Chapter 154: The son sells the daughter
The first human trafficking in Shili Village that year, which was forced by food shortage, was disguised as a marriage that people felt could maintain their dignity.
There were more than ten families left in the village. One of them, a family named Wang, married their thirteen-year-old daughter to a thirty-nine-year-old widower. The betrothal gift was a bag of soybeans and half a bag of millet.
Chen San looked at the one and a half bags of soybeans and millet, and his eyes turned green.
That was not the small bag he gave to the eldest wife when he divided the property. It was a big bag that could hold a stone of grain.
As for the young lady who was dragged away by the old widower's family while crying, no matter how miserable her cry was, who cared?
Probably only the unmarried young lady from the same village was frightened, her face turned pale and she shrank back.
Chen San, or a large part of the people who stayed in the village, had nothing but envy on their faces, and they were so envious that they were drooling at the bag of soybeans and half a bag of millet.
After Li defeated Shen San and sold a few acres of land at a low price, she also used the money Shen Jin had saved from selling pheasants to peddlers to go to the county clinic to see a doctor and get some medicine. Now her health has improved a lot. She doesn't cough as badly and doesn't need to stay in bed anymore. She can sleep at night and walk around and do some light housework during the day.
At this moment, she was watching the scene in front of her with a numb expression in the crowd, and a voice in her heart said: Are you going to sell your children now? Just hold on a little longer, as long as you can hold on until July, the first batch of soybeans you planted can be harvested.
But the voice was so weak that Li herself didn't dare to say it out loud.
Two and a half months is too hard to endure. When the day comes when food runs out, let alone two and a half months, even one month can drive a good person crazy.
There were not many soybeans left in their house. She looked up inadvertently and saw an old peddler carrying goods on a pole in the distance.
Li had never dealt with the old peddler, but he was the only peddler who would come to the village from time to time.
She did not show any different expression, she was just glad in her heart that after she got better, Xiao Jin secretly exchanged the pheasants and rabbits that he occasionally caught with the peddler for beans and hid them outside.
But there weren't many, and pheasants weren't that easy to catch, because every family lived on wild vegetables, and any edible wild vegetables and weeds that grew on the nearby hills were gone in the blink of an eye, so the children in the village would wander around every day, and if they saw anything edible, they would pounce on it and pinch it. The adults would go deeper into the area.
Even wild vegetables have to be found deeper in the mountains, not to mention pheasants and rabbits? With so many people going into the mountains, the pheasants and rabbits had already been frightened away and fled deeper into the mountains.
These days, it’s hard for both humans and animals to survive.
Li watched the young lady from the neighboring house being covered with her mouth by the old widower's brothers, and half coaxed, half pulled, and half carried away. Even her crying became muffled and inaudible, and when she walked a little further away, the wind blew away.
Turning around again, the mother wiped away her tears and held the two bags of grain as if they were holding their life.
The onlookers did not disperse for a long time, until the family came to their senses, cautiously carried the food into the house and closed the door tightly. Everyone gathered at the door of the house, chatting with envy or sighing, and did not disperse for a while.
Shen Jin took his younger brother and sister to wander around the mountains near the village, looking for some wild vegetables that might have just grown. When they came back, they ran into the old widower and his group.
The four brothers and sisters recognized that it was a girl from the village, who seemed to be only two or three years older than Chen Ning. How come?
Shen Jin protected his brothers and sisters and stepped back. Then he remembered that they were in the village, so he bravely called out, "Wang Meiniang?"
The old widower took one look at him and saw that he was no more than an eight or nine-year-old child. He said, "We married her into our family," and without saying anything else, the four men carried Wang Meiniang away in a hurry.
Wang Meiniang was still crying and struggling desperately, but how could she defeat those big men?
Tian Yaer hugged Chen Tie's legs, shrank back, and whispered, "Brother, Mei Niang is crying."
Shen Tie was a little scared himself, and asked Shen Jin: "Brother, why is the bridegroom received like this?"
There are girls getting married at the age of thirteen or fourteen in the village, and it is common for them to walk on their legs to pick up the bride, but they are always friendly and smiling. Why does Wang Meiniang's marriage look a bit scary?
Shen Jin didn't quite understand, so he urged his brothers and sisters: "Let's go faster and go back to the village to take a look."
The four siblings ran back to the village. The people outside the Wang family's door had not yet dispersed. Shen Jin approached Li, and before he opened his mouth to ask, he heard others talking about a bag of soybeans and half a bag of millet. This time, the Wang family had food.
