Warm water is needed to burn briquettes in rented housing, cook, wash children's faces, and wash their buttocks.

Before Yang Changting went to see the fifth sister, he first turned on the coal fire and boiled a pot of tender corn in an aluminum pot. This matter will take some time, and after Yang Changting finished it, he saw his mother cleaning up the room.

The rented room is divided into two rooms, the front and back, and the back room has a wooden staircase to the upper floor. Previously, Yang Changting would also come to live occasionally. The fifth sister lives upstairs, the mother lives in the inner room, and Yang Changting comes over to temporarily use a seat to make a bed in the outer room, and a broken quilt can be done.

Cooking is in a small partition outside the door, two square meters, air leakage, but there is no need to worry about gas poisoning and the like. It's just that nowadays, the smell of household coal is too strong, and the sulfur content is high, which is more choking.

This kind of coal is supposed to be used in factories, the price is cheaper, and it burns pungently, and most families on this side of Liuhe use this. In fact, the cost of using coal is not small, a briquette is about 5 cents, and the daily saving can not be less than three briquettes, that is, a dime and a half.

If you entrust someone else to buy it and deliver it to your home, a briquette will cost you two cents more. The monthly cost is about six yuan, and my mother buys it by herself, and Yang Changting also picked briquettes from the Liuhe coal yard to go home. A few miles away, pick and choose, a load of 30 briquettes, weighing more than 60 pounds.

At the beginning, every time the family bought coal, Yang Changting's small shoulders and waist would be painful for several days. During the holiday, Yang Changting will also go to Liuhe to collect work and buy coal for others. In one day, you can get an income of one or two yuan, which is really not small.

I thought that when I saw my mother, I would have a lot to say, but who knows, after I really saw it, I didn't have a few words to say. When the mother saw her son coming, she didn't think so, and was busy cleaning up the house.

When the tender corn is cooked thoroughly and the corn kernels turn over the flowers, Yang Changting pours out the water. Give my mother a stick first, and take one yourself and eat it carefully. When my mother waved her hand to let me go, I took a few corn cobs to the fifth sister's side.

Dozens of meters away, he heard the noise of the prefabrication plant machine vibrating, Yang Changting was also familiar with this sound, he had been to the fifth sister to help.

hung a pair of rubber aprons, put on gloves, and picked up the vibrating brick box, which was dead. You have to grit your teeth and hold your waist up, so that you can hold the broken bricks and step to the open space where the bricks are dry, put them down carefully, and pull the iron brick mold away.

A dry brick is 25 catties, and the iron brick mold is more than a dozen catties, which weighs more than 40 catties. The fifth sister has to make between two hundred and three hundred every day, which is about 12,000 catties.

In addition, shoveling sand and gravel, pulling to the brick-making place, and homogenizing the mortar, it is necessary to pile up the bricks into rows every day, etc., all of which require a lot of physical strength.

is only a preliminary calculation, and I also know how hard the fifth sister is in the prefabrication factory. This job is very difficult for even adult men to do this work, and the fifth sister is only fifteen years old. Thinking of the fifth sister, Yang Changting's heart was tighter and urgent.

Where is the limit of the fifth sister's endurance? He didn't know, and he didn't dare to think about it.

In the previous life, Yang Changting didn't care enough about the fifth sister, and the family didn't care enough about the fifth sister, every time she asked her about work, the fifth sister always said that there was nothing hard to go to.

Since she was a child, the fifth sister has been this character, and she would rather suffer by herself than say it to anyone.

The fifth sister didn't complain about her parents and herself, the third brother who was studying at school, but she just felt that if she worked hard, life would always get better.

"Fifth sister. Yang Changting saw that the fifth sister was pouring water on the bricks, especially the bricks that were only made today, and after hardening, they had to be watered. Otherwise, the sun will be exposed to the sun, and these bricks will be broken.

"Third brother...... "Fifth sister turned her head and said, "You have to come here today?"

"Yesterday, my father rushed to the scene and ran into Principal Zhang. Principal Zhang asked me to repeat my studies, and my father agreed. I came to the school today to see Principal Zhang. ”

In front of the fifth sister, Yang Changting said that he felt guilty in his heart when he rereads, he is a man, he doesn't make a contribution, stays in the classroom to avoid labor, and lets his younger sister do hard labor here.

"Okay, third brother, you will definitely pass the exam next year, and Dad will be very happy. The fifth sister smiled and said, it seems that she is older than herself, like her sister. The fifth sister has a slightly round face, short hair, and a slightly stronger body.

"You have to come on, read well. The fifth sister said.

"Well, I will work hard, and I will definitely be admitted to the university next year and to the provincial capital. Yang Changting only answered affirmatively, so that the fifth sister felt that her hard work was worth it.

"I'll water it, you can eat some tender corn, it's cooked." ”

The fifth sister handed the water pipe to Yang Changting, washed her hands, and then ate the tender corn. The tired face showed a contented look, maybe the corn brought by the third brother was delicious, or maybe it was in the midst of hard work, and relatives came to visit, that kind of psychological comfort was enough.

watered and sat with the fifth sister. Her main work of the day was basically completed, and when the sun went down, the hardened bricks were neatly piled up and drenched with water, and it was completely completed.

"Fifth sister, it's too hard to make this brick. "Yang Changting wants to give the fifth sister a mental preparation first.

"I'm used to it, third brother, you can read good books with peace of mind, you don't have to think about this and that. ”

"Fifth sister, I mean, can you do something different?"

"Third brother, it's hard to recruit workers. It's not that you don't know that many factories want to graduate from primary school and junior high school, or they want indicators. Where do we find indicators?"

What the fifth sister said is the truth, the family has a large population, and it is really impossible to recruit workers, because the eldest brother has returned to the city as an educated youth and has already gone to work, and the second brother is also planning to work. For the fifth sister, there is almost no possibility of entering the factory.

She also understands this, and if someone wants to work in the prefabrication yard, she will come to do hard labor, and for more than a year, the income is good, and she seems to be at ease.

"Fifth sister, you said that if you opened a small shop, would you be willing?" Yang Changting was tempting.

"Can you make money by opening a store? How much money does it cost to open a store, but also to find a storefront, go through procedures, and many things. Our family can't do it......" The fifth sister shook her head and denied Yang Changting's statement.

"Regardless of whether you can do it or not, if you are asked to open a store, are you willing to do it?"

"Third brother, you can study with peace of mind, don't think about it. I know what the third brother means, really, I can do a good job here. The fifth sister said affirmatively.

Looking at the fifth sister with a slightly dark face, Yang Changting felt distressed, if he himself came to her in the previous life and talked about these hypothetical topics, it is very likely that the fifth sister will really grit her teeth and persevere, at least she will not disappear.

Accompanying the fifth sister to the sunset, the two piled up the bricks, and pulled tomorrow's sand and gravel to the brick machine. The two of them went to the rented room, and the mother had already sent the child home, and the three of them had dinner together.

"Mom, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, I plan to go to the provincial capital and take my sixth sister with me. Do you promise. "Yang Changting wants to solve the problem of taking the sixth sister to the provincial capital, as long as the mother nods, it is feasible.

"What are you going to do in the provincial capital? The mother looked at her son in disbelief, not understanding why he would bring up this issue.

Family, it is estimated that the father has been to the provincial capital alone, so how can the mother understand her son's request?

Yang Changting smiled bitterