The people in the town went to the Yamen to get a calendar for this year, and then posted it in their homes. It is now the fifteenth year of Tianjian, and it is also the fifteenth year of His Majesty the Emperor's throne.
Vientiane update.
In recent days, people in the town have heard that in the Taoist temple in the mountain behind the town, a young Taoist priest often writes peace charms at the foot of the mountain and gives them to the people. So many people go there to try their luck from time to time these days, wondering if they can try it.
If you go to that kind-hearted Taoist priest and ask for a peace charm, your family will be safe.
But in fact, this town is already one of the few peaceful places in the world. Monsters will not eat people here, but people are always dissatisfied. Without monsters, they think that if the weather is good every year, then there will be enough food.
When there is food, they will think that it will be better if they don’t have to pay taxes. Without taxes, they will even think that it will be better if they don’t have to cultivate the land and have food.
The human heart will never be satisfied.
It's just that maybe the Taoist priest who wrote the Peace Talisman wrote too much, or maybe he was just on a whim. The people didn't see the young Taoist priest at the foot of the mountain these days, so they couldn't get the Peace Talisman again.
Although the people were a little dissatisfied, no one dared to go up the mountain to ask for an explanation. After all, not everyone could go to that mountain.
Not everyone can offend the Taoist priests there.
There was a child who, ever since he heard about this incident, actually squatted at the foot of the mountain every day for the past few days. From before dawn, he would go out from the shabby little courtyard with only a fist-sized bag.
He was holding a rice ball and came to sit on a bluestone at the foot of the back mountain, hoping to see the young Taoist priest. However, he could not see the young Taoist priest for several days in a row. He could not help but be disappointed. But even so, he was still disappointed every day.
He would come here on time every day and stay there all day long. When he was hungry, he would eat the cold rice balls, and when he was thirsty, he would drink a sip of mountain spring water. However, day by day, he failed to see the young Taoist priest he wanted to see.
The child's heart is becoming more and more lost every day.
It's not that he hasn't thought about going up the mountain directly, but this seemingly ordinary mountain, the adults in the town said that there is a group of gods living in the mountain. No matter how they walk, they can't go up the mountain. He has gritted his teeth and walked through it several times before.
But the result was just as the adults said. He walked around in circles but failed to reach the mountain. Later, he stopped trying and instead came to the foot of the mountain to try his luck occasionally to see if it was possible.
He could meet the gods on the mountain, but he still found nothing. Just when he was about to give up, the rumors in the town gave him hope again. Unfortunately, looking back these days, he is still the same as before, not even touching a Taoist priest.
arrive.
At dusk that day, it was getting late. Seeing that there was still no one at the foot of the mountain, the child had no choice but to drink some mountain spring water to fill his stomach, which was already growling with hunger. Then he turned around and walked slowly towards the town in the night.
It took the child half an hour to return to the entrance of the town. There was a small stall selling steamed buns at the entrance of the town. The stall owner was closing the stall at the moment. Seeing the child walking dejectedly from a distance, the stall owner then smiled and asked: "
Didn’t you meet any gods today?"
The child hummed listlessly, "Uncle Mo has closed the stall. Do you want to help?"
Uncle Mo waved his hand, "What can you, a kid, do to help with a few door panels?"
Listening to the child's words, the child said seriously: "That's not the case. My mother said that I will be an adult after my seventh birthday, and now she has to rely on me!"
Listening to the child talking about his mother, Uncle Mo sighed, and then took out the leftover buns from the steamer. There were seven or eight of them. After putting them in a cloth bag, he came to the child and handed them to him.
The little guy sighed and said: "Business is not good today, and there are still some buns that cannot be sold. Do me a favor and throw them away. The leftover buns will not be sold tomorrow."
When the child heard this, he didn't reach out, but shook his head and said: "Uncle Mo, mother said I can't help you anymore."
Uncle Mo was startled and said, "Has your mother found out? Take it, you have to have a full meal, right?"
The child still shook his head, took a step back, bowed, and said, "Mother will be angry."
The man who had always used this method to help the dependent mother and son heard this and felt helpless, "Your mother has such a stubborn temper and has been living like this for so many years. Why don't you change it?"
"
The child shook his head, how could he know such a thing.
Uncle Mo whispered again: "Why don't you eat a few first? You have to grow taller at such a young age. If you don't tell your mother, she won't know."
The child still shook his head and repeated, "Mother would be angry if she knew it."
After saying this, the child trotted forward, shouting as he ran: "Uncle Mo, see you tomorrow!"
The man looked at the child's retreating back and sighed, but he didn't say anything. In this world, everyone has personal suffering, and there is nothing he can do.
