Juan Wang's Little Lady: Nongmen hunters work hard to plow the fields

Chapter 33
"Sister-in-law, I'm going on a long trip. I entrust you and Brother Wang to take care of this cow for a while."

It was just dawn, and Liu Yindi had just nursed her baby, and was about to go to the kitchen to make breakfast for her husband.Unexpectedly, as soon as he left the room, he saw a young man from the Zhang family next door standing outside the courtyard, holding his green bull by the hand.

"Are you going on a long trip? Where are you going?" Liu Yindi asked with concern.

Three months after his adoptive father passed away, the boy was very depressed during this time, his eye sockets were sunken.

The young man didn't answer, but looked back at his cow, and said softly: "This cow can go to the field, you and your eldest brother can use it as much as you want, just... don't kill it for meat."

After speaking, he hung the rope leading the oxen on the firewood gate at the gate of the yard, bowed respectfully, turned and left.

The young man's footsteps were steady, and he slowly disappeared at the end of the path with morning mist.

Liu Yindi saw that he was carrying a long stick on his back, wrapped in green cloth, like a sword.

At that moment, she looked at the boy's back and thought: this day has finally come, he probably won't come back again.

***
Liu Yindi married to Zhangjia Village two years ago.In this village, Zhang is a common surname, and everyone with a foreign surname has to be a man with his tail between his legs.

On the first day of marriage, her man told her to pay special attention to Zhang Shunqiao who lived next door to him.The old man is a widower over sixty years old, with a adopted son.His adoptive son was picked up from the mountain, and by the fate of the lone star of Tiansha, his family members were all killed by him, and they were thrown on the mountain, and the wolves would not eat him.

The young man was withdrawn.Every day at dawn, Liu Yindi saw him leading the family's green cattle to the mountain to graze. He didn't bring the cattle back from the mountain until the cattle and sheep returned to the pen.

The young man passed by her door every day, and when he saw her, he stopped and saluted, and then he picked up the ox rope and continued walking.

Youngsters of the same age in the village don't play around with him.Those young people don't like to talk to others.He looks good, and there are brave little girls in the village who like him and deliberately block his way on the road to talk to him, but he always keeps silent and walks away with the cow.

His adoptive father was also not talkative, his face was covered with wrinkles, and there was a long scar stretching from his forehead to his chin.Liu Yindi heard from her husband that Zhang Shunqiao fell into grass when he was young, and he was a well-known figure in Taoism, known as "Black Three Swords".Once, he robbed a beautiful woman to be his wife, and the woman gave birth to him a fat boy.Within two years, a woman took advantage of his drunkenness to sneak away in the middle of the night with her son in her arms. Unexpectedly, she led her down the cliff, and the mother and son died.Later, Zhang Shunqiao returned to Zhangjiacun to become a hunter.

Liu Yindi asked, how can the village tolerate such a gangster?No one went to the government to report him?

Her man said, Zhang Shunqiao is the village god in the village.For a few years, the situation was bad, bandits were everywhere, and more than a dozen nearby villages were robbed.Bandits burned houses, robbed food, and robbed women. They did everything they could, but they dared not come to Zhangjia Village.Every time there was a bandit scene, Mr. Zhang Shunqiao took his short knife and sat under the big tree at the entrance of the village to drink and eat meat, and the bandits kept away.

***
One year after Liu Yindi got married, she spoke to the boy for the first time.

That day she went to the mountains to pick wild plants and lost her way. In an unknown place, there was a small flat land.The boy was dozing off on a big rock, with a book in his hand, and his green cow was grazing obediently not far away.

The boy lay on the rock with his eyes closed, the shadows of the trees were mottled and the cool breeze was blowing, it was as beautiful as a painting.

Liu Yindi couldn't bear to wake him up and watched for a long time.Seeing that it was time to go down the mountain, she walked over to wake him up.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she moved, the boy woke up.Seeing her standing not far away, he was startled for a while, then got up and said with a smile: "So it's Wang's sister-in-law, are you lost?"

It was the first time Liu Yindi saw the boy smile, and for no reason, her face became hot like a little girl's.

"I lost my way by picking mulberry. I happened to meet you here. I saw you asleep, but I didn't dare to wake you up."

The boy looked at the sky: "It's time to go down the mountain."

He picked up the book from the ground, patted it, put it back into a cloth bag, and hung the cloth bag on the horn of the cow.

"I don't know yet, brother Jianshan can read?" Liu Yindi asked.

The young man smiled faintly: "I don't know how to read, this is a picture book, I just read it and played with it."

He wanted to lend her the ox to ride on, saying that the ox knew the way home, but she refused.The young man thought for a while, showed her the way, and bowed his hands and said: "Sister-in-law, let's go first, I will protect you from behind."

Although the boy is only 14 years old, he has a calm demeanor, not at all like a wild boy in the village.No wonder, even though he has such a terrible adoptive father and his own temperament is so withdrawn, there are quite a few girls in the village who like him.

Liu Yindi walked ahead with a basket full of wild vegetables, turning her head from time to time, only to see the young man riding a green bull backwards, following far behind.

She will never forget what happened that day in her life.

***
In the winter after that, Zhang Shunqiao fell seriously ill and passed away soon after.

The young man was very depressed as he took care of his adoptive father's funeral.On the day his adoptive father was buried, he didn't say a word or shed a tear.

When spring begins, bandits come again.Without Zhang Shunqiao in Zhangjiacun, everyone in the village is in danger.Lizheng gave sticks to all the men in the village, but he took his wife and children and ran to Qinghe County to hide.

One night, Liu Yindi woke up in the middle of the night to have a urinate, and saw a boy passing by her house.The boy focused on the road in front of him, but didn't see her.

In the darkness, she saw a cold light flicker in his hand - it was the knife left by his adoptive father.

Early the next morning, when she got up to make breakfast, she happened to see the boy coming back, but the knife in her hand was gone.

At noon, people from the village came to report that the gangsters who caused the most trouble were all dead, on the way to Zhangjiacun.Each bandit has only one fatal cut on his body.

People in the village say that this is the last time Zhang Shunqiao's old man is alive to protect Zhangjiacun.

Only Liu Yindi probably guessed what was going on, but she didn't talk about it with anyone.

***
After the boy left, Liu Yindi took care of the cow for him every day. Whenever the man was free, she would urge him to go up the mountain to graze the cow.

It has been five years since the boy left, and Liu Yindi gradually forgot about him.Life in the mountain village was very difficult. Her family's big dog contracted a cold when he was two years old and became seriously ill, so he didn't stay.Fortunately, she was still young, and later she had a second dog.

The green cow is also too old to get down to the ground, and has to be fed every day.Her man said several times that he would kill the cow, but she firmly refused.Then one night, the cow kicked open the gate of the cowshed and ran out. She and the man searched for it for several days, and finally found that the cow ran to the open grass grazing field in the mountain, and went there as if asleep.

The stone where the boy lay on was still there quietly.

Where did he go? Did he have a great future? Maybe he already got married and became a high-ranking official.

Liu Yindi never expected to see him later.

Five years later, he is back.

I saw him again one evening.When the lantern fence fell, she was about to close the courtyard door when she suddenly saw him appearing at the end of the path in front of the door.

Behind him was a woman whose belly was slightly bulging.

Compared with when they parted five years ago, he had become a man, more manly.The woman behind him lowered her head, as if I felt sorry for him.

"Sister-in-law Wang." When he saw her, he greeted her with a smile, as if he had just left for a day.

"You...you are back."

　The life experience and experience of the male protagonist will be narrated successively through prequels.

　　Thanks Muxue Gege and Awa for the monthly pass.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)