her.

At first, it was Xue Gouzi's mother, Mrs. Qiu, who finally came in, the third-bedroom Mrs. Zhou, and the two sisters-in-law finally shared the burden. Afterwards, Mrs. Qiu followed her deceased husband, and Mrs. Zhou was left alone. It was not until Mrs. Sun of the fourth room entered the door that she would be able to catch her breath again.

It's a pity that Mrs. Sun is lazy and playful. In fact, Mrs. Zhou still does most of the work.

In the past, when Mrs. Qiu was still alive, Zhao'er also helped Mrs. Qiu to do it. After Mrs. Qiu passed away, Zhao'er was busy with the housework of the second room and had to do the work in the office. In addition, Zhao'er was still young at that time, Mr. Xue told her to take good care of Xue Gouzi and not to take care of the work at work.

Zhao'er now has free time to go around and get some money, but she is a person who looks at her conscience and will help out as much as she can in her spare time. As for those who used words to squeeze her like Sun, her sharp tongue was not forgiving.

Seeing Xue Taoer struggling to fetch water from the well, Zhao'er rubbed his face and went up to help her.

Thirteen-year-old Xue Taoer is like a small flower in bud. Although she is not very beautiful, she is very delicate. Seeing Zhao'er coming to help her, she couldn't help showing a smile and talking to her: "Sister Zhao'er, is the second brother better?" Xue Gouzi is the second grandson of the Xue family, so Xue Taoer called him the second brother .

"I had a fever again last night, and it got better in the second half of the night." Zhao'er looked around curiously, and asked, "Why isn't Third Uncle here?"

Although Xue Qingbai is a bit honest and reticent, he always loves his wife and daughter. Whenever he meets the third room to cook, he will get up early to fill the water tank.

The Xue family has its own well, but the well is too deep, and there is no pulley on the well, so it is really exhausting to draw water with the strength of the daughter's family alone. That is to say, Zhao'er was naturally as strong as an ox, and his strength was no worse than that of ordinary middle-aged men, so he could pull the bucket out of the deep well very easily.

"My father went to the field and said he would work for a while and return after breakfast."

Xue Qingbai is an honest farmer. Unlike other brothers in the family who have other skills, he only knows how to farm, so he puts all his heart on the ground. The Xue family has a total of more than 30 mu of land, and now he, Mr. Xue and the fourth son Xue Qinghuai are all planted.

Although the women of the Xue family also went to the fields, it was only during the busy farming season, and besides, the women only had so little strength, so how could they help. Fortunately, the three men from Xue's family are all good hands in the field, and they are really too busy, so they hired part-time workers to help out for a few days, so they don't have to worry about not being able to finish the work in the field.

Just as he was talking, the door of the fourth room opened, and Xue Qinghuai walked out from inside.

The men in the Xue family are all big, so Xue Qinghuai also inherited a tall body.

He was born with thick eyebrows, tiger eyes and a high nose bridge. He was dressed in dark blue coarse cloth and short brown, and looked very heroic. In fact, the men of the Xue family are not bad looking, but the women of the Xue family are a little mediocre, but all the grandchildren are born well, and they are all top-notch in the village.

"Zhaoer Taoer, you wake up so early." Xue Qinghuai walked over in a few strides, took the wooden bucket in Zhaoer's hand, walked to the water tank, and poured water into the tank.

"How can you two little girls do this kind of rough work? You go to do other things, and the fourth uncle is here to fetch water."

Zhao'er and Tao'er didn't refuse either, one went to the kitchen to help her mother cook, and the other took a basin to scoop up water for washing.

As time passed, the rest of the Xue family got up one after another, and there were more and more voices in the yard. On the other side of the kitchen, Mrs. Zhou yelled to eat. Generally, country people don't pay much attention to breakfast, and they have to set a table or something. They always serve a bowl with a bowl, and eat it at any place.

Breakfast is two rice porridge, the so-called two rice porridge is porridge cooked from two kinds of rice. Yuqing Village does not grow rice, but only wheat, sorghum, millet, corn and other crops. Although farmers grow wheat, they seldom use it for their own food. They sell it for other grains.

Even a well-to-do family like Xue's family with surplus food did not eat fine grains all at once, but a mixture of coarse grains and fine grains. For example, today's breakfast is two-rice porridge, which is a porridge cooked with millet, that is, yellow rice, and sorghum rice.

Because it was a busy time of farming, it was cooked quite thickly. Although it didn't hold up with chopsticks inserted, it was much better than the usual thin soup with little water.

There is no way, the Xue family seems to have a decent family background in the village, but there are three scholars in the family. Not to mention Xue Gouzi, Guangda Fang and his son spend a lot of money every month, and it's no wonder that Mrs. Zhao usually can pick up fleas to get a little blood.

Zhao'er filled two bowls of porridge, put a few cornbreads on a thick porcelain plate, and put some pickles on the side, and took them back to the second room's room.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw Xue Gouzi sitting up from the kang.

She hurriedly put the wooden tray on the square table, and came up to see him: "But he's better? Are you hungry? Sister will bring you some porridge."

Xue Gouzi looked at her with complicated eyes.

