"Now that I have destroyed Galdan in the west, I have been on the southern tour of the Empress Dowager and inspected the river along the way...... Due to the ineffective management of the river, he was dismissed from the post of governor of the river and the governor of the two rivers...... Let the states and counties recommend the talents of river governance...... The second day of the third month of the 38th year of Kangxi. Qi Su Niang paused, listened to the reading of the yellow list posted in front of the city gate, and walked out of the city gate.

As the flood waters receded, displaced people in Jiangning City began to return to their hometowns one after another. On the mass graves outside the city, the spring rain washed away the piles of graves, and there were more and more wild dogs in packs. With green eyes, they dug out the bodies of the homeless people wrapped in straw mats from the ground and chewed and ate them. The mass graves were full of broken legs and stumps, and the bones were everywhere, and after a while, they were swept into the muddy water flowing everywhere, and they were never seen again.

Qi Suniang looked at the wild dogs' predatory grounds from afar, stood for a long time, turned around and returned to the temple, looked for Wang Dawhip and asked, "Uncle Wang, how much silver does a coffin cost?" ”

Wang Dawhip was stunned for a moment, glanced at the corpse of Aunt Qi in the corner, shook his head and said, "It's a thin coffin, and it costs two taels of silver." How can you have this money, everyone who is not a straw mat will be finished, let her be buried early. After that, he said: "Su Niang, I'm going back to my hometown, if you can't find the actor, go back to Gaoyou to find me, I can always find a way to live for you." ”

Qi Su Niang didn't make a sound, sat back next to Aunt Qi, Qi Su Niang took out the small box in her arms, the ancestral tablet of the Chen and Qi families had been buried under the mountain stone with her father-in-law Qi Hu, except for Xiao Cui's shabby cotton clothes on her body, she only had this one thing left.

A jade seal inside the box, engraved with the word "Chen" at one end and the word "Huang" at the other, Qi Su Niang vaguely remembered that this was the name of Chen Niangzi's husband on the tablet; An empty old money bag of blue shuttle cloth, embroidered with beautiful lotus branches, was made by Mrs. Chen herself; There is also a string of bronze keys. Qi Su Niang muttered to herself: "I can work, my body is better, and I have learned this rule almost well, even if I am a slave, it is not easy to lose my life." After that, he put the things away, removed the splint on the injured left wrist, replaced the half-worn clean coarse dress with three beds of rotten wool, found a secluded place to fetch water and cleaned it, wrapped the changed shabby cotton clothes in rags, pillowed under the head of Mrs. Qi, took a straw and inserted it on her head, and went out of the temple gate.

Qi Suniang didn't need to go to Jiangning City, she went out of the Guandi Temple, followed the Qinhuai River, and arrived at the place where the victims gathered in the west of the city. There are people selling their bodies all over the street, either selling their children or selling their own families, and they can't stop it just because Emperor Kangxi came up. In addition to the locals and wealthy families picking and buying people, there are also many well-dressed people with northern accents, walking back and forth among the victims to inquire about them. Qi Su Niang looked left and right, found a vacant place to stand, and casually scanned the flow of people on the street.

She was originally a person by the Yongding River in the north, although she was ten years old, she was taller and stronger than the women in the south of the Yangtze River, and she stood for a long time, which was very eye-catching. Two housekeeper-like people came up to see her, but they disliked her for being stout and not on the stage, so they also left. Qi Su Niang pursed her lips, and secretly said that there are many people who don't know the goods, where can she find a senior girl who can go to the kitchen like this and enter the study? Standing next to Miss can better set off Miss's delicate beauty, if you are in a hurry to play with your life, you can also top most of the men, one thing for four purposes, only this one, no other semicolon.

It was getting late, and the cold wind was blowing on the river, and the people on the street were afraid. Suddenly, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old, scholar-like man stopped in front of her, only to see him straight, clear eyes, wearing a * coarse kudzu cloth robe, waist cloth belt, although the weather is cold, but there is no sign of malaise, just full of worry, looking Su Niang up and down.

Qi Su Niang glanced at him with slanted eyes, and without waiting for him to speak, she said, "I only serve the young lady, not the uncle, please be good." "Ignore him. The scholar was stunned for a moment, suddenly blushed, and hurriedly walked away.

After a while, Qi Su Niang saw that it was late, so she had to go back to the temple and come back the next day. Unexpectedly, the three people who came to ask the price on the second day were all half-old men, most of whom were northern virgins who had never seen such a look, and they wanted to buy them back to be girls and little wives, but they were all rejected by Qi Su Niang solemnly.

