The burn from hops was much more terrifying than Jia Lian expected.
Especially Jiuhua’s face, which was almost burned beyond recognition.
But the girl was still alive. With her deformed eyes open, she looked for the faces of her father and mother, looked at them with difficulty, and even tried to open her mouth to make a sound.
Qu Siping and his wife were so sad that they burst into tears. Jia Lian endured it for a long time, but still couldn't control his tears.
As a modern person who has never experienced a major disaster, it is difficult for Jia Lian to face such a horrifying and cruel scene.
At this time, the important role of the old military doctor was revealed. As if he was a general on the battlefield facing a powerful enemy, he immediately cheered up and did his duty:
"If you want to save people, get out immediately!
Leave a female family member who can help, Long'er, stay at the door. If I say what I want, you will be at the door on call."
His decisiveness gave Jia Lian hope:
"Okay! It's all up to you!"
After helping Qu Siping out of the house, he looked back at the drunkard who was so sick that he was only skin and bones. Jia Lian felt that he was not a "female family member who could help", so he asked Qu Siping if he had any relatives here.
Qu Siping let out a long sigh and burst into tears:
"We are immigrants, so we don't have any relatives here."
Jia Lian asked again:
"Then...which guy has a capable and reliable wife? Find two of them."
Qu Siping seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw:
"There is this! There is this! Lao Han! Lao Mu! Just the ones from his two families will do."
Jia Lian turned around and asked:
"Who is Lao Han, Lao Mu?"
Among the waiters, there was a short, honest man who was choking on dirt and answered first: "My surname is Han."
The big-mouthed man standing next to him also responded in a dull voice: "Mu Lao Ge Da."
Jia Lian nodded:
"Now go and ask your wives to come over and help.
I have been following you here these past few days. The doctor from the old Han family helped Jiuhua save his life, and the old Mu family stayed with Jiuhua’s mother.
Give them each a daily wage, the same amount as you.
After the rescue, I still have extra reward money.
You two are responsible for leading the guys here and carefully guarding the pot-burning yard. Everyone except Longer is not allowed to go out or enter, let alone enter the house that has been burned by fire."
.
Jia Lian knew that he should go to the fire scene to take a look, but the more important thing was to save people.
Jiuhua's life is at stake, and Qu Siping and his wife must be able to survive this disaster.
Jia Lian has experienced the torment of waiting outside the emergency room for news of the life and death of a loved one. It is too uncomfortable.
On the night of his eighteenth birthday in his previous life, he sat alone in the empty corridor of the hospital, clenching his fists anxiously, lying on the wall of the hospital, with tears streaming down his face.
Grandpa's illness was so strange and urgent that the hospital immediately issued a critical illness notice.
As for his father, Jia Xinhua, he was called by the captain of the cleaning team early in the morning to help with his son's wedding. Jia Liancheng called him more than thirty pages, but none of them responded.
He could only hold his throat dumb, face the wall, pray to all the gods and Buddhas in the sky, and make countless great wishes, just hoping to ask for his grandfather's life.
As long as he can get his life back, Jia Liancheng is willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means sacrificing his own life.
He couldn't bear to leave the relative who loved him the most.
Grandpa hasn't had time to wait for him to grow up and wait for him to be able to make grandpa live a good life.
He hated himself for not having the ability and not having time to let his grandfather enjoy a comfortable life.
The suffering of anxiety made him hope and fear at the same time.
In his memory, almost all of his life consisted of his father, who complained every day, and his grandfather, who depended on him for life.
There are so few people who love him. He can't bear to lose again.
.
Because he understood this kind of suffering, Jia Lian felt that he had an obligation to stay by Qu Siping's side.
Companionship is also a kind of strength.
The strength that allows people to endure.
Looking at Qu Siping who was sitting on the kang, holding his head slumped in his hands, Jia Lian walked over and sat next to him:
"The doctor Longer brought here is experienced, so don't worry. At this time, it's useless for us to worry, it will only add chaos.
I believe that the emperor will be worthy of his hard work, and good deeds will be rewarded with good deeds."
After a long while, Qu Siping shook his head:
"This is our retribution! Retribution that defies heaven!"
He raised his head, his face was lifeless, and his eyes were staring straight at the roof:
"This land is destined not to belong to our old Qu family. We are going against the will of heaven."
Jia Lian reached out and patted Qu Siping on the shoulder:
"Don't think wildly, the hops are still holding on, you can't fall down."
Qu Siping let out a long sigh, infinitely depressed:
"Jiuhua is so pitiful! This child ate our fault. God! The retribution must be on me! Don't bring trouble to innocent people..."
He seemed to be in great pain, closed his eyes, grinned, shook his head in pain, and talked about a past event many years ago.
.
Eighty-seven years ago, Qu Siping's father, Qu Qian, came to the capital with his family to join relatives and friends. Unexpectedly, he learned that his relatives had gone to other places. He was in a dilemma. A kind person introduced Qu Qian to work as a waiter in a brewery and pot roasting place in Tongzhou.
.
