technical type

"It's a boy!"

Mai Taoist stepped on a pair of broken shoes that had leaks, and the exposed big toe nails were covered with black mud, and even on the skin, there seemed to be a lingering layer of dirt.

The hem of the tattered sackcloth has been floating like flocculents in many places, and it has not been washed for many years. I am afraid that it will be broken after rubbing twice.

He didn't care, looking down at the swaddling baby in his arms. The old cloth was so soft that it was easy to rot. It was a thin layer, and it was all spliced ​​with old cloth ends. It seemed to be torn from a large piece. The traces are rough and impatient.

"Isn't it possible to raise a baby boy these days?"

The Taoist muttered, the beard grew in a mess, and the hidden lips were almost invisible. At first glance, it looked like a bearded monster.

The upper half of his face is weather-beaten, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes indicate that he is not young, but perhaps the thick black beard makes people feel that he is still in his prime and must have great energy.

The Taoist stretched out his fingers and poked the baby boy's belly. Feeling being touched, the sleeping baby boy unhappily opened his squinted eyes, not knowing whether he could see clearly. He moved his arms and legs, and made a threatening sound like a gurgling sound, which made the Taoist smile.

"It's a clever one, and it's still a baby boy. Come with me, and save you from coming to this world in vain."

As he said this, he wrapped the thin cloth around the baby boy's body again, held him in his arms, and walked forward.

The way the cloth is wrapped, a corner of the top will hang down naturally, and a little covering will block the sight of the baby boy in the swaddle, but he can't see it very clearly.

The parents were so heartless that they just gave birth, and they threw him away without even having a mouthful of milk. Fortunately, they threw him by the side of the road, otherwise, I don't know what will happen.

The place where the Taoist lives is not like a Taoist temple. It is a dilapidated courtyard. There are many children in it, big and small. The older ones are no more than seven or eight years old. No matter how you look at it, it also looks poor and poor, just like this yard is leaking everywhere.

Seeing the Taoist came back with the baby in his arms, the oldest child trotted over to take the swaddle from the Taoist's hand, but the Taoist didn't let go of it right away, he didn't throw it to her casually like before, and handed it over carefully when she was slightly stunned, Tell him: "Take good care of it, this one is different from those losers."

The little girl didn't even grow her hair, and the short prickly hair could see the scalp through the gaps in the hair. She looked like a young monk who had just returned to vulgarity. Hearing this, he was a little dumbfounded. What's the difference?

It was only when I took the baby into the house and fed him rice cereal to change into swaddling clothes that I realized it was a boy.

"It turned out to be a boy!"

The words are full of envy, this is indeed different, and then, the care is more attentive.

In a flash, three years have passed.

The yard is still the same as before, but some places are different. At least the weeds have become ridges, and some unnamed vegetable leaves have been planted, which looks more tidy.

The room hasn't changed much, but the inside seems to be a little cleaner and tidy, not as messy and disorderly as before.

In the hall, the Taoist priest in linen sat on the first chair, which was also the only intact chair. In front of him, there was a girl in her teens kneeling on the ground. She still had that rather avant-garde cropped hair, because she cut it by herself, even if a girl loves it. It is beautiful, but there is no way to make a good-looking hairstyle. Many places are inevitably uneven, which makes it look even weirder.

The clothes that have no sense of curve at all are like draping sacks on the body. If you look carefully, you can also see that the sackcloth is the old sackcloth worn by the Taoist priests. It is not new clothes, and naturally there is no good color , Even the shoes on her feet are riddled with holes, patches and patches still look like they are exposed.

"Please, don't sell me, I am useful, I will take care of my children..."

There was crying in the soft voice, and the tears flowed down. The little girl was used to living here, and she didn't want to leave.

"You are a girl, and you will leave when you grow up. I picked you up and raised you for so many years, just to sell them. If I don't sell you, I will eat and drink whatever I want! You can't even sell them at a price. Money-losing goods, who have eaten my food for so many years, now they are talking..."

The Taoist's face was full of impatience. Obviously, he would not allow anyone to challenge this established rule.

The courtyard was full of silence, and after the dilapidated shelter, I don’t know how many pairs of eyes were looking at this place. Most of the people picked up by the Taoist priests were girls, and the most were baby girls. After three years of raising them, they were able to run and walk. More baby girls were picked up, the older ones were not sold, and the younger ones could not even afford to eat.

If wars and famines continue casually, people will not be able to live.

