Although the person said that this mountain road is short, it is indeed difficult to climb. Gong Jian was a little strange. Even if he climbed to the top of Qinglong Mountain in one breath yesterday, he would not be as tired as he is now.
It seems that the people who laid the back mountain road did not consider how people can walk easily. They are so strong that they feel tired. I don’t know how the local people climbed up.
Xiaoya also noticed Gong Jian's lack of energy. She stopped and quickly asked Gong Jian to rest for a while. At this time, she didn't feel any inconvenience at all. Xiaoya was a little puzzled. Normally, with Gong Jian's physical strength, he shouldn't be so early.
She appeared tired. But then she thought about it, Gong Jian had climbed the mountain yesterday, maybe it was because he didn't get any rest at all last night.
So she thoughtfully motioned to Gong Jian to sit down, rest for a while, and drink some water. Neither of them were in a hurry to climb to the top of the mountain, so there was no need to go out for fun and make it look like extreme training.
Gong Jian was sitting on the stone steps. It was very convenient to use the stone steps, which were more than fifty centimeters high, as a chair to sit and rest. While breathing heavily, he took out two bottles of mineral water from the ring space.
One bottle of water was handed to Xiaoya. One bottle was opened and poured directly into her mouth.
After drinking some water, Gong Jian felt better. He didn't expect that this mountain road was so difficult to climb. He looked at the surrounding scenery and felt that the young man's language was too exaggerated. Could it be that the so-called wild scenery in the back of the mountain was so difficult?
This is reflected in the unusual height of the stone steps on the mountain path.
A gust of breeze blew by, and Gong Jian didn't feel any coolness. Instead, he felt a little sleepy. He was just about to say something to Xiaoya, but before he could speak, he fell headlong and fell into a dark and sweet dream.
.
"Jian'er, Jian'er, wake up. If you keep doing this, what will you do to your mother? Jian'er, wake up quickly."
Gong Jian slowly woke up amidst the calls. He struggled to open his heavy eyes. The first thing he saw was a middle-aged woman.
He originally had no other emotions except doubts, but when he saw the appearance of the woman in front of him clearly, a strong sense of intimacy suddenly surged in his heart.
"Mother." This call came out of his mouth naturally, and then he felt dizzy.
Then in Gong Jian's mind, memories slowly emerged.
In his memory, he lived in a dynasty called Daxia. Of course, the emperor's name was not something that a poor boy like him in the valley could know.
He only knows that his name is Gong Jian, the eldest in his family, and he is 17 years old. He also has a fourteen-year-old brother Gong Yu, and a ten-year-old sister Gong Yue.
They live in a small mountain village called Chenjiacun. The people with the surname Chen in that village are the common surnames. And several of their families with other surnames fled from famine and settled in this mountain village several generations ago.
And his father, Gong Dazhuang, suffered serious injuries to his legs during a corvée service a few years ago. He was not treated in time at the time, and later became ill and unable to go to the ground. He was even more frail and sick, and needed constant medical treatment all year round. Since then,
He has become the backbone of the family.
And her mother is exactly the middle-aged woman calling her in front of her. In fact, she is not yet thirty-five years old, but many years of hard work have made her look older than people of the same age.
When his mother touched Gong Jian's arms with her rough, cracked hands, Gong Jian felt as if his heart had been violently grazed by a knife, causing him to twitch in pain.
Only then did he remember, shouldn't he be at the dock in the town, carrying goods? How could he be lying at home?
"Mother." Gong Jian tried not to pay attention to the deep wrinkles on the woman's face and the premature hair on her temples. "Why am I at home?"
Gong Jian didn't expect that when he opened his mouth, his voice would be hoarse, as if he was an elderly man. He was startled and wanted to get up, but when he moved, he felt pain all over his body. He immediately did not dare to act casually anymore
It moved.
The middle-aged woman was beside him, wiping her tears while comforting Gong Jian: "Jian'er, you're awake now. Don't move yet. You fainted from exhaustion on the dock. The large bags of goods you were carrying were all gone.
It hit you."
"The foreman was so kind that he hired a doctor for you, saying that you were exhausted. My son, why didn't you tell your family and just sneaked off to the dock to work as a coolie?"
Speaking of this, the woman's tears seemed to be unstoppable and kept falling down. She hurriedly wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, but the rough skin on her hands made the area around her eyes red.
A blockbuster. But even so, it couldn't stop the tears from flowing down.
Only then did Gong Jian remember that before his father Gong Dazhuang was injured, he was still studying in a private school. But since his father's legs were injured, private schools were no longer affordable, so he simply set up a stall in the town.
, copy books and write letters for others, and earn some copper coins to support the family.
But the town closest to Chenjiacun is very small. His daily income is only three or two copper coins. This money is not enough to pay for his father's medicine. The life at home is getting poorer day by day. Now the family members
, except for the ten-year-old girl, all of them went out to work to supplement the family income.
Fortunately, not long ago, a small wharf opened in the town. These days, some merchant ships come to dock here. It brings a bit of vitality to this small village and town. It also allows Gong Jian to see a new job opportunity.
.
So in the past two days, he went to the dock to carry goods for people. He could earn more than ten copper coins in a day. But before he could stay happy for a long time, he fainted on the dock today, although he was not seriously injured.
But now his whole body hurts and he can't move at all.
A sense of violation arose in Gong Jian's heart. He didn't know what was wrong specifically, but he always felt that he should not be a weak scholar. How could he carry goods for two or three days at the dock?
He fainted from exhaustion. But the tears of the woman in front of him and the pain that kept coming from her body clearly told him that this was the truth.
He spoke again with difficulty: "Mom, please stop crying, I'm fine."
The woman was still there with her head lowered and wiping her tears. The front of her ill-fitting and patched dress was wet with her tears. But there were still tears streaking down her face.
Afterwards, along the deep wrinkles on the face, in addition to moistening the front of the clothes, it also dripped down drop by drop.
For some reason, an unfamiliar word suddenly appeared in Gong Jian's mind: tap water. He was a little stunned, tap water? What the hell is this? Immediately afterwards, he felt dizzy, brain-swelling, and painful.
Gong Jian had to guess whether those goods not only hit him, but also injured his head. (To be continued)