Winner in life

Seeing this sentence means that the purchase ratio is not enough. Ruihe nodded quickly and looked at Li Dashui seriously again: "Yes!"

"Okay." Li Dashui muttered, "Actually, I don't think you like her anymore. She's too pretty and popular. I heard that Yongshu from the second team also likes her. It's not that I don't support you, brother, but Yongshu is indeed better than you, I think you can’t compete with him. It’s better to give up now to avoid being sad later…”

After listening to Li Dashui's words, Xu Ruihe felt warm in his heart and felt that Li Dashui was really a good person. He patted the good man on the shoulder and said, "Let's go home."

The two of them shook their wet hands and went home. Li Dashui asked on the way: "Why don't you like to talk anymore? I haven't heard you say more than a few words in the past two days. You are jumping every word when you speak, and your throat is not good." Is it comfortable?”

"Well, my throat feels uncomfortable." Rui He carefully peeked at Li Dashui. Seeing that Li Dashui was not suspicious, but looked at him worriedly, he couldn't help but smile, and sighed in his heart again that this is such a simple and good man.

After saying goodbye to the good man Li Dashui, Ruihe returned to his home. When he entered, he saw his old sister-in-law working on the stove. He quickly said hello: "Sister-in-law." The sister-in-law hummed and stirred the pot indifferently. The smell was like sweet potato porridge. I dug sweet potatoes a few days ago, and my family received three large bags. He weighed one bag weighing fifty or sixty pounds, so my family has been eating sweet potatoes these days.

Seeing that he couldn't have lunch yet, he picked up the broom at the door and swept the floor. After a while, Brother Zhang called him: "Come in and eat!"

"Come on!"

Slippery——

At the dinner table, Rui He looked up at the opposite side. Zhang Xiaoshan's eldest brother Zhang Dashan was drinking porridge while his sister-in-law was nibbling steamed red sweet potatoes. He walked around the two people's rice bowls, lowered his eyes and continued to drink porridge. There was also a small bamboo strip on the table with four freshly steamed sweet potatoes on it, but he didn't dare to take one more, otherwise his sister-in-law would glare at him. This was the experience he had gained in the past few days.

After washing the dishes and returning to his room, Rui He touched his stomach and felt that all the water in his stomach was sloshing around.

He didn't eat enough.

But he didn't dare to say anything yet. He didn't have Zhang Xiaoshan's memory, so he didn't know what the situation at home was like. The original person is young, he must be sixteen or seventeen years old, right? The original eldest brother, Zhang Dashan, looks like he is in his early twenties. He has strong muscles and looks very good at work. Moreover, he did not see any elderly people at home. Then the eldest brother is the head of the family and has to support the family! The eldest brother eats better than him. It is normal for the sweet potato porridge that the sister-in-law serves to the eldest brother to be thicker. This was also the case in his previous home. Good things should be given to dad first, so that he has the strength to work.

Ruihe licked his lips and slowly fell asleep. Just as I fell asleep, the gong sounded again, and the afternoon work began again.

The rice transplanting was extremely busy. At 4:30 in the morning, Zhang Tiansheng, the captain of the No. 11 Production Team of Meicun, beat the gong and called out everyone. He was lazy on weekdays, but for the sake of his fellow villagers, Zhang Tiansheng didn't care. Anyway, the work points were recorded and he didn't do enough. There is no full work credit. Not now! The eleven production teams of Shangmei Village are now competing vigorously! If you really end up in last place, you will be so embarrassed! Therefore, we must race against time now, and no laziness is allowed. Therefore, at 1:30 in the afternoon, when the sun is at its strongest, the gong rings early.

"I'll tell you the truth! The commune will hold a summary meeting after the rice planting. Our performance will be seen by the production team. If we don't perform well, people from the team will go to the meeting and criticize our team. , Are you ashamed? Are you ashamed? Take it seriously! Let me see who is slacking. Not only will I not record your work points, I will also write them down and report them to the commune meeting! Once..."

Every time Ruihe listened to the captain's lecture, he felt a little nervous. He was so anxious that he was afraid of being criticized! His father had taught him before that it didn't matter if he wasn't smart, but he had to be diligent. Diligence can make up for his weakness! You should listen more to smart and wise people and realize your own shortcomings and so on. In his opinion, the captain said it very well! Hard work can never be wrong. He must work hard to earn work points and food to support himself.

