Poor children

Chapter 31
一
It has been two days since Huang Tiedan came to see the poor boy. The poor boy was a little worried, fearing that he might have fainted from hunger again. Jin Shun'er happened to be here in the morning, so the poor boy wanted to ask Jin Shun'er to go. Take a look, but I only know that his surname is Huang, who lives in Huangjia Village outside the city. However, the reason why Huangjia Village is called Huangjia Village is because most of the people in the village have the surname Huang. Jin Shun'er has never seen Tiedan and is really worried about not finding him. So the poor boy asked him to take a leave of absence from Sanyang Zhenren, and wanted to go to Huangjia Village with Jin Shuner during the lunch break

During the afternoon break, Po'er and Granny Su asked for some food to take with them. Granny Su picked up some good snacks and packed a big bag for her. Po'er was afraid that she would miss the chance to light the fire in the evening. Granny Su also told her not to worry and just go. If she couldn't come back, she would Ask Xiao San'er to light the fire

So Pao'er and Jin Shun'er rode the same horse and went to Huangjia Village outside the city.

two

Huangjia Village was only more than two miles away from the capital, and they arrived soon. They entered the village and asked many people where Huang Tiedan lived. Those who knew gave them directions. They turned around and turned to a courtyard. Some parts of the loess wall have collapsed and dilapidated, and the two broken wooden doors are ajar with the light shining through. When you open the door, you can see how tall the weeds are in the courtyard. A tree as thick as a bowl has been stripped clean, and a room and a half are covered. The adobe house has many cracks, and the left and right windows have large holes covered with small holes where even the paper pasting the windows is torn.

Jin Shun'er went to push the door. Unexpectedly, the door fell into the room with a "clang" and broke into two pieces. Suddenly, dust filled the room. When the poor boy entered the room, he saw a big pot on the pot beside the wall. Pot, a lot of dust has accumulated in the pot. There is a square wooden table in the middle of the floor. There are many cobwebs on the connection between the table legs and the tabletop. The tabletop is so covered with dust that the original color cannot be seen. The poor man goes to the east room and lifts the table. There was an invisible curtain hanging on the door, and I saw Tiedan sitting on the edge of the kang in a daze. Lying on the kang was an adult man. He was skinny and slovenly. There seemed to be many bruises on his body, and there were large blood stains on his clothes. He was lying on the kang. There's breath coming in and out, it looks like it's useless
three

"Tiedan" the poor boy called him, but it didn't seem to bother the poor boy who called him "Tiedan" and stretched out his hand to pull him.
"Ah...you! Why are you here?" Tiedan finally recovered

"I was a little worried when you didn't find me for two days, so I asked Uncle Jin Shun'er to accompany me to find you. Is the man on the kang your father?"

"Yes" Tiedan is still a little confused.
"What's wrong with him? Why does he look like this?"

"I was about to go out the day before yesterday and saw him lying like this at the door. The neighbor's uncle said that he was beaten like this because he owed gambling debts and had no money, so I asked the uncle to help me carry him into the house, and I had no money. I went to ask for a doctor, but I didn’t dare to go out, and I didn’t know what to do…”

Seeing that Tiedan couldn't bear it, the poor man asked Jin Shun'er to ask for a doctor. However, when the doctor came to see him, he only asked him to prepare for the funeral, and didn't even give him a prescription.
The poor man didn't know how to persuade him, so he just brought out some snacks and handed them to him. Tiedan took them and ate them randomly. He choked after just a few mouthfuls. The poor man looked around and found that there was not even a whole bowl of snacks in this house. None, I managed to dig out half a broken bowl and a broken jar from under the table, only to find that there was not even a drop of water in the room.
So Jin Shuner took the jar and went to the well at the entrance of the village to fetch a jar of water and brought it back to them...

