A bright white and large moon hung high in the sky, like half a pancake, illuminating the surroundings in the middle of the night. Songjia Village is not big, with dozens of houses scattered in the mountains. I fell asleep peacefully.
After traveling for half the night, Hu Yi and his companions entered the village. They had agreed to share a room with each other on the way. Now that they had arrived, Luo Fugui wanted to stay with Hu Yi and his companions, but he couldn't refuse them, so he pretended to be busy and went to the other side of the village.
Hu Yi didn't care much about Luo Fugui's departure. He focused his attention on this strange village. He looked around and found that every household had its doors and windows closed and no light could be seen. He didn't know what to do. Hunger was the most serious problem. He and Ma Liang and Xiao Hongying had a brief discussion. The three of them were penniless, so they could only try to beg for money. Although it was midnight, they had to bite the bullet and knock on the door.
Hu Yi knocked on several doors, but he couldn't even see anyone, let alone begging for food. There was no response at all. There was a light in one of the houses, but as soon as Hu Yi knocked on the door, the light was turned off and there was no movement. Living here is complicated. There are Japanese invaders in the east, the Eighth Route Army in the west, and bandits every few days. Who would open the door when a stranger knocks in the middle of the night? Is he crazy? It seems that he has to wait until dawn. Hu Yi gave up the idea of knocking on the door and returned to the open space before departure, squatting in the corner to bask in the moonlight, waiting for Ma Liang and Xiao Hongying to act separately.
Not long after, Ma Liang also came back with his head hung. He knocked more than Hu Yi, but also returned empty-handed.
Xiao Hongying showed up last, with a black steamed bread in her hand. She didn't knock on every door, but just called out pitifully under the back windows of several houses, "Uncle, Auntie, I'm hungry, give me something to eat." Hearing the little girl's pleading, a family actually threw the steamed bread to her from the window.
Xiao Hongying handed the steamed bread to Hu Yi for him to share, but Hu Yi pushed it back: "Eat it all. We will find a way when the sun rises. Ma Liang and I won't starve."
Seeing Hu Yi's firm attitude, Xiao Hongying grabbed the steamed bread, smelled it, hesitated for a moment, and put it in her pocket.
Luo Fugui walked to the east end of the village, he was so hungry that he was panicking, his eyes almost green. If I die of hunger here with a gun on my shoulder, it would be a disgrace to my grandma. I knocked on the door several times, but there was no response. I can't use politeness, you guys are forcing me to use force. I picked a door that looked the least solid, kicked it open with my big foot, and rushed in with a machine gun.
The room was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything clearly. Fearing that someone would hit him with a club, Luo Fugui stopped after two steps into the room, pointing his gun into the darkness: "Is anyone breathing? Turn on the lights quickly, or I'll shoot the whole room! If you don't turn on the lights, I'll really shoot!"
The dim light came on, and a teenage child hurriedly left the lamp and dived into the arms of his grandmother who was curled up on the kang.
Huh—Luo Fugui breathed a sigh of relief. An old man and a child, I feel relieved now. He looked around the room in the dim light, ignoring the old and child on the kang, and then began to rummage through the drawers and cabinets looking for food. He searched through them randomly, but found nothing. How depressing!
The tall figure stood in the house, panting for a while, rolling his eyes, and Luo Fugui started searching again. Damn it, there is not a single bite of food? Impossible! I am afraid you have hidden it. This time he did not look for boxes and cabinets, pots and bowls, but picked corners and cracks, and occasionally knocked on the cracks in the wall. God rewarded his hard work, and he finally pulled out half a bag of corn flour.
Luo Fugui was immersed in happiness and joy, but a deep sigh came from the kang.
"If you are still a human being, then you should kill this lonely old lady and this child right now!"
"I'm just trying to make a living, why would I kill you?"
