Jincheng flower hour

"Where did Brother Dog go?"

In the afternoon, Zhuang Lan wanted to play with Quanzi, but found that Quanzi's house was closed and empty, and there was a sheep outside.

"I don't know. His sheep are outside and will come back when it gets dark."

Zhuli is peaceful, but it is not the case that the road does not pick up lost items. If the livestock are left outside and left unattended, they will be stolen.

"I still want to find him to play with us."

Zhuang Lan was carrying the fishing basket. She was wearing short-sleeved clothes today, and her lower skirt was rolled up to her calves, ready to play in the water.

"Alan, where to fish?"

A Ping rolled up his sleeves and looked at the river with timidity on his face.

"In the water grass."

Zhuang Lan stepped into the water and buried the fishing basket in shallow water.It is rare for the siblings to play together. In the past, Ah Ping either studied with his wife or stayed at home with omelets.

"Ah Ping, come down quickly, the water has just reached my place."

Zhuang Lan gestured, the water on the river bank covered Zhuang Lan's knees, and her lower garment was soaked in the water.

"Are there any snakes?"

A Ping is still hesitating, the aquatic plants are lush, and the water looks unsafe at all. There may be water snakes and leeches that can bite people.

"No, I'm afraid of death, Aping."

Zhuang Lan glanced at A Ping with disdain.

Only then did Aping use his hands and feet, and slowly climbed down the embankment to the shallow water area by the river. He put his feet in the water grass, resisting the discomfort of the grass leaves scratching his calf.

The river water is clear, and there are countless small fish and shrimps. A Ping bent over and grabbed carefully. His interest was aroused, and he had long forgotten what water snakes and leeches were.

As a little nerd, Ah Ping was not agile enough to catch fish and shrimp with his bare hands, so he picked up snails and clams instead.A Ping was playing by the river, and the omelette was barking on top of it. It wanted to get down, but was afraid of the water.

This little dog has a temperament like Aping, gentle and timid.

The two brothers and sisters are busy in their own way, Zhuang Lan burying fishing baskets, A Ping picks up snails, mussels, and omelets on the embankment, foolishly chasing a dragonfly.

On the other side of the river, Zhuang Yang stood in front of the wooden corridor on the second floor, watching his siblings playing by the river.Zhuang Lan and A Ping rarely play together, A Ping is cautious, Zhuang Lan follows him, Zhuang Yang is more at ease.

The door of Quanzi's house was closed, and there was no sign of him. I don't know where the mother and son went. Maybe they went to the Wu's shop for the market.Looking at the mother and son of the dog and son who lived by the river, Zhuang Yang sometimes thought of the scene when he and his mother arrived in Zhuli from Jinguan City.At that time, they had just buried Zhuang's father, and fled to Zhuli in panic and grief.

Three or five bandits stopped them halfway and demanded their belongings. The eldest brother Zhuang Bing hugged the two-year-old Zhuang Lan, and the mother hugged the three-year-old Aping. The mother and son shivered under the carriage.At that time, Zhuang Yang was seven years old and dressed most gorgeously. He was dragged out by the bandits, who stripped him of his clothes to find the hidden property.Zhuang Yang didn't cry, but stood blankly. He saw the shining swords in the hands of the gangsters, as well as the broken leather armor on their bodies, and the blood on the leather armor.

It was a cold winter, with the north wind howling, Zhuang Bing was beaten to the ground, bleeding from the corner of his mouth, and Zhuang Lan was crying beside him.The gangster picked up Zhuang's mother's chin and teased Zhuang's mother with good intentions. Zhuang's mother hugged A Ping tightly and cried until her face turned pale.Zhuang Yang was stripped to only one coat, his eyes were cold on the dagger at the bandit leader's waist, he shivered from the cold, his snow-white skin turned red from the cold.

If my uncle hadn't led a group of servants to rush here with sickles and hoes, we still don't know what would happen, if we don't know, their mother and child would have survived.

That was the most difficult time for their family, but fortunately, there was an uncle who could rely on them.

Over the years, the elder brother Zhuang Bing has grown up and started a business with his uncle to earn money. Zhuang Yang stayed at home and his duty was to take care of his younger siblings and mother.

