Scholars in the courtyard

After getting off work, Yang Xiaotao took a look at the sky and rode to the courtyard.

Along the way, pedestrians were hurrying, and the gray earth walls looked solemn under the gloomy sky.

A group of children were playing in the alley, hugging each other and falling somersaults from time to time, and some were squatting in the corner to watch the ants move, which was very novel.

Nowadays, there are insufficient educational resources in the city. There are a lot of children, and fair education is advocated. When the educational resources are averaged, everyone is the same. There is no school district housing like in later generations, so as long as they are of appropriate age, most people will go to school.

In this way, if the classroom is not enough, students can only be divided into two waves and study for half a day.

These children are representatives of going to school in the morning and free-range in the afternoon.

I thought that if there were more children on the farm next year, they would be like those in the city, half-farming and half-schooling.

Thinking in my heart, I kept walking.

As soon as I got home and tidied up, the dark clouds in the sky had already come down, the wind began to stagnate, and between the sky and the earth, it was so boring that a person could sweat.

A calm before the storm.

Intermediate Court

Mrs. Jia Zhang was sitting at the door, fanning herself with a cattail leaf fan, waiting for Qin Huairu.

Qin Huairu usually came back early at this time, but now the whole family is waiting to eat and the steamed buns brought back, but there is no one around.

In the room, Banggan was lying on the bed tiredly, complaining that he was hungry.

Ever since he was asked to work by the sub-district office, Banggan’s appetite has been like a bottomless pit, and he can eat more and more every day.

Nowadays, one person has to add two steamed buns to eat one steamed bun. On days when there is no oil and water, one has to eat even more.

"Nai, why hasn't mom come back yet?"

"very hungry!"

Banggeng turned over, and Xiaodang beside him was also holding his stomach.

"Who knows where I'm going? It's almost raining, and I don't know if my family is still hungry."

Mrs. Jia Zhang's stomach growled and she said angrily.

"Is there anything to eat at home?"

"A few cold nests, if you're hungry, eat them first!"

Mrs. Jia Zhang pointed to the three steamed buns on the pot table and shook her head. She wanted to wait for the steamed buns.

Xiaodang walked over, picked up the two steamed buns and started eating them.

She knew that even if her mother brought back the steamed buns, it would not be her share.

In the past, she could share half of it with her grandma, but then her brother couldn't eat enough, so her portion gradually decreased.

In the end, there were only two poor people.

On the contrary, grandma's half never decreased.

ah……

ah……

On the bed, little Sophora japonica suddenly started crying.

Jia Zhang ran over and took a look. She was hungry.

"You little brat, why are you crying? I really owe you."

"I have been working as a cow and horse for this family, taking care of my mother-in-law who left, and raising my eldest son, and now I have to take care of your little one. I will never have a comfortable day in my life!"

Mrs. Jia Zhang cursed, but Bangge didn't care. Anyway, he was the only man in the family. Without him, who would take care of him in old age?

forecourt

Xu Damao walked in cheerfully carrying a piece of pig intestine. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Yan Fugui sitting on the threshold and sighing.

Under the gray door frame, a thin old man sat there with a melancholy expression. He looked desolate no matter how he looked at it.

Xu Damao rolled his eyes and approached Yan Fugui.

"Uncle Yan, are you cooling down?"

"Da Mao! He's back!"

Yan Fugui agreed, after all, the title of Uncle Yan still satisfied him.

But when he saw the pig intestines in Xu Damao's hand, he added, "You are living a happy life!"

"Hey!"

Xu Damao sat aside and snorted coldly, I am not forced by you alone.

"It's good to be alone. I can eat whatever I want. I don't have the burden of raising a son. I have less worries."

Yan Fugui stopped talking. There has been a lot of commotion in his house recently.

Yan Jiecheng and his wife stopped paying. In the future, this gap will be opened, and the three children behind will follow suit. How will they support themselves in old age?

Seeing Yan Fugui's silence, Xu Damao took out half a box of cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to Yan Fugui.

Yan Fugui stretched out his hand to refuse. How could he be in the mood to smoke, not to mention that it belonged to Xu Damao.

Now, smelling the smell around me, it's good that I didn't chase him away.

