RPAGF Chapter 1131 Injured
Chapter 1131 Injured
His home was at the west end of the village, a small adobe house with a wall made of loess, low enough to see what was going on in the yard. The house was dark, lit only by a kerosene lamp, the dim light stretching the shadows out very long. Uncle Lao Gen dragged out an old wooden box from under the bed. The box was made of red pine, the paint on it had all fallen off, revealing the wood grain inside. He opened the box, and inside were some yellow paper, incense sticks, and a few copper coins - these were all hidden by him secretly. When the "Four Olds" campaign was carried out, the village searched intensively, and he buried these things under the old locust tree in the yard, so they were not taken away. "Before your mother fell into the well, did she have a grudge against anyone? Or did she offend anyone?" Uncle Lao Gen lit a stick of incense and stuck it into the adobe in the yard. The incense burned slowly, and the smoke rose straight up, carrying a faint fragrance that dispelled the musty smell in the house. Erzhu sat on the edge of the kang, holding her head in her hands. She thought carefully and shook her head: the account book and the red embroidered shoes in her hands were also snatched away and thrown in different places. Later, Li Pozi took the lead in destroying the four olds and burned most of the account books she found. Only this one was left, which was secretly buried in the valley, and the red embroidered shoes were also scattered everywhere. Wang Tieniu held the account book, his fingers trembling, and tears fell down his dark cheeks. He remembered that year, when the family was about to run out of food, his mother pulled him and rushed into Mr. Shen's house and took away two buckets of rice - that rice saved their family's lives. But he didn't expect that the rice was hidden by Xiulian, and she wanted to leave it for her sick father. "We are the ones who have wronged you, Miss Xiulian." Wang Tieniu knelt down with a plop facing the old well, his voice choked with sobs, "We were foolish and greedy back then, and we robbed you of your things and killed you. We will mend the account book, find your shoes, and apologize to you. Don't look for the children anymore. If you want to punish someone, punish us adults..." The members of the cooperative behind him also knelt down, some crying, some repenting. Erzhu knelt in the front, feeling guilty and painful - he had worn the pair of cotton shoes his mother had given him that year, and they were very warm, but he had not expected that those were embroidered by Xiulian who had stayed up all night, and she was going to wear them herself. That night, the villagers gathered together and found the fragments of the account book that Mrs. Li had not burned that year. They also found a new piece of paper and asked the literate teacher in the village to mend the account book stroke by stroke according to the old account book. Chuntao, taking red cloth and needle and thread, embroidered a new pair overnight, modeled after the red embroidered shoes she had found—peach blossoms on the toes and lotus on the uppers, exactly as Xiulian had embroidered them. As the moon rose, everyone came to the old well, carrying the repaired account books and the newly embroidered red shoes. Uncle Lao Gen lit incense and candles, the flames dancing in the night. Wang Tieniu, holding the account books, and Erzhu, holding the red embroidered shoes, knelt on the edge of the well, kowtowed to the water. "Miss Xiulian, we've repaired the account books and embroidered new shoes for you. Please forgive us..." "We were wrong back then. From now on, we'll burn paper and send you peach blossoms every year..." "Don't make trouble anymore. The children in the village are all innocent..." Erzhu knelt in the front, knocking his head against the bluestone slabs with a "dong dong" sound. He raised his head and looked at the surface of the water in the well. The water was very still, reflecting the moon in the sky and his face. But as he reflected the water, he saw a shadow on the surface of the water—a figure wearing a red dress, with a long braid, holding a mended account book and newly embroidered red shoes. It was Xiulian. She smiled at Erzhu, her eyes curved into crescents, and then she slowly sank, disappearing under the water without leaving a trace. The next morning, at dawn, someone ran to the old well to look. The muddy shoe prints on the well's edge were gone, and the bluestone slabs were clean, as if washed by water; the cracks on the old poplar tree had healed, no longer oozing blood, and the bark was as smooth as before; the millet field on the west slope, the ears of millet that had been bleeding were gone, and the golden ears swayed in the wind, regaining their former vitality. The villagers repaired the old well, replaced the well rope, and erected a bluestone tablet by the well, engraved with the two words "Xiulian". It was written by a village gentleman, with a gentle handwriting, just like Xiulian. Every autumn, when the peach blossoms faded, someone would pick a few dried blossoms and throw them into the well—those were Xiulian's favorite flowers back then, and they wanted her to see them there, too. Two years later, Erzhu married Chuntao. Chuntao was gentle and virtuous, and she embroidered red shoes. After each pair, she would place a pair next to the stone tablet by the well, then collect them the next day—knowing Xiulian would come to see them. Later, they had a daughter and named her "Tao'er," the same character in the Chinese character for "peach blossom." When Tao'er was three years old, it was an exceptionally hot summer. Erzhu took Tao'er to the old well to fetch water. Tao'er squatted by the well, clinging to the edge and looking down. Suddenly, she pointed inside and said to Erzhu with a smile, "Dad, there's an auntie in the well. She's wearing red shoes and has long hair, and she's smiling at me!" Erzhu quickly looked in. Above the water was only blue sky and white clouds, and the shadows of him and Tao'er. No auntie in red shoes. But his heart warmed. He stroked Tao'er's head and whispered, "Auntie is here to protect Tao'er, and to protect our village." Tao'er nodded, half understanding, and called into the well, "Auntie, take care of yourself. I'll have my mother embroider new shoes for you next time!" The water in the well gurgled, as if Xiulian were saying yes. Erzhu knew Xiulian was still there, guarding her account book, her red embroidered shoes, and the peace of the village. As long as the old well stood and the peach blossoms bloomed, she would not leave. Little Stone continued to mutter, his voice growing increasingly urgent: "One of my shoes... is in the well, one is in the water tank, and the other... is in the valley... Find them... and return the account book to me..." Hearing this, everyone hurried to the millet field on the west slope. The plot at the edge of the west slope had once been the private plot of Mr. Shen's family, later allocated to the collective to grow millet. The members of the cooperative took hoes and carefully dug in the ground, fearing to damage anything. After digging for a while, Chuntao's hoe suddenly struck something hard. She quickly stopped and scraped the dirt with her hands. A red embroidered shoe emerged, its surface covered in red cloth, embroidered with peach blossoms. The hole in the toe was still there, perfectly matching the two half-shoes from before. Inside the shoe was something wrapped in oil paper. Opening it, she discovered an old account book. The paper had yellowed and become brittle, the edges curled, but the handwriting was still clear. The words, written in neat small calligraphy, read: "Wang Tieniu's family took two dou of rice in the autumn of 1948," "Li Pozi's family took a cotton-padded jacket in the winter of 1948," "Zhang Lan (Erzhu Niang)'s family took a pair of cotton-padded shoes in the spring of 1949"... Page after page, recorded the items taken from Mr. Shen's house by nearly every household in the village, even down to the length of cloth and eggs. It turned out that during the land reform, the villagers, with red eyes, stormed into Mr. Shen's house, stealing food, clothing, and furniture. Xiulian tried to stop him, but was pushed and fell backwards, falling into the old well next to her.