The night is deeper, and the thick night will slowly erode the garden. Night, like a lurking ghost, stares at the light reflected in the house, waiting for the opportunity to swallow up the only light at any time.

After Du Xiaomeng looked at the stars, she was finally in a better mood. She let Liu Lu blow out the wait, lay on the bed and open her eyes to see the darkness envelop her, let the darkness slowly paralyze her awake mind, and slowly fall asleep.

She didn't sleep well that night, and stayed up until dawn in a half-awake and half-asleep state.

Du Xiaomeng hurriedly got up, and after doing everything she needed to do as quickly as possible, she asked Liu Lu to prepare the car for her. The General's Mansion is far from the west of the city, and if you walk, you don't know when you will be able to get there.

Liu Lu, who had never heard Mrs. say that she was going to take a car, asked suspiciously, "Madam, where are you going?" ”

Du Xiaomeng said in a calm tone: "I'm going to Liulipo in the west of the city." ”

"What?! Are you going to Liulipo? Liu Lu shouted in reaction and looked at Du Xiaomeng with wide eyes.

Du Xiaomeng asked puzzledly: "Yes, I'm going to Liulipo." What's the problem? ”

Liu Lu said excitedly: "Of course there is a problem!" It's a slum, it's dirty, it's messy, it's not safe, and the lepers live there! Madam, there are so many places where you don't go, why do you want to run to Liulipo? The slave won't let you go to Liulipo! ”

Du Xiaomeng frowned, and her heart was a little more worried about Lin Xinru. She raised her eyes, looked at Liu Lu with melancholy eyes, and said, "Xiao Liu, I must go to Liulipo today." When you went to buy sour plums yesterday, I ran into a sister who used to play well with me. She married into the capital and lived in Liulipo in the west of the city. I couldn't talk to her in a hurry yesterday, but she seems to be having a bad day, and I, as a sister, need to see what happened to her. She's my best sister, and I'm really afraid something will happen to her. The more she spoke, the more anxious her voice became, her face was full of worried expressions, and tears were rolling in her eyes, "Xiaoyanagi, I must have been to see her to rest assured." If something happens to her, I'll be guilty for the rest of my life. ”

Her pitiful appearance, although Liu Lu looked a little unbearable, but she still insisted on her position and did not give in.

If she goes to a messy place like Liulipo, if something accidentally happens, she will definitely be punished badly by the master, and she may be kicked out of the general's mansion. For the sake of her wife, for her own sake, she would never let her wife run there.

Entering the willow green so resolutely, Du Xiaomeng sat by the window with a sullen look and lowered her head.

After a while, she raised her head as if she had thought of something, and said with a smile: "Although I can't go to Liulipo, I can let my sister come to the General's Mansion to find me!" Koyanagi, bring me pen and paper, I'm going to write a letter to my sister! ”

Seeing that Mrs. didn't shout that she was going to Liulipo, and came up with such a good idea, Liu Lu hurriedly responded and went out to collect paper and pen.

As soon as Liu Lu walked out, Du Xiaomeng hurriedly took out the hidden silver and collected it on his body, and slipped out of the General's Mansion as fast as he could.

With the connivance of Old Man Zhan, and Zhan Qi's indifference, Du Xiaomeng's actions in the General's Mansion are very free, and everyone in the General's Mansion is used to seeing her running out every day, and when she swaggered out of the gate of the General's Mansion, no one came over to stop her.

Du Xiaomeng calmly left the general's mansion and hired a horse to set off to the west of the city.

Even by car, it took about half an hour to get to the west of the city. After walking for a while, the car stopped, and the driver said through the curtain: "This eldest sister, the car can only go here and can't go any further." ”

Du Xiaomeng got out of the car and found that there was really no way in front of him for the carriage to continue going.

The coachman pointed to the potholed gravel path ahead and said, "Follow this road down to Liulipo." Sister, the security there is not very good, you should be careful. ”

"Thank you."

