WTO accession

Chapter 31 Twins

As the summer days faded, Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan ran down the hill and returned to the village.Both children were barefoot, sweating in the scorching air, taking pleasure in trampling down dandelions along the way.

Qihe Village is close to the southwest border, and the village households are relatively scattered, located in the endless wilderness.The soil here is deep, flat and soft, without any gravel, and everything except the crops is covered by grass, the green fields stretch to the sky, and the colors of Chinese and Canadian miscellaneous families are flowers and dandelions that cannot be named.

Nan Zhuo suddenly slowed down when passing by the first villager, Nan Yan didn't stop behind, and slammed into his back.Nan Zhuo turned his head, his younger brother stretched out his hand to hold his arm.

"Brother..." Nan Yan said, "Wait for me."

Nan Zhuo didn't speak, but patted Nan Yan's back and gave it a couple of pats.The two children held hands, Nan Zhuo looked into the bungalows of the people on the side of the road, and smelled the aroma of food inside.He pursed his lips and heard the sound of his younger brother swallowing.

The courtyard door was ajar, and two people entered.Summer is too hot, and people in Qihe Village eat outdoors. The daughter-in-law of this family is serving food outside, and the family sits on the threshold with bowls to eat.As soon as the two brothers from the Nan family entered, they were seen by others. The woman holding the stir-fry food paused and turned her head away.

Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan didn't speak, they just stood in the yard and watched.The family also has two children, both younger than them, who stared and laughed when they saw them, and then picked up stones from the ground and threw them at them.

That brother's throwing accuracy was quite good, Nan Zhuo quickly pulled Nan Yan aside, stood in front of his younger brother and got hit on the forehead, with a "boom".

The family didn't want to care about it at first, but the sound sounded scary, so the mother of the two children greeted her son back.Nan Yan stood behind Nan Zhuo and groaned twice, seeing his brother being beaten, he was about to cry, but Nan Zhuo turned his arm back and grabbed his brother's hand, and still stood there without moving.

We all know why he and his younger brother are here. In the end, the old lady of the family sent a message and gave each of the two children a steamed bun and half a plastic bag of pickles.

The old lady sighed, looked at them and called out "Boy from the Nan family" and asked, "Which of you is the elder brother?"

Blood oozed from Nanzhuo's head, but it was not obvious in the evening light.He raised his hand and said, "Me."

Nanzhuo and Nanyan are twins, and Nanzhuo is an older brother. The two brothers have almost the same appearance and stature, and the villagers can't tell them apart every time.The two have no mother, and their father is Nan Hongzu, who does business in Yufang City. The two children live with their aunt Nan Xiujuan.

Nan Xiujuan doesn't farm or work, so she relies on the money sent back by her brother every month, but she doesn't spend this money on raising children. Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan run around the fields wearing tight clothes all the year round.The past few years were fine. In the past two years, Nan Xiujuan often didn’t cook, and there was no rice at home. The two children often wandered around the village in the evening. When they entered other people’s houses, they stood there and stared at people, and the villagers would give them something to eat. .Everyone in Qihe Village has a livelihood, so starving to death will not happen, but if there are too many, other outsiders can't control it.

The old lady of this family gave Nanzhuo steamed buns and pickles and sighed.

Nan Zhuo gave the things to his younger brother and said in a low voice, "Thank you."

The old lady waved her hand, and Nan Zhuo took his brother away.After going out, Nan Yan smelled the plastic bag containing pickles, and said to Nan Zhuo: "Brother, it smells good."

Nan Zhuo looked at his younger brother's expression, he really wanted to eat pitifully.He opened the bag and picked out a little bit with his fingertips. There was still mud between his nails, but Nan Yan naturally didn't pay attention to these things. He held Nan Zhuo's wrist, and when he backed away, Nan Zhuo's hand was completely clean .

After Nan Yan finished eating, Nan Zhuo tied up the plastic bag again, carried two steamed buns together in his hand, and took Nan Yan home.On the way, when he met other people who were eating, he asked Nan Yan to take the food he had already ordered to stand at the door, and then went in to ask for it.Someone kicked him out without giving it away. Nan Zhuo stood up expressionlessly, patted the dirt on his body, and dragged his brother away.

