The snow fell quietly this time, and the charcoal pot in the house was still steaming. Hua'er bent over her desk and had a dream, in which she couldn't see anything clearly due to the heavy fog in the sky. She was vaguely walking slowly along the street in front of Baifu. She kicked something, looked down and saw a body. Panic surged up from her dantian, and she held her hand on the wall to breathe. Suddenly the fog dissipated, and there were layers of people on the ground, and blood was flowing out along the joints of the stone roads. She covered her mouth, unable to believe that this was true. Looking forward, she saw a man with his head in different places, except for one head. She was very familiar with that head, it was the flying slave who called her "Sister Hua'er, Sister Hua'er" all day long.
Hua'er's forehead was covered with sweat. She wanted to wake up from her dream, but the boundless dream held her back. She struggled to get free, but someone patted her: "Hua'er! Hua'er!" She finally sat down. He got up and looked at Ah Hu blankly.
"Hua'er, where are they?" Ah Hu woke up from his sleep and opened his eyes to find that everyone was gone.
"They...Xianchan gave rice soup to the third brother...Brother Feinu said..."
Ah - where is the baby? Baby!
The two stopped talking at the same time, and Ah Hui asked: "Did you hear it?"
"It seems to be the Xianchan family."
After making the distinction, Hua'er stood up suddenly: "No! No! Little Third Brother!"
Hua'er wrapped herself in the coat at hand and walked out. The coat was a paper fur coat made of mulberry bark. In the spring, catkins were floating in the sky. Grandma Sun collected the bags and stuffed them into the paper fur coat to barely keep out the cold in winter. . Hua'er's paper coat was scratched one day, and she sewed it up by herself, but because it was too tattered, it now seeped out. He lowered his head and stuffed it back in, pinching it with his fingers. There are many cracks on the back of my hands, but I can't care less.
"Where are you going?" Sun Po asked her after hearing the noise.
"I'll go take a look." Hua'er said, "The sound is probably Aunt Wang. I'll go see what's wrong. Grandma, please don't go out. It's snowing right now and it's extremely cold outside. I'm afraid you won't be able to bear it. .”
Hua'er and Ah Hui went out and walked along the wicker alley. In the early years, Willow Lane was not called Willow Lane, but Baihua Lane. In the past, probably due to Feng Shui, the families in this street and alley had many women, and the women were as beautiful as flowers. With a stroke of his pen, the official named it Baihua Lane. In a few years, most of the women in Baihua Lane will get married, and the newborn children will die as if they were cursed. From then on, Baihua Lane was like the loser who had been beaten, old-fashioned and in a state of death. In the old days, Baihua Lane was renamed as Willow Lane.
It was cold and freezing, and the white snow was covered with soft mud that had not been frozen hard. When I stepped on it, my shoes sank in. When I pulled out hard, only my feet wrapped in rag strips came out. Hua'er shivered and bent over to pull out her shoes and put them on. Walk carefully close to the ground with broken bricks under the corner of the wall.
The two of them were getting closer and closer to the sound, and the cry was so pitiful in the night. Hua'er looked back at Ah Hui and said, "Brother Ah Hui, I'll go in first later."
Aunt Wang had previously suffered from hysteria due to the loss of her child, and she was not fully clothed and her speech was confused. At this moment, Aunt Wang was crying with her hair disheveled, her paper fur drooping on her body, like a wandering soul in the unclear sky, she had lost her heart.
Aunt Wang is crazy.
Losing two children one after another would make anyone crazy. Some people asked them to report to the official, while others shook their heads: What official should they report to? Does reporting to the official work? Wicker Lane is cursed!
"Stop talking!" Hua'er shouted: "What if it's not the case!"
She walked in first and found that Xian Chan was not there. Aunt Wang was holding a piece of wood and crying: "Where is the baby? Where is the baby?" After a while she laughed again: "Here he is! He is here!"
