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The snow in Shangyun City this year came very early and was very heavy.

Before the people could recover from the earlier drought, they caught up with the snowstorm that had not been seen in a century.

The food and salary of the imperial court for disaster relief were distributed layer by layer, but everyone who handled it naturally had to reap some benefits, and in the end, only a little bit of rice bran fell into the hands of the people.

Since the emperor ascended the throne, the situation of the Great Zhou Dynasty has been worse year by year, and it is rumored that this is the karmic retribution of the emperor who killed his father and ascended the throne.

It's just that Xu Han didn't understand why the emperor had done something wrong, why did the people have to bear this karmic retribution.

It's just that he is more concerned about how to survive the cold night in front of him and how to deal with the overwhelming hunger in his lower abdomen.

"Ahem, ahem!"

At this time, a violent coughing sound came from the side, pulling Xu Han back to reality from his thoughts.

He turned his head with some concern to look at the ragged and withered old man beside him.

The old man's surname is Xu, and he is called Xu Qianrui.

Of course, the name is a good name, according to himself, he was also born in a large family, read some books when he was young, but before he could take the test for fame, his parents died in an accident. Without control, his solid family background was defeated by him, and he became what he is now.

"Daddy, it's okay. Xu Han stretched out his hand and gently patted Xu Qianrui's back, trying to relieve the old man's violent cough at the moment.

"Ahem, ahem!"

But this approach had little effect, and the old beggar coughed for a while before he slowly stopped.

"No problem. The old beggar shook his head at this moment, and his cloudy eyes were full of heavy twilight.

He looked up at the dim sky and sighed.

"Hurry up and get home, it's snowing again. ”

After the old beggar said that, he took his steps tremblingly again, and Xu Han on the side saw this and hurriedly stretched out his hand to support him.

Xu Han's father is an old beggar, and Xu Han is naturally a little beggar.

But Xu Han was not from this old beggar.

Twelve years ago, it was also a snowy night, the old beggar picked up Xu Han who was abandoned there in the broken temple on the outskirts of the city, the old beggar who had no queen, after all, couldn't bear to watch Xu Han who was still in swaddling clothes freeze to death in this ice and snow, and after thinking about it for a long time, he still adopted him.

The old beggar hadn't read much after all, and after thinking about it, he only felt that the weather was extremely cold that night, so he named him Xu Han.

Twelve years have passed, and although life has been difficult, the old beggar still pulled Xu Han up after all.

It's just that this year's natural and man-made disasters have made ordinary people unable to open the pot, so how can they have surplus food to give them alms?

After all, the two of them hadn't begged for any food for two days, and when they were really hungry, they could only eat some tree roots with snow water to satisfy their hunger. But the old beggar is not so lucky, his health has been getting worse and worse these days, and no one can say whether he can survive this winter.

It was getting late, and the two of them, who had not had a little harvest a day, walked on the way home, and the wind and snow were coming, and if they didn't return home before that, they would not starve to death, and they would probably have to freeze to death by the snowstorm.

"Look at this girl, with big eyes and a strong body, you can give more. At this time, a conversation on the side of the street attracted the attention of Xu Han, who was hurrying with his head down.

He turned his head to look and saw a woman pointing to the girl next to him and speaking to a man.

The little girl looked the same age as Xu Han, but at this moment, she lowered her head like a frightened elk, and stood in place in a daze, letting the woman and the man point fingers at her, judging like a commodity.

Xu Han has never read a book, but he has a good memory. The girl in front of him, he recognized.

It was about May this year, the summer was scorching, and there were starving people in Shangyun City. Xu Han, who was also hungry, begged on the side of the road, and had not eaten for several days, almost on the verge of death. It was that girl who gave Xu Han the only half of the bun in her hand, so that Xu Han lived for a few days until the day when the food and salary allocated by the imperial court arrived.

"The year is not good, I can't buy more than two pairs of chopsticks? Eight taels of silver is already a lot. The man apparently disagreed with the woman, and he shook his head.

"My lord, you also know that this year is not good, otherwise how could I ruthlessly sell my daughter? The woman, of course, did not want to stop there, and continued.

"I can't take out much of these eight taels of silver, you see," the man distinguished, and the two of them bargained like they were buying vegetables at the end of the street.

"Let's go, don't look at it. The old beggar pulled Xu Han, who could see his god, and was a little displeased.

Xu Han, who has always been well-behaved, rarely broke free from the old beggar's hand and stubbornly looked at the scene not far away. The look on his face was too hard to see because it was covered with dirt, but the small fists were clenched tightly at that time.

The old beggar has raised Xu Han for so many years, and it is the first time to see him so faintly uneasy.

