When the woman ran to the backyard, she was still holding a bubble of urine, and she didn't feel the urgency of excretion. She didn't see the old man. The old man is not in the backyard, nor is he in the cattle pen. There are no more cows in the cattle pen. There is still unfinished grass left in the cow trough. There was a pile of fresh cow dung in the cattle pen. The cattle pen without the cow shows an unprecedented limp of emptiness. The woman's legs were really weak and she was about to sit on the ground. She screamed, "Oh my cow!" and as soon as her eyes were dark, she clung to the wall of the ring and collapsed to the ground.

When the woman's eyes were reopened, she hurried out of the cattle pen, and the fence of the backyard had been broken through a large gap large enough for the huge cows to pass through. Oh my God, it takes a lot of time to tear open such a big gap! The bricks on this wall are scrap and broken bricks that my son got back as garbage from a demolished bankrupt factory. To pick up these broken bricks, and do not allow to make a sound, it takes a long time, but the family is asleep, a thief calmly demolishes the wall and moves bricks, twists the lock to open the door and pulls the cow, it is really dead to sleep!

Outside the wall is a field of wheat. At the end of the wheat field is a field path, a narrow path shared by farmers to fertilize and hoe grass and harvest wheat. There is a thick layer of frost flowers falling on the wheat seedlings, faintly showing the two lines of new footprints of the old man Guo Zhenmou, the hoof prints of the cow and the footprints of the cattle thief seem to be invisible, and they are covered by the frost flowers, proving that the cow was stolen before the middle of the night at the latest. The woman looked towards the vast wheat field, and saw the old man coming from the bend of the small road to the main road, and he must have followed the clues.

The woman saw that when the old man stood in front of him, his forehead and face were covered with sweat, and wisps of white gas were steaming, like white gas coming from the lid of a boiling kettle on a stove. On such a cold day, in the early morning of such a cold day, there are still such large particles of sweat, and there is such a gas like a pot boiling in a pot, it can be seen how much strength the old man has in his heart, or how weak his heart is. "Wipe the sweat away. You're struggling - we are the most important. "A woman is a woman after all. After all, women are softer than men. The woman is the first to weigh out the weight and weight of the man and the ox. The woman also unambiguously figured out the weight and position of herself and the old man. She put aside the tragic incident that had just happened to her eyes blackened and collapsed to the ground, and sincerely cared for her dear and poor old man.

"The oxen were pulled out of this wheat field. Didn't take the trail. He walked diagonally through this wheat field and walked to the main road. Of course, the thief had to take a shortcut, and there was no sound when he walked in the wheat field. Guo Zhenmou analyzed and judged, "There is a bubble of cow urine in the wheat field of Ergou's house, and it is ten steps long to pee, and the cow urinates while walking." Of course, the thief wouldn't let the cow stop and pee before leaving. On the main road, there was a pile of cow dung, which was kicked and trampled in a mess. The cow was pushed onto the tractor there, and there were tractor rut marks. Cow poop is trampled on by thieves when they get cattle onto a tractor. Of course, the thief only cared about getting the cow on the tractor and fleeing the scene as soon as possible, and he didn't care about stepping on the cow's! Besides, it was too dark. ”

"What should we do?" said the woman, "what should we do?"

Although the path of the thief and the stolen cow was clearly surveyed, and although the ruts of the cow urine and cow and the tractor were analyzed, Guo Zhenmou seemed to be a person with a clear head and no lack of ideas, but when his wife asked "what to do", he unconsciously asked or asked himself the same sentence: What to do? In fact, in the course of following the clues between the cow and the thief in the wheat field, he had already thought of one urgent measure after another, but when the woman asked him for advice, he did not say one, but immediately thought of his son. In his subconscious, all major family moves must be discussed with his son in order to get affirmation or denial, and finally make a decision. When did the era of his words in this family end, or when did the translocation occur, I can't remember or tell, anyway, it has already irretrievably formed the current family pattern. He seemed to think of his son at this moment. When such a major family disaster occurred, he didn't see his son's face, and he asked his wife unreasonably: "Where are the scales?"

"Still asleep. The woman said.

"It's all happening, and I'm still sleeping!"

"Xingxuwa doesn't know yet. ”

Guo Zhenmou walked into the back room from the backyard, walked through the hall, and went out of the front door of the back room, standing in the yard, facing the back window of the front room, he couldn't help but raise his voice and shout: "Scales!"

"Hey. "There was a sound coming from the new windows of the new house.

"The cow was stolen by thieves!"

"I know. ”

"You know you can't get up yet?"

"It's been stolen, and it's useless for me to get up late or sooner. ”

"Hey......" Guo Zhenmou smacked his right fist into the palm of his left palm, and said to the woman angrily, "Listen! You listen to this! It's like stealing the cow next door—if you steal the cow next door, you should also care about the situation......

A calm, almost cold voice came from the window: "No matter if our cattle are next door, if the thief steals it, there will be no more, and whoever cares about it will not care about anything, the cow is gone." ”

Guo Zhenmou thought to himself, although the words are the same thing, although the matter is also the same thing, but it seems that ordinary people don't say this. However, the son weighed and said so. That's how he usually talks about things. When did he start talking like this on this dog day, Guo Zhenmou can't remember. His hot sweat had dried, the steam on his head had long since subsided, his nervous heart and legs and feet that had been puffed up by excessive tension were gradually slackening, and his sweaty skin seemed to be soaked in water. He wanted to go back to the back room. The son walked over while buttoning up his coat.

"You have to think of a way, right?" said Lao Tzu, "we can't lose the cow, we don't even say a word and don't run a single way, right?"

