"Pillars! Pillars ——......"

As smoke rose from the village at dusk, an old man stood on his back and shouted from outside an adobe wall.

"Nier, get outside and see if it's you, black man!" came the cry of an elderly woman from inside a thatched hut that was smoking.

At this moment, a dim oil lamp was lit in another mud-walled and tiled hall, and a little girl of seven or eight years old was lying on the table writing her homework, and ran out when she heard an "oh".

"Is it my black lord?" asked the little girl, standing on her feet and lying down in the crack of the door.

"Oh, is it Yingying?" asked the old man in a very pitiful voice. He is Meng Liujiao's very active master Hei Ju, known as "Old Heizi". In Meng Liujiao, no matter who the big or small things are, they can't get away from his operation, especially when they are close to the Dazhu family.

"My dad isn't at home,—— what are you looking for him?" asked Yingying, tilting her head.

"Oh...... I'm looking for him,—— he's not here, is he? I'll look for him, look for him, and if he comes later, you tell him to come up to me, huh?"

"Yo—— is it Lao Hei?" Yingying turned her head to look up at her grandmother, she was a little curious about the sound of her grandmother's speech, and then she heard her grandmother ask Lao Hei as if she had changed her tone: "What is the matter with what you have said? I can't get the things entrusted to you in this half of my life!

"Alas......" Lao Hei sighed when he heard this, lowered his head in a dejected manner, and said, "Don't put pressure on me! Haven't I been in charge all the time?—— I'm pretty sure! As soon as he finished speaking, he twisted his old and obscene head and took two steps.

"Oh...... Okay, are you still coming home for dinner?" asked Grandma.

"Oh......! I'm not going!" Lao Hei refused after hearing this, lowered his head and turned his face to leave: "I,...... I'm going home!" He muttered a little bit of a stutter in his mouth, and walked a few steps away before he could speak neatly: "...... When Zhu'er comes, tell him to find it, find me......"

Yingying covered the door, and ran over to ask grandma: "Grandma, what is the black master looking for my dad to do?——

"What are you doing?—— find you a mother!" said Grandma happily at first, "...... Although she is a widow and has a child, as long as she can live, she doesn't care what he does...... "The old mother is old, and she is happy one second, but the tears in the corners of her eyes cannot be hidden in the next second, and she wipes the old tears in the corners of her eyes with a big placket.

"Looking for a mother, does my father still want to marry a daughter-in-law?—— he's so old! Who has been with him?" Yingying said in surprise, "...... Grandma, will I have a mother in the future?"

"Look at you, you're surprised!" Seeing that she was so magical, the grandmother pointed a finger at her head, and smiled very disgustingly, and said, "In the future, you must be more obedient, so that your stepmother likes it so much!

"Yes, grandma, I must be obedient!!oh, I have a mother!oh! I have a mother!" Yingying danced happily.

For several days, Yingying couldn't hold back her happiness, her mouth couldn't close with happiness, and she couldn't help but tell Lily about this joy the next day, and Lily told Mingxia again. Yingying said: "I will have a mother like you when I catch up with Ming'er, and make me a flower schoolbag, and make me beautiful clothes......" Lily heard it and whispered to Yingying: "Yingying, I sue you, your mother is not dead, your mother is gone......" Yingying immediately retorted when she heard it: "No! Dead—— my mother is dead! My mother called a big old devil to eat, my grandmother said, I will never see her again!" Yingying said firmly and hard.

This beautiful wish has been longing for several days, Yingying is so happy that she sleeps with a happy mouth, however, when she came home from school at noon that day to see her stepmother Li Jinfeng for the first time, all her previous illusions about her mother seemed to be shattered all at once. Li Jinfeng's big face is not like her mother at all, although she smiled at her and brought her half a bowl of chicken to eat, Yingying ate the chicken quietly, still felt that she was rusty and indifferent, she was a little afraid of her, her mother was not like this, she was very different from the mother in her mind, although her grandmother said to her happily on the side: "Nier!

Yingying saw that there was also an eleven or twelve-year-old boy sitting with the adults in the hall, oh, then he is the elder brother? Yingying innocently thought that no matter what, her vision was still very beautiful.

