Yes! …… In the middle of the night, there was a sudden exclamation, and the little pot woke up from the nightmare, sweating profusely.

Where is this?

It was dark all around, and all I could hear was my own heavy breathing. I don't know how many times, I often have such dreams in my dreams, in my dreams there are countless swords and swords, there are countless weeping and screaming, there are sky-high fires, my mother is lying in a pool of blood, my sister is leaning softly on the side of the cabinet, staring at the godless eyes, just looking at him, the little pot wants to go up, but the footsteps can't move, he wants to shout, but he can't open his mouth, he is anxious, suddenly a hand grabbed his shoulder, he turned his head, but it was his mother, standing beside him with a bloody face, gritting her teeth and saying to him: "Pot, You want to avenge us......"

Then he woke up.

Xiao Guozi is afraid of such dreams, he doesn't want this terrible dream to break into his night often, but he also hopes to have such dreams, he is afraid that as time goes by, one day, he will completely forget the past, just like the clothes he once wore and the toys he played.

*********************************************

The twenty-first year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, eastern Zhejiang, early summer.

This is a typical Jiangnan village, the terrain is low and flat, there are no mountains and no ravines, the village is surrounded by the paddy fields that are slender and horizontal, and the rice in the paddy fields is the most vigorous when they grow, and the four fields are green. In the middle of the rice paddies is a village, but there are countless trees planted around the village. Looking from the sky, the paddy fields are like grids, the villages are like circles, the whole seems to be a gossip compass, and the name of this village is Shannan Village.

Shannan Village has a total of 32 households, more than 160 people of all ages. At the east end of the village, there is a huge ancient ginkgo tree, which has been planted for I don't know how many years, and the branches are luxuriant. There is a river in the south of the village, a small stone bridge is erected on the river, the water is murmuring under the bridge, the lotus leaves are in the field, the lotus flowers are blooming brightly, some are white as jade, some are pink as the glow, the end is a good scenery.

At this time, on the ridge outside the village, there are two children walking slowly out, and the one in front of her carrying a basket is a girl, about 10 years old, with a pair of big eyes, a small blushing face, a pair of eyebrows are black and bright, and there will be a small dimple on the right side of her cheek when she smiles, so she often unconsciously puts her mouth slightly to the right, looking naughty and cute. Jumping up and down behind was a boy, about seven or eight years old, with a slightly thin body, fair complexion, clear eyebrows, and a girl who didn't look carefully. If you look closely, you will find that the clothes worn by the boys are changed from the girls' clothes, which are two rural children who are playing pigweed.

"Sister, yesterday Ah Fu's father bought a fishing rod for Ah Fu, Ah Fu has been angry these days, he carries it to fish every day, I also want one, where did our father go? Why is it that other people's fathers are at home, but our fathers can't see each other twice a year? The younger brother looked at his sister with a pair of bright eyes.

"I don't know, I heard my mother say that my father made money. Dad wants us to live a good life, so he goes out to make money, and when the Chinese New Year comes, Dad will come back and will bring me and my little brother a lot of gifts, little brother, what do you want? Sister said.

Sister and brother walked and chatted, and soon came to a field of wild grass, the elder sister put down the bamboo basket, took out a small shovel and began to dig wild vegetables, the younger brother also took out a shovel, but only dug for a while, he lost interest, his eyes looked east and west, suddenly his eyes lit up, the whole person quietly stood still, and then dropped the shovel, tiptoed forward two steps, swooped, there was an extra green grasshopper in his hand, the younger brother tore off a large part of the grasshopper's wings, and then put the grasshopper on the ground, and then lay on the ground to watch the grasshopper jump, The whole person was like a frog, the grasshopper jumped, and he also jumped, screaming happily.

