Li Yao'er ran down the hill at an almost sprint speed, and it was not until she could see her house that she slowed down and calmed down a little.

She stood on the ridge and looked at the smoke of the village, and then looked back at Phoenix Mountain, feeling a little unreal.

Looking back now, what she experienced on Phoenix Mountain just now, the swaying col and the strange woman, it was like a dream of hers, so that she couldn't tell the truth from the fake?

It was about the smoke of the cooking in the village and the sound of chickens and dogs barking that were familiar enough, although Li Yao'er was still confused about the things in the mountain col, but now another more specific trouble overwhelmed everything that happened in the valley and floated in front of her eyes.

That is, how's the family going? How is she going to get home?

Li Yao'er went home directly from the gate without a face, and she came to the small gate of her house leading to the vegetable garden by avoiding her family.

Instead of knocking on the door, she put her ear to the small door to eavesdrop on the house.

There was no unusual sound in the silence of the house, only the sound of the hen clucking through the small door.

The house is so quiet, it seems that Daddy may not have noticed that she was not at home last night.

Li Yao'er listened for a while, and then secretly went to the gate, the country house is simple, the gate is always closed during the day, and the door of her house is also open.

Li Yao'er looked at home with a probe of her brain, there was no one in the yard, her father's woodcutter and hoe next to the firewood pile were still there, and her father should not have gone out yet.

When she saw that there was no one in the yard, she crept into the yard to sneak back to her room, and then pretended to have just gotten up.

"Li Yao'er, what are you doing, where did you go early in the morning, and you're only coming back now!"

The voice that spoke was an old-fashioned voice, but the voice was young and immature.

As soon as Li Yao'er heard this voice, she knew that it was her second brother, Li Zijin, who had just turned seven years old this year.

Li Yao'er hurriedly turned her head to look at the source of the voice, only to see Li Zijin standing in front of the hall with a roasted sweet potato, staring at her with a pair of dark eyes.

Li Yao'er was afraid of alarming her father, so she hurriedly made a silent movement, and at the same time quickly turned her head to look at her parents' room.

But it was already late, her father had already listened to the voice, walked out of the stove room with an apron, and looked at Li Yao'er suspiciously.

"Big girl, what are you doing?"

Hearing her father's question, Li Yao'er's tense heart immediately relaxed, but the next moment countless grievances welled up in her heart.

She ran away from home all night, and her father and mother really didn't find out! She is really a dispensable character in this family!

Li Yao'er replied sullenly: "Go to the toilet." ”

His father Li Lincai is a simple and simple character, he believes what others say, and rarely bothers to ponder the authenticity of other people's words, even if this other person is the daughter he watched grow up.

Li Lincai got his daughter's answer, nodded and immediately believed his daughter's words, and instructed in his mouth: "Go wash up, start eating immediately", turned around and was about to go back to the stove room.

Li Zijin retorted loudly: "You lie, I just saw you coming in from outside the gate." ”

Li Yao'er was so angry that Li Zijin didn't come out, she didn't do anything bad, obviously she was wronged, why was she interrogated like a thief by Li Zijin, but she was not in the mood to argue with Li Zijin now, so she just pulled her throat and replied angrily.

"I'm going to go to the toilet outside, can't I?"

With that, she slammed down the old stairs and ran back to the low room on the second floor.

Li Lincai stood at the door of the stove room and scratched his head in confusion.

"Early in the morning, what's crazy about this girl?"

After muttering, he remembered that there were still vegetables stir-fried on the stove, and hurriedly turned into the stove room with an "ouch".

Li Zijin picked up the sweet potato and nibbled on it twice, looking at the eldest sister's room fixedly, his eyes full of inquiry.

Li Yao'er closed the door of the room, and suddenly fell on her simple wooden bed, hugging the bamboo pillow and sulking.

She has always had some status and prestige in front of her parents, and she is not often blamed by her parents, and such a grievance as this time is the first time in Li Yao'er's life.

It was Li Yao'er, who had a lot of backbone, decided that since her father and mother did not find out that she ran away from home, she would express her anger and dissatisfaction through a hunger strike.

However, as soon as she had made up her mind, her stomach, which had been hungry since last night, gurgled out very unseemly......

At the same time, the aroma of Daddy's cooking in the stove room quietly seeped in through the window paper and filled the entire room......

Li Yao'er's backbone was finally defeated by appetite.

As soon as Li Lincai finished setting the meal and shouted, Li Yao'er made a straight face, walked out of the room coldly, and sat in her place.

Her mother is still doing confinement, and the recent meals are sent into the house to eat, Li Yao'er remembers yesterday's events, and she doesn't want to see her mother at this time, so the matter of sending food to her mother was handled by Li Zijin today.

After eating, Li Yao'er wanted to save even the work of washing dishes, but thinking about her father's going out to work at noon, she didn't have the heart to throw the dirty dishes and chopsticks to her father.

