"Yao girl, have you had breakfast yet?"
Pei Yao nodded: "I've eaten. Grandpa Niu, have you eaten yet?"
Uncle Niu: "I've already eaten."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Pei Yao got straight to the point.
Time was of the essence, so she didn't want to waste it on this.
Pei Yao told Uncle Niu about the lack of space and nodded.
Uncle Niu knew that the Pei family had been doing business outside, including selling lychee wine.
"Grandpa Niu, I've noticed that no one has lived in the yard next to ours for a long time. So I'd like to ask if that yard has an owner?"
Pei Yao paused for a moment, then said, "If no one is available, I'd like to rent it and set up a small workshop."
There are two courtyards next to the Pei family's courtyard. The Shen family lives in one of them, and the other is the one Pei Yao mentioned.
Uncle Niu answered almost without thinking, "That courtyard? No one lives there anymore, but..."
Pei Yao noticed Uncle Niu's hesitation and asked, "What's wrong?"
Uncle Niu couldn't resist taking out his pipe, lighting it with Pei Yao turned to the side, and gazing listlessly at the distant mountains before letting out a sigh.
As the smoke curled from the pipe, Uncle Niu's thoughts drifted away...
"That courtyard used to be inhabited by a family of three. Later, when their child reached school age, and because the child was bright from a young age, the husband and wife discussed sending him to school..."
However, going to school required money, and although the villagers of Liangshui Village usually had enough to eat and drink and were not hungry.
But none of them had a way to make money; they didn't have a single penny in their pockets, their pockets were emptier than their faces.
I don't even dare to get a minor illness or pain on a normal day.
The man and his wife had been married for several years and finally had this child, and they truly loved the child.
He squatted down and asked the child if he wanted to go to school, and the child nodded.
The man was very pleased, thinking that his family, which had been farmers for generations, had actually produced a child who wanted to study.
After discussing it with his wife, he decided to go out to sea to fish with a friend he knew from the dock.
Thinking he could earn some money, he sent his child to school.
Unfortunately, they were unlucky and encountered a storm on their first voyage...
"Fuchun is just unlucky. He encountered this on his first voyage. When he went there, several of his friends from the village advised him not to take the risk. They said the sea is dangerous and that staying alive is the most important thing. Going to school is something only rich people do."
"But he said that if the child wanted to study, he had to let the child go."
After Uncle Niu finished speaking, he took another deep drag of his cigarette and then sighed heavily.
Hearing this made Pei Yao feel very uncomfortable.
She lowered her eyes, her expression wistful: "And then?"
Uncle Niu looked up at the distant mountain valley, calmed himself down, and continued.
Fuchun was the man who went to sea for his child.
Fuchun was a farmer who toiled in the fields, with little worldly experience. He spent his entire life in Liangshui Village, and the farthest he had ever been was Shangtang County.
He doesn't understand how much change reading can bring to a child.
He only knew that the child liked going to school, so he tried to find a way to get the child to go.
Uncle Niu: "When Fuchun had the accident, his wife and child were terrified. Every day, they braved the rain and took the child to the dock to wait for her husband."
The child is young, has few relatives, and has been well protected by his parents since childhood, so he has never experienced separation or death.
Although he didn't understand, he could still sense the sad atmosphere.
The villagers have been looking at him with pity these past few days.
It's like watching a stray cat at a crossroads, or a stray dog on the side of the road.
The mother and son waited at the dock for almost two or three months, but they never heard from Fuchun.
The villagers are all kind people, and they were worried that she might do something rash while taking care of the child.
So everyone went to the village chief at the time, who wasn't Uncle Niu Er back then, and asked him to help persuade Fuchun's wife to take it easy.
After listening to the villagers, the village chief went to persuade Fuchun's wife.
Tell her to accept this loss and move on, after all, she still has a child.
Even if you don't think about yourself, you have to think about your child; life still has to go on.
When Fuchun's wife heard this, her eyes lit up. The village chief thought she had taken his words to heart, so he walked away reassured.
"Unexpectedly, Fuchun's wife took the child that very night..."
Uncle Niu couldn't bear to continue, but Pei Yao understood from his sorrowful expression.
Uncle Niu took a few deep drags on his cigarette before calming down: "Fuchun and I grew up together since we were little, we're like brothers. If I hadn't been unable to help him back then, he wouldn't have gone to sea with those people."
Pei Yao looked at Uncle Niu's aged face, which was full of sorrow, and didn't know how to comfort him. She just stayed quietly by his side without saying a word.
Uncle Niu Er paused for a moment before telling the rest of the story.
That very night, under cover of darkness, Fuchun's wife took her child and jumped into the sea.
By the time they found them, the person had already soaked through.
"Yao girl, I really want to thank your family on behalf of the villagers. If it weren't for you, the villagers wouldn't be living such a good life."
Tears welled up in Uncle Niu's cloudy, aged eyes.
Pei Yao was stunned by what she saw. She looked at Uncle Niu with a serious expression and said, "Grandpa Niu, good things happen in twos. If it weren't for your and the villagers' initial care, we probably wouldn't have recovered so quickly."
Uncle Niu told Pei Yao about this so that she would know that everyone in that house was dead, and he wanted to tell her in advance so that she wouldn't be frightened if she found out later.
After all, death is still a taboo subject in the village. When many people heard about Fuchun's story, they felt sorry for him, but most of them just felt that the whole family of three had passed away.
unlucky.
Some villagers even said that when they passed by Fuchun's house at night, they could hear Fuchun's wife crying and screaming inside.
Otherwise, when Pei Yao and the others came, Uncle Niu would have made sure to introduce Fu Chun's house.
As a modern woman born under the red flag and raised in the spring breeze, with impeccable revolutionary credentials, Pei Yao naturally did not believe this.
She only felt sorry for three lives lost forever because of money.
......
When Pei Yao returned from Uncle Niu's house, she was still feeling a bit down.
They haven't yet moved on from Fuchun's story.
She stood outside Fuchun's courtyard, holding the key that Uncle Niu had just given her.
.
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