During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a squire in Ninghai, Zhejiang Province whose family was surnamed Tao, and the surrounding neighbors all called the male owner of the Tao family as the pottery outside, the pottery outside married his wife Hu in his early years, and the first child of the Hu family was a boy, named Tao Sinian, and two years later gave birth to a girl, named Tao Siting. When Tao Sinian was ten years old, Hu was pregnant with her third child, and suffered dystocia during childbirth, one corpse and two lives, and both mother and son died.

When their mother was there, Si Nian Si Ting and her siblings thought that the time they spent with their parents would be long, and there would be more younger brothers and sisters in the future, and the two of them never felt that each other was a precious existence.

After their mother died, their father neglected to take care of them, and without their mother's protection, the brother and sister began to discover that the closest people in the world were the brothers and sisters of their mother's compatriots left to them by their mother.

However, the good times did not last long, and two years after Hu's death, the potter remarried the daughter of a merchant surnamed Gao who opened a shop on the street to fill the house. This remarried Gao did not read much, his family education was not strict, and his personality was vulgar and mean. She was jealous that the dead Hu family was born more noble than her, had a better reputation than her, and raised a pair of smart and likable children.

As a stepmother, she regarded the pair of oil bottles left by Hu as a thorn in her eye, a thorn in her flesh, and she was full of discomfort when she saw it. After the potter gave her the right to be a housekeeper, she tried every means to torture Si Nian and Si Ting's two children.

Don't give charcoal fire in winter, don't give mosquito nets in summer, don't cut new clothes for the two children during the New Year, and always say in the ear of the potter who doesn't care about the children how bad the temperament of the two children is, they don't respect their stepmothers, the boy is stubborn and doesn't listen to the lesson, and the girl Meng Lang doesn't know how to respect herself.

Gao gave birth to a boy in the second year of marriage, named Tao Siyuan. After having a son, thinking that the Tao family's solid property would be divided in half by Tao Sinian, the eldest son born to the original partner, Gao became even more restless, and intensified the persecution of Sinian Siting's brother and sister.

Sure enough, there is a stepmother and a stepfather, and the potter who never cares about the child's food, clothing, housing and transportation listened to the pillow wind of the continuation of the string, and scolded Si Nian Si Ting's two children lightly, and punished them all night long, fortunately, the two children have a companion for each other, when they are suffering, you hold me, I hold you, comfort each other, cheer each other up, Si Nian said to Si Ting who was lying in his arms and kept crying: "Don't cry, Si Ting, when my brother grows up, my brother has become a man, No one in this world will dare to bully my sister anymore, my brother will take you to the ends of the earth, to the outside world to see, do you want to go? ”

Si Ting sobbed and asked, "Where are we going?" ”

"The world is so big, there are places to go, as long as Siting is a little stronger and braver, she will definitely wait for that day."

Si Nian Siting endured the humiliation and burden, and always wanted to wait for the day when she grew up, but her stepmother Gao was unwilling to wait for a day.

In the summer when Si Nian was fifteen years old, he took Si Ting to pick cucumbers in the vegetable garden at home, when the son Tao Siyuan born to his stepmother was already two years old, Si Yuan's nurse Xing's mother was playing by the well with Si Yuan, Si Nian saw it and persuaded Xing's mother: "Mom, my brother is still young, it's too dangerous to be by the well, my mother should take him to play somewhere else." ”

Mother Xing, under the influence of the mother-in-law Gao, has always been the mentality of Si Nian and Si Ting's brothers and sisters, so she pursed her mouth and said disdainfully: "Don't worry, my old mother has seen so many children, and none of them have made a mistake, so if the young master has spare time, hurry up and do what you should do." ”

Seeing that this old mother was disrespectful to the young master and young lady in both tone and face, Siting was very angry, took her brother's hand and said, "Brother, let's go, people don't need us to worry about it." ”

Si Nian still didn't worry about his younger brother, and no matter what kind of face Xing's mother gave him, he still told her calmly: "I know that my mother has a good reputation, but this well side should wait for my younger brother to bring him over to play when he is older, he will just run now, as soon as he lets go of his hand, his mother may not be able to catch up with him." ”

Mother Xing glanced at Tao Sinian with her white eyes, and dropped a sentence hatefully: "Crow's mouth." Holding Tao Siyuan, he left the well. ”

Seeing that the little brother had left the dangerous place, Si Nian Siting went to pick vegetables, but just after picking a few roots, she heard Xing's mother shouting: "Little young master, little young master, come on, little master fell into the well....."

Si Nian Si Ting threw down the vegetable basket in her hand, hurriedly ran to the well, and saw the two-year-old Si Yuan struggling in the deep well water, floating up for a while, sinking for a while, and couldn't even hear the cry.

Si Nian hurriedly turned the reels by the well, wanted to scatter all the well ropes, and then fixed them, and went down to catch his younger brother up, he had not finished putting the well ropes, the Tao family's family rushed over, or the people worked quickly, and soon went down to the bottom of the well, and saved Siyuan who had passed out.

