sjar Chapter 269 The miserable old woman
Chapter 269 The miserable old woman
After crossing the ridge, she found that there was a relatively large valley in front of her. The most important thing was that there seemed to be a small village below. She counted and found that there were seven or eight families, all living in mud and thatched houses.
The two were overjoyed. Now they finally didn't have to sleep in the wild and could even go into the village to buy some food, or even some vegetables. They had been wandering around for the past few days, and after running for so long, if they were lucky they could pick up wild mushrooms and vegetables, but if they were unlucky they could hardly find even water.
Zhou Dacang said, "Let's go into the village and see if we can buy some food."
Zhou Guo gently squeezed the horse's belly and got off.
They only had enough dry food for one meal left, along with a few cakes, some noodles, some dried meat, and a few candied fruits. Zhou Guo could finish these in one meal.
The two men went down the mountain and the first family they saw had three houses and a small yard surrounded by a fence. There were two vegetable plots in the yard, also surrounded by a fence. The yard was bare and clean, without a single weed. Things were neatly arranged. It was the home of a hardworking person.
But the door was closed and it seemed like no one was there.
Zhou Dacang said, "Why don't we go to another house? We don't know when this family will be back."
Zhou Guo liked this family very much. "Wait a little longer. Look how clean this family has kept the yard. The same goes for the vegetable garden. There is not a single blade of grass in it. It shows that the owner of this family is a clean person. Uncle, wait a little longer."
Zhou Dacang knew that she always liked cleanliness, so there was nothing he would object to.
"Who are you looking for?" An old voice came from not far behind.
The two looked back.
I saw an old lady with white hair, hunched back and wearing patched clothes coming from behind, carrying a bundle of firewood.
The old lady was very thin, with wrinkles all over her face. There was no expression on her calm face, and there was no fluctuation in her eyes as she looked at them.
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Grandma, my uncle and I are passing by here. It's getting late, so we want to stay here for a night and get some food. We'll pay for it. Is that convenient for you?"
As he said this, he walked forward and reached out to take the firewood from behind her.
The old lady hid, looked at them, and nodded after a while, saying, "Come in."
He walked forward, opened the fence gate, and went in first, carrying firewood.
The two men tied the horses to the fence and took all the things into the yard.
Zhou Dacang stepped forward to help unload the firewood. The old lady didn't even look at him. She patted the dirt off her body and walked into the house tremblingly.
Zhou Guo looked at the three rooms. They were quite old and seemed like they hadn't been repaired for many years. The roofs were a bit tilted and might collapse after a heavy rain or snow.
"We only have four rooms in our house, but this old man has three. I don't know how many children he has." Zhou Dacang sighed as he looked at the three rooms. When he was in his hometown, the houses were built when the family was well off. There were seven bright rooms in the house, which made them considered a wealthy family in the village.
Zhou Guo didn't say anything. Although the house was clean, it was very deserted. When he first came in, he felt that it was deserted. "It seems that not many people live here."
As soon as she finished speaking, the old lady came out with two bowls of water.
The two of them hurried over to catch it.
The old lady went into the kitchen without saying a word.
Zhou Guo and Zhou Dacang looked at each other and felt that it was not a good idea to go into the kitchen, so they found a wooden stool in the yard and sat on it.
Zhou Dacang couldn't sit still, so he stood up and went outside the yard to check on the horses. He had to go and cut some grass while it was still early, otherwise the two horses would be hungry at night.
Zhou Guo stood up and looked around outside the house. It was not convenient to go in, so he could only go into the kitchen and help the old lady light a fire.
The old lady was busy at the stove. When she came in, she just raised her eyelids and said nothing.
After adding two pieces of firewood into the stove, there was nothing to do and the atmosphere became a little awkward for a moment.
She glanced at the old lady's expression, which was still the same, and she didn't seem unhappy, so she took the initiative to say, "Grandma, your village seems to have a small number of households."
After a long while without getting an answer, she was about to ask something else when the old lady suddenly spoke up, "There were originally seven or eight families, but later some fled and some left. Now there are only three families left. There are only some old people who can't walk and some who are not around anymore."
Zhou Guo didn't know what to say for a moment, thinking about what he saw along the way, all the people left behind were elderly people. They couldn't walk, and didn't want to leave. They had lived at home all their lives and had feelings for every tree and blade of grass here.
The old lady seemed to have opened up a chatterbox, and continued, "Old lady, I originally had three sons and a daughter. My daughter got married a long time ago. Our old man passed away early, and the eldest son was conscripted before he could get married. The second son was conscripted to repair the dam in winter and died. The third son was left. The family had no money to find him a wife, so he married someone else. The daughter married not far away. When the famine broke out, she followed her husband's family to escape the famine and never came back. It has been almost ten years since then."
The old lady spoke very calmly, but Zhou Guo felt very uncomfortable listening to it. This short passage reflected the suffering of the old lady for most of her life. She gave birth to four children and raised them with great difficulty, but when she grew old, she had no children by her side.
"Last year, many people in our village left, saying they were going out to find work, and they urged me to follow them. But I was unwilling to go. I am so old, and the earth has buried me up to my neck. How can I have the energy to beg for food? Besides, I have an older son who is serving in the army. If he comes back one day, where can he find me? I have to stay at home for my child and can't let him lose his way home."
After saying that, he let out a long sigh and stopped talking.
Zhou Guo burst into tears when she heard this. Her father and uncle had both been conscripted. If they were still alive after so many years and returned home to see their house in ruins with grass as tall as a man, she wondered how they would feel.
I looked up and saw the old woman. Her cloudy eyes didn't shed a single tear. I guess she had cried all these years. "Grandma, is your youngest son far away? Does he come back to see you during the holidays?"
The old woman said calmly, "When I went to the town, the families there were different from people like us in the mountains. They had many rules and it was not possible for them to come back casually. I was content to come back once a year and see that he was doing well. It was also good for him to live in someone else's house. At least he didn't have to worry about food and clothing. It was not like people like us who worked hard from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and the leftovers were not enough to fill their stomachs. The child was also filial. Every time he came back, he would secretly give me money. How could I take it? He insisted on giving it to me. If I didn't take it, he would get angry. This child has been a crybaby since he was young. Following his brothers and sisters, it was inevitable that he was spoiled. Later, when he gave it to me, I took it, thinking that I would return it to him a hundred years later. It's not easy for the child either. How can he be as comfortable in someone else's home as in his own? He must have to judge people's expressions everywhere..."