Rebirth begins with marrying a female educated youth

Enamel basin, with a big red carp and red Double Happiness characters on the bottom.

The clear and refreshing water, freshly pumped from the brown rusty water press, reflected a young face in the hot sunlight.

The eyebrows are slightly raised and the bridge of the nose is straight.

The eyes that should have been clear and full of vitality were filled with indescribable confusion.

This was the 1970s, and his name is Ji Yuanhai now.

In my mind, there are two memories comparing each other.

One is a modern office worker who was born in the 1990s and works overtime every day after graduating from college.

The other was an old beggar with a lame leg squatting in the corner begging.

Office workers remember computers and mobile phones, boss drawing cakes, working overtime, and blessing reports... until their vision goes dark.

What the old beggar remembers is a life of ups and downs.

The old beggar's name is Ji Yuanhai, also known as Ji Laizi.

His whole life has been a tragedy. He was born in a rural area with an unkind father, an unloving mother, and scheming relatives. In the end, he was left with only one life, and his land and house were all taken over by his nephew.

Unable to stay in the countryside, he wandered all the way to the city, and finally died under a bridge.

And now, this young man looking at the reflection in the water of the enamel basin with a confused expression is the still young Ji Yuanhai who is not lame.

The sun was too strong to work this morning, and Ji Yuanhai felt dizzy due to the heat, so he had to go home and rest.

Then I changed the kernel.

What is before the sea of ​​​​Era now is a tragic life from the 1970s to the new century, where "dogs shake their heads".

"Well--"

The groundwater that was squeezed out of the water press leaked again with a whimpering sound. If you want to press out water again, you must add "diversion water" to it and press it several times before you can press out the groundwater again. .

The sound of water leaking also broke Ji Yuanhai's meditation.

He turned around and looked around: the adobe yard wall and a jujube tree as thick as a bowl.

The house is also made of adobe blocks, with the main room facing north and south, and the east wing next to it.

There are two rooms in the west row. The two-step wide hut is the kitchen room, and there is a large room in the west wing for living.

The grandparents live in the main room, the parents live in the east wing, and Ji Yuanhai and his eldest brother Ji Yuanshan live in the west wing.

"Yuan Hai!"

A middle-aged woman walked out of the east wing: "It's neither early nor late. Why are you staring at the basin? If your head is not dizzy, fill up the water in the water tank!"

"I know, mother."

Ji Yuanhai subconsciously agreed out of body inertia, carried the bucket, scooped up the "pilot water" with a ladle, pressed the water into the bucket, poured it into the water tank, and then came back with the bucket and pressed the water again.

He was in his early twenties, so it was not difficult to do this kind of work. Without much effort, he pressed four buckets of water and filled the water tank.

Ji Yuanhai had just filled the water tank, and his mother waved him into the east wing.

"Yuan Hai, after dinner tonight, you have to know what to say and what not to say."

"Your grandparents are not of the same mind as us, remember."

Ji Yuanhai listened to this and nodded without hesitation.

As for my heart, I didn't take my mother's words seriously.

The rules at home are that after dinner, you go back to the house to sleep if you have nothing to do, and if you have anything to do, you stay to chat.

What does "something happen" mean?

Sometimes it's the grandparents chatting with the parents and talking about family issues; sometimes it's the second uncle's and third uncle's families coming over for dinner; sometimes, just like tonight, "family matters" need to be discussed.

The major family event discussed tonight was a wedding, which Ji Yuanhai remembered deeply.

To put it simply, there was a female educated youth named Lu Heling who was in trouble. Her parents were dead and she had no hope of returning to the city.

The secretary of the production team told Ji Yuanhai's grandfather that their family could take this opportunity to marry Ji Yuanshan or Ji Yuanhai a wife.

The reason why this incident is deeply remembered in Ji Yuanhai's mind is because he is a normal young man who loves beauty.

The female educated youth named Lu Heling was fair, fair, and pretty. Compared with the bold and unrestrained girl working in the countryside, she looked like she had stepped out of a painting. Of course Ji Yuanhai liked her.

Ji Yuanhai remembers the process of discussing the marriage tonight very clearly.

The grandparents wanted the eldest brother Ji Yuanshan to marry the educated youth Lu Heling, but the mother was determined not to allow it, and the father was in a dilemma.

Jiyuan Mountain can only wait for the final decision.

And Ji Yuanhai was the "vote of support" pulled in advance by her mother.

What Ji Yuanhai remembers deeply is that the whole family was debating whether his eldest brother should marry Lu Heling, and no one considered his choice; he could only watch the girl he liked being discussed repeatedly by them, and he couldn't even say any unnecessary words.

What Ji Yuanhai's mother said, "Your grandparents are not of the same mind as us," was basically the talk of a rural woman and had little credibility.

Not only did Ji Yuanhai not believe it, he even believed his grandparents even more.

Because his memory told him that his mother had ulterior motives on whether Ji Yuanshan would marry Lu Heling, and she was not as reliable as his grandparents.

There is a reason why Ji Yuanhai became Ji Laozi and died in a foreign land.

Similar situations like this, where you give priority to your elder brother and consider others, will happen many times in the future.

The hot sun lasted for a little while. After listening to his mother's "explanation", Ji Yuanhai went out to cut a basket of grass and sent it to the production team headquarters.

Cutting grass is relatively easy labor for him.

Although Ji Yuanhai felt dizzy in the morning, in the era of earning work points, no one could afford to be idle, so he still had to find ways to make up for his work points.

This twenty-kilogram basket of grass can be used to raise rabbits and pigs. In the end, it counts as two work points.

If he works for a full day normally, as a normal labor force, he can get eight to ten work points; now he only gets two work points for mowing grass, which is already a "suffering".

Around six o'clock in the afternoon, the whole family came back for dinner.

Grandparents, parents, eldest brother Ji Yuanshan and Ji Yuanhai's family gathered around in the main room eating pickled vegetable steamed buns.

Steamed buns are made from sweet potato noodles. The dried sweet potatoes are ground into noodles using a stone mill and then made into steamed buns.

If the coarse grains of later generations were eaten carefully, they might have a different flavor; but at this time, the sweet potato steamed buns only have an unpleasant taste and a rough texture that is difficult to swallow...

After Ji Yuanhai struggled to eat one, considering that he had to fill his stomach, he bit the bullet and followed his habit and ate another half of the steamed bun.

"Yuan Hai, are you feeling better?"

Grandpa Ji Yuanhai asked.

"Grandpa, I'm much better." Ji Yuanhai said.

Grandpa Ji Yuanhai nodded: "After dinner, don't go back to the house to sleep. Let's discuss your eldest brother's marriage."

"Dad, do as I say -" Ji Yuanhai's mother said.

"Let's talk after dinner." Ji Yuanhai's grandmother said.

The family stopped talking and ate in silence.

After the meal, Ji Yuanhai's grandmother and mother were busy taking away the pickles and putting away the steamed buns.

Then Grandpa Ji Yuanhai took out his dry tobacco bag, dug a few times into the tobacco bag with his cigarette holder, filled it with tobacco, and slowly lit it.

The smell of fireworks floated in the dark adobe house, flickering on and off.

"Boss, boss's wife."

"Tell me, how to arrange Yuanshan's marriage?"

The old man said, his voice burnt by fireworks and slightly hoarse.