He understood something vaguely, but not quite.
The Wang family closed the door, and the people outside talked for a while and then gradually dispersed. Without food, they either went out to find wild vegetables or tend to the fields. In their free time, they stayed at home to save energy, so they all went home.
…
The three branches of the Shen family also walked back.
Shen San took a look at the basket in Shen Jin's hand and rummaged around with his hands. There were only two handfuls of Artemisia selengensis, Artemisia vulgaris, and Dandelion.
Except for the year when he fled famine, Shen San had never disliked wild vegetables so much in his life. But even the wild vegetables that had made his face turn green in the past two months were not so easy to find now, and they were not enough to fill his stomach anyway.
Thinking of the bag of soybeans and half a bag of millet at Old Wang's house next door, he couldn't help but glance at Tian Yaer.
After just one look, I felt discouraged because it was too small.
People are worthless these days. If she were ten years older, she could be married off directly. But she is so young, not to mention getting married, even human traffickers are unwilling to buy her.
As for the easiest to sell, girls must be at least seven or eight years old. Human traffickers will take over and they can be easily educated no matter where they are sold. They can be sold after a few years. Boys must be at least nine or ten years old, able to work, and can be bought to work or be slaves...
He glanced at the faces of Shen Jin, Shen Yin and Shen Tie, and his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
This is my son...
Li took the basket from Shen Jin's hand and looked at it. Then she raised her eyes and saw Shen San looking at his children with a thoughtful expression.
Her heart skipped a beat and she quickly looked away, but her heart was beating fast.
Selling children and daughters, selling children and daughters, how could she forget that she also has children? And selling children and daughters is not something that only the Wang family next door can do.
Li's heart was beating rapidly. She lowered her eyes and tried to control her breathing. She waited until her face looked normal before she dared to raise her eyes again.
After this, she kept observing Shen San carefully.
At first she was afraid it might be Tian Yaer, but Li soon discovered that the people Shen San looked at most often were Shen Jin and Shen Yin.
She suppressed the feeling of being cold to the bone, which made her want to shiver. After Shen San went out to the fields, she pulled Shen Jin and Shen Yin into the house and whispered, "You haven't caught anything in the outer area for several days, right? Will mother accompany you to go deeper?"
Shen Jin was stunned.
Ever since his family sold the land, his mother hasn't allowed him to go anywhere deep.
"mother?"
Li closed her eyes and took some effort to expel the foul air in her chest. She said, "Mom will accompany you to go deeper. If you can catch a pheasant, bring one back and tell your father that you and Xiaoyin can catch wild animals."
This deep place refers to a place that is a little deeper than where the villagers pick wild vegetables.
Even Shen Yin was a little confused at this moment.
Ever since Dad pawned the family's belongings and used all the money he saved to pay for the military service, leaving the family without enough money to buy salt, Mom started to be wary of Dad. She had been keeping the pheasant hunting and the burrowing a secret from Dad. Why was she taking the initiative to tell him now?
Shen Jin was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized something. He raised his head abruptly and looked at Li in disbelief: "Mom, are you saying that Dad will, will..."
He couldn't say the rest of the words.
Li held Shen Jin's hand and stopped him from saying anything else. She only said, "No matter what, he must see the usefulness of you and Xiao Yin."
Only if it is valuable will it not be abandoned or thrown away in exchange for a few bags of food to fill the stomach.
Before Shen Yin understood, Shen Jin's nose felt sore and tears started to flow.
It must be that Dad had the idea and Mom found out, which is why she reacted like this.
Shen Jin didn't cry out loud, but the tears came so fast that his face wrinkled up into a ball and couldn't relax.
He raised his hand and wiped away his tears, leaving wet marks on his hand and face. He wiped with his left and right hands alternately, breathing heavily, and even whimpered a few times after wiping.
Shen Yin was at a loss, and then he realized something. His eyes turned red and his mouth flattened, and he was about to cry with Shen Jin.
Li hugged the two of them and whispered to comfort them: "Not yet, not yet, it hasn't come to that stage yet. You can hunt, it won't come to that stage, it won't."
Li could no longer tell whether she was comforting her two children or herself, or both.
She wiped the tears of the two children one by one, and her own eyes also turned red.
"Mom will go into the mountains with you. Let's first check if there is anything in the traps we set earlier. If there is, that's the best. If not, let's go deeper and set a few more traps. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or within three or four days, we will bring something back home."
Shen Jin wiped his tears and nodded, saying, "Okay, let's go now."
