Six

Since Chun Bao ran away, there has been no laughter and laughter in Liu's house, Taigong is sick and lying in bed, his condition is getting worse, he has to be served by people to eat, drink and Lazar, Chen San's body is not as good as before, plus years of war, the harvest in the countryside is not good, no one at home has no heart to do it, and the burned West House and South House have not been rebuilt, but the broken wall and ruins have been changed into two walls.

Liu Shao was worried that Taigong's body would not be able to endure it, so he discussed with him to marry him in the autumn, so he was so happy, Liu Taigong also had this intention, but contrary to his wife's thoughts, he felt that he really couldn't hold on for long, and he had to pave his son's future while he was still alive.

Wu Yunshan, the godfather of the Liu family, is now the director of the government affairs department of Zhili Province, and Mrs. Liu wrote a letter to ask his son to go to refuge.

As the saying goes, the rich have distant relatives in the deep mountains, since Liu Taigong became an official in Xuzhou Mansion, Jinan's relatives have moved around again, Taigong thought of letting them help find a family in Jinan, several letters exchanged, and finally set a family business, the other party is also Taigong's cousin, called Tian Xuezhe, there is a daughter under the knee and Zhiqiu is the same age, has not yet been allowed to match people, the two families changed the birth date, just waiting for the auspicious day of the zodiac to get married, but the Taigong did not wait for this day to leave first.

Taigong was angry to death, at this time the Northern Expeditionary Army has captured Jiangsu and Zhejiang, is approaching Xuzhou, entrenched in Xuzhou Zhang Zongchang is born in a beard, he in order to raise military funds, in Xuzhou city extortion, a group of soldiers with bayonets and guns rushed into Liu's mansion, the hard to accumulate up to build a house of more than 800 oceans swept away, poor Liu Taigong I heroic, old but was bullied by these Qiu Ba, rushed to the heart, stroke again, left that night, left two last words before dying, one is "find Chun Bao back." The second is to "build the house." ”

Zhiqiu, who was far away in Tianjin, received a telegram and rushed back to the funeral, although his father's physical condition was already expected, but the loss of his father still gave Zhiqiu a huge blow, he could hardly take charge of things, and it was all up to his mother to take Dafeng inside. In the years of war and chaos, the coffin of the prince could not be sent back to the ancestral tomb of Jinan for burial, under the auspices of Liu Shao, the coffin was temporarily buried in the open space in front of the Hongfu Temple in Beiguan, the so-called false burial, is a tomb raised with bricks on the flat ground, Xuzhou dialect called Qiu, also called Cuo. Liu Shaoshi said that he had to wait for the prince to hug his grandson before officially entering the earth.

Not long after the Taigong left, Chen San also died, he was in the prime of life, he should have lived a few more years, it was the heat that killed him, the summer when the Northern Expeditionary Army entered the city, he had a nosebleed more than once, and it was useless to send him to the clinic, the doctor was helpless, and the family watched Chen Sanliu dry up the last drop of blood.

The pillars of the family fell one after another, and only one man remained, and he was nineteen years old this year.

Feng army withdrew from the Guanwai, the Northern Expeditionary Army recovered Beijing, the people were finally able to live a few days of peace, the autumn no longer went out to work, just guarded this family business, he was good at piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, especially the erhu La's fascination, often to meet friends with literature, taste tea and touch the qin, in Xuzhou Mansion is also a young celebrity. There is an old lady and Dafeng in charge of the business, and they slowly recover their vitality, and when the three-year filial piety period expires, Zhiqiu already has 5,000 oceans in his hands, and he can hold a beautiful wedding.

A letter from Shanghai broke the peace of the Liu family, the letter was written by Chunbao, Zhiqiu read it to Dafeng word by word, explaining in detail the details she didn't understand, Chunbao did a good job in Shanghai, he was already a big guy in the factory, he could get a salary of thirty yuan a month, he was not sick or sick, everything was fine, at the end of the letter, he asked his father and mother how to do it, and asked Mrs. Liu and his wife to say goodbye. Dafeng's old tears were rampant, her husband died, but the son who thought she was lost came to the news, she had something to rely on again, Liu Shaoshi accompanied her and shed tears for a while, and said, Zhiqiu, you go to Shanghai for a trip.

The autumn is happier than Dafeng, the successive bad news makes his sky cloudy, the appearance of Chun Bao is like the sun tearing through the haze, he is excited to prepare the luggage for a long trip, more than half of which is Dafeng entrusted him to bring his son clothes and food. Although Zhiqiu had lived in Tianjin for a few months, his mother was worried, and before leaving, Liu Shao had to call him in front of him and give him a detailed advice.

This is the first time that Zhiqiu went out alone, with a lot of baggage and small luggage, Liu Shaoshi said that the poor family is rich, can not suffer the child, insisted on buying a second-class seat with a sleeping ticket, the third-class ticket from Xuzhou to Pukou is only three yuan five, the second-class bus will cost seven yuan, and the first-class ticket will be doubled, fourteen yuan, this is not counting the sleeping ticket, plus the ticket from the Shanghai-Nanjing line, the whole trip will cost nearly twenty yuan, and a hired worker in Xuzhou Mansion will only pay seven or eight yuan for a month.

