A wisp of cooking smoke rose far away on the roof of the village in Qijia Village, and I usually didn't realize it, but when I looked at it, I only felt so peaceful. Xiaozhi sat on the mountain behind Qijia Village, looking at the smoke, and felt a warm touch in his heart.

It was already twilight in the mountains, and in the grass beside him lay the ugly woman in the river—also a strange woman—Aunt Hu. She lay quietly, with no expression on her face, and the afterglow of the sun shone on her face, smearing her ugly countenance with a layer of gold. Her expression was not as usual, there was an indescribable serenity. Xiaozhi looked at her blankly, only to feel that at that moment, she was so beautiful - not a false decoration - Xiaozhi felt that she was really beautiful.

There may be thousands of kinds of beauty in this world - physical, clothing, and appearance, the childish child lives in Chang'an, and it can be said that he has seen too much, and his mother can be said to be a beautiful and beautiful beauty. But Xiaozhi is still the first time to see Aunt Hu's kind of peaceful beauty. Her chubby body lay very stretched, but even in this rest, Xiaozhi also felt a chaotic vitality leaking out of her body. This kind of vitality is so primitive and thin, he has never seen it in his life. The vitality of his father's body is firm and thin, but his mother Pei Hongli expresses her persistence in life with a kind of maternal tenderness, but those, there seem to be many elements of acquired upbringing, and it is the first time for Xiaozhi to see such a primitive, simple and beautiful life in that thick pores.

His admiring gaze, Aunt Hu, seemed to be aware of it, although she couldn't tell, but she knew: there was a little 'man' who admired herself. In this life, it is the first time that a 'man' admires himself. Thinking of this, Aunt Hu couldn't help but grin slightly at the corner of her lips.

After the first battle in the ancestral hall that day, the people of Qijia Village changed their previous disdain for her, but turned into awe. In fact, she is as simple as Aunt Hu, although she is not resentful of what they treated her in the past, but she is not rare in any 'awe'.

Somehow, the appreciation in this little child's clear eyes seemed to wash away a lot of the coldness she had experienced as an ugly girl in this world for many years, and a trace of warmth rose in her heart. I think that the sun is so good, the mountains are so good, and this life is also so good.

Xiaozhi met Aunt Hu by chance on the back mountain. His heart was full of respect for her, and before he knew it, he sat down silently beside her lying. Two days have passed since the ancestral hall, and the aftermath of the village has not been extinguished. Aunt Hu bit a grass root in her mouth, and tasted a hint of sweetness in the smell of grass. Although the two haven't spoken yet, Xiaozhi already feels that the two have become friends. I saw him smile and use his little finger to pick at the soles of Aunt Hu's green cloth, and said with a smile: "Your feet are so big." ”

There was a hint of ridicule and a hint of envy in his voice, and Aunt Hu listened to his praise very moistly, with a smile on her face.

Seeing her smile, Xiaozhi also put away a lot of restraint, pulled her arm and said, "It's so thick." - Auntie, you are really ...... Brave. ”

In fact, from the day of the ancestral hall, he wanted to find an opportunity to say this sentence to Aunt Hu. Not why, just to show the admiration of one of his children.

Under such an innocent praise from a child, Aunt Hu only felt more comfortable than the gratitude of the village. A rare smile on a black face: "You are also very brave." That day, the woman was going to nail the old man Feng's eyes with a nail, and I pounced on you and Wuyu'er when I saw it. ”

She patted her delicate wrist: "You're still a man." I used to underestimate you, thinking that those from the city didn't know anything except coquettishness. You're good! ”

This is the best evaluation she gives others, and she feels ashamed to say it if it is too much.

