Li Ping'an knew why his mother was so sad, but it was precisely because he knew that he felt more and more guilty.

When he was a child, his mother would occasionally tell him about the past on summer nights, some of which she had personally experienced, and some of which her father and mother had told him.

Li Ping'an's grandfather's name is Chen Liang, born in an era of war and chaos, when the people were not happy, Chen Liang was seven years old, Xiaochen Village was robbed by horse bandits, in order to protect the village, in order to protect the old and young in the family, the men of Xiaochen Village desperately resisted, in that banditry, Chen Liang's father unfortunately died under the knife of the horse bandits.

After the family lost its backbone, Chen Liang's mother was depressed and unhappy, and she also died after a serious illness, leaving only three children. Chen Liang's uncle, Chen An's father, took over the responsibility of taking care of his nephews and nieces, but in the end, only Chen Liang grew up.

When Chen Liang was eighteen years old, he was very unlucky to be pulled by the government to supplement the army, and then fought for a year, and finally was seriously injured but was abandoned, or the neighbors in the army could not bear Chen Liang to fend for himself, and risked death to carry Chen Liang back from the battlefield, and finally sent someone back to Xiaochen Village, so that Chen Liang could return to his roots.

Chen Liang, who returned to Xiaochen Village, did not die, Uncle Chen Liang was the village chief of Xiaochen Village at that time, thinking that the deceased brother was left with this child, and he couldn't bear to break the bloodline of the deceased brother, so he asked for the main branch of the Chen family.

Although it was lame, it was better than dying.

As soon as Chen Liang was pulled back from the Ghost Gate, the old village chief began to say goodbye to Chen Liang, thinking that if Chen Liang had a son and a half daughter, the deceased brother could also have a bloodline. But at that time, a normal adult man still had a hard time, let alone a weak cripple?

Very few families are willing to marry their daughters to a cripple who has no father, no mother, no brothers and sisters, and even poor families who sell their daughters wish they could sell for more money.

In the end, it was the old village chief's daughter-in-law who interceded at her mother's house, and only then did she ask a distant relative to marry her daughter to Chen Liang.

Without the village chief's family, Chen Liang would most likely not survive, and he would not marry a daughter-in-law, let alone have five Chen Dajuan brothers and sisters.

Chen Dajuan has known since she can remember, and her grandfather's family has taken a lot of care of her family. Chen Liang couldn't do the work in the field, and Chen An's brothers helped do it after they were busy with their own work in the field; Chen Liang is bedridden all the year round and needs to take medicine, sometimes the family does not have enough money, and Chen An lent it to her family, but never said anything about repaying the money; During the New Year's holidays, some meat will be brought to her family so that she and her younger siblings can have some meat.

There are too many, too many, in the heart of young Chen Dajuan, Chen An's cousin is sometimes even more important than her father, more like the backbone of their family, so that they rely on it tightly.

Now that she suddenly heard the news of Chen An's death, how could she not be heartbroken?

Seeing Li Ping'an's dodging eyes, Chen Dajuan's heart sank to the bottom, and she choked up unacceptably and asked, "Do you know that?" Is it true? ”

Li Ping'an nodded with difficulty, still not daring to look at his mother.

Chen Dajuan's body shook, her eyes lost their luster, and after standing for a while, she slowly squatted down and covered her face and cried bitterly.

Listening to his mother's cry, Li Ping'an's heart was blocked, his nose was sour, he raised his head, and tears slipped from the corners of his eyes.

Xiao Ruyi didn't understand what was going on, she only knew that her mother was crying, and her eldest brother was also in tears, she looked at her mother and her eldest brother, she was at a loss, and she didn't know what to do. After thinking about it, she thought that her mother cried the worst, so she walked over and hugged her mother and stroked her mother's back.

"Oh oh ~ oh oh ~ don't cry no cry ~"

Every time she cried, her mother always coaxed her like this.

"Little Ruyi, is it okay for grandma to coax you to sleep?" Li Ping'an's grandmother Zhou squatted next to Xiao Ruyi, their Li family settled in Xiaochen Village in the first year of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, how many years since the founding of the Dajing Dynasty, how many years has the Li family lived in Xiaochen Village, the affairs of the in-laws are not a secret in Xiaochen Village, she also knows a lot, and knows how close Chen Dajuan and his maiden family are to Chen An's family.

Now that Chen An has died suddenly, she wants to take Xiao Ruyi away and let Chen Dajuan cry happily.

In fact, she was also uncomfortable, their Li family had been able to live in peace and stability in Xiaochen Village for more than ten years, and the old village chief and village chief had no less help.

But Xiao Ruyi insisted on not leaving, she just wanted to accompany her mother and coax her mother.

Fugui, who was staying by the side of Jixiang and Xinglong, who was asleep, pursed his lips, his eyes lost and he didn't know what he was thinking. Li Dafang and the others came over, but they only surrounded the periphery, looking at Chen Dajuan silently.

At this time, the big grass hut was also crying, and the death of the village chief made many villagers' tense nerves suddenly unable to strain, and panic swept like a tide, some people howled and cried, and some people whispered to cover their wepts.

The chasing and frolicking children also returned to their respective places in their homes, quietly snuggling up to the adults.

The location of Chen Liang's house was not far from the village chief's house, and when he moved up the mountain, because his three sons had gone to the county to buy grain, it was his nephew Chen Song who carried him on his back.

After listening to the statement of his second son Chen Erzhu, he was silent for a while with red eyes, and when he saw Chen Song, Zhang Yu, and Li Erlin carrying Chen An's body in, he picked up his crutches and pestle the ground and asked Chen Erzhu to help him up.

By the time they arrived at the village chief's house, there were already several layers of people inside and out, and the voices of children crying and calling for grandpa came out.

Three gray-haired old men also came here accompanied by their juniors, one of the three of them was the patriarch of the Chen clan in Xiaochen Village, and the other two were clan elders. ”

Seeing that it was the patriarch, everyone did not dare not listen, and soon dispersed.

Only then was the situation inside revealed in Chen Liang's eyes, and he saw Chen An's grandchildren kneeling on both sides of the body, either shaking Chen An's hand or shaking Chen An's body, crying and shouting for grandpa to wake up.

Chen An's daughter-in-law sat slumped beside her, her eyes blank, and she washed her face with tears. The eldest daughter-in-law, who is also Chen Song's daughter-in-law, wipes her tears while holding her youngest son, who is still in swaddling clothes.

Chen Song buried his head and knelt in front of his grandmother, Mrs. Chen, who was staring at her son's body silently with tears in her eyes and a sad face.

has come from the era of war and chaos, and now it is a peaceful year, why would her only remaining son die in front of her, and let her white-headed man send a black-haired man?

He just wanted to come back early and inform the villagers to buy food to tide over the difficulties, what mistake did he make, such a good person said no, no! God, if you have eyes, do you want to open your eyes and see what you've done?

Sadness came from it, Mrs. Chen's eyes were dark, and she almost fainted.

"Grandma!"

"Uncle!"

Chen Song's eyes were quick, and he hurriedly stepped forward to support Mrs. Chen, who was shaking.

Chen Liang also screamed sadly, pushed Chen Erzhu away, stepped forward on crutches, and knelt in front of Mrs. Chen.