At the beginning of the year of famine, the lucky girl of the farm family used cheats to support the

The Spring Festival is here in a blink of an eye. The day before yesterday, Chongwang and a few of his younger brothers stood on small stools and pasted Spring Festival couplets neatly on the door.

Yisheng: "Brother, what's written on it?"

Chongwang smiled and touched his head, saying helplessly: "Brother doesn't know, you will know when you grow up and study."

Yisheng nodded ignorantly: "I want to study, but Master Yang won't accept me..." His voice was very low, but it fell clearly into Fubao's ears.

Fubao looked at this scene and made up his mind that if he went down the mountain, he must first make money to support Yisheng's studies. Before the drought, the family could not afford so much money. After the drought, his grandmother did not dare to spend the money given by his uncle at will, otherwise the family would starve.

There is a private school in the village, which is taught by the village chief's nephew. However, children who cannot pay the tuition are not allowed to enter.

……

For the New Year's Eve dinner, the family prepared a table full of dishes, six meat dishes and six vegetable dishes. There was almost no room for so many plates and bowls on the table.

Fubao also found a bottle of white wine in the space. As soon as he opened it, the aroma of wine filled the air.

Li Huaiqing was extremely happy: "I have lived for so long, and I have never had such a good New Year..." As he said that, he poured a bowl of wine, took the chopsticks, dipped a little and handed it to Fubao's mouth: "Girl, you took it, do you want to taste it?"

Fubao took a sip and his face wrinkled instantly: "So spicy..."

Everyone at the table burst into laughter at her reaction.

There were two dumplings in Fubao's small bowl, and Zhao Xiuer gave her a small portion of each dish with her chopsticks: "Let our little greedy cat satisfy his craving today."

The brothers were so busy eating that they had no time to talk. Even with the vegetables and meat Fubao gave them on normal days, it was far less sumptuous than today. Besides, grandma was very frugal, so the growing children could only eat enough to fill themselves up.

Fubao's mouth was full and he said incoherently, "Delicious!"

Zhang Ercui, who usually doesn't like to tease her, couldn't help but put a piece of food into her bowl with chopsticks: "If it tastes good, eat more."

After the lively dinner, the adults in the family lit oil lamps to stay up all night and it was unknown how long they fell asleep.

The next morning, Fubao put on the new clothes that Zhao Xiuer made for her. The red jacket made her look even fairer and cuter, and she looked like the lucky doll in the New Year pictures.

The family gathered together, and the brothers kowtowed to their grandparents one by one. Li Huaiqing stroked his gray beard and happily took out a red envelope: "Here, one for each of you!"

In the past, the family was not well off, and we only gave three or four cents to the children, but today we gave them a full one hundred cents.

Zhou Qiaoping: "Take it."

Before they were even warm in their hands, the red envelopes from the children had already gone into A-niang's pocket. They were said to be for the children, but in fact they were for their family, so at least they didn't have to give out even a little money.

Finally, Li Huaiqing happily took out a tael of silver and stuffed it into Fubao's small pocket: "Fubao is a great contributor, grandpa will give you New Year's money..." The others didn't see how much he gave at all, and thought it was the same as other children, so they didn't care much.

Fubao looked at his grandparents with bright eyes and said crisply, "Grandpa and grandma, everything goes well."

The happy old couple hugged and kissed her.

Throughout the whole day, Li Huaiqing used wood to make many small toys for the children. The room was filled with bamboo dragonflies and wooden horses. They were exquisitely crafted and polished very smoothly. The children had a lot of fun playing with them.

After a whole day of playing, I was exhausted.

Three days later, Li Shuangrong went down the mountain to explore the route. Fubao played too late the day before and did not wake up until almost noon.

As soon as I got up, I heard familiar footsteps hurrying back on the snow outside: "Something happened in the village!"

Hearing her father's panting voice, Fubao turned over, slowly slid down from the small bed that her grandfather had just made for her, and walked towards the hall: "Dad, Dad."

Li Shuangrong said anxiously: "I don't know what happened in the village. All the doors are closed. I don't know if there is no one or if everyone has left."

Zhao Xiuer: "Did he go to visit relatives?"

Li Shuangrong: "That's impossible. I went to Liu Er's house and knocked on the door, but no one opened it."

Li Huaiqing's face turned pale and he said, "No, let's go another way. I'll go with you."

Zhou Qiaoping: "What are you going to do? Are they going to come out just because you're going back?"

Zhao Xiuer: "Master, where is Grandma Jin? Is she still home?"

Li Shuangrong shook his head and said, "I don't know. The doors were closed. I just walked around Grandma Jin's place and didn't knock on the door."

Zhang Ercui: "Will they all die..."

Li Darong interrupted her before she finished speaking: "You can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth. What nonsense are you talking about?"

Zhang Ercui shut up and shrank her neck.

Li Huaiqing was very determined: "No, I'll go and take a look. After all, so many of our relatives are still in the village... Besides, can we still live here forever?"

After several people failed to persuade him, Li Shuangrong had to accompany him down the mountain again. Chongwang said nothing, but still followed the two of them.

Fubao grabbed his father's clothes and said, "Dad, take me with you."

Li Shuangrong: "Fubao, stop making trouble. Wait here. Dad will be back to pick you up soon."

Soon, the three people disappeared from the snow. Until noon of the next day, they returned to the cabin covered in dust and with exhausted looks on their faces.

The family members were so anxious that they didn't sleep all night and their eyes were red. Li Darong couldn't wait to go out to look for someone several times, but was stopped by Zhou Qiaoping.

As soon as they saw their figures, the family's tense nerves finally relaxed.

Zhou Qiaoping: "What's going on? You came back so late."

Li Huaiqing drank a bowl of water in big gulps and said, "Yesterday all the villagers went to Zhangjiazhuang, so we went too."

Zhang Ercui asked anxiously, "Why are you going to our village?"

Li Shuangrong: "The government wants to recruit people to dig a canal. They say the drought is too severe and there is too little water in the village, so they want to divert water from the canal to the village below us."

Li Darong slammed his fist on the table: "Isn't this nonsense! The canal is almost fifty miles away from here, how can we dig it? Zhongling Village is full of rocks, they can't dig it even when they are farming, how can we break all the rocks?"

Li Huaiqing was worried: "This time, the prefect said that it must be done. Each family must send at least two people, and it must be done within three months..."

Zhou Qiaoping: "Three months, that's simply impossible."

Li Huaiqing: "It's impossible for them to go. Do you think that the villagers all want to go to Zhangjiazhuang to listen to their orders? They are all urged to go there by the yamen runners. Even the little kids have to go."

Li Shuangrong: "We have to go the day after tomorrow, otherwise the government will come to arrest us."

Zhou Qiaoping: "What are they going to do..."

Li Huaiqing: "If you go, you can get 50 cents a day. If you don't go, you will be arrested."

As he said this, he took out his pipe and took a puff.

Zhou Qiaoping: "What if we don't go out and just live here?"

Li Shuangrong sighed: "Mom, there is no way we can escape. Our family's names are still remembered in the village. If we don't go, we will be punished."

After a long silence, Li Huaiqing said, "Pack up and go down the mountain tomorrow. The eldest and the second oldest should go to Zhangjiazhuang the day after tomorrow. If you feel too tired, come back and I will take over."

The family began to pack up silently, and at dawn the next day, they walked back to the village on the melted snow.

As soon as I entered the village, the first person I saw was Yang Daxing...