Desperate

Cen Lu and the little boy were alone, peeping through the crack of the door.Zhou Pushen's parents were sitting in the room, sighing while counting their savings.

Zhou Li sat by the side dejectedly. Although he was the man of the family, he was not as educated and bold as his wife.As a middle school teacher, Lu Fanling is actually the backbone of the family. He looked at his frowning wife and didn't know how to comfort her for a while.

Lu Fanling reluctantly stuffed the passbook with pitifully small numbers into the drawer, and tried to comfort her husband in turn: "It's okay, I'll be paid this week, and the food at home will be fine next week."

"Fan Ling," Zhou's father raised his head under the warm yellow light, "I've always had an idea..." He muttered, wanting to say it but not daring to say it.

"You want to leave here, don't you?" Lu Fanling stared at her husband's face, her eyes reflected her tired face through the lens.

"You know?" Zhou's father was a little stunned, he thought he hid it well, "I thought you... you and those children... are so good..."

"Ah Li," Lu Fanling held her husband's hand, "No matter how much I miss my students, no matter how much I don't want to leave here, I can't just watch you and your son starve to death." She even blamed her husband a little: " If I knew you had this idea, I wouldn't have to hide it for so long."

The direction of the matter was far beyond Zhou Li's expectations. He held his wife's hand instead: "You want to leave here too? Then what should we do?"

"Look at you, you panic when you encounter something," Lu Fanling smiled, her tough face became gentler because of that smile, "I'll show you something."

Cen Lu's eyes fell on the woman's back, and she saw that she took out a thick dictionary from the stacked bookshelf with ease, and took out a sheet of paper folded several times from it and handed it to her husband: "Look. "

Zhou Li was illiterate, so he turned his head away in embarrassment, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the inscription on the paper, which was clearly a gilded rose flower.He was startled, and stood up "teng", his delicate face was full of fear: "Fan Ling, are you crazy? You will be imprisoned if you accept recruitment from the empire without permission!"

Lu Fanling was not as flustered as her husband. Instead, she sat down calmly and explained: "I have no contact with the imperial people, even if I picked up this leaflet on the beach, is it a crime? Besides," her beautiful eyebrows raised Yang, "I'm not the only one who picked up things from the imperial people and went back. Many of us here are going to leave the island by next Monday's boat."

After hearing his wife's explanation, Zhou Li was still flustered: "Fan Ling, you are brave, but we are not taking this risk alone. We have to take Xiaoshen, and Jingsong, who is a half Big boy……"

"Ah Li," Lu Fanling interrupted her, the woman's expression at this moment was somewhat similar to that of her stubborn brother: "We will leave this island sooner or later, either next week or later. This olive branch thrown out," she patted the paper on the table, and the golden roses shone brightly: "I think it is the best opportunity."

"Where can we escape on this small island? To other islands in the southern country? I'm afraid it won't be any better than ours." Lu Fanling argued, "It's different to go to the empire. It's right on the border, not only is it a short distance to go there, but also the empire is at war with the state, if the economy in the rear is in a mess, how can they compete with the people of the state? So, they need cheap labor like us." Lu Fanling even in To persuade the restless husband: "At least, this 'Liang Shangyan' plan is a sincere invitation for us to go. After arriving in the empire, we will have a legitimate name and do not need to live in hiding."

Zhou Li still didn't speak. Although he was moved by his wife, he was still a little uneasy.

The old wooden door couldn't bear Zhou Pushen's weight, and when the boy leaned over, there was a "squeak" sound. The parents in the room looked towards the door at the same time for a moment. Seeing that there was no time to escape, Zhou Pushen could only forcefully He stood there stiffly, looking a little bewildered.

Lu Fanling originally wanted to scold her son to go to sleep, but then she waved to Zhou Pushen: "Xiaoshen, come here, come to mother."

Zhou Pu walked over meekly, and sat in a rattan chair with his mother.Lu Fanling reached out and touched his son's head, with a persuasive tone: "Xiao Shen, do you want to leave here?"

Cen Lu suddenly felt that his breathing was choked by some kind of grief, he couldn't absorb oxygen normally, he could only support the dilapidated wall, and breathed heavily with his mouth open.

That kind of heart-piercing grief is like seeing a tragedy about to happen, but there is nothing you can do about it.

Zhou Pushen didn't nod or shake his head, just kept silent for a while, and replied honestly: "I'm a little scared."

Lu Fanling touched her son's head. His extraordinary maturity often made her forget that Zhou Pushen was just a small child. At this moment, his son's seldom showed fragility made her feel a little distressed: "It's okay, mom knows that leaving here is good for you. It’s not an easy task, but no matter where we go, we are all together, parents and uncle.” She hugged Zhou Pu deeply into her arms, “Where there is family, there is hometown.”

The beautiful boy buried his head in his mother's arms.

The scene changed again.

This time it was at the pier. In the dark night, the sky was so gloomy that it seemed that it was about to fall. A group of four people braved the drizzle with cats on their waists, and walked towards an abandoned port on the south side of the island.

Cen Lu quickly followed, and saw that Zhou Pushen's family didn't bring much luggage, and they were all wearing translucent raincoats. Zhou Pushen's sleeves were too long, and his wrists and ankles were rolled up a few times. , protected behind by Zhou Li.An unremarkable small freighter was docked by the pier, and Lu Fanling was negotiating with the imperial soldiers on board.

