In the night, I left the house with anger. A gust of north wind blew, and the biting cold made me shudder. I shook my neck and pushed the cart to Ergoudan's house. I knocked for a long time before I heard someone coming out of the yard.

"Who?" Widow Zhang's voice sounded sharply.

"Aunt Zhang, I am Daping." I responded tremblingly.

Widow Zhang opened the door for me in a slight rush, turned around and shouted Ergoudan's name at the west room. When I followed Ergoudan back to his smelly house, I felt almost frozen.

Because the last time their family entered the city, they were warmly entertained by me, Ergoudan's wife looked festive when she saw me. But after waiting for a long time, she didn't see me taking out the pastry that she should have brought for the children and the elderly. She couldn't help but feel a little lonely and her expression became dim.

Ergoudan heard that I was going to stay here, so he drove his wife and children to Widow Zhang's east house to live in. I was so cold that I got into the smelly bed of the couple regardless of the situation.

"Oh, mule, why are you back at this time?" Ergoudan also quickly got on the bed and asked with a little surprise with his teeth bared.

"It's nothing big. I'll get some things home, get some things, and talk to my father for a few words, and then come out to chat with you." I didn't want to tell me the reason, so I made up a reason to perfunctorily treat him.

"I heard that your spoiler is not good anymore. Is this true?" Ergoudan looked at me with a puzzled look in the dim light and shadow of the 15-watt incandescent lamp, as if looking forward to my answer.

"Who did you hear?" I don't know how Xia Wuwa, a hundred miles away, could have known the news in the county town.

"I heard from the accountant Siyan. Your father also said it when he was working in a kiln factory two days ago. He is so old and still doing tiring work of mud and tidying bricks. It's really not easy. He said he wants to make money to build a house and marry you a wife."

Ergoudan's words made me feel nervous. Thinking of my father's tiredness just now, I felt a little uncomfortable.

"You are also working in the kiln factory of Gaozhishu's clerk?" I asked a little puzzled.

"You know, the surname Gao turned out to be a small household in our village. I don't know how to find the relationship between the city, so the branch secretary asked them to do it. This group of people was too dark, so they booked the kiln factory in the village and cut down trees on the canal beach, saying that it was to increase the collective income of the village, and the money was actually put into the branch secretary's personal pocket." Ergou Dan snotted and said angrily, "I went into the gypsum mine in the neighboring village after the Chinese New Year, and I won't do it for dog days."

"Is it the mine opened by Sanhong and his family?" I was shocked and couldn't help asking.

"That's right, when you were in our village, Sanhong was our defeated general. Now they are making a fortune. Do you know? Sanhong and the son of our village secretary Gao's son." Ergoudan spitted under the bed again.

It’s really a mess of people. Why do people like this make money? I thought of Xiao Meihua on the big forehead, and when I think of my current situation, I couldn’t help but feel a turbulent feeling in my heart.

Seeing that I didn't respond, Ergoudan thought I was unhappy, so he quickly changed the topic: "Mule, why didn't you bring your daughter-in-law back this time? You said last time that she looked like a fox fairy, wouldn't it be a lie? You can really marry such a woman."

"When spring begins this year, I will bring you back to see what a real fox fairy is. I am afraid that your eyes will fall out when I go." I just felt warm and said casually.

"It's really..." In the darkness, I couldn't see Ergoudan's expression clearly, and I could only hear his exaggerated voice.

I lost interest in chatting anymore, so I said that I had been riding a car for a whole day and was so tired that I wanted to sleep.

On a cold winter night and a quiet village, Ergoudan fell asleep soon, but I couldn't sleep, so I could only sit up again. I lit a cigarette and leaned quietly against the earthen wall, imagining my father's hard work and mud in the cold wind to build a house for me, and my eyes were a little wet. I knew that the money at home was hard-earned, and every minute was my parents' blood and sweat. The situation in the factory is so bad now. My father had to work in the area for me, or for the incense of the Wu family, and I couldn't bear it.

I was ready to get a penny, but it was my father's attitude that made me angry. I couldn't tolerate his contempt for Sister Hong and Xiaozhuang, especially for Sister Hong's situation. He should have a clear understanding of Sister Hong's situation, but because he was grateful to Mr. Cui, he made him look down on the poor mother and son against his conscience, which made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I decided to go back early tomorrow morning and stop causing trouble for my parents.

