Chapter 123 Liar
Chen An and Shen Ning were supposed to take a nap so that they would have enough energy to carry their things over the mountain. But perhaps because they had to leave soon, they were in a rather restless mood and could not fall asleep even while lying in bed.
They finally couldn't hold on any longer and were feeling sleepy when there were two knocks on the door. The brother and sister sat up suddenly and became alert.
Sang Luo had no choice but to ignore it, as she herself couldn't fall asleep either.
When he went out with Shen Lie, he heard that it was Manager Xu and Dong Ge'er and others. He opened the gate and quietly welcomed the Xu family members in.
Shen An and Shen Ning had already put on their cotton-padded jackets and got out of bed, and they met the three cousins of the Xu family who had just entered the room, carrying bags on their backs and holding packages in their hands.
The brother and sister realized later that they would have three more friends.
The two sides briefly introduced themselves and the children slowly got to know each other. Shopkeeper Xu then asked in detail where he would send the grain and how to make the specific handover.
The conscription is imminent, and Chen Lie and his group cannot be delayed because of them. They must leave tonight. Naturally, there is no way and no one to help the Xu family carry food at this moment. They can only leave a contact point and agree on a time. Shopkeeper Xu will bring people to deliver the food and wait for Chen Lie and his people to take over and transport it away.
Before this, the Xu family only had a few bundles of dry food, dried meat, candied fruits and the like, and they had to borrow food from the Shen family before the food could be transported.
Chen Lie and Sang Luo had no objection. Although their family did not have the most grain among the five families, their family had the smallest population, so in terms of the proportion of grain per individual, they were the richest among the five families.
If they eat the same way, Chen Lie, Sang Luo and their two children can at least last nearly a year longer than the other families.
The so-called meeting point could not be explained in words, so Manager Xu and his companions had to go with them. Dong Ge'er trotted down the mountain and sent the driver back to the county first.
People came to the courtyard one after another. Several families were scattered around. When they arrived, some were carrying things on their shoulders, some were carrying baskets on their backs, and some were holding bundles. To be honest, they wanted to even breathe lightly, let alone make any sound. From the village to the Shen family's courtyard, they didn't make any noise.
The Xu family watched their companions arriving one by one. Before they had time to get nervous, Sang Luo had already rolled up the quilts and bedding and packed them neatly.
Mrs. Chen took out a bag of medicine powder and distributed it to everyone, asking them to stuff it into their leggings. Then it was Mrs. Xu and the others' turn. Well, although they had obviously bought ordinary clothes to wear, they didn't have any leggings.
Sang Luo rummaged through her bag and pulled out a large roll of cloth strips. She handed them to the Xu family members and taught them how to put on their leggings.
One is to protect against snakes, and the other is to protect your legs.
The Xu family really didn't understand this, but fortunately the five families were also enthusiastic, and they taught and helped one by one, and it was done in no time.
We are ready to set off before four o'clock in the morning.
It was not until this moment that the Xu family discovered that although Shen Lie and his group did not look young and strong, they all had weapons hidden in their hands.
Not to mention the various iron farm tools and knives carried in backpacks or in hands, Wei Qinghe recognized that Chen Lie and Lu Erlang and Lu Sanlang were holding military swords and bows and arrows, while the other women and children also had at least one bow or slingshot in their hands.
The three children of the Xu family were all stunned. Wang Yunzheng, who was taciturn, looked at a group of children younger than him. Each of them carried a bow on his back and a large cloth bag slung across his body. The cloth bag was bulging. He heard his cousin ask the boy named Chen An and realized that the bag was full of stones.
Several boys who were the same age as him, or one or two years older, even carried bows and arrows made of bamboo.
Wei Qinghe was confused when Chen Lie asked him, "Can you use a bow and arrow?"
Seeing him shaking his head, he stuffed an axe into the basket he was carrying and said, "Then use this to protect yourself."
That's right, in addition to carrying his own bag, Wei Qinghe also helped the Shen family carry some things. On one side was a large basket, and on the other side was a bamboo chicken cage, which contained three chickens and three ducks.
Chickens and ducks are not so obedient and will make some noises out of nervousness, but because the Shen family lives in a remote place, it doesn’t really matter. Not to mention that the villagers can’t hear them, no one will care even if they hear them.
Among the five families, only the Shen family tried to bring live chickens and ducks. The other families secretly killed them and made them into jerky a few days ago during the first month of the lunar year.
Chen Lie saw that it was almost done and everyone was present. He took out two torches from a basket that had been prepared long ago, lit them with the oil lamp in the house, and then blew out the oil lamp to pour out the remaining oil. He wrapped the oil lamp with something and stuffed it into the backpack, then whispered to everyone, "Let's go."
