The little crybaby in the group, the young master is a softie

"roll!"

Tang Jiu was furious. He reached out and grabbed Zhang Zhili by the collar and lifted the little boy up.

Zhang Zhili screamed and was thrown out of the firewood room by Tang Jiu. He covered his butt and jumped for a long time before he dared to move in slowly and apologized timidly:

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean it, I won't dare to do it again next time..."

On the day of the winter solstice, an old scholar wearing fox fur came to You'an Hall and insisted on drinking the "Zhuangyuan Milk".

Zhang Dafu patted Tang Jiu's shoulder and smiled: "This kid can read and write, and he has a lot of knowledge. I'm sure he will suit your taste."

Tang Jiu was pressed on the large carved bed and saw Zhang Zhili hiding behind the screen, holding a red paper bag filled with candied fruit in his little hand.

The old scholar scratched the lump on his chest with his nails, as if commenting on an animal: "Not bad, he has a scholarly air."

His hands rubbed and twisted Tang Jiu's chest like he was kneading a ball of dough, and Tang Jiu clenched his teeth in pain. Blood oozing from the corners of his mouth dripped onto the satin sheets like a handful of red beans.

"Bad guy!"

Zhang Zhili suddenly rushed out, and when he threw the red paper package at the old scholar, Zhang Dafu's hookah fell to the ground with a clang, but he abruptly stopped the slap he was about to swing at his son in the rising smoke and dust.

He pinched his son's earlobe with his fat fingers, and said with his usual doting tone: "My little ancestor, this is a distinguished guest from the capital..."

"Don't touch Brother Tang Jiu!" Zhang Zhili pushed Zhang Dafu away, and stood in front of Tang Jiu with his small stature, staring at the old scholar, "Go away!"

Zhang Dafu looked at his son's angry face and nodded quickly, "Okay, okay, I'll do as you say! Someone, send this gentleman to the side room to rest, and prepare two jars of 30-year-old Huadiao to make amends."

The old scholar was helped away cursing. Zhang Dafu squatted down, wiped the candied fruit crumbs from the corner of his son's mouth with his sleeve, and coaxed him softly:

"Zhili, my good son, I'll have someone make you some steamed yogurt with sugar tonight. Don't get angry with me, okay?"

Zhang Zhili looked at Tang Jiu's back as he was dragged away, and suddenly felt that his father's hand was like an oil-soaked rag, greasy and fishy.

Late at night, Zhang Zhili sneaked into the woodshed holding a golden nanmu food box. Tang Jiu lay on the straw mat, the pus and blood on his back soaking through his coarse cloth jacket, and three fresh whip marks stretched from his shoulders to his waist, like three red centipedes sucking blood.

"They beat you." Zhang Zhili's voice trembled, and the cheese in the lunch box rippled. "It's all my fault..." He dipped a handkerchief in clean water and gently wiped the blood on Tang Jiu's back.

"Smell it." Tang Jiu smiled bitterly and turned over, the lump on his chest almost touching Zhang Zhili's face, "Does this smell the same as the goat milk you drink?"

Zhang Zhili stepped back suddenly, spilling the cheese on the straw mat, attracting several cockroaches.

He stared at the yellow liquid oozing from Tang Jiu's chest, and thought of the rose petals floating in the goat milk he drank in the morning. It turned out that those petals were used to cover the smell of blood.

"Let your father kill me tomorrow." Tang Jiu grabbed a handful of cheese and rubbed it on the wound. Cockroaches immediately crawled all over his chest. "Anyway, my milk is almost gone."

Zhang Zhili looked at the bugs crawling on Tang Jiu's body and suddenly felt his stomach churning.

"Then I'll ask my father to let you go. He loves me the most and he listens to everything I say!"

"Your father doesn't care about you, but the golden bean in your belly." Tang Jiu always liked to scare him, "When you are no longer useful, he will throw you into the waste well anyway."

Zhang Zhili knew the well in the backyard. There was always a heavy stone mill covering the wellhead. Once he took a sneak peek and saw half a rotten hand floating in the well water, with water plants stuck in the gaps between the fingernails.

"Brother Tang Jiu..." Zhang Zhili called softly with red eyes.

"Don't call me brother."

Tang Jiu said indifferently: "When you grow up, if you still remember me, you will know that my brother's bones are only worth five taels of silver."

The north wind howled outside the woodshed, making the window paper rustle. Zhang Zhili suddenly heard something cracking in his chest.

It's not bones, it's heart, like a piece of frozen ice, broken into millions of pieces, each piece reflected Tang Jiu's festering skin and his father's hideous smile.

Zhang Zhili stole his father's banknote box on a snowy night and tiptoed to push open the wooden door of the firewood room. Tang Jiu was scraping the chilblains on his arms with his frozen hands. He looked like he had no breath, but he was still alive.

Zhang Zhili choked up and handed over the box of silver bills.

Tang Jiu looked at it and didn't answer it.

"Here!" Zhang Zhili sobbed, "Brother Tang Jiu, use it to redeem me!"

"I told you you're stupid, but you still refuse to admit it," Tang Jiu mocked, "Your father's money smells like oil. If I take this money to go find him, wouldn't that be a trap for me?"

Zhang Zhili was at a loss. At only five years old, he couldn't think so much.

"What should we do? ... Otherwise, I will take you to report to the police, and the great judge will make the decision for you!"

Tang Jiu closed his eyes and waved his hands tiredly: "Forget it."

He didn't have the energy to say more.

"But I'm scared." Zhang Zhili burst into tears.

"What are you afraid of?"

"Those people said my father was bad, and they bullied Brother Tang Jiu. I was afraid that Brother Tang Jiu would be beaten again."

Tang Jiu couldn't help laughing, and his smile was extremely pale.

"Okay, let's take a gamble." He opened his eyes, "Get me some paper."

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, the day when the Kitchen God ascended to heaven, Zhang Zhili clutched the petition written by Tang Jiu and followed him in the snow, one step deep and one step shallow.

Tang Jiu had a blood-soaked cloth wrapped around his chest, and in his arms were the severed fingers of thirty-seven children. They were the "witnesses" he had secretly collected for half a year, marinated in lard in a clay pot, and the rotten sweetness could be smelled when the lid was opened.

Zhang Zhili looked at the stone lions at the gate of the county government office and thought of the gilded ornaments in his father's study.

The night-shining pearl in the lion's mouth glows at night. His father said it was a "treasure to ward off evil", but now he feels that the pearl is as red as the pus and blood on Tang Jiu's chest.

As the drum beats echoed through the snow, Tang Jiu saw his own shadow reflected in the pupils of the stone lion. His hair was covered with ice, and the lump on his chest protruded through the rags, like a frozen tree knot in the cold winter.

Zhang Zhili beside him was wearing a gold-woven fox fur coat, with ice crystals hanging on his eyelashes, looking like a handsome young man from a play.

Tang Jiu stumbled to his knees, the blood scabs on the corners of the petition rubbing against the bluestone slab. Zhang Zhili followed suit and kowtowed, the county magistrate's official boots rolling over the petition, the golden python pattern glowing coldly in the snow.

"You said that You'an Hall..." The county magistrate dragged out his voice and tapped the gavel with his fingertips, "Is it a shop that sells human milk?"

Tang Jiu looked up and saw the jade pendant on the county magistrate's earlobe swaying, just like the canary raised by Zhang Dafu.

He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing the purple-black lump on his chest: "Sir, please look, this is caused by the milk-inducing drug..."

"presumptuous--!"

The gavel clattered loudly, and the county magistrate's mustache trembled like a maggot. "How dare you use witchcraft to deceive me in broad daylight!"