36 A Unique Time (2/2)
With his previous experience in the memory of Jiang Huiqin, Jiang Feng knew that Li Mingyi must be right beside him.
Was he hiding in the garbage?
Avoiding enemies?
He couldn't have to resort to that right.
”Mingyi, look, look at what this is!” On the other side of the garbage mountain, a hoarse and croaky female voice sounded.
Li Mingyi and Jiang Huiqin were hiding on the other side of the garbage mountain. Li Mingyi was lying on the grass. He was filthy, his hair and face were covered with mud, his body was covered with a broken quilt, and his muddy eyes were staring at the straw.
Jiang Huiqin looked a little better than Li Mingyi. She was wrapped in layers of torn simple clothes. Her hair was scattered and was so dirty that it had matted together. Jiang Huiqin wrapped herself in straw and curled up. Her frostbitten hands scratched a match that was too wet to use.
These were the middle-aged versions of Jiang Huiqin and Li Mingyi, but they looked like two old people in their old age.
Jiang Feng couldn't believe that those rough hands full of cracks, bleeding and oozing pus, that could hardly strike a match were Jiang Huiqin's.
After a few minutes of painstaking striking, Jiang Huiqin finally got the match burning. She carefully protected the match, and skillfully pulled out several pieces of wood from the garbage pile, cleared out a small open space on the ground, and started her fire there.
”Today is your birthday. I'll make you something delicious.” Jiang Huiqin carefully pulled Li Mingyi to the fire and found a clean earthenware pot from the straw. ”Those guys came here in the morning and turned the place over. They must have hated the smell of this place and so didn't look over here. Now that it's so windy, he won't come. The blind man Wu next door said that it would snow heavily for the next two days. I took advantage of the snow to get our food rations. The new year is coming soon. We can get a share of some meat and fish. ”
”How is blind man Wu?” Li Mingyi asked weakly.
”He's dying. His leg is rotten and sores are covering it. He hasn't long to live.” Jiang Huiqin rummaged in the garbage mountain again and found a piece of tremella and some bird eggs. ”I'll make you a good meal, so your legs will get better soon. Don't be like blind man Wu. His wife and children are all dead. He no longer has the will to live anymore. We still have Junming. We don't know what's happening in the northwest. ”
”Where did you get the tremella?” Li Mingyi coughed twice. He didn't respond to Jiang Huiqin.
”I exchanged it for the the gold bracelets.”
Li Mingyi was silent.
”Don't look like you're going to die. The tremella is so precious now. It's worth a gold bracelet. If your legs could recover, let alone gold bracelets, it would be worth the two little yellow croakers I hid in the well.” Jiang Huiqin rummaged about, and actually found a lot of good things from the rubbish pile.
”You're as good at hiding as ever.” Li Mingyi's face filled with some life at last.
”Of course.” Jiang Huiqin said proudly, ”Those guys still want to find what I have hidden? In their dreams, the bandits could not even find the money I hid in the ground during the War against Japan. With just them alone, hmph. ”
There was a trace of life in the dead shack.
Because of the fire and the rising temperature in the shed, Li Mingyi moved a little to see what Jiang Huiqin had taken out. Unfortunately, his glasses had been crushed long ago, and he had suffered from malnutrition for a long time. He couldn't see clearly in the flickering bright and dark light.
”What are you doing?”
”It's a secret.”
Maybe it was because she was in a good mood. Jiang Huiqin began to hum a little tune.
Li Mingyi chuckled unwittingly, and as he gazed at the glow of the fire, he suddenly felt that he was about to celebrate the new year.
It was the first time he felt this way since his eldest son had died.