Zhou Bin was a little surprised when he saw that old man Zhang San's eyes were red.
Xiujuan and Aniu also looked at Zhang Pingshan in surprise, wondering what was wrong with him.
Zhou Bin asked tentatively: "Uncle Zhang, why are you doing this?"
Zhang Pingshan sighed: "Alas! Do you think I, an old lonely man, am pitiful?"
His words left everyone speechless for a moment, so everyone remained silent.
Zhang Pingshan said to himself, "I have made people miserable in my life. I can't even close my eyes after I die!"
Seeing that Zhang Pingshan was quite excited, Zhou Bin quickly said, "Uncle Zhang, don't get excited. Tell us what's going on. Maybe we can give you some advice."
Zhang Pingshan waved his hand and said, "Let's go sit in the yard. We can get some sun."
Several people followed him out and sat on the roots of the tree at the foot of the wall. Zhang Pingshan stretched out his hand and asked, "Do you have any more cigarettes?"
Zhou Bin quickly handed him a cigarette. Zhang Pingshan lit the cigarette, looked at the wisp of light blue smoke and fell into memories.
That was sixty years ago, Zhang Pingshan was born in Dongyuan Village.
At that time, there was war and chaos, and everyone's life was very difficult. Children often starved to death or froze to death.
Some people even sell their children for a few meals and live a miserable life.
There are six children in his family, he is the fourth one, and he has two younger sisters. Since he was born, he often suffered from hunger and never had enough food and clothing.
He endured like this until he was fifteen years old, when suddenly a great disaster struck and the fields failed to produce any harvest.
Plague broke out in the entire village again, and within just one month, all the members of his family starved to death or died of disease.
About 80% of the people in the village died from illness and hunger, and he was starving to death.
But he was only fifteen years old, and he was unwilling to die like this, so he managed to leave his home by eating tree bark and grass roots.
He begged along the way and had no fixed place to live.
Later he met a beggar who told him that there was coal in the north and he could have enough food to eat by digging the coal.
So he begged for food along the way and walked towards Qin Bei.
After two months of wandering, he finally arrived in Qinbei that day.
That place was indeed full of coal mines, so he went forward to ask, giving it a try.
Unexpectedly, the other party agreed immediately. In this way, he turned from a beggar into a coal mine worker.
He dreamed of being able to eat his fill with his own hands and changing his miserable life.
Who knew that this was just the beginning of his miserable life. Those coal mines did not treat them as human beings at all and forced them to work all day long.
If you slack off even a little, a ferocious supervisor will come and whip you.
Zhang Pingshan was often beaten to a pulp and covered in wounds.
He once tried to escape from there, but was caught and beaten half to death.
From then on he accepted his fate, he knew he couldn't escape.
He was young and smart at that time, so he gradually accumulated a lot of experience. He knew where to dig good coal and how to blend coal to make it more durable.
Gradually, everyone knew that Zhang Pingshan was good at mining coal, and even the boss who used to treat him like a slave began to treat him differently.
Five years passed in a flash, and Zhang Pingshan had grown into a 20-year-old young man.
With his own efforts, he rose from a black kiln worker to a small boss, and finally he no longer had to work in the kiln to work hard.
He is a kind-hearted person and tries his best to help those poor people so that they can suffer less.
He was busy in the coal mine that day when suddenly there was a commotion in the yard and he hurried out to check what was going on.
He saw a group of people gathered together, shouting something. He squeezed over to take a look and was stunned.
I saw a young girl following the boss, she was standing there with a pale face and trembling all over.
When the boss saw him coming, he immediately said, "Pingzi, there's a new arrival, go and take her down to the kiln."
The girl was so frightened that she didn't know what to do and kept crying silently.
Zhang Pingshan hurriedly asked, "Boss, what's going on?"
The boss pointed at the girl and said, "His father couldn't pay me back the money he owed me, so he used her to pay off the debt."
Zhang Pingshan sighed inwardly; he had encountered many such things before.
But this was the first time he met such a young girl.
Now there are not only men but also women in their kilns.
The air in there is polluted and there is no sunlight. Even if you want to poop or pee, you have to do it in there.
Those women have been tortured beyond recognition in order to survive, so how can they care about these things? Just like the men, they solve the problem on the spot.
However, the girl looked very frail and had never seen such a scene before. She was probably going to die in three days.
Thinking of this, Zhang Pingshan couldn't help but feel a little distressed, because he remembered his deceased sister, who was also so helpless and terrified at the time.
"Pingzi, what are you still standing there for? Take the person away quickly!" the boss shouted.
The girl looked ashen as death. She looked at Zhang Pingshan timidly, tears streaming down her face, but she said nothing.
Zhang Pingshan's heart softened. He hated seeing such pitiful people the most.
So he gritted his teeth and said, "Boss, look at how thin she is, how can she work? I'm afraid she won't last more than three days in the kiln."
The boss looked at Zhang Pingshan in surprise and cursed, "What the hell are you talking about? Oh! Are you attracted to her?"
Zhang Pingshan's face suddenly turned red. After all, he was a twenty-year-old young man.
The boss laughed: "What do you like about her? There's nothing juicy about her! If you can't hold it back, I'll take you to town to eat some good food!"
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