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. Just as Zhang Cai was busy paying the well diggers, and Zhang Xiaolong and his brothers were busy repairing the path from the field to the well platform, the gloomy winter clouds were overwhelming, and a little snow slag like salt beans fell from the sky. The farmers loved and hated the winter day finally arrived.

The first snow fell, and the cold wind became more bitter, and the Chinese New Year was 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, and if it is well taken care of, it should be the main source of food for the family. Therefore, when the end of the new year was approaching, I told Guo Sufei to prepare more new year's goods, so that the family could have a good year. The old mother-in-law is also getting older, and every year is a year. In recent days, the old mother-in-law's health has become worse and worse. She spends half of the day lying on the bed. I don't know if I can live the next year. Thinking of myself His parents, and thinking of the kindness of his old father-in-law to him, he couldn't bear his fiery thoughts, and looked forward to a happy and happy 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. In fact, 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 market far away. 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. He 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 occupied 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. What's wrong? They came to our place?"

Blacksmith Liu took another puff of his cigarette and said, "Yeah, do you remember that a while 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 anymore, he already knew the reason of the matter, the wealth should not be exposed, such a huge amount of foreign wealth, which is so conspicuous, was targeted by the robbers, what good results could there be?

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 yesterday to see her parents, but she didn't go back today. She escaped a catastrophe. Didn't someone report it just now? She just found out about the tragedy and 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. 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. I've become Mrs. Yazhai."

Zhang Xiaohua and the three brothers had long stood behind their father. Hearing what the villagers said, they felt very cold for no reason. On weekdays, I seldom hear the sinister deeds of robbers, but I just talk about it. I think it is a story, and it is happening around me now. Mr. Wu has seen it with several people. He even taught Zhang Xiaohua how to read a few words when he was young. It's gone now, it was burnt 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 principle of sweeping the snow in front of 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, and 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.

Zhang Cai's family, apart from Guo Sufei who had to take care of Zhang Xiaohua's grandmother at home, and Zhang Cai's three children came 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 the vitality accumulated for a year, and squeezed out a street in Lu Town. 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. Quite a few people came in and out, the clerks in the store stood inside and outside the store to greet the customers coming and going, and there were also a lot of peddlers carrying their own small livelihoods and placing them on the street, yelling loudly and attracting customers. Watching 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. When they meet, they 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.

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