He knew he was dreaming again.

This dream appeared in his life for decades, day and night, entangled, it seems to be deep into the bone marrow, but also like flesh and blood. I can’t throw it away, I can’t dig it away, and if I don’t come for a day, it seems that something is missing.

But he had never had such a clear dream, so clear as if it was real.

“Dog, why do you think you are so stubborn? Isn’t my money your money? What do you think I earn money for? Isn’t it just to support your education and make you feel proud?”

“Why do you say you are so stubborn! You say you are so stubborn, who are you showing your stubbornness to?!”

“I know you don’t like me, but I’ve been like this for many years, and I can’t change it! I don’t plan to change it either!”

“Look at Hong’er, does he look like you?”

…

Xue Tingxiang suddenly felt that someone was shaking him. He opened his tired eyes and saw the dark inner room. Hu San’s face was no longer young, and even the patterns on the curtains were so familiar. He was just dreaming.

It’s just that the dream was too clear, the sorghum fragrance in the air, and the curve of her stubbornly pursed lips made him feel like he was actually there. There are also her tears from being angry, crystal clear and shining with colorful light, he wanted to reach out to touch it, but someone woke him up.

“My lord, it’s time to drink the medicine.”

Xue Tingxiang was propped up and given medicine. He was dying of illness, and he had to be served by someone even to drink medicine. How could he look like that extremely human minister Xue Shoufu who had ruled the court for decades.

Oh no, he is not the chief assistant now.

He has already written a letter to beg for the bones, intending to return to his hometown for the elderly, and the Holy Majesty has already agreed, but he has no home to return to, no relatives to rely on.

In fact, he didn’t intend to go back.

“Master Zhang, Mr. Wang, and Mr. Li and Mr. Cao all came to visit you, but they obeyed your orders and blocked the door. They come every day, and they are here again today. Would you like to see me?”

What can they do? Didn’t they think that his illness was an expedient measure, waiting for him to stand up and continue to lead them to fight against the emperor, but he was really ill, terminally ill, and the medicine was useless.

“not see.”

“My lord, please sleep a little longer.”

The room became quiet again, Xue Tingxiang’s eyelids began to get heavy again, he blinked again and again, and fell into sleep again.

…

“How come Mr. Wang is free to visit this old man?”

Wang Mingcheng’s eyes were a bit complicated, but he smiled on his face: “After all, I am a minister of the same court, and I should come to visit Mr. Shoufu because of emotion and reason.”

“I didn’t expect you, Wang Mingcheng, to say such hypocritical things, but to see if the old man is dying on behalf of the emperor?” Xue Tingxiang sarcastically said.

He is obviously a haggard old man who is obviously dying, but just because of his calm, indifferent eyes that seem somewhat unpredictable, people dare not ignore him in the slightest.

After all, this is Xue Shoufu, and the name alone is enough to intimidate everyone. That was Xue Tingxiang’s deep-rooted roots left by him after going through three dynasties and dozens of years, just like a towering ancient tree with intertwined roots, without him doing anything, just standing there is enough to make everyone daunting.

If not, why would the new emperor have to exhaust all means, but still dare not act rashly, only dare to take that roundabout strategy.

“It seems that my lord has misunderstood His Majesty a lot.”

Xue Tingxiang snorted and laughed, half closed his eyes, did not speak, and looked obviously too lazy to talk to him.

“Actually, I’m here for myself. I just came to see how lonely and miserable the villain who abandoned his wife and son was now. I’m afraid Mr. Xue is dead now, and even a descendant in mourning None, in fact, Mr. Xue is too hard to see, it is just a show, just listen to it and watch it, how can you take the fake show as real and make yourself like this? Is it because of a disturbed conscience or fear? His true face is known by the world, he is reviled by others, and he will be stigmatized for thousands of years?”

“you……”

“To say that you abandoned your wife and son is too much to save your face. It should be killing your wife and son, isn’t it, Mr. Xue?”

No one knows about all this. The world only knows that Xue Shoufu had a first wife before Mrs. Xue, but they don’t know what happened to that first wife. After all, the time is too long, Xue Tingxiang has stood in the court hall for dozens of years, and his former, former and current opponents have all been trampled under his feet.

