154. Chapter 154

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The subscription ratio of this article is ≥ 50% and can be read normally, otherwise it will need to be delayed for three days, and the supplement can be read immediately. As for the headache, even the doctor can’t explain the cause.

After sending the doctor away, grandmother Zhao became angry on the spot.

She looks in her fifties, with her gray hair neatly pulled back in a bun. He has a long face, his eyelids are a little droopy, and his face becomes triangular-shaped when pulled, which makes him look particularly unforgiving.

Without Zhao having to say anything, Sun just said it: "Zhao'er, it's not because the fourth aunt is talking about you, but you are a girl who likes to make a fuss. Could it be that you are deliberately torturing us all, even if you don't feel happy..."

Before she could finish her words, she was pulled by the man Xue Qinghuai.

"Okay, just say a few words. Zhao'er is not ignorant. Besides, the dog is already sick. It would be good to find a doctor to see him, so that the family can rest assured."

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

"You also said..."

The couple went out talking and tugging. Auntie Yang smiled at Zhao'er and then said to her mother-in-law: "Mom, let's go too and let the dog have a good rest."

Mrs. Zhao glanced at the dog on the kang, snorted coldly, turned around and left. Just from her posture, it was obvious that she was very angry.

In fact, this is indeed the case. The Xue family cannot be called a very wealthy family. To hire a doctor from the town costs at least one or two hundred bucks. How many times can the Xue family have to deal with this with their current wealth? ! In particular, the doctor's pulse diagnosis just now confirmed Zhao's guess that Xue Gouzi was deliberately pretending to be ill, and it was strange that she was happy.

Let Mrs. Zhao see that the two brats from the second room were deliberately torturing the family, but since the eldest daughter-in-law came forward to persuade them, Ms. Zhao naturally wouldn't say any more.

Generally speaking, among the three daughters-in-law of the Xue family, Yang is the most popular with Zhao. The eldest has an unusual status, and Zhao is willing to give some face to the eldest daughter-in-law.

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 of them didn't talk much, and they didn't stay too long. Zhao'er thought that it was hard work for his third uncle just now, so he sent the two of them out with a smile.

When he turned around and came back, he saw Xue Gouzi lying on the kang with his eyes open, as if he had gone crazy.

She didn't think much about it. She came to the kang and touched his head: "Dog, don't think too much. They don't believe you are sick but have a headache. I believe you. Take good care of yourself and don't think too much." "

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

"What's wrong? Are you still feeling uncomfortable somewhere?"

Feeling these not-delicate but very warm hands touching his head and face, Xue Gouzi felt a sense of reality and happiness that he had never experienced before.

She is not dead, and neither is he.

Although he didn't like some of her daily actions, and even hated her status as his child bride, he never thought about 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 experiencing that dream for more than seventy years, it was as if he had also experienced that life. But when I woke up from the dream, I didn't dare to look back after all the vicissitudes of life.

"Zhao'er..."

"Why!"

"Zhao'er..."

"Um."

"Zhao'er..."

A stream of heat suddenly flowed out unconsciously from the dry eyes.

This frightened Zhao'er so much that she didn't even think about how the little man would never call her that, let alone let her get close to him. She took his head into her arms and asked him anxiously what was going on. .

Seeing that he didn't speak and was just crying in his arms, Zhao'er couldn't help but misunderstand whether those people just made him think too much. From Zhao'er's perspective, the little man just had a lot of things on his mind and never said it out loud, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten this serious illness.

She patted his back again and again, holding him in her arms like she had held him when he was a child, and comforted him: "Don't be afraid, dog. Even if they don't send you to study, I will send you there, and I will give it to you even if I sell iron." go."

*

After all, Xue Gouzi was recovering from a serious illness, and after experiencing such an incident, he drank some gruel for dinner and went to bed.

Zhao'er covered him with a quilt and then went to pack the backpack he had just brought back.

The backpack was filled with needlework and other items. These were rags that Zhao'er bought from the embroidery shop in the town. The reason why I got into this business was because I used to recruit children to carry bags made by women in the village to sell in embroidery workshops.

There were no adults in the second room. Although the family was in charge of the food, money was needed for the pens, inks, paper and inkstones that Xue Gouzi used to study, as well as the clothes, bedding and some odds and ends for the two of them.

It would be impossible to get money from the Zhao family. Although the uncle Xue Qingshan promised to treat his nephew as his own son, Zhao'er only saw the eldest son's child with a shiny mouth on weekdays, and Xue Juncai never cared about it. Lack of pens, ink, paper and inkstones. In comparison, the little man was as thin as a bamboo pole, with a bald pen that Xue Qingshan didn't use back then.