"I can't think of a solution. The son said, "Do you have any good way to say it, I can also talk to me." ”

"You've got to look for it. ”

"Where can I find it?"

"Livestock market. And also...... Entrust relatives, friends, acquaintances, and so many of your classmates, let them pay attention to see whose trough has added a new cow, and we will secretly investigate. ”

"I can tell you 100 percent – Dad, the cows are in the slaughterhouse. I'm not sure where it is, but it's in the slaughterhouse. There are two slaughterhouses in the county, and five on the outskirts of the city, killing pigs, sheep, and cattle, as well as donkeys, and delivering goods to the small restaurants in Xi'an. All the animals that were sent to their slaughterhouses were usually killed as they went, and they didn't even have troughs to feed the animals. The slaughterhouse boss didn't ask the pigs, sheep, cows, and donkeys from which way they came from - the self-raised, sold or stolen, just pinched the fat and thin, and judged the price by quality. The owner of the slaughterhouse is more willing to buy the stolen cattle, sheep, pigs, and donkeys, and the thief is in a hurry to make a move, and the thief can buy them at a lower price if he has no money...... Now that you find the slaughterhouse, you can't even recognize the cowhides, and besides, the boss won't allow you to rummage through them. ”

"Holy shit!" Lao Tzu wrote.

"Where are the thieves who steal cattle and raise them for themselves?" said the son, "and the thieves now are also modern minds who seize time and speed." ”

Guo Zhenmou was bored there, and he had a cold war.

The wife suggested going back to the house to talk.

The family of three returned to the back room where the old couple lived, after all, it was much warmer than in the yard. Father and son sat down across from the small fire. The woman made tea for her husband and son, making the glasses clange.

"You have to report the case to the police station, right?" said Lao Tzu.

"It's okay to report it, and it's nothing if you don't report it. The result of reporting and not reporting is the same. The son said.

This is a fact that Guo Zhenmou himself knows. Thefts of sheep, pigs and cattle are common in the village, as well as in neighboring villages. The owner of the stolen farmer reported the case to the police station, and if he was fine, he would come and inspect it, ask about the situation, record it in the notebook, take a picture of the wall that had been dug up, and then say wait, if other cases are solved in the future, this case may be brought out. As a result, not a single case of theft in this village and in neighboring villages was brought out. Guo Zhenmou still couldn't help but say: "Let's report it! Maybe there is luck that has been brought out, and it doesn't matter if you lose money or not, let people understand in their hearts what kind of thief they are." ”

"The cow is no longer angry, and it is the same for the clear and unclear mind. The son said, "The bare-faced thief, the pockmarked thief, the village thief, the thief from the outside, are all thieves, you find out which one is boring - the cow is gone." ”

"Don't you have a classmate who works as a public security officer in the city?" Guo Zhenmou suddenly remembered this important relationship, and was angry that he only remembered this important relationship at this time, "Let him tell the police station about it, and let the police station take this matter as a matter." ”

"It didn't work. The son said, "Of course you can do it." But if you think about it, a cow is worth 2,000 yuan at most, and how much does the police at the police station have to spend on this small case? It costs more than 2 yuan to drive a police car with a kilogram of gasoline. Even if the thief is caught, 2,000 yuan will be sentenced to a few days of detention at most, and then released. The police station spent so much money and worked so hard and suffered so much, is it just to give you a clear heart?"

"Hah! The world has really become obscure. A cow of more than 2,000 yuan is worth reporting if it is lost. At that time, whoever lost a chicken, the chicken thief would be criticized and beaten. Guo Zhenmou thought that "at that time" there were a lot of words, "At that time, pigs ran on the streets, chickens were also running all over the streets and alleys, and the cattle of the production team were not tied to the pen at night in summer, but spent the night under the trees, and no one dared to steal even a cow's hair." Now it's good, digging the wall to pull the cow not only no one tracks down, but also says that the discount of the cow you lost is too little to be checked, which is really a long insight. ”

"Don't you often say that you don't have enough to eat every year, 'back then'? Don't you often say that you and my mother are both hungry and swollen?" the son said with a joking look in his eyes, "Why did you just lose a cow and want to go back to the production team to live a life where you only earn money and don't have enough to eat?"

"I didn't say I'm hungry. Guo Zhenmou retorted to the proud son, "But there were really not so many thieves at that time." ”

"This thief who steals cattle and sheep is nothing, little thief. ”

"Hah! ”

"It's not that I'm angry, it's that you only herd cattle and farm from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and you don't know anything. I will scare you to death by saying those big thieves—" said the son, "robbing the bank with a gun, and taking away the bills in bundles and boxes, is this thief big? A governor and a mayor have embezzled and accepted bribes of tens of millions and hundreds of millions, is this thief big? Your cow is worth 2,000 yuan, you can weigh the big and the small!"

"No matter how small it is, it's a thief! No matter how small it is, it's a cow that I raised!" Guo Zhenmou still couldn't solve it in his heart, "You can't say that a thief who steals cattle is not a thief!"

"It's a thief, it's a thief to steal more and steal less. The son said, "A thief stole a string of hemp money, and a thief stole the emperor's treasury, of course, you have to catch the thief who stole the vault and the silver vault first—do you say you still want to go to the police station to report the case?"

Guo Zhenmou lowered his head, smoked his cigarette pouch, still lingering, and asked his son: "Is this the end? If you lose it, you will lose it, and if you steal it, you will steal it in vain?"

"It's over. That's it. Don't talk about it again. The son said, "Don't you still have to go to the market to sell carrots? ”

The old man Guo Zhenmou held his head again, and couldn't say anything more.

"The thief wants to celebrate the New Year, too!" said his son.