Chapter 1978

Compared to Gao Changwen, Gao Yang was very calm.

Chu Qingluan and Shangguan Wan'er looked sideways, their emotions originally dimmed by the story, but under Gao Yang's calm gaze, their hearts trembled slightly.

He was indeed a poison strategist.

This calm appearance didn't seem surprised at all.

This was indeed much better than Gao Yang had imagined.

At the very least, he didn't burn her.

And he wasn't greedy.

At the very least, he hadn't broken the bottom line of human nature.

At most, these behaviors could only be called living.

Hearing Gao Yang's voice, the old farmer continued, "The world is difficult, and nothing is up to oneself. Wang Laosan forcibly pried open his daughter's hand that was tightly clutching his sleeve—that cold little hand, trembling violently. The old man pulled her to his side, laughing loudly, shouting that tonight he would 'crush the begonia with a pear blossom,' and his withered hands became restless."

"The desperate look in his own daughter's eyes, Wang Laosan would never forget. He took the silver, carried the dry firewood and rice with a shoulder pole, not daring to look back, not daring to look at his daughter's desperate eyes, and ran away as if escaping."

"That night, heavy snow was falling outside, the cold wind was howling, and Wang Laosan burned some dry firewood and drank a bowl of hot porridge—not the kind of thin porridge where you could see your reflection, but thick hot porridge."

"Wang Laosan held the bowl, squatting by the stove, drinking it slowly, mouthful by mouthful. The piping hot porridge slid down his throat, warming his stomach, but as he ate, tears flowed down."

"This night was the most comfortable, yet also the most agonizing night Wang Laosan ever slept."

"Beast! Heaven has no eyes! Why didn't a thunderbolt strike this Wang Laosan dead!" Gao Changwen couldn't take it anymore and slammed his fist hard against the cold ground.

"Retribution?"

The old farmer nodded, "That could be said."

"What do you mean?"

In an instant, Gao Changwen looked over eagerly.

"It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality! Wang Laosan ate hot porridge and burned dry firewood, experiencing the warmth of the fire. To make him go back to the days of hugging straw and enduring the cold was harder than death!"

"Watching the dry firewood he had traded for dwindle day by day, while the weather showed no sign of warming up but instead got colder and colder, Wang Laosan became more and more anxious."

"So, he came up with a bold idea."

"On a night of wind and snow, he called Ersha from the neighboring village. The two of them stuffed their tattered cotton jackets with straw, wrapped themselves layer after layer, wore broken straw sandals on their feet, and carried sharpened firewood knives in their bosoms, sneaking up the mountain under the cover of darkness..."

"There was a good forest there, the property of Scholar Zhang in the county. The two of them thought they would secretly chop a few branches, and no one would notice. That would be enough to survive the rest of the cold winter!"

"Once they entered the mountain, using the faint moonlight, they chopped with all their might!"

"But before long, Ersha's voice rang out."

The old farmer's gaze was reminiscent, as if he were there, and he shouted, "There were dogs, very fierce wolf dogs, their barking in the night tore through the darkness!"

"Wang Laosan was lucky and ran fast, but Ersha was miserable. He ran a step too slow, his buttocks were bitten several times, and what was worse, Ersha lost his straw sandals in the deep snow."

"He ran back barefoot in the deep snow. By the time he reached home, his feet... were already frozen like steamed buns, purple and swollen, with no feeling!"

"When Wang Laosan went to see, Ersha kept pretending it didn't matter, just that it hurt, but after two days, the feet started to turn black and fester..."

"Yellow-green pus mixed with blood, the stench was unbearable..."

"Ersha had no money to hire a physician and couldn't afford medicine. Wang Laosan painfully took out one tael of silver to buy medicine, but it was of no use. He couldn't afford more expensive herbs, so Wang Laosan could only watch helplessly as the flesh on Ersha's feet rotted away bit by bit, revealing the toe bones inside..."

"After a few more days, Ersha developed a high fever, his whole body was burning hot, and he was delirious. The rotting flesh on his feet was infested with maggots..."

"Ersha knew he wasn't going to make it. Before he died, he cooked a bowl of thick porridge with the rice he had left, drank it mouthful by mouthful, and left the dry firewood he couldn't bear to burn, along with the rest of the rice, to Wang Laosan."

"That night, Ersha lit a fire and burned himself, along with the broken house and everything inside..."

There was silence by the campfire, only the crackling of the firewood.

The old farmer's voice was sorrowful, yet carried a kind of helplessness: "Because he didn't want to lie naked in the wild after he died, with even the last piece of tattered cloth to cover his shame torn away by wild dogs. He wanted to leave a little... a little more decently..."

"Later, the weather gradually warmed up. Wang Laosan was afraid of the wind and snow that year, he was truly scared, so he took the remaining grain and silver and fled as a refugee..."

When the old farmer said this, he let out a long, long breath of turbid air, as if he had unloaded a heavy burden.

He looked at everyone, bared a mouth of yellow teeth, and said very easily, "Noble people, the story is finished."

As he spoke, he stood up and carried the bundle of branches he had picked all morning, which were pitifully small, on his back.

"Noble person, thank you for the fish."

"This fish... is really fragrant!"

The old farmer bowed to Gao Yang and then stepped away, leaving directly.

Gao Changwen came back to his senses and shouted, "Old man, what is your name? Do you live in the east or west of the village? I'll have the steward send you some firewood later!"

The old farmer shook his head and said.

"Noble person, no need."

"The human heart is a bottomless pit. Once you've tasted the warmth of good firewood, going back to gnawing on rotten grass roots is a feeling worse than death."

He paused specifically, as if using all his strength to spit out that sentence: "Actually, this old man... is Wang Laosan." ===== CHAPTER 1980 =====