After finishing the work in hand, he took his two children to find Cheng Jiahua in various gambling houses in the evening as usual. She and Fanghe, two thin women, with three children waiting to be fed, crawled through those places where the miasma was full of smoke and dragons and snakes, sometimes they could find it, sometimes they couldn't find it. Occasionally, Cheng Jiaji didn't go to the gambling house, so Fang He didn't look for him, and Hedi went to find it by himself with his children. Although she was a little more tired and haggard than before, she was still a beautiful young woman, and when she went in and out of those occasions, she would occasionally encounter the teasing and laughing of some people with unclean hands and feet and unclean mouths. At first, Hetu was ashamed of this, with fear and vigilance, but after a long time, she got used to it, and when others said something unclean, she scolded back, and sometimes scolded more than that person, so that he couldn't raise his head, and hid in the crowd in shame. Because of her bold and irritable and humiliating temperament, those people nicknamed her "Cheng Vixen". Every time she came with her children, those people laughed and shouted, "Cheng Vixen is here!" Cheng Vixen is here! Cheng Jiahua run! Then they all got up in a hurry, and they all looked up and down at Hetu's body with curious and flirtatious eyes. Hedi heard this nickname countless times, although she didn't think so, but she felt sad and angry in her heart, how could she want to be a shrew? It's just that there is nowhere to escape when forced by real life, so I can only use the image of a shress to protect myself.

The days went on like this, and it was difficult for two or three months, and finally, Cheng Jiahua was willing to return home at night, he was very embarrassed, and came home with the smell of tobacco and alcohol all over his body, and he didn't even take off his clothes and wash his face, so he just lay down on the bed and fell asleep. He Tu stood aside and looked at him coldly, she had lost the urge to scold him, and now she felt that it didn't matter what he did. She turned around and walked in the direction of the kitchen, and began to scoop rice from the rice bowl and prepare for dinner, it seemed that this was a normal day, Cheng Jiahua never went out to gamble, and she never had the cheekiness to go to other people's houses to borrow money to live. He hadn't taken money from his family for months, and he turned a blind eye to her complaints, whether she and her children were starving or cold, and whether they couldn't afford to eat. He Tu was desperate, borrowed money from Fanghe, borrowed money from her sister, and borrowed money from the middle-aged woman on the other side, she almost trampled her self-esteem to the ground, for that bite of food, she would rather wrap herself in dust and appear in front of those people in embarrassment, crying and begging, so that Cheng Yan and Cheng Lin could barely eat their stomachs. She was already in debt, and she knew that he was also in debt, and that this seemingly large yard was nothing more than an empty cardboard box, and it was hard to believe that someone would set a fire to it one day and burn it clean.

After cooking, she watched the two children finish their meals and then go to sleep in the kitchen. She didn't want to lie down next to him, it felt as if she was humiliated, she was sick and sick. Sleepless all night, she stared blankly at the dilapidated ceiling, tears falling like beads of broken thread, but she didn't realize it. She is still deceiving herself that she is very strong, she can resist everything in the past, shedding tears is the behavior of the weak, and she will not be weak enough to shed tears. When the sky was slightly bright, she felt that her eyes were swollen and could hardly be opened, she barely stood up, listened to the movement outside, the surroundings were quiet, there was no sound at all, it seemed that the person was still asleep and did not wake up.

He made breakfast for only two people, and after eating, he hurried to the garden to clean up the weeds. The weather was getting colder and colder, and the ground was frozen hard, and although she was wearing gloves, she could still feel the cold temperature of the blades of grass. Barely cut a piece, she couldn't do it anymore, she only felt that her heart was very messy, her body was also very tired, and her headache seemed to be about to explode, so she sat down for a while, got up and went back to the house.

Cheng Jiahua didn't know when he had woken up, he sat at the dining table with a frown, looking at the air in front of him, not knowing what he was thinking. When he entered the house, he didn't even look at him, but took off his gloves and poured water into the basin to wash his face. When Cheng Jiahua saw her, he said, "Prepare some hot water for me, and I'll take a bath." ”

He didn't say a word, as if he hadn't heard it.

