Ah Xing's mother had long since died, and when he was twelve years old, his father died again. Ah Xing had no one at home and was helpless, so he was adopted by an aunt who lived in Shandi Village in the countryside.
As soon as I arrived at my aunt's house, many children in the village came to see Ah Xing, and everyone pointed and said that he was a city child. Ah Xing looked at these new friends in a daze, and didn't know what to say for a while.
In the evening, a girl came running with her little sister in her arms, stood in the doorway, and kept sticking her head in to look at Ah Xing. Ah Xing lowered his head, feeling embarrassed.
As soon as the aunt greeted the girl, she ran into the house, running around the house barefoot, and kept looking at Ah Xing. Aunt said to Ah Xing: Her name is Yuehua, and she is the third daughter of Aunt Ah Xian. Unexpectedly, the girl immediately interfaced.
Ah Xing was shy, his face flushed and he didn't speak. My aunt told her with a smile. Yuehua frowned, and seemed to be sad for Ah Xing. But in the blink of an eye, she chattered again, and asked Ah Xing to go to the mountains tomorrow to play.
Early the next morning, Yuehua came. She grabbed Ah Xing's hand, and the two of them were like a pair of rabbits that had just come out of the nest, jumping and jumping up the mountain trail.
On the mountain, Yuehua was busy picking up dead branches and picking bitter fruits. She said that the bitter fruit was fried and delicious, and the withered branches were used for cooking at home. Yuehua's family is poor, and her brother works for the landlord as a day worker, and she also helps the family do things.
Ah Xing helped her pick up the bitter fruit and pick up the dead branches. Before noon, they picked up a bag of bitter fruit and two large bundles of dead branches, and came home happily.
Since then, Ah Xing and Yuehua have always been together. Yuehua also took him to the stream to touch small fish, or to the field to pick up snails and take them home to eat.
At that time, the Japanese devils had already arrived in Hangzhou, and their small mountain village was also very tight, and the price of rice was rising every day, and they often did not have enough to eat. Ah Xing is very sensible, and he feels very uneasy about living at his aunt's house to eat rice. So he discussed with Yuehua and wanted to do something that could subsidize his aunt's family.
Yuehua tilted her little head and thought about it, and came up with a new gadget for her to catch sparrows in the woods.
They installed three tiles in the bamboo forest under Shenjia Mountain and put some chaff in them. The two men hid behind a nearby tree, quietly watching the tiles wear, and did not blink their eyes.
But the sparrows are very obedient, and they always eat the chaff with their claws around the stalks, and do not eat the chaff. They waited until it was dark. The evening breeze blew, making my body shiver and my toes hurt.
Yuehua's little padded jacket was worn by her sister when she was a child, it was thin and stiff, and the cuffs were small. The backs of her hands were frozen like red eggs, and there was nowhere to hide warmth, so she reached into Ah Xing's sleeves. In this way, their four arms seemed to be connected.
At noon the next day, they went to visit the sparrows in the bamboo grove, but none of the sparrows fell. Ah Xing felt uncomfortable, so they had to go back down the hillside.
In the barn down the hill, they saw an old man with a shotgun shooting sparrows. There were a lot of sparrows here, and he fired a shot and killed six of them at once.
Ah Xing saw that he was very remarkable, so he quietly asked Yuehua: Who is this? Yuehua glanced at the old man and said, "He is Uncle Yuting." My second brother has been helping his family to make rice these days, and he can earn two liters of rice a day. Go, let's go and ask him for a sparrow. 』
Yuehua immediately jumped over to pick up sparrows for the old man. She stuffed five dead sparrows into Uncle Yuting's cloth pocket, hid the last one behind her, shook her little head and said with a smile: "This one is for my salary, okay?" 』
Uncle Yuting rolled his leopard eyes, patted Yuehua with a smile and said, "If you promise to be my little daughter-in-law, I will give it to you." Yuehua twisted her body in shame and said, "Don't! I want a sparrow! 』
Uncle Yuting didn't say a word, picked up his shotgun, and loaded the ammunition by himself. Ah Xing's eyes looked at the shotgun in his hand, it turned out that this shotgun had two iron cylinders, and one shot could release a lot of bullets!
On the way home, Yuehua carried the dead sparrow and told Ah Xing that Uncle Yuting liked her very much, saying that she was beautiful and wanted to make her a daughter-in-law to his youngest son. When Ah Xing heard this, he felt uncomfortable in his heart.
Ah Xing remembered Uncle Yuting's shotgun, hoping that he also had one, and the insurance could earn two liters of rice a day to subsidize his uncle's family. He told Yuehua that Yuehua only hated that he had no land and less land, and if he had land and harvested crops, he would be able to go to the city to change a shotgun.
