Tongdao Xu had a dream, a very long dream. He had not had that dream for a long time. After all, it was more than twenty years ago.
In the dream, his father suddenly disappeared. Afterwards, many creditors came to his house to demand debts. They said that his father, Xu Weixi, lost money to them in gambling the night before he disappeared. Also missing on the same day was his uncle Xu Weidong's widow——
His eldest aunt.
In a daze, Xu Tongdao knew in his heart that this was not just a dream, but also what really happened in his family more than 20 years ago.
It was this incident that changed the fate of his whole family.
At that time, he had just finished the high school entrance examination and was waiting for the scores of the high school entrance examination to come out at home. Because his father suddenly disappeared and left a large debt, he was unable to go to high school. Afterwards, his high school entrance examination score came out and it was 594 points, which meant he could go to high school.
County No. 2 Middle School.
There is also his younger brother Xu Tonglu, who is only one year younger than him. He used to have excellent academic performance. He has won certificates every year since he was a child. He is a good student in studying. However, because of the accident at home, his temperament has changed drastically and he has no intention of studying anymore.
After barely finishing junior high school, I went out to fool around. Later, I went to the police station every now and then. The most serious one was that I stayed in jail for three years before I was released. I was completely useless.
There is also the daughter adopted by his parents, his sister Xu Tongdao, Ge Yuzhu... At the age of 18, his mother married him off early to an unlearned second generation ancestor. Life has been very difficult. At the age of 26,
In 2006, I finally got divorced, and with a daughter, my life never got better.
As for his mother...
He passed away just three days ago.
They had just been buried during the day today, and until the time of the burial, his brother Xu Tonglu was nowhere to be seen, and no one could contact him.
He, Tongdao Xu, has been divorced for 6 years and has no children.
With his family living like this, he was naturally depressed.
In addition, his mother had just been buried, so he drank a little more wine at night, and he didn't know when he fell asleep, and then he had this long dream.
He knew it was a dream, but he still didn't want to wake up.
Because in the dream, although his father was missing, his mother, brother and sister were still there.
Except for his dissatisfied father, his whole family is fine.
"Brother...brother...brother, wake up..."
Xu Tongdao suddenly heard his sister's voice. She seemed to be calling him, and she seemed to be shaking his shoulders while shouting.
My sister came to see me?
He sighed softly in his heart, he actually didn't want to wake up from this dream.
Frowning and opening his eyes, Xu Tongdao saw his sister Ge Yuzhu sitting on the edge of his bed, still shaking his shoulder with one hand.
For a moment, Comrade Xu was stunned.
He stared blankly at the little sister Ge Yuzhu in front of him. Ge Yuzhu was already in his thirties... but in front of him she looked like a teenager.
Slender figure, delicate facial features, black pearl-like eyes, and... a shiny dark complexion.
This sister... actually has no blood relationship with his whole family.
The main reason why his parents adopted her as an infant was because their family was poor and they were worried that their two sons would not be able to marry in the future, so they adopted a girl from an early age with the intention that she would be able to marry her when their two sons grew up.
One of them is to reduce the burden on the family.
For this purpose, Xu Tongdao's younger sister was not named Xu, but her mother's surname was Ge.
From the appearance point of view, Ge Yuzhu is quite beautiful. She has been slim since she was a child, and her facial features have also been exquisite since she was a child. Her pair of black pearl-like eyes are particularly beautiful.
It's the kind of skin that is very dark and shiny.
Therefore, some people think she is beautiful, but more people think she is too dark and ugly.
For example, his younger brother Xu Tonglu thought his sister was ugly since he was a child and he had never seen such a dark girl.
As for him, Comrade Xu?
He did not think his sister was ugly, but he later did not marry her for two main reasons.
First, they grew up together and had only a brother-sister relationship, nothing else.
Second... it was because when they grew up, the family was too poor. As the eldest brother, he did not want his sister to continue to live a hard life with him, so he let his mother make the decision and betrothed his sister Ge Yuzhu to someone else.
Later facts proved that my sister married the wrong person.
But that happened later and cannot be changed.
But in front of me...
My sister Ge Yuzhu is still in her teens. What's going on?
Xu Tongdao frowned and looked around, and what he saw made him even more surprised.
The surrounding earth walls, the cang leaves on the roof...the old wooden bed, the old clothes beside the bed, the old wooden table by the window, and two old chairs...
Everything I saw seemed so familiar.
These are what his house looked like before!
"Brother, are you feeling better? Is your fever gone?"
When Ge Yuzhu saw that he was silent, she frowned, asked worriedly, and reached out to touch Xu Tongdao's forehead.
fever?
Tongdao Xu blinked his eyes and remembered.
——The day after his father suddenly disappeared, the creditors came to the door one after another. First, they asked if his father was at home? Then they asked for money, but when they had no money to give, these creditors took action one after another.
