Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 149 Mother and Son

The Song family had no plans to hoard food. The family had enough food this year. At worst, Song Chunlin still had a large amount of supplies in his space, but they could only be used when absolutely necessary.

As for other supplies, the farmers didn't need to prepare much, just oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. Song Dazhuang went to buy a batch of salt early, as well as a few large pieces of pork fat. Their family didn't eat much vinegar, so Song Dazhuang only bought a jar as a token of his appreciation.

Song Dahao followed behind Song Dazhuang. His backpack was already full of things. The streets were full of people stocking up on goods, and what they bought was considered a small amount.

Seeing that Song Dazhuang was relatively leisurely, Song Dahe felt a little anxious.

"Brother, why don't you buy some more? We don't know how long this war will last. What if the imperial court demands grain? What will we use to pay it?"

Grain collection had happened before. What Song Daha remembered most vividly was that one year the imperial court collected nearly half of their grain at once. They lived frugally that year and only managed to survive by digging wild vegetables in the mountains and fishing in the rivers.

At that time, it was the Turks who invaded. Fortunately, Lord Gu turned the tide and kept the enemy out of the pass. Now the Turks have made a comeback, and Song Daha can't help but feel worried.

However, Song Dazhuang just shook his head at him and said, "There is enough food at home. If it is not enough, we have other ways. Don't worry, the children will not starve."

After hearing what his elder brother said, Song Dahao felt a little relieved. At this moment, the street suddenly became chaotic. The two brothers looked around and found that someone was looting in the grain shop in front of them.

"Hurry up and grab it! This black-hearted guy has raised the price of grain tenfold! Ten times! Fellow villagers, he won't let us live, so we shouldn't be polite to him!"

Song Dazhuang heard someone in the front inciting the people to grab food. Hearing what that person said, he knew that this person was obviously instigating the people deliberately, intending to stir up public anger so that he could fish in troubled waters.

Song Dahao and Song Dazhuang immediately held each other's hands, retreated to the side of the road, and waited for the riot ahead to pass.

"Brother, where are these people from? They don't sound like they speak in Beijing."

"Shh, stop talking. We have to get out of this jam quickly. Let's go out this way and turn a corner to go home."

Song Dahe nodded, and they both put down their backpacks and held them in front, protecting their supplies and moving forward slowly bit by bit.

Just as they were walking out with difficulty, Song Dahao suddenly stopped. Song Dazhuang walked forward for a while before realizing that his brother had not caught up with him. He turned around and looked back, and found him standing on the side of the road, with his head down, seemingly talking to someone.

Song Dazhuang couldn't help but yelled, "Dahe!"

Song Dahe looked back at him, then lowered his head again. Song Dazhuang couldn't see the people on the ground from this angle, but he saw a figure suddenly appear behind Song Dahe, being dragged towards him by Song Dahe. There were many people here, and it was not a place to talk, so Song Dazhuang could only squeeze forward as much as possible. When they walked to a place with fewer people, Song Dazhuang had time to turn around and wanted to see who his brother brought out.

I saw a dirty woman pulling a dirty boy. The two of them stood there, looking at Song Dazhuang awkwardly.

"Brother, this is Chen Yuer and her...son."

After Song Dahe said this, Song Dazhuang finally recognized him a little bit, and then said in surprise: "Gensheng's mother, oh, this is Gensheng, I haven't seen him for a few years, you have grown taller, why are there only two of you, where is Li Ergou? Where are the others?"

Song Dazhuang asked too many questions at once, and Chen Yuer didn't know what to answer for a moment. She just lowered her head and whispered, "They are all dead."

For a moment, Song Dazhuang thought he had misheard: "What? Who died?"

Chen Yuer finally mustered up the courage and said, "Li Ergou, my mother-in-law and the others are all dead."

Before the excitement of meeting an old friend in a foreign land had worn off, Chen Yuer poured a bucket of cold water over their heads.

For a moment, the three adults were silent. However, Li Gensheng's stomach growled loudly, and then Chen Yuer's stomach also growled. The mother and son immediately covered their stomachs in embarrassment.

Song Dazhuang slapped his head and said, "Look at my brain. Come on, since we have met, why don't you come with me to my house and have a simple meal together? My father and others will be very happy to see you."

Chen Yuer waved her hands repeatedly and said no.