I didn't think about it, but Xiaozhi blushed: "I am sometimes coquettish, and I ...... Hum chirp. ”

His face was very embarrassed, Aunt Hu turned her face sideways, looked at him for a long time, and stunned Xiaozhi. Suddenly, seeing her stand up suddenly, Xiaozhi was startled in her heart, and somehow offended her again, but when she saw her kiss him on the face with her thick lips. Xiaozhi was ashamed, so he really hummed and drilled into Aunt Hu's armpit. Aunt Hu laughed and said, "Child, what a child." Wu Yu'er is right, you are really a little lamb. ”

Saying that, thinking of the song that Wu Yu'er made up that day, she couldn't help laughing and singing: "Little lamb, Jiaojiaojiao, I haven't seen the sun burn on the skin......" She had a bad voice, but when she sang so roughly, Xiaozhi heard that she was not weaker than the gentleness when her mother Pei Hongli called him. As if he was retaliating, he went to aunt Hu's itch, and one big and one small made a mess.

After a while, Xiaozhi sat down and said, "The five leftovers are so brave." ”

Aunt Hu's face turned gloomy, but it may have been infected by Xiaozhi, and she immediately turned her eyes again: "This kid is not bad." ”

Then she saw Xiaozhi staring at her face, her throat fluttering for a while, as if she had something to say but didn't dare to say, she couldn't help but say, "What do you want to say?" ”

Xiaozhi blushed, he was not used to blaming people in his life, and now for the first time, his face turned red before he spoke: "Then why are you still beating him so ruthlessly?" He is a child, but he also has dignity and face. ”

When he said this, he seemed to spit out a bone choked in his throat, and Aunt Hu was stunned, and said for a while: "You don't know." ”

As she spoke, she sighed, looked at the clouds in the sky that were gradually losing their daylight, and said, "I'll tell you a story." ”

"When I first married in Qijia Village, I was actually reluctant. My maiden name is Tu, you may know it, but I don't have the surname Tu. ”

As she spoke, she spit out the grass stalks in her mouth hatefully, as if she was angry with someone: "My surname is Hu, I am my mother's surname, anyway, I don't have the surname Tu." ”

Xiaozhi looked at her expression and said softly, "Do you hate your father?" ”

Aunt Hu was stunned for a while, and then said, "Do you hate?" Don't you hate? Can you not hate? After he and my mother gave birth to me, they have been floating outside, saying that they are wandering the rivers and lakes. My mom was blinded by crying for him. He likes to offend strong enemies the most, which time did he come back and didn't bring back trouble? My dad is a worse character than me, and he doesn't get along well with the people in the butcher's knife gate, and he doesn't deal with the old knife handle, so the butcher's knife gate has all moved out of the gate, and only our family is still in Hejian Mansion. He didn't raise me as a girl since I was a child, taught me to practice martial arts, taught me to squat, and taught me to make a sledgehammer. Our family's iron shop has been supported by me since I was thirteen years old. ”

Saying that, she sighed: "I don't complain about this, but little child, you are still young, and you don't know the hardships of being born into a girl's family, especially - ugly." ”

Xiaozhi interjected: "You're not ugly. ”

Aunt Hu couldn't help laughing: "It's a pity that I didn't meet you at that time, if I did, it would be rare for someone to say that I wasn't ugly, even if you were ten years younger than me, I would have to marry you as a child daughter-in-law." - Originally, I didn't really can't get married, to say, there are uglier than me, but my father has never raised me as a girl since I was a child, and I can't ...... those embroideries and needlework."

As she spoke, a look of envy appeared on her face, and although she sneered at everything she could not have with the pride of a little girl, she was envious from the bottom of her heart.

"As soon as I delayed, I was delayed until twenty-five out of twenty. Until one day, ten years ago, my father came back happily and said that he had found me an in-law's house, which was from these seven villages. That's where I met......" She had a look of love and hate on her face...... It's that dead ghost Lu Qingchu. My father said that he wanted me to marry, and whether I was reluctant to leave my mother or not, he brought me here. When I was almost there, I realized that when he was in danger, an old man who was admired by everyone in the village had saved his life, and he wanted to repay others for not finding a chance, so he sent me here. The two of them agreed on my life and wanted me to marry that Lu Qingchu. Of course Lu Qingchu didn't dare not listen to his Uncle Yu, I ...... Although my father is screwed everywhere, I have never done anything with him in major matters. When I first met that man, I thought, too...... That's it. ”

