A few hours later, Wu Ming, who was huddled in the stone pit halfway up the mountainside, suddenly woke up, subconsciously picked up his rifle and looked around nervously, and finally looked at the sun in the west, only to realize that he had been asleep for a long time, and remembered that he had a nightmare just now, dreaming that he was surrounded by many officers and soldiers.

Wu Ming let out a long breath, put down the gun and lay on his back on the pit wall, rubbed his astringent eyes and tense face repeatedly, licked his dry lips, hesitated for a moment and reached out to pull a strong grass root and chewed it slowly, and looked at the clouds in the sky slowly moving north in a daze.

Faintly, there was a conversation in the distance from the direction of the ferry under the mountain, and the tone was full of panic and nervousness, and it seemed to contain a sense of schadenfreude.

Wu Ming straightened up, quietly leaned on the pit wall to observe, and listened carefully to the conversation between the captain on the ship and the old man on the other side, but he could only hear a few words such as "the Chen family is dead" and "the strongman is fierce".

The small wooden boat came to the simple dock of the ferry, and the captain picked up the fish basket and disembarked, tightened the cable and tied the boat to the wooden stake on the shore, and walked back to the town with the old man who was waiting with the ox, and the two talked excitedly as they walked.

The sound is far away, the wide ferry port returns to calm, there is no half a figure in the field of vision, the river flows silently, the grass and trees on both sides of the bank keep swaying in the breeze, and there is a desolate atmosphere everywhere.

Wu Ming touched his quacking stomach, looked at the old bamboo raft lying on the pebble beach in the lower reaches of the river, pondered for a moment and began to act, untied the gaiters and put them back on, methodically checked the weapon and tightened his belt, took a deep breath and jumped out of the stone pit, walked down the mountain to the river, turned over the old bamboo raft on the river beach and carefully inspected it, and saw that the bamboo raft was quite strong, he immediately dragged the bamboo raft into the river, picked up the pole and quickly rowed towards the center of the river.

The swaying bamboo raft gradually landed in the current, the place of docking was more than 1,000 meters away from the upstream East Ferry, no one paid attention to this barren section of the river, Wu Ming dragged the bamboo raft up the river beach and then left, with the help of the cover of grass and trees to continue along the south.

Turning through a bamboo forest behind the mountain bag, Wu Ming stopped vigilantly: a barefoot little girl about ten years old was looking at Wu Ming with a messy head and a beard in horror.

Wu Ming looked at the little girl wearing a thin shirt and carrying a bamboo basket, and was just about to squeeze out a smile to say hello, when the little girl suddenly threw down the bamboo basket and ran back, disappearing at the edge of the forest in front of her in a blink of an eye, and it took a while to hear a frightened cry.

Wu Ming glanced around, stepped forward to pick up the toppled bamboo basket, put back the greens scattered on the ground, patted the dead grass and dust stuck to the military cotton jacket, tightened the rifle strap, and strode towards the direction where the little girl disappeared.

Turning through a small forest, several mud-walled thatched houses came into view, and in front of the houses, a middle-aged man and two teenagers were on guard with hoes and firewood knives.

On the granite threshold, two old and haggard old men, a man and a woman, stood the little girl who was frightened just now and leaned tightly in the arms of the old lady, and everyone's eyes were staring at Wu Ming who had stopped, and they couldn't hide the rich panicked look in their eyes.

Wu Ming raised the bamboo basket full of vegetables in his hand: "I was patrolling here just now, and I happened to meet your little girl, I guess scared her, and I ran away without taking the vegetable basket." ”

Seeing Wu Ming's gentle demeanor and listening to his local accent, the three men looked at each other for a moment, then lowered the hoe and firewood knife in their hands one after another, and the two old men on the threshold also showed relieved smiles.

The middle-aged man took two steps forward and looked at Wu Ming, who was dressed in a military uniform, and was very puzzled: "This boss, didn't you collect the team and go back to the county seat?" How do you ......"

"That's the case, the team is closed, but the commander ordered us to search along the river beach again, if we don't see the strongman who killed last night and go back to the city, I, who was a small soldier, can only do it, but at this time, I don't know that there are people behind the dirt bag by the river, and I came by mistake, I'm sorry!" Wu Ming smiled apologetically again.

After listening to Wu Ming's polite explanation and apology, a group of people didn't know what to do, only the father on the threshold was bold: "Boss, listening to the accent is also our local, right?" If you don't dislike it, go into the house and drink saliva before leaving, enlightenment, how long will you still carry that rotten hoe? ”

When the middle-aged man heard this, he hurriedly threw the hoe aside, stepped forward a few steps forward to take the bamboo basket in Wu Ming's hand, and politely beckoned him to come in and sit down. Wu Ming, who was hungry, was not polite, and whispered a word of thanks, and accepted it calmly, and entered the hut in the humility of the family.

"Boss, you sit here, oops, the house is in tatters, and you have neglected your guests." The middle-aged man with patches on his clothes carried a straw futon with both hands and respectfully placed it by the central fire pit, and when he heard Wu Ming's habitual thanks, his whole person became even more panicked.

Wu Ming leaned the spear against the wall, untied the cotton coat and the small burden around his waist, put it on the stool on the side, returned to the middle-aged man, took a large bowl of hot water handed by the old lady and said apologetically: "Xie Lu, thank you, old man, I have been gone for most of the day, I am hungry, do you have anything to eat at home?" You can fill your stomach with anything! ”

The family standing on the edge of the fire was stunned, the old lady nodded slightly and turned around and walked to the back room, and the old man greeted with an embarrassed smile: "There is food, there is food!" The old woman went to Zhangluo, you can do it by smoking a bag of cigarettes, please sit down, roast the fire, this season is the time of the cold spring, and the ground is still frosty in the morning of these two days. ”

Wu Mingqian sat down on the ground, thanked his father for the long cigarette stick, and took the initiative to chat with his father. It didn't take long for Wu Ming's gentle attitude to win the favor of the family, and the simple and kind family slowly relaxed, chatting with Wu Ming unconsciously.

