Old Accounts

Chapter 11 Old accounts

For the next ten days or so, Xue Baoping didn't go out. It's late spring now, and it's also a lean period, but fortunately, she used to go to Bishan outside the town to cut firewood every day, and she could always harvest some fungus, mushrooms, sour fruits, mountain ginger, etc. If she was lucky, she would still be able to harvest wood like the previous few years. One day, I caught a pheasant whose neck was bitten by an eagle. And she is a slender girl with a small appetite that she has developed over the years. All the food she eats can be dried and slowly preserved.

Therefore, for the past ten days or so, she had been lying at the window, watching the sunlight shining through the window into the bowl of clear water, and watching the little cocoon of skin inside gradually heal, become white and smooth, and gradually grow. The tiny sprouts seemed to be growing arms and legs.

She was delighted with every change in it. She drank some well water when she was thirsty and ate something dry when she was hungry. As for what she would do if she had eaten all of it, she didn't want to think about it - the stove had collapsed, and she didn't have to do what she had been doing for more than ten years, so she didn't want to do anything.

But on the fifteenth day, she changed her mind. Not voluntarily, but semi-voluntarily - on the third day of feeding, she felt that the chicken blood started to smell, so she dried the chicken blood in a pot, ground it into fine powder, and fed it little by little. But it rained a few days ago. It was just a drizzle, but it lasted for two or three days. When I opened the small jar containing the blood powder the next night, I only smelled a foul odor.

She tried feeding the cocoon a little, but instead of eating it, it twitched a few times and became motionless, as if dead.

She panicked now, feeling a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling of fear, just like the feeling she had when her parents died and she stood alone in an empty room lit by the sun.

She quickly changed the water in the small bowl, pricked her finger and dripped a few drops of blood into it. After a long time, the cocoon slowly twisted its newly grown tentacle-like limbs and drank up the few drops of blood, but it was still weak, as if it was not full.

At this time, Xue Baoping seemed to have just woken up from a dream, knowing that she had to get some food, otherwise, she was afraid that the little thing sent by her parents to accompany her would starve to death.

She opened the small drawer on the bedside and took out a mahogany box inside. This box was originally made of copper-wrapped corners and pinched with silver wire. It was part of the dowry saved by her mother for her. Now the copper and silver have long been dug out, leaving only a plain box. She opened the box, took out the only silver earring inside, and walked out of the door for the first time in more than ten days.

Xuejiadian is facing the Jinshui River. Along the river is a cluster of residential buildings, 89% of which are empty. She walked slowly along the river and saw that the big willow tree by the river had sprouted many new branches, and there were also new grasses growing out from under the soil along the river. It's just that the grass doesn't seem to be alive, it's not very green, it only has white buds.

She walked slowly through the three houses, and finally stopped in front of the door of Qiaotou's house. She held on to the post at the door and breathed for a long time. Then she felt that her head was no longer dizzy, so she knocked hard on the door. knock.

After a while, I heard a tired and muddy male voice inside: "Who is it?"

Several shuffling footsteps approached, and the door panel creaked open, revealing a young bald head with squinting eyes. He was short, fat, dark-skinned, and very strong. When he saw Xue Baoping standing outside, his face was full of impatience before he calmed down a little: "Oh, Sister Xue. What's the matter?"

Xue Baoping looked at the corner of his eye - there was a mole, so it was Wang Wu, the second eldest son of the Wang family. She pinched the earring in her hand, raised her hand and touched her left earlobe, then her neck, then her fingers, and finally drew a circle in front of her body.

Wang Wu opened a door, folded his arms and leaned against the door frame. He narrowed his eyes with a smile and asked half of his face: "What did you say? I can't hear you?"

Xue Baoping stared at him silently.

She was talking about the earrings on her earlobes, the necklace around her neck, the rings on her fingers, and the many silver ornaments that she had brought to the Wang family to replace them since she was six years old. They were supposed to be her dowry. .

The Wang family are hunters. When my parents were still alive, the Wang family would supply meat to the Xue family store, and the two families were familiar with each other. On the day when her parents died, Xue Baoping cried until she was hungry and thought of the Wang family. She couldn't remember clearly what happened at that time. She only remembered that someone came to his house, took out the body, wrapped it in mats and buried it. Then the Wang family and his son searched the house for a long time. They didn't know what they took away. Tell her it's the funeral expenses.

The six-year-old child was ignorant and only thought that this family was a good person. From then on, whenever he was hungry and couldn't bear it, he would take the things from home and go to Wang's house in exchange for some food. At first, a silver bracelet can be exchanged for three or four months of fine chaff. Later, a ring, a necklace, and an earring can only be exchanged for a few pieces of dried meat and roasted bones. .

The Wang family said that they wanted to be fair in their affairs, but since there had been famine for many years, the birds and animals on the mountain were not easy to hunt, so they would write down the debt first. He also said, "One code equals one code" - for example, the ring brought last time was recorded as a debt, then the necklace brought this time will naturally be the second code, and the piece of dried meat obtained in exchange will be recorded as debt. The second debt. In this way, it wasn't until she was nine years old that she gradually realized that the "uncles" and "brothers" of the Wang family were not what she thought, and she stopped doing stupid things.

