They followed the road all the way to the south, and when they were tired of walking, they sat on the side of the road to rest, nibbled on a few mouthfuls of steamed buns, drank a few mouthfuls of river water, and when they had eaten all the steamed buns, they went to the village on the side of the road to buy dry food, and at night they would sleep together in the grove by the roadside.

After five days of walking, the exhausted brothers finally saw a gate on the south side of the road. The city gates were guarded by soldiers, and the people carried baskets and burdens, and went in and out, which was very lively.

Gao Le pointed to the tall city gate in the distance and was overjoyed: "Brother, we have finally arrived, and when we see my father, I want him to make me braised pork, and I also want to eat apples and eat a lot of delicious things." ”

"Okay." Gao Yuan's face also showed a relaxed smile, he took Xiaole's hand and walked quickly towards the city gate.

And when he arrived at the city gate, Gao Yuan's face changed suddenly, and his cheerful footsteps came to an abrupt end.

Gao Le tugged his brother's hand and asked, "Brother, why don't you leave?" ”

Gao Yuan looked at the two big characters on the city gate, and said in a low voice: "Xiaole, it's broken, we seem to be on the wrong path, this is not Deyang." ”

"Huh?" Xiaole was stunned, he didn't know how to read, looked up at the high city gate, and asked, "Brother, where is this?" ”

"Tanzhou."

"Tanzhou? Where is Tanzhou? ”

Gao Yuan shook his head blankly.

He stopped an old man in ragged clothes and white beard, saluted, and asked, "Grandpa, where is Deyang County?" ”

The old man glanced at his brothers with barely visible eyeballs under his heavy eyelids, and said, "Deyang? That's a long way away, a hundred and fifty miles north on the main road ahead, and another fifty miles to the east. If you walk on these two legs, you won't be able to walk for four or five days. ”

Gao Yuan said: "Thank you grandpa." ”

Gao Le smiled and said, "Thank you, uncle." ”

The old man seemed to have just woken up and didn't open his eyes, his two dark brown eyeballs struggled to squeeze out a trace of luster between the upper and lower eyelids, he glanced at Gao Le, who was full of smiles, raised his eyebrows slightly, and unconsciously showed a smile on his lips, then turned around and walked straight into the city gate.

At this time, Gao Yuan realized that they had taken the wrong road, and said in frustration: "Xiaole, I'm sorry, I saw a fork in the road halfway, if you go east from there, you can reach Deyang, but we went south along the main road, and we ended up here." ”

Gao Le blinked his eyes wide, and suddenly smiled, "Brother, don't be sorry, since you're here, let's go in first, let's eat some food first, Dad said 'The boat will naturally go straight to the bridge', huh?" ”

Looking at Gao Le's naughty smiling face and the two looming dimples, Gao Yuan's depressed heart instantly brightened, and said, "Okay, let's go eat something first." ”

The two entered the city hand in hand.

The first time the brothers walked out of that village, and it was the first time they came to a bustling town, and they saw the streets lined with shops, crowded with people, horseback riders, sedan chairs, stalls and shouting, everywhere was full of freshness.

The two walked all the way, watched all the way, Xiaole jumped and laughed all the way, tired, hungry, they had no money to enter the restaurant, saw a noodle stall on the side of the road, ordered two bowls of noodles, and the two of them devoured them.

Xiao Er settles accounts: "Two texts and one bowl, two people have a total of four texts." ”

Gao Yuan took out the money from his arms and counted it, when he came out, there were a total of twenty Wen, and he bought two steamed buns on the way, and now there are eight Wen left, he took out four Wen and paid for the noodles.

It was getting dark, and the two brothers had nowhere to go, so they walked to the front of a shop, which had been proofed, and they sat on the front steps, planning to rest here for one night and then set off for Deyang tomorrow.