As she spoke, she showed a look of fascination on her face: "I don't know what others say, anyway, I think he's beautiful, and he's the kind of man who can take it out and look at it very brightly." His skin, that's called a white ......" Her expression seemed to slide into her memory, that man, that first love, that marriage ......, thinking so, two lines of tears flowed down her face, "His facial features are also thoughtful, I think, marrying such a person, I will not give in." Old Man Yu saw that I had kung fu, and although he didn't say anything, he secretly seemed to be at ease with me. I know that they think that if I become a member of Qijia Village, after a hundred years, these old and young women and children, if they are bullied, no one will take care of them. If that Lu Qingchu Danfan is a little bit nicer to me, I will admit it. A woman—I'm a woman—marrying someone is a lifelong thing. Born as his Lu family, died as his Lu family ghost, what will happen to his family, and I am willing to shed my last drop of blood for him. But he ...... When he got married, he was fine, but a month after he got married, he left, saying that he was going out to do business. In the future, even if I came back to see his wife, I only stayed for a few days, and I never built a bed in his wife's house, and never entered my room. - Business, what business is worth being so busy? Think about it, in his house, in the field, on the stove, which one is not my busy work? What am I trying to do with him? He has a blind mother, and there are two stupid three younger brothers in the row below, and the remaining one is still a second speaker, and he can't speak clearly, and he has to raise an uncle, and the woman who died in his front room still has a child. I'm busy trying to figure out what, isn't it just trying to figure him personally? But he ...... Think I'm ugly. ”

She may have too little chance to tell, and today in front of a child, she couldn't help but say it. I saw tears washing her fat black face drop by drop: "I said: Lu Qingchu, you let me give you a child, as long as you give birth to a child, you will not come back in your life, you can raise a little woman outside, but he won't even give me this." I didn't treat Wuyuer badly, but that little cub, you ask him, did he call me a mother when I entered the door? The people in the village didn't know what to tell him, and planted a poisonous root in his heart: they always thought that the stepmother was not raised by people, or was destined to be bad for him. I was fine to him in the first year or two, but I was bored in my heart, and I wanted to send it to others, and everyone came to talk about me. I was angry with five leftovers, but no one said anything about me, as if this was in line with their expectations. I can't use all my strength, and the man doesn't go home, so who is I out of him? ”

Xiaozhi listened quietly, only to feel that the clouds in the sky that had just been setting sunset for Yu Riying gradually turned iron blue after losing daylight. It's like - if you sweep away the brilliance of Aunt Hu's hammer on the day of the ancestral hall, what is underneath is still this rough, struggling, and desperate life. "My temper is irritated by everyone, and I am not like this when I am young, but since I was a child, I didn't know how to get along with others. As soon as I play with other girls, they laugh at me, and boys laugh at me. I married into this village, don't you see that they are grateful to me now, you ask them if someone has spoken to me before? That is, also a spying with ridicule. ”

Aunt Hu's face suddenly showed anger, as if she was resentful of all the injustices in the world. "Don't look at the ancestral hall when they were so pitiful, but these useless poor people, when they have the opportunity, they will also stretch out their claws and pick at the flesh of your heart. Even now, I helped them out once, and in the future, in their eyes, I will still be an outsider. - is an outsider, and will not change in this life. ”

The clouds in the sky are already blue. A trace of despair floated in Xiaozhi's heart. He was also lonely since he was a child, and he understood that kind of despair. So although he is too young to fully understand the words of Aunt Hu, in his heart, he also has a sympathy for the same fate. Aunt Hu's face, I don't know if it's the relationship between Yunying or what, there is also a trace of iron-like green - the kind of iron green that she is unwilling to do in her life. She has a life that is more vivid than ordinary people, but her fate is almost destined to arrange a lifetime for her Tieqing.

I saw that Aunt Hu seemed to be tired, lit bituminous coal, took a puff of dry tobacco, and sighed: "I shouldn't have told you this child." In short, this is fate, this is fate. ”