Just when Li Xiu'e was about to agree, Su Jianmin said sternly: "What are you playing for? Did you do your homework? What was your score in the last midterm exam?"
Su Xiaosi was so playful that he took a make-up exam once in the first grade and almost repeated the grade.
"Look at your brothers..."
Su Jianmin said sternly to the fourth grader: "Your eldest brother went to high school, your second brother also went to junior high school, and your third brother got perfect marks every time. Only you took the make-up exam last year when you were in the first grade. Do you want to graduate from elementary school without studying?
Begging for food on the street?"
Su Xiaosi lowered his head and shed tears.
His grandmother felt sorry for him, walked up to him, hugged him and coaxed: "Good boy, don't cry. Don't listen to your father. If you know how to read, there will be a way out for you. If you don't know how to read, there will be a way out for you if you don't know how to read."
"Mom, you're hurting him by saying that. What's the way out if you don't know how to study?"
"Why is there no way out? Your two older brothers and younger brothers are both in the countryside. What kind of books have they studied? Can't you live a good life even if you can't read two characters?"
It's fine if he doesn't mention his brothers, but when he mentions Su Jianmin, he gets angry.
"How are they living well? I don't see it at all. They have food, clothing, and shelter. To be honest, what I just said is absolutely correct. Our hometown is not a place for people!"
Li Xiu'e wanted to retort and opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
After all, this is the place where she has lived all her life. No matter how miserable and poor she is, she has survived this way and has feelings for her. It is still difficult for her to accept it psychologically when her son belittles her hometown.
But then I thought about it and realized that he was right. It doesn’t matter if the mountains and rivers are good. Isn’t that still poverty?
"I know that you are a person who has left the mountains and can never go back," Li Xiu'e sighed. "It's good to come out. Who in the village doesn't envy you? You think the village is poor, I understand..."
"Mom, it's not that I don't think my family is poor, it's that there is no way out in that place, and I don't want my children to go back there no matter what."
After listening to the third son's words, Li Xiu'e thought of her other sons in the countryside.
The eldest brother is lazy and hardworking, so there is nothing to say. The second brother graduated from elementary school, so he works as an accountant in the production team, which is pretty good.
The fourth and fifth children can only earn work points by working hard, getting up early and working late, but in the end they don't even have enough to eat. Isn't it the loss of being illiterate?
"Jianmin, you are right," Li Xiu'e said to her son, "I was wrong just now as a mother, and I apologize to you."
"Oh, mother, what are you talking about? What do we, mother and son, have to apologize for?"
Li Xiu'e shook her head, "If you said something wrong, you said something wrong. It's true that I didn't educate you properly. I shouldn't have said those words to Xiaosi just now."
After saying that, she patted Xiaosi's head, "Don't think about playing, study hard, and you will be successful in the future. You have to learn from your father, understand? He is the only one in our village... no, he is the only one in the county.
College students."
When she said this, her face was filled with pride.
Every household in the village would look down upon the old Su family. Isn't it because Jianmin's son has a lot of potential?
"Xiaosi, you should go to college like your father, stay in the city and find a good job. In the future, you will receive a high salary and food stamps every month, marry a wife and live in such a nice big house."
"What's so good about here? It's boring. Grandma, you just said that the countryside is more interesting. You can catch fish, pick wild fruits, and eat watermelons..."
Su Xiaowu's mind was full of longing for the countryside, "No wonder my fifth brother doesn't want to come back. The countryside is so nice. You don't have to study and you can play every day."
"What a fart!" Li Xiu'e cursed and asked, "Have you ever heard of 'hungry farts, cold pee, hot drowsiness'?"
Not only Xiaosi, but also her other grandchildren shook their heads, "What do you mean?"
"I like to fart a lot when I'm hungry, I really want to pee when it's cold, and I feel sleepy and want to sleep when the weather is hot. In the countryside, you can experience these three things in different ways. It's a pain."
Li Xiu'e talked a lot with her grandchildren, saying how dilapidated the house in her hometown was. It had no wind or rain, and the walls were hot when the sun hit them. Staying at home in the summer was like staying in a steamer.
"How convenient is your city? You can go to the market to buy vegetables in a few steps, and you can go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy rice in just half an hour. What about the countryside? It takes a whole day to walk on mountain roads. We don't have any money, so we have to rely on
Eggs in exchange for something.”
Su Wennian asked: "Grandma, don't you grow a lot of delicious things in your countryside? Like watermelons, apples, bananas..."
"Oh, where are the apples and bananas? I've never seen those things before. The production team did grow some watermelons, but we can't eat those watermelons. They are all sold in the county and city.
Unless the harvest is particularly good, several families can only get one watermelon."
She said that most people in rural areas only eat corn mush, and there is no salt or seasoning at home. If they eat too much, they will feel nauseous.
"Your life is already very good, thanks to your father, do you understand? That kid Xiao Wu is stupid, insisting on staying in the countryside and living such a hard life every day, eh..."
After Li Xiu'e finished speaking, she picked up Xiao Jinbao and said, "My dear granddaughter, please don't talk about going back to the countryside again."
She pinched her little face and said, "If you go to the countryside, your beautiful little face will lose more than half of its face. How ugly is that?"
The little baby has a pair of big, bright and clear eyes, which is particularly lively and lively.
She shook her little head a few times and said in a sweet voice: "I'm not afraid..."
Su Jin certainly knows that life in a mountain village is hard.
Let alone this era, even in another thirty to fifty years, many people in remote mountainous areas will still be struggling on the poverty line.
But she has been mentally prepared. No matter how miserable or poor she is, she must live in her hometown for half a year.
Only in this way will the fifth brother come back, and she must take him home.
"Together with grandma," Xiao Jinbao said, "picking up five pigeons from the Fei family's house..."
Li Xiu'e, her son, and daughter-in-law looked at each other, and the eyes of the three adults were full of surprise.
I thought that Jin Bao just thought the countryside was fun like Xiaosi, but now she must have given up the idea. Unexpectedly, she actually said that she would go to the countryside to pick up her fifth brother.
They didn't answer Jinbao's words anymore, thinking that she was young and would definitely forget what they said the next day. Unexpectedly...
"What did you say?" Su Jianmin asked in shock in the factory's office, "Jinbao has been reluctant to eat all day today?"
Bai Lu felt worried and anxious.
She nodded and said at a loss: "Well, I don't know what to do."
"What's going on? Why don't you eat when you're fine? Are you feeling unwell?"
"No, Jinbao said she had to go find her fifth brother, otherwise she wouldn't eat."
"Wha...what?"
Su Jianmin looked in disbelief.
If his wife had not told him this in person, he would never have believed that a child less than two years old would deliberately go on a hunger strike.