She put away the dirty dishes and chopsticks, and took them to the well next to the yard to wash, while staring at her father out of the corner of her eye, wanting to see if he would take a hoe or a machete when he went out for a while.

To take a hoe is to hoe grass in the vegetable field, and to take a machete is to go to the mountains to chop wood.

Although she couldn't tell if what she experienced in the morning was a dream, Li Yao'er still listened to the woman's words in her heart.

The woman said that she should not go to Phoenix Mountain for the past two days, because there is a big snake on the mountain.

She didn't plan to go to the village to say this kind of thing, not to mention whether others would listen to her, Phoenix Mountain is not high, there is neither a temple nor arable land on the mountain, except for the occasional chopping firewood, the nearby villagers rarely go up the mountain.

If she ran to the village and said that there was a big snake on the mountain, it would lead Deli Zheng to take the villagers up the mountain to seek verification, which would not be counterproductive.

But yesterday, her father mentioned it, saying that there was not much firewood at home, and he was going to Phoenix Mountain to chop some firewood recently.

Li Yao'er was still annoyed by her father and mother in her heart, and she didn't want to take the initiative to talk to them, but if her father really wanted to go up Phoenix Mountain, she would always have to stop her.

Li Lincai didn't go to work after eating, but first carried a low stool and sat in the yard, he poured himself a bowl of Yeba water and drank a big bowl of it happily, and rested for half an hour before standing up slowly.

Countryside people can't afford to drink tea will drink Yebazi water as tea, this herb is cool to the fire, as long as you are used to drinking it, the taste is not much worse than tea water.

Li Yao'er slowly scrubbed the bowl with a loofah, and when she saw her father walking to the pyre, she couldn't help but stop wiping the bowl, and her eyes were staring at her father's hand to see what he was going to catch.

Li Lincai stood in front of the firewood knife and hoe, and after a little hesitation, he reached out and grabbed the hoe.

Li Yao'er secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw this, she turned her gaze back, and with an expressionless face, she sped up the speed of her hand and brushed the bowl again.

Li Lincai picked up the hoe and said hello to Li Yao'er, let her have time to cut some pigweed at noon, then turned around and walked out of the gate.

Li Yao'er buried her head in washing the dishes and didn't pay attention to her father, and when her father went out, she still resigned herself to her fate, picked up the sickle and went out.

It's not difficult to cut pigweed, Li Yao'er has long been used to it, but I don't know if it was because she didn't rest well last night, or if what happened this morning disturbed her mood, Li Yao'er was a little absent-minded when she cut the grass today, and as a result, she cut her finger without paying attention.

She looked at the drops of blood gushing out of her index finger, and her heart became more and more chaotic, so she simply collected the sickle and carried half a basket of pigweed on her back and went home.

She came home and threw the half basket of hogweed to the pigsty, and turned to go back to her room, when out of the corner of her eye she seemed to see something beside the pyre.

Li Yao'er's heart thumped, she looked back at the pyre sharply, and saw that there was no shadow of the firewood knife there, but a hoe was standing quietly.

Li Yao'er's heart immediately beat like a drum, and she pushed open the door of her father's room in a panic.

Mother Li was wearing a cotton hat with a covered cotton hat on her head, humming softly with a tired face, coaxing her third brother Li Zigui to sleep.

Hearing the movement, Li frowned dissatisfied, as if he was a little annoyed that his daughter's movement was too loud, and when she saw the anxious look on her daughter's face, she immediately dissipated her anger and asked softly with some concern.

"What's wrong with you?"

Li Yao'er didn't care about answering her mother's words at all, she just asked.

"Mother, where is my father?"

Li Shi looked puzzled and said softly.

"Just now, your father came back and said that he met Zhang Lao Wu, and the two of them made an appointment to go to Phoenix Mountain to chop wood together. ”

When Li Yao'er heard that this was the case, she hurriedly asked.

"How long has Daddy been gone? ”

Li Shi didn't know why: "Soon, about half an hour, what happened to Xiao'er?"

Half an hour!

If she goes out now, she may not be able to catch up with her father, but she must catch up with them anyway.

Li Yao'er glanced at the Li family, who was still in confinement, and instinctively didn't tell the truth to her mother.

"Mother, it's okay, I just suddenly remembered something and wanted to find my father. ”

After saying that, Li Yao'er didn't give her mother a chance to ask, she closed the door casually, raised her feet and walked out of the door.

Li hugged his third son and frowned at the door that closed with a bang, looking puzzled.

Before she could think clearly, the milk doll in her arms cried again, and Li had to bow her head again and coax the child softly.

Outside the door, as soon as Li Yao'er stepped out of the gate, Li Zijin came out of the corner of the yard and secretly followed the eldest sister out of the house.