People in the world only know that Mr. Shoufu is friendly and respectful to the corporals, but they don’t know that Mr. Shoufu also has a vicious side. In recent years, anyone who wanted to make a fuss about his past events all became lonely ghosts. No one knows how many ghosts have been added to it, and the only one who can know is Wang Mingsheng, the “bitter master”.

“You, you are…”

Wang Mingcheng leaned closer to his face: “It’s a pity that my mother’s life is so bad, and so is my life. The sinking ship didn’t kill us, but was saved by others. Do you know that for so many years, day and night, I I want to see this scene every night. It’s a pity that your life is too long, and the power is in the hands of the people. I can only climb up step by step, to the position where I can step on you…”

“You are… Hong’er…” Xue Tingxiang struggled to say this.

Wang Mingsheng stood up straight and smiled heartily: “My name is not Hong’er, nor is my surname Xue, but my surname is Wang. My mother remarried, to the person who saved us…don’t get excited, even if You are dead now, and I am not your son…”

Wang Mingsheng has always been known for being calm and introverted, hiding his secrets, and it was probably the first time he laughed so freely in front of people.

“By the way, you don’t have to think that even if my official surname is Wang, I can still pass on the family lineage to your Xue family. Let me think about it. Yao Ji released the rumor that my official is as good as Long Yang back then, as if you ordered someone to do it. You really hit the mark, I don’t like women, that’s why I haven’t married for many years…”

He smiled and looked at the old man on the bed, seeing how shocked, disappointed and remorseful he was.

But so what?

He suddenly found that he was not as happy as he had imagined, and even this smile seemed too fake. He suddenly lost interest, flattened the corners of his mouth, brushed off his sleeves, and said, “Since Mr. Xue is fine, I will take my leave.”

…

“I didn’t, I didn’t…”

“My lord, what are you talking about?”

Hearing this voice, the fog in front of Xue Tingxiang suddenly dissipated, and he woke up suddenly from his dream. In front of the eyes is this dark inner room again, Hu San’s unattractive or even ugly face, the air is filled with a bitter smell of medicine, and there seems to be a decadent smell floating gently.

Xue Tingxiang moved his lips, but no sound came out.

“My lord, what did you say?”

Hu San was very anxious, and kept asking, but Xue Tingxiang couldn’t speak at all. Hu San could only ask based on his own guess: “Are you thinking about the past? Don’t worry, your words have been passed on to Mr. Zhang , he already knows that Lord Wang is your only son, and will follow your instructions.”

Xue Tingxiang blinked his eyelids. Hu San thought he still had something to say, so he put his ear next to his mouth, but only heard one sentence: “I didn’t…”

After that there is no text.

When Hu San anxiously looked up, he saw Xue Tingxiang’s wide-open eyes and gray-blue face.

He moved forward to touch the other person’s breath with shaking hands, but was so startled that he sat down on the ground.

*

The cold wind came in through the holed window paper, blowing Xue Gouzi’s face coldly.

Shocked, he opened his eyes.

What imprinted in my eyes was a small room with blue brick walls and black tile roof. The walls were plastered with white ash, but it looked gray. The beams of the house are log-colored, and because there is no dust, they are bare/exposed. There are several bamboo baskets hanging on them. There seems to be something in the baskets, and they are covered with blue cloth.

He was lying on a kang with a half-new quilt covering his body. The quilt looked clean and tidy, but in fact the cotton wadding inside had hardened.

Facing his kang feet, there is a row of dark brown kang cabinets, with brass bare nails inlaid with hinged leaves and copper tassel handles, and simple patterns of auspicious clouds and flowing water carved on them, which look thick and generous. . Although it is nothing in a rich family, it is already a piece of furniture that can be sold in a peasant family.

There is no problem passing it down for generations!

This is what his father said back then, and his father was the best carpenter in the village.

Xue Gouzi felt his head hurt, as if he had been hit hard with a hoe. He wanted to support himself to sit up, but he was exhausted and fell back onto the kang again.

It was only then that he realized that he was Xue Gouzi, the eldest son of the second room of the Xue family. Because of something that happened, he couldn’t think about it for a while, and he was so angry that he became ill for a while, and he had been sick for many days.

