"We just came back with the firewood. We didn't stay outside for long! We just sat by the fire for a while. Now we are warm all over."
Tian Yuan took out the brazier that had been placed in the room for heating, then came back, closed the door, took off his shoes and got on the kang.
Grandma Lin and her family are old and can't earn many work points. They didn't get many kerosene coupons at the end of the year, so they all gave them to Grandma Lin and Grandpa Lin. They are now using a small candle.
Tian Yuan put the candle aside, and the family got into bed while talking. Tian Yuan watched Lin Meiyu stuff all the cotton coats and trousers she had taken off under the mattress. After that, she lay down in the bed. Tian Yuan then blew out the candle and went to bed.
Tian Tian did not sleep well that night. She and Lin Meiyu slept at the head of the kang, which was heated very hot. She tossed and turned all night long. The room was very cold, cold on top and hot on the bottom, like a world of ice and fire.
At night, when Tian Tian was half asleep, she seemed to hear someone knocking on the door outside, mixed with the sound of a wolf howling.
When Tian Tian heard that no one was moving, she wanted to struggle to tell everyone that someone was outside, but she couldn't overcome the strong sleepiness and fell asleep.
When she woke up in the morning, Tian Tian curled up in the quilt, with not a single hair exposed.
Tian Tian was still thinking about the knocking on the door she heard last night, worried that someone really came to knock on the door. In this weather, if someone really came to knock on the door and didn't come in, they would probably freeze to death outside all night.
She said to Lin Meiyu who was getting dressed, "Mom! I heard someone knocking on the door last night. Was there anyone there?"
"Who is there? That's the blind bear trying to trick people out!" Lin Meiyu said indifferently.
Their team lived at the foot of the mountains. They had known since childhood that blind bears would pretend to be humans to deceive people. If they heard the noise and didn't speak or call out to anyone, they would know that they were all blind bears.
Old Mrs. Tian lives far away in the mountains, so it's normal that Tian Tian has never heard of such an idea.
Tian Tian was a little surprised when she heard this. "Is the blind bear so smart?"
"That's not a big deal. It can even hold people!" Tian Lisong put on his clothes and went downstairs. "Why don't you and your brother sleep for a while? It's still early!"
Tian Zhuo was still sleeping soundly and he didn't even notice when the other four people got up.
"I'm not going to sleep anymore! This room is too cold!" Tian Tian shook her head.
The room was already cold, the temperature was chilly in the morning, and it was even colder now.
"Then get up! Your clothes have been stuffed under the mattress." Lin Meiyu said.
"Dad! Mom!" Tian Yuan, who had already gotten up and washed, walked into the room with a grim look on his face, "Come out and take a look!"
Seeing that he looked so unhappy, Lin Meiyu and Tian Lisong didn't say much. After Lin Meiyu put on her shoes, she followed Tian Yuan out.
Tian Tian was curious, so she quickly put on her clothes and followed him out.
A large group of people gathered at the gate of the yard, pointing at the ground and talking in low voices.
Lin Meiyu and the others surrounded the door tightly, so Tian Tian couldn't see anything.
"Mom! What's going on?" Tian Tian asked as she walked towards the door.
When those people saw Tian Tian, they all shut their mouths at the same time.
Lin Meiyu quickly turned around and pulled Tian Tian into the house. "It's nothing. Go back to the house and look after your little brother. If he wakes up and doesn't see anyone, he'll cry."
Lin Meiyu looked as if she was afraid that Tian Tian would see something.
Tian Tian was pulled into the house by Lin Meiyu, and she did not forget to look back. The space vacated by Lin Meiyu had already been blocked tightly by Tian Yuan and Tian Lisong, but Tian Tian still vaguely saw some red from the gaps on both sides.
Before Tian Tian could take a closer look, Lin Meiyu closed the door and said, "You stay inside. Mom and Dad will take care of the things outside. You should keep an eye on your brother and don't let him run outside casually."
Tian Tian didn’t know what had happened, but seeing Lin Meiyu’s serious expression, she felt something was awe-inspiring. She nodded blankly, then went back to the west room and closed the door.
Although Tian Tian was in the house, her heart was still outside.
She leaned against the dark window, as if trying to listen to what people outside were talking about.
Unexpectedly, the window was very soundproof. Tian Tian could only vaguely hear something like, "How pitiful!" "How tragic!" "How could this happen?"
It also made Tian Tian more curious about what was happening outside.
Just as Tian Tian was concentrating on eavesdropping on what was happening outside, Tian Zhuo woke up.
"Sister! What are you doing?" Tian Zhuo rubbed his eyes in a daze and asked Tian Tian who was lying on the window with her butt sticking up.
"Nothing!" Tian Tian turned around and saw that Tian Zhuo had woken up. She didn't bother to continue eavesdropping and quickly turned around to help Tian Zhuo put on his clothes.
"Where are my parents and brother?" asked Tian Zhuo, who was trying hard to put on his cotton pants.
