In the late spring of the second year of Xuantong, Leshan County, Jiading Prefecture.
In February, when the Revolutionary Party of the Tongmenghui was rampant, Qin Bing, Cheng Defan and other hundreds of people split up and seized the bullets of the regiment training rounds in Jiading Tongjiachang and other places, launching the "Southern Sichuan Jiading Uprising" which is famous in history.
Although the revolutionary party was forced to go to Pingshan by the court soldiers who had been on guard for a long time, the atmosphere in Jiading Prefecture was tense this time.
Leshan County, the city of Jiading Prefecture, is the political center of the prefecture. Two months after the incident, the number of pedestrians on the street still seems to be a little less.
Leshan County is located at the confluence of Minjiang River, Dadu River, and Qingyi River. It is said in history that "the beauty of the world lies in Shu, and the victory of Shu is called Jiazhou". It was originally a place with beautiful mountains and rivers and noisy merchants. I have to keep my head down, and if caught by the county government, there will be cleverly named "spending".
Emeishan tea and black gastrodia elata from Jinkouhe are all famous local products in Leshan. However, in recent years, the imperial court's control over the local area has weakened, and government orders have not been implemented. It is inconvenient for businessmen to do business from all over the world.
At the beginning of April, the tea workers lived and boarded in the mountains, and they worked for several days just for the most valuable "Mingqian tea".
Mingqian tea is the tea picked before Qingming Festival.
Chinese people divide a year into 24 solar terms. After the Jingzhe and the vernal equinox, the tea trees start to sprout, and these sprouts can be harvested before the "Qingming". Because the temperature before Qingming is generally low, the number of germination is limited, the growth rate of tea leaves is slow, and the output that can meet the picking standard is very small, and the rare is the most expensive. "Mingqian tea" among Emei Mountain teas has always been sought after by merchants.
It all shows that the former West Lake Longjing tea is expensive, and the Emeishan tea contains the essence of Sichuan and Shushan, with tender buds and leaves, green color and fragrance.
There is a long street in the south of Leshan County. The alley is narrow and long. The winding street of more than ten meters is crowded with hundreds of families. It is a well-known gathering place for the poor in the county.
The first floor facing the street is full of storefronts, and the wooden boards are removed one by one, revealing the whole shop with a size of less than ten square meters. There is usually a long and narrow passage in the innermost part of the shop. Walking through the dark passage, the patio leaks down Shimmer, the back is the real residence.
The two-story courtyard is surrounded by a courtyard, including the half-person-high attic, which has only eight rooms, but there are fourteen people living in three households.
The family's surname is Shu. Because the old mother is still in the family, the three brothers have not separated, and the whole family is crowded in the old house. The shop in front of the old house opened a konjac tofu shop, which was run by Mr. Shu with his family.
Konjac is easy to grow and can be found everywhere in the suburbs. Leshan snow konjac is famous far and wide. Shu’s tofu shop opened on a poor street, which meets the needs of hundreds of families who are also poor, and their income is just enough to meet their needs.
At four or five o'clock in the morning, the sky is not completely bright yet, the stars and the moon are still shining, and the members of the Shu family have already woken up.
A large stone mill was placed in the corner of the small courtyard, under the moonlight, Boss Shu was grinding the mill. The cut konjac was put into the stone mill, and as Mr. Shu kept waving his arm, the dark gray and viscous konjac juice flowed down the mouth of the mill into the large wooden barrel.
"Sannizi, where did the water go? The konjac juice is so thick that you can't taste tofu!"
"Hey, here we come!"
A small head protruded from the edge of the well, two small braids were tied with a red rope, and her face was covered in black and gray. She looked like a girl who was only five or six years old.
She struggled to pull out a small half bucket of water from the well, and carried the wooden bucket to the stone mill.
Boss Shu saw that her little arms and legs were carrying a basin of water, and she was really unreasonable. While wiping off her sweat, she shouted into the main room: "Her aunt, come out and help!"
A fair-skinned woman opened the door, splashed the washing water, held the door frame and sneered: "I still have to serve your family, but it's a pity that I don't have a third hand, bah, there are those who have no hands and no feet." Lazy, I'm used to her niece's work!"
The woman pointed at Sang and scolded Huai, leaving Boss Shu speechless.
She was not aimed at the little girl, but at Shu's second family in the room on the left.
