Rebirth in a Book: The Road to Breakthrough

Yu Congcong ran home quickly, panting, and knocked on the door.

Xiaocao walked out of the room quickly: "Congcong, what's wrong?"

"Grandma." Yu Congcong called out breathlessly.

"Grandpa clan leader...looking for...looking for dad," Yu Congcong said anxiously.

"What's the matter?" Xiaocao asked.

"Not sure." Yu Congcong replied.

"So what were you doing just now?"

Yu Congcong recounted in detail what he had just seen.

"Just wait at home and I'll go find her."

"Grandma, I want to go with you." The village is lush and green, and there are still many places she hasn't visited. She needs to quickly understand the situation in the village.

Xiaocao looked at Yucongcong and said, "Let's go together!" Xiaocao led Yucongcong along a path behind the house, through the woods and to the west side of the hillside behind the house. It seemed that no one had walked here. Xiaocao led Yucongcong to find the way, and after walking about 500 meters, they saw the house hidden in the mountain wall.

Xiao Cao walked to the front of the house and knocked three times long and two times short in a rhythmic pattern. After a minute, the door opened and the adoptive father came out and asked, "Mom, what's wrong?"

"Honghua is about to die. Chief Fu is looking for you."

After hearing Xiaocao's answer, the adoptive father's expression turned ugly and he said, "Mom, wait a moment, I'll talk to the master." The adoptive father went in for two or three minutes and came out.

The adoptive father walked over to Yu Congcong and picked her up. Yu Congcong struggled a little embarrassedly.

My adoptive father looked at me and said, "Dad will hold you, walk faster." After hearing that, I gave up struggling, put my arms around my father's neck, and lay on his shoulders.

I still feel embarrassed because Yu Congcong's mental age is older than his adoptive father.

During the time we were here, my adoptive father would hug me and throw me up high from time to time, which made me extremely embarrassed every time. Then he led us to another path. Instead of taking the path we came from, we crossed the hillside and went around the back of the house. The road here was bumpy and difficult to walk on. We passed through a vegetable field and finally arrived at Huang Mazi's house.

When they arrived, many people were already there, including Tiezhu's uncles and a tall man with scars on his face, who looked much younger than the clan leader.

I guess he is my fourth uncle.

Maybe he has done too many bad things, so he looks fierce no matter how you look at him.

Behind the fourth uncle stood five or six people who looked similar to him, all with fierce faces. The two parties stood on each side, forming an opposition. The door of Huang Mazi's house was already open. Huang Mazi stood behind the fourth uncle. Gang Zibo wanted to beat him, but was held back by the clan leader grandfather.

My adoptive father put me down, walked to Honghua, climbed down and took a look. He pressed the wound, hoping to stop the bleeding. Honghua woke up. I don't know if she woke up because of the pain or because of the last moments of life as described by traditional Chinese medicine.

Honghua looked at Yu Dazhuang and said with a weak breath: "It's useless. I don't want to live. I'm too tired." Using the last bit of strength, she patted the haystack under her. She closed her eyes after seeing her adoptive father nod.

He Miao screamed at Honghua, hoping she would open her eyes. He didn't believe that Honghua was dead.

The adoptive father closed his eyes, his face looking very ugly, as if he was suppressing his anger and helplessness.

Death is very common in Lihua Village, especially in the east where Fourth Uncle and his group live. The women they bought were treated as livestock. They were bought at the age of twelve or thirteen, lived in the pigsty at night, and worked during the day. They started giving birth at the age of fifteen or sixteen. Giving birth here depends on whether God gives you a chance to survive. Many die of dystocia. After giving birth, you can live longer. The end of life may be the birth of the second child, or the third. Some die of hunger or fatigue. Being beaten to death like Honghua is not allowed. More than ten years ago, there was a beating to death incident, which caused a fire and caused too many casualties. Fourth Uncle and his family and the Fu family agreed that people should not be beaten to death, and those who did so would be driven out of the village.

The news of Honghua's death was like a sudden opening of the floodgates. The already tense atmosphere between the two sides became even more tense. On one side, their faces were full of anger, their eyes were filled with undisguised hostility, they tightly grasped their weapons, as if ready to fight a life-and-death battle at any time; while on the other side, they were on high alert, their bodies tense, every subtle movement revealed a high degree of vigilance, and their faces were cold and firm, as if telling the other side that they would never back down.

Fu Youtian came out and said, "Fourth Uncle, does our agreement still count?"

Fourth uncle said with a sly smile, "It counts, of course it doesn't count. You just arrived and you don't know the situation yet."

Fu Youtian's eyes widened with anger, and he said sternly, "What are you going to do with Huang Mazi?"

Fourth Uncle's voice also turned cold, and he said gloomily, "Let Ma Zi pay some money."

Fu Youtian stamped his feet and roared, "No! Who should we pay this money to? Huang Mazi must be driven out of the village! People like him will be a disaster if they stay in the village!"

Fourth Uncle's face darkened, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes, and he sneered, "Humph, old man, don't refuse a toast and drink a forfeit! Ma Zi is my man, it's not your turn to give orders!"

