Chapter 74: The story of Fuhua and Old Li (3)

Facing the question from Bu Hua, the woman was not afraid at all. She cried and said, “I am not afraid of anything for my son. I only hope that he can live a normal life.”

“You have to bear two eggs, and you won’t live more than five years,” Bu Hua said seriously to the woman.

The woman’s eyes revealed a hint of fear, and she stopped talking. She just kept stroking her son’s hair.

At this moment, Buhua’s eyes turned cold, and a sneer appeared on her face. No one knew what she was thinking, except for a Miao girl who had followed Buhua and was usually responsible for taking care of Buhua’s life. She trembled slightly in fear.

She was too familiar with this expression of Buhua, and she knew that this was exactly how she thought it would be, and that if she showed this expression, there was no way that this mother and son could survive.

The Miao woman actually felt some sympathy for the mother and son. Although they were Han people, what did that have to do with her? She was just an ordinary Miao woman, not expecting to live forever, nor did she expect power. She just wanted to live a stable and happy life.

The atmosphere was frozen at this moment. No one knew what decision the silent Bu Hua would make. But at this time, the woman spoke again. She said, “I have calculated it. In five years, my son will be 13 years old. I think at 13, he can do a little bit of work independently. He can do without me.”

At this point, there was finally a change in the face of the woman. She suddenly turned around and left, then said, “Just do what she says, and put all the eggs that you want to put on your son in the future on her.”

Even Bu Hua herself didn’t know that from this moment on, a crack appeared in the hard ice of her heart.

From then on, Buhua had a slight change. She couldn’t help but go to the village of the “livestock” to check on the life of the mother and son. Sometimes she would go directly to ask the Hmong people in charge of the village, and sometimes she would just stand far away and watch.

Life in the village was hard. Everyone had limited rations, and there was nothing to do or no freedom. Material poverty and spiritual emptiness were like two giant hammers that could hammer a strong man to death.

But the mother and son were different. The mother’s face never showed any signs of despair, and she was often peaceful. Buhua had seen more than once that whenever the mother’s gaze fell on her son, she would feel a strange sense of satisfaction.

Buhua didn’t understand why she liked to observe them from afar, as if everything in their lives was a secret she loved to spy on.

Another year passed in such subtle changes, and soon it was early spring again.

It was her birthday, a day she didn’t care about, and even a bit of a repulsion. Although she couldn’t say why she was repulsed, she thought she would spend the day like every year, doing nothing, just as usual, with Zizi.

However, in the evening, she always thought of the mother and son. She thought of how the mother would try to make her son eat more while she herself pretended to be full. In fact, she knew very well how meager their food rations were.

She also always thought of the scene she saw one night, when the mother was quietly sewing a tattered shirt for her son under the dim light. She was standing outside the fence in the courtyard at the time, and suddenly she burst into tears, although she didn’t know why.

Thinking about this, she always felt a little irritated. Finally, she walked out of the wormhole and, at ten o’clock at night, when the whole village was quiet, walked into the village.

Buhua thought she would return to her own house, and thought she was just feeling a little depressed and wanted to take a walk, but she had unknowingly walked to her old home.

Her parents were still there, but because of her attitude, the people in the village naturally didn’t dare to get too close to them. They lived in the village like outcasts, and for some reason, they didn’t have any more children.

Surprisingly, the lights in her house were still on. She heard a heart-wrenching coughing sound, which was the man she should call her father. Then she also heard the woman she should call her mother say, “Why is your cough getting worse again? You’re old and can’t hunt anymore. We still have to hand in rations to the village to feed the people there. The few eggs we have are all we have to pay the witch doctor for medicine. You insisted on keeping them…”

Over there, the man’s cough seemed to have subsided a little. He panted and said, “It’s fine on ordinary days, but today is Buhua’s birthday. I always want to cook a few eggs for her. When she was little, she looked forward to her birthday and could eat two eggs a day.

