Chapter 154

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 the fourth aunt 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 before saying 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.

"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 sentence, the woman didn't say anything more to him, she turned to get something in the room, the mother-in-law in the room asked her: "Third daughter-in-law, who were you talking to just now?"

"The dog from the second bedroom of Xue Lianxing's family. Hey, mother, it's strange to say that 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.