beginning of autumn

Dad filled the stove with a lot of slime, and the temperature in the house became even lower.Li Qiu curled up under the quilt, hugging the blue and white hat tightly in his arms, warm and fluffy, accompanied by a feeling of being surrounded by happiness, and gradually fell asleep.He felt that he had walked into a forest, the surroundings were quiet, the ground was still covered with a thick layer of snow, and the whole world seemed to have turned into black and white.A crow croaked and flew past the head, and from somewhere there was a burst of crying intermittently.Li Qiu looked around, and saw a little girl in white clothes standing not far away, crying by a dry well.Li Qiu walked over and asked her what happened. The little girl said that her favorite toy was thrown into the well.Li Qiu looked into the well, but there was nothing in the dark.Suddenly, a pair of bloody hands stretched out from the well and grabbed his arm tightly, unable to get rid of it no matter what.Li Qiu suddenly woke up from the dream, his heart was still beating wildly, he hugged his hat tightly in his arms, and had no sleep all night.

After school at noon, when Liqiu entered the house with his schoolbag on his back, he saw two policemen in uniform sitting inside the room, one of them was an elderly man who was still holding his pair of broken sneakers, comparing them with something .Seeing him coming back from school, he asked coldly, "Are these shoes yours?" Li Qiu nodded. "Then tell me, a few days ago, have you been to the forest below the northern slope of Yanziling?" Li Qiu didn't know if he had done something wrong, but he stayed there frightened, his tongue seemed to be tied , There was no answer for a long time.Dad knew that he was timid by nature, so when he saw him like this, he hugged him with a busy smile and said, "Qiu'er, don't be afraid, uncles are investigating a case, so tell the truth about what you know." Only then did Li Qiu think carefully. Thinking about it, I told the two policemen exactly what happened to pick up the hat that day.It turned out that the daughter of Lao Lin's family in Taoshuwan Village was lost in this area a few days ago. When the police were investigating in this area, they accidentally saw the footprints left by Li Qiu in the forest. A female corpse was the girl they were looking for.After the police left, Liqiu cried and asked his father: "When I went there, I didn't know that someone died there. The dumb uncle won't be arrested by the police because of me, right?" Dad smiled and comforted him and said, "The mute is an honest man. How could he do such a thing? He just happened to pass by, and the police uncle won't arrest people randomly." Hearing what his father said, Li Qiu was relieved.

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Li Qiu had just had breakfast and was washing the pots and bowls on the stove when suddenly there was a shrill siren from outside, not knowing what happened in the village.Dad was in a hurry to go to the town to do some errands. He had just changed his clothes when he heard someone slamming on the door of their house. He picked up one of them, his hair was messed up like a tuft of grass, and he grabbed Liqiu's father's neckline with both hands, crying and cursing heartbreakingly: "Qiu Jianguo, you kidnapper, it's all because of your father's good deeds. Give back my son, give me back my son." Li Qiu's father was shocked when he heard this, knowing that something must have happened to the mute, so he stayed there motionless, his clothes were torn into a mess, and his face was scratched with bloodstains .Aunt Feng was still crying and cursing unscrupulously: "My parents were killed by you at a young age, and my daughter-in-law was taken away by the king of Hades early, you bastard, don't you think you have suffered enough retribution?" ? Now my son has been arrested by the police, if something happens to my son, my wife will fight with your family!"

Li Qiu ran out of the house in a hurry, seeing the situation in the yard, he held Aunt Feng's hand and begged crying, "Grandma, please, let my father go." When Aunt Feng saw it was him, she became angry. Without going anywhere, he spat at Liqiu: "You little bastard, get out of here as soon as possible! You messed with me, see if I don't kill you today." Liqiu's stepmother came out of the house upon hearing the sound, He sneered at Aunt Feng and said, "Auntie, you must be too angry. I have never seen someone bullying someone at the door of a master when I grow up so big. It seems that you mentioned the word retribution just now. That man didn't Is it retribution if you die at the age of 30? Is it retribution if you give birth to a son in his teens who can’t speak well?” After hearing this, Aunt Feng was at a loss for words, her facial features were distorted with anger, she gritted her teeth There was a rattling sound, and he stretched his arms to grab Liqiu's stepmother.The stepmother didn't show weakness, she ran forward and grabbed Aunt Feng's hair, and the two of them yelled and tore each other.Aunt Feng was getting old, and within a few rounds, she pushed her down and rode under her. There were a few blood marks on her face, her nose was also bloodied, her clothes were open, and more than N patches were patched on her crumpled ones. The underwear was exposed, and it seemed that he had suffered a lot.Liqiu's stepmother saw that she had no strength to fight back, so she got up and spat at her and said, "You old bastard, I will let you go. If your mute is a good one, why should the police arrest him? That brat can convict him with a single sentence, and the ghosts don't believe it. It's spread all over the world, but you are still pretending to be confused. Back, the one who received a thousand knives was afraid of being sued at the police station, so he simply strangled him and threw him into the well. He lacked great virtue. If I were you, I wouldn't put it here as if I was afraid that others would not know it. He hanged himself secretly with a rope, so as not to be drowned with spittle in the future." After hearing this, Aunt Feng sat on the ground and cried loudly: "My son was wronged, it was because those people bullied him that he couldn't speak. Convicted. My son, it’s all because of my mother’s incompetence, and my mother just hit her head to death. In the future, our mother and I will be companions in the underworld.” After finishing speaking, he made the appearance of hitting the wall, and there were a few people watching The people hurriedly stopped her firmly.

