I didn't seem to sleep much, but I thought of the sound of people coughing outside. Dezhao quickly called the woman next to him, only to find that he didn't know when people had left.

After the autumn harvest, the land in Beiwa should be ploughed and the wheat should be sown before the first frost. Cattle, mules and other animals in the production team have been driven out, but it is still not enough. So, someone was arranged to turn over with a shovel and pursed his head. Erpockmarked has asthma, but he is a good hand at helping pears. The captain arranged for Tofu Beauty to lead his animals. But the mule was impatient, and when he turned the corner, he was anxious, so Uppockmarked had to carry his plow back to the pear again, swearing, "I don't believe that the plow is not good for your land. Why are you in such a hurry to catch fire?"

"Mules can plow fields, so they can only pull carts!" Tofu beauty said with a smile, waving a whip and driving a panting mule.

The black-faced wife of Dejin's family replied, "I can still pull!"

They gave a burst of laughter.

At noon, Uppockmarked took a hookah and asked Liu for tobacco leaves. Dezhao took a sip of the water handed by Tofu Shi and said, Brother, don't smoke if your lungs are bad. It's not good if your asthma falls to the roots. "

"Hey, I want some tobacco from Liu. You feel terrible. I feel sorry for your brother who plows day and night. It is not good to lose your kidney at a young age. " Two pockmarked mouth while some satisfied, while coughing excitedly, pockmarked face flushed with suppress.

Lao Liu threw the tobacco pouch to the second hemp seed and said, "I don't know if it's good or bad, smoke it." If you smoke, you have to wait for your life early. "

Tofu beauty's face turned red, too. She turned her face to one side and pretended to look at some slapstick children in the distance. Looking at this scene, the black-faced wife of Dejin's family winked at several women next to her and got some silent snickers. Dezhao handed Liu the kettle and unbuttoned his shirt. In front of a group of women, he gently wiped his chest with a towel, revealing a strong tendon in the sun.

The sun set on the horizon, leaving a dark red in the sky, the fog gradually enveloped, and there was also a chill.

In the distance, the captain shouted, "Let's call it a day and continue working at six tomorrow."

De Zhao took off his coat hanging on the poplar branches and put it on his body, buttoned it and looked up. He saw a stone, a tofu, standing on the side of the road, dawdling and refusing to leave. Knowing that she was waiting for him, he was ready to leave with a shovel.

"Dezhao," Liu followed slowly with his head down, with an empty hookah in his mouth and clothes on. Two empty sleeves swung around with his body.

Dezhao stopped, winked at Tofu, let Shi go first, and then turned to wait for Liu. Liu approached, took the hookah from his mouth with his hand, looked up at the woman who was getting farther and farther, and said, "Dezhao, is it thirty-three this year?" It's a snake, right? "

"Yes, the second uncle has a good memory!" Dezhao didn't know what Liu really wanted to say, but he answered, but his heart was full of doubts.

"Old four is sick and has a heart attack." Liu dare not look at DeZhao. He put his hand behind his back and walked on. The pipe hung on the hookah and knocked on his ass.

DeZhao heart thumped, hurriedly glanced at liu. It was a face without waves, and he couldn't see any expression. He doesn't know why Liu suddenly mentioned four lame people, but he can vaguely feel that he has something to do with tofu beauty. I was guessing at random when I heard Lao Liu say, "Old Four was born with this disease and can't be cured."

"How do you know your uncle?" Dezhao tried to keep his tone flat.

"His mother told me."

DeZhao paused, four lame mother died more than ten years, when she died, probably only forty years old. Dezhao walked in front of the yard when he was still at school and met that woman. White, thin eyebrows, long eyes, thin lips, short head, a little thin, and a sick face. The four cripples look like his mother. Later, I heard from my mother that the woman had tuberculosis, which would be contagious. From then on, DeZhao walked up and down at the gate of the compound. Later, I saw four lame people with white paper on their doors, and the woman died of hemoptysis. Mother gloated again: "I told you, short-lived ghost, no luck."

Lao Liu and Si Canjia are two surnames and have no relatives. Why did the four-crippled mother tell him that the crippled had heart disease in the fetal period? Dezhao felt a mess in his head. He seems to think of something, but he can't believe that Liu is a serious person. He never smiles at women seriously. Besides, that sick woman was the wife of a landlord, but in her early years, she couldn't go out.

He still wanted to hear what Liu continued to say, but Liu never said a word again. He walked all the way home silently. Several dolls gathered around to call Dad and Daughter-in-law a bad face, where they changed sandbags for SanNiZi. He didn't feel tired at all. He washed his face and lay on the bed outside, thinking about Liu's absent-minded words. I think, Lao Liu probably knew his relationship with Tofu Beauty, woke up to himself, sympathized with the four lame people, and broke up with Tofu Beauty.

Thinking like this, I fell asleep in a daze and dreamed of the sick woman in my dream. Still that pale face, with some cold eyes. In a trance, the woman turned into a beancurd beauty again, lying on her body, her lips opening and closing, shouting, "Brother, marry me!" " "I can't answer it myself, I can only cater to it. Suddenly, the door was pushed open and a large piece of light spilled in. Four lame people limped in, followed by a large crowd. Himself and tofu beauty hurried to cover their bodies with clothes, but they were robbed by the black-faced woman of Dejin's family with several women. In the bustling crowd, I saw a man standing behind the crowd, silent and looking at himself gloomily. Then the audience gave a cry and turned to see four lame people lying flat on their chests, with one finger sticking out and staring at themselves.

