The next afternoon, Juehui went to see Juemin and told her brother about Mei's ending, which elicited some tears from Juemin. The two of them talked for less than an hour. When Jue Hui left for home, Juemin sent him inside the gate. Jue Hui had already stepped over the threshold, and Juemin suddenly called him from behind.

"What else do you have?" Juehui walked back and asked.

Juemin just looked at him with a kind smile and didn't speak for a while.

Juehui seemed to understand, so she said kindly: "Second brother, do you feel lonely here?" …… I know you're going to feel lonely. Me too. No one in my family understands me. As soon as Huang's mother came into the house, she wanted to ask about you, and when she mentioned you, she shed tears. Otherwise, I will be entangled by my sister-in-law. Mom, sister-in-law, second sister, third sister, they often hold me and ask for your news. But their hearts are far away from my heart, and from yours. I was completely isolated at home alone. But I should be patient, and you should be patient. You're going to win. ”

"But I'm a little scared......" Juemin said only half of the sentence. His eyes suddenly lit up, and there were tears shining in them.

"What are you afraid of? You're going to win," Kyaw Hui encouraged with a smile.

"I'm afraid of loneliness! My heart is lonely! ”

"Aren't there two hearts that resonate with yours?" Jue Hui said with a smile on her face.

"It is precisely because there are two hearts that are so close to mine that I often want to see you. It was inconvenient for her to come. You're gone again now. ……”

Juehui knew that her eyes were also wet, but she didn't want her brother to see it, so she took her eyes off her brother's face, pretended to look elsewhere, and patted her brother's shoulder and said, "Second brother, you bear with it." You're going to win. You can always endure these days," he said as soon as he said this, interrupted by another man's voice. Huang Cunren stood next to them with a smile and said calmly, "Why don't you go inside to talk about it?" Don't be careless. Juehui replied, "I'll go back." He said hello to Huang Cunren and turned to leave. He also heard Huang Cunren say in the back: "Then let's go inside and talk." ”

Jue Hui muttered to herself on the way, "I will definitely win." But in his heart he thought bitterly, "Can we really win?" When will victory come? It wasn't until he entered Qin's house that he decisively said, "We can't manage so much now, we have to fight to the end no matter what." ”

He met his aunt first, and then went to Jean's room. When he saw the qin, the first thing he said was, "I came from the second brother, and he told me to tell you that he is very good." ”

Jean was writing a letter, and quickly put down the pen and said with a smile: "Thank you, thank you." You see I'm writing to him. ”

"Needless to say, the messenger is mine again," said Juehui with a smile. He accidentally caught a glimpse of the three words "Cousin Mei" on the letterhead, and there seemed to be a few places, so he asked, "Did you tell him about Cousin Mei?" I've already said it to him. What is your opinion on Cousin May's death? ”

"I said in the letter that I would never be the second Sister Mei no matter what, and my mother would never let me do it, and she told me personally. She was also very moved when she saw the situation behind Sister Mei and Aunt Qian's tragic situation yesterday. She said she was willing to help me. Jean spoke, with a resolute, pleasant expression, and her countenance was not as haggard as it had been the other day.

"Well, he should have known the news earlier," Juehui said, urging Qin to write the letter. The two of them talked a little more.

Juehui went to Juemin again and gave the letter to Juemin. Juemin was having a good time talking to Huang Cunren. Kyaw Hui also joined them in their hopeful conversation. Nearly an hour later, he returned home, and was about to go to see his grandfather, when he saw several people standing on the stone steps under his father's window, with their necks stretched out, eavesdropping on something. In the Gao family, such things are common. Jue Hui thought, "Don't leave it alone." He walked into the hall and was about to lift the curtain of his grandfather's room, when he suddenly noticed a woman's voice crying something inside, it was the voice of the fifth aunt. Then came grandfather's angry scolding and coughing.

"I said there would be a trick for us one day," Juehui muttered to herself. He went not to open the curtain.

"Get him back for me at once, and see me punish him!" …… It really me off! Grandfather said in a trembling, angry voice in the room, followed by another cough. His cough was mixed with the low sobs of the fifth aunt.

Keming's voice promised "yes" one after another. A few minutes later, the curtain moved, and Keming came out of it with a red face. At this time, Juehui had already walked out of the hall.

