A tragic song (short) Zhang Baotong

During this period, the young merchant came secretly twice, once at noon and once in the evening, both in the dense forest where there was no one in Daoshuigou. The second sister-in-law came back late every time, and there were obvious tears on her face. I think this may be the last date between the second sister-in-law and the person, because a few days will be the day when she and the fourth brother will get married.

These days, my parents have been extremely busy, not only calling my eldest brother back from the town to help, but also asking me to send a letter to the third brother in the city. Because the county education bureau had to come to check on me, I rarely went home and was busy dealing with it alone at school.

At noon that day, as soon as I finished class, I saw my second sister-in-law carrying a cloth bag in one hand and leading Yueyue from the bottom of the mountain with the other. The second sister-in-law was wearing a brand-new blue floral cloth blouse and pure blue pants, her face was washed white and clean, and she was lightly smeared with some fat powder, her hair was coiled up very foreignly, and she was pinned with the exquisite hairpin given to her by the merchant, at first glance she looked like a young and handsome little daughter-in-law. And Yueyue is also a new and fresh children's clothes. The sun shone brightly on the face of the second sister-in-law Mingxiu, revealing a layer of resentment and helplessness.

The second sister-in-law said that I want to take Yueyue home for two days, so I will stop by to see you. As he spoke, he straightened my collar and said that I had lost some weight. But no, Xiaohong hasn't come back from Chuandao yet, how can this keep me from being sad and troubled?

The second sister-in-law saw my thoughts, and said sadly, this can't be blamed on Xiaohong, her heart is high and her life is thin, her father's life is difficult to disobey, and all women in the mountains are this fate. After another conversation, the second sister-in-law was leaving. She repeatedly told me to open it and not be too sad, and then she smiled sadly and said to Yueyue, say goodbye to my uncle.

The second sister-in-law walked slowly along the hillside towards the north mountain, her steps looking a little staggering and hesitant. Looking at the back of the second sister-in-law gradually moving away, and savoring the words that the second sister-in-law just said, I felt that the fate of this woman in the mountains was tragic or helpless.

The next evening, when I was about to go home for a prayer, my fourth brother hurriedly came to the school to look for me and asked if I had seen my second sister-in-law. I said that the second sister-in-law took Yueyue back to her parents' house. The fourth brother cried and said with a sad face that he had just come from Wangjia's pass, and the second sister-in-law had not returned home at all. When I heard this, I couldn't help but be shocked, thinking to myself, could the second sister-in-law go to Beishan to find the merchant who sold goods. But I didn't dare to say it. When I followed the fourth brother back home, I saw that the eldest brother happened to come back from Beishan, and as soon as he entered the door, he fell on the chair, panting and weakly reporting to his father that the people in the village said that the merchant left yesterday.

My father choked on the smoke, coughed for a long time before stopping, and shouted in a hoarse dry voice, Where did you go, have you ever asked? The eldest brother said timidly that he had asked, and the people there only knew that he was from Jiangxi, but they did not know the detailed address of his house, and they also said that the man left alone at noon yesterday, saying that he was going back to marry his relatives and would not come again.

Hearing this, my father's body trembled and fell to the ground with a "plop". We were all frightened and hurriedly lifted my father up and laid him on the bed in the back room. The mother lay beside her father and cried loudly. Father lay down for a while, then relieved himself, opened his eyes, and then raised his hand and told us all to leave.

We left my father's room and sat in the outer hall in trepidation, as if waiting for something, and felt like the sky was about to fall. I couldn't stand the atmosphere a little, so I took a solo walk on the mountain path by the moonlight. The departure of the second sister-in-law was really beyond my expectations, but when I think about it, I can find many inevitable signs. But these signs did not go unnoticed. To be honest, I don't approve of the absurd and arbitrary marriage between the fourth brother and the second sister-in-law, but I also don't want the second sister-in-law to run away from home. In this huge family, apart from my second sister-in-law, who else can I talk to, and my ears and eyes are close to each other? The evening breeze echoes in my ears and thoughts like an endless sad song, and a blank and indifferent blank space expands and spreads in my feelings and hearts from time to time. The second sister-in-law is gone, and she may never return, because when she leaves, she will never be able to return to her hometown father. Her prosperity, wealth, poverty, birth, old age, sickness and death have also severed the connection between her relatives and her homeland forever, and floated away with the wind like a kite with a broken string, I hope she can live a happy and beautiful life.

