【Qing'er】

He is indeed a very special person, special habits, special clothes, and even his appearance is not as special as that of a mountain person, before, I always thought that a boy would be as black as his younger brother from an early age, but now it seems that he is not black at all, not only is it not black, but his face is as white as a newborn baby. No wonder Dad called him Little White Face, although there is another layer of meaning in it, but at least it is worthy of the name when it comes to skin color.

Dad said that he was a little stupid and a little stupid, so he asked me to take good care of him. But I've never seen him so stupid, when it's time to eat lunch, he rushes to put all the delicious things in his mouth, as if he has never eaten at all, but in the evening, his expression changes back to that pale like a basin of water about to melt, which makes people want to be angry but can't get angry. My mother always said that I wanted to let him, but I think it's just lazy to do it, he is not stupid at all, he only knows that every time he grabs food with his younger brother, he doesn't even look like an adult, if it weren't for the fact that there is always a mother to protect him, I would have kicked him out a long time ago.

My mother sometimes sees things more clearly than my father. She always said that in order to understand a person, you must first see his heart. What that strange young master's heart was like, she could see it most clearly. She also said that the young master came from a big family, and she should treat him well, maybe she could expect him, a rich and noble person, to pray for disaster relief for everyone in the village. Mother will always favor people, even the last time the merchant who picked up the burden of goods in the village charged her two dollars of silver, she just smiled and said, maybe the merchant has a child at home, and the family with children will try their best to make money, and then they can pull the child up.

My mother has never quarreled with anyone. Every time someone has a dispute, my mother will be the referee, because my mother is always the most tolerant and fairest one, and everyone is the most comfortable in their hearts when she decides what she decides. Although I don't know how to see a person's heart, but my mother's eyes didn't miss it once, she said that a person is blessed, that person must be a blessed person, she said that the silly boy can help the whole village, then he must be able to.

I often hear people say that my mother is a beautiful girl, so she knows so many things. Even in the city, there are few people in the city, and her beautiful appearance is so beautiful no matter how you look at it, and she has something called temperament that no one in the village has ever seen. Actually, I don't know what the temperament is, but I know that my mother is so perfect in anyone's eyes, even if it is my father, I will blush inexplicably when I see my mother in an instant.

Every time I asked about such a thing as a mother's temperament, my mother always smiled, and then said that she had given me that kind of thing unconsciously.

I was just curious to ask that I had never seen such a thing, and then, after putting up with my brother's search for treasure, he told me that there was only one leaf in my hair, and that he had just put it in.

When I rushed to him angrily, he was obviously stunned, and I was angry when I saw his demented face, "Hey, what am I like, you tell me clearly!" ”

"You are beautiful," he only muttered a few words and then turned his face away, while I was inexplicable, I didn't know what beauty meant, but after comparing it with my mother, I was left with only four words of shame.

"So!" I still glared at him with some disgruntled displeasure until his face returned to its usual calmness.

"You are beautiful," he repeated, but this time adding an extra line at the end: "But even the most temperamental person makes a big noise like yours becomes imperceptible, so you are no different from an eighty-year-old woman now!" ”

Even if I didn't understand the meaning of the word temperament, the last words I said were still unpleasant, and after knocking a shudder on his head like every time I punished my brother, I walked away as if my heart was a little balanced.

This guy, it's enough to bully me to have a younger brother, how can you learn to join in the fun.

He's just that unlikable, at least, I don't like him.

My mother always looked at us with a smile, and she didn't know what was hidden in her blinking eyes.

Mother said, it's time for our family to eat red rice, my younger brother has a greedy face, lying on the edge of the kang and drooling down, only I am a little confused, is this going to be a happy event? ――

Divider-

On the second day after the white and innocent son came to the village, a few uninvited guests suddenly came to the village. Officials and officials are the most unwelcome things in the village, just like rat plagues and locust plagues.

Grandpa Li, who can only use one eye, said that they are just things that don't have a surname, and they are not people at all.

It was the first time I had seen people in official uniforms so closely, and I could only glance at them from a distance on the street, and it was really interesting to see them pushing away the bustling crowd in all directions, as if they were very dignified and serious. But now, they give me a completely different feeling.

