In front of a mud house that is not too dilapidated.

There was a tall child, childish and sweaty, who picked up an axe with great strength and chopped the sawn logs on the ground into firewood.

There was a young man in his early thirties standing on the side, and said with a smile on his face: "Xiaojing, are you tired, Dad is changing hands with you?" ”

"Dad, I'm four and a half years old, I'm an adult, it's okay to be tired!" The child wiped the sweat from his forehead and grinned, not paying attention.

The young man looked back at the busy Miaoman figure in the upper room, and then at his son, his heart was warm and gratified. He said softly: "Xiaojing, although our family is not rich and rich, since God has given you this powerful strength, it means that you will definitely make a difference in the future." But you can't bully others just because you have the ability, you know how to protect the weak, you can be called strong, this is what your grandfather always said to his father when he was alive. ”

The boy put down his axe and listened as if he didn't understand, taking in mind what his father had said.

————

It was late autumn evening that year.

The courtyard of the earthen embryo house was crowded with strangers from other places, and the leader was a young man in his early twenties, named Xu Huaitian, who did not have too much domineering on his handsome face, but he looked at everyone with an indifferent face, and ordered the entourage to throw a thin and weak seven or eight-year-old girl with pockmarks all over her body on the ground, and only said one sentence: "Li Changjing's marriage contract with my young lady has been cancelled, this is a new child daughter-in-law, you have to have it, you have to have it, you have to have it." ”

Outside the walls of the courtyard, there was a crowd of people watching the excitement, pointing at Li Changjing's family, commenting, and their faces were full of schadenfreude and excitement about watching the excitement.

It was on this day that Li Changjing, who was only eight years old, saw his honest father for the first time, if he hadn't been pressed to the ground by four or five people, he would have almost fought with that Xu Huaitian.

It was also on this day that the entire Li family became the biggest laughing stock in the town.

On the same day, Li Changjing had an additional child daughter-in-law named Cheng Ruoshui.

————

Since Cheng Ruoshui came, Li Changjing found that everything in the family had changed, his father was silent all day long, and there were many fewer smiles on his mother's face, what made him even more unacceptable was that Cheng Ruoshui was obviously so ugly, with pockmarks all over her body, her father and mother were very good to her, she was used to everything, gave her good food and good clothes, but did not pay as much attention to him as his own son, which made Li Changjing hate Cheng Ruoshui even more, and bullied her all day long, forcing her to do housework, washing clothes, chopping wood, and taking advantage of her father's mother's inattention, also secretly put sand in her bowl, looking at her pitiful appearance of wanting to vomit but not daring to vomit, and could only swallow hard, Li Changjing would laugh secretly, and finally felt a little more balanced in his heart.

However, these little pranks are slowly fading over time.

Cheng Ruoshui is one year younger than Li Changjing, although he is ugly, he is very sensible, he rushes to do housework every day, cooks rice and stir-fries, mops the floor and washes clothes, everything is done, Li Changjing bullies her, she doesn't cry or make trouble, but likes to smile at him, although the ugly face has a pair of bright and clear eyes, long eyelashes, and a lot of moisture, like stars. Like the moon, indescribably beautiful.

Li Changjing sleeps restlessly and likes to kick the quilt, but every morning when he gets up, he always finds that his quilt is covered very tightly, and even his shoes are well placed.

Later, Li Changjing, who slowly became sensible, began to understand that the reason why his father and mother were so good to Cheng Ruoshui was because of this ugly monster he had always hated.

It's really nothing.

As a result, his name for Cheng Ruoshui changed from the ugly monster at the beginning to Cheng Ruoshui, Ruoshui, and finally Shui'er.

————

That afternoon, on the spacious street in the north of the town, Cheng Ruoshui and Xia Keke, two little girls, finally got together to put paper kites, the two held their heads high, looking at the paper kites flying higher and higher, and the two little faces that were red by the sun, they couldn't suppress their happiness and joy.

