Chapter 143 Go and ask your elder brother
Chen Lie had heard from Shopkeeper Xu that Li was ill, but he didn't know what the illness was. Because of the past, he didn't want to ask in detail. He just looked at Shen Jin and sighed, "If you can avoid going deep into the mountains, don't go deep. I told you the reason before. There are more than just snakes here. If you are unlucky and encounter something else, you, a child, can't handle it."
Shen Jin lowered his head and dared not speak.
This is what it means to move forward.
Chen Lie also understood that as long as there was a glimmer of hope to save his own mother, there was no way he would stop just because of the risk.
This is also where Shen Jin and Shen San are completely different.
Shen Lie stopped trying to persuade Shen Jin not to go to the mountains. He might not listen to his advice. He changed the subject and said, "Besides, you don't have to put all the pressure on yourself to treat your mother's illness."
Shen Jin immediately raised his eyes to look at Shen Lie, and after a while he was disappointed again: "My father has spent all the money in the family."
So there was no hope at all from his father.
When Chen Lie heard this, a hint of sneer flashed in his eyes. His good uncle was really a bad guy and his blood might be cold.
Shen Lie patted Shen Jin's head and said, "Are you stupid? Even if you spend all your money, don't you still have your property and land? A broken house is worth a fortune. If you have no money, there are always things that can be pawned or sold. Poor families dare not buy the land, but rich families will still buy it at a low price. Are these things more valuable than your and your mother's lives? Is it necessary for a tiny person like you to run to the mountains?"
Shen Jin was a little confused.
Is this possible???
His eyes lit up: "Brother, how do I become a pawnshop owner? Where can I become a pawnshop owner? Do you accept everything?"
Chen Lie smiled and said, "Just ask your mother, she should be able to make a good deal. Just remember what your eldest brother said. It's a mess everywhere now, and it will be here sooner or later. Except for hoes, kitchen knives, axes and other things that can be used as self-defense weapons in the future and can also be used to live in the mountains, there is nothing else that cannot be pawned or sold. Nothing is more important than life, so you must learn to give up what you should give up."
Shen Jin nodded repeatedly, and he also remembered that his father pawned the family's gold bracelet and exchanged it for money so that he didn't have to serve in the military.
That mother can also be pawned and exchanged for money to see a doctor!
His whole face lit up: "Brother, I understand. I'll ask mom when I get home."
Shen Lie nodded: "Well, there's no rush now, tie up the pheasant, and I'll teach you something else."
When Shen Jin heard this, he ran back to tie up the chickens, then ran towards Chen Lie carrying the pheasant.
Chen Lie and Chen Dashan were looking around at this moment, and there really was a suitable place.
Chen Dashan: "Let's go here. Didn't you help dig one in the mountain near the village? If life gets tough in the future, it might be hard to find food there. This place will be just right then."
Moreover, they also need to avoid being seen and they have to cut down trees, so doing it here is just right without having to worry about the noise being heard by the villagers.
Just as the two of them had reached an agreement, Shen Jin came over.
Chen Lie simply told him that he came here to teach him how to dig a shelter. The rest of the process was simple, with two people teaching and one learning. While they were working, they also asked each other about the situation in the mountains and the village.
Shen Lie and Chen Dashan acted quickly, and they did not dig the hole particularly large. As long as the entrance and exit framework was completed, the inside could be left for Shen Jin to slowly expand later. The focus was still on explaining how to build the shelter.
Shen Jin studied hard, and until Shen Lie had completed the outer cover-up, he couldn't close his jaw.
"You can't tell from the outside!"
"Brother, do you live in caves like this in the mountains?"
Chen Lie smiled and said, "Live in a cave, but that cave is hard for others to find. If you can't find that kind of hidden cave, hiding in a cave will be safer than living in a cave."
Shen Jin nodded repeatedly, but when he saw the small shelter that had been built, and saw that Chen Lie and Chen Dashan had already tied up the remaining wood into firewood, obviously preparing to take it away to avoid leaving any traces, the expression on his face dimmed slightly again.
"Brother, are you and Brother Dashan leaving?"
Chen Lie nodded, picked up a cloth bag that he had put aside before, and handed it to Shen Jin. "It contains some dried meat, which has been smoked with a little salt. There is not much salt, so it has a flavor. If you store it in the cave, don't put it directly on the ground. Put it on the small wooden rack I made for you. Remember to take it out and dry it in the sun every once in a while."
Shen Lie easily lifted the cloth bag in his hand, but as soon as Shen Jin took it, his hand was pushed down and almost fell to the ground.
He wanted to see what was inside, but he didn't have enough strength to see it even if he lifted the bag. So he simply put it on the ground, opened the bag and took a look inside.
The first thing that came out was the unique aroma of smoked meat. At first glance, it was a full bag, about half as tall as him, full of meat.
