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"Is the child's father really Lu Cai's child?"
"I saw it for real, it's for sure!"
"I heard that the brat was sold to the palace by human traffickers. How can he get out now?"
"But I dare not say anything to you, brat. Your clothes are made of the same material as those worn by the grown men in the city. If we take all of them together, it would be enough for us to use during the New Year. Besides, I heard that you just borrowed a pen and paper from the old man's house to write something. You can read now! You have great potential!"
"This is a developed country. Well, what do scholars say? What does it mean?"
"He's been packing up since he went in. Wow, is he going to move back? It's incredible. You didn't see what he looked like when he came back. The bag he was carrying was so big!"
"Oh, if he really becomes rich, will he still remember that I brought him food?"
"His sister is gone, and it was all my fault!! He should have given us a silver ingot."
"If you ask me, let's not worry about it for now. Lu Cai is a good kid! But if this kid really becomes rich, then Old Liu's family will be in big trouble. When Lu Cai's sister left, they shouted for Lu Cai to get out of the village. His family was the most noisy. And the black dog blood in the yard was also sprinkled by Old Liu's wife, saying that it was bad luck! And, didn't Old Liu also clamor to dig up the graves of Lu Cai's parents and his sister, and finally it was the old man who stopped them? Let's just watch the fun first!"
"Ouch, it's out! It's out!"
……
Around the dilapidated courtyard, the villagers were talking to each other, and when they saw Lu Cai, dressed in nice clothes, holding a lamp and carrying a clay pot, walking out of the courtyard, everyone immediately stretched their necks and stared at Lu Cai.
After walking out of the yard, Lu Cai looked at the hunchbacked old man standing at the gate, bowed and said, "Grandpa, I'll return the paper and pen to you."
Having said that, Lu Cai handed the paper and pen back to the old man.
The old man's face was full of traces of time. He squinted his eyes and looked at Lu Cai, who seemed a little strange. He didn't look like the same person at all. The main thing was that this teenage boy didn't look like a baby at all!
The most important thing is, how can a doll have a bunch of white hair!
But after taking the paper and pen, he still asked, "Second Talent, tell me what kind of people you are out there. What are you doing back in the village for this time?"
Hearing this, Lu Cai glanced at the couple hiding behind him.
The couple noticed Lu Cai looking at them and were startled. They quickly lowered their heads, not daring to look at Lu Cai.
Lu Cai smiled at the two of them, then looked at the old man and said, "I came back to bury someone next to my parents and my sister. After the burial, I will leave."
The old man pursed his lips and glanced at the jar Lu Cai was holding.
"Who are you burying?"
At this time, a woman ran out and looked at Lu Cai curiously.
Lu Cai saw the woman smiling and bowing again.
The woman, who had lived in the mountains all her life, had never seen such a noise before. She was immediately startled and said with a smile, "Oh, I have never seen anything like this in my life. I have only seen others like this in the city. Lu Cai is really promising!"
Lu Cai looked at the woman and said, "Aunt, long time no see."
The woman said with a cheerful smile: "You still remember me, right! The representative hasn't changed. Who is buried here? What do you want me to do?"
Lu Cai shook his head and said, "It's my master who is buried. You don't have to do anything. I can go there by myself."
Having said that, Lu Cai didn't say anything more. He turned around and walked towards the grave.
The woman wanted to say something, but the man next to her pulled her back and signaled her not to speak.
But the woman glared at her man, ran to Lu Cai and said, "Lu Cai, didn't you go to the palace?"
Lu Cai smiled, said nothing, and continued walking towards the grave. Having spent several months in the palace, Lu Cai could see clearly what the woman wanted.
Seeing that Lu Cai ignored her, the woman frowned, but continued to chatter when she looked at the clothes Lu Cai was wearing. She wanted to ask what Lu Cai was doing now. At the same time, she kept talking about her relationship with Lu Cai's mother and how she had taken care of Lu Cai in the past.
But Lu didn't say anything.
The woman was also bored, staring at Lu Cai's back, thinking to herself, "What an ungrateful bastard! It's a pity that I gave you some oil-splashed noodles to eat before!"
After secretly spitting, she returned to her man.
The grave of Lu Cai's family is at the east end of the village. Basically, all the dead members of the Lu family in the village are buried here.
The graves of Lu Cai's parents and sister are also here, under a jujube tree.
But it is winter after all, and the jujube trees are withered and covered with snow, which looks quite beautiful.
Lu Cai walked over and looked at the dead grass sticking out from the snow on the graves of his parents and sister. He then put his master's urn aside and began to clean it.
The boy cleaned it very carefully and cautiously.
The villagers in the distance watched Lu Cai's actions, but no one came up to help. Although some wanted to curry favor with him, after seeing what happened to the woman just now, they all thought there was no point in helping and just watched.
It was a long time before Lu cleaned up the graves of his family members.
Then he knelt down, took out a string of candied haws from his arms and placed it in front of his sister's grave, then took out some peach blossom cakes and placed them in front of his mother's grave, and finally took out a chicken leg and placed it in front of his father's grave.