The three people sat like this for a long time facing a dying man, watching the sun go down. Jin Shun'er asked Pao'er to go back. Pao'er couldn't feel relieved when he saw Tie Dan looking like this, so he asked Jin Shun'er to go first. When she went back, she wanted to talk to her master. Jin Shun'er knew that poor children were stubborn and knew that she couldn't be persuaded, so he left some money for her and went back alone.
four

It was even quieter at night. Paoer and Tiedan sat side by side on the edge of the kang. Neither of them spoke, but they heard the person on the kang begin to take a long breath, as if the trachea was a little narrow, and kept making strange sounds. After a while, the sound disappeared and became quiet again. "Is he dead?" Tiedan suddenly asked.

"Maybe," Pao'er said, "Are you feeling sad? If you are sad, just cry a few times..."

"I may be a little sad, but I don't want to cry. I remember what happened to him. I only remember his beatings. He beat my mother until she died. She couldn't get up for several days. I accidentally knocked him over once. While drinking, he beat me with a wooden stick as thick as his arm. My mother defended me desperately, but he beat me until she vomited blood. Later, my mother had a baby in her belly, and he still beat me every three days. In the cold winter, I had no one at home. After the rice was put into the pot, my mother had to go to the river to wash clothes for others in order to earn money for me to eat. Over the past few days, her hands and feet were so cold that they cracked. You could actually see the white bones in her hands through the cracks. With a little effort, The bleeding stopped, and I managed to get half a pound of money from my employer. I just happened to catch him back, and he reached out to grab her. My mother refused to let go, so he kicked and hit my mother and broke her ribs. The baby in my belly almost died, and I was so hungry that I felt dizzy in the middle of winter. My mother endured the pain and took me out, digging out the snow and digging grass roots to cook..." Tiedan choked up as he spoke. I swallowed two mouthfuls of saliva and didn't say anything for a long time.
The pauper said nothing, looking at his vague profile in the dark.
After a long time, Tiedan said, "Then one day he came back and was very happy. He even bought rice and meat for us to eat. That meal was the most delicious meal my mother had ever made. It was just a meal." Then he took my mother out. That was the last time I saw my mother... I miss her very much..." Tiedan choked up again, "Now that this person has gone too, I don't know how I feel, but I know in my heart that I no longer have any relatives..."

Pao'er was very sad after hearing what he said. It was late at night when her grandmother passed away, and she was covered in injuries. "You know that I, my grandmother, was also my only relative. I was beaten all over and injured, and it was also such a late night. , I was the only one guarding her. I was five years old at the time, and I also became an orphan on that day. But we look the same? But you are better than me, and you are with me now."

Tiedan didn't expect that Pao'er had experienced so much pain, and he didn't know what to say for a moment.

"I thought that my grandma was gone and my only relative was gone, so I would not be able to survive. But later, many people like relatives appeared in my life, including my master, grandfather, brother, and uncle Jin Shuner. , they are all good to me. I know you are sad because of losing your relatives now, why not... let me be your relative." Pao'er said to Tiedan, "Let's sworn sworn brothers! You be my adopted brother, and I will be yours from now on. My sister, we are brothers and sisters, you are not a person without relatives!"

"Sworn sworn brother and sister? Are you my sister?"

"Yes, we are brothers and sisters, brother...can you and I depend on each other from now on?" Pao'er asked.

"Okay!" Tiedan replied, "But how do we make a sworn vow?"

"It is written in "Three Kingdoms" that if you want peach groves, you must have sacrifices, and you must burn incense and make blood alliances. But it's hard to find those things late at night. Let's make it simpler."

So the two moved the square table in the house into the courtyard, put some snacks on the table, and brought some firewood. The poor boy took the broken bowl and filled half a bowl of water. Brothers and sisters with different surnames, from now on, have the same blessings, enjoy the same hardships, and never betray each other from generation to generation. After the oath, they pricked their fingers and dripped blood into the bowl, and then drank the water in the bowl
(End of this chapter)