The small county town of Xinzhou seems to be a mud ball inadvertently thrown onto the shore by the winding Xinjiang. Although its name is also called "Zhou", it is under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou.

Li Shi pulled Xiao Huineng and staggered into the south gate of Xinzhou County. She looked around, her eyes wandering from shop to store. In the end, she hesitated, walked to a grocery store, and asked the shopkeeper: "Little second brother, may I ask you, where is the pawnshop in the city?" ”

Dare to love, this old and young are not here to buy things! The smiling face of the shopkeeper immediately turned cold, and he said impatiently: "Go and go, inquire about gossip and go elsewhere!" Walk around ......."

Li Shi pulled Huineng and was about to turn around and leave, when a middle-aged rich gentleman walked out of it. He is the owner of a grocery store named An Daocheng. He drank the second child in the store and said to the Li family: "Old sister-in-law, you are from the countryside, right?" ”

Li said: "Yes, yes, our mother and daughter are from Xialu Village. The child's father is sick and has no money to get medicine, so he thinks of ...... in the pawnshop."

"You go all the way down this street until you reach the third junction to the east, then turn north again, and then ......"

Li Shi smiled very awkwardly and asked, "Please, may I ask, which side is north?" I kind of turned to ......"

An Daocheng was just about to stretch out his hand to show her the direction, but after thinking about it, he said, "Forget it, forget it, I'll take you on a trip, so that you two don't have to go wrong." ”

Li thanked him and followed An Daocheng to the pawnshop. The pawnshop counter was very high, and Li's body was so thin, she struggled to raise her arms before handing over a bag of clothes.

The shopkeeper shook out a half-new official uniform from his baggage, and looked at Li condescendingly: "You, where did this official uniform come from?" Did you steal it from the Yamen? Say! ”

Li said very stubbornly: "Although our Lu family is poor, we would rather starve to death than steal other people's things. ”

The pawnshop shopkeeper picked up his official uniform and asked aggressively: "It's not stolen, you are a common people, where did you get your official uniform?" ”

Li said: "My lord used to be an official in the north, of course he has an official uniform!" ”

The shopkeeper weighed the official uniform repeatedly: "This official uniform is the same as that of the old man in the county office." It seems that your lord once worked as a magistrate. As an official for one term, he has been rich in business for three generations. Since you are an official eunuch, do you still have to estimate clothes to get by? ”

Li sighed, speechless. At this time, An Daocheng, who was on the side, clasped his fists with his hands to the pawnshop shopkeeper and said: "Big shopkeeper, seventeen or eighteen years ago, there was an official who was demoted from the Central Plains to our new state. It seems that these two girls are his family. I don't think you should be embarrassed for her. ”

The big shopkeeper muttered while packing up his clothes: "Nearly twenty years ago, I was cut to serve the people, and I was so poor that I couldn't open the pot, and I still kept this official uniform for what ......"

Li took a few pieces of broken silver, and under the guidance of An Daocheng, he pulled Huineng into the Chinese medicine shop.

This is the first time Xiao Hui Neng has been in the city since she was born.

The high Longshan Mountain is still steaming and the weather is myriad, but the small courtyard of the Lu family under the mountain has lost its former vitality. Huineng sat quietly under the eaves, fanning a small tandoor oven with a fan to boil medicine.

Indoors, Lu Xingyu was lying on a bamboo bed, motionless, like a dead body. After a while, I could see his eyeballs rolling, and two huge tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes helplessly.

Li wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and gently comforted, "Master, you want to open some." ”

Lu Xingyao's face was painful, and his face was sad: "Madam, there is no hope of reinstatement, and there is no time to return home, can I think about it?" ”

Li said: "If you are not an official, you should not be an official." What's so good about being an official? I'm scared all day long. If you are not careful, you will lose the black gauze hat. ”

Lu Xingyao said: "However, I have been studying hard for ten years, full of economic articles, how can I fulfill my life's ambitions if I don't become an official? The eldest husband was born in the world, and he should rule the country and level the world, and it will be remembered forever in history. Besides, I was dismissed and exiled like this, which brought shame to the ancestors of the Lu family, if I can't make a comeback and revitalize my family, I won't be blind! ”

Lu Xingyu coughed violently, his body trembled, and he couldn't breathe.

Li Shi beat him on the back and shouted sadly: "Master, master......"

Lu Xingyu finally spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm with blood, and said with a wheez: "Master? Master? Whose family is my Lu Xingyao? There is a flat-headed common man, and he can only call the master of the family! Ha...... Woo......"

Sometimes he laughed wildly, sometimes he cried bitterly, like madness. After tossing for a long time, he fell asleep.

In the courtyard, Xiao Huineng, who was boiling medicine, seemed to be caught in some kind of thought, and the expression on his face was extremely dazed. The fan in his hand fanned the wind from time to time, but it did not fan against the air inlet of the stove.

Li shouted indoors: "Neng'er, is the medicine boiled?" ”

Hui Neng was unaware of it, and meditated as before.

Li screamed twice, but still did not answer, so he walked out of the room. She saw that Huineng was in a daze, so she gently knocked him with a bamboo stick.

