The fire in Zhao's house started in the middle of the night.
People were sound asleep at that time.
If Father Sidan hadn't gotten up in the middle of the night and went to the latrine and discovered the fire, the Zhao family's house would have burned down.
Xiao Mu was the first to open his eyes when he heard voices coming from next door.
He listened carefully and saw four men outside.
Xiao Mu gently pulled his arms out from under Ye Luoxin's neck, turned around and went to the ground, tucked her in again, then put on her clothes and went out.
Seeing Xiao Mu coming out, Sidan's father in the next yard quickly said to him: "Xiao Mu, go and inform Li Zheng that the Zhao family is on fire!"
Needless to say, Xiao Mu also saw the billowing smoke coming out of Zhao's window.
"You try to save people first! I'll be right back!" Xiao Mu shouted.
With quick legs and feet, he ran to Li Zheng's house in the blink of an eye, slapped the door and shouted: "Uncle Li Zheng, get up! The Zhao family is on fire!"
He was sleeping soundly.
In the dream, he practiced martial arts and dueled with a group of bandits.
He fought one against ten and beat the crap out of those bandits.
Just as he was accepting the compliments from everyone and laughing loudly, Xiao Mu's shout suddenly interrupted his sweet dream.
"What?" He sat up suddenly, still a little unconscious.
"Uncle Li Zheng, Zhao Dashan's house is on fire!" Xiao Mu shouted again.
Li Zheng heard it clearly this time. He immediately got up and went to the ground, picked up his coat from the shelf and put it on himself.
Then, ignoring his wife's questions about what he wanted to do, he walked straight into the back room, took out the tightly wrapped gong from the box, and rushed out with it in his arms.
"How did the Zhao family burn? Is the fire strong?"
he shouted as he ran.
Because I was running too fast, one of my shoes fell off before I could reach the gate.
Li Zheng turned around to look for his shoes, but didn't bother to pick them up. He just put the shoes on his feet and opened the door.
As soon as Xiao Mu saw Li Zheng coming out, he immediately said: "I just took a look and the fire is not big. It should be controllable."
"That's good!" Li Zheng said as he took out the gong and gong hammer from the bag and started banging "dang dang dang".
This gong is one of the important objects in the village and will not appear easily.
Whenever you appear, something big must happen.
"It's on fire, it's on fire! Everyone, get up quickly, get your clothes on and go to Zhao Dashan's house to put out the fire!"
Li Zheng was knocking and shouting.
Before dawn, people sleep the deepest, but when the gong rings, everyone wakes up.
"What, on fire?"
"Quick, quick, quick! Get up and put out the fire!"
The villagers all got up.
All the dogs in the village also started barking.
The entire Qingshan Village woke up completely before dawn.
Everyone brought buckets and basins. Some families had a large population and there were not enough basins. Some even brought a bowl.
When Xiao Mu and Li Zheng came back, many people were already standing in the Zhao family yard.
Ye Luoxin and Xu Zhengxiang were directing everyone to divide the villagers into several teams to put out the fire from the front, back, left, and right directions.
The cries of Dahua and Xiaohua came from the crowd. Sidanniang and Yang Feng each hugged one another to stop them from rushing into the house.
Xiao Mu saw Sidan Daddy and asked, "How is it?"
Sidan Daddy shook his head.
"There was too much smoke to get in, and we shouted outside for a long time, but there was no movement inside. It must be..."
Xiao Mu looked solemn.
He stopped asking questions and joined in putting out the fire.
The Xiao family and the Zhao family are relatively close.
In order to prevent the fire from affecting his house, Xiao Changhe had already led people to cover the wall between the two houses with new soil.
Xiao Song, Xiao Jing and Divine Doctor Pei kept guarding this side, constantly pouring water on the flames.
Two hours later, the fire was finally put out.
The Zhao family's house had been burned to a blackened state.
The window lattice has been burned out, and the door frame is still leaning crookedly against the wall.
Xiao Mu kicked over the door frame, stood at the door and looked in.
Just after taking a few glances, I saw two blackened corpses on the ground in the main room.
The corpses were almost carbon-like and entangled with each other. It was only possible to tell through the limbs that they were two people.
"Have you found it?" Li Zheng asked anxiously.
"Yeah!" Xiao Mu responded.
He felt something strange about the corpse in front of him.
The two people in front of me were burned more seriously than the house.
If they died in the fire and tried to escape but failed, they shouldn't be in this state.
"Xiao Mu, come here quickly. The fire has just been extinguished. It may collapse in a while. Let's take a look tomorrow."
After Li Zheng finished shouting, Xiao Mu retreated from the door of the house.
Everyone focused their eyes on his face. Xiao Mu looked at everyone and slowly shook his head.
"This is really a crime! How can it catch fire if it's good!"
"Did you forget to put out the fire on the stove at night, and it came out!"
"Who knows, maybe they didn't want to live anymore and set the fire themselves!"
someone in the crowd said.
After Li Zheng heard it, he glared at the speaker: "Don't talk nonsense if you don't know."
The man stopped talking.
Here, people who commit suicide are looked down upon.
If the elder commits suicide, the younger generation will never be able to hold their heads high as a human being.
Although Big Flower and Little Flower have been sold to the Xiao family, everyone in the village knows that they are from the old Zhao family.
If the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law really commit suicide, Dahua and Xiaohua will inevitably be gossiped about in the future.
"The fire is out, everyone has worked hard!" Li Zheng said to the crowd.
"The Zhao family still has relatives. I will send someone to inform their relatives to come over soon. It is up to the Zhao family to decide whether to report this to the official, and what to do with the two people's funerals. Everyone, please go back and rest!"
After listening to Li Zheng's words, everyone dragged their tired bodies away.
They didn't realize that the situation was urgent just now, but now they just felt tired and had to go back quickly to catch up on their sleep.
**
This morning, Qingshan Village was particularly quiet.
It is rare to see a few figures in the always busy fields.
The Xiao family also returned to the house to catch up on their sleep.
Ye Luoxin didn't sleep. She was sitting in the room, and in front of her stood a big flower and a small flower with red and swollen eyes.
"I know you're upset that something like this happened to your family."
As soon as Ye Luoxin said these words, the tears of the two sisters fell down again like broken beads.
Ye Luoxin continued: "But think about it carefully, why did your house catch on fire just after you left? Is it really such a coincidence?"
Dahua wiped her eyes and looked at Ye Luoxin in confusion, "Sister, what's going on?"
"It's your mother who is paving the way for your future life." Ye Luoxin said in a heavy tone.
When they came back, Xiao Mu and Ye Luoxin told what they saw.
Both people guessed a possibility at the same time: they committed suicide.
If a person burns worse than a house, it only means that the fire starts from the person.
Only in this way can the frame of the house be preserved while the people are burnt.
Ye Luoxin could have not told the two girls this, but life was cruel and they had to be strong and not let down what their mother had done for them.
