Leng Yi spent half a day studying it carefully. Then, he called Yin Eagle and Cheng Luojie sisters to the study and said, "This county will start tomorrow, and I am going to spend a few days walking around the main villages under the rule of Yinling County to understand the people's feelings." You arrange it, how to guard, this county is a private visit to Weifu this time, and no one from the yamen will be brought with you, and you will not bring your wife. You can't follow too many guards. so as not to disturb the population. Moreover, there are too few people on my wife's side, so I don't feel at ease. ”

Yin Eagle discussed with Cheng Luojie's sisters, and decided to be escorted by Yin Ying, Cheng Luojie and the six door female catcher Li Fen. Cheng Luoyan, Zheng Yan and Wei all stayed behind to protect Zhuo Qiaoniang, the wife of the county.

Leng Yi only told Master Dong that he was going out for a private visit, but he didn't say where to go, and let him handle official business at home. said goodbye to Zhuo Qiaoniang, took three escorts, and set off on a cold and windy morning.

The village they were going to was so far away that they couldn't walk for a day, and it was all rugged mountain roads, and they couldn't ride horses at all, so they had to walk all of them.

The four of them pretended to be a family of relatives, Leng Yi was naturally the male lead, Cheng Luojie pretended to be his wife, Li Fen was a sister, and Yin Ying was an old servant. The clothes are also very ordinary, that is, the general dress of a middle peasant with a little money in the countryside.

At noon, they arrived at Red Pine Village.

The village got its name from the presence of a thick red pine at the entrance of the village. Located in the middle of the mountain, the people live in a relatively scattered area, one in the east and one in the west. At the entrance of the village, they met a child who came down from the mountain with bare feet and carrying a bundle of firewood larger than him in the middle of winter.

Leng Yi stepped forward and arched his hand: "This little brother, may I ask where Luo Kuwa's house is?" ”

The child glanced at them warily, pointed to a farmhouse near the village, and went straight into the village without speaking.

"Thank you!" Leng Yi said loudly behind him. Before coming, Leng Yi had already memorized the basic information of the people on the list, this family named Luo Kuwa was going to sell two children in Yinling.

The four of them came to the farmhouse that the boy had pointed out, but it was no longer called a farmhouse, but a shack made of pine bark and branches. It is covered with thatch. There is no yard. There are several large rocks in the doorway. The door was closed, but through the gap between the branches, several figures could be seen shaking.

Leng Yi said in a loud voice: "Excuse me, is there anyone in the house?" ”

After a while, the chai door creaked open, and a thin middle-aged man came out, glanced at them, and said, "What are you doing?" ”

Leng Yi took two steps forward and arched his hand: "We are going to visit relatives, passing by here, we are thirsty and want to ask for some water to drink, we will pay." All right? ”

The man looked at them carefully a few more times, and it was difficult for ordinary people to see the county master, so he naturally didn't recognize it, and said, "Wait!" Then he closed the door. After a while, he came out again, carrying a broken clay pot with steaming water in one hand and an earthen bowl in the other, and placed it in front of them, saying, "Drink, just put it on the ground when you have finished drinking." With that, turn around and go back.

Leng Yi hurriedly said: "How much?" Eldest brother. ”

"No money!" The man said angrily, without looking back.

Leng Yi sighed in his heart, they have reached the point of selling their children, passers-by don't accept money for drinking water, how kind his heart is. Busy and said: "This big brother, we still want to rest at your house, okay?" My lady is tired of walking. Thank you. ”

The man stood and looked back. Cheng Luojie deliberately looked tired, snuggled up to Leng Yi's shoulder, and looked at him pitifully.

The man said, "Come in!" ”

Leng Yi and Cheng Luojie hurriedly took the jug and earthen bowl, and followed them into the shack, but Yin Eagle and Li Fen stayed outside the shack to be on guard.

In the house, the entrance is an earthen stove, and half a pot of hot water is boiling in the pot. Next to the earthen stove, a woman squatted, picking weeds. Some of their hair was already gray, and when they came in, they looked up and then lowered their heads and continued to pick wild vegetables.

