Literary Heroes of the Republic of China

Although the door of this house was closed, it was not bolted. The woman slapped the heavy door open a few times.

She came in a little flustered, and it could be regarded as letting Mu Qiong see her appearance.

This woman is very white, the kind of unhealthy white that has not seen the sun all year round. She is still very thin, just a layer of skin covering the bones.

Mu Qiong couldn't judge her age. Judging from the wrinkles on her face and the silver strands in her exposed hair, she could be 50 or [-] years old, but if she was the mother of the previous child, then Should be younger?

Her hair was wrapped in a piece of navy blue cloth on top of her head, her eyes were full of tears, her eyes were black and blue, and she looked precarious. When she saw Mu Qiong, she asked expectantly, "Is my son here?"

"What does your son look like?" Mu Qiong asked.

"He is four years old this year, wearing a moon-white dress..." Before the woman could finish her sentence, the child who had been carried into the house by Mu Qiong stumbled out of the house and hugged her leg.

"Bao'er!" The woman burst into tears holding her baby.

"Mother, have you found Bao'er?" A thin voice sounded, Mu Qiong looked up, and saw a girl like this woman, who looked very white, about thirteen or fourteen years old, stuck her head out from the door , asked softly.

And just after she finished asking, another girl who looked a little younger than her leaned out from behind her.

These two girls look alike, and the way they stick their heads out like this looks very cute, but both of them are a little too thin.

"I found it." The mother choked up and said, "Bao'er is fine."

"Mom, shall we go home then?" The smaller girl at the door tilted her head and asked.

The mother stopped talking, she held the child in her arms, her eyes were full of bewilderment.

The older girl at the door said to her sister: "If we go back, grandma will throw away my brother again."

The younger girl was taken aback: "Don't throw away my brother, he is very good, and he eats very little..." As she spoke, she began to cry.

Although it is only a few words, it is enough for people to understand some of the family's situation.

This somewhat silly child should have been thrown at their door by his grandmother, and the child's mother was unwilling to throw away his flesh and blood, so she came to find him.

"What's going on?" Mu Qiong asked.

The woman didn't answer, but looked at Mu Qiong warily.

At this time, the child in her arms suddenly put his hand on hers, and the woman subconsciously wrapped her hand around the child's hand, and then, the child in her arms opened his hand, and a candy fell on it. woman's hands.

Before Mu Qiong coaxed the child with sugar, the child ignored him, but Mu Qiong still stuffed the sugar into his hand.

Now he gave it to his mother.

The woman had been holding on until now, but when she saw this candy, she suddenly collapsed and cried "Wow".

She cried for a while before looking at Mu Qiong: "This candy...you gave him."

Mu Qiong nodded.

The woman said: "Thank you, thank you... I really can't go on, I..."

"What happened to you?" Mu Qiong asked, although the woman's clothes were old, but judging from the way she talked and walked, one could tell that she should have received a good upbringing.

"I...my husband is dead, my mother-in-law makes me work all day long, and she wants to throw away Bao'er, she..."

The woman couldn't go on.

The older girl at the door suddenly said: "Mom, let's not go back, shall we? We can embroider and sell our own flowers and support ourselves."

The woman holding the child wiped away her tears, thoughtful.

She stood blankly at the door for a while, then turned her head to look at Mu Qiong: "Thank you sir for your kindness, we are leaving."

With that said, she hugged the child and bowed before going out.

"Wait." Mu Qiong said, he walked up to the woman, and gave the woman some candies left in his pocket: "Give these candies to the children."

"Thank you." The woman cried again. She grabbed the candy and cried for a while, then suddenly said: "I...I don't want candy, can you give me something to eat?"

"There's still leftover porridge from the morning, go in and have some," Mu Qiong said.

The woman glanced at her two daughters who were still standing at the door, and was a little hesitant. At this moment, Li Zhenyao and Yang Yujun watched the children come out.

When they saw this woman, they asked Mu Qiong curiously: "Sir, who is this woman?"

"The mother of the child I picked up at the door in the morning." Mu Qiong said.

"You came looking for a child?" Li Zhenyao said. She originally wanted to accuse this woman, but when she saw the tears on her face, she only said a sentence she saw in "The Wandering Notes": "The child was born by you." Yes, he was brought into this world by you, if you lost him, the whole world would be lost to him..."

The woman cried again.

It's hard for Li Zhenyao to say anything now.

Mu Qiong said again: "There is something to eat inside, go and eat something."

Perhaps because of the presence of two girls, Li Zhenyao and Yang Yujun, this woman was not so vigilant anymore, she waved to her two daughters, and followed Mu Qiong into the house.