Until today.

Wang Wu felt unhappy because of her staring. He suppressed his smile, frowned, and was about to slam the door. At this time, a hand reached out to hold the door, and his brother Wang Wen stuck his head out. When he saw it was Xue Baoping, he immediately frowned and asked Wang Wu, "What's wrong?"

Wang Wu snorted: "The little mute is here to settle old scores."

Wang Wen glared at him: "What do you mean by old accounts? Are old accounts not accounts? Our Wang family does things cleanly and fairly. Do you still want to deny it?"

Wang Wu told him to humiliate him but he didn't dare to get angry. He kicked the door and ran into the yard. Wang Wen just walked out of the door and sighed: "Didn't Sister Xue open your shop again last year? Are you encountering difficulties again? Oh, yes, not to mention that crops have not been easy to grow in recent years, even We hunters are also in trouble. The animals on Bishan are all Now that I have learned a lot, I set up a trap and set up a trap. After a few days, I found nothing. I caught a deer a few days ago, but the town owner said that the mage likes to eat venison. I remember. The account was settled and the whole thing was taken away. Do you think I still have to get this kind of account back? "

Xue Baoping just stared at him. Wang Wen scratched his head: "So our family is also in trouble. Alas, but our two families have been friends for a long time. Let's do it like this - do you have any gold and silver jewelry there? ? Let me change some dry goods for you first. Wait a few days. If the market opens in Qingjiang, I will go up to the market and exchange your things for rice and noodles and bring them back to you, okay? "

When he came, Xue Baoping had already thought of such remarks, and also thought about whether there were other ways to get some food. But the cocoon only feeds on flesh and blood. Over the past few days, she has also caught some bugs, earthworms and the like to feed it. But after the Xuanjiao turmoil that year, the soil fertility near Jinshui Town has never recovered. Not only are the crops poor, but there are also very few insects in the soil. Now that summer is coming soon, she really doesn't know how to feed it except for some dried bacon.

She sighed and revealed the silver earring in her palm.

Wang Wen walked down the stage with a smile, picked up the earrings from her palm, and saw her thin wrist. It's white and clean, showing the light blue color of the blood vessels underneath. There are calluses on the palms, but the roots of the palms and the tips of the fingers are full of the unique ruddy color of a young girl, which even long-term hunger cannot erase.

Wang Wen paused for a moment. After taking the earrings, he returned to the doorstep and looked at her carefully for a few more times. Only then did he realize that the little mute of the Xue family had had a vagina over the years, and some of her clothes were too short to hide it. The slender body underneath. So he smiled: "Sister, wait a moment."

He turned around and went in. When he came out again, he was holding half a wind chicken and a bunch of dry biscuits. Walking up to Xue Baoping, he tried to pinch her face with a smile, but Xue Baoping immediately avoided it and looked at him with a frown. Wang Wen laughed twice: "Girl, we are separated. Didn't I hug you when you were a child? Here, take it - we have been separated these years, and we don't move around much. If I have time, I will go over and take a look. , If you have anything rotten there, let me fix it for you and make sure you live comfortably."

If it is true that "one size equals one size", a silver earring cannot buy these. Xue Baoping felt that his words made her uncomfortable, as if she understood something, but not quite. She simply stopped thinking about it, grabbed the thing from his hand, took two steps back, and slowly moved away.

After returning home, she first tore off a strip of meat from the air-dried chicken, soaked it in water, minced it finely with a knife, and then sprinkled it into a bowl. As soon as the velvet fell to the bottom, the cocoon immediately began to twist. Xue Baoping saw a small opening on its front, as if it were its new mouth, sliding its four tentacles around the bottom of the bowl, eating quickly.

Her heart suddenly dropped, so she drew a bowl of well water, sipping the water and nibbling the pancakes bit by bit. After she finished eating a piece as big as her palm, the small things in the bowl had eaten up all the minced meat, and it swelled up two or three times in size. It hung motionless in the water, but it seemed as if a small new baby had grown out of it. The heart was beating one by one, and it seemed as if he was asleep.

Xue Baoping was also lying by the window. The long-lost feeling of fullness made her feel sleepy, and the sun that was beginning to set in the west shone through the window, making her body warm. Unknowingly, she fell asleep.

When I woke up again, it was already dark. The room was pitch dark, and there was no one visible outside the window. Xue Baoping raised her head, wiped a handful of saliva, and groped her fingers into the small bowl as usual - the small cocoons moved around her fingertips, and then she slowly stood up and tried to Move to bed.

But after taking two steps in the dark, she stopped.

There is a smell in the house...the smell of fresh meat cooked in water with just a little salt, a piece of green onion, and a piece of ginger.

Her lips trembled, she took a small step back and leaned against the window sill, and touched the fire folding book placed there.

A small flame started to rise, and she saw a large porcelain bowl placed on the low cabinet beside the bed. In the bowl was a plump piece of backbone meat with sinewy fat, and it was still slightly steaming. And Wang Wen - sitting by the bed, looking at her with a smile, the streaks of flesh on his face reflected in the firelight.

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