Daiyu fell seriously ill.
In this serious illness, her memory was only the thatched hut that was leaking rain everywhere, the herb basket that appeared from time to time, and the faint strange crying sound.
Her vision was dim, and her vision was shaky.
The illness went away quickly.
When she really completely regained consciousness from the illness, six or seven days had passed.
She still remembered that when she woke up for the first time, she was chewing bitter medicine in her mouth. It was raining outside, and it was also raining in the thatched hut. The particularly handsome "immortal" she saw on the river before was walking around in circles in the hut, holding a broken bowl to collect water. While collecting water, he was singing an unknown folk song in a low voice.
She was sleeping on half of a tattered straw mat, so tattered that half of the straw was scattered. She was wrapped in a blanket, but unfortunately, it was also tattered, and there were a few lice crawling on it.
There was no oil lamp in the entire hut, so it was particularly dim.
The bed was an earthen platform, and in front of the bed, there was a crudely made table with half a leg missing.
The thatched hut couldn't block too much rain, nor could it block all the wind. The wind came in through the thatched hut.
Daiyu was lying on the tattered and dirty straw mat, and only felt itchy all over. She couldn't help but want to push it away and get off the bed.
However, the driest place in the hut, where there was the least rain, was the firewood piled in the corner, and the earthen platform bed Daiyu was lying on. She looked at the mud all over the floor, and almost couldn't find a place to put her feet.
Seeing that she woke up, the "immortal" put the broken bowl aside and asked with a smile, "You're awake?"
"Immortal?" She said in a low voice, and found that her throat was hoarse.
The "immortal" who was collecting the rain corrected her, "Not immortal. My surname is Liu, and I am the third child. You can call me Sanjie. "
Daiyu just opened her mouth and was about to continue speaking when she heard a familiar and weak crying sound. Something moved beside her body that had been feeling sluggish before.
Daiyu looked down and was shocked. It was a sallow and emaciated baby wrapped in a ball of rags, lying on the earthen platform beside her hand, crying.
Where did this baby come from?! Liu Sanjie saw that she had bumped into the baby and shouted again, "Be careful!"
Daiyu didn't know what to do. After being called, she quickly and carefully adjusted her hands and feet to avoid touching the child.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Sanjie went to open it and a woman came in.
This woman was dressed in Han attire. Her face was full of sorrow, her eyes were a bit small, her face was dark, and her teeth were yellow. Only when she smiled would the corners of her eyes and a dozen or so wrinkles appear on her forehead. His tattered jacket and half of his trousers were drenched by the rain. His sparse yellow hair was sticking to his face and dripping with water. He carried a basket of herbs on his back, which was covered by a straw raincoat to keep out the rain.
Sanjie smiled and said, "This is Big Sister Huang. This is Big Sis Huang's house. "
If it wasn't for this "big sister", Daiyu would definitely have thought that this was an old woman in her forties.
Big Sis Huang smiled embarrassedly. Looking at Daiyu's snow-white skin and handsome face that seemed to glow, she didn't dare to go forward. She put down the basket of herbs covered with clothes first, then carefully walked around Daiyu and picked up the sallow and emaciated baby.
Liu Sanjie took the basket of herbs and went to dig through them. The herbs that Third Elder Sister had dug out just happened to be used to treat colds. It was medicine that could be chewed dry.
Sanjie handed it to Daiyu.
When Daiyu saw this, she understood what was going on. She hurriedly struggled to get off the bed, ignoring the mud on the floor. "Thank you for saving my life, Big Sis!"
She then said to Sanjie, "Thank you for saving my life, Sanjie!"
Big Sis Huang was very ill at ease and also very surprised. She immediately let out an "ah" and couldn't say anything. She just patted the baby, took a step back, and said with a heavy accent, "Cold … little girl, you're … uncomfortable. Go to bed."
The baby was carried to Sanjie's arms. Big Sis Huang and Sanjie took turns to wrap him with a dry rag.
The only relatively thick and dry blanket in the entire room had been wrapped around Daiyu's body just now.
Daiyu was originally a little disgusted by the tattered straw mat and blanket, but now, she couldn't say anything. She only felt her face burning.
For a long time, she looked at the unfamiliar baby and Big Sis Huang and refused to go to bed. She forced herself to say, "I'm fine, I … Big Sis, you take the baby to rest. I … I'll go find Uncle."
Liu Sanjie seemed to understand Daiyu's mood. She turned to look at her and smiled. "Why are you so pretentious? We're all in trouble. Who doesn't want to help each other? It's raining so heavily in the forest. You're a girl alone, and you're so beautiful. Why are you looking for Uncle? Besides, you're sick! "
As she spoke, she pulled her onto the tattered straw mat and wrapped the blanket around her.
