Chapter 113

A young man was walking on the path in the village.

He was dressed in a blue jacket, as if he hadn't seen the sun for a long time, and his skin was weak and pale. The body is also slender and thin, but his expression is calm and calm. He is clearly dressed in shabby clothes, and the path in the village is uneven, and there are even cow dung and chicken dung, but it just makes him feel like walking in the garden.

It was the time of spring plowing, and everyone was busy plowing the fields at the moment, and there were hardly any people on the road in the village. Occasionally, a woman who is doing work in the yard sees that person walking on the road from a distance, and only after a few fixed eyes does she recognize who it is.

"Dog, where is this going?"

Xue Tingxiang looked at the woman who was talking to him, and said with a smile, "Auntie, I'll just walk around."

It was just a casual remark, but the woman didn't say anything more to him, she turned to get something in the room, and the mother-in-law in the room asked her, "Third daughter-in-law, who were you talking to just now?"

"The dog of the second room of Xue Lianxing's family. Hey, mother, you are surprised. I didn't recognize him when he knocked on the door just now. I always feel like a different person."

Her mother-in-law didn't take it seriously: "What can you become, but you can't change your body, I remember that kid has been ill recently."

The daughter-in-law said: "I see, maybe I plan to go to the back mountain." There is a mountain behind Yuqing Village, where all the dead villagers in the village are buried, and the Xue family's ancestral grave is also there.

Hearing this, her mother-in-law sighed: "Don't even mention it, it's a pity for the second child of the Xing family. Both of them are gone. It's a pity to leave a baby."

This is just gossip between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and while they were talking, Xue Tingxiang had already brought Heizi into the back mountain.

*

Houshan is called Houshan, the mountain behind Yuqing Village.

This mountain has no name, and the mountain is not high, but it is extremely deep. Anyway, so far, no villager has been able to walk back and forth from this deep mountain and old forest, most of them are activities outside the mountain.

The Xue family's ancestral grave was built on a small hill not far from the village. This Xue family is not only Xue Tingxiang's family, but the ancestors of the entire Xue clan are buried here.

On such a big hill, the lineage of the patriarch is in the middle, and the branches of the various families spread out. The lineage of Mr. Xue is at a place near the foot of the southwest mountain.

Because the couple in the second room died young, and Xue Qingsong died in an accident, they were buried at the edge.

When Xue Tingxiang arrived at the place, he began to pull the grass around the grave mound casually.

There were not many weeds, they had just been cleared during the Chinese New Year, so he gathered the grass at random and placed it on the ground, taking advantage of the opportunity and sat down in front of the grave.

A piece of mountainous land, two small graves, in front of each of the graves stood a small bluestone stele, on which the names of the second family and the couple were crudely written.

This monument was originally recruited to find someone to make it and set it up.

Nowadays, there are three kinds of people who cannot erect monuments after they die, those who die suddenly, die young, and have no heirs. Xue Qingsong belongs to violent death.

Although everyone doesn't say it, people who feel that they died suddenly have resentment after death, which is not conducive to the feng shui of the ancestor's grave, so no monument is erected. I also want him to forget who he is, so as not to cause trouble if he is ignorant.

But at the same time, there is another saying that after death without a monument, you will be a lonely ghost, who cannot stand the incense of future generations.

At the beginning, the funeral of the second wife was arranged by the Xue family, and they acquiesced to follow the old customs. At that time, Xue Tingxiang was still young and didn't understand these things at all, but Zhao'er understood.

She talked to Xue's family about erecting a monument, but was blocked, and Xue's family took turns to persuade her. Later, Zhao'er didn't tell anyone about it, and took the money to ask someone to make these two simple monuments and put them in front of the grave.

It was too late when Xue's family found out, and they couldn't tear down the stele in front of the villagers.

The villagers were also surprised when they saw the stele, but after thinking about how the Xue family's second child died, they could understand it.

Therefore, Xue Qingshan also gained a good reputation. He would rather risk his family's feng shui to erect a monument for his brother.

With various thoughts spinning in his mind, Xue Tingxiang took out a piece of cloth from his arms and slowly wiped the tombstone.

The words on it were still written by him, and the strokes are immature, but after all, people can still tell what is written on it.

...

Today is the anniversary of Mr. Zheng's death. Zheng Hu brought his two sons to the grave to worship.

The country people are not so particular, they just prepared some steamed buns, wine and meat, and the father and son burned the paper money in front of the grave, so let's forget about it.

Zheng Hu had always had a deep relationship with his father, so he was inevitably depressed, so he let his two sons go back first, while he sat in front of the grave, smoking a pipe and talking to his father.

After talking for a while, he stood up and planned to go back.

There was still work waiting to be done in the field, and Zheng Hu didn't want to waste time, so he decided to take a shortcut. When he passed near Xue Lianxing's ancestral grave, he suddenly heard someone crying.

