After winter, Peache's belly is getting bigger and bigger, and it is difficult to move, so she has to stay at home to give birth. It is said that it is waiting for production, but in fact, it is not idle: the medicinal herbs dug up in autumn are dried in the sun, cleaned up, and then sorted and packaged, stored, and waiting to be sold. The prey that the father-in-law and Li brought back was to be slaughtered, skinned, washed, and pickled; The fur should be degreased, shaped, and nailed. The Spring Festival is approaching, and all kinds of New Year's food have to be prepared, dotted, and made, and it is even busier. Fortunately, Li's mother has a gentle temperament and takes good care of Tao, saying that she has been studying since she was a child and does not often do housework, and now she is pregnant again, even if she does less and does not do well in some places, she rarely finds fault with her and criticizes her.

In the spring of the Chinese New Year, Peach gave birth to a boy, white and chubby, weighing eight pounds. Li combined the names of his parents and named his son Li Tao. The firstborn had a son, and both families rejoiced. Peach's mother bought a cloak and coat for her grandson, sewed tiger head shoes, tiger head hats, and baby pants with her own hands, and went to the street to buy noodles, steamed dumplings, glutinous rice, and toffee, and caught two old hens to see her daughter and grandson. Lee's parents were even happier when they saw their grandson, and distributed red happy eggs to all their relatives and friends; On the day of the full moon, the grandson held a feast at home, set off firecrackers, and warmly entertained the congratulatory guests; From morning to night, people come and go, and it is very lively. It's much more lively than when Li and Tao got married.

Li and Tao also felt very bright, very happy, and felt that there was new hope. They regained their strength in the congratulations of relatives and friends, worked hard in the fields at home, patiently took care of their son day and night, hoping that life would be like a sesame seed blooming and their son would grow up day by day, and their childhood ideals could be realized in the prosperity and progress of their hometown and in the growth of their son.

However, the ideal is beautiful, the reality is cruel, and then the heavy family burden makes them feel overwhelmed: there is not much peach milk, the child has to be fed milk powder, one bag a week is not enough, and the child is sometimes so hungry that it is difficult to cry; She knew that she was hungry, and she was afraid that her in-laws would dislike her lack of milk and blame her, so it was difficult to say it clearly. In addition, she had to work with Li to help her mother, who was so tired that she often felt sleep deprived and fell asleep while breastfeeding her child. Li is not easy either, not only to take care of Tao and his son, but also to work in the fields with his parents, go to the mountains to hunt, collect medicine, and help Tao's mother work. What bothers him even more is that he often feels financially constrained and unable to continue to spend: children want to buy milk powder, peaches want to buy some skin care products, and they have to reach out to their parents to ask for money, and every time the parents always say: "Spending money is so powerful!" It's a lot more than you did before you got married. If you spend money like this, don't want to build a tiled house at home, you have to live in a thatched house for the rest of your life. "The responsibility for not being able to get rid of poverty and become rich is put on them. When he heard this, he was saddened, and tears flowed down his stomach. Don't worry about labor, if you are such an adult, you have to be criticized by your parents. After a day of drying, tired back pain, weak limbs, ruthless, and peach sleep together at night, I have to hug each other to complain about my grievances, sigh and cry, and then wipe each other's tears, kind words and comfort, I hope that tomorrow can have a good luck, more grain in the field, more wild beasts can be hunted in the mountains and forests, more medicinal herbs, more money, so that life can be improved, and a family of adults and children have more smiles on their faces.

One day, the mother said to Li: "There is not much peach milk, and milk powder is so expensive, it is not possible for the child to just feed milk powder." I heard that pheasant soup can receive milk. When you're fine, go into the mountains and fetch two pheasants to fetch the peaches. No matter how good the milk powder is, it is not as good as the mother's milk. Li understood in his heart that his mother thought that Li Tao spent too much money on milk powder. In addition, he also thought that if the milk of the peaches could be more, enough for the plum peaches to eat, it would save money and trouble, and the peaches would have a lot less trouble and complaints, so he agreed to go into the mountains to hunt pheasants.

After finishing the work in the fields, he immediately took his shotgun and went into the mountains to hunt pheasants. Before leaving, he asked his father, "You often hunt in the mountains, do you know which mountain forest can catch pheasants?" The father said, "There are very few pheasants now, and it is not easy to hunt them." He thought for a moment, pointed to the mountain to the east and said, "Someone has caught a pheasant in the mountain over there." You can check it out there, and you might be lucky. This thing is very fine, and at the slightest noise it will immediately fly away. You have to be patient and take care of concealment. Father Li also introduced some experience in hunting pheasants.

Li climbed up the East Mountain in the direction indicated by his father, hid behind a thorn bush, waited patiently for more than an hour, and sure enough, he saw a few pheasants falling down, and the beautiful tail feather trembled, and then foraged in the grass under the woods safely, and did not find him hidden behind the bushes at all. But he became nervous, thinking to himself, it would be a pity for such a beautiful elf to shoot the stew and eat it. However, thinking of his son's cry, Peach's sadness and helplessness, and his mother's eyes that hurt both her grandson and money, he couldn't care much, so he immediately calmed down, held his breath, aimed at a female pheasant, pulled the mechanism, only to hear a "bang" sound, the pheasant was shot, struggling painfully on the ground, and the rest of the pheasants flew away quickly with a "flutter". He was glad that he was lucky today, and his marksmanship was accurate, and he was hit with one shot. Without thinking too much, he hurriedly ran over, picked up the injured pheasant, looked at it, and shot him in the abdomen, which was already dead. He took his shotgun, carried the pheasant, and went home happy.

