The night was shallow, and a round of bright full moon was already slowly falling to the side of the western canopy, and under the gradually brightening canopy, the countless stars that had blinked their eyes all night closed their little eyes as if they were tired, and leisurely indulged in the sleep called day.

Heavens, before I knew it, it was about to light up.

In an old alley near the city wall, a scar-faced man with a bruise, fiery red fist mark on his left cheek near the bridge of his nose, walked to a wooden door with a dull and old god, slightly upturned on the edge.

Rubbing his face vigorously, he carefully pushed open the wooden door, which was much older than the door god.

An unexpected "squeak" sounded in the courtyard with the opening of the wooden door, startling a woman who was bowing her head and mending clothes in the courtyard suddenly looked up, and the needle in her hand almost pierced her fingers.

However, the startled woman did not mean to blame at all, but hurriedly got up and quickly looked at her man, and when she saw the purple red mark on his face that could not be hidden, the woman's eyes turned red all of a sudden.

On weekdays, no matter how late the man is, he will return home before the moon goes down.

And as long as it's late, there must be something wrong.

There have been three such accidents before.

Almost every time I came back, I was covered with extremely serious injuries, and two of the three times I couldn't walk at all, so I had to be carried into the house by others.

But again and again, I didn't lie in the house for a long time, as long as I waited for a little better, I went out again and continued to do those things that hurt yin morality.

What "100 days of breaking muscles and bones", let alone 100 days, even half a month, her man has not been lying enough.

Looking at the fist mark on his man's face, which was almost half a face, although it was much better than the scary appearance of the previous times when his face was covered with blood, but the woman just looked at it like this, and remembered those sad and heartache in the past, but all of a sudden, there were tears that couldn't stop hanging, and she couldn't stop it.

The scar-faced man, who was cowering, full of guilt and weakness, and did not see the fierce and majestic outside, saw his daughter-in-law crying, and he panicked all of a sudden, and he was in a hurry.

The rough men who didn't understand the wind and snow at all were not good at talking, and when they saw their daughter-in-law's tears flowing like rain leaking down from the hole in the roof, they were even more speechless.

So he just stood in place like a piece of wood, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but it seemed to choke on phlegm, and he didn't say a word until the end.

Although he is wooden, he also knows that his daughter-in-law is different from those pretentious women who want to die and live, and he really feels sorry for himself when he cries.

But what's wrong with that? If you don't do this pickling that is not much different from adding blood to the knife, then you can only go hungry with your family.

It's not that he didn't want to be ruthless to learn a craft and earn some clean conscience money.

But this dog's way of the world, he can't help it at all!

Zhang Tiegen, who is just across the alley from his family, has passed on the craftsmanship of five generations, who the hell dares to say that the boots made are not good?

The result? A pair of boots is made, and the money for half a pair of boots goes into someone else's pocket, and in the end, a small amount of money is left like a fraction, which is enough to buy rice!

Thinking of these things, the scar-faced man who sighed and got angry in his heart looked at his daughter-in-law again, dressed in cloth clothes that had not been changed all year round, and his hands were full of calluses.

He felt uncomfortable again.

My daughter-in-law, everything is good, but I think that a man's vision is a little worse, and she has suffered for so many years with such a useless thing as herself, and she has not even worn a good-looking clothes.

It was as if she saw the self-blame on her man's face that couldn't be hidden, although she stopped her tears, but the woman with red eyes stepped forward and squeezed her man's hand, and then wanted to pull him to the house to rest.

Both of them didn't sleep all night.

At this moment, the man suddenly turned around in a hurry, and by the door of the inner room where the wall skin was peeling, a child who looked like he had just learned to walk for a long time was holding the door frame with one hand, wiping his eyes with the other, and said in a daze:

"Mother, what are we going to have for breakfast?"

Children from poor families always wake up earlier.

The man's nose was sore, and he blinked his eyes twice quickly, and when he turned around, he was already wearing a smile.

The shocking scar that crossed his forehead and eyebrows had already been pinched in his hand.

……

In an alley facing the street, a young man in a coarse cloth apron, with a bloodied face, bent up like a shrimp and lying to the ground, his fingers hooked slightly.

After a long time, the young man slowly opened his eyes, looked at the scene in front of him through the eyes that could still be opened, and was stunned for a long time before he recognized the situation around him.

After turning over with some difficulty, and sticking his back to the ground, he had a little sense of realism.

Bursts of dizziness came from the back of his head, as if there was still a group of fierce men beating him to the death.

It hurts, it hurts all over my body.

Especially after waking up, as he gradually woke up consciously, those ubiquitous pains seemed to follow the awakening, making him want to grin his teeth in pain.

But his face hurt too.

And it kept getting hot, like a fire burning in his face.

He knew it was swollen.

Sensation of heat, pain, dizziness......

He felt like a jar of all sorts of uncomfortable seasoning was shattered on him, staining him to feel better if he didn't wake up at all.

Staring blankly at the ever-brightening sky, the young man selling wontons remained motionless, as if pretending to be a dead corpse, as if only then the bull-headed horse face and the damn pain would not find him.

Who would have trouble with a dead man?

I don't know how long it took, but he felt that the pain and heat in his body finally began to subside.

With great difficulty, he opened his mouth with a small slit, and after a long exhale, he whispered, "It's dawn."

Then I felt a salty smell of iron between my lips flow into my mouth.

The lips are broken.

Then an old woman who had lost her husband and son early stumbled into his mind.

A spirit, the young man seemed to suddenly have a lot of strength, first turned over, then supported the ground with his elbows, then supported the ground with his palms and knees, and then supported his palms with force, and stood up upright.

Finally, it took a long time before he changed from kneeling to standing, and limped towards his trolley at the entrance of the alley.

He also didn't know if he could go from kneeling to standing in this life.

……

In a hut that was even more dilapidated than the scar-faced man's house, a blind old woman sat on the threshold, looking up at the alley from time to time, and slowly lowered her head after not hearing the familiar phrase "Grandma, I'm back, let's go into the house".

One night, she was thinking about something.

Why hasn't her obedient grandson come back yet?

With such a big person, can he still get lost?

……

In an elegant courtyard of a magnificent and solemn mansion, four people sat quietly at a table of eight immortals carved with red sandalwood.