The fishing nets came out of the water, the tail of the fish crackled in the water, the people on the boat shouted, and there were girls in the stone houses living along the river carrying buckets out to load the fish.

Not long after the shrimp and crabs left the water, the women who had eaten mostly sat in the shade of the trees in front of their homes to pick up the things they picked up from the sea, and ate the cheap ones at home, and sold them at the dock at the expensive price.

"Brother Haishun, go to the dock? Help me get a few crabs, and if someone wants them, they'll be sold. ”

Zheng Haishun supported the boat to land, and Dongzhu leaned over to pick up the small wooden barrel.

"I'll see." Haizhu beckoned, and seven blue-shell crabs fought in the bucket with big pincers.

"It's delicious when you look at it." She smiled and said, "When the injury on my leg is healed, I will go to the sea." ”

Zheng Haishun looked at her in surprise, thinking that her mother was gone, and this girl also stood up, unlike the wilting and unpopular before.

Approaching the estuary, the wind and waves were strong, and the water was swinging one after another, and the people on the boat could hardly sit steadily.

"Get on the board and stop breaking your legs." Zheng Haishun threw away the oar and raised the sail, adjusted the sail according to the direction of the wind, and the seven-foot-long fishing boat went out of the river and into the sea.

With the sails, there is no need to rock the oars, the wind is strong, the ship is fast, and the sea looks calm in the distance, but the three people on board know that the waves are surging towards the shore, and when the sun sets, the tide will flood the beach that stretches for more than ten miles.

There is a small wharf more than 20 miles south along the coast, and Hui'an Town is built according to the wharf, where people within a radius of 100 miles trade, buy, sell, and pay sea rent and fish tax. The fishing boat had been floating on the sea for about a quarter of an hour, and the noisy sound could be faintly heard, Zheng Haishun adjusted the sails again, and around a corner of the slanted mountain wall, the wharf of hundreds of boats racing appeared in front of him.

"That's where Dad picked him up." Dongzhu choked.

Haizhu came back to his senses and hugged the little girl, Qi's father was salvaged by a passing official ship in an accident at sea, passing by the dock and handing over a dead and injured and a broken boat to the local Yu official, who found out his identity and notified the person to come and pick him up.

There were officers and soldiers stationed on the wharf, Zheng Haishun took the sail and rocked the oar close to the coast, got off the boat and tied the rope to the rock, picked up the sea pearl and walked to the wharf, Dong Zhu carried the barrel and followed behind.

After a while, most of the people on the wharf were unloading and carrying bags, and there were few people selling fish, shrimp and crabs. She carried an empty bucket and clutched the corner of Haizhu's clothes tightly, for fear of getting lost in the crowd.

Haizhu raised his head and looked around, Hui'an Town covers a very large area, the periphery is mostly stone houses, and there are brick and tile shops inside, either selling rice and grain, or selling salt and wine to open restaurants, all of which are businesses that make money by the sea.

There is only one medical hall in the town, Haizhu was recognized as soon as she entered, and Dr. Song, who had treated her and her second uncle before, saw that she was in good spirits, and stood up like a ghost, "Are you feverish?" ”

The day before yesterday, he went over for the last time, this girl's pulse had dispersed, and the person was groggy and groggy, so he took a few stitches to do a face-saving job and left, without prescribing any medicine.

"I was lucky to survive." Haizhu said in a normal tone, she stretched out her right leg to show the doctor, "The flesh in the wound seems to be broken, doctor, take a look." ”

Dr. Song handed over the patient to others, lit a candle and looked at it, and gently pressed it on the most swollen flesh, and yellow water flowed out of the wound that seemed to be long.

"It's a carbuncle, and you have to cut the wound and drain the pus and blood to get better, otherwise it will rot your muscles and bones."

Dongzhu was frightened and hugged Haizhu's arm.

"Will I still have a fever after cutting the wound?" For people born on the beach, fever is worse than choking on water, Zheng Haishun is afraid that Haizhu will be like before, the high fever will not subside, the rice oil will not enter, and if he tosses for half a month, no matter how big his life is, he will not be able to survive.

