Shangqiaotou Village, Qiaotou Town

Qiaotou Town is located in a not-so-rich place on the Loess Plateau. There are no more than five bridges in the entire town. Even old intellectuals who know a little about stereotypes don’t know why this town is called "Qiaotou". Qiaotou Town is divided into 38 Villages are poorer than each other, including "Qiaotou Village".There are less than forty households in Qiaotou Village, and these forty households also include Hong Sheng, a bachelor; Hong Sheng is not too big according to the current situation, and he has just passed his thirties, but in Qiaotou Village in the 90s, he was already " Old bachelor".

"Old bachelor" Hong Sheng also married. At that time, in order to cheat the bride price, the woman's family insisted on marrying her sick daughter. On the wedding night, she bled profusely and couldn't stop, so she sent it to the doctor in the town. After a pulse check, he said there was no cure; Hong Sheng, who was determined not to give up, sent him to the county hospital again, and the conclusion he gave was "leukemia". leukemia?"

After staying in the hospital for a week, I spent all my money, and I went to the credit union to withdraw a fixed deposit. The natal family over there was wronged, and they had all the good words, and their attitude of admitting their mistakes was sincere, but the dowry money would not be refunded, saying that they had just arranged a matchmaker for their son.Helpless, Hong Sheng returned home despondently. His wife timidly brought him a bowl of sliced ​​noodles with a sickly body, a scallion, and a spoonful of old vinegar, swallowing Hong Sheng's unhappiness. down.

This daughter-in-law was only 18 when she got married. Her natal family said that her household registration was late, but she was actually 20; Supper and overnight dishes, after she grilled them, were delicious enough to make people eat a few more mouthfuls, so Hong Sheng accepted it.However, no matter how virtuous a daughter-in-law is, she can't resist the call of illness. Two years later, this daughter-in-law's illness spent almost all of Hong Sheng's savings, and she finally left; when she left, the girl took Hong Sheng's hand and said weakly, "Hong Sheng, you are a good man. If you have another chance in your next life, I will serve you well!" At that time, Hong Sheng was crying and fainted once.

Hong Sheng was tall and capable, so logically speaking, he would not fail to rewind, but unfortunately because of a piece of land, he had an unhappiness with a village lame (similar to a hooligan). It’s dark, and everyone says that Hong’s life is hard. He killed his mother at the age of five, his father at the age of 13, his grandfather at the age of 14, his grandma at the age of 15, and his daughter-in-law died two years after the marriage... Hong Sheng Most people in the village know the family situation well. His mother died of dystocia when giving birth to his younger brother. As a result, both mother and child were lost. His father died after drinking fake wine mixed with alcohol. The white-haired man sent the black-haired man to death, so at the beginning, some people scolded the lame man for not accumulating virtue; but no amount of dirty water can withstand frequent splashing. They all thought it was so interesting; the matchmaker introduced a partner, and the woman waved her hand early when she heard about their family's situation; besides, Hong Sheng's family was no better than a few years ago. Even if the family is poor, no woman is willing to marry such a person.So, when all the children in the village and Hong Sheng's generation went to elementary school, Hong Sheng was still a bachelor.

Just after noon that day, Hong Sheng was carrying a hoe and was about to go to the field. On the day of April in the lunar calendar, the buckwheat seedlings had already come up. Surrounded in front of a deserted kiln, although the innermost part is dark, you can still barely see a person nestled in the corner. The person hugged his knees and buried his face in his chest without making a sound; he asked sentence,

"What happened?"

The [-]-[-]-year-old boy next to me said,

"He snatched my bun, and ran away after he snatched it!"

Then listen to people asking in a hurry,

"Hey, inside, where did you come from?"

"You said that you are such a big man, what are you doing to snatch a baby?"

"Won't you be a fool?"

"I heard that there is a lunatic in Qiantou Village. Could it be that he came to our village?"

"Is the village chief already? Tell the village chief to come over, or kick him out if he can't!"

At this time, a young man boldly entered the kiln slowly, and tried to push the man, only to see that the man pushed him quickly, and then retreated to the corner; the young man was pushed away by him People fell down, and people laughed coaxingly, maybe because they felt that they couldn't hold up their face, so they stood up and patted their buttocks and said,

"Yeah, it's pretty strong!"

