life struggle

The 23rd year of the twelfth lunar month is the day when every family worships the stove and sends the gods back to the heaven to report on their duties. 【 】Everyone wishes to send good words from Lord Stove to the highest central organization in the heaven, and pray that the weather will be good in the coming year, the country will be prosperous and the people will be safe, the whole family will be safe and prosperous, and everything will go smoothly.It was just dawn, and the rooster was still standing on the treetop branch with its beautiful and beautiful tail up, lighting up its clear and melodious singing voice, and some people in nearby villages had already set off firecrackers, accompanied by the rising smoke, exuding a refreshing firecracker. The smell of medicine broke the tranquility of the winter countryside for a while, and kicked off the prelude to welcoming the new year.

Wu Xiaojun got up early in the morning, cleaned the kitchen with his mother, had breakfast, prepared the steamer and chopping firewood, and remade the steamed bun noodles prepared yesterday for the festival. After working for a long time, he was sweating profusely.As soon as I arrived at the main room, I took a small stool to sit down and rest, when the door outside rang, accompanied by the sound of bicycles, my second sister Xiaomei walked into the yard with her two little nephews.Wu Xiaojun hurriedly stood up to greet him, picked up his little nephew who had just turned one year old, and asked, "Second Sister, why are you here?"

"I already steamed the steamed buns the day before yesterday. I'm free at home. Come here to see if my mother has steamed them, and if there's anything I can help you with."

"You came by coincidence. Today, steamed buns were steamed. Didn't you just knead the noodles again, and you came before you had time to kick your breath. Hurry up and talk to our father in the main room, and take a break."

Xiaomei parked her bicycle and went inside to sit beside her father Wu Pingshun.The eldest nephew, Dongdong, had already got off the back seat of the bicycle and ran to Wu Pingshun's side impatiently. He threw himself on him and fumbled in his jacket pocket, saying, "Grandpa, give me a dime to buy candy." .”

Wu Pingshun narrowed his eyes happily, "Good boy, can grandpa give you two cents?"

"Father, don't give the child money. Let him know that he needs money to buy things at such a young age. Don't spoil him."

"It's a child, and he's ignorant. I gave it to make him happy."

"Grandpa is so kind, I will buy candy for you when I go out." He took the money and ran out.

"It just so happens that Xiaojun is here. A few days ago, I met my second sister-in-law, Qiuping, who was returning to her natal home. She said that my eldest brother told others in the village that he wanted to build a house for the world to marry a wife on the homestead in Kengbei. I don't know if you heard it in the village. Did you say that? And Qiuping also said that they also want that piece of land, and it's convenient to go across the road." Xiaomei looked at the two and asked.

The homestead in the north of the pit was originally the wheat field of Wu Pingshun's family for generations, and the largest pit in the village is on the south side, where a lot of water is usually accumulated for fish farming.After the eldest brother Wu Pingming grew up, his father built a house for him in the northern half of the house, and in front of Pingming and himself, he agreed to use the apricot tree as the boundary and give himself the southern half.

Soon after the implementation of the household contracting policy, the eldest nephew Wu Xiaoliang and the eldest son Wu Xiaofu built houses elsewhere, and this place was not occupied.Later, when the team divided the homestead, Pingming cut down the apricot tree that marked the land boundary in advance, insisting that his father never said that he would give Pingshun a piece of land, until the edge of the pit was all his, no matter what he said, he would not agree to the division. To Wu Pingshun.For this reason, the two quarreled and quarreled in the brigade, and the brigade cadres came forward to mediate, but they refused to agree to their good words.Wu Pingshun also resolutely refused to give in, and called his mother and eldest sister Wu Xue to the brigade to testify. His mother still remembered the situation and explained the situation in detail, but Wu Xue insisted that he didn't know anything about it. .The angry Wu Pingshun never had any contact with Wu Xue for five or six years.The cadres of the brigade saw that the mediation was ineffective, so they let go of the housework on the grounds that they could solve the housework privately. In addition, they gave Wu Pingshun a homestead at the entrance of the village.This is the land left by the ancestors, no matter what, he must have his own share, and Pingming just pretended not to give it to him, so Wu Pingshun will be destroyed.

The second son, Xiaoqi, has already married a wife, and they still live together and have not built a house to separate the family.Xiao Qi is relatively honest and timid, and his daughter-in-law Qiuping is also the kind of person who has no roots. She is self-centered, loves to care about every detail, and often speaks incoherently, which is annoying.If the house is built for him alone at the entrance of the village, more than 200 meters away from the main village, once he is bullied and stolen by others, even if he goes to the village to call someone, it will be too late. He not only blamed himself for the rest of his life, but also entrapped him.

Wu Pingshun thought over and over again that he must not build the house to the entrance of the village, but if it is not built to the north of the pit, there is really no other place.But this guy Pingming has always been refusing to give it to him, just talking about it is useless, and after thinking about it, he just bites the bullet and he will be hard.When Pingming and Xiaoliang were away on business trips, he asked Xiaofu and Xiaoqi to forcibly pull soil and build brick walls overnight.When Wu Pingming and his son came back, seven layers of bricks had been laid on the foundation of the wall, and the mud wall was about to be built below.