One of the people standing under her grandfather's window eavesdropping was Shuhua, and when she saw Juehui, she came over and asked, "Third brother, do you know about the fifth father?" ”

"I already knew," Juehui nodded. He asked Shuhua in a low voice, "How would they know?" He turned his mouth towards his grandfather's room.

Shuhua began to say the following words as if playfully: "The fifth father begged his aunt's wife outside and rented a small mansion, and no one in the family knew. He took all the gold and silver jewelry that his fifth aunt married, saying that he had lent it to others to make a look, and he didn't return it for a long time. The fifth aunt asked him, but he always blindly supported him, and then the fifth aunt asked in a hurry, so he said that he had lost it. He was away from home all day for the past two months, and he came back very well at night, and the fifth aunt was busy playing cards all day long, and she didn't suspect anything. Yesterday morning, the fifth aunt occasionally found a picture of a woman in his pocket and asked him which one it was, but he refused to say. It happened that the fifth aunt went to the commercial market to buy something in the afternoon, and met a woman sitting in the sedan chair of the fifth father and getting off the sedan chair at the door of the commercial market, and Gao Zhong was still following behind. She found an opportunity to keep Gao Zhong at home today and forced him to tell him about her fifth father. Gao Zhong really said it. Some of the jewelry that the fifth father took was sold, and some were given to the new aunt. The fifth aunt ran to tell her grandfather. …… The fifth father's new aunt is a prostitute, what is it called 'Monday'. ……”

Shuhua said as if her mouth was open and she could never be closed. Jue Hui was not at all surprised by what she was recounting. And he knows more than her, he once saw the fourth uncle go to the "Jinling High Apartment" with his own eyes. He knew that this big empty family was going down the road of decline day by day. There is no force that can hold it. Grandfather's efforts were useless, and anyone's efforts were useless. Even my grandfather himself was already on this path to perdition. He seemed to be the only one standing at the intersection of the road leading to the light. Once again, he exaggerated the feeling that his moral strength surpassed that of this large family that was about to collapse. The enthusiasm encouraged him, and he felt that his heart had never been so excited as it was today. He believed that the so-called struggle between the Father and the Son was coming to an end, and that the struggle for freedom, love, and the right to knowledge would no longer have a tragic end. Mei's era is about to be completely wiped out and given way to a new era, which is the era of Qin, or more so the era of Xu Qianru, that is, the era of him and Juemin. The strength of this generation of young people is by no means something that the corrupt, fragile, and even sinful old family can resist. Victory is certain, and no force can take it away from them. He has that self-confidence. He shook violently, as if he were about to fall off the burden of years of pain from his shoulders. He looked around with proud, hateful eyes, and he thought, "Wait and see, your end is coming." ”

His mood was naturally unknown to Shuhua, and she saw that Juehui did not answer, as if she did not feel the slightest interest in her words, so she quietly walked away. She hurried to the hall and stood at the door of her grandfather's room and peeked in.

Juehui returned to her room. Soon he caught a glimpse of Kemin coming back with Keding through the window. Then there was a scolding in the grandfather's room, apparently the grandfather was scolding Keding. "Leave it alone!" He still thinks so. The scolding seemed to have stopped. There were many people running around under the window, and it seemed that something unexpected had happened. "I said that everyone in our family loves to play tricks," Juehui muttered to herself.

There was a calling sound outside. Men and women ran angrily.

"Go and see, grandpa is going to beat the fifth father!" A child ran by under the window, and when he met a man approaching him, he stopped and said this excitedly. This kid is Juequn.

"So what are you running out there for?" It was Jue Young who asked this question.

"I'm going to call the sixth brother to come and see! …… A big man like the fifth father will be beaten! Juequn said with a smile and immediately ran out.

"Such a big person will be beaten," this sentence aroused Juehui's curiosity. He walked out of the room and towards the hall. There were four or five women standing in the doorway of my grandfather's room, leaning over to peek through the crack in the curtain. He didn't want to be caught between them, so he walked from the hall to the window. Many people stood on the stone steps listening to the people in the room. A few more knelt on the two chairs under the window, pressed their faces against the window paper, and peeked inside through the small holes.

No boards were heard, and no one was beaten.