As soon as the sky in the east turned white, I shrank my neck and trembled out of the village entrance. I tossed and turned in Ergoudan's fishy quilt for a night. At this moment, my mood was like the cold air, with sadness from the inside out. As an adult man, no matter how thin or lonely you are, you have to grit your teeth and carry it on your own. I regret not thinking carefully this time, and came back rashly.

The fields were hazy, the winter fog was filled with, and the biting cold wind was laughing wildly in my ears. I struggled to climb up the dark canal weir.

"Daping--, Daping--" Before I could get on the car, a series of rapid calls came from behind me.

I stopped in confusion and looked back at me. I saw a figure breaking through the fog and hurriedly chasing me: "Daping, you wait."

The shouts gradually became clearer from far to near. After a while, my mother took steps and trotted all the way to my eyes.

"Daping, you don't say hello if you leave. You really don't have this home in your eyes?" My mother frowned in dissatisfaction and complained in panting.

"I just took a day and a half off. I have to rush back this morning and go to work in the afternoon." I felt awkward and perfunctory.

My mother stuffed a small bag in my hand into my arms: "This is the steamed bun I just got up early and it's still hot. How old are you? You know how angry you are and don't eat breakfast. Can you ride a hundred miles away?"

"I'm not hungry, I can support myself by earning money." Because I was still holding my anger last night, I replied to my mother in anger.

"Are you still angry with your father?" My mother glanced at me with distress, but she scolded her mouth unhappily, "Your father felt sorry for money. That money was exchanged for one sweat bead. How can you not feel sorry for it? But your father is not an unreasonable person. I have been with him for so many years and understand his temper. He loves you. He is afraid that you will suffer a loss. I am afraid that the person named Cui will not be able to get along with you..."

"Stop talking..." I felt a little embarrassed, knowing that yesterday's incident must have made her feel very uncomfortable for this rural woman who loves her son deeply, and has no culture and lacks knowledge. "Mom, I didn't blame you. Go back quickly, I'm really leaving."

"Daping--" My mother grabbed my sleeve and showed a look of sadness on her face.

"Why... there is something else?" I thought my mother was going to talk to me, so I wanted to push the car and leave as soon as possible.

"Wait..." My mother was obviously a little anxious. She held me with one hand and put it in her arms. After fumbled for a long time, she took out a tightly tied small cloth bag and handed it to me tremblingly.

"What is this?" I asked in surprise.

"This is... this is what your father asked me to give to you." My mother's voice was trembling violently. She lifted up the sleeves of her cotton jacket in panic and wiped off her slightly wet eyes.

"What's the matter? Why are you packing so tightly?"

I tied the car and bit it with my teeth before I untied the tied rope bumps on the cloth bag, and opened the cloth bag layer by layer. Finally, a flower handkerchief leaked out. I looked at my mother in confusion before slowly opening the handkerchief.

"Ah..." For a moment, I couldn't believe my eyes and was stunned.

The handkerchief is a pile of banknotes and thick banknotes, but what kind of stack of banknotes are these? The top is a messy small bill of star anise, and the bottom is a wrinkled "great unity" with a denomination of 10 yuan. They are deeply sweat stains and a faint musty smell. Each one is carefully smoothed out, and is tightly tied with rubber bands on it.

"Mom..." I looked at my mother's eyes in a daze, and was a little at a loss for a moment.

"In the past few years, all the money I saved with your father is here, a total of 1,836 yuan and 30 yuan." My mother probably misunderstood what I meant, and she pushed her into my arms while busy explaining, "I originally wanted to build a house for you to marry a wife. Last night, your father didn't close his eyes all night. When he got up this morning, he said it was important to save people, so he asked me to take them all. Daping, don't be angry with him anymore. It's really not easy to save this little money at home..."

My heart twitched suddenly, my throat was sobbing and I couldn't speak. An unparalleled guilt surged from the bottom of my heart, and my vision gradually blurred.

"Mom..." I finally called out in a trembling voice, and quickly turned my face. The uncontrollable tears fell on the cloth bag in my hand like a flood that opened the gate. "Thank you, thank you and dad..."

The newborn sun shone through the sticky morning mist, and the winter land was covered with a faint blush. I had already rode a long way. When I couldn't help but turn my face and look back, I saw my mother still standing in the cold wind watching me. Straws of mist wrapped around her, looking so small and thin on the high weir.

"Mom, go back--" I wiped away the tears from the corners of my eyes and waved hard.
Chapter completed!