"Yes or no, it depends on the individual." Doctor Song was still observing the swollen wound, and he didn't raise his head and said: "If you don't cut the carrion and drain the pus and blood, the fever will be sooner or later, and you will die at that time." ”

Zheng Haishun was silent and looked at Haizhu with pity.

"Cut it, can you cut it today?" Haizhu asked.

"Is it feasible to be two days late? I'll go to your mother tomorrow. Zheng Haishun hesitated, he would be responsible if something happened.

Haizhu shook her head, Qi's mother was tormented and scared by the situation that her husband was dead and her daughter was dying, so why bother to find her back and be frightened again.

"Cut it today, I have a big life, I can get through it." She didn't believe that God had brought her here so that she could die again.

She nodded, and Dr. Song called the medicine boy to prepare things, Zheng Haishun and Dongzhu were stopped outside the door, and the doctors who did not have patients in their hands went in to observe.

After drinking the hemp boiling, half of Haizhu's body was numb, and he only felt a slight pain when he was half asleep, and he didn't know when he fell asleep. When I woke up again, there was a candle on the table next to the couch, and it was already dark outside.

As soon as she moved, Dongzhu, who was sitting in the chair, noticed it, and hurriedly ran out and said, "Doctor, my sister is awake." ”

Only the medicine boy was there, came in to take a look at the situation, gave her the boiled medicine to drink, and asked Zheng Haishun to carry the person away.

The stars in the sky are like a bucket, the full moon is like a disc, Dongzhu walked behind with a few packets of medicine, she looked back at the medical hall and asked, "Uncle, my sister is fine, right?" ”

"Hmm." Zheng Haishun could only reply, "Go back and take care of it, if something is wrong, call me quickly." ”

"Uncle, thank you very much, let you be scared." Haizhu spoke, "Don't worry, I'll be fine, Dongzhu is still counting on me." ”

Zheng Haishun sighed, adults have a short life, children are sinned, today is a bystander, and another day it may be his child who is helpless. He carried people behind his back to find a steamed bun stall that had not yet been stalled, bought six warm steamed buns, and led the people to a sheltered corner to fill their stomachs.

"I'll pay, uncle......"

"Hurry up and eat, don't be verbose, we'll go home after eating." Zheng Haishun interrupted Haizhu's words.

The tide receded, the wind was still strong at sea, and the speed of the return trip was faster than when it came. There are people on the beach along the coast who take advantage of the night to catch the sea, and today is a high tide day, the wind and waves are strong, and there are many things left on the beach after the low tide.

"Come back, old woman, that's my ship." Wei Jinhua breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the sails.

When Feng Ping heard this, he hurriedly ran to the river, and Grandma Qi followed behind and told him to slow down.

"Big sister! Second sister! ”

"Jinhua, I'll go back first, you hurry up and dig shrimp and crabs, don't worry about the two of us." Grandma Qi is still thinking about her family, and now that there is gold on the beach, she doesn't have the heart to buy it. Turning her head to see that the boat had landed, she thanked Zheng Haishun again, "At the end of the month, her third uncle came back and asked him to invite you to have a drink." ”

Haizhu also has a third uncle, who is Yanding, who goes home once a month at the end of the month.

"Auntie, don't be polite to me, I am close to Xingzai like brothers, and I should take care of his children a little more." Zheng Haishun fished Fengping onto the boat, helped Grandma Qi up, and conveyed the doctor's explanation to her, and when the person was sent home, he turned around and went to the beach at low tide.

"Grandma, go back too, I don't have anything to do here, I'll wash my feet and sleep later, you go back to take care of my second uncle." Haizhu sat on the bed and said.

Grandma Qi was not verbose, and left in a hurry, the second son didn't matter, what she was afraid of was that something would happen to her little grandson.

When everyone left, Haizhu whispered in pain, and the medicine strength that was boiling on the boat was gone, and she had to grit her teeth to endure it along the way, and she was sweating all over.

"Dongzhu, boil the pot of water, boil, I want to take a bath." Wipe your body to cool down, and drink more water to sweat. Don't look at what she said resolutely in the hospital, she is also afraid that the wound will become inflamed again, don't have a high fever and die again.

"Eldest sister, I'll blow it for you." Feng Ping moved a small bench to sit on the edge of the bed, and blew vigorously on the legs that were pasted with ointment and gauze.

