Whoever wins the crouching dragon wins the world

the twelfth lunar month.

The cold wind from the north swept across Nanyang, and the weather inevitably cooled down.I sold the surplus food at home, even dug out the copper plates in the corners of the walls, gathered all the money together, and calculated it was not enough to buy a winter coat.

Without preservatives, the cotton-padded jackets of the Three Kingdoms period were prone to mildew. The cotton-padded jacket Kong Ming wore last year was eaten up by unknown black bugs, and he couldn't get on his upper body. You can't let him wear civilian clothes for the winter, right?

I racked my brains and struggled for half a month before I came up with a compromise. I bought half a catty of duck feathers from a restaurant in the town, washed and dried them repeatedly, sewed them into the interlayer, and made a down jacket from the third century AD.

Hold the ink and laugh at me: "This can also keep out the cold? Don't laugh at the big teeth of the bad guys!"

I looked at him blankly: "Ducks rely on duck feathers to survive the winter, which means that they can indeed keep warm. Why can't you wear them?"

Holding ink dumbfounded, he looked at me like he was insane.

Kong Ming was also quite surprised: "Is it specially made for me? Why did you choose red?"

I murmured and explained: "Qin Sanniang from Langtou Village was less than three days old when her husband accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms and died of illness. Her husband's family thought she was unlucky, so they wanted to exchange all the dowry for cash. The price is very affordable..."

Feng Cha unfolded his clothes, looked left and right, and asked in surprise, "Could it be that this was remade from Qin Sanniang's wedding dress?"

I nod.Mingming felt that he was very reasonable, but when he saw the ambiguous smile on Kong Ming's face, his imposing manner became inexplicably a little bit lower.

I whispered: "It doesn't matter what the color is, anyway, it's worn inside, and everything can be covered by a coat."

The man holding the ink gas was almost incoherent, pointed at my nose and scolded: "You, you, what is your intention! You let your husband wear the widow's old clothes?"

I argued: "Eat enough and wear warm clothes is the last word! This year, there have been seven or eight snowfalls before Xiaohan, the windows are covered with frost, and the cold wind is blowing westward, and the air that goes out can be frozen into ice in an instant. Scum, it’s too cold. How can you get through it without wearing winter clothes? Besides—” I looked at Kong Ming, “Mr. Gao Zhi, he will definitely not avoid taboos like a foolish villager.”

Peng Mo said angrily: "Haven't you heard the country nursery rhyme: 'Women's clothes, widow's clothes, stained on the body, three years of obscurity'?"

I... haven't really heard of it.

But when he said this, I couldn't help but think of the story in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" where Kong Ming gave Sima Yi a woman's clothes to laugh at Sima Yi's timidity and dared not fight, and I also realized that my behavior was improper.But I worked hard to sew this winter coat for more than a month. Although I was limited by my embroidery skills and didn’t embroider flowers on it, I managed to make a dress like it should be. Naturally, I refused to give up easily, so I struggled desperately: "Mr. He didn't wear women's clothes, but this one on him was remade from my old clothes!"

Holding the ink in disbelief, I pulled Kong Ming's sleeves, picked up the seams at the corners with an embroidery needle, and the tender green inner layer poked out my head.

Even Kong Ming was stunned, and said in dialect for a long while: "Why is this!"

I smile.

Kong Ming is usually busy with research and learning. He works in the fields holding ink and serving tea, and I take care of the housework. He has always been a hands-off shopkeeper, so he doesn't understand the difficulties.But the entire family has only one mu of Susukida, and the three mulberry trees have limited output. Even with the extra money he and Zhuge Jun earned from writing letters for the villagers, it is still difficult to raise five mouths.

Kong Ming didn't go to bed until very late that night, and when he got up the next day, he put on the widow's down jacket without my persuasion, and naturally went to recite poems with his future father-in-law.

There is some sweetness in my heart for no reason.

Zhuge Jun teased me and said, "Nan Shuang only has his elder brother in his eyes, and I don't think that I have been weak since I was a child, and I have always been more afraid of the wind and cold."