Qu Qian is a dedicated person who can endure hardships. It took him twenty-nine years to learn how to make wine and save a fortune of hard-earned money.
About fifty years ago, after the "East Road Shao Guo" in Tongzhou, the "West Road Shao Guo" gradually emerged in the west of Beijing due to its unique water resources.
Especially in the Yuquan Mountain area, the vegetation on the mountain is lush, the water quality is exceptionally clear, and the taste is sweet, making it the first choice for pot-making.
Qu Qian took his sights on Yuquan Mountain, used all his savings to buy this land in the upper reaches of the Yubei River where the Yuquan flows out, and built the current "Fu Shui Boiler".
Unexpectedly, Shaoguo has just begun to take shape, and the Xiang family, a local wealthy family, has also spotted Shaoguo brewing as a way to make a fortune. However, seeing that the best water source has been bought by Qu Qian, they want to take advantage of the advantages of sitting on the land and the large number of people in the clan to strengthen the business.
Seize this land and drive away the outsider Qu Qian.
They came to make trouble during the day and harassed at night, spreading rumors everywhere, forcing Qu Qian to have no choice but to offer to sell the land to the Xiang family.
Unexpectedly, Xiang Shan, the head of the Xiang family at this time, did not even want to come up with the money. Instead, he ordered the person who sold the land to Qu Qian to file a complaint with the government office, accusing him of buying the land with fake silver filled with lead.
.
A lawsuit was going on endlessly, and Qu Qian was at the end of his rope. At this time, Xiang Shan frantically proposed a method he learned from the gangsters:
It is required that both parties sign a certificate of life and death on a certain day of the month, and all relatives and friends of the tribe should be present. In the center of the venue, a huge pot is set up with firewood and filled with vegetable oil.
When the whole pot of oil is boiling, if no one from the Qu family dares to jump into the oil pot, they must unconditionally get out of the Yuquan area and not even a blade of grass is allowed to be taken away.
Qu Qian saw that thirty years of hard work were in vain, and he didn't know how his family would survive in a foreign land without any money once he lost his "blessed water boiler". In despair, he hanged himself from a beam in the middle of the night.
Fortunately, he was discovered by Qu Siping who was going to the toilet, and his life was saved.
At that time, Qu Siping was only seven years old and didn't quite understand how desperate his father Qu Qian was. However, he could never forget how his fourteen-year-old brother Qu Si'an jumped into the boiling oil in front of hundreds of people.
Pot.
From a living person, he turned into a charred corpse like fried dough sticks in an instant.
Amid everyone's exclamations, "Fu Shui Shao Guo" was saved, but Qu Qian was frightened and went crazy.
He never went out again and stayed in the pot room every day. He couldn't see the oil or eat anything stained with oil. He couldn't see any outsiders except his wife and Qu Siping. Otherwise, he would bang his head and bang his head desperately.
His head was bruised and bloody, and he screamed like crazy: "Fry him!"
He is normal only when he is making wine.
Until late one night when he was fifty-three years old, he was so exhausted that when he died, there was not even a ounce of flesh left in his body.
Qu Qian's wife had been struggling to support the family. Three years after Qu Qian's death, she also vomited blood and died.
The whole family risked their lives for this pot roast, and Qu Siping, who was only seventeen years old, gritted his teeth and shouldered this heavy burden until today.
Qu Siping put his hand on his heart:
"I know that this was done by the Xiang family again, and they haven't stopped doing it all these years.
They colluded with Su Yazi last time, also for my land and water source.
Second Master, I am not afraid of your jokes. Over the years, every time I have been pushed to the extreme, I... I, a beast, have always held my elder brother's deep-fried corpse in my arms to drive them back...
I'm not a human, but I can't do anything...
When my father was dying, he was not crazy. He told me: Your eldest brother's body cannot be buried. It is a witness. Only it can calm the Xiang family. Don't call your eldest brother's death in vain, otherwise his spirit in heaven will not let go.
You have to guard this 'blessed water boiler' for me whether you live or die. This is my life's hard work. Don't let me die without peace of mind."
Jia Lian felt cold sweat break out on his back.
This... this is so scary! Ghost stories don’t lead you to be so perverted.
But Qu Siping's last words hit Jia Lian's heart directly:
"In the eyes of others, they only care about how much the pot is worth.
But in my eyes, it's not money, it's the hard work that my whole family will save with their lives.
I have to keep it for my family until I die."
This reminded Jia Lian of the secret technique of Feng Shui passed down by his grandfather.
Others may think that this thing has long ceased to work, but it has always been my grandfather's most cherished housekeeping skill. The hunched-back grandfather would rather be scolded by his son, or even be kicked out of the house in the middle of winter.
He still has to teach Jia Liancheng quietly.
Because it was his hard work, he hoped that his descendants could pass it on for him.
Jia Lian looked at this old man with white hair and a face full of vicissitudes of life. He really couldn't believe that he was only forty-eight years old - what kind of pressure and suffering can make a person look like this!
He placed his hand heavily on Qu Siping's shoulder and solemnly said only six words: