Outside the glass window, the wind whistled, and the harshness of early spring was no less severe than that of winter.
The fire in the stove was already weak, and the crackling sound gradually weakened, as well as the steam drifting from the kettle on the stove, adding a bit of warm human feelings to the space filled with the bitter medicinal fragrance.
Hong Lucheng leaned against the wall quietly, closing his eyes and concentrating. The argument with his children just now had left him completely exhausted, and he probably had to lie down for a while to recover.
He really didn't expect Hong Yanwu to say such words today, and it was these words that shook his attitude.
Of course, his daughter's last mention of his wife was the most critical reason why he agreed to Hong Yanwu's stay. But those words gave him more comfort. After all, it showed that his son had begun to understand people's affairs.
Maybe, the third child can really get better?
No, no, don’t you understand your own son? It’s better not to think so well yet.
As the saying goes, a dog can't change its teeth. This sentence is not excessive at all when it comes to their third child.
After all, this kid has just come out from "inside". How long can he persist? How much can he change? What is this kid really thinking? Who can say for sure?
Thinking of this, Hong Lucheng, who was leaning on the small bed, couldn't help but cough a few times due to the wave of emotions.
The cough was obviously restrained and repressed, which made people very worried...
Everyone knows that if relatives lose trust or even become hostile to each other for a long time, it is definitely not caused in one day.
The same goes for father and son Hong Lucheng and Hong Yanwu. Their relationship is not like father and son at all, but more like enemies who retaliate against each other in the previous life. Therefore, since the awkwardness between them has reached this point, it is not the same thing.
The matter can be explained clearly in a few words. It is really a complex matter and has been going on for a long time.
It is a bit outrageous to say that Hong Lucheng's dissatisfaction and disgust with Hong Yanwu actually started before his son was born.
What's going on?
If nothing else, the first reason was that Hong Lucheng's wife Wang Yunlin had an abnormal fetal position when giving birth to Hong Yanwu and was in danger of dystocia.
Fortunately, Lin Qiaozhi, who is known as the "Nightingale of Obstetrics and Gynecology", came to deliver the baby. Thanks to Dr. Lin's superb medical skills, there was no danger and the lives of mother and child were saved. It was a pity that Hong Yanwu's mother was
As a result, my energy was severely damaged, my energy and blood were depleted, and I could only lie in bed for a long time.
What is hengshengnuang?
This is it.
If not, then why did my wife, who had already given birth to two children normally, have difficulty in giving birth to this child? And even Professor Lin, who is famous in Beijing, could not detect the abnormality of the fetal position? This child is obviously "too old".
Hong Lucheng indeed had this idea at the time. Although he didn't say it, he already believed in his heart that the arrival of his son was unlucky.
In addition, there was one more thing that made him feel even more depressed and unhappy. That was - Hong Yanwu looked particularly ugly when he was born.
It is no exaggeration to say that this child is a little too shabby. He does not look like a human, but looks like a monkey. His skin is wrinkled, red and black, and he has a pair of big fanning ears. He does not inherit Hong Lu Cheng at all.
The couple's appearance is delicate and elegant, but they look surprisingly vulgar and dirty. This is a bit like Nuwa creating human beings. It seems that after the creation, Nuwa became impatient and was too lazy to knead. After making do with it, the result was such a rough job.
Moreover, those two big ears that were stuck out echoed the old saying, "Two ears fanning the wind will lead to a prodigal ancestor." Whenever Hong Lucheng saw these two ears, he would feel as if he had hit a wall.
If we want to say that this child is good-looking, his eyes are dark and bright, and he looks so lively. But Hong Lucheng hates even these bright eyes, because when he looks at them, he always feels like he has an air of thieves.
Get angry.
However, no matter how uncomfortable Hong Lucheng felt, he understood that such thoughts could not be expressed.
He couldn't say it? Said that he felt that his son looked like a lost star? No, that would hurt his wife and make people laugh. So he had no choice but to hide his depression deeply. Not only could he not show it at all, but he also had to pretend
Be a little happy.