Just like that, Daiyu stayed in Big Sis Huang's house again.
During this period, she lived on the hard, almost unchewable cornbread for one meal a day. Fortunately, Sanjie knew how to hunt and fish. Sometimes, she would go to cut firewood and bring back some fruits. Big Sis Huang also knew how to pick herbs and often dug some roots back. On the top of the barren mountain, Big Sis Huang's family planted a few mu of tea trees. It was almost time to pick tea.
Sanjie and Big Sis Huang took turns to pick tea and take care of Daiyu and the baby. The baby ate little and was still breastfed by Big Sis Huang.
Therefore, even though there was a sick Daiyu and a baby, they could barely survive.
However, there were only a few girls and babies in the family. They didn't see Big Sis Huang's family or Sanjie's family.
When they asked Big Sis Huang, Big Sis Huang only cried. Then the baby cried too.
She asked Third Elder Sister, but Third Elder Sister was gloomy and didn't say anything. She only said that her parents were dead and that Big Sis Huang took her in.
She watched them cry. Daiyu didn't ask anymore. Thinking of her family, she felt sad. She was unfamiliar with Guilin. After falling into the water that day, she hugged a piece of driftwood and drifted along the river. She didn't know where she was.
She didn't even know who she met when she was separated from her uncle that day.
Sanjie, on the other hand, was experienced. After hearing Daiyu's description, she thought for a while and said, "On the river … I'm afraid it was Family Zhang's hired thugs to collect boat fees and fishing taxes."
Who was Family Zhang?
Liu Sanjie sneered and said, "What kind of people? Not people! They were vicious wolves in the mountains and man-eating tigers in the forest! Big Sis's family of three, father-in-law, brother, and husband, were all hired by his family to pay off their debts! "
Seeing that Daiyu was stunned, Sanjie suppressed her anger and comforted her, "From your description, your uncle is good at swimming, knows some martial arts, speaks the local dialect, and has a lot of local friends. The direction in which he drifted that day wasn't in the direction of Family Zhang. It shouldn't be a big deal. Don't think too much. Take care of yourself first before you go look for him. We'll go with you! "
Daiyu's eyes were full of tears, but she knew that Sanjie was saying that she could only look for her uncle when she got better.
Her illness went away quickly.
Daiyu didn't want to keep troubling Liu Sanjie and Big Sis Huang. After she could get up, she insisted on helping Big Sis Huang and Liu Sanjie with some work.
However, although she followed her uncle across the Yellow River and Yangtze River, she didn't suffer much. How could she know how to do work?
Big Sis Huang hurriedly persuaded her not to do it.
Sanjie didn't persuade her. Third Sister's eyes were bright and she knew that Dai Yu wouldn't be able to hold on.
In the beginning, Daiyu couldn't live like this. On the one hand, she really missed her uncle. On the other hand … she had never suffered so much even when she followed her uncle across the Yellow River and Yangtze River.
Sanjie said, "Living in the mountains is only good for this. If no one cares about us and we work hard, we can eat our fill. We also have firewood. "
Big Sis Huang also said, "This kind of life is not bad."
Daiyu had seen the life of the Zhu family's tenant farmers. Compared to the Zhu family's tenant farmer's child who starved to death, this kind of life was indeed not bad.
However, Daiyu had been here personally. She still couldn't live like this. She knew that she shouldn't be picky. However, she could only have a meal of coarse bread occasionally. Sometimes, she could eat boiled fish without salt. Not to mention, it was often tasteless. She didn't know what kind of root it was.
She slept on a broken straw mat. Each strand was pricking. Daiyu was often bitten by lice at night. Even if Sanjie found mugwort and lit it, snakes, insects, rats, and ants still came and went.
Not to mention that when they slept, they huddled together and sniffed each other's sweat. One of them had to stay behind to look after the baby. They took turns to cover the blanket. If it rained in the middle of the night, they would listen to the rain leak until dawn. The next day, Big Sis Huang had to get up early in the morning to mend the roof. Sanjie helped her.
What was worse was that every once in a while, Sister Liu San and Sister Huang would help her gather information everywhere, but there was never any news about her uncle Lin Ruoshan. Daiyu's eyes would turn red every time.
Sanjie had always seen Daiyu's patience. She thought that this young lady of the Han family who had fallen on hard times would definitely not be able to bear it.
However, Daiyu did not say anything in the end.
In the Huang family, she slowly learned how to pick tea leaves and take care of the tea plants. Every day, she would follow Sanjie and slowly climb up and down the mountain, panting.
