Poor Family

  Chapter 46 The Uninvited Guest

One afternoon, every household in Liwen Village posted Spring Festival couplets written by Li Yanqing. He had hundreds of Spring Festival couplets in his stomach, and every household could have different ones. His Spring Festival couplets were novel and auspicious, and the news spread quickly. There was a sensation in all towns and villages, and there was an endless stream of people coming to ask for Spring Festival couplets. Li Yanqing did not refuse, and he responded to every request.

Even the shops in Lushan Town came to ask Li Yanqing to write Spring Festival couplets for them one after another, but Li Yanqing was not polite to the shops, and they wanted to charge a pen fee. Couplets, earned a sum of New Year's money.

When the New Year comes, the biggest thing for every family is to prepare for ancestor worship. Although small households do not build a dedicated ancestral hall like the Li family, almost every household has cleaned out the main hall, put the ancestor's spirit tablet, and put Chicken, duck, fish and a few snacks, incense and candles, the whole family is ready to worship the ancestors on the first day of the first lunar month.

  On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, every household was busy preparing the New Year’s Eve dinner. The smoke from the kitchen filled the village with the smell of bacon and rice wine. Li Daqi was called by the patriarch to help the ancestral hall. Their family never had a New Year’s Eve dinner. Li Yanqing would go to Uncle Hu’s house for dinner in the evening.

Li Yanqing practiced breaking stones alone in the backyard. There was a copper coin hanging on a jujube tree. He stood three feet away and hit the copper coin with a stone. Dahei was busy picking up stones for him. Hei then rushed over, brought back the stone and put it under his feet, and the sound of jingling copper coins could be heard from the yard from time to time.

Suddenly, Dahei barked outside the wall, Li Yanqing wondered what would be happening outside, he climbed up the wall, and saw a tall and burly person walking from the woods in the distance, wearing a Fanyang hat, Wearing short soap clothes, carrying a whistle stick on his shoulder, carrying a small bundle and a wine gourd on the whistle stick.

This attire looks very much like Lin Chong from the Water Margin, but when this person approached, Li Yanqing's first feeling was that this person was not a kind person, with dark skin, a long thin face, and a two-inch-long scar on his cheek , a pair of triangular eyes are particularly cold.

  At this time, he also saw Li Yanqing, and was afraid that Li Yanqing would run away, so he asked from a distance, "Brother, is this Li Wencun?"

  His accent is not from a local, it has the same accent as the shopkeeper of the tavern, from the capital, Li Yanqing said, "This is Li Wencun!"

   "Is there a man named Hu in your village?"

  There is no one with the surname Hu, but there is one with the homophonic surname Hu. Li Yanqing's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he is here to find Uncle Hu?

  He immediately shook his head, "There is no one with the surname Hu in the village, uncle must have made a mistake!"

The man walked a foot away and asked: "You are right that this is Liwen Village, Xiaohe Township. Maybe he changed his name to another one. He is a very strong man in his thirties and looks like a bear." Same height as me, very good at martial arts, think about it, is there such a person?"

   Isn’t this Uncle Hu? A trace of vigilance rose in Li Yanqing's heart, this person doesn't look like a kind person, don't come here to trouble Uncle Hu!

  He was about to deny it when Hu Sheng's voice came from the side road, "Bian Laosan, how do you know I'm here?"

  When the big man turned his head, his face was filled with surprise, "Brother Hu, I finally found you."

  Hu Sheng was not happy, and still said coldly: "You haven't answered my question yet."

   The big man was a little embarrassed, and replied after a while: "Someone saw my brother in the town last year."

   "Hmph! I even figured out which village I live in, you really have a heart!"

   "Brother, don't say that, Master Fang also admires you."

"shut up!"

  Hu Sheng stopped the people coming, he glanced at Li Yanqing who was sitting on the wall, and said coldly: "Since you have already come, then come to my house to talk!"

  The big man clasped his fists to express his gratitude, walked forward quickly and said with a smile, "How is your health? Will the old injury recur in winter?"

   "Go back and talk about it!"

  The two of them walked away from the small path, Li Yanqing on the wall was full of surprise, Master Fang, could it be Fang La, isn't Fang La the leader of the Manichaeism?

This year is 1111. Li Yanqing remembered a major event that happened this year. The Song Dynasty's finances were tight. Emperor Zhao Ji appointed Yang Jian to set up a "Scraping Field Office" in the east of the capital this spring. countless.

At the same time, the "Suhang Yingfeng Bureau" was set up in the southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas to collect all kinds of flowers, carnations, bamboos and rare treasures from the people, and transport them to Bianjing by large ships. Every ten ships form a outline. This is the famous " Flower Stone Gang'.

   These two incidents were the fuse of Song Jiang and Fang La's uprising, but at this time they had not yet uprising, but they had already begun secret preparations.

  When Li Yanqing contacted the man just now, he vaguely guessed that Fang La was probably coming to recruit Uncle Hu.