The pressure of hunger and survival made Ruihe suppress his longing for his sister and fear of this strange place, and worked hard in silence. He was fortunate that everyone around him was busy. By the final stage of transplanting, even the talkative Li Dashui was too tired to speak much. No one had the time or energy to pay attention to him. During this busy season, he carefully integrated into the environment. By the time the farming was over, he had learned the local dialect and found out more information about his original identity.

After the rice transplanting, the production team organized a celebration meeting. On a summer night, they made a big circle around the grain drying field. The captains of each production team came out to perform. Ruihe listened to the captains singing with wide eyes and felt weird. It sounds good, and the lyrics are pretty good, even he can understand it. It seems to be praising a particularly great person and a particularly great party, who brought everyone's good days. As Ruihe listened, pride surged in his heart. In the light of the fire, he looked at the smiling faces and the haystacks in the distance, and felt that this place was so nice that he almost wanted to cry.

Here, as long as you work hard, you will be rewarded with work points and food to eat, so much more. Rui He has never read a book and can only use the word "good" to describe it. He sincerely thinks that this place is good. Secretly, he is still thinking that it would be great if his sister was here too. No one would beat them here. They are brother and sister. They are all used to working, and they will definitely live a good life.

But he didn't know where this place was, let alone where to find his sister. After being disappointed for a while, Ruihe was attracted by the new program on the field.

"Come on, let's invite the educated youth from Shangmei Village to give a program, a poetry recitation!"

Rui He's eyes widened and his mouth grew unconsciously. Li Dashui bumped his shoulder and asked mischievously: "Aren't you pretty?"

"Yeah!" He nodded heavily, his eyes full of appreciation and yearning for beautiful things. I saw five young girls standing up in the crowd. Their hair was neatly combed and their fair faces were exposed. Although they were wearing ordinary trousers and shirts, they stood in a row with their heads held high and their chests high. They were indescribably youthful and beautiful. Lu Peiyin was also inside, standing in the middle, and she spoke: "Qinyuanchun, Changsha."

The four female educated youths around me read together: "In the cold autumn of independence, go north to the Xiangjiang River, to the head of Orange Island."

The tone was so passionate and emotional that Ruihe's eyes almost glowed. It turns out that educated youth are such literate people. He had heard Li Dashui say before that the educated youth came from "the city", and when they came from the city to the countryside, there was a huge difference between heaven and earth. Before that, Ruihe was still thinking in private: Did these young educated youths make any mistakes? Why is it so similar to the exile in the play? Now that he saw that these educated youths were so good at reading poetry, and their temperament was different from others, he thought that his original guess must be wrong.

It was the first time he heard such grand words and the first time he heard such a tone of voice. It was completely different from the local dialect he had just learned. It seemed that these female educated youths suddenly became unattainable.

"Are you looking straight?"

Faced with Li Dashui's teasing, Ruihe felt a little embarrassed, so he lowered his head and touched the tip of his nose with the back of his hand, and asked in a low voice: "What they read is really nice. Did they write it?"

"It's definitely not the case. This was written by the old chairman, and it's already famous!"

"Oh." Although it was not written by a female educated youth, Rui He still felt that these educated youths were amazing.

"Don't be tempted by Lu Peiyin anymore. You haven't seen many men around her during the busy farming period, helping with this and that, so she doesn't have to work too hard. She's so popular, if you It will definitely be difficult if you continue to chase her, so it’s better to find another one. In fact, the girls in our village are pretty good..."

"Stop talking, I know it all. I'm still young and won't say it for now. Brother Dashui, don't mention it again in the future."

The party ended soon, and it was "eight o'clock" based on the time here. Ruihe lay on the bed and heard his stomach growling again. However, he had long been accustomed to being hungry, so he didn't take it seriously. He skillfully slowed down his breathing and diverted his attention by thinking of other things.

He was still at the party tonight, and the scene of those educated youth standing there lingered in his mind. "It's so beautiful." He whispered.