"I'm working outside!" Tian Tian took great pains to help Tian Zhuo put on his clothes.
Then Tian Zhuo said, "Sister! I want to pee! I can't hold it anymore!"
As he said this, Tian Zhuo was about to go downstairs to put on his shoes.
Tian Tian thought of what Lin Meiyu had just said to her, and quickly reached out to stop Tian Zhuo, "It's too cold outside, you don't have to go outside, just wait here and I'll bring the urine bucket in for you!"
As she said that, Tian Tian went to the outer room and took out the urine bucket that was placed at the door.
After putting the urine bucket in the house, Tian Tian went out.
Tian Zhuo is now a seven-year-old child, and he is not young anymore.
After Tian Zhuo finished using the toilet, he found that there was no one in the house. He didn't know when Grandma Lin and Grandpa Lin went out. There was a lot of noise outside, and he knew there were a lot of people, so he wanted to go out and see.
Tian Tian stopped Tian Zhuo and told him that she wanted to help cook for everyone, otherwise she would have to cook after her parents came back from being hungry outside, which would be very tiring.
Tian Zhuo is a good boy. After hearing what Tian Tian said, he helped Tian Tian to light the fire and did not insist on going out to watch the fun.
Not long after, a girl's sharp cry was suddenly heard outside, which scared both Tian Tian and Tian Zhuo.
Tian Zhuo was curious, but when he turned around and saw Tian Tian cutting vegetables as if nothing had happened, he didn't say anything about going outside and just lowered his head to quietly light the fire.
In fact, Tian Tian was extremely curious. There were no entertainment facilities at this time. She had finished reading the novels she had received at the scrap yard. Her only pleasure now was to listen to gossip.
As a result, with such a big gossip right in front of her, she still has to stay in the house to take care of the children. Tian Tian is almost going to have schizophrenia.
I didn’t know what was happening outside. The crying gradually became quieter, but the noisy voices became louder again.
After Tian Tian and Tian Zhuo had prepared the meal, Lin Meiyu and the others came into the house. None of them looked very good, especially Lin Meiyu, who looked pale and it was unknown what she had seen.
"Mom and Dad! Where have you been?" Tian Zhuo asked.
Lin Meiyu reluctantly reached out and touched Tian Zhuo's head, "Mom and Dad went out to work."
"My sister has prepared the meal! We can just eat it directly!" Tian Zhuo pulled Lin Meiyu's hand and pointed at the rice pot to take credit for it.
"Really? You and your sister are really capable."
No one knew what was happening outside, and everyone at the dinner table was eating very reluctantly.
Because this was not her home, Tian Tian was not familiar with the arrangement of things, so she used the leftover rice from yesterday to cook a pot of porridge with more water than rice. She also took out the pickles from the jar, washed them, cut them into shreds and mixed them together, which was considered today's breakfast.
Tian Tian felt the food tasted quite good, but apart from her and Tian Zhuo, the rest of the people at the table ate very little.
Tian Tian didn’t know what had happened, she only knew that Tian Lisong and Tian Zhuo definitely didn’t eat enough.
After dinner, Tian Lisong went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Lin Meishuang and Lin Meixia's families came over. Tian Tian learned what had happened in the morning from Wu Juaner.
The person who knocked on the door last night was not the blind bear as Lin Meiyu and Tian Tian mentioned, but a drunkard in their team. He drank too much outside last night and was heading home late at night. As a result, he mistook Lin's house for his own and knocked on the door. He was drunk and his speech was unclear, so the sound of his knocking was drowned out by the sound of his voice, so Tian Tian did not hear his voice.
Moreover, this man was so drunk that he fell to the ground after knocking on the door a few times. As a result, a wild wolf came down the mountain in the middle of the night and met this man again, and ate him up completely.
The man was very drunk and had been lying in the snow for a long time. His body was frozen and he had lost consciousness. At first, the wild wolves were biting him but he had no feeling at all. When he regained consciousness later, it was too late.
"Didn't you hear any noise last night? But it happened right at your door." Wu Juan asked.
Tian Tian nodded, then shook his head, "I only heard knocks on the door last night, but didn't hear anyone talking. Later, I vaguely heard a wolf howling, but I didn't expect something like this to happen."
Wu Juan was also very sad when she heard this. "Who could have thought that something like this would happen? The wild wolves haven't come down the mountain for many years. Uncle Zhao is really pitiful. Who could have thought that he would be bitten to death by a wolf on the second night of the Chinese New Year?"
Tian Tian felt a little guilty when she heard this. "I should have heard the knocking on the door last night and got up to take a look. Maybe he wouldn't have died!"
She just saw some red marks on the ground, and thought that they should be traces of snow. Tian Lisong blocked her view, and that person must have died miserably.
It's horrifying to think about being torn to death by wild wolves. The scene in the morning must have been very cruel. No wonder Lin Meiyu stopped her and Tian Zhuo from going out. It seemed that she was afraid of scaring them.
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