"We are in such a state that it is really embarrassing to visit you. Let's do it another day. Another day, my fellow gensheng and I will visit the two old people together."

Song Dahe was unhappy: "You don't have to be polite to us. Do you really think that my brother and I can't see it? Let's go. We are all from the same hometown. We should help each other when we go out. Or do you have a better place to go right now?"

Of course Chen Yuer had nowhere to go. They had fled all the way here and had no relatives. They had been begging for food in Changping Town for several days.

Finally, the mother and son got on the Song family's carriage. Chen Yuer didn't know that the Song family was so wealthy now and even had a carriage. Along the way, the mother and son sat awkwardly in their seats, not moving at all, for fear of dirtying the carriage.

Fortunately, the Song family's home was not far away, and they arrived there soon. As soon as Song Dazhuang got off the carriage, he ran to the front hall, calling for his father and asking his wife to boil some hot water.

Song Qin was confused: "What's wrong, do you want to take a bath?"

Song Dazhuang urged, "Go quickly, you'll know later. Little Daddy, are there any buns in the kitchen?"

Aunt Song also looked confused: "There are still a few buns. If you want some, I can heat them up for you."

At this time, Song Dahe had already brought Chen Yuer and her son over from the backyard. Grandpa Song recognized Li Gensheng at a glance. He looked a lot like his father Li Ergou when he was a child.

"Isn't this Gensheng? Are you Gensheng's mother?"

Seeing that Grandpa Song still remembered them, Chen Yuer couldn't help but burst into tears: "Grandpa Song really has a good memory."

By now Aunt Song had also reacted. Seeing how disheveled the mother and son looked, she quickly asked them to sit down first. Then she hurried to the kitchen, heated up the buns from lunch and brought them over.

Chen Yuer and her son hadn't eaten for two days. Song Dahe first poured them each a cup of hot water. The mother and son gulped down the hot water. Only then did they feel that the confusion in their heads was cleared up a little.

After eating another bun brought by Auntie Song, some food finally went into their empty stomachs. The buns brought by Auntie Song were vegetable buns without meat, but they were already a delicacy for them.

"Mom, these buns are so delicious." Chen Yuer's eyes turned red again as she looked at her son who was chewing the buns with such cherishment on his face.

Song Qin also came from the kitchen at this time. When she heard that Chen Yuer came with her son, she became a little impatient. She handed the job of lighting the fire to Zhou Ning and ran to the main room first.

After not seeing each other for many years, Chen Yuer had lost a lot of weight, and Song Qinshi almost didn't recognize her.

"Hey, Sister Li, how did you get yourself into this state? Where is Gensheng's father? Aren't you with him?"

When Chen Yuer heard her asking about Li Ergou, her face changed slightly, but soon returned to normal. She just said calmly: "Dead, together with my mother-in-law, both of them died."

Once the topic is opened, there is nothing wrong to talk about.

Chen Yuer took a deep breath and looked at her son lovingly: "Since you left, we followed the village chief and his people all the way to the city, intending to settle down there. However, the city no longer accepted refugees at that time, so we could only wait outside the city. Later, the village chief felt that this was not a solution. Since they couldn't enter the city, they couldn't settle down and could only become refugees. In order to settle down, we started on the road again."

"Later, we arrived in Yingchuan. As you may have guessed, there was a flood in Yingchuan and many villagers lost their lives. We were lucky that all the villagers survived."

Hearing that they could actually reach Yingchuan, everyone in the Song family couldn't help but sigh. Song Dazhuang then asked, "Yingchuan was hit by a disaster, didn't the government accept a large number of disaster victims to settle down? Why didn't you settle down?"

At this point, Chen Yuer gritted her teeth and said bitterly, "We also want to settle down, but it's all because of that damn Li Ergou, that beast. He said that the valuable deeds and household registrations of our family were washed away by the water and disappeared. Without household registration, we can't settle down. The village chief has tried many ways for us but it doesn't work. If we want to settle down, we have to use money, but how could we have money at that time? Even the village chief didn't have much money on him."

Without money, they could not obtain household registration. Without household registration, they could only become refugees. At that time, the imperial court issued a decree that they needed to purchase land in order to settle down. At that time, Yingchuan's requirements were not high, only one acre of land was needed, but they could not even come up with the money for one acre of land. For this reason, Chen Yuer thought of many ways, but Li Ergou was not interested.