Xu Damao took out a match, lit it with a hiss, and took a big puff. After a while, half of the cigarette turned into ashes.

"Xu Damao, if you have something to say, just say it. If nothing happens, go home and wash yourself. Don't bury someone here."

"Hey, Uncle Yan, something really happened." Yan Fugui shook off the ashes from the cigarette, "I'm going to bring bad breath to your family."

"Evil? What evil? Our family has not suffered any evil, so stop talking nonsense."

Xu Damao chuckled, walked up to Yan Fugui and whispered, "Today I..."

As Xu Damao told, Yan Fugui's face showed a smile, and finally he laughed.

"Da Mao, you are qualified for what you are doing!"

"If this kind of thing is discovered, we must stop it resolutely and never tolerate it."

"Of course, we are the same, we all have a jealous temper, and we can't get rid of the sand in our eyes."

Xu Damao stood up and said, "Uncle Yan, it's going to rain. I'll go back first."

"good!"

Yan Fugui stood up and saw him off. When Xu Damao passed the hanging flower gate, Yan Fugui spat out thick phlegm on the ground.

"Who is like you! Shameless guy!"

Turning around, "Child mother, good news, good news!"

"Pooh!"

Xu Damao also spit on the wall, "I will use your money to piss you off."

Rumble

The low thunder sounded, as if telling everyone that rain was coming.

After a while, bean-like raindrops fell on the ground, popping continuously.

In the yard, Yang Xiaotao has picked all the ripe tomatoes and cucumbers, and the remaining seedlings are now welcoming the gift of nature.

bang bang bang

Puff puff

The raindrops continued to fall, and soon they became connected to threads. Like a loom, the threads fell straight down, forming a forest of threads.

The sky and the earth were dark, and lightning flashed out from time to time to illuminate the surroundings, like naughty children, moving here and there in an irregular manner.

The entire courtyard became silent in this thunderstorm.

Whether it was the gloating of the Yan Fugui family in the front yard, the cursing of Jia Zhang in the middle yard, or the pride of Xu Damao in the backyard.

All washed clean in this rain.

“It’s a rainy day, it’s great to sleep!”

Yang Xiaotao opened the window in front of his desk, and the exposed space was immediately filled with water, and the humidity in the room quickly increased.

On the side, Wangcai wagged his tail, looking like he was trying to please.

In fact, Wangcai is really trying to please because it hasn't eaten yet.

Yang Xiaotao didn't seem to know, he just touched the dog's head, then picked up a pen and paper, thought for a moment, and started writing.

Uncle Chen, aunt!

How have you been…

…

Jia family

Banggeng was hungry and looking for something to eat. Looking at the last steamed bun in the bowl, he didn't mind it being cold and hard, so he picked it up and ate it.

"Nai, is mom coming back?"

Jia Zhang was feeding the little Sophora japonica with millet porridge. He didn't bother to heat up the leftovers from lunch. Anyway, it was very hot and not cold at all.

Seeing Banggeng eating the last bun, Jia Zhang filled her lips.

Then he looked fiercely and said, "Who knows where he died."

Looking at Banggeng, I still wanted to save some face for Qin Huairu.

In her mind, Qin Huairu must be fooling around outside and forgetting about home.

After all, the ring is on, so what worries does she have?

"Milk, is there anything else to eat? I'm hungry!"

Banggeng ate a steamed bun, which was enough to fill him up, and looked at Mrs. Jia Zhang begging.

Ms. Jia Zhang was also very hungry, "Wait a minute, I'll make noodles for you later."

After saying that, he put down the bowl and went to dig noodles in the noodle vat.

crunch

The noodle scoop made a harsh friction with the bottom of the vat. Jia Zhang struggled to collect a scoop of 2-in-1 flour, then looked at the exposed noodle vat and shook it twice more.

It's only the beginning of August, and the next interview will be in the middle of the month, with more than a week in between.

Now that there is no face at home, how will you live in the future?

Now there is no Yi Zhonghai sending stick noodles to their family.

For the first time, Jia Zhang felt that the head of the house was very tired.

After a while, Mrs. Jia Zhang started to add water to make noodles. Banggeng and Xiaodang were watching, waiting for Mrs. Jia Zhang's noodles.