I was never afraid of him, so I said back with a smile: "You have Ms. Lin taking care of you, why should I join in the fun, and if nothing else, it will destroy the relationship between your husband and wife."

Lin Yuejie is the daughter of a family friend of Zhuge's family. Because she and Zhuge Jun were born in the same year, the same month and the same day, it is considered a destined marriage, and they were engaged in infancy.Later, Zhuge's family was in decline, and the Lin family didn't mind the poor and loved the rich, and tried their best to persuade the two brothers to move from Yuzhang to Nanyang, where the Lin family lived, so that they could take care of them.

Lin Yuejie and Zhuge Jun have a good relationship. Although they are a little fussy like a merchant's daughter, they are kind of sincere when they treat their future husband-in-law.It's a pity that the Lin family's feng shui has been bad in the past few years, and people died one after another. Lin Yuejie just got out of this person's filial piety and went on to guard that person's. The marriage dragged on for six or seven years.

Zhuge Jun gritted his teeth: "My lord mother-in-law's filial piety period will be over in one month, this time I will marry Yuejie into the family no matter what."

Feng Cha worried about his master: "But I heard from Mrs. Zhang a few days ago that Mrs. Lin hurt her lungs and coughed up blood at night. It doesn't look good. The doctor told me to prepare for the funeral..."

Like Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jun, Lin Yuejie was born in Guanghe four years ago, and is now 25 years old.The Lin family also knew that if this daughter didn't marry again, they were afraid that she would have revenge, so even though the old lady was seriously ill, she still held on, hoping to drag her granddaughter through the door before returning home.I went with Zhuge Jun to visit her once, and she was paralyzed on the bed with a pale face, short of breath, her face was swollen, and her eyes were dazed and out of focus.The old lady suffered from a very tormenting lung disease. Trying to breathe became the only theme of the day, no matter day or night, just exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale.

Even in ancient times with clean air, she would eventually die from lack of oxygen.Inhaling this breath very hard, but not knowing if I still have the life to take another breath, what kind of fear and despair is this!

She opened her mouth wide like a baotou fish just out of the water.

Life is better than death.

Mrs. Lin struggled to hold Zhuge Jun's hand: "They said that this disease can be cured, but the old woman knows that her time is short...cough, cough...you don't need to persuade, the old lady will think about it when the old man leaves. Go with it, but at least I was persuaded, and now I'm already impatient, I'm just worried about Yuejie...cough...if I can't hold on..."

Zhuge Jun comforted: "Don't say that, old lady, you will definitely get better. Yuejie and I are still waiting for you to officiate our marriage!"

Mrs. Lin waved her hand and said, "You are all filial and know how to coax me, but the old woman only wants my good granddaughter to marry early...cough, cough...in case I don't hold on..."

Lin Yuejie knelt beside the bed, weeping uncontrollably.

I had a nightmare that night, and the tragic death I had witnessed in my childhood was recurring in my mind.

The unnamed corpse also had its mouth wide open like Mrs. Lin, its whole body naked, floating on the water like a dead pig, and the air was filled with the disgusting smell of blood.

I hid in the dark and watched the glaring blood smear from the wound on the top of the female corpse's head, polluting the clear pool water into dirty blood red.

A woman in costume with long hair like a demon stood by the pool, holding a child in her hand, with a strange sneer on her lips: "Bian'er, after all, she died before us, are you happy?"

The little boy was so shocked that he couldn't speak, the woman chuckled lightly and said, "What are you afraid of? Only the living are worth fearing. Now that she has gone to hell, there will be a better life for us mother and child in the future."

She ordered the body to be salvaged, and her green fingers slowly stroked her bruised face, swollen belly like a ball, and finally landed on the bloodshot eyeball.

"It's so pitiful. How arrogant she was when she said she was going to take my brother's life, but now—it's too late!" She sighed hypocritically, "Bian'er, tell me, isn't it too much to just let her die like this?" Cheap her?" She tilted her head and thought hard, her appearance was a little naive, but the sentence she spit out was dark and trembling: "I really want to cut her into pieces..."

No one dared to speak.Only the woman's increasingly sharp voice echoed by the huge pool.

I turned over, knocked my head off the bed to the ground, and woke up suddenly.