The days went by like this, and the weather was always gloomy, with occasional snowflakes.

Every household is busy buying New Year's goods.

On this day, the heavy snow finally fell, and the winter in the north of the Great Summer was very cold, and the poor people were sad to survive the winter, and it was not for nothing that the elderly and children accidentally froze to death.

When Gu Xixi came back from the county, he hid the bottle of balsam under his pillow.

Her room was originally a sundries for farm tools, and a shack was built in the corner of the yard, in which dry firewood and hoes were often piled up.

At the beginning, Xie Zhang's family didn't treat her as a green onion at all, and the life and death of the girl bought by the big family in these years is the master's family, and the same is true for the child daughter-in-law. Directly stretched out his hand and pointed at it, and set a place for Gu Xixi to sleep.

There was no bed, but Boss Xie pulled a few branches left over from the cut tree to make a shelf, and barely made the shape of a bed, spread sun-dried wheat straw on it, and gave a bed of broken cotton wool, and that's it.

When Gu Xixi grew older, he also learned to sew and mend, begging the eldest sister-in-law to find rotten old clothes and waste cloth, and then sewed out a bedspread, which is very good, Gu Xixi is very satisfied, at least he doesn't have to carry a wheat straw wool every day.

But winter is different.

Every winter, Gu Xixi feels that he will freeze to death, the shack does not block the wind, the old wooden plank gap is the boss, and the washed white quilt is heavy cotton wool, I don't know how many years it has been used, except for the heavy pressure is not warm at all.

This year is the same, and what makes Gu Xixi even more desperate is that this year's snow is earlier than in previous years.

She finished her work in the kitchen and brought the meal to Sister-in-law Xie's house.

Sister-in-law Xie also built a brazier in the house, but it was not charcoal, it was dry firewood, and this was the first one.

She was lying on the bed, looking in the direction of the doorway.

The stomach was growling, the tip of his nose was the fragrance from the stove, and he looked at Gu Xixi and hurriedly got up.

"It's a pity girl, my sister-in-law's body is not angry, it's really annoying you. ”

Gu Xi quickly lifted the lid of the bowl, and a large bowl of steaming meat noodles was oily and fragrant.

"What did sister-in-law say, now you are a great hero of our Xie family, take care of your body and give birth to a big fat grandson for your mother, and a good life is ahead. ”

As she spoke, she handed Sister-in-law Xie a steamed bun.

Sister-in-law Xie was all about eating, and she didn't care about responding, so she only practiced and nodded.

She also agrees with these words in her heart, the way of the world is like this, how many grievances she has suffered because she has no children, a woman has to be able to give birth, otherwise how can she be called a woman, why did your husband's family marry you.

When she lowered her head and was about to eat, she suddenly paused and smiled reluctantly.

"Sister-in-law is not greedy, it's the panic in his stomach, it's a pity that the girl has eaten it, or ...... Eat a bite?"

Gu Xixi smiled, "Sister-in-law is not greedy, am I greedy?" Feed my eldest nephew, I'll go back." ”

When I returned to the kitchen, there was no food to eat, so I rolled up my sleeves and began to wash the pots and pans.

Although Xie Zhang's gave Sister-in-law Xie a good meal, she was distressed.

Where to save money, Gu Xi Xi doesn't eat much, and the eldest daughter-in-law saves two bites in her mouth to eat.

So I never thought of saving food for Gu Xixi. And Sister-in-law Xie thought that those were the meals specially given to her, and she didn't expect her mother-in-law not to leave food for Gu Xixi.

This caused Gu to regret that one person cooked the whole family's meal, but he had nothing to eat.

If Gu Xixi is really a cowardly and honest girl in the traditional sense, it is very likely that she will starve to death this winter.

But she has survived one winter after another, which is enough to say something.

After washing the stove, she returned to her shack, put the quilt on her body, and took out half of the nest from her arms and ate it little by little.

At this time, the sky has been drifting a large area of gray snowflakes, the sky is dark, in the blink of an eye the sky is dark, and it seems that there has been no dark, the sky and the earth are quiet, quiet as if you can hear your own heartbeat.

She eats very slowly, and if she continues like this, she can even eat half of the nest overnight, and the saliva secretes little bit, and the pain caused by the stomach acid burning but nothing to digest is slightly relieved.

The long-term state of not having enough to eat made her self-taught how to use the least amount of food to exert the maximum energy and support her body to survive the panic of hunger.

Wotou is the only thing she can hide and safe, and it tastes tasteless.

I don't know how long it took, but the night was getting deeper.

When a gust of wind blew, she couldn't help but shiver, and wrapped the quilt around her body a little tighter, although she knew that it was useless, because her hands and feet were as cold as ice.

Is the third brother cold?

It shouldn't be cold, thinking of what I've seen in the county, I feel relieved.

Thinking of the third brother, she shook her hand and took out the porcelain vase from under the pillow, opened it and wiped it with her little fingernail on the back of her hand that was a little red and swollen, and smelled the faint fragrance of osmanthus between her noses, and her heart seemed to have bloomed a flower.

At this moment, the village dog suddenly barked, and there was a slight noise in the snow.

Gu Xixi was very alert, and just as she stopped for a while and was about to lie down, there was a sudden knock on the door.

She got up and got out of bed, she didn't need to put on clothes, and when she slept, the cotton jacket was warmer than the quilt, she had always been firmly wrapped around her body, and now she just warmed the quilt a little warm, and she opened it and hit a clever one.

She walked quickly to the courtyard, where there was already a thin layer of snow on the ground, and asked tentatively.

"Who?"

"Sorry for my sister, it's me. ”

"Third brother!" Gu Xixi quickly ran to the gate, lifted the wooden stick against the door with both hands, and pulled the door bolt with both hands.

"Third brother, why are you back at this time? How cold it is, the road is slippery, what if something happens on the road?"

She muttered to herself, looking at Xie Zhiyan's smiling eyes through the faint light on the snow.

"It's okay, thanks to Zhaotang, we came back in a carriage. ”

Gu Xixi only then found that Xie Zhiyan was followed by a person, she probed out, and a tall carriage stood quietly outside the door.

Brother Lin in the mouth of the third brother turned around and said hello, the coachman whipped lightly, and the horse left with a kick.

"Brother Lin is far away from home, so I invited him to come to our house for the New Year, you can call him Brother Zhaotang. ”

Xie Zhiyan closed the door and introduced the two of them.

"Brother Zhaotang. ”

"Sorry for my sister. ”

At this time, the lights of the main house were also lit, and Xie Zhang's hoarse voice sounded.

"Is it the third child?"

"Hey, mother, I'm back. ”

When the words landed, I saw Xie Zhang's clothes getting up, hurriedly opening the door to greet his son, and he was even more excited to see that his son had brought such a noble friend to the house.

"Oh, mother's good son, this cold day...... Sorry girl, don't cook two bowls of noodles quickly, you have to put a lot of meat!"