It's past the end of the day, and the countryside is used to going to bed early, a few months ago, this time should have eaten a long time ago, and it is time to rest.

But this time, Li Xiuniang was carrying a basket of wild vegetables on her back and walked towards home from the east of the village.

Along the way, she passed many houses in the same village, and there were no lights in the houses, except for faint human voices coming from the half-open windows.

She has been walking this night road for more than a month, even though it is dark, and it is the second day of the new year, the little hook of the moon is covered by dark clouds, and there is no light at all, Li Xiuniang still groped her way back to the house, patted the door and shouted: "Mother! ”

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard the faint cries of children in the room, and the voices of old men coaxing children, and after a long time, someone answered the door.

There was no light in the hall, but a fire was burning in the middle of the house, and a pot was sitting on the fire, which was steaming hot, and emitted the smell of grass and vegetables.

An old woman opened the door and said, "Finally, I'm back, my grandson is so hungry that he cries!" When she came in, she handed over the crying child in her arms, and said, "Hurry up and eat after feeding, and leave you food, I'm afraid I'm very hungry." ”

Li Xiuniang hurriedly unloaded the bamboo basket on her back on the ground, took the child over, sat by the fire, undressed and brought her son to her chest to breastfeed.

The child had something to eat, and he stopped crying, sobbing and sucking, but he was thin and small, and after eating for a while, there was no more to eat, and after exerting strength for a long time, he still couldn't eat anything in his mouth, so he opened his mouth and let go of his mother's chest, and cried again in a weak voice.

The old lady who went to the back to get the bowl was coming out at this time, and when she heard her grandson crying, she was very distressed, and said, "You might as well squeeze it out and give it to him." ”

Li Xiuniang frowned and changed her son to the side, but she didn't speak.

The child can't eat milk, in addition to his own lack of strength, his own milk is also a reason, even if he wants to milk, he must have milk to squeeze it.

The old woman was just anxious for a while, in fact, she didn't know about her daughter-in-law's situation, and when she saw the other party deal like this, she only sighed, sat down, and took a spoon to scoop the soup from the pot.

A large pot of steaming soup was put into a coarse porcelain bowl, and it looked yellow, green, yellow, and green, except for two small handfuls of boiled corn, all wild vegetables, and only one egg lay on the ground—this was the meal of her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law tonight.

Eating these every day, and going out to sell hard work, where can there be any milk?

The old woman looked at the egg and swallowed, but still scooped it into her daughter-in-law's bowl.

The old man in her family was not born last year, and in this life, she gave birth to four sons and three daughters.

One of the sons of Xingyi and Xing Er grew up to ten years old, and one grew up to one year old, neither of them could support them, and only one of the three daughters lived, and they married the old Zheng family in the east of the village more than 20 years ago, and they had a difficult birth when they gave birth.

Of all the children, there are only two left when the adults have a family.

One is the son of Xingsan, because of the cross-toe, he was drawn from military service by the state government to be a box soldier, and died directly on the city wall, the third daughter-in-law heard the news, wiped her tears, and went home to remarry after sharing some grain and rice;

One is the youngest son, because the family is poor, the marriage is also late, just married him two years ago to his daughter-in-law, there is a man in the family, although it is harder, in the end there is still a field, as long as the early rice is planted, relying on the pension silver of the three sons, it can barely support until the autumn, and then find a way.

Who would have thought that he had escaped the thieves, but when he entered the city to catch the market, he was forcibly left behind by the officials at the city gate, saying that he had a fever, as if he had an epidemic, and he was not allowed to return to the village, but only asked his companions to come back to deliver the letter, and sent the people to the epidemic camp.

What is the situation like in the epidemic camp? Isn't it clear that she has lived for fifty or sixty years?

But they were afraid that the people who had the plague would walk outside, so they had to stuff people into a place to die.

I heard people who knew the inside story say that there was no one to take care of it, second, there was a lack of food and food, and third, the medicine was also scattered indiscriminately.

Some people may not have the disease, but they can be cured by sweating in the house, and they are forced to go in, but they are infected with the disease, and they have nowhere to cry. When a person dies, he will be burned in his entirety, and there will be no corpse left.

My son doesn't know what the situation is, and now that he is inside, where can he come back.

When the little daughter-in-law heard the news, she was so shocked that she was born prematurely within two days, and the little grandson was born with insufficient fetal breath.

At this time, it is difficult to find a doctor, and it is even more difficult to find a pediatric doctor, and the medicinal materials are also frighteningly expensive, but in a month or two, the family is emptied.

She is an old man, and she can't do dynamic work, so she can only take care of her grandchildren at home, do some housework, and grow some vegetables in front of the house and behind the house.

The daughter-in-law has to go out to work after the confinement, and the fields at home have been sold in order to treat the grandchildren, and the land is not planted, so the daughter-in-law has to go to other homes to work for a short time, and do it for a day.

There is a child in her family who still has to feed, and can not go far, whether it is in the village or in the next village, they have been swept several times, although the state came to remind the officers and soldiers, everyone's lives are saved, last year's grain storage, fine and soft but all were taken away, few families now have overnight food, it is difficult to feed themselves, hired short-term workers, where will there be any price, mixed food is not bad - the money to get has to go to the doctor.

Now that it has already passed Qingming, a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law are sitting around the fire, so weak that they don't even feel hot, but quietly watch the little child holding his breath and breastfeeding.

There was silence in the room for a moment, and there was some indescribable gloom.

There is only one strong man in the family, and his life and death are uncertain at the moment, but the days have to be passed, one old and one young, if they go on like this, they don't know where the way out will be in the future.

Li Xiuniang looked down at her son's yellow face who didn't have much meat, she was uncomfortable and hungry, and she didn't care about the rest of the things, so she just skimmed her right leg, took a wooden spoon from the bowl on the ground and scooped a mouthful of vegetable soup out and hurriedly ate it.

After only two sips, she suddenly heard a knock on the door outside, and then a woman shouted through the door, "Aunt Tian is not at home?" ”

At this time, the night was dark, someone knocked on the door in the middle of the night, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were a little nervous.

The old woman known as Aunt Tian glanced at her daughter-in-law before she raised her head and asked, "Who is outside?" ”

The woman replied, "I'm from the Lizheng family." ”

Li Xiuniang recognized the voice, and it was really familiar, so she breathed a sigh of relief, because she didn't know who else was outside, so she picked up the child and took the porridge bowl into the room with one hand.

Aunt Tian waited for her daughter-in-law to enter the inner room, and then went to open the door.

Through a wooden door, Li Xiuniang faintly heard many people talking outside, and after a while, her mother-in-law shouted: "Xiuniang, take my grandson out!" ”