He is not Xue Tingxiang, that Xue Tingxiang is the person in his dream.

How could he be like that?

In order to prove that all that was just a dream, he raised his hand to look at it.

really! The hand in front of him was slender and fair, and he hadn’t developed the muscles and bones that a man should have. He was only fourteen this year, how could he live to be over seventy years old, and die in the end.

Xue Gouzi let out a heavy breath, looked around again, and finally felt more at ease.

Someone was talking outside, and the voice came in through the cracks in the window.

“I’m talking about recruiting, it’s not my aunt talking about you, look at what you are now, a girl who stays at home all day, and learns from those small traders to do business. That business is what you can do. Did it? Look at your fourth uncle, you can’t save a lot of money by running around outside every day, so don’t worry about it, and if you have that little time, you can help fourth aunt with some work!”

The voice sounded like a young woman, but the sarcasm in the words was too strong. It is said that appearance is born from the heart, and it is no wonder that Mrs. Sun has a mean face.

This thought flashed subconsciously in Xue Gouzi’s mind, and then he was stunned. It’s true that he hated Fourth Aunt, but why would he miss her so much?

Before he could figure out why, he heard the voice in his dream.

“Fourth aunt, I would like to help you with some work, but you also know that the dog has been ill for a few days, and the family gave a few pennies for the medicine at first, but after taking it for half a month, grandma said that the family The money is not in hand, so I stopped the medicine. Gouzi is my man, I can’t just watch him be so sick, it’s not impossible for the fourth aunt to want me to help with the work, or you can lend me some money to buy medicine, I Can I pay you back slowly in the future?”

The owner of the voice was a young girl, and the tone revealed a capable and crisp taste, mixed with a bit of teasing.

That’s right, Zhao’er deliberately ran on the Sun family.

Mrs. Sun has always had a temperament of only getting in and out, and it is more difficult to ask her to give out a penny, let alone lending it to the two half-children of the second room.

Now there are only these two people left in the second room, the top door is only fourteen, but there is an older one, only sixteen, and it is still a girl’s family. Every time Mrs. Sun heard the rumors from the villagers that Zhao’er, a dead girl, had made some money by doing some business, she would be full of disbelief.

What kind of business can this dead girl do to make money, but she digs three melons and two dates from the wild, and takes them out to trick the people in the city into exchanging a few pennies.

“Your fourth aunt has no money to lend you. Our family’s money is all in mother’s place. You don’t care about mother’s going!” Sun patted her buttocks, stood up and went into the house, too lazy to talk nonsense with Zhao’er.

“Since the fourth aunt has no money to lend me, and I don’t dare to take care of grandma, I can only figure out where to get some money to get some medicine for the dog!”

Zhao’er’s voice was very loud, so naturally she was speaking not only to Mrs. Sun, but also to Mrs. Zhao who was sitting in the main room.

Sure enough, Zhao’er entered the house with his front foot, and Mrs. Zhao stood at the door behind him and scolded Mrs. Sun: “You haven’t cleaned the pigsty, so you’re going back to the house to hold a corpse?”

Zhao’er curled her lips, lifted the door curtain and walked in, bumping head-on into Xue Gouzi’s eyes looking at her.

As for the headache, even the doctor couldn’t tell what the cause was.

After sending the doctor away, grandmother Zhao slapped her face on the spot.

She looked like she was in her fifties, with her gray hair neatly pulled back behind her head. With a long face, the eyelids are a little sunken, and when the face is pulled, it becomes a triangular eye, which looks particularly unfriendly.

Without Mrs. Zhao’s words, Mrs. Sun said: “Zhao’er, it’s not the fourth aunt talking about you, you girl likes to make a fuss. Could it be that you deliberately torment us all, even if you don’t like it…”

Before she finished speaking, she was pulled by the man Xue Qinghuai.

“Okay, let’s say a few words less, Zhao’er is not ignorant, and besides, the dog is already sick, so it’s better to find a doctor to take a look, so the family can rest assured.”

“I said less and said less, and I didn’t say anything…”

“You also said…”

The couple went out while chatting and tugging. The eldest aunt Yang smiled at Zhao’er, and then said to the mother-in-law: “Mother, let’s go too, let the dog have a good rest.”