"Have you eaten?" Haizhu asked, seeing him nod, she touched his head and asked him to stand up and talk to her.

The three sisters and brothers took a bath one after another, the two small ones fell asleep in bed, Haizhu slept in a daze for a while, and touched her forehead after being woken up by the person who came back from the sea, she quickly sat up and twisted a wet cloth to wipe her face and limbs.

Dongzhu was awakened by the water splashing on her face, saw the movement clearly through the blurred black shadow, got up in fright, and asked with a crying voice: "Sister, are you feverish again?" ”

"It's a little." Haizhu didn't hide it from her, "It's okay if you wake up, go and fry a packet of the medicine you got back." ”

The two sisters got out of bed and went out of the house, Haizhu sat in the yard and looked up at the stars and moon in the sky, and there was no match to talk to the little girl.

"Sister, what are you thinking?"

"Miss me... Miss my mother. ”

She also has relatives in another world.

Chapter 3

In his previous life, Haizhu lived in a different world with advanced science and technology, the environment was highly polluted, there was no grass on the surface, and the creatures on the land and sea mutated, and people also mutated, and he was born with a bit of metaphysics. She came out of her mother's womb with a spirit pearl, and when she entered the water, she would burst out of the light shield that isolated the water, and when she grew up, she used this skill to find a job to make a living - enter the water to hunt and kill the mutated fish, shrimp and crabs in the sea. There is very little meat that can be eaten on fish, shrimp and crabs, but shrimp shells and crab shells can be sharpened into knives and axes, and they can also replace some copper and iron in life. She has been in the sea for five or six years, and she has saved a lot of money in her hands, but she died in the mouth of a strange fish once.

Fortunately, she is not the only child in her family, her mother will be uncomfortable for a few years after her death, and she can still get out of the pain and continue to live with her sister by her side, Haizhu thought about it and felt a little comforted in her heart.

Dongzhu didn't know what she was thinking, so she was silent for a while and said, "Grandma said don't let me blame my mother, if she doesn't remarry, you won't have money to treat your legs, and we won't have rice to eat." ”

Haizhu said "um", thinking that the old lady was very kind in this regard, and she didn't speak ill of her daughter-in-law in front of her granddaughter.

"Can we bring my mother back when we have money in the future?" Dongzhu asked again.

Haizhu didn't answer, she wasn't sure, in fact, she didn't know what the original owner's mother was remarrying.

"If she wants to come back, we'll take her back." She said.

"Definitely." The medicinal soup in the clay pot gurgled, Dongzhu lowered the fire a little, and said briskly: "I will go to the sea with Aunt Wei tomorrow, if I pick up a large amount of goods, our family will not have to worry about eating and drinking." ”

A whisper suddenly sounded in the house, Dongzhu thought that the eldest brother had woken up, ran in to take a look, and came out and whispered, "Fengping is talking in a dream." ”

Afraid of waking him up, the two sisters tacitly stopped talking, Dongzhu twisted the wet cloth and wiped her sister's back and neck a little awkwardly, and reached out to probe her forehead from time to time.

The flames under the medicine jar slowly became smaller, the scarlet spark turned to ashes, and when the heat dissipated, Haizhu pinched her nose and poured a bowl of bitter soup, rinsed her mouth and called Dongzhu to go to sleep in the house.

"Your face is still hot."

"It's because your hands are too cold, and it's not hot for you to touch your face."

"Yes, sister, I'll help you."

As the wooden door opened and closed, silence returned to the stone house.

Late at night, the sea is rolling in the wind and waves, most of the houses in the small fishing villages by the sea are still lit by candles, and the people who come back from the sea at night stay under the candle fire to wash the fish they have picked up.

Wei Jinhua asked the two yawning children to go to sleep first, and she took out a few half-dead fish and threw them into the pot, and later scraped the scales overnight to dry, otherwise it would stink as soon as the sun came out when the day dawned.

"What's the situation with that girl in Haizhu? In the afternoon, I saw that she was in good spirits and survived? Wei Jinhua asked in a low voice, and she didn't know the inside story until the two families got closer, and yesterday she went to see the girl who looked like the oil lamp was running out. When she saw Haizhu come out at noon, she thought it was a return to the light, and when she saw that she wanted to see the doctor, it was as she wanted.