Fortunately, Siyuan didn't drown for a long time, and after some first aid, he finally breathed again, but he was frightened and still had a serious illness.

Xing's mother committed such a monstrous disaster, naturally she didn't dare to admit it, and she knew that Gao's extreme could not tolerate Si Nian Siting's brother and sister, so she told Gao that she was playing in the vegetable garden with the little master, and the eldest young master told her to go back to the yard to move the stool, and the little master could hand it over to him to watch temporarily, Xing's mother thought that it was impossible for a child as big as the eldest young master to look at a child, so she confidently and boldly handed over the little young master to the eldest young master, but she didn't expect that she had just walked out not far before she heard the sound of something being thrown into the well, When she turned around, she saw that the eldest young master was already standing by the well, and the little young master he was holding in his arms was gone, so she hurriedly ran over and saw the little young master fall into the well.

Gao naturally didn't believe in Xing's mother's framing, not to mention that Tao Sinian made her walk so far to move a stool, even if Tao Sinian came to his stepmother's room with his injured hand to ask for gold sore medicine, Xing's mother didn't bother to get it for him. What's more, although Tao Sinian is young, he is very careful and steady in doing things, and such a clumsy method is not Tao Sinian's style at all.

If you don't believe it, Gao thought that she could take this opportunity to make her husband hate the eldest son born to this original partner once and for all, and the family business fell into the hands of her own son, why not. She grabbed her hair and cried in front of the potter, begging the potter to give her a letter of resignation, so that she could take her son Tao Siyuan back to her parents' house to take refuge, so as not to be framed by the villain, and in the end there would be no corpse.

The potter was upset by Gao's crying, he asked who was the villain in the courtyard and where the villain was, Gao repeated Xing's mother's words to the potter, and added oil and vinegar to say that Tao Sinian was a big ghost, a young man, and he was instigated by his grandmother's family, and he wanted to put his younger brother to death again and again, so she found out and stopped it in time, if it wasn't for Xing's mother to find out in time, Tao Siyuan would have become a little ghost in the underworld.

The potter was stupid, and when he heard Gao's accusation against his eldest son, he immediately got up, blew his beard and glared, and asked someone to drag Tao Sinian to do the family law.

Si Nian knew that he had been framed by his subordinates, and his stepmother used his confession to confuse his father, wanting to put himself and a place from which he could never recover, so he stood in front of his father and stepmother and refused to kneel, and asked his father with great righteousness: "Does Daddy believe that the child is that kind of sinister and despicable person?" ”

The potter pretended to say: I naturally don't believe it, but Mother Xing saw your young brother fall into the well from your hands, how do you explain this?

Si Nian replied calmly: "What Mother Xing said must be the truth?" Who can prove that she didn't lie? ”

The potter was stunned for a moment, and immediately thought that the father could never let his son ask him, so he asked: "Then who can prove that you are innocent?" ”

"When my brother fell into the well, Siting and I were picking vegetables nearby, and Siting can prove that my brother did not fall into the well from my hands."

The potter then instructed his subordinates: "Call the young lady." ”

The subordinate agreed, and was about to call, but Gao stopped him: "No, master, Si Nian Si Ting was born to a mother, they are usually so good that outsiders can't intervene, this kind of thing let Si Ting testify against him, do you think Si Ting will tell the truth that is not conducive to her own brother?" ”

When the potter heard this, he called his subordinates back, and said to his son: "Siting can't prove your innocence, do you have any other witnesses?" ”

Si Nian looked at the irrepressible gloating expression on his stepmother's face, and then looked at his father who was confused, his heart was extremely desolate, so he said to his father in despair: "No, there were only me and Si Ting, Xing's mother and my brother in the courtyard at that time, and there were no others. ”

Tao Yuanwai is actually not stupid, he just doesn't want to upset his current wife in order to maintain the original child, so he wants to go through the motions to appease Gao, so he reprimanded Tao Sinian: "You and Siting lost their mother at a young age, thanks to your stepmother, our family has a home, both parents, sisters and brothers are there, you and Siting can also have a hot meal, why are you so unlucky, even your younger brother can't look good, thanks to your brother's big life, if your younger brother dies because of your young age, can you still live a solid life in this life?" ”

Tao Sinian asked his father with tears in his eyes: "Daddy, why don't you ask your mother if she is down-to-earth in her heart, she treats other people's children like this, for her own selfish interests, she does not hesitate to insinuate and spew blood, isn't she afraid of going to the Yama Palace to enter the hell of pulling out her tongue?" ”

Gao's heart is weak, in order to cover up her heart deficiency, she swept the tea set on the table of the Eight Immortals on the ground with one arm, and scolded Tao Sinian: "Okay, you are a bad descendant, you dare to curse your mother to hell, master, your precious son has grown up, his wings have hardened, and even his parents dare to curse, if you don't discipline it strictly, you will ride on your father's head, what are you waiting for?" ”

The potter was distraught and reprimanded the family: "What are you doing there that you are eating idle, selling sugar cane?" Quickly beat him with twenty sticks, told him to collect his temperament, and when he was done, he was pulled back to his own room. ”