"Is it okay to marry you as a mother-in-law?"

Zhang Xiaopaw only felt as if a cloud was dragging his feet, and his body flew up lightly, flying into the nine skies, fluttering, like a dream.

Que'er thought that she would immediately get Zhang Xiaopaw's happy consent, but after waiting for a long time, she didn't hear Zhang Xiaopaw's squeak, and her pounding heart suddenly sank, her nose was sore, tears fell down, and she choked up: "I knew that you were just pitiful to our orphans and widows and treated me well, and you didn't really like me at all, but my mother said that you liked me and would marry me as a mother-in-law." Woo-"

The whimper of the finch woke up Zhang Xiaopaw, and he hurriedly wiped the tears of the finch and smiled happily: "Who said I don't like you, I like a hundred and a thousand in my heart, and I like to dream of marrying you as a mother-in-law." Don't cry, if you cry, your makeup will become a little cat. ”

"Then why didn't you just say it?" asked Que'er suspiciously, suspecting that Zhang Xiaopaw pretended to like her in order to make her happy.

Zhang Xiaopaw scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "Happiness came too suddenly, it made me dizzy, and I didn't react for a while." ”

"Silly!" the finch glanced at him, but his heart was as sweet as honey.

After the boy and girl pierced the hazy window paper and confided their true feelings, they fell into the whirlpool of honey for a while, looking at each other, with affection, silent and sound.

"Brother Pawn—" Still the finch woke up from the sweet whirlpool first, broke the silence, and asked, "I remember you have a dog skin at home, right?"

"Yes, it's in the Westinghouse. Zhang Xiaopaw said.

"Go and get it, and I'll sew you a pair of knee pads. I heard that it is very cold in the mountains at night, so you should tie your legs when you sleep so as not to hurt your legs by the cold. Finch said.

"Hey, okay. I'll get it. Zhang Xiaopaw felt warm in his heart, and said that it was good to have a mother-in-law at home.

The finch was doing needlework, and Zhang Xiaopaw was sitting on the side, holding his cheeks with both hands, staring at the finch without blinking, like a fool. was kicked by a finch, and then put away a silly look.

"Que'er, when you have a coming-of-age ceremony next year, I will ask the matchmaker to go to your house with a dowry to propose marriage. ”

"Yes. ”

"Now that there is a drought, life is not easy, but don't worry, gritting your teeth and getting through it is a good day. ”

"Yes. ”

"Next year, when the wind and rain are good, I plan to reclaim another three acres, oh no, another five acres of wasteland. Counting my existing land, we have ten acres of land. ”

"Don't get tired. ”

"Hehe, don't you know me, if you don't have anything else, only an inexhaustible strength. ”

"I'll help you. ”

"I also plan to go to the mountains to dig stones when the farming is slack, let's turn this mud and straw house into stone, I heard that all the rich people in the county live in stone houses, warm in winter and cool in summer, and live in it comfortably. Let's add two more rooms, and let Auntie and Xiaoci move in together. ”

"Listen to you. ”

"When the days get better, let's get some more chickens and ducks to raise, and then a pigsty-"

Zhang Xiaopaw talked about his plans for the future days one by one, and the finch listened quietly while doing needlework, answering from time to time. Speaking of the highlights, the corners of the two mouths are raised high, and they have infinite expectations for the future.

In the kitchen, while making cakes, Que Erniang listened to Zhang Xiaopaw's future plan while crying like rain. She knew that her daughter had found a good home, unlike herself, who married a short-lived ghost, and her life passed in such a mess.

In the evening, the finch mother took the finch away, and it seemed that she also took away half of Zhang Xiaopaw's soul.

As soon as it was dark, Niu Dawa came, carrying a hunting knife in his hand and giving it to Zhang Xiaopaw, saying that his father specially tailored it for Zhang Xiaopaw.

The knife is more than one arm long, the blade is dark, glowing with cold light, the blade is wide and thin, it is very sharp at a glance, and the back of the knife is thick. Zhang Xiaopai weighed it in his hand, the whole knife weighed sixty or seventy pounds, such a heavy knife, he was the only one in the whole village to use it, and he liked the heaviness when chopping.

As a thank you, Zhang Xiaopaw forced Niu Dawa to give ten cakes.

Niu Dawa just left on the front foot, and Li Rongxi arrived on the back foot, carrying wine and vegetables in his hand. There is only half a pot of wine, and there is only one dish, but it is hearty, and the pickles are fried with dried meat, and the hard dishes are really good.

