In the next few days, Zhang Cai's family circled around digging wells. Fortunately, on the sixth day, the long-awaited water was finally dug out, and a difficult task was finally completed before the winter, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Just when Zhang Cai was busy settling the wages of the well diggers, and the three Zhang Xiaolong brothers were busy repairing the path from the field to the well platform, gloomy winter clouds overheaded, and a little small snow slag like salt beans fell from the sky, signaling the arrival of winter.

The first snow fell, the cold wind became colder, and the Chinese New Year was not far away.

Zhang Cai is very satisfied this year, he got an extra piece of land for his family, and drilled a well, and in the future, this land is not afraid of drought, so it should be the main source of food rations for the family. Therefore, approaching the end of the year, I told Guo Sufei to prepare a little more New Year's goods, the family is good for a year, the old mother-in-law is also old, a year is a year, in recent days, the old mother-in-law's health has become worse and worse, half a day is lying in bed, and I don't know if I can live the next year, thinking of his parents, and then thinking of the old father-in-law, he can't bear the fiery thoughts, looking forward to a good year.

The farmers' New Year's goods are very easy to buy, and the so-called abundance means that there are many styles, and the quantity is very few. In terms of style, most of them are dried mountain goods on weekdays, and only a few things are purchased by Zhang Cai from a market far away. Because of his mother-in-law's relationship, Zhang Cai bought some food that he hadn't usually seen this year, but it made the three Zhang Xiaolong brothers greedy, and they just wanted to taste it early in the New Year. Guo Sufei is not only busy with the New Year, but also spends more time in the village to find familiar relatives, and sometimes goes to nearby villages to inquire, and she still cares about her eldest son's marriage. However, looking at her sometimes gloomy and sometimes joyful face, I felt that things were not as smooth as I imagined.

Time passed in a hurry in the busyness of the Zhang family, and the New Year was finally in sight.

On the first day before the New Year, everyone gathered around the stove and talked about the harvest of the coming year, the situation in the fields and Zhang Xiaolong's future daughter-in-law. Suddenly I heard a loud shout outside the village, and there was chaos outside. "Could it be that the robbers came to ransack the village?" a thought immediately popped into Zhang Cai's mind. However, it shouldn't be, because Guo Zhuang is very small, the Guo family is also a small family, every family is very poor, and the robbers who live in the mountains nearby never come to this place where birds don't, so they will come over today for no reason. Although he thought so, Zhang Cai didn't dare to be careless at first, beckoned the three children, took a hoe and other iron guys, and walked out of the house carefully. The wall of Zhang's house is half the height, and I can see the situation in the village at a glance, in the village, there are many people gathering to talk, and there are people running, but there are no people who don't know, although everyone's faces are a little panicked, but they can still see a little bit of happiness and schadenfreude. Zhang Cai was very strange, and told the three children to go back to the house, put the "weapon" back, and went out to find out the news by himself. Of course, Zhang Xiaolong and the three of them didn't want to be idle, so they also followed out and mixed with young people of the same age.

There are quite a few people in the village, standing or sitting, all talking about one thing. Zhang Cai walked to one of the group of old men who were smoking dry cigarettes and talking loudly, and when he saw Blacksmith Liu, who was more familiar with him on weekdays, he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Old Liu, what's going on? Why is it so messy?" Blacksmith Liu was smoking silently, and when he saw that it was Zhang Cai who asked him, he knocked the cigarette he had just finished smoking on the ground, reloaded a pot of new cigarettes from the cigarette pouch, carefully lit it, took a deep breath, and then said in a dull voice:

"Brother, do you know the one eye in the north of our village, eighty miles away, the robber who stood on Xicui Mountain?"

Zhang Cai said: "I know, that's the biggest thief within a hundred miles of us here, how can I not know? But they have always been active in rich places in the north, why did they run here?"

Blacksmith Liu took another puff of cigarette and said, "Yes, do you remember that some time ago, Mr. Wu from Xinzhuang dug a well and dug up a box of treasures?"

Zhang Cai suddenly realized: "Could it be that they ......." Zhang Cai didn't ask anymore, he already knew the reason for the matter, the wealth was not exposed, such a conspicuous huge amount of foreign wealth was targeted by robbers, what could be the result?