After kowtowing several times, there were no tears in Lu Cai's eyes. He just wiped the tombstone carefully.
It's called a tombstone, but it's actually just a piece of wood. There are no words on the wood except for the names of his parents.
The person in the village who can write charges money for writing, one penny for three words.
When his parents passed away, they were ill and the family had little money. These few words were earned by Lu Cai and his sister after a day of hard labor in the village in the middle of winter.
But on the wood of Sister Lu Cai, the word "sister" was written.
Crooked.
It was written by Lu Cai himself, because he had no money at the time. In order to buy medicinal materials for his sister's medical treatment, all the valuables in the house were spent. In the end, no one in the village wanted the little stuff he had, so Lu Cai wrote according to the words on other people's tombstones. In fact, it was a painting, because Lu Cai didn't know how to write at the time.
Looking at the signs of his parents and sister, Lu Cai smiled and then sobbed a little, but did not let the tears flow.
Just wipe it carefully and look at the chicken leg in front of his father.
Lu Cai's father was a farmer and also a first-class hunter in the village. Since he couldn't farm in the winter, he went hunting in the mountains.
Once, in order to replenish Lu Cai's mother's body, he went hunting in the mountains on a snowy day, and never came back.
Finally, the villagers went to look for it and found the body.
Lu was only five years old that year. He still remembers that when his father went out, he told him to bring back chicken legs.
I also remember that before my father left the house, he looked at me and said, "Son, Dad is leaving."
……
Lu Cai's mother was an ordinary village girl, with ordinary looks and ordinary everything, but she had always been in good health.
However, after the woman gave birth to Lu Cai, she did not take good care of herself during the confinement period, which left her with a chronic illness that has not been cured and her body is getting weaker and weaker.
After Lu Cai's father passed away, the woman forced herself to work in the fields in order to raise her two children.
It's still winter.
The woman couldn't hold on any longer and fell completely ill.
At that time, the woman was already skinny and her face was dry and ugly.
But that morning, the woman got the strength from nowhere and got up early, cleaned the house inside and out, and mended the cotton jackets for her daughter and son.
Then he went out and found some food from somewhere. When he got home, he made a big table of delicious food for his daughter and son. He also got some peach blossom pastry, which was delicious.
When Lu Cai and her sister came back after a day's work, they saw the woman sitting at the table waiting for them. They thought their mother had recovered from her illness and jumped up and down excitedly.
The woman trembled as she kept picking up food for the children, giving them the precious peach blossom cakes.
The woman had nothing to eat that night. The woman, who had suffered from illness, looked at her two children with a happy smile on her face. She thought, such good children, where could you find them in the world, and how come such good children came to her home?
at night.
The woman coaxed her son and daughter to sleep.
She forced herself to stay weak and covered her daughter and son with a blanket for the last time. Then, in order not to cause trouble for the two children, she walked to her husband's grave alone and started digging her own grave.
The next day, the villagers found the woman.
The pit was not dug very deep, in fact only two shovels were used, but the woman held the shovel tightly on the ground, as if she didn't want to cause trouble for her two children.
……
Lu Cai's sister is very beautiful, famous for her beauty.
But no one in the village suggested getting married, because everyone said that these two siblings would bring bad luck to their parents and were very unlucky!
So no matter how beautiful it is, the villagers will say that it is the reincarnation of a fox spirit, out to take people’s lives!
But the brother and sister didn't care.
Besides, Sister Lu Cai does hard labor, so even though she looks fine, her hands have been covered with calluses for a long time, which don’t look like the hands a girl should have.
Once the girl dug some medicinal herbs from the mountains and took Lu Cai to the town to sell them.
When the brother and sister saw the candied haws, they were very greedy.
In the end, the candied haws seller gave one to the brother and sister for free, but they refused to take it.
But the elder sister took out a penny that was enough for the two siblings to survive for a day and bought one.
But she didn't eat a single bite and let Lu Cai eat it. When Lu Cai refused to eat, she started scolding him.
at last.
At night, Lu Cai saw his sister licking the stick in the middle of the night.
Then Lu decided to buy candied haws for his sister.
but.
His sister fell into a big river. The river water was very fast that day and her sister hit her head on a rock and could no longer move for the rest of her life.
It was around this time last year that my sister died. When she saw her brother cooking, she cried and closed her eyes, saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't take good care of you."
From that day on, Lu Cai was left alone.
It was also from that day that Lu Cai became known as a jinx in the eyes of many people in the village.
……
Kneeling in front of the graves of his parents and sister, Lu Cai muttered for a while, describing in detail how he was doing now, how he was doing, and how he had met a very good queen. After he had told everything in detail,
Lu Cai stood up, glanced at his sister, picked up the shovel he had just brought, and started digging quickly.
Lu Cai dug two pits in total.
This made the villagers curious. Why did they dig two pits?
In the pit next to his sister's, he buried his tattered old clothes.