Zhang Xiaopaw didn't give in to hypocrisy, and Li Rongxi took a sip and drank half a pot of wine. The first time he drank, he fainted after a few sips, grinning and bragging to Li Rongxi. Li Rongxi is also a person who can't drink, and he blows his sleeves and Zhang Xiaopaw.

Zhang Xiaopaw said that his feet were the smelliest in the village, and Li Rongxi was quite unconvinced, saying that his own was the smelliest. In the end, the two simply took off their shoes and sniffed each other, and after smelling it, they were immediately convinced, and they invariably gave each other a thumbs up.

March 22.

At seven o'clock in the evening, the sunset in the west mountain, the sunset was like fire, igniting the entire sky and reflecting the mountains of the earth.

In a gentle mountain recess, a bonfire was lit. Around the campfire, thirty men sat around, each munching on dry food, silent, and depressed.

This group of people is not an outsider, it is the hunting team from Liujia Village.

Today was the second day of their entry into the mountains, and in the past two days they had climbed ten mountains and hunted dozens of places, but they did not even see a single mouse, as if all the living creatures in the entire mountain forest had died. Hunting again and again with zero receipts, like a basin of cold water poured on their heads, extinguished their pride and longing when they set off, so that their morale was very low.

"Lao Niu, say a few words to boost the big guys. Li Dashan broke the silence and said to Niu Yao, the father of the eldest baby, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, and a sly smile was aroused, as if he had expected the zero receipt in the past two days.

Niu Yao filled a pot of tobacco, took out a piece of firewood from the bonfire, lit a cigarette pouch and took two puffs, and then said unhurriedly: "What are you talking about? What is there to talk about? The mountains on the periphery have long been hollowed out by us and the people of several other villages. ”

"Then what are we tossing around blindly for the past two days, it is in vain to eat food, we should go straight to the mountains. Niu Dawa was dissatisfied and complained, thinking that there was something wrong with his father, the hunting captain.

Zhang Xiaopaw and many others also had the same doubts as Niu Dawa, and looked at Niu Yao in puzzlement.

"Hmph" Niu Yao snorted coldly twice with a smoke ring, pointed to Niu Dawa, Zhang Xiaopaw and a few other young generations, and said: "Let you dig out the bird's nest to dig voles, catch rabbits and pheasants, and go down to the river to catch fish and shrimp, you can have one top two." But do you know how to hunt, how to cooperate, what to do if you catch jackals, tigers, leopards and other fierce beasts?"

Zhang Xiaopaw and other young people suddenly realized that the purpose of the two-day hunting was not to prey at all, but to let them, the young juniors, master the hunting skills as soon as possible through actual combat. No wonder Niu Yao and several other old hunters have been so angry in the past two days, yelling and scolding at them, and even pumping them with tree sticks, it turns out that they are teaching them hunting experience.

"It's called sharpening the knife and not cutting wood. Niu Yao said. After taking a few puffs of cigarette pot, he continued: "Looking at the last hunt this afternoon, you have basically mastered the skills of hunting, so we will not practice tomorrow, tomorrow we will go straight to Shuanglong Ditch, after Shuanglong Ditch is the Black Forest, where we should have something to gain." ”

"Uncle Niu, I heard that there are blind bears taller than a house, giant pythons thicker than a large water tank, and two big eye-catching tigers bigger than buffaloes in the Black Forest, is it true?" Zhang Xiaopaw asked curiously.

Niu Yao shook his head and said, "I've only heard the old hunter talk about it, but I've never seen it with my own eyes." Perhaps, after all, the Black Forest is so big, and it is not surprising that there are beasts that have grown into spirits. But even if there were such beasts, they would be in the deepest part of the Black Forest, so there was no need to be afraid. ”

At night, wrapped in knee pads sewn by the birds, Zhang Xiaopaw felt warm and slept sweetly. He had a dream that he was entangled in a spotted python that was thicker than a water tank, and was about to be strangled, when a big black bird suddenly flew from the sky, and one of the big black birds spread out one of its claws, which was bigger than a millstone, and its two wings were spread out, several zhang long, covering the sky and the sun. The big black bird scratched the head of the spotted python with one claw, and then with a flap of its wings, it grabbed the spotted python and flew into the sky, and took him into the sky with him. The big black bird flew higher and higher, higher and higher, until it reached the top of the clouds, and suddenly as soon as its claws loosened, he and the spotted python fell to the ground together.

Zhang Xiaopaw was frightened awake and found that the sky was already dark, and a few people had woken up and were packing up their things, so he stopped sleeping and got up to clean up with the big guy.