With a straight back and a poem that cannot be understood but feels very beautiful, this is what a scholar is. Rui He was extremely envious. He had never read a book, but he always had a sense of awe and yearning for reading. How nice. He turned over again and slowly fell asleep. In the dream, he was sitting in the school, with white and fragrant books on the table. Looking to the left, his sister Ruizhu was smiling at him, showing her missing front teeth.

very nice.

When he woke up the next day, Ruihe still had some beauty in his heart. He felt that such a beautiful dream made him happier than filling his stomach. He hoped to have such a dream every day.

He lowered his head to put on his shoes, tears dripping into the soil. He wiped his eyes vigorously, lowered his head and hugged his knees.

It wasn't until the gong sounded outside that he raised his head and pursed his lips and went to the yard to fetch water to wash his face. The towel was made from old clothes. It was so tattered that the original color could not be seen. He seemed to have hit his face to the floor, fiercely They wiped the floor a few times and then quickly hurried outside to gather.

The busy life leaves Ruihe with little time to think. What he has to do now is to do the work assigned by the captain and earn enough work points so that he can get more food during the autumn harvest.

He was very hungry and wanted to have a full meal.

Mrs. Zhang was so direct, but Ruihe breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Has your family encountered any difficulties?"

"Don't ask, just say whether you want to borrow it or not!"

Rui He shook his head: "Sister-in-law, let me tell you the truth. I have only saved these two hundred yuan through hard work this year. You want to borrow them all at once and you don't let me ask why. This is too disrespectful." It makes sense. We are relatives, and I will help if I can, but two hundred yuan is definitely not enough."

"Hill!"

Sister-in-law Zhang took a deep breath to suppress her anger and complained about her husband again. It was so easy to let my brother-in-law separate the family, thank you now! But the husband said something like "Don't let outsiders laugh", "It's not shameful to make trouble" and "it has a bad reputation". That's all bullshit! You have real money in your hands, no matter what other people do! It's better now. If she wants to borrow money, she has to lower her voice and say something nice. Her husband doesn't dare to say a word about it. What a nuisance! Is this something she does alone?

She lowered her head and took a sip of water. The water made with orange jam was sour and sweet, but her heart was a little sour, so her mouth also became sour: "Your life is better, the life and death of my brother and sister-in-law." You don’t like it either.”

Ruihe just listened to this and didn't take it seriously. He just asked: "Where's eldest brother? Why didn't he come?"

Sister Zhang's face turned green again. She put the cup down hard and stared at Ruihe: "You really don't want to borrow it?"

Ruihe wiped the splashed water with a rag and said while wiping: "When we separated, my eldest brother gave me twenty yuan, and I gave 80% of my salary for the four months after joining the factory to my eldest brother, except for buying After the separation, there was at least one hundred yuan left in the family, right? This was what I earned, and I don’t know how much my parents left behind. Anyway, my eldest brother was doing the cooking at the time, so I didn’t care. He thought I was easy to bully, and he came to my house to talk nonsense with me when he was about to celebrate the New Year, and put a shit basin on my head." As he said that, he raised his eyes and looked at Sister Zhang, his eyes were sharper than what Sister Zhang had ever seen before.

"How about I go outside and beat the gongs and drums to invite all the villagers over and let everyone comment. Why on earth do I care about your life and death?"

Sister-in-law Zhang gasped with anger and looked at her brother-in-law who was suddenly so articulate in disbelief: "Are you threatening me?"

"Sister-in-law, you were the one who threatened me first." Ruihe stood up, "I'm going to wash the quilt. Sister-in-law, if you have nothing to do, go back first."

Seeing Mrs. Zhang slamming the door angrily and going out, Ruihe took out the quilt and washed it without much care. She could have spoken properly, but she couldn't. Mrs. Zhang thought she could still control herself, but she was just daydreaming. Although he didn't want to get into too much trouble with his relatives, he didn't care that he was his eldest brother, he just didn't want to cause trouble for himself. The concession of the family separation was also a decision made because I was weak and wanted to separate the family smoothly without causing any complications. He doesn't regret what he did back then, but that doesn't mean he will give in today.

The rejection that day gave him the confidence to reject Sister Zhang today. No matter who he told, he was always reasonable.

