Poor family mother and son

From torches to lamp oil, and from lamp oil to candles, the progress in lighting is only noticeable in the homes of the rich, but is very vague in the homes of the poor.

Chu Qing took advantage of Huang Zhong's sobriety to talk about lamp oil: "When I first arrived in Wushu Village, I saw some families using candles and some families using lamp oil;

At first, I thought that families who could afford candles were considered the rich households in the village. However, as time went by, I realized that those who used lamp oil were the ones. "

Families that use lamp oil can afford to eat meat at least every once in a while, and then make some lard for cooking and stewing. When the lard goes bad over time, they use it to light lamps.

Families who couldn't afford meat would go up the mountain to find pine trees to cut rosin, heat it and boil it into wax oil, then fill a hemp rope with it and use it as a candle.

When there are many people, the topic tends to get sidetracked. When talking about lamp oil and rich and poor, Mr. When washing, I don’t know how to use a lamp;

In a village, there are always poor families. For example, there are many children in the family, but they are all too young, and the elderly are not in good health;
Women have to stay at home to take care of children and the elderly, as well as do housework. Only men work in the fields, and they have to save firewood at home;
Because there are few people who can work, they cannot go to the mountains to cut firewood in the fields. How can they find the time to go up the mountains to find rosin to make candles?
Our villages are not that poor, and I have seen even poorer families go to bed early as soon as it gets dark, because they don’t know they are hungry when they are asleep, so how can they spend money on lighting lamps? "

At this point, Mr. Xie suddenly laughed: "You don't know, right? In fact, I am not a local."

Well, this topic changed and immediately aroused everyone's interest.

Mr. Xie has been in Wushu Village for more than 20 years. No one knows that he is not a local. They only know that he studied in the Shaanhui School next door and moved to Wushu Village in Jizhou because he was dissatisfied with the atmosphere there. Small place.

Mr. Xie couldn't help but laugh when he saw that everyone was looking for someone's privacy and wanted to know someone's secrets. "Hahaha...hahaha, look at each of you, why do you think you have some shocking secret?
Okay, let me tell you;
I was born in a county east of Kyoto. At that time, I heard that the imperial court planned to classify several places as ki counties in Kyoto. Our county was also considered by the imperial court;
If it can be classified as a Ji county, then it is a high-class county. Officials will naturally fight for it, because it will mean that their official rank will be upgraded to one level out of thin air, which will mean that they will receive many conveniences provided by Kyoto;
Therefore, the officials are working hard every day to prevent beggars from going to the streets to beg and to conceal the epidemic...

At that time, there was a plague in a village in our county, and almost half of the people in the village were sick. No one wanted to call a doctor to go so far away to treat a group of poor people;
Later, the head of that village asked people to carry the most seriously ill people into the city to find a medical center, but they were not even allowed to enter through the city gate, saying they were afraid that they would bring the disease into the city and affect their promotion to Ji County. ;
Those seriously ill people died outside the city gate before they could return;

This is a very sad thing, but who would have imagined that they were not allowed to enter the city, and now they were not allowed to leave, because the city gate official heard about this and came over. He asked the village chief and several people who brought him The body was taken to a village not far away and burned;
In fact, they were afraid that the people who were carrying the patients would also be infected with the disease, so they wanted to keep them all to dispose of the corpses, and then let them go until they were not sick. If they were sick, they would be detained in the Zhuangzi to wait for death. "

Everyone expected to hear stories about Mr. Xie being dissatisfied with the marriage arranged by his parents and actually running away with his wife. After all, Mr. Xie and his wife had settled here for more than [-] years, but they had not heard of any elders or relatives. Isn’t it strange to only have two sons?
But I didn't expect to hear such a sad story.

Xiaobao couldn't help but ask: "What happened next?"

Wu Dalang wanted to know why beggars were not allowed to go to the streets in that county: "If beggars don't go to the streets, will they starve to death?

If we don’t provide medical treatment when we are sick, will everyone die of illness?
Isn't this a big deal?So officials should not be held responsible? "

Wu Dalang has been the village chief of Wushu Village for a long time, but when he became the village chief, Wushu Village had become a wealthy local village driven by the Chu family's industry. Not only did the villagers afford to hire doctors, the village even took them in. A visit to a doctor's house does not involve the issues Mr. Xie mentioned.

But Wu Dalang’s father, the old village chief, understands the key here: “Since you want to be rated as a Ji county, you have to let the people sent to inspect by the superiors see that this place is good in all aspects;

If the streets are full of beggars, and it looks messy and poor at first glance, how can it be evaluated?
The same applies to the villages where the epidemic is spreading. If the infection spreads to the city, what chance will the capital officials give them when they come to inspect?
Don't even think about it, you can't have such a dangerous place, it will bring a drag on the capital! Mr. Xie nodded, indicating that Mr. Wu was right, and continued: "My father is the village chief." "

Now everyone was shocked.

Mr. Xie smiled. At his age, he could see everything clearly, and all his anger turned into sadness: "My father and those villagers were detained and ordered to burn and bury those villagers. , my father disagrees. How can it be reasonable for people not to be buried properly after death?
But the soldiers didn't care and just burned the dead people. My father rushed to stop him, but he was kicked by the soldiers and suffered internal injuries and vomited blood;

Later, when those people saw that my father and the others were not infected with the plague, but my father was almost kicked to death by them, they were afraid of taking responsibility, so they let them go back;

Those people were brought out alive, but when they returned to the village, they couldn't even bring back any ashes. My father felt ashamed to face the villagers, so after returning to the village, he resigned from the position of village chief;
My father suffered internal injuries and felt useless, and he has never been able to get sick since then;
My mother had a strong temper. Seeing my father like this, she was really angry, so she went to the county government office to beat drums and complain.

However, even beggars are not allowed to go on the streets. Can an official allow my mother to complain like this?Doesn't this put a black mark on their faces?They are still waiting to be promoted to Ji County to get greater benefits;

My mother was beaten ten times and said that if she hadn't been seen as an ignorant woman and a first offender, she would have been put in jail;
A woman was beaten in court. Think about it... After my mother was carried back, my father was so furious that he spurted out a mouthful of blood and died that night.

My father died, and my mother couldn't stand the excitement, so she committed suicide... I was ten years old that year. "

Mid-Autumn is the day of reunion, but after hearing such a sad story, the whole table fell silent.

Mr. Xie felt that he was disappointed and a little regretful, so he raised his glass to invite a drink: "Come on, come on, let's drink, let's not talk about the unpleasant things!"

Everyone drank a glass of wine moodily, but still wanted to know what was going on, so they looked at Mr. Xie eagerly.

Chu Qing felt that Mr. Xie was getting older and everyone should curb their curiosity and not let Mr. Xie be immersed in sadness all the time, so he said: "I just talked about lamp oil..."

Unexpectedly, just as he started talking, Huang Zhong suddenly spoke up: "You just said that some people go to bed as soon as it gets dark, saving dinner and lighting, are you talking about yourself?

Also, if a little child has no parents, it will be a problem for him to eat. How can he afford lamp oil? "

Huang Laosan's behavior was a bit funny - his face kept turning back and forth between Huang Zhong and Mr. Xie, and his mouth opened and closed, like a cramp.

He wanted to stop his father from talking, but also hoped that Mr. Xie would answer, because he found that his father was thinking clearly now.

The most important thing is that his father had forgotten his meal for a while and would ask "what's for dinner later?" But now, his father actually remembered what Mr. Xie said before.

This is progress and a sign of improvement, so Huang Laosan hopes that Mr. Xie can continue to talk.