Wu Pingshun's good intentions and hard work were not recognized by Xiaoqi. Xiaoqi knew that Pingming was unreasonable and unreasonable, and he was afraid that he would often make trouble after living with him as a neighbor. The house is built there.He had to build a house at the entrance of the village, so he quarreled with Wu Pingshun several times.After all, Wu Pingshun was in charge of the house, forcing Xiaoqi to build a house in Kengbei, but Xiaoqi's arms could not twist his thighs, so he had no choice but to agree to build the house together with Pingming.From then on, just as Xiaoqi expected, Pingming found Xiaoqi's troubles from time to time, and Xiaoqi poured all the dissatisfaction and resentment in his heart on Wu Pingshun, and the rift between father and son deepened day by day.

When Wu Pingming and his son saw that Wu Pingshun had already built a house in front of their house, they couldn't get angry at that time. They became angry from embarrassment, and they picked up the guys like crazy and smashed the bricks that had been built.How can Wu Pingshun let it go, he is going to fight Ping Ming with the grappling hook on his shoulders, and many men, women and children from the whole village come to watch the excitement.

Unfortunately, Wu Pingshun was beaten by Xiao Liang and lying on the ground with blood on his head, Wu Xiaoliang said fiercely, "What are you? You openly robbed our house to build a house. It is lawless!" A bandit, you don't even have shit in this place, it's all mine, I won't give you an inch, all the bricks you built will be scraped and thrown into the pit, and you can roll wherever you can. "As he spoke, he kicked Wu Pingshun a few more times.

Wu Pingshun was beaten up by his nephew. He was ashamed, angry and anxious. Several elders couldn't see him, so they pulled him up and sent him to his third brother Wu Pingchun's mother. Afterwards, Wu Xiaoliang was called home by his grandmother.As soon as Wu Pingshun saw Xiaoliang, he was furious immediately, and he picked up the kitchen knife on the chopping board and threw it at Xiaoliang. Get down on your knees.Wu Pingshun picked up the rolling pin and beat him on the back, but Wu Pingchun jumped forward and grabbed his wrist.

Grandma cried bitterly and said, "Xiao Liang, you are not young anymore, you should know best how your uncle treats your father, treats you and your brothers and sisters, do you still have any conscience, and you dare to kill him like this?" When you started beating him and scolding him, did you think about who often visited him when your father was in prison? Who was it when your father was pitifully missing you and your eldest sister Cuicui and took you there at midnight? Your father is not at home, who went to Nanhe in the twelfth lunar month to build your house with carts and carts? When you married a wife and separated, your father didn’t even give pots and pans You, did your uncle buy it for you while watching you pitifully brave the rain in the street? Did your uncle beg for money to take you to Pingdong for treatment when your mother was seriously ill? Have you forgotten everything? Not to mention that the land was handed down from our ancestors, and your grandfather also said in front of the two of them that not only your father is a bastard, but you are too. A bastard, and an ungrateful brute."

Enduring the pain, Wu Xiaoliang knelt on the ground without saying a word, kept wiping his tears and listened to his grandma babbling, feeling very ashamed, and also felt that his father should not eat alone, and he should not personally beat him with a stick. My uncle cried bitterly and put his arms around his legs and said, "Grandma, I was wrong. I shouldn't hit uncle. It's my fault. Just beat me hard."

"Hitting you, I'm afraid I'll be tired, so tell me something sweet, do you want your uncle to build a house or not?"

"Let, let, let, I won't stop him again, I'll go back and tell my father, give that piece of land to uncle, so that uncle can build a house with peace of mind." Then he turned and knelt down in front of Wu Pingshun, crying and begging Wu Pingshun. Ping Shun said, "Uncle, your lord has a lot, because you watched me grow up and always took care of me, please forgive me for the stupid things I did this time, and I will never disrespect you again. gone."

For the children of the younger generation, Wu Pingshun is most optimistic and likes Wu Xiaoliang, a young man with a flexible mind, shrewd and capable, and the two of them often sneak out together to do some speculative business.Seeing his pitiful and sincere repentance, he felt very distressed, felt weak and sad for a moment, and said angrily, "Don't kneel on the ground, get up quickly, think about what your father did right, don't you What the dead grandfather said is useless at all, doesn't it count?"

Wu Xiaoliang discussed with his father in the middle of the night, and finally Wu Pingming agreed to let Wu Pingshun build a house in front of his door, but he also proposed a harsh condition that he must replace the part of the village entrance near the roadside according to the width of the pit north, and said, "The village entrance The land in the north and south is ten feet eight feet two, and the land in the north of the pit is three feet six feet eight. Wu Pingshun measures seven feet one foot four from south to north, and the rest is his." Otherwise, he will not agree.Wu Pingshun didn't know the reason. He just thought that Pingming was trying to find a way out for himself and deliberately made things difficult for him. He should be forgiven and understood. As long as he was allowed to build a house in Kengbei, it didn't matter what conditions he raised, so he agreed condition.

After a few days, Xiaofu Xiaoqi and others discovered that Pingming was constantly measuring the land with cloth from south to north at the entrance of the village. It was a bit suspicious. I don’t know what he wanted to do. Anyway, the land is dead. He can measure it as he likes. I didn't take it to heart.

Ten days later, under the witness of several village notaries, Wu Pingshun took a ruler to measure the ground, and Wu Pingshun was dumbfounded. Only then did he realize that Pingming was still cunning.