Yingying was still eating, Niu Lili came to her school with a schoolbag, she saw Lily standing far away at the gate and eagerly "picked" and "picked" to finish eating, put down the chopsticks and ran outside, Liu Dazhu was talking about fur with the old black horse in the hall, and when he saw it, he was busy and said: "Little Nier!

Yingying heard it and turned around and asked her father, "Dad, what are you going to ?——do?"

"Wait a while, I'll take you there by bicycle!And your brother Huaibei, go to school!" Liu Dazhu said a little drunk, pointing at the boy.

Yingying listened, a little embarrassed for a while, she looked back at Lily standing at the door: "Then ——! Lily is still waiting for me here......" She pointed to Lily, meaning that she wanted to go with Lily.

Liu Dazhu glanced at her a few times, and finally waved at her: "Okay...... Let's go, let's go! I'll take Huaibei to ,—— that one later, Uncle Heizi, how about looking at these few furs I left?" Liu Dazhu said and pointed to the few furs on the edge of the cement tank placed on the door of the hall, and said confidently.

Seeing this, Yingying immediately ran towards the gate as if she had received a holy decree, and along the way, a group of children talked endlessly about the topic of Yingying having a new mother, Yingying felt like a proud little princess, even walking with her head held high, enjoying the pride and happiness of the central topic character. Lily is her best friend, it can be said that the two are inseparable, and she is as happy as if she felt it herself. Mingxia also played behind them, but they didn't wait to see her, so Mingxia quietly slipped away alone. There is an unspeakable secret in Mingxia, which makes her an alternative in the eyes of adults or in the world of children of the same age, and she is also very conscious, she walks away if people don't play with her. Lily and Yingying fell behind as they walked, and ran out into the sky to catch butterflies and pick wildflowers. Seeing that the people on the road passed by in groups, they were still playful.

"Look at the old woman on the road, look at the two of us!" said Lily, picking flowers. "Yes, I saw it too, what does she always look at the two of us?" Yingying said suspiciously, and turned back to look, she also saw the woman after a while, thinking that she had already passed, but who knew that she did not leave, but sat down next to the ditch. Yingying saw a lake-green scarf on her head, and she covered her face so tightly. At this moment, the sound of the preparatory bell rang from the school not far away, and the two of them seemed to run towards the school as if they were aware of it. At this time, Liu Dazhu came over on a bicycle, with Huaibei behind him, and shouted from afar: "Little Nier——! you two are still playing with me on the way?—— hurry up! Hurry up and send me to school, see if I don't ask the teacher to punish you two——" Yingying and Lily "giggled" and ran towards the school with a "giggle...... laughing, and they looked back while running, and saw that the woman just now also got up and left,—— It's not walking, it's running fast in the sky, and when they were about to run to the school gate, Yingying looked back strangely, her father Liu Dazhu actually got out of the car, and stood lonely in the loess looking at the direction of the woman's speed, Yingying just ran in a hurry, and at this time her ears seemed to echo her father's shout to the woman just now: "Lin Hong——"

Huaibei entered the fourth grade and became the largest and most old-fashioned student in the class, in the same class as Xiaojun and Xiaowei, but he was more than half a head higher than them, but his grades were a mess, so he slowly became the object of ridicule from teachers and classmates.

"Bell bell, bell bell......" school is out, so the children on the small roads in the field actually run one after another, and the silver bell-like children's sound permeates the four fields, some play pickups, some play slippers, and some run hoops...... Xiaojun and Xiaowei were playing pickups, Yingying was not interested in boys' games, she was also crowded in the crowd because of her "brother" Huaibei, and she was embarrassed to call him, so she also crowded in the crowd to watch them play, only to see Xiaojun and Xiaowei all playing heartily and sweating profusely. At this time, I heard someone say: "Meng Xiaojun took the double hundred!" So everyone admired them even more, and they ran even more, and they went to the small ditch for a while, and then they turned to the main road, so they played until it was dark and everyone gradually left, Yingying blushed and walked to Huaibei and shouted: "Brother Huaibei,...... Are you going home?" and although she felt very ugly and awkward, she still felt very fresh and happy.

