Hunger for a hundred years

Chapter 40 (20)
I pressed the book against my chest and stared blankly at the ceiling.The front is covered by a wooden barn, and the back is blocked by a gable wall. In addition, the bed is covered with a mosquito net that is not washed and turns yellow and black all the year round. The room is extremely dark.In this silent white night, I thought of my mother again.One meter in front of me is a wooden staircase. My mother used to go up and down the wooden staircase after putting us to bed, busy with her never-ending life.I seem to see my mother wearing the flowered padded jacket she wore before she died, sitting on the stairs and looking at me.For a moment, I felt that my mother was not dead, so I sat up straight.However, I saw an empty stairway.A beam of skylight stubbornly shines in from the bright tiles covered with dust, exploring this dark room that is constantly interpreting tragic stories.

For a long time after that, nothing was lost at home, and He Kou didn't return late at night like before.He took the initiative to propose to He Zhongbao, unwilling to work together with He Zhongbao.According to the previous rules, the work done by He Unite and their group was the easiest. When other men plowed and harrowed the fields, they gathered seedlings and weeded (this was mostly done by women), and other men carried stones to build a garden. They used iron rakes to slap the ridge of the field in a pretentious manner, and even a few big men invited them together to walk around the public firewood mountain with their hands behind their backs, to see if there were any thieves stealing firewood.They have never done serious work, such as going to gather seedlings together. They often sit in the shade and listen to He Kuiyuan's fairy tales.The members of the commune knew it in their hearts, but no one dared to say anything.Now, He Kou proposed not to be in the group with He Tuanjie, and he said it in front of everyone. He Zhongbao was inconvenient to reject it, so he was transferred to another group.

He Kou has returned to the appearance of his mother when she was alive. She is serious and diligent in everything.

Everyone on the slope said: Hekou has become better.

This is a rare happy time.The most profound feeling is naturally He Da.He still seldom speaks, but his face is very peaceful, even the obvious pain has become less obvious, his wrinkles have stretched, and he looks much younger.In his free time, he even surrounded those players who played Sichuan cards. Even though he knew nothing about it, he watched it with relish, and when he saw someone burn his "beard", he would just laugh, innocently like a child.

Unfortunately, life was never ready to give this old man peace and happiness.

It was a rainy season, there was no work on the slope, and everyone was huddled in the house.Now, there are more and more young men who know how to play Sichuan cards. They gather in small groups in other people's buildings, or in He Jianshen's house, or under the eaves of the street, shouting and playing the game they never get tired of; The women gathered together to tidy shoe soles, and there were no melon seeds, and no paper trumpets that had been broken and left unattended for half a year—only gossip!That day, after finishing my homework, I read for a while the Three Character Classic textbook He Ji left behind to criticize Liu Shaoqi. The roofs are level, separated by a deep gutter.I saw a few women sitting by the dry ancient well where the body of their young daughter-in-law was dropped, talking with their heads together.I suddenly heard He Kou's name coming from their mouths.

One said: "What did you say?"
The other said: "Don't you know, Hu Mian is pregnant again, but I don't know whether it is unity or the seed sown by Hekou."
The third said: "It's hard to say! I'm afraid it might be another man."
I can understand such words, and I feel that I have been cut by a knife.

How slanderous those hateful women are!I came out of the bamboo grove and coughed demonstratively, the gossiping woman stopped immediately and greeted me: "He Zao, I heard that you got the first place in the district again, you are better than your second brother! "
I ignored them and left angrily.

After that, I once again looked at He Kou with strange eyes.I always look at him when he's not paying attention to me.I found that He Kou was more energetic than before, but the sadness hidden under his eyebrows seemed to be more intense.When he raised his head, he found my scrutinizing gaze, and he always tried to avoid meeting my gaze.

It is not known how widely the rumors about him spread.In order to understand this point, for a while, I always got involved in women, and many people could not understand me, even He Ju said that I did not look like a man.Especially those women who are already upset in the menopause and only fabricate rumors to relieve the pain of body fission, they are disgusted with me, and they will give a sentence viciously every now and then: "A child without a mother is just uneducated. !" I can't argue with them. Children and adults quarrel with each other in Hejiapo, but my precocious sensitivity and self-esteem do not allow me to do so.No matter how unreasonable the adults are, once the children quarrel with them, they will collectively reject you and think you are worthless.This force is extremely powerful, and many people who should have become heroes have been swallowed up by this terrifying collective consciousness.Since the day my mother died, I have been afraid of almost nothing, except that people think I am worthless.

I didn't get any more information about the relationship between He Kou and Hu Mian. I think those words are still rumors after all.

