"Mom, please wake up, you have been sleeping for many days."
"Yue'er is afraid, Yue'er wants mother, mother..."
Li Shimian sat on the threshold of the courtyard, letting the flying snow fall all over him, and stayed still for a long time. He felt helpless and depressed.
Li Dianshuo came over holding an umbrella with a hole in it and covered his head: "Dad, go inside. It's cold outside."
Li Shimian did not move, his eyes were still looking at Fang Xuetian in front of him.
Li Dianshou sighed, bent down and reached out to help him, "Dianshou, do you think our family will be like this forever?" Li Dianshou's hand stopped like that.
Following his father's gaze and looking at the snowflakes in front of him, his eyes were full of confusion: "It has only been half a year since the new emperor took the throne, and we are from the old dynasty... Our family will probably stay in Sichuan for the rest of our lives."
The eyes of father and son were empty, like a cliff whose bottom they could not see.
Ma stood under the eaves, listening to the conversation between father and son, her heart heavy. Her face was haggard and dilapidated. The once noble lady in rich clothes has now become a poor old woman who is worried about her family's livelihood.
Thinking about the fact that there was still an unknown person lying in the house, if these two people got sick while standing outside, the family would not have enough money to treat him and his son.
He said loudly: "Come into the house. Our family doesn't have much money to buy soup and medicine anymore."
The father and son came to their senses and helped them walk into the house.
"How is Jin Niang?"
"Still like that."
"If that doesn't work, just find another hospital."
"Our family doesn't have much money left. All the money Xinrou gave us has been spent along the way, and everything that should be sold has been sold. We still have to live on the remaining few coins."
"Take them all out, it's important to save people." Li Shimian sighed, "Can you bear to watch Ji'er Yuer'er lose her mother? If Jin's mother is in trouble, Dianzang may not be able to survive."
The couple looked at each other and sighed heavily.
The couple had a deep love for each other. When the family was sent to prison earlier, the in-laws came to see Jinniang and wanted to ask for a divorce letter from Dianzang and take Jinniang away.
But Jin Niang refused to leave, and accompanied her family to the middle of Sichuan with all kinds of difficulties and dangers. She survived all the difficulties along the way, but when she got there, the fetus in her belly fell out. She fell down and kept lying there.
In bed, it's like the living dead.
Mrs. Ma thought about her little daughter-in-law lying on the bed, and then her two little grandchildren, with tears in her eyes. She took out a dusty purse from her arms and handed it to Li Dianshou: "Let's go find the doctor again."
.”
Li Dianshui silently took the purse.
Just as he was about to leave, Mrs. Miao came out of the house and called out to him: "Why don't you go to Beijing to write a letter, tell your sister about our situation, and ask her for some money..."
"Shut up." Ma stopped her.
"Your sister gave us two thousand taels when we left the capital. That took out all the money I gave her as a dowry. She doesn't run a bank."
Miao pursed her lips and said, "Mom, my sister is better than us in that capital. Even if I make an IOU with my sister."
Ma's eyes were cold and stern: "You only thought about your sister in Beijing, but you didn't think about her situation. If we look for her again and again and let her husband's family know, how can your sister be happy in that mansion?"
Mrs. Miao was a little embarrassed when her mother-in-law said: "Now our whole family can't even eat. My younger siblings are lying in bed and don't even have money to see a doctor. Do we really have to watch Ji'er Yuer'er lose her mother..."
"
The whole family was silent.
Miao added: "Now we only have my sister to rely on. It is not difficult to make a marquis based on the merits of my brother-in-law. Maybe my sister is already a marquis. We just ask her for some good medicine from the capital."
"You still said." Seeing her parents frowning, Li Dian stopped and stopped her.
Li Shimian sighed and looked at the snowflakes in the sky with his hands behind his back.
Ma frowned and looked at Miao: "Zhenniang, we have sent your sister several letters, but we have never received a reply. Have you ever thought about the reason?"
