Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and the Songhua River was frozen into a mirror. Even the sparrows on the street knew the news that Zhang Xiang was sentenced to death. The public security in Shanyan was obviously much more stable, and it seemed to have a certain effect in shaking the mountain and shaking the tiger.

, the rapist and murderer who once frightened all Shanyan lesbians is like hibernating and no longer hears any rumors.

The vast snowfield can cover up all the desolation and ruin after the autumn harvest.

During this period, Lin Ze ran to his teacher's wife's house whenever he had nothing to do. He took the trouble to climb the stairs again and again to carry hundreds of kilograms of cabbage, potatoes, radishes and green onions.

Although Xu Mei, the teacher's wife, persuaded her again and again: "Don't take it home, my mother and I can't eat these dishes now!"

Xu Mei has a lot of gray hair in her black hair. Ever since she experienced that major incident, her enthusiasm and vitality seemed to have been suddenly sucked away, like a lonely old man who had resigned himself to the situation.

Her eyes had lost their former sparkle, and her eyes were filled with the desolation of old age.

Now she just wants to bring up Xiao Yuan by herself. She neither dares nor wants to see her late husband's old friends again, including Lin Ze.

Every time they appeared, they would stab her wound again.

How did Lin Ze know what his master's wife was thinking? He simply wanted to fulfill his filial piety and be a master for a lifetime. He regarded taking care of his master's widow and underage son as his own responsibility.

Every time he came to his wife's house, he would drop by to send something to Sister Liu's house, but he never saw Xiaohui again.

"Lin Ze, Auntie knows that you are a good boy, but you and Xiaohui are not suitable for each other."

Once, Sister Liu finally hardened her heart and turned him away.

Although Lin Ze felt unhappy, he was not a troubled person. He understood their family's fear that he might bring disaster to them.

"Don't blame auntie for being unreasonable. We are just ordinary people, just trying to live a stable life. You are still young, and your uncle often says that you can achieve great things in the future. But our Xiaohui..."

Speaking of this, Sister Liu choked up: "Xiaohui is an honest and responsible child. She has been timid since she was a child. She is not suitable for you."

"Auntie, you don't need to say anything. I understand that you are very kind to me. I will not disturb you in the future. But if you need anything from me in the future, you can come to me and I will definitely help you as much as I can."<

/p>

After saying goodbye to Sister Liu, Lin Ze felt mixed. He thought about himself and couldn't say how much he liked Xiaohui. He just felt that this girl was kind-hearted and was gentle and considerate to him. If he had such a daughter-in-law in the future, he would be content.
p>

Now that he and Xiaohui are no longer together, apart from being a little bit shocked, he doesn't feel too uncomfortable.

It’s just that there’s no one to talk to about this time, so it’s a bit lonely.

Lin Ze went down the outer stairs of Tongzi Building while thinking wildly, and walked towards the street outside the courtyard.

It was only half past three in the afternoon, and the sky was already getting dark.

Because Shanyan has a high latitude and is far away from the capital, it is basically on the northeastern border. Therefore, in winter, the sun sets about two hours earlier than in the Central Plains. Especially around the winter solstice, it is almost completely dark around four o'clock.

We are still half a month away from the winter solstice, and people five meters away can only see blurry shadows and cannot see the facial features clearly.

From the backyard of Tongzilou to the street, he had to pass through a doorway. When Lin Ze was looking at the road, he glanced at the doorway. The doorway became darker, and he vaguely saw a thin figure standing in the doorway, motionless.

He didn't take it seriously and kept walking forward with his head lowered.

It wasn't until he passed by the man that he suddenly blocked his way that he raised his head.

"Xiao Yuan? Did you finish school so early?"

Lin Ze was a little surprised, but more friendly.

Fang Yuan lowered his head, and Lin Ze couldn't see his face clearly. He moved his gaze downwards and vaguely saw a few streaks of white on his bloated black cotton-padded clothes.

"Where have you been? What did you get on your clothes?"

Lin Ze thought it was white ash and stretched out his hand to swat at it. Fang Yuan dodged back, but did not avoid Lin Ze's hand.

Lin Ze's hand touched a ball of cotton wool. He quickly pulled Fang Yuan to a slightly brighter place and took a closer look. He saw several sharp scratches on Fang Yuan's cotton coat, and the cotton wool leaked out, as if it had been cut open by a knife.

