"I'm not doing well at all."
Lou Yunxian raised her pocket watch, and the silver shell reflected her face. In the sunlight, she told everything about her past.
Twenty years ago, winter came early in the Xing'an Mountains and heavy snow closed the mountains.
The bandit leader Si Shanying led a group of bandits on the mountain top to Lujiacun before the mountain was closed.
As the saying goes, soldiers are like a grate and bandits are like a comb. In the years of war and chaos, the people of Lujiacun have been raided by officers, soldiers and bandits from all walks of life.
I was so poor that I had to scrape off a little oil on my face for cooking!
When these bandits come to destroy the kiln, of course they won't receive anything.
As the saying goes, there are only guests who return empty-handed, and there are no bandits who return empty-handed. Seeing that the common people cannot make money, these gangsters set their sights on the wealthy households in Lujia Village.
Squire Lu's family, to the bandits, was a fragrant and oily candy cake.
Of course Mr. Lu knows this.
A few years ago, the Lu family built a high-gate compound, built forts and forts, and trained their servant Guang Jiliang hard.
They would even take the initiative to give money, rice and grain to feed the gangsters in the surrounding mountains, euphemistically calling them marriage money, and calling them brothers, just to ask the gangsters to keep their families open and bring trouble to other people's families.
There was no intention of giving the Lu family a hard time if they wanted to spare the other bandits, but as luck would have it, the Sitting Eagle was leading a group of remnant soldiers who had just become bandits.
They were so poor that they only had their guns, and they were starving, so they naturally wanted to have a good meal. No matter how the Lu family tried to persuade them or offered money to appease them, it was of no use.
When Mr. Lu saw it, he saw that there was a post about smashing the rich kiln. There was no way to save it, so he led his servants to resist desperately.
The two sides fought fiercely and smoke-filled, and the blood of the bandits and servants stained the walls and dirt red.
Are the bandits just beasts with swords and blood, or are they allowed to knock down the fortress and break into the courtyard wall?
Later, Mrs. Lu was led by several servants to escape from Lujia Village and reluctantly took refuge in Yingzuiping.
The family was ruined, all the money was gone, and Mrs. Lu lost her spirits. She died of illness within two years, and she could not worry about leaving a pair of children when she was dying.
I kowtowed to Old Man Yue several times, hoping that he would accept the children and support them.
At this point, eight-year-old Lu Fengjian and five-year-old Lu Yurong were adopted as godmothers by Yue Qingshan's mother-in-law and were raised in the forest farm courtyard.
A year later, someone came to the forest farm. His name was Lu Bingshen, Mr. Lu's younger brother, and the second uncle of Lu Fengjian and Lu Yurong.
He bluntly said that he had no daughter and wanted to take Lu Yurong back to raise her.
Of course Old Man Yue disagreed and refused in every possible way, but Lu Fengjian knew that if his sister stayed in the village, she would be buried in the mountains for the rest of her life.
He thought that after all his second uncle was teaching in Jinmen, and Lu Yurong could enter the school, it would be much better than wasting half his life in the valley, so he persuaded Old Man Yue to let him go.
Jinmen is thousands of miles away from Xing'an Mountains, and there is no communication between the two sides.
From then on, Lu Yurong and Lu Bingshen returned to Jinmen and lived in the Lu family residence.
The life of a middle school professor is better than that of a poor family. Lu Yurong can afford to go to school and eat in restaurants, and he has enough food and clothing, and is rich and happy.
If there was a slight dissatisfaction, it was her aunt Chen Yinmei, who seemed to dislike her.
What Lu Bingshen said about having no children was indeed true, but Chen Yinmei already had a son. She originally thought that she would take this girl as a servant, but she unexpectedly raised her as a eldest lady.
Lu Bingshen felt sorry for his niece's loss of parents, more than he felt for his own son. Chen Yinmei was angry but did not dare to speak out.
What people fear most is that old grievances will not be replaced with new ones.
Within five years, Lu Bingshen fell seriously ill and died, leaving behind a pair of children and nieces, all of whom were left in the care of his widow, Chen Yinmei.
In the past, when there was a middle school professor named Yin Qida, the Lu family was just a matter of adding a pair of chopsticks.
But now that the income is gone, it means that the sky pillar has fallen down, the family has to eat, drink, and travel, and there are more than a dozen mouths waiting for food. Everything costs money.
Unable to open up the source and control the flow, Chen Yinmei was so worried that her hair turned white.
The old life of a leisurely wife is gone forever.
She also had a young daughter to take care of, and her son was her heart and soul. The palms and backs of her hands were full of flesh, so naturally she couldn't cut them off. As time went by, she decided to focus on her niece.
She stopped her niece's school and didn't let her have enough to eat. She had to take care of her younger sister in her spare time. Poor young lady, her hands were as rough as those of a servant.
When Tianjin opened its port to attract investment, she was sent directly to Jinhe Spinning Factory.
Only 20% of the money earned was for personal use, and the remaining 80% was not even available, but was directly given to Chen Yinmei by the foreman.
This place was a living hell where they were exploited day and night. Many female workers couldn't bear it and fell under the spinning machines and never got up again.
Lu Yurong's hands were full of wounds, and her face was dirty and ugly all day long. She worked so hard but couldn't get enough to eat. She was in her prime years, but she lived like a filthy old woman.
She realized that she could not count on her aunt Chen Yinmei, and she could not escape this fatal fate. She felt so sad and painful that she finally began to contemplate death.
There are three pontoon bridges and two passes at the foot of Jiuhe River.
Lu Yurong was standing by the Haihe Bridge in a greasy short coat. He was about to jump off when he lowered his head and looked at the reflection in the water.
Her face was so beautiful that even if it was covered with dust, it could not conceal her stunning beauty.
In this kind of world, it is almost impossible to live a normal life. He, a woman without a father and mother, has to struggle to move forward even if she becomes a low-income person.