The orphans gathered in the inner courtyard.

The weather has become hot recently, so Jin Huailai boiled water for all these children to take a bath, and even made them all wear the same clothes today.

The fabric of the clothes is not good, but after all, they are new clothes. Once these children put them on, they look different immediately, and they look very energetic.

Of course, this is also related to the good food they have eaten recently.

The woman was stunned when she saw these children, but at this moment, Mu Qiong told Wu Ma to go and get some food.

Wu Ma was somewhat reluctant, she muttered a few words about what a waste, and then brought out two bowls of very thin porridge and two pairs of chopsticks.

Mu Qiong felt that she should pour water into the porridge.

He really doesn't like Wu Ma like this...

However, this woman didn't think there was a problem, and she was even very grateful: "Thank you..." She said, giving a bowl of porridge to her two daughters, and drank the remaining bowl of porridge by herself.

She only drank half of it, and only half of the porridge soup above, and then took the chopsticks, trying to feed the rice grains in the porridge to that silly child.

The child turned his head away and did not want to eat.

Mu Qiong said: "He has already eaten."

Upon hearing this, the woman gave some of the porridge in the bowl to her two daughters, and then ate the rest herself.

After eating, she looked at Mu Qiong solemnly: "Thank you... I will definitely repay you in the future."

"You're welcome." Mu Qiong said.

As soon as Mu Qiong finished speaking, he suddenly heard a familiar voice: "Where are people, where are they all dead?"

The woman trembled when she heard the voice, but Mu Qiong's expression was a little subtle.

He was quite familiar with the voice of the person shouting at the door... The one at the door should be Mrs. Yao.

Mu Qiong glanced at the woman holding the child and suddenly remembered something.

When he lived in the Yao family, Zhu Wanwan and Aunt Zhao once told him about the Yao family.In addition to the old Mrs. Yao and Yao Hong whom he had met, the Yao family also had Mrs. Yao, and Mrs. Yao's two daughters and a young son.

At that time, Aunt Zhao once said that Mrs. Yao took her two daughters to support the family all day by embroidering flowers, but she couldn't get enough to eat... The woman in front of her was probably Mrs. Yao.

"Are you planning to go back?" Mu Qiong asked.Mrs. Yao only shouted at the door, and they were in the yard behind, so she wouldn't come in for a while.

"No, I won't go back." Mrs. Yao said decisively with the courage she didn't know where she came from.

Mu Qiong glanced at her, then looked at Li Zhenyao: "Miss Li, please tell the old lady outside that they have already left." Mu Qiong pointed to Mrs. Yao and the others.

"Okay!" Li Zhenyao said, and walked out with Yang Yujun.

Li Zhenyao and Yang Yujun came to see Mu Qiong, they dressed up well, not only put on the most fashionable clothes, but also put on jewelry.

Although the Yao family was not very rich in the past, they were quite rich. The old lady Yao was also knowledgeable. Seeing these two people, she was a little surprised and didn't dare to make any noise. She only asked if her daughter-in-law was there: "She Come to find that little fool, have you seen her?"

"You mean her? She left with the baby in her arms." Li Zhenyao said.

"Where did she go?" Mrs. Yao asked quickly.

"How do I know?" Li Zhenyao asked.

"How can you let her go, and the child, why don't you keep the child? Aren't you here to take in children that others don't want?" Old lady Yao said dissatisfied.

Li Zhenyao was polite before, but now when she heard her say this, she became a little angry: "What are you talking about? Your children, what are we staying here for?"

"Who knows what you want your child to do!" Old Mrs. Yao said, looking suspicious.

Li Zhenyao put so much thought into doing good deeds, how can she stand being suspected? "What do you mean? I think it's wrong for the child to feed poorly? Is it better than a black heart like you who throws away the child?"

"You are black-hearted! Don't you know how to respect the old and love the young?" Mrs. Yao was angry.

Li Zhenyao was about to argue with Mrs. Yao again.

Fortunately, Yang Yujun stopped her, and said to Mrs. Yao: "Your daughter-in-law has been carrying the baby for a while, and you are arguing with us here, so you don't want to chase your daughter-in-law?"

Mrs. Yao scolded a few words, then turned her feet and left.

She felt that her daughter-in-law must have gone home, and she wanted to go home and have a look, and beat her tightly!

Both Li Zhenyao and Yang Yujun could understand the old lady Yao's swearing in Shanghai dialect, so they couldn't help getting angry, but it was a bit of a shame to be angry with such an old lady!

They finally returned to the house full of depression, looked at Mrs. Yao, and then at Mu Qiong: "Sir, what should we do now?"