Mysterious city

It was a trembling voice, and once you heard it, you knew it was an old woman who was already very old.

As these words rang out, the figure of a stooped old woman with completely gray hair gradually became clear in Jiang Zhe's mind.

It stands to reason that this is an old man that Jiang Zhe has never seen before, but strangely, Jiang Zhe feels that he is very familiar with this strange old woman.

It was as if he had spent the first half of his life under the care of this old woman.

What followed was another chaotic memory, all related to the so-called "Wang Village" in the old woman's mouth.

Wangcun is an inconspicuous small village in an extremely backward small town in the northernmost part of Kyushu.

Although these fragments that suddenly flooded into Jiang Zhe's memory should have entered the early 21st century, the desolate and backward scene of "Wang Village" seems to be the same as the development level of Kyushu in the 1960s.

And the "Xiao Yan" in the old woman's mouth, that is, Jiang Zhe at this moment, grew up in this extremely desolate and backward "Wang Village".

In Wangcun, you can hardly see any decent facilities with modern technology, let alone network cables, solar energy and other modern technologies that symbolize the prosperity of Kyushu in the early 21st century. In this dilapidated small village, You can't even see a solid house made of reinforced concrete.

Everywhere you can see are low, loose, small mud houses that seem likely to collapse at any time.

In such a desolate and backward small village, let alone a fully equipped school with abundant teachers, in fact, any decent school sounds like a fantasy.

As for the "school" in Wangcun, it is more appropriate to say it is a school, but actually it is a rural non-profit organization composed of a few small mud houses and old people who can only read a few words.

In this case, children don’t even have books, not even the most basic learning tools like a pen and an eraser.

And those so-called teachers actually don’t know a few words themselves, and may not be able to solve even the simplest junior high school exercises.

Although the spirit of not doing anything for any benefit but just for the growth of the next generation is extremely good, it is not difficult to imagine that with this kind of teachers and teaching equipment, the knowledge that children can learn is really limited.

And "Xiao Yan" studied and grew up in this extremely harsh situation.

At the same time, it is precisely because of such extremely backward facilities and teachers that it is not surprising that Wangcun has only produced a college student like "Xiao Yan" in more than 20 years.

Looking at the old woman's white hair, her trembling hands and hunched body, "Xiao Yan", or rather Jiang Zhe, suddenly felt an overwhelming sadness in his heart, but it was also mixed with A hint of joy.

Although the days in the past have been extremely difficult and full of darkness, the light is right in front of us.

He has already entered college and will soon become the big shot he dreams of.

At that time, not only can we improve the difficult conditions of our home, but we can also build our hometown, turning "Wangcun" from a remote and backward, run-down village into a modern "rich village" where everyone has enough food and clothing!

"Xiao Yan" was thinking like this. The old woman suddenly held his hand again and continued with great difficulty: "Xiao Yan, you must strive for success, learn knowledge well, and find a good job." Position, so that I can come back and build our Wangcun in the future!"

"But kid, don't make yourself miserable. This is the money saved by grandma and your brothers and sisters, as well as some travel expenses collected by us villagers, for you."

As she spoke, the old woman tremblingly pushed a pile of crumpled money that looked like it was about to fade into Xiao Yan's hand.

Among the money, there were one and two yuan bills, and some were even torn apart and barely held together with tape or something else.

There are also some coins that are five cents, one dime, five cents, and one yuan. Logically speaking, currencies of this value are almost extinct in the market, but they account for a not small proportion of this pile of money.

The pile of crumpled, tattered coins that the old woman handed to Xiao Yan's hand probably only amounted to less than a hundred yuan in total, not to mention the red bills. There wasn't even one of them that was more than twenty yuan. There are no banknotes.

Even if it is ten yuan, it is already considered a "huge property" in this pile of banknotes.

Although the pile of money in hand is insignificant to most people, in modern society, even if the money is added together, it may not be enough to eat a meal.

But holding the pile of old banknotes in their hands, both Xiaoyan and Jiang Zhe felt heavy in their hearts.

Because what he, or perhaps they, are holding is not a pile of worthless change, but the savings accumulated by his brothers, sisters, his old mother, and even the entire village through hard work and frugality!

For Xiao Yan and Jiang Zhe at this moment, this pile of money is even heavier than Mount Tai.

This is the efforts, blood, sweat and hope of the whole village.

"Don't make yourself miserable when you get outside, Xiaoyan, you must be successful, otherwise the people in our village will point their fingers at you!"

The old woman spoke very slowly, and as she spoke, a crumpled, extremely ugly smile broke out on her face.

But in the eyes of Xiaoyan and Jiang Zhe, this is the most beautiful smile in the world.

What follows is the memory of Xiaoyan’s family.

Although this old woman looks very old, she gives people the feeling that she may die suddenly at any time.

But in fact, this gray-haired old man was only in his fifties, and his age did not match his appearance, which seemed to be over seventy years old.

In a village where people work hard all year round and the quality of life is extremely low, it is very common to have an appearance and body that is more than 20 years younger than their actual age.

I have to face the loess and turn my back to the sky all day long, and endure the sun exposure, rain, wind, and frost all my life. I have lived in this kind of hard life for a long time that has nothing to do with "exquisiteness" and health. In life, there is only "hard work" and "living hand to mouth." With eight big characters, how can there be so-called maintenance, how can it be possible to have a young and beautiful face and a healthy and intact body?

You must know that whether it is the scorching sun or the frost and winter snow, it is very destructive to people, not to mention the hard work day and night.

Thinking of how hard their mother had worked to raise them up over the years, and how well their brothers and sisters had taken care of them, both Xiaoyan and Jiang Zhe couldn't help but feel their noses sore, and their tears couldn't stop falling.