Shen Jin's nose felt sore and saliva was secreted rapidly in his mouth. He hadn't had a good meal for a long, long time.
Not to mention meat, you can’t even put a little rice in a pot of wild vegetables like you used to.
"Thank you, brother."
The child's voice sounded a little muffled, and after a while he looked up at Chen Lie and smiled at him.
Chen Lie felt uncomfortable, patted Shen Jin on the head, and asked, "Are you afraid of staying in the village?"
Are you afraid?
Shen Jin's fingertips that were pinching the bag trembled, and he quickly held the bag tightly, with a big smile on his face: "Don't be afraid, as long as my mother can get better, I'm not afraid at all."
He thought of the good things that happened to him recently, and his face was full of joy: "Brother, I met a good man, a peddler, who knew I needed money and was willing to take my pheasants and exchange them for food. I am now exchanging the money for my mother's medical treatment, but if I can use it as something at home, and catch pheasants again later, I will exchange them for food and save them quietly."
Chen Dashan heard this and glanced at Shen Lie.
Chen Lie showed no strange expression and smiled, "Really? That's because you met a good person. You can repay him when you have the ability and opportunity to help him in the future."
Shen Jin nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I will!"
Chen Lie didn't say anything else. He just told Shen Jin to try to persuade Li to sell her family's things to exchange for the money from Shen Jin's medical treatment. If he wanted to trap pheasants in exchange for food, he could just trap them on the periphery. If he really wanted to go deeper, he could wait until Li got better and let her accompany him into the mountains.
This time Shen Jin did not remain silent and agreed to all of them.
At this point, it was time to leave. Shen Lie looked at the sky and patted Shen Jin: "Okay, you can leave the mountain. Your brother Dashan and I have to leave too."
Shen Jin's feet were a little bit unable to move. After hesitating for a while, he finally asked: "Brother, will you come to see me again in the future?"
Shen Lie thought about it and said, "If I can get out, I will."
When Shen Jin heard this, his heart relaxed. He waved his hand to Shen Lie reluctantly, "Big brother, Dashan, be careful on the road."
When he was about to leave, he remembered something and moved the bag of dried meat given by Chen Lie into the newly built shelter and hid it. Then he carried his small bow, held the pheasant, waved to Chen Lie and Chen Dashan, and left the place, looking back every few steps.
Chen Dashan and Shen Lie followed quietly for a while, and when the people left, Chen Dashan said, "Let's go too. It's getting late and we can't walk in the mountains anymore."
Chen Lie nodded, and the two of them cleaned up the scene a bit, then headed into the mountains carrying the extra firewood they had for the shelter.
…
Shen Jin hid the dried meat in the shelter and the pheasant in the cave closer to his eldest brother's house. After entering the cave, he ran into Shen Yin who had been waiting there. When asked why he took so long to come back, he mumbled a few words. The two brothers crawled out of the cave, blocked the entrance with something, and then got some wild vegetables to go home.
I had just returned to the village and before I got close to my yard, Chen Tie ran over.
"Brother, why did you stay out for so long? You didn't even come back for dinner. Mom asked about it several times."
At this point, the feeding time has passed and it is already the beginning of the You period.
Shen Jin didn't answer, but asked: "Where's Dad?"
"Dad went to the fields."
Li can't do farm work, and Shen San has been busy lately, so he has to go to the fields after feeding.
Shen Jin heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that his father was not at home. He returned home and just as he entered the yard, he heard a series of continuous coughing sounds coming from the main house.
Shen Jin asked Shen Yin and Shen Tie to stay in the yard and went to the main house.
After a while of coughing, Li heard footsteps and leaned on the bed to breathe slowly. Then she asked, "What happened? Why did you come home so late? Did you go to the mountains?"
Shen Jin didn't answer, but said: "Mom, think about what we have at home that can be pawned or sold for money. We can pawn our things to pay for your medical treatment."
Li was stunned: "What did you say?"
"Mom, you need to see a doctor."
Mrs. Li didn't understand at all. Why did her son's trip to the mountains bring up this issue? How much would it cost to cure her illness?
Sometimes when Li coughed so hard, she actually thought she might not live for many years. Is the disease so easy to cure? Zhou Laizi's wife did get treatment, but she dragged down the whole family, and now she is still sick, right?
"What nonsense are you talking about? Where is there anything valuable in our house?"
"Of course, the weather is getting warmer, so we can sell our coats, thick quilts, and thick mattresses. We can keep one hoe and sell or pawn the other one..." Shen Jin got stuck here. He didn't know what else he could pawn or sell, so he said anxiously, "If that doesn't work, we can sell the fields and land."
In the fields and on the ground, Li became anxious, a surge of air rushed up in her throat, and she started coughing again.
Shen Jin hurried over to pat his mother's back. Li recovered a little and was about to get up when she smelled a fragrance.
Meaty?
bacon!