When the rain seemed to never stop, the trees, flowers and plants on the entire Hejiapo were like mold cultivated by the rain.He Da lost interest in watching other people play Sichuan cards. After all, he didn’t know anything about it. Although he could have fun while others were burning their “beards”, it required patience. Sometimes it took a day and a half to appreciate it .He sat on the eaves all day weaving flower baskets.His technique of breaking bamboo is quite clumsy, the bamboo strips he made are uneven in thickness and width, and sometimes the obvious boils are not removed, so the flower baskets he weaves are not beautiful at all. If the picky He Yue carries them on the street, She absolutely does not want to.His hands and feet are also very slow. People say that great-grandfather He Xing can weave a flower basket in half a day, and a scholar can only use it in one day, but He Da needs at least a week.

That day, when He Dazheng was opening the flower basket, He Ben ran back from the middle courtyard angrily, "Dad, brother and Hu Mian had a fight!"
In the room, He Ji was reading a book (he kept the habit of a student, he didn’t play cards, he didn’t like to chat in groups, he would read books whenever he had free time, or practice brush calligraphy), when he heard He Ben’s words, he put down the book and ran to the street under the eaves.

At this moment, He Ju and He Yue also ran back from that alley.He Ju held the sole of a shoe that was covered with cloth and hadn't been stitched yet, and He Yue held an insole embroidered with many butterflies.They reported the same news.

Since He Tuancheng became an adult, no matter who he quarreled with or fought with, it was an active and passive relationship, never equal. In fact, since he put He Zhongbao's wife in a flower basket and tore his underwear, He Jiapo No one dared to quarrel with his family.

"Why?" He Da asked.

"Everyone, go and listen to the shady things!" He Ju said.Her face was pale.

"What the hell is going on!" He Da anxiously pushed the quick-formed flower basket to the side, and the strip in his hand brought out a long bloody gash on his thumb.

He Ju didn't want to say anything, but when He Da asked He Yue, He Yue's face turned red and she didn't say a word.Among our sisters, He Yue is the shyest.

When we ran to the apricot tree outside He Kui Yuandi Dam, we saw Hu Mian approaching He Kou, who kept retreating.Hu Mian's hair was disheveled, and there were still drops of water on her hair, obviously she had just washed her hair.What an incredible woman!Every few days, she has to wash her hair, and every once in a while, she has to cut her hair.Her hair was black and oily, and it was casually draped down, covering half of her face. The eyes covered by the hair could still be scorchingly seductive.Her skin is so white and tender, so elastic that people can feel where her body is concave and where it is convex at a glance.To be honest, ever since He Tuanjie brought her to Hejiapo, I have always felt pity for her (whenever she climbs uphill with a dung bucket like other women, I will have such emotions ), thanking her sincerely, because she put a layer of bright color on the gray Hejiapo.My grandmother Xu Lian is extremely beautiful, but I have never seen it, but I have actually seen Hu Mian. I think the most beautiful woman in the world cannot surpass Hu Mian.How could such a woman I like quarrel with my elder brother and force my elder brother to back away so aggressively?
Things quickly figured out.

Hu Mian said that He Kou owed her thirty catties of millet and seven catties of bacon.

Fear was clearly written on He Kou's face.Ten meters away, He Tuanjie sat there with a dark face, like a pile of rocks.When He Kou said that he would never admit to being in debt, He Tuanjie raised his fist.

At this moment, He Ji walked down the stone ladder, holding his swollen arms, and stood silently five or six meters away from He Tuanjie.

I don't know when, He Ji grew so tall and strong, and his body grew so strong!
He Tuanjie's fists spread out gently as if a spring had been loosened.

When He Tuanjie and He Ji were working together, they once had a test of strength. He Tuanjie picked up a stone weighing three to four hundred catties and walked for a certain distance. He Ji went again. He seemed to be spraying out, but the distance he traveled was no shorter than that of He Tuanjie.In Hejiapo, apart from He Kuiyuan, no man can do this.Moreover, He Ji is more dexterous than He Tuanjie, and if he really wanted to fight, He Tuanjie wouldn't be able to take advantage.

He Kou keenly captured the changes in He Tuanjie, and his spirit suddenly became vigorous.Instead of retreating, he took a step forward, pointed at Hu Mian's forehead and said, "I don't owe you a penny!"
Hu Mian was startled, looked at He Ji with his arms folded, and at us under the apricot tree, scolded, and went back to the house disconsolately.

Because of this experience, He Kou will remember the benefits of He Ji throughout his life.

He Kou followed us back home.

No one in the family asked why He Kou owed Hu Mian the millet and bacon, because Hu Mian had already shaken everything out while cursing.