In the corner of the room, sat two little boys, about five or six years old, holding an earthen bowl with half a bowl of wild vegetable soup in their hands, and looking at him with dark eyes. Standing against the wall was a thin girl of six or seven years old, very thinly dressed, with her hands on her shoulders and shivering. Beside her, there was a large bunk spread on the ground, and there lay two old couples, the old woman with gray hair, curled up in a thin quilt, which was full of patches, and white from washing, and the old man leaned against the pillars of the room, looking at them with godless eyes.

Cheng Luojie turned around and glanced at Leng Yi, and mouthed at the two little boys and girls. Leng Yi understood that these three were the children that the family sent to Yinling to sell, but they were not sold.

Originally, this Yinling County was a place of exile, and most of them were poor families. Wealthy families don't need so many servants, so it's normal that they can't be sold.

The middle-aged man brought two low wooden stakes, put them in front of the earthen stove, and said, "Sit down." ”

Leng Yi and Cheng Luojie sat down on the stake and stretched out their hands to bake the fire in front of the earthen stove. Cheng Luojie held Leng Yi's arm with both hands, and half of her body leaned on him, looking delicate and weak. Leng Yi smelled the faint fragrance of women on her body and smiled, this woman would really take advantage of the opportunity to further display her beauty tricks.

Leng Yi looked up and saw a faded small statue of the god of the stove on a wooden board above the earthen stove, so he looked at the woman picking wild vegetables and said, "Today is the twenty-third day of the lunar month, and the stove is being delivered, why don't you prepare some sugar melons to send to the stove?" ”

The woman looked up at him, her face blank, and she lowered her head again and continued to pick wild vegetables.

The man squatted on the ground, caged his sleeves, and did not say a word.

Leng Yi glanced at Cheng Luojie, who was leaning on him, and said to the thin man: "Your family is really bitter, it's all too old, and you still eat wild vegetables." By the way, I have a friend in Yinling County, who said that the list of relief funds has been reported before this year, and your family can't open the pot, so there should be relief, right? When the relief comes down, it will be possible to celebrate the New Year. ”

The man snorted heavily in his nostrils: "Fart!" What year did we have? The relief has saved the relatives of the chief, Zhu Dahu, and those people! Can it be our turn? ”

Leng Yi actually knew from the list that there was no such Luo Kuwa's family, he deliberately asked this, what he wanted was to understand why there was not. Immediately surprised: "Relatives of the chief? Are they as poor as you are? ”

"Poor? If you listen to his nickname Zhu Dahu, you will know that he is not poor! ”

"Does the chief have relatives named Zhu Dahu?"

"Yes! Drink wine, eat meat, and play with women. The man smacked hatefully in the direction of the big Zhu family, "He Zhu big family is poor, and there are no poor people in this world!" ”

Leng Yi nodded, then sighed, and said, "How did your family become like this?" Don't you have a field to plant? ”

"Farming? I can't afford to pay the rent! A sentence hooked the man's mind.

After some conversation, Leng Yi learned that this Luo Kuwa's family rented the land of the landlord's family nicknamed Zhu Dahu, whose real name is Zhu Peng. More than half of the people in the village are tenants of Zhu Peng's family, just like their family. The rent is very heavy, and his family is only one laborer. His parents are elderly and suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and they can't even take care of themselves. When his wife went up the mountain to collect firewood, she fell off a cliff and broke one of her legs, so she couldn't get off the ground. Originally, there were five children, and when his wife fell and was injured, in order to make up for the cost of medicine, she had sold a big girl to become a child daughter-in-law. The old mother fell ill again and had to sell another son. Now I have a daughter and two sons, both of whom are only five or six years old, and they can't help anything except open their mouths and wait for food.

Although their family was hard, they never received a penny of court relief, and they did not dare to go to the yamen to complain, because there were people in the village who complained before, but Zhu Peng took back his family's land, and also fabricated the crime of stealing, breaking the two legs of the man. No one dared to complain anymore.

Because Leng Yi is a passer-by, this Luo Kuwa dares to pour out the bitter water in her stomach.

Leng Yi and Cheng Luojie said goodbye and went to a few more houses to sell their children, and the situation was similar.