Two days before the outbreak of the plague in Beiping City, Ma Aiguo and Niu Aihua quarreled again because of work.

Ma Aiguo has been farming at home since the collapse of the textile factory, but his family does not have much land, and Niu Aihua is busy alone, so Niu Aihua quarrels with Ma Aiguo all day long.

Ma Aiguo admired Mr. Lu Xun and wanted to be a full-time writer, he wrote at home all day, wrote the manuscript page after night, and wrote a book of more than 100,000 words in two months, and it was rejected not long after sending it to the local publishing house.

At that time, the situation was turbulent, there were few publishing houses, and the publishing industry was even more sluggish, so I could only reluctantly print some dictionaries and textbooks for students, or ask some well-known writers to write manuscripts, and did not dare to hire new manuscripts.

Ma Aiguo enclosed a few poems and prose that had been published in the newspaper before, and they were all sent back.

Ma Aiguo was anxious and depressed because of writing a book, and his mother-in-law Niu Aihua ridiculed in his ear all day long, which made him, who has always had a good temper, angry and wanted to beat people several times.

Niu Aihua pinched her waist, pointed to her head and said: "You beat me, if you have the ability, you will beat me, Ma Aiguo, you conscienceless thing, I got you out when I entered the bureau, my parents helped you find it if you didn't have a job, you are good, you can't do farm work in the field, and you don't go out to find work, this soft rice is so comfortable to eat?" ”

Ma Aiguo didn't speak, Niu Aihua said: "Everyone knows that you Ma Aiguo has great strength, and it stands to reason that you should be good at physical work, but what kind of hard work have you done?" I just graduated from elementary school and went to write a book, and you can see how much paper you wasted, which was also bought with my mother's money! ”

"You can't die if you don't say a word, I have a headache." Ma Aiguo got up and walked out as he spoke.

"You come back to me!" Niu Aihua shouted and grabbed Ma Aiguo.

Ma Aiguo threw Niu Aihua on the threshold, Niu Aihua couldn't roll at all, she shouted: "Ma Aiguo, you are a white-eyed wolf with no conscience, you eat me, use mine, and give the family's food to your two brute brothers, how can people like you not die!" ”

Ma Aiguo went out and went to Zhao Fugui's store to buy a pack of cigarettes, Shen A-Niang was in the store, seeing that Ma Aiguo's face was not good, he didn't say much, Ma Aiguo didn't find a match for a long time, and there was no money on his body, so Shen A-Niang handed over a box of matches.

Ma Aiguo took the match with some embarrassment, lit a cigarette, took two puffs and asked, "His aunt, is Fugui at home now?" ”

Shen A-Niang said: "I just went out, I went to the next village to do something, if you have anything to tell me, I will tell him when he comes back at night." ”

"Oh." Ma Aiguo hesitated for a moment and said: "Fugui doesn't know any leaders in the factory, or do coolie work, and are not afraid of being tired." ”

Shen A-Niang seemed to understand the reason why Ma Aiguo's face was not good-looking, she didn't break it, and said: "The only few factories in these years are estimated to be no longer recruiting, Fugui and those factory leaders have only eaten, but there is no contact, I am afraid it will be difficult to find it, but he does the coolie work He knows one, the people in the rickshaw rental company in the town, and I don't know who the rest know, and I will help you specifically when I come back." ”

Ma Aiguo answered, said goodbye to Shen A-Niang, and then walked towards the town.

Pulling a rickshaw is not only to sell physical strength, the average person's body can't bear it at all, but also needs to show up for the job, to let others know that it is not decent, the so-called cow and horse is nothing more than that.

Ma Aiguo is a good-looking person, he is strong and strong, and his strength is several times larger than ordinary people, he knows that Zhao Fugui may not necessarily help him, so he didn't pay attention to Shen Aniang's words, he went to the town by himself, and prepared to go to several factories to ask where to carry a big bag, preferably piecework.

Ma Aiguo came back from the town late that night, and Niu Aihua's scolding voice came out in the middle of the night, and the neighbors who were awakened couldn't help frowning.

The next day Ma Aiguo got up early and went to town again, and came back late again, looking tired when he came home, and brought a piece of pork under the cloth on the dining table.

On the third day, Ma Aiguo went out early again, Niu Aihua didn't know what kind of job Ma Aiguo had found, but when he saw that he brought back a piece of pork, he didn't scold him again, after Ma Aiguo hurriedly ate some cold rice and went out, Niu Aihua said: "You won't even say a word, why don't you die outside, it's best not to come back." ”

After Niu Aihua said this, Ma Aiguo really didn't come back that night.

Niu Aihua was scared when she slept at night, so she went to wake up Xiao Wu and said, "Son, your dad doesn't know which wild woman's bed he is working on now, and when he comes back, don't bother with him, see how I treat him." ”

"Oh Mom, I'm asleep and you still call me, can you toss less all day long?" Xiao Wu said impatiently.

"You little deflated three, I really raised you so big for nothing! The old lady saves money and buys you good food and clothing, and you treat me like this! "Niu loves flowers and chirps again, and the number of small five is not.

Niu Aihua went back to the house angrily after scolding Xiao Wu, and in the morning Xiao Wu went to school with us without eating, and then the school held an emergency meeting, and Mr. Zhang left everyone in the school and did not let them go home.

I stayed like this for a week.