After the second sister-in-law left, the fourth brother's marriage became a major concern for his father. The fourth brother is already twenty-five years old, and almost all the offspring of the same age have married wives and had children, but the fourth brother is still a single, if it is delayed any longer, after the line of twenty-five years old, it will be more difficult to find a sister. At noon, my aunt came to see my father from Honghualing and mentioned the Chunling girl in their village. When my father heard this, he immediately sat up from the bed and asked what kind of price they wanted. My aunt couldn't tell me, so she asked my father to bring something with me.

In the afternoon of the same day, my father followed my aunt to Honghualing with his weak body. Due to something unseemly at home, my father has not gone out for many days, and today, I don't know how much courage I have to go to Honghualing to show up. When it was getting dark, my father dragged his heavy and tired steps home, his face desolate and dejected. His mother hurried over to him and asked him about the situation. The father didn't say a word, but sat on a small stool by the door, snorting and smoking the hookah vigorously. That's when I realized that my father had suddenly aged a lot.

My father fell ill again and did not eat or drink for two days. I heard my mother say that the lion of Chunling's family opened his mouth, and he asked our family to take out 5,000 yuan to affirm his family. My mother persuaded my father that if he didn't have that much money, he wouldn't marry that family. But his father just stared at the roof and was silent, he blamed himself for not fulfilling his duties as a father for the fourth brother.

Who knows, a few days later, Chunling's mother and uncle came to Zhushan and offered to marry our family. The father was very puzzled and repeatedly explained that the family had no money. However, Chunling's uncle said that you don't have to cry poor, you have a deposit of 20,000 yuan at home, as long as you are willing to take out 5,000 yuan, we will let Chunling and your fourth child marry at any time.

The father was very surprised, and repeatedly explained that the money belonged to Guizhen and Yueyue, and they were afraid that they had already taken the money away. Chunling's uncle said that others don't know, but I still don't know, the deposit slip is in your house, and the fourth child of your family only let us see it yesterday.

As soon as Chunling's mother and uncle left, my father called the fourth brother, picked up a very thick bamboo stick, and yelled loudly, Kneel down for me. The fourth brother knew that his father knew about it, so he trembled with fright, and honestly knelt on the ground and told the matter. It turned out that he sneaked into the second sister-in-law's house the day after the second sister-in-law ran away, rummaged through the deposit slip from the box, and took it to the town's savings office to withdraw the money once, but because he didn't have an ID card, he didn't take it for him, so he took the deposit slip to Chunling's parents to see. As he spoke, he took the two deposit slips out of his pillowcase.

My father handed me the deposit slip to read, and when I saw it, my heart trembled suddenly, and a hot current surged all over my body. One of these two deposit slips actually has my name written on it. Obviously, the second sister-in-law transferred her 10,000 yuan deposit to my name at some point. I looked at the deposit slip and thought about the departure of my second sister-in-law, and I wanted to cry. The father didn't care to beat the fourth brother, holding the two deposit slips with both hands, and trembling for a while. After the second sister-in-law left, what my father was most worried about was the deposit of 20,000 yuan.

During the meal, my father asked my mother to scramble a plate of eggs and bacon for me, and also made a soup. We don't get this kind of food at home two or three times a year. My mother kept picking up vegetables for me. My father seemed a little excited, and he talked a lot, and from time to time he nagged that he had raised so many cubs, and that I was the only one who was the smartest and most promising. I know that my father favors me the most, but he shouldn't have said it in front of his fourth brother.