Suddenly, there was a "boom" in the distance, and a two-finger-sized tile flew quickly, cutting the thread of the paper kite with unmistaken accuracy, and the unrestrained paper kite shook in mid-air and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Immediately afterwards, a group of fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenagers poured out of the alley next to them, and surrounded the two little girls who had lost their paper kites and were losing their souls.

"Are you the child daughter-in-law of Li Changjing?"

Su Bowen clasped his hands, hung his eyes, and squinted at Cheng Ruoshui, who was standing timidly, with unconcealed disgust on his face, and spat on the ground viciously, "It's really a cheap thing, the pockmarks on your face can seep to death, isn't it good that an ugly monster like you died early, you have to run to the street to scare people?" Look at you a few more times, I'm afraid I won't even be able to eat at night! ”

While scolding, she kicked Cheng Ruoshui in the chest, kicking her to squat on the ground, just wanted to get up, but was kicked again, this time the whole person fell to the ground, and she couldn't get up for a long time.

The people behind Su Bowen rushed up, kicked and beat her, spit, and two thick-skinned ones actually unbuttoned their pants and urinated on Cheng Ruoshui, Xia Keke stood aside, tears rolling, didn't dare to help if he wanted to help, didn't dare to cry if he wanted to cry, everyone was scared stupid.

The girl with pockmarked pimples on her face, covering her face with her hands, curled up on the ground like a kitten, not crying, not making trouble, and not resisting, just endured it silently.

In the end, that Su Bowen walked up, stepped on Cheng Ruoshui's face with his foot, and scolded viciously: "I heard that all the people in your Li family are wrecked, your father won't say anything, he has a shy face, he only knows how to smirk, and he doesn't even dare to fart when he is forced to marry." There is also that Li Changjing, who is simple-minded and has developed limbs, and has brute strength, what about this life, he is destined to be a hard life of being a cow and a horse, you go back and simply let him go to my house to apply for a job, my family just lacks a donkey to pull the mill, he is just right! ”

The group of teenagers brought by Su Bowen burst into laughter in an instant.

Who expected Cheng Ruoshui to get up with difficulty, glared at Su Bowen angrily, and said in a cold voice: "You can bully me, but you are not allowed to speak ill of my father and Brother Jing!" ”

Su Bowen sighed, couldn't help laughing and said: "Just your family of farmers, what do you say......

It's just that before he finished speaking, he held back stiffly, because Cheng Ruoshui hugged his feet and bit him on the thigh, this time it was very hard, so painful that Su Bowen let out a miserable scream, and suddenly became angry, grabbed Cheng Ruoshui's hair, and punched her in the face a few times, scolding vicious words such as "ugly eight monsters, toad girls, cheap embryos" while beating, and Cheng Ruoshui's head was bleeding, and he fell to the ground without being able to breathe.

Su Bowen gasped, looked at the ugly girl on the ground, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and he actually ordered his two companions to lift Cheng Ruoshui up and throw him heavily on the steps next to him, only to hear a click, Cheng Ruoshui's spine was broken on the spot, and she was only nine years old, even if she was seriously injured, she still bit her lip to prevent herself from crying.

Suddenly, someone shouted: "Li Changjing, that freak is here!" ”

Su Bowen was shocked, and when he looked around, he saw a tall young man running from a distance.

Li Changjing came to the front of the steps, helped Cheng Ruoshui, who was covered in blood, and asked tremblingly, "What happened?" ”

Cheng Ruoshui, who was dying, looked at him, and his originally bright eyes had dimmed. She only said to him: "Brother Jing, let's go home, I don't hurt." ”

Li Changjing's eyes turned red instantly, turned around suddenly, and yelled at Su Bowen, who was the culprit: "You deserve to die!" ”

Su Bowen relied on the strength of the crowd, and he was not afraid at all, but took the initiative to meet him, and was about to say a few words of courage, but who expected Li Changjing to step forward, shouted, and punched out with all his right hand, which fell heavily on Su Bowen's chest, knocking him out five or six meters, and his entire chest cavity was sunken, and he fainted on the spot.

