That winter, Niuniu's mother fell ill. Perhaps she could have survived an ordinary illness, but this time, she couldn't. Her illness was very serious. Niuniuniang became more and more haggard. Gradually, she couldn't even struggle to beg.
One day, the thin Niuniuniang was lying in the broken temple. The sun shone on her body. The sun was still bright, but her face was still gray.
Niuniu lay on her mother's body and cried helplessly. Ah Ch 'ou was on the other side. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he held them back and didn't let them fall. Ever since he cried for an entire afternoon in Huan Shan Village, until his eyes were swollen and his voice was hoarse, he never cried again. It seemed that his tears had dried up since then.
Niuniuniang held Niuniu's thin little hand in one hand and held Ah Ch 'ou's hand in the other. Her eyes were so sad. That kind of helplessness, desolation, longing, and pain mixed together made people's hearts break.
"Ah Ch 'ou, Niuniu … please take care of her …"
Niuniuniang knew that Ah Ch 'ou was still young. She knew that this stubborn child refused to beg. He couldn't even feed himself. But she had no one else to entrust her to. The beggars in the temple all hid far away. They looked at her with cold eyes. She couldn't see a trace of sympathy in those numb eyes.
"Niuniu ah …"
Niu Niu's mother let out a long sigh, her thin and weak hand powerlessly placed on the top of Niu Niu's head, gently stroking it a few times before passing away. She did not close her eyes, a drop of tear flowed down the corner of her eye, gently sliding down to the side of her cheek.
"Mother! Mother … "
Niuniu hugged her mother's body and cried loudly.
Ah Ch 'ou's eyes were red. He gritted his teeth and held back his tears. He gently closed Niuniuniang's eyes and got up to go out.
Niuniu leaned on her mother's body and kept crying. When she had no strength to cry again, Ah Ch 'ou came back.
Ah Chou was like a puppy that rolled in the mud, his entire body was dirty, he walked back to the dilapidated temple weakly and sat beside Niuniu, after panting for a long time, he then pulled up the broken bamboo mat and pushed Niuniu's mother onto the mat, grabbed the mat tightly and pulled out of the dilapidated temple.
On the grassland beside the river, Ah Chou used a stick to dig, using his hands to dig a hole.
When people died, they needed to be buried to rest.
His family, his parents, and his Elder Sister had all turned into a pile of ashes in the fire. At that time, he was like Niuniu. He could only cry in fear and helplessly. When he regained his consciousness, he ran away from the mountain village. Now, at least he had the strength to bury Niuniuniang, instead of turning her into a dead body in the sewer.
Ah Ch 'ou used his hands, which were bruised and bleeding, to bury Niuniuniang in the hole. He stuck a small wooden plank in front of the grave as a tombstone. After that, he no longer had the strength to move.
From then on, Ah Ch 'ou and Niuniu depended on each other. They were like brother and sister.
She no longer called him Ah Ch 'ou. Instead, she called him Elder Brother. He still called her Niuniu.
Ah Ch 'ou still insisted on stealing. He was often beaten, so the two of them were often hungry.
Niuniu had been taken care of by her mother since she was a child. She didn't know how to beg. Often, the places where she could beg were occupied by other beggars. She couldn't get much to eat. Once, she was bitten by a family's dog. She couldn't move for a few days. Ah Ch 'ou couldn't steal anything. She almost starved to death.
Ah Ch 'ou was like a desperate wolf. He squatted beside Niuniu and looked at her. Niuniu didn't know what her Elder Brother was thinking. In fact, she never understood her Elder Brother. She only knew that her Elder Brother was good to her. Since her mother passed away, her Elder Brother was her only relative in this world.
Ah Chou looked at her faintly, after looking for a long time, he used a straw rope to tie up his already starving stomach, and walked out weakly.
The beggars in the temple were immediately filled with righteous indignation. They said that Niuniuniang raised an ungrateful wolf. Ah Ch 'ou left Niuniu to fend for herself. He didn't care about her anymore. But they were reluctant to take out a piece of food they begged.
