brotherly innocence

"Extremely rich and honorable people", this is not a nonsense, the sister-in-law does not seem to be joking.He was secretly startled, what kind of god is the elder brother?

The sister-in-law gave him a stern look reproachfully, as if she was complaining that he spoke too loudly and poked a hornet's nest.

Under the shadow of the lamp, the eldest brother turned around slowly, with his back to the light, his face was unclear, but he could clearly see the angry gaze, gradually retracted, and looked at him with a strange look, refusing to budge.

Hearing that his elder brother wanted to drive him out, Chu Yaonan softened immediately, he didn't expect his elder brother to have such a trump card, and swung out a move to defeat the enemy.

He naturally didn't care about leaving the Shen family, but Chu Yaonan was not reconciled to being swept out late at night by his elder brother Shen with a donkey face.Even if he was leaving, he should be the one who, after being scolded by Young Master Chu, left gracefully, waving his hands without taking a single cloud away.Kicked out of the house by Zhuo Mingtao, how did Chu Yaonan gain a foothold in the world?

He looked down at the ground and muttered, "It's snowing heavily at night, where should I go?"

The elder sister-in-law was so angry that he laughed, and covered her mouth to plead for him, saying: "The child's father, the younger brother is not against him. If you push him out like this, you will be laughed at in the middle of the night."

The eldest brother took a deep breath and said, "I, Zhuo Mingtao, have nothing but a bad temper. The little muddy pond is hard to live in, so please do it."

After that, he turned and entered the house.

Chu Yaonan was about to open his mouth to argue, but was pushed away by his sister-in-law Zhou Xuan, who groaned and went to the kitchen to help cook the kang.Sister-in-law persuaded Chu Yaonan while chopping firewood and adding fire by the stove, "How dare you say that about your elder brother? Could it be that your skin is itchy? If your second elder brother makes such a fuss, his legs will be broken. Your elder brother will indulge you. My sister-in-law, I have endured your brother's temper for many years. Don't blame him, he has been unhappy all these years. "

Remembering the words that sister-in-law uttered in a hurry, Chu Yaonan took the opportunity to ask: "Sister-in-law, was my elder brother an official or a businessman? You just said that elder brother was once a distinguished man."

The sister-in-law was stunned, looked at him and laughed with him, but couldn't say anything, seeing Chu Yaonan's disappointed look, she hurriedly got up and looked outside the house, there was no human voice in the white snow field, only the light in Zhuo Mingtao's bedroom was still on Then, the lights in the old lady's room were also extinguished.Only then did the sister-in-law reveal in a low voice: "Don't even think about it. Who was your father before he was alive? Even if he passed away early, why did the family fall into such a state of poverty?"

Chu Yaonan thought about it, what his sister-in-law said was reasonable, his father was the governor of Dingnan, and he once tried his best to turn the tide, so he can be regarded as a person who turned his hands into clouds and turned his hands into rain.

"When the governor passed away, your eldest brother was in his teens and was sent abroad to study abroad in his early years. With the help and support of his old friends, your elder brother went to the Guangzhou government when he returned to China... In his 20s, it is very important to sit in such a high position. It’s not easy, not to mention the person who turned his hands into clouds and his hands into rain, how many major events in the annals of history have also come from his subordinates. The superiors treated him well, and they mostly looked at the face of the deceased governor.”

Chu Yaonan listened attentively, for fear of missing a single word. This news made him dumbfounded. From the first meeting, he only thought that his elder brother was a literati, a thoroughly pedantic literati with Chinese characteristics. With the color of old Chinese literati.How could it never have occurred to him that this family used to be an official family, or that their indifference was so desolate that he overlooked some small things.Those books on the eldest brother's desk, reading by the lamp every night, the back view when he sighed.

"Then why don't you become an official?" He asked, his curiosity making him chase after him.

"In the 16th year of the Republic of China, there was an internal struggle in Guangzhou. I was in my hometown. When your elder brother came home, he knelt at his mother's knee and said something, and no one would let him hear it. Later, I heard that it was a purge of the party. Commander He and the others eliminated dissidents. Many people were killed in Guangzhou. Your eldest brother said that this is a crime. Some of them were his good friends who fought side by side, the elites of the country, and they disappeared overnight. Originally, Commander He treated him well, like brothers and sisters. As soon as this matter happened, they parted ways. Commander He even came from Guangzhou to persuade him. If they couldn't agree, they stayed in the small pavilion on the mountain, from day to night, under the moonlight. Yi, I thought it was only in the drama. Mr. He is impatient, so he endured him, and when he got there, he bid farewell to the old lady, and your brother threw out the money left, saying that the money was stained with friends He didn’t want to be a butcher! Afterwards, the whole family went north overnight, hiding their names and changing their surname to Zhuo. When they arrived in Fengtian, they took root for five years.”

