Siheyuan: Sizhu starts blindly and takes a new path

Banggeng looked at the endless ridges of the field, and his calves were shaking. The memory of being supervised to work a few days ago came to his mind, and the blisters on his palms that had not yet healed began to ache again.

"Brother, my hands are full of wounds..." Banggeng stretched out his hands and said pitifully.

Tieshuan sneered, "Injury? Let me see." He grabbed Banggeng's hand and pressed hard on the blisters with his rough fingers. "You call this an injury? Which of us brothers doesn't have calluses on our hands?"

The stick was in so much pain that he gasped and tears welled up in his eyes.

"Get to work!" Tie Niu hit Banggeng on the back with a willow branch. "If you dawdle any longer, you'll be fined half a ridge!"

Banggeng gritted his teeth, raised his hoe, and began to dig the ground. Tieniu and Tieshuan stood on his left and right behind him, like two door gods. Tiezhu was doing his own work not far away, glancing over here from time to time.

The sun gradually rose higher, and Bang Geng's sweat flowed down his cheeks, and a large area of ​​his clothes on his back was wet. He secretly slowed down and dug with the hoe intermittently.

"Snap!" The willow branch hit my calf mercilessly, causing a burning pain.

"Ouch!" Bang Geng jumped up, "Brother, be gentle!"

Tie Niu said with a dark face: "I will count to three. If you keep going at this speed, you won't be able to eat today. One, two..."

Banggeng quickly sped up his movements, swinging the hoe very fast. But before long, he slowed down again. This time, it was Tieshuan who struck him on the waist with a stick.

"You are going to beat me to death!" Banggeng threw down the hoe and shouted angrily.

Tie Niu narrowed his eyes and said, "Beat you to death? We are teaching you a lesson! Do you think you can be a boss just by marrying my sister? Wugou Village doesn't support idle people!"

"I...I'm going to ask the captain for justice!" Bang Geng said with his neck stiffened.

Tieshuan laughed loudly: "Go ahead and see whether my father will help you or us!"

Banggeng immediately became depressed. A few days ago, because he did not take care of sick Maya, his father-in-law, Captain Li, was extremely disappointed with his son-in-law. The day before yesterday, he said in front of the whole village that if Banggeng was lazy again, he would kick him out of the house.

At lunch, Banggeng's hands were shaking so much that he could hardly hold the chopsticks. Maya filled him with a bowl of sorghum rice and topped it with a few slices of pickled vegetables. He ate it so ravenously that he didn't even have the strength to speak.

"We'll go to the West Hill to carry stones this afternoon." Tiezhu said as he ate. "The brigade wants to repair the canal, and each family needs to provide two laborers. I'll be in a group with my eldest brother, and you can follow my third brother."

Bang Geng almost spit out his food when he heard this: "Carrying stones? I... I already..."

"What already?" Tieshuan put the bowl down heavily. "The work you did this morning was worse than that of a woman! If you slack off again in the afternoon, you won't have dinner!"

Maya lowered her head and ate her meal, not daring to say a word. Banggeng was so angry at her cowardly look that he kicked her hard under the table.

"Ah!" Maya cried out in pain.

Tie Niu immediately glared at him: "Jia Geng, what are you doing?"

Bang Geng hurriedly shook his head: "No...nothing, I just bumped into it by accident."

The three brothers exchanged glances, and Tieshuan stood up: "Let's go, go now. Finish the work earlier and come back earlier."

The quarry on the west mountain was more than three miles away from the village. Banggeng dragged his heavy feet behind Tieshuan, and every step felt like stepping on cotton. It had rained last night, and the mountain road was muddy. His worn rubber shoes got stuck in the mud several times and couldn't be pulled out.

When they arrived at the quarry, there were already more than a dozen people working. Tieshuan took two shovels and two backpacks and threw them to Banggeng: "Load mine first, then yours."

Banggeng looked at the backpack that was half a person's height, and his eyes went dark. But he knew that resistance was useless, so he had to pick up the shovel and start putting stones into Tiesuo's backpack.