It is already very good that this sackclothed Taoist can pick up and raise the discarded girl. Outside, how many people change their children for food. If this place is not remote, I am afraid that they will not be able to escape the fate of being surrounded and eaten as meat. Girls, no matter how malnourished they are, they still have thin skin and tender flesh, and their bones are more resistant than adults.

Even if you want to sell someone, you have to take someone far away to get the price. If it is too far away, you will not be able to afford the travel expenses. It is eaten as meat, and many people are unwilling to bid.

The little girl knew what it was like outside. She was already a big child when she came, and she escaped from home by herself, because her grandma wanted to exchange her for others to eat meat. In order to support her father and uncle, the girl , it seems that this is the only function at this time.

They can't wait for her to grow up and display greater value, so they will kill her early to eat meat. Their own children may still be a little bit reluctant, and it is difficult to do so, so they have to let others kill and eat.

That night, she was bound hands and feet with hemp rope and thrown into a corner, waiting for dawn to get the meat in exchange.

In the house, the whole family was chattering in their dreams, thinking about what kind of delicious meat they would eat tomorrow, while she, huddled in a corner, tried hard to break the rope.

She is small, weak, and hasn't eaten for a few days. It was impossible to break the hemp rope, but the hemp rope had been gnawed by mice a long time ago, and one place was almost broken. Fortunately, she had a chance to escape, stumbled, Somehow, he came to the mountain, and was not eaten by wild animals, but was taken into this yard by Taoists to raise him.

This raising is four years.

"I can do laundry, I can cook, I can chop firewood, I can clean... I can do many things well. I am older, and I can do more things. I can take care of them all..."

The girl tried hard to beg, she was so scared that her relatives could discuss how to eat her, but for the others, who knew if she would be eaten again?

"Who needs you to wash and cook? This old clothes will be broken if you rub it. Why wash it!" The Taoist was impatient, and he didn't need anyone's consent after he finished his good words. The Taoist actually has a lot of strength, a malnourished girl in her teens, catching her is no different from catching chickens.

Spotting the children poking around outside the door, the Taoist stood up, pointed at them, and said, "Ask them if they will sell you, or if they don't, they won't even have rice cereal to eat, so they can only starve." died!"

The year is not good, and food prices are more expensive. For the years when a handful of brown rice can kill people, we really can't expect too much.

The girl is the oldest of these people, those above her are sold, and she is the only one left. After that, she has taken care of every child who comes here, maybe not every detail , but she was not mean to anyone, but I found that the eyes she looked over, even a three-year-old child, did not mean to plead for her, there was only urging in her eyes.

A sister can't compare to a bite of rice cereal.

That is to say, the newly arrived babies, who really can’t eat anything else, will give them rice cereal. After that, everyone eats things like wild vegetable bark, mixed with bugs and the like, and cooked together. Just looking at it, you can tell that the pot of rice tastes bad.

Of course, the Taoist would not follow suit. He could see some rice and meat in his meal, but that’s all. Most of the time, he also ate wild vegetables mixed in. Obviously, there was a shortage of food.

A girl who doesn't know the world is here since she was a child. She doesn't know the value of food, but she knows a little bit more about the quality of Taoist food, and she has a little bit of the world in her heart. Years, nothing more.

The girl's eyes met one person in the crowd. The short-haired boy was more neatly dressed than the others, like a life-saving straw that stood out from the crowd, which made the girl's eyes shine.

"Where is Daddy going to sell my sister?"

The voice of the boy who has not changed his voice is as clear as that of a girl. If the spring water is ding-dong, it sounds cool and relieves the dryness in the heart.

Hearing this voice, the Taoist suppressed the unknown anger in his heart, and smiled at the boy with his small head poking out of the door, his beard curled up accordingly, and said angrily to the girl, "Isn't she good at working?" Son, just sell her to do some work, for a rich family, maybe the food for the servants is better than ours! I don’t know what’s good or bad!”

The Taoist said this, then turned to smile lovingly at the boy, and beckoned the boy to come over. Looking at his linen clothes with few patches, he smiled with satisfaction, thinking that the linen clothes were made by a girl, and then With a calm tone, he waved his hands: "Selling you will also give you a way to survive, otherwise how would you live here? There really is someone who came here after hearing the news, and I can't even protect you."

In every calamity year, there must be more bandits, and there are no bandits in the nearby hills. If you know that there are young women in the right age, how many bandits can sit still?

Rather than causing disasters and finishing everything, it is better to sell people early, which also means to make a living for each.

The girl's face turned pale, she really couldn't keep it.