The soldier glanced at Zhou Pushen, who was soaked by the rain, and the boy opened his black eyes wide, looking at everything around him curiously.The soldier then pointed to Lu Jingsong who was covering his face behind the family of three, and shouted, "Take off the mask!"

Lu Jingsong refused at first, but it was Lu Fanling who persuaded him, so he took off his mask cursingly. It happened to be raining heavily at this time, and after a while, the young face was covered with rainwater.He wiped his face and said angrily: "I just said that you are just looking for trouble!"

If it weren't for his sister's stubbornness, who would risk their lives to go to sea in this kind of storm, and abandon everything they have to go to an unknown country.

After the soldiers let go, Lu Fanling could only pat his younger brother on the shoulder: "Be patient, it will be fine when we get to the shore. Look, the children are more tolerant than you."

Cen Lu followed her words to look at the only child present, and sure enough, Zhou Pushen was much calmer and calmer than his uncle, and the little child was even helping his father put his luggage into the cabin.

Zhou Pushen's family was allocated the most humid and stuffy room at the bottom of the cabin.

This cargo ship used to receive immigrants from the southern countries is probably not taken seriously, and most of them are refitted from abandoned ocean-going fishing boats.The bottom of the bed cabin was dark and smelly, there were no windows, and the fish residues that had not been cleaned up were rotting inside, fermenting in the humid and hot airtight space, exuding a suffocating smell.The sound insulation in the bed cabin is not good, and most of the people from the southern country who decided to immigrate to the empire have their families with them. There are children crying or men snoring everywhere. Zhou Pu frowned deeply and covered his ears. He buried his face in his mother's arms.

There was only room for one bunk bed in the small room, and there was almost no place to stay after Zhou Li put down his luggage.In desperation, the couple could only squeeze into the lower bunk in wet clothes, while Zhou Pushen and Lu Jingsong slept on the upper bunk.

Zhou Pushen was still wearing the drenched clothes, and his upper and lower teeth were still chattering from the cold in such a stuffy bed cabin, but he had never groaned since entering the boat.

Cen Lu looked at him worriedly, hoping that his parents would discover his strangeness sooner.

But the sky didn't work out, the three adults had been busy for a whole day, and they had to avoid people's eyes and ears when boarding the boat, which was very troublesome.The stagnant air made them drowsy after a while, and the small room fell into silence for a while.

Lu Jingsong was awakened by the child's muffled snort.He just wanted to give the nephew in his arms a chestnut to keep him from making noise, but he found that the child's body was abnormally hot.

He sat up sleepily: "Little brat, what's wrong with you?"

Zhou Pushen's face was pale, and his head was sweating profusely from the pain. He couldn't bear it until he groaned in pain: "Uncle...I...my stomach hurts, can you take me to the toilet."

"Stomach pain?" Lu Jingsong was taken aback, "What did you eat?"

"Just now...the people on the boat came to deliver food." Zhou Pushen pointed to the blackened ball of bread on the suitcase, which obviously lacked a small crescent shape, "I'm hungry...and I don't want to wake you up .”

"You kid can really cause trouble!" Lu Jingsong said through gritted teeth, but started to crawl down to the lower bunk with Zhou Pushen in her arms.The couple were woken up by the movement, and Zhou Li asked in a daze, "What's wrong?"

"Your son has a bad stomach and wants me to go to the bathroom with him." Lu Jingsong said angrily.

"Xiao Shen's stomach hurt?" Lu Fanling immediately got up when she heard this, "Mom, let's go with you."

"Don't..." Zhou Pu was deeply concerned about his mother who had packed her luggage for two days without sleep, "It's inconvenient for you to take me there, so uncle."

Lu Jingsong curled her lips: "You will also feel sorry for your mother, and you don't even know that you feel sorry for me." Zhou Pu looked at him threateningly in his arms, even though he was sweating coldly from the pain.

Lu Fanling anxiously chased to the door, looked at the promenade outside where she couldn't see her fingers, she carefully told the two of them: "Come back quickly when you're done, it's not safe outside, did you hear me?"

Zhou Pu looked deeply at his mother's exhausted appearance, the two obsidian eyes were covered with bloodshot eyes at the moment, and the roots of the hair on the forehead were gray and white, he thought how his mother was only in her forties, how could she age so quickly .

That's right, it was this uneasy world that forced her to be like this.Even though he doesn't know much about the gods fighting and the people suffering, he also knows more or less that the empire and the states are robbing the southern islands as the frontline battlefield.All kinds of panic reports drove away the aborigines, so that his parents couldn't even earn money for food.

That's why Lu Fanling simply prepared to escape.

Cen Lu suddenly felt a tinge of fear and heartache in his heart. He raised his eyes to look at the child who was struggling to breathe, and realized that the grief this time was the same as last time, and it was all because of deep sympathy with Zhou Pu.

But what is he afraid of?

Lu Fanling patted his son's head: "My father and I are here waiting for you to come back."

Zhou Pu nodded vigorously, and Lu Jingsong carried him into the darkness outside the door.

That was the last time Zhou Pu saw his parents.