The Sweet Little Fulang

"Then I'll go and tell her." Lu Gu sat on the edge of the bed, didn't even take off his shoes, just put the thin quilt on his legs. After he said that, he lifted the quilt and stood up.

    "Well, you will come back after you tell her, it's too cold outside." Shen Xuanqing said, the other party was a woman, it was not good for him to follow, so he had to let Lu Gu go.

    Fortunately, the Shen family was at the back of the village, and there were few people coming out due to the strong wind at the moment, otherwise Lu Gu ran to the back of the house again and again, and maybe the news would reach the Lao Zhang's ears.

    Li Wanyun hid behind the back wall of Shen's house, at least the mud wall could block the wind.

    Lu Gu imitated Shen Xuanqing's words and told her, and seeing that she was really freezing from the cold, he gave her the tube sleeves on his wrists to warm her hands.

    The tube sleeves were hot because he had worn them before. Li Wanyun felt that her hands were dirty, but it could be seen that Lu Gu didn't dislike it, so she took it after a moment of hesitation, and stuffed her hands into it.

    Seeing her red and swollen fingers and several scars, Lu Gu looked away and asked, "Are you going back now?"

    Li Wanyun didn't answer, but asked nervously, "Is he really gone?"

    "Well, Erqing said so, he won't lie to me." Lu Gu replied with a nod.

    Li Wanyun was hesitating, obviously still afraid, he thought for a while and said in a low voice: "Why don't you hide in the woodshed secretly, at least to avoid the wind, and I think the snow is about to fall again."

    This was a good idea, Li Wanyun said: "His mother... ...My mother-in-law is afraid of cold, so she should go back to her room now."

    Lu Gu was always sent to sleep in the woodshed before, and he was willing to stay in the woodshed when it was cold, no matter how broken it was, it could still cover him from the wind and snow.

    As for the way Li Wanyun called her mother-in-law, he just pretended not to hear it. After coming out of the Lu family, every time he thought of Du Hehua, he also didn't recognize that stepmother. Once he mentioned it to Shen Xuanqing, he always called her by her first name, let alone Shen Xuanqing, no one else in the family would talk about her.

    After Li Wanyun returned the tube sleeves to him, the two walked around from the back of Shen's house to the front one by one.

    Lu Gu looked ahead, the wind was stronger and the snowflakes were falling, no one came out at this moment, so he turned around and looked at her.

    "Go back quickly, I'm leaving." Li Wanyun told him, and hurried to Zhang's house with light steps.

    There was a gap in the door of Zhang's house, which was left by Zhang Zhengzi, so he still could get in after drinking. She tiptoed and gently pushed the door open, and squeezed in through the slightly wider gap, her heart beating non-stop. Fearing the wind and snow, she still slipped into the woodshed with the door half-opened.

    If the door was not closed, the wind would keep blowing in, but the door of the firewood room was old and creaked at the slightest touch, which made Li Wanyun's face change in fright.

    "Zhengzi?" Lao Zhang heard the door creaked, and called out from her room, thinking it was Zhang Zhengzi who was coming back, but she didn't hear any voice, and it was windy outside, so she thought it was the wind, and didn't take it to heart. When she thought of Xiao Zhang again, she cursed a few words in a low voice but still didn’t feel relief, she would ask Zhengzi to beat her up again.

    Seeing that she went in and never came out again, and there was no sound of beating or scolding in the yard, Lu Gu entered the yard.

    After noon, it snowed again, the sky was overcast, and it got dark earlier. After dark, they had nothing to do, so they had to go back to their rooms. People who were reluctant to light oil lamps went to bed early.

    Afraid that he would fall asleep and accumulate food after eating, Lu Gu cooked dinner earlier. He still wrote the characters he learned today under the oil lamp after eating. Shen Xuanqing sat next to him and watched and taught him if he couldn't write well.

    Lu Gu was shy by nature, at this moment when his hand was held by Shen Shuanqing so he could guide him to write correctly, his ears and cheeks felt hot, but he didn't refuse.

    The candle light shook slightly, warm and reassuring.

    It was gradually getting dark, the wind and snow were not heavy, and most people closed their yards to rest, but there was a staggering figure walking towards the houses behind the village, it was Zhang Zhengzi.

    He drank wine, although it was not a good wine, but his face was flushed and his whole body was hot. He didn't feel cold. While walking, he kicked a stone, cursed indiscriminately, and kicked the stone out with one kick.

    In the dark night, he could barely recognize the door of his house. He drank too much wine and felt urgent need to urinate, so he took off his belt and stood by the mud wall to urinate. He drank a lot and urinated a lot. It didn't finish for a while, and flowed down the wall to the side.

The drunk man even squinted his eyes half-closed, his feet were floating, his hands were not very strong, he shook after urinating, fastened his trouser belt indiscriminately, turned around and was about to enter the house, but he stepped on the big puddle of his urine, and immediately slipped and fell.     

He was slow to react after drinking too much alcohol, and he still fell backwards. Hitting the back of his head was unavoidable. The stone he kicked away just now was under his head, and the uneven side was facing upwards. After he fell heavily, his head was suddenly knocked up, not even a sound came out of the throat, he was lying on the ground motionless.     

It just so happened that Lao Zhang saw that her son hadn’t come back, so she went out of the house to look outside. Before leaving the yard, she heard a muffled “bang” outside, and hurried out. There was a person lying on the ground in front of the door.

She squatted tremblingly, touched the rough jade pendant around Zhang Zhengzi's waist, and cried out: "Anyone, help me!"     

Lao Zhang tried to help her son up while crying. Her son stepped on the urine, slipped and fell to the ground. Her right leg was pressed by Zhang Zhengzi's back. She was old and weak, and it was winter. Her bones were already brittle and it was broken in an instant. Suddenly, there was a piercing pain in her right leg, and she almost passed out.     

Even though she was old and confused, she also knew that something bad would happen if she fainted, so she gritted her teeth for fear of death, and shouted at the top of her voice, begging someone to save their mother and son.