An eight-year-old kid emptied his scumbag father's warehouse and followed his grandparents into

As night fell, an oppressive silence filled the dark room.

Seeing that the two old people had already gone to bed, they couldn't stand there any longer. Cheng Rui gently pulled his younger brother Cheng Zhi, and the two of them carefully got into bed and lay down on the other bed with their clothes on.

The wooden bed was very simple. It creaked when they first lay down on it, so the two of them could only lie still.

Under the thin coarse cloth sheet was a thick layer of straw, which gave off a faint smell of hay and seemed to be quite old.

The quilt covering my body is not thick and feels hard, giving me a rough texture. I'm afraid it won't be very warm if I cover myself with such a quilt.

At this time, neither he nor Chengzhi felt sleepy at all, and both pairs of eyes were staring at the ceiling of the tent.

He knew that the two old men couldn't go to bed so early. After hesitating for a long time and thinking about how to start, Cheng Rui finally spoke first: "Grandpa, are you two the only ones at home?"

Cheng Rui asked quietly, a hint of caution in his voice. Cheng Zhi tilted his ear and listened carefully without saying a word.

The room was so quiet that the only sound was the wind outside the window. After a while, the old man let out a heavy sigh, his tone full of sadness.

"Hi!"

The old man's voice was low and hoarse, carrying the vicissitudes of life: "Aren't there only two of us left?"

"During last year's flood, my son and daughter-in-law left home, which was tragic enough. Two weeks ago, because we didn't pay enough tea, my granddaughter was taken away. I'm afraid she won't be able to come back."

Before the old man finished speaking, the old lady probably thought of her poor granddaughter and broke down first.

Her sobs were soft at first, as if she was suppressing something, but soon they became mournful. She covered her mouth with her hands as if to stop herself from crying too loudly, but the choked sobs still echoed in the room, sounding extremely miserable.

Influenced by the old lady, the old man's voice soon began to choke.

It's so tragic! Cheng Rui was deeply moved by the crying. He felt his eyes were sore and his words were a little unnatural: "Grandpa and grandma, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to stir up your sadness." He was full of guilt, feeling that he seemed to have said something wrong and shouldn't have brought up these sad things at this time.

You know the situation here is not good, why not ask anything else? Why ask how many people there are? Isn't this just hitting someone in the gut?

Chengzhi whispered to comfort her, "Grandma, don't cry, Lan'er will definitely come back." His words were well-intentioned, but he didn't expect that they would make the old lady cry even louder.

She cried and said intermittently, "I can't come back, I can't come back!" Her voice was so desperate and painful that Chengzhi was a little at a loss.

The two of them really didn't have much experience in comforting people, and now they didn't dare to speak. They could only listen quietly to their sobs.

There was a sad atmosphere in the room, and time seemed to slow down.

Until the old lady's crying gradually stopped, the old man said in a hoarse voice: "I'm sorry to make you laugh. I have been unable to cry these days. It's good for me to vent now. I can't blame you. If you want to blame someone, you can only blame our miserable life." There was a hint of helplessness in his voice, but also a hint of reluctant relief.

Cheng Rui watched the atmosphere in the room gradually calm down, and then asked again: "Is grandpa's family a tea farmer? Is it because there are not enough people to pick tea?" His voice was still cautious, for fear of touching the old man's sad memories again.

"How can it be a matter of manpower?" The old man sighed, his voice still filled with unspeakable helplessness. "My family only has a few acres of tea. Even if we pick tea morning and night, how many taels can we produce in a day? Even if we dig up the roots of the tea trees and weigh them together, it still won't cover the quota they give us."

His words shocked Chengrui and Chengzhi. They didn't expect the situation to be so serious. No wonder so many people stayed on the mountain, afraid to let go of even a single tea seedling.

After saying that, the old man was heard to comfort the old lady softly for a few words, and the old lady's sobbing gradually subsided.

The room fell silent again, with only the sound of the wind outside the window shaking the branches, making a rustling sound.

After a long while, the old man spoke again: "Because they couldn't pay enough tea tax, after all the men in the village were arrested, they started arresting young girls, and even young wives. Now they have arrested many children as well, and many houses in the village have become empty."

As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the ceiling of the tent, his eyes full of despair, but his voice was much calmer, without a trace of emotion, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"How could this be possible? Are the people who came to arrest us also from the government? If we can't collect enough tea, are we going to hand over our people to the Japanese as well? Isn't that aiding and abetting the enemy?"

In the pitch-black mosquito net, Cheng Rui's eyes flickered with anger. He felt that he had asked too many questions, but he couldn't help asking more.

He always feels uncomfortable if he doesn't get to the bottom of things.

"How could the villagers know? At first, some people went to the government office to look for him, but they couldn't even come back."

There was a hint of fatigue in the old man's voice as he continued, "Some say she was pulled to the mountain, while others say there are large ships on the beach more than a hundred miles away, and she might have been pulled away from the sea." His voice was low and weak, as if he was telling an unsolvable mystery, and sighing for the loss of his only granddaughter.

Cheng Rui asked, "Was he taken away by the government, or by the Japanese? Did no one see it?"

Chengzhi couldn't help it at this time. He said angrily: "This is too tragic. The court just allows its own people to be trampled by the Japanese?" His voice began to choke, and he was obviously touched by this tragic reality.

Bringing up this topic again, Cheng Rui was worried that the old lady would burst into tears again, but the sad sobs did not come again in the end.

The old man sighed deeply again, a hint of death in his voice: "It doesn't matter who pulls it. Who cares about the lives of ordinary people? They are all from the same nest anyway."

"Anyway, this is the situation right now. As long as the government office can't collect the tea, the Japanese will definitely come to riot and kidnap people. They never fail to do so. How could such a coincidence happen?"

His words made Chengrui and Chengzhi feel a chill. They didn't expect that things would be so complicated. The government office and the Japanese were colluding with each other to harm the people.

"Hey! Tomorrow is the day when we come to collect tea leaves. You should leave quickly at dawn and try to avoid them if possible. Otherwise, you will be mistaken for children from the village and you will never come back." The old man was worried about their safety, afraid that they would also encounter misfortune.

Cheng Rui felt sad, but he also knew that the old man was right. They had to leave, otherwise they might cause more trouble for the two old people.

So, he softly promised: "Grandpa, Grandma, you should get some rest early. We will leave early tomorrow morning."

After a long while, the two old men finally began to breathe evenly, as if they had fallen asleep. Cheng Rui and Cheng Zhi, however, remained awake. They lay in bed, their hearts heavy. The people were suffering greatly, and they were powerless to do anything.

They waited until the roosters crowed outside and the sky began to lighten. The old man turned over, mumbled something, and fell asleep again. Cheng Rui knew that they couldn't wait any longer and had to leave.

He gently placed two silver ingots on the pillow, which were their only possessions, hoping to bring some help to the two old people. Then, the two of them quietly opened the door, closed it from the outside, and left silently without saying goodbye.