A tragic song (short) Zhang Baotong

One evening, a few days later, I returned home from school to find my eldest brother, third brother, and brother-in-law all back. The eldest brother builds houses for others in Honghualing Town all day long, and the third brother helps people look after warehouses in the county seat, but the brother-in-law is on the other side of the Sichuan Road dozens of miles away. They were able to come together today, because their parents had something important to discuss with them.

When everyone had eaten, the father waved his hand, and he thought that there were too many people in the house, so he asked the woman to take the children away. Mother sat by the hanging pot, stir-frying soybeans, boiling tea, ready to make bean tea for everyone. The men of the family sat in a circle around his father, putting on a deaf look, waiting for his father to speak.

My father held the hookah and smoked it for a while, then he said a few times, saying that he had called everyone here today, and he wanted everyone to make up their minds. While serving tea to everyone, my mother said that your father will be 50 years old in two days, and according to our rules, we are going to have a big one.

As soon as everyone heard this, they knew that they were going to take money out of their pockets, so they all silently drank hot tea and smoked cigarettes, refusing to make a sound. Until my mother changed another cup of tea for everyone, no one said anything. In the end, the third brother spoke first, saying that it had been two or three years since the second brother had an accident, and the public had not lost 20,000 yuan? Why didn't you leave it alone? When the fourth brother heard this, he said that he could take out 2,000 yuan from the 20,000 yuan, and he would not have done it. However, the eldest brother said that the money was all in the names of Gui Zhen and Yueyue, and without Gui Zhen's consent, not a penny could be withdrawn. And my father's face sank. Because the second brother's funeral was handled by the eldest brother, the unit had regulations at that time that the compensation for the second brother must be in the name of the second sister-in-law and the child. The mother became angry and said that something had happened to my son, but she had taken advantage of her. If one day she marries someone with her children, we won't get the money.

Everyone knew about this in the past, but they didn't pay much attention to it, and when they heard my mother say this, they felt the importance of the matter. At this time, the third brother said, why don't you let Jiancheng and Guizhen become a family? If so, wouldn't the 20,000 yuan be our Xu family forever. The eldest brother hurriedly said that the third child had a good idea. As he spoke, he looked at his father's face. Father took two puffs of his cigarette slowly, nodded, and said I think it can be done. In this way, it was originally a family meeting to discuss the payment for his father's birthday, but it suddenly turned to the topic of marrying the fourth brother and the second sister-in-law.

For the sake of the fourth brother and the second sister-in-law, my father decided not to hold a scene to celebrate his birthday. Early the next morning, he sent the eldest brother to the second sister-in-law's maiden house with everyone to gather the 2,000 yuan for his father's birthday. A few days later, someone from Wang's family came to call the second sister-in-law away. In the afternoon of the same day, my father, eldest brother and fourth brother also went to Wangjia'ao together, and did not come back drunk until the evening.

The second sister-in-law came back the next evening, her eyes were red and swollen, and she was much haggard. The second sister-in-law refused to eat, so I silently cried with her. I heard my mother say that the marriage between the second sister-in-law and the fourth brother has been decided, and it will be done on the 18th day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar. It's only been about 20 days since I pinched my fingers. I knew that the second sister-in-law did not want to see the fourth brother, and even had a sense of disgust for the fourth brother, but she could not resist the decisions and arrangements of the elders. I sympathize with and understand my second sister-in-law's feelings, but I can't help her, so I can only accompany her silently. In order to spend more time with her, I didn't live in the school and rushed back from the school early in the afternoon.

From that day on, the house on the west side has begun to make plans for the marriage of the fourth brother and the second sister-in-law. The house on the second sister-in-law's side was also repainted, and the doors, windows and cabinets were also newly painted. New clothes, tents, and bedding filled the cupboards. Seeing that certain wedding date is getting closer and closer.

The second sister-in-law seems to have changed as a person, and there is no longer a clear and refreshing laugh, but often tears and secretly sad, and sometimes even does not say a word for a whole day. As the wedding day approached day by day, the second sister-in-law became more and more unable to hold her breath, and even a little restless, messed up, ran out twice for three days, and didn't know where she went, and often came back late at night.

That night, the second sister-in-law came back from abroad and told me that on the way to Beishan, she met a daughter-in-law who had married on the other side of the Sichuan Road. The daughter-in-law told her that Huang Lingchong's Yu Lao Qi took Xiaohong to live on the other side of Sichuan Road, and the Zheng family, who was married to Xiaohong, was packing up the new house and preparing to marry and run errands.

I couldn't help but be shocked, I thought no wonder I didn't see anyone in her family when I went to Huanglingchong these two times, presumably Yu Laoqian was using this method to separate Xiaohong from me, but I don't believe that Xiaohong would marry that person. The second sister-in-law shook her head and said, Shaolin, you are not too naïve, in this mountain, as long as you have money, there is nothing you can't do. Qinghewan's kidnapper Fusheng didn't spend 10,000 yuan, but he just married the Ying girl from Phoenix Ridge. I said, but Xiaohong is not the Ying girl from Phoenix Ridge. The second sister-in-law was obviously a little impatient, so she said, Shaolin, you are so precious, you don't know that Yu Lao Qi will not marry Xiaohong to you until he dies. I heard that my father and Xiaohong's mother were excellent lovers when they were young, and they eloped together, but they were soon arrested. For this reason, the Yu family and the Xu family became enemies. Do you think, can Yu Lao Qi marry his enemy?

The words of the second sister-in-law made me feel dizzy for a while, and I only felt that the whole world suddenly dimmed. It turns out that the world is not as beautiful as I imagined. So, I began to have doubts about many things that I had believed in the past, but I couldn't doubt the slightest bit about Xiaohong's true feelings.