Huineng was startled, and asked in a daze, "What's the matter, mother?" ”

Li Shi said angrily: "What's the matter! What do you say? Let you boil the medicine, where will the soul go? ”

Only then did Huineng realize that the fire was about to go out. He hurriedly added a few pieces of firewood to the tandoor, and asked while fanning the wind: "Mother, why has my father's official uniform been preserved until now?" ”

Li said: "Your father has always fantasized about the reinstatement of the capable official and wearing it back to Fanyang. Therefore, he protected him like a baby, and he didn't let him go to the pot without rice at home for a few days. ”

Huineng asked with concern: "Now that we treat it as a treat, the family has no money, can we still come back?" ”

Li let out a long sigh: "Alas—what are you going to do when you come back?" Your dad is dreaming! Once he is dismissed and exiled, how can he be reinstated! No, the letter came, and the court said that it would be cut for the people and never renewed. ”

Huineng frowned and asked, "Dad vomited blood for this, and he was so angry that he got sick?" ”

Lee said, "Who said it wasn't. He has been in Lingnan for 18 years, but he has been looking forward to being reused by the imperial court one day. Now the dream has awoken, and hope is shattered. Without this breath, I won't be able to hold on......"

Huineng asked again: "What's so good about being an official?" Why did Daddy always dream of being an official? ”

Li said: "People die for the name, and birds die for food." Your father didn't just want to gamble, to make a good name in front of others! ”

Huineng asked, "Is reputation so important?" People live for a name? ”

Li was stunned and didn't know how to answer.

When the medicine was boiled, Li poured it into a bowl and brought it into the house.

Lu Xingyao's illness is getting worse day by day, and he is losing all six spirits and coughing.

Huineng came in with the medicine, blew it, and said, "Dad, it's time to take the medicine." ”

Lu Xingyu shook his head weakly, and said intermittently: "Child, child, you, you don't boil medicine every day." Dad's disease can't be cured by medicine, it's in vain, in vain. It's so bad that you two can't even eat......"

Lu Xingyu refused to take medicine. Li fed him, his teeth were clenched, and the medicinal soup was spilled. Xiaohui can cry anxiously on the side, but there is nothing she can do.

After nightfall, Lu Xingyu struggled on the line of death, looking extremely painful.

Li stroked his chest, and Xiaohui could wipe the phlegm from the corner of his father's mouth with a cloth towel. Lu Xingyu gasped for a while, and his consciousness was a little clearer. He looked at his wife and children, who were about to become orphans and widows, with infinite compassion, and said desolately: "Madam, Neng'er, you leave me alone. I'm a big man, I can't glorify my ancestors, I can't support my wife and children, what's the use of living! ”

Li Shi cried and said, "Master, what nonsense are you talking about! ”

Huineng also held up his small chest and said, "Dad, you should get better quickly." In the future, I will be a big child, and I will help you farm and work. ”

Lu Xingyu smiled miserably: "I am alive, dragging you down in vain, but when I die, I am left with you orphans and widows, how can I live in the future......"

The family sobbed.

Outside the window, wind and rain, lightning and thunder. Lu Xingyu has reached the point of death. For a moment he was like a sharp blade cutting through his heart, and the pain was unbearable; After a while, it was like the devil overpowering him, and he was terrified. He's been babbling about something:

“…… No, no, I can't die...... I—I'm not reconciled...... I, I want to go back to Fanyang......"

Huineng and her mother couldn't help them, so they could only hug their heads and cry.

There was an earth-shattering thunderclap, and the oil lamp was blown out by the wind. In the darkness, Huineng's desperate cry was heard:

"Daddy—"

"Daddy—"

Xiao Huineng wore a long filial piety shirt and a white filial piety hat, and crawled on the hillside outside the village. His father was already lying under the pile of loess.

Li Shi put away the dishes and plates for use, and said to Hui Neng, who was still crying, "Neng'er, let's go home." ”

Huineng knelt motionless, tears of sadness mixed with snot flowing silently.

Li said: "Alas, don't feel bad for both of us, your father is dead." Dead, dead, a hundred. If your father dies, he will not be guilty. But we still have to live, and we have to suffer. ”

Huineng thought for a while and asked, "Mother, my father suffered when he was alive, and he was so uncomfortable when he was sick, and it was even more painful when he died. Why is all this? ”

Li said casually: "It's all because of a bad life." ”

Huineng said: "However, those who have a good life will also be sick and die!" ”

Li said: "Yes, people are born to endure hardships. Otherwise, the child will be born crying instead of laughing. ”

Xiaohui Neng asked: "So, why did we still give birth?" ”

Li was speechless, and looked at his son silently and strangely. This Hui Neng, in his little brain, often pops up some inexplicable things.

Lu Xingyao's return to the west is like a collapse of the sky for Huineng's mother and son. Fortunately, when Lu Xingyu was alive, he was literate and hyphenated, and he helped the villagers a lot, so people took good care of their orphans and widows; Fortunately, Li is an indigenous woman, willing to endure hardships, able to work hard, and can make do with the work in the fields; Fortunately, Li's mother's home is not far from Zhenlang Village, and with the help of their mother's brothers and fellow villagers, they kept two acres of thin fields, starved for a meal, full for a meal, chaff for a day, and vegetables for a day, and finally survived.