Daiyu of the Red Chamber raised a cat

Lunch is vegetable pancakes and vegetable soup made by the old woman, and a small plate of meat, placed on a simple table made of irregular stone slabs.There was very little meat, which barely covered the bottom of the plate. The old woman said that it was a hare that the old man went into the mountain to hunt yesterday, and he ate two legs for the little grandson at night, and these were leftovers.She enthusiastically entertained Daiyu and others to eat, but she herself only took a bowl of vegetable soup and sucked it. The little grandson reached out to eat the meat, but she knocked it open with chopsticks, covered his hand and sniffed tearfully.

Daiyu pulled the child to her side, and gave him meat with chopsticks, but he dared not eat, and looked up at the old woman.

Lin Ruhai couldn't help but said, "Let the children eat."

The old woman turned her head, rubbed the corners of her eyes, put down the bowl, sighed deeply, and said slowly: "Oh...that's all, let him eat it, can't we let the guests and my old woman eat bran and swallow vegetables? This is not the way our Orion family treats guests. It’s not that I don’t care about children, it’s really..." She bit her lip, choked up a few times, and only beckoned her grandson to come over and hold her in her arms. Shout out.

Lin Ruhai knew that if she continued talking about it, it was nothing more than financial difficulties and so on. She didn't say it because she didn't want to burden the guests, and she was afraid that she would feel sorry for waiting.As a great Yuan of the imperial court, seeing that under the rule of the Holy Lord, there are still people who are worrying about food and clothing all day long, apart from pity, there is also a sense of guilt in my heart.

He has been to many places and met many people. Those who do evil and have evil intentions often have no worries about food and clothing. On the contrary, most honest and kind people have a difficult livelihood.Just like the family in front of me, an old couple, plus a five-year-old child, survival is a problem, and they are still willing to do everything to entertain them, how can it not be heartbreaking?

Thinking of this, Lin Ruhai could no longer enjoy their entertainment with peace of mind.Putting down the bowls and chopsticks, he said to the old man, "Old man, do you go hunting in the mountains every day? Are there many prey in the mountains? Can you hunt them?"

After eating a vegetable cake, the old man carefully licked off the crumbs left on his hands, and sighed: "There are a lot of prey, but it's not easy to hunt..."

"Why?"

It was the old woman who answered: "My dear guest, I don't know. When the old man was young, he was a well-known hunter. Every time he went out, he returned with a full load. When he got it to the town, he could exchange a lot of money. At that time, we were living well. Delicious and delicious, otherwise how can my son marry a scholar's daughter?"

She said that most of them were from a mountain family who could not read a single word. Her son was in good shape and could hunt. Once he went to the town to sell goods and was spotted by a scholar, so he betrothed his daughter to him.That woman is also literate, taught her son to write his own name, and even taught her grandson the characters he now recognizes.

When she said these words, there was joy on her face, as if she had returned to the good old days.That happy expression didn't stay on her for too long, and soon her expression became sad again, "My son married a wife and gave us a big fat grandson in the second year. Who knows that the good times haven't passed for a few years. Went out hunting as usual, but never came back. The group searched all day, both on the mountain and in the river ditch, but no one was alive or dead. After a day, everyone said that there was no need to search again, it must be He was taken into the hole by a tiger or a blind bear, otherwise he would not be a child and would come back. The old man and I didn’t believe it. We went out early and returned late every day. After searching for more than a month, we had no news, so we had to make clothes. Daughter-in-law As a result, he became depressed and ill, and within a year, he passed away."

She choked up and said, "My son is a better hunter than his father."

She hugged her little grandson tightly: "This child's life is miserable. First he lost his father and then lost his mother. Alas... the old man is getting older, and his body is getting worse every day. He can't catch up with his prey. It’s not good either, the strength of the arrows I shot is not good, and out of ten times I went out, eight times I came back empty-handed. I don’t have anything, wild vegetables can also satisfy my hunger, but it’s hard for this five-year-old child..."

"Grandma, I'm fine, I like to eat wild vegetables." Seeing grandma crying, the child sensiblely wiped her tears and comforted her.

While speaking, Daiyu took out a large bag of various snacks from the space under the cover of her baggage, and gave them to the children.The two old people went to stop them, but they said they couldn't do it, Daiyu said: "If the old people are really so indifferent, I will be angry!" They gave up, Daiyu invited the two old people to eat together, and asked Zhou Hang to move Stool, pull two people to sit down.

Although the two old people sat down, they still refused to move their chopsticks. Daiyu urged them repeatedly, so they ate some of each in awe.Back and forth, there was more than half of the bottomless meat on the small plate, Daiyu beckoned the child over, and fed him the meat.The old man didn't stop him, the child was a little cautious at first, but later he let go of his courage, his mouth was full of oil, and his eyebrows were flying.

Daiyu wiped her mouth amusedly and asked, "What's your name?"

The child said: "Pillar."

"Can you write?"

The child squatted on the ground and wrote the word "pillar" stroke by stroke. Although it was crooked and immature, it was indeed a feat for a mountain child.Daiyu smiled and praised: "That's right, what other words can you write?"

Then he wrote a few more characters, which were densely packed and carefully identified. They were the words mountain, sky, man, king, show, red, dog, and son.Pointing to a few words, he said: "This is mother, this is father..."

