At Zhang Dapeng's house, Niu Niu leaned against Mrs. Xu and said fearfully: "Mom, I seem to hear Erya's voice."
Xu's face turned pale. He hugged her into his arms, covered her ears, and shouted loudly: "You heard wrong. Apart from the thunder, it was the sound of rain. There was no human voice anywhere."
She pretended to be calm, and her deliberately raised voice could not hide the trembling in her voice. However, Niu Niu was young and quickly accepted her statement and murmured to herself, "I may have been asleep and dreaming, or in my dream." Hungry……"
Before she could finish speaking, Mrs. Xu quickly covered her mouth and scolded her harshly: "Shut up, what nonsense are you talking about? Go to sleep."
When she said this, Mrs. Xu looked at her husband suddenly, her eyes full of fear, lest the listener had intentions.
Under the big banyan tree, lightning pierced the night sky. The girl's twisted and frightened face came into Zhaodi's eyes. Bright red and hot blood spurted all over his body, and a lot of blood splashed on the big banyan tree behind him.
The rain poured down, quickly washing away the blood. Zhao Di's father seemed to have been drained of something, and he collapsed to the ground.
On the other side of the big banyan tree, Zhao Di also fell in a pool of blood.
At this point, amid the pounding rain, shrill screams could be heard from time to time.
On the fifth day without food, the village chief was replaced by the strongest Lin Hu. He organized a team to go to Jinding Mountain to pray for God's blessing.
Including Lin Hu, there were four mature men and two half-year-old teenagers, one of whom was Lin Wenxuan.
They built two boats out of wooden planks and rowed away from the village.
On the sixth day without food, Zhang Dapeng staggered towards Niu Niu, knelt down and gave a friendly smile.
Niuniu, who had been drinking water for six days, had no strength left and her head was droopy. Her eyes lit up when she heard this and she nodded vigorously.
Zhang Dapeng nodded with difficulty, "Well, dad has a way."
Niuniu grinned and urged: "Daddy, go quickly."
Zhang Dapeng walked out of the house with heavy steps. Niu Niu struggled to get up and found Xu who was boiling water.
Xu was shocked, her skinny and yellow face was completely drained of blood, her lips were trembling uncontrollably, and she seemed about to burst into an earth-shattering roar. After a long while, she finally spoke out, "Mom, I know."
A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Dapeng came back carrying a bamboo basket. As he moved, a faint trace of blood seeped out of the bamboo basket and merged into the rainwater.
Niu Niu didn't know where she got the strength, she cheered and ran to tell Mrs. Xu.
Xu's face became more and more reluctant, and her hands could not stop trembling. Niu Niu was not surprised. Her mother always cared about money, and her mother always had a bad look on her face.
The strange thing is that her brother, who is usually the happiest, has been silent today. Niu Niu thought he didn't notice, so she went over to tell him.
Shuanzi turned his face to the side, lowered his eyes, and said "hmm" like a mosquito.
The four-year-old girl couldn't understand the unbearable look in their eyes. She ignored her brother's strangeness and was immersed in joy.
Wet firewood is difficult to burn, the water vapor outside the house is hazy, and the smoke is billowing inside, almost covering the entire courtyard.
At that meal, Niu Niu was very happy and satisfied. It was rare for her family to have a full meal. They even ate better than before the famine, and were almost the same as during the New Year in the harvest years.
After the meal, Zhang Dapeng, Xu, and Shuanzi looked outside from time to time, and stood up in shock at the slightest movement, looking extremely nervous.
The ignorant Niuniu felt something strange about them. She couldn't understand their emotions, but she was keen enough to feel that it was something bad. She kept asking Mrs. Xu, "Mom, what's wrong..."
Mrs. Xu was frightened by her question and lost her temper, "Let's get to the bottom of it, do you want me to give you that hoe?"
Her almost irritable retort made Niuniu cover her mouth and shrink back behind the door.
Boom, boom, boom!
There was another knock on the door, two short and one long. Zhang Dapeng stood up sweating profusely and came to Niu Niu, "Niu Niu, do you want to play? Dad will take you out to play."
Niu Niu looked at him, then turned to look at Xu and Shuanzi, and said timidly: "Dad, it's raining outside."
Zhang Dapeng forced out a stiff smile and said with difficulty: "Your sister Chuncao and Xiao Tao are playing hide and seek under the big banyan tree. Let's go too."
Niuniu looked at Xu again, and seeing that she had no objection, she nodded in agreement, then looked at Shuanzi: "Brother, won't we come together?"
"You girls are playing, your brother is a boy, he and Xiao Zhe are going to play something else."
After saying that, Zhang Dapeng picked up Niuniu and walked out.
When they arrived at the door, Xu's sharp and trembling voice came from inside the house, "Zhang Dapeng!"
Zhang Dapeng stopped and turned around to look at Xu with fiery eyes, which seemed to be encouraging but also looking forward to.
Xu's lips were pale and colorless, and they were trembling constantly. She opened and closed her lips again and again, but she couldn't utter a single word.
It took a long while before she squeezed out a few words from her throat, "Dou, dou hat, put the hat on her, don't get wet."
The light in Zhang Dapeng's eyes went out, and he tightened his arms unconsciously, strangling Niuniu.
Niu Niu frowned and reminded timidly, "Dad, it hurts."
Zhang Dapeng turned around stiffly, took the bamboo hat hanging on the wall and put it on her, walked out of the house, and muttered, "It's dad's fault, it's dad's fault, it's dad's fault..."
Shao Haoyue held her breath slightly and walked out of Niuniu's house. Through the sound of rain, she heard the suppressed crying in the house behind.
The pouring rain hit his body, like a huge boulder falling down, and like thousands of years of ice biting his bones, the coldness from the inside seeped into his limbs and bones.
Under the big banyan tree, three girls were exchanged. Chuncao was twelve years old and already a governor. She knew exactly what she was doing here. She was trembling with fear, but her desperate cry failed to make her father soften his heart;
As the pile of tiny bones were put into clay pots, engraved with talismans to ward off evil spirits, and buried in the soil, the scene shook and collapsed.
The pouring rain, the desperate village, and the crazy villagers all disappeared, leaving desolate ruins in front of them.
Shao Haoyue stood there and did not move for a long time. The eighteen levels of hell were nothing more than this.