Mrs. Zhao glanced at the dog on the kang, snorted coldly, turned her head and left. It can be seen from her posture that she is very angry.

In fact, it is true. The Xue family can’t be called a rich family. It costs at least one or two hundred dollars to invite a doctor from the town. ! In particular, the doctor’s pulse just now confirmed Zhao’s guess that Xue Gouzi was deliberately pretending to be ill, and it was only strange that she was happy.

Let Mrs. Zhao see that the two little boys in the second room are deliberately torturing the family, but since the eldest daughter-in-law has come forward to persuade her, Mrs. Zhao will naturally not say more.

Generally speaking, among the three daughters-in-law of the Xue family, Yang is the one who wins Zhao’s heart the most. The eldest has an unusual status, and Zhao is willing to show the eldest daughter-in-law some face.

After Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Yang left, only the third uncle Xue Qingbai and the third aunt Zhou were left in the house. The two were not used to talking much, and they didn’t stay long, Zhao’er thought that the third uncle had worked hard just now, so he sent the two of them out with a smile.

When he turned his head and came back, he saw Xue Gouzi lying on the kang with his eyes open, his eyes staring blankly, as if he had lost his mind.

She didn’t think much about it, she came to the side of the kang and patted his head: “Dog, don’t think too much, they don’t believe that you are sick and have a headache, sister believes you. Take care of your illness and don’t think about it anymore. “

Xue Gouzi glanced at her, his mouth was dry and his throat was tight: “Zhaoer…”

“What’s wrong? Is there something uncomfortable?”

Feeling these undelicate but very warm hands touching his head and face, Xue Gouzi had a sense of reality and gratitude that he had never had before.

She wasn’t dead, and neither was he.

Although he didn’t like some of her daily actions, and even hated her as his child bride-in-law, but he never thought of letting her die, so how could he be the one who killed his wife and son.

But Xue Gouzi was still very flustered, because that dream was too real. After going through that dream for more than seventy years, it seemed that he had also experienced that life. But after waking up from the dream, the vicissitudes of life have changed, and he dare not look back.

“Zhaoer…”

“Why!”

“Zhaoer…”

“Um.”

“Zhaoer…”

A hot stream suddenly flowed out unconsciously from the dry eye sockets.

This scared Zhao’er quite a bit, and he didn’t care to think that the little man would never call her that, let alone let himself get close to him. He hugged his head into his arms and asked him anxiously up.

Seeing that he didn’t speak, but just buried himself in his arms and cried, Zhao’er couldn’t help but wonder if those people made him think too much just now. According to Zhao’er, the little man has a lot of things on his mind, and he never speaks out, otherwise he wouldn’t have this serious illness.

She patted him on the back, hugged him like she did when she was a child, and comforted him: “Don’t be afraid, dog, even if they don’t send you to study, sister will send you there, and sister will send you even if she sells everything.” go.”

*

After all, Xue Gouzi had just recovered from a serious illness, and after experiencing such an incident, he fell asleep after drinking some porridge for dinner.

Zhao’er covered him with a quilt before tidying up the basket she had just brought back.

The back basket is full of needlework and cloth, which are rags that Zhao’er bought in the embroidery workshop in the town. The reason why I started this business was because I used to recruit children to carry the finished purses for the women in the village to sell in the embroidery workshop.

There is no adult in the second room. Although the family is in charge of eating, after all, the pen, ink, paper and inkstone used by Xue Gouzi to study, as well as the clothes, bedding and some odds and ends of the two people on weekdays, etc., all need money.

Wanting to ask for money from Mrs. Zhao is more expensive than ascending to the sky, and although the uncle Xue Qingshan is determined to treat his nephew as if he were his own, but Zhao’er usually only sees the big family’s child with greasy lips, and Xue Juncai never Lack of pens, ink, paper and inkstones. In contrast, the little man was as thin as a bamboo pole, and he picked up a bald pen that Xue Qingshan didn’t use back then.

Zhao’er has always been a strong one, she couldn’t bear to wrong the little man, so she could only find money everywhere by herself. There was no opportunity to make money in the countryside, so she went to the town to look around, as long as it was within her power and did not require capital, she would try to do it.