  However, from their words, Li Yanqing felt that Uncle Hu's background was not simple.

  Li Yanqing couldn't sit still any longer, so he jumped off the wall and ran to Uncle Hu's house.

  Li Yanqing ran into the yard of Uncle Hu's house, and saw Xiao Qing'er squatting by the vegetable field alone playing with mud, she was a little unhappy, pouted, and ignored Li Yanqing.

   Li Yanqing saw that the Westinghouse was closed, so he guessed that Uncle Hu was talking with that big man in the Westinghouse.

  At this time, Li Yanqing heard Mrs. Hu talking in the kitchen, so she walked quietly to the kitchen. It turned out that Mrs. Hu was talking to her daughter-in-law.

   "Mother-in-law, who is that person? With such a generous hand, he is worth fifty taels of gold."

  Li Yanqing thought to himself, fifty taels of gold is five hundred taels of silver, this is not a small number anywhere, this person is trying to recruit Uncle Hu!

   "We can't take gold, Da Lang will definitely return it to him, daughter-in-law, this man is not a good guy, we have to be more vigilant."

   "Grandma, what did Dalang do before, why didn't I hear you mention it?"

Qing'er's maiden name is Zhang, and Li Yanqing always calls her Aunt Zhang. Her natal family is in Daming Mansion, and she is not from the same place as Uncle Hu. What, it shows that Uncle Hu's origin is mysterious.

   "Didn't I tell you before? Dalang was originally a martial artist in the capital, and he fled to Tangyin County after he wounded someone."

   "But I don't feel like it. The man just now was clearly called the second king of Dalang, mother-in-law, tell me the truth, did Dalang used to be?"

  Li Yanqing became more and more curious. Could it be that Uncle Hu was a bandit who took over the mountains and became king?

  Aunt Hu was a little upset, "You have been married for five years, and Qing'er is three years old. Why do you keep asking about Dalang's past? Could it be that he is not good to you?"

  'Kang Dang! ’ Aunt Hu threw the pot heavily, turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Li Yanqing was so frightened that he quickly got down and dug mud on the ground.

  Aunt Hu walked out of the kitchen, just in time to see Li Yanqing, she couldn't help but startled, "Qing'er, what are you doing here?"

  Li Yanqing squeezed out an innocent smile, "Ma'am, I'm playing mud with Qing'er!"

   "Oh! When will your father come back, we're going to have New Year's Eve dinner early."

   "Ma'am, I forgot to mention that Daddy is going to watch the night with the patriarch in the ancestral hall tonight, so he won't come back for the New Year's Eve dinner."

  Aunt Hu smiled, "It seems that your patriarch thinks highly of your father, which is a good thing, then wash your hands quickly, Qing'er, and you and your second brother wash your hands too."

Li Yanqing stepped forward and took Qing'er's hand to go to the well. At this time, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law did not speak, and each walked towards the main hall with dishes. The west room door suddenly opened, and Hu Sheng said coldly: "Eat. You can go after dinner! For the sake of brotherhood, I won't quarrel with you today, but you don't want to bother me again in the future."

   "Brother, why are you so stubborn? Do you have to ask the leader to persuade you?"

   "Shut up for me, if he dares to come, I will directly report to the police!"

   "Don't you even want gold?"

   Followed by 'Bang! ’ With a slap on the table, Hu Sheng said angrily, “You take the gold back, I don’t want it!”

  The man was also angry, and shouted: "My surname is Hu, let me give you one last word of advice. This is because Master Fang thinks highly of you. Don't toast or eat fine wine!"

"roll!"

  Hu Sheng was furious, and dragged the man into the yard, "Get out!"

  The man was also furious, and grabbed Hu Sheng's neck with his backhand, and the two rolled over in the yard, fighting.

Li Yanqing hastily pulled Xiao Qing'er over, trying to protect her. Unexpectedly, when Xiao Qing'er, who was usually weak, saw someone bullying her father, she suddenly became very fierce. Bite down.

  The man screamed in pain, Hu Sheng took the opportunity to throw him away, pulled his daughter over and handed it to Li Yanqing, "Take care of her!"

  Li Yanqing hugged Xiao Qing'er tightly, and felt that she was struggling desperately to help her father fight, as if the bravery in her bones had been stimulated at this moment.

At this time, Mrs. Hu also rushed out of the kitchen with a knife, pointed at the man with the knife and angrily said: "Bian Laosan, today is New Year's Eve, I don't want to turn against you, I have not forgotten the past." , if you dare to come again, we will settle the old and new scores together."

The scar-faced man didn't continue the beating in the end, he looked at their mother and son, then at Li Yanqing and Xiao Qing'er, restrained his anger and said: "In this case, I won't force it, I will go back and report the truth to the leader , let the leader decide! We will meet later."

   After speaking, he turned around and left angrily.

  (end of this chapter)