At the end of the spring of the second year of Xuantong, Leshan County, Jiading Prefecture.

In February, when the actions of the Revolutionary Party of the League were rampant, Qin Bing, Cheng Defan and other hundreds of people seized the guns and bullets of the regimental training bureau in Jiading Tongjiachang and other places, and launched the "Jiading Uprising in Southern Sichuan", which is famous in history.

Although the revolutionary party was forced to go to Pingshan by the soldiers and horses of the imperial court who had been on guard for a long time, the uprising still made the atmosphere in Jiading Fucheng tense.

Leshan County, the city of Jiading Prefecture, as the political center of a prefecture, has seen fewer pedestrians on the street in the past two months.

Leshan County is located at the confluence of the Min River, Dadu River and Tsing Yi River, known as "the scenery of the world is in Shu, and the victory of Shu is called Jiazhou".

Emei mountain tea, Jinkou River's black hemp, these are Leshan's local famous products. However, in these years, the imperial court's control over the local area weakened, the government decrees were not passed, and the merchants who did business in the north and south of the world were inconvenient.

At the beginning of April, the tea workers ate and lived in the mountains, and they were busy for a few days for the most valuable "Ming Qian tea".

Ming Qian tea is a tea made before the Qingming Festival.

The Chinese divide the year into 24 solar terms, after the sting and the spring equinox, the tea tree begins to sprout, and this part of the sprouts can be harvested before the "Qingming". Due to the generally low temperature before the Qingming Festival, the limited number of germination, the slow growth rate of tea, the yield that can reach the picking standard is very small, and the scarcity is expensive, the "Ming Dynasty tea" in the Emei Mountain tea has always been sought after by merchants.

All show that the former West Lake Longjing is expensive, Emei mountain tea collection Sichuan Shu landscape essence, buds and leaves are delicate, the color is green and fragrant, not as expensive as the pre-Ming Longjing, but there is another kind of wild interest of camellia, and it is not worried about sales.

There is a long street in the south of Leshan County, the alley is narrow and long, the curved street of more than ten meters is crowded, and there are more than 100 households, which is a well-known gathering place for the poor in the county.

The first floor of the street is full of storefronts, the wooden planks are unloaded one by one, and the size of the shop is not more than ten square meters to reveal the whole picture, and the innermost part of the shop usually has a narrow corridor for people only, walking through the dim corridor, the patio leaks a glimmer of light, and the back is the real residence.

The two-story small courtyard house surrounds the patio, and the half-height attic is only eight rooms, but there are three households with a total of 14 people.

The family's surname is Shu, because the old mother is still there, the three brothers have not separated, and the family is all crowded in the old house. The shop in front of the old house opened a konjac tofu shop, which was run by Boss Shu with his family.

Konjac is easy to grow, there are everywhere in the suburbs, Leshan snow konjac is famous far and wide, Shujia's tofu shop is opened on the poor street, which corresponds to the needs of hundreds of families who are also poor, and the income is mixed with food and clothing.

At four or five o'clock in the morning, the sky was not yet completely bright, the light of the stars and the moon was still there, and the people of the Shu family had already gotten up.

A large stone mill was placed in the corner of the small patio, and by the moonlight, Boss Shu was grinding. The konjac cut into pieces was put into the stone mill, and as Boss Shu's arm kept waving, the dark gray viscous konjac juice flowed down the grinding plate into the big wooden barrel.

"Sannizi, where did you go to the water? The konjac juice must be so thick that you can't get tofu! ”

"Hey, it's coming!"

A little head appeared on the edge of the well, with two pigtails tied with red rope, and a face covered with black ash, looking like a girl who was only five or six years old.

With great difficulty, she pulled a small half-bucket of water out of the well and carried the bucket to the stone mill.

Boss Shu looked at her little arms and legs with a basin of water and walked half of the way, and while wiping her sweat, she shouted at the hall: "Her aunt, come out and help!" ”

A fair-skinned woman opened the door, splashed her face with water, and sneered against the door frame: "The old lady still has to serve a few of your children, but it's a pity that she doesn't have a third hand, phew, there is that kind of lazy person who has no hands and feet, and she is used to seeing her niece work!" ”

The woman pointed at Sang and scolded Huai, and made Boss Shu speechless.

She was not aiming at the little girl, but at the second family of Shu in the room on the left.

The three brothers of the Shu family are not separated, the eldest and the eldest of Shu run a konjac tofu shop, and the second Shu family has a carpentry job, going out early and returning late on weekdays, working in a shop in the county seat. Shu Laosan married a tea girl as his wife, Qingming is the time to pick tea, both of them live in the tea garden of Mount Emei, and leave their six-year-old daughter at home to be taken care of by the old mother.