Looking at the younger siblings happily playing by the river, Zhuang Yang leaned half of his body comfortably on the wooden railing.His eyes moved from the riverside to the yard, where the bamboo shoots were making trouble in the yard, biting Ah Yi's coarse cloth lapel, and Ah Yi made a gesture to hit it, but it was not afraid, and would not let it go.

"I stewed you tonight."

Daqing's daughter-in-law, Ahe, picked up the bamboo shoots. She held a kitchen knife in her hand and looked vicious. The bamboo shoots hung obediently on Ahe's arms, as if she could understand human speech and dared not do anything wrong.

"Come on, put it in a cage."

Ah Yi brought a big bamboo basket, which is the basket for dead leaves and branches in the yard.

"Stay here obediently."

A'He put the bamboo shoots in the bamboo basket and patted the heads of the bamboo shoots.

This tapir cub loves to mess around, but he's also very cute.

As soon as A Yi and A He left, the bamboo shoots grabbed the bamboo basket, overturned it to the ground, and ran to the kitchen with their round buttocks.Zhuang Yang watched from upstairs, smiling slightly.Under the disturbance of bamboo shoots, the dinner in the kitchen does not know when it will be ready.

Zhuang Yang went downstairs, took out bamboo shoots from the kitchen, and held them in his arms.Then, one person and one tapir walked towards the river.

There were two more children on the other side of the river, who looked like children from Zhang's family. Zhuang Lan and A Ping were not by the river at this time, but were standing with these two children in the bean field of Quanzi, and they didn't know what they were doing.

Before crossing the wooden bridge, he heard the voices of children arguing. Zhuang Yang crossed the wooden bridge, put the bamboo shoots on the ground, and walked towards the bean field.

Zhuang Yang went over and saw A Ti pushing A Ping, A Ping clumsily took two steps back, not far away, Zhuang Lan and A Ji fought into a ball.

"stop."

Zhuang Yang pulled Zhuang Lan and A Ji away, and the poor A Ji was ridden by Zhuang Lan, rubbing the dirt all over his body.

"How to fight?"

Zhuang Yang pulled Zhuang Lan up and wiped the dirt off Zhuang Lan's face.A Ji, who was one year younger than Zhuang Lan, was lying on the ground crying.Zhuang Yang helped Aji up and confirmed that he was not injured.

"Brother, they pulled out Brother Quanzi's bamboo sticks, and beat me and Aping with clods of dirt."

Zhuang Lan pointed to a bamboo frame that fell on the ground. Her body was stained with mud, and her tied bun was loose.

"Ah Ti, why did you tear down the bamboo frame of other people's house?"

"I'll pull it out as soon as I pull it out. I want you to mind your own business."

Ati was barefoot, with a pair of straw sandals hanging around his waist. This was a fighting posture, but Ah Ping was cowardly and failed to fight.

"When Brother Quanzi comes back, tell him to shoot your ass."

Zhuang Lan patted the dirt on her body, with her hands on her hips, looking fierce.

"Ping, you take Alan back."

Zhuang Yang knew that Zhuang Lan had only fought with Zhang's brothers a few days ago. Although Zhang's family was vicious, his family's Alan was also a fearless girl, so he didn't make sense.

A Ping took Zhuang Lan away. Zhuang Lan had always listened to her elder brother's words, so she could only leave unwillingly.

The neighbor's son, if his parents don't educate him, how can he, a neighbor, be able to teach him.Zhuang Yang ignored the Zhang family brothers. He squatted down to lift up the bamboo frame, picked up the limp bean vines on the ground, and wrapped them around the bamboo frame again.

Seeing Zhuang Yang help up the bamboo frame silently, Zhang Ti took his younger brother Ah Ji and left in despair.Zhuang Yang is gentle. The children in Zhuli shouldn't be afraid of him, but the adults in Zhuli respect Erlang, the big man of the dealer. If Erlang goes to complain to their parents, obviously they will be punished.

At night, the Zhuang family was sitting together for dinner. Zhuang Yang was talking to his mother about the tenants in Luo Township when he heard the sound of a carriage outside the door.Zhuang Lan quickly put down her chopsticks and ran towards the courtyard, and A Ping followed.