My sister dug for a while, and when she saw that her brother was still playing, she shouted: "Little brother, stop playing, hurry up and beat pigweed, I will be scolded again if I go home too late." ”

The younger brother reluctantly blasted the grasshopper into the grass, then pouted, grabbed the shovel and began to dig up the wild vegetables again, but obviously absent-minded and reluctantly, dug up all the mess of grass and stuffed it into the basket. made my sister cry and laugh, so she had to stop, sort out the grass that the pigs didn't eat, and said to her brother with a straight face: "If you don't dig well, I'll go back and let my mother beat you." ”

"Alright! I'll dig well," the younger brother pouted, squatted down, and dug up seriously. It's just a cup of tea, and the younger brother squirms around again, and his mind wanders, as if he is looking for something. The elder sister glared, and the younger brother hurriedly pretended to mess around with a shovel on the ground, and did not dig out a single vegetable for a long time.

I don't know how long it took, but when my younger brother looked up, he suddenly found a person walking at the end of the path, a little fat, wearing a purple and red robe, under the sun, as if the whole person was like a ripe date.

"Sister, sister, there's a guy over there." The younger brother stood up and pointed ahead.

"It doesn't seem to be from our village, haven't you seen it before?" My sister said.

The man who came was about forty years old, with a slightly chubby face, a dark complexion, a beard about three inches under his chin, and narrow eyes, which, when he smiled, showed a mouthful of white teeth, and his eyes were barely visible. He seemed to have walked a long way, stood on the path, pulled out a face towel from his arms, wiped his face, and pulled a bamboo tube from behind him, pulled out the stopper, drank a few sips of water, while resting, he looked carefully towards Shannan Village, as if thinking about something, and then looked left and right with his hands on the pergola, and suddenly saw the two sisters and brothers who were beating pigweed, with a happy face, and walked straight to the sister and brother.

"Excuse me, what's the name of the village in front?" Although the man was facing two children, he was still very polite, and a hazy smile appeared on his dark face. But he spoke in a language that was not a local accent, and although he tried to speak slowly, the locals could hear it at once.

"Our village is called Shannan Village." The younger brother stood up, lifted the pants that had fallen to his navel, and wiped his snot again.

"Oh, Shannan...... Shannan......, is your old man Li in the village okay? The visitor muttered a few words, as if something suddenly came to mind.

"Cut, our village is Master Wang, you are mistaken." The younger brother looked at the fat man with disdain.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's Master Wang, look at my memory, Old Man Li is from Beijing Village, haha......" There was no embarrassment on the face of the person who came. Instead, he took out five or six candies from his pocket and stuffed them into the hands of his younger brother and sister, looking very enthusiastic.

The younger brother hurriedly tore open the candy wrapper, threw a piece of candy into his mouth, and immediately made a "silk" sound, bared his teeth and took a long breath, squinted his eyes, and looked very happy, seeing his sister covering her mouth and being happy. My sister didn't eat the candy, but carefully wrapped it and put it in her pocket.

In the process of talking with this person, the younger brother found that this person often has an interesting movement, every time he sweats, when he wipes his face with a sweat towel, he likes to use the thumb and index finger of his left hand to put the middle finger together, and gently tuck the sweat towel, while the little finger and ring finger are spread straight out, like a blooming cockscomb flower.

The fat man claimed to be surnamed Zhang, from Fujian, is a businessman who does raw silk, often travels to and from Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, this time here, is to see if there is a raw silk business. Zhang Fatzi discussed with his sister and brother and asked them to take him around the village at the cost of two copper plates and a handful of candy. The younger brother happily agreed, threw the shovel into his sister's basket, and accompanied the fat man back to the village.

"Little pot, are you a guest at home?" The second aunt next door was drying the pasted shoe samples, brushing the paste on the big door panel, and then pasting the pasted rags on the door panel, layer after layer, when she heard the sound of footsteps, she looked up, and suddenly saw this strange combination, screaming loudly through the low courtyard wall.

"Second aunt, this uncle is from Fujian, and he wants to buy some silk to go back, let me take him to the whole village to have a look." The younger brother responded.

"Oh, buy raw silk, it's not time yet, at least it's going to be more than a month, it's too early." The second aunt muttered, and continued to spread out her rags on the door panel.

