Hunger for a hundred years

Chapter 20 (20)
One day, He Da brought a delicious chicken to Jianxiang's table, and retreated to the door, but refused to leave. Watching Jianxiang tearing the chicken leg with his hands, his saliva flowed down his cheeks.Jianxiang looked up at him and asked, "Why don't you go out?"
He Da swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, "Brother, in my whole life, I can only think about it once I eat like you."
Jianxiang waved his hand: "Starting tomorrow, get two copies!"
He Da didn't understand what he said, so he made a double copy the next day.

When he served the table and was about to leave, Jianxiang grabbed him and said, "Come, eat with me, one for each."
When did He Da experience such a delicacy?He was not polite, grabbed the chicken leg and bit it, and finished his portion in a few moments.

"It will continue to be done like this tomorrow," Jianxiang said. "Whenever I tell you to stop, you will stop. If you don't tell me to stop, you will continue to do it."
He Da did not dare to do as he said.When he brought only one serving to the table, Jian Xiang flew into a rage and ordered him to get another one right away.

He Da ate like this for more than ten days, his whole body was swollen.

He was lying on the ground, humming and chirping, unable to get up.

Jianxiang knew that the reason why He Da was swollen was because he had eaten pig and dog food for so many years, and his body couldn't take it because of the sudden supplementation.He asked someone to carry He Da to the ancient village with a basket, and threw him beside the Dagou grave.In the evening of that day, Jianxiang came to Guzhai alone, walked up to He Da, pressed a big hole in He Da's fat face, and said contemptuously: "It's his mother's slave life, and he wants to be equal to me !"
Many years later, no one of He Jiapo's descendants believed in the legend of Dagoufen any more, and only regarded it as an insignificant talk, but for He Da, it actually had some symbolic meaning.This is a beggar’s grave. He Da’s grandmother, Li Gaoshi, and his father, He Di, used to be beggars. He was also a beggar. His grandmother found Hejiapo through the thatched road outside the Dagou grave. His father encountered a mad dog near the Dagou grave. Now, when he was dying, he was thrown beside Dagou Grave again.

He became more and more swollen, and his body was like a well-fed "black widow" (spider).I'm going to die, He Da thought.Not far from him, a group of ants with cocked tails were approaching a green-shelled insect in two columns. The insect seemed to be sick. It clearly knew that the crisis was approaching, but it did not run away, and only weakly raised its tentacles.Of course, this could not scare off its enemies. The ants temporarily stopped their progress two cards away from it, and their bodies lay low. The space formed a circle, trapping the insects in the center like a metal barrel.The insect spun around in place, turned half a circle, and then stopped moving.At this time, the ants all held up their tentacles, danced for a while, and touched each other with their tentacles, as if humans were clapping their hands in celebration.After celebrating for a while, the ants moved forward collectively, and finally carried the insect away.

He Da kept watching the ants hide in the grass.In the depths of the grass, there is an ant's nest. When the insect is carried into the nest, its body will be decomposed soon, and it will become the belly of the ant.He Da sympathized with the insect.The insect, like him, was struck down by the disease.

It may be tomorrow, or it may be today, He Da will repeat the mistakes of that insect. Ants cannot lift him, but there are still eagles in the sky, fur dogs and house dogs on the ground.He Da has seen the scene of eagles eating dead people, they always peck off the eyes of the dead first, and the hook-shaped beaks go down carelessly, and the whole eyeball is sucked into the stomach by them; He Da has also seen wild dogs eat dead people The scene where the scalp was peeled off, the incomplete ears, and the teeth exposed because of the bitten lips. "It won't be long before I will be like this." Thinking of this, He Da shed tears.There was hardly any fear in these tears, but a quiet, melancholy sadness.Why did he come to this world?Is it just to endure hunger and humiliation?Could it be that he is really a slave, who will be punished by God if he eats a little good food?He couldn't figure it out.

But he wants to live.He didn't know what to live for, but he really wanted to live.

The little daughter-in-law who saved his life has long since died, and now no one will come to rescue him, he can only look at the clouds in the sky, hear the wind in the forest and the birdsong from somewhere in the shade .

He leaned against Dagoufen, closed his eyes, and greeted death helplessly.

But two days later, He Da did not die!Although the skin on his body was still like a blown up balloon, making him unable to stand up, his stomach felt hungry.He grabbed a few handfuls of fresh weeds and chewed them in his mouth.

Another day passed, and He Da woke up from his hazy sleep, barely recognizing himself.

He was no longer a spider, but a man—he was cured!
It was the weeds that saved his life.That kind of grass is called sedum grass, and it is a special medicine for He Da's disease.

He Da stood up.As if not believing that he could stand up, he squatted down and stood up again.