Niuniu didn't believe their words. She didn't believe that the Elder Brother, who climbed high up the tree to catch bird eggs for her, who used a branch to catch dragonflies for her, who caught small fish for her to eat, would leave her alone. She believed that her Elder Brother would come back. Maybe … Elder Brother went to dig a grave for her, just like when he buried her mother.
She thought that she would soon see her Mother. Her heart was filled with joy and a burst of peace. She thought that she would be separated from her Elder Brother. She felt a burst of reluctance and melancholy. She didn't know what the world of death was like. But her instinctive reluctance to live and her instinctive fear of death filled her heart with fear.
She waited for a long time, thinking for a long time, until she didn't even have the strength to think. The indignant buzzing of the beggars stopped. Niuniu saw that her Elder Brother had come back. He walked weakly, but his hands were not worn out or covered with mud. He held the broken pot in his hand. The pot was half filled with hot porridge.
Ah Ch 'ou fed Niuniu mouthful by mouthful.
Their lives were as cheap as the wild grass on the ridge. No matter how many people trampled on them, they would still stubbornly survive.
Niuniu came back to life.
…
This winter, the area closest to the fire was occupied by other beggars. The two children were furthest away. Above their heads was the hole in the roof of the temple. Snowflakes drifted down on them. They were covered with straw. They hugged each other tightly, relying on each other's warmth to resist the cold.
Spring came. Elder Brother changed from a stuttering, shy, and stupid beggar to a very clever and capable little beggar.
In the past, that stubborn boy who would rather steal and get beaten up was already used to being a beggar. Perhaps in his heart, there was still a bit of stubbornness, a bit of pride, and a bit of perseverance, but for Niuniu, he hid all of it deep in his heart.
In spring, the rain was like silk, weaving a dense net between heaven and earth.
Ah Ch 'ou and Niuniu ran barefoot in the rain, like a pair of fish in the water.
Their shoes were already rotten. Niuniuniang had already turned into a lump of soil, so she could no longer weave straw shoes for them.
Ah Ch 'ou and Niuniu ran under a cluster of banana trees. The fat banana leaves became their umbrella. Although the rain still flowed down the leaves, it was much more comfortable than directly pouring on their faces.
Ah Ch 'ou took out the bread that he had just begged as if it was a treasure. But it had already been soaked in the rain. Ah Ch' ou's face turned bitter. The well-behaved Niuniu hurriedly comforted him. "Elder Brother, it's okay. I ate a lot of mulberries today. My teeth are all broken. If the bread is too hard, I won't be able to bite it."
As she said that, she tried to show a smile to Elder Brother, revealing a cute little canine that had just grown out.
Ah Ch 'ou rubbed her head. Her hair was as messy as a bird's nest.
The two of them each held a half-soaked bun. They used a tender banana leaf to make a cup and collected the rainwater. One mouthful of the bun, one mouthful of rainwater, one mouthful of the bun, filling their bellies.
The rain was still as soft as silk …
…
In the summer, something happened. This incident prompted Ah Ch 'ou and Niuniu to leave the broken temple. So they didn't even have a place to stay.
That summer night, the moon was very round.
Ah Ch 'ou was awakened by a burst of crying. When he woke up, he found that the strong beggar nicknamed Little Wolf, who also lived in the broken temple, was on Niuniu's body. He was tearing her tattered clothes and kissing her body with his stinky mouth.
Niuniu was still young. She didn't know what Little Wolf was going to do to her. But a girl's intuition told her that something terrible was going to happen to her. So, she burst into tears.
The beggars in the broken temple were awakened. They looked at everything that happened in front of them with a warm and strange look. No one spoke. As they watched, their eyes even became eager to try. That kind of look was very strange and scary.
Ah Ch 'ou was awakened. Watching Little Wolf bullying his sister, Ah Ch' ou suddenly became a different person. Perhaps that person had always been locked in the cage in his heart, tortured and nourished with hatred and shame. He had long become a fierce beast. At this moment, the prison door was opened, and that beast was released.