Capture all his two pigs, chickens, ducks, etc.
Not only that, but they also emptied all the rice in his barn and the rice vat.
The only electrical appliance in the house, the television, was also moved away.
After these people left, Tongdao Xu and his family were really in ruins.
Of course, this is not the direct cause of his fever.
The direct reason was that after the family ran out of rice to cook, his mother sat blankly for a long time, then suddenly got up and called him to borrow rice from his second aunt's house in Tankou Village across the river.
When I went there, it was fine.
On the way back, it suddenly started to rain. He and his mother dragged two bags of rice on a wooden cart. After trudging home, he and his mother both had a fever.
He remembered this very clearly.
Because what happened this time, because his family had no money for medical treatment, he just took some antipyretics. He was young and in good health, and he recovered quickly.
But after his mother's fever subsided, she continued to cough for half a month before she recovered.
After that, his mother got bronchitis. When the weather gets cold, she gets this old habit easily and keeps coughing.
"Phew, it's okay! Brother, your fever seems to have gone away."
Sister Ge Yuzhu touched his forehead and then her own forehead, then breathed a sigh of relief and smiled happily.
Tongdao Xu smiled. Although the fever had gone away, he was now feeling weak all over and the sequelae of the fever were still there.
"Where's mom? And where's your second brother?"
His younger brother Xu Tonglu had slept on this bed with him since he was a child, but now he was nowhere to be seen, so Xu Tongdao subconsciously asked.
Ge Yuzhu sighed, "Mom went to the fair. Second brother just went out to catch fish with a harpoon. Brother, are you hungry? Get up and eat! There is porridge in the pot, specially reserved for you.
Get up quickly!"
Shangwei (wei)?
Tongdao Xu frowned again.
More long-lasting memories were suddenly remembered by him because of these two words.
That’s right!
When something happened to his family, it happened to be shortly after his high school entrance examination. It was the plum rainy season, and it was the plum rainy season in 1998.
The rainfall during the Meiyu period of this year was particularly heavy, and balders in many places burst their banks.
Fortunately, the Zhulin Township where his family was located did not have a broken fence, and a few mud houses in his family were saved. However, all the crops in the field were damaged. He remembered that all the farmland in their village was flooded this year.
All the crops in the fields were submerged under the water.
Standing in the village and looking towards the farmland, it was like seeing the sea, a vast expanse of white and full of water.
Because of this, his family had a particularly difficult year, and the grain production in the fields dropped significantly.
And now...
It is still in the rainy season and it rains almost every day.
Sometimes it rains continuously day and night.
Occasionally it will be sunny for a few hours, and then it will rain suddenly.
In such bad weather, every household must send one person to the polder to protect it. It is mandatory and no one can be absent.
Therefore, even though his family has been in such a difficult situation recently, and his mother may still have a fever that has not gone away, she still went to the polder to protect it.
Xu Tongdao was worried about his mother.
As for his younger brother Xu Tonglu taking a harpoon to catch fish, he thought it was normal.
In my memory, every year during the rainy season, he and his brother would go out to catch fish.
Because during the rainy season every year, rainfall is generally heavy, and many fish in the river ponds will swim into the fields and ditches beside the fields.
At this time of year, as long as you have the skills, you can do whatever you want with the fish in the fields and ditches. Even if the fish pond owner sees it, he will have nothing to say.
After all, it wasn't done in someone else's fish pond.
"You go out first! I'll be out right away!"
Xu Tongdao sent his sister Ge Yuzhu away, got up and put on his clothes and shoes.
When he was putting on his clothes and shoes, his brows were furrowed slightly, thoughtfully.
How did he return to 1998? He didn't know the reason, and he didn't care about the reason.
Maybe he was reborn...or maybe his original life was just a dream, and the life in front of him was the reality...
It doesn't matter to him.
What he was thinking about at this time was how to lead the family out of the current predicament.
In any case, he didn't want the family's future to be so miserable. His father ran away, and his eldest son, who was about to become an adult, would become the backbone of the family.
Last time, he didn't do this well.
Now that he had a chance to do it again, he would not allow himself to fail like that again.
He was determined to hold the family together.
When he walked out of the room, Xu Tongdao had already made up his mind.
Underneath his 17-year-old appearance, he already has a heart of nearly forty years old.
It seems like I have matured a lot overnight.
He is not tall, about 1.7 meters tall, with a thin body and light hair around his mouth.
His expression is plain and his eyes are bright, but he has a calm air.
My younger sister, Ge Yuzhu, came in from the back door of the hall holding a large porcelain bowl. In the big bowl was a bowl of very thin porridge.
On the old Eight Immortals table in the main room, there was only a small bowl of dark pickles.
Seeing him coming out of the room, Ge Yuzhu smiled and said, "Brother, I brought some porridge for you. Come and eat it!"
"good!"
Comrade Xu smiled slightly and his voice was gentle.