In the early spring of March, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, the grass grows and the warbler flies, and everything recovers!

At this moment, the long and cold winter is gone, the ice and snow are melting, and the spring flowers are blooming, which is the most beautiful season of the year!

On the bank of the Qingshui River, in a small courtyard with a farmhouse fence, a woman dressed in shabby coarse linen clothes was half-kneeling in the middle of the courtyard and prayed in a low voice:

"God bless, let my son wake up early! As long as my son can be safe and sound, I am willing to reduce his life by ten years and promise that in the future, he will make offerings on time and do more good deeds during the New Year's holidays......"

In the courtyard, under a large mulberry tree with lush branches and leaves, the woman was prostrate, her face was full of piety, and her mouth was full of words, and beside the woman, there was a little girl with yellow hair and a thin body, who also stared wide-eyed, and her little face was full of solemnity, following the woman with sincere prayer......

The two women, one older and one younger, did not pray for a long time, and it only lasted for a few minutes.

"Sui'er, you go and bring some firewood to the kitchen, raise the fire, and prepare to cook, I'll go see if your brother is awake!" When the woman got up, she touched the hair of the little girl beside her and gave a gentle commandment.

"Hey!"

The little girl said yes crisply, and then ran to the corner of the yard, picked up a small bundle of dry firewood, and ran swiftly in the direction of the kitchen.

Watching the little girl's back disappear into the kitchen door, the woman sighed, and then turned and walked into the house.

"Squeak~"

The woman pushed open the wooden door of the inner room, walked lightly to the only wooden bed in the room, and looked at the pale young man lying on the bed, his eyes full of worry and distress.

"My poor son! Why aren't you awake yet! If I could, my mother really wanted to suffer this for you, and I only hope that my son can wake up soon..."

As she spoke, the woman couldn't help but lie down at the head of the bed and wept in a low voice, and the tears were like beads with broken threads, sliding down her cheeks...

"My son, do you know that yesterday the patriarch sent someone again, saying that he had come to visit my son's condition. But my mother knows that their visit is fake, and it is true to see if my son can't hold on..."

The woman was weeping, whispering to herself, and from time to time she reached out and touched the young man's face, and the slightly pretty face became more and more overflowing.

"Recently, there have been more and more rumors in China, and many people say that my son may not wake up this time. Some people also said, "When my son goes, those distant uncles and brothers of your Ah Weng will come to our door and rob our family's fields, and then drive me and your sister out of Zhangli..."

Looking at the young man lying on the bed, the woman continued to talk to herself, her tone full of grief and sorrow, and a deep sense of fear.

"My son! If you don't wake up, our family will be ruined! At this, the woman was so sad that she could not help but bow her head and weep...

I don't know how long it took, the woman slowly raised her head, rubbed her red and swollen eyes that were already crying, her beautiful face suddenly flashed a trace of determination, and she gritted her teeth fiercely and said: "In case, if there is really such a day, my mother doesn't want to live in the world!" It is even more impossible to agree to the patriarch's request to remarry his stupid nephew! When the time comes, you can only take your sister with you to meet your underground Aweng! We can't be together as a family when we are alive, so let's wait until we get underground to reunite with you! ”

Speaking of the emotion, the woman's grief in her heart couldn't help but increase a little, and she couldn't help but lie down at the head of the bed and weep in a low voice.

After a long time, the woman had almost vented her pain, sorrow, and fear, and then stopped her tears. Then he took the hand of the young man on the bed, and talked to himself again.

Between the lines, most of them are all kinds of trivial things that happened in some Lizhong, as well as various rumors that Zhang Linei has been unfavorable to them recently...

I don't know how long it took, until there was a call of "Mother" outside the house, the woman hurriedly wiped her tears, and hurriedly put the young man's hand into the quilt, tucked the corners of the quilt, and then turned around and walked out of the house.

......

"Alas~!"

The woman's figure had just disappeared outside the house, and Zhang Ran on the bed suddenly opened her eyes, looked at the dilapidated wooden door in the distance with a complicated face, and suddenly let out a heavy sigh.

In fact, Zhang Ran has been awake for a while, but he has just crossed over and has not been able to accept and adapt to his current identity for a while, worried that his casual actions will be seen, and he doesn't know how to face the "mother" of his body, so the moment the woman entered the door, he pretended to be unconscious and lay motionless on the bed.

It can be said that from the time the "mother" of her own body entered the door to her departure, Zhang Ran listened to all the woman's self-talk in her ears word for word.

Through the words of "mother" and some of the original memories of Zhang Ran's body, Zhang Ran also has a general understanding of the current environment and situation.