Sister-in-law Shu pointed out that Sang scolded Huai and said that it was the second sister-in-law, Shu Lao Er still had to make money for the family, Shu second sister-in-law was entangled with three-inch golden lotus pointed feet, and her shoulders could not be lifted, and Sister-in-law Shu had been unpleasant to her eyes for a long time.

"Daddy, I can carry water."

The little girl finally moved the tub to the millstone, and the young man knew that there were often quarrels in the family, so he quickly said that he could work.

Boss Shu took the wooden basin from his niece's hand, touched her head, sighed and poured water into the konjac.

The world is not good, it is not easy to make money, the Shu family is poor, the family is crowded in a small yard, there is friction in life, and there are often quarrels between which families.

What can he do, he can only blame himself for not being able to hold up the door as the eldest son, not being able to give his wife and children a good life, and not being able to pull his brother's family, the most pitiful is the little niece who is sandwiched between the eldest aunt and the second aunt, because his parents are away from home all the year round, he is not less splinted.

Boss Shu wiped his sweat and finished grinding the konjac in one go.

The diligent little niece helped to light the fire again, and when the sky was clear, the konjac tofu was also formed out of the pot and placed in the store.

Qingming worships ancestors, and poor families also tighten their belts to buy a chicken or a piece of meat to go to the grave of their ancestors. After the ancestors "enjoyed", the chicken or meat had to be left for their own family to eat, and they had to come to Shujia to buy two pieces of konjac tofu and go back to braised to eat, so today's Shujia tofu shop business is particularly good.

Sister-in-law Shu looked at the store, and Shu Lao Dalian made two pots of tofu and sold out before noon.

was busy until noon, and the grinding disc of the Shu family was finally free.

Qingming wants to eat Qingming rake, soak glutinous rice with water pressed out of Qingming vegetables, grind it into rice milk and drain it, and then wrap the meat filling with glutinous rice balls, and wrap it in grapefruit leaves and steam it on the outside, which is very delicious.

The Shu family was busy with business, so they began to steam the Qingming rake, and when the hot Qingming rake came out of the cage, it was already dinner time. Sanni, who has been running for a day, can finally rest, sit under the stove and burn the fire, the second aunt of the little foot stuffed her with a Qingming rake, she didn't care about the hot mouth, Sanni took a small bite of the Qingming rake, the fragrance of meat and grapefruit leaves, and the slight bitterness of Qingming vegetables, eating in her mouth, Sanni's eyes narrowed happily.

said that she was six years old, but in fact she was born in the thirty-second year of Guangxu, and six years old is considered a virtual age.

After it was dark, Sister-in-law Shu lit a soybean oil lamp, and Mrs. Shu leaned down the stairs to eat. Shu Laoer, who works in the county, also went home, the Shu family has fourteen people, Shu Lao has four children, Shu Lao's family has two children, Sanni's family has an only daughter on her, Shu Laosan and his wife who work in the tea garden will lose their only daughter to Mrs. Shu, but the old lady is a patriarchal grandmother, Sanni's life is of course not easy.

In the family, there is only the honest eldest uncle, and the second aunt who is often scolded by Shu's sister-in-law for her little feet still takes care of Sanni.

The meal is on the table, the Shu family has no land, usually reluctant to buy vegetables, today the Qingming Festival family eats meat, Shu Lao and his two teenage boys went to the river to catch a few big carp and came back, and in the suburban vegetable field Shun radish and leek, Shu Er's sister-in-law skillfully fried, cleaned up a few dishes.

A large pot of braised fish with bean cress, a bowl of fried leeks with eggs, and a pot of radish and konjac tofu to roast the pig's intestines.

The dishes are rich, the half-grown children eat the poor old man, watching a few grandchildren eat vegetables and shaved rice, Mrs. Shu smiled and chewed the radish pieces, feeling delicious.

Sanni looked at the fish with her eyes, and Shu's second sister-in-law gave her a piece of belly meat with the least fish bones, which caused Mrs. Shu's knife-like eyes.

"What's wrong with the children whether they eat or not, they don't know how to let their brothers, they are growing taller, and they can't lose them!"

Sanni was glared at by her grandmother, and the fish in the bowl didn't dare to swallow it.

"It's not that people's parents don't bring money to the family, and the girls eat a piece of fish and meat...... "Shu's second sister-in-law can't get used to Mrs. Shu's patriarchy, because she also gave birth to two daughters."

The daughter-in-law who gave birth to a daughter has no status, and even Shu Lao Er and Shu Lao San are pressed by Mrs. Shu and cannot separate the family. The two uncles supported the four boys of Shu Lao's family together, and Shu's sister-in-law often pointed at Sang and scolded Huai, so the second sister-in-law stood on the same team as the third family, and often protected Sanni.

Mrs. Shu was about to scold her second daughter-in-law for being unfilial, and the door panel of Shu's shop was banged.

"Aunt Shu, are you at home?!"

"Open the door, Aunt Shu, something happened to your third child!"

Sanni held the bowl and carefully swallowed the fish meat that the second aunt gave her. is young and slow-brained, and she can't connect the "third child" in the knock on the door with her father for a while.

Mrs. Shu snapped Sanni's chopsticks off: "Dumbfounded, don't go open the door quickly, see what's going on with your father." ”

"Oh." Sanni put down the bowl and opened the small door of the shop.

By the light of the moon, Sanni found that there was already a circle of people in front of the tofu shop, most of them were neighbors on the street, and a few were strange men she didn't know.

"The eldest mother, the third brother and the third sister-in-law fell under the cliff and unfortunately went...... You have to mourn. ”

Several strange men carried stretchers covered with white cloths, and their eyes turned red when they saw the Shu family come out.

Aunt Shu, who followed Sanni, only felt that her head had been knocked hard, and she didn't react to what the noisy neighbors were saying for a while. It wasn't until Boss Shu uncovered the white cloth that the Shu family saw the three members of Shu who had fallen into a blur of flesh and blood, that Aunt Shu said, "My son-" The cry dragged on and was cut off, and her eyes rolled and she fainted.

Sister-in-law Shu and sister-in-law Shu both cried and carried Aunt Shu to the chair.

Boss Shu and Elder Shu also wiped tears with red eyes, and the children of the Shu family were scared and cried by adults, only Sanni, holding on to the door frame, was stunned.

The neighbors comforted him, and the tea workers who came back with the bodies of Shu Laosan and his wife were telling Shu Laosan what happened.

It turned out that the two of them were picking tea together, and Shu San's sister-in-law was an experienced tea girl, so the owner of the tea garden asked her to pick the wild tea trees that grew on the cliffs. Shu's third sister-in-law has long wanted to split up, picking wild tea is dangerous, and the salary is also high.

The two had a good relationship, so Shu Laosan went with her and pulled the rope for her.

Who knew that Shu San's sister-in-law slipped off the cliff and brought Shu Laosan, who was pulling the rope, down together.

When the tea workers found the couple, they fell together, and only their clothes could still identify them, and they were already breathless.

After listening to the tea workers, Aunt Shu, who fainted, didn't know where the strength came from to get up, and slapped Sanni in the face.

"It's all your mother, the harmful spirit, who gave birth to you, a money-losing product, killed my son, and harmed the third child of my family, woo woo woo woo woo ......"

Sanni was slapped to the ground by her, and Aunt Shu cried with snot and tears.

Although the neighbors pity Sanni, they don't know how to comfort her.

Shu San's sister-in-law's family is withered, her origin is a little unclear, but she is very beautiful, how many neighbors have been envious of marrying Shu Laosan, but Shu Auntie doesn't like her bewitching appearance, and she has always had opinions on this third daughter-in-law. Sanni is a daughter, she grew up to be someone else's family, she didn't give birth to a son, Shu San's sister-in-law took Shu Laosan and fell to death, Shu Laosan was a branch, and it was indeed a "desperate queen".

In the second year of Xuantong, Sanni became an orphan girl whose parents were both dead.

The grandmother hates her, the second aunt feels sorry for her but can't afford it, and the eldest uncle is honest.

After finishing her parents' funeral, under the leadership of her grandmother and aunt, her cousin sent her to the tea garden where her parents had an accident. The eldest uncle rolled at the door of the tea garden, and asked the owner of the tea garden to be responsible for supporting her.

After some negotiations, the owner of the tea garden agreed to raise Sanni until she was eighteen years old and married.

Sanni had a small face, her face was full of tears, she called uncle, called grandma, and Boss Shu, who turned back in three steps, was dragged away by Sister-in-law Shu.

"You want to raise your brother's money-losing goods? You're not afraid of her defeating you, I'm still afraid of her defeating my son! If you dare to repent, I will take the four of them back to my parents' house......"

The shrill voice of the eldest uncle echoed on the hillside, Sanni cried hoarsely, and Boss Shu was tightly dragged by his wife and never looked back at her.

Five-year-old Sanni, with black sleeves and small white velvet flowers, became a child laborer in the Emeishan Tea Garden.