Chapter Seventy-Seven Flesh

  "Dad, I'm hungry!" He opened his innocent and naive eyes, looking at the man called father.

  "Bo'er, be good, just hold on a bit longer, just hold on! Food will arrive soon!" The man's resolute face cracked open an unsightly smile.

  "Ah!" He nodded as if he understood but didn't really.

  "Dad, I'm hungry!"

  "Go to sleep, you won't feel hungry after sleeping!" The man was very helpless. In the midst of a thousand soldiers, he could take the enemy general's head, but in this poor and destitute home, he couldn't change the food situation.

  "But, Dad, I'm still hungry!" He blinked his eyes, the strong feeling of hunger making him call out to his father, who seemed all-powerful in his mind. Originally, he also had Mother, but Father said Mother was tired and asleep.

  "Bo'er, wait for your father to find it for you!" The man got up and took the longbow that had been covered in dust and cobwebs from the house.

  By dusk, Hanzi returned, with a hopeful look in his eyes, but his face was covered in dust and exhaustion, and his hands were empty. The tree bark and grass had all been used up, how could he possibly hunt with just a long bow?

  But at that time, he didn't understand. He only knew that every time his father came back with the beloved big bow, he would definitely bring delicious food, so he opened his small hands and shouted "Dad, I'm hungry! Food!"

  The child's face, that thin small body made the man's complexion a bit dull "Sorry, Bu'er, Dad is useless, couldn't bring you food!"

  "Daddy!" Although small, he was very sensible and knew that this man called father had done his best. He seemed to understand something and nodded his little head. "Daddy, Bu'er is not hungry anymore, Bu'er is going to sleep!" He closed his eyes and the whole world seemed to darken.

  In a daze, he seemed to hear two voices, one of which was that sweet and gentle voice "Bu'er, Bu'er come, come here!"

  "Mother!" He was dazed and this was his mother's voice.

  "Come here, little cloth, come to Mama!"

  "Mom, I'm hungry!" He hadn't seen his mom in a long time, but he didn't hesitate to say what was on his mind.

  "Baor, come to Mama's, you won't be hungry when you get to Mama's!" A gentle voice was calling out.

  There was another voice, anxious and hoarse: "Bu'er wake up, wake up! Can't sleep, can't sleep!" It was Father's voice.

  "Mom really won't be hungry when she gets to your place?" He asked with a tilted head in doubt.

  "Ah, now that we're at Mother's place, Bu'er won't feel hungry anymore! Come on, Bu'er!" The gentle voice was still calling out to him.

  "But Father!" He hesitated for a moment.

  "Your dad will come looking for us sooner or later, let's take a step ahead and wait for him up front!"

  "Oh!" His little head didn't understand what it meant, but he didn't want to be hungry anymore, being hungry was so painful, so painful.

  "Bu'er, wake up, wake up!" The man was almost frantic, his son's body getting colder and colder, his breathing and heartbeat slowing down. He knew this wasn't illness, it was hunger! This was the damage of starvation. If only there was food now, if only he could get something to eat, his son would come back to life.

  But he didn't, he really didn't.

  "Meat, eat, eat!" The man was anxious like an ant on a hot pot "Meat, meat, right, meat!" The man suddenly thought of something, gritted his teeth and stood up.

  "Yi'er, I'm sorry, I've already lost you, I can't be without Bu'er anymore!"

  Gradually, he opened his eyes. In his field of vision, there was no mother, nor the absence of hunger that his mother had spoken of. There was only father, and that unbearable feeling of hunger.

  "Dad! I'm hungry!"

  "It's here, it's here! We have something to eat now, we do! Look, it's meat, it's meat!" A blood-red piece of flesh with bloody streaks appeared in Hanzi's hand.

  "I'm starving, I want to eat!" He didn't care if the meat was clean or not, nor did he care that it wasn't cooked. He picked up the bloody piece of flesh and took a bite, deliciously fragrant, this was his first feeling.

  After eating a big chunk of it, he only then noticed that his father hadn't eaten any and pushed the meat over saying "Dad, you eat too, eat!"

  The man shook his head "Dad's not hungry, Bu'er you eat, you eat!"

  From that day on, he had meat to eat every day, although it was all bloody, but it could fill his stomach, right? But Hanzi didn't eat a single bite.

  Finally one day, Hanzi could no longer hold on, and that majestic body fell down.

  "Dad, Dad! What's wrong?" He was panicked and flustered. In his mind, his father was the sky, and now the sky was collapsing. He was so scared that tears filled his eyes.

  "Bu'er, don't cry, don't cry! You're a man, the future General Han, how can you cry?!" The father struggled to wipe away his tears. "Bu'er, I miss your mother, I want to go with her! I can only leave you behind!"

  "No, Dad, I want to go with Mom too! I want to go with Mom too!" He probably cried the most that day in his life.

  "No, Buer, you must promise me, you must live a good life, you can't come to accompany Father and Mother, no!" The man shook his head and said "After Father fell asleep, did you see the knife over there? They lightly sliced the flesh from Father's body, they can let you live, they can let you survive this disaster year!"

  Cut meat with a knife? He didn't understand and subconsciously ignored it.

  "After eating, put Dad and your mother together, living well, this is Dad's greatest wish! Buer, I'm sorry! Can't take care of you anymore, Yier, I'll accompany you!" After finishing the last sentence, the man closed his eyes forever.

  "Daddy, Daddy!" But his father was also asleep, and his mother was also asleep. The whole world had fallen asleep, leaving only him awake.

  The thin and small body struggled to drag the man towards the dilapidated house called home, where his mother lay in the back. It was he and his father who had covered her with a quilt made of earth, and he still remembered his father saying they would sleep together with his mother.

  He had no tools to dig the earth, only a long knife left by his father at home could be used to dig the earth, but he couldn't bear to use it. He used his small hands, thin and weak, to slowly dig up the soil, bit by bit, until his fingernails were broken and his fingers were rotten, finally digging out his mother.

  When he saw his mother, he was stunned, his eyes vacant and unresponsive.

  The mother who was originally buried in the ground wearing clothes, now except for her head which is still intact, all other parts are incomplete, and there is no skin or flesh left on her thighs and arms, only white bones remain.

  At this moment he understood, and suddenly realized what his father's words meant, and also understood the origin of the meat he had been eating these days.

  Those sweet and fragrant flesh and blood were all from Mother's body, which Father had cut off bit by bit. He now understood why Father wouldn't eat that meat even if he starved to death.

  "Father!" His head hung down, a thing called yin gui lurking in his body.

  The famine finally ended, the outsiders left, and he survived. Behind the house called home, two white bones were buried in the earth forever, leaning against each other.