flawed

Chapter 22 The Motherless Child

It rained at the beginning of the year, and the light rain moistened the dirty mud on the road and stuck to the edges of the shoes.

On the road, there is still a faint smell of gunpowder in the air.The white mist was also dyed light blue by the ashes of fireworks and firecrackers that had not yet dissipated in the air.

The drizzle and the light blue mist are intertwined, depicting a faint sense of sadness.

Yao Huilan's tomb is in the Hongcheng Cemetery.It is said to be a cemetery, but it is actually a piece of land enclosed on a barren hill near the city, with some tombstones and graves piled up in a mess.In the cemetery, apart from the graves, there is only grass.Apart from an old man guarding the gate, there are no other management personnel.

The old man asked Qi Nuliang to register whose grave he was visiting, and told him: "Don't set off whips, don't throw cigarette butts, and put out all the fires before you leave." If you go to the mountain, the Public Security Bureau will arrest you, pay you money and sentence you, so be careful."

Jiang Yu led the way, and after crawling on the small path stepped on by everyone for a long time, he finally found Yao Huilan's tomb.

I don't know who chose the land, but a small grave just happened to land in a small depression.The surrounding area was filled with half-person-high thatched grass, as if covered with a thick quilt, and the grave was lying quietly, as if sleeping peacefully.

Qi Nuliang walked into the mountain depression, found the position of the tombstone, and began to pull out the thatch that was as tall as half a person.Jiang Yu also followed, helping Qi Nuliang tidy up the open space in front of the tombstone.Traces of the previous sacrificial offerings were exposed on the tidied up space, the stone censer still had the bamboo sticks that were used to burn incense, and the stone steps were also blackened by smoke.

Qi Nuliang opened the bag he brought, took out the incense sticks and paper money and lit them one by one.The flames of two white candles danced, and the blue-gray cigarette rose slowly.Qi Nuliang supported Jiang Yu's shoulders and pushed him forward: "Do you know how to worship?"

Jiang Yu nodded.

When my mother was still alive, she would take him to the countryside every year on the first day of the new year to pay homage to his grandma.His mother would keep talking about it every time, and would ask him to go up and bow, but she would leave after the obeisance, and would not go back to her mother's house.

He walked to the front, first bowed his waist and made three bows, then pulled a handful of hay mats on the wet steps, knelt down and kowtowed three times.Except for the day of his mother's funeral, this was the first time he had come to visit her.Time flies so fast, it is already the third year.

Qi Nuliang didn't bow or kowtow, but just lit a cigarette, stood beside the tombstone, and looked at the pile of paper money that was burning slowly because of the light rain.

There is a porcelain photo of Yao Huilan above the tombstone, which is the same photo as the portrait at home.A mature and charming woman with short curly hair and quiet eyes.

At first he couldn't bear it, couldn't face this portrait, couldn't face the fact that she had passed away.Now he has slowly accepted it, but no matter how many times he watched it, Qi Nuliang still felt strange.

The woman in his memory had round and full cheeks like goose eggs, smiling almond eyes, and shiny black waist-length hair.

When she has to work on weekdays, she always twists it into a big bun and piles it on the back of her head, and pins it with a rough wooden hairpin. If she doesn't have a hairpin, she uses bamboo chopsticks.

Only when washing her hair, she puts a large basin of water on the wooden bench next to the dam of her house, bends down and puts her head down, scooping hot water onto her hair.The wet long hair hangs down, glistening in the sun, like a never-drying waterfall.After washing, she sat on the dam to dry, trimming her stubble hair while drying.

The sweet-scented osmanthus scent of the shampoo drifted along the wind, and it easily drifted to Qi Nuliang's house next door.At such times, he would sit on the edge of the threshold, peeping while cutting the pig food.

Yao Huilan was as young as a green onion at that time.

She shook her half-dry long hair and went back to the house. When she came out, she had an extra bag of sugar in her hand.She went straight to Qi Nuliang, squatted beside him, and put the sugar next to the pigweed he had just cut: "Here."

Qi Nuliang knew that his face must be blushing, and said sullenly, "I don't want it."

"Why not? Sesame sticks, delicious."

"I don't like sugar."

This made Yao Huilan laugh, and she rubbed Qi Nuliang's head: "I don't believe it, there is no child who doesn't like candy." She stood up, "After cutting the pigweed in a while, come to me, I see See if your back is better."

Qi Nuliang didn't answer, he was a little unhappy.

He is only ten years old. In everyone's eyes, he is still a child, while Yao Huilan is already a big girl.More than once, he heard uncle Yao next door discussing with his aunt about her marriage.

Yao Huilan is not worried about getting married, and many young men in the village are thinking about her.Seeing that she always likes to bring Qi Nuliang with her, people often ask Qi Nuliang to deliver things for them.At first he helped to deliver it stupidly, but later he quit and refused to be told that Aunt Yao knew that she would swear.

He has no other extravagant wishes, he just hopes to grow up quickly, before the girl gets married.

After cutting the pigweed, he fetched water to wash his hands and face, and wiped the hot sweat from his chest, but he didn't dare to wipe his back.

