Step 1: Fall into the Devil's Den

At the beginning of the last century, Wang Xiaosan was born in a place called Wangjiazhen on the Jiaodong Peninsula. The town was very large, and there were many merchants in the past. Several generations of the Wang family had grown wheat fields and sold steamed steamed bread with wheat noodles produced by themselves, and the business had always been good. That year, Wang Xiaosan married Erya, the most beautiful girl in the town. He carefully selected a pair of lasagna-soled embroidered shoes for Erya in the shoe shop. The upper was green, with a bright lotus flower embroidered on the front face, and a pair of mandarin ducks playing in the water. They were vivid and very beautiful. Erya liked it so much that she held the shoes in her arms and stuck them on her face. A year later, Erya was pregnant and wanted to eat sour. Wang Xiaosan said, "Wait at home, I'll buy you a few catties of sour pears after I sell the steamed buns."

He carried the burden of steamed buns and left the house happily, but he never thought that he 'd been caught by the Japanese on the street, and together with many captured laborers, he was stuffed into a big stuffy tank car. The train went for more than ten days, and stopped at a small station outside the customs. As soon as the big iron gate opened, a cold wind wrapped in snowflakes rushed towards him, and the ragged laborers could not help but shiver. Under the supervision of traitorous agents and Japanese soldiers with guns, they walked for another whole day under the cold wind, and finally came to the dam of a power plant under construction by the Songhua River.

It was like hell on earth. The laborers lived in a shed with leaking air on all sides, ate acorn noodles, and had to do heavy work for fourteen to fifteen hours a day. Once a person falls, they drag their heads and Japanese devils into the "mass grave," whether dead or alive. The "mass grave" was a large ditch not far from the construction site. Every night, countless wild wolves gathered here to eat human flesh, and the howling echoed in the valley. Wang Xiaosan missed his elderly parents day and night, and missed his daughter-in-law who had just passed the door for a year. He often washed his face with tears. However, the power grid around the dam site is tight, there are many artillery buildings, and there are heavy soldiers guarding it. It is more difficult to escape than to reach the sky. He tried several times, but not only failed, but also almost lost his life.

Year after year, the laborers on the construction site died one after another, and the "mass graves" had been filled with bones, but new ghosts were still being added every day. Wang Xiaosan had become sick from hard work, and a sturdy man had become as skinny as firewood. On this day, he struggled to push a cart of heavy stones on the dam, pushing and pushing, only to feel that his eyes were dark, and he fell down with a "plop", and the cart of stones was all on his body. The workers rushed over and pulled him out of the pile of stones. Seeing that he was covered in blood and his breath was weak, just as they were about to carry him into the shed, several Japanese soldiers rushed over, waving bayonets and howling loudly, "There are dead!" He forced the two to drag him away and throw him into the "mass grave".

Step 2 Survival

The sun gradually set, and a cold wind blew. Wang Xiaosan woke up, only to feel intense pain all over his body. All he saw were blurry flesh and blood, broken limbs, and white bones.

A full moon rose, so bright and bright, Wang Xiaosan felt that he had not seen the moon for a long time, and felt so kind. He ate some grass root bark, added a little strength to his body, and staggered to stand up. He was afraid that the Japanese would find it and capture it back, so he walked towards the mountains. The primitive forests of Kanto covered the sky and the sun was boundless, and it didn't take long for him to lose his way. He walked for three days and three nights, but he didn't expect to turn back. Anxious and depressed, he found a broken shack on the hillside. He walked over and stood outside and asked, "Is there anyone?" A man inside answered the elderly: "Who, come in." Wang Xiaosan pushed the door and went in. As soon as he entered the house, he fainted with a "plop".

There was only a white-haired old man in the room. The old man cooked a bowl of rice porridge and fed it to Wang Xiaosan. After a short time, Wang Xiaosan woke up and asked, "Child, where did you come from?" Wang Xiaosan said, "I crawled out of the mass grave."

The old man was very surprised and said, "Crawled out of the mass grave? You are really lucky, no one has been able to crawl out of the mass grave! The day before yesterday, a little daughter-in-law from Shandong came to find her husband. When she heard that her husband had been thrown into the mass grave, she went there to cry. I helped her back and persuaded her to leave here quickly, but last night she secretly got up and went to the mass grave to cry, so I went after her with my feet. Cough, it was still a step late and was eaten by the wolf, leaving only one embroidered shoe, pitiful!" After saying that, the old man showed Wang Xiaosan an embroidered shoe. Wang Xiaosan took the shoes and was taken aback. He bought these shoes for his daughter-in-law. The lotus flowers and mandarin ducks were still so real.

"Child, who is Erya?" asked the old man.

"Erya, Erya is the Shandong woman who was eaten by the wild wolf. She is my daughter-in-law..."

Hearing this, the old man couldn't help but shed tears and scolded: "God damn little Japan, there will be retribution one day! Child, don't cry, it's useless to cry to death in this year, you still have to figure out where to go next."

Wang Xiaosan wiped his red eyes and said, "Go home, I still have my parents and children."

The old man sighed and said, "Your daughter-in-law said that the Japanese burned down your village, and your father, mother, and children were all killed by the Japanese plane.

