The first year of Yongchang, leap October 21st.
Because it is a leap month, it is already late winter.
The winter nights are always very long, especially dawn, which is the most chaotic and dark time of the day.
In the Yong'an Palace bedroom, soft lights were burning. In front of the curtain of the dragon bed, a copper bell hung slightly and inaudibly flashed twice.
At the same time, the eunuchs who were standing in the corner with their hands down, like statues, immediately walked forward and knelt beside the bed, and gently opened the curtains.
"Old man, are you awake?" Pu Bucheng came from the outer hall wearing clothes and asked in a low voice.
The old man half-opened his eyes and looked at the darkness outside the window, "What time is it?"
"It's still early before dawn, would you like to sleep a little longer?" Pu Bucheng said with a smile.
"I'm not going to sleep anymore. It's time to sleep when there are plenty of things buried in the soil. Why are you so anxious now?" As he said that, the old man stretched out his feet and sat up from the bed wearing his mille-layer cloth shoes. The eunuch beside him quickly put the warm fur on the bed.
On his back.
The old man stood up again, holding on to the handle of the dragon bed, and walked towards the window with somewhat frivolous steps.
But before walking a few steps, he seemed to be tired, and then he casually sat down on a stool.
But the next second, the old man's expression suddenly froze.
Because the position where he was sitting was right in front of the mirror that was used to straighten his clothes and grooming. The old man's eyes fell on the mirror and he saw his own face in the mirror.
Pu Bucheng saw this and quickly waved to the other eunuchs.
The eunuchs stepped on the floor and retreated quickly and silently.
Pu Bucheng didn't say anything after that, but poured a bowl of warm tea soup, held it in both hands and stood behind the old man.
"I usually don't pay close attention, but we... have become like this!"
The face in the mirror is extremely old, with pale, thin cheeks and full of wrinkles. His hair, eyebrows and beard seem to be connected together. The gray is mixed with a little brown. There are also several spots visible to the naked eye on his forehead.
The old man tried his best to open his eyes wide, hoping to see his sharp tiger-like eyes in the mirror.
But what he got in exchange was that the wrinkles on his face shook a few times.
"Life goes so fast in this life!" The old man moved his hands vigorously, as if he wanted to touch himself in the mirror, but he never lifted up. "We are so old, so old!"
Pu Bucheng laughed in a low voice, "You didn't sleep well, you look lack of energy. Besides, it's not bright yet and the room is dark..."
"Old is old!" The old man still looked at himself in the mirror and smiled bitterly, "If we close our eyes now, will we be like a dead person? Haha, will this be the case after we die?"
Plop, Pu Bucheng knelt down, "Old man..."
"No wonder my eldest grandson said he wanted to celebrate my birthday. How many more years can we live like this?" A wry smile appeared on the corner of the old man's mouth, "You have no control over the coming and going of life. When I was young, I always felt that my life was like this.
Slow, so slow that there is no hope.”
"Now that I am old, I feel that life flies by so fast. Just like the steamed buns you eat when you are very hungry, they are gone before your tongue can taste the taste!"
"They say people are afraid of death when they get old. In fact, it's not that they're afraid of death. It's because death comes too fast and you have to take people away before you're ready."
"It is said that when people get old, they take everything else lightly. How can we not take it lightly? Time flies by so fast. How can you think about anything else?"
"Ha!" Suddenly, the old man grinned and pointed at himself in the mirror, "Zhu Chongba, you look like a bear, you are very ugly!"
Then his smile faded and he put on a ferocious expression, "Damn it, you're living such a happy life, do you want to see me faint? Do you want to see me being afraid of death when we grow old? I've been fucking you for eight generations.
, you are so evil-hearted, you will never treat us well in this life."
Kneeling Pu Bucheng listened to the old man's words and knew who the old man was scolding.
What the old man is scolding is time, fate, and God!
"Don't talk about how good we are in the future. It's all because we fought for our lives with you. You are so capable. If you ask us to give birth to a poor family in the next life, we can still fight for it. If you don't believe it, let's take a gamble?"
"You are just a bully who bullies honest people. When you encounter people like us, you give up. You can talk about God's will and do whatever God wants to do. Damn you, I let you say good things and do all the bad things."
