Chapter 4 New Year's Eve

In the next few days, Zhang Cai's family circled around the well. Fortunately, on the sixth day, the long-awaited water was finally dug out. Finally, a difficult task was completed before winter, and everyone was relieved. When Zhang Cai was busy paying the well diggers and Zhang Xiaolong and his three brothers were busy repairing the path from the field to the well platform, the gloomy winter clouds were overwhelming, and some small snow scum like salt beans fell from the sky, signaling the arrival of winter.

The first snow has fallen, and the cold wind is getting colder, and the Chinese New Year is not far away.

Zhang Cai is very satisfied this year. He bought an extra piece of land for his family and dug a well. In the future, this piece of land will not be afraid of drought. If it is well taken care of, it should be the main source of food for the family. Therefore, as the year approached, I asked Guo Sufei to prepare more New Year’s goods, so that the family could spend a good year, and the old mother-in-law was also getting older. Every year is a year. In recent days, the old mother-in-law’s health has become worse and worse. He was lying on the bed for half a day, not knowing whether he would be able to live through the next year. Thinking of his parents and his old father-in-law, he couldn't hold back his fiery thoughts, and looked forward to a good year.

Farmers' New Year's goods are easy to buy. The so-called abundance means that there are many styles, but the quantity is very few. As far as the styles are concerned, most of them are sun-dried mountain products on weekdays, and only a few items were purchased by Zhang Cai from a distant market. Because of his mother-in-law, Zhang Cai bought some food that he had never seen before this year, which made Zhang Xiaolong and the three brothers greedy, and they just wanted to taste some early in the Chinese New Year. Guo Sufei, apart from being busy with Chinese New Year affairs, spends more time in the village looking for familiar relatives, and sometimes in neighboring villages to inquire. What she cares about is still her eldest son's marriage. However, looking at her sometimes gloomy and sometimes joyful face, I feel that things are not going as planned.

Time flies by while the Zhang family is busy, and the new year is finally here.

On the first day before the new year, when everyone gathered around the stove, they were talking about the next year's harvest, the situation in the fields, and Zhang Xiaolong's future daughter-in-law. Suddenly I heard noisy shouts outside the village, and there was chaos outside. "Could it be that bandits came to loot the village?" An idea immediately popped into Zhang Cai's mind. However, it should not be, because Guozhuang is very small, and Guo’s family is also a small family, every household is very poor, and the robbers who live in the mountains nearby never come to this place where no shit, there is no reason to come here today Bar. Even though he thought so, Zhang Cai didn't dare to be careless at first, greeted the three children, took a hoe and waited for the guy with iron, and walked out of the house carefully. The fence of the Zhang family is half-height, and one can see the situation in the village at a glance. In the village, there are many people gathering and talking, and some people are running, but there are no unknown people. Although everyone's face is a little panicked, but I can still see a little bit of luck and gloating. Zhang Cai was very surprised, and ordered the three children to go back to the house, put the "weapon" back, and went out to inquire about the news. Of course the three of Zhang Xiaolong didn't want to be idle, so they also wandered out and mixed with young people of the same age.

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

"Brother, do you know the one eye that is eighty miles north of our village, the bandit who stood on Xicui Mountain?"

Zhang Cai said: "I know, they are the biggest thieves within a hundred miles of our place. How could I not know? But they have always been active in the rich places in the north, why did they come to our place?"

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

Zhang Cai suddenly realized: "Could it be,

They..." Zhang Cai didn't ask any more questions, he already knew the reason of the matter, so the wealth should not be exposed, what good results can such a huge amount of foreign wealth, which is so conspicuous, be targeted by robbers?

Butcher Guo next to him saw that Zhang Cai stopped asking, 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 if he didn't admit it, that one eye would be wrong." Drived dozens of members of Mr. Wu's family to the ancestral hall, sent people to turn Mr. Wu's house upside down, and found a pile of treasures from the vegetable cellar and the bottom of the well. One eye was angry at Mr. Wu for deceiving himself. Just set fire to the Wu family's ancestral hall, and there were dozens of people alive, and none of them escaped. Fortunately, Xinzhuang is a little bit stronger than us, and they are all poor, so they don't make it difficult for others. When these robbers left, they even clamored to tell the villagers to be careful and not to report to the officials, otherwise all the people in Xinzhuang would be buried with them."

