"I've calculated, we're going to add the sick, and the women and children, there's a total of fourteen people, and the five of us big men definitely don't need to ride horses, and the remaining two people ride a horse, and there are two left, one for goods, and the other for dry food." Wei Zhihe took out his notebook and marked the names of the group of people who had just left to check Lao Wu.

"With the amount of meat of one horse, it should be enough for the rest of us to eat for two days."

"They ......" the third uncle's "they" refers to Cha Lao Wu and them.

"It's their own choice of what path to take, we have no way to control them, life and death are up to them. If they can get out of the way, they can leave a root for our village. Besides, they are gone, which is just the right time to lighten our burden. ”

Wei Zhihe looked into the distance and muttered, "Good luck to you." ”

The third uncle and they began to sharpen their knives and kill horses and prepare dinner. At this time, Wei Changhe ran out of the tent, hugged the horse's neck tightly, and refused to let go.

"Son, come here." Xiao Changhe shook his head. Wei Zhihe walked over and hugged Xiao Changhe away from the horse.

"Dad, can you not kill them? They're pathetic, and I love being with them. Xiao Changhe's eyes were filled with tears. As a child in the mountains, he was with horses and hunting dogs every day, and now watching them being killed, Xiao Changhe felt that his heart was broken.

"Son, dad doesn't want to kill them, it's all to survive. Dad also had no choice. Wei Zhihe touched his son's head, and his son's immature tone made his determination just now shaken a little.

Wei Zhihe carried his son back to the tent and placed him next to his mother.

"In the past few days, you two have been wronged." Wei Zhihe looked at his wife, how beautiful she used to be, but now she has gray hair and wrinkles on her face, and in the past few days, she has been running around with them outside every day, and she is a little purple.

"It's fine." In a simple sentence, Wei Zhihe seemed to have gained infinite strength.

"Don't worry, today I'm going to treat everyone, improve the food, eat meat!" Wei Zhihe stood up and announced a good news to everyone. In fact, everyone understands that they haven't seen Wei Zhi eat with them in the past few days, and every time they ask, they say that they have just eaten and just eaten, and how much food they have taken out from home, they all have a number in their hearts, and now it is estimated that there is nothing to eat.

The little meat that I took from the time of departure has long been eaten, and now I must have killed the horse to eat meat. Some people have begun to cry, and the partners who have been with them since childhood are now eating by themselves, how can they not be sad.

"Zhihe, ahem." An old man trembled and was helped up by others and coughed up a large blood clot. Wei Zhihe hurriedly went over and helped the old man to lie down and covered the quilt.

"Zhihe, are you going to kill the horse?" Faced with the uncle's questioning, Wei Zhihe could only treat it in silence.

"Uncle, I won't eat it, can I not kill it?" Wei Zhihe shook his head.

"They're the lifeblood of our village, and without them, we'd be like, ahem." The more the old man spoke, the more anxious he became, and coughed up a few blood clots.

"Uncle, you rest and rest, don't talk, it's important to recuperate."

"Child, you can't kill, you can't kill." The old man's eyes were filled with tears, and his father told him since he was a child that horses are the lifeblood of the village, and even if a person dies, he can't let the horse die, and he also taught his children in this way.

"Uncle, I understand what you said, I don't want to, I ......" Wei Zhihe choked up a little, "I can't help it, these people have to wait to eat, wait to drink, if we don't kill them, we will all die here." ”

The old man closed his eyes, and cloudy tears flowed from the corners of his eyes. "It's all old men, it's a drag on you, kid, it's causing you trouble, damn it...... Ahem, cough cough "blood spilled from the corner of his mouth again.

"Don't talk about it, you have a good rest, you take care of your illness, and when we are gone, we will buy many, many horses to compensate for them." Wei Zhihe motioned to the people next to him to take good care of the old man and walked out of the tent by himself.

The horse seemed to know his fate, and tears flowed from his huge eyes. The third uncle untied the horse's reins and wanted to put the cloth on the horse's head, not wanting it to see that he was holding a knife against it. Originally, facing a brute, the third uncle thought that he could make a ruthless knife to let it leave this painful world, but when he saw the tears of the horse, he really couldn't raise the knife in his hand.

The horse broke free from the third uncle's hand, galloped a few steps, and crashed headlong into the nearest tree, and suddenly his brain was shattered, and he saw that there was no air inlet but no air out. After the horse was hit and killed, all the hounds gathered around the horse's carcass, tilted their heads and howled "whining" to see off their companions.

"It's also a fiery horse, and he doesn't want to cause trouble for his family." The third uncle touched the horse's head and told the horse to close its eyes. "Go, go, get to the other side, and you'll be free to run."

Wei Zhihe, who had just gone out, happened to see this scene, and he couldn't suppress his tears, hiding behind a tree, covering his eyes and crying. Wei Zhihe's heart has been pressed with a stone since he went out, and after six days of fear, he finally can't suppress it, he wants to vent but doesn't know how to get rid of the confusion in his heart.

There is no way to tell anyone, and you can only carry these things on your own shoulders by yourself. A man in his forties squatted behind a tree and cried like a child, wanting to vent all his grievances by crying. This cry was accompanied by the raging wind, and it drifted far and wide, and even the mountains could not help but whimper.

He ...... "The third uncle wanted to go and see what was wrong with Wei Zhihe, but he was stopped by Uncle Li."

"It's okay, let him be quiet by himself, he's tired these days." ——

I was the dividing line—on the seventh day, the snow seemed to get heavier.

That night, I cried, and I don't know how long I can resist.

In the end, the old man still didn't eat horse meat, and no matter how we persuaded him, the old man always closed his eyes. In the end, the old man did not make it through the night, and when everyone was quiet, he also went quietly and went to find his companion.

It seems that everyone didn't pay attention to Cha Lao Wu's departure, and everyone seemed to have recovered a little with food, sorted out their bags, and set off again.

Yesterday there were fourteen people, and today there are thirteen left. How many are we left after today's past?

—Wei Zhihe's diary.