Xia Rui's father had just brewed the tea and brought it over, and I asked casually, stunned in place, and also noticed the pile of incense ash and candles, and his eyes were erratic: "No, Mr. Chen, I don't believe in religion, hehe, but isn't this about to be the Midyear Festival, send some money to the ancestors in the family in advance, so that they can celebrate the festival." ”

As soon as the words fell, Xia Rui's father had already handed me the teacup, and the topic was shifted, so I had to thank him while taking it with both hands, and took a sip, I couldn't taste the taste of tea, I only felt a little bitter.

Life is like tea, Xia Rui's family is like this cup of bitter tea, when the tea soup is first entered, it is difficult to swallow, but in front of others, it can only be drunk in the stomach, and the reality is cruel.

"Teacher Chen, you see that I am patronizing myself, I almost forgot about you, have you eaten? If you don't eat it, I'll give you a bowl of noodles, speaking of which, my family Rui Rui likes my boiled egg noodles since I was a child. Xia Rui's father, who had been smoking noodles, seemed to suddenly realize something, and looked up at me.

I shook my head and said no, I had already eaten out when I came, but for a while, I didn't know how to express what I wanted to ask.

"Uncle, is there only one girl in our family? Don't have a sibling? I took another sip of tea, and after getting used to the bitter taste, I could taste a faint sweetness, and I only hoped that Xia Rui's family could also be bitter.

Xia Rui's father was eating noodles and snorted, saying that his family was poor before, and he couldn't afford to have a child, and giving birth to another child would also make the child suffer.

I have a deep understanding of this, after all, I am only a few years older than Xia Rui, and I was born in the same year.

At that time, not long after the concept of reform and opening up was first proposed, the whole country, except for a few families, whether in the countryside or in the cities, the residents were poor and the proletariat was glorious.

Moreover, family planning was still popular at that time, as long as anyone gave birth to a child in the first place, someone was guaranteed to mobilize for sterilization the next day, and those couples who were bent on giving birth to a son had not been fined by the Family Planning Commission.

It seems that seeing that I didn't interrupt, Xia Rui's father's conversation box couldn't be closed, and he took the initiative to talk to me a lot about Xia Rui's childhood.

Speaking of which, Xia Rui is really ill-fated, if it weren't for her parents, it is estimated that she would not have survived the full moon.

In the past, because of family planning, many families who gave birth to sons would mostly choose to throw away if the first child was a daughter, and there were many people who drowned secretly.

I remember my mother telling me that there was one thing that always made her feel guilty, when she once sent me to kindergarten, and I saw an abandoned baby girl in the middle of the road, and the baby girl was still covered in blood, and it was estimated that she had not been born for a long time.

At that time, it was early spring, and although the weather was not very cold, the baby girl did not have a single cloth on her body, and there was a thin snakeskin bag on the ground, which made people feel distressed and pitiful when they looked at it.

The key is that the baby girl also seems to have a strong sense of survival, feeling my mother's approach, she cried without warning, and the crying was heartbreaking.

Women, and mothers, suddenly overflowed with maternal love, but the reality is there, at that time, in that environment, my family's life was not easy, and it was hard enough to raise a child for me, so how could I have enough spare energy to meddle in things.

Considering these reasons, my mother didn't dare to stay even if she was overflowing with love, for fear that she would change her mind.

But before she could send me to kindergarten, my mother took me back with her, and she was moved by compassion to pick up the baby girl.

But when I went back, the baby girl was no longer sound, but she was still alive, very weak, and she was sent to the hospital later, but she was not rescued.

For this reason, my mother made fun of this, saying that if she had made up her mind earlier, she would have been able to have more intimate little padded jackets, and I would have one more sister, and she would not have to be angry with me, a white-eyed wolf.

To get back to the point, Xia Rui was almost thrown away by her family at the beginning, and it was not her parents who wanted to throw her, but her grandparents.

It is normal for the older generation to have traditional ideologies and preference for sons. However, Xia Rui's grandparents are a little too conservative, thinking that girls are money losers, and those who bring the handle are the treasures that will be passed on to the next generation.

Moreover, the two old men don't know where they heard the rumor that as long as the firstborn baby girl is drowned in the urinal, they are guaranteed to give birth to a big fat grandson.

But fortunately, Xia Rui's father has studied and has knowledge, whether it is a daughter or a son, he is his own flesh and blood, and he was raised like a decision, so he almost didn't break off the relationship with the two ancestors.

Xia Rui's father is the only son in the family, which is why Xia Rui's grandfather has to have a grandson, for no other reason, he can't let his old Xia family cut off the incense.

But subject to the economic situation at the time, Xia Rui's father did not plan to give birth to a second child, raising Xia Rui peacefully, and then watching her marry happily was his biggest and simplest wish.

In short, Xia Rui is growing up day by day under the care of her parents, but she is different from ordinary girls, she is very weak when she is small, she has to go to the clinic every three or five days, and injections and medicines are commonplace.

However, Xia Rui knows the situation of her family, and she also knows that her grandparents don't treat her for some reason, so when she was in school, she studied very hard, and almost occupied the first place in the school for many years.

Speaking of Xia Rui, I found that Xia Rui's father had the word pride written on his whole face, and he laughed heartily from time to time, a typical joy in suffering.

Xia Rui's father and I were chatting like this, but there was a knock outside the door, and Xia Rui's father said wait a minute, and got up to open the door.