"But, sister-in-law, what are they going to do with two hundred yuan?" Rui and Zuo Siyou were puzzled. After the separation, because they lived close together, he could actually hear what was going on next door, such as purchasing large pieces of furniture, spending large sums of money for illness, etc. However, there was no such movement in Zhang Dashan's family. Zhang Dashan has at least 100 yuan in savings, and now he wants 200 yuan from him. Could it be that he wants to buy a house?

"Hill?"

When Ruihe came back to his senses, he realized that Xu Caiheng had arrived and quickly welcomed him in: "Sit down and drink water."

"The orange jam this time tastes better than last time." Xu Caiheng praised, and the two started class.

After today's class was over, Xu Caiheng said he was getting married at the age of 28 and invited Ruihe to come over and have some sweets. This news is so sudden!

"Are you getting married? Who is the bride?"

"It's Qingnan. We'll be having drinks at Xiaogangjiao Chiyu Lane at noon on the 28th. You must come."

"Definitely go!"

"I won't be here tomorrow. You have finished these three papers in the past few days."

After sending Xu Caiheng away, Ruihe started to walk around the house. Originally, he bought half a catty of sesame cake and half a catty of brown sugar cake in the town, intending to give Xu Caiheng a New Year gift. Now that he suddenly heard that the other party was getting married, the gift was too thin. Xu Caiheng taught him that he was very dedicated. If he had anything he didn't understand, just ask him, and the other party would tell him carefully. He has made rapid progress in the past year and has already learned at the fifth grade level. Xu Caiheng has contributed a lot to this.

He placed two packs of snacks on the table and looked around. Indeed, there were no other gifts to congratulate the newlyweds. In the middle of the year, when Li Dashui's eldest sister Li Damei got married, he went to a banquet. When meeting relatives and friends, he always gave cloths, enamel jars or thermos bottles, sheets, etc. to the family. What he gave at that time was also a hot water bottle. This time Xu Caiheng gets married, and he plans to buy a pair of enamel jars with double happiness printed on them. In the end, he will give them a gift of five yuan, which should be enough.

After dinner, Ruihe went to Li Dashui to talk about the matter and asked him to go out together. Li Dashui patted his chest and agreed. He liked to go out for fun the most. His good friends didn't have to go to class to ask him to go out with him. He was very happy. "The name Qingnan looks so familiar. Do you recognize Xiaoshan?"

Rui He shook his head: "I only heard Mr. Xu say once that I knew they were in love."

Li Dashui knocked on Ruihe's door early the next morning: "I also brought money to see what else I can buy."

"Auntie didn't tell you?" All of Li Dashui's money is with Auntie Xiu'e.

"Hi! My mother said that men should not go out empty-handed and have no confidence in doing anything. She gave me five yuan! She told me to buy it for the Chinese New Year to visit relatives."

The two walked to the town, and while chatting on the road, Li Dashui took the initiative to talk about Xu Caiheng's blind date. "By coincidence, my mother knows her. It turns out that she is Zhang Qingnan, who is also from our village and lives just over the port. I heard that she is the fifth eldest child in the family. She has two sisters and two brothers, and a younger brother."

The main area of ​​Shangmei Village is relatively rounded and regular, but a small area extending out from the border with Mining Road also belongs to Shangmei Village. That land is close to the port, so it is usually called a small port corner.

Rui He suddenly realized: "It turns out to be from Xiaogangjiao. No wonder I don't have any impression of it." He has no relatives there and usually doesn't go there at all.

"Really! I don't have any impression, but my mother has seen her and said she is a good girl who works well." Li Dashui frowned, "My mother won't tell me whether she is pretty or not. I'm really afraid that my mother will find me a job in the future. She’s super neat and looks like a dominatrix’s partner, so I’ll cry to death.”

"Don't talk nonsense." Rui He couldn't help but knock him, "I think my aunt is right, you need to be able to work. You two work together to save your family. It will be great to live a prosperous life in the future. You can eat your face. Can you still drink it?”

That's what his mother said before, and she's absolutely right.

To marry a virtuous wife.

Li Dashui screamed and covered his ears: "Why do you say that? We are good brothers and you have to stand by my side..."

Ruihe couldn't help laughing: "On the way, the kids on the side of the road are laughing at you."