Zhao'er has always been a strong person. She couldn't bear to wrong the little man, so she had to rack her brains and look for money everywhere. There were no opportunities to make money in the countryside, so she went to the town to look around, and she would try to do anything that was within her ability and did not require capital.

In the past few years, she has collected vegetables from the village and sold them in the town, and she has taken jobs from the embroidery workshop and assigned them to women with good craftsmanship in the village. She also often goes to the mountains to find mountain products to sell.

Now this business has been done several times. Zhao'er is sweet and thick-skinned. The owner of the embroidery workshop can't stand her nagging, so he sells her unwanted scraps in bags. She takes them back, sorts and cuts them, and asks the women in the village to help make purses or something. She can make a lot of money by reselling them in the embroidery workshop. It is much better than just accepting purses made by others before, and earning a penny from several purses.

If it weren't for making some money from this business, it would be unknown when Xue Gouzi would recover from his serious illness this time. Zhao Shi would have stopped paying for medicine long ago. The medicines behind were all bought by Zhao'er herself, and she had to hide them, for fear that other people in the Xue family would know.

When she thought of this, Zhao'er's mouth pursed tightly.

She has always been quick and nimble. Seeing that she had picked some usable pieces of cloth, she didn't bother anymore. She chose the clean ones and spread them on the square table, and used scissors to cut these odd-shaped pieces of cloth into uniform shapes.

This was calculated by Zhaoer herself based on how much cloth was needed to make a purse. It would not be too much or too little. She would not take these scraps of cloth out for people to see.

It was not easy for country people to earn a penny. If people knew about it, this way of making money would definitely be robbed in a few days.

Zhaoer also wanted to make money from this to support the little man to go to school in the town, so that she could go only when she came to see Xue Jun, and her little man could also go. Zhaoer always did things with both hands, and she knew that the eldest wife would never let such a good thing fall on the little man.

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

Since she was seven years old and was taken away by her grandma and father to exchange for money, Zhaoer understood this truth.

Zhaoer finished the work in her hands, saw that the little man was sleeping soundly, and looked outside. It was already dark, so she wrapped the tidied cloth with something and hurried out.

Yuqing Village was particularly peaceful under the night sky. The pale silver moonlight fell on the village paths. Although the road surface was still unclear, it was not completely dark.

Zhaoer walked all the way without even startling a dog.

This is not a skill that ordinary people can have. You have to know that in places like the countryside, almost every household has a dog. Dogs are particularly alert at night. Whenever someone walks by the door, they will bark wildly. Even if there is a thief who comes to the door, he will be scared away by the dog.

Zhaoer also developed this skill because she walked a lot at night.

Of course, it was also related to Heizi who followed her.

Heizi was a country dog, but he was stronger and bigger than ordinary dogs. There were not many dogs in Yuqing Village that could beat Heizi, and it was because of Heizi that Zhaoer dared to walk alone at night.

She went to a family's house with ease. It was also strange that the other party knew she would come at this time and kept the door open for her. As soon as she entered the door, the dog of this family rushed over. Before it reached her, a black shadow pounced over and knocked the other party to the ground. The dog was frightened and immediately lay on the ground without barking.

Zhaoer gloated on the side: "Don't learn your lesson!"

At this time, a person came out of the house and laughed as he walked forward: "This black guy is bullying our Wangcai again, Zhaoer, come in and sit down."

"Aunt Guihua, I won't go in, I'm in a hurry to go back."

Zhaoer handed the things in her hand to the person who came, and took some things from the other party, wrapped them with cloth, and then went to the next house.

Zhaoer went to five households.

She was anxious to make money, but there were few women in the village who were good at needlework, and the person she found had to be tight-lipped and reliable, otherwise, before she made money, it would be spread all over the village, and she would not make much money.

The reason why she said that was that when she collected vegetables from the village and sold them in the town, it was spread by people who were not careful with their mouths, 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 teased him about it, which caused a lot of conflicts between her and the little man. And after that, she could not get any vegetables in the village, even if someone sold it to her, it was at a high price.

In the end, she could only go to other villages to get vegetables, which was not a waste of effort. Since then, Zhaoer has learned a lesson. You have to make money secretly, and you can make a fortune by doing it secretly.

When Zhaoer returned home, Xue Gouzi was still sleeping on the kang.

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

Heizi slept under the kang. Just when Zhaoer entered the room, it followed him and slipped in, and chose a place to lie down. It seemed that the dog's eyes were closed, but in fact, the two ears were erected, and they moved from time to time.

Before Zhaoer lay down, he leaned over to look at the little man, and touched his forehead, and then he felt relieved to sleep.

*

Compared to the second room, which only had two rooms and one kang because of its small population, the treatment of the first room was obviously much better. The first room occupied the entire three rooms in the east wing. At this time, Yang was talking to Xue Qingshan in the east room.