When DeZhao woke up, it was already midnight, and the moon hung in the western sky, miserable and faint. He found himself sweating profusely and his undershirt was soaked to the skin. Feeling thirsty, I got out of bed and groped for water to drink, only to find that the thermos bottle was empty, so I had to go to the water tank in the yard to get a ladle to drink. It's already the late autumn solar term, and the water is very cold and soaked in my heart. He took a deep breath, looked up at Leng Yue, and remembered the sick woman in the dream, so he got a tingle and his back was cold.

His wife and several children were fast asleep, and he didn't ask himself to eat. He lay in bed again, recalling the dream just now, thinking of the beauty in tofu, sighing, and inexplicably giving birth to a desolation in his heart.

On the second day of that dream, Dezhao fell ill, had a high fever, fell asleep and dreamed. There is always a sick mother with four cripples in her dream. She dreamed that Tofu Stone buried her head in his arms and snorted and said, "Marry me." He touched it with his hand, and the furry touch woke him up. It turned out to be ErNiZi's head. She looked up and blinked her eyes and asked, "Dad, who were you talking to just now?"

He looked Ernie in the eye and smiled and said, "I'm talking to Ernie!" " "He barely sat up, holding Ernie's shoulder and walked to the yard. The sun is a bit dazzling, and the leaves of jujube trees in front of the window have fallen out, and a few red and black dates are hanging.

A few days later, DeZhao went to the village committee and met DeJin. Seeing myself, I trotted to meet him, looked around and whispered, "How are you, Second Brother?" Did you know that Tofu Beauty is pregnant? "

Dezhao suddenly thought of it, but he said, "She is pregnant. What do I care? "

"Also, her man was broken by a stone ball, was picked during the operation, and has been scrapped into a mule. What's in her belly is not yours. Whose is it? Is it Asako II? Four lame people are ill and live in the county hospital. I can't say it! " Dejin and the four cripples are cousins, and the four cripples are actually only children. The fourth one was arranged with Dejin, and there are two brothers in my uncle's family. The relationship between his two families is closer than that of Dezhao. When the four cripples were in hospital, Dejin accompanied them. Few people knew that the four cripples had broken their balls, and the family refused to tell them.

Dezhao wants to know where Tofu Beauty is now. Serve four disabled people in the county hospital. But when he looked up, he was gone, Deking. He forgot what he was doing in the village Committee, walked around the house and came back. When I reached the pond, I suddenly didn't want to go home. I stood there looking at the yard across the water. In a trance, I saw a woman standing at the door. I just want to see if tofu is beautiful. Someone passed by and greeted him. With a passive smile on his face, he was embarrassed and had to move on.

When the first snow fell, four lame people died and were brought back from the county hospital with the Dongfanghong tractor of the production team. Dezhao is at the door. He's going to help with the funeral. When the body was carried down, the red quilt cover slipped down, revealing the pale faces of four lame people. His eyes are actually open and fixed, as if he were really looking at himself. Dezhao's head buzzed, and he only felt that his scalp was going to explode. He looked up and saw the bloodless face of tofu beauty. She looked at him, her eyes as cold and desolate as the moon that night. He couldn't help looking at her abdomen, which was flat for three or four months. He thought like this, then turned his body around and took it into the compound.

On the day of the funeral, the north wind was very strong, and it hurt when the snow foam hit the face. Dezhao was frozen in the snow for a long time and his face was numb. He saw two daughters of four lame people holding tofu and stones, and three people kneeling on the new soil in front of the grave. De Zhao thought that a woman's face is probably wooden, too.

On the way back from the funeral, Liu stopped him again, with a pipe in his mouth and his eyes fixed on the sky. For a long time, Lao Liu took down the ashtray and said, "Old four is gone, and his family is probably untenable. You must find a way to help him keep the compound. " He turned to look at the new grave and said, "When your father died, he entrusted me to take care of my fourth son. You are both your father's seeds and your own brothers. Now, Lao Si is gone, but he still has two children. If the adults don't leave, you will save a nest for them. "

Later, the eldest daughter of Tofu Beauty got married, and she followed. Later, the younger daughter was also married. She married in Dangcun and lived with her younger daughter. The youngest daughter's husband and brothers are numerous and powerful, and the walls of the old courtyard have collapsed, leaving no one at home. It is said that it is an abandoned house and it is impossible to raise a son. Some people say, isn't a boy born in the belly of a tofu beauty? The black-faced wife of Dejin's family said, "That's just like the four lame people, they are all borrowed seeds! It's just that the teacher had a conscience and didn't give birth to this illegitimate child, so when the lame man was in hospital, the doctor killed him. "

I was drunk and my little daughter quarreled with her husband. The man pointed to his daughter-in-law's nose and scolded: "You are a rotten goods, as cheap as your mother, and said that I bullied your mother's house. Why not ask your mother to borrow another seed from the shack? " Why wasn't my brother-in-law born then? I can support you now. "

Tofu was paralyzed in bed. It was a cold winter when she had an abortion. The wake and funeral were snowstorms, so she got rheumatism. The son-in-law died that night, lying on the windowsill with half a bottle of highly toxic pesticides in his hand and committing suicide.

De Zhao went to the compound after hearing the news. He broke the rusty door lock and went down the stairs to the second floor. The wooden bed was still standing against the wall, covered with dust, and he sat on it and recalled the past.

He thought that if he had comforted the pregnant woman in time, she might have given birth to the child.

The last chapter