Nan Xiujuan might prepare something for them to eat, but I'll have to go back and see, and if there is any, I'll eat aunt's.But when Nan Xiujuan didn't care about them, she really didn't remember that there were two other brothers in her family. The two brothers given by the villagers had to keep them as private food for emergencies.

When Nan Yan was about to reach the door, Nan Yan still wanted to eat, Nan Zhuo softened his heart, and opened the bag for him while saying: "Go back and have a look, if there is no food at home, then eat."

"Then I hope there is nothing to eat at home." Nan Yan stared intently at his hands, "I want to eat pickles, and I also want to eat rice."

Nan Zhuo paused, did not correct the first half of his sentence, but said: "There is no rice."

Nan Yan pursed his lips, and Nan Zhuo said, "I'll make it for you next time."

Nan Yan believed everything he said, smiled so hard that his eyes crooked, and said, "Is white rice okay, bro?"

Nan Zhuo pursed his lips, pinched the pickles, and said, "Okay."

He fed the pickled vegetables into Nan Yan's mouth, and then he licked the pickled vegetable soup on his fingertips. He tasted something, and it was indeed very fragrant.He swallowed hard, and fastened the pickle bag into a tighter buckle, so that he really wouldn't let him touch it.

The birth time of the two people differed by more than ten minutes, but their xinxing is already different.Now only Nan Yan is a real child, no one cares about them, Nan Zhuo has to take this responsibility, protect and lead his younger brother, and live himself into an adult at the age when he should be naughty and foolish.

There is actually no definite statement about who is the elder brother of the two.

When the mothers of the Nan family brothers gave birth to them, Nan Hongzu didn't invite a doctor or send them to the county seat, so Nan Xiujuan delivered them. Anyway, many women in the village gave birth at home like this.Moreover, Nan Hongzu didn't want to take the two mothers out, not to mention the county town, but somewhere else in the courtyard.The reason is probably that it is a very beautiful woman, and Nan Hongzu doesn't want others to see it.

At that time, a female husband came out. Nan Xiujuan cut the umbilical cord and put it aside, followed by another one.Nan Xiujuan arranged the two babies side by side, and then went out to tell Nan Hongzu that they were both boys.Nan Hongzu wanted a boy, and was very happy. He followed into the house, and was suffocated by blood again.He told Nan Xiujuan the name he had spent money on in the city for the child, and asked her to clean up the two children and take them out.

No one cared about the woman who had just given birth, she just lay on the bed by herself, staring at the roof with her eyes wide open, without making a sound.

When Nan Xiujuan returned to the house, the two children were wrapped in cloth, lying next to each other on the bamboo bed, crying at the top of their lungs.However, during the time she went out to talk to her brother, Nan Xiujuan forgot which one came out first.

She dared not tell Nan Hongzu that she couldn't tell the difference, for fear that his brother would be angry.Nan Hongzu would beat people when he was drunk or when his temper came up. There was no monitoring and no law and order in the village, and no one knew when he died.Nan Xiujuan made up an order. She saw one of the babies stop crying first, and decided that was the eldest.

There is a saying that a new life comes into this world and cries for the endless sufferings to come in the life to come.Nan Zhuo left his mother's body and was at the beginning of a bumpy journey, so he didn't cry for long.

He is stronger, more sensible, and colder than Nan Yan. There is no other reason. The two grew up like conjoined twins. It has nothing to do with their personalities. It is because he is an older brother.

Nan Xiujuan once told the two brothers about this, Nan Zhuo nodded, feeling nothing in her heart.He is already Nan Zhuo, and Nan Zhuo is his elder brother.

The moisture-laden summer air made people sweat all over, and Nan Zhuo's palms were sticky while holding the food.The courtyard of the house was empty, and Nan Xiujuan was lying on the recliner in the house, her eyes closed, her body still twitching a little, and empty needles were thrown on the small table next to her.

Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan ran around her to the back room, they didn't need to wake Nan Xiujuan, they all knew that as long as Nan Xiujuan had a needle by her side and her eyes were closed, she would never notice them.But this also meant that there was nothing to eat at home, Nan Zhuo went to the kitchen to take a look, the stove was high, he moved a stool to step on it, and found that there was only half a pot of gruel left.