"Oh!" Huaibei said yes and walked back, followed by Yingying. The two walked one after the other for a while, Huaibei secretly turned his head and glanced back, Yingying hurriedly twisted her face to the side excitedly, and then the two walked forward one after the other, she looked at Huaibei's somewhat rough back, and felt that although it was a little awkward, but after all, she had a brother from now on!

When she got home, Yingying shouted a long time: "Grandma——!"

Li Jinfeng came out of the house, saw them and asked, "Are you both out of school?"

Yingying's face turned red when she saw Li Jinfeng: "Well, it's ...... after school" She remembered what her grandmother taught her how to call her "Mom" at noon, in fact, she really wanted to shout in her heart, but when the words came to her mouth, she couldn't open her mouth, and then she was surprised to hear Huaibei shout kissingly, "My mother!" The mother and son were kissing together under the jujube tree.

Yingying blushed and walked into the east room to sit on the bed, her heart was beating inexplicably, it was dark, she knew that they would not see her blushing, thinking like this, she saw Li Jinfeng standing under the old jujube tree in the yard through the dusk of the night and helping Huaibei take down the schoolbag and hang it on the jujube branch, Huaibei was nestled in his mother's arms, and Li Jinfeng's hand stroked his son's head with infinite pity. Yingying could even hear his mother and son whispering under the old jujube tree: "Can you understand when you go to school?" Huaibei lay motionless in Li Jinfeng's arms: "Some can, some can't!" "Do all the children in the class play with you?" "No, my mother, do you know no, there is a person in my class named Meng Xiaojun who scored 100 points in both subjects......

Yingying looked at it and fell into bed, her heart was depressed as if she was going to die, so until it was time to eat dinner, grandma came to call her in the dark, her heart was still depressed lying on her stomach and didn't want to move, she didn't understand, why everyone else had a mother but she didn't, how good it would be if she had a mother! The moon rose outside the window, and a bright moonlight poured down on her cheeks through the ancient panes, and Yingying couldn't help but look up at the window, where a bright crescent moon hung in the vast night sky. Grandma said that her mother was a bad woman, don't think about her, Yingying looked at the silver moonlight outside the window, and the young heart was flooded with a trace of inexplicable sadness.

"My little Nizi, what's the matter?" Grandma climbed into bed after dinner, and smiled affectionately in front of Yingying, revealing her shriveled chin.

"It's not —— to do anything" Yingying twisted her face and muttered angrily, grandma said that her mother was a bad woman, and she didn't tell her if she thought about her, so she didn't tell her if she thought about it; suddenly she had an idea, and turned her face to ask grandma, "Grandma, did you have a mother when you were young?"

"Foolish! Who can live without ——a mother when he was a child?" Speaking of this, she suddenly stopped, knowing that she was leaving, and then she said that she would leave! No matter how old a person is, as long as he mentions his mother, he is not infinitely melancholy! Grandma then said: "My mother is the daughter of a big family, with a drill, her hair is always combed in a mess, and the three-inch golden lotus is just such a small tree, alas...... It's a pity that there are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is the greatest! My mother didn't give me a brother and brother, and I was angry with my grandmother all my life. My grandmother is more mouthful than my third aunt,—— my third aunt is just holding a chrome bun embryo, and I can't see any flowers, and I beat Ying'er's scalp like a cotton peach all day long, one pimple after another...... At that time, Ying'er was young, only thirteen or fourteen years old......"

Yingying listened to her grandmother and listened to her talk about the past people all day long, but she couldn't figure it out: "Grandma, the Ying'er mother you are talking about, is it Sister Yuelan's mother?"

"Yes, it's the eldest mother——! she was very handsome when she was a child, only a few years old, followed her mother to the countryside to ask for food, and she became the child daughter-in-law of our Liu family, at the age of fourteen, she didn't know where the home was, she couldn't find a home, and her mother didn't come to see her, and taught me three aunts all day long to twist all over her body and a piece of purple, at that time, I was a big family together, not separated, the old man spoke is a day, I don't dare to ask anything, I do what I say! Unlike now, the world has changed, and the daughter-in-law dares to quarrel and scold her mother-in-law, and maybe she will fight against her......"

"Oh...... So many people in our family used to live together?" Yingying said with infinite fascination as she lay on the bed with a pair of big eyes flashing, she had left all her previous depression behind.