This year, there was a drought, and there was no rain for two whole months. The vegetables in the garden behind Uncle Yuting's house are withering, and the water in the pond is drying up. The pond was full of crucian carp and mandarin fish, and Uncle Yuting asked Yuehua's second brother to fetch water for him all day long.
The moon showed her face, and Yuehua's second brother was still in the water. Uncle Yuting drunkenly paced into the garden and said, "It's important to save the fish!" This is the accumulation of yin merit! Yuehua's second brother held back his resentment, but it was difficult to stop.
Later, when the stream dried up, Uncle Yuting had a plan in his heart, and asked Yuehua's second brother to dig a well in the garden. In this way, the fish and vegetables were saved, but the people were tired.
Yuehua's second brother became seriously ill as a result. He was lying at home, unable to work. Aunt Ah Xian and Yuehua were very anxious, they didn't even have an income of two liters of rice a day.
After the second brother fell ill, Yuehua went up the mountain with her mother to cut the grass every morning, and only went home after dark. Ah Xing felt empty in his heart, and stood alone outside the door in a daze. He seems to have been wronged and scolded by someone, but he can't say it.
One day, Yuehua came back from selling firewood and grass in the town and met Ah Xing on the road. She told Ah Xing: "After selling firewood and grass, I can exchange half a liter of rice and tofu residue back, and the rice is cooked porridge for my second brother to eat, and my mother and I eat tofu residue." 』
Yuehua almost cried. Ah Xing grabbed his head with his little hands, blushed and said, "I'll help you mow the grass tomorrow!" My aunt still has half a bag of broad beans under her bed, so I'll go and say to my aunt, can I give you some? 』
Yuehua blinked her big eyes uneasily and remained silent. After a while, she suddenly began to cry, and Ah Xing also cried.
When Ah Xing returned home, he didn't dare to speak, for fear that his aunt would not agree. In the evening, when his aunt had cleaned up the dishes, Ah Xing timidly begged her. My aunt was embarrassed for a while, and finally filled a big bowl of broad beans and asked Ah Xing to take them to Yuehua's house tomorrow.
The next day, Ah Xing asked his aunt for a sickle, took broad beans, and arrived at Yuehua's house early in the morning. Yuehua's mother took the broad beans with great gratitude, although Yuehua could speak, but at this time she looked at Ah Xing, not knowing what to say.
But Yuehua's mother resolutely refused to agree to Ah Xing to mow the grass, and Yuehua also helped her mother persuade her. Ah Xing still didn't follow, and was pulled by the sick second brother and didn't let him go, Ah Xing had to stay.
After Yuehua and the others went up the mountain, Ah Xing came out of Yuehua's house, and he thought: If you don't agree to me go up the mountain to mow the grass, I can also mow at the bottom of the mountain. So he cut it at the foot of the mountain. Ah Xing was a layman in the end, and he was so tired that he was sweating profusely before he cut a bundle of thatch.
Ah Xing was secretly happy in his heart, he picked up the thatch, secretly put it at the door of Yuehua's house, and then turned home.
In the past few days, Yuehua's second brother's illness has slowly improved, and he has been able to get up and walk. He wants to eat, but where does the rice come from? Yuehua's mother couldn't think about it, so she had to go to Uncle Yuting's house to borrow it.
Uncle Yuting was just in his wide yard, enjoying the shade and drinking, and there was a pot of fat crucian carp and two vegetables on the table. Yuehua's mother squeaked for a while before she blushed.
Yuehua's mother's eyes were shiny and she wanted to cry. Uncle Yuting seemed to sigh sympathetically, and finally agreed to borrow two liters of rice, but he told him a thousand times to settle the account when the second brother Yuehua was better.
Yuehua's mother returned home, and while cooking, she told her son what Uncle Yuting said. Second Brother Yuehua sighed silently, just sat and waited for the meal.
The second brother lowered his head, swallowed a mouthful of rice vigorously, puffed out his mouth and said, "Mom, I really want to eat crucian carp soup." Although his mother was embarrassed, she cherished her son and promised to ask Uncle Yuting for a look tomorrow.
The next day, Yuehua's mother went to Uncle Yuting's house to beg for crucian carp, but the fish couldn't be found, but she was robbed by Uncle Yuting and came back empty-handed.
The more the second brother thought about it, the more angry he became, and a wave of anger in his heart rushed up like a blazing fire, so he gritted his teeth and twisted his body, and staggered out the door. Yuehua and the others were in a hurry and rushed out to stop him.
Early the next morning, Yuehua asked Ah Xing to go crucian carp fishing everywhere, but after three days of fishing, he didn't catch a single one.