There are graves on the two nearby hills, one is of the surname Xue, and the other is of the surname Zheng. This kind of festive day is not like Zheng Hu's on the anniversary of the death of an elder in the family, but no one would come to this kind of place.

In particular, there may be a lot of dead people buried here, the trees are dense, and sometimes the sky and day are gloomy. Hearing this strange sound under such circumstances, Zheng Hu was so frightened that his hair stood on end and his legs went limp.

After all, he had lived for decades. He listened intently and calmly, and it took him a while to understand that it was a boy's voice.

Thinking about who's grave was here, he bravely walked closer, bypassed a big tree, and saw a young man in blue clothes sitting in front of the grave from a distance.

Next to it was a big black dog wagging its tail.

It's the dog of the second room of Xue Lianxing's family.

Only then did Zheng Hu heave a sigh of relief, and the voice came into his ears again: "...Father, what do you think I should do? Uncle wants to send brother Juncai to the school in town, I thought I could do the same." Go... But my aunt came to the house a few days ago, but she told me to let Brother Juncai, before..."

The young man's voice was full of hesitation and bewilderment, Zheng Hu did not expect to hear the secret affairs of the Xue family in such a place. He was so surprised that the pipe in his hand dropped without realizing it. He didn't realize it until his foot was hit by the pipe, picked up the pipe in a hurry and left.

He didn't know that after he left, the lonely and helpless boy in his eyes stopped crying.

In the past few days, Xue Tingxiang has been thinking hard, trying to find a suitable opportunity, and somehow he thought of Zheng Hu.

Zheng Hu's father, Mr. Zheng, died during the spring plowing. It was not a happy funeral, but an accident. He was accidentally squeezed to the foot of the field by his own cattle and fell to his death.

The ridge was not very tall, and countless villagers fell off the ridge every year, and Mr. Zheng died unluckily. At the beginning, this incident was widely circulated in the village, so Xue Tingxiang remembered it very clearly.

Since it was the anniversary of the father's death, the son Zheng Hu would definitely come to visit the grave, and Zheng Hu used to like to take shortcuts, so he would definitely pass by this area, so who else is more suitable than him.

The most important thing is that Yuqing Village doesn't seem big, but Xue and Zheng's surnames have always been different from each other. Zheng Hu's uncle is Li Zheng, and if he knows it, Zheng Lizheng will know it too.

Xue Tingxiang didn't stay any longer, and quickly returned home with Heizi the same way.

The yard was still silent, he found a twig and put it in front of the door, and sat there quietly basking in the sun, thinking about Zhao'er who went to the town.

*

Zheng Hu hurried all the way, without even returning home, he went to Zheng Lizheng's house.

Zheng Li is the Lizheng of Yuqing Village and the head of the Zheng clan. Naturally, the family's house is the only one in Yuqing Village. If it can be compared with it, it is the house of Patriarch Xue's family.

Yishui's green brick and tile-roofed house, and the courtyard walls are also made of green bricks. The most conspicuous thing is the ancestral hall of the Zheng family on the front, but this ancestral hall will not be opened until a certain time. The two black doors The paulownia gate is closed all year round.

Going around to the side is the courtyard of Zheng Lizheng's family.

The yard is huge, unlike other houses where the barn, barn, kitchen, etc. are all in the front yard, the front yard of Zheng Lizheng's house is just a big empty yard, only two sycamore trees are planted in the yard. Whenever there is any major event in the village, the courtyard will always be densely packed with people.

There are three main rooms facing the face, and east and west wing rooms on the left and right, all of which are blue bricks and black tiles, which are extraordinarily magnificent.

When Zheng Hu arrived, only Zheng Lizheng and his wife Tian Shi were at home.

As soon as Tian saw his nephew coming, he greeted him: "Huzi, why are you here at this time? Do you have something to do with your uncle?"

"Hey, there's something wrong."

With that said, Zheng Hu hurried into the house. Tian shook her head, thinking that there must be something wrong, since Zheng Hu is usually very steady.

After Zheng Hu entered, he turned to the east room.

Sure enough, his uncle Zheng Li was sitting cross-legged on the big kang in the east room, smoking dry cigarettes.

"Why, in a hurry."

Zheng Hu sat down on a pier under the kang, panting heavily, unable to speak for a while.

Zheng Lizheng looked to be in his sixties, with a long face and a pair of medium-sized eyes. From the appearance, he is just an ordinary farmer's old man, even the clothes he wears are ordinary. There is only that unmoving calmness, which can be seen as a person who has been around the world for a long time.

With the cigarette holder in his mouth, he pushed the teapot on the kang table forward, Zheng Hu was not polite, stood up and poured a bowl of tea, and drank it down.