Zheng Haishun said about the situation in the hospital in the afternoon, "As long as the high fever does not go away, it will be fine to recover from the injury." ”

Wei Jinhua recited "Mazu bless" a few times, "In a few days, I will find someone to bring a letter to Jing Niang, so that she can also rest easy." ”

"Can she come back? As soon as she left, the three children were pitiful, Haizhu used to be a squeamish girl, and she didn't blink when she talked to the doctor today, and she didn't cry when she was so painful that she couldn't say anything on the way back. There is also Dongzhu, when she was in the hospital, she cried until she vomited when she saw the rotten flesh pus and blood brought out by the doctor, wiped away her tears and went to guard her sister. Zheng Haishun sighed a few times, "If she is not in a hurry to leave, she will ...... a day late."

"Is this what she can do? How could she know that as soon as she walked on her front foot, Haizhu woke up on her back foot? Wei Jinhua glared at the man, stopped what she was doing angrily, and asked, "You just think that she is your good brother's daughter-in-law, and she will guard him when she dies." If Jing Niang doesn't remarry, where will Haizhu get the money for the medicine on her legs today? Yes, you can borrow her, can you help her for a while and for more than ten years? Can she support four children as a widow? has no two taels of silver, a broken boat at home, and no two acres and three points of land, what does she eat and wear? ”

"Okay, okay, I'm not going to say anything." Zheng Hai was obedient and soft, "What are you angry about?" ”

"I just can't get used to your face." Wei Jinhua stopped picking her son, got up to wash her hands and went to the house, lying on the bed and still scolding: "Thief man, if you want to blame Haizhu, her father is short-lived, he stretched his legs and died quietly, so that the woman has worked hard and only sells herself to raise his child, and it is not good to be finished." ”

"Okay, okay, it's me who said it wrong, you sleep, don't make noise about others."

"You'd better give the old lady a few more years to live, if you die early, the old lady will also throw away the child and find a wild man to marry."

Zheng Haishun was silent now, and silently packed up his things outside.

*

Early the next morning, Wei Jinhua took six eggs to Qi's house, and when she entered the door, she saw Haizhu sitting cross-legged at the door and directing Dongzhu and Fengping to cook and sweep the floor.

"Auntie is here, can I have breakfast?" Haizhu noticed people first.

"I slept late last night, just woke up, I came to see you." Wei Jinhua walked over and touched her forehead, "Fortunately, there is no fever." ”

"I had a fever last night, Dongzhu boiled medicine for me, drank it and slept well, and I got up much better this morning." Haizhu moved her legs away from the bench, "Auntie, you sit." ”

"I'm not going to sit down, I'm just here to bring you a few eggs." Wei Jinhua scooped half a scoop of water to wash the eggs, opened the porridge jar and threw three eggs, "You are injured, small, you can't cheat on food." Later, your uncle will go to the dock to sell seafood, and I will ask him to buy more eggs and pork bones to come back, and you can make up for it. ”

Haizhu gave Dongzhu a look, and the little girl ran into the house to take the broken silver and handed it directly to Wei Jinhua.

"What do you mean? My aunt will send you some worthless food, and you can still pay for it? Wei Jinhua was angry.

"It's not a day or two, but I estimate that my leg will have to be raised for a month before I can go into the water, auntie, you take the silver, and ask my uncle to buy us some meat and eggs every day." Fishermen who live on the sea are not good at planting and breeding, and they buy rice, flour, grain, oil, meat and eggs with money, and these things come from the river and from the sea by boat, so there is no cheap one, and if they say that they are not worth it, they will fool three or four-year-old children. Haizhu said sincerely: "Auntie, I'm not polite to you, it's okay to say that I will also ask you and uncle for help." Money is not a trivial matter, I can't go to sea for more than two months, and the whole family can only make ends meet with non-stop work. And the three of us sisters and brothers are also going through the days, stretching out our hands to ask people to eat and drink, you be careful to get us used to being lazy. ”

Speaking of which, it was a little playful later, Wei Jinhua smiled, "You girl ......" really seems to be a different person, but she is not worried after listening to Haizhu's words.