Five men dressed in official costumes kicked the tables and chairs that stood in front of them all the way, and with a pride on their faces that they could not see, they slammed into the door of my house.

Several uncles gathered around, and behind them, people from the village with hoes.

"What are you going to do! We are handling the case on the orders of the county lord, and whoever dares to mess around will lock him up together! The two officials subconsciously retreated to the window, and the chains wrapped around their hands remained on their hands as if they could not be untied, as if they were the real prisoners to be captured.

"There are no prisoners in the aquatic family, none of you go in, what are you doing in their house!" A young man with a tiger face walked out with a gloomy face, holding nothing in his hand, but the figure that was not too tall stood in front of the officials like an iron tower.

"No prisoners? Isn't that right? As if the voice that was hoarse by lime water immediately called out, and even the menacing face seemed to carry an unstoppable arrogance: "We just got the news that someone saw a teenage boy who was taken away by your people here, and left people behind without reporting to Li Zheng, who knows what is wrong here!" ”

I immediately understood everything, as long as they needed an excuse to extort money, they would come here like this at any time to find fault with nothing, not to mention that Li didn't care about this, only the village head of the village, Grandpa Li, was responsible for counting the number of people, and if there was no official wanted notice from the county, those who came and went to stay didn't need to report to Li Zheng at all, let alone just a teenager.

"Humph!" As if he had been prepared to shake a piece of paper out of his arms, the leader of the official who was standing on his tiptoe straightened up like holding the notice a little higher, panting and sweating: "The third article above is clearly written, all strangers with unknown identities and suspicious deeds will be brought back to the county government to be screened one by one, and anyone who dares to take in prisoners will be guilty of the same crime as others!" But if not, they will be released as soon as possible - what do you have to say this time, do you want to join forces to rebel? The expression on the tall and thin man's face was even more vicious, and to my shudder, he was actually laughing.

"That child was entrusted to me by a distant relative of mine, and he was going to go to sea to do business, so he entrusted the child to me," Grandpa Li walked out slowly, and the iron-tipped cane in his hand also smashed a few sparks on the ground.

"Okay, you Li Er, you dare to play with me!" The two people who followed behind the short and fat leader hurriedly rushed up after their boss beckoned, shaking the iron chain in their hands to the ground with a thud, "You people in Lijia Village are all dead, how can there be distant relatives, let me tell you!" This time, it's the Qin prisoner who wants it, if you don't want to die early, you'd better not get involved! "Maybe they were afraid of Grandpa Li's crutches, but the two of them just watched and didn't move.

Maybe the leader is also afraid of Grandpa Li, I pulled Grandpa Li's sleeve tightly, and looked at him pleadingly, Grandpa Li is the most capable person in the village, no one can compare to him, my mother has always said so, and now, I can only believe it.

"The person you are looking for is me," Before Grandpa Li could speak again, a faint voice seemed to seal everyone's mouths to make people stop talking, and it wasn't until a while that the leader of the yacha slowly spoke: "So you are the prisoner who escaped all the way here?" Even if you know each other, get out of your grandfather so early, or not, for the sake of you being a man, I won't lock you up - fourth, take care of people, let's go! ”

"Slow!" The young master, who didn't look like a prisoner, suddenly pointed at my mother: "Let her go first, I'll go with you!" ”

The leader smiled: "It's easy to say, it's easy to put someone here, but do you have any silver?" If you have money, you can release people. ”

"Mother!" Seeing that my mother was so delicate and weak being pushed and pulled out by them, I screamed and rushed to the front at once.

"Yo he, I didn't expect there to be a small one here, take it with you!" The leader's eyes suddenly became extremely obscene, and after staring at my face as if greedy for a while, he wiped the saliva from his mouth with his sleeve nonchalantly: "It's really fucking handsome, this mother and daughter have to let the master love me well after they go back."

"You dare!" Grandpa Li's crutches slammed into the ground again, and a deep groove immediately appeared on the hard sandy soil, "Let everyone go, otherwise I'll fight this old bone, and you don't want to take them away!" ”

The leader smiled instead of being angry, waved his hand, and the people behind him hurriedly stuck a rocket into the ground and lit it, and I suddenly had a sense of foreboding when I saw the rocket explode in a place where people could see it.

