The conspiracy of the courtyard

Chapter 19: A rough life story 2

Chen Ping continued to describe the life of the lower class people in this era:

“What I told those leaders yesterday was true, my mother just couldn’t afford to die, so of course she died anyway.

I ate Guanyin soil for a day and felt strong enough, so I borrowed a hoe and dug a shallow hole, put myself in the hole, and buried myself.

Not to mention coffins, there were no straw mats. At that time, the dead had to be stripped of all their clothes.

Because it's a waste to wear clothes on a dead person, I didn't take them off, not because I didn't dare, but because I wanted to make her look a little more respectable."

"I was 7 years old at that time. I didn't feel anything. There was nothing to be sad about. When people are hungry, don't even think about emotions. Everything is gone.

My mind is full of hunger. Where can I find food? What can I eat? " Chen Ping said expressionlessly.

“At that time, I was the only one left, so I carried a bag filled with a few tattered clothes and walked north.

I didn't know I was heading north at the time, I just went wherever there were more nice houses.

Because he is good at talking and sweet-talking, he asks for things here and there, and he goes wherever he wants. He has experienced everything except sleeping on the street. "

"It's not that scary. At that time, I felt like I was dead. It was good. I didn't have to starve anymore."

"That's when I met Chen Qiang's parents. They wanted to sell me to make some money, but I thought they had a donkey cart and should have enough food, so I followed them."

"It's not so much that they kidnapped me, but I wanted to follow them. But they miscalculated, no one bought the girl, and twice they abandoned me.

I went to the soldiers and cried, saying that they didn't want me anymore because I was a girl, and they had no choice but to take me home.

There is no such thing as a child bride. They just brought me to work for their family.

In fact, they don't have so many bad intentions. They only have one son, and it is impossible for them to want a girl whose background they don't know. What else can the girl do except work?

In fact, Chen Qiang is very timid. Even though he is older and taller than me, he is afraid of me because I was used to being wild when I was a child. I am not like him and I am extremely stupid when it comes to talking.

I told him to go east, but he didn't dare to go west. To be honest, his family is not bad. Although he doesn't have enough to eat, it's nothing compared to when he was a kid."

"I spent a few years of comfortable life in his home. But in the famine year of 42, there was really no harvest, and there were homeless people everywhere. I can't say that there were corpses everywhere, but it was almost that. You could see a corpse every one or two miles.

Everyone was very scared at the beginning because no one had ever seen so many corpses.

Gradually we got used to it, and we discussed whether we should join the others in fleeing the famine.

After asking around, people told me that our area is a plain and far from anywhere, so I gave up the idea. "

"I discussed with Chen Qiang to go to the nearby mountains to see if there was any wild animal or something. We didn't find any wild animals, but we did save a person.

I had no intention of saving him, but he said he could teach us how to cook, using anything from grass roots to tree bark. He just didn't have the tools, so he fainted from hunger.

In fact, none of us believed him, but somehow we were saved. What he said turned out to be true. He asked us to peel off all the bark and dig out the grass roots that had been pulled out and take them all back.”

“When I get home, I wash the grass roots and tree bark, then dry the bark in the sun. After one layer is dried, I scrape off another layer with a knife.

All dried in the sun, ground into powder using a stone mill, and mixed with the leftover corn flour. It was really bitter, so there was no other way, so grass roots and tree bark flour were used together.

You know, grass roots are either bitter or tasteless, but no matter what, they can really satisfy hunger. During this time, I also learned about this person. "

"His name was Wei Mingsheng, and he was a private school teacher. That was when I started learning to read and do math, which is what we now call arithmetic. I was pretty good at using an abacus. He knew a lot, but a lot of what he told you was different.

It is difficult to explain in detail, for example, he said that as long as a woman fulfills her duties as a woman, no man would dare to divorce her. The clan would kick her out of the family tree and make her kowtow and admit her mistakes in front of the whole village.

But what you taught me is that women should also have careers, ideals and ambitions of their own.

How should I put it? It's a little contradictory, but I think you're right. If a man dies or has a mistress, the woman will have nothing.

For example, he said that if you have good things, you must focus on the pillars. If the pillars are gone, the family will fall apart. But what you said is that you should focus on yourself first. No one is more important than yourself. "

"But think about what you said. It seems that you all think about your own interests first, while he said that the interests of the family and clan should be considered first. I think what you said is right and makes sense.

But there is one thing you said that is wrong. You said that without a family, without a family to rely on, who can we rely on? I think he is right. No matter how glorious a person is, he still needs the support of his family.

For example, if your father hadn't been helped by his family, how could he have come to the city? He was kidnapped to the rich man's house that day.

Your father was unlucky, as he was favored by the daughter of a rich man. In the end, it was the family members who went to the rich man's house to discuss and resolve the issue. Forget it, no matter who is right or wrong, it is all for the good of the family."

"After Mr. Wei came to my house, the clan leader came and asked him to teach the children in the clan when he had time. He refused, saying that studying depends on talent.

Since then, my relationship with my tribe members has become bad. I don’t know who told me that I had an infectious disease, and I even believed it.

I did have a disease when I was a child. My whole body was covered with red bumps, but it was gone in just over two months. Not many people knew about it, and I still don’t know who spread the news.

Everyone avoided me, fearing that I might infect them. Even my family members didn’t dare to get too close to me, fearing that I might infect them.”

"Then I started living on my own. There were many unoccupied houses in the village.

Chen Qiang's parents also gave me two acres of land that was not easy to cultivate and asked me to work on it myself. They also moved my newly registered household registration out for me.

Since then, I have hardly contacted anyone except Mr. Wei.

The next year, I didn’t expect that I was so lucky. All the sweet potatoes that no one wanted were still alive. I didn’t take much care of them, but I harvested so many sweet potatoes from the field.

Once we had food, we would go find someone to exchange it for vegetable seeds. We would replace the clay pots we used before with iron pots, and also change the oil. We would exchange whatever we could, and we lived a very good life.

After everything was finally settled, Mr. Wei died. Before he died, he only asked me to go to school and nothing else.

I wasn't too sad. I didn't even cry when my own mother died. Besides, he was just an outsider. I helped him live two more years, so he didn't lose out. Haha."

"I thought so too. Since I had nothing to do, I might as well go to school. It wasn't far away, but when I got there, I saw that it was full of little kids.

I went to ask the principal, and he asked me to take an exam, which consisted of writing an article taught by Mr. Wei and handing in 20 kilograms of sweet potatoes. The principal then gave me a diploma.

I was given a letter of recommendation to study at a girls' high school in another city. I didn't know what a high school was, so I didn't go. Besides, I didn't have the money. Two years passed like this."