It was a rainy day in late autumn in September. Since the early morning, the rain has been pouring and never stopped. The whole sky was covered with gray and dark clouds, like a black umbrella turned upside down, tightly covering the vast land that had lost its green.

Huojiabao was silent in the bleak wind and rain. The streets of Qingtiaoshi were washed clean and tidy by the rain, but there were few people to be seen on the streets. Many of the shops along the street are not open, and some even put away the signs and banners for doing business. A merchant carrying a burden dragged his feet, staggering through the streets, and it took him half a day to shake the rattle in his hand without the strength to shake it. The clatter of small drums, the sound of water dripping on the eaves and the murmuring of water in the gutter, swayed lazily in the rain and mist. Most of the Song Restaurant restaurants at the entrance of the town that burned down during the military last summer are still the same as they were more than a year ago, and the blackened beams of the burnt brick walls are piled up in a disorderly manner; A few corners that can shelter from the wind and rain were made into small shacks by the hard-working people with bitter mats and a few bricks, which became their temporary "home".

The mournful autumn rain drifted intermittently throughout the day.

Towards evening, two men came from the other side of the street, one carrying a large steaming soup bucket, and the other carrying a large sieve basket full of black vegetable dumplings, and the people in the shack came out from behind the broken straw curtains, and stood tremblingly in the rubble, waiting for the hot meal that would be served every evening.

When these ragged and vegetable-looking men squatted on the side of the road with broken bowls and crockpots and ate without raising their heads, a dilapidated carriage turned from the official road. The coachman who sat on the wheel shouted in his mouth, and skillfully flicked his whip into the air, and the old horse on the wheel stomped in the direction; The carriage jolted in a large puddle and followed a wet dirt road to the west end of town.

The carriage soon stopped at the gate of an old mansion on the edge of the market town. Before the carriage stopped, Aunt Seventeen led her two daughters out of the courtyard. She neatly took the blanket and small burden handed over by her husband, and asked with concern, "Why did you come back so soon?" It's all done? Brother Zhao sensibly took over the burden that seemed to be heavier from his mother's hands; Siya had snot on her face, and stretched out her dirty little hand to hold the corner of her father's robe. She immediately paid the price for leaving a black handprint on her father's jacket, and Aunt 117 slapped her on the head.

Huo Shiqi didn't talk to his wife at first, stood on the steps and glanced at the group of escapees at the entrance of the town, turned his head and commanded the coachman, and went straight into the courtyard with a dark face. With his appearance, even the four girls who have always liked him the most didn't dare to be coquettish to him, so he quickly avoided with his sister. Aunt Seventeen didn't dare to say a word, followed him into the back room, put down the heavy blanket, brought hot water for her husband to wash his face and feet, and found a set of clothes to serve him to change, and asked cautiously, "Are you hungry?" I'm going to order you some noodles. ”

Huo Shiqi didn't seem to hear her words, sat on the chair, just stared down at the half-used cotton shoes and thought about it, and shook his head gently for a while.

Aunt Seventeen wrenched her hands and asked again, "Why don't I make you a mutton noodle soup?" Two days ago, Yue'er sent a bag of white noodles and a few catties of mutton, and I boiled the soup......"

Huo Shiqi still didn't speak.

After a long time, he sighed faintly, got up and paced the room twice, then sat down again, and sighed again.

Aunt Seventeen's eyes kept following him, and finally she couldn't help but ask, "...... What's wrong? Did this trip not work out? ”

Huo Shiqi tilted his head, closed his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth, and did not speak for a long time.

Aunt Seventeen immediately understood. A sour feeling welled up in her heart. In order to keep her husband's fame, the family pulled the debts of the river beach up and down. Originally, the two of them thought that the matter had disappeared, but who knew that half a month ago, Huo Liu suddenly ran and said that someone in the county had exposed this matter again, because the county ordered Qiao Zhun to report the matter to the state without asking, and the county school had no choice but to bring up the old matter again, and this time it was likely to strip off Huo Shiqi's talent crown. As soon as the news came, the family was overwhelmed. The husband was ruthless, arrived at two acres of good land by the girl's river, and sold the family's newly beaten grain this year to hoard the sky, and gritted his teeth and borrowed five taels of gold from Sun Zhongshan's daughter-in-law, who knows......