Gao Le looked at the pedestrians on the street and said with a smile: "Brother, look, there are so many people here, if it were in our village, where would there be people here." “

Gao Yuan said "um", "Yes, this place is much bigger than our village." ”

Xiaole raised his hand and gently touched the two-inch-long scar on Gao Yuan's forehead, and said, "Brother, it's scarred, does it still hurt?" ”

Gao Yuan shook his head lightly: "It doesn't hurt." ”

On a cold spring night, Gao Le curled up, his arms around his knees, his chin resting on his knees, and asked, "Brother, we don't have much money, can we still go to Deyang?" ”

Gao Yuan said: "Don't worry, my brother eats less, you eat more, we will definitely be able to find my father in Deyang." ”

As he was talking, a middle-aged woman carrying a basket came over, looked at them, and then took out two pennies from her sleeve pocket and said:

"Poor boy, buy you a steamed bun to eat." Then he put the money on the ground in front of them, turned around, and went on his way.

The plateau was stunned.

"Haha," Gao Le was really happy now, and called crisply at the woman's back: "Thank you, sister." ”

The woman suddenly stopped, turned her head and smiled at Gao Le: "This kid has a pretty sweet mouth." ”

Looking at the figure of the woman leaving, Gao Le hurriedly picked up the two copper coins, and said happily: "Brother, I have thought about it, let's stay here for two days, save some money and leave." “

"What do you mean......?" Beg? ”

Gao Le smiled: "Why not? We are children, we don't have the ability to work yet, if they give it, we will take it, forget it if we don't give it, and we are not going to rob it, brother, as long as we have enough twenty copper plates, we can go. ”

Gao Yuan Hao had also studied in a private school for two years, and now he asked him to beg for money, he was unwilling, and reprimanded in a low voice: "Xiaole, don't make trouble, go begging, it's a shame." ”

Gao Le grinned, raised his hand and patted his little chest: "No shame, no shame, if my brother is embarrassed, I'll come." ”

Looking at his younger brother with an innocent smile on his face, Gao Yuan sighed secretly in his heart and shook his head helplessly.

The night was windy, Gao Le shivered, reached out to hold his brother in his arms, and warmed his body with his thin chest......

As soon as it was dawn the next day, the shopkeeper removed the door panel, saw two children sitting in front of the door, and shouted, "Oh, get up, this is not your bed." ”

Gao Yuan woke up and hurriedly stood up with his younger brother in his arms, Gao Le didn't wake up yet, and lay in his brother's arms with his eyes closed. Gao Yuan hugged him, and found a more spacious shop to sit on the steps next to the door.

Suddenly, a boy about his age walked over, he was ragged, and he was holding a broken bowl in his hand, and at a glance he knew that it was Hanako, and at this moment, Hanako waved the broken bowl in his hand to drive them away:

"Let's go, this is my territory."

The shopkeepers just drove them away, and now even a beggar came to drive him, Gao Yuan couldn't help but be annoyed in his heart, and said, "Your territory? I ......"

was about to argue with the child, but was stopped by his brother Gao Le.

"Brother, people came first, let's not get in the way of others, just change places."

Gao Yuan thinks about it, even if people call Hanako, they are still in this city, and he and his younger brother have just come, and they are not familiar with each other, so it is better not to have disputes. Glaring at Hanako, he turned around and took Gao Le to find a new place and sit down.

Gao Yuan sat on the steps, his head down, almost embarrassed to look up, while Gao Le sat cross-legged on the ground, smiling at passers-by.

Seeing a middle-aged woman walking in front of him, he suddenly opened his mouth and called his sister sweetly, the woman stopped and looked at him, and said with a smile:

"Little ghost, I can be your mother, you call me sister?"

Gao Le smiled and said: "Sister, you are so beautiful, if you can be my mother, then I will wake up laughing in my dreams." ”

"Hahaha......" The woman asked with a smile on her face, "What about your mother?" ”

The corners of Gao Le's mouth turned down, and he said aggrievedly: "My mother is dead." ”

"Ouch, poor thing, such a young child has no mother."

