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

After passing through the small town and entering the official road, what comes into view is a plain with farmland on both sides. There are no hills, so there is no suitable place to hide.

Zhang was also in a dilemma. After thinking for a while, she said, "Keep walking forward and see if there are any graves. If not, we can just stay under the ridge for the night!"

Grandpa Jinbao looked at the sky and said, "There's a sunset glow in the evening, so tomorrow will definitely be good weather. Let's walk a little further. There's moonlight at night anyway."

They left the official road and walked along the ridges of the fields until dusk. Zhang Pingan pointed to the distance and said, "There's a shed over there."

Jin Bao's father said, "You guys walk slowly, I'll go take a look!"

After saying that, he ran towards the shed with big strides.

After a while, he turned around and waved to everyone, indicating that they could stay.

When everyone pushed the carts and pulled the children over, they found that the shed was not small. There was a stove inside made of randomly piled stones. However, it was covered with thick dust, and it must have been uninhabited for some time.

Grandpa Jinbao looked around and pointed at the fields and said, "This must be the shed that the landlords set up to keep watch in the fields during the autumn harvest."

Xu sat down and pounded her legs, saying, "Thank God, at least there's a place to shelter from the wind!"

After saying that, he started to make a fire and cook. The dry food was ready, but it had become hard after being left out for so many days. It would be much more delicious if it was cooked again with hot water.

Zhang smoked a cigarette and looked into the distance, her expression still as calm as ever.

After Li cooked the porridge, she invited Zhang, Old Man Zhang and the family to eat. There were many people in the family and they didn't bring enough bowls, so usually Zhang and Old Man Zhang would be given a bowl of thicker porridge, and the rest of the people would take turns scooping it from the pot with spoons to eat.

Looking at Dazhu's young wife Meizi's belly which was not noticeable at all, Li sighed in her heart. If there was not enough food, the child would naturally not grow up. Then she thought of Zhang and old man Zhang. They had gone through so many hardships along the way, sleeping in the open air, but the old couple were still very strong and ate a lot.

Zhang was not so bad. After all, she had worked hard for the family for so many years and was the backbone of the family. Li still admired Zhang from the bottom of her heart.

But Old Man Zhang is just a manure-producing machine. He does nothing but eat and just pretends to be deaf and dumb all day long.

Sometimes Mrs. Li would have dark thoughts in her mind, wishing that something would happen to Old Man Zhang and he would die. Recently, this thought became more and more frequent. If he died, some food would be saved. After all, being over sixty years old was considered a very old man, and it would also be a happy funeral. But Old Man Zhang just wouldn't die, and Mrs. Li didn't have the courage to do anything, so she could only think about it.

After thinking about this, Mrs. Li sighed again and left the last two mouthfuls of porridge in the pot to Mei Zi, which made the young wife flattered.

No matter what everyone thinks in their hearts, the overall situation is very harmonious.

It was still a night of taking turns to be on duty. Nothing happened and everyone slept soundly until dawn.

As long as you get a good sleep, you will feel refreshed. As usual, the women took dry biscuits and added water to cook a pot of porridge.

After eating, we set off again.

After only three or four miles, Maodaner, sitting on the cart, pointed to the back and said, "Mom, look, isn't that the guy from yesterday? He's behind us!"

When everyone heard this, they looked back and could only see a small black dot in the distance, which looked like a person, walking towards them.

Zhang Pingan's eyesight was pretty good, but he couldn't see the man's features clearly. However, after confirming that there was only one person, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The road is open to the sky, each of us should go our separate ways. This road isn't ours, so don't worry about him. Everyone just needs to be alert."

The group was traveling at a fast pace, choosing to take the smaller roads. The person behind them also came down from the official road and followed far behind.

Now everyone can be sure that this person is following them.

During the lunch break, the man came closer and ate burnt wheat not far away. There was a circle of black ash around his mouth, and he looked at everyone from time to time.

Zhang Ping'an walked over with his eldest brother-in-law. The man did not hide, but continued to sit cross-legged there, looking up at the two of them with innocent eyes.

"Tell me, why are you following us?" Zhang Pingan said.

"No matter what I do, I'm going to Lin'an, it's on my way," said the man.

"Are you alone?" Zhang Pingan glanced at the other person with suspicion.

The other party said frankly: "Yes, I am alone. My whole family is dead. Now I am an orphan."

Zhang Ping'an and Liu Sanlang didn't say anything.

The man was silent for a moment and then continued, "Don't worry, I have food and I mean no harm. I just don't know the way, so I just wanted to follow you!"

Zhang Ping'an is now confident that he can kill the enemy with one blow, but if he accidentally hurts a passerby, he will feel guilty. After the two looked at each other for a while, Zhang Ping'an turned around and went back with his brother-in-law.

The other person shouted from behind: "Thank you! You don't know my name yet, I'm Guo Jia!"