Yang told her what happened today, and Xue Qingshan frowned immediately after listening.

He was not at home during the day, so he naturally didn't know what happened at home. Nowadays, some respectable families would invite scholars to preside over weddings and funerals, but rural families couldn't afford scholars, so some would invite students to make up the numbers.

Why are they all scholars, and they are different from ordinary people.

Today, Xue Qingshan was invited by a family in a nearby village who was holding a wedding. Not only did he not have to give gifts, but he could also get a share of wedding money after eating and drinking.

However, people in the countryside are poor, so the happy money will not be too much, at most a few dozen cents.

Xue Qingshan liked this kind of work the most. At this time, he would randomly assign articles to the school children to memorize, and then go out for the whole day, and no one would say anything. What he likes is not only having money, but also this time is when he is most proud.

He was seated as the guest of honor, and the men who came to have a wedding banquet were all proud to chat with him.

He is Master Tong Sheng!

Of course, it would be better if Tong Sheng could be replaced by a scholar, Xue Qingshan would only dream of it. But over the years, I have become more or less self-aware, and I can't help but place my hopes on my son.

Unfortunately, someone is blocking this road now.

Xue Qingshan drank a lot of wine, his fair and fat face turned red, and he was holding his breath in his heart, so he cursed: "What's wrong with this bitch? I really opened a dyeing shop just to give him some color." !”

Yang sighed faintly: "Who told you to agree to the second son so easily in the first place? Now you are riding a tiger and it is difficult to get off, but it is a loss to our talented people."

"In that situation, the second brother seemed to be honest, and he wanted to show off to his brother before he died. If I had known that he was so careful, I would have tried to silence him, but there were so many people Here, the second son got into trouble again because of me. If I don't even agree to this, how can I stand in front of others. "

Of course Ms. Yang knew this, but she couldn't calm down. Just because of that bullshit promise, Dafang had been tied up. Her son wanted to study in the library, but he had to hide it and beg for favors.

She was originally a proud and arrogant person, so naturally the more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became. Her eyes were flashing with fire, but her face was sneered: "Because he suddenly became so ill, dad originally planned to make the decision for us, so we had to endure it. But he has been sick for the past few days, and now he has made such a fuss, and my mother is already annoyed. I asked my fourth daughter-in-law to tell her that the dog is not pretending to be sick. She must have decided that he is pretending now. sick."

Xue Qingshan's eyes lit up: "That's a good idea. I'll go talk to my parents tomorrow and ask them to implement this matter." He smiled and put his arm around Yang's shoulders and said, "My wife is smarter. , prepared the backup plan early.”

Yang gave him an angry look, and the two rested together, saying nothing for the night.

"Gouzi, where are you going?"

Xue Tingyan looked at the woman who was talking to him, smiled and said, "Auntie, I'll just go for a walk."

It was just a casual remark. The woman didn't say anything more to him. She turned around and went into the house to get something. The mother-in-law in the house asked her: "Third wife, who were you talking to just now?"

"The dog in the second room of Xue Lianxing's family. Hey, Mom, it's strange for you. Just now he walked past the door, and I didn't recognize him for a moment. I always felt like he was a different person."

Her mother-in-law disapproved: "What can he become, and he can't change his skin. I remember that boy was ill recently."

The daughter-in-law said: "I think I am planning to go to the back mountain." There is a mountain behind Yuqing Village, where the deceased villagers of the village are buried, and the ancestral graves of the Xue family are also there.

Hearing this, her mother-in-law sighed: "Don't mention it, it's a pity that the second son of the family has been born. The couple has left, leaving only a baby. It's a pity."

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

*

The back mountain is called the back mountain, the mountain behind Yuqing Village.

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

The ancestral tomb of the Xue family is built on a hill not far from the village. Not only the Xue Tingyan family, but the entire Xue family are buried here.

In the center of such a large mountain is the clan leader's lineage, and spreading out are the various branches. Mr. Xue's lineage is at the foot of the southwest mountain.

The second wife and her husband died young, and Xue Qingsong died in an accident, so they were buried on the edge.

When Xue Tingyan arrived at the place, he began to pull out the grass around the grave.

There were not many weeds. They had just been cleaned up during the Chinese New Year. He gathered them randomly and placed them on the ground, then sat down in front of the grave.

There are two small tombs on a piece of mountainous land. In front of each tomb, there is a small bluestone tablet with the names of the couple who were married to each other crudely written on it.

This monument was originally built by Zhao'er himself.

Nowadays, there are three types of people who cannot erect monuments when they die: those who die suddenly, those who die young, and those who have no offspring. Xue Qingsong died a violent death.