She wiped her tears and asked her husband, "What the hell is going on?" "With so much money, not to mention keeping the fame of Xiucai, maybe it's enough to buy a lifter, how can it still be such a result?

Huo Shiqi's eyes were filled with tears, he let out a long breath, and said bitterly: "It's too late." Before the beginning of autumn, the county school set up a roster and reported the matter to the state capital. When I looked for it, all the official documents in the state were approved......"

Hearing that the official documents had come down, Aunt Seventeen knew that there was absolutely no room for turning around in this matter. As soon as her legs went limp, she collapsed on the ground.

Huo Shiqi hurriedly came over and helped his wife to the bed and lay down.

Aunt Seventeen was at the mercy of her husband like a wooden man. She was so painful that she didn't even have the strength to cry, she could only stare at her husband, who was dark and thin, and her face was full of sorrow, and tears kept flowing down her cheeks.

It's over, it's over, and the fame is gone, and the husband can't step into the field anymore in his life, so he can only go home and be a mediocre farmer. But if only I could be an ordinary banker. In the future, I don't know how many people in the clan will laugh and ridicule them in person, I don't know how many people around them will gossip about them, how can the husband live if he is so good-looking? There is also a bad reputation of this family, which will make their family unable to raise their heads in front of people for the rest of their lives, and even the future relatives of several daughters will be affected by this matter, one by one, they are Huo Shiqi's daughters, and everyone around them who has a head and a face, who would dare to marry them as daughters-in-law!

The boundless sorrow completely overwhelmed her!

She created sins in her last life, and she should suffer such sins in this life!

She couldn't help but think of the eldest girl who was still suffering in her husband's family. Her eldest girl, what a good girl, both sensible and diligent, since she was a child, she knew that she felt sorry for her father, and she began to help herself take care of housework at the age of six, and no matter how hard and tired she was, she never complained to herself. But her own mother pushed her into the fire pit with one hand. Poor girl, she became a widow after only three days of marriage, and she has to suffer the anger of her husband's family......

Thinking of the eldest girl, she couldn't help but think of Shang Cheng. Alas, it would have been nice if she had married the eldest girl to the monk at the beginning. With the current status of the monk, hum! Who would dare to take her husband how?

Huo Shiqi wiped her tears one by one, forced a smile and said words of comfort to her. As he spoke, he himself wept bitterly.

Seeing her husband grinning like a doll, Aunt Seventeen stopped crying. She sat up, took her husband's head in her arms, patted his twitching shoulders affectionately like a child, rubbed her face against his dry and messy bun, and caressed him with tenderness.

Huo Shiqi's mood gradually calmed down.

He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, blushing, not knowing what to say for a moment. Since getting married, he has never been so weak in front of his wife. He's a little embarrassed right now.

Aunt Seventeen saw her husband's embarrassment and immediately said, "I'll cook for you." ”

She immediately ran to the stove to prepare a good meal for her husband. She saw Brother Zhao in the stove room. This little girl knew that the adults had encountered difficulties, and she also knew that she could not relieve the sorrows of the adults, so she sensibly took her sister to the stove room to make a fire and boil water. When Aunt Seventeen came in, Siya was sitting on a low bench and adding firewood to the stove hole, and her little face was red by the stove fire; Brother Zhao was trying to reconcile his face, his forehead and sideburns were full of sweat.

Aunt Seventeen looked at her two daughters with great emotion. Tears welled up in her eyes again. The two of them are just as sensible as their sisters. She took the wooden basin from her brother Zhao and asked her to help her sister light the fire. She scooped two bowls of flour into the basin, carefully prepared a large pot of mutton noodle soup, and put a lot of seasonings in the soup that she was usually reluctant to put in, and beat four eggs in one go and stirred them in the pot......

After only two sips of soup, she said that she was not hungry and did not want to use chopsticks again, and then she was satisfied with her husband and daughter to eat all the good things in the pot.