"This is the contact signal given by the Xuanfu Envoy, he said, if you encounter a stubborn person like you, you will be killed directly on the spot - I don't care about you, after the Xuanfu Envoy's soldiers arrive in a while, I see how long you can be arrogant!"

As if that wasn't enough, the yacha with a big belly stared at the people in the village with a panicked face, and said slowly, "Folks, if you behave well in a while, I will ask Xuanfu to make the lord open up to you, so now you are all ready to prepare, ah, prepare to prepare!" Don't fail to take it out when the time comes, then don't blame Lord Ben for being unkind! ”

"My lord, my lord, I am just a merchant who came here from a foreign country to buy mountain goods, you must raise your hand!" A person who obviously had the face of a mountain man hurriedly exclaimed, as if he was afraid that others would not know, and handed over the document in his hand, "Look, I just came here from Yuzhou to do small business, if you don't believe it, please ask the people in this village, they all know me." ”

Matters that matter with a surname of life, even if he does too much, he will not be blamed, and he is an outsider after all, and it is not incomprehensible that he wants to get out of here.

Looking at his performance, the others obviously hesitated, although they had received many favors from the people of this village, even the woman who was about to be taken away had been helped by her when she was in the most difficult time, and now it was her turn to shrink aside, but now staring at the dark and heavy iron chains in the hands of those messengers, almost no one wanted to say that it was not their business.

There are actually very few people in the village, except for a few middle-aged men who are honest and not very good at dealing with others, the other men all went to the city, and my father said that it is easy to make money outside, so even if it is only for others to do part-time work, it is much better than farming at home. What's more, the current field tax is getting heavier and heavier, and if you can't do something ruthlessly to get the money back, once you are conscripted into the army, the elderly and children in the family will inevitably suffer from cold and starvation. Dad said that it is more bitter, but it is more cost-effective to do so than farming, and he also said that if he is really conscripted into the army one day, he will save me enough dowry to let me marry in style.

Almost half of the young people shook and walked to the side of the fat-headed, big-eared, short-bodied yacha leader, who seemed to be proud, and as if he was not satisfied, the errand officer shouted in a sharp voice like a broken gong: "There are still people who are interested, how about it, those few, don't learn from others to do what kind of heroes, everyone has only one life, if those soldiers see so many of you gathered together, they will definitely escort you all away!" When the time comes, hmph, they're not as talkative as I am. ”

A few more people staggered over, whether it was from this village or not, the leader didn't care about these at all, he stared viciously at Grandpa Li who was still standing in front of him, and let out a wolf-like oozing laugh: "Li Er, you have to think clearly, your two sons are both working in the town, if you really don't know how to hook up with the Qin criminals of the imperial court, even they will be implicated!" ”

This sentence obviously hit Grandpa Li's heart, and I could even see him gritting his teeth and creaking, but his body was still there like a stick, and I couldn't see him wavering at all.

"Daddy!" A weak scholar who looked like a man rushed in front of him, his clean clothes were covered with mud and dust, "Dad, even if you don't think about yourself, you have to think about Zhi'er, he is your own grandson, he has just been born, Wenxiu is still in confinement, can you bear to let them suffer with you?" ”

Grandpa Li's eyes opened suddenly, his face was blue and he opened his mouth without saying a word, staring at the pleading face of his son, who had always been well-behaved and obedient since he was a child, and the crutches in his hand were suddenly raised high, but they did not fall for a long time.

"Li Er, I advise you to listen to Xiucai, he is the only Xiucai from this village - I heard that this kid has always been filial, and the article is well written, maybe one day he will compete for a list or something to come back and give you a long face, and then even the county master will have to respect him for three points, and you will ruin his future like this?" There was a kind of magic in the officer's voice, and looking at his face, which seemed to be a quick trick, I suddenly felt like throwing up.

"Daddy!" The scholar who was kneeling on the ground shouted in a miserable voice again.

