Midyear Festival.

The sun shines on people at seven or eight o'clock in the morning, and it is hot.

A concrete-paved country road, lined with farmland, there are diligent early risers doing farm work, or breaking corn or digging the ground, occasionally stopping to laugh with their neighbors and take a break to catch their breath.

At the end of the road hurried two anxious-looking women, one was an old man wearing long sleeves of red cotton silk, her hair was already a little gray, and she was dragging a large black suitcase in her hand, which seemed to be very heavy when she looked struggling.

She took a breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead, and said to the woman wearing a floral skirt with a red background next to her: "I haven't arrived after walking for so long, is it the wrong place to go to the fork in the road before?"

The woman in the floral dress was about twenty-five or sixteen, pushing a stroller that was tightly covered. She looked haggard, and when she heard this, she stopped and took out her mobile phone to look at the navigation. Because it is rural, the house number is not as strict as in the city, and the navigation is not so clear.

The floral skirt looked around and said, "I'll go find someone to ask for directions, Mom, you are optimistic about Xuanxuan." ”

The old woman hummed, took out a straw cup from under the stroller, opened the lid and tried to lift the curtain of the stroller, but was stopped by the floral dress.

The floral skirt was a little angry, snatched the water cup and stuffed it into the old woman's hand, and complained: "Mom, the old fairy has said, Xuanxuan can't see the sun now, what if you feed him water and the sun throws it in?!"

The old woman blamed herself with a face: "It's my mother who is confused and didn't think clearly, you go and ask someone first, I will guard here, and I will never let Xuan Xuan see a little bit of sunshine!"

Before she could say something, a white family car honked from behind, interrupting her words.

When the car drove past the two of them, the floral skirt told the old woman again before she found an old peasant woman who looked more kind and asked, "Hello, may I ask if the fourth group of Shanao Village is in this direction?"

The old peasant woman was hoeing, and when she heard this, she stopped her hoe and pointed to the direction of the car: "Go down this road, there is a three-way intersection in front, just turn left." ”

She said quickly and vaguely, and it took several times for the floral skirt to hear clearly.

The floral skirt thanked her, and then asked, "Then do you know that there is a family surnamed Geng, who lives there?"

"The surname Geng?" The old peasant woman thought for a while, shook her head and said, "There are many surnames in Shanao Village, but there is really no surname Geng. After speaking, he also asked the person who was doing farm work next to him. The man shook his head to indicate that he hadn't heard.

The floral skirt was anxious, and said with a gesture: "It's what they say is very godly, and they catch the family who is very powerful!"

"Oh!" the old peasant woman suddenly realized: "You mean Zhou Xianpo, yes, yes, it is in the mountain col village, but she does not live in the village, she lives on the mountainside with her mute son, do you see the mountain behind, follow this path, look up from the foot of the mountain, the only house on the mountainside is her home." ”

The floral dress faintly felt that something was wrong, but there was no other way, so she walked back and whispered to the old woman, and still pushed the stroller to the path.

The path was rugged, and the children inside seemed to be awakened, and they chirped twice and then lost their voices.

The old peasant woman watched the two of them leave and was about to continue her work, when the person next to her suddenly asked, "Was that car just now a child from the Xia family?" Isn't her daughter-in-law surnamed Geng?"

The old peasant woman spat twice into the palm of her hand and waved her hoe: "What about the surname Geng, his daughter-in-law has already died!"

If you don't hurry up, it won't be easy to do the work in the field when the weather is hot.

Xia Yanbo parked the car in the yard in front of his house, and as soon as he got out of the car, he saw his father playing mahjong in the hall with a few village elders.

He carried the contents of the trunk into the kitchen and greeted several elderly people as he greeted them.

"Hikohiro!"

"Hey, Aunt Five. Xia Yanbo was washing grapes in the kitchen, and only answered loudly.

The fifth aunt said: "Your father said that your family has installed a monitor for him, so that you can see him and talk to him by connecting to your mobile phone?"

Xia Yanbo took out the washed grapes in a tray and distributed them to everyone, and said, "There are two of them, one in the living room at the door." ”

He pointed to a corner of the house, on which a conspicuous camera was hanging: "Shiyuan was worried that something would happen to my father, so he happened to be on summer vacation, so he bought it for her to install." ”

Several people pushed the mahjong to the middle of the table, and the automatic mahjong machine was replaced with a pair of mahjong that had been washed, and the fifth aunt said while holding the cards: "Is that thing expensive? ”

Xia Yanbo said: "I heard Shiyuan say that it is not very expensive, and it seems that the two are only about 500 yuan." ”

"Yo, that's not expensive, is it?"