The butcher Guo next to him saw that Zhang Cai didn't ask, so he squeezed over and said mysteriously: "Not only that, Mr. Wu was lucky at the beginning, saying that there was nothing at all, and he didn't admit it, so he drove Mr. Wu's family into the ancestral hall with one eye, and sent someone to turn Mr. Wu's home upside down, and as a result, a bunch of treasures were found at the bottom of the well from the vegetable cellar, and one eye was angry that Mr. Wu deceived himself, so he burned the ancestral hall of the Wu family with a fire, and dozens of people lived, none of them ran out." Fortunately, Xinzhuang is a little better than us, they are all poor, and they are not too difficult for others in one eye. When these robbers left, they also clamored to tell the villagers to be careful and not to report to the officials, otherwise they would let the people of Xinzhuang follow the burial. ”

Blacksmith Liu said: "Good and bad, a few days ago I thought I was rich, but now I am all over the house." It's miserable~"

Guo Butcher continued: "There is no door to destroy, Mr. Wu's brother and daughter-in-law went back to our village yesterday to see their father, and they did not go back today, and escaped a catastrophe. ”

The three Zhang Xiaohua brothers had been standing behind their father for a long time, and when they heard the villagers say this, their hearts were very cold for no reason. I have heard of the sinister acts of robbers on weekdays, but they are all just talking, and now they are happening around him, and Mr. Wu has also seen a few people, and he also taught Zhang Xiaohua to read a few words when he was a child, but now it is gone, and he was burned to charcoal, although he did not see it with his own eyes, but it also made him feel sad and afraid. Zhang Xiaohua unconsciously rubbed the bracelet with her left wrist, and secretly thought in her heart: "Fortunately, what I dug up is not a real treasure, even if it is, I will never tell anyone, so as not to bring disaster to myself and my family." "The husband is innocent and guilty, and such a bloody truth is so deeply introduced into the young man's heart.

The three brothers told Zhang Cai that they wanted to go to Xinzhuang to see what was going on, but Zhang Cai did not agree. After all, the New Year is coming soon, and it is really bad for the luck of the coming year, and the Wu family in Xinzhuang is now a scorched earth, and the tragic scene makes people frightened, it is estimated that the people from the government should be there now, and maybe it will cause a lot of trouble.

After all, people's lives are over, and their own lives still have to be lived. It's getting dark, and your New Year is coming, so it's better to pack up your mood and get busy with your own affairs.

Zhang Cai and his three children returned home, and saw his mother-in-law and Guo Sufei roasting around the stove, so he told them what happened in Xinzhuang. Until it was dark and the house was lit with oil lamps, Zhang Xiaohua's grandmother was still muttering: "Good luck and bad luck, good luck and bad luck." ”

In the same New Year, this year's Guozhuang is far less lively than before, at night, only children play with lanterns, and only they don't know the sinister nature of the world. Most of the Zhuang people are like Zhang Cai's family, after eating a sumptuous Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, cleaning up the hard work of the past year, looking forward to the sweet happiness of the new year, there is a trace of gloom in their hearts, think about Mr. Wu's experience, think about this world of the weak and the strong, it is inevitable to have the idea of "I am for the fish", looking at the vast world, but I don't know how to protect the stability of my family.

Chinese New Year's Eve, which should have been lively and noisy, passed quietly. I don't know if there is happiness, joy, or harvest and sweetness in the dreams of other people in the village, but what Zhang Xiaohua has is just flickering, and the flickering seems to have a trace of clarity.

The New Year of the peasant family is actually very simple, except for mutual New Year's greetings, there is only a market in Lu Town in the distance. Every year on the third day of the New Year, there is a street in Lu Town that is a lively "set" around the surrounding neighborhoods, everyone wears new clothes, drags their families with their mouths, and brings a slightly full money bag around their waists, and comes here to feel the atmosphere of the New Year.

Zhang Cai's family, Guo Sufei had to take care of Zhang Xiaohua's grandmother at home, and Zhang Cai took his three children to Luzhen to catch the market.

Lu Zhen is in the south of Guozhuang, and it is about 30 miles away from Guozhuang.

There are not many streets in Luzhen, and there is not much excitement for people to share on weekdays. It was easy to catch up with a New Year's rally, and everyone took out all the vitality that had been accumulated for a year, and squeezed out a street in Luzhen to a climax. This is a north-south facing street, the street is relatively wide, it seems to be the main street of Lu Town, there are a lot of shops on both sides of the street, no matter what kind of business, the business is very good, the gate is wide open, a lot of people in and out, the guys in the store stand in the store and outside the store to greet the guests, and there are many wandering vendors with their own set of small livelihoods, placed on the street, keep shouting loudly, attracting the flow of people shuttling in front of them. On weekdays, if the guys in the store see someone blocking the door, they will definitely greet and drive away, but today is an exception, they are all out to find a way to live, in order to ask for the New Year's jackpot, everyone will not blush and hurt the harmony, and even meet will wish each other good luck.

As a result, the streets, which are not very spacious, become more and more crowded. And Zhang Xiaohua, who came to the market with her father and brother, didn't know where to look.