Fifteen years later.

On the sea in the west, there is a cold island, the four seasons are like winter, on the shore of the cold island, there is a tribe named Daze, in the middle of the night, I see a lot of fires lit by the sea.

It was dark, and the woman in one room looked very worried, she was not tall, even if she stood in the low room, the space above her head was very wide, her hands were thin, her skin was covered with bones, and she looked like a skeleton. The cold wind was howling outside the door, but her husband and son, who had gone out to sea to fish, had not yet returned. The house was an igloo made of ice, with a sturdy wooden door, a simple furnishings, some fishbone hides hanging on the walls, a few leather blankets in the center, and a fire in the middle, on which water was boiling.

The woman sat on the blanket, watching the fire, and from time to time she noticed the movement outside the door.

On the other side of the blanket, there was a teenager about ten years old, with a chubby face, his eyes were closed, but his expression looked a little uncomfortable. The woman touched his forehead lovingly. The young man opened his eyes and said coquettishly: "Mother, I'm hungry!"

The woman comforted, "Bear with me a little longer, and when your father and brother come back, they will have something to eat." ”

"Then why haven't they come back?"

"They will be back right away. ”

"They're not going to come back, are they?"

The woman's face changed slightly, and she said, "No, I will come back." ”

"But Uncle Tian next door and the two of them didn't come back, Aunt Tian said they would come back, but it's been two months, and they still haven't come back, everyone says Aunt Tian is crazy"

The woman's face became even more ugly, and she said in a deep voice: "Don't talk nonsense! Your father and they will be back soon!"

The boy closed his eyes again, and after a while he suddenly sat up and shouted, "No, I'm going to find my father!"

The woman shouted, "Lie down for me!"

"It's so uncomfortable!" the boy resisted.

The woman was about to say something, when suddenly there was a squeak, and the door opened, and there appeared a thin and sturdy man in the doorway, with a face covered with frost and lips purple from the cold, dressed in an animal skin coat, and carrying a harpoon in his hand.

The woman looked behind him and asked, "What about Yu'er?"

The Yu'er she was talking about was an orphan that the couple picked up on a small boat at sea fifteen years ago and named Yu.

With a solemn expression, the man put the harpoon by the door, walked to the fire without saying a word, sat down, sighed, and said, "Pour me a bowl of water." ”

"Father, what about the food, I'm so hungry!" cried the boy.

The man glared at him.

The woman handed the water over and asked, "What's going on?"

"The boat capsized. The man took a sip of boiling water, did not frown, and said in a numb tone.

The woman's face turned pale: "What?

"He's fine. ”

"What about the others?"

"He's at Yakushi's house now, and he's not coming back tonight. ”

"What's wrong with him?" the woman's face changed a little.

"The hand seems to be broken. ”

"Broken?" the woman startled again.

"Well, it's broken, that's what the pharmacist said. ”

"How could it be broken?" the woman still couldn't believe it.

"I'm so hungry!" the boy interjected.

The man snorted: "He's useless!"

"What the hell is going on?" said the woman anxiously.

The man sighed and said: "When we only went to sea today, the beginning was quite smooth, there was a little harvest, I wanted to take advantage of the good weather, go farther, and play more, who knows how long I didn't go, although the weather was good, but the sea was not calm, and there were big waves for no reason, although I wanted to row back desperately, but I was still overturned, no way, the waves were too fierce, I could only swim back to the shore"

"Even so, Yu'er's hand can't be broken!" the woman said puzzledly, "Although he is not as watery as you, he should still be able to come back safely." ”

"Yes, if he hadn't gotten tangled in a fishing net. ”

"He's got entangled in a fishing net?"

"I asked him to pull the fishing net with me, and he was fine, but he was dragged into the water by the fish, if I hadn't been quick, he would be dead by now, huh!"

The woman was stunned for a moment, and after half a ring, her eyes were red and she said: "He has always been weak, you know that he doesn't have that strength"

The man was silent and drank the boiling water from the bowl one by one.

The boy clutched his stomach and asked, "What about the fish?"

The woman scolded: "Your brother's hand is broken, how can there be fish?! You don't ask your brother's hand, but you still come to ask the fish, if he didn't want you to fill your stomach, would he be so desperate?"

The man said, "There are fish." ”

The woman and the boy looked at the man together, one surprised and the other surprised.

The man continued, "It's not all of it, but it's pulled back some." If he hadn't dragged his feet, he could have pulled it all back!"

The woman's face was a little obscure: "You forced him to pull, so his hand was broken, right?"

The man said coldly: "How do I know that he doesn't even have such a little strength! He can't even get this little strength, what's the use of raising him?"

"He's still a kid"

"Child? other people's children, younger than him, can go to sea alone, what kind of child is he?"

The woman fell silent.

"What about the fish?" asked the woman after a moment, "and she's still hungry." ”

"The fish is buried under the snow on the shore and will be fetched during the day. The man's tone was a little solemn.

"When you're tired, rest first, I'll get it. The woman stood up.

"I'll get it during the day!" the man said again in an accentuated tone.

"What's wrong?" the woman noticed that the man didn't seem to have finished speaking.