Liqiu's stepmother saw that the incident was over, so she grabbed Xiao Liqiu who was weeping next to her, and slapped her mouth ten or twenty times until the corner of her mouth was bleeding. Come and stop.Li Qiu was so frightened that his face turned pale and his thin body trembled, but he didn't dare to cry out.Aunt Feng was stunned by the brutality of the stepmother just now, and completely stopped crying.The stepmother pointed at Li Qiu and scolded viciously: "I made a little bastard talk cheap, and if I dare to talk nonsense and make trouble outside in the future, I won't tear your mouth apart." It's too much.The stepmother didn't pay attention at all, and pulled Li Qiu's hair and asked: "Your mother is not good at eating, but you have learned the skill of stealing food. I don't know. I thought I abused you. Did you steal it a few days ago?" Burning small rice buns? Who is it for? Tell me!" While cursing, he pinched Li Qiu fiercely.Li Qiu shook his head, tears streaming down his face.The stepmother sneered and said: "There are only four people in the family. Could it be that other thieves have been recruited? I have learned a lot of rules from the young master these days. Why don't you go out and do some small work to subsidize the family as soon as possible, which can be regarded as a serious business. Now get the hell out of the house, reading this book is useless." Dad was about to say something when his stepmother scolded him: "You useless guy, you look like a man up and down. I can't slap you to death if you talk too much!" The man stood aside and said nothing.Aunt Feng knew that nothing was gained from this battle, so she could only leave the yard crying at the top of her voice, and the people around her also slowly dispersed.

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The small town gradually has the atmosphere of the New Year, and the spacious streets are crowded with people coming and going.Li Qiu followed his father out of a barber shop. He had just had his hair cut, and his small face looked more and more delicate.He buried his head and hurriedly walked behind his father, everything around him seemed to have nothing to do with him.

Suddenly someone patted his shoulder, and when he looked back, it was Yunfei standing behind him, who hadn't seen him for many days, still so handsome and sunny. "Brother Yun?" Li Qiu saw that it was Yun Fei, and a long-lost smile appeared on his face: "Don't you go to school in the city? Why are you here?"

"I'm on vacation, I just got off the car." Yunfei looked at Li Qiu carefully, frowned and said, "I haven't seen you for more than a month, and I seem to have lost a lot of weight." Li Qiu smiled and said, "Why, he originally Just thin. Hey, where’s Uncle Qiu?” Yunfei shook his head and said, “It’s the end of the year, and my father is very busy with work, so I’ll buy the ticket and come back by bus.”

Liqiu's father looked back and saw that Yunfei had come back, so he hurriedly greeted him.Yunfei smiled and said: "Hello, Uncle Chen, I just talked to Liqiu and didn't see you." Liqiu's father smiled and said: "It's okay, you two haven't seen each other for a long time, let's chat first, I I'll wait for you at the entrance of the town." After speaking, he squeezed to the front and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Yunfei pulled Liqiu to a place with few people, took out a delicate pen from his arms and put it in Liqiu's hand, and asked softly: "Is it beautiful?" Liqiu nodded.Yunfei said: "A few days ago I represented the school in the composition competition in the city and won the first prize. This is a prize given to me by the school. Since you like it, I will give it to you." Li Qiu shook his head hurriedly and returned the pen to him. Yunfei.Yunfei asked a little puzzled: "Okay, what's the matter? We haven't seen each other for a month, but I've grown apart a lot." Li Qiu said with a faint smile: "Brother Yun, I don't go to school anymore. How can you use such a good pen? I'd better keep it for myself, I'll ruin it here." After hearing this, Yun Fei stood there blankly, without saying a word for a long time.Liqiu knew that Yunfei was sad for him again, so he pushed him and said in a low voice, "Brother Yun, don't feel sorry for me, it will be a matter of time before my family won't let me study, even if I'm still in school, when I go to middle school I won't let me go either." Yunfei glanced at him and sighed, "It's okay, I just think it's a pity that you don't go to school. You'd better take this pen, it will be useful in the future." Li Qiu couldn't refuse , had no choice but to accept it.