After Xiao Wu comforted Jiang Sheng, he naughtily jumped on Jiang Sheng's back and chased Jiang Sheng all the way, and Jiang Sheng could only quickly ease up from the sad atmosphere in front of Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu said goodbye to Jiang Sheng, he returned to the door of his house, and saw that the courtyard was dark through the crack in the door, so he shouted: "Dad, Mom, I'll come back." ”

There was no movement in the house, Xiao Wu pushed the door open, he shouted Niu Aihua, while touching into the dark hall, familiarly touched the match from the dining table, and vaguely saw that the candle on the table of the Eight Immortals had burned out, so Xiao Wu found the mutton oil lamp in his house.

When Xiao Wu saw Niu Aihua leaning on the side of the bed in the hall, he was so frightened that he almost screamed.

I saw Niu Aihua lying unkempt on the ground, looking sluggish, holding a black box in her hand, looking a little scary.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Xiao Wu asked.

Niu Aihua was silent, her body shook slightly, she glanced at Xiao Wu lightly, and said, "Patriotic, why did you come back so late?" ”

"I'm Little Five." Xiao Wu said. "What are you holding, how do you look like ......?"

Before Xiao Wu finished speaking, he suddenly saw a huge photo of Ma Aiguo placed next to Niu Aihua's legs, and a black cloth hung on the frame.

Niu Aihua is holding Ma Aiguo's urn.

"Little Five, Little Five, don't go in yet!" The two villagers guarding the entrance of the village shouted outside, Xiao Wu and Jiang Sheng ran into the village before they could hear what they said, and the villagers had not had time to tell Xiao Wu what had happened at his house.

"Where's my dad?" Xiao Wu suddenly couldn't help crying.

When the two villagers saw that Xiao Wu had entered the house, they hurriedly pulled Xiao Wu out, Xiao Wu struggled, and cried out: "Where is my father, I want to find my father!" ”

"Little Wu, your father was infected with the plague a few days ago and has been cremated, and your mother is also crazy, she will beat whoever comes to your house."

"I don't believe it! You liar! Xiao Wu yelled, he fiercely pushed away the villagers who were pulling him, and then ran into the house and knelt in front of Niu Aihua and cried: "Mom, what about my father, wasn't it okay a few days ago?" ”

Niu Aihua, who looked sluggish, heard Xiao Wu's voice, raised her head to look at Xiao Wu, and suddenly pinched Xiao Wu's neck with a hideous face, she said fiercely: "You killed your father, if you don't worry about you not eating, how can I let your father go out to find a job, you killed your father!" ”

Niu Aihua yelled, pinching Xiao Wu's neck fiercely, Xiao Wu couldn't break Niu Aihua's hand, and was reluctant to hit Niu Aihua's head, and the villagers outside heard the movement and hurriedly came in to pull Niu Aihua away.

Xiao Wu coughed nonstop, frightened by Niu Aihua's behavior just now, there were blood strands on his neck, and Niu Aihua really wanted to kill him just now.

"Mom, don't scare me......" Xiao Wu cried with tears in his eyes.

Niu Aihua turned her head to look at the urn on the ground, and hurriedly picked it up, she hysterically pointed at the people at the door and shouted: "Get out of here, Aiguo is going to sleep, get out, don't come to my house!" ”

"Mom, I'm a little five." Xiao Wu wiped his tears, a little overwhelmed.

After Jiang Sheng went home, he heard his mother say that something had happened to Niu Aihua's family and hurried to Xiao Wu's house, at that time, Xiao Wu was pulled to the yard by the villagers, Xiao Wu's shoulders shrugged, and tears dripped on the ground.

Jiang Sheng saw Xiao Wu crying so sadly, he couldn't help crying, Xiao Wu cried so much that he couldn't cry, and Jiang Sheng's eyes were red from crying.

Since Lao Jiang had just passed away, he needed his descendants to keep vigil, so Jiang Sheng cried with Xiao Wu for a while and was called home.

Lao Jiang was infected with pneumonic plague, which would infect others if he had a rat-flea bite, and his body was dragged to the town's crematorium that night to be cremated.

Lao Jiang was accidentally infected when he was helping others treat the plague, so he died in the line of duty and was a martyr of the national army.

In just a few days, no less than tens of thousands of people died, countless people died in the town of Beiping City, the residents of the urban area were wiped out one after another, and there were not a few living families left scattered on the streets that were originally quite lively.

At that time, Ma Aiguo found a job carrying cement at a construction site in the town, and the construction site provided food, and ate a big pot of rice, and Ma Aiguo was infected with the plague after only two days. He and a large number of migrant workers were locked up in the quarantine area, he watched the people around him have black skin one by one, died in a painful high fever, and knew that there was not much life, so he wrote a suicide note in the isolation room in the midst of illness and pain, and instructed Niu Aihua and Xiao Wu.

But the letter was burned by the staff of the Plague Control Center on the grounds that it was carrying rat-flea germs.

So after Ma Aiguo's death, his body was directly dragged to the crematorium for cremation, and Niu Aihua only saw the urn when she saw Ma Aiguo.

Lucky people like Ma Aiguo, in other parts of Beiping City, because the number of dead people is too large, if they can't notify their families in time to be cremated, they can only dig a pit of 1,000 people on the spot, and put quicklime in it for corpse processing.

Ma Aiguo, who was originally healthy and strong, became an urn, and Niu Ai went crazy after spending a while unable to stand the stimulation.

Xiao Wu learned the next day that his grandmother and grandfather had also died in the plague.

The fate of that era was like this, Xiao Wu was unlucky, but he was not the most unlucky.

Xiao Wu suddenly remembered that a few days before the plague happened, when he went to Wu Qingyun's mansion to find Senior Brother Wu Yao, Senior Brother Wu Yao vaguely revealed something to him, telling him to be careful not to touch rats and not to eat anything outside.