Cheng Jiahua waited for a few seconds, and said impatiently again: "Prepare some hot water for me, and I'll take a shower." ”

"Burn it yourself." He Tu said coldly, dried his face with a towel, and walked outside with the basin.

Cheng Jiahua's heart swelled with anger, he had lost a lot of money in the casino in the past few days, and he wanted to borrow some more from his friends to gamble and see if he could get his money back, but those friends were all borrowed by him, and the borrowed money had not been repaid, so how could they be willing to borrow him again. Therefore, he was penniless and could not continue to stay at the mahjong table, so he had to drag his body back home after two days and one night. He remembered that he had given Hetu some money before, presumably she still had it, and he would spend some time trying to come out, and then bet on him for a handful or two, and he would not believe that he would not be able to win it back.

However, he was full of preparations, and even the words he said had been considered, but he didn't expect that Hetu's face was cold, and he didn't even pay attention to him. He was already angry, and he didn't rest well, so he was a little irritable, so he suddenly stood up, raised his hand and knocked over the basin of water in Hetu's hand.

He was caught off guard, and his head and body were covered with water. She was stunned for two seconds, and then immediately reacted, the fire of anger ignited above her head, and she screamed and scolded: "Are you sick!" You are crazy! ”

"Why don't you pretend to hear me when I'm talking to you! I'll let you boil water! Boiling water! Did you hear me? Cheng Jiahua roared angrily, and his eyes seemed to be able to breathe fire.

"You're so capable, you can burn it yourself! You're happy to gamble, and you'll let me serve you when you come back! What kind of thing are you! After scolding this sentence, her brain was hot, and more sharp curses poured up her throat, pouring out of her mouth fluently and harshly.

Cheng Jiahua was stupid, and he was angry with her for a while, he grabbed Hetu's hair and pulled it hard, trying to shut her up. But how could He Tu shut up, she still kept scolding, pulling Cheng Jiahua's hand, wanting him to let go of his hair. Cheng Jiahua didn't expect Hetu to exert such a lot of strength, so he was dizzy for a while, and raised his foot and kicked Hetu's calf.

He screamed and fell to the ground, throwing himself into the water that had just been knocked over.

"Mom! Mother! Cheng Yan ran out crying and fell on Hetu's body.

Cheng Jiahua glared at her angrily, and wanted to kick her second time, but a shout suddenly came from outside the door. The voice was very familiar, but it couldn't be distinguished for a while, Cheng Jiahua was stunned.

He glanced out the door and saw Zheng Xi standing outside, frowning and curiously poking his head into the room.

Cheng Jiahua's reaction suddenly became agile, he hurriedly jumped out of the door, covered the door, hid Hetu, who fell to the ground, and Cheng Yan, who kept crying, behind the door, barely squeezed out a smile, and pretended to be surprised and said, "It turned out to be you?" Why are you here? ”

Zheng Xi looked into the house worriedly, and unconsciously walked towards the door, but was stopped by Cheng Jiahua. Only then did he react to Cheng Jiahua's question, and hurriedly smiled: "Oh, my family's warehouse is built here, I'll come to supervise the work." ”

"How did you move here?" Cheng Jiahua looked at Zheng Xi in surprise, and his heart suddenly moved. In fact, he is not very familiar with Zheng Xi, when he was better with Chen Ye before, he met Zheng Xi a few times, but his personality is not very good, so the relationship is not deep. Cheng Jiahua remembered that Chen Ye told him that Zheng Xi's family conditions were very superior, he opened a factory, and he had a lot of acres of land, so he was considered a rich family, but he hadn't seen him for too long, and he actually forgot that he had such a rich friend by his side, maybe he could ......

As soon as this idea came to mind, Cheng Jiahua's face was full of excitement, and his originally gloomy and dull eyes lit up, as if he had seen some strange stone treasures. He hurriedly grabbed Zheng Xi's arm, made an enthusiastic look, and invited Zheng Xi to sit in the house, while saying: "Why didn't you tell me earlier, I only know now, if I had known earlier, I would have invited you to come to the house for dinner." As he spoke, he turned his head and shouted into the kitchen, "Zhou Hedi! Zhou Hedi! Go prepare tea and entertain guests! ”

There was no sound in the kitchen, only the faint sound of Cheng Yan's crying.