"My son died a violent death, and I, an old woman, am left to raise this child. Look at the scene outside, what is the season? What is the difference between taking the food and killing us mother and daughter? I beg you to do a good deed and kill us now, so that we won't suffer. I, an old woman, beg you, if you are also born of a mother, if you still have a conscience, just kill us now!" As the old woman spoke, she knelt down on the kang, trembling, in front of Luo Fugui. The child next to her stared at Luo Fugui coldly with big eyes, without saying a word.
At that moment, Luo Fugui felt that the rice bag in his hand was not a rice bag, but a mountain. This heavy feeling made him speechless. This feeling was not because of pity for the old and young couple, but because Luo Fugui suddenly thought of his mother.
My mother died of starvation. I ate a lot when I was young, but she never despised me. She always smiled as she watched me eat. She wished she could squeeze food out of her teeth to give me. She always said she wasn’t hungry. When she died, her body was as light as a feather. I could only feel the bones when I held her shriveled corpse in my arms. It hurt my chest for the rest of my life. My mother never despised me, she was never hungry, she always said she had eaten…
Luo Fugui stood in the moonlight again. He didn't dare to take the half bag of rice. Luo Fugui was very tall, but the bag of rice was heavier. He couldn't lift it, and he felt pain in his chest.
Most people in Songjia Village have the surname Song. Although there are many poor people, there is still a rich family, which is naturally called Mr. Song. They have a lot of land. Although they are not as good as the big landlords, they are also successful. At least the walls are high and thick, the gates are bright, they have three or five long-term workers, and they also hired a security guard.
This guard's surname was also Song, and his name was Song Ming. No one knew where he was from, but he accidentally ended up in Songjia Village. Because he had a gun tucked into his body, he was spotted by Mr. Song and became a guard, the only armed force in this small place of Songjia Village.
There was a loud banging sound on the door in the middle of the night, which made Mr. Song jump with fear. Recently, there were troubles with the Japanese, the Eighth Route Army and the bandits. It was almost a mess. Who on earth was this monster? He quickly called Song Ming to check out the situation.
Through the crack of the gate, under the moonlight, a tall and strong man seemed to be holding a machine gun and standing outside the gate, shouting for food. The ragged man was definitely not a Japanese Eighth Route Army soldier, but most likely a bandit. After carefully observing him from left to right for a long time, it seemed that he was the only one. Song Ming had a clue in his mind, so he went back to the house to report the situation to Mr. Song.
"There seemed to be only one person, probably a bandit because he was holding a machine gun."
Mr. Song and his wife were busy packing up their belongings in case of an emergency and escaped through the back door. After hearing what Song Ming said, he calmed down a little and stopped what he was doing: "Alone? Are you sure?"
"Sure."
"Phew—that's good. No need to run away in such a hurry. What is he going to do?"
"He wants to eat."
"Then send him away quickly!"
"Master, I'm worried that he's trying to trick us into opening the door."
Mr. Song thought about it and it made sense. He was begging for food in the middle of the night with a gun in hand? That was nonsense. So he ordered, "Have a few farmhands get up and help. Light up the lights in the yard and guard the walls around the yard."
Song Ming took the order and went out to make arrangements.
Luo Fugui shouted outside the gate for a long time without any response. His throat was dry from exhaustion. Suddenly, he saw the yard light up and lanterns were hung on the wall. What was going on? Was it the New Year? Then he heard someone shouting from the gate: "Listen to me, you outside. We don't have any food. It's getting late. Go and do your work somewhere else."
"My god, look at how high your gate is. If you don't have food, the Songjia Village would have starved to death eight hundred years ago. If you don't give us food today, I'm going to shoot! Look carefully, this is a machine gun in my hand! Do you understand what a machine gun is? It can sweep a large area with one sweep, do you understand?"
Song Ming pulled out a pistol from his arms. It was a large-caliber pistol, which was very rare. He aimed at the outside through the narrow crack of the door. The big guy was swaying back and forth. The light was not very good. He barely found an opportunity and pulled the trigger.
Bang! The crisp sound of gunfire rang out under the moonlight in Songjia Village.