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"Which village is it in?"

Hao Jian told him the address. It was a four-hour drive from Rongcheng and half an hour's walk on the mountain road. Li Manjun glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was nine o'clock in the morning. There was nothing important in the afternoon and he was free. He asked him to wait for her.

"I'll be here right away. You wait for me at home. I'll pick you up first and then we'll go to your relative's house together."

Li Manjun drove for two hours to pick him up at Hao Jian's house, and then they drove for another two hours to the countryside where Hao Jian's relatives lived.

Once here, there is nowhere to go and the car can only stop.

Fortunately, there was someone Hao Jian knew here. He gave the person two cigarettes to help look after the car, and the two walked to the village.

It's not a remote place, and there are quite a lot of people living in the village. Hao Jian said there are eighty or ninety families, including his mother's aunt, and that relative is his aunt's grandson.

"Really, we are cousins. He is more than ten years older than me. I call him Brother Man."

It means "small" in dialect, indicating that this person is the youngest in the family.

Li Manjun and Hao Jian walked on the rugged mountain road for half an hour, and finally arrived at his cousin's village at two o'clock.

Hao Jian came here once with his mother when he was very young. He roughly remembered where his cousin's house was. The two of them searched for it and found that every household in the village here lived in old-fashioned wooden houses, which were low, dark, and messy.

It is the busy farming season in spring, and most of the villagers are not at home. The door of their home is open, and the whole house can be seen at a glance.

“There’s no electricity here yet because it’s so remote,” Hao Jian explained.

To get electricity, we need to build roads first. Roads going up mountains are difficult to build, and we don’t know how long it will take to get electricity.

The villagers here light kerosene lamps or a kind of burning tree for lighting at night. Candles are expensive and the villagers are reluctant to use them.

It's a sunny day today, otherwise Li Manjun wouldn't be able to walk up wearing sneakers.

Looking down at Hao Jian's shoes, he was wearing a pair of old Jiefang shoes, leading the way and walking very fast.

Li Manjun complained in his heart, but did not dare to show it on his face, trying hard to keep up with him.

Finally, the two found their cousin's home in the col at the innermost part of the village.

It was a low two-story wooden house with a few free-range chickens in front of the door. The ground was covered with chicken poop.

A low wooden door was ajar, and the high threshold was covered with mud. There was a lock on the door. Hao Jian walked over and took a look, but it was locked and could not be opened.

Generally, this situation means that the owner of the house has gone to a relatively far place and will take a long time to come back.

"He's not at home." Hao Jian was a little anxious. It would be bad if he finally found Li Manjun and let him go back without success.

"Sister Manjun, wait here, I'll go find the villagers and ask." Hao Jianwei said.

Li Manjun smiled slightly and said, "It's okay, I'll wait for a while, just in time to take a rest."

The journey up the mountain took half an hour, which didn't sound like a long time, but the mountain road was so difficult that she was out of breath.

Hao Jian found a wooden pier outside the woodshed and asked Li Manjun to sit on it while he ran out to find someone.

Li Manjun found a place to sit down where there wasn't so much chicken shit, opened the thermos cup that he brought with him, and took a sip of water to relieve himself. Blowing in the mountain breeze and looking at the fluttering bamboo forest, his fatigue was greatly relieved.

After waiting for more than 20 minutes, Hao Jian still hadn't come back. Li Manjun began to feel that the bamboo forest next to him was a bit eerie. He stood up and walked to the intersection to look around. He didn't see Hao Jian, but he caught a glimpse of a few students carrying school bags having fun. Nao walked up from the foot of the mountain.

One of them waved to a fellow villager and jogged towards her happily wearing a pair of straw sandals.

When they reached the intersection, the half-grown boy stopped and looked at Li Manjun in surprise.

Li Manjun looked at the chicken shit-strewn house behind him, then looked back at the boy who stopped, and asked tentatively:

"Are you from this family?"

He nodded, but did not take away his surprised eyes, still looking at her.

Li Manjun felt a little uncomfortable when he saw him, so he subconsciously touched his face and patted his clothes, "Is there something on my face?"

He shook his head and said, "Auntie, I've seen you before."

Li Manjun was surprised: "Have you seen me?"

"You drive cars," he said. "I saw you at school."

you?

Li Manjun asked in disbelief: "Have you seen me and my family?"

He nodded heavily. It was absolutely correct. That was the first time he had seen such a rich person. Her daughter was wearing white leather shoes and a skirt. Her skin was as white and tender as tofu. At first glance, she belonged to a wealthy family. The eldest lady.

And they also had cars. That day was the first time he saw such a long, black car in the countryside.

After some questioning, Li Manjun realized that the thin, black boy wearing straw sandals in front of him was the eldest brother in his daughter's mouth.

What's more, what's even more coincidental is that his father is Hao Jian's cousin.

Li Manjun explained her purpose, and the boy led her to the door of her home, took out her key, opened the door, and invited her in.

It was just that the room was dark and messy, so he seemed to realize that he felt embarrassed and moved out a bamboo stool for her to sit at the door.

"What's your name and how old are you?" Li Manjun asked him.

The boy put down his book bag and immediately scooped up half a ladle of water from the water tank at home. He burped with satisfaction before saying, "Auntie, just call me Heizi. I'm thirteen years old this year."

Li Manjun looked at his height, and he really didn't look like he was thirteen years old, at most ten years old.

Moreover, there are many ten-year-old boys in the city who are taller than him.

Li Manjun opened the bag, found half a pack of biscuits that he had not finished breakfast, and handed it to him.

Heizi hurriedly waved his hands, took two steps back in embarrassment, and said sensibly: "Auntie, please leave it for your daughter to eat, I'm not hungry."

Li Manjun passed it forward again, "Let's eat together, I'm a little hungry too."

The temptation of biscuits was simply irresistible to a child who didn't have enough to eat and had to drink water to satisfy his hunger.

Heizi looked at her expression and made sure that she was kind and didn't dislike him, then he reached for a biscuit.

He tasted it first, then his eyes suddenly opened wide, as if he had discovered some surprise, and he glanced at Li Manjun.

Li Manjun nodded at him, took a piece to eat, and handed him the rest.

This time Heizi didn't refuse because his hungry stomach couldn't refuse such delicious food.

It could be seen that he was very restrained, but he still couldn't hold back and wolfed down several pieces. Then he slowed down and smiled sheepishly at Li Manjun, "This is my first time eating biscuits. The biscuits are so delicious. "

Her natural maternal instinct arose. Seeing her child's surprised and satisfied smile, Li Manjun tried her best to smile in response to him, but her heart clenched uncomfortably.

Simply not looking at him, he got up and walked to the intersection again to see where Hao Jian had gone and why he hadn't come back yet.

"Sister Manjun, here you go!"

Hao Jian led a short man to run over. When he saw Li Manjun waiting at the intersection, he shouted:

"My cousin is back!"