The two chatted and laughed as they walked into the city. They didn't feel tired even after walking for two hours. Ruihe quickly bought two enamel pots. As a result, when he was about to leave, he saw a counter suddenly crowded with people.

"What's wrong?"

"We have scraps of cloth for sale! No tickets are needed!"

Hearing the conversation between others, Ruihe and Li Dashui's eyes lit up and they rushed over to buy. There are too few cloth coupons! How can there be enough for so many people in the family? Three years new, three years old, and three years of mending is really not a joke. The winter clothes Ruihe is wearing now are the ones he retired from Zhang Dashan. This year, he has worn them for four years. They are too short to be lengthened and too torn to be mended. Therefore, Ruihe bought new thick cotton cloth to make winter clothes.

As for the 12-foot thin cotton cloth bought at the end of last year, in the middle of this year, he gave Aunt Xiu'e 50 cents to help her cut and make a pair of trousers, a vest and a pair of shorts, all of which were made wide. He couldn't bear to throw away the remaining scraps, so he kept them to make two pairs of thousand-layer shoes and continue to make patches. He was reluctant to use those cloths, but this year the work was too busy. The clothes were always worn out when moving bamboo and weaving. In the hot summer, the sweat soaked the clothes from morning to night. That's why he had to make new clothes.

It is said that the department store occasionally sells scraps of cloth, the price is low and no tickets are required, but Ruihe has never had the opportunity to catch up. This time he was lucky enough to come across it, and it would be a pity not to buy some.

As a result, the two big guys were so tall that they could hardly squeeze past the other female customers! Ruihe barely grabbed three bundles of rags and spent 50 cents. The rags were tied together with ropes. One bundle was about as thick as an adult man's arm and as long as a palm. The colors were messy and varied. However, the customers who got the rags were all smiling, thinking that they had gotten a great bargain.

Ruihe was also happy, because now he had materials to patch the sheets, and he could also make a few more pairs of thousand-layer soles for next spring and summer, because shoes were too worn out in summer. In addition, he could also change a towel by patching them together.

Li Dashui said with a bitter face: "I only got one bundle." He was strong and his height was not very tall, like his parents, about 1.65 meters. The crowd was crowded, and there were many female comrades, so Li Dashui did not dare to squeeze hard.

Buying rags was a pleasant surprise, and today's shopping trip was a complete success. Ruihe and Li Dashui planned to go back to the village, but they didn't expect to see someone secretly selling clothes in the alley on the way back.

"Brother, do you want to buy clothes?"

There was a little girl at the entrance of the alley. When she saw them passing by, she ran over and asked in a low voice, and introduced: "These are clothes from Shanghai!"

Shanghai.

Ruihe wanted to take a look at the clothes from big cities, and so did Li Dashui, so the two walked into the alley.

Ruihe was very embarrassed: "Maybe I'm growing up and I'm hungry."

Li Dashui frowned and asked: "Did your sister-in-law bully you?"

Ruihe's heart skipped a beat after hearing Li Dashui's words, and he asked cautiously: "Why do you say that? My sister-in-law...didn't bully me."

"Don't hide it from me! I still know who she is? As your neighbor, who doesn't know she's mean? She looks so virtuous, but who doesn't know that she gave your mother porridge that year, without a grain of rice? And once she threw away your mother's bowl? Xiaoshan, don't learn to endure like your aunt, or you'll starve yourself!"

This is the first time I heard about the original body's mother, but I didn't expect that she had such a relationship with the original body's sister-in-law? Porridge? He said tentatively, "My mom didn't die because of this."

Li Dashui snorted, "It must be related. Have you forgotten how thin your aunt was when she died? Her skin was sticking to her bones. Yes! I know! You want to say that there was really nothing to eat due to the drought that year, and you don't believe that your sister-in-law swept your mom's bowl and didn't let her eat. I am your friend, not your family. In fact, your sister-in-law can't bully me no matter what. Xiaoshan, I still remember that you kept pulling me when I was six years old, otherwise I would have drowned. I just said a few words like this. If you listen, you listen. If you don't listen, I can't do anything." He patted Ruihe's shoulder, "Come to my house after dinner tonight. I'll leave you roasted sweet potatoes."