Wiping away tears, he walked out. When he reached the main hall, he saw Shen Tie and Shen Tian. Shen Jin paused and looked up at Li: "Mom, should we take Xiao Tie and Tian Ya'er with us?"
Li didn't think that was necessary. First, it would take time to find a buyer. Second, it was a time when every family was hungry. Even if they wanted to buy a wife or a laborer, or ask a human trafficker to choose someone, they would have to pick one of age. The two younger ones were actually safe at the moment because they were too young.
She shook her head and said, "It's okay. It should be fine in the next few days. I'll be more careful next time."
Li didn't dare to go deeper into the area with a young child.
Although Shen Jin didn't know much about human trafficking, he and Li's mother and son had been dependent on each other in recent months. He still believed what Li said and turned around to get the basket and sickle with Shen Yin.
Li told Chen Tie and Tian Yaer that Chen Tie should take good care of Tian Yaer and stay at home and not go anywhere. If their father came back, they should say that they went to look for wild vegetables.
Shen Tie focused on the faces of his two brothers, their eyes looked a little like they had been crying, but the two of them walked away quickly, and after hearing what Li said, he agreed.
…
Mrs. Li had been ill for a long time, and this was the first time she accompanied her two sons into the mountains.
Led by the two children through twists and turns in the mountains, she finally saw that there was no one around. He found a hole in a place that looked completely normal and crawled in. He called her to go in with him. She was stunned.
This was not quite the cave she had imagined.
After entering the cave, the lid was closed. After Li got used to the darkness, she found that her son had saved a lot of things. Although she couldn't see clearly, she could still see that there were a lot of jars, cans, bowls and chopsticks. She touched it and the jar was opened. The unique aroma of dried meat and smoked meat wafted out.
There was even a rough wooden frame in the middle, and on the frame was a small cloth bag. Li pinched it and found it was soybeans.
Shen Yin said: "There are three holes like this. This one was dug by us, and the other two were dug for us by our eldest brother. We hid some things in each hole, and there was also some dried meat given by our eldest brother."
Chen Lie had been gone for a long time, and the two brothers were no longer afraid to reveal that he had returned. In order to comfort Li, they gave her a general account of the grain storage situation.
Li's eyes were a little hot. After the changes in her family, she didn't know how many times she was grateful to her nephew Chen Lie in her heart.
Of course, Chen Lie had severed all ties with her long ago, and would never acknowledge her as his aunt, nor would he want her thanks.
But Li was indeed grateful to the other party from the bottom of his heart.
She held the small bag of food in her hand, said nothing, and couldn't say anything. She just nodded, and then there was silent silence.
Shen Jin took out the slingshot given by his eldest brother, grabbed a handful of stones from the ground next to him and stuffed them into his pocket. Then he led his mother and brother out of the cave, covered the entrance, and went into the mountains.
God still favors these two young brothers. Shen Jin is very lucky. He hadn't caught anything for four or five days, and there was no harvest in the few traps he set yesterday. But he unexpectedly encountered a gray rabbit. He pulled up his slingshot and shot it several times. Finally, he hit it. The gray rabbit tilted its body and fell down.
The mother and her two sons ran over, and Shen Jin found that the rabbit's head was bleeding and the stone was embedded in it.
He swallowed, realizing for the first time how powerful the slingshot was.
Yes, the material used for this slingshot was bought by my eldest brother in the county, and it was originally a good bow.
Li was so excited that her breathing became heavy. She had heard before that this bow was also given by Chen Lie.
But the thought of gratitude was soon overshadowed by the joy of the harvest. She watched Shen Jin and Shen Yin skillfully pull the grass to tie up the rabbit, put it in the basket behind them, and happily let it go home.
It was too deep, and they were all sick, so they decided not to go in if they could. They hid their slingshots, and the mother and her two sons found some wild vegetables, covered the rabbit with it, and went home.
…
Shen San looked at the rabbit that Shen Jin took out of the backpack and almost suspected that he was seeing things.
"Where did it come from?"
Shen Jin had been able to hide a lot of things from Shen San, but when he thought about the fact that his father had just thought of selling him and Shen Yin today, he couldn't say what he had prepared, because he couldn't control his expression so as not to be discovered, so he just lowered his head, and Shen Yin did the same.
Li looked at her two sons and took over the conversation herself: "Hasn't he learned from their eldest brother for so long? I thought he didn't learn anything, but I didn't expect these two kids to run to the mountains every day and ask him to bring back something."
