The dust settles

Chapter 20

Severe frost prevented several chieftains in the north from planting grain on time, so they had to switch to poppies with a shorter growth period.When the news came, the Maiqi family was very happy from top to bottom.There are only two exceptions.For the third wife, Yang Zong, it seemed that what happened in Maiqi's family had nothing to do with her.Her existence seems to be just to sleep with the toast every now and then.Everyone has become accustomed to this.Unusual is brother.He is always working hard for the victory of the Maiqi family, but on this day, when the news in our favor came from the north, he was not happy at all.Because this incident proves that when tricks and brains are needed, he is not as good as the idiot brother.This happened more than once.That's why he felt sad when the good news came.One day, I specifically told him that the choice of food was not because of what Tana said to me.I said: "Brother, you are right. That woman is very stupid. She asked me to say poppy. I knew she was stupid, so I said food." , This is precisely the result of the fever in my fool's head.

I couldn't control myself anymore.

The good news from the north made the elder brother angry.In the past, I would think, it was just an accidental mistake of a smart person.After thinking about it, I still feel at ease as my fool.Not today.Just when I walked towards my elder brother, my dear elder brother, I vaguely knew that it was wrong to do so, but I still said: "Don't be sad, but you will be sad when something good happens to the Maiqi family, people will say that you are not from the Maiqi family people."

My brother slapped me across the face, and I fell backwards to the ground.That is, on this day, I found that my pain sense was not well developed, and I simply didn't know what pain is.In the past, I also had times of pain, for example, when I fell to the ground, or for example, being pinched by the former Dolma and the current Tana.But no one hit me.I mean no one has ever hit me with hatred.I mean people can't beat me with hatred.

On this day, I searched for people everywhere, to prove that they would not hurt me if they had hatred.

I find my father.

He said, "Why? Why should I beat you? Besides, how can I hate my son?"

I searched for a day, but no one was willing to beat me.In this way, I was the laughingstock again after I had just proved that I could be smart at times.I went upstairs and downstairs to find someone to beat me.

My father doesn't beat me, and neither does my mother.Secretary Gong Weng Bo Yixi shook his head at me with a smile, and wrote a sentence on the paper.I asked Lama Monpa to read it to me.It was written on the paper: "I lost my tongue, but I don't want to lose my hands again. Besides, I'm not your executioner." His words lit up my brain like lightning.

That day, I ordered and pleaded, and Xiao Eryi had already raised his whip.But the old executioner rushed up and whipped his son.I thought it was me who screamed, but I saw Xiao Eryi rolling on the ground with her head in her arms.At this time.Several servants rushed in.They were sent by the chieftain to follow behind me to protect me, to see if any of the servants would dare to make trouble and break ground on Tai Sui.Solang Zelang has always been obedient to me, but today even he doesn't have the guts.Helpless, I had no choice but to beg my brother again and put the whip into his hand.The elder brother took the whip and trembled with anger.I said, "You just hit me hard, to relieve your anger." I also said, "My mother said, I will eat under your hands in the future."

The young master threw the whip to the ground, grabbed his hair and yelled, "Get away from me, you bastard who is pretending to be stupid!"

In the evening, my curiosity was not satisfied, I took a walk in the orchard.

There is a sweet water spring in the orchard, and the water in Fuzhai is carried from here by female slaves.The servants carry the water at night, and carry it until dawn.Here, I met the former handmaiden Sangji Drolma.She greeted the young master in a very respectful tone.I told her to put the water poke off her back and sit next to me.Her hands were no longer the soft, smooth hands with fragrance.She began to cry quietly.I want to hug her.But she said: "I am no longer worthy, I will dirty the young master's body."

I asked her, "Did you have a son?"

Sangji Dolma cried again.Her child died of illness shortly after birth.

She was crying, and her body exuded the pungent smell of swill, under the thin moonlight, in the faint fragrance of flowers.

Just then, the silversmith came out from the bushes.

The woman asked him in a panic how he came here.He said that this bucket of water has been memorized for too long, don't worry, come and have a look.He turned around to face me.I know this man hates me.I thrust the whip into the silversmith's hand.During the day, I looked for people to beat me everywhere, and everyone said that the fool is not only stupid, but also crazy.The silversmith works in the yard, so of course he knows about it.He asked me, "Is the young master really as crazy as they say?"

I said, "You look like I'm crazy?"