The porridge was already cold, Nan Zhuo thought about it, but didn't move, Nan Xiujuan had to eat after she woke up.Nan Yan stood at the door of the kitchen, Nan Zhuo got off the stool and said, "Let's eat steamed buns and pickles."

The house was too hot, there was a well outside the courtyard gate, Nan Zhuo fetched water, the two of them washed their hands and faces, and squatted in the courtyard to eat.The bag of pickles was opened and placed on the ground, and he picked it up and ate it with his hands.

Nan Yan picked up a particularly large piece of pickle and put it on Nan Zhuo's steamed bun.Nan Zhuo ate, and while chewing, the moon came out and the light fell, Nan Yan suddenly frowned and said, "Brother, your head!"

"Ah?" Nan Zhuo raised his hand to touch it, his finger was stained with blood, half dry.The pain was over, he raised his fingers and said, "It's okay."

"Brother," Nan Yan said, "we won't go there anymore."

Nan Zhuo swallowed the mouthful, rubbed his bloody hands on his pants, and said without raising his eyes, "Go."

Nan Yan's eyes were red, he said: "But they..."

"It's okay," Nan Zhuo looked at him, "The grandma of that family has a soft heart, and she gives us food every time, did you forget? This time there are pickles."

Nan Yan poked the soil under his feet with his fingertips, Nuonuo said: "I haven't forgotten."

"Well, that's fine." Nan Zhuo grabbed his wrist with his hands down, preventing him from playing in the mud, and then wiped his fingertips clean, saying, "So it was worth the two throws they threw at me."

He already knows the relationship between gain and price, Nan Yan has never experienced it, but he understands it and knows that he loves his brother.He leaned over and blew on Nan Zhuo's wound, puffing his cheeks very hard.

The moon hung in the deep sky, covering the two children with gray light.They do look alike, except that Nan Zhuo's eyes are darker, there is no difference.Their hair was long and messy, reaching to their shoulders, but you could tell they were both beautiful, especially for boys.They soaked and ran in the sunshine of the wilderness every day, but their skin still showed a sub-healthy whiteness strangely.

There was still a little soup oozing from pickled vegetables in the bag, Nan Yan put the last mouthful of steamed buns in it, soaked it up, and gave it to Nan Zhuo to eat.Nan Zhuo let him eat by himself, and in the end the two of them got half of each.

After Nan Xiujuan woke up, she went to the kitchen to heat up the porridge and brought it out. Seeing that the two children didn't intend to ask for it, she knew they had eaten it.She was sitting at the door drinking porridge, Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan were sitting on the side, there was a watermelon worm on the ground, the two of them kept reaching out to poke it, watching it curl up and then stretch out.

Nan Xiujuan is not ugly, with slender eyebrows and big eyes, and a small face.But there is a big scar on one side of her face, which was caused by the overturning of the kettle when she was cooking the stove when she was a child. The skin from the tip of her eyebrows to her chin was completely destroyed, so now she is 30 years old and still not married. Follow Nan Hongzu all the time.

Xia Ye's cicadas were making a lot of noise, but Nan Xiujuan felt comfortable and seemed to be in a good mood while eating the porridge.She brushed away her broken hair in the breeze, looked at Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Do you want to listen to the story?"

Nan Zhuo raised his head and said, "Listen."

Nan Xiujuan patted the threshold beside her, and Nan Zhuo took his younger brother to sit down.Nan Yan was thinking about the watermelon bug, sat down, stood up and ran back, and was caught.

Nan Xiujuan looked down at Nan Zhuo, she usually talked to Nan Zhuo, Nan Yan was cared for by Nan Zhuo, she was too lazy to care.Her gaze fell on Nan Zhuo's eyes, and she asked, "Do you know who your mother is?"

Her story is old news, Nan Zhuo has probably heard of it.But every time Nan Xiujuan wanted to talk, he would still listen, because sometimes Nan Xiujuan would suddenly pop up details that he hadn't heard before.

He nodded and said, "I know."

Nan Xiujuan asked him as if she was testing him, "Who is it?"

Nan Zhuo hesitated for a moment, then said contradictoryly: "I don't know." He thought for a while, "She doesn't have a name."

"Yes, she has no name, and I don't know what her name is." Nan Xiujuan looked at the empty courtyard, she was very thin, and her skinny hands looked more brittle than the spoon she was holding.

