Life

7.

Zhao Jiu walked through the woods and met the group of children in the village again.

They called him, wanting to pull Zhao Jiu to play ghost catcher game with him.

Zhao Jiu was thinking about the past, he grinned and asked, "Who is the ghost?"

It was the boy who looked like a bamboo pole who answered him first: "Of course it's you! You haven't caught anyone yet!"

A little disappointed in his heart, Zhao Jiu still smiled and waved to them, "No, I have something to do."

After speaking, he carried the basket on his back, walked through the village, and walked further away.

His home is also an hour and a half away from the nearest town, and the man in the family still lacks medicinal herbs for his wounds, so he can only go to the pharmacy in the city to buy them, and exchange the medicinal herbs he picked today for some silver taels.

"boss."

Zhao Jiu found the medicine shop he often went to, and poured the medicinal materials he picked today on the table.

The owner of this pharmacy is not tall, chubby, and has a very kind smile. Zhao Jiu sells medicinal materials to this owner every time, and the two are old acquaintances.

"Here we go again." The boss stopped his calculations, picked up the herbs on the table and looked at them, "Not bad, not bad, they're all fresh."

The boss called the workers to separate the herbs to dry, while he turned around and took some silver taels from the cabinet, which he was about to hand over to Zhao Jiu.

"Not so much." Zhao Jiu pointed to the neat rows of medicine cabinets behind the boss, "I want to buy some bletilla striata."

Only then did the boss understand, he weighed a few taels of bletilla striata for Zhao Jiu and wrapped them, and took out a few copper plates from the silver taels just now.

"Take it well." The boss handed the medicine package and money to Zhao Jiu, and told him with a smile.

Zhao Jiu reacted a little slower and nodded to the boss, then turned and left.

When he was about to leave the city gate, Zhao Jiu smelled the fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus floating in the air.

He stopped in his tracks, and his eyes fell on the small stall selling sweet-scented osmanthus.

8.

Zhao Jiu was chewing a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus candy, it was sweet and not sticky to the teeth, and there was a fragrant scent of sweet-scented osmanthus in his mouth.

His cheeks moved, his eyes didn't know where to look, and he didn't come back to his senses until the peddler yelled a few times.

"Hey, hey, the sugar bag is ready, let's go."

Zhao Jiu just took the paper bag and counted a few copper coins.

He didn't go out of the city gate directly, but walked to the bulletin board full of people.

Standing outside the circle of people, he vaguely heard some people discussing such words as "government" and "killing".

He was not tall enough, and he couldn't see what was written on the bulletin board even on tiptoe, so he squeezed in, and the people who were squeezed out complained.

He saw a portrait of a man with very familiar features.

The man in the painting is good-looking, but his sharp eyes are full of hostility.

Zhao Jiu was not very literate, he could only read the two big characters written on the top: Wanted.

It was almost noon, and Zhao Jiu returned home with an empty basket on his back.

Before entering the door, he saw Jiang Yuan leaning against the door with a weed in his mouth, kicking the wall with his knees bent in boredom.

"What did you buy?"

He saw the paper bag in Zhao Jiu's hand sharply, and asked all the way.

"Bletilla striata."

Zhao Jiu put down the empty basket, took the medicine bag and went to the stove to make a fire to decoct the medicine, and the remaining filtered medicine dregs were ground into finer pieces for external application.

Jiang Yuan sat at the table and waited for him. After a while, Zhao Jiu brought a bowl of stinking black concoction and a bowl of crushed herbs.

"Drink the medicine after taking the medicine."

Zhao Jiu's words were concise, he only explained a few words, and waited for Jiang Yuan to take off his coat.

Jiang Yuan rolled his eyes, and wanted to tease him again without changing his nature, but changed his mind for some reason, obediently took off his coat.

Most of the wounds on his body were almost scabbed over, and now he felt itchy when he touched it, and he couldn't scratch it even if he wanted to scratch it.

After giving him the medicine, Jiang Yuan glanced at the burn on Zhao Jiu's right hand, and said casually, "There's more medicine, you apply it to your hand."

Zhao Jiu was taken aback for a moment, raised his hand to look at the back of his hand that had been blistered a few days ago, then looked at Jiang Yuan, and then nodded to him.

When Zhao Jiu carefully bandaged his right hand, he found that Jiang Yuan was still looking at him.

"It's cold, you drink medicine."