She had sharp eyes, and she had already found that the scholar thief yesterday was not dead, and she saw a woman selling herself on a street early in the morning, and then circled around Qi Su Niang, but she didn't have the courage to come up and meet her again. She didn't bother to pay attention to it, but she was a little anxious in her heart. Aunt Qi's body can't be put away for a long time, she is not taken by the mother-in-law to see, and she attracts lewd men, she is very unhappy in her heart, and secretly wonders if she should lower her standards, that scholar looks much more pleasing to the eye than the previous three lewd men, and she doesn't dress like a rich man, there must be no entourage, although the possibility of Liu Xia Hui is low, the probability of being beaten half to death by her cheap tricks is still high.

She made up her mind, Fang turned her head and beckoned to the scholar, and suddenly heard someone around her ask, "Girl, are you from the north?" How did it end up here? ”

Qi Su Niang turned her head to see that this person was only eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing a moon-white satin robe and a mud-gold fleece coat, obviously the son of Guijie. Qi Su Niang only felt a little familiar, but she didn't remember where she had seen such a noble and handsome man, seeing that he asked politely, she was about to answer, and suddenly saw an entourage standing behind him, it was Li Quan'er!

Qi Su Niang gasped, angry and scared in her heart, she still had a deed of sale in Jiao Qi's hand, and knew that Li Quan'er was a fine person, so she didn't dare to answer with this "eighth master" who should be a great nobleman, so she made a decision in a hurry, and yelled at the scholar with a hesitant face: "Girl, I sold it to you, and you kid won't give it to me!" ”

The eighth master and Li Quan'er were dumbfounded, and they didn't react for a while, but the scholar ran over with a red face, gave a salute, hung his head and said: "Girl, I don't have any other intentions, I just want to inquire, but the girl's surname is Qi?" Named Su Niang? ”

Qi Su Niang was stunned for a moment, and said suspiciously: "I am Qi Su Niang, who are you-" In the blink of an eye, she had an idea, and exclaimed in surprise: "Are you Brother Chen Yanchen?" ”

Chen Yan was overjoyed, his expression was extremely happy, and he asked urgently: "Exactly, Su Niang, where is my mother?" Where's your mom and dad? Why are you? ”

Qi Su Niang's heart was gloomy, and she said softly: "I can't explain this matter for a while, I live in the temple now, let's talk about it in the past." After that, he pulled the grass mark and led the way to the Guandi Temple in the north of the city.

Chen Yan heard her speak like this, his face turned a little pale, nodded silently, and followed her. Qi Su Niangfang walked a few steps, and suddenly remembered Fang Cai's "Eighth Master" and Li Quan'er, and when she looked back, she had long since disappeared.

Chen Yan knelt in front of Aunt Qi's corpse with a wooden face, his body trembling slightly. Qi Su Niang cried and told Chen Niangzi and the Qi family about his wife, and then took out the rosewood locket from his arms and handed it over. Chen Yan saw the things that Mrs. Chen was carrying, hugged them in her arms, and two lines of tears finally flowed down, crying bitterly, and shouted: "Mother! ”

Qi Su Niang couldn't hold back her tears more and more, in the past six months, the people around her have left one after another, although she is strong, but in the end she is only eleven. She wandered with the sick woman, and she couldn't stand it for a long time, just for Aunt Qi to hold on, and now when she saw Chen Yan, a person with the same fate, she finally cried in the dark, and her mind was slack, and she fainted.

When Qi Su Niang woke up, she found that she was lying on the black lacquered three-column wooden shelf bed, and the mattress under her body and the coarse blue flower cloth on her body were exposed to a camphor smell, which was obviously taken out. She looked at the white cloth wrapped around her left wrist, and raised her hand to her nose to sniff, full of the smell of ointment. Qi Su Niang was stunned, and when she heard the door rattling, Chen Yan walked in with a large porcelain bowl.

Chen Yan's eyes were slightly red and swollen, and he obviously cried a few times. He saw that Qi Su Niang had woken up, his face was happy, and he stepped forward and said, "Su Niang, the doctor said that you have been tired for days, and your hand injury has not healed, and you need to be raised for a few days." "Let's say, send the big porcelain bowl in your hand.

Qi Su Niang took it in her hand, but it was a bowl of thick vegetable porridge. Chen Yan watched her slowly drink the vegetable porridge, "You can sleep again." Qi Su Niang was tired and tired, and she was unable to ask more questions for a while, so she handed the bowl back and fell asleep again.

When Qi Su Niang opened her eyes again, she saw the sunlight shining through the window in a room, the room was full of black lacquer furniture, and the table, table, and rounded wardrobe were all complete, but they were full of dust. Qi Su Niang frowned suddenly. Mrs. Chen is born with a clean nature, she always cleans the house is spotless, and it is just a broken temple outside, but now she sees this, she is naturally not used to it. She was about to lift the quilt and get up, when she suddenly saw a bottle of ointment and three pieces of rice paper on the pillow box, she recognized at a glance that the paper was the Jiangxi Jiaji rice paper that was commonly used in Gaoyou Chen's room earlier, and reached out to take it in her hand, and saw that there were three colorful paintings painted on it.

