August has come to an end, autumn is coming, and the night is a bit cold. At night, Mrs. Qiu held the baby and slept together. Later, Mrs. Wang asked her to hold the baby and sleep in the bed with Xu Yue and other children.
At this time, Ms. Tong had already taken her son up and fed him some water. When she was putting the Xu family's things in the shack, she saw Ms. Qiu sitting on her knees with the child in her arms and called her.
.
Mrs. Qiu didn't respond. She kept her eyes open and stared at something blankly, as if her soul had been sucked.
Mrs. Tong frowned slightly and had a bad feeling in her heart. She got into the shack and lightly touched Mrs. Qiu's shoulder.
Mrs. Qiu then raised her eyelids and looked at her sadly.
Tong's heart skipped a beat and asked her softly: "What's wrong with you? You feel like you've lost your soul?"
When Mrs. Qiu heard her question, her blank face suddenly fell and she looked at the child in her arms.
Mrs. Tong followed her gaze and saw that the child, who was just over one year old, was very thin and skinny. He looked similar to a half-year-old baby, and his head was getting bigger and his body was smaller.
At this moment, the child's eyes were closed, his little face was pale, and he had been dead for a long time.
Mrs. Tong sighed with trembling hands and the child's breath. She gasped in shock. She subconsciously pulled her little boy and hugged her tightly.
"My young man is gone..." Mrs. Qiu's words seemed to be stuck in her throat, and it was extremely difficult to speak.
She looked down at the child in her arms, her eyes full of sadness, but she couldn't even cry.
"This is the first time since the child was born that he had such silken porridge. He ate all the small half of the bowl yesterday. He looked very energetic. He still had the energy to play with me for a while before falling asleep..."
Mrs. Qiu ruminatively recalled the child's condition yesterday, with a smile on her face.
"It doesn't matter if he goes away. In this life, by choosing me as his mother, he has never had a full meal. I hope that in the next life... you choose a good family and don't come to my place...
"
Tong didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only listen to her silently.
"Sister-in-law, please don't tell anyone. I want the child to go away well. I don't dare to let those beasts know. I'm afraid that the child will be..."
Mrs. Qiu didn't tell them what she was afraid of, but Mrs. Tong also knew that those beasts were exchanging children for food and would not let go of the ones they had just buried. If they found out, the child would not be able to rest in peace.
Here, Mrs. Tong and Mrs. Qiu concealed the truth about their child's death and sat in the shack waiting for darkness to bury the child and let him rest in peace.
Xu Yue was waiting for the city gate to open and the official to bring out the hot porridge, but there was still no movement at the city gate.
The refugees who came earlier confidently reassured the restless crowd behind them, "The prefect is kind and promised not to leave us alone. Don't worry. Maybe the official mission has been delayed by something, and he will come later."
The turbulent crowd became quiet again.
Everyone waited for another hour. It was almost noon, but there was still no movement at the city gate.
Vaguely, there were several sounds of clashing cold weapons and the noise of common people coming from the city.
The refugees in front of the porridge shed became more and more anxious. I don’t know who was the leader. Everyone swarmed to the city gate and banged the door wildly.
As the beatings and kicks were not enough, he also picked up hoes, sticks and other objects in an attempt to break into the city.
This heavy wooden door was pushed and pushed by so many people, but it didn't move at all.
Xu Yue's family stood on the edge of the crowd, looking at each other and having no expectations for today's porridge.
The porridge has been laid out for a long time, why wait until now?
"Something happened in the city." Xu Da affirmed.
He had a good ear and heard the sounds of fighting in the city.
Unexpectedly, the world has become such a chaotic state. Not only are states fighting with each other, but the counties are also fighting fiercely with each other.
The angry crowd gathered more and more, so Xu Da and Wang simply took the children back to the shack first.
After not eating all morning, he was already hungry. Xu Da took out a few taros and gave two to each of his two capable men. They wanted to fill their stomachs first, just in case anything unexpected happened.
Another hour passed, around three o'clock in the afternoon, the heavy city gate that had been banged open suddenly opened.
Before the refugees could even show their happy smiles, they were trampled under the feet of the rushing horse teams.
As soon as the iron gun was swept away, the refugees blocked under the city gate fell down one after another like leeks being cut.
"Officers and soldiers killed people!!!"
Screams were heard, and the refugees who were originally blocked at the bottom of the city rolled and crawled around.
The leading black-faced officer and soldier shouted directly: "Take all the rebels who are trying to break into the city!"
The group of refugees who knocked on the door were stunned.
Who are the rebels?
They are obviously good people!
Someone hurriedly knelt down to explain that he was not a rebel, but before he could finish his words, his head was cut off with a knife, and blood spattered three meters away, frightening everyone.
The Xu Yue family who witnessed this scene in the corner were also dumbfounded. Why are the officers and soldiers these days more terrifying than the bandits?
They ran all the way and finally saw a little hope, but this little hope was now shattered by reality.
I'm afraid no time traveler is more unlucky than their family, right?
God, you have no heart!
Just when the five members of Xu Yue's family were cursing God for his lack of conscience and preparing to run away again, the one-sided killing suddenly stopped.
The few who smashed the door the most violently were pulled out and beheaded in public display.
Suddenly, the refugees knelt on the ground in the open space under the city gate, and it was so quiet that the only sound was their terrified breathing.
It was still the black-faced official. He held the knife on his waist and said to the victims in front of him:
"The prefect passed away due to illness, and the affairs of the county are temporarily handled by the county magistrate. During the prefect's mourning period, there will be no porridge shed, but you can go to the city to express your condolences!"
After that, he raised his finger and pointed at a middle-aged man dressed as a scribe next to him, and told everyone that if you want to enter the city, just look for him.
Then he left twenty officers and soldiers behind and left with the rest.
The city gate was wide open, but looking at the officers and soldiers standing at the door with white swords, no one dared to break through the door.
Those who were more courageous asked the scribe timidly how to enter the city.
The scribe dusted off his broad sleeves, sat down cross-legged behind the wooden table set up by the officers and soldiers, and said with a compassionate face:
"If a person pays ten coins, he can enter the city to express his condolences."
Seeing the miserable expressions on everyone's faces, he calculated again: "In normal times, one stone of corn costs 300 yuan, but this year there are many wars, many areas in our state are suffering from drought, and food prices have risen slightly. One stone of corn costs 900 yuan, and ten yuan is only a pound and a half of corn."
"
It was just two words, but it made the refugees cry in despair.
They don't have a pound and a half of corn now, they don't even have a grain of rice!
In the corner, Mrs. Wang looked at Xu Da, and Xu Da looked at the ten five-baht coins sewn into the clothes on his chest. His face was so dark that it could drip water.
Obviously, they could not enter the city unless they paid the head fee of ten yuan per person.
If you can't enter the city, you won't find work. If you don't have work, you won't have food, and you'll eventually starve to death.
Of course, you can also leave and go to another city.
But reaching this point is already the limit for the refugees, where else can they go?
For a time, there was a lot of crying under the city gate, and it seemed that even God could not stand it anymore, and the clear sky gradually became cloudy.
