bookcurios Chapter 239 Good Luck
Chapter 239 Good Luck
Pinghua 150th year.
winter.
"The baby is dead."
The woman was kneeling at the door, holding her baby in her arms, blood oozing from her sunken eye sockets.
Hou Mao's lips couldn't stop trembling.
He wanted to reach out and hug the woman, but his hands froze in the air and finally fell down powerlessly.
The wind cut through like an ice knife, picking up the dead grass debris on the ground and swirling around the two of them.
This is his third child.
"Da Mao, I'm blind."
the woman said.
Hou Mao didn't say anything.
His eyes were fixed on the child's purple face.
Closed eyes.
Pale mouth.
It was like a curse, violently pulling his soul out.
After a long time, Hou Mao slowly squatted down and gently covered the child's forehead with his rough big hands.
The temperature there had long since disappeared, and it was as cold as the frost on the eaves.
"Da Mao, they poked my eyes out."
Blood was flowing out of the woman's eyes, and drops of blood were falling on the snow.
Like a flower.
Hou Mao didn't say anything.
He looked at the houses around him. The doors and windows of the neighbors were closed, as if what happened here had nothing to do with them.
Hou Mao asked, "Who did it?"
The woman sobbed and shook her head. "I don't know. The window paper was torn, and I heard the baby crying. When I crawled over to check, the baby didn't make a sound."
"I looked outside and there were several sticks poking in, and I couldn't see anything."
"Let's go find them!"
Hou Mao gritted his teeth.
When the woman heard this, she reached out to grab the corner of his clothes in panic, "Da Mao, don't go. We can't afford to offend you."
Her voice was tearful and revealed a deep sense of powerlessness. Her eyes, covered in blood, stared blankly in the direction of Hou Mao.
When Hou Mao saw the miserable appearance of the woman, he paused for a moment, but the hatred in his eyes grew stronger.
"I can't live like this anymore. I can't just let my child disappear like this without any explanation!"
Hou Mao shook off the woman's hand and strode towards the village entrance.
*
The wind whistled behind him, blowing up his tattered clothes like a flag of grief and anger.
Along the way, the snow crunched under his feet.
In the snow.
These are the bones left after burning livestock.
*
The ancestral hall was dead silent.
Hou Mao roared at the closed door.
"Where's the manager?!"
The sound startled several roosting crows, which fluttered off into the gray sky.
a long time.
A shivering old man poked his head out from the side door.
"Da Mao, this is a difficult matter... How can we find someone to reason with without any evidence?"
Hou Mao's eyes widened in anger and he grabbed the old man by the collar.
"evidence?"
"My wife is blind and her child is dead. Isn't that enough evidence?"
"You usually take care of the whole village, and now you hide away when something happens!"
The old man turned pale with fear and waved his hands repeatedly, "Don't worry, let's take a long-term view, a long-term view..."
Hou Mao pushed him away.
"I bother!"
*
Hou Mao returned home in a daze. The woman was still kneeling at the door. Snow had fallen all over her, making her look like a sculpture frozen in suffering.
"Let's bury the baby."
Hou Mao's voice was very hoarse, like the sound of an old bellows being pulled.
When the woman heard this, her body trembled violently, and she hugged the child even tighter, as if she wanted to pour her warmth into the child and bring him back to life.
"The baby is not dead, he just fell asleep."
The woman cried miserably, blood flowing down her cheeks and freezing into ice in the cold wind.
Seeing this, Hou Mao's eyes turned red. He reached out to pry the woman's hands apart, but those hands seemed to have taken root and held the child tightly.
"Oh my goodness!"
An aunt who came from nowhere passed by the door with a basket in her hand. When she saw the two people standing there, she was so scared that she fell into the snow.
Gululu...
The bread in the basket rolled out, leaving several round marks on the snow.
"Da Mao?"
"My wife was blinded."
"Where's the baby?"
"died."
The aunt frowned, reached out and picked up the oil towel covering the pancake and placed it in front of the woman.
"Wrap it for the baby."
