In February of the twenty-fifth year of Longde, the spring breeze pruned the leaves like scissors, and the swallows flew south and returned. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Today is the eighth day of the second month of February, although it was early a few days ago to establish spring, but the city of Jiangning is still a piece of ice and snow, probably because several main streets are planted with sycamores, sycamores fall early and germinate late. The night wind ran and screamed in the empty streets, and the whole city was lifeless, and there was no smell of spring.

It was still early, Wei Qianshi, the widow of the Wei family at the end of Changning Street, was lying on the wooden bed and opened her eyes leisurely, she had a cold shiver for no reason, the skin on the whole person was tight, this person didn't feel it when he fell asleep, and when he woke up, he felt that his body was cold and swishing, and the quilt attached to his body seemed to have broken countless holes, and the cold wind hit in with cold air.

Wei Qian turned sideways and shrunk her hands and feet, trying to warm herself up, and after a quarter of an hour, her abdomen didn't seem to be so cold, and then she slowly relaxed her body and stopped collapsing.

But as soon as he relaxed, he immediately felt that his back was cold again, Wei Qian turned around, and the whole person lay flat, so that the whole back was close to the mattress, and it took a while to feel better.

The stick of the fifth watch rang out, running through the entire Jiangning City, and the sound was long and astringent. It snowed a lot last night, and it was white outside, and the room was a little brighter.

Wei Qian looked at the rice jar in the window by the light of the snow, and a sewing basket was placed on the jar, and there was a snow-white cat in the sewing basket.

Looking at the cat, Wei Qian's face burst into a warm smile, this cat looks very good, snow-white, no stray hair, and looks very well-behaved, it looks like a famous product, not like Wei Qian's pet that can afford, it sleeps quietly in the sewing basket, it looks incompatible with this dilapidated house.

Don't look at this Wei Qian's yellow and thin face, she raised this cat not ordinarily well, and she has fish offal and fish tails to eat every day.

Wei Qian's every day at the end of the afternoon to go to the smoke house in the west of the city to sell fish to get some fish offal that people don't want after killing the fish, when luck is good, there are fish heads and fish tails, this cat has fish to eat every day, although it is not fish meat, but this year, people are not full, a cat has fish offal to eat is also the top good.

Naturally, the fish viscera occasionally go to get two or three times a month is also relatively light, and the sister-in-law of the Yan family has a plain chat for a few sentences, say a few words to listen to, greet when you meet, play early, play well, people will not mind these fish going into the water, anyway, every day, their own dogs and cats are not finished.

But it's a bit bad to get it every day, not to mention that Wei Qian's own skin is only a little thicker than the thin ones, that is, the smoke family, after a long time, it is inevitable that some white eyes and sour words will come out.

Fortunately, Wei Qian's family also understands some truths, once when he went to get fish offal, he saw the sister-in-law of the Yan family squatting on the right side of the ditch in front of the house to wash clothes, I don't know if it was sick or what, the complexion on his face was very bad, and the beating stick in his hand had to be put down after two or three swings, so that he could pinch his waist pole with his hand, and he looked very embarrassed.

This Wei Qian hurriedly went up to greet her, the Yan family didn't raise his head, only raised his face weakly and rolled his eyelids to glance at her, but he didn't make a sound, and lowered his head again to wash his clothes.

Wei Qian was not discouraged by the cold treatment of others, but took two steps forward to help the sister-in-law of the Yan family up, and said Sister-in-law, you sit next to you for a while, and I will help you rub it twice. The Liu family of the smoker got up at this time, pulled out a hint of a smile, and said, Qian girl, how embarrassing is this, while looking for a big stone on the side of the ditch and sitting down with a waist pole.

These two people, one bent over and half squatting to work, and the other sitting on the top of a stone, can also talk, it is nothing more than some short family and neighborhood affairs. This time and again, Wei Qian's went to help Yan Liu do some laundry and cleaning every once in a while, and as for her going to get fish into the water every day, it became natural over time. This sister-in-law is also more enthusiastic about her, and the two chatted well, but they have the feeling of some friends in the boudoir.

That's a bit of a stretch, let's talk about this cat! The cat's name was Lianzi, which Wei Qian bought for two cents from an old man who was said to be from the capital to pick up and sell goods. If you don't say that this cat looks good, if this native cat in the countryside looks gray, black, gray and black, and you don't want to give it away for nothing, no matter how you look at it, it is not as pleasing to the eye as this lotus seed.

Since the cat was brought to raise, Wei Qian's mood has improved since he watched it day by day, and he is no longer as depressed as before. Since her daughter Xueying was forcibly taken away by her mother-in-law, her mother's brother did not want to see her, so she had to live here alone.

At this time, she was alone, and the snow outside was floating again, Wei Qian remembered her daughter Xue Yinglai, only to feel that her heart was stuffy, her eyes were hot and red, and her eyes were hot and red, and tears flowed down desperately like no money, she turned over and buried her whole face in the pillow and cried, the whole person trembled, and the chill on her back became more and more intense.