When he was sure he could walk, he jumped up and down, trampling the sedum grass that had saved his life to overflowing with green juice.

He wanted to go back to the village, but going back to the village was impossible for him to survive.So, he descended the mountain from a steep path beside the ancient village, and drifted upstream along the Qingxi River again.He worked part-time for others all the way, becoming more and more diligent, and his work became more and more agile, but because of his short stature, he had a miserable face, the male master didn't care about it, but the female mistress didn't like it. After that, he was dismissed.Being kicked out of the house is already a common occurrence for He Da, so he is not sad.He turned around a few mountains and arrived at Changxi Town.

Changxi Town is adjacent to Luowen Town, but Luowen is under the jurisdiction of Wanyuan, while Changxi is under the jurisdiction of Yongle.Here, he met the nephew of Yang Guangwu's first wife (the woman never returned to her mother's house after she ran away from Yang's house). That man's name was Li Hongyuan, who was very young but became the head of the family.He took He Da in and made him a long-term worker in his family.He rewarded He Da with a pair of underwear and a bucket of millet every year.

He Da worked at Li Hongyuan's house for several years.

A few years later, He Da is no longer penniless, but has some savings.He thought he had finally lived a good life and served his master wholeheartedly, but he did not expect that the current situation was undergoing unpredictable changes.At that time, the whole world was like a pregnant egg, the yolk and white were no longer distinguishable, and the chick might break out of its shell at any time.

In July of this year, He Da suddenly received news: He Min, the second son of his third master, He Xingxiao, died on the battlefield a few years ago: Liu Xiang's troops marched to Shanghai and fought fiercely with the Japanese army. , hit Master He Min's command post, and He Min was blown to pieces. Afterwards, he couldn't even put his head together.

He Min became a great hero in the Qingxi River Basin, but it took a long time for the news to reach Changxi in Jiapigou.

In Hejiapo, He Da only met He Min once, and he had heard that he was a rascal, but after all, he was the son of the third master, not to mention he has become a hero now; There have been many soldiers, but He Min was the only one who died on the anti-Japanese battlefield with the dignity of a teacher.

Li Hongyuan, the owner, seemed to know what He Da was thinking, and said very considerately: "I heard people say that Mr. He's bones were transported back to Hejiapo. There is no one in his family. You are his cousin. Do you want to go back and have a look?"
Thank you so much.

Two days later, He Da set off. Before leaving, Li Hongyuan said, "I will save the grain you earned at my house. When you come back from Hejiapo, you can stay at my house or take the grain away." , it's all up to you."
He Da complied, put on a rucksack and stepped out.

Not long after he left, he heard people reporting the same news: Japanese planes were coming to bomb again. In the midsummer of 1940, Japanese planes bombed the city of Syudinfu, burning the streets for three months. It is said that this time it will be even more violent.People talk about the "sun", and they would rather believe in its existence than in its non-existence.He Da followed the flow of refugees from Xuding Mansion, walked and stopped, slept in the open for days and nights, and finally arrived at Dongba Field.The Dongba garrison was very impatient with the refugees who were afraid of the Japanese, saying that those devil soldiers wearing melon skin hats had been gnawed to bare bones by termites in the Burmese forest, and they were afraid of their eggs!Everyone saw that the current situation was indeed cool and quiet, and they returned home one after another.In this way, they are equivalent to sending He Da to the Dongba field.He Da went to a peddler to buy incense wax paper fire, and planned to go back to Hejiapo to burn it for his father and He Min. When he talked to him, he realized that the peddler was from Qingxichang. He Da said: "Qingxichang I know you well." The man asked why, He Da didn't say that he was begging for food, he only said that his third master's son, He Min, had stayed there, and he had been working in Changxi for the past few years, and he just returned to Hejiapo today Go burn paper for He Min.Speaking of He Min, the man was full of admiration, but he told He Da: After He Min died, he was buried safely in Shanghai. Where did he get it back to Hejiapo?After the news came back, neither Xu Ding nor Yongle said anything, but He Min, the owner of Wanjia Casino, made a two-meter-tall stone statue and stood it at the entrance of the casino.

Since He Min's bones were not transported back to Hejiapo, He Da lost the most important reason to go back. After thinking about it for a while, he thought he wanted to see He Min's stone statue anyway, so he simply went down the river and went directly to Qing Dynasty. creek field.

