Ouyang Xue's words, although very plain, touched the willow roots.
When you are with Ouyang Xue, you will always get some inspiration from her.
"Thank you, Ouyang." Liu Gen opened his eyes and glanced at Ouyang Xue gratefully.
"Thank me for what?" Ouyang Xue showed a naughty smile: "I didn't do anything for you."
"You always give me direction when I'm confused."
"Are you saying that I'm like a light in the dark? Haha... I didn't expect that I'm quite great!" Ouyang Xue imitated Liu Gen's tone and said with a smile.
Liu Gen looked at Ouyang Xue and said in her heart: Yes, you are the lamp in my heart. From the first time I saw you, you lit up my heart.
Of course he would not say these words, he was not ready yet, but he believed that one day, when he had the confidence, he would tell Ouyang Xue personally.
"Look, ahead is Jincan Town."
Through the windshield of the car, Liu Gen saw a small town as beautiful as a landscape painting, quietly located in the middle of mountains on both sides.
But Ouyang Xue did not drive towards the town, but turned onto a road paved with bluestones. Both sides of the road were full of green mulberry trees.
After driving about a few hundred meters, Liu Gen saw a large courtyard with white walls and gray tiles at the end of the road.
"That's my old house." Ouyang Xue introduced: "For the convenience of commuting to and from get off work, my parents usually live in the city. They only come here to live on weekends. My grandparents are not used to life in the city and like the suburbs. of tranquility.”
What appeared in front of Liu Gen's eyes was a typical folk architectural courtyard in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It was very grand. A clear river trickled on the left side of the courtyard. On both sides of the courtyard's gate, two stone lions crouched. The gate was open. When Ouyang Xue parked the car,
As he walked down the steps at the door, Liu Gen saw through the car window that there was a wall with a pattern of birds and phoenixes painted on the door. He felt strange that there was a wall after entering the door.
On the white marble lintel, there are four official script characters "Ouyang Mansion" carved.
After Liu Gen followed Ouyang Xue into the high bluestone threshold with the bouquet of white roses, he realized that you could walk into the inner courtyard from both ends of the wall. Liu Gen and Ouyang Xue walked on the right side and turned around the wall.
, Liu Gen’s eyes lit up.
A very elegant garden with small bridges and flowing water. There are fish in the water. There are many rockeries among flowers, plants and trees. The thrush's call is clear and sweet, as if it knows that guests are coming. There are several houses, all of which are ancient Chinese buildings with vermilion wood.
The pillars and doors made Liu Gen think of the "big house door" in his mind, and he seemed to understand the feeling that Grandma Liu had when she entered the Grand View Garden. Compared with the two earthen cave dwellings in her hometown of Gangou Village, this was simply heaven on earth.
"Hurry up." Ouyang Xue realized that Liu Gen behind him was not following, so he stopped and turned around to urge.
"Your old house is really grand!" Liu Gen praised it sincerely.
"Mom, your guests are here!" Ouyang Xue shouted loudly before entering the main room.
"Is Brother Gen here?" I heard his voice before I saw him. It was as sweet and melodious as Ouyang Xue. A middle-aged woman walked out of a side room. Her face was bare, without any makeup on her face. If it weren't for the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes,
Liu Genhui mistakenly thought she was a younger sister. Ouyang Xue's mother was wearing a thin sleeveless silk undershirt. Women in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas wore this kind of undershirt in summer. It was considered very common. She wore a gray trousers below her knees.
He was wearing linen trousers, his calves were exposed like two white and tender lotus roots, and he wore a pair of embroidered slippers on his feet.
Ouyang Xue laughed softly and said to Liu Gen: "My mother also calls you Brother Gen..."
"Hello, auntie." Liu Gen bowed slightly and said, "It's our first time meeting, so I don't know what gift to buy." He handed over the white rose in his hand.
"Thank you, this is my favorite flower." Ouyang Xue's mother took it with a smile, put the flower close to her nostrils and smelled it, looking up and down at the willow roots.
Ouyang Xue was nothing like her mother. Liu Gen had met Ouyang Xiong. It could be said that Ouyang Xue's appearance was the combination of all the advantages of her parents. Under the gaze of Ouyang Xue's mother, Liu Gen felt uncomfortable all over.
"Mom..." Ouyang Xue shouted when she saw her mother staring at Liu Gen.
"Xue, please take Brother Gen to the main room to rest." Ouyang Xue's mother then looked back and said with a smile.
"Aren't grandparents here?" Ouyang Xue asked.
"Your grandparents have gone to the mulberry forest."
"Liu Gen, follow me." Ouyang Xue took Liu Gen's hand and walked towards the front hall.
Ouyang Xue's mother looked at the back of her daughter holding Liu Gen's hand and walking toward the main room with a smile. She whispered softly: "There are some shadows of the young man." Then she turned and walked into the room she just came out of.
The main room was very spacious, with granite floors, hard and cool, which made Liu Gen feel less burning.
"Whatever, Liu Gen, don't stand, sit down quickly." Ouyang Xue greeted Liu Gen, who was standing there in a daze, looking around the room: "Drink tea? My grandfather's Kung Fu tea is famous far and wide."
"Such a big old house, where your grandparents usually live, is too deserted." Liu Gen said as he had nothing to say.