In this way, Hong Luchengqiang put on a cheerful look and took the mother and son home from the hospital. However, the dejection in the son remained dejected and remained unchanged.
As soon as he entered the east courtyard, the infant Hong Yanwu started crying every day as soon as it got dark. He cried after being fed or coaxed, and he continued to cry even when he had not pooped or peed. Moreover, this kid's voice was louder than a chatterbox.
If you don't take a break, if you don't care, you can cry and hold your breath. Not to mention Hong Lucheng and his wife, no one in the four families in the east courtyard can sleep at night.
Some neighbors in the west courtyard even said that after getting up at three o'clock in the middle of the night to pee, they could still hear the loud cry of the third master of the Hong family in the east courtyard across the street. And if the crying lasted longer, it would often continue.
The cats and dogs in each house were invited to wake up and join in the chorus. As a result, the neighbors in the west courtyard were also deeply impressed by this child!
This incident was so strange that it alarmed many experienced sisters-in-law in the neighborhood, but no one who had seen it had any idea. In the end, the neighbor who respected ghosts and gods the most - the old man next door came to the conclusion that Hong Yanwu was a "night man"
"Crying Man". The characteristic of children like him is that he often cries strangely at night. Most of the time, he has a conflict with something in this world (originating from Manchu, meaning "encountering evil spirits") and is unwilling to come to this world.
.
When Hong Lucheng heard this, he felt a taboo in his heart. When Lao Bian's wife saw that his face turned pale, she quickly stabbed her husband several times. Only then did Lao Bian stop his nonsense and quickly said a solution.
This method is very simple, that is, you must first find a piece of white paper and write down the spell, and then stick it to the door. If passers-by can follow the content on the paper, they will be cured.
It was purely because of his illness that he rushed to the doctor. Hong Lucheng was too worried about this matter and quickly found a pen and paper. The old man stopped being pretentious and read out a poem in the eyes of the neighbors with surprise and suspicion.
It is said that this spell has been passed down for a long time.
"The sky is in panic and the earth is in panic. There is a man who cries at night in my family. In the past, gentlemen would recite it three times and sleep until dawn."
Don't tell me, although this spell is a bit like the old lady's mother's child, it is really effective. Hong Lucheng found that since he wrote a note and posted it on the telephone pole at the door, Hong Yanwu's crying was really getting louder and louder day by day.
Young Master. In the end, the third child stopped crying at night, and everyone in the hospital was able to sleep peacefully.
But although he was able to sleep, Hong Lucheng's heart was even more noisy. He couldn't help but think: What the old man said was true, so why was this child so full of resentment against the world when he was born? Could it be?
Is it okay to dislike the Hong family? Was it wrong for his parents to give birth to him?
He then thought about it again: isn't this so-called "Night Crying Man" simply a "night owl"? As the old saying goes, "When a night owl enters a house, no good things will come." How can this child be a good person?
Bad things often happen together. When Hong Yanwu was born, it coincided with the beginning of the Year of Catastrophe, and the whole country began to suffer from hunger and misery. But after Wang Yunlin gave birth, she did not die.
Not long after, the sugar pastry company reduced Hong Lucheng’s food quota. And without him filling out the quota declaration form, he was automatically assigned to the minimum quota. In this special period of widespread hunger, Hong Lucheng had to take good care of himself.
With my wife's body and the belly full of the little things at home, it became an even more difficult task.
In desperation, for the sake of his wife and children, Hong Lucheng did not hesitate to send the last few antique calligraphy and paintings at home to Rong Baozhai in Ciqikou. After getting money, he went to designated restaurants and shops to buy high-priced food and nutritional supplements.
.It really took a lot of effort to nurse Wang Yunlin’s lost half life and ensure Hong Yanwu’s basic nutrition during his infancy.