Hua'er felt sad for a while, then stepped forward to put her clothes on and hurried outside, saying to the waiting Ah Hui: "Brother Ah Hui, go find Xian Chan! Also, I wonder if the person who stole the child has gone far!"
"I know!" Ah Hui turned around and ran away. He was very strong and moved quickly. He ran into the approaching Nian Chan and Zhao Ye just after running a few steps. Xianchan grabbed her collar and asked him: "Brother Ah Hu, what's wrong?"
"Your third brother is missing!"
Xian Chan's vision went dark, and he was held by Zhao Ye. After a while, she opened her eyes and ran home, with Zhaoye following behind her. When Aunt Wang saw Xian Chan entering the door, she was stunned for a moment, her mind seemed to clear up, and she suddenly rushed towards her and beat her: "Where have you been! Where have you been!" Xian Chan let Aunt Wang beat her and sobbed. Hua'er went to hug Aunt Wang and cried: "Auntie, you blame me, blame me! I was stupid and insisted on drinking with me tonight. Xianchan drank with me and got drunk. You blame me."
Xian Chan stepped forward and wanted to speak, but Hua'er slapped her hand to prevent her from speaking. She said that Aunt Wang would hate her forever, blame her for not being at home, and find out where she went. From now on, as long as Aunt Wang is conscious, she will be in more pain.
The three of them hugged each other and cried, not knowing what to do.
Zhaoye called out: "Aunt Wang."
Aunt Wang's eyes were glassy, her throat was gurgling, and she couldn't say a word. I have an emergency.
"What should I do?" Xianchan was so anxious that she stamped her feet on the ground. She blamed herself in her heart, blaming herself for the loss of her third brother. She cried so hard that she couldn't breathe. She looked at Aunt Wang who was speechless and asked, "Mom, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you?!"
"I'll go ask the doctor." Zhaoye said and ran out the door. When he was almost at the entrance of the alley, he saw Fei Nu coming back. There was blood on his sleeves, which was particularly conspicuous in the bright snowy night. Zhao Ye was stunned and asked him: "Where have you been?"
"Hey, I went to exchange things with a man at the dock at night and fell down." Feinu opened his sleeves and showed it to Zhaoye. His flesh and blood were blurred, and Zhaoye couldn't see clearly. He was in a hurry to ask for the doctor, so he urged him to go. He went to Cicada's house, and then continued to run away.
After the doctor arrived, he prescribed medicine and made a fuss before dawn.
The night before, they raised their glasses and said many happy words, as if they owned all the joys in the world. When dawn came, the happiness dissipated, and not even the aftertaste of joy was left. Several people were sitting cross-legged in the corner of Xianchan's house, not knowing what to say for a moment. Hua'er held Xianchan's cold hand, and Xianchan cried silently, refusing to look at Zhaoye again.
When Ah Hui came back, his new coat from Baifu was torn. Zhaoye opened his coat and saw his bloody chest. Ah Hui said with red eyes: "I ran all the way out, thinking that they would definitely leave the city. Sure enough, outside the city, I vaguely saw two people, one holding a knife and the other holding something in his arms. I stepped forward and started fighting with them. , if there were just two people, I could beat them. But then several people came out from nowhere to stop me, and I saw that person taking the child away. Then they knocked me unconscious. I don’t know why, but I didn’t die..." Ah He plopped down and knelt down in front of Aunt Wang's bed: "I can't help you, I'm useless..."
Xianchan stepped forward to pull him and cried, "Brother Ah Hui, I don't blame you. Let me see your wound."
There were several wounds on his chest made by daggers, and they were still bleeding. Several people felt as if thousands of arrows had pierced their hearts, and their hearts hurt even more when they saw the blurred flesh and blood.
At this time, the hawk came to send a message, asking Hua'er to go to Bai Mansion. Hua'er Liushenwu followed him, and at the gate of Bai Mansion, he saw a small square coffin with a cat, that wild cat, lying inside. It had been cut into pieces, and its death looked hideous. Hua'er suppressed her fear and said to the hawk: "Even if the wild cat is gone, there will still be a coffin in the Bai Mansion. If I die, I will probably be wrapped in that straw mat and thrown into a mass grave!"