Shuanglong Ditch, also known as a line of sky, is a ravine between two mountain peaks. One of these two peaks winds northwest and the other southwest, and the cliffs are steep and unclimbable. It is like two giant dragons, coiling up the Black Forest, imprisoning the fierce beasts in the Black Forest and preventing them from coming out to bring disaster to the world.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Niu Yao led everyone to the entrance of Shuanglong Ditch, and the scene at the mouth of the valley made the thirty people stunned. Noisy and shouting, full of people. Looking at the equipment, it should be the same as them, they are all going to hunt in the Black Forest. It is not difficult to understand that since the drought has poisoned the drought and the grain has been exhausted, since there is food in the Black Forest, all villages and towns naturally have to organize people to go into the Black Forest to hunt. But these people were stuck in groups at the mouth of the valley, arguing fiercely about something, as if the road ahead was blocked and impassable.

Niu Yao told everyone to get together, not to walk around, and then go to the front to find someone to inquire about the news to see what the situation was. After a while, Niu Yao turned back, with a grim expression on his face, as if he had heard very bad news.

"Old Niu, what's the situation?"

"People with black hearts are making fortunes. Niu Yao gritted his teeth and said hatefully, "Gukou has been occupied by several big families in the county, and if you want to enter the valley, you must pay five catties of rations per head, and half of the prey you hunt when you leave the valley." The people who are blocked here are all people from our nearby villages and towns. Well, the people from Zhangjia Village arrived a day earlier than us, and they are still waiting there. ”

Everyone looked in the direction of Niu Yao's finger, and sure enough, they saw a large group of people from Zhangjia Village. The two villages are close to each other, and most of them know each other.

Niu Yao continued: "There are ninety people in their village, and if they want to enter the valley, they must pay four hundred and fifty catties of rations, but each of them has only brought three days' rations, which adds up to less than three hundred catties, so how can they pay four hundred and fifty catties." ”

"How can this be reasonable, isn't this a clear robbery? Is there any Heavenly Principle King Law?"

"The Black Forest is not their hunting ground, so why are they guarding the entrance and not allowed to enter?"

"So many people are still afraid of a few families, and one person drowned them with a mouthful of spit. ”

After hearing this, everyone was full of indignation, and a few of them were so strong that they even rolled up their sleeves and wanted to go to find someone to theorize, but they were all stopped by Niu Yao.

Zhang Xiaopaw also stared at the balls in his eyes, and he was furious.

The villagers of the Liujia family are simple and simple, and the villagers are all humble and kind, and Zhang Xiaopu has been deeply influenced since he was a child, so under the teaching of the old village chief Dun Dun, he can easily let go of the hatred of abandonment of his biological parents. It can be said that the heart is all good soil, and it is not called evil to take root. What he saw and heard now had a great impact on his idea of "harmony and friendliness", so he was furious.

However, Zhang Xiaopaw was angry, but not impatient. He has always kept in mind the teachings of the village chief's grandfather, don't be impatient when encountering problems, think twice before acting, and the more the landslide in front of you, the calmer you must be. So he suppressed the anger in his heart, looked at Taniguchi calmly, and after some observation, he couldn't help frowning.

The grandfather of the village chief once said: It doesn't matter whether it is righteous or crooked, existence is reason.

Zhang Xiaopaw feels that the current situation is exactly like this.

Since it has become a fact that several major families have occupied Taniguchi, what is the reason for its existence? The answer is very simple, the major families have great strength that is not afraid of the anger of the public. If you want to enter the Black Forest through Shuanglong Gou, you must either obediently hand over rations, or you have more strength than several major families, and their thirty people obviously do not have such strength.

After thinking about it, Zhang Xiaopaw frowned deeply, knowing that if he wanted to enter the Black Forest, he might have to succumb to the obscenity of several major families and obediently hand over rations. Fortunately, they brought a lot of rations, and there was still a lot left over after they had paid the full amount, so that they would not have to go hungry and hunt after entering the Black Forest.

In addition, Zhang Xiaopaw has some uneasiness in his heart. After observing just now, he saw a group of people in the southwest direction, about sixty or seventy people, all with fresh faces, and he didn't know which village it belonged to. The two sides didn't know each other, but the group of people looked at them frequently, and at the same time whispered something to each other, and their faces were fierce, as if they were not good.

Zhang Xiaopaw subconsciously covered the bag of dry food hanging from his waist, and his heart jumped, and he immediately knew why he was uneasy.

The husband is not guilty, but he is guilty.

The bags of dry food bulging around their waists are the best way to attract sin.