Zheng Xi smiled awkwardly, he was bored, he wanted to walk around, and he didn't know how to walk at the door of Hetu's house, but as soon as he walked in, he heard the noise and crying from the house, he knew that they were quarreling, and wanted to go up to persuade him, but he was afraid that it would be too abrupt, so he had to call Cheng Jiahua's name first. In fact, Cheng Jiahua's cover-up was useless, he saw him kick He Tu to the ground, and also saw him pull her hair, at that moment, Zheng Xi's heart was angry, he wanted to rush up and pull Cheng Jiahua away, but reason suppressed his impulse, so that he could barely make a polite expression.

"I've been here a few times since I knew you lived here, but you weren't home." Zheng Xi said, quietly getting rid of Cheng Jiahua's hand.

"Oh?" Cheng Jiahua looked at him in surprise, "How do you know that my home is here?" ”

Zheng Xi told Chen Ye about the situation when he came to ask for accounts that day, and in the objective facts, he added a lot of subjective expressions to it, described He Tu as very pitiful, and faintly criticized Cheng Jiahua. It's a pity that Cheng Jiahua's braincase was numb and sluggish at this time, and he didn't hear the implied meaning of his words at all, but just asked blankly: "You paid back some of the money for me?" Why didn't Hetu tell me about this? ”

Zheng Xi thought to himself, I'm not paying you back, I'm just relieving Hedi. But he just smiled and didn't say anything.

"This woman, don't talk about such an important matter, I would have thanked you earlier." Cheng Jiahua said politely again, with a flattering smile on his face, grabbed Zheng Xi's arm again, and almost dragged him into the living room.

"You sit, you sit." He grinned and said, "I'll bring you tea." He turned and ran to the kitchen.

Zheng Xi had the opportunity to take a good look at the scene in the house.

The living room was huge, but it was so big that it looked empty against the backdrop of the simple furniture. The mirror that hung on the wardrobe had cracked several cracks, and had been taped up, and it was very bright and spotless. Although the floor is not tiled, it is very clean. Even the tables and chairs in front of him and the curtains hanging on the small window were clean and neat, and you could see the industriousness and cleanliness of the hostess. Unconsciously, the thin figure of Hetu appeared in his mind, her delicate face with vigilance and anxiety appeared, and he suddenly recalled the scene when she was struggling in Cheng Jiahua's hands in embarrassment, and his heart couldn't help but tingle. I don't know when, he began to pay attention to her, and I don't know when, he can empathize with the pain she has endured, and the moment he sees her fall to the ground, he can almost deeply feel the despair and anger in her heart, it is under the catalysis of this emotion that he can't help but step forward to crusade against Cheng Jiahua. But in the end, he held back, he was confused by the emotions that had come to his heart for no apparent reason, and he didn't know why he was like this. Now when he sits down and thinks about it, his mind is even more chaotic, and he can't figure it out at all. Fortunately, at this time, a faint voice came from the kitchen, which temporarily diverted his attention. He pricked up his ears and listened carefully, wondering what they were talking about. However, the kitchen door was closed tightly, and he didn't hear anything.

After a while, the door was opened, and Hetu limped out. She had already cleaned up, combed her hair, changed her clothes, and with a hint of a nonchalant smile on her pale face, she put the teacup in her hand in front of Zheng Xi, and turned around to leave. Zheng Xi looked at her motionlessly, trying to see what she was thinking, but she didn't give him this chance, and almost escaped and hid in the kitchen.

Cheng Jiahua walked out after her, with a smile on his face, as if he were two people from the angry person before. He sat down next to Zheng Xi and chatted for a while, until he finished saying all those kind greetings, and there was nothing to talk about, Cheng Jiahua talked about the topic he wanted to talk about, "The money you paid back to Chen Ye for me......"