In the past few years, she has collected vegetables from the village and sold them in the town, picked up work from the embroidery workshop and assigned them to women with good craftsmanship in the village, and usually went to the mountains to find mountain products to sell.

And now this business has been done several times, Zhao’er has a sweet mouth and a thick face, the boss of the embroidery workshop can’t hold her back, so he sells the unwanted rags to her in bags. She took it back, sorted and cut it, and then asked the women in the village to help make purses and other things, and she could earn a lot of money by reselling them in the embroidery workshop. It is much better than before just receiving the purses made by others, and earning a penny for a few purses.

If he hadn’t made some money by doing this business, he didn’t know when Xue Gouzi would recover from his serious illness. Mrs. Zhao would have given up the money to get the medicine for a long time ago, and Zhao’er used his own money to catch the medicines later. I still have to hide it, for fear that other members of the Xue family will find out.

Thinking of this, the corners of Zhao’er’s mouth tightened.

She has always been agile in her hands and feet, and seeing that she picked out some usable cloth heads, she stopped tossing about. I chose clean ones and spread them out on a square table, and cut these strangely shaped cloth heads into a uniform shape with scissors.

This is Zhao’er’s own calculation based on how much fabric is needed to make a purse, no more and no less, she will not take out these rags for people to see.

It is not easy for country people to earn a penny. If someone finds out, the designated way to earn money will be robbed within a few days.

Zhao’er also wants to use this to make money for the little man to go to the town to study, so that she can only go to see Xue Jun, and her little man can also go. Zhao’er has always been prepared with both hands when doing things, and she knows in her heart that the big house will never let such a good thing happen to the little man.

It is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself, and it is better to rely on yourself than to rely on mountains and rivers.

Zhao’er has understood this truth since she was seven years old when she was going to be exchanged for money by her grandmother and father.

After Zhao’er finished what she was doing, seeing the little man was fast asleep, and seeing that it was already dark outside, she wrapped the tidy cloth in something, and hurried out with it.

Under the night, Yuqing Village was exceptionally peaceful, and the light silver moonlight shone on the trails in the village. Although the road was still unclear, it was not completely dark after all.

Zhao’er walked all the way and didn’t even startle a dog.

This is not an ability that ordinary people can have. You must know that in places like the countryside, almost every household has a dog. Dogs are very alert at night, and whenever someone walks past the door, they bark wildly. Even if a petty thief came to the door, he would have been scared away by the dog long ago.

Zhao’er also developed this ability after walking a lot at night.

Of course, it was also related to the sunspot following her legs.

Heizi is a country dog, but it is stronger and bigger than ordinary dogs. There are not many dogs in Yuqing Village that can beat Heizi, and it is because of Heizi that Zhao’er dares to walk alone at night.

She went all the way to a family’s house with ease, and it was strange that the other party knew that she would come at this time and left the door open for her. As soon as she entered the door, the family’s dog rushed over. Before she could reach her, a black shadow rushed over and threw the other person to the ground. The dog was so frightened that it fell on the ground and stopped barking.

Zhao’er gloated at the side: “I don’t have a long memory!”

At this time, a person came out of the house, and he smiled as he walked up to the front: “This black man is here to bully our family Wangcai again, Zhao’er, come in and sit down.”

“Aunt Osmanthus, I won’t go in, I’m still rushing back.”

Zhao’er handed over the things in his hands to the visitor, took some things from the other person, wrapped them in cloth, and then went to the next household.

Zhao’er went to five families.

She is anxious to make money, but there are few women in the village who are good at needlework, and she needs to find someone who is tight-lipped and reliable. shit money.

The reason why she said that was because when she collected vegetables from the village and sold them in the town, she was publicized by people who didn’t know the door, causing her to be pointed at all day long. She was not afraid of being pointed out, but these things finally reached the ears of the little man, and some villagers made fun of him, which caused a lot of conflicts between her and the little man. And after that, she won’t receive any vegetables in the village, even if someone sells them to her, it will be at a high price.

In the end, she had no choice but to go to other villages to collect vegetables. It was not a waste of time. Since then, Zhaoer has developed a memory.

When Zhao’er came home, Xue Gouzi on the kang was still sleeping soundly.

She went to get some water to wash her face and wipe her hands before getting on the kang. The second room only had this kang, and she had slept with Xue Gouzi since she was a child, and she was used to it.