She grabbed Shen Jin's hand and pulled it under her nose, and now she confirmed that it was bacon!
She held Shen Jin's wrist tightly, staring at him with rapid breathing: "Xiao Jin, tell me, did you touch any flesh?"
That gaze was so scorching that it seemed to be able to ignite fire.
"Tell me the truth, is your elder brother back?"
"You came back so late, and asked me to sell the land. How could you know that your eldest brother came back to see you? Is he?"
She was eager to know an answer, so she grabbed Shen Jin's wrist with unexpected force. Shen Jin tried hard but failed to pull his hand back, and just denied: "No!"
"Don't lie to me. It's your brother who's back, right? He hates me and your father, but he's still good to you. Your brother is back to see you, right?"
"No, I was very hungry, so I stole some pheasant in the mountains."
Li was so anxious that she burst into tears: "Don't lie to me. I won't go out and make a fuss. If your eldest brother comes back, listen to me and go and beg him to take you and your younger brothers and sisters with you to beg him to take you away as well."
She knew it was impossible when she said this, so she changed the subject and said, "If he doesn't want to bring so many, he can just take as many as he can, okay? Ah?"
Li saw Shen Jin trying to pull his hand away, pursed her lips and said nothing. As she spoke, she broke down and cried, "Well, you don't have to beg me. Just tell me where your elder brother is. I'll go and beg him. I was such a bad person before. I'll kowtow to him and apologize to him. I'll work like a slave for him in the future. I won't live long in this life, so I'll work like a slave for him in the next life and the next, and beg him to take you away."
She was already very ill, and when she got excited, she started to choke and cough, and her tears, snot, and saliva all flowed out uncontrollably.
Shen Jin also shed tears. While wiping her tears, she went to help Li and patted her back to calm her down: "Mom, don't be excited. Big brother really didn't come back."
But Li had already determined that it was Chen Lie who had returned.
Apart from Shen Lie, who else would care about the lives of these children? Who else could give them meat at this time?
She held Shen Jin tightly and refused to let go. She kept coughing and staring at Shen Jin, hoping that he would listen to her this time.
Shen Jin's emotions that had been accumulating since he saw Chen Lie in the afternoon suddenly burst out when he saw Li's miserable appearance with tears all over her face, and heard her own mother almost grasping at a straw to entrust her son to her care. Tears fell in strings, "Mother, my eldest sister-in-law and Xiao An and Aning were in a worse situation than we are now. We still had some soybeans and land, and we could harvest in the fall. What did my eldest sister-in-law and the others have back then?"
The eldest brother asked him if he was afraid. He said yes, he just didn't dare to say it.
This sentence finally made Li's hand, which was tightly gripping Shen Jin, loosen. She burst into tears: "It is my fault that I have harmed you."
Shen Jin half squatted down and wiped the tears from Li's face with a cloth on the bedside. As he wiped, he advised: "Mother, we can't rely on anyone. We all have to rely on ourselves. Sister-in-law only made a little money last winter. She is not much better than us. How can she support so many of us?"
If his father had been willing to use the family's silver and the gold bracelet to buy food, the family would not have been short of food.
Shen Jin didn't say much, just said: "And I won't leave, I will follow you, Xiaoyin, Xiaotie Tianyaer and I, we can only rely on you."
"So mother, you have to go see a doctor. Only if you get better can my brothers and sisters and I get better. My eldest brother taught me how to hunt and how to hide and survive in the mountains. As long as you get better and take us with you, we can survive."
Li coughed again, and then looked at Shen Jin: "It's not that easy to cure the disease? If the land is sold, what will we eat in the fall? What will you brothers and sisters do in the future? And at this critical moment, what price can the land be sold for?"
"No matter what the price is, as long as it can bring in money. Mom, if you're reluctant, just sell some first, not all. I've saved 700 coins from pheasants. Let's go see a doctor first, and then sell more if we're not enough."
When Li heard Shen Jin say that he had saved 700 coins from pheasant trapping, she realized that her son had been perfunctory with her before and had not exchanged the food for her. He still insisted on asking her to see a doctor.
She didn't know whether to be sad or happy, and her tears kept falling.
Seeing that she was already tempted, Shen Jin advised: "Mom, don't think about the future. Two more families have left the village. Who knows what the future will be like? Isn't surviving the present the most important thing?"
Finally, he used two killer moves: "I have been sneaking into the deep mountains to trap pheasants in the next few days. If you don't want to sell things to treat your illness, then I will go deeper into the mountains to make money. Besides, the places my brother taught me to hide are all caves. You can hide your body but not your voice. If something happens to you and you cough like this, none of us can escape."
These words made Li's heart tremble, and he finally came back to his senses. All the luck and negativity in his heart were shattered today.
"Okay, I'll treat it."
She can't rely on others. If she is alive, her four children can survive.
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