"That's her life, if today's disaster is man-made, it's a blessing to be able to save her life, you can't give people half a bite to eat, what else do you want?" The old beggar obviously didn't want to cause trouble, he was too old, and he was too old to talk, and he was also dull.

Xu Han was stunned, and he naturally realized this at this time. For the first time in his life, he felt a certain dissatisfaction with his identity.

"Take it, this girl, I want it. At this moment, an old voice suddenly sounded.

This change was unexpected by all.

Xu Han and the old beggar followed the prestige, but saw an old man appear between the woman and the man at some point, carrying a heavy money bag in his hand, and handed it to the woman.

"This..." The woman was stunned for a moment, subconsciously took the money bag, and weighed it slightly in her hand—the amount was very sufficient, at least twenty taels.

"You!" The man who had been disrupted by the business was naturally dissatisfied, and he turned his head to look at the old man and was about to say something, but before he could say anything, he found that the old man was followed by two strong men who were extremely strong and carried long knives at their waists.

Obviously, this old man is not something he can afford to mess with.

He withdrew the words from his lips, gave the old man a fierce look, and then walked away in a huff.

The woman accepted the money, and also smiled, "Keqing, in the future, you must be filial to the adult, don't blame the mother for being cruel!

"Let's go, the old man seems to be a rich man, and if you follow him, at least you won't suffer. The old beggar said then.

Xu Han came back to his senses at this time, he glanced deeply at the girl who bowed his head and the old man with kind eyes, but in the end he was silent and kept up with the old beggar's pace.

......

Xu Han and the old beggar's home cannot be regarded as a writer.

It's just a ruined temple on the outskirts of the city, and when it was built, I can't say really, but it has been abandoned for some years.

It can't shelter from the wind and rain, and it can't avoid the cold, but it's a little better than sleeping in the open. Most of the beggars in Shangyun City used to live here, but as the situation deteriorated year by year, some of those beggars left Shangyun City, and some stayed in this small town on the border of Qingzhou forever. Now in the broken temple, only Xu Han and the others remain.

When he returned to the ruined temple, the old beggar took out his moldy quilt that he had hidden under the thatch, wrapped it around himself, and found a place that was not yet damp, and lay down. The best way to combat cold and hunger is to get some sleep.

Xu Han also understood this truth, he covered his body with thatch, and lay down on the old beggar's side, but he couldn't sleep after turning around.

The scene of the man haggling with the woman and selling his children kept coming to mind. The girl's panicked face, like a streamer, kept flashing in his mind.

He finally couldn't suppress the indescribable bitterness in his heart, turned around, and looked at the old beggar who was about to fall asleep.

"Daddy. He called.

"Huh?" replied the half-awake and half-asleep old beggar.

"Fang Cai..." Xu Han was about to ask something.

"In the year of the disaster, the drought is very common, the life of the female baby is thinner, and the family is rich, and the female baby is bought, no matter what kind of livelihood she does in the future, but at least she will not starve to death now, and the family has the money to sell the girl's baby, and you may be able to survive this cold winter if you save some, and wait until the spring of next year, the year is good, and you can have another one. It's better than getting together as a family and waiting for death to come. The old beggar pulled Xu Han with one hand, how could he not understand his thoughts, and before Xu Han could ask, he spoke.

"Thin life?" Xu Han's brows furrowed, he naturally knew that the old beggar was not wrong, but he couldn't say why, he just felt dissatisfied, and he didn't understand what the so-called thin life was?

"A thin life is a bad life, everyone has their own life, some people are born in rich and noble families, fine clothes and food, that is their life. Being a beggar, without food, is my life. You were picked up by me and followed me as a beggar, and this is also your life. The old beggar spoke slowly, but his voice became quieter and quieter.

Xu Han hadn't completely digested the old beggar's words, and when he saw that he suddenly lost his voice, he looked up, but saw that the old beggar had already fallen asleep.

After all, the old beggar is old, and he has not entered the grain for two days, and his spirit is naturally not good.

Seeing this, Xu Han couldn't bear to ask any more, but he frowned bitterly, thinking about the old beggar's words, and couldn't sleep.

......

The old beggar closed his eyes last night and never woke up.

He still didn't survive this winter after all.

His death came suddenly.

Suddenly, Xu Han was not half prepared for this.

The wind and snow outside are getting heavier and heavier, and there is no intention of stopping.

Xu Han sat beside the old beggar's corpse for a full hour before he slowly stood up.

He wrapped the old beggar in silence with the quilt that had been with him for several years, and then found a hemp rope in the thatched pile and trapped the quilt. Then, taking a deep breath, he put one end of the rope on his shoulder, bowed his body, and in this way, he pulled the old beggar's body out of the ruined temple in the face of the wind and snow.