After experiencing such a dream, he now doesn't know how to face Zhao'er. As long as he saw her, he couldn't help but think of him in his dream, those words scolded by others before he died. He also tried to find the cause of Zhao'er's death in his memory, but it seemed that that memory was Xue Tingxiang's most unbearable past, and he had no memory at all.

In fact, Xue Gouzi was burned in a daze last night, and Xue Gouzi thought for a long time. He couldn't figure out whether he was Xue Gouzi or Xue Tingxiang, whether that dream was true or not, whether he was thinking about it every day and dreaming at night , to have such an absurd dream.

However, he also had an idea in his heart. If everything in that dream was true, several things should happen in succession. If these things happen, it means that his dreams are real.

Thinking about something in his heart, he reached out to catch the bowl, only to realize that he didn't even have the strength to hold the bowl. Luckily, Zhao'er caught the bowl quickly, so he didn't spill it all over him.

Xue Gouzi was a little embarrassed and anxious. It was very strange, obviously he would not have this kind of reaction in front of Zhao'er before, but I don't know if it was a dream, and his state of mind had a strange change.

Zhao'er laughed at him: "Why are you being polite with my sister? I forgot that when you were a child, you peed on the kang, and it was my sister who washed it for you."

Zhao'er came to Xue's house when he was seven years old, and Gouzi was only five years old at that time. It is very inexplicable for a child to pee on the kang. It is obvious that he has not urinated for a long time. I don't know if he drank too much water before going to bed or what, but he actually peed on the kang.

Since Qiu gave birth to the dog, her bones were not good, and it was winter again. In order to repay the kindness of the second wife, Zhao'er volunteered to wash the dirty clothes and pants for the dog. Since then, she started her career as a child bride.

What Xue Gouzi hates the most is Zhao'er. He always likes to say inconspicuous things in front of him. You must know that as you get older, boys will lose face, how can you still be willing to listen to people mentioning such things, especially dogs are naturally sensitive. But today for some reason, he didn't feel annoyed, only a little embarrassed.

He was surprised by his own reaction, but Zhao'er had already fed him porridge with a wooden spoon. He subconsciously opened his mouth, and waited until the warm porridge blown by her was fed into his mouth, and he saw the smiling eyes of the other party.

Those eyes were big and bright, as if there were stars hidden in them, and he couldn't help but blush.

Zhao'er smiled even more happily, and stuffed him with a tortilla: "Eat quickly, sister will cook eggs for you at noon."

She was coaxing him like a child, Gouzi suddenly had this understanding.

He was eating porridge from Zhao'er, thinking wildly in his mind, it was very chaotic.

Just then, someone came to the door.

It was Xue Qingshan.

Exactly the same as in the dream.

Xue Qingshan's fair face was full of sighs and worries, he sighed and said a lot of words, the main idea was to let the dog recover well, don't worry too much, there are grandparents and uncles at home, he can't lose him.

Seriously speaking, Xue Qingshan also followed the appearance and height of the man from the Xue family. He was also a weed in Yuqing Village in his early years, but unfortunately he got a little fatter as he got older.

"Uncle still has to go to the private school, dog, take care of your illness, you are a child with a lot of thoughts." Sighing and patting his nephew on the shoulder, Xue Qingshan lifted the curtain and left.

What is he doing?

Zhao'er thought suspiciously. After thinking about it for a while, she couldn't figure out why, so she stopped thinking about it and concentrated on feeding the dog porridge, but Xue Gouzi looked thoughtful.

*

In the main room, Mrs. Zhao is chatting with Mr. Xue about what happened yesterday.

Mrs. Zhao was sewing an old dress in her hand, and said, "Let me tell you, you just like to spoil that little thing. You love him, but he doesn't love you. Our family's money doesn't come from the river, just Because he didn't want to show his illness to the whole family, he made a fuss after another, which is to make the family upside down."

Mr. Xue was in his fifties, tall and tall, and his skin was black and red like that of a countryman who had been exposed to the sun for a long time. He was wearing dark blue coarse cloth pants, sitting cross-legged on the Kang, smoking a dry cigarette.

Every time after dinner or before work, Mr. Xue always smoked for a while, otherwise he would feel exhausted.

"Okay, Gouwazi is sick, who doesn't have three illnesses and four pains." After a while, he said hoarsely.

The patter, patter sounded again, and the lingering blue smoke swirled in the air, and then scattered in all directions. Behind it, the old face of Mr. Xue was hidden, looming.

"But look how long he has been in trouble? Yesterday, more than one hundred coins were lost. How long will it take you to work hard in the field to earn more than one hundred coins! Boss has to leave another two hundred coins. It is said that someone in a classmate’s family had a birthday, and there was a disaster just last year, and the tax was not exempted, but increased. Seeing that the boss said that he wanted to send Juncai to the town to study, it was another expense. How much money do you have? Withstood such a toss!"

Seeing that his wife was so distressed, Mr. Xue sat up straight, tapped the cigarette pot on the kang table, and gave her a sideways look: "Your heart will be distressed if you spend a hundred yuan for a dog, and you will give it if the boss asks you for it? Not me Speaking of you, you are a parent and grandmother, so don't be too biased, you don't have to make the following little ones have conflicts."