The torches were in the hands of two old ladies, Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Lu, who were too old to carry baskets. They stood in front and behind to light the way for everyone.
Chen Lie and Sang Luo brought Chen An and Chen Ning to the end and closed the gate of the courtyard with their own hands.
Sang Luo touched the wooden door, looked at the small courtyard in the night, sighed, and asked Chen Lie to remove the lock from the outside and take away.
The four of them joined the team. Chen Lie and Lu Erlang were most familiar with the mountains and forests. One was in front and the other was behind.
After turning the ridge, it was unclear whether it was Chen Lie in the front who stopped first, or Zhou Cunzheng in the middle who stopped first, and everyone stopped to look back.
Shili Village.
Most of them were born and raised here, but now they have to leave. They don't know if they can come back, and they don't know when they can come back. They don't know if Shili Village will still be Shili Village when they come back.
My eyes were wet without me noticing.
Zhou Cunzheng wiped his eyes and smiled: "Let's go, we are going to make a living."
…
The mountain road is deep and shallow, and it is still dark at night, but the five families, young and old, have been exercising intentionally in the past two months. The children are often taken out for training at dawn. They can still go up and down the mountain with a backpack full of stones. After getting used to it, they don’t feel so tired, at least not so quickly now.
Although it was the middle of the night, because of the torches, it was not much different from the usual training at dawn. It was even brighter, so it didn't have much of an impact.
The only ones who couldn't keep up were probably the Xu family.
There's no way. From old to young, I have never experienced this kind of hardship.
But everyone also took care of them. The Xu family was sandwiched in the middle of the team by five families, and because Manager Xu and the Dong brothers followed them and helped Old Lady Xu and the children share some of the burdens, they were able to barely keep up with everyone's pace.
The light of the torches twisted and turned until it was completely lost in the forest, taking the group of people with it and gradually disappearing. All that was left of the area near the mountain in Shili Village was the dark night and the low chirping sounds of some unknown insect hidden in the grass leaves, just like every night before.
…
Like every night before, Shen Jin woke up around five in the morning.
For two months, he has gotten used to waking up at this time.
The Shen family had no tools to tell time, and there was no night watchman in this remote village. Shen Jin didn't know the time, so he closed his eyes and pricked up his ears to wait for the sounds of birds.
He waited for a long time but nothing came of it. He even started to wonder if he had woken up too early today and got the time wrong?
But as he was thinking, he looked out the window and saw a faint light coming through, but it was still dark. Could it be an illusion?
Then Shen Jin heard the roosters in the village also started to sing.
Can't the rooster get up early too?
He held back his thoughts, muttering to himself, glancing toward the window from time to time like a grass. He waited for quite a while, and then he realized that it was getting a little brighter. Normally, when the sky gets this bright, everyone would start to gather, right?
Shen Jin felt that Shen An might have forgotten about him.
He got up quietly, put on his cotton jacket, tiptoed to the door, and opened it very slowly and lightly. When he could pass through, he turned sideways, slipped out, and then closed the door slowly and lightly.
He opened the main room door and the courtyard door in the same way. In order not to make any noise and alert his parents, he slipped out of his room to the outside of the courtyard. It was very cold, but Shen Jin was so tired that he was sweating slightly.
After leaving the yard, Shen Jin ran away happily, not going anywhere else, and went straight to the small hill where his eldest brother often took them.
But when he ran to the foot of the mountain with excitement on his face, he didn't hear any sound. He looked up the mountainside in the early morning light, but didn't see any person.
He was stunned for a moment and looked up at the sky. This shouldn't be the case. The sky was starting to get brighter.
Shen Jin ran up the mountainside, circled the mountainside, and ran to the top of the mountain. There was no one there...
He sat for a while on a rock halfway up the mountain where everyone often rested, but no one came. Finally, he could not bear it any longer and ran down the mountain again, turning around skillfully and running towards his eldest brother's house.
Looking up from the foot of the mountain, the courtyard was very quiet, without any sound at all. He ran up and intended to knock on the door, but unexpectedly, when he raised his hand and knocked, the wooden door actually moved.
The door is not closed?
Shen Jin pushed the door open a little and poked his head out: "Xiao An, Aning? Are you up?"
After asking, there was still no sound in the yard. Shen Jin felt a little strange and pushed open the gate and went in.
For some reason, the courtyard was so quiet that Shen Jin suddenly felt a little uneasy. He himself didn't understand why he felt uneasy, but he slowed down his pace: "Xiao An? Aning, are you home?"