Xu Han is only twelve years old this year, and his perennial begging life makes his figure look much thinner than his peers. Coupled with the fact that he had not eaten for a few days and dragged the corpse of the old beggar, this was not an easy task for Xu Han.

But he gritted his teeth and let the cold wind and snow blow across his face, while he stubbornly and slowly walked forward in the wind and snow.

Long.

The rope strangled blood on his shoulders, his knuckles turned a little white, and his face was even more red from the wind and snow.

He stepped into the snow step by step, and dragged the old beggar's body into Shangyun City.

A boy dragged a heavy quilt-wrapped object.

Such scenes are not uncommon in Shangyun City this year, and their purpose is not difficult to guess.

When a person dies, he can be safe when he enters the earth.

Selling one's body to bury one's father is a rare scene in previous years, but in this year when disasters are frequent, there are not many pedestrians on the street who can't raise the slightest interest.

The life of the small family is naturally miserable, but the big family has a lot of this little food, and they are happy to accept these children who are sold to bury their fathers, and they are clever enough to stay by themselves, to be a buddy or a maid, and to sell them elsewhere if they don't like it, which is also a business. A gambling house in the west of the city even hung a signboard, specially buying these children, male or female, but not too old, clearly marked price.

The owner behind the gambling house seems to have a lot of origin, and the yamen in the city also turned a blind eye to this and never asked. However, there are some rumors in the market that this gambling house buys so many children in order to carry out some evil arts, and someone once said in a wine shop that he saw the corpses of children brought out of the gambling house in the middle of the night.

But the drinker who said this was never seen again after that day.

When Xu Han walked to the gambling house, the strong man guarding the door was leaning on the threshold with his clothes closed, and he was drowsy.

The sound of the old beggar's corpse dragging on the snow pulled the strong man back from his sleep, he lowered his eyebrows and glanced at the ragged Xu Han, waved his hand, and said impatiently: "Go to the side of the little begging for food, grandpa has no money for you here." ”

Xu Han didn't care, he put down the rope in his hand with relief. Standing up straight in the snow, he looked at the strong man, and said in his young voice, "I'm here to sell myself." ”

"Huh, selling?" the strong man was stunned for a moment, and only then did he see the thing wrapped in the quilt behind the boy's back.

This surprised him a little, there were naturally many children who sold to the gambling house, but most of them were led by their parents, or they changed hands from elsewhere, and they ran to the gambling house to sell themselves, and it was the first time he had met them.

He looked at Xu Han again and looked at the boy in front of him seriously.

He was thin, as thin as a gust of wind could knock him down. His face was covered with dirt, making it difficult to see his appearance, but his dirty face gave birth to a pair of bright eyes.

Those eyes, looking at the strong man's gaze at this moment, were wrapped in something indescribable.

The strong man was excited, he was touched by that gaze, and asked: "Selling yourself to bury your father, there are many places to go, why do you have to choose here." ”

He knows very well what the gambling house behind him is, and he understands what happened to those children who sold themselves.

"If someone else sells himself, it is a lifetime, and you here, I have heard, as long as you do it for five years, you can let me go free. ”

Xu Han looked at the strong man and said calmly.

The strong man was stunned again, he secretly felt funny, indeed, they have such a rule here. But until now, he had never heard of such a child.

"Five years? That's a desperate job. The strong man said.

When he said this, he was actually suspected of exceeding his authority. But maybe it was the boy in front of him who made him feel really special, so he couldn't help but tell the truth behind it.

"Other people's families pay seven or eight taels of silver, and once they do it, it will be a lifetime. You give fifteen taels of silver, but you only have to do it for five years, naturally, what you have to do will not be simple. Xu Han nodded, but his gaze was still calm.

When the strong man heard this, his face suddenly changed.

From Xu Han's words, it was not difficult for him to hear that this boy had been prepared for this before he came. Not to mention that it can be inferred from these few words, the boy has a very good heart, but he already understands the difference, and the fact that he still chooses them to sell himself in this gambling house is enough to puzzle him.

"Why?" he asked, his voice a little bitter for some reason.

"The old man said that if he died, he would let me sell myself to a rich and noble family, and if I did it cleverly, and won the favor of the lord's family, perhaps I would get a good job, and I would have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of my life. ”

He said it should be my best life. ”

"But..."

The boy's brows furrowed suddenly, and there seemed to be a flash of determination in his eyes, and at that moment, he straightened his spine in the wind and snow, like a samurai who was about to die, and like a phoenix waiting for Nirvana.

He said. "I don't accept my fate. ”