Zheng Xi frowned, and hurriedly said: "I saw that they were too embarrassed for my brother and sister, so I took it out to help her out of the siege, and I lent it to Chen Ye." You don't think too much about it. ”

Cheng Jiahua's face turned red, and he hurriedly hid his laughter, and said, "Where, where, I didn't think too much, I want to thank you." ”

"To tell you the truth, it's not good for you to always owe it like this, it's better to pay it back early, and no one will chase you all the way to your house and be embarrassed by a woman and a child. Besides, Chen Ye's family is really short of money, if he didn't feel that there was no way, he wouldn't have asked for the account to this point. ”

Cheng Jiahua nodded in response, his expression had already cooled. He originally wanted to borrow money from Zheng Xi, but he didn't expect to be told by Zheng Xi instead. He was unconvinced, and secretly scolded: "What are you, you are not my father and not my mother, you can manage it." Besides, I have money on me, I have already paid it back, and I still need to listen to your nagging? If you're really good for me, then give me all your money, and I'll promise to make them all have a good life. ”

Zheng Xi was too worried about them, and he didn't notice Cheng Jiahua's psychological activities at all, and still told and nagged earnestly, as if he wanted to say all the words in his stomach, "I saw my younger brother and sister clean up the grass in your yard a few days ago, the grass grows so tall, you have to go home to help clean up, don't always be homeless......"

"I didn't expect you to know so much about my family?" Cheng Jiahua suddenly threw out a sentence lukewarmly, and looked at his reaction coldly.

Zheng Xi was stunned, he felt that he had said too much, and unconsciously said some words in his heart to the person in front of him. He hurriedly smiled and said, "I just saw it when I was walking by, so I'll tell you a little bit." ”

"I know how to deal with my family's affairs, so I won't bother you to nag about it." Cheng Jiahua stood up, his hands behind his back, and his tone already had the taste of chasing customers.

Zheng Xi regretted that his mouth was too fast, slowly stood up, and said with a smile: "Okay, then I won't talk about it, the construction site is still busy, I'll leave first." With that, he turned and hurried outside, disappearing into the distance.

Cheng Jiahua looked at his back angrily, shook his hand vigorously, and walked towards the kitchen.

He Tu was squatting to clean up the water on the ground, she heard their conversation just now, originally she didn't have a good impression of Zheng Xi, she always felt that this person was too exaggerated, and deliberately took out the money to return it to Chen Ye when those people were embarrassing her, isn't this just insulting her? And such an unfamiliar person took all her embarrassed looks into her eyes, so that as soon as she saw him, she remembered the events of that day, and she felt very uncomfortable in her heart. So basically, if she went out and saw him passing by, she would immediately turn around and go into the house, not wanting to see him. But now that she heard him say this, her good impression of him in her heart slowly built up again, and he seemed to be sincerely good for her, and those words did not seem to be false. It's just why did he say that to Cheng Jiahua? What was he thinking about it? She couldn't figure it out.

Cheng Jiahua stood behind her, looked at her fixedly, and suddenly sneered: "You have something to do with that kid Zheng Xi." ”

He Tu was stunned for a moment, turned her head to look at him, and after a while, she squinted her eyes and sneered: "Your brain is broken, right?" ”

Cheng Jiahua didn't speak, he looked at Hedi's busy figure, sat down on the stool thoughtfully, and after a long time, he spoke again: "How can he know so many things about our family, and he still says so many good things for you......"

He put the bowl in his hand on the stove with a bang, and scolded coldly: "I have so many things to do in the yard every day, I have to take care of the two children after I am busy, and I have to go to the casino to find you, do you think I have time to think about other things?" She couldn't stand the fact that others had wronged her, and her voice became louder unconsciously as she spoke, "Look at the grass in the garden, if I hadn't done these jobs, I would have thought what you would eat this year!" ”

"No, no, why are you so angry...... Cheng Jiahua stood up in a daze, muttered a few words, and walked outside. Afraid that he would go to the casino again, he hurriedly asked, "Where are you going!" Don't go out! ”

"I'm going to look for my brother and see if there's any work to do." Cheng Jiahua said, his pace did not slow down because of Hetu's reprimand. When she heard his words, she was full of suspicion and refused to believe it, she ran out of the door and shouted at his figure, "You are not allowed to gamble anymore!" If you go again, don't even think about entering this door at night! ”

Cheng Jiahua disappeared into the distance without looking back, as if he hadn't heard her words.