"Don't worry, my son will respect you and your father well in the future."
Because of his mother's expectations, the boy on the kang had great fighting spirit in his heart. It seemed that his thin body contained countless energy. No matter how poor or miserable he was, he would be able to create a world in the future and give blessings to the people he loved.
Wealth and tranquility.
"Look at how beautiful you are!" The woman, wearing a gown, looked at her son and smiled teasingly, "I'm afraid, when you grow up and marry a daughter-in-law, she will be your daughter-in-law, forget your mother!"
"It's just like the boss of the Zhou family in Qianzhuang. When he gets a wife, he only cares about himself and abandons my mother and younger siblings. He doesn't care!"
"How can it be?" The young man quickly defended with a pale face. No proud young man could tolerate being questioned about this kind of matter. "My son married my mother-in-law and asked her to be filial to my two elders with me. My son is doing it outside.
You earn money while she cooks and washes the clothes for you at home." He shook his weak fist and said, "If she dares to disobey, beat her to death!"
"Blow it!" the woman teased her son, "I'm afraid you won't be able to let go!"
"She is the Seventh Fairy, and I will give her a black eye too!" the young man said viciously.
Then, the woman looked at her son again and smiled.
His rough fingers entwined the needle and thread in his hand, bit it off with his teeth, and tied it firmly into a knot.
She stood up holding the door frame, beat her sore waist twice, and walked to the kang, "Here, let's try to see if it fits!"
"Hey!" The young man agreed happily and couldn't wait to put on his coat.
"My son is so handsome!" The woman's rough hands crossed the boy's tender face, her eyes full of love, "I feel sorry for you, I made them for you out of old clothes, just think of them as new clothes.
!”
As he said that, he tied up the cloth belt of his son's coat with his own hands, "Your father and I can still work together for a few more years. If God gives us face and a few good years, your father and I will have to give up our lives even if we have to pay for the land."
You can earn the bride price for marrying your wife."
"When my son gets married, my mother will definitely make a brand-new fine cloth gown for you to wear."
"Hey, mother!" The young man's eyes were as bright as crescent moons.
~
"Ugh...mother!"
In front of the mirror, the old man's shoulders were shaking, tears fell down, and his body was wet. Suzhou Manufacturing Bureau made the best clothes in the world.
"Mother!" the old man murmured to himself, "my son didn't wait for the clothes you always made for his wife. My son, I have to wear old clothes!"
"My son said he wanted to be filial to you, but...when you left, my son didn't buy you any decent old clothes...Mother!"
The old man's big hands rubbed his eyes again and again, but the tears never stopped.
Outside the window, the darkness suddenly faded, which was the harbinger of dawn.
The old man raised his head and looked at the starry sky with tearful eyes, full of blurry outlines.
The sky above the Forbidden City seems to be no different from the sky above his thatched house home. Moreover, there is no cockcrow to tell time in the Forbidden City.
As a child, what he feared most was the winter dawn.
Cold, sleepy and hungry.
Cluck cluck......
In my mind, the long-lost rooster crow sounded.
It was still the half room with nothing. The thin man on the bed stood up with difficulty, his rugged chest exposed to the cold wind blowing in in the morning.
"Cough! Cough!"
He covered his mouth and coughed several times suppressedly.
The boy next to him turned over and continued to curl up in the quilt.
The woman got up on the other side, worried, "Dad, if you're not feeling well, why don't you go today?"
The man got off the kang and put on his trousers, "It's okay!" He said, tightening his belt, "I built a yard for a large family, and I honestly gave our family a share of the income. We can't take the grains they gave us and use them to make money.
Don’t worry about living.”
As he spoke, he sighed, "In this world, it's not easy to earn some food. How many people look forward to my job, and how many people secretly hate it!"
"But your body? You coughed for a long time last night!" The woman stood up and helped her husband put on his shoes.
My husband’s shoes are straw sandals. It’s the coldest month of winter now, and my husband’s feet are covered with frostbite.
"It's okay, I'm not a noble man, why don't you just cough twice?" The man smiled heartily, then turned to look at the young man curled up on the kang, and tucked him in with a quilt.
The woman hesitated for a moment, "How about calling Chongba up and helping you?"
"What do you want him to do?" The man frowned, "I have been working for Liu Caidong's family all day long, and the child is so tired. I just want to sleep a little longer in the morning and let him sleep!" He said, sighing, "
Hey, he didn’t have any support and was born into a poor family like ours!”
After saying that, the man stood up and walked out resolutely.