She even learned how to kill lice skillfully and could chop some thin firewood with a knife.
Sanjie, who originally didn't have much hope, slowly began to look at Daiyu in a new light.
Then one day, Sanjie asked Daiyu, "I've seen other young ladies. They can't endure as much as you."
At that time, Daiyu was picking tea leaves. She thought for a while and said, "I can't endure that much. That day, I ate boiled fish without oil and salt and cornbread. I wanted to vomit. "
However, at that time, when she was the hungriest, Daiyu saw that the Huang family only had two cornbread like that. Sanjie and Big Sis Huang couldn't bear to eat it themselves. But they gave it to her. They tore the other one into pieces and cooked it into a paste for two to three days.
As for the fish, Sanjie caught it for her when she cried because she didn't have any news about her uncle.
Therefore, Daiyu said to herself, "Swallow it! Don't vomit! "
In her life, she didn't want to let down anyone who treated her sincerely.
Sometimes, she felt a kind of joy. In the mountains and rivers of Guilin, there were no four books and five classics. Only the songs of the twelve solar terms were passed down.
Especially in May, she harvested her first box of tea leaves that she planted and picked with her own hands. She sold a bucket of tea leaves and had Big Sis Huang buy some brown rice back.
That kind of joy was the same as when she held the money in her hands.
When the weather was getting warmer, Sanjie asked her if she wanted to learn how to swim.
In the green mountains, there were only birds and the blue sky. Her clothes were wet and stuck to her body. The cool waves brushed against her body. No one would say that she had "lost her reputation".
.....
She struggled in her sleep. In her dream, there were waves, steel knives, her uncle's angry face, and the sneers of thieves. In the end, everything disappeared. Only the buzzing of mosquitoes could be heard.
After the mugwort died out, Daiyu was finally awakened by the poisonous mosquitoes in the mountains.
The house was already bright.
She pushed open the wooden door and walked out. Squinting, she saw the red morning sun rising from the cliff.
The gentle and bright sunlight turned the mist in the mountains into a faint golden-red color.
She took a deep breath. Facing the sunlight, she counted the mosquito bites on her delicate arms. One, two, three …
Before she finished counting, a packet of black and smelly herbs fell into her arms. He swept past her like a gust of wind, leaving behind a string of laughter. "Apply it!"
Lin Daiyu, who used to be a delicate lady, grabbed the packet of herbs that she had resisted for three days. She sniffed, opened it weakly, and applied it on her arms.
After applying it, she lowered her head and sniffed the indescribable stench on her body. She thought, "Don't think about it, don't think about it."
But it didn't work. She still remembered how Sanjie crushed a strange-looking insect and mashed it together with the herbs.
Daiyu was just thinking about this when Sanjie's mocking voice came from the mountain forest under the red sun. "The pheasant wags its tail to show off. My sister holds her heart. The sun is high up. The scenery of the tea garden is good. Why don't my sister come up the mountain? Why don't my sister come up the mountain? "
After getting to know each other, she knew that Sanjie was the same as Daiyu. They were the most mischievous people.
Sanjie was mischievous. She liked to laugh at Daiyu's "Jiaojiao". Sometimes, she compared Daiyu to a pheasant and said that it was "the wagging tail of a pheasant".
Pheasant! Pheasant!
Daiyu was so angry that she sneered and gave up on the poem. After a long time, she wanted to come up with half a song to sing back. In the end, she couldn't open her mouth and couldn't think of any lyrics.
In the end, she had to go up the mountain.
After going up the mountain, she was out of breath. Sanjie was already waiting by the tea tree. She didn't laugh at her "Jiaojiao" anymore. She just asked, "Where's Sister Huang?"
"She went out early in the morning with Dalang. She said that today was the Family Zhang and Old Madame's birthday, so all the long-term workers were given a holiday. Big Sister thought that although the Family Zhang was fierce, it could at least let her family reunite on such a day. She was going to the Family Zhang to see Brother-in-law Huang. "
However, Sister Huang didn't come back that day. The next day, and the third day, she didn't come back either. Liu Sanjie was anxious. She told Daiyu to look after the house and went to look for her.
Liu Sanjie didn't come back either.
It was a night of thunder and lightning. The wind and rain were fierce. The thatched hut couldn't shelter too much from the rain. The ventilation wall couldn't withstand the strong wind.
The house gradually darkened. Only the sound of the rain could be heard.
Daiyu tossed and turned. She thought about her uncle and Sister Huang and Liu Sanjie, who hadn't come back yet. She felt so suffocated that she couldn't sleep.
Suddenly, there were sounds of people outside. Daiyu thought that they had come back. She was about to get up when the door was kicked open.
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