Yes, some of the knife edges are like fish that have been disemboweled, leaving only a layer of black cotton.

Only then did Lin Ze realize that Fang Yuan was shivering with cold and was not wearing a hat. He quickly took off his fur coat and wrapped it around Fang Yuan. He also thoughtfully raised the fur collar on the coat and wrapped it around Fang Yuan.

His ears and face were frozen, while he endured the bone-piercing cold.

"A fight at school?"

Fang Yuan still lowered his head and said nothing, tears falling down like soybeans. He seemed to be disgusted with his behavior of crying like a little girl, but he couldn't let the tears fall back into his stomach, so he used

Rubbing his eyes hard with his sleeves, he denied loudly with a crying tone: "No!"

Lin Ze knew that he was lying and that children of this age have too much self-esteem, so he said calmly: "If you encounter anything, you can tell your elder brother and he will stand up for you."

Fang Yuan was wrapped in a coat with Lin Ze's body temperature. When his frozen body warmed up, he immediately took off his coat and threw it on Lin Ze.

"I don't need you to worry about it!"

The coat fell at the feet of the two of them. Lin Ze looked at it and his tone turned cold: "Pick it up!"

Fang Yuan was stunned for a moment.

Seeing that he didn't move, Lin Ze raised his tone and said, "I'll let you pick it up!"

From the first time he came to Master Piantou's house and met Fang Yuan, he regarded this somewhat clever and familiar young man as his younger brother.

He is an only child. When he was a child, he was always bullied when fighting with other children because he had no brothers or sisters to protect him.

After his master was killed, he felt even more sorry for his younger brother. He would go to school from time to time to bring him snacks and stationery, and secretly give him money.

Although he had heard from Fang Yuan's class teacher that the child didn't like studying, skipped class, often fought with others, and refused to change despite repeated admonitions, he had never complained in front of his teacher's wife, nor had he criticized Fang Yuan.

.

He always thinks of the time when he was in school. Which boy doesn't behave like this during his adolescence? When he was in school, he even tied the monitor's long hair that reached his buttocks to the crossbar of the stool!<

/p>

He just wanted to punish her and make her look embarrassed in the class. Unexpectedly, the girl was so angry that she cut her hair and went to complain to her classmate.

As a result, he was forced to stand for half a semester. Every time the monitor walked past him arrogantly, he was itching with hatred, but there was nothing he could do - the wicker mark on his butt was still there!

When the girl's parents saw that their daughter's hair, which had not been cut since she was a child, was ruined like this, they were so angry that they went to Lin Ze's home. Lin Ze was inevitably beaten. When Lao Lin was beaten with a wicker, he felt distressed and said: "You

It’s not good to offend anyone, let’s offend Director Liu’s daughter!”

Since then, Lin Ze has gained a better memory. Whenever he sees the squad leader's preaching face, which is like the preaching face put on by the village women's director when mediating family conflicts, the flesh on his buttocks twitches and hurts.

It was these experiences in his youth that made Lin Ze understand Fang Yuan very well, not to mention that Fang Yuan had just lost a father who could protect him!

But just now, Fang Yuan threw his coat on the ground, like an over-spoiled child who only focused on his own feelings, became depressed, and didn't know how to respect others. He knew that he couldn't let it go anymore and had to take care of it.
p>

This was the first time that Fang Yuan saw the big brother in front of him, who had never said a harsh word, angry. He was a little scared and picked up the clothes on the ground in a very polite manner.

Lin Ze's tone softened: "Go and stay at my place today. Don't let my wife see you like this. He should be worried."

Fang Yuan lowered his head and dared not say a word.

Lin Ze tore off a page from Fang Yuan's homework book and wrote on the paper by the light of the stairs:

"Master's wife, I will take Xiaoyuan to my place to give him tutoring lessons."

After writing, he asked Fang Yuan to wait for him, then quietly went upstairs and stuffed the note into the crack of Fang Yuan's door.

"Why didn't my mother go to work today?"

When Lin Ze went downstairs, Fang Yuan looked at the dim candlelight shining through the glass of his window and suddenly became suspicious.

"The teacher's wife has gone to class with someone, so I have a rest today. Xiaoyuan, even I know that you live with the teacher's wife every day, but you don't care about her. The teacher said you skipped class. What did you do every day in school?"

Fang Yuan lowered his head and grabbed his pants line with his fingers uneasily.
Chapter completed!