The silversmith smiled coldly, knelt down, kowtowed, and the whip fell on me with the sound of the wind.I knew where the whip fell on my body, but I couldn't feel any pain. This man was beaten with hatred.And his wife just pinched me lightly in the past, and I was in pain.The flying whip knocked off many apple blossoms.Under the thin moonlight and the fragrance of flowers, I smiled.The silversmith gasped for breath, and dropped the whip in his hand to the ground.Now, both of them knelt down in front of me.

The silversmith was overwhelmed by the miracle in front of him. He said: "In the past, my woman was your person, but now, I am your person, your animal."

I said, "Go and live your life well."

They are gone.I watched the moon move in the thin clouds, feeling empty and uncomfortable.This is not to blame the moon, but to blame my brother.For a young master, I have nothing to be afraid of, not afraid of starvation, not afraid of cold, and not afraid of... In short, I don't have all the fears of ordinary people.If there is one fear I have, it is pain.

Since I was a child, no one has ever touched me.Even if I did something very bad, they said, poor fool, what does he know.But fear is always there inherently.Today, this fear is gone, without a trace.I feel confused about myself.

This feeling just makes me stupid.

I asked Tana, the handmaiden, "What should I be afraid of?"

She looked at me with even more confused eyes: "Aren't you afraid of being unhappy?"

But I stubbornly asked her: "What should I be afraid of?"

She giggled and said, "The young master is being silly again."

I think what this sentence means is that the young master is not stupid sometimes, he is only stupid when he "offends".So, do it with her.When I was doing things, I thought of her as a bird, leading me higher and higher, and then I thought of her as a horse, leading me to the sky.Then, the smell of her ass was sleepy.So, I started dreaming.

That's not to say my brain hasn't been active while I'm asleep before.is not what it means.If that's the case, then I'm slapping myself in the mouth.I mean, never had a good dream before, never had a complete dream.From now on, I start to have complete dreams.

All along, I often dream of falling down.Falling down in a dream is wonderful.You just fall, fall, keep falling, endlessly, and finally fly up, because there is wind in the void.It's not that I haven't fallen from heights before. When I was a child, I fell from the bed, and when I grew up, I fell from the back of a horse.But that can never be compared with the dream.When I was not in a dream, I had just started to fall, and before I had time to think about anything, I was already on the ground.Moreover, his brain was buzzing with shock, and he bit his own tongue.It was very different in the dream.When I fell, my first thought was, of course, I fell.But after saying these words many times in his mouth, they still haven't landed on the ground.At this moment, I felt myself floating in the windy void.The bad part is that you just fall sideways and try to straighten up, but you can't.This is something that can't be helped, and there is no way to do it.Sometimes, when I turned around with difficulty, I saw the earth roaring towards my face.I think people are actually afraid of the real thing.Otherwise, I wouldn't wake up screaming from my dream.It was the woman's hand that calmed me down.I'm kind of glad I have at least something to be afraid of.It's a little bit more meaningful to live like this.Do you know what I'm afraid of?

I am afraid to wake up from the dream, which is obviously falling, but it is very like flying.If one has to be afraid of something to be alive, I am afraid of this.

21. Wise men and fools
There was a bumper crop of wheat that fall, followed by a bumper crop of corn in late fall.

Before that, the young master always said: "Look, it's so late to plant, and the frost will come before the corn is ripe."

This is exactly what Toast and all of us are worried about.Because of waiting for the news from the chieftains in the north, the planting of the seeds was more than ten days late.

I told my father that my brother's words don't count.

Father said: "This guy seems to be cursing his family."

In those years, good luck was always on Maiqitoast's side.This year's weather is warmer than in previous years.Frost did not appear on the usual days.Later, the corn was fully ripe, and the frost did not fall.The common people say that it's time for a little frost.Mature corn will taste a little sweet after a little frost.For the people who don’t have any vegetables to serve with rice, it is more important whether there is such a little sweetness in the corn. With that little sweetness, they will feel that life is still beautiful and toast is still worthy of support.Father asked Lama Monpa to practice the method of "Xiashuang".

The lama said that the mountain is still a little immature.Sure enough, as soon as the corn in the high villages matured, the night would be a sunny day with bright stars, and frost would fall when the sky was about to dawn.It was the kind of frost in winter. When I got up in the morning, the ground hardened under my feet, and frost flowers crackled under my feet.Mai Qi's family already had some food reserves, but now, there is so much more that there is almost no place to store it.Food delivery teams appear on the road from time to time.In the yard, the crippled butler was holding a ledger in his hand, directing people to fight.The servants cheered for a while, and it turned out that a warehouse that was too full exploded.The golden corn cascaded down to the ground like a waterfall.