Fu Youtian was so angry that his chest kept rising and falling. He pointed at his uncle's nose and cursed, "You scoundrel! You want to go back on your promise? Our village cannot tolerate murderers like this!"

When Fourth Uncle heard this, his face turned ferocious and he said viciously: "Don't use the agreement to pressure me! I tell you, this matter is over as long as you pay the money, don't even think about anything else." After that, he pulled out a box from his waist and fired a shot into the air.

"Bang", the loud bang of the gunshot broke the originally tense atmosphere and made everyone present gasp in shock.

Fu Youtian's eyes widened even further, and his anger seemed to have reached its peak, but he was not intimidated by his fourth uncle's threat.

He straightened up and said in a louder voice: "Do you think you can do whatever you want with a gun? Our agreement was made by all of us together. You can't go back on it just because you want to!"

The corners of Fourth Uncle's mouth twitched slightly, and his eyes were full of disdain.

"Hmph, you bunch of old guys don't understand the rules of this world at all!" Fourth Uncle said loudly with disdain.

At this time, the villagers also gathered around, their faces filled with anger and dissatisfaction.

"Fourth Uncle, you can't do this!"

"Huang Mazi killed someone, how can we just let him go like this!"

……

Facing everyone's accusations, Fourth Uncle's face became increasingly ugly, but he still held the gun tightly in his hand, refusing to show weakness.

Fu Youtian looked at the situation in front of him and felt helpless.

He knew that this dispute might not be resolved so easily...

At this time, Yu Dazhuang stood up and said, "We solved the problem by confronting each other like this." After that, he walked into Huang Mazi's room. When he came out again, he held a long bench in each hand and placed one in front of the clan leader and the fourth uncle. After that, he said, "Sit down and talk slowly."

Fu Youtian sat down first, and then his fourth uncle sat down.

The clan leader adjusted his mood and said, "When you first came to the village, we agreed that we would each take care of our own business. But you are not allowed to kill anyone. Do you agree to this rule?"

Fourth Uncle said disapprovingly: "I admit this, but I didn't say that accidentally killing someone while drunk would count."

The clan leader's mood did not change, and he continued, "Later, we jointly made a rule that we cannot beat people to death. What do you think of this?"

Fourth Uncle still said, "It doesn't count if someone accidentally kills someone while drunk."

Fu Youtian was so angry that he fell backwards. "It is a fact that he killed someone. He cannot be let off and must be severely punished. If we let him go, the village can still be safe. Let's all drink some wine, and then go and kill him, and say it was an accident. Who would dare to sleep after this? Fourth uncle, you dare. As long as your fourth uncle says he dares, today's incident with Huang Mazi will be treated as if it never happened." After hearing what the clan leader said, all the members of the Fu family showed excitement and seemed eager to try.

Yu Congcong saw that everyone's attention was focused here, and no one paid attention to Honghua's body. I slowly left the yard and ran towards the pigpen, looking extremely nervous, and didn't notice that Tiezhu was following quietly behind me.

When he came to Honghua's body, Yu Congcong knelt down and bowed tremblingly, and began to dig at Honghua's body. Under Honghua's buttocks, Yu Congcong was surprised to find a huge leaf with many neatly arranged small holes on it, which looked like handwriting when connected together.

"What is this?" Suddenly, a scream came from behind Yu Congcong, scaring me so much that I trembled like a sieve.

Yu Congcong turned around in fear and saw that it was Tiezhu! "When did you follow me?" Yu Congcong was so scared that she completely forgot to hide the fact that she could speak.

"I've been following you. What is this?" Tiezhu pointed at the leaf in Yu Congcong's hand and asked in a low voice.

"The leaves are beautiful." Yu Congcong pretended to be calm and perfunctory. Tiezhu could tell at a glance that Yu Congcong didn't want to tell the truth, so he didn't ask any more questions. He put the leaves in his pocket, walked out of the pigsty, and went to the front yard.

In the front yard, there was no tense atmosphere. Seeing the regretful expressions of the Fu family, Yu Congcong came to Xiaocao. Xiaocao found a bench and sat down after Yu Congcong was away for a while. There was an old woman sitting next to her. Grandma Xiaocao held Yu Congcong on her lap. Yu Congcong was eight years old, and her grandmother and adoptive father always liked to hold her. She was helpless and always wanted to pick her toes out of embarrassment. Xiaocao pointed at the old woman and said, "This is Grandma Fu, the third grandmother of Tiezhu."

The old woman smiled at me and said, "Yaya, you look just like Yunniang, as beautiful as her mother." I couldn't help but blush when I heard this, and lowered my head slightly, showing a shy smile to the old woman. Grandma looked at me from the side, with a loving smile on her face. She gently stroked my hair and said softly, "This child really looks like her mother." Grandma Fu looked at me, with a hint of kindness and love in her eyes, and then said, "Yes, what a beautiful child. She will definitely have a bright future." I lowered my head a little embarrassedly, but I felt warm in my heart.