On the way home, Li Changjing carried her child daughter-in-law on her back and said softly: "Even I am reluctant to beat you, what qualifications do they have." ”

The girl, who was already ignorant at that time, was full of tears, and her hands hugged her Brother Jing's neck hard.

It's just that that night, a full thirty people, taking advantage of the night to break into that peaceful courtyard, Li Changjing and his father were dragged out by more than a dozen people, beaten with sticks for more than half an hour, Li Changjing, who had just turned 10 years old, was not spared, his right leg was broken by force, let the beautiful woman in the house cry and shout, not only did not stop, but smashed all the things that could be used in the house, and then left.

In the end, there was not even a single person who came out to dissuade the more than ten neighbors around.

In the middle of the night, the man in the prime of life was lying on the bed with a gloomy face, unable to speak.

Li Changjing sat beside Cheng Ruoshui in a coma, as if he had dried his tears.

It seemed to be a return to the light, the man on the bed sat up stiffly, and smiled at his sensible son, "Xiaojing, you are ten years old this year, can you take care of your mother?" ”

The lame child was very sad in his heart, but he straightened his back and replied loudly, "Yes!" ”

The man smiled with relief, slowly lay down in his wife's arms, and closed his eyes.

Before he died, the man said to his son: "As a man, don't regret doing what you think is right." Even his daughter-in-law didn't dare to resist when she was bullied, and she didn't deserve to be a man. ”

————

One night, Li Changjing had a dream in which he saw a huge ginseng with golden light all over his body, which slowly turned into a beautiful sister in yellow clothes, sitting on the edge of his bed, and said to him: "My name is Li Yuanyang, and I am your companion. Every ten years, I can fulfill one of your wishes, do you have anything you need me to do? ”

Li Changjing asked her, "Can you bring my father back to life?" ”

The woman in yellow shook her head, "People can't be resurrected after death. ”

Li Changjing's tears welled up all of a sudden, he half sat up, looked at Cheng Ruoshui lying beside him, and continued to ask: "Then my sister has a broken spine and can no longer walk, can you cure her?" ”

The woman in yellow nodded and said, "You can cure it, but you have to pay a big price yourself, are you willing?" ”

Li Changjing nodded heavily: "Yes!" ”

So the woman in yellow stretched out a slender palm as white as snow and gently patted his forehead.

Li Changjing immediately fell asleep.

In a daze, Li Changjing seemed to hear his sister saying to him: "I will leave you a seed of the Heavenly Machine Line, and you can take it to a piece of land at the foot of the mountain in the west to plant, which can cure all diseases." But now you no longer have the desire to cultivate in your heart, so I won't come to see you again in ten years, unless you regain your determination to cultivate. ”

————

That winter

Since the death of her husband, the woman has been depressed all day long, and she has not thought about tea and food, and finally she can't afford to get sick, and she is getting worse and worse, and finally she can't even eat, and she is as thin as firewood.

There is no longer that lame boy with strange powers, and an ugly-looking girl, who sold everything that could be sold at home, and gave medicine to their mothers, and finally there was no money, so the boy had to go out to do odd jobs, but because he had a grudge against the Su family, even if he found a job, it was the hardest and most tiring work, and he got the lowest and least wage.

The ugly-looking girl was at home alone, taking care of her seriously ill mother, while doing housework, and the originally white and delicate palms were full of cracks and chilblains because of too much water.

One evening, it snowed heavily.

The woman who came back called the two children and asked them to go outside the house to play in the snow.

The woman leaned on the bed and took out embroidery from under the bed, ready to pierce the picture of the two children having a snowball fight.

But only halfway through the stab, the woman had already spent all her strength. She struggled to raise her head, facing the doorway, looking at the pair of hard-working children who were building snowmen, squeezing out one last smile.

From this day on, Li Changjing and Cheng Ruoshui became orphans.

Of course, he also changed from a child to a teenager.