She said, "She was abducted by your father."

The term "abduction" and the concept Nan Zhuo heard from Nan Xiujuan when he was very young. He has never met his parents since he can remember, and never left Qihe Village. Nan Xiujuan is the only channel for him to obtain information from the outside world. .He nodded and waited for Nan Xiujuan to continue.

Nan Hongzu is an individual trafficker who works in Yufang City and abducts women.This is illegal, Nan Xiujuan knows it, but she doesn't think it's out of conscience.

"My brother is bold, he abducts women and sells them for money, and he makes a lot of money." She told Nan Zhuo like this, "Many people in Qihe Village are very envious, but they don't have the guts."

She didn't lie, the village is ideologically derailed from society, and the legal system and technology are all fantasy.As long as Nan Hongzu earns money in the city, he will be a role model for the others in Qihe Village.

"Your mother," Nan Xiujuan said, looking up at the moon, "she fell from the sky... No, she floated here along the river."

Nan Zhuo had never heard of this before. He was a little puzzled and asked, "Did you float here along the river?"

"That's right, it came here." Nan Xiujuan seemed to smile, she was too thin, her peach-shaped face protruded with cheekbones and eye sockets, making all her expressions look labored and exaggerated.She said: "I don't know where it came from. Anyway, it just appeared in our pond, and I don't know how long it has been soaking in the water. Your father happened to be there at the time, and saw a woman lying on the edge of the water. It didn’t move at all, your father thought it was a dead person, but who knew that it was still alive when you fished it up and looked at it. What a fate... Your mother’s face was as white as a corpse at the time, but she still looked good. Your father just Brought it home."

The name of Qihe Village has its origin. There are seven rivers nearby, and this is the place where they meet.It sounds amazing, but in fact, there is nothing left when the river reaches it. The place where the seven rivers converge is a small broken pond, and there are seven narrow river channels around it. It lies on the field like a spider missing a leg.

Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan's mothers appeared there, and they didn't know which river they came from.

The moonlight fell from the thin clouds, lighting up Nan Zhuo's eyes of seeking knowledge.Nan Yan was still poking the watermelon bug on the side, Nan Zhuo asked Nan Xiujuan: "And then?"

Nan Xiujuan lit a cigarette, Nan Zhuo was so choked that she wanted to cough, but she held back and didn't make a sound, she just pushed Nan Yan away.Nan Xiujuan narrowed her eyes comfortably, and said: "Then your father left her in our village and asked her to give birth to him. Your mother looks so good after raising her, like a fairy. But there is one thing, She's a fool."

Nan Zhuo's face was glowing coldly, he was stunned, and repeated the word "fool" in a murmur.

"Why, don't you believe it?" Nan Xiujuan stretched out the smoke between her fingers towards Nanzhuo, she seemed a little angry, and said, "Can I lie to you!"

Even Nan Yan raised his head, and the two looked at Nan Xiujuan together.After a while, Nan Zhuo shook his head and said, "I can't."

"It's pretty much the same. I saw it with my own eyes." Nan Xiujuan leaned back in her chair and said, "After your mother was rescued, she sat there every day without saying a word, and your father didn't ask anything, so no one knew about her. What's your name. Later, when your father made friends with her, she didn't resist or agree, so what is it if she's not a fool? But fortunately, she is obedient and can give birth to a son."

These words carry a great weight to children, and they hit the heart, forming distorted emotions and values.Nan Zhuo stared blankly at Nan Xiujuan, listening attentively.

Nan Xiujuan stomped out the cigarette, lit another one, pointed at it, and said, "Did you see the well outside the courtyard?"

Nan Zhuo turned his head and glanced, then nodded.

"Your mother is probably sick here," Nan Xiujuan pointed at her temple, "I sit on the edge of the well and look out every day, and I don't know what I'm looking at. At first we were afraid that she would fall, but later When you found out that nothing happened, you just let him go. Your mother lived here for a year, and she just sat there for a year."

She also finished smoking the second cigarette, Nan Zhuo didn't ask any more questions.He knew the direction of the story, Nan Xiujuan had told him before.

Nan Hongzu was short of money, so when Nan Zhuo and Nan Yan were half a year old, they sold their mothers.

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