After about three or four minutes, Xia Rui's father returned to the room with a large cardboard box, as if he was explaining to me, and said with a smile: "Signing for the express delivery, delayed a little time." ”

Because of the occupational disease left over from the past, I glanced at the cardboard box to guess what it contained.

But maybe seeing my thoughts, Xia Rui's father didn't mean to hide it, put the cardboard box on the dining table in front of me, and directly used the key to violently unpack it.

The box had just been opened, and bursts of white gas came out of it, and at a glance, it was nothing else, it was all dry ice packed in bags, bag by bag, just like the ice packs I ate when I was a child.

"It's hot now, and the child's mother is lying in bed, and I'm worried that she's hot." As he spoke, Xia Rui's father skillfully picked up a few pieces of dry ice and walked into the bedroom.

It was then that I recalled that Xia Rui's mother was paralyzed, and I originally thought she was being treated in the hospital, but I didn't expect it to be dragged at home.

Driven by some inexplicable emotion, although I knew that the bedroom was a private space, I couldn't help but peek inside, and the furniture inside was very simple, just a large bed and a wardrobe with a mirror.

And Xia Rui's father stood by the bed, the dry ice in his hand was gone, bent over, and was struggling to massage his wife who was sick in bed to prevent her from growing bedsores.

While massaging his wife's body, Xia Rui's father also asked in a soft voice whether his body hurt and whether he wanted to go to the toilet.

"It doesn't hurt, if it hurts, I'll be a little harder."

"Whatever you want to eat tonight, I'll buy it later."

"Do you feel better, do you want to wipe yourself?"

……

Seeing this, I think I have a rough idea of Xia Rui's father, a good father and a good husband.

I also remembered the wise remarks I often saw on the Internet, and when I saw a certain celebrity cheating and divorce, I shouted that my personality collapsed and I would never believe in love again.

Love is a hammer, where do you get so many bells and whistles, plain and plain is true, go home and see your parents, grandparents, that's called love.

Because I didn't want to eat dog food, I only looked at it a few times, then shifted my attention and got up and walked around the room.

The space is really narrow, only a few feet wide aisles, and in order to save space, the wall behind the sofa is hand-transformed into a pop-up bookshelf with compressed wood panels.

A column of old books almost filled several layers of bookshelves, I took a closer glance, all kinds of ancient and modern masterpieces were flooded period, there were also some teaching materials, but in general, there are still more classical martial arts novels, and Mr. Jin Yong's series of books is not bad.

However, there is still a book called "Walking Horse Yin and Yang" that caught my attention, looking at the cover packaging, it is ordinary kraft paper, and there is no decoration on it, and even the title of the book is handwritten in regular script.

I looked back at the bedroom, and was about to ask Xia Rui's father if he could let me see his collection, but I found that he was still giving his wife a focused massage, so I gave up.

Just to take a look, because there should be no problem, with this thought, I pulled "Walking Horse Yin and Yang" out of the shelf.

I only flipped through a few pages, but my expression gradually became nervous, the words in it were all handwritten, the font was traditional Xingcao, densely packed with obscure sentences and ghost drawings of dragons and phoenixes.

As an insider, although I don't know all the things inside, it's not difficult to judge the truth or falsehood, I don't think the fake book will be so realistic, and even the operation principle of the formation has been explained, and it doesn't look like nonsense.

Hurriedly went through the whole book, and found that the whole book was divided into two parts, the first one introduces the talismans, and the next one explains the formation.

Moreover, on the pages of the book, there are notes made by ballpoint pen annotations, and as for the formations recorded on those pages, they happen to be the Ten Yang Formations that gather qi.

"Teacher Chen?" Maybe I was too involved, and when Xia Rui's father walked behind me, I didn't even notice it.

I was taken aback, so I naturally closed the book in my hand, turned around and smiled: "I'm sorry, I'm idle, so I just flipped through it." ”

Xia Rui's father glanced at the "Walking Horse Yin and Yang" in my hand, the expression on his face changed slightly, and he seemed to be a little nervous, and asked, "Teacher Chen, are you also interested in these feudal superstitious books?" ”

I shook my head in the negative, saying, "Just a casual look at it and I just think it's a strange title." With that, he put the book back on the shelf.

Seeing my action of putting the book out, Xia Rui's father breathed a sigh of relief, and catered to me: "The title of the book is indeed quite strange, and I also took a fancy to the title of the book at the beginning, so I was curious about the content and bought it back. ”

I feel that my back is full of cold sweat, this "Walking Horse Yin and Yang" was actually bought, I thought it was the ancestral heirloom of Xia Rui's father's family at first, and I have never met a stall that sells this kind of book.

The moment I heard Xia Rui's father's answer, I suddenly remembered Brother Yang, his old book was also bought, but I don't know the name, and it is estimated that the content in it is similar.

"Uncle Xia, did you buy this book? That bookstore still sells this kind of book, don't you cheat people and cheat money. "I deliberately kept the words, after all, I still have Brother Yang's death in mind, and I can't miss the clues in this regard.

Xia Rui's father glanced at the books on the shelves, supported his head with his hands, and replied: "I bought it from the used bookstall for only a few yuan a piece, and I can't lose much by cheating money." ”

I nodded, I almost already had some score in my heart, the owner of the book seller, I don't know what his idea was, to sell these 'forbidden books' at a low price, the motive is very concerning.