To say that this Wei Qian family was originally the second daughter of the tofu Qian family in Yongning Lane, Jiangning City, the Qian family who sold tofu was not from Jiangning County, but came from outside in Longde for five years, and most of the people who moved here at that time fled from the famine.

During the four years of Longde, the lower reaches of the Yellow River flooded more than 20 villages and county towns along the river. After the flood raged, the common people died, and those who did not die fled.

Qian Laigui's whole family, who lived in Tianshuiwan, died in this disaster, his parents, his second brother, his third brother and sister, and the bodies were found.

It's just that the eldest sister hasn't been found, and it's unlucky to think about it, and Qian Laigui has been looking for two or three days and still hasn't found it, and at this time the flood has completely receded, and everyone hasn't had time to be happy, Tianshuiwan and several villages that have been flooded next to it have begun to die every day.

These people often begin to have convulsions all over their bodies in the morning and afternoon, foaming at the mouth, excreting diarrhea and diarrhea, not eating water and rice, and vomiting and diarrhea until the whole body is exhausted and they die. When he died, his whole body was distorted, his mouth and nose were crooked, his eyes were protruding, his body was exhausted, his skin was attached to his bones, and he was a dehydrated dried corpse. For a while, people were panicked, and the government came down to inspect and said that the disease would be contagious, and for a while, everyone was in danger.

That night, the government began to arrest people, arresting the families of those who had died of contact with the epidemic, saying that they were going to be released to an isolated island, and since then, they have not been seen again.

For Qian Laigui, the relatives at home have also died, the food and clothing have been destroyed, and now there is this kind of life-threatening disease, maybe one day he will be arrested by the government will also die, and there is only a dead end if he does not escape.

After making up his mind, that night, Qian Laigui quietly sneaked into the night and went west with the twenty yuan he took out of his mother's body pocket. In the night wind, Qian Laigui stroked the twenty coins on his chest with his right hand, and the two rows of teeth bit his lower lip stiffly, desperately suppressing the whimpering sound of rolling in his throat, full of tears, mother! Dad, my son is gone, my son has to go! Parents rest assured, my son will definitely give me the money family to inherit the lineage.

What a loving parent! In this moment of crisis, it is still your legacy of twenty cents that gives money to the hope of money! Otherwise, if you can escape to Jiangning City, you will definitely starve to death on the road early.

It is said that Qian Laigui picked up a woman who was about to starve to death on the way to escape the disaster, and this person was Zhou, the wife of Wei Qian, the widow of Wei. Of course, she was still a little girl at the time, since her father and mother starved to death on the way to escape the disaster, her eldest brother and sister-in-law left her behind, she was only thirteen years old at the time, and there was a wound on her foot, which was originally starving to death.

Originally, the money was expensive to see that she pitifully gave her a piece of bread, but who knew that this little girl would rely on him, and kept dragging her lame feet behind him. In that year, if there was food, it was good to be able to live, in Zhou's heart, money was her heaven, her only and everything, and her goal to live.

After coming to this Jiangning City, Qian Laigui decided to settle here, and later married Zhou's wife, relying on his ancestral skills in making tofu, and also gained a foothold in Jiangning City.

After Qian Laigui married Zhou, Zhou was also very capable, and he also raised two sons and three daughters to Qian Laigui, the eldest son Qian Xingwen, the second daughter Qian Anning, the third daughter Qian Yuning, the fourth son Qian Xingwu, and the fifth daughter Qian Bining.

More than ten years have passed, the children have grown up, the disaster was like a dream, now the Qian family lives together, enjoy stability, in addition to the marriage of the children, the two old people are basically not worried about life, food and clothing are not worried, the only worry is the marriage of the children.

The marriage of the eldest son and the second son went well, and the daughters-in-law they married were all from the right families. The eldest daughter-in-law is Li Jingui, the daughter of the Li family, who sells pork in the vegetable market, and the second daughter-in-law's family is the daughter of a farmer in Liujia Village, Jiangning suburban county, named Du Yue'e.

As for the three daughters of the Qian family, the eldest daughter Qian Anning is considered to be married, and Xu is the eldest son of Gao Xiucai's family at the end of Xiaorong Street, which is three streets away.

But the father and son of the Gao family have been taking the exam for so many years, but they can't go any further, and they fall behind every time, and they always fail to lift people. However, Xiucai also has benefits, and there is no need to hand over the field.

The father and son just read every day, and never went to the ground, and the work in the field was not at all, there was no way, the second son of the Gao family had to go to the field, and the old mother and sister-in-law did some manual work at home and sold silver money to buy some firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea to live.

Qian Bining, the third daughter of the Qian family, is Zhou Huaidong, a native of Zhoujia Village, Maochang County, the next county, who is a small businessman who rents a store in a small alley in Maochang County to do some business selling tea and cloth. The small life is also quite passable, but because it is a merchant, its status is lower. Therefore, on weekdays, I don't have much contact with the eldest sister who married Xiucai and the second sister who married the people, plus I married far away, and it took ten days and a half to go back and forth to my parents' house, so it is common for the three sisters not to see each other for two years a year.