"Autumn birth! You stand up! As if she couldn't exert her strength, a pale-faced woman gritted her teeth and walked over slowly, her pale face covered with beads of sweat: "Qiusheng! You're a scholar in vain! In front of this kind of villain who will only oppress the people and run rampant in the township, you will be so shameless to pray for mercy to them, where is your ambition to govern the country, and where is your full stomach! Qing'er and her mother taught you to read and write, have you forgotten? How did she save money to pay for your exam, have you forgotten all this?! Now you are so spineless, I have misjudged you in my life! ”

When the "lady" saw her wife, the scholar who was kneeling on the ground hurriedly got up, with a guilty face, lowered her head in disdain, and didn't dare to say a word more.

Grandpa Li suddenly let out a long sigh and walked to the side step by step, even though his daughter-in-law's eyes widened, as if looking at him in disbelief, there was no expression on his face that had been carved by the years.

I want to escape.

For the first time, I felt like I wanted to run away.

Even though I knew that a servant who sneaked into Grandpa Li's house at some point held out a crying package with a sneering face, even if I saw that in a place that no one could see, the tall figure was staggering while letting the tears on his face spill into the muddy soil without passing through, even though the tall figure I relied on the most, who would always naughtily pull his beard and laugh together when I was a child, suddenly aged in my eyes.

I want to escape.

I want to get away from these people.

Even though I knew their helplessness, I still wanted to escape.

The world around me seemed to leave me in an instant, and when the figure I had hoped for would no longer stand in my way, I stumbled forward like a baby who had not yet grown. The noise, the noise, the screams, the lamentations, all of which could no longer be heard, not even the sound of the iron-clad cane slamming on the ground, and the pit that remained on the ground was like a mouth mocking my innocence, where there was a sharp laugh that only I could hear.

"Hehe, Li Er, you open your eyes, otherwise I will definitely be" When the ugly disgusting face appeared in front of me again, a pair of hands full of fat suddenly appeared in front of me.

"Hehe, little beauty, I didn't expect that there would be such a high-quality prefect in this kind of village, I should be very happy."

I was terrified and wanted to leave the greasy hand, but I found myself falling in his direction involuntarily, and I tried to cover my ears, but the words came in word for word.

Just as I was about to be grabbed by that hand and fall into the sweaty arms, a slender hand like a girl suddenly pulled me in the other direction.

"You!" When I opened my eyes, I saw once again the face of the leader of the yacha who was close at hand was full of astonishment and resentment, and the red eyes seemed to be a demon who had been hungry for thousands of years, and was approaching me arrogantly, as if to get some pleasure from my frightened face, staring at me for a long time, and then the red eyes moved viciously from me to another person.

"Stinky boy!" A sharper sound than I had ever imagined pierced my eardrums, the unique dull sound of the whistling chains, the harsh grinding of metal, and the creepy sneer all made everything that lingered around me so unreal, only the warm embrace gave me a warm warmth.

It was really in a person's arms, and the weak arms like a girl held me tightly in his arms, and I could even see the face of the helpless face in the small shop in the town full of courage and fortitude, he was like a warrior who fell from the sky, with not too broad shoulders, covering everything around him.

I should have been in his arms, I should have tasted the sweetness of that moment like any Cinderella-like girl rescued by the prince from the evil magician, but I didn't have time to do so, for I knew that behind his emaciated body was a chain that struck like a viper.

He's going to hurt, right? He's going to get hurt, right? I couldn't help but think about it, I didn't even understand why the strange teenager would do it. My dislike for him was palpable, and I couldn't even find a single reason in him to convince myself of liking him, and I even went so far as to help my brother grab his favorite dish on the table in order to undermine his triumphant self-confidence, and I was even dissatisfied with the look on my face when he mocked me like a fool when I was so eager to get an accurate explanation of his temperament from his mouth. I hate him, I hate a rich young master who only talks about it and swaggers loudly in silk, I hate the powerless scholar who can be bullied so easily by the people in the small shop, I hate him sneakily following behind me, the one who always attracts my attention even inadvertently, I even hate my mother's connivance with him, in my opinion, he is useless at all.

But why did the people who had already felt my hostility rush to me so desperately and hugged me tightly?

The few people who remained in place suddenly moved, and I couldn't see them clearly, and I couldn't even detect the breeze that flashed past me. A big man with a tiger's back stood in front of us, and the chain stopped in his hand as if it had lost its effect, and no point could be removed from his hand even if the tall and thin servant was desperately pulled. (To be continued.) )