"Isn't Fengtian the ancestral home?" Chu Yaonan asked.

"My father-in-law bought several properties in the Northeast, and not many people know about them. I chose one to live in seclusion, and sold and rented the rest. Unexpectedly, you found them." The sister-in-law said, the firewood in the hearth Sparks burst out, and there was a beeping sound, which made the sister-in-law's fair face rosy and beautiful, and she seemed to be reminiscing about the good old days.Chu Yaonan thought, perhaps, the eldest sister-in-law had a good time too, this simple woman who was ordered by her parents to marry her elder brother by a matchmaker.

But he was even more calculating the time when his eldest brother broke with Prime Minister He. In [-], he had heard some stories about the breakdown of the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party from books and periodicals.

The sister-in-law sighed, "I am content. In the past, I stayed alone in an empty room. Now that he is by my side, I should also cherish my blessings. Although we are poorer, it's great to be a happy family together."

It was only then that Chu Yaonan suddenly realized, thinking carefully about what he had heard and seen from Huizi and the newspapers, as well as the various illusions given to him by the Shen family when he was in Fengtian, it seems that now is the answer to the mystery.

Seeing him standing there in a half-believing manner, my sister-in-law said: "There were people who went to great lengths to find him and asked him to come out of the mountain, but he refused. On the day of September and August, our family was still taken away, and then we were taken away by others. When we sent him back, the family was gone, and he refused to say anything. We figured out how much, it seems that someone asked him to come out of the mountain again, but he refused. He didn’t want to hit the wrong side, but he saved the lives of our family. It’s just that he went bankrupt overnight. Originally, I had some savings in the bank, and several houses in Fengtian, but because your elder brother insisted on leaving the Northeast overnight, they just disappeared."

Chu Yaonan felt a little admiration, if the elder brother was poor all his life, he would look down on him.If he used to be in a high position, he easily threw away everything for his belief and morality to cling to poverty, regarded fame and fortune as floating clouds and dung, and would not be born in such a tight life, but he admired him.The charm of a man lies in his perseverance and indomitable courage.

"It's good for him to drive and I'm free." said the sister-in-law. A line of Tang Bohu's poem revealed the calmness in her heart. Chu Yaonan smiled, and the sister-in-law asked distressedly: "Does your hand still hurt? Let's go, sister-in-law Take some ice cubes for your uncles and nephews in a basin to calm the swelling and pain."

Chu Yaonan shook his head, but the elder brother's voice sounded outside the courtyard: "Chun Bao'er is asleep. Go to bed too. Save some coal fire, younger brother should come to sleep in my room."

Chu Yaonan continued without thinking: "Then you are not allowed to hit me again."

Like a child, his sister-in-law poked his forehead, and he smiled and turned his head to stand up.

In the eldest brother's room, his face was still stained with tears. The eldest brother twisted a towel in the basin to wipe his face, knocked his hand off and said, "Such a big man still cries!"

Carefully wiped away the tears on his cheeks, and wanted to ice his hands again, he desperately shook his head and said, "I'm sleepy."

The eldest brother didn't force him, and unbuttoned his clothes. He wanted to stretch out his hand, but the palm was swollen, black and purple, and his fingers were swollen like full sausages. It was very ugly and he couldn't take care of himself.

He unbuttoned the buttons one by one, took off the padded robe, the elder brother hesitated to loosen his trouser belt, Chu Yaonan felt a little nervous, stretched out his hand to cover it, but it hurt the needle-like pain in the palm of his hand, his brow frowned, and tears It even flowed down without disappointment.

"Fantastic? See if you have a long memory! Big brother has such a poor temper, enough for you." Seeing that big brother is being methodical and serious while ridiculing, he can't help but say: "Brother, don't hit your palm next time. I'm going to teach at a foreigner's house tomorrow. My palm is swollen like a bear's paw. It's scary. Don't slap your face, it's shameful to swell into a pig's head. If you want to be spanked, spank your butt and legs. Where you can’t see it when you put on clothes, just look bright on the outside.”

At the hypocritical words, the elder brother burst out laughing, and immediately reprimanded him with a dark face: "Elder brother doesn't even bother to hit you again, if you do it again, just throw it out."