"Fill it up!" Tieshuan supervised from the side, "Yes, press it down a little more, and you can put a few more pieces in."

When Tieshuan's backpack was full, Banggeng was already panting. The backpack weighed at least 100 pounds, but Tieshuan carried it easily and urged Banggeng: "Hurry up, you have to carry it 20 times before dark."

Banggeng began to put stones into his backpack with trepidation, and wanted to stop after filling half the basket.

"Add more!" Tieshuan shouted, "You are carrying worse than a woman!"

Banggeng had no choice but to add a few more pieces until Tieshuan nodded. He tried to carry it on his back, but his knees weakened and he almost fell to the ground.

"Let's go!" Tieshuan had already walked a long way and shouted back.

Banggeng gritted his teeth and moved forward step by step. The weight on his back made him unable to straighten his back, and sweat flowed into his eyes, burning with pain. There was a small dirt slope on the road, and he climbed it three times. The last time, Tieshuan couldn't bear it anymore and pushed him from behind.

"Useless!" Tieshuan cursed, "You dare to marry my sister with your little strength?"

The round trip took more than an hour. When Banggeng collapsed on the ground and gasped for breath, Tieshuan had already returned from the second trip.

"Get up!" Tieshuan kicked him. "You're pretending to be dead after just one trip?"

Banggeng really wanted to die. He struggled to get up and dragged his feet back to the quarry. The second trip was more difficult than the first. The straps of the backpack dug into the flesh of his shoulders, and every step he took felt like he was walking on the edge of a knife.

On the third trip, Banggeng couldn't hold on any longer and slipped on a downhill slope, rolling down with the backpack. The rocks hit him and he screamed in pain.

Tieshuan ran over, and his first reaction was not to help him, but to check the backpack: "The basket is not broken, the stones are half scattered. Pick up the stones and put it back on your back!"

Bang Geng lay on the ground pretending to be dead: "I... I can't move..."

"Can't move?" Tieshuan sneered and untied his belt from his waist, "Then I'll help you move!"

The pain from the belt made Banggen scream and he crawled to pick up the stones. His arms and legs were all scratched and it hurt whenever he moved, but under Tieshuan's supervision, he had to pick up the scattered stones one by one and put them back into the backpack.

When it was dark and work was over, Banggeng only carried the load five times, while Tieshuan carried it 15. On the way home, Banggeng almost crawled, and Tieshuan had to half-drag and half-pull him.

"Continue tomorrow." Tieshuan threw the stick stem at the door of Li's house and said coldly, "Until you can carry it ten times."

Maya brought some hot water to clean Banggeng's wound, but Banggeng pushed her away and said, "Get lost! Your whole family is ganging up on me!"

Captain Li just walked into the room and heard this. His face darkened: "To mess with you? Jia Geng, if you don't want to stay in our Li family, you can get out now!"

Banggeng immediately became timid and lowered his head, not daring to say a word. He knew that if he was kicked out of the Li family, he would really not be able to survive in Wugou Village.

The next day, before dawn, Tiezhu knocked on the door. Banggeng was in so much pain that he could hardly move, but he was still dragged up to go to work.

In this way, for more than ten consecutive days, the three brothers of the Li family took turns to supervise Banggeng's work. Whether it was hoeing the land, carrying manure, or repairing the canal, Banggeng was forced to complete the same amount of work as other strong laborers. If he slacked off, he would be beaten with a stick.

Banggeng became thinner and darker at a visible speed. His once fair face became dark and rough, and thick calluses grew on his hands. Every day when he came home, he didn't even have the energy to eat, and fell asleep immediately.

That night, Bang Geng suddenly developed a high fever. He felt that he could finally rest for a few days, and he even felt a little happy.

"Pretending to be sick, huh?" Tie Niu touched his burning forehead, sneered, and turned to Tie Shuan and said, "Go get a barefoot doctor and give him an injection. We'll carry him to the field tomorrow even if we have to!"