There are several fresh cuts on his back, which were drawn by his drunk father with a belt yesterday.When the copper bolt head of the cowhide belt scratches the back, it can not only scratch the summer thin shirt, but also scrape off the flesh inside.I applied the medicine last night, but it was stained by the sweat just now, and it was hot, painful and itchy.

For as long as he can remember, he's been a motherless kid.He never enjoyed having a mother for a day, and he was always beaten because of her.

When his father got drunk, he would repeat over and over how ruthless his mother was and how she ran away with other men.Following the man's resentment, it all turned into fists and slaps, and they all greeted Qi Nuliang.

Got beaten again last night.He ran out and happened to run into Yao Huilan who heard the movement and came out to check the situation.The girl took him home, applied medicine to him, and kept him in the middle of the night. He didn't go home until his father fell asleep.

Today was a market day, his father went to Hongcheng for a drink early in the morning, and there was no one else in the Yao family.Passing by the dam between the two families, the watchdog of Yao's family lay down by the door and didn't bark when Qi Nuliang entered the house.

He walked through the main room to the door of the girl's boudoir, and called out, "Xiao Lan, I'm here."

Yao Huilan opened the door, staring at a pair of almond eyes, and looked down at Qi Nuliang: "Who are you calling Xiaolan? It doesn't matter how big or small. Call me Sister Huilan, do you hear me?"

Yao Huilan was half a head taller than him, Qi Nuliang had to lift his chin when talking to her.Feeling humiliated by the gesture, he took a step back.

Thinking that he was going to leave, Yao Huilan grabbed his shoulders and said, "Come in and change your dressing. It's a hot day, be careful of the wound becoming inflamed and pus-filled."

The girl's bedroom is simple, but it is very clean and tidy, and the sweet scent of osmanthus flowers on her hair is even stronger.

I don't know when it started, but every time he entered her room, Qi Nuliang was ashamed and felt like a dung beetle that fell into the flowers, polluting the whole room.

But Yao Huilan never disliked him, let him lie on her bed, and put a pillow on his chest.Qi Nuliang buried his face in the pillow, greedily getting close to every inch of the other's scent.

But the good smell always made him feel extra pain.

He had already discovered that every time he was beaten violently by his father, he didn't seem to feel any pain.But those pains would always wake up in the girl's room. The wound under the fingertips seemed to come alive, and the pain also came to life, torturing him one after another, making him unbearable.

"Oh, it's an inflammation. I'll give you some medicine. It hurts a little. Please bear with it."

"Ah."

Yao Huilan complained while helping him apply the medicine: "You are a fool, why don't you run? I didn't teach you that if your father beats you again, you should run away. The faster you run, the better."

"Ah."

"Yeah, I can't talk." After applying the medicine, Yao Huilan fanned his back with a cattail fan, and said sadly, "Be patient for a few more years, it will be fine when you grow up, and no one will be there when you become an adult." Dare to bully you."

Qi Nuliang retorted dissatisfiedly: "You are an adult, why don't you get scolded by your father every day?"

Yao Huilan is indeed an adult.Suddenly, she choked on this kid, and for a moment she didn't know how to reply, but she quickly smiled and said: "I'm a woman, you are a man, it's different.

"A man must control his own destiny and protect women and children."

Under the cool wind, the pain in his back gradually turned into a kind of itching, and he was dizzy from the bursts of fragrance. Qi Nuliang fell asleep on Yao Huilan's bed after a while.

After sleeping for an unknown amount of time, he was awakened by a noise.Uncle Yao and Uncle Yao came back from the market. They saw that the house was cold, the rice was not cooked, and the pig food was not cut. They were so angry that they scolded Yao Huilan.

"A girl in the eighteenth or nineteenth year of someone else's family, working in the fields, going out to work, and doing everything for the family. It's good for you, you don't cook, you don't do work, I will support you, a loser..."

"Old Yao, just say a few words. How can you scold your girl so badly?"

"You know what a fart. She is already an adult, and she hangs out with that brat next door all day long. I never saw when she cared so much about her brother and asked her to show Chunyang to study. When did she watch it? "

Speaking of this, Yao Huilan was angry, and couldn't help but talk back: "I haven't finished junior high school, so I don't understand."

She did well in junior high school, and the teacher came to her home many times to persuade her, but her father would not let her continue studying no matter what.

"A dead woman, raised you up and hardened your wings, right?"

He yelled and cursed to slap the girl, but was stopped by the girl's mother: "Xiaolan is also pitiful for the boy, his father beat him all the time, and he has no mother since he was a child."

"If you want to be a mother so much, get married as soon as possible. You are eighteen anyway, and this family can't keep you."

Yao Huilan said angrily, "I won't marry."

"It's not up to you."

……

When Qi Nuliang was 12 years old, his father was drunk and beat him again. He didn't know where the strength and courage came from, so he took a firewood stick and opened the forehead of the drunk man.Since then, the frequency of his father beating him has dropped a lot.

In the same year, Yao Huilan got married.

She didn't marry a boy from the same village, but married a city resident in Hongcheng.

The author says:

Brother Qi was so pitiful when he was young o(╥﹏╥)o