He slept next to his elder brother, and the quilt was tucked up for him by his elder brother. The elder brother turned his back to him and said, "Go to sleep, my elder brother has caught a bit of wind and cold. I'm afraid it will spread to you, so turn your head away."

Instead, Chu Yaonan pressed close to him, stretched out his hand to wrap around his waist, his palm hurt, feeling unwilling, he suddenly said: "Oh, brother, my stomach hurts, I'm anxious, I'm afraid it's too cold in the room, I need to relieve my hand."

A fierce boy jumped up, and jumped down to the kang naked.

"Put on your clothes!" The eldest brother believed it, and hurriedly pulled up his trousers for him. Regardless of wearing a cotton robe, he wrapped himself in a quilt and ran to the toilet in the corner outside the house.The night wind whipped up the snow and hit the face, the chill was piercing, but it was so cool that one took a deep breath and felt infinitely happy.The eldest brother unbuttoned his pants and tucked them in. He squatted in the latrine. The smell was better than in the daytime. He was afraid of being frozen back by the ice and snow. Only the stones on both sides were covered with a thin layer of ice, and his feet were slightly slippery.He didn't dare to move, just pinched his nose and said, "Brother, it's too slippery here, if I fall into a pit, you have to fish me out."

The eldest brother snorted outside the wall and didn't say much. The footsteps sounded back and forth, as if he was moving his body to keep warm.

The narrowness in Chu Yaonan's heart succeeded. In fact, he was naughty since he was a child, but he was unusually well-behaved in the Qin Mansion.Since he was a child, he knew that his surname was not Qin, and all his status, glory and wealth were given by his adoptive father. If his father got angry, he might throw him away and make him a little beggar.All the hypocrisy and willfulness he dared to do to his mother, but in front of his father, he was as clever and sensible as a sheep, put away his leopard's paws, and endured it for many years.Now, I can suddenly appreciate the privilege of being someone else's younger brother. It's really interesting to play tricks on this sour scholar brother.It's just the stupid big brother who once held a high position in the government of the Republic of China?what position?

He squatted down for a while, resting his chin, and suddenly shouted: "Brother, I can't breathe, it's too cold."

The elder brother helplessly pulled up his trousers, pushed him back to his room, and fetched water to clean his hands.The pain in the palm of the hand when it met the warm water, and the little bit of guilt towards the eldest brother disappeared.Lying back on the kang, it was cold and stiff, and he clung to his elder brother's side, but he still couldn't fall asleep, his palms hurt so badly that there was no place to put them.

He said again: "Brother, I still want to go to the toilet!"

When he stood up, the eldest brother seemed to be awakened from a dream.

"I'll go by myself," he said.

But the eldest brother tidied up for him silently, and accompanied him to the toilet.

Going back and forth like this three times, the eldest brother was exhausted, so he found a toilet from outside and put it in the house, saying: "If you can't bear your nephew's toilet, you can use it here, and tomorrow morning the eldest brother will flush it for you."

He looked at it, smiled with satisfaction and fell asleep.At this time, suddenly my stomach was turned upside down, I was afraid that I was about to have diarrhea because of the cold coming and going outside.

The eldest brother naturally saw through his trick and refused to get up, and said bitterly, "Go and solve it in the toilet."

"Brother, this time it's true!" He was anxious.

"Do you still have the truth? Hold on until dawn, brother is tired!" The elder brother turned over and turned inward, he was so anxious that he ignored the pain in his hand, pulled up the quilt and wrapped him in a cotton nest, and went straight to the toilet.

After squatting for a while, my stomach felt uncomfortable but I couldn't breathe, and my stomach felt uncomfortable.It was cold and windy outside, he hugged the quilt tightly and made no sound, when he heard the rustling sounds outside, he laughed secretly in his heart, the elder brother really cared for him, so he followed.

A black shadow fell from not far away, and another one.

He became alert, he didn't seem to be the eldest brother, and his heart sank, could it be a thief?

Annoyed in his heart, the thief didn't even look at who Chu Yaonan was, so he came to steal.

He picked up a small stone and hit the black shadow flying stone.

Puff, there was a low moan, obviously heavy, but there was no scream.

The black shadow turned around abruptly, and imitated the night owl's cry a few times, three long and two short, hurried.Chu Yaonan was startled, and the Blue Gang was outside to receive a secret signal.

"Who?" he asked in a low voice.

"Master Nan?"