The man sighed deeply, and the woman said, “Every year we ask someone to deliver it, but every year it just sits there and gets returned. She won’t forgive us. Maybe she thinks we’re just trying to curry favor with her. There’s no point in insisting…”

Hearing this, Buhua suddenly felt that she couldn’t listen anymore. Her whole heart felt like it was wrapped in a handkerchief, and then there were hands twisting the handkerchief hard. It hurt so much that she didn’t dare to listen anymore.

At that time, she did not think about the deep problem, but instinctively avoided it. Because when anyone’s world view is overturned, the first thing they face is the pain of self-denial. They want to try to prove that they are right, or else they will escape.

Bu Hua was lost in confusion. When she was with Zi Zi, she began to spend a lot of time in a daze. Zi Zi seemed to be indifferent to all feelings. Once, when Bu Hua tried to tell her about her inner confusion, all she got in return was a thought expressed by Zi Zi: the feelings of ants and worms are ridiculous. Their lives don’t even have a purpose, and their vision is very narrow. What is there to discuss?

In the past, Buhua would have agreed wholeheartedly, but this time, she was reluctant to respond for a long time. Is it really true that they have no purpose and are ridiculous? Then what is the purpose of that mother, and why does she have such a satisfied look?

The time of confusion is painful. Bu Hua has changed again. She used to be indifferent and emotionless, but now she is withdrawn and loves to daydream.

No one dared to ask anything. Those who dared to ask, like the ancestors, were indifferent to this. After the pursuit of immortality, nothing was worth caring about except for everything about the holy insect.

Bu Hua could not think of an answer, and she was unwilling to give up her own worldview. She thought, once again, that she would go see the mother and child again, perhaps she could learn something.

Or, it was just an excuse. She simply wanted to see the mother and child again.

So, Buhua left the village and went down the mountain again. No one dared to ask or stop her. She went to the village again and walked straight to the place where the mother and child lived.

As usual, she liked to stand under a tree not far from the courtyard of the mother and child, looking at them from a distance through the sparse fence, but this time she noticed something different, because she didn’t see the mother and child, but saw a man standing in the courtyard.

The man looked ordinary, with an ordinary build and ordinary appearance, even a bit like an elderly farmer. He was wearing a piece of whitened, starched clothing and was standing there casually, but there was an indescribable ease about him that made people feel that he was standing there so naturally that they couldn’t take their eyes off him.

After a long time, Fu Hua came to her senses. How could a man be standing there? Where were the mother and child? Fu Hua felt very angry and confused, just like someone who had lost something very important. After losing it, she realized that the thing had already been planted in her heart. Once lost, it seemed that a large piece of her soul had been emptied.

She unconsciously took two steps forward and wanted to ask the man where the mother and child were. She also felt that she should pull out the Miao people who managed the village and ask them where the mother and child were. But at that moment, the child ran out of the house and then smiled and said something to the man. Then the woman also appeared, just smiling and watching the scene.

Bu Hua was puzzled, but she didn’t want the man to suddenly turn his gaze to her and suddenly shout in a loud voice, “You’ve been standing there for a long time. In fact, you can come in and sit down.”

In this village, everyone knows Buhua’s identity, and no one dares to speak to her so casually. In addition, the people in this village are afraid of the Miao people, so how dare they invite the Miao people into their own house?

Bu Hua felt a strange feeling in her heart, not knowing what it was. For a moment, she hesitated. She didn’t think about her identity, but she had always been a person who “spied” from afar. Suddenly, she was going to walk into someone else’s real life up close, and she was a little afraid.

Just as she was lost in thought, the man had already walked up to her. Bu Hua looked at the man in surprise. How had he gotten here so quickly?

The next moment, the man spoke up: “I heard Xiaopeng say that you often see you standing here. I think you are watching them, right? Then why don’t you get a little closer to understand what you are afraid of?”

There was an indescribable look of vicissitudes on the man’s face, the sediment of years, but his eyes were bright and clean like a child, making him seem very extraordinary.

Buhua asked subconsciously, “Who are you?”

“Me?” The man smiled and said, “I’m Old Li. I sent a few apprentices away a few days ago to come and see you here.”