At ten o'clock in the evening, the thunder had gone away, the rain began to slow down, and Linda got up happily.

Yang Xiaotao put down his pen, looked at the three pages of letter paper in his hand, wrote his name at the end, then stuffed the letter paper into the envelope and affixed a stamp.

Write your address, write your postal address, write your mailing address...

After everything was done, Yang Xiaotao felt hungry. At this time, Wangcai was already lying on the ground, sticking out his tongue feebly.

Yang Xiaotao got up, went to the kitchen and found some tomatoes, took out the eggs, and found some packs of instant noodles from the space.

Make a fire and cook.

Wangcai suddenly raised his head.

In the Jia family, Mrs. Jia Zhang looked at the noodles stuck into a ball and frowned.

"Milk, is this noodle?"

The sticks looked different in thickness, and there were some sticky noodles, which were completely different from what I remembered my mother making.

"What do you know? This milk is made of dough."

“Much better than noodles.”

Jia Zhang concealed her embarrassment and complained in her heart that Qin Huairu didn't come back sooner. She hadn't had a knife in many years, but this time she was embarrassed.

"Hurry up and light the fire, let's eat noodles."

Jia Zhang urged and asked Bang Gang to light the fire while Xiao Dang looked after the little Sophora japonica flowers.

The family gets busy.

Not long after, Jia Zhang's noodles were put into the pot, and then the pot was in chaos. By the time it came out of the pot, it had turned into a pot of paste.

On the other side, Yang Xiaotao’s tomato and egg noodles are also out of the pot.

Wangcai also got a big bowl on the side, as well as a piece of braised chicken feet.

Banggeng was holding the "noodle slices" and it felt like he was drinking flour porridge, without any taste.

Jia Zhang also took a sip and suddenly remembered that she seemed to have forgotten to add salt.

Only then did I think of adding salt, but found that the salt jar had already reached the bottom, so I could only pick up soy sauce and add some to a few bowls to give it some flavor.

Even so, the three ladies drank heavily and felt something in their stomachs.

After Banggeng finished eating, he went to stir the bottom of the pot again, then took the last half of the bowl and stood at the door to eat while waiting for Qin Huairu to come back.

Standing at the door, he instinctively looked towards the yard, then froze, and the bowl in his hand fell to the ground with a clatter.

When Jia Zhang saw it, she ran over and spanked BangGeng twice, "You bastard, you're wasting food."

As he spoke, he lowered his head to pick up the bowl, and also used chopsticks to pick up the "noodle pieces" and put them into the bowl.

But Bangge didn't react at all, his eyes fixed on the front.

Jia Zhang frowned and quickly looked up.

snap

The bowl fell to the ground again, and the noodle soup was scattered all over the floor.

Not far away from them, Wangcai was chewing a chicken paw under the light, and his exposed paws were shaking.

In its dog bowl is a bowl of oily red noodles.

For a moment, the two women felt that their life was worse than that of a dog.

"Grandma, I'm so hungry. I want to eat chicken."

Jia Zhang didn't say anything this time.

Pull the stick into the house, close the door, and go to sleep.

On the other side, Yang Xiaotao was lying on the bed and fell asleep.

After it rained, the air was cool and it was perfect for sleeping.

However, tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.

As soon as Yang Xiaotao fell asleep, he heard a knock on the door, accompanied by the cry of prosperity.

Yang Xiaotao got up quickly, opened the door and saw Zhou Kui's anxious look.

"Brother Tao, I'm going to give birth!"

Zhou Kui was so anxious that he shouted out and spoke three minutes faster than usual.

Yang Xiaotao immediately understood that Liu Yuhua was going to give birth.

"Auntie is here?"

Zhou Kui shook his head.

"Don't worry, you go find Wang Dashan's family first. Let her take care of it."

"I'll ride to pick up my aunt, don't rush!"

Zhou Kui nodded and ran to knock on Wang Dashan's door.

After a while, Yang Xiaotao came out with a bunch of things, including candies, wafers, and chocolates, all prepared the same as when Ran Qiuye gave birth.

At this time, Wang Dashan's family had already arrived, and there were people in the courtyard who heard the news and got up to help, boiling water and covering up.

Yang Xiaotao didn't dare to neglect and hurriedly rode out.