On the day of the trip, the whole family and friends and classmates of the autumn came to Beiguan Station to see off, the tickets had to wait until two hours before the start of the car to go on sale, Liu Shao's foresight played a role, the first-class and second-class tickets did not have to queue up to buy easily, the third-class ticket window in front of the Wuyang group of people crowded their heads, when the car was cut the ticket was also separated, the autumn of the luggage was more, relatives and friends helped him move on the car, Xuzhou is the intersection of the Jinpu line and the Longhai line, belongs to the transportation hub, the car is parked for a long time, add water and coal to get off the passengers, After a full forty-minute delay, Zhiqiu had been waiting impatiently, and when the whistle sounded, he almost cheered in his heart.

The steam is full of sky, the iron wheels are sonorous, the train is slowly moving south in the sunset, Zhiqiu sits in the second-class car and waves goodbye to relatives and friends, as the speed of the car increases, the trees and fields outside the window move back quickly, and Zhiqiu's heart also flies to Shanghai. He sat on the most luxurious blue steel express on the Jinpu line, different from other wooden carriages, the blue steel express carriage is a steel carriage imported from the United States, comfortable ride, small station non-stop, most of the passengers are between Pinghu and dignitaries, the second-class carriage is dissatisfied, the first-class car is more empty than half, when the autumn hot water is overcrowded, once again glad that he listened to his mother's words, in the evening, the autumn went to the second-class sleeper car to change the ticket, the tea room took him to find his own bunk, lying on the narrow second-class sleeper, Zhiqiu couldn't sleep for a long time, tossing and turning, and his mind was full of what Chun Bao looked like when he left home.

In the afternoon of the next day, the train arrived at Pukou, Nanjing, the passengers got off the train to cross the river, transferred to the Nanjing-Shanghai train, the autumn brought a lot of luggage, and inexperienced, busy can not be opened, or the tea room helped him find a porter to move things over, spent him a tip of the ocean.

On the evening of the third day, Zhiqiu finally arrived in Shanghai, Chunbao received a telegram, and waited outside the station early, Zhiqiu was carrying a burden, carrying a rattan box in both hands, and a tarpaulin umbrella under his arm, and a thing fell from his body at every turn, embarrassed, and when he looked up, he saw Chunbao standing far away outside the iron fence, the two had not seen each other for five years, and they still recognized each other at first sight, and he didn't know when the tears flowed out of the autumn, he only remembered that it was drizzling lightly that day.

Chun Bao said a word to the staff at the exit of the station, walked in to take the luggage in Zhiqiu's hand, and the two walked out side by side.

"Why don't you call a porter." Chunbao's hometown accent does not change.

"Alas, I was knocked on a bamboo pole in Nanjing, and I didn't dare to call anymore, just a few steps." Zhiqiu looked at him sideways, Chun Bao was whiter and more stable than before, wearing a long shirt with Yin Dan Shilin blue, mille-feuille cloth shoes, and a silver chain with a pocket watch hanging on the placket, it seemed that life was really good.

Chunbao called two rickshaws, and the brothers each took one, all the way from Zhabei to the main road, when crossing the gate of the British Concession, Chunbao was afraid that his younger brother would not understand why there were foreign soldiers standing guard, so he specially explained, Zhiqiu waited for him to finish before saying: "I have been an assistant in the Tianjin Anti-Smoking Bureau for three months, and I have also been to the concession. ”

Tianjin, like Shanghai, is a place where foreign concessions gather, but Tianjin is close to the capital of the Beiyang government, is the capital of Jifu, and the warlords and politicians in the lower field give priority to the Tianjin concession as a residence, and Tianjin is more prosperous than Shanghai, Chunbao understands that his younger brother has also seen the world, so he only introduces the characteristics of Shanghai.

The place to stay is the Yinghua Street Dadong Hotel on the main road, it is still a copper frame bed, an enamel bathtub faucet, Chun Bao wants to help Zhiqiu put the bath water, but Zhiqiu said that he was starving, so he quickly went to find a place to eat.

It was already evening when the train arrived at the station, and it was even later to settle down in the hostel, and the formal restaurant was no longer open, so Chun Bao took Zhiqiu to Siruchun, ordered two bowls of Yangchun noodles, watched Zhiqiu finish eating, and pushed the bowl in front of him.

That night, the brothers fell asleep at the Dadong Hotel, and talked all night, Chun Bao had learned from the telegram that he had died three years ago, and when he heard Zhiqiu talk about the details, he couldn't help crying again, and the two chattered until the early hours of the morning before falling asleep.

During the day, Chun Bao took the autumn to travel to the foreign field, spent two copper dollars from the British Concession to the French Concession, ate butter bread and fried pork cutlets in a Western restaurant, and then took the tram back from the French Concession, went to the car dealer next to the horse racing hall and spent half a day to rent a carriage to run around, saw a section of Nanjing Road paved with iron quinoa, saw the high-rise buildings on the Bund and the foreigner gunboats parked in the center of the Huangpu River, tasted the wine stuffed dumplings of the City God Temple, and ate in Siruchun at night, Chun Bao ordered fried eel silk, stir-fried shrimp, roasted bran, sweet and sour short ribs, and added a pot of rice wine.

Zhiqiu said: "Chunbao, do you remember the last time we drank? ”

Chun Bao said: "Why don't you remember, in the big winter, two chicken legs, a handful of salt beans, and a pot of wine." ”

Zhiqiu said, "Aunt Feng asked me to bring you a jar of salt beans." ”