Huizhou, the first month, the tiger stove at the entrance of the city gate is steaming with white mist.

"The water is boiling, the water is boiling, and it is too early to fetch water." The sound of bamboo banging accompanied by the old and hoarse voice echoed in the deep city gate hole.

All of a sudden, the residents of the entire city gate cave were lively.

The Li family at the end of the city gate.

Zhao sat up from the bed and pushed Li Jingfu, who was sleeping like a pig, with one hand, but Li Jingfu muttered and turned sideways to continue sleeping, which made her heart burst into flames, and she snorted heavily: "This dead ghost." ”

Then Zhao got out of bed wrapped in half an old blanket, walked directly to the middle of the room, and vigorously lifted the curtain in the room.

On the other side of the curtain is a wooden bed with bunk beds. The lower bunk is the fourteen-year-old second girl Li Zhenniang of the Li family, and the upper bunk is the eight-year-old youngest son of the Li family, Xi Ge'er.

Which 14-year-old girl still lives in the same room with her parents and has to live in a bunk bed with her 8-year-old brother? But there is no way, the Li family has to be like this, there are only two rooms in total, and the other one lives with the eldest son and daughter-in-law of the Li family, so they can't let their younger brothers and sisters squeeze with them.

Zhao looked at Li Zhenniang, who was wrapped in a thin quilt and shrunk into a ball under the bunk, and was even more angry, gritted his teeth and rushed to the bed, threw the quilt directly, pulled Li Zhenniang's ears with his hand, and said sharply: "This dead girl who has been cut by a thousand knives, I know that I don't get up quickly to turn on the water, if there is no hot water at home for a while, look at the old lady who tore your skin." ”

The chill of early spring, coupled with the pain, made Li Zhenniang wake up quickly, at this time her mood was sad and angry, the two eyelids as if they were filled with lead could not be opened, last night the father gambled very late to come back, was scolded by the old lady Zhao, zuihou father counterattacked, pressed Zhao on the bed for a long time to toss, and made Zhao's bed cry like killing pigs.

In this way, Li Zhenniang, who followed her parents with only one curtain, naturally had no sleep all night, even if she was holding cotton and plugging her ears, she couldn't stop the heart-scratching sound.

"Get up, get up." Li Zhenniang said in a loud voice, and then broke free from Zhao hard, and quickly jumped out of bed and dressed.

"Hey, hey." Brother Xi, who was sleeping on the top bunk, woke up and smiled gloating when he saw his second sister suffer at the hands of his mother.

Li Zhenniang glared at him, and the stinky boy stuck out his tongue at her and turned over to sleep by himself, which made Zhenniang feel depressed for a while.

"Hmph, hurry up, don't rub it off." Seeing Li Zhenniang get up, Zhao returned to his bed with a dark and calm heart, but the scolding would never stop.

And this kind of scolding, Li Zhenniang has long been accustomed to it.

The family is in difficulty, everyone seems to have a particularly bad temper, and scolding and venting is really the most normal performance of ordinary people, not to mention that this family is all superb.

Daddy Li Jingfu, every day is either drunk and dreaming of death, or gambling is dark, plus the pit is deceived, in short, in the eyes of the people in the city gate, this is a rotten person, a thousand knives.

The old lady Zhao is tough, stingy, snarky, and open-eyed when she sees money, and the people in the city gate hide when they see her, not for fear of being scolded by her, but for fear of being accidentally taken advantage of by her.

The eldest brother, Li Zhengliang, is worthy of his name, and he is the most haode person in the family, but he is too honest, not to mention the family, even any person outside can make him do things, plus the sister-in-law Du is a person who can match the Zhao family, so Li Zhengliang has become an incompetent and cowardly synonym in the eyes of the people in the city gate.

As for the eight-year-old brother Xi Ge'er, this little guy has a black stomach, and if he doesn't mention it, he will be sad and tearful when he mentions it.

Of course, it is the original body of Li Zhenniang's body, which is also a superb, delicious, in order to eat a scallion pancake, you can pour cold water on yourself in this New Year, after freezing sick, you went to the grandparents who lived alone to cheat money, and deceived the money and didn't think about going to the doctor, just caring about eating scallion pancakes, zuihou scallion pancakes were eaten, but they died of illness, which is cheap for the current Li Zhenniang.

Who are these people?

A jacket, a pair of wide-legged pants, and a horse-faced skirt tied around the waist, on the morning of early spring, such a dress could not block the cold wind, Li Zhenniang had to stomp her feet vigorously and jumped up and down for a while. Then scoop water into the large water tank at the door of the kitchen outside the house and wash your face.