"Wait a minute!" the woman stopped him, "You sit down first. There is a small bowl of food in the cabinet. I will make a bowl of paste for you. We have to walk more than ten miles..."
"I'm not hungry, you two can eat!" The man walked out of the door, turned around and said with a smile, "When I walked to Zhang Da's house, I happened to catch up with him for dinner. I don't believe you didn't give me a mouthful of hot rice soup?"
As he spoke, the man's body disappeared into the mist at dawn.
It was just intermittent, and there was a coughing sound.
On the kang in the room, the curled-up boy suddenly opened his eyes.
Then Zulu stood up and hurriedly put on his clothes, "Dad is gone?"
The woman entered the room and said, "Get some sleep. Your father just left and said he wouldn't let you go!"
"That won't work!" The young man's face was full of stubbornness, "I see my father shaking when he comes home every day from exhaustion. Now that I am older, I have more strength to work. Let my father go out and be tired, and be my son's bed.
Go to bed, others will laugh to death if they hear it!"
Immediately, he muttered with some dissatisfaction, "Brother, they are the same..."
"It's no time to complain." The woman reprimanded with a straight face, "Your brother and the others also have adults and children to support. Your eldest brother is not in good health and suffered from the disease early in his life. As a younger brother, you can't blame him."
"I know!" The young man thought about it and smiled at the woman, "Mom, I'm leaving!"
"Wait a minute, Mom will make some paste for you..."
"I won't eat! I'm not hungry!"
The young man tightened his belt and disappeared into the morning mist.
He kept chasing his father's route, but he couldn't find his father's back.
At first he could still run hard, but in the end he had to slow down because of the hunger in his belly.
He gritted his teeth, kept a straight face, and frowned.
There was an indescribable light in his bright eyes.
It wasn't until Zhangjiazhuang, which was much wealthier than Zhuangzi, appeared in his distant sight that a smile appeared on his face.
"Dad always said that Zhang Dahu was kind-hearted. When he worked for his family, he not only gave him a meal of pickled vegetables, beans and rice, but also a bowl of grains as wages. In this world, the government doesn't care about the people and allows them to starve to death. There is such a great kind man. It's really amazing.
not easy."
"I'm helping dad out today, and I behave well. If Zhang Dahu sees it, he might be happy and give him half a bowl more. If he gives him half a bowl more food, my mother's soup will be thicker...
"
Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly tripped over something.
When I looked closely, I saw a man lying on the mountain road.
"Dad?" The boy cried heartbreakingly after being stunned.
~~~~
The way home is so long.
The boy carried his father on his back and cried helplessly as he walked.
There is no such thing as a big businessman, he is just a stupid Zhang Bapi!
When my father goes to build a house for his family, where will he be given food? He will only be given a bowl of grains.
Dad was reluctant to eat, so he tightened his belt every day and brought grains home to the mother and son... What they ate was the grain Dad saved from between his teeth.
What the two of them ate was his father’s bone marrow and blood!
"father!"
In the cold morning wind, the boy's cry was blocked by the wind and could not float far at all.
"Don't cry!" Suddenly, a man's low roar came from his back, "Chongba, remember, don't cry!"
"father......."
"Don't cry!" Father's voice was very weak and hoarse. "Remember, men's tears are of no use. No one will pity you because you shed tears, they will only laugh at you."
"You are a man, and you have to swallow it in your stomach even if you break your teeth. The poorer you are, the less you can cry, surrender, and be afraid."
"father......."
"From now on, you have to support a family. No matter how hard you suffer, you can't let your family worry about you. Do you understand?"
"father......"
Suddenly, the young man felt a heat on his neck. He stretched out his hand and touched it, and there was hot blood.
He looked up helplessly, and it was dawn. But his father's eyes were closed again.
"Dad, I'll take you home!" He didn't cry, but gritted his teeth and weighed his father on his back. The strength in his frivolous steps turned into an extremely steady one.
~~~
when!
The long morning bell woke up the old man who was immersed in grief.
Its daybreak.
The bright sky was the same as every winter morning in his seventy years of life.
"Old man!" Pu Bucheng poked his head outside the door, "The emperor, queen, and prince are all here and waiting for you outside the palace!"
As he said that, he smiled and said, "The queen is holding it in her hand and has made new clothes for you with her own hands. The prince is also holding new shoes that the queen has made for you."
The old man rubbed his eyes with a smile on his face, "Yeah, I get it!" He said lightly, "Come here, help us wipe our faces and comb our hair. It's our birthday today, and we have to spend it energetically.