Chen Yuer began to doubt his attitude. Logically, the most anxious person should be Li Ergou, but Li Ergou was still idle every day, doing nothing serious and not even caring about family affairs.

Li Ergou's mother, Grandma Li, also began to feel something was wrong. She repeatedly asked her son where his household registration was. Li Ergou refused to tell her. Grandma Li became suspicious. She took off her son's clothes while he was sleeping at night and found the family's household registration in the corner of his clothes, but the land deeds and other things were gone.

Realizing something was wrong, Granny Li told Chen Yuer about what happened. At first, the two of them were unsure what Li Ergou was trying to do. Granny Li had difficulty walking, so she could only let Chen Yuer follow Li Ergou. This tracking made Chen Yuer so sick that she couldn't eat.

"That conscienceless guy actually colluded with the widow Huang and set up a trap. He wanted to sell me and even Gensheng out, and exchange the money for a carefree life!"

This gossip contained too much information, and the Song family instinctively felt uncomfortable.

Song Dahe spoke directly: "That Li Ergou is really a piece of shit. What on earth did you like about him and why did you marry him?"

Chen Yuer turned her head away and said, "It's just my parents' orders and the matchmaker's words. As a child, how can I disobey my parents?"

As for what advantages Li Ergou has, it is probably that he has a mother with normal values.

"My mother-in-law knew that Li Ergou wanted to sell me and Gensheng, so she wanted us to escape immediately. But we were discovered by Li Ergou. He was so crazy that he even beat his own mother to death. I don't know what kind of magic potion Huang Widow gave him, but he broke up our family just like that."

Song Dahe: "How did Li Ergou die?"

Grandpa Song exclaimed: "Li Ergou is dead?"

Chen Yuer nodded: "He's dead. I beat him to death."

At this moment, Li Gensheng suddenly stood up and shouted to the Song family in a hoarse voice, "It wasn't my mother who beat my father to death. It was me who beat my father to death! I was the one who beat my father to death. If you want to arrest someone, send me to the government. This has nothing to do with my mother!"

After watching her son speak out all the words, Chen Yuer rushed forward with bloodshot eyes, hugged her son, and cried like rain.

"No, it wasn't Gensheng who beat her. It was me. I couldn't stand it anymore. He kept beating my mother-in-law. In order to prevent that beast from selling us, my mother-in-law kept holding his legs to stop him from catching up. It was me. I couldn't bear to see my mother-in-law suffer. I...I...I..." Chen Yuer seemed to be too excited and had difficulty breathing. Li Gensheng hurriedly helped her sit on the chair and kept rubbing her chest.

Seeing this, Song Chunlin immediately poured a cup of spiritual spring water over. Song Daha took the water and fed it to Chen Yuer. After a while, Chen Yuer finally recovered.

Li Gensheng trembled and called for his mother.

"Mom, don't scare me."

"Good boy, mom is fine, don't be afraid."

Li Gensheng was relieved to see that Chen Yuer was indeed fine. He wiped the tears from his face and said with a determined look: "Grandpa Song, Uncle Song, please arrest me. I am the murderer. I am not a human. I killed my father and my mother. My mother only said this to take the blame for me."

After reading this, what else is there that you don’t understand? Poor Chen Yuer who loves her son so much, and it’s also sad that Li Gensheng actually has such a father.

Grandpa Song, the head of the family, spoke up: "We are not the government here, how can we arrest people? Besides, Grandpa Song believes that you are a good child. How bad can a child who stands up to protect his mother be?"

Li Gensheng widened his eyes slightly. During this period of time, he had been tormented by self-blame and guilt. He always felt that he and his father were the same kind of person. Even though his mother kept saying that he did nothing wrong, the fact of patricide could not be erased. This made him subconsciously feel that he was a bad person like his father. Li Ergou beat and killed his mother for money, so didn't he also kill his father?

But it was the first time he heard someone say that he was not a bad boy because he protected his mother.

For a moment, the fear, guilt, and inferiority that had been pent up in his heart seemed to be dissipated by these words. He couldn't help but bury his head in Chen Yuer's arms and burst into tears.

All the depression hidden in his heart was vented out with his crying. When he wiped away his tears, the originally cowardly boy suddenly got rid of his sorrow and became more resolute and brave.