"You are such a big person, and your daughter is not too young, and she still hasn't studied well! You don't set a good example for Zhen'er either! Zhen'er, you are ashamed of him, seeing him so shameless, he is still worthy of being your father! This was his grandfather's scolding, and Juehui couldn't help but laugh when she heard it.

The old lady coughed twice, then was silent for a moment, and then suddenly scolded loudly again:

"Such a shameless thing! You've read a tripe! He did this ugly thing: he cheated your wife into selling her jewelry. I'll give you three days to get it back!" He cursed a few more words, and finally said, "You brute, I see that you have been clever since you were a child, and you have some favoritism, and I can't imagine that you would do such a shameless thing." Say to yourself, what are you worthy of me? You lied to me! I still think of you as a good son. You, you bastard! You don't give me a slap in the mouth! You do it yourself! ”

"Dad, my son knows it's wrong. Please forgive my son for this first offense, and my son will not dare to do it again next time," he pleaded in a pitiful voice.

"No, I won't spare you! I want you to slap yourself in the mouth! The old lady slapped the table and roared.

And so the sound of flesh and flesh hitting began, very crisp, the sound of hands hitting the cheeks. Encouraged by curiosity, Juehui walked into the hall again, went to the door of her grandfather's room, whispered "let me see", and gently pushed away Shuhua, who was bending over and looking through the crack in the door curtain, and approached the door frame to look inside.

Keding knelt there straight, and slapped his cheeks with his hands from side to side. His long, fair, delicate face was beaten red. He still kept fighting. He was ashamed to do this in front of his wife and daughter.

"Don't fight!" The old lady commanded. Keding immediately took his hand off his face.

"I ask you, do you know where you got your food, your clothes, and your food?" The old lady asked.

"It's all from my father," replied Keding.

"So do you know how to sit and eat the air? Brute, who will you feed you when I die? The more the old lady spoke, the more angry she became, and commanded:

"Call me again! Hit hard! ”

Then Keding's hand was raised again and slapped in the face.

This humiliating act did not satisfy the old lady, who continued to scold, and finally told Keding himself to tell how he had made a few bad friends in three or four months, embarked on an evil path, and had a relationship with an adulterer; How did he organize a small mansion, and how he deceived his wife into selling his jewelry?

He told everything without concealment, scolded himself, and even confessed many things that his father had no suspicion of at all. He said how he had borrowed a lot of debts under his father's sign outside, and he owed somebody somebody, somebody, and reported the amount one by one, and there was even a gambling debt. In the end, he also confessed to Ke'an, saying that he had done all this with Ke'an's help, and that Ke'an was also partly responsible for these debts. Anyway, he said everything. This was something that the old lady didn't expect, and it was also something that Juehui didn't expect.

Juehui saw two completely different people in the fifth uncle Keding and his brother Juemin. Kyaw Min, the nineteen-year-old young man who was surrounded by enemies, was inspired by a single faith, a passion, and he could fight bravely against the environment at all costs, so that the people in his family could do nothing against him. Keding, a thirty-three-year-old man with a thirteen-year-old daughter, actually knelt upright, slapped himself, scolded himself, humiliated himself, and implicated others. He did not resist at all, either in deeds or words. He did what his father told him to do, without hesitation, though in fact he did not believe the old man's words. Under the same threat of that stubborn old man, these two generations have done two completely different things! The one left the house and hid in a small room, insisting on his own opinions, making it impossible for his grandfather's orders to be carried out; This one, on his knees, knelt in front of the old man, and made timid and hypocritical gestures, providing many with ridicule and information. Thinking like this, Juehui can't help but be glad and proud of her generation. He thought, "Such people can only be found in your generation, not in us." He turned around and walked away.

"Brute, you owe so much debt, where do you have the money to pay it back? Do you think I'm rich? Now there are floods, military disasters, and [note 1] and many kinds of food taxes. Spending money like you like water, sitting and eating empty, I ask you, how many years are there to spend? What will the next generation depend on in the future? Do you want to marry Zhen'er? You deserve to be a father! The old lady scolded, scolded, and let out a loud cough. Then he ordered Sook-jeong to call Ke'an. He was going to scold Ke'an well. However, soon Shuzhen returns and says that Kean is not at home. This time he was even angrier. He slapped the table and cursed, and scolded Keding for a while, but he couldn't calm his anger. He asked Shuzhen again, "Where is your fourth aunt?" Go and call her to me. The fourth wife, Wang, was standing under the window eavesdropping on the news, and she wanted to dodge, but it was too late. Shuzhen came out to call her, and although she was a little scared, she had to go into the room with her head on.