"Uncle, let me tell you, something happened to me today."

"What's the matter?"

"Today is not the anniversary of my father's death. I took it with me early in the morning..."

Halfway through Zheng Hu's speech, Zheng Lizheng sat up from the kang, as if listening seriously.

Seeing his uncle like this, Zheng Hu knew he had come to the right place. After hearing what the only son of Xue Lianxing's family cried, he realized that this was an opportunity, an opportunity to suppress the prestige of Xue in Yuqing Village.

He spoke in more detail, almost repeating every word, while Zheng Li was smoking a pipe, his eyes narrowed.

*

Zhao'er didn't come back until the second half of the afternoon, and when he came back, he looked a little unhappy.

Xue Tingxiang looked at the basket behind her, every time Zhao'er came back before, the basket was always full, but today he knew that there was nothing in it.

"What's wrong?"

Zhao'er was thinking about it, when the little man asked him, he was taken aback for a moment, and then said: "It's nothing, I brought you meat buns from the town, and I'll heat them up for you to eat later."

How could there be nothing, obviously there is something.

Xue Tingxiang glanced at her face, but since she didn't want to say more, he didn't want to press her.

Zhao'er went back and forth to the town, covered in dust, she went to the kitchen to boil water, and took a bath in the bathroom. The Xue family has a special room for bathing, in the vegetable field in the backyard. The house is not big, three meters square, the floor is paved with bluestone slabs, and there is a drain in the corner, through which the bath water can flow directly into the vegetable field.

Taking off her clothes, Zhao'er rubbed the soap horns on her body, but a burst of melancholy came to her heart.

In fact, something really happened, but she didn't say it because she was afraid that the little man would worry.

The way she finally found to get money was robbed.

The person who robbed was none other than the owner of the embroidery workshop who took her finished product and pocketed the embroidered shoes.

In fact, Zhao'er is quite clever. He bought rags from the owner of this embroidery workshop, but the finished product was not sold to this one, but to another one. It's just that she didn't expect that the two bosses were actually relatives, and she didn't know how the other party knew. When she went again this time, the other party was unwilling to sell her rags.

Not only does this embroidery workshop have no rags, but the owner of this embroidery workshop ordered people to buy all the rags from other embroidery workshops. Zhao'er didn't know about this until after visiting several embroidery workshops.

She has already made plans to pay for the little man to study in the town. She has asked about the Qinghe Academy, and the beam repair will cost five taels of silver every year. Among them, because many students live too far away, they can choose to study in dormitories. If it is a place to study, the monthly meals, accommodation, etc. are added together, and another one or two taels of silver will be needed.

In Zhao'er's heart, she wanted Xue Ting to study overnight. She felt that Xue's house was not a good place to study, and there were too many messes in the family, which meant that she had to prepare six taels of silver before sending the little man to school.

She originally thought that she could make enough money by doing this business twice, but who would have thought that such a thing would happen.

In the middle of her thoughts, Zhao'er had already taken a shower, she wrapped her hair in a handkerchief, put on her clothes, and went back to the house.

Xue Tingxiang was sitting on the kang reading a book, and it was his only book "Children Learning Qionglin". Seeing her coming in, he looked up at her and said, "It's still cold, dry your hair quickly."

Hearing this, Zhao'er's heart warmed up.

These days the little man has changed a lot compared to before, and this change is naturally good, so she couldn't help showing a smile even though she was worried.

She climbed onto the kang and took a cloth towel out of the kang cabinet. Xue Tingxiang was sitting on the side, inevitably he had to make room for her. When she passed by, a scent mixed with soap locust penetrated into the tip of his nose, he couldn't help moving his nose, and his eyes fell on her who was close at hand.

But Zhao'er has always been domineering, and never allowed anyone to talk about a little man, and whoever said she was in a hurry. Because of this incident, she had fought with many girls and boys in the village, although some people still said it behind their backs, no one dared to point fingers in front of others.

Zhao'er always felt that the little man's eyes were weird today, and he avoided them uncomfortably.

She knew that the little man must be angry again, and he didn't like her saying things like 'the dog is my man' the most. Every time he heard her say such things, he would ignore her for a few days. In fact, Zhao'er has to face, but she is the child bride-in-law of the Xue family's second room. If she didn't claim to be like this, how could she have the right to challenge the fourth aunt, Sun's.

"Are you hungry? Look what I brought back for you?"

Zhao'er turned her head and put all these troubles behind her, and took out a paper bag from her pocket. Opening the paper bag, there are two steamed buns inside. They are white and plump, and people like it when they look at them.

"Eat quickly, while it's still warm." She smiled and stuffed the paper bag into the little man's hand, while putting the pannier on her shoulders in the corner.

Xue Gouzi glanced at her.