"Yeah." Jiang Yuan picked up the bowl of dark concoction and downed it in one gulp without even frowning.

With a sound of "铛", the empty bowl shook on the table for a few times before it settled down. Jiang Yuan couldn't wait to pick up the teacup beside him, and started pouring water to rinse his mouth.

He poured a large glass of water into his stomach, and the moment he put down the glass, a scent of sweet-scented osmanthus filled his nose.

"Sugar, sweet."

Jiang Yuan paused, exchanged a glance with Zhao Jiu, and then took the small piece of sweet-scented osmanthus candy.

In the mouth, the scent of sweet-scented osmanthus overflows, and the strange herbal smell between the lips and teeth is immediately diluted.

Still the same sweetness, Jiang Yuan chewed the candy, thinking in his heart.

9.

The sweet taste in his mouth didn't dissipate immediately, which reminded Jiang Yuan of his childhood.

At that time Jiang Yuan was still a dwarf, he had to stand on tiptoes to reach his mother's waist, he always hugged his mother's waist and acted like a spoiled child, clamoring to eat the sweet-scented osmanthus sweets sold at the street stall.

Mother is a very simple woman, her hands covered with calluses from hard work touched Xiao Jiang Yuan's head, and she agreed with him with narrowed eyes and a smile.

At that time, in Xiao Jiangyuan's life, apart from his mother, it was the sweet but not greasy sweet-scented osmanthus candy. He didn't have a father, so it didn't matter, as long as his mother was still there.

But one day, everything changed.

That day, little Jiang Yuan was sitting in his yard, looking at the door from time to time, waiting for his mother to come back. The sky was getting darker and darker, and his mother who came home on time still hadn't returned.

Little Jiang Yuan began to worry, he went out to look for it, and within a few steps, he saw his mother lying at the entrance of the alley.

His heart tightened, and tears blurred his eyes.

Helping mother up, she saw that her hair was messy, and the corners of her eyes and mouth were bruised from being raped.

The small body couldn't bear the weight of an adult at all, and when the two of them entered the room, the mother woke up faintly.

"Yuan Yuan." The mother smiled at him, showing no trace of discomfort or exhaustion. She squinted her eyes and asked Xiao Jiang Yuan, "Why is Yuan Yuan crying? Who bullied you? "

Little Jiang Yuan couldn't help crying again, his mother hugged him into her arms and patted his back.

Little Jiang Yuan didn't know why his mother fell at the entrance of the alley, and he didn't know who hit her face. The incident that day was like a small episode, which was quickly forgotten by him.

But God just didn't let him have a good time.

Little Jiang Yuan came home from playing outside, the sun had already set, he thought that he would be able to eat the meals his mother made when he returned home.

He pushed open the courtyard door, but he didn't see his mother's figure.

There was a noise in the room, and Xiao Jiang Yuan was about to go in to call his mother, but peeked through the crack of the door into a nightmare that he would never forget in his life.

His mother's body was pressed under a man. The man smiled obscenely, and rushed at his mother's body rudely, with obscene words in his mouth.

The mother's expression was filled with pain, and there were still wet tears in the corners of her eyes. She clutched the quilt tightly with her ten fingers, her body was shaking, and she couldn't stop begging: "Please let us go! Please!"'

The man turned a deaf ear, grabbed his mother's hair and forced her to turn her back, and slammed into her body again with a rearward posture, his expression excited and disgusted.

"Let you go? When will I feel sorry for you? Don't forget that Jiang Yuan is my son."

Xiao Jiangyuan was stunned, and kicked open the door the next second.

Seeing him, his mother became flustered, pulled the quilt to cover herself, and shook her head at Xiao Jiang Yuan, "Yuan Yuan! Get out!"

Little Jiang Yuan didn't listen, picked up a red brick by the door and rushed over.

The man was startled, but he took the brick easily, and threw it towards Xiao Jiang Yuan's waist with his backhand.

The red brick was split in half, and Xiao Jiang Yuan also fell to the ground, with a splotch of blood oozing from his waist, but his eyes were full of resentment and malice.

"what are you doing!"

Everything happened so quickly, his mother finally realized it, pushed the man away, staggered to the ground, and wrapped Xiao Jiang Yuan up.

Seeing this, the man spat on the ground, "What a bad mood."

So she put on her clothes rustlingly, turned and left without looking back.