Although no one said it, they felt that people who died violently would have grievances after death, which was not conducive to the feng shui of ancestral tombs, so no monuments were erected. I also want him to forget who he is, so as not to cause trouble by being ignorant.

But at the same time, there is also a saying that if you don't erect a monument, you will be a lonely ghost after you die, and you can't stand the incense of future generations.

The Xue family had arranged the funeral for the couple, and they defaulted to following old customs. Xue Tingyan was still young at that time and didn't understand this at all, but Zhao'er did.

She told the Xue family about erecting a monument, but was blocked. The Xue family took turns to persuade her. Later, Zhao'er didn't tell anyone, so he paid someone to make these two simple monuments and erected them in front of the grave.

By the time the Xue family found out, it was already too late. They couldn't tear down the monument in front of the villagers. They could only pretend that it didn't happen. After all, they still felt guilty at that time.

The villagers were also surprised when they saw this monument, but when they thought about how the second son of the Xue family died, they all understood.

Therefore, Xue Qingshan also got a good reputation. He would rather ruin the feng shui of his family than erect a tombstone for his brother. He was really kind and righteous. Let's not talk about this for now.

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

The words on it were written by him. The strokes were immature, but people could still tell what was written on it.

…

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

Country people don't have so many requirements. They just prepared some steamed buns, wine and meat. The father and sons burned paper money in front of the grave, and the matter was over.

Zheng Hu has always had a deep relationship with his father. It is inevitable that he is in a low mood. He let his two sons go back first, and he sat in front of the grave, smoking a dry pipe and talking to his father.

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

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

There were graves on the two hills nearby, one for the Xue family and the other for the Zheng family. On such a festive day, no one would come to such a place unless it was the death anniversary of an elder in the family like Zheng Hu.

Especially since there were many dead people buried here, and the trees were dense, sometimes it was gloomy even in the daytime. In this situation, Zheng Hu was frightened to hear such a strange sound, and his hair stood on end, and his legs became a little weak.

After all, he had lived for decades, so he concentrated and listened, and it took him a long time to understand that it was the voice of a boy talking.

Thinking about whose grave this was, he walked closer with courage, bypassed a big tree, and saw a young man in green clothes sitting in front of the grave with his back to it from a distance.

There was also a big black dog wagging its tail next to it.

It was the dog of the second branch of Xue Lianxing's family.

Zheng Hu was relieved, and the voice came into his ears again: "... Dad, what do you think I should do? My uncle wants to send Juncai to the school in town, and I thought I could go too... But my aunt came to our house a few days ago and told me to let Juncai go, clearly before..."

The boy's voice was full of hesitation and helplessness. Zheng Hu didn't expect to hear the Xue family's secrets in such a place. He was so surprised that he didn't realize that the dry tobacco in his hand fell until his foot was hit by the pipe, and then he reacted and hurriedly picked up the pipe and left.

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

These days, Xue Tingyan has been thinking hard, trying to find an appropriate opportunity, and somehow he thought of Zheng Hu.

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

The ridges were not very high, and countless villagers fell off them every year, but Mr. Zheng was the unlucky one who died. At the beginning, this matter was widely spread in the village, so Xue Tingxian remembered it very clearly.

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

The most important thing is that Yuqing Village seems small, but in fact, the Xue and Zheng families have always been competing with each other. Zheng Hu's uncle is the head of the village, and he knew it, and Zheng Lizheng also knew it.

Xue Tingxian did not stay for long, and soon took Heizi back home.

The yard was still silent, he found a stool in front of the door, sat there quietly in the sun, but thought about the tricks he had to do in the town.

*

Zheng Hu walked quickly all the way, and did not even go home, and went to Zheng Lizheng's house.

Zheng Lizheng is the head of Yuqing Village and the patriarch of the Zheng family. His house is naturally unique in Yuqing Village. If there is anything comparable, it is the house of the Xue clan leader.

There are blue brick and tile houses, and the courtyard walls are also built with blue bricks. The most conspicuous is the Zheng family ancestral hall in the front, but this ancestral hall will not be opened until a specific time, and the two black paulownia doors are always closed.

Going around to the side, it is the yard of Zheng Lizheng's house.

The yard is very large. Unlike other families' animal sheds, warehouses, kitchens, etc., which are all in the front yard, the front yard of Zheng Lizheng's house is an empty large yard with only two paulownia trees planted in the yard. Whenever there is something big in the village, this yard will always be crowded with people.

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

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

When Tian saw her nephew coming, she greeted him: "Huzi, why are you here at this time? Is there something you want to talk to your uncle about?"

"Yes, there is something."

As he said that, Zheng Hu hurried into the house. Tian shook her head, thinking that maybe there was something wrong. You know, Zheng Hu is usually very stable.

Zheng Hu went in and turned to the east room.

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