After speaking, he pulled the other party's arm in the past and pulled it away. The man didn't say a word, but kept struggling, trying to push away his captors. Unfortunately, maybe he was too weak, maybe he was still a little scared with so many people, so After earning for a long time, he was still dragged out; only then did people see clearly that this was also a young man with long and messy hair, a dark and dirty face, and tattered clothes, probably because he was too thin, and his eyes It looked very big, and inadvertently glanced timidly at everyone, then quickly lowered its head.

Hong Sheng didn't stay any longer, and went directly over the mountain ridge to the field. There was nothing to watch over this matter. With a hasty glance, he didn't look like a fool. The poor man Hong Sheng had seen many times, but it was the first time he saw such pitiful and stubborn eyes, so he came back from the field. Afterwards, he purposely turned to the kiln to have a look, and it seemed that there were still people inside, so he put his remaining half pot of water and a steamed bun at the door.

The next day, Hong Sheng heard that the village head had come, and the first thing he asked was,

"Did you hit someone?"

The guy in charge of pulling people said,

"What are you doing beating him, you idiot!"

"I mean, did he hit someone?"

"I didn't fight, I just robbed Xiao Ermao's bun!"

The village chief thought for a while, then went over to the man and said,

"Do you know how to herd sheep?"

The man looked confused, and the village head asked again,

"Herding sheep, do you understand? Sheep, baa~baa~ sheep..." Someone in the crowd chuckled, but he didn't have the nerve to laugh. The other party seemed to understand, but just shook his head; the village chief didn't give up, and asked again,

"What can you do?"

The man continued to shake his head, when the lad muttered,

"Why are you still dumb?"

The village chief spoke again at this time,

"Look at you, you can live here, and you can come out to beg for food when you're hungry, but you can't steal or rob, you know?"

The man seemed to understand, nodded again, the village head turned to everyone and said,

"It should be a fool. It is estimated that either the family doesn't want it, or the parents are gone. He is also a poor baby. If he wants to live, he will let him live!"

When Hong Sheng went to hoe again in the afternoon, he passed by the kiln and saw his empty water jug ​​at the door, so he filled half of it again, leaving a piece of cake this time.For more than a week, Hong Sheng went to the field every afternoon and shared half of the dry food he brought with him, so every time he saw an empty water bottle at the door.After being busy in the field for a while, it’s time to work on the vegetable garden in the yard again: I got up early in the morning to reorganize the whole vegetable field, divided it into pieces, buried a row of pumpkin seeds in front of the house, and watered them; A lotus bean (bean), half of the white radish seeds and half of the scallions were sprinkled on the left side; after lunch, I walked to the town, [-] miles back and forth, just to buy a few cucumber and tomato seedlings; At that time, this thing was still a bit expensive, but after planting it, it would produce a lot of fruit, which was better than eating potatoes every day; when I came back in the afternoon, I planted it before sunset, watered it, and the vegetable was considered planted.It wasn't until lunch the next day that Hong Sheng thought of the young people in the middle of the mountain, so he took a pot of water, filled half a bowl of noodles left over at noon, put it in a cloth bag, and went out; People, say hello, someone asks,

"Hong Sheng, your land hasn't been hoed yet?"

"The hoeing is over!"

"Then you have a bag and water, what are you doing?"

"Go and have a look at the kiln!"

"Oh, that idiot is still there?"

"here I am"

"Oh, what a poor doll..."

"Are you bringing him food?"

"Oh, I made too much noodles at noon!"

Hong Sheng arrived in front of the cave, and just as he put down the water, a shadow sprang out of it, holding the water and ran back with a whoosh, and then, Hong Sheng heard the sound of drinking water, waiting for Hong Sheng to put on his face When the bowl was placed on the ground, the man came out again, holding the bowl and hid in again; Hong Sheng squatted at the entrance of the cave, his eyes adjusted to the light inside, and vaguely saw that the other party was feeding noodles into his mouth. Maybe it was stuffed too much, and the mouth could hardly move. After chewing for a long time, it was hard to swallow it, and then continued to stuff it. The bowl of noodles was half full, and the man stuffed three mouthfuls; That vigor is the same as that of their previous big yellow dog when he was a child.After finally swallowing the last mouthful of noodles, the man raised his head, glanced at Hong Sheng, and then again;

"Aren't you full?"

The man looked at him again, then lowered his head to pick short grains of flour from the bowl,

"I'll bake a pancake tonight and bring it to you!"

The man's eyes suddenly became bright, he raised his head, then lowered his head and put the bowl in front of himself, pushed it with his hands, looked up at Hong Sheng, moved his body forward, and pushed the bowl forward again push.