Hou Mao covered the child with a white cloth with trembling hands. The woman stared at Hou Mao's movements with empty eyes.
*
Hou Mao dug a hole on the hillside.
Tiny.
But it's enough.
Hou Mao held the child in his arms, and the woman followed behind.
When the child was put into the tomb, the woman suddenly rushed over like crazy and wanted to jump into the pit. Fortunately, she was held back by her aunt beside her.
The aunt scolded: "You are not going to live——"
The woman sobbed.
Until the snow mixed with mud covered the doll, the woman reached out to touch it, but could not feel the child's body.
"The baby is dead!"
That's all she said.
My throat is damaged.
*
The room was as cold as an ice cellar.
The woman sat blankly on the edge of the bed like a wooden sculpture, her empty eyes staring straight ahead.
The blood and tears dried on his cheeks, it was a shocking sight.
Hou Mao found a broken hoe in the corner of the house, rubbed it repeatedly in his hand, and the thorns on the wooden handle pierced his rough palm.
*
Hou Mao banged on the door again and again like a madman, sending wood chips flying everywhere.
Soon, the village was dotted with lights.
Someone bravely came out to check, and when he saw it was Hou Mao, he looked frightened, but pretended to be calm.
"Da Mao, what are you doing? If you have something to say, please talk it over..."
"Speak well?"
Hou Mao's eyes were red as he turned and glared at everyone. "My wife went blind and my baby died, and you watched helplessly. Now you want me to swallow my anger?"
Everyone looked at each other in silence.
Hou Mao laughed out of anger, his laughter filled with bone-chilling sadness in the night. "Okay, if you don't tell me, I'll find it myself!"
He carried a hoe and searched from house to house, scaring everyone so much that they stayed indoors.
*
Hou Mao caught a child.
The child was so frightened that tears streamed down his face. He shook his head desperately, "It's not me, it's not me... It's... It's Dagui, the village chief. He drank too much with the officials from the county and said he wanted to have some fun..."
Clang.
Hou Maoru was struck by lightning, his hand loosened, and the hoe fell to the ground.
*
Pinghua 151st year.
spring.
Hou Mao did not win the lawsuit.
The county magistrate said that it was Hou Mao's dog that scratched the official's leg first.
Hou Mao has no dog.
The county magistrate said that there was an epidemic in the village and the whole village was burned down.
Hou Mao said nothing.
When he got home, he told the woman everything.
"Da Mao, forget it."
"..."
"Let's have another one, raise some chickens, feed them rice, and then we can boil eggs for the baby next year."
"..."
"Da Mao, take me to see the baby."
*
Pinghua 151st year.
spring.
Damao dug another hole on the hillside.
big.
enough.
The woman was skinny and had a hemp rope tied around her neck.
"baby."
"The baby is still here."
Hou Mao stood at the edge of the pit and did not move for a long time.
The wind blew gently, ruffling his hair and blowing up the dust on the ground, which slowly fell into the newly dug pit.
Falling on the woman's face.
*
Damao is gone.
The rumor in the village is that he cut his own throat, entered the palace, and is now a favorite of Empress Hua Jin.
“What a lucky life!”
"That's right. If you don't push yourself, you won't know how capable you are."
"When I first saw him with a hairy face, I thought he was a monster..."
"If you ask me, Dagui did nothing wrong. Maybe it's his wife who brought him bad luck!"
After listening to everyone's talk, the aunt quietly went to the hillside and buried the vegetarian cakes in her arms in the soil.
*
Heisei 151.
winter.
A plague broke out in Houzhuang.
More than 180 lives in the village were lost.
Damao walked in the snow.
In the snow were the charred flesh and broken bones left after the village was burned.
"You're lucky."
"Just stay here and guard my grave. Don't run around."
Damao stretched out his hand.
Snow chunks shake off.
One after another, black, hairy apes crawled out.
*
"Your Majesty, what do you mean?"
"Protect Huajin for me. If I die one day, you must not leave."
"What if I die too?"
"No."
"Your Majesty is so lucky."