It's a typical northern rural morning. A thin white mist lingered among the houses, the trees, the paths and the haystacks, and the smoke rose in the morning light. The churn is cold, but the yellowish withered grass has been mixed with the fresh green sè, and it seems that after a while, fragrant flowers will bloom.

Right now, in a courtyard in the north of the village, a man and a little girl in a red jacket are sitting side by side on a bench, one holding a large celadon bowl and the other holding a small stainless steel bowl.

The man raised his head to clean the bottom of the bowl, and turned his head to look at his daughter—usually at this time, the little girl had already drunk the porridge in the bowl like her father. However, at this moment, this little girl is holding her face, and her eyelashes are as thick as a brush...... Apparently there is something on the mind.

But at the age of six or seven, a little girl who looks like a pink carving, this sad appearance can be extra endearing.

So the man couldn't help laughing, and reached out and rubbed her two pigtails on the skull: "Qingqing, what's wrong?" ”

The little girl frowned and sighed crisply: "I'm worried." ”

The man laughed and called out to her mother: "Zhang Yuping, your daughter is worried!" ”

The woman who was washing dishes walked out of the house, and when she saw her daughter's small appearance, a smile appeared in the corner of her eyes: "Qingqing, what are you worried about?" ”

The little girl stood up solemnly, carefully placed the bowl on the bench, straightened her waist and announced: "Today I have a birthday, I want to eat chicken!" ”

The two adults looked at each other and suddenly smiled even more happily.

……

……

Yu Qingqing squatted on the ground and watched her mother kill the chicken - the moment the knife fell, she couldn't help but cover her eyes. When I let it go again, I saw that the headless chicken was still struggling with one after another, and the blood in its neck spilled on a cutting board.

Zhang Yuping grabbed the chicken neck with one hand, and received the chicken blood with the other hand, and instructed the little daughter: "Qingqing will go to the house and get me a bowl again!" ”

"Hey!" Yu Qingqing hurriedly ran into the house, and read in his heart as he ran: "Chicken, chicken, don't blame me, that person loves meat, I'm not eating it for myself-"

After receiving another bowl of chicken blood, Zhang Yuping patted his head: "Oh, my xing, the water is still boiling!" She quickly put the old hen on the cutting board and hurried into the house.

After her mother disappeared behind the door, Yu Qingqing looked left and right - then frowned and grabbed the chicken's feet, and ran out of the yard in a few steps......

……

……

After Zhang Yuping came out of the house with a basin of hot water, he was stunned. The cutting board is now empty, except for two chicken feathers swirling to the ground - what about the chickens?

She hurriedly shouted: "Qingqing? Clear? Yu Qingqing, what about chickens? Yu Zuo, who was tending to the vegetable patch in the backyard, pulled his throat and agreed: "What's wrong?" ”

Zhang Yuping stomped his foot painfully: "I just finished killing the chicken, and I haven't shed my hair yet, but it's gone in a blink of an eye!" Qingqing doesn't know where to go! ”

Her man walked to the front yard with his hands stained with mud at this time, thought for a while, and said regretfully: "Alas, eighty percent of them were taken away by weasels - when I was cleaning up our haystack the day before yesterday, I saw a weasel, smooth and shiny, and jumped out and scared me!" ”

Zhang Yuping opened his mouth, and only after a while did he say, "Wong Tai Sin...... Alas. Unlucky, let Wong Tai Sin take it in his mouth, and I'll kill another one. Qingqing, where did that kid run away again? ”

Yu left the button and pointed to the back of the house: "Let's go back to the mountain to play again." ”

Zhang Yuping relieved her mind at this time, and while walking towards the chicken coop, she complained to her man: "It's not good to play, you have to run to the back mountain, a cemetery." Last year, Lao Li's family came back to raise a grave, and the dead were still a child, and they were angry...... What should I do if I collide......"

"I don't believe that." Yu Zuo muttered and turned back to the house.

……

……

Yu Qingqing carried the chicken upside down and trotted all the way up the mountain. He turned his head and looked behind him to make sure no one was coming, so he gasped for a moment before continuing on his walk.

Bypassing a forest, a meadow came into view. Passing through the meadow, another thawed, gurgling stream. She carefully stepped on the stones to cross the river without getting her shoes wet, and finally reached her destination.

It was a cemetery. More than a dozen tombstones, high and low, hidden in the withered grass, show a decadent atmosphere, and it seems that no one has taken care of them for more than a year. The little girl slowly walked to a new grave, sat down on a thick mat of dead grass, let out a long breath, and struck her leg with her fist, and said as if complaining, "I was so scared that my mother almost saw me." ”

After thinking about it, he made a bitter face again: "I don't know how to tell her when I go back...... Tell her that she was taken away by a weasel, and I came to chase a weasel, do you think she can believe it? ”

There was no one around her, just a newly erected tombstone and trees that had not yet grown new leaves. And then there's the sound of the morning breeze as it passes through the woods...... The picture is a little weird.

