The next day, as soon as the sky turned white, Li got up as usual. I washed my face with water, combed my hair with a comb, smeared a basket of oily and slippery buns with osmanthus oil, changed into a new shirt that I usually don't wear, and finally put powder on my face and wiped a layer of light rouge.

He opened the door of the north wing with a squeak, walked through the courtyard to the gate, picked up a bundle of firewood, and turned to the pot house to wash rice and make a fire to cook.

A few children barely closed their eyes all night, and they made a bunk in front of Li's bed with their grandmother, staring at her all night. The Li family slept peacefully at night, not a single body turned over, and when they stared into the sleep in a daze, the sky was already blue, and when they opened their eyes, they could smell the fragrance wafting from the pot house.

Li was fine, so he went to the Xiaohuai River and bought a pot of fish. In the summer, the peach blossom fish brought by the peach blossom flood in the spring of the Xiaohuai River has grown three inches long, such a fish is not delicious when it is big, and the fish with a long inch is the most tender. Li only picked up the live pan and bought a pot of long fish, took it home, put it in the pot house, put it in the basin, put it on the basin, dripped sesame oil, spit out the mud and sand in the stomach, pinched all the dirty things in the white belly, heated the stove, poured rapeseed oil, wrapped the small fish on the top, fried on the outside, crispy on the inside.

The small fish is fried neatly and neatly stacked on the bamboo strips, Li scoops out a scoop of noodles from the noodle jar, pours it into the basin and stirs vigorously, and the remaining small fish that are not fried are put into boiling water to boil, and when the noodles are stirred into gluten, cut into pieces and poured in, put in peanuts and corn kernels are the most delicious. When Chen Xuejiao got up, she was startled when she saw that her mother was no longer on the kang, and quickly lifted the quilt, and walked out without caring about her clothes. The fragrance wafted from the pot house, she stretched out her head, and saw Li kneading dough in the pot house, she rubbed her eyes: "Mother, get up so early?" ”

"Your brother and your brother still have to study, and it's a little later than usual today." Lee looked up. Chong Xuejiao smiled lovingly, the morning sun shone on her face, and she was extraordinarily young set off by incense powder and rouge, this dress did not look like a mother of four children at all.

Xue Jiao was a little relieved, and she could still think of the child, which meant that the Li family would not be so easy to find short-sightedness. Yesterday, Mr. Li said that he had no hope of being alive without seeing the body. But Xue Jiao knew in her heart that there was little hope, and the water of the Qiantang River was not surnamed Chen, so it would be so easy to survive if she fell into it.

She didn't sleep all night, thinking a lot, her current life, her future life, her brother's imperial examination, her sister's marriage, one by one. overlapping in her mind. Although before Chen Xiucai went out to do business, the role of a father was always vague at home, but after all, as a man, he was weak and supported the pillar of the sky, and now that this pillar is gone, they can only rely on themselves to erect the portal. Seeing Xue Jiao standing at the door of the pot house in a daze, Li beckoned to her and stuffed her with a warm egg: "Go and call Qi Ping to get up, it's too late to stay." Master Huang should punish him for standing again. ”

"Okay." Chen Xuejiao wiped her eyes.

Mrs. Li got up and went to the pot house to see her daughter. Seeing her greet her with a smile on her face, I couldn't rely on it, so I walked to the yard and fetched a basin of water to wash Mr. Li's face. The water was too hot, and the old man Li knocked on the edge of the basin dissatisfiedly, and the sound of "dang" frightened the old lady Li and waited for her to react. shook the water in his hand and asked her husband cautiously: "My son-in-law is gone, I only pity Xiaofen, she is so young, how can she survive in the future, just what her mother-in-law said yesterday." Our daughters are widowed and restless."