"My aunt and uncle's family also live in the old house. However, my aunt and uncle took my cousin abroad for vacation during the summer vacation." Ouyang Xue answered and began to pour tea for Liu Gen, which was poured into her grandfather's Kung Fu teapot.
What's left is some warm tea.
At this time, Ouyang Xue's mother also came to the main room after arranging the flowers.
"Liu Gen, Xue will mention your name to me every time on the phone. There are also some things about you that Xue has told me, like telling legendary stories, haha..."
"Mom..." Ouyang Xue said softly, rolling her eyes at her mother, sitting next to her mother and not letting her continue: "Why are you talking about this?"
"I should call Auntie senior. Ouyang told me that Auntie graduated from Nanhai Medical University." Liu Gen took a sip of the bitter tea and tried his best to smile.
"Then you call me senior, Xue, you should also call me senior." Ouyang Xue's mother raised her hand and pinched Ouyang Xue's nose, jokingly saying.
"Senior..." Ouyang Xue hugged her mother's neck, kissed her on the face and shouted naughtily: "Mom, senior."
Liu Gen looked at mother and daughter passionately, and suddenly thought of what her mother said in the letter, and secretly glanced at Ouyang Xue.
"Liu Gen, I heard from Xue that you opened a northwest-style snack bar. The business is quite good and the taste is very special. If you have the opportunity to return to your alma mater in the future, you will definitely try it."
"Haha...Ouyang helped me with a lot of ideas." Liu Gen replied with a naive smile.
"It's not easy to be busy with business and study at the same time." Ouyang Xue's mother always had a kind smile on her face.
"The shop is mainly run by one of my childhood friends, so I can't help you much."
"I haven't been back to my alma mater for several years. I heard that it is going to merge with Nanhai University. Many people who have graduated from my alma mater and stayed to teach there are dissatisfied with this merger and are leaving. Alas... this is not good for my alma mater.
It’s nothing more than a major disaster.”
"Yes, Professor Xiao, our anatomy professor, is leaving too." Liu Gen said casually.
"Xiao Xiao...is leaving too?" Ouyang Xue's mother seemed surprised and asked, "Where is he going?"
"Go to the United States." Liu Gen felt that he shouldn't mention this, but since he said it, he had no choice but to answer.
"Xiao Xiao and Li Yong are both my classmates. They were very outstanding when they were studying. Li Yong was our monitor and also the president of the student union. Although we were very miserable at that time, we were very happy. I have been with them for a long time.
No contact."
The Li Yong Ouyang Xue's mother mentioned was Principal Li. Liu Gen sighed and said, "Principal Li also resigned!"
"Li Yong is no longer the principal!" Ouyang Xue's mother was even more surprised this time. She glanced at Ouyang Xue and said, "Why didn't you tell me such an important thing, Xue?"
"How did I know! Mom and Professor Xiao are classmates. This is the first time I've heard that. Before, you never told me that you were classmates with Professor Xiao and Principal Li." Ouyang Xue pouted her mouth and answered, her eyes wide.
He looked at Liu Gen and asked: "So, the rumors are true?"
"Yes, Principal Li told me personally. However, he will not leave the school and will continue to teach at the university and be a surgeon in the future." Liu Gen replied.
"Li Yong told you personally...you and him..." Ouyang Xue's mother seemed a little unconvinced.
Liu Gen said with some embarrassment: "I couldn't pay the tuition for school, so Principal Li helped me advance it. Later, I asked Principal Li to help treat a homeless orphan who couldn't speak. I went to him..."
"It turns out that it was Principal Li who advanced the tuition for you! Let me tell you..." Only then did Ouyang Xue know that when she asked Mei Yingchun for Liu Gen's enrollment form, Mei Yingchun said that Liu Gen's tuition had already been paid.
"Oh, that's right." Ouyang Xue's mother nodded: "That child, I heard from Xue, is now adopted by an entrepreneur in Nanhai City and is living a good life. Liu Gen, you have done a great good deed."
Liu Gen looked at Ouyang Xue and smiled and said, "Thanks to senior and Ouyang, Han Xue can be where she is today."
"My mother said that Liu Gen is a person with great love. Such a person is worthy of inviting us to come to our Ouyang Mansion for a meal." Ouyang Xue imitated her mother's tone and said.
"Li Yong is also a person with great love." Ouyang Xue's mother said about Principal Li: "I remember that at that time he was a person who didn't even have enough to eat, but he was silently helping classmates who were more difficult than him.
At that time, there was no place to work to make money. On weekends, he worked as a coolie in a suburban freight warehouse, carrying sacks for a day and earning less than ten yuan. At that time, the food for college students was rationed according to the plan, and each person was three dollars a month.
Twelve kilograms of grain, seven kilograms of miscellaneous grains. Li Yong needs to eat seven or eight taels for each meal, two meals a day. After a month, it is not enough at all. He needs to use food stamps and money to buy it, but he has no food stamps.
So, now his wife is studying nursing, and she is in the student union with Li Yong, and gives him endless meal tickets. Girls have small appetites, but they can still eat more than twenty kilograms a month, but Li Yong's wife,
In order to save more meal tickets for Li Yong, I only eat more than ten kilograms a month..."