Chapter 4: The Sad Little Companion

  "Wuuu, Wei Gege, I'm back! Open the door!" Yingzi cried as she ran back home. Her house was the closest to here, so naturally she was the first one to return.

  "What's wrong, Yingzi? Why are you crying?" "Waaah... Auntie is so mean! She won't let me take my clothes and only gave me these few things." Yingzi was holding two pieces of clothing in her hand, a top and a pair of pants.

  Among these partners, Yang Wei's memory of Yingzi is still relatively familiar. Yingzi's home is close by, especially since Yingzi's mother and Yang Wei's mother are both weak and sickly, so the two families naturally interact more frequently. Yingzi's family has a house, and even her uncle and aunt brought three children to rely on Yingzi's family. However, two months ago, Yingzi's mother passed away, and her uncle and aunt took over the house. Since then, Yingzi began to lose weight, and her uncle's children looked healthier than her. Now, it seems that they directly gave Yingzi these two single garments and drove her out of the house. Is this what they call an "evil aunt"?

  "Alright, Yingzi don't cry, from now on brother's place is your home, you can eat meat every day." "Yes, Yingzi will have meat to eat, and she'll eat a lot of it, not giving any to the naughty kids in Auntie's family." Yingzi nodded like a little adult, even opening her tightly clenched fist, inside which was still a bird claw. It seemed she wanted to take it back for that child to eat. Looks like those kids didn't give her a good face either, so she didn't give it to them. But kids are just kids, what's the point of eating this bird claw anyway?

  The same story has been going on, but there are also a few different children. They were five people whose parents died several years ago and they were arranged to live in one house in the village. An old man was arranged to take care of them from time to time. Naturally, they didn't have many things, but what they brought was the most. There were several broken bowls, a few packages of tattered clothes, and two quilts with exposed rotten cotton wool. The funniest thing is that they even brought over the pot from there, and even carried two door panels.

  "Weizi, that's all for now. There are some hay over there, we'll go back and get them later." "Isn't this enough? It's just some hay, right?" "No way, we picked up those hay bit by bit, can't just throw them away." "Alright, you guys hurry up and come back, don't cause any trouble with others."

  Yang Wei was afraid that the commotion would be too loud and someone would come to stop them, but Yang Wei thought too much. The house was given by the village to these five children, and naturally everything inside belonged to them as well. Besides, who would come out on such a snowy day?

  "Waaah, Wei Zi, my aunt scolded me," another one came back crying, this is Xiao Ping, a twelve-year-old girl. Ying Zi came back with several pieces of clothing, but she came back empty-handed.

  "Xiao Ping, what's wrong, did your aunt scold you?" "She scolded me as a good-for-nothing and wanted to go back to get things. She asked me to calculate the food and lodging for these years for her, and said I owed her so much. Doesn't she know that the land she cultivated and the house she lived in are all my family's?"

  An English translation of the text is:

  One aunt's son, one little Ping's aunt can be considered two weirdos. This niece wants to go out and live, not coming back home, should be a happy thing, but they scolded and grumbled instead. The other kids were happily returning, holding more or less some clothes in their hands, nothing else.

  These kids' relatives are clever, this family really doesn't have many children who can work hard, especially with a small mountain inside, about the same age as Yingzi, six years old, but still can't do anything. Especially the things he brings back are the most, he lives in his grandfather's house, and his grandfather's brothers and sisters are not few either, naturally they also want him to leave early.

  Yang Wei was somewhat perplexed, wondering how these weird relatives all met together. But after careful consideration, he realized that they were all chosen by his mother, so it's natural for them to meet together. In fact, there are still children like this in the village, but those children did not pass their mother's examination, so they naturally did not join them either.

  Yang Wei now carefully observed these little companions, they were tall and short, all thin, not a single fat one, which was easy to understand, there wasn't a single one who could eat their fill, naturally there weren't any fat ones either. Most of them were twelve-year-old children, but looked no more than ten years old, the tallest being about 1.3 meters, obviously malnourished. The kids Yang Wei knew before crossing over were all over 1.5 meters tall at this age, and even 1.5 meters was considered short.

  It's okay here, but Yang Wei is very confident and lets these partners get fat. In the past, they worried about the problem of weapons, now he has found guns, so there's nothing to worry about.

  "Wai Zi, Wai Zi, come quickly." This was Gou Sheng calling out to Yang Wei from a distance, as if they had discovered something again. So Yang Wei gathered the remaining big boys and left only three girls with two small children to guard the house, then they all went to the broken house where Gou Sheng and his group lived.

  Yang Wei's home was on the northwest side of the village, on the outskirts of the village, close to the big mountain. The dog remained and they lived in the southeast corner of the village, which was also a house of that landlord Lao Cai, but it was a separate house of his family. At first, the villagers almost dismantled this landlord's home in order to find something, but they didn't find much. It seems that this time they were found by the dog remaining.

  This is also a pit house, but this pit house is different from Yang Wei's. At that time, no one thought that there was anything in the place where the long worker lived, so no one came to search for it, while the place where Dog Remains and others lived was turned over several times, but nothing was found.

  But the dogs were gone, and some little friends thought that you didn't treat us well either, why should we leave complete things for you? So they smashed the kang, and only then did they discover a hole in the ground under the kang. Who would have thought that this hole could only be found by dismantling the kang?

  Actually, there was no money inside, but two boxes were pulled up from below. The two boxes were very heavy. After Yang Wei and his men opened the two boxes, they felt a bit disappointed. Inside, there were two broken rifles, which looked okay, with not too much wear on the barrels. There were also one or two hundred rounds of ammunition.

  All that was left were three iron nails, one end of the nail was very sharp, and there was a part wrapped in cloth on the top, it seemed to be something for making holes. In another box, there was a net, a very dense and sturdy net, which should have been made of silk. Was this a treasure? Why did the landlord not put gold and silver treasures inside, but instead put this net? Yang Wei felt puzzled.