Splendid peasant girl busy farming

Marriage belt
Marriage belt

Qingcao Town, Zhang family.

Xiaojie pushed open the door of the wedding room, and a strong smell of medicine came to her face, and there was a tingling sourness amidst the bitterness.

In the dark room, the doors and windows were closed to keep warm, and there was a disgusting smell.

Zhang's mother was standing by the bed, holding a medicine bowl in her hand, she turned around when she heard the movement behind her, and the moment she saw it was Xiaojie, Zhang's mother's tears rolled down.

She held the bowl in one hand and covered her mouth with the other, crying uncontrollably: "Xiaojie, you are back, Zhang Ban has been waiting for you..."

Xiaojie staggered to the bed, and saw the thin and shrunken body under the two or three layers of quilt, the sallow face, the two eye sockets were sunken, and the eyeballs seemed to be picked off by someone. It's hard to believe that this is actually Zhang Ban.

This is simply the appearance of the vagrant beggar who died of illness, starvation and freezing to death that he saw under the sun in the twelfth lunar month of last year!

"Zhang Ban, Zhang Ban..." Xiao Jie leaned over Zhang Ban's head and called softly, stroking his messy and dry hair with trembling fingers.

As soon as she touched it, a lot of hair fell out, Xiaojie looked at the hair tangled between her fingers, and cried out.

Zhang's mother stood aside, covering her mouth and crying.

"Zhang Ban really knows that he is wrong. He has been talking nonsense these days when he was sick, and he just said over and over again, he was wrong, he was wrong..."

"Xiaojie, my good daughter-in-law, Zhang Ban was really fascinated by ghosts for a while, but he didn't do anything with that woman that crossed the line between men and women. It was the woman who admired his talent and posted it to him shamelessly. write a letter."

"Zhang Ban is a man and a scholar. Perhaps it was because of the vanity in his bones at that moment that he responded to that woman twice and exchanged several letters,"

"But he never spent a penny on that woman. All the monthly money he earned in the school is handed over to you without a penny. What he eats, drinks, and wears is all up to you. These things You should know it in your heart."

"Zhang Ban is about to die. His father went to the coffin shop to order a coffin for him. It's useless to talk about it now. You can accompany him well. I'll go out first."

Xiaojie lay beside Zhang Ban's bed, weeping so hard that she couldn't hear what Zhang's mother said at the end.

Mother Zhang just met Xiaojie's father at the door of the house, and Zhang's mother shook her head at Xiaojie's father, "Dear family, let's go to the front room to talk, this is for their young couple."

Xiaojie's father glanced at the bed from a distance through the gap in the door, and sighed, then turned around and followed Zhang's mother to the front room with heavy steps.

In the room, only Xiaojie and Zhang Ban were left.

Xiaojie stroked Zhang Ban's face lightly, and carefully looked at this man she really liked.

The young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes in his memory is now dying of illness, his eye circles are black, his lips are black and blue, and the flesh on his cheeks seems to have been peeled off piece by piece, and if this layer of skin is torn off, it is probably a skull up.

Xiaojie was very scared, scared to death, no matter how she called in his ear, he didn't respond at all.

"Don't you want to explain to me? Now that I'm here, why don't you open your eyes and look at me? I want to hear you say sorry again, you are wrong."

"Zhang Ban, open your eyes. As long as you open your eyes and say that you are wrong, I will forgive you immediately. Let's live a good life in the future and raise Yan'er together, okay?"

"Zhang Ban, you can't die. What should I do if you die? What should I do with Yan'er? I'm a woman and I don't have any skills. I can't talk to Yan'er. If someone bullies her, I can't protect her..."

"Zhang Ban, you are the only child in the family, you are gone, what will your parents do?"

"You hold on, you must hold on, you can't die..."

Xiaojie lay beside Zhang Ban's bed, crying until she was in tears, and passed out several times.

After a long time, she suddenly remembered something.

That was the last time when she had just returned to her natal home after a quarrel with Zhang Ban, she was upset and ran to the "One Tree" Taoist temple behind the village to burn incense and draw a marriage lottery by the way.

When going to Daoist Yuan to untie the lottery, Daoist Yuan recognized her as Sister Qinger's cousin, and seeing her lonely look, Daoist Yuan just took a look at the lottery and did not untie it for her, but gave her a red stick ribbon.

The ribbon was painted with patterns she couldn't understand, like charms.

She was in a mess at the time, and she was dazed by whoever said and did around her, and she didn't have the heart to pay attention at all.

But before leaving, she still vaguely heard Daoist Yuan telling her: "This is a marriage belt. You wear it on your body. It may help you at some point, but whether it will work in the end depends on fate and good luck."

Xiaojie took the marriage belt out of her purse, and held Zhang Ban's hand again.

His hands were as thin as withered, his wrists were slender, and his vitality was flowing little by little.

Xiaojie regarded the dead horse as a living horse doctor, tied one end of the marriage belt in her hand, and lightly tied the other end on Zhang Ban's wrist.

When she was in bed, she prayed over and over again in her heart, praying that the gods from all walks of life would show up and help her, and help her keep this man.

Hot tears fell on the marriage belt one by one, wet the marriage belt.

Xiaojie held Zhang Ban's hand and stood by the bed, staring at him without blinking, unwilling to move away for a moment...

……

A round of green sun hangs in the sky, with a dark circle of light around the sun, illuminating the withered grass that is as deep as a person in all directions, becoming more gloomy and gloomy.

Zhang Ban was floating in the middle of the road like a walking corpse, with the wind blowing on both sides, and the vegetation was rustling.

He looked up at the sky and looked down at the road. The road ahead was endless, as if it had no end.

But the way behind him disappeared strangely in a thick fog.

who am I?
why am i here

This is where?

Where do I come from?Where will it go?
Zhang Ban just lingered on this road until he heard the sound of rushing water in front of him.

He followed the water flow to the end of the road. At the end was a river with a pier, and many people lined up waiting to cross the river.

Small boats came to the pier one after another, and there was no boatman on each boat, but when someone got on the boat, the boat would swim forward automatically.

And a boat carried a person, and there was an endless stream of people, and the officials with green faces and fangs were holding chains and hammers to maintain order, so even though the people on the pier and people in the river were constantly flowing, the order was still in order.

"Quick, quick, next one."

The official yelled loudly, Zhang Ban was pushed forward by the crowd, and suddenly there was a scream in front of him.

"I won't get on the boat, I won't get on the boat, I haven't lived enough, I don't want to die..."

The green-faced and long-toothed officer beat the middle-aged man who was struggling to get on the boat into a meatloaf with a hammer, then picked up the meatloaf and threw it onto the boat.

(End of this chapter)