Qi Su Niang looked at it intently, and in the first painting, the sun was hanging high, shining on a small courtyard with gray walls and tiles. In the two huts in the courtyard, there is a girl with eyebrows lying on the bed in the side room, as if she is sleeping. The courtyard door was ajar, and a young man in a Confucian robe pushed the door out, one foot in the courtyard, and the other foot into the granite alley outside the courtyard.

The second painting is a coffin shop and a Guandi temple, where the young man walks out of the coffin shop dressed in sackcloth and filial piety. He was followed by two people, carrying a coffin and walking towards the Guandi Temple. In the temple lay the body of a woman.

In the third painting, the sun is sinking in the west, the girl seems to have woken up, standing in the empty courtyard, tears in her eyes, the young man walks in the granite alley, the corners of his clothes are slightly swaying, and he seems to be in a hurry, and returns to the small courtyard.

The characters in the painting are all vivid, I think it is to avoid the girl's fear of being young and illiterate, so the young man in the painting left the painting to appease. Qi Su Niang stared at it for a long time, not knowing what it was like in her heart, she slowly put away the painting, got out of bed and walked out of the room.

It was a very small courtyard, except for two rooms, and there was only a green grassland within a radius of fifty paces, with a well in the west and a stove in the east. A short cobblestone path connects the main house to the courtyard gate.

Qi Su Niang pushed open the courtyard door, outside the door is really a granite deep alley, extending left and right, the alley mouth came from the sound of Jiangning Street shouting and shouting, mixed with the sound of surging water, I want to come to the alley mouth is not far from the Qinhuai River. As the door opened and closed, the broken red on the lintel rang violently, and the brass lock hanging from the knocker swayed and slowly dispersed with the noise of the street.

Qi Su Niang walked along the cobblestone path to the front of the main house and gently pushed it away, but was stunned. I saw that the house was in a mess, and dust was falling everywhere. Beds, tables, tables, and cabinets were connected to the ground, and they were filled with water-shaped clay molds, drawings, line books, pen and ink, paper, paints, clothes, and miscellaneous utensils. Although the side room where she lived was not eye-catching, compared to this one, it immediately looked very tidy.

Qi Su Niang couldn't help but be stunned, remembering what Chen Niangzi said about her son, she turned her head and went out of the room to look at the stove, and was shocked again. I saw that the stove room was very tidy, the buckets, firewood and utensils were placed neatly, there were rice in the jar, vegetables in the pot, and a bowl of vegetable porridge was warm in the pot.

Seeing that the stove room was like this, Qi Su Niang suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, pressed the bowl of porridge she drank yesterday back into her stomach, and then thought of the three paintings, she couldn't help but secretly wonder about this Chen Xiucai, Chen Niangzi is so shrewd and powerful, it is really not like a high-scoring imbecile who can teach a good job, looking at these three paintings and the stove, Chen Xiucai is also a person who has the heart to live, but I don't know why his room is like that.

Qi Su Niang finished eating the warm vegetable porridge on the stove, brushed the bowl and was idle for a while, neither had to worry about the next meal, nor did she have to take care of the sick, and there were no vegetable fields and streams for her to farm, so she could only be stunned. She slowly walked back to the main room, glanced at the mess in the room, looked at the coarse blue cloth lotus branch bed tent on Chen Yan's bed and stood quietly for a while, turned around and fetched a bucket of water, found a rag, and cleaned it.

When the sun turned west, Chen Yan was wearing a sackcloth and filial piety hat, with tears on his face, carrying a burden in his hand, and hurriedly walked in the deep alley. Before he got home, he saw smoke curling in the courtyard, and he stopped in front of the courtyard gate. The warmth of the food came through the crack in the door, hit his nose, and suddenly seeped into his whole body, and his knees, which were a little numb from kneeling, and his tired and cold body only felt a burst of warmth, and suddenly felt comfortable.

Chen Yan gently pushed open the courtyard door, and immediately saw wet clothes full of eyes. At some point, two ropes were pulled in the yard, and all the clothes he had accumulated in the house for months were washed and hung all over the yard. The evening breeze is together, the clothes are swaying, pulling the rope and shaking, up and down, just like a child's game, all come alive.

Chen Yan quietly walked to the stove, looked at Qi Su Niang's busy figure in front of the stove, stood for a while, and finally said in a soft voice: "Su Niang, I'm back." ”