"Why don't you ask how this cat died?" Bai Qiling suddenly appeared behind her at some point and asked her.
His gaze was piercing and scratching her flesh, making Hua'er feel cold for no reason. She looked at the wild cat again, feeling very sad. She had touched the cat twice but never scratched her.
"Obviously, they were dismembered." Hua'er said with a trembling voice, "It's too scary, you beast!"
"Compared to the person who stole your children in Willow Lane? More beastly?"
Hua'er knew that Bai Qiling was staring at her. What she said sounded ordinary at first, but upon second thought, it was horrifying. If someone is staring at her, they will naturally know that Fei Nu left last night. If Fei Nu really killed the cat, then Bai Qiling was trying to trick her at this moment. Hua'er bit her lip and looked at Bai Qiling. She felt that her heart was about to burst out of a hole. The dream last night suddenly entered her mind. His feet were unsteady, and he fell forward and fell into the Bai Mansion. like a statue.
Haoying looked forward and said to Bai Qiling: "I fainted. I wasn't pretending."
Bai Qiling looked back at the cat and said it was a wild cat, but it had saved his life in the deep mountains and forests. At that time, he was being chased in Huoling Mountain. When he was desperate, he looked at this cat. It stood there and looked at him, as if saying: "Follow me." Bai Qiling was desperate and gave his life to a cat. Finally found a way to survive. He raised and trained this cat every day. He wanted it to be free and wanted the old housekeeper to use it to help sniff people, but in the end it was killed.
When Hua'er woke up, she realized that she was lying on the cold ground, and Bai Qiling was sitting there looking at her, as if he had been waiting for her to wake up.
"Let me ask you, did you see clearly the death of the cat?" Bai Qiling asked her.
Hua'er murmured and looked at Bai Qiling with tears in her eyes.
"Can't hear you? Tell me loudly, do you see clearly?" Bai Qiling suddenly raised his voice, and the voice almost broke Hua'er's heart.
"See... clearly..." Hua'er said. She couldn't act anymore. At this moment, Bai Qiling seemed to be eating people alive. No matter what he does, he can't escape the fact that he will go crazy.
"You say, what if I chopped the man who killed the cat into as many pieces as it did?"
Hua'er took a deep breath and said for a long time: "If in Er Ye's mind a human life is not worth a cat, then it would be really satisfying. If Er Ye Bai respects the god of human life, then it is absolutely unacceptable."
"What a coincidence, I don't respect anything. It died in the middle of the night last night, and I will make that person pay with his life in the middle of the night!"
"Second Master! Second Master Bai!" Hua'er climbed up to him, her face smeared with tears, and her voice was blocked and hoarse: "Second Master...listen to me..." She wanted to plead for Fei Nu, but she didn't know the end. Was it done by Fei Nu? But when Fei Nu came back, his sleeves were covered in blood, it was all blood!
"Second Master..." Hua'er sobbed: "Yesterday you rewarded my slave with something. He was so happy that he took you to cut meat and drink wine, and ate the most delicious meal in his life. When he was drunk, he still thought about tomorrow. It’s the Little New Year, I’m going to have a serious Little New Year…”
Hua'er tugged at her torn paper fur coat, tears falling on her sleeves: "Second Master, look, I can't bear to wear the clothes you rewarded me, and I still wear my own tattered clothes. I want to wait until I go to Liangqing after the new year." Wear it and be a good face to the second master..."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I want to tell the second master that I have touched that cat and liked it. No matter who kills it, the second master will spare that person's life! Today is the New Year, and in a few days it will be New Year's Eve. How many people I have been looking forward to this day all year, even if I only drink a bowl of rice soup, I feel that the coming year is worth looking forward to..."
"If you look like this, could it be that someone you know killed it?"