The fat man was surprised and asked, "How do you call it a small pot?" ”

The younger brother was a little twisted, "My nickname is called Guozi, I have a big name, my big name is Meng Yunqi, it's good, this is still taken by the gentleman in the village, saying that I will be ambitious in the future, as high as the white clouds in the sky." The younger brother tiptoed and gestured with his hand to the heavens, as if this was not enough to show the majesty of his name. Then his expression darkened: "I heard my mother say, my family used to be very poor, after I gave birth, the midwife said where to put this little guy, your family doesn't even have a good table, grandma looked around, happened to see the steaming pot boiling water at home, said put it in the pot!" Then, I'll call it the little pot. The younger brother pouted, dissatisfied with his name.

"Haha, little pot, interesting, interesting." The fat man seemed to be a little gloating, touching his brother's head with his hand. "What's that sister's name?"

"My sister's name is Meng Yunmei. Everyone calls her Yunmei, and she doesn't have a nickname. The younger brother said indignantly. I feel that the same family, eating in the same pot, but having different treatment, why do I have such an ugly nickname, but my sister doesn't, this is really an unacceptable thing.

The houses in Shannan Village are not like the north in a horizontal and vertical line, but a house in the east and a courtyard in the west, there is no law at all, there will always be some trees planted between the houses and the houses, there are some trees in front of the house and behind the house, most of the houses are ginkgo, sycamores and the like, and there are all kinds of trees behind the houses, most of them are not very tall, but the branches are luxuriant and vibrant.

There is a big yard in the east of the village, the height of the house is higher than the other houses in the village, and the roof is not like the small green tiles in the village, but the large thick tiles of the rich people in the city.

"Little pot, this must be the house of Master Wang's family." The fat man asked.

"By the way, you are so smart, this is the house of Master Wang's family, Master Wang is the richest person we have here, and nearly half of our fields here belong to his family. I heard that their dogs eat better than people, and Mr. Wang never wears patched clothes, and his family has good things to eat every day. As he spoke, the little pot saliva came out, and he hurriedly raised his sleeve to wipe it off.

"Haha, you slanderous cat, do they have a lot of family? How can you grow so many fields? The fat man looked curious.

"You are stupid, where does his family's field need to be planted by himself, rented to people who have no land in the village to plant, their family is five or six people, but they also hired cooks, laundry, and housekeepers, basically all of them are people from the village, and they live in their own homes at night, and the housekeeper lives with Master Wang." The small pot is like a jack of all trades, and he can draw inferences about everything and talk endlessly.

"How is Master Wang? I've heard that rich people are bad, right? The fat man asked, looking at the high wall and touching his beard.

"Master Wang is a good person, the road in front of our village is his money to repair, our school was so broken, he took a lot of money to repair it, I heard that he also gave a lot of sesame oil to the temple of Yushan Temple, the village said that he is a good man! It's that the housekeeper of his house hates it, every day he has a stinky face, and when he sees our children at his door, he will drive us away, and once he let the dog out to scare us, the dog is so big, sticking out his tongue, and the teeth are as thick as my fingers, like knives, snorting at me, scaring me to death, and the children in the village call the housekeeper a coffin face. It seemed that the butler called the coffin face, and they were mentally victorious, and the little pot covered his mouth and giggled.

"Then let's go around the rest of the village!" The fat man proposed.

About an hour later, when the sunset was about to set, the little pot took the fat man to every corner of the village, and at the same time got his own reward, two copper plates and a handful of candy, he was so happy that he was like a monkey who had been pressed by Wuzhi Mountain for 500 years and had just been released, scratching his ears and cheeks, and couldn't help but be happy, holding the steel plate in his left hand and holding the candy in his right hand, both afraid that others would see it, and that others would not see it. I don't know what to do.

The fat man left, saying that he wanted to live in the town, the nearest town is less than ten miles away from here, it is estimated that when he walks, the sky will be completely dark, the little pot does not pay attention to these, only feels that he has suddenly become a rich man, and his heart is entangled in what to do with this huge wealth, whether to tell his mother, or hide it secretly.

Xiao Guozi sat on the grass outside the village, watching the sunset hang on the distant treetops, like a huge egg yolk, with his hands on his cheeks, and a difficult struggle was made in his head.

After the sun set, the little pot finally made up his mind, jumped up from the grass, patted the soil on his buttocks, and jumped towards home, his heart was full of happiness, and he felt that the future days were full of hope, but he didn't know that there was a disaster approaching him, so that he could not hide.