"Bang", the old man Li knocked over the basin, the water flowed to the ground, the old lady Li was startled, and the rest of the words reached her throat and swallowed all the water in her stomach, and quickly wiped the water on the ground with a thick rag. Old Man Li rolled his eyes at his old wife, his face was gloomy and he didn't speak, and after a long time, he crackled the bed board: "In this case, I will not mention it in the future, a good girl does not marry a second husband, and my Li Wansan's daughter is the most loyal." ……

I didn't dare to mention it anymore if I remarried, but Mrs. Li pursed her lips in her heart and disagreed with Mr. Li's words. Steadfast, steadfast can be eaten, it is all written in the book to deceive people, four children with four mouths waiting to be fed, how difficult it is for a woman to set up a door with Xiaofen. The Chen family is good to live in the upper room, but he is an unreliable person, the old man Chen is talking very well now, give all the things in the house to Qi'an, and he will have a little bit of family property when he is full, and the two bedrooms, four rooms, and a string of children are not enough for them to make trouble. It's better to find someone again, who doesn't know that the widow's life is difficult, or the princess of the first dynasty put the princess name and don't want to remarry the doorkeeper of the family, and the gold, silver and jade full of burdens are not as expensive as the living people who know cold and hot. Xiaofen guarded it, and Mrs. Chen was also standing with her mother-in-law after her mother-in-law, so she might not be able to spoil her when the time came.

Mrs. Li was full of words and wanted to hold it out, but a pair of old man Chen's eyes were too frightened to speak.

After breakfast, Li instructed a few children: "What should I do, the sky can't fall, Qi An and Qi Ping continue to go to school today, Jing Hao and Xue Ru embroidery, Xue Jiao is a lot of ideas, it's time to collect your temperament these days." ”

Qi Ping was the youngest and missed Chen Xiucai the most, at this time, when he heard his mother say this, he took a bite of a piece of cake in his hand and said: "Mother, Master Huang went to Xuzhou Mansion to inquire about his father's news, and there will be no classes today." ”

Just as he was talking about Huang Xiucai, he and the shopkeeper Han, Li Yuntian and Chen Zifu came back from Xuzhou Mansion to inquire about the news.

Looking at the burning eyes of Li and the four children, the three big men felt a tingling in their hearts, and nodded silently after a long time.

Mrs. Li cried on the spot, and the old man Li's hand holding the cane turned white.

"Did you see my dad?" Chen Xuejiao asked softly. This "father" of course refers to corpses.

Huang Xiucai shook his head, and it was still Han's shopkeeper's mouth: "The people of the two boats have sunk, a total of one hundred and twenty people, only seventy-five people have been salvaged, there is no Brother Zimin, I want to come to ......" It is already summer, and the official ship transported seventy-five corpses from the Qiantang River, because the weather is hot and corrupted on the road, the four people entrusted the relationship, one by one, and did not see Chen Xiucai, thinking that it fell into the river and was not salvaged.

Li didn't cry, but smiled, saluted Huang Xiucai and Shopkeeper Han, and hurriedly made soup and cooked, saying "hard work" in his mouth.

When Mrs. Li saw that her daughter was fine, she was more worried than howling, and she was glared back by Old Man Li several times when she wanted to speak. Li went into the room to wipe his face again, changed into clean clothes, and came out, preparing the flush paper and pen to stuff into his school bag. instructed Qi An: "Go to school, watch my younger brother closely, and don't allow him to make trouble." ”

Jing Hao said to Xue Jiao and Xue Ru in private: "The appearance of the eldest concubine is really worrying, my mother will be like no one else, rubbed the powder and rouge to cook and comb my hair, and then ......"

This makes people even more worried. The frightened Xue Jiao Xue hurriedly clinged to the Li family.

Li is fine, and he doesn't say a word from morning to night, what should he do. went to the river to dig wheat and grind flour, asked Li Yuntian to help water the wheat field, and also calculated how to collect duck eggs and pickle a batch of salted duck eggs for Xue Jiao.