Already."
Having said this, the old man smiled slightly in the mirror again, turned to look at Pu Bucheng who was kneeling, and said softly, "Get up, the ground is cold!"
Then he continued to look at the mirror, "Are our clothes that pretend to be old still in good condition?"
Pu Bucheng couldn't help the burning at the corners of his eyes and the uncontrollable emotions, "Old man, this slave has been taking care of me according to your instructions all these years, so it's fine!"
The old man nodded, "As long as it's proper, don't be careless. If there are any flaws in our old clothes, there is no place to look for them. The coats, pants, shoes and socks were all made by me stitch by stitch when my sister was alive. We are alive.
I can't bear to wear it when I die, but if I want to find her after death, I have to wear it well."
"After all these years, if we don't wear the clothes she beat up, I'm afraid she won't recognize us."
As he said this, he seemed to get excited, "You said, our girl won't recognize us, right?"
"Old man!" Pu Bucheng was scared and anxious, "Today is your happy day, you must..."
"What a big day! It's just your mother's birthday. In fact, we don't want to celebrate it, because birthdays are such a stupid thing, it's better to celebrate them once." The old man smiled bitterly and waved his hand, "You go aside, we want to stay by ourselves for a while!"
~~~~~
The old man was the only one left in the dormitory.
His long shadow was reflected on the gold bricks on the ground.
There was no one around, so I lowered my upright shoulders, relaxed my straight waist, and rested my arms on the table.
He just looked at himself in the mirror like this.
"Birthday?"
Along with these two words, many vague shadows continued to emerge in the depths of his mind. Those vague shadows used to be extremely real voices, faces, and smiles, but now no matter how hard they try, they are all vague and only vague.
Remember the outline.
"Um!"
The old man roared and punched his temple twice with his fist, and the picture in his mind suddenly came alive.
It was as if a picture suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.
A picture that is vivid, unfamiliar, sad and warm.
~~~~~
In a house with nothing, a woman sat on the threshold, using the moonlight outside, the needle and thread in her hand shuttled back and forth on a wrinkled gown.
On the kang in the room, the shirtless young man huddled up in the quilt in embarrassment. He completely ignored the loud snoring of someone around him and looked at the woman on the threshold with bright eyes.
The woman also saw the look in his eyes, and a truly loving smile appeared on her face, which was only a blurry outline.
"Chongba, it's your birthday tomorrow. Mom will give you new clothes to wear!" She said, rubbing the needle in her hair, and said with a smile, "I've cooked a chicken for you in the pot. Come on.
Eat chicken on your birthday, God bless my eldest son."
"Mom!" The old man in front of the mirror shouted excitedly, tears welling up in his eyes.
At the same time, in the scene in his mind, the boy on the kang also shouted sweetly, "Mom!"
Then the young man put his fingers into his mouth, bit hard a few times, and raised his head with some reluctance but resolutely, "Mom, are the chickens boiled for nothing?" As he said, he lowered his head, "You can keep them and exchange them for salt.
!”
"No!" The woman was still making clothes with a smile. "It is a rule passed down from the older generations that boys eat chicken on their birthdays. Don't forget it. No matter how poor you are, I have to prepare it for you." As she said this, she held up her hands.
After a pause, he lowered his head and said, "I blame your parents for their incompetence. They can't give you a meaty meal for a year, so I just gave you a chicken for your birthday!"
"When I grow up and can work to earn money, I will cook ten chickens for you on your birthday!" The boy on the kang said his heartfelt promise to his mother, "If I get rich
Now, I will find several maids to serve you, just like Rich Master Liu and his family."
"Hey, you don't have to do anything all day long. You can just walk around the village, sometimes in the back hills and sometimes in the front yard. My son will buy you beautiful clothes, the kind with flowers..."
The young man on the kang had a sensitive heart and could sense the sadness in his mother's heart. He spoke out his bold words deliberately and openly, hoping to make his mother smile.
"That's a great feeling!" the woman said with a smile, "I'm waiting for that day, waiting for the day when my eldest son will make a difference and respect me!"
This chapter has been completed!