The woman took out a few pennies from her sleeve pocket and stuffed them into his hand, and said, "It's hard for you, in this world, it's difficult for adults to live, how can you children live." Take it, buy you steamed buns to eat, I still have something to do at home, I'll leave first. ”

Gao Le called sweetly: "Mother, you go slowly, you have time to see your son." ”

Gao Le threw the two copper plates in his hand into Gao Yuan's hand, and a pair of eyes continued to stare at the passerby.

Gao Yuan looked at the two copper plates in his hand and was dumbfounded, how could he not have thought that his younger brother would use this method to beg for money?!

But after a while, Gao Le suddenly stood up again, rushed to a sixty-year-old lady, hugged her arm and called out repeatedly: "Mother, mother, I finally found you......"

The old lady was stunned for a moment, turned her head to look at him, and said puzzledly: "Child, you recognize the wrong person, right?" I'm sixty years old, where did you get such a young son?! ”

Gao Le stared at her face for a long time, and said with a puzzled face: "My mother is thirty years old, but why do you look so similar to my mother." ”

The old lady laughed: "Silly boy, where am I like a thirty-year-old?" ”

Gao Le praised seriously: "What I said is true, you really look like my mother, I just recognized the wrong person." ”

The old lady asked, "What about your mother?" Where did it go? ”

Gao Le's mouth pursed, and he suddenly burst into tears: "My mother is lost, I can't find it, I have no relatives and no reason here, and if I can't find my mother, I'm going to starve to death." ”

When she saw him crying, the old lady was distressed and hurriedly said, "Ouch, good boy, don't cry, don't cry." ”

She took a few buns from the basket and stuffed them into his hand, and comforted: "Don't be afraid, child, this Tanzhou City is not big, you just stay here and wait, your mother will come back to find you, ah, don't run around, otherwise your mother won't find you." ”

Holding a few buns, Gao Le's tears fell down, and he thanked again and again: "Thank you, mother, no, thank you, aunt." ”

When the old lady heard him call his mother for a while, and his aunt for a while, she was both happy and distressed, and couldn't help but take two fritters from the basket and hand them to him:

"Take it, if you can't eat it, it's lunch, maybe your mother will pick you up soon, I'm going home to deliver food, I'm leaving, don't run around."

"Hey, auntie, go slowly."

Gao Le held the food in one hand, ran back to the plateau, stuffed the bun into his hand, and said happily:

"Brother, let's eat, we have lunch now."

Looking at the pile of food in his hand, the teeth of the plateau rattled, and his face was almost green, and after a while, the younger brother recognized the two mothers, and he didn't dare to resemble him.

Gao Le didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, he filled his stomach first, he took a bite of the bun, and said in surprise: "Brother, eat quickly, this is meat, there is a lot of meat in it." ”

Gao Yuan may not have eaten meat for a long time, as soon as he heard that there was meat, he couldn't help but swallow his saliva, smelling the fragrance of the meat bun, he couldn't care about anything anymore, he bit down, the fragrance was fragrant, and the internal organs were instantly comfortable, and he ate the meat bun in a big gulp, looking at Gao Le's satisfied smile, he couldn't help but show a hint of a smile.

……

As night fell, the two found a half-demolished house, which was a mess of broken bricks and tiles, but fortunately half of the roof had not been removed, and they hid in a corner, barely sheltering from the wind and rain.

Gao Le snuggled in his brother's arms and said with a smile: "Brother, if it goes on like this, we can set off the day after tomorrow." ”

Gao Yuan smiled bitterly: "That's you, in one day, you recognized three mothers, two fathers, and an aunt, I see what relatives you can recognize tomorrow." ”

Gao Le smiled: "It's just a mouthful, it's better to recognize a few relatives than to be beaten by her every day at home, right?" You see, these 'relatives' of mine are much better than Jiang Lan, at least they don't beat me. ”

Hearing this, Gao Yuan's heart was sour, he hugged his brother's thin body tightly in his arms, and blamed himself:

"I'm sorry, Xiaole, it's my brother I'm useless, I didn't protect you."

Gao Le smiled: "Brother, you have been beaten more than me, when I grow up, I will protect you." ”

Gao Yuan's heart warmed, and he said softly: "Okay." ”