According to Zhang Ran's understanding, it is certain that the name of his current young man's body is also called "Zhang Ran", which is the same person as the young man in his previous dream. In other words, Zhang Ran's soul penetrated into the body of the ancient teenager "Zhang Ran" from modern society, and accepted his current body and part of his memory.

Through the memories in his mind and the woman's account just now, Zhang Ran slowly sorted out some known information and summarized the following:

First, the boy is also called "Zhang Ran", and he lives in Jingzhaoyin, Xinfeng County, Xixiang, and Shangyuli. Most of the people in the middle of the room are surnamed Zhang and "Zhang Ran" are of the same clan, so the upper corner is also called "Zhang Li". There are less than 100 households in total, including Zhang Ran's family. As for what year and month it is now, and which dynasty, Zhang Ran is not clear, and the original body has hardly been out of the house since he was a child, so there is not much information in this regard.

Second, "Zhang Ran" lost his father at an early age, and there is only one mother and one sister in the family, mother Zhang Li, and sister Zhang Suier. The family situation is relatively poor, the family is very poor, and there is no other property except for the dozens of acres of land left by his father Zhang Guangsu in his early years and the small courtyard where he lives now.

Third, the long-deceased father has no brothers, only a few distant cousins in Wufu, so the family is almost helpless in the village.

Fourth, because "Zhang Ran" was sick in bed and was likely to die soon, some people in the village became greedy and wanted to take Zhang Ran's land and house for themselves. Among them, the patriarch also sent someone to visit the situation, and it goes without saying what the hell he has in mind. However, due to some concerns, these are still on the sidelines, and no action has been taken.

Judging from the above situation, the situation of this family is extremely bad, it can be said that it is not an exaggeration to say that it is stormy, and if one is not careful, the family may even be ruined, and the whole family will die!

The reason why Zhang Ran came to this conclusion is not just casual talk. It is a terrible conclusion based on the information revealed in Zhang's mother's words just now and her family background.

Moreover, Zhang Ran also heard it very clearly just now, Zhang's mother's so-called that their mother and daughter were going to die for their son was by no means alarmist, but Zhang's mother really planned to do it!

This point, Zhang Ran has just understood clearly from Zhang's mother's resolute tone and attitude, and it is clear!

So the question is, obviously the Zhang family still has dozens of acres of land, even if "Zhang Ran" dies, it shouldn't be a problem to feed the mother and daughter, why did Zhang's mother make this choice? Isn't that incredible?

Not really! In Zhang Ran's view, although Zhang's mother's choice seems irrational, it is actually an unexpected and reasonable choice.

Why? Mainly because Zhang Ran's father, Zhang Guangsu, has no brothers and died early, so once Zhang Ran, the only male in the family, dies, Zhang Ran's branch is equivalent to an heir.

And once Zhang Ran's lineage is extinct, according to the ancient patriarchal thinking and clan etiquette, Zhang's mother and Zhang Ran's sister will become outsiders, and they will no longer be the clansmen of the Zhang family recognized by the people. In this case, the patriarch of the Zhang family is eligible to recover the land and houses and other properties of the Zhang Ran family.

And after Zhang Ran's land and house are taken over and shared, there is no doubt that there is no place for Zhang Li's mother and daughter to stand in Zhangli, and they are faced with only one choice, that is, they will be driven out of Zhangli and take their daughter back to their parents' house.

Don't think it's a good choice to go back to your parents' home, you must know that ancient times were not a modern society that advocated equality between men and women. In terms of the current social environment, a woman like Zhang Li who lost her husband first and then her son will generally be considered to be Kefu's son, not to mention that Zhang Li also has a "money-loss" daughter, in this case, no matter where they go, they will be disliked and despised.

Moreover, according to what Zhang's mother said just now, his mother's brothers have already separated, and his parents live with the eldest brother, and they are unable to accept their mother and daughter.

Even if the parents reluctantly accepted their mother and daughter under pressure, with the bitter and mean nature of her brother and sister-in-law, they would not give them a good face. Even, it is very likely that as soon as Zhang Li returned to his parents' home, he would be forced by his brother and sister-in-law to remarry an old widower or something, in exchange for a bride price.

Of course, in addition, their mother and daughter have another choice, that is, to sell themselves to a large family to become slaves, and from then on they will live and die, and they will be rich and noble. If you're lucky, you can meet a good owner, and you can continue to live. If you are unlucky, you can only blame yourself for your bad life.

Moreover, the probability of success in this kind of slavery is not too high for them. Because generally good people accept slaves and maids, they also need to know the roots, and they will not want women with a bad reputation like them.

Based on the above, it can be said that as long as "Zhang Ran", the only male in the family, dies, then no matter which result is extremely tragic for Zhang Li's mother and daughter.

This is also one of the main reasons why Zhang Li chose to die with his son, because they were originally victims of the times and had no choice at all.