"What's that?"

"Belly pocket!" After the man finished speaking, his face immediately turned red. As if he was afraid that he would misunderstand the punishment, he hurriedly added: "It's not the kind used by women, but the kind used by babies." The belly pocket is not made of a whole piece of red cloth, but is spliced with a lot of fragmented pieces of cloth, and the word "peace" is embroidered on it. I have been married to my wife for many years, but I have never had children. This thing, obviously, can't be my family. ”

"Do you still have that belly pocket?"

"No, I quietly threw it away in private."

"Thrown?"

"Originally, I wanted to keep it. It's a little older, but it's not badly worked. Don't look at the splicing of a lot of scraps of cloth, the hand touches, it is slippery, and it looks like it is heartfelt. I thought that when I had a child in my family in the future, I would be able to use it. But looking at the appearance of my lady at that time, I felt that thing was unlucky, so I threw it away. ”

"Where?"

"Corner! It's in the corner of my backyard. ”

"If you throw things away, why don't you just throw them out the door?"

"I didn't care." The man looked at Xing Ruyi with an innocent face: "At that time, my lady was sick, and I was in a hurry, where could I care about throwing things out." In addition, the dirt in my house is usually piled up in the backyard first, and it is only cleaned up once every two or three days. ”

As he spoke, the man stopped at the door of a house. He pointed to the door and said, "Here it is, this is the house that my wife and I rented in the city." ”

"This house ......"

"It's old." The man pushed open the door and bowed his head a little embarrassedly: "We are from the countryside, and it is good to have a place to stay in this city." This house is still my family to help find, although it is old, but it is also convenient to live. ”

"What else did your family say?"

"What did you say?" The man looked at Xing Ruyi in puzzlement.

"I mean, did your family tell you anything about this house?"

"Nope." The man shook his head: "My family just told me that it is not easy to find this house, so let's not dislike it and live for the time being." After a few days, when you have savings in your hand, you will replace it with another one. ”

"Although I don't know whether it was intentional or not, your family lied to you."

"No way. I've inquired about the slightly better houses in the city, and the prices are indeed much higher than this. Although my family is good for the two of us, it is also a small business, and we are very grateful to be able to help us find a place to stay. Besides, the family didn't say much about this house. Also, when I first entered the city, we were poor and white, and the money for this rented house was still given to me by my family. ”

"That's not what I'm talking about." Xing Ruyi pointed to a corner of the door: "There was a person who died in this courtyard. ”

"Dead people?" The man frowned at first, stammered a question, and then laughed: "This is an old courtyard, and there is nothing new about the dead." Like our country land, which of those houses that are some years old has never died. This person was not killed by us, and we do not taboo this. ”

"If this dead man affects the fortune of your children, don't you care?"

Madame laughed.

"I never joke like that with anyone." Xing Ruyi stepped on his feet, pulled off the hairpin on his head, and poked at the corner of the door.

A pair of shoes, exposed.

The shoes are red, and judging from the toe of the shoes, they look like the small tiger head shoes worn by children who have passed the full moon. It's just that the tiger head on these shoes is not made of another piece, but embroidered with needle and thread. Because it has been sealed in the mud wall for a long time, the color has fallen off a little, and it looks dirty, old, and a little weird.

"Strange, who put their shoes here?" The man said, and also picked it twice with his hand: "These are children's shoes, right?" ”

"You're right, it's an old mansion, and it's been around for some years. Because this is an old mansion, it is extremely abnormal for this thing to appear on the door. ”

"Yes, I've never heard of anyone burying shoes in their house."

"It's not something left over from the construction of the house, it's something that was put in later. The color of the shoe is clearly recognizable, and the silk threads on the shoe have not been broken, indicating that the shoe has not been buried in the wall for a long time. If I'm not mistaken, there should be another one in the wall over there. The shoes, a pair, were taken off from the feet of a child who had just completed a month. ”

The man stared at Xing Ruyi, his mouth opening and closing, and a slight grunt came out of his throat.

"This house is indeed found for you by your own family, but the owner of the house is not someone else, but your own family."

"My own house? No, it's impossible, I've been to my own house, and it's much better than this. ”

"Since he is your own family, it means that before he entered the city, he lived in the countryside like you."

"Yes, it's from the country. But I'm quite capable of it. When he was seven or eight years old, he was sent to the city to work as a young man, and then he slowly became a shopkeeper, and then he bought his current property. ”

"From a small guy to a big shopkeeper, your family is not only capable, right?"