During the conversation, Wu Ming was fortunate to learn that all the officers and soldiers in the town had been withdrawn, and the middle-aged man said that he had just returned from the town, and for some reason, the eldest wife and sister-in-law of the old man's family were arranged by the county magistrate Wang, and hurriedly took twenty strong men to help the coffin after breakfast.

This news was very important to Wu Ming, although there was no expression on his face, it made him feel very happy.

As the conversation unfolded, Wu Ming learned a lot about Chen Jiyao's family, and also deeply realized the difficulties of this family's life, two old people in their sixties and seventies still work in the fields, the mother of the three children is sick all the year round, and they can't get out of bed when they are sick, and the family only has six acres of sloping land that is unsustainable, so they have to rent 20 acres of paddy fields from the landlord in the town.

Wu Ming looked at the blackened empty walls, at the old cast iron pot with the fire pit bubbling on the stones, at the greedy look of several children when he put a few pieces of bacon into the pot just now, and finally looked at the young man who was adding firewood to the fire pit: "How old are you?" ”

"Fifteen." The boy replied in a low voice, and hurriedly stepped aside, standing with his younger siblings in a restrained manner.

Wu Ming asked again: "Are you still studying?" ”

The boy looked at his father, who was smoking a hookah, and when he saw that his father was as silent as a piece of wood, he immediately lowered his head sadly.

Dad removed the cigarette holder in his mouth and sighed, and the wrinkles on his face gradually squeezed into a pile: "I can't afford to study, or five years ago, Cao Dashan, the county town, donated 500 yuan to the town school to fund the boys in the town and several surrounding villages to study for free, our eldest and second child was lucky to be able to choose to study for two years, never expected that the good times would not last long, the year before last Cao Dashan was tied up by bandits in Leping, the most Lu family sold houses and land, and collected 30,000 oceans to redeem people, Cao Dashan came back and couldn't afford to get sick, and died in less than a month. ”

"In the second year, the town school said that it could not run it without money, and raised the tuition fee to one and five yuan, and it was not allowed to pay on credit, and those who could not pay the tuition could only drop out. Our family eats with seven mouths, and most of the grain in the field has to pay rent every year, and we have to pay taxes of one kind or another. The eldest and the second child can't go, no way, these days are getting more and more bitter, before you came, the boss and his father came back from the town to help Master Chen's house, so I got a few copper plates, or the family will have to run off the salt, alas! This is all fate, in this life, the child can only be appointed! ”

Wu Ming looked at the two boys standing on the side, and clearly saw the tears in the eyes of the two children.

"Old man, what are you talking this?" The old lady brought a big bowl of steaming corn rice to Wu Wei: "There is no paddy field at home, so there is no rice, only cornmeal grown at home on the slope, which snubbs the distinguished guests." ”

Wu Ming hurriedly stood up, took the big bowl and chopsticks with both hands, sat down slowly after a moment of silence, took a big bite of the bowl and ate it, and did not touch a piece of food in the pot from beginning to end, and soon swept away the surprised gaze of the old and young in the family, put down the bowl and walked to the wall a few steps, untied the small burden on the stool, and took out the atlas, dictionary and two other books and came to the young man.

"I didn't expect to come here, I didn't have any preparation, these books may be of some use to you, just take it as a greeting gift! If possible, I suggest that you continue to study, because your family is poor, but you can't be poor in the world. ”

Wu Ming stuffed the book into the young man's arms, took out ten oceans and stuffed them into his younger brother's hands, returned to the wall and picked up the spear, and said goodbye to the shocked and overwhelmed family: "Uncle Xie Xie and uncle, I have eaten this meal very much." Military affairs are in the body, and they can't stay for a long time, so the younger generation will leave! ”

"Alas, alas! Wait! I can't help it! ”

The old man threw down the cigarette stick and ran up to grab Wu Ming, while the middle-aged man ran to the wall and grabbed the burden and cotton coat left by Wu Ming, and the old lady hurriedly snatched the ocean in the child's hand and chased to the door, saying that she didn't want to accept Wu Ming's heavy gift, and shouted that Wu Ming only ate a bowl of dry rice and didn't move a piece of meat, and was very sorry for the guests.

Wu Ming supported the trembling father with one hand, and pushed away the old lady desperately stuffed a handful of ocean with the other: "Uncle, aunt, I am also a child of a poor family, the family died early, and now I am the only one left, easy to deal with, don't worry about dressing and eating as a soldier, and get paid, there is no burden, these few money, you should treat it as a meeting gift from my junior to the two little brothers, speaking of which, we are all villagers!" ”

Wu Ming couldn't help but turn to the middle-aged man: "You keep this old cotton coat and a few clothes in the baggage, the weather is starting to get warmer, and I can't use it, and there will be hair in the army in the second half of the year." Uncle, before parting, the little nephew wants to say something, if the uncle thinks it is okay, or find a way to let the two little brothers study, they can also go home to work when the farm is busy, they are still young, the coming day is long, can read more than a year for a good year, this world has changed, different from previous years, although it is very chaotic, but there are more opportunities, as long as the child can study for two more years, maybe the future can glorify the ancestors. I'm gone, and I'll see you later! ”

"This ......" The middle-aged man's face turned purple and he stammered and couldn't say a word.

Wu Ming immediately asked the two elders to stay, smiled at the two stunned teenagers and little girls, and strode away.