In the days before Zhang's father was released from prison, the sky was always overcast and the sun could not be seen, and the dark clouds in the north were slow to move, and my mother often sat at the door and said, "It's time for rain, the tobacco seedlings in Yunxi Village are about to die of drought." ”

On the day Zhang's father was released from prison, the rain finally fell.

The Zhang family went to pick up Zhang's father, there were many people, except for Zhang Yunqi who drove the Mercedes-Benz, and borrowed a car from Yu Lin, and in the light rain at half past eight in the morning, the family arrived at Guiping County Prison.

After Zhang Yunqi got out of the car, he took out a brazier and a bag of charcoal prepared by his mother early from the trunk, and after he and his eldest brother Zhang Yunfeng burned the charcoal in the brazier, he waited with his family outside the ten-meter black wall, and on the ten-meter black wall, there were eight white characters: "Actively transform and be a new person." ”

The waiting time was not too long, but for the Zhang family, it was like a knife. Approaching nine o'clock, a middle-aged man, led by the police in the prison district, appeared at the gate of the prison with a certificate of release from prison.

The man was thin, his face was wrinkled, his back was slightly hunched, and half of his white hair was even a little bald.

Zhang's mother's tears fell all at once.

Chunlan and Xiaoxiao and Qiulan, who were holding their son every day, immediately rushed up, and they all shouted: "Dad!"

Dad Zhang touched his little head before he took his grandson Tiantian, who was almost two years old, from Qiulan's hand, with a smile on his face full of folds.

Watching the family reunion, Zhang Yunqi and Zhang Yunfeng brothers were the last to walk over, they smiled and put on a pair of brand-new black cotton shoes made by their mother to Zhang's father, and Zhang's father, who was wearing new shoes, stepped over the brazier and got into the Mercedes-Benz car with the support of his children.

Zhang Yunqi glanced at the gate of Guiping County Prison, threw his old shoes in the brazier and burned them, and got into the car to take Zhang's father home.

After returning home.

Zhang Yunfeng set off a 5,000-ring firecracker at the door.

According to the old customs in the Jiangchuan area, you need to clean yourself after being released from prison, Zhang's mother prepared a large bucket of zongzi leaf water for Zhang's father last night, but after a night, it was already cold, when the second Zhang Qiulan turned on the fire and heated, the fourth and fifth Chunlan and Xiaoxiao took Zhang's father to look at their home in Jiangchuan City, one room after another, Zhang's father's rough hands touched here, touched there, always smiled, and always said good.

When Zhang's father took a bath, the Zhang family began to cook a reunion dinner. The dish is prepared early, there are chickens, ducks, meat and fish, the fish is a freshly killed big herring, the meat is braised hooves, also called pork knuckle, the chicken is Zhang Haijun's old hen who has been raised for more than two years, and Zhang Yunqi is in charge, he made nine dishes in a row, and he is thick, fat and complete.

It took two hours for the Zhang family's reunion dinner to be ready.

After taking a shower and changing into a brand-new black tunic Zhang's father and Zhang's mother sat on the upper seat, the eldest of the family, Yun Feng, first took the five brothers and sisters to give him a glass of wine, and the atmosphere became eager.

But he didn't eat much, and after eating, he put down his chopsticks and beckoned Zhang Yunqi: "Go, go and add soil to your grandfather." ”

Zhang Yunfeng put down the dishes and chopsticks and said, "I'll drive." ”

Dad Zhang said: "It's all right, you can take care of the things in the store." ”

Zhang Yunqi didn't say anything, took the key, went downstairs with the incense paper candles prepared earlier, started the Mercedes-Benz, and drove Zhang's father out of the community.

Passing through the bustling Jiangchuan City, running forward for less than half an hour, Zhang Yunqi and Zhang's father went out of Fengyang City, and everywhere they looked, they were full of vast and boundless fields and Weiwei Mountains, the air was full of muddy and bloody smell when the winter broke, the Chunjiang River had widened, and the gray clouds in the sky had been hanging low, and the blue mist on the top of the mountains was melted together, slowly rising and surging to the north.

The muddy mud road was very bumpy, but Zhang Yunqi drove the car unhurriedly and steadily. Zhang's father, who was sitting in the back, had been speechless, his eyes were not too bright and looked out of the window, at such a season, the birds and beasts in the fields had become extinct, and there was silence, the earth and the village were looming in the mist, and on the chimneys of the villages in the distance, there were pillars of thick cyan smoke.

That's the fireworks of the world.

When I arrived at Yunxi Village, it was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon.

The blue clouds in the sky were still very heavy, and there was occasionally a rooster crowing and a few dog barks from the depths of the village, and a few children in shabby clothes and dirty clothes were playing with artillery at the head of the village.

For the seventy or eighty mud-legged handles in this remote mountain nest, eight or nine thousand tractors are already high-end gadgets that can only be admired by the side, and such a novel foreign car is really beyond their imagination.

After driving into the entrance of the village, the foreign car did not mean to stop, it drove straight into a small alley in the village, the mud road in the alley was very narrow and bumpy, the car went very slowly, but there were more and more villagers and children watching behind it.

When it came to the flat ground in front of the low and dilapidated old houses of Lao Zhang's family and stopped, the small alley behind it was already crowded with villagers and children who were watching the novelty and liveliness, and they were vaguely aware of who was sitting in the car.

They naturally recognized Zhang Yunqi and Zhang's father at a glance, and now the Zhang family in Jiangchuan is the most eye-catching family in the village, and those things in their family are enough for the gossip center of the village to talk about for a long time, regardless of the good things that the two sons of the Zhang family plan to do in the village vegetable base, just say that this Zhang Liushun has been in prison for two years, and everyone in the village thinks that this big family is old and sick, and it is about to end, but it didn't come to pass, the ancestral tomb of the Zhang family smoked! In less than two years, this shabby mess suddenly reached such a situation, five children are big bosses, and those who open companies are champions, and this family can come out with two in a row.

It's really tongue-smacking.

When the villagers were talking to each other, they looked at the eyes of the father and son, but they were so simple that they were not even mixed with jealousy, and some villagers who were close to the Zhang family stepped forward to say hello, but Zhang Yunqi and Zhang Liushun, the father and son, obviously had something to do, simply greeted each other, smoked, and stopped for a while in the old houses where the walls had cracks, and then went up the general ridge along the mountain road.

Zhang Yunqi carried a bag of incense paper candles and followed behind Zhang's father, but there was no way to leave on the mountain road, and when he stepped on it, he was one foot deep and one foot shallow, and the mud and slag splashed everywhere.

Dad Zhang didn't care about Zhang Yunqi and walked forward silently.

Zhang Yunqi walked slowly, and when he caught up with Zhang's father, he was already kneeling in front of the grave and adding soil to the grave with his hands.

Zhang Yunqi knelt beside him wordlessly, handed Zhang's father a pair of gloves, he didn't answer, he cried silently while adding soil, crying for two hours, until the blue sky turned black.

[Volume 4: Blue Sky: Final Chapter]