…
…
The child ran all the way to the street and then stopped to take a breath. Thinking of the big meat bag he saw before, he couldn't help but lick his lips, but thinking about his mother's angry look, he still didn't turn his head to look at it.
A shop that is already destined to be invisible.
After taking a few breaths at the corner of the street, the child walked into a not-so-wide alley and walked to the dilapidated courtyard at the end. Then he opened the dilapidated wooden door with paint peeling off and called out "Mother."
The courtyard paved with stone slabs was clean, and a water jar was placed quietly in the courtyard, with a bright moon inside.
There was some faint light in the room, and a vague shadow could be seen through the window screen.
The child pushed the door open, then quickly closed it, and then looked at the woman leaning on the bed in the room. The woman was pale and so thin that she could be blown over by a gust of wind. When she saw the child walking in, the woman looked so...
Zhang's lifeless face gained some life, "Today is the first class, are you listening well?"
A trace of imperceptible panic flashed across the child's face, and he quickly said: "My husband also praised me, saying that I was smart and would definitely be a scholar in the future!"
The woman coughed twice, and an abnormal flush suddenly appeared on her face. The child immediately climbed onto the bed and patted his mother on the back gently. The woman calmed down, then cheered up and said, "If you win the prize, you will be a scholar."
Well, after all, you will have a way to survive in the future. If you become a teacher, you will not go hungry for the rest of your life, even if your mother is gone."
The woman had no idea about scholars. She gritted her teeth and decided to send her son to study there. She only wanted one thing, that is, after she died, her son could have a living that would not be exposed to wind and rain.
.
The child quickly retorted: "Mom, don't talk nonsense, you still have to grow up with me."
The woman touched her son's head lovingly and said softly: "Yes, I still want to grow up with my baby."
When the child saw that his mother was getting better, he immediately jumped out of bed and said, "Mom, you must be hungry. I'm going to cook. Mom, wait for me for a while."
The woman said softly: "Mom is not hungry."
The child ignored him, but quickly ran to the kitchen, scooped out a small bowl of yellowed broken rice from the bottomed rice vat, and then went to the water vat in the yard to scoop out a large bowl of water.
Pour into the pot.
After doing this, he did not rush to light a fire to cook. Instead, he untied his coat, took out the cloth bag wrapped in his arms, untied the cloth bag, and poured out the yellowed broken rice inside.
Chen Gu was the cheapest, but even so, the broken rice in his bag could only fill less than a third of the already small rice vat.
Listening to the sound of the kitchen over there, the woman asked feebly: "Is there no rice?"
The child put away the bag and responded loudly: "Mom, there are still quite a few, enough to last for a while."
Soon, the child brought over two bowls of gruel. It was just two bowls of gruel, and it was visible to the naked eye that one bowl of gruel was much thicker than the other.
Pushing the bowl of thick porridge to her mother, the child picked up her bowl and was about to drink it. The woman said with some displeasure, "My mother told me that she was not hungry. If you act like this, my mother will be angry."
The child also raised his head and said, "I'm not hungry either. The rice ball at lunch is still stuck in my throat."
The child was gesticulating, looking a little funny.
The woman's face became serious, "Did you take Uncle Mo's buns again? Didn't my mother tell you that you have to have backbone? Why didn't you kid?"
Seeing his mother's face becoming serious, the child waved his hands quickly, "No, Uncle Mo has already closed the shop when I come back."
"Then why can't you drink a bowl of porridge?"
The woman stared at her son, who softly said a little aggrievedly: "Really not."
The woman then stretched out her hand, took the porridge from her son's hand, sighed, and said softly: "Mom, I know what you are thinking. It's just that for a child like you, it's the time to grow, and besides, you have to go there during the day.
How can you go to school and listen to lectures without eating enough?"
In the end, the woman who handed her bowl of porridge to her son just looked at her son lovingly. How could she not know that she had only a few days to live? It was just this layer of window paper that she could never penetrate.
Breaking it, she couldn't even think about how her son would live after she died.
If only God would open his eyes and let her live a few more years, no matter how hard and tired she is, she could help this child grow up.
The child took a step back, but still stubbornly poured half of his bowl of porridge to his mother, and then watched his mother finish her porridge before he finished his own step.
After dinner, the woman went to bed early. After the child waited for his mother to fall asleep, he quietly opened the door and walked out. He sat on the steps under the eaves, hugged his knees with his hands, and looked at the sky.
That bright moon.
The child, who did not dare to cry loudly for fear of waking his mother, could only sob quietly. He looked at the full moon in the sky with hazy eyes and murmured: "Dad, I miss you."
——
There is another chapter in the evening, but it will be a little later.