Ah Ch 'ou's eyes were red, and the blue veins on his forehead were bulging. He roared angrily and suddenly jumped on Little Wolf's body. He scratched, bit, and used his whole body as a weapon.
Little Wolf was nicknamed Little Wolf. At this moment, Ah Ch 'ou had incarnated into a real wolf!
With his frail body, the strong wolf cub only needed to swing its arm to throw him against the wall and turn him into a meat patty. But at this time, he didn't know where he got his strength from, but he stuck to the wolf cub and didn't want to retreat. He attacked crazily. First, he bit off half of Little Wolf's ear, and then he tore a piece of meat from Little Wolf's shoulder.
Little Wolf cried in pain and punched him again and again. Ah Ch 'ou's blood splashed on Little Wolf's face, but Ah Ch' ou only had sharp teeth. When Little Wolf saw Ah Ch 'ou's cruel eyes at this moment, he suddenly realized that Ah Ch' ou, who was often in a daze, was probably crazy. He finally collapsed and ran away while howling.
Ah Ch 'ou's face was covered with blood, his eyes were swollen, and he bit a lump of bloody meat in his mouth. Step by step, he crawled back to the crying Niuniu and hugged her tightly.
A beam of bright moonlight shone on Ah Ch 'ou's body through the hole in the roof of the temple. Ah Ch' ou's face was covered with blood, and his fierce eyes swept across the faces of all the beggars. Like a wounded wolf defending its sovereignty, he said word by word, "Whoever wants to bully her, kill me first!"
The beggars turned over and fell asleep as if nothing had happened. Only the sound of Niuniu's crying could be heard in the ruined temple. Ah Ch 'ou hugged her, and the blue moonlight shone on them. After a long time, Ah Ch' ou suddenly cried silently. This was the first time that Niuniu saw him cry.
Niuniu was very frightened. She thought that her Elder Brother was in pain, so she stopped crying. She sensibly moved closer and carefully blew on Ah Ch 'ou's swollen eyes. She used her thin little hands to gently rub his bruised cheeks. She just wanted to stop Ah Ch' ou's tears. Seeing her Elder Brother cry, her heart was very painful, and this pain had surpassed her fear.
But Elder Brother's tears flowed more and more, so Niuniu also cried.
Ah Ch 'ou hugged her tightly, and choked with sobs he said: "Niuniu, I'm so afraid, I really will become a beggar! I'm afraid ….. that one day, I will become like them, a walking corpse. Niuniu, Elder Brother will really become a beggar! "
Niuniu didn't understand her Elder Brother's words. Elder Brother often said strange things that she couldn't understand, but she knew that her Elder Brother really loved her. Ever since her Mother died, her Elder Brother was her only relative in this world. It didn't matter if she didn't understand her Elder Brother's words, as long as she knew that her Elder Brother treated her well, that was enough.
She raised her little face and looked at her Elder Brother's tearful eyes. His eyes were so sorrowful, the same as her Mother's when she passed away. Helpless, desolate, and sorrowful, it was heartbreaking to see.
Niuniu was very afraid of losing him, just like losing her mother. She hugged Ah Ch 'ou tightly with tears streaming down her face, and said to him: "Elder Brother will do whatever he wants to do. No matter what Elder Brother does, Niuniu will be with Elder Brother. It doesn't matter if I'm a beggar or a thief, as long as I'm with Elder Brother, it doesn't matter! "
Ah Ch 'ou and Niuniu left the broken temple that night. They were worried that Little Wolf, who had fled in panic, would come back. They couldn't protect themselves with courage alone, so they continued to be beggars, because this was the only way they could survive. However, Ah Ch 'ou had already decided to find something to do. He wanted to live, to live like a human.
Because of their departure, a legend that belonged to them had begun.
Legends had always been created by miracles.
What was a miracle?
A miracle could be an extraordinary person doing extraordinary things, or it could be many coincidences coming together to form a wonderful coincidence.
The miracles that belonged to Ah Ch 'ou and Niuniu were both coincidences, extraordinary people, and extraordinary things!
…
Note: During the Tang and Song dynasties, it snowed in Guangzhou.
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