radicalducati Chapter 277 Survive
Chapter 277 Survive
Chen Weidong seemed to see what he was thinking and took out a cloth bag from under the table: "Here, we collected some from you. It's enough for you to eat for two days."
Banggeng stared at the bag of food and suddenly felt his eyes getting hot. He quickly lowered his head and forced himself to hold back the bitterness.
"Thank you!" he said in a hoarse voice, clutching the bag in his hand. After being oppressed by life for a long time, he finally learned to bow his head.
His rough fingers tightly grasped the grain bag, his knuckles turning white from the force. He stared at the rough stitching on the bag's opening, his throat felt like it was clogged with a piece of hot coal.
Chen Weidong was stunned for a moment - this was the first time he had heard the word "thank you" from Banggeng in half a year. The other educated youth in the room also stopped their work, and the air suddenly became so quiet that one could hear the crackling of the fire.
The hardships of life shattered the arrogance that Jia Zhang had cultivated for many years and exposed his true cowardly heart. Today's fainting made him extremely scared. Although the knife wound in the fight almost killed him, the medical care in the capital is still better than here. He doesn't want to die here, so he decided to put away his pitiful arrogance and live on.
Banggeng curled up in the corner of the kang, holding the grain bag tightly in his arms. The rough touch of the grain bag rubbed the scar on his chest - it was left by Li Yuanchao's stab last year. At this moment, the old wound was aching slightly, as if mocking his former arrogance.
Moonlight leaked in through the holes in the window paper, shining on his trembling fingers. He stared at his deformed hand joints and suddenly remembered how Jia Zhang spoiled him in the past: when he didn't get any advantage in the courtyard, his grandmother stood at the door of her house and cursed the idle street; when he stole Xu Damao's chicken, his grandmother said he had "become more capable"; even at the last meeting of the whole courtyard, the old lady sat on the ground and rolled around to protect him...
"Mother..." He exhaled a breath of white air into the moonlight, and suddenly found himself crying. It was not the dry howling of a wrathful man as before, but like a stray dog, curled up in the corner of the kang and silently shedding tears. The cold tears slid to the corners of his mouth, and they tasted bitter and salty.
Chen Weidong, who was in the next berth, turned over, and Banggeng immediately held his breath. When the snoring started again, he dared to wipe his face with the grain bag, but his face was covered with cornmeal. If it were such humiliation in the past, he would have jumped up and smashed things. But now, he actually carefully gathered up the spilled powder and poured it back into the bag.
The howling of wolves from Yelanggou drifted in with the cold wind, and Banggeng huddled himself in tighter. He touched the family photo hidden under the pillow - the edges of the photo were already frayed, and Qin Huairu's smile was almost rubbed off. This was the only thing that kept him warm now.
"Mom..." He held the photo to his chest, like grabbing the last straw, "I... I want to go home..."
If they want to go home, they have to find a way to survive. The educated youths and the six men in the village are capable and eat well, but they don't have much surplus food. However, the other families in the village are different from them. They have been here all year round and are familiar with the situation. They know where to pick mushrooms and hazelnuts. Some people hunt and occasionally get a roe deer to satisfy their cravings. The skin can also be used to make clothes to keep warm. If you can join the village family, it will be much easier. The easiest way to join is to become a member of their family.
Banggeng began to observe the girls in the village carefully.
Every day after work, he no longer huddled in a corner with a gloomy face like before, but deliberately sat at the entrance of the educated youth camp and wiped the coal dust off his face and hands with snow. He imitated Chen Weidong and stood up the collar of his torn cotton jacket to cover the worn edges, which showed a bit of unruly temperament.
Chunyan, the second daughter of the old Li family in the east end of the village, always slowed down her pace when she passed by the educated youth station carrying water. Banggeng noticed that the way she looked at him was exactly the same as the way those girls in the alley looked at handsome guys.
"Comrade Chunyan, let me help you carry it." That evening, Banggeng took two steps forward and took the carrying pole from her hand. He deliberately let his cold fingertips brush the girl's wrist, and sure enough, he saw her ears turn red.
"No, no need..." Chunyan's voice was like the hum of a mosquito, but her hand loosened its grip on the carrying pole.
Banggeng walked in front carrying a bucket, and he straightened his back deliberately. He knew that his profile looked best—it was because of this angle that Qin Huairu had many men secretly help her move honeycomb coal in the courtyard.
When passing by the frozen creek, Banggeng "accidentally" slipped. Chunyan screamed and held his arm, and he took her to his arms and said, "Be careful!"
The girl smelled like a cotton jacket smoked by pinewood, mixed with the sweet scent of frozen pear jelly. Banggeng suddenly remembered that when he was a child, Qin Huairu also leaned on the arms of a strange man with the smell of soap. He felt disgusted at the time, but now he understood the calculation.
"Brother Jia..." Chunyan broke away with a red face, and the end of her braid brushed across Banggeng's chin, "You, your clothes are torn, can I help you mend them tomorrow?"
Banggeng lowered his eyes and smiled, his eyelashes casting a trembling shadow under the kerosene lamp: "That's embarrassing." But he had already unbuttoned his cotton jacket, revealing the frayed collar of his shirt underneath - a hole he had deliberately torn yesterday.
That night, Banggeng took out half a piece of rock candy hidden under his pillow. He bought it last time in the county and kept it until now. He decided to give it to Chunyan tomorrow. He listened to the snoring of other educated youths and thought to himself: Old Li's family has five daughters and one son, and Chunyan is the most beautiful. If she can marry into the family, at least she won't have to starve anymore...
Banggeng's plan soon encountered obstacles. That evening, he was talking with Chunyan hiding next to a haystack behind the village when they were suddenly blinded by a beam of glaring flashlight.
"Dad!" Chunyan shuddered with fear, and the frozen pear in her hand fell into the snow.
Old man Li stood at the end of the haystack with a sullen face, the sickle in his hand still stained with grass debris. Behind him followed Chunyan's elder brother Li Dazhu - a burly farmer with arms thicker than his thighs.
"Jia Zhiqing," said Old Man Li, in a voice as hard as frozen earth, "my daughter Yan is going to be married off to the eldest son of the Wang family in Houtun."
Banggeng's brain buzzed. He knew the son of the old Wang family. He was a strong laborer who could carry a 200-jin grain bag with one hand, and was named a "threshing expert" last year.
"Uncle Li..." Banggeng forced a smile and subconsciously straightened his back, "I am serious about Chunyan..."
"Seriously?" Li Dazhu suddenly spat, "You can't even plow a furrow straight, how can you support my sister?"
Under the flashlight, Banggeng could clearly see his own shadow on the snow - as thin as a crooked tree, while the shadow of Li Dazhu next to him looked like a black tower. He suddenly remembered that when they were fighting in the courtyard, he also looked up at Shazhu.
Chunyan suddenly cried out: "Dad! Brother Jia promised to teach me how to read..."
"Learn to read?" Old man Li pulled his daughter over. "Can learning to read make a living? Look at his consumptive appearance. It's doubtful whether he can survive the cold snap in the spring!"
The old wound in Banggeng's lung suddenly hurt like a needle. He bent over and coughed, his mouth full of blood. When he looked up again, he saw Chunyan had been dragged away by her brother. The look the girl gave him was exactly the same as the look Qin Jingru gave Xu Damao.