The man touched his head and said, "It's also capable." I am an honest family, and when I was a young man, I was favored by the shopkeeper at the time. The shopkeeper has a daughter in the house, which is held in the palm of his hand. The shopkeeper was reluctant to marry his daughter, and when he saw that my family was down-to-earth, he recruited him as his son-in-law. A few years later, the old shopkeeper died, and my own family naturally took over the shop at that time. But the current business is all tossed by me, the family. ”

"Now that I've said that, I'm no longer polite and will ask you a few more words. Your own family, have you ever accepted a concubine? ”

"How did Madame know? Don't hide it from Mrs., my family has really accepted a concubine. However, this concubine is not an outsider, she is also from her own family, and she is a girl who serves beside the lady of the family. ”

"It's the kind of girl who signed the deed of sale, right?"

"I don't know the specifics, it should be bought from outside by the father of the lady. Since it was bought, there must be a deed. The girl who bought it back is domestic, and life and death are all decided by the master's family. The man said, licking his lips: "My family is the same as mine, I have been married for many years, but I don't have a child." The lady of this family felt ashamed, so she gave the girl next to her to my family as a concubine. This is also normal. Even if it is left in our countryside, if the wife can't give birth to children, he will also help his father-in-law to buy another room. ”

"That concubine gave birth to a son?"

"Madame guessed again?" The man opened his mouth slightly: "Yes, this concubine did give birth to a boy." When the child was full moon, I also came to give a full moon gift on behalf of our relatives in the countryside. But it didn't take long to hear that the child had died. ”

"Died?"

"It wasn't a death from illness, it was an accident. I heard that the little concubine was sleepy and lazy at night, and accidentally pressed the child when she turned over. As a result, the child was crushed to death. My family and the lady of my family didn't blame her. But she couldn't stand it herself, so she used a white silk to hang herself.

The child is gone, and the concubine commits suicide. Because of this incident, my family was also seriously ill, and it took many days to recover. That's when my wife and I went into the city to help. Fortunately, God forbid, after a few months, my lady found out that she was pregnant, although she gave birth to a girl, but the girl is easy to support, and now she can call people. ”

"That's right."

"By the way? What's right? ”

"This house should be the first property that your family bought after they entered the city. I don't know what his original plan was, but after accepting the concubine, the house was inhabited by the concubine. The other house you bought from your family is not far from here, right? ”

"It's not far, if you go around it from that side, it's less than a hundred and ten steps."

"Women are naturally jealous, although they are home-raised girls, they can share their own men. Your lady may not be a broad-hearted person. Seeing that she couldn't give birth, the maid had a big belly in a few days, and she was bound to be resentful. It's not good to keep people at home, so your family will place the concubine here. ”

"My lady is really not good-natured, and she has a big temper. Madame's speculation is also somewhat probable. ”

"Is it possible, you can find a neighbor and find out."

When the man heard this, he really ran to the next door and asked.

"Exactly! That's accurate! Madame is right! I went to ask the neighbor's aunt. The eldest lady told me that this house was originally owned by a family surnamed Ren. Later, the Ren family bought a new residence and sold it. As for who the buyer is, the eldest lady doesn't know, but my family did send her own concubine over. When the concubine was pregnant with the child, the eldest mother took care of her for a while. When the child was about to be full moon, my family hired a carriage and horse to bring the mother and son back.

The eldest lady also said that the lady of the family also came at that time. When the concubine saw the lady of the family, she held the child and saluted, but the lady of the family kept her face black and looked very unhappy. ”

"It's normal."

"That kid ......"

"It wasn't an accident. There are indeed careless mothers in the world, but no matter how careless a mother is, she will not accidentally crush her child to death after returning to the main house. On the contrary, after returning to the main house, her heart was carried and careful. Even if you fall asleep, you can't sleep so deeply. The child's death must have something else going on. These things have nothing to do with you, though. It's these little shoes that are relevant to you. ”

"Little shoes?"

"These shoes must have been taken off the feet of the child who died young. The reason why the shoes are hidden here is to borrow luck, to borrow the children of your husband and wife. Remember what your lady said? Yan Jun once said that she was made a woman in this life in order to taste what a woman has to go through. Pregnancy and childbirth are the same. But now, you and your wife's children have been borrowed. Your wife has no way to experience this hardship, so she has to pay the debt she owed in her previous life in another way. ”