All in all, the arrival of Hong Yanwu did not bring much joy to the family. And Hong Lucheng almost believed that the reason for the world's misfortune and the country's downturn was all caused by this child. He always couldn't help but think like this: This
When the third child was born, not only did the whole country suffer a disaster, but he almost killed his own mother and drove away all the joy in the family. He was really an unpopular person.
But don't wait until you see him again. There is an old saying that "children are always the best." After all, Hong Yanwu is Hong Lucheng's biological flesh and blood, so he has to love him when he deserves it, and love him when he deserves it. He can never treat his biological son as his own.
He could be strangled to death or kicked to death, so he was treated as if he had never been born, right?
In the days that followed, Hong Lucheng fulfilled his duties as a model husband and father. He hugged, warmed milk, washed, cooked, pooped and peed, and washed the baby. Every day, he surrounded the mother and son.
The two of them were busy working and taking care of it.
Soon it was the second year of the great disaster year. The magnolia flowers in Tanzhe Temple bloomed again, and Hong Yanwu, like the chicken, kitten, puppy, and sapling, became one year older.
In the custom of the capital city, a child's first birthday is celebrated with a "Catching Zhou" ceremony. Parents always prepare various objects with symbolic significance and place their one-year-old child among them. Once the child catches something, he will also
It foreshadows his future.
To a large extent, this ritual is of a game nature. But even if everyone knows this, if the result is not satisfactory, it will still make the parents of the child a little worried. In the future, if the child becomes a good person, he will really become a useless snack.
, then the "Zhou Zhou" thing is really enough to disgust this family for the rest of their lives. So, to put it simply, this ceremony is very important, and it is considered a major event in the lives of children in the capital.
It was a warm and hungry spring noon, and Hong Yanwu's Zhouzhu ceremony was held grandly in the north room of the Hong family. Several neighbors from the east courtyard came to join in the fun, and the room was full of people.
Although most of the people were so hungry that their eyes were starry and their bodies were swollen. However, the Hong family obtained some mixed candies at a high price, which was enough to cheer up the spirits of the neighbors. Everyone happily held the candies and gathered around the Eight Immortals table to wait and see.
Hong Yanwu chose his future.
Various objects have already been placed on the table of the Eight Immortals Table. According to traditional customs, a boy’s seal and scriptures from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism should be placed on the top, pens, ink, paper, and inkstones on the middle, and abacus and ingots on the bottom.
, account books, as well as jewelry, flowers, rouge, food, and toys. However, everyone found that these items placed by the Hong family were somewhat different from those of Lao Ling'er.
The first difference is that the three religious scriptures of "Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism" on the upper hem are gone and replaced by a book of quotations from leaders. Secondly, the four treasures of the study in the middle hem are replaced by pens, letter paper, dictionaries, and triangles. The last hem is
There was an earth-shaking change. Not only was there no original item, but the new items that were replaced only included a small hammer, a small shovel and a military kettle.
What does this mean?
After listening to Hong Lucheng's explanation, everyone understood that these three items turned out to represent workers, peasants, and soldiers. Everyone couldn't help laughing after hearing this, and they praised this new arrangement method for keeping up with the situation and making progress in thinking.
Speaking of these objects, they were decided after repeated discussions between Hong Lucheng and his wife. Taking into account the current social situation, they felt that some things had to be avoided and adjusted. For example, the red regime promoted materialism.
, the three teachings can no longer exist. Another example is that public-private partnership has long replaced the private economy, so naturally abacus and account books are useless.
And in addition to these factors, Hong Lucheng also added a little thought of his own. He has always been dissatisfied with Hong Yanwu's son, and was especially afraid that the child would grab those unseemly things in his hem. What if he really touches a small thing?
If he was wearing rouge or a toy, then he would be too shameless as a father. Even if he really caught a gold ingot, he was still worried that this kid would become a money addict in the future. So he simply canceled all the items in the hem and didn't want them at all. Naturally.
There is no risk of losing face.
Hong Lucheng felt that he was thoughtful and far-sighted, but things tended to go in unexpected directions. The more you fear something, the more he will be afraid of it. What happened next made him extremely worried.