On the eighth day of the lunar month, it is cold.

The older generation says that the snow is not cold, but the snow is cold. Since ancient times, literati and writers like snow but not rain, most of them praise snow more, praise rain less, so snow has many elegant names: silver millet, cold ying, cold crisp, Qiongfang.

It's all beautiful.

But what is very beautiful in the eyes of the world is not so beautiful in some people, and it can also be said to be suffering.

The cold wind is bleak, and everything wrapped in a layer of white clothes fades away from "shyness" and slowly reveals its original appearance.

The snow began to fade as the sun shone in what was the coldest day of the year.

At noon, smoke began to rise from the small stone village adjacent to Caishi Town. Although there is cooking smoke, there is no smell of rice, the state and the dynasty have increased taxes, and every household has no rice to cook, how can there be the fragrance of rice.

But a family living in the middle of nowhere, but there is no smoke from the cooking, so it is better to say that a small hut is more appropriate.

A few rotten wood railings, a few bundled straw are very simple to build, and the cold wind blows like willow branches swaying, it is such a place, but it is also a place to live.

Previously, this small hut had two owners, a mother and a son.

Now, there is only one left, and the skinny mother has not survived the past few days, and has gone with a muddy field covered with Qiongfang.

is also said, how can you avoid the cold without a tile to cover your body, thanks to the remaining child's strong body, otherwise he will also go.

In the hut, an eleven or twelve-year-old purple boy with frozen feet looked at the layer of weeds on the ground and was stunned.

This year, this boy with frostbite on his feet and mud spots lost his mother and his only loved one.

The boy's surname is Chen, his nickname is a pronunciation, and his big name is Niansheng, but his mother said that he can't call his name if he is not sixteen, otherwise he will cross the rules.

Xiao Chen Nian had never seen his father when he was born, let alone his father's appearance, only his surname was Chen Mingsheng.

I heard my mother say that my father was a qi refining monk who subdued demons and eliminated demons, and before he was born, he died tragically in the mouth of a demon beast in order to save a little girl, and he didn't even leave a corpse.

When my father was here, he did not live in this small stone village with only a few families, but lived in Caishi Town, where there was a good tiled house, and occasionally earned a few copper coins.

After the death of his father, the mother and son were left to depend on each other, and the mother, a weak woman, had no income, so she could only make some straw sandals to sell on the street, barely able to live.

The good times didn't last long, when Xiao Chen Nian was three years old, he followed his mother to weave straw sandals on the street, and was targeted by a big family in the town.

The Liu family is a wealthy family in Caishi Town, and in this era when everyone can't afford to eat, they still have a two-room maid.

The head of the Liu family is lustful by nature, and when he saw Xiao Chen Nian's mother's beautiful appearance, he became evil, although the young woman was widowed, she was also a fierce character, and she would rather die than obey, so she forced people away with a pair of shabby scissors.

The head of the Liu family is not only lustful by nature but also has a small belly, and when he saw that he lost face, he secretly raped and made a bad mistake behind his back, so that a pair of mother and son who depended on each other lost their only livelihood.

In the next few years, the belongings of the family should be sold cheaply, and they should be used as bento, but even so, the young woman still did not give in, and raised the child alone.

Xiao Chen Nian is also well-behaved and sensible, learned to do laundry and cook early, weave shoes and fabrics, and usually go to the mountains to pick some wild fruits to subsidize the family when he has nothing to do, and his personality also follows his mother, quiet and gentle.

No matter how much straw sandals can be made, it is useless, the Liu family has a big business, and they are ruthless, and the straw shoes cannot be sold at all, so the mother and son have to sell the house cheaply under pressure, and then move to Xiaoshi Village.

The first two years were so cold that the young woman was bedridden and everything in the house was weighed down on a ten-year-old boy.

Although the boy was young, he was not afraid of hardship, so he got up early to take care of his mother and then took the time to go outside to find some way to make a living, go up to the mountains to hunt, go to the fields to plow, and save money to buy medicine for his mother.

But in the past two years, his mother's condition has not improved, but has become more and more serious, and in the days before his mother's death, the boy really had no choice, so he wanted to go to the town's pharmacy to steal some medicine to decoction.

Who happened to be caught stealing the medicine when he wanted to, the medicine shops in the town belonged to the Liu family, and the head of the Liu family had already held a grudge, and when he saw that it was Chen Nian who came to steal the medicine, he became angry, moved ruthlessly, and pulled the red-hot young man with his feet frozen to a small dark room and beat him hard.

Since that day, the young man, who has never seen a wild boar, could not help but tremble his legs when he saw the little dark house.

The boy was in pain, but he didn't say a word.

When I got home that night, the young woman, who had never shed a tear in front of the boy, hugged the boy and cried.

Although the days are bitter, there are sweet times, and every month the boy looks forward to the day when the moon is full, because there will be candied fruit to eat on that day.

Since a few years ago, when my mother was not in bed, there was candied fruit to eat every fifteenth night, and there were many white potatoes, Chen Nian asked curiously, but my mother only said that she spent money to buy it, and did not explain too much.

Until my mother was bedridden, there was nothing of value at home, and she couldn't even get the money for the decoction, but on the fifteenth day of the month, my mother could still take out one or two candied fruits.

This made Chen Nian puzzled, but his mother kept silent about it, although Chen Nian was curious, he didn't ask too much, he just felt that having candied fruit to eat was an excellent thing in the world.

Most of the candied fruits are made of yellow peaches, occasionally two plums, two apricots, sweet but not greasy, very refreshing.

Until now, the boy still thinks that candied fruit is the best thing in the world.

It wasn't until after his mother's death that Chen Nian knew about it and why he had one or two pieces of candied fruit to eat every month.

That night, although it was not fifteen, the moon was surprisingly round, Chen Nian was physically and mentally exhausted and went home early, but as soon as he entered his small hut, a small figure suddenly rushed out, and Chen Nian grabbed her.

The night was too dark, and Chen Nian got closer to see the true face of this "thief who broke into his house and shopped".

It turned out to be a little girl about the same age as him, Chen Nian remembered that she was the little girl of the owner of the candied fruit shop on the street in the town.

Chen Nian looked at the little girl with a flushed face, and then looked at the two candied fruits and a few sweet potatoes on the weeds that were used as beds in the distance, and the young man suddenly realized.

It turned out that this little girl had been sending candied fruit to her mother to eat, and that night was the first time the boy really met her, and it was also the last time.

A few days after the two met that night, a bad news came from the town, which Chen Nian overheard as he was about to go up the mountain to hunt.

In the past few days, a demon beast suddenly appeared on the mountain and ate a little girl, which made people panic.

Chen Nian was very curious to ask around, but he became more and more cold, it turned out that the little girl who was eaten by the demon beast was the little girl who came to deliver the candied fruit that night.

Chen Nian didn't believe it, and wanted to run to her house to inquire, but what he saw was a white thing hanging on her door.

I heard that this little girl went to the mountains to dig her own white potatoes, and then met a demon beast that was eaten and only one arm was left, and the little hand with the broken arm was still holding two pieces of candied fruit tightly.

Apricot's.