After helping others to the end, Liu Handong went to the gas station to refuel. There were no Sinopec and PetroChina outlets in the town, only a small private gas station. The boss was a stout man. He looked at it for a long time and said, "Isn't this a plum?"
It turned out that they were old acquaintances. Sister Mei came forward and chatted a few words in local dialect that Liu Handong could not understand. The man reached out to squeeze Sister Mei's butt, but she slapped her away. He walked away with a smile and turned on the gas pump to refuel Fukang.
"What did you say?" Liu Handong asked.
"I asked him not to mix water with water, but to add real gasoline. Small local gas stations will rip people off when they see out-of-town cars. Not only are they expensive, they will also mix water with you, which may damage the engine." Sister Mei explained.
Liu Handong looked at his cell phone: "It's getting late, refuel and leave quickly. Help others till the end. Send Buddha to the West. I'll deliver you to your doorstep."
Sister Mei said: "Don't panic, it's a market today, let's buy some things first."
It was still early, so Liu Handong borrowed a broom to sweep away the dirt on the car, and wiped it with a basin of water. Fukang returned to its original appearance. There was a breakfast stall opened by a local in the town, and he went to eat a bowl of porridge.
, a few fried dough sticks, and squinted for a while in the rest room of the gas station.
The market has begun, and villagers from each village set up stalls selling pork, agricultural products, firecrackers, fireworks, couplets, door gods, as well as cheap clothes, shoes, small hardware, plastic products, etc. wholesaled from big cities.
Sister Mei bought a pig head, two elbows, some firecrackers, a few pairs of children's cotton shoes, pencil cases and stationery, etc. These are bought for the children in the village and are indispensable every year.
The snow has stopped a long time ago, and God has blessed me with a sunny day today. The market is bustling with people, and buses from the county town keep honking their horns, passing through the crowd and driving into the bus station. There are several covered motorized three-wheelers parked outside the station.
They are all black buses that go to nearby villages. People returning home often bring a lot of luggage with them. There are no buses in remote villages, so you can only take this bus.
Fukang set off again, passing through the lively market and driving to Lantian Village ten kilometers away. The branches on both sides of the road were covered with ice and snow, and the scenery was pleasant. Liu Handong turned on the CD player, played Xu Wei's "Blue Lotus", and started humming along.
, a carriage came from the opposite side, the maroon horse was breathing hot air, and several villagers were sitting in the carriage.
Sister Mei patted Liu Handong on the shoulder and said, "Slow down, we've met someone we know. Let's say hello." Then she lowered the window and waved her hand and shouted, "Little Stone!"
The carriage stopped, and a thin man wearing a double-breasted polyester suit and at least three sweaters adjusted his glasses and shouted, "Ruohua, you're back."
When Ruohua shouted, Sister Mei's face turned crimson, filled with shyness that only a girl can have.
"Well, when you come back to celebrate the New Year, why don't you go to the market?"
"Going to the market, where are you?" The man looked at Liu Handong who was driving.
"This is Officer Liu, my friend from the provincial capital." Mei Ruohua introduced proudly, and Liu Handong nodded to him.
Huanxi also said hello: "Hello, Teacher Shi."
"Then you go back first, I'll buy some things last time." The man said.
"Okay, see you later." Sister Mei happily waved goodbye to the man.
"Your first love?" Liu Handong asked.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Mei Ruohua held her daughter in her arms: "Xiao Yan'er, why didn't you shout when you saw someone just now?"
Xiao Yan'er said: "I don't know him."
Liu Handong looked at Xiao Yan'er in the rearview mirror, and suddenly felt that he looked a bit like that man, but he didn't say anything and buried this question in his heart.
Continuing forward, the road was not as difficult as expected. At least it was a bit too wide for a remote village. Sister Mei explained that a coal mine had opened in the village, and the trucks usually damaged the road.
People paid for the repairs.
"There is a coal mine in the village, why are we still so poor?" Liu Handong wondered.
"The coal mine is contracted by the village chief's family," Sister Mei said.
"Oh~~~" Liu Handong understood.
After driving for ten kilometers, we finally arrived at our destination, Lantian Village. Under the low wall at the entrance of the village, there were several elderly people sitting in the sun, wearing tattered cotton-padded jackets that could not be seen in their true colors, and thatch-woven woolen shoes. I saw Sister Mei getting out of the car.
He shouted: "Hua Ni'er, you're back. Your father has been talking about you for more than half a year."
They spoke Pingchuan country dialect, which Liu Handong could barely understand. He stepped forward to give the old man a cigarette. The old people opened their toothless mouths and laughed, clamped the cigarettes to their ears, and shouted into the distance: "He
Uncle Seven, my young daughter is back."
Sister Mei’s house is relatively high-end in the village. It is a small two-story Western-style building. The outside is not painted, it is just a red brick wall. There is a mosaic screen wall in the big iron gate. There is also a dog in the yard. Sister Mei’s parents
They are all honest country people. The old man is wearing a black woolen coat, his shoulders are covered with dandruff, and he is wearing a cadre hat with a greasy ring. The old lady is wearing a large black cotton-padded jacket. When she sees her daughter coming back, she starts to wipe her tears.
.
The outside of this house looks much more elegant than the low-rise bungalows in the village, but the inside is not that good. The walls are randomly painted with a layer of paint, the floor is covered with pungent-smelling floor leather, and the only appliance is a flat-screen color TV.