The three brothers of the Shu family have not separated. The elder Shu and his wife run a konjac tofu shop, while the second Shu is a carpenter. He leaves early and returns late on weekdays, working in a shop in the county. Shu's third wife married a tea girl, Qingming is the time to pick tea, the couple live in the tea garden of Mount Emei, leaving their six-year-old daughter at home to be taken care of by their mother.
Sister-in-law Shu pointed out that Sang scolded Huai and said that she was the second sister-in-law. Shu's second wife still needs to earn money to support the family.
"Daddy, I can serve water."
The little girl finally moved the wooden basin to the millstone. Knowing that there were often quarrels at home at a young age, she hurriedly expressed that she was able to work.
Boss Shu took the wooden basin from his niece, touched her head, sighed and poured water into the konjac.
The world is bad and it is not easy to make money. The Shu family was originally poor, and the whole family lived in a small courtyard.
What can he do, he can only blame himself as the eldest son for not being able to support the family, neither being able to provide a good life for his wife and children, nor being able to drag the brother's family. Parents have been away from home all year round, and they often suffer from splint gas.
Boss Shu wiped off his sweat and finished grinding the konjac in one go.
The industrious little niece helped to light the fire again, and when the sky was bright, the konjac tofu was also out of the pot and placed in the store.
To worship ancestors during the Qingming Festival, poor families have to tighten their belts to buy a chicken or a piece of meat to go to their ancestors' graves. After the ancestors "enjoy", the chicken or meat must be left for the family to eat. It is unavoidable to come to Shu's house to buy two pieces of konjac tofu and go back to braise it to eat, so the business of Shu's tofu shop is very good today.
Mrs. Shu looked at the store, and Mrs. Shu Dalian made two pots of tofu, which were sold out before noon.
After being busy until noon, the millstone of Shu's family was finally free.
Qingming eats Qingming rake, soak glutinous rice in water pressed from Qingming vegetables, grind it into rice milk and drain it, then wrap meat stuffing with glutinous rice balls, wrap it in grapefruit leaves and steam it in a basket, it is very delicious.
The Shu family was busy with business, so they started to steam the Qingming rakes. When the warm Qingming rakes came out of the cage, it was already dinner time. Sanni, who had been running all day, could finally rest. She sat under the stove and lit the fire. Second Aunt Xiaojiao stuffed her with a piece of Qingming rake, not caring about burning her mouth. Sanni took small bites of the Qingming rake. The fragrance, and the slight bitterness of the Qingming vegetables, after eating in the mouth, Sanni narrowed her eyes with happiness.
It is said that she is six years old, but in fact she was born in the thirty-second year of Guangxu, and six years old is considered to be an imaginary age.
After it was dark, Mrs. Shu lit a soybean oil lamp, and Mrs. Shu walked down the stairs to eat. The second son of Shu, who works in the county, has also returned home. There are fourteen members of the Shu family. The elder Shu has four children, the second son of Shu has two children, and she is the only daughter in Sanni's family. She works in the tea garden. Mrs. Shu and his wife left their only daughter to Mrs. Shu, but the old lady is a patriarchal grandma. Of course, Sanni's life is not easy.
In the family, there are only the honest uncle and the second aunt who has bound feet and is often scolded by Mrs. Shu to take care of Sanni.
The food was served on the table. The Shu family had no land, so they were usually reluctant to buy vegetables. Today, the family eats meat during the Ching Ming Festival. Two teenage boys from Mr. Shu’s family went to the river to catch a few big carp and came back. Shun the radishes and leeks, and Mrs. Shu deftly fried them and prepared a few dishes.
A large pot of stewed fish with watercress, a bowl of fried leeks with eggs, and a pot of radish and konjac tofu burned the pig's intestines.
The dishes are rich, and the half-grown children eat the poor old man. Seeing the grandchildren eating vegetable planed rice, Mrs. Shu smiled and chewed the radish cubes, feeling delicious.
Sanni was eagerly looking at the fish, and the second sister-in-law Shu conveniently picked up a piece of belly meat with the fewest fish bones for her, which aroused Mrs. Shu's knife-like eyes.
"It doesn't matter if the child eats or not, I don't know how to let my brothers, they are growing up and growing up, I can't lose them!"
Sanni was stared at by her grandma, and she dared not swallow the fish in the bowl.
"It's not that the parents don't send money home, and the girls say they can eat a piece of fish..." The second sister-in-law Shu couldn't understand Mrs. Shu's patriarchal preference, because she also gave birth to two daughters.