On the second day, Li called his father and mother and said: "Father and mother are old, you are not a long way here, life will always pass, I don't think you should go back first." ”

Seeing that my father and mother were silent. He said: "Don't worry, Daddy, I won't seek death, and there are still four children for me to pull." ”

When Mr. Li heard this, he patted the cigarette ash that fell on his legs, and dragged his wife back after breakfast, but Mrs. Li couldn't rest assured that she couldn't let go of her daughter, and she wiped her tears and was carried by her daughter-in-law Qiao's before she could move.

To live to see people, to die to see corpses. I didn't see either, and I didn't want her to believe that Chen Xiucai fell into the Qiantang River and was swallowed by a big fish.

There is nothing to hide in the village. After eating, the bowl was put away, and the news of Chen Xiucai falling into the Qiantang River spread.

Some people thought of Chen Xiucai's goodness, and rushed to Chen's house to comfort him, and brought some rice and flour pastries to the Li family, and some people went directly into the upper room to probe Mrs. Chen's tone, looking for the Li family to remarry and the Chen family and not let go.

And so it went on for two days. When Old Man Chen came to his senses, Old Mrs. Chen had already set up the mourning shed. She is strange and generous this time, and she doesn't want a big house to pay for silver, a paper villain, or a sedan chair. The funeral shed was all her money, and she invited someone to carry it home and was about to be put into the north wing to cry, but she was forced to resist by Li with a few children. Mrs. Chen followed behind and said with a smile: "Knowing that my son didn't take the exam, he was always a heart disease, so he deliberately tied a black gauze hat and spent a lot of silver." ”

There were many people who watched the excitement in the crowd, some sighed and some scolded.

Mrs. Chen's words were like taking a pair of scissors and stabbing them into Li's heart, seeing that Li's trembling white lips were shaky and unable to speak, she pretended to shed two tears and persuaded: "I said this for your good, now that my son is gone, you will not mourn when you die, and there will be no grave for Qi'an to burn incense in the future." "I have to go into the house to pack up Xiucai's clothes, shoes and socks, light a match and burn it, and pile up a mound of clothes.

Li couldn't wait to sew a needle on Mrs. Chen's mouth, Chen Xuejiao went into the house and pulled out two scissors from Xueru's sewing basket, and cut all the funeral rites brought by Mrs. Chen in front of everyone.

Here, Mrs. Cai, the mother of the Cai family, slapped her thigh and said to everyone: "Why is my in-law so ruthless, not my own biological son, and I have lived together for so many years, and the Yama kings in the heavenly bodhisattva land are all watching, how big a fat pot do you have to take to this ruthless person when you die." ”

The crowd chimed in.

After cutting the funeral, Chen Xuejiao rushed to Mrs. Chen's side with scissors and said viciously: "You are looking forward to my father's death!" No way, there are gods three feet above your head, and you are not afraid of these heart-wrenching words in your throat. My father is outside, whether he is dead or alive is not a funeral table, if you rely on us to be orphans and widows and can spoil us, you have made a mistake. ”

After such a fuss, Mrs. Chen was dumbfounded, she got the news from San'er Chen Zifu early in the morning, and the prefect issued a notice, and Chen Xiucai's name was on it. She thought that building a well-dressed mound for Chen Xiucai was a sure thing, but she didn't expect to be blocked.

Li Shi breathed a sigh of relief, and ordered Xue Ruxue Jiaojing and the three girls to put away all the white things in the house, and even hung up the steamed white cage cloth and didn't use it.

After tossing for a long time, Li pulled Xue Ruxue Jiao into the upper room, there were pieces of white cloth piled up in the upper room, Li ripped it off, Zhang asked forward, and was pushed open by Li and asked, "What about Dad?" ”

Zhang's stupid mouth in the house of Nunu, Li went in, saw the old man Chen lying on the kang with his eyes closed, stood for a while, saw that the old man Chen finished smoking, trembling and pressing the tobacco leaves, he couldn't catch fire for a long time, and looked at his hands trembling.

Li Shi swallowed his tears lightly, calmed down, took a deep breath and said, "Dad, those who can't see Xiucai will never be mourned!" ”