The girl in front of her was in her twenties and eighth year, and her skin was the wheat color that is common among girls in the country, but Zhao'er's complexion was very different from others, it was smooth and radiant, as if she had been smeared with honey. He has a tall nose bridge, a pair of medium-sized eyes, and swarthy pupils. When he smiles, there is a flash of inspiration in him, and he looks lively.

Zhao'er's stature is taller than ordinary girls, and she is well-developed, front/convex/backward, full of youthful vigor.

It was so vivid, as vivid as in his dream.

He unconsciously took the steamed stuffed bun and gnawed on it. Seeing this trick, he smiled even more happily. He went to the kitchen and poured him a bowl of water, which he placed next to his hand. On the other hand, he bent down to tidy up the scattered quilts on the kang, thinking about what to cook for him at night to nourish his body.

Finally, the little man got better, so he had to continue to drink the medicine, and he had to drink a few more to strengthen it. From this, he naturally began to calculate the little money left in his hand, and think of a way to get some money, so as to solve the urgent need.

"Have you eaten yet?" Xue Gouzi asked.

This kind of behavior rarely happens to him, so Zhao'er can't help but look up at the little man sitting on the kang.

In fact, the little man has a handsome appearance, which is different from the fair skin of the countrymen. The corners of his eyes are slightly raised, and the curvature makes his face a little more delicate and handsome. It's just that the little man always hangs his head halfway on weekdays, with a gloomy and silent temperament, and is too thin, so he is not conspicuous in front of others.

Zhao'er's eyes warmed up, her smile widened, and she said cracklingly, "Eat, I ate it outside, this is for you."

After she finished speaking, she realized that she had slipped her mouth. She waited for the little man to show a disgusted expression, or to condemn her daughter's family for running around, but he didn't say anything, as if he had something on his mind. Head eating buns.

Zhao'er couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief, but at the same time felt a pain in his heart, and couldn't help but said: "Dog, don't worry too much. After all, you heard the words. Since you didn't say it face-to-face, you can't take it seriously. Even if it is true Don't be afraid, sister earns money for your education."

Xue Gouzi's head still hurts a little, and he was dizzy. Zhao'er thought he had something on his mind, but in fact he was just thinking about that dream. Hearing Zhao'er's words at this time, he suddenly remembered why he had this serious illness.

Seriously speaking, Xue Gouzi's serious illness came in a hurry due to stagnation of liver qi.

Speaking of this, I have to talk about the general situation of the Xue family.

Yuqing Village is a village located under Huyang Town, Xia County, Pingyang Prefecture. There are only more than 200 households in the village.

The Xue family is one of them.

However, the Xue family is different from other ordinary farmers, and it can be regarded as having some origins.

The ancestor of the Xue family, that is, the grandfather of Mr. Xue, was a scholar. In a poor mountain depression like Yuqing Village, it is a great event for the ancestors to have a scholar.

Because of this talented gentleman, the generation of the Xue family produced the head of the Xue clan, and there were several village elders in the clan, and finally had some say in Yuqing Village. At the same time, it is also a blessing for the younger generation. Mr. Xue's father is hardworking and willing to work. With the help of the elders, he also slowly built up a family business.

By the time of Mr. Xue's generation, the Xue family already had more than 30 acres of fertile land, and several sons also had their own livelihoods. Their lives were enviably prosperous, and they could be regarded as a well-to-do family in the village.

Mr. Xue and his mother-in-law Zhao have four sons and two daughters. The eldest son Xue Qingshan married his wife Yang, and they have two sons and a daughter. The eldest son Xue Juncai is fifteen years old, the second son Xue Youcai is ten years old, and the eldest daughter Xue Maner is married.

The second child, Xue Qingsong, is a carpenter. He married his wife Qiu Shi and gave birth to a son, Xue Gouzi, who is fourteen years old. The third child, Xue Qingbai, is a farmer, married his wife Zhou, and gave birth to a son and a daughter. The eldest daughter, Xue Taoer, is thirteen years old this year, and the youngest son, Xue Shuanzi, is eight years old now. The fourth son, Xue Qinghuai, is a shopkeeper. He married his wife, Sun, and gave birth to a son named Xue Maodan, who is only four years old this year.

As for the two daughters, the eldest daughter, Xue Cuiping, is already married, and the youngest daughter, Xue Cuie, is fourteen this year and is still in her boudoir.

It is worth mentioning that nowadays there are parents who say that they do not separate their families. In addition, families in the countryside are ruled by clans, so Xue's family has no separation.

The Xue family has tasted the benefits of reading, so they have more vision than ordinary farmers. Xue Qingshan is smart since he was a child, and he is the eldest son. Mr. Xue has high hopes for him, and when he reaches the age of enlightenment, he spends money to send him to a private school.