While squinting and listening to the various national scoldings of the old lady in the house, she was happy in the bitterness, and she was reborn these days, Zhao's national scolding has become Li Zhenniang's morning accompaniment, which is music.

After washing, Li Zhenniang carried a big copper kettle and was about to go out to fetch hot water.

"Zhenniang, with a laughing official, I cried for most of the night, so that I didn't sleep all night, I have to make up for it." At this time, Li Zhenniang's sister-in-law Du Shi came out with her son Xiaoxiaoguan, who was about one year old, and attached a long strap and stuffed it directly into Li Zhenniang's hand, and then turned around sleepily and went back to the house to continue sleeping with her back to sleep.

"Your sister." Rao is Zhenniang was calm, and she couldn't help but curse at this time, and then saw Xiao Xiaoguan laughing heartlessly in her arms, and she couldn't cry or laugh.

Zuihou had to use the strap to carry Xiao Xiaoguan's buttocks, behind his back, but Xiao Guan was staring at her eyes at this time, pulling her hair to play, Li Zhenniang slapped his little hand away angrily, but the little guy changed his hand and continued to pull, which made Li Zhenniang's scalp hurt.

In short, this family is not worried even with a milk baby.

Li Zhenniang went out while slandering.

At this time, although it was already midday, and the light was already bright, it was still as dark as late as night in this city gate hole.

The Chengmen Cave Alley is a passage to transport goods into the city, built under the City Gate Tower, only a few sections of the interval can reveal a piece of the sky, the others are the same as the road, plus the road is very narrow, it is a sunny day, the environment here is also dark and damp, such a place, not to mention the rich, is the family road can go, it is not rare, and therefore, this City Gate Cave Lane Zuihou has become a place for these short-term workers to settle down.

In other generations, it was a slum, a shantytown.

For more than 100 years.

Gradually, it has formed a unique life scenery of Chengmen Cave Lane.

And in the morning to the tiger stove to get hot water is a unique scene of the city gate hole, at this time, every household has people carrying wooden barrels or copper kettles out, gradually into a stream of people, very lively.

Li Zhenniang carried a large copper kettle, carried a small smile on her back and walked away with the flow of people, and after a while, she saw the unique tiger head wind lamp at the door of the tiger stove, the dim light, in the steaming water vapor like an ink painting, it looked nostalgic and warm.

In front of the door of the tiger stove, several aunts and sisters-in-law who came to fetch hot water lined up and chatted, which was nothing more than the short of the east and the west.

The water in the tiger stove is busy with his feet not sticking to the ground, and he has to fetch water for people for a while, add firewood to the stove for a while, and add cold water to the empty cauldron.

Li Zhenniang looked outside, so she put the copper kettle in the queue, not worrying about others cutting in line, this era is more standardized than later generations. The copper kettle is placed there, and others will help you move forward, and no one will cut in line.

Smiling and saying hello to the people around her, Li Zhenniang squeezed into the tiger stove from the crowd. He helped Shui Bo to get busy, added the water in the cauldron, and sat down on the stove to add firewood.

Although the father and mother are not treated by the neighbors, but the family is poor, and the surrounding neighbors can still help a little, for example, when she comes to open the water, others ask for two pennies for a bucket, but for her family, Shui Bo has always only charged one penny. That's the feeling.

"Yo, isn't that the second girl of the Li family? This girl has always been a heartless glutton, but now she knows how to help people? An old sister-in-law outside looked at Li Zhenniang, who was adding firewood to the stove, and said with a strange expression.

"Well, in the past ten days, I have seen her help Shui Bo work every day, but she is more sensible than before." Another aunt said.

"There is such a pair of parents, if she is no longer sensible, I am afraid that she will not be able to live in the future, have you heard about the Tian family?" At this time, a lady on the side chattered.

"What's the matter?" Several people around asked curiously,

"A few days ago, Tian Benchang, the eldest young master of the Tian family, invited a few classmates to visit Huangshan, and accidentally fell off the cliff." The lady glared at Qingdao.

"Ah......" The people around him exclaimed: "Then I'm afraid it's dead, right?" ”

"Not to mention, let me tell you, I can't even catch the bones, this has always fallen off the cliff on the Yellow Mountain, do you see who came back with a corpse? Miserable. The lady shook her head and sighed.