The daughter-in-law who gave birth to a daughter has no status, and even the second and third sons of Shu are oppressed by Mrs. Shu and cannot separate their families. The two uncles supported the four boys of Mr. Shu's family together, and sister-in-law Shu often pointed at Sang and scolded Huai, so the second sister-in-law stood in the same team as the third elder's family, and often protected Sanni.
Mrs. Shu was about to scold her second daughter-in-law for being unfilial, when someone slammed the door of Shu's shop.
"Ms. Shu, are you at home?!"
"Open the door, Mrs. Shu, something happened to your third child!"
Sanni held the bowl and carefully swallowed the fish that the second aunt gave her. With a young mind and a slow mind, she couldn't connect the "third child" who was knocking on the door with her father for a while.
Mrs. Shu slapped Sanni's chopsticks away: "Stupid, hurry up and open the door, and see what happened to your father."
"Oh." Sanni put down the bowl and opened the small door of the shop.
By the moonlight, Sanni found that there was a circle of people in front of the tofu shop, most of them were neighbors on the street, and there were a few strange men she didn't know.
"Auntie, the third brother and the third sister-in-law fell off the cliff, and unfortunately passed away... You have to express your condolences."
Several strange men were carrying a stretcher covered with a white cloth. When they saw the Shu family coming out, their eyes were red.
Aunt Shu, who was following Sanni, felt that someone had slapped her head hard, but she didn't realize what the noisy neighbors were saying for a while. It wasn't until Mrs. Shu lifted the white cloth, and the Shu family saw Mrs. Shu and Mrs. Shu who had fallen to a bloody mess, that Mrs. Shu said, "My son—" the cry dragged on and then cut off, she rolled her eyes and passed out.
Sister-in-law Shu and second sister-in-law both burst into tears and helped Aunt Shu onto the chair.
Boss Shu and Second Shu also wiped tears from their red eyes, the children of the Shu family were scared to cry by the adults, only Sanni, holding on to the door frame, was stunned.
The neighbors comforted, and the tea workers who brought back the bodies of Mr. Shu and his wife were telling Mr. Shu what happened.
It turned out that the couple were picking tea together. Mrs. Shu San was an experienced tea girl, so the owner of the tea garden asked her to pick the wild tea trees that grew on the cliff. Mrs. Shu has long wanted to separate her family. Picking wild tea is dangerous and the wages are high.
The couple had a good relationship, so Shu Laosan went with her and pulled the rope for her.
Unexpectedly, Mrs. Shu's foot slipped off the cliff, and she took Shu's third son who was pulling the rope down together.
When the tea workers found the couple, they fell together, their identities could only be identified by their clothes, and they had not breathed for a long time.
After listening to the tea workers, the fainting Mrs. Shu got up without knowing where she got the strength, and slapped Sanni on the face.
"It's all about your mother, the evil spirit, who gave birth to you, a money-loser, who killed my son, and made my family's youngest childless, woo woo woo..."
Sanni was knocked to the ground by her slap, and Aunt Shu cried so much that her nose and tears flowed.
Although the neighbors felt sorry for Sanni, they didn't know how to comfort her.
The third sister-in-law of Shu's natal family has a declining population, and her origins are somewhat unclear, but she is very beautiful. Marrying the third son of Shu has aroused the envy of many neighbors, but Mrs. Shu doesn't like her enchanting appearance. She has always had opinions on this third daughter-in-law . Sanni is a daughter, and when she grows up, she belongs to someone else's family. She didn't give birth to a son. The third sister-in-law Shu took the third son and fell to her death.
In the second year of Xuantong, at the age of six, Sanni became an orphan whose parents both died.
The grandma hated her, the second aunt loved her but couldn't afford her, and the uncle was also dull and honest.
After finishing her parents' funeral, my cousin sent her to the tea garden where her parents had an accident under the control of her grandma and auntie. The auntie rolled around at the gate of the tea garden and asked the owner of the tea garden to take care of her.
After some negotiations, the owner of the tea garden agreed to raise Sanni until she was eighteen and married.
Sannihua had a small face, tears all over her face and called her uncle and grandma. Boss Shu, who turned around every three steps, was dragged away by sister-in-law Shu.
"You want to support your brother's family who lost money? You are not afraid that she will kill you, but I am afraid that she will kill my son! If you dare to go back on your word, I will take the four sons back to your mother's house..."
Auntie's shrill voice echoed on the hillside, Sanni cried hoarsely, and Boss Shu was held tightly by his wife, never looking back at her.
Five-year-old Sanni, wearing black sleeves and wearing small white velvet flowers, became a child laborer in the tea garden of Mount Emei.