Eight years of Longze, late winter.

Yunyang County, Wuzhou, Zhen's firewood house.

"Zhen Ying!"

At three moments of ugliness, a gray sky should have been silent.

Zhen Ying was picked up like a chicken and slipped out and fell to the ground. Along with the landing, there are several large basins of copper.

The noisy Yunyang dialect, jingling bells and ringing, is so lively.

Hu Shi was originally in a daze and got up at night, and was frightened by the sound of the copper basin, and it was a slap in the face: "No girl, no girl, if you are born, you should be drowned in the urine bucket!" ”

Mother He handed over an oil lamp and raised her chin on the bed, as if it was Zhen Ying, not her, who accidentally knocked over the copper basin.

Zhen Ying had a half-red and swollen face, her lips opened and closed, and she wanted to justify.

However, she was dumb and could not speak.

Mother He is the grandmother's companion, relying on a bit of decency, except for the housekeeper's daughter-in-law You Shi, no one pays attention to it on weekdays.

The firelight lit up the dark night, and the girl had weed-like hair. A thin layer of skin wraps the bones tightly, the face is thin, the forehead is particularly wide, and the eyes are surprisingly large. Flames danced in the hollow, confused pupils.

I don't know if it's a psychological effect, Hu Shi looked at those eyes, and only felt panicked.

The Zhen family can be regarded as a rich family in Yunyang City, and it is not that they can't afford to raise maids.

Only in recent years, he has often advertised his own cultivation and heirlooms, and paid attention to the word "filial piety".

When it comes to serving the elders, we will never leave a false hand to others.

The other rooms have their own fathers and mothers, and only Zhen Ying is an orphan girl, so she naturally has to go to the Hu family room to serve.

The Hu family relied on himself to come out of the palace, and he had always put on a good stand as an elder.

Wake up early to say hello, settle the province in the morning and dusk, and eat with food cloths...... Hu has not many abilities, but there are many rules. On weekdays, he has a good face and loves to put on music, these chickens and dogs are broken, and they are all served by juniors.

Now Hu is forty years old, and he doesn't sleep well when he is old, and he is even more tormented at night, and he has to get up twice a night.

That old arm and legs, even if he is holding on to the bed, he can't squat, and he has to be served by someone to use the night pot.

Zhen Ying was woken up twice last night and this morning, thinking that it should be enough.

Five or six-year-old children sleep too much, and they don't dare to sleep too hard.

Zhen Ying only asked the maid Xiao Lian to help keep an eye on it, and she was crooked on the footstool in the room, which was regarded as resting.

Even so, Mother He woke up in the middle of the night and didn't see anyone, but she still lost her temper.

Zhen Ying couldn't argue, so she silently went to the bottom of the bed and served the night pot.

Hu Shi can't hold back when she is old, if she is allowed to make a fool of herself, she will be beaten and scolded more than once.

Everyone said that Zhen Ying was clumsy, and it was naturally not her turn to serve when she got dressed and went to bed.

After tossing for half a night, the footstool was taken away by Mother He and put under her buttocks, and Zhen Ying really had no place to rest.

In the early spring, the dogs are too cold and huddle in the house and refuse to come out.

The rough mother-in-law handed her hand, and the stinking breath came to her face.

Zhen Ying changed into the hard-soled shoes she wore outdoors, and she was still wearing an old dress that others were wearing.

There was a thin layer of snow outside.

The chill stared into the void, wisps digging into the cracks of the bones.

Zhen Ying's fingers were covered with chilblains, and she trembled, and it was easy to lift a bucket half waist high.

Through a thin door, there was a warm light swaying in the room.

In the middle of the night, no one boiled water, so Zhen Ying held the wooden bucket and went to the well with a meager amount of moonlight.

It's snowing.

The sky is not yet light, but the earth is already light.

The east gradually turned gray, and the haze gradually dissipated in the winter sky.

Zhen Ying squatted down on the edge of the well fence and picked up the brush as if she was fated.

She didn't sleep all night, she was sleepy and delirious, and the blurred picture of her past and present life was in front of her.

There are sunny days and boundless rain.

There is a teenager who is struggling to write under the incandescent lamp.

There is a traffic in the flashing neon signs.

There is a woman sitting on a dragon chair wearing a white deerskin dress.

Above the clouds, there are three thousand green silk falling immortals.