3. God bless

Wang Xiaosan believed the old man's words and stayed in Kanto. He had done all kinds of business, such as platooning, panning for gold, and digging ginseng in the mountains. No matter what he did, he carefully tucked the embroidered shoe in his waist and never left his side for a moment. This autumn, he and a few people went up the mountain to dig for ginseng, but his luck was really bad. The group of people wandered around the old forest for more than half a month and only dug up a few "Erjiazi" seedlings. Because the food they brought was about to be eaten, they had to go down the mountain. When they reached the mountainside, Wang Xiaosan suddenly found that the embroidered shoe had landed on the mountain where he had just rested. He said to his friends, "You go first, I will go back and find the embroidered shoes and chase after you." Others advised him, "Don't go back to look for it, isn't it just an embroidered shoe, and it's not worth a few cents." But Wang Xiaosan said, "That's not right, it's the only relic my daughter-in-law left me, I can't lose it!" After saying that, he insisted on running back to the mountain. Others had no way to take him, so they told him, "Hurry up, we are waiting for you by the river at the foot of the mountain."

As soon as Wang Xiaosan returned to the top of the mountain and found embroidered shoes under the big tree, the sky was cloudy, lightning flashed and thunder, and then it started pouring rain. He curled up in the tree hole, looking out at the water curtain, frightened. The heavy rain kept falling for more than two hours, causing flash floods. The flood on the hillside rushed down the mountain, and the world was full of deafening roars.

After a long time, the heavy rain stopped, the flood receded, Wang Xiaosan staggered to catch up with other partners, but after reaching the bottom of the mountain, the scene in front of him made him stunned, and he saw that this place had just been ransacked by the flood, the newly initialized gullies were bottomless, and the thick trees were staggering all over the place. How could there be the shadows of those partners? After searching for a long time, only a broken iron pot was found. Wang Xiaosan chose a place with tears, dug soil to make a fake grave, and kowtowed three times in a row, saying goodbye to the dead. In front of the "grave", he held his embroidered shoes and said affectionately: "Erya, Erya, it is your spirit in the sky that protects me, otherwise, I will also become a ghost on Huangquan Road." He pressed his embroidered shoes tightly to his chest, and unknowingly fell asleep in a daze. In the dark, he saw Erya come to his side and said, "Brother Wang, there are so many flowers over there, go and see!" After saying that, he pulled him forward. Wang Xiaosan suddenly woke up and shouted, "Erya, Erya..." What appeared before him was an empty mountain forest.

Just then, however, he heard the call of the mallet bird: "Brother Wang - Brother Wang -" The people who set up the mountain said that there were ginseng where there were mallet birds. Wang Xiaosan stood up and chased the mallet bird. After chasing two hills, the call of the mallet bird suddenly stopped. He stopped his footsteps, only to feel that his eyes light up, and the fiery ginseng flowers were shining in the grass. One, two, three... He was so excited that he shouted loudly: "Mallet!" The echo of the mountains answered him: "Mallet--"

4. Life and death reunion

Wang Xiaosan used the money from selling ginseng to buy three small houses in the "old shipyard" in the ancient city by the Songhua River. He didn't have much craftsmanship, so he knew how to make steamed buns. He inherited the traditional skills of his parents, so he opened a bakery, front shop and back kitchen, and sold them while making them. Unexpectedly, this white, big and colorful Shandong steamed bread is very popular here, and the supply is in short supply.

One day, Wang Xiaosan was kneading his dough, and the young man who was selling steamed buns in front of him ran over and said, "Shopkeeper, there's a beggar outside." Wang Xiaosan said without lifting his head, "Give him a steamed bun and send him away." The next day, the young man ran again and said, "That beggar is here again." Wang Xiaosan said, "Then give him another steamed bun." On the third day, when the store was closed, the young man found an embroidered shoe under the counter and said curiously, "Shopkeeper, look how interesting it is, whose woman threw an embroidered shoe here." Just as he was about to sweep it away, Wang Xiaosan came over and bent over to pick up the embroidered shoe, wiped it with his sleeve, and the lotus and mandarin ducks came to life. Isn't this the other embroidered shoe of Erya? Why did she appear here? Could it be that Erya is still alive? He hurriedly asked, "Did you see who threw the shoes here?" The young man thought for a while and said, "Maybe it was the beggar who threw them. Just now she came again and stood here for a while before leaving."

"Is that beggar a woman?"

"Yes, it's a woman."

"Where did she go?"

The young man pointed to the far side of the street.

Wang Xiaosan threw down the household belongings in his hand and chased after him in the distance of the street like crazy. He chased after him to a corner. He saw a woman with tattered clothes and messy hair.

A loving couple, after a life-and-death disaster, bizarrely reunite, a pair of embroidered shoes, and depend on each other into a pair.

Wang Xiaosan said with infinite emotion: "That kind old man went to the mass grave to find you, thinking that you were eaten by wild wolves, and only picked up one embroidered shoe. I took that embroidered shoe with me at all times, it has spirituality, saved my life, and let me dig ginseng." Erya told him in a choked voice that that day in the "mass grave", just as a group of wild wolves rushed towards her, someone was thrown in again, and the wild wolf shifted its target to the new corpse. She rolled and crawled out of the "mass grave" and threw an embroidered shoe into the "mass grave" in panic. In the following years, she begged along the street, but kept the remaining embroidered shoe hidden on her body, treating it as the only relative by her side. Once, she encountered a gunfight on the way to beg for food, and a stray bullet hit her, but it was blocked by the "thousand-layer bottom" of the embroidered shoe. Wang Xiaosan took Erya's embroidered shoe and saw that there was indeed an unpierced hole in the sole.

It turned out that Erya was very hungry that day, and suddenly smelled a familiar smell, which was the smell of the Wang family's steamed buns. She thought it was an illusion, but she still followed the smell to find it. After many years, she ate steamed buns with the unique flavor of the Wang family, but she still couldn't believe that Wang Xiaosan was still alive, so she secretly put the embroidered shoes under the counter.