Xia Yanbo only smiled.

Old Man Xia played a card and said to Xia Yanbo in disgust: "Go cook, don't delay us playing mahjong!"

Xia Yanbo took the opportunity to say goodbye to several elders and went to the kitchen to wash and scrub and prepare to cook.

The fifth aunt said to Old Man Xia: "You are eighteen this year, and her mother has been gone for so many years in a blink of an eye." ”

Another old man glared at her: "Just concentrate on playing mahjong, are you worthy of this mahjong machine?"

As soon as the fifth aunt said something, she felt that something was wrong, and there happened to be a bamboo pole for her to slide down, so she said: "If I get serious, don't go back to the third sister to ask for money if you lose!"

The words made several people lean forward and backwards.

After a few rounds, the smell of food was already coming from the kitchen, and the fifth aunt said: "The last round, I will go back to cooking after the fight!"

The old man who glared at her just now said: "What to cook, let the fifth brother cook it for you, it's so tiring to build the Great Wall, let him make something delicious for you to make up." ”

The fifth aunt was about to throw him with a mahjong in her hand, when she heard a soft question from the door of the house: "Is this the Geng family?"

As soon as these words came out, all the people present stopped moving, and there was only the slight sound of mahjong machine washing mahjong.

Old Man Xia was the first to react, touched a card and said casually: "You are looking for the wrong one." ”

The floral skirt took a step back and looked at the house number on the lintel, and after careful confirmation, she said to Old Man Xia: "That's right, No. 14, Group 4, Col Village, is here." ”

The fifth aunt glanced at the kitchen before saying to the floral skirt: "To say that you are wrong is to find the wrong one, where to go, don't delay us playing mahjong here!"

The obvious impatience in the fifth aunt's words was clearly conveyed to the ears of the two people at the door of the house.

The old woman begged: "My grandson has a strange disease, and we have found countless doctors in the past year but we can't cure it, and we have no choice, and finally we begged others to find here, we are bankrupt for this child, not to mention that we still owe a lot of foreign debts, and the child is still so young, please save him!"

The old woman knelt on the ground as she spoke, and the floral dress tried to pull her up, but she couldn't.

The fifth aunt was startled, and the mahjong in her hand was played out without thinking, and she regretted wanting to pick it up as soon as she threw it on the table, but was stopped by another old man: "There is no regret when you land!"

The fifth aunt didn't get entangled, but only said to the old woman: "If the child is sick, go to the doctor, feudal superstition is unacceptable." ”

The old woman said sadly: "My son-in-law wants to divorce my daughter for this child, but in the end, it is the meat that fell from her, how can I be reluctant to give up, eldest sister, you are also a mother, you say, which mother can see the child suffer so much and be indifferent?"

Old Man Xia said: "I said that you are looking for a mistake, go quickly, otherwise you will ......"

Xia Yanbo poked his head out of the kitchen and asked, "Dad, who is it?"

Old Man Xia disguised and said, "No one, passing by and asking for directions." ”

The floral skirt hurriedly shouted: "May I ask if you are Mr. Geng?"

The smile on Xia Yanbo's face froze, and he stared at the floral skirt word by word and asked, "Who asked you to come here?"

Seeing him like this, the floral skirt thought that it was him who was looking for someone, and hurriedly said: "It was said by an old fairy surnamed Wang in the city, saying that only Mr. Geng can save my son......"

"Get out. Xia Yanbo interrupted her in a cold tone.

He was wearing a simple white short-sleeved T-shirt, blue jeans, a black coarse cloth apron, and a spatula in his hand.

The fifth aunt threw the mahjong in her hand: "I'm losing to death, don't fight!"

The other two also got up and said, "I've cooked the rice in the house, and if I don't go back, I'll be scolded, so I'll leave first." ”

The three of them said goodbye to Old Man Xia and left.

The old woman was at a loss, she was stunned for a while, and she walked two steps on her knees and wanted to enter the door, but Xia Yanbo's eyes swept over: "If you dare to enter the door, I will call the police, saying that you are human traffickers, and the children inside are abducted by you, get out!"

The floral skirt hurriedly stretched out her hand to protect the stroller, and the old woman turned her pleading gaze to Old Man Xia.

Old Man Xia sat silently, playing with two mahjong cards in his hand, as if he hadn't seen everything that was happening in front of him.

Xia Yanbo shouted violently: "Get out!"

Although he is middle-aged, he usually exercises properly, has a tall figure, and can scare people when his face is full of anger.

The old woman still begged him, and after glancing at the floral skirt helplessly, she could only stand up and leave.