"That's right——! once upon a time,...... Yingying knew that she would have to listen to her grandmother tell the history of the past again this night, and in that poor living environment, listening to her grandmother tell the past in pieces or sporadically every day, it seemed to have become an indelible memory of her childhood.

Grandma said that Meng Liujiao was originally called Meng Laozhuang, Meng Laocai, the rich man of Meng Laozhuang, and the land of his family was within a radius of dozens of miles, and the old lady surnamed Liu fled from Henan to this place, so he became a tenant of the Meng family. As soon as the busy season arrived, the surname Liu set up a saddle in the south of Zhuangnan and lived temporarily, of course, there were other surnames, the Niu family, the Zong family, the Hu family and other families were also tenants who came one after another. It's just that the Liu family came more, and slowly the power of the surname Liu grew, and later, the second Liu of the Liu family pulled a team outside and started a ringing horse, because he was dissatisfied with the wealth of the Meng family, he picked up foreign guns and foreign cannons and copied dozens of people of the Meng family. Grandma said that Lao Hei was the only one left with him, and Meng Laocai's little wife took the child back to her parents' house to escape the catastrophe, which was also many years later Meng Laocai's brother who opened a salt shop in Bengbu bet with others and lost all his family business and returned to his hometown, and Lao Hei dared to recognize his ancestors and return to his ancestors. At that time, Liu Laoer's ringing horse team didn't know where it went again, and it is said that since he killed Meng Laocai's whole family, he was in exile. The old Liu family and the old Meng family who stayed have always been evenly matched antagonists, so for many years, as if the dynasty has changed, you sing and I will appear, as far as the former chief of the guard, the captain of the production team, and then to the current cadres of the brigade, which one is not all vigorously scrambling. In the past, there was an old kiln in Menglaozhuang, and later the Liu family also opened a kiln in the south lake of Zhuang, calling themselves Liujiayao, but Liujiayao closed down when it was opened, and even the person surnamed Liu went to the northwest river to burn the kiln. Gradually, Meng Yao and Liu Yao were unified, and after a long time, the name of the village was changed to Meng Liu Yao. In addition, several in-laws were later connected, and the relationship between the two surnames was no longer so antagonistic. However, looking at the general trend, the incense surnamed Liu is not vigorous, from the old Liu family from top to bottom, it seems that the original Xiangma is not to mention, it is unknown whether it is lost or exiled; Liu Dazhu's grandfather and brother are two, the eldest gave birth to three sons, the eldest son has no children; the second son gave birth to five daughters, two sons, and died of a daughter and a son before becoming an adult; the third son gave birth to two, a son, and then down, a single family, and then it is even more scarce, Liu Kaiyi's four daughters were stunned that they didn't see their children's faces, Liu Dazhu married a few daughters-in-law, but only gave birth to Yingying, a little girl; the second one is only round, and it is okay, and in the past few years, he has followed the fur, and he has become a small figure in the three or five villages nearby, giving birth to a boy and a girl, both children and daughters, and the days are oily and moist; and there is a room that is a small light, that year I bought a little barbarian from other places to see that she was too fine, and the trafficker gave her a strange injection, saying that it was good after that, but it was not good, and she always wanted to go back to her home but she couldn't remember where her home was, so she beat her chest and tore her hair, and her body was covered with new and old scars, and her scalp was also pulled off into a lock and could not happen again, and she was pregnant twice and finally had an abortion because of her crazy behavior every time she got sick.

The Meng family is prosperous. Not to mention anything else, Meng Xiangkun, the secretary of the single brigade, has five brothers, and there are three children below Meng Xiangkun. Meng Xiangkun grew up, he became the commander of the militia battalion at the age of 18 when he was young, and then he worked as the secretary of the old brigade for many years, and he was stunned that he had never changed; the third and fourth children followed the second child to pound leather goods, and the life was all over, and the fifth child was on duty at the town police station, and in his spare time, he also participated in the fur business of the brothers and made some surplus money. Meng Xiangkun's eldest son Zhenguo became the deputy director of the police station in the town, the second son Zhendong just got married, and the third son Zhenhua is still serving in the army.