The mother was very happy to see that her son had come back from beating the pheasant, and said, "With this pheasant stew for the peach to drink, maybe she will soon have more milk, and my grandson will be fed fat, and he will only laugh and not cry anymore." The mother immediately boiled water, removed the hair, disemboweled, then chopped into pieces of meat, put it in a large clay pot, added enough water and condiments, and slowly stewed on the firewood fire, until the meat was rotten into shreds, and the soup was as white as milk. Peach drank a bowl every morning and evening for three days, and I really felt more milk. The whole family was delighted. Li said: "Since it is so effective, I will go to Dongshan tomorrow to hunt pheasants." But it doesn't cost a few bullets, and it doesn't cost anything. ”

The next day, after finishing the work in the fields, he didn't bother to eat lunch, and went up to Dongshan with a shotgun on his back, hoping to catch another pheasant, so that the peach could eat more milk, and his son could eat enough, grow up fast, and not cry. But this time it didn't go as well as the last time, and he didn't come back until dark. The whole family was so anxious that Momo almost cried. When Li's father came back from outside, he heard about this situation and said worriedly: "Either I got lost in the mountains and forests, or something happened." He immediately found a few young hunters, brought shotguns, lit torches, and shouted all the way to find Dongshan. Tao was not at ease, so she handed Li Tao to her mother-in-law, and followed everyone into the mountains to find Li.

It turned out that Li was also hunting a pheasant today, and when he walked back with the pheasant, he found a wolf. He thought it would be better to be able to fight one more wolf, and the whole family would have meat to eat. He raised his gun and fired a shot at the wolf, but it missed. Unexpectedly, this wolf was actually a wolf, and it raised its head and barked several times, only to see wolves running from all directions. Frightened, Lee dropped his shotgun and hurriedly climbed to a big tree with the pheasant to take refuge. The wolves found Li on the tree, but they still did not disperse, squatting around the tree one by one, looking up at Li and the pheasant in his hand, staring at him, salivating, and wanting to eat before he stopped. Li watched the wolf under the tree with its teeth and claws, eager to try, trembling with fright, he hugged the tree tightly, did not dare to slack off, had to confront the wolves. It wasn't until his father came with the villagers with torches that the wolf saw the light of the fire and scattered and he was saved.

Li came down from the tree, still holding the long-dead pheasant in his hand. Tao grabbed the pheasant and threw it on the ground, threw herself into Li's arms, hugged him tightly, and cried and said, "I'd rather beat rice cereal to feed the children than let one of you go into the mountains to hunt pheasants." Li comforted her: "Don't be afraid, aren't I fine?" Who hasn't encountered such a thing among hunters? ”

After that, Li would sometimes go to Dongshan to hunt pheasants. When the milk of the peach is too much and sometimes it is scarce, she cooks some rice cereal with rice flour to feed Li Tao, and she does not dare to tell her in-laws or Li Tao. Fortunately, the child is getting older, and he is gradually getting used to eating rice noodles.

In addition to caring for Tao and his son Li Tao, Li still can't forget Xing in the depths of his heart. In the dead of night or when he is alone, he will recall many happy days with Xing, and the old love is still unbreakable and lingering. He felt that Xing's consideration and handling of problems were more comprehensive and thoughtful than Peach, and even his indifference and scolding were correct and necessary, and he sincerely cared for him, helped him, and considered his future. And many of his later behaviors were completely wrong, not only causing himself and Tao to fail to get into college, but also deeply hurting Xing's feelings. Thinking of the failure of the college entrance examination and the current situation, he felt that he had failed Xing's hard work and was ashamed of her. He must not forget his original intention, work hard, try to compensate her, and ask her for forgiveness. He inquired about Xing's news behind Momo's back, and secretly wrote to her, reviewing his past mistakes, explaining his regret, and asking for her forgiveness; He also left 50 yuan for the sale of medicinal herbs and animal skins and sent it to Xing. But soon the money was returned. Xing wrote back: "I don't need you to review and apologize, let alone ask for your money, because I can also work in school to earn money." I only hope that you will accept the lesson, never forget your ideals, regain your strength, and continue to work hard as before, and never be depressed and depressed in difficult situations. The ancients said: 'A man will love himself, and then a man will love all; Men will respect themselves, and then men will respect them. 'May I encourage you. In the future, if there is no good news, please don't bother me. You have your life, I have my life, and it's better not to disturb each other. Since you have chosen Peach, you must cherish her, love her well, and don't let her down. ”

Li wrote to Xing again, but she didn't reply. He was completely disappointed, and he was very sad to know that Xing still refused to forgive him. He pondered day and night, not knowing what to do to win Xing's forgiveness. He thought that Xing had asked him to learn a lesson and regain his strength in the letter, so he decided to work hard in his hometown, maybe he would make a good result, and with the "good news", Xing would forgive him, correspond with him, and the two would rebuild the old friendship. For this reason, he secretly made up his mind and told himself that he would never give up until he achieved his goal.