"Daddy calls daughter-in-law......" Wang asked reluctantly with a smile on her pointed face.

When the old lady saw Wang, he asked her loudly, "Where is Ke'an?" She replied that she didn't know. The old lady asked Ke'an again when he would come back, but she still replied that she didn't know.

"You don't know what your husband does! You're so confused! The old lady suddenly slapped the table and scolded.

Wang had nothing to say. She lowered her head, ashamed and angry. She seemed to see Aunt Chen standing next to her and grimacing at her. But in front of the old lady, she didn't dare to move, she shed tears, but she didn't dare to cry. She had to swallow the tears in her stomach.

The old lady coughed again, but this time he coughed very badly and spit out a few mouthfuls of phlegm. Aunt Chen twisted her body and gave him a diligent back next to her, while saying "It's not worth it to be angry with them".

The old lady coughed for a long time before she came to her senses. His anger was gone. A sorrow that he had never felt before came upon him suddenly, and it quickly conquered him. He felt unusually tired. He just wants to rest, he just wants to close his eyes and see nothing. He fell on the back of the couch and waved to those who were standing in front of him, saying, "Go away for me, all of you, and leave not one, I will not see you." He sighed again.

Everyone was eager to hear this, and immediately withdrew. Keding also got up from the ground and walked lightly. Only the old lady and Aunt Chen were left in the room.

The old lady just wanted to rest quietly alone. He sent Aunt Chen away. He lay alone on the couch, panting slightly. His eyes were half-open. Many shadows appeared in front of his eyes. Some figures dangled in front of him. He couldn't see a friendly smiling face. He could see faintly how his sons were drinking and having fun, saying things that mocked him and complained about him. He also saw his grandchildren proudly walking on a new path, and he could not punish the young rebel for daring to disobey his orders. He himself lay here in old age and weakness, an old man alone, with no one to take care of him. He had never felt as disappointed and lonely as he did now. He began to wonder: how could he have had such a big dream? He also thought about how he had created a big family and a big family business, and how he had used his arbitrary hand to deal with and direct everything, thinking that he could make the family prosper day by day. But his efforts only caused his own loneliness today. It is impossible for him to use his last struggles to maintain this situation today. The facts are clear: the family is now on a downward spiral. The final outcome was predictable. Although he himself was unwilling, he could not stop it with his bare hands. He's done. No one believed him. Everyone was deceiving him. Every man is walking his own way. Even his favorite Keding would do that kind of humiliating thing. And K'an. These people are dreaming! If the Gao family collapses, will they still have a way to live? What future do these losers have? It's all over, it's all over! He had a good dream of "four generations in the same house" for many years, but after the dream came true, what an empty feeling he got now!

Disappointment, disillusionment, darkness. He now lies here weakly, with no one to pay attention to him, no one to share his pain and loneliness. It was only then that he understood his true place in the family. He felt that he had not only lost his pride, but also that he had lost what he had to live on. For the first time, he felt disillusionment, disillusionment, darkness. For the first time, he felt as if he had done something wrong. But he didn't know what was wrong, and even if he did, it would be too late.

The quarrel between the Keding couple seemed to ring in his ears, and he seemed to hear many dissonant noises. Shen's face was full of tears, and he opened his mouth and said, "Please let my father be my master." Keding slapped himself on the cheek and said with pity: "They all say so, my father will pay it back for me." Hengzhu's family is the richest man in the North Gate, and some of them have inexhaustible money. He hurriedly covered both ears with his hands, but the noise still broke in mercilessly. His mind was torn by the noise. He tried to get up and go to another quiet place to take shelter, but he tried a few times, and he was able to barely stand up with one hand on the arm of the couch, and it was very difficult. He took two steps toward the bed. Suddenly, the house began to spin upside down, and his body couldn't help but shake. So there was darkness in front of him, and he didn't know anything until Aunt Chen woke him up with a panicked scream.

[Note 1] Sticker: Bandit.