The old couple were a little reserved, and the old man kept asking the guests to smoke and drink tea, repeating these two sentences over and over again.
Sister Mei said she had something else to do, so she sent Huanxi home first. She carried an elbow and a firecracker, asked Xiao Yaner to talk to her grandpa and grandma, and took Huanxi and Liu Handong out.
The atmosphere of the New Year is very strong in the village. From time to time there are sporadic firecrackers. Children's faces are red from the cold. They are running in the fields in rags. When the dogs see new faces, they either bark menacingly or wag their tails to beg for mercy. From time to time, one or two tails are dirty.
The ugly fat pig passed by, grunting, probably not knowing that its life was coming to an end.
Huanxi's home is on a slope at the end of the village. There are three houses that are about to collapse. They are half bricks and half adobe, with thatched roofs. Corn and peppers are hung beside the crooked door frames. A skinny dog ran out of the yard.
, heading straight towards Huanxi River.
"Laifu!" Huanxi knelt down and hugged the dog and shouted affectionately.
Laifu barked, and a middle-aged man with a sallow complexion came out of the room. He was probably Huanxi's father, Teacher Lan.
"Nier, you're back. Sister, thank you for your hard work. Who is this big brother?" Teacher Lan adjusted her glasses and asked.
"A friend from the provincial capital drove us back." Sister Mei laughed and entered the house.
After entering Lan's house, Liu Handong realized what it means to have a bare house. Except for the black bacon hanging on the beams, there was nothing valuable in the house. The bed was made of wooden boards and bricks, and the bedding on it had turned black.
The stinking smell of bedridden patients filled the room. Lying on the bed was a skinny woman, who must be Huanxi's mother who had been paralyzed for many years. She just smiled and said hello.
Teacher Lan kicked the urine jar under the bed and invited the guests to sit down, but there was only one decent chair in the house and no one was embarrassed to sit on it.
Suddenly a young man ran in and shouted: "Sister!"
"Brother." Huanxi couldn't help but kiss him when he saw his younger brother. The two siblings looked very similar. Although the boy was thin, he had delicate features, fair skin, and big eyes. He looked more like a girl. He was wearing a worn-out Mao suit, with his feet
His toes were exposed in his rotten cotton shoes, and his hands were covered with frostbite.
Sister Mei put down the elbows and firecrackers and asked Teacher Lan: "Uncle, have you got all the new year's goods?"
"We're almost there. The leaders of the township have come to offer condolences and sent flour and soybean oil." Teacher Lan adjusted his glasses and became more excited. "The party's policies are good. They take care of needy households like us during the holidays. Wait.
The second boy is promising, so he must give back to society and repay the party's kindness."
Sister Mei said: "Nier has been working in our beauty salon for a few months and has performed very well. I am going to give her a salary increase and let her work with me after the Chinese New Year."
Teacher Lan became happy and said, "Thank you. If it weren't for your help, the second boy's tuition would not have been paid."
Lan Mu, who was on the bed, also thanked her profusely: "I'm sorry to trouble you, Hua Nier. Of all the people in our village, you are the most promising."
"You're from a village, don't you have this little care? Well, I'm going home. Say hello if you need anything." Sister Mei didn't want to stay any longer, so she stood up and left. Teacher Lan and sister Huanxi sent her away far away.
Laifu was also having fun beside him excitedly.
"Don't send it off, we'll get it home soon." Sister Mei said.
"Okay, walk slowly, thank you." Teacher Lan thanked Sister Mei and Liu Handong again.
The two walked back slowly, and Liu Handong took a long time to utter two words: "I'm so poor."
"Teacher Lan used to be a private teacher, but then the state fired them all from private schools across the board, and the village's primary school was also closed down. He had no source of income, and he got liver disease. The hope of the whole family rested on the second boy.
Nier's younger brother is better at studying than her elder sister, and he ranks first in the school."
Sister Mei, who returned to her hometown, no longer had the charm and charm of the past. She seemed to have become the "beauty salon manager" and "the most promising person in the village" in the eyes of the Lan family.
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and Liu Handong decided to leave immediately. Sister Mei refused to let him go, insisting on letting him have lunch before leaving. The pot house at home started cooking, boiling water to pluck pig heads, fry meatballs, and steam steamed buns.
Girls and boys all came to visit, and Sister Mei turned into an intimate elder sister, telling her younger brothers and sisters various jokes about the city and encouraging them to go out and explore the world.
Lunch was brought forward to 10:30, and Sister Mei’s father invited some people to sit with him, including Teacher Lan and Teacher Shi whom I met earlier. It is said that he is a teacher at the Township Central Primary School, and he is considered a teacher in the village.
Personal figures.
Sister Mei boasted that Liu Handong was a police officer from the provincial capital, and everyone respected him. Because he had to drive in the afternoon, no one tried to make him drink. Tea was substituted for wine, and the family dinner ended at twelve o'clock. A group of people sent Liu Handong to the car and left the village.
Liu Handong drove Fukang and left Lantian Village. Driving on the bumpy road, he suddenly looked back and saw Huanxi waving to him on the slope, his figure getting farther and farther away and getting smaller.
Under the guidance of the GPS navigation on his mobile phone, Liu Handong quickly got on the provincial road. The snow on the road had begun to melt. He was speeding all the way, returning home as fast as he could.