After a while, the man spoke: "It's not safe at night. ”

"It's not windy now, I'll be back soon. The woman stepped along.

"It's not about the wind!" said the man, a little annoyed.

"What's that?" said the woman, puzzled, "have you found wild beasts on the shore?"

The man did not answer.

"What the hell?" the woman asked worriedly.

The man glanced at the young man and said in a deep voice, "Don't ask." Anyway, no one is allowed to go out tonight!"

The woman saw the man assuming the authority of the head of the family and sat down obediently.

The young man glanced at his father and wanted to speak, but he was a little scared, so he had to twist his head to his mother and whispered: "I want to eat fish, mother!"

The woman poured him a bowl of water and said softly, "Good, drink more water." ”

The boy took two sips from the edge of the bowl.

The woman touched his head: "Go to bed early." ”

The boy didn't want to sleep, but when he saw his father's serious face and gloomy eyes as if he was about to kill someone, he didn't dare to make more trouble, and after sitting for a while, he lay down, with his back to his father, his eyes looked at the fish bones on the wall, and counted silently in his heart: "One, two, three, four"

Men and women silently stared at the fire in a daze. The two seemed a little numb to what happened today.

The wind was still howling outside the door.

Suddenly, in the midst of that whistling sound, there was a cacophony of shouting, intermittent and inaudible.

"Don't fight, there's something to discuss," vaguely seemed to be shouted.

"What's wrong?" the woman asked worriedly.

The man stood up: "I'll go and see, you stay home and watch the child." ”

Before going out, the man specially instructed, "Don't go out!"

The woman sat at the fire, anxious as she listened to the movement outside.

The shouting continued intermittently for a while, and suddenly, all the sounds were gone, no longer sounding, and only the sound of the cold wind howling outside the door.

I don't know how long it was, but when the woman kept watch over the fire alone, and when she saw that the fire had become smaller, she added some firewood, and waited until she added it a fifth time, and then the man returned.

When the woman saw her husband's expression, she knew that what had just happened outside was definitely not a good thing.

The man sat down, drank several sips of water, and at the end, asked, "Has the child slept?"

"I'm already asleep. The woman said, "What is it?"

The man sighed and said, "Tian Changshou's house next door is gone." ”

The woman's face changed slightly, but she didn't look surprised, for such a result, she had already expected, a woman whose husband and son died, in this difficult world, is equivalent to losing the pillar of life, all families are difficult, one more mouth, is equal to one more burden, no one will help an outsider who has no ability to prey.

It's brutal, but that's the reality, and there's no way around it.

"I'm so hungry that I don't look like a human being. The man took a few more sips of water, remembering what he had just seen, and still had palpitations.

The woman thought of a family of three who was full of harmony not long ago, and ended up with such a broken family in the blink of an eye, and her heart was also mixed.

The woman suddenly glanced at the man, as a wife, she has always known her husband very well, her husband's expression seemed to be a little strange, as if there was an inexplicable shock, this shouldn't be, Tian Changshou's family starved to death sooner or later, her husband had expected it, there shouldn't be such a surprised look, but in this difficult moment, she didn't have much energy to care about the neighbor's affairs, she remembered another more important thing: "You haven't encountered a wild beast on the shore before, why don't you bring the fish back?"

The man glanced at her and seemed hesitant to say it, but under his wife's worried gaze, he still said, "I saw two people, they are from our tribe." ”

The woman wondered, "What's wrong with the people in our tribe, isn't that normal?"

The man said, "Of course it is normal for the living, but it is not normal for the dead." ”

"Dead man?" the woman startled.

The man glanced at her and said, "It's the husband and son of Tian Changshou's family next door." ”

"How is that possible?" the woman was even more surprised, "they have been out to sea for two months and have not come back, and it is this weather during this period, how can they still be alive?"

"Yes, it's impossible. "But I did see it, or I wouldn't have thrown the fish down." ”

"Did Yu'er see it too?"

"How could he see that when he came ashore, he was like a dead man, huh. ”

"Could it be that the wind and snow are too big, are you mistaken?"

"No, when we came ashore, it wasn't windy, I first heard movement behind me, and when I turned around, I saw the two of them standing behind me, soaking wet, as if they had just crawled out of the water, staring straight at me."

The woman's face was filled with horror.

The man continued: "I was also startled, neither of them spoke, as if they didn't recognize me, and they didn't respond when they talked to me, I was immediately frightened, buried the fish in a hurry, and ran back to the tribe with Yu'er on my back, and went to Yaosi's house for a long time, I thought that if those two were really alive, they should go home at this time, but when I came back, Ueda Changshou's house took a look, and there was no one else in the house." They didn't come home, so where did they go?"

The woman's face was already pale: "That's why you won't let me go out?"

The man nodded.

After a long silence, the woman said slowly: "You say, will Tian Changshou's family be taken away by them?"

"I don't know. ”

"It must be so, their father and son couldn't bear to see her suffer here alone, so they took her over there to be reunited. ”

The man smiled bitterly, "I hope so." ”

"You don't have to worry too much, no matter what, we are their neighbors, we have no grudges against them, they will not be embarrassed by us. ”

The man glanced at his wife and said slowly, "This is not what worries me the most now. ”