My brother said: "There are so many corns, it will break the official village." I don't know why, my brother loves to speak in this tone more and more.Before, we thought it was because girls liked the nonchalant tone.The father asked: "Perhaps, there is something new in the heads of the two sons?"

Brother snorted.

The chieftain said to me: "Don't think that you are a fool, and if you think of others saying you are a fool, you don't say anything."

So, I made the most astonishing yet simplest suggestion: exempt the people from paying tribute for a year.As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I saw the clerk's eyes light up.Mother looked at me worriedly.Father didn't speak for a while.My heart almost jumped out of my throat.

Father played with the coral ring on his hand and said, "Don't you want the Maiqi family to be stronger?"

I said, "For a chieftain, this is enough. A chieftain is a chieftain, and a chieftain cannot be a king."

The clerk took down my words at that time.Therefore, I know that what I said is not wrong.Maiqi's family became stronger and launched several attacks against other chieftains by force.If the process continues without stopping.One day, there will be only one chieftain in the world.Lhasa will see it, and so will Nanjing.And no one in these two directions is willing to see such a result.Therefore, as long as the Maiqi family is as strong as it is now, it is enough for the other chieftains to hate us and have nothing to do with us.In our family, only the older brother was willing to keep waging war.Only war can show that he is worthy of being the heir to chieftain Maiqi.But he should understand that any chieftain in history did not rely on war to obtain his final status.Although every chieftain has continued to use the title of king, no one seriously thinks that he is really a king.In the valley below these snow-capped mountains, you must not be too weak, otherwise, your neighbors will take turns to bite you, one bite of this, another bite of that, and finally you will only be left with a skeleton.We have a proverb that says: In that case, you will not be able to find your mouth if you want to drink water.And my brother never seemed to think about it.He said: "Eat those toasts before they become strong, and we'll be done."

My father said: "It's easy to eat, but I'm afraid I won't be able to get out after eating, and then everything will be over."

In history, there were chieftains who wanted to eat up their neighbors. As a result, the Han emperor sent a large army to suppress them, making it impossible for him to be the chieftain in the original fiefdom.Because there is no good road leading to Han, some chieftains will always forget where their chieftain titles come from.As soon as your brain gets hot, you forget it.In the past, there was an emperor, and now there is a president in Han, not only producing tea, porcelain and silk satin that we like.My brother has been to Han, but he doesn't seem to know that we are a military commander's defense zone, and he can't even remember where the guns that make us powerful come from.

Fortunately, my father understood the world he was in quite well.

It was the two sons that baffled him.A wise son likes war, likes women, has a strong interest in power, but does not have enough judgment in important matters.And sometimes his drunken fool son was smarter than anyone else.Before the other chieftains were worried about their successors, sorrow appeared on his face.The common people always say that it is good to be a chieftain, but I don't think they know the difficulties of a chieftain.In my opinion, the family members who make the toast, not the toast, are applauded.

It would be better if you were still a fool.

For example, I sometimes express my views on some things.If you are wrong, it means you didn't say it, you idiot.By the way, everyone treats me differently.Still, until now, I don't seem to have missed it in the big places.It made my mother say to me: "Son, I shouldn't smoke so much, I want to give you some ideas."

If that's the case, I'd rather she'd still be smoking opium.Anyway, our house has what looks like cow shit.But I think it would break her heart.Mother always liked to say, you broke my heart.Father said, isn't your heart in someone else's hands, you can hurt it if you want?My brother said that women love to say such things.

He thought he knew women well because he had slept with many girls.Later, he went to Han places once or twice, and said that Han people like to say that.It seems that he has a very good understanding of the Han people again.

The chieftain exempted the people from paying taxes for one year, and the people were happy, so they collected money and hired a troupe, which was lively in the square in front of the palace for four or five days.The eldest young master is a man of many talents. Being in the troupe and performing on stage greatly surpassed his addiction to theatre.

Another very important matter was decided in his absence.

The chieftain said, those who love to go to the theater should go to the theater.

My father also said that the common people should watch the play for themselves, and I have something to discuss with you.This you are actually the mother, me, and the lame housekeeper.Outside the square was full of gongs and drums, and the chieftain announced his decision, and everyone said it was a good idea.But the young master didn't hear the good idea of ​​Toast.

The play is finally over.

(End of this chapter)