In a fenced courtyard in the north of Wucun, Qi Mian was sitting on a low wooden bench, next to a persimmon tree, and the few leaves that were sparsely pulled were swept away by the wind in a short time.

Qi Yu struggled to carry a few coarse firewood wrapped in thatch into the yard. Qi Mian saw it and hurriedly came to help.

After the event, Qi Mian blew his reddened hand and patted the soil on it, and said to Qi Yu, "Sister, this is too heavy." ”

Qi Yu also brushed the dust off his hands and said, "You are only ten years old and a child, so you naturally feel tired, my sister is already thirteen years old and an adult, and her strength is greater than yours, so she will not be very tired." ”

"Dad, mother and sister are all adults," Qi Mian nodded, and suddenly cried with red eyes: "I miss Dad." Qi Yu couldn't help crying when he heard this, his hands tightened, he turned his back to wipe his tears, and turned around to take Qi Mian's hand.

Qi Yu said: "Mianmian, don't cry, I'll take you to the village to buy candy." Qi Yu ran to the back room, took out a few pennies from his wooden box, and took out the silver bell inside.

This bell was made by her thirteen-year-old father at the blacksmith Zhang, and because the bell was very small, the sound was also muffled.

She tied the bell to her sister and said, "This is left by my father, this bell is the incarnation of my father, as long as Mianmian takes the bell with me, my father can see you in the sky." “

Qi Mian stopped crying, twisted the silver bell with one hand, spread it in the palm of his hand and lightly touched it with his index finger.

Qi Yu took his sister's hand and walked out of the yard, and used hemp rope to perforate the fence door and wrap it around a few times before turning around and taking Qi Mian onto the dirt road. It's just that the more the two of them walked forward, the more they found that something was wrong, and many people were running around in panic, and the two had already arrived under the ancient tree not far from the entrance of the village, and there was a huge stone mill that turned next to the ancient tree.

Qi Mian pulled the corner of Qi Yu's clothes and asked her, "Sister, then are we going to buy candy?" “

Qi Yu was also a little uneasy when she watched so many people fleeing, thinking that her mother would go out to find a job this morning, so she pushed Qi Mian towards the stone grinding edge, and explained: "Sister, go forward and take a look, you just stay here and don't run around, if there is danger, run home, do you hear?" “

Qi Mian nodded quickly and stood obediently against the stone mill.

Qi Yu patted her sister on the shoulder, then bent over and ran out, and one by one the villagers passed by her, and there were some new faces that she didn't recognize.

Qi Yu guessed that these strangers might be homeless, earlier some homeless people wanted to live in Wuzhen and were rejected by the village chief and almost started a group of people to fight, since the village did not allow these people to stay, then why did they see so many today?

"Qi girl, why are you still running there!"

As soon as Qi Yu turned around, he saw that he was being pulled by an old man, but he saw that it was an old man who sold caramel at the entrance of the village.

"Uncle Wang, why didn't you sell sugar today, what's wrong, why is everyone running?"

The old man hurriedly replied: "The rebels have passed through our village, and they have to arrest people from the ranks, men, women and children have been arrested, hurry up and run!" ”

Qi Yu hurriedly asked him, "Then have you seen my mother?" ”

The old man only waved Qi Yu's hand away with an "oops" and walked away quickly. Qi Yu heard a "click" sound in his ears, it was a horse's hooves! At this time, the only ones who can ride horses are the rebels!

Qi Yu thought about Uncle Wang's words, and immediately turned around and went to the place where the stone mill was originally to find his sister.

Along the way, Qi Yu held back her tears, she was worried that her mother would encounter an accident, but she never thought that the stone mill was empty, and Qi Yu panicked.

"Mianmian! Continuous! Qi Mian-" She circled around the stone mill, but she didn't see it! He shouted a few more times, remembered his explanation, and quickly ran towards home.

Along the way, she became more and more panicked, the fields on both sides of the dirt road were empty, and a few sparrows fluttered and flapped their wings by the small river in the distance, as if there was no one in the world except her.

Kicking the dirt bag with his right foot and couldn't stop planting it forward, the blood oozing from his hands brought a hot pain, Qi Yu finally couldn't hold it back, and cried loudly, but the movements of his hands and feet still didn't stop.

She's going to find her sister!

At last she saw the closed fence not far away, and she saw the hemp rope, which was wound and placed in the same direction as when she went out, but she did not give up, she untied the slipknot with both hands, trembled and squeezed hard, and broke or pulled until the door was pushed open a small gap and squeezed in.

Qi Yu's steps were slightly slow, and she didn't reach the door of the house, so she shouted: "Mother! Continuous! I am back. ”

Qi Yu pushed the door open, and then stepped in: "Mother! Mother! ”

The room was empty, there was no one, and she seemed to be crazy again, her eyes red as she went from the main house to the dormitory to the kitchen.

No, no, except for Qi Yu's own shout, all that was left was the painful "squeak-" when the wooden door was opened.

Qi Yu ran out again, the fence door was still wide open, and she had no time to take care of it.

She went to the place where she and Qi Mian often played, digging bamboo shoots in the spring, catching fish in the river, picking persimmons in the yard in the fall, and nesting by the earthen stove in the winter to keep warm......

None of them.

Qi Yu sat on the ridge, the sky was like a fire, about to burn it all up, and the scene in front of him Qi Yu once thought that he was dead.

"Qi Yu!"

Hearing someone shouting, Qi Yu turned around in a daze, and a woman in the distance smiled when she saw her reaction and approached her.

It was Aunt Li, a widow in the village, who came forward to take Qi Yu's hand and said, "Qi Yu, your mother is looking for you and your sister, and she is about to go home." ”

Hearing this, Qi Yu trembled, and a wave of fear and grief rose in his heart.

However, she could only go home with Aunt Li, and her heart was only blank along the way, and she only stopped outside the fence.

Aunt Li was puzzled: "You kid hasn't entered the house yet, are you afraid that your mother will beat you?" Next time, don't come home so late. Aunt Li's last sentence was obviously ridiculous, the children of poor families have long been in charge, and she knows that Qi Yu is very sensible.

Qi Yu didn't go in, but Qi's mother came out, she pulled Qi Yu into the house and thanked Aunt Li and then said a few polite words, and when she entered the house, she only saw Qi Yu's whole person. She said to Qi Yu: "Xiaoyu, today my mother found a job embroidering embroidery, and I will give money for delivery, and the employer knows very well that the New Year will give the money for these embroidery items to my mother first." ”

Qi Yu looked up at Qi Zhao and lowered his eyes again, his mother's eyes were red and swollen, obviously crying.

Qi Mu continued: "Tomorrow, if the weather is good, my mother will go buy some meat and come back for you...... Make up for it. ”

"Mother!" Qi Yu knelt down suddenly: "Qi Mian is lost, I took her out, I didn't take a good look at her when the displaced people entered the village......" Qi's mother fixed her body when she heard this, and hurriedly took Qi Yu in her arms, and the mother and daughter hugged each other and cried in this winter night, crying blood, and feeling sad.

"It's not your fault, it's not your fault...... Mother only needs Yu'er, mother only has Yu'er......"

Mother Qi only secretly hated the injustice of heaven and earth, but prayed to God to let her Mianmian be safe and sound. Since Qi's father died, she has often had thoughts of suicide, but her pair of daughters made her gasp, and now there are only two left, she and Qi Yu.