Throughout the winter vacation, the two brothers played together whenever they had time.Yunfei has a 14-inch black-and-white TV at home, and sometimes they watch it too late, so they rest in the small west room, and the stepmother doesn't embarrass Liqiu because of this.There was no fire there, so Yunfei's mother would make an extra quilt for them, and the two of them wore autumn clothes and got under the thick quilt without feeling too cold.Yunfei knew that Liqiu was timid, sometimes he would tell some ghost stories to amuse him, and Liqiu was so frightened that he always covered his ears and burrowed into the bed.Although the weather is cold, Liqiu's heart is always warm. This period of time should be the best time he has spent in more than 20 years.

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In a blink of an eye, it was early summer, and Li Qiu was busy with the farm work at home, so he followed Uncle Fu's son Zhijun to do small labor in other places.Liqiu was young, so he could only do some work of carrying mud bags and moving bricks below. Because he was exposed to the sun all day long, his skin was much darker than before.At night, I huddled with a group of uncles and uncles, snoring with smoke and sweat, coupled with mosquito bites, I couldn't sleep at all.The conditions are very harsh. Three or four people cover a quilt together. Sometimes when they are bored, they like to huddle together and listen to dirty jokes, and sometimes they snore all over the place.In the middle of the night, the quilt on Liqiu's body was often rolled up by others, and catching a cold became commonplace, but after a long time, I gradually got used to it.Liqiu was small and weak, and he couldn't compete with the workers when eating. Starvation was also a common occurrence. Due to long-term malnutrition, Liqiu gradually developed night blindness. He walked slowly while leaning on the wall, and once almost fell into the latrine.Whenever it was time to pay wages, Brother Zhijun just gave him some travel expenses to go home as usual, saying that the rest of the wages would be handed over to his stepmother.Although Li Qiu was unhappy in his heart, he didn't say anything, just shed tears secretly in private.Three years later, Brother Zhijun wanted to switch to a clothing business, and those who followed him had to go home to find another way out, and Liqiu also left the original engineering team.

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Li Qiu walked slowly on the way back to the village, remembering that when he left, the land was still green, but now it is full of desolation.He took out a letter from his bag, which was sent by Yunfei from the city a few days ago, and there was a photo inside.In the photo, he looks much taller again, except that there is an extra pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose, but he looks more refined and handsome.Now Yunfei is a first-year student in a key middle school in the city. In the words of Brother Zhijun, he has a bright future.Li Qiu stared blankly at the photo, feeling that compared with him, he was just a lump of mud.

He was thinking wildly while walking, and suddenly tripped over something.Li Qiu hurriedly got up and saw that there was a person lying on the road, his body still smelled of alcohol, and his body was covered with wounds, as if he had been beaten by someone just now.Li Qiu yelled out in fright, his legs went limp, and he sat down on the ground.

That sharp-edged face was buried in the grass by the side of the road, and a lot of dirty things were spit on it, but no matter what, Li Qiu could see clearly that the person was Zou Xiaohui.

Li Qiu stood up and wanted to take a detour to leave, but after walking more than ten steps, he thought about it, it was getting dark again in this wild country, what if he was dragged away by the wolves on the mountain?Even if there are no wolves, even if the car hits it, it's not a solution.The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, so he tried to shake him awake, but after shaking him for a long time, the guy didn't respond at all.As night fell gradually, Li Qiu became anxious, but he had no other choice but to sit there and guard him.Although there were a few cars passing by, no matter how Li Qiu waved at them, he would speed up the accelerator and run far away, fearing to avoid them.Li Qiu was completely disappointed, sitting there not knowing what to do.At this time, a white car stopped beside him. Li Qiu saw that it was Yunfei's father and Uncle Li.He hurriedly stood up and greeted them with a smile.Yunfei's father got out of the car and touched Liqiu's little head, asked Uncle Li to help, and drove Zou Xiaohui to the hospital in the town.

It was already midnight when Zou Xiaohui woke up, his head was dizzy, he didn't understand why he was lying on the hospital bed.He wanted to get up and get out of bed, but his whole body was sore and he had no strength, so he could only lie there obediently.A boy of thirteen or fourteen was sitting on a stool, his head tilted beside him, and fell asleep quietly.He glanced at the child, who was very cute with delicate features, like Qiu Jianguo's little Liqiu.I thought to myself, could it be that he carried himself to the hospital?

Liqiu vaguely felt that someone was touching his head, opened his eyes and saw that it was Xiaohui who had woken up, was startled, stood up hastily and hid on the other side of the bed.Zou Xiaohui frowned and asked him coldly: "Why are you running? Are you afraid that I will eat you?" Li Qiu shook his head, still not daring to go over.Seeing him like this, Zou Xiaohui said to him impatiently: "Come here and help me, I need to pee."