Guessing that those were his parents' names, Daiyu walked over and patted his head.Ask him to write a few more words, but he shook his head and said no.This child can't write many characters, only a dozen or so. Presumably, he was only four years old when his mother died, and even the teaching is limited, and he can remember even less.Now, more than a year has passed since his mother passed away, and there is no one to teach him, and there are not many books in his house, so remembering a dozen or so is not bad.Daiyu taught him a few more characters, watched him write them well, and let him play by himself.But he took Daiyu's hand and refused to let go, insisting that Daiyu play with him.

Seeing that the child liked her, Daiyu was also very happy, and let him drag him into a forest.

Zhuzi ran around one fruit tree after another, and finally found a wild fruit that fell freely on the ground after ripening, and offered it to Daiyu to eat like a treasure.Looking down from the small hill, there is a flowing stream with clear water and shaded trees on both sides. There are also many wild fruit trees. Many wild fruits fall, and the ground is yellow and orange.

Daiyu pointed and said, "Why don't you go there? There are many wild fruits there?"

Zhu Zi trembled violently when he heard the words, shook his head and said, "You can't go there."

He looked obviously scared, and Daiyu asked, "Why can't you go?"

Zhuzi said: "There are white-clothed and white-haired ghosts there, who are good at catching people. Sister, you must not go, there really are, I have seen them. Sister—" shaking Daiyu's arm, "Sister, trust me, I really can't go."

Daiyu didn't believe that any ghost would arrest people, but what he said was a bit strange.Zhu Zi is an honest child, if there is no basis, Duan will not make up such endless lies.She asked him when he saw it, and Zhuzi said: "A few months ago, once I was playful, and I didn't go back after dark. I lay down in the river ditch to catch grasshoppers, and suddenly saw two A ghost in white clothes dragged a tall man into the river and disappeared." He jumped and stretched out his hands to try to figure out the height of the man, from what he described, he was a grown man.

Children often don't have an accurate concept of time. The months before in his mouth are not exact months, maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe just a few months.The ghost he mentioned may not necessarily be a ghost.Didn't it mean that many people disappeared around here, and it must be related to this ghost.Asked what the ghost was like, Zhu Zi couldn't tell, time had changed, and he was still terrified when he mentioned it, but he was even more frightened at that time, he didn't dare to look at it carefully.

After returning, Daiyu asked the two old people.They said that Zhuzi had said something about seeing ghosts. About a year ago, Zhuzi’s mother died not long ago. They thought that the child saw something unclean in the ditch, so they went to the town to find a priest to drive away ghosts, and donated Five catties of sesame oil money, and warned Zhuzi not to go into the river ditch again, and not to mention this matter again.

When asked how the missing people in the neighborhood disappeared, the old woman said that some went hunting in the mountains, some went bathing in the river, and some disappeared for no reason.Daiyu frowned and asked, "Isn't it just one or two people, more than a dozen in total, and the government doesn't care?"

The old woman said: "But for those who reported the case, the county magistrate sent two messengers to go around the mountain a few times. It's useless, it's just a fool. First, he said that there were beasts in the mountain, so everyone should not go to the mountain. Later, some people were still missing, and they said there were The evil thing is causing trouble, and invited a few monks and priests to perform a few religious ceremonies..."

"What happened later?" Daiyu asked.

"Later, it was still the same, and I went to report to the official again, but after a lot of trouble, each household had to charge hundreds of silver for doing things. The villagers knew it was useless, so they stopped reporting to the official and moved away one after another. gone."

"Stupid official!" Lin Ruhai said angrily.

The old man sighed and said: "Who says it's not? Everyone scolds like this when they betray someone. What's the use? People should be promoted and get rich. I heard that the nobles who have climbed to the capital will be promoted to the magistrate of the prefecture." gone."

"Such stupid officials and moths should be killed." Lin Ruhai lowered his voice.

The old man was startled, and hurriedly waved his hands and said: "Sir, it's fine to say this here, and you must not say it when you go out. If it gets to the ears of the county master, it will be serious. Those people, killing people winking."

Lin Ruhai smiled and said, "Thank you for reminding me, old man." He thought to himself, since this matter happened to him, he had to figure it out anyway.Moreover, the disappearance of the population is likely to be related to the attack on him, so it is necessary to find out the truth.As for the county magistrate, no matter whether he is related to this matter or not, if what he committed cannot be tolerated, he must seek justice for the people.

That afternoon, the old man was still going into the mountains to hunt with a bow and arrow on his back, but Daiyu stopped him and handed the bow and arrow to Zhou Hang to let him go.Lin Ruhai still asked the two old people about missing persons and the situation of the county magistrate.Daiyu went hunting with Zhou Hang, and they harvested a lot. They hunted a goat, four hares, and four pheasants.The two old people were overjoyed, and immediately slaughtered the sheep and the rabbit, ate a full dinner, and stayed at the old man's house at night.

Daiyu was awakened by a burst of hysterical shouts.It was still dark outside, and the old man's voice was hoarse, with heavy grief.

"Old woman, come out, come out, son, son has found—"

The author has something to say:

The author's new concluding article: A Good Wife in the Red Mansion is Difficult, also known as Daiyu and I as girlfriends.

If you are interested, you can click on the author's column to read, thank you for your support^3^