Du Xiaomeng paid the fare and walked along the path. The path was a ramp that curved downward, and after a short walk, a cluster of low, dilapidated and disorganized brick houses came into view.

In front of the dilapidated houses, there were adults in ragged clothes, or children without clothes. Dark and dirty, they leaned against the wall, their eyes glazed over, their faces expressionless, and even though there were many flies buzzing overhead, they had no intention of moving their hands to drive them away, and they just stood there motionless, like stone statues with no life, no future, and no hope.

An uninvited guest burst in, and the sluggish group moved, rolling their eyes to look this way.

Du Xiaomeng looked at this place that was worse than he imagined, looked at the group of lifeless people, and remembered what Liu Lu said. She subconsciously hugged her body with both hands, tried her best to ignore the gazes cast from all directions, forced herself to walk forward calmly, walked in front of a little boy who was dragging two lines of thick snot and squatting naked on the ground playing with mud, and asked, "Little friend, do you know where the lady of the Xiao family lives?" ”

An old woman came over and pulled the little boy into her arms and hugged him tightly. She stared at Du Xiaomeng's cloudy old eyes, with strong vigilance. She stared at Du Xiaomeng for a while before pointing in one direction and said in a rough voice: "Over there!" ”

Du Xiaomeng, who was a little hairy in her heart, said "thank you" and hurriedly walked in the direction she pointed.

The direction the old woman was pointing to was a narrow alley that could only accommodate two people to walk sideways. The houses here are basically doorless, and many of them are only blocked by a rag, and some even have no rags.

Du Xiaomeng quickly found Lin Xinru's residence.

The dilapidated wooden door of the dilapidated hut opened, and Lin Xinru and Xiao Gongzi were already waiting.

Seeing that Du Xiaomeng was really here, Lin Xinru immediately ran out of the house and rushed over to hug the visitor, shouting excitedly: "Xiang'er!" ”

Xiao Gongzi's performance was calmer than Lin Xinru. He walked out and took his wife's hand, and whispered, "Lady, let's let the guests into the house and talk." ”

Lin Xinru let go of Du Xiaomeng, raised her sleeves to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and welcomed Du Xiaomeng into the house with a smile.

There was no decent furniture in the room, only a broken bed and a small table.

"Xiang'er, you sit." Lin Xinru pulled Du Xiaomeng to sit on the bed, and Xiao Gongzi stood at the table.

Lin Xinru is thinner than before, and Xiao Gongzi looks sluggish. Looking at the appearance of the two, life should be very unsatisfactory.

"Miss, Xiao Gongzi, what happened to you? How did you come to the capital? Du Xiaomeng went straight to the point and asked the questions in her heart.

Xiao Gongzi sighed lightly and said, "My father had an old friend who was the director of the school hall in the capital, and he originally planned to come to the capital to join him, and asked him to help me find a degree in the school hall, so that I could have the recommendation of the school hall to participate in the spring exam next year." Who knows, after coming to the capital, I learned that the Shibo had passed away at the beginning of the year. ”

Du Xiaomeng asked a little puzzled: "Even if the Shibo who can let you take refuge is gone, you still have some money on hand, why don't you find another way?" ”

Lin Xinru lowered her head sadly, and said with tears in her eyes: "We met a thief on the way to the capital, and almost all the valuable belongings were stolen. Fortunately, I hid some money on my body, so I managed to survive to the capital. When we had nowhere to go and didn't know what to do, we luckily met Sister-in-law Jiang, who brought us here and helped us find a job, so that we would not be left in the joint and starve to death. ”

Du Xiaomeng looked at Lin Xinru and Xiao Gongzi, the down-and-out lovers, and couldn't help but sigh.

The kind of life that is perfect forever and not eating the fireworks of the world, I'm afraid that it can only survive in fiction, right? Xiucai and Miss, especially the combination of down-and-out Xiucai and Incompetent Miss, want to live happily forever, how long do you have to struggle in the ordeal before you can "hold the hand of your son and be white-headed for life"? Was it a very wrong decision to encourage them to elope in the first place?