Sure enough, there is a stone statue of He Min at the entrance of Wanjia Casino, which is very different from the one in He Da's memory.He Min has a square face, a big man, what he wants to say and what he wants to do are clearly written on his face, but the head of the stone statue is very small, the tightly closed lips are too flat, and there is a trace of melancholy in his eyes, just The scar at the corner of the mouth is a distinctive feature.The inscription on the base of the stone statue records the achievements of He Min: He Min's troops were extremely active on the vast Songhu battlefield, so it became one of the key targets of the Japanese attack.The battles are more closely followed, and each battle is more tragic than the last.The area is also shrinking, from the initial long-range shooting to street fighting, followed by hand-to-hand combat.He Min could have evacuated the headquarters from the center of the vortex, but he couldn't tolerate the ferocity of the enemy, and he couldn't tolerate his subordinates being defeated time and time again by those small ghost soldiers with long guns!Your grandma, what kind of person is Lao Tzu He Min? Three teachings and nine streams, ghosts and snakes, stealing and robbing, murdering and setting fire, what kind of world have you never seen?What kind of chamber pot are you fucking ghost soldiers? !With this in mind, He Min resolutely refused to withdraw, and vowed to go to the battlefield in person and kill the enemy bandits with his hands.Tragedy happened before he put on his shirt. In addition to the record of He Min's bravery on the anti-Japanese battlefield, the inscription also did not forget the deeds in the book that he beat away the "red bandit" Wang Weizhou with rolling wood and beating stones.

He Da put the cypress he bought in the clay pot in front of the stone statue.The clay pot has been densely filled with the remaining branches of cypress.

Kneeling and kowtowing, the proprietress of Wanjia Casino came out, saw He Da's face was full of tears, and asked him why he was crying so sadly?He Da pointed to the stone statue and said, "He is my uncle." The proprietress went in, and after a while, the boss with a mustache came out. The proprietress was young and beautiful, but the boss had a pockmarked face. up and down.Seeing that He Da was staring at the cypress stick that was shining with reddish light, and did not leave for a long time, the boss walked up to him and said, "We didn't hear that Mr. He has nephews and nieces?" Informed Mazi.The boss had a fleshy face and was lighting a thick cigar. He Da was a little scared and spoke in a squeaky voice.However, the boss believed him, because many of the details that He Dazhi could not reveal were well-founded, and it was impossible for outsiders to fabricate them.Out of admiration for the hero, the boss introduced He Da to work as a small worker in a distiller's grains factory on the field. Of course, his income is much higher than his long-term employment in Changxi.He Da agreed.

In this way, he neither returned to Hejiapo nor Li Hongyuan's house.

In August of the following year, Japan announced its surrender, and the Qingxi Field was full of gongs and drums, slaughtering pigs and sheep, and celebrating for days on end.The distiller's grains workshop where He Da works not only makes wine, but also makes pig feed (distiller's grains are high-quality pig feed), and the business is very good.But in those days, the boss only sold distiller's grains, and as for baijiu, he asked He Da to fill the vat with jars and let the congratulators drink it for free;

He Da worked in the distiller's grains workshop for four years.

Four years later, the boss of the distiller's grains workshop changed, and He Da also left.The money in his pocket was an amount that he could not have imagined when he was wandering in Qingxichang seven or eight years ago.

With the money, He Da went to Hejiapo, which he thought about day and night.

He Jiapo has undergone considerable changes.He Jianxiang is dead.Just like being a man in life, he also died in a unique way: first forcibly dismissed his two wives, and then hung him on the roof beam.He Heng and He Huaqiang also died one after another.It is said that before He Huaqiang died, he suddenly became energetic, got out of bed, and inspected all his fields carefully; after returning from the slope, he called his three sons to the bed, and spoke intermittently and gnashed his teeth. After reading his painful family history, he let He Zhongcai and He Mangzi go out, leaving the second son He Zhongbao alone, and tremblingly took the dog-beating stick stained with dog blood from under the pillow, and solemnly handed it over to him. He Zhongbao.He Zhongbao understood what his father meant, knelt down, and held the dog-beating stick with both hands.Seeing this situation, He Huaqiang passed away peacefully. He Huaqiang's death signified that none of the old people of his age here were left.Now, the oldest one is a woman surnamed Liang, but she is more than ten years younger than He Huaqiang.He Huaqiang's three sons, except the youngest He Mangzi, have all married.Since the land had been divided, their family no longer had the arrogance they had before, but even if they were compared individually, the brothers were still considered rich, especially the eldest, He Zhongcai, who had the most first-class land.

As soon as he set foot on the land of Hejiapo, He Da didn't want to leave.He went to plead with the people on the slope, hoping to let him stay.After getting permission, He Da immediately went to Changxi to retrieve the accumulated millet from Li Hongyuan's house.After wandering for 20 years, he finally returned to Hejiapo to settle down.

Since He Huaqiang was no longer in the way, things were not as difficult as he imagined; besides, his biological father was buried in this piece of loess, so in the eyes of most people in Hejiapo, he should also be counted as a person from this place.

My father's grave grows the weeds here,
My father's bones fatten the land here,
My dear, this is my home!

(End of this chapter)