He Tuanjie did get back some pornographic pictures from outside.The pornographic picture was rewarded by some young men in the town, not what Zhongbao said was obtained by He Tuanjie and He Kou together.It's an incomplete deck of cards, with a nude woman on each card.He Tuanjie summoned a few bachelors like He Kou on Poshang to his home and showed them those unsightly and irritating pictures.In the meantime, Hu Mian did not evade, and she was dressed very revealingly, dangling in front of them, and tilting her head from time to time, staring at them with a smacking tongue, and avoiding them with a blushing face. Come take a look.A few bachelors can't stand this kind of teasing, and they spend more time looking at Hu Mian than looking at pictures.He Tuanjie needed such an effect. He bluntly said to Hekou: "You can sleep with Hu Mian, and every time you sleep, weigh me three catties of millet or half a catty of bacon." In this way, He Tuanjie and his wife Together, they opened a domestic brothel.This is the first family brothel in the countryside in the Qingxi River Basin.

Since then, Hu Mian has been free almost every day, either He Kou or several others.

Whenever someone came to sleep with Hu Mian, He Tuanjie gave up the bed, waited outside, or went out to steal things.

However, after others finished their work, He Tuanjie often couldn't wait to go in and pull Hu Mian's crotch, and insert his hard dick.He didn't want to have sex, but to vent his sulking in this way.While swaying violently, he asked Hu Mian: "Which one is more comfortable?" Hu Mian always replied bitterly: "The most comfortable place is in Bamao."
He Da finally understood that it was indeed He Kou who spoke in Hu Mian's room that night when he and He Ji went to wait for He Kou in the filthy bamboo forest.He Tuanjie went out. He first went down the mountain to the bottom of the river and stole half a basket of sweet potatoes from the family, and then went to school to steal Teacher Wu's quilt cover and other things.

The people on the slope despise Hu Mian to the bone marrow.For a woman to take off her trousers for three catties of millet or half a catty of bacon, she would be ashamed, she would die of embarrassment!Hu Mian has indeed been depressed for a while. She used to walk with her head held high, and when she used to look at people, her eyes were always vacant, staring at you with burning eyes. She has a provocative air and a condescending arrogance , Now, most of the time when her head is lowered, she doesn't dare to grab you directly when she looks at people, but stares at you and then runs away.Her hair was washed less than before, it was longer than her shoulders, and it was never cut.

He Tuanjie's prestige has also been greatly weakened. A man who gives his wife to others, no matter how powerful he is, is also a coward.

In comparison, He Kou did not suffer much loss.The villagers are too lazy to analyze the reasons for the relationship between men and women, they always think that men take advantage of it.If He Kou had been beaten by He Tuanjie that day, they would of course have laughed at him, but he was not beaten, and he justly declared that he would not pay what he owed, which is enough to prove that he has won an all-round victory.

If he doesn't find a wife for He Kou, He Kou will not only be single, but may cause even bigger troubles.

It is almost impossible to find a matchmaker in this village who is willing to match He Kou. Everyone in He Kou is so poor, there is no need to do such a thankless thing for him. scandal, and stole the family's food and bacon to pay off the debt, is this human!No one on the slope dared to take this risk—even if the clever tongue tricked the other's daughter, the matchmaker would have to bear a lifetime of sins. The same "beating" incident happened after Xu Lian's death; if you think about the old story of Zhong Bai'er who was looking at the Drum Tower, his teeth were pulled, even a fool would know it.

He Da thought of looking for relatives from our mother's natal family.As for those relatives, we have long since stopped communicating.He Da even thought of Xu Lian's natal family.God, this is a joke, although everyone knows how many sisters Xu Lian has, but even He Da saw it when she was very young, let alone us!We and them, as if we have not been involved for 1 years, no one knows anyone.
While He Da was worrying about his eldest son's marriage, someone from He Jiapo finally took the initiative to propose a matchmaker to He Kou that winter.

This person is Kwan Hwan, a hunchback and barefoot doctor.

Kuan Huan's family is relatively well-off, but due to health reasons, no one has ever asked him to match him.No one offered him a matchmaker, but he did. He Jiapo thought it was something new for a while.

What Kuan Huan introduced was the daughter of a family surnamed Jiang on Yanghou Mountain in Duihe.When Kuan Huan brought the girl to Hejiapo for the first time, people thought it was weird: why did the girl come alone with the matchmaker without her natal family?The woman and Kuan Huan entered his house (after Kuan Huan became an adult, he resented his grandmother Liang for making him hunchbacked, so he didn't want to live with Liang, but built a new house in a field under the yellow jue tree. Living in a single household), after a while, Kuan Huan came up to call He Kou himself.He Kou dressed properly and went down.After a bag of cigarettes, he came back with his new clothes ripped off, looking very angry.We all thought He Kou was dissatisfied because of the woman's stupidity, but he said, "Kuan Huan is trying to match him!"
He Kou saw it right, and not long after, Kuan Huan married that woman.

(End of this chapter)