"Alas, this time the virgin is finished, didn't the Zhao family force the Tian family to set a wedding date some time ago? Now, won't Zhenniang become a widow? It will be difficult to marry a good family in the future. The aunt who spoke first said with a look of pity.

"Bah, just those people in Zhenniang's family, even if they are not widows, good people don't dare to want her." The eldest lady who seemed to be a well-informed person said, and then lowered her voice and said: "I have a sister who helps cook in the Tian family, I can listen to my sister-in-law, the Tian family has already released the word, saying that Tian Benchang's accident was given by Zhenniang, because these widows don't want Li Zhenniang to do it, and people must retire when they die." ”

"It's not a good thing for Li Zhenniang to quit her family, but the Zhao family of the Li family is the master of the money, and when she forced the Tian family to set the marriage date, wasn't it just for the Tian family's dowry? Now that these dowries are afraid that Li Jingfu has already been defeated, how can the Li family still get it? The old sister-in-law said.

"Not really." , Listening to the old sister-in-law say this, the people around him sighed, speaking of which the Zhao family is too self-aware, this Zhenniang and Tian Benchang's marriage was a joke of Li Jinshui and the old man of Tian, and the old man of Tian passed away early, and Li Jinshui is no longer the big shopkeeper of the Li family's ink shop, but a bad old man guarding the grocery store. Things have changed, although the Li family is still a big family in our place, but Li Jinshui's house has long faded out of the Li family, how can the Tian family look down on them now, originally this matter, everyone knows in their hearts, don't mention it, just forget it, then the Zhao family wants to go crazy with money, and actually forced the Tian family to fulfill their promises, and the city knew that if the Tian family did not fulfill their promises, they would sue the Tian family for treachery, and the Tian family was also a timber merchant in Huizhou Mansion, benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and etiquette, this is the foundation of the survival of Huizhou businessmen, no one dares to disobey, There was no way, the Tian family raised the dowry and hired him, but he didn't think that soon after the wedding date, Tian Benchang had an accident, but it was difficult for Zhenniang's child.

At this time, Zhenniang, who was sitting on the stove to add firewood, couldn't help but knock her head with some trouble.

Although the voice of a few people talking is small, but the tiger stove is such a large territory, Li Zhenniang still vaguely heard it clearly, she also knows a little bit about this fiancé surnamed Tian, but she has only been here for ten days, plus she is only fourteen years old now, and most of the women in this dynasty are married after the age of seventeen, so she is not in a hurry to think about this, but she didn't think about it, but there was such a thing.

"Hmph, the Tian family also let out the words, if the Li family does not return the dowry, they will ask Zhenniang to accompany her son to the funeral, I, but I figured it out, this Tian family's withdrawal is fake, who doesn't know that Li Jingfu's gambler has already lost the dowry, this family is still a fart, I'm afraid that the real purpose is to let Zhenniang accompany the funeral, and the mind is ruthless." The eldest lady raised her voice and glanced at Li Zhenniang again, as if she was going to deliberately tell her.

Li Zhenniang also knows it, don't look at this lady talking gossip like the long-tongued woman, but she really has good intentions, give her a reminder, and let her prepare early.

And this eldest mother, just a few days ago, Zhen Niang picked a load of water from her door, the flat shoulder was broken, two buckets of water were sprinkled at the door of the eldest mother's house, Zhen Niang was caught by her and scolded, zuihou This lady also took three copper coins from Zhen Niang's eldest brother. As a result, Zhao's mother knew about it, and Zhao went to the eldest mother's house again, made a fuss, and insisted on getting the three copper coins back.

Because of these three copper coins, the two families are considered to have a grudge, but the grudge is a grudge, but now this lady is giving herself a wake-up call in this way.

The people of the city gate cave are like this, they are noisy and noisy for trivial things on weekdays, and no one will let anyone, but when it comes to big things, they will not sit idly by.

They are all bitter people, begging for a living together in the city gate, if they don't help each other, don't let the people outside bully them to death.

At this moment, Li Zhenniang stood up and said to the eldest lady: "Aunt Xiexie." ”

"Hmph, don't be sentimental." The eldest lady was unwilling to accept Li Zhenniang's thanks, she would not give in to the Zhao family. Then, he left with hot water.

At this time, Shui Bo had already helped Li Zhenniang make hot water, and said to Li Zhenniang: "The boiling water is ready, go back quickly, and discuss it with your family." ”

"Hmm." Li Zhenniang nodded, went out with a copper kettle, and on her back, Xiao Xiaoguan fell asleep at some point, snoring.

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