The second brother often loses his temper, and his mother often sheds tears, Yuehua feels very uncomfortable, sitting at the door and thinking about it. She hated Uncle Yuting, and even though Uncle Yuting's house had big dogs guarding the door and double-barreled shotguns to beat people, she decided to go to her uncle's pond to steal fish. What's more, there are many shallow fish in the pond, so it is not difficult to catch them.
One night, it was dark and windy, and Ah Xing had just finished eating, when Yuehua suddenly broke in. She greeted her aunt while holding Ah Xing's hand and running out. Ah Xing felt strange, but still ran after her.
They ran to the back garden gate of Uncle Yuting's house in one go. Yuehua put her hand on Ah Xing's shoulder, put her mouth to his ear, and said softly: You squat down and help me enter the garden. 』
Ah Xing was stunned and unconsciously squatted down. Yuehua immediately put her feet on his shoulders and quietly told him to stand up.
Ah Xing had just stood up straight, only to hear a few sounds of the bamboo fence, Yuehua's hands grabbed the fence, and jumped in.
At this time, Ah Xing understood what Yuehua was going to do. He was in a hurry, and his eyes were pressed into the cracks. After a while, I saw that a window near the garden gate of Uncle Yuting's house lit up, and then went out again.
Ah Xing is worried. Suddenly, something cold fell from the top of his head, brushed his cheeks, landed at his feet, and jumped on the ground. Ah Xing shouted in a lost voice: Crucian carp! 』
Then, the bamboo fence made a grid sound, and on the bamboo fence, I could vaguely see Yuehua's two small braids shaking. Ah Xing hurriedly opened his hands and wanted to hug him, but he couldn't reach him.
At this moment, suddenly a gunshot rang out in the garden, and Yuehua rolled down with a somersault and threw herself on Ah Xing's shoulder.
Ah Xing panicked and anxiously asked: Did you fight? Yuehua didn't make a sound, covered her thighs with her hands, and immediately squatted down to touch the crucian carp.
Touching the crucian carp, Yuehua trembled and shouted: Run! The two of them ran back.
At night, Ah Xing lay in bed a little worried, he was afraid that Yuehua would be injured by Uncle Yuting's double-barreled shotgun. As soon as it was dawn the next day, Ah Xing ran to Yuehua's house, but before entering the door, he only heard her second brother's cursing, and Ah Xing's heart jumped violently.
Ah Xing pushed the door and went in, only to see a dim oil lamp resting on the table, Yuehua was lying on the bed with her bare thighs bare over, her mother and second brother were together, not knowing what they were doing.
Ah Xing called softly: Aunt Ah Xian! When I walked over and looked, I was stunned. I saw that Yuehua's thighs had become a bloody patch, and on the corner of the table, there was a handful of glutinous rice stained red with blood, as well as a few grains of iron sand.
After a few days, Yuehua's thigh festered. Aunt Ah Xian was in a hurry, but she didn't have the money to see a doctor.
At this time, Ah Xing is going back to the city to become an apprentice. But he was thinking about Yuehua and couldn't leave her, so he ran to say goodbye to her. Yuehua lay on the bed, silently holding his hand, and didn't let go for a long time, not crying or talking.
Since then, the news of the two of them has been cut off. Seventeen years later, Ah Xing is already a revolutionary cadre. Once, he went to the agricultural cooperative near Shanqi Village to learn about his work. On the way, a familiar shadow appeared in front of him, it was Yuehua's innocent and lively face.
After taking some time, he went to this small mountain village to find Yuehua and visit his aunt.
But the place changed, the old houses were gone, and a few bungalows were built, and there were two girls playing with twenty children in the yard, which turned out to be a nursery. He stayed for a while, and then asked a girl about Yuehua.
The girl shook her head and said she didn't know. Ah Xing explained to her that Yuehua was Aunt Ah Xian's daughter. When the girl heard this, she immediately pointed to a few white-walled houses on the other side of the river and told him.
Ah Xing hurriedly made a detour to the other side of the river. When I passed by Uncle Yuting's house, the building was still there, but the signs of "Shanqi Village Primary School" and "Agricultural Technology Training Class" were already hung at the door. While he was looking, he saw several young men and women laughing and coming out of it.
Among them, there was a girl in her twenties, wearing a student ID card on the side of her pocket, and she looked very handsome, like Yuehua. Ah Xing was stunned, and he didn't care about being polite, so he ran over to stop her and asked her about Yuehua's situation.
The girl asked Ah Xing's name, looked at him carefully, and said sadly: Yuehua is my sister, before liberation, she was wounded in the thigh by the landlord with a shotgun, and then it became a sore, rotten for several months, and died of fever. 』
The girl wiped a handful of tears, took Ah Xing's hand and said, "Come to my house, my mother has been missing you!" Ah Xing followed her silently, but when she saw that people were busy threshing in the threshing field, Uncle Yuting's double-barreled shotgun would never go off.