Heizi slept under the kang, just now when he invited his son into the house, he slid in at his feet and chose a random place to lie down. It seems that the dog’s eyes have been closed, but in fact the two ears are standing up, and they move from time to time.

Before Zhao’er lay down, she bullied herself over to look at the little man, and touched his forehead, before falling asleep in peace.

*

Compared with the second room because of the sparse population, there are only two rooms and one kang, the treatment of the first room is obviously much better. The entire three east rooms were occupied by the big room, and at this time in the east room, Mrs. Yang was talking to Xue Qingshan.

Yang narrated what happened during the day, Xue Qingshan immediately frowned after listening.

He was not at home during the day, so naturally he didn’t know what happened at home. Nowadays, some respectable families will invite scholars to preside over their weddings and funerals, but where rural families can afford to hire scholars, some will invite children to make up the number.

No matter how they are all scholars, they are different from ordinary people.

Today, Xue Qingshan was invited by a family in a nearby village to have a wedding. It doesn’t matter what the etiquette is.

But the people in the countryside are poor, so the happy money will not be too much, at most a few tens of pennies.

Xue Qingshan likes this kind of work the most. Every time at this time, he will randomly assign articles to memorize for the students in the school, and then go out for a whole day, and no one will say anything. What he likes is not only having money to take, but also when this time is his happiest time.

He was sitting in the position of the guest of honor, and the men who came to have a wedding banquet were all proud to have a conversation with him.

He is the master of Tongsheng!

Of course, it would be even better if Tongsheng could be replaced by a scholar, Xue Qingshan would have dreamed of it. But for so many years, he has more or less self-knowledge, so he can’t help pinning his hopes on his son.

It’s a pity that someone is blocking this way now.

Xue Qingshan drank a lot of wine, his chubby face was flushed, and he was holding his breath in his heart, so he spit and scolded: “What kind of moth is this son of a bitch, I really want to open a dyeing workshop just to give him some color. !”

Yang sighed faintly: “Who told you that you agreed to the second child so easily at the beginning, but now it’s hard to get off the tiger because of our talents.”

“In that situation back then, the second child seemed to be honest, and he wanted to accompany his elder brother when he was about to die. If I knew that he was paying attention that day, I would have found a way to shut him up, but so many people I was present, and the accident happened because of me, if I don’t even agree to this matter, how can I gain a foothold in front of others.”

Of course, Mrs. Yang knew this truth, but she couldn’t calm down. Just because of that bullshit promise, Da Fang kept her hands tied. Her son wanted to go to the library to study, but he had to hide and beg the other party to show his respect.

She was always proud and arrogant, so naturally the more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became, her eyes sparkled, but she sneered on her face: “Because he fell ill suddenly, originally Dad planned to make decisions for us, so we can only endure it. But he has been sick for these days, and today he has such a scene, and my mother is already annoyed. I asked the fourth daughter-in-law to tell my mother that the dog is probably pretending to be sick. I think my mother has already decided that he is pretending. sick.”

Xue Qingshan’s eyes lit up: “That’s good, I’ll go talk to my parents tomorrow and let them put this matter into practice.” He put his arms around Yang’s shoulders with a smile, and said: “My wife is smarter. , Prepared a backhand early.”

Yang gave him an angry look, and the two of them rested together, without speaking for a whole night.

Without Mrs. Zhao’s words, Mrs. Sun said: “Zhao’er, it’s not the fourth aunt talking about you, you girl likes to make a fuss. Could it be that you deliberately torment us all, even if you don’t like it…”

Before she finished speaking, she was pulled by the man Xue Qinghuai.

“Okay, let’s say a few words less, Zhao’er is not ignorant, and besides, the dog is already sick, so it’s better to find a doctor to take a look, so the family can rest assured.”

“I said less and said less, and I didn’t say anything…”

“You also said…”

The couple went out while chatting and tugging. The eldest aunt Yang smiled at Zhao’er, and then said to the mother-in-law: “Mother, let’s go too, let the dog have a good rest.”

Mrs. Zhao glanced at the dog on the kang, snorted coldly, turned her head and left. It can be seen from her posture that she is very angry.