These people smiled and looked at themselves, then, familiar.

Daddy, Mom.

Are you coming to pick me up?

The barrel smashed the moon.

It was too late, it was too late, and a pair of big hands grabbed her feet.

The bucket with a rope sinks into the well.

The person who came only felt a light hand, and pulled out a little girl like a turnip.

came out together, and the snowflakes of the reeds in the cracks on the little girl's clothes.

Why don't you let me go see my parents? Zhen Ying's eyes widened and she looked at the man in front of her.

In the backyard of a small county like Yunyang, there must be no strange man. She should struggle, call for help......

It's about a family's name festival.

But she froze and was mute again.

Tears were frozen in his eyes by the cold wind.

……

The concept of death is not new to children.

Candles are lit in the ancestral hall.

Those who weep and mourn will spread out the paper money like a folding fan and throw it into the brazier one by one.

A warm air flow rises from it, and the paper ash flies like a white butterfly.

On the offering table, fresh tributes are piled up into a small mountain, as long as the middle is hollowed out and then arranged, no one will notice.

Death is full and warm.

At the turn of winter and spring, the chill is biting. Zhen Ying looked at the man in front of him through the exhaled white mist.

The figure was tall and straight, with a broad back, blocking most of the moonlight, and he looked particularly tall.

He untied the straps around his neck, took off his cloak, and wrapped the little girl tightly in his arms.

Are you shooting flowers? Or is it a human tooth? Zhen Ying's head was groggy, and she smelled the faint fragrance of the man, and her body gradually warmed up.

Like the snake in the farmer's arms, she gradually regained consciousness in the warmth.

"Zhen Ying! Where is the dead girl hiding? Mother He's voice was so far away.

Zhen Ying burst into tears, babbling in her mouth, unable to speak.

"I'm not your father." The man carried the girl to the firewood room and tried to put her down.

The sleeves of the shirt were pulled out of shape, and I don't know where the red, swollen and skin-broken hands got so much strength.

Take me away, take me away, whether you're shooting flowers or human teeth, or you're a monster that eats children, take me away.

The mute made an unpleasantly hoarse sound, the big bright eyes were filled with moisture, and the thin paws hugged the man's arms, like a man in the water holding the last piece of driftwood.

The man paused, and his heart-of-love almost faltered.

He closed his eyes, paused for a moment, and pulled the girl's fingers away one by one: "I'm sorry." ”

The girl pounced on the man, clutching the hem of the man's clothes, her nails digging into the fabric. A pair of eyes looked at him like they could talk.

Take me away, you take me out of this door, stay here and keep here, I'm really going to die! Take me out, just take me out, I'm very well-behaved, very obedient, you can do whatever you want me to do.

Her throat tingled, her mouth opened and closed, and her mutilated vocal cords let out a weak scream.

The man gently pinched one of her acupuncture points and patted her shoulder soothingly.

The hoarse, dumb cry ceased.

The girl sat down on the ground and looked at him.

The sight was so short that the visitor couldn't speak.

It's so long, it's the length of a girl's life.

The girl was silent for a moment and took two steps back, just when the man thought she was going to give up.

"Tom"

The girl knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing to him.

At the first blow, his forehead was bruised, and the dull voice was unusually silent in the winter night, as if it echoed.

She couldn't speak, and the sound of a bell and drum kowtow was the loudest she could make in her short life.

However, there was a second, a third, and a sound......

The man sighed, turned around, grabbed her shoulders again, and clicked two acupuncture points.

The man took out a slender white porcelain bottle from his arms, hesitated for a moment, and poured out a golden pill.

It's sweet, even if it's poison, it's a good poison.

The man pinched Zhen Ying's jaw, for fear that she would spit it out, and a sweet pill rolled down her throat.

Zhen Ying smacked her lips, and between her lips and teeth, there seemed to be a clear fruity fragrance.

Sleepiness hits.

Zhen Ying struggled to raise her eyelids, keeping an eye on the comer.

"Just as stubborn as your mother."

Those big eyes looked at him in disbelief, as if to ask, "Do you know my mother?" ”

"Don't die, your father and your mother are very good people."

He paused, slapped one hand on the girl's sleeping hole, and whispered: "Sleep, your father and mother exchanged your life for you, not to let you be a cow or a horse." ”