The little girl held her cheeks and thought for a while, before rubbing her face that was red from the cold, and waved her hand proudly: "No matter!" Let's just say that! Then he laid the chicken on the side of the grave behind the tombstone.

After about two minutes or more, the ground beneath the chicken began to stir restlessly as the little girl impatiently kicked a new piece of soil beside the grave.

It's like a small animal hiding in the soil awakened by the breath of Chuntian, trying to overturn the heavy burden on its body, and the dirt mixed with rotting and dead leaves was pushed out of a small bag.

Then...... A finger burst out of the ground.

Then there is the second, the third, and even the entire palm.

A hand emerged from the side of the mound. It is a slender and white hand, delicate and smooth. It seems that it should belong to some young man from a well-to-do family who has not experienced the hard work of life. But now that it appears in the dirt next to the mound, it only makes people feel chills and gusts of wind.

However, Yu Qingqing's face showed a happy look. The little girl hurriedly pushed the chicken closer to it, and said, "Here, big fool." ”

His hands groped around, and finally he held the neck of the chicken. Then he slammed it back and shrank back, and the whole chicken was dragged into the earth, revealing a swarthy hole.

Qingqing picked up a dead branch beside him, leaned down and poked into the hole for a while, his face showed a stupid look, and said sourly: "Your arms are really long." Then she looked at her little arm wrapped in a thick red cotton jacket and muttered, "I want to grow up quickly, so that I can kill the chicken myself and feed you." ”

The little girl muttered to herself in the cold wind, and after a while she stomped her feet, rubbed her red ears, picked up a branch and threw away a flock of sparrows that had stopped on the tree, looking extremely bored. After about ten minutes, she finally couldn't stand the boring atmosphere, leaned down to the hole, put her hand to her mouth and folded it into a horn: "Hey, hey——! Didn't you finish eating! Eat-end-no-have-ah! ”

Finally, there was a rustling sound in the cavern, and then the hand poked out of the ground again.

The five fingers shook the slag between the fingers, and then bent the index finger and thumb in an "ok" gesture.

Yu Qingqing sat back on the straw mat with satisfaction, took out a piece of paper from the pocket of the small padded jacket and carefully unfolded it. Then the expression on his face became solemn and serious, he frowned and thought for a while, and slowly asked: "6 plus 6 plus 6, what is it?" ”

The hand clenched into a fist, then opened its index finger and thumb.

Qingqing's eyes widened: "Yes, it's eighteen, but I counted it slowly, how did you calculate so quickly?" ”

The hand spread out its five fingers and began to swing gently and quickly...... The little girl knew that he meant, "It's not clear now."

So she sighed sadly and continued to the next question: "9 plus 9...... Alas, forget it, you can't tell. The little girl held her chin up again and said quietly, "My mother said that she would send me to preschool next year...... The preschool teacher must be able to tell me how to do the math, right? ”

"But if I go to school, who will find you something to eat?"

This time, instead of reacting immediately, the hand stiffened slightly. Then it flipped its wrist and slowly wrote six words on the ground with its index finger.

The six words were written crookedly, but the strokes were clear, the size of half a palm, as if to make the little girl see more clearly.

Yu Qingqing frowned, looked at it carefully for a while, and said embarrassedly: "Are you writing words?" But...... I don't know how to read. ”

So the five fingers of the hand were together, and the palm waved to the bottom.

Qingqing thought about it, and suddenly his eyes widened: "Oh! Are you going to my school, learn to write, and be able to read? ”

The hand made a quick "ok" gesture and then nodded to the six words on the ground.

Yu Qingqing smiled and nodded: "Zhilu Dao, Zhilu Dao, I'll write down these words-huh?" I recognize the penultimate word, it's a 'one' word! Then she used a pencil to carefully copy the six characters on the paper of the Tian character grid, and then she breathed a sigh...... Okay, I should go home, or my mother won't let me come again. I took this piece of paper with me, and when I went to school, I asked the teacher to teach me - you have to wait here for me to come back! Bye-on-bye! ”

Then she carefully put the folded paper into her coat pocket, and then turned around and went down the mountain in three steps.

The hand seemed to lose its strength suddenly, and it rested on the ground for a long time before slowly erasing the handwriting and retracting into the hole. In a short time, a large cloud of earth poured up and blocked the hole as if nothing had happened.

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