Blacksmith Liu said: "It's a misfortune every day. A few days ago, I thought I was rich, but now my whole family is wiped out. Miserable~"

Butcher Guo went on to say: "There's nothing wrong with killing the family. Mr. Wu's sister-in-law went back to our village to see her parents yesterday, but she didn't go back today. She escaped a catastrophe. She didn't know about it just now, so she asked someone to go and see what happened. Moreover, the person who heard the report said that when the bandit left, he dragged a woman on the horse, and she couldn't see her face clearly. It must be Mr. Wu's daughter. She was caught by the bandit and plundered up the mountain. Mrs. Yazhai."

The three brothers, Zhang Xiaohua, had already stood behind their father. Hearing what the villagers said, they felt very cold for no reason. I have also heard about the sinister deeds of robbers on weekdays, but they are just talking about it. It is happening around me now, and Mr. Wu has also seen several people. He also taught Zhang Xiaohua how to read a few words when he was young. It was gone, it was burned into coke, although he didn't see it with his own eyes, it also made him feel sad and scared. Zhang Xiaohua rubbed the bracelet on her left wrist unconsciously, and thought to herself: "Fortunately, what I dug up is not a real treasure, even if it is, I will never tell anyone, lest I and my family bring troubles." Disaster." The man was innocent and conceived his crime, and such a bloody truth was 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 happened, but Zhang Cai did not agree. After all, the Chinese New Year is coming soon, and going to be hit by a bloody disaster is really bad for the luck of the coming year, and the Wu family in Xinzhuang is now a scorched earth. Going there might cause a lot of trouble.

As they talked, all the people in the village also dispersed. After all, their lives are over, and their own lives are still to be lived. Even farmers understand the truth of sweeping the snow before their doors. It's getting dark, and my New Year is coming soon, I'd better clean up my mood and get busy with my own affairs.

When Zhang Cai and the three children returned home, they saw their mother-in-law and Guo Sufei warming up by the fire, so they told them what had happened in Xinzhuang. The two of them were shocked when they heard it. They both prayed to God, hoping for the dead I can reincarnate early, and I hope that my family will never encounter such a disaster. Until it was dark and oil lamps were lit in the house, Zhang Xiaohua's grandmother was still muttering: "It's a blessing every day, it's a blessing every day."

The same New Year, this year's Guozhuang is far less lively than before. Under the night, only children play with lanterns, and they are the only ones who don't know the dangers of the world and let their nature go. Most of the farmers are like Zhang Cai's family. After eating a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner, cleaning up the hard work of the past year, and looking forward to the sweet and happy new year, there is still a trace of gloom in their hearts. Think about what happened to Mr. Wu , Thinking about this world where the weak are prey to the strong, it is inevitable to have the idea of ​​"I am the fish". Looking at the vast world, I don't know how to protect the safety of my family.

The New Year's Eve, which was supposed to be 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 little clarity.

The New Year of the peasant family is actually very simple, except for mutual New Year greetings, there is only the market in Lu Town in the distance. Every third day of the new year, there is a street in Luzhen that is a lively "ji" gathering in the surrounding eight villages. Everyone wears new clothes, drags their families with their mouths, and brings their pockets with slightly full pockets. Come here Feel the breath of the new year.

For Zhang Cai's family, Guo Sufei wanted to take care of Zhang Xiaohua's grandmother at home, so Zhang Cai brought three children to Lu Town for the fair.

Lu Zhenli is on the south side of Guozhuang, about thirty miles away from Guozhuang.

There are not many streets in Lu Town, and there is not much excitement for people to share on weekdays. It was so easy to catch up with a New Year's gathering, everyone took out all the energy accumulated for a year, and squeezed a street in Lu Town to a climax. This is a north-south-oriented street. The street is relatively wide. It seems to be the main street of Lu Town. There are many shops on both sides of the street. No matter what kind of business it is, the business is very good, and the gates are wide open. , a lot of people came in and out, the guys in the store stood inside and outside the store to greet the customers coming and going, and there were also many peddlers carrying their own small livelihoods, placing them on the street, yelling loudly, Attracting the flow of people passing by. On weekdays, if the shop assistants see someone blocking the door, they will definitely greet them and drive them away, but today is an exception, they all come out to find a way to survive. Meeting each other will bless each other with good luck.

As a result, the already not-so-spacious streets became more and more congested. And Zhang Xiaohua, who came to the market with her father and brother, didn't know where to look.