The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

It was already dawn and everyone had finished their meal. After packing up their things, they continued their journey.

Liu the butcher's family took the lead, and everyone put their weapons at hand, worried that the fake bandits from last night would come again, which would make it a tough battle.

Grandpa Jinbao once said, "I heard that the corpse-drivers in western Hunan carry copper bells and gongs because they sound warnings before they pass through each place, forcing locals to close their doors and avoid them. Locals believe that seeing a corpse-driver is extremely unlucky, and they can't afford to offend gods and ghosts, so it's very taboo. So those bandits shouldn't come again. I see that although they are thin, they are not skin and bones, and their basic humanity is still there."

Zhang also sighed while smoking a cigarette, "Yeah, when you're really starving to the point of being skin and bones, even if the Buddha stands before you, it's useless!"

After walking more than a mile, Xu suddenly called out, "Where's the child?"

When San Ya gave birth to her child, Xu sat on her uncle Xu's cart. There was no roof on the cart, so Zhang Laoer cut some straw nearby and barely weaved a straw mat. He used long, tough wooden sticks to form an arch at both ends of the cart, and then put the straw mat on top to barely block the wind.

Xu and the families of Daya and Erya gathered together a thin quilt and wrapped Sanya tightly, leaving only her face exposed.

The child was placed in a basket next to San Ya.

When Xu went to get brown sugar from her own car in front, she found that the basket was gone when she came back.

San Ya had no expression on her face when she heard the question.

Zhang Pingan asked his father to continue driving the car while he ran to the back to check the situation. He quickly discovered the problem: "My third brother-in-law is also missing. He must have taken the child away."

Uncle Xu walked beside the car and said hesitantly, "Yongde seemed to be carrying the child to the back. He might have thrown him away!"

Shen curled her lips and continued, "That's impossible. She just threw it away. I heard San Ya asked her husband to throw it away, and he didn't object."

Xu was angry: "Why didn't you say anything just now and stop me?"

Shen protested her injustice and said nonchalantly, "Just throw away a disabled child. As the old saying goes, if you can't survive seven or eight, you won't survive if you keep it!"

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Xu really wanted to slap the child in the face. Is this what a human being says? If the child really couldn't be raised and died, then so be it, she wouldn't take it to heart. But if she just threw the child away like that, she really couldn't get over it. She would always feel that she was lacking in virtue!

Just like when she gave birth to five daughters, when she was four or five, she had the idea of ​​dying with the children, but she never thought of abandoning them!

Zhang Pingan looked into the car: "Third sister, are you really so cruel as to not want this child? He is the one you have been waiting for with so much hardship!"

"He is not my child," San Ya's hoarse voice came with determination.

Zhang Pingan fell silent. He sighed and stopped trying to persuade him. "I've already said this this morning that we won't take risks with so many people in the team just because of someone. We need to move on now. Since you chose not to have the child, just don't regret it!"

After hearing this, San Ya silently shed two tears in the car.

After Zhang Ping'an finished speaking, he went back to the front and took out a few pieces of Guyuan Cake. These were made according to the recipe that Chen Jianqiu had helped to prescribe at that time. They were specially used to replenish vital energy. Zhang Ping'an had never been willing to eat them and had kept them for emergencies.

After taking it, Xu dissolved it with brown sugar and made a large bowl of it for San Ya to drink. She now had complicated feelings towards her daughter and didn't want to talk to her for the time being.

Apart from Da Ya and Er Ya asking a few more questions, other people just sighed and expressed their regrets, but it didn't cause any waves. In Zhang's words, as a mother, she is so cruel, why should others worry about her help!

After walking slowly for nearly two miles, Sanya suddenly patted the cart and shouted, "Mom, ask cousin Tiancai to stop for a moment!"

Xu asked impatiently, "What's wrong with you?"

San Ya asked, "Why hasn't Yongde come back for so long? Can you help me check on him?"

Only then did Mrs. Xu realize that her third son-in-law had indeed been gone for quite a while. Even if he had abandoned the child, he would not have thrown him far away. It was indeed strange that she had not seen him for such a long time.

After thinking about it, she jumped out of the car and went to the front to talk to her husband and son.

Zhang Laoer said without hesitation: "Let him go, don't worry about him, he will come back naturally in a while."

Zhang Ping'an felt something was wrong. His third brother-in-law was not a procrastinating person, so he followed him to the back of the car and rummaged through it. He opened the basket where the bags, pots and pans were kept and found that most of the dry food was gone, with only some fried soybeans left.

The bags containing valuables such as silver, clothes, shoes, socks, travel passes, and household registration cards, which were always carried by everyone, were also gone.

"Third brother-in-law probably abandoned the child and ran away. Third sister, check if the silver in your bag is still there!" Zhang Pingan said coldly.

San Ya was startled when she heard this. She stood up, pulled the bundle over, opened it, felt around, and murmured, "The silver is gone!"

Xu said anxiously, "You are so stupid! Your husband is carrying a child and a large bag of food and clothes, and you don't even suspect anything? Doesn't he check every day to see if the silver is there?"

Sanya burst into tears immediately, "Mom, I have a miserable life, please go back and help me find him!"

Before Zhang Pingan could say anything, Uncle Xu suddenly pulled his sleeve and said, "Pingan, look!"

I saw a man wearing a felt scarf walking on the small path beside the official road. He had a large red spot on his face and his complexion was pale. He was the corpse driver from western Hunan whom I had seen an hour or two ago.

It was now bright outside, and the view was clearer. The man was in his early twenties at most, with very light eyebrows, which gave him a cold look. He was holding a baby, walking through the morning dew and coming towards the crowd from the path.

"Is this person coming to see us?" Aunt Shen asked curiously because she had never seen this person before.

Xu's eyes were sharp, and she pointed at the child and said, "Isn't this Sanya's baby? I was the one who took out the swaddle!"

This person was very nimble and walked up to the crowd in a moment. He asked in a hoarse voice, "Is this your child?"

No one answered.

Zhang Pingan stepped forward and replied, "Yes, it's my third sister's child. Why is it with you?"

The other person looked up and stared at Zhang Pingan, saying, "I was sleeping when I heard a baby crying. I opened the door and saw the man who was with you before. He put the child on the ridge of the field near the Corpse Inn, and then he left."

The other person may speak very slowly because he rarely speaks and his voice is hoarse.

San Ya struggled to get out of the car and asked anxiously, "Where did he go?"

The other party pointed to the south.

San Ya lost her balance and almost fell to the ground, and was supported by Xu.

The other party ignored him, just held the child and looked at San Ya intently and asked, "Do you still want him?"

San Ya was like a madman, not caring about her fear. She pointed at the child and screamed, "Who wants him? I wish I had never given birth to him! He's a jinx! He's just trying to bring bad luck to me!!!"

The man on the other side looked at San Ya in silence for a long time before he hissed again, "Then he belongs to me. I will raise him from now on."

After saying that, she turned around, picked up the child and walked back the way she came.