Chen San looked at the bloody wound on the rabbit's head and thought of Chen Lie taking those kids to work every day. It seemed that he taught them how to hunt. His eyes lit up: "Did you really learn it? Did your eldest brother give you a slingshot?"
Shen Jin knew that he had to speak.
He nodded, "I was given one, and taught me how to use a condom, but I tried many times and never succeeded. Today I just happened to run into it, and I shot it with a slingshot."
Shen San was happy, and he picked up Shen Jin together: "Good son, well done! We won't be short of meat in the future, right?"
Li's face looked a little grim, but she still smiled and said, "Yes, even if we can get one in seven or eight days, we can still exchange it for some food in the county, right?"
Shen San's cheerfulness froze for a moment, and then he said, "That's right, there's not much food left at home."
He looked at the hare and swallowed.
I can’t eat meat and I feel very hungry.
But he also knew that food was his life at this moment, so he happily put Shen Jin down and said, "Okay, it's not even noon yet, we have to sell this thing while it's fresh. I'll go to the county and see if I can sell this rabbit in exchange for some food."
The last pass had not yet expired, so Shen San went back to the house, took out the pass, put the gray rabbit into the backpack, and left with the basket.
After he left the house, Li became completely dejected.
…
East Fook Building.
The old servant of the Xu family just told Manager Xu that someone in Shili Village had sold his daughter. He was sitting idly in the back alley when he saw someone from afar, selling something in the back kitchen of another food store in the distance.
Who else could it be but Shen San who took out a grey rabbit from the backpack?
The old servant took one look at the rabbit, thought about it for a moment and guessed something. He went back to the restaurant, found Manager Xu and told him about it.
The master and servant looked at Shen San in the box that could see the back alley. It was definitely him.
After the people left, Dong Ge'er went to the snack shop across the street to ask, and found out that it was indeed a rabbit being sold, and they said they had shot it themselves.
Dong Ge'er said: "I looked at the wound, it looks like it was shot by a slingshot."
Shopkeeper Xu understood clearly that it was undoubtedly Shen Jin's kid who hunted.
After sending Dong Ge'er away, he asked the old servant to watch for a few days. On the fifth day, he saw Shen San running to the county with a backpack again, and Shen Jin had not exchanged things with the peddler for several days. This confirmed his guess, so he turned around and wrote a letter to Shen Lie.
While it was still early, he sealed the bamboo tube of credit, asked the old servant and Dong Ge'er's brother to change into rags and clothes, and quietly sent it to the mountains.
The letter contained nothing else but the recent changes in the political situation, Manager Xu's worries, the situation in Shili Village, and the response of Li's mother and son.
When a few people were about to leave, Manager Xu stopped them again.
We dare not bring food with us now. There are many refugees hiding in the mountains. No one will care about three refugees with empty hands and will avoid them if they are seen from a distance. But three refugees carrying food are not safe.
He had someone take out nearly 20 kilograms of salt from his personal stockpile hidden in the restaurant's warehouse, and packed it into more than 20 narrow cloth bags, filling them very thinly and securing them with needle and thread. He then had the old servant and Dong Ge'er's brother wrap the bags around their bodies through their undershirts and take them away.
The supplies prepared for our own family are actually sufficient, but I don’t know about the other families. While the weather is not too hot, I’ll take as much as I can.
Only after sending the people away did Manager Xu sigh.
He sent the letter back only because he was really uneasy about the current situation and subconsciously wanted to have someone to vent his feelings. In addition, Chen Lie asked him to inform him about the situation of the children of the third branch of the Shen family.
As for whether Chen Lie would come to take the letter away and when he would come to take it away, Shopkeeper Xu himself actually had no idea.
Seeing that the chaos outside was getting more and more chaotic day by day, and the chaos was getting closer and closer to Shezhou, even though the county government, the army, and even the local powerful people had corresponding countermeasures, the pressure on Manager Xu's heart was getting greater and greater day by day.
We have been making preparations as much as we can, but what we can do is really limited.
He is not so worried about his mother and young children now, but he is really anxious about his wife and eldest and second sons who stayed in Shezhou.
Because there is no way to predict whether misfortune will befall them or himself, let alone when, at what moment, and in what way it will come.
Every waking moment is torture.
He only hoped that the Wang family would be strong enough to protect themselves and at least his wife and children. As for himself, he didn't know when his employer would agree to let him go back.
Just as he was thinking about it, someone knocked on the door. Shopkeeper Xu turned around and saw it was the accounting office.
The accountant opened the door, looking excited or something, and stepped aside, saying, "Boss, look who's here?"
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