After Li Fu finished cursing, he spat, turned around and left.
The sound of his father's footsteps finally left the warehouse. Not long after, the sound of the door opening and closing of the earthen house over there was heard. Li Xinghe let out a long breath, finally let go of his mother, and straightened up.
He took Wang Fang's arm to check her injuries. It seemed that her mother had been blocking her with her arms, and the shocking purple bruises were concentrated on her arms.
"Mom, can you still move your arms?" she asked softly in a trembling voice.
Wang Fang tried to lift her arms, but both arms could still be raised.
Fortunately, this time it was all flesh injuries. If there were more fractures, my mother’s health would be even worse. Although no muscles or bones were injured, the arms were covered with shocking bruises, and Li Xinghe’s dark eyes were
Full of hatred. She calmly pulled up her mother's clothes and covered the scars. She combed Wang Fang's messy hair with her fingers. After arranging it for her mother, she picked up the quilt and pillow and shook them off.
Firewood scraps on top.
I made my mother's kang clean again and smoothed out the marks just now. It was as if everything had never happened.
Mother was hiding under the quilt, shaking slightly. Li Xinghe silently stepped forward and hugged the shaking shoulders under the quilt. "Mom, it's okay, he has left." Give me a little more time, mother. She said silently in her heart
.
In this family, the comfort between two weak women seemed feeble, but the shaking shoulders under the quilt slowly stopped.
After her mother calmed down, she stood up, picked up the firewood, and walked out of the warehouse. She walked to a place where her mother could not see her. She rolled up her sleeves and checked her arm. There were several shocking bruises on the place where she had just been hit. She said coldly
After glancing at the injury on his arm for a few times, he put down his sleeves and entered the kitchen indifferently.
In order to avoid being beaten again, she worked quickly in the kitchen of the outhouse. There was the noisy sound of the black and white TV in the back room, as well as the voices of men talking. They were discussing the ones that caused them to lose money today.
Card.
The chatter in the back room seemed to be getting more and more angry. Li Fu opened the door and walked out, "You are not allowed to eat at night! How come you are not dead if you only know how to eat?" After saying that, he glared at his daughter who was working obediently and pointed at Li Xinghe.
He said: "You are not allowed to eat either!"
After dinner, the two men ate everything. The second brother was so full that he burped and lay on the kang in a daze.
In order to wait until the men were completely asleep, she waited until very late. Her stomach kept growling, "Xinghe, go to bed early, you won't be hungry when you fall asleep." Wang Fang said aloud when she saw that her daughter had not slept.
She turned around and gently put her mother's waist from behind. She patted her mother's body gently with her hands. In the light of the firewood, the mother and daughter lay silently like this. They never talked about being beaten by Li Fu.
carry.
Although no one mentioned it, there seemed to be great sadness in the jumping fire.
Li Xinghe patted her mother's hand without stopping, and she began to tell her mother what happened today in as cheerful a voice as possible. When she met hazel chicken, she asked Yang Chen to help sell it at the supply and marketing cooperative.
Although Wang Fang was very curious, she listened quietly and occasionally asked how the hazel chicken could be so stupid.
After it was completely safe late at night, she got up and secretly made food. The cornmeal was mixed into small golden pieces of dough, and then she pulled out long strips of dough. She boiled water in their small warehouse with a brazier. After boiling, she added the dough and put it in.
Add the wild vegetables you found today and season them briefly.
After a while, the noodles came out of the pot, orange noodles and green wild vegetables.
This time, two large bowls were cooked. After the long winter, mother and daughter did not have to be humble to each other for the first time. In the light of the fire, each of them held a bowl of noodles and slowly ate it.
Seeing his mother finish the full bowl of noodles, Li Xinghe felt satisfied. From now on, he can let his mother eat enough. It would be better if he could avoid being beaten.
But in this family, not being beaten is a luxury that is hard to achieve.
The precious "gift" apple was placed between Li Xinghe's and his mother's pillows, and the two of them smelled the fragrance of the apple.
A night of silence.
On the second day, after breakfast, the two men stopped going out to gamble. The TV was noisy and they just lay there.
Li Fu doesn't go out, and Li Xinghe doesn't worry. He won't beat his mother anymore these days. He is old and can't beat her anymore. And he is also afraid of really beating his mother to death, because only his mother is here, and she is the labor force.
Only then will you be controlled by him and be obedient.
For breakfast, my mother only had a bowl of thin rice soup. "Mom, when you get hungry, eat that apple. Don't leave it for me. The apple will change color if left for a long time. Do you know?"
Wang Fang nodded and looked at the door of the warehouse where her daughter's busy voice disappeared again.
Today she did not go to the mountains. She went to the roadside some distance away from the village and stood on the roadside waiting for the bus to the town.
As luck would have it, after a while, a slightly shabby bus drove over from a distance.
Li Xinghe waved, and the bus stopped awkwardly next to her.
"Where to go."
"Go to Wanfu Town."
"Two cents."
She handed over a dollar bill.
"Here, go back." The conductor handed her eighty cents and urged her to go back.
There is a market in Wanfu Town on the days with the 369th every month. But maybe she set off late because she was working at home, so there were a lot of empty seats in the car. She found a seat by the window and sat down, putting the backpack next to her.
, the car had already restarted and soon drove out of Kaoshan Village.
In early spring, the surrounding hills are covered with green, and the car is like a small boat, sailing through the picturesque scenery.
She leaned against the car window, staring at the world outside the car window with her big eyes fixed for a moment.
The bus passed through a small village and stopped. After boarding and disembarking, it continued driving away.
The car stopped next to the busiest market in Wanfu Town, and Li Xinghe got out of the car with several other people.
She hadn't been here for a long time. She looked around and put on her backpack. The market was still the same as before. The stalls were placed in the open air along both sides of the street. There were almost no fresh vegetables. Most of them sold fat meat, meat skin, and offal.
Waiting for meat, rice noodles and condiments. Most of them are various farm tools, and there are a few stalls selling clothes, shoes and hats imported from the city.
She walked along the roadside stall, and not long after she heard the noisy chirping sound. She was happy, it was not in vain, there was indeed a chicken seller. The hazel chickens ate so happily in the space yesterday, an inexplicable feeling
The feeling told her that the space can be used to raise animals.
Thinking that in the future, her mother would be able to eat fresh eggs every day and sell the extra eggs, her steps became more and more brisk.
Not far ahead, there was a large stall with a dozen or so large baskets woven from tree branches on the ground. There were fluffy little heads inside, not only chickens, but also several baskets of ducklings.
Her eyes were shining, and she trotted over quickly and squatted down in front of a basket of chickens.
The chicken was warm to the touch in her hands. She picked up the chicken and gently rubbed it on her face. It felt warm and fluffy.
Carefully selected ten chickens and five ducks.
After buying the chickens and ducks, I kept 2 cents for the fare back home, and the remaining money was spent on food.
Next to the stall selling clothes, there is a stall selling hair ropes and hairpins. This is the only stall selling "luxury goods" in the entire market. Li Xinghe's eyes were like water, flowing past these shiny things, and then left without looking back.