Mrs. Miao looked at Mr. Ma blankly.
Ma's eyes were full of sadness: "Since the new emperor besieged the capital last spring, your sister has been sent to Zhuangzi in the suburbs by her husband's family. We were not able to see her until we left. The two thousand taels and things are better
My sister’s nanny secretly brought it to us.”
"We are in trouble now. With your sister's temperament, she will not leave us alone. But no news has come. You don't know what happened to your sister now. Your father and I couldn't sleep all night long, just because we were afraid that she would
Because of our family's affairs, she was divorced by her husband's family. You still blame her..."
"Mother, I don't." Miao knelt down.
When the Miao children saw him, they also gathered around to intercede.
Ma thought about her daughter in the capital whose situation was unknown, her little daughter-in-law who was lying on the bed suffering so much, and her family now living in this shabby house not knowing what the future would bring. Two lines of tears rolled down her face.
Seeing their mother shed tears, Li Dianshou and Miao were panicked and hurriedly stepped forward to comfort her: "Mom, don't be sad, it's our fault. I will never say such things again."
Li Shimian also had tears in his eyes. He turned around and told his eldest son: "You polish the ink for my father, and I will draw a few paintings. You can take them to a bookstore outside to see if they can be sold. As long as there is a semi-consistent person,
become."
Li Dianshou thought about the past when his father's calligraphy and paintings were hard to come by in the capital, but now he would only be able to sell them for half the price. He felt extremely uncomfortable. He said, "Yes." He helped him into the house.
On the first day of the first year of Yongkang, it was Huo Xi's seventh birthday.
Yang ignored the leftovers from last night and made Huo Xi a table full of her favorite food.
"Xi'er, come and put on the skirt Mom made for you, and show it to Mom."
"good."
Huo Xi put on a young lady's dress for the second time in half a year, and Yang combed her hair again. Even Yang Fu didn't dare to recognize her when she came out of the house.
"Xi'er, you still look good in a skirt."
Huo Xi looked at the fine cotton skirt on her body and felt happy: "I also think I look good in a skirt."
Smiling at Mrs. Yang: "Mom, the skirt you made is so beautiful."
Yang pulled her around and looked around: "It looks good. Mom, please make a few more outfits and wear them at home." Maybe every mother wants to dress her little cotton-padded jacket beautifully, but Yang's hands are itchy too.
Very.
"Okay." Huo Xi nodded in agreement.
She happily accepted the gifts prepared for her by Yang and Yang Fu, and the family sat around the Kang in the main room to have lunch. There was a knock on the courtyard door.
Yang opened the door and was stunned to see Huo Erhuai standing there like a snowman.
"Dad, did you walk all the way back in the heavy snow?"
"Maybe today is the first day of the year and my brother-in-law didn't hire a carriage."
"If there is no carriage, your brother-in-law must not even have the money to hire a carriage."
Huo Erhuai smiled at Mrs. Yang and the two children. After roasting in front of the brazier for a long time, he finally recovered and sighed comfortably: "It's still warm at home."
Yang looked at him feeling distressed and sad.
She brought five taels of silver to Erhuai and prepared so many gifts. The man even took away the few traveling expenses he had brought with him. Thinking about seeing him frozen as stiff as a snowman at the door just now, she wiped her head.
I cried a lot of tears and served him rice, which was piled high.
"Brother-in-law, you didn't eat in the morning?" Yang Fu was shocked when he saw Huo Erhuai shoveling rice into his mouth, looking very hungry.
Seeing the embarrassment on Huo Erhuai's face, Huo Xi pulled Yang Fu and took chopsticks to pick up food for Huo Erhuai: "Dad, eat more. Mom's cooking is getting better and better."
Huo Erhuai nodded while chewing: "Your mother's cooking is always delicious, and her cooking skills have become even better since she came ashore."
"Eat yours, there's still time to talk." Yang gave him a big piece of meat and said to him.
The room was warm and cozy. Huo Xi lived this birthday without too much regret.