There are only two families with cars in Zhuli, the Zhuang family and the uncle Zhang's family. Hearing the sound of the shaft of the car, they are not going to the uncle's house.

"It's Brother Dog."

With sharp eyes, Zhuang Lan recognized it immediately.

"Brother Dog, your sheep is at our house."

Zhuang Lan ran over and yelled loudly.

Fearing that the sheep would be stolen in the dark, Zhuang Lan and A Ping led the sheep to their yard.

"Ping, come and see, there is a little pig!"

Quanzi got out of the car with the piggy in his arms, and Zhuang Lan watched curiously.

The dealer did not raise pigs, but cattle, chickens and ducks.

Standing in the yard, Zhuang Yang saw Gouzi and his mother getting off the bullock cart, this was something new, ordinary farms don't have bullock carts.

"Yang'er, who are these people?"

Zhuang's mother heard the noise outside and came out to check.She is not in good health, and she usually doesn't leave the gate, and she doesn't know many neighbors in Zhuli.

"Mum, that's the mother and son who live on the other side."

"Oh, you call Lan'er and Ping'er back for dinner."

Mother Zhuang was not interested, so she turned and went back to the house.

Only then did Zhuang Yang step forward, when the ox cart had already left, and the dog, son, mother and son were standing by the river, with a big bag of things and a little pig beside them.

The little pig was held by Zhuang Lan, and the dog squatted down and was trying to carry the big bag of things, looking very strenuous.

"It should be very heavy, let me help you."

Zhuang Yang wanted to join hands, but he didn't want Quanzi to say, "No need."

Gritting his teeth, Gouzi carried the sack on his back, and walked with his body bent, staggering. Zhuang Yang was terrified, he held the sack behind him, and accompanied Gouzi across the bridge.

"Gouzi, is this the dealer Erlang?"

Arriving at the door of the house, Mother Liu asked her son.

"Ah."

"You have to thank him."

In the dark, Mother Liu couldn't see Zhuang Yang's appearance clearly, he seemed to be a boy.

"Thank you Jiro."

Quanzi obeyed his mother's words and bowed to Zhuang Yang.

"No need, Gouzi, you will come over to fetch the sheep later."

Zhuang Yang said with a smile, he was quite surprised that Gouzi would also thank and salute.

"Alan, Aping, come back to dinner with me."

"Brother, can we also buy a pig?"

Zhuang Lan reluctantly lets go of the piggy and clings to Zhuang Yang.

Zhuang Yang led them across the bridge holding each other, without lights in his hands, and crossed the river with limited moonlight.

The dealer's children returned to the house for dinner, and the dog came to the door immediately to lead the sheep.Zhuang's mother looked at Quanzi and found that he was wearing Zhuang Yang's old clothes, but she didn't say anything.

After the dog led the sheep away, Zhuang's mother said: "It looks older than Pinger, how old is he?" Zhuang Yang replied: "I haven't asked, maybe he is about the same age as Aping."

"It's also strange, how could orphans and widows move to live in Zhuli?"

No wonder Zhuang's mother was puzzled, after all, this is a rare thing.

Gouzi, mother and son returned home and locked the piglet in the firewood.The house they lived in didn't have a pigsty, so they had to build one.

Going back to the house to lie down in the dark, Quan Zi pondered how to raise the little pig.

There is still not enough rice grain for people in the family, and there is no surplus for pigs.Thinking back to the poor people in Fengli raising pigs, they always put the pigs on the mountain and drove them back to the pigsty at night.Of course, it doesn't need to be fed at all, boil some wild vegetables, bean dregs and the like in the rice washing water, and feed it after closing the circle.

In this way, every day he has to drive pigs into the forest, herd sheep, collect fish from fishing baskets, water bean fields, collect mushrooms, dig bamboo shoots, beat pig vegetables, etc., Quanzi thinks he can do it alone.When he first came to Zhuli, there were only mats, quilts, an iron pot, two bowls, and a little rice that he and his mother had carried.No, now the family has sheep and pigs, as well as fields and food.

Thinking about the family property and future life, Quanzi fell into a sweet dreamland.