"Brother."
"Sister-in-law?"
No one answered.
Shen Jin could only hear his own voice in the entire courtyard.
At this moment, he had already walked to the door of the main house. The door was left a crack and was not bolted from the inside. In the past, Shen Jin would not rashly push the door, because no one would enter this room of his sister-in-law's house.
But today, an inexplicable panic made Shen Jin inexplicably raise his hand and gently push open the door.
The morning light, which was barely enough to make out human figures when he came out, was considerate and brighter now, enough for Shen Jin to see the entire room clearly.
Except for the time when he helped his sister-in-law carry food, this was Shen Jin's second time entering this room.
But it was too empty, the room was so empty that the mats, quilts and pillows on the two beds were all gone, leaving only the thick straw on the bed boards.
Shen Jin stood there in a daze. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but it was still the same.
He turned around and ran to the kitchen, which was also empty except for some things that he could not take away. He ran out of the yard and found that the chicken coop, duck coop, and goose shed outside the yard were all empty.
how so?
Recently, his eldest brother has been teaching him how to deal with refugees, saying what would happen if refugees entered the village. Shen Jin's first reaction was that the refugees had robbed his eldest brother's house.
But that’s not right. The loot was too thorough, and my brother and his men were gone.
Shen Jin thought of something and ran towards the village at the foot of the mountain. In order to avoid being bumped into by his parents, he took a long detour, going to the Zhou family, the Shi family, the Lu family, and finally the Chen family. He looked at the houses one by one. At first glance, the yards were all closed, but in fact, they could be pushed open. Without exception, all the houses were empty.
Gone, all gone...
He was in a daze, not knowing how he got back to the small courtyard halfway up the mountain. He stared at the empty courtyard in a daze, and that daze turned into grievance in the end.
They all left, all left, only he was left.
Her nose and eyes felt sour, astringent, and then stinging, and tears had already accumulated in her eye sockets. Before dawn, Shen Jin's tears cast a layer of white light, swaying around her eyelashes until her eyelashes could no longer bear the weight and they fell down with a snap.
The falling tear was like a signal, and also like a sudden collapse of grievances. The child opened his mouth wide, snot and tears flowed down in a long string, his face wrinkled into the ugliest shape, and he stood in the yard crying helplessly.
She sobbed for a long time, and finally her crying became a sound.
Liar, we agreed to practice slingshot together.
Those tears could not be wiped away.
The scene of his elder brother and Xiao An calling him out on purpose yesterday reappeared in front of him. Every sentence that sounded so ordinary yesterday had another interpretation when heard again today.
Burrows, escape, hunting, identifying edible wild vegetables, poisonous weeds, what to watch out for when entering the woods, what to do when encountering rioters, digging more burrows, hiding more food and water, including the phrase "Don't blame Big Brother"...
Even the things that have been done since the eldest brother came back can be connected together, plus the conscription and taxation. Yesterday, his parents first quarreled and then sighed, and nagging all night long. Shen Jin, who has heard a lot about refugees from his eldest brother, is particularly concerned and listens attentively. When the family was having dinner, he heard his mother hesitantly ask his father, "Why don't we run away? It's so chaotic and we still have to pay taxes and conscription."
His father scolded him, saying, "Are you crazy? Is it easy to be a refugee?"
So, my brother and the others actually ran away and became refugees.
Shen Jin became more and more sad and aggrieved, and cried uncontrollably. Finally, she squatted down, not daring to make any noise. She just lay there in a small ball, her body twitching with sobs.
It was not until dawn that he remembered something, stopped crying, and wiped his tear-stained face with difficulty. He got up and closed the doors of his eldest brother and sister-in-law's room and the kitchen, then went out to the courtyard, closed the courtyard door, and then ran towards the village.
He quietly pushed open the doors of every house he visited, including the Zhou family, the Shi family, the Lu family, and the Chen family. He carefully checked whether the courtyard door was closed properly. If it was not closed properly, he helped to close it. Then he quickly ran to his own home, bolted the courtyard door and the main hall door, and slipped back to his room.
Shen Yin just woke up. When he opened his eyes and saw Shen Jin coming back, he was stunned for a moment. He lowered his voice and asked, "Third brother, why are you back so early?"
Shen Jin lowered his head, not daring to let Shen Yin see his face. He didn't say anything, just lifted the quilt, crawled in, and curled himself up.
Shen Yin was puzzled: "Third brother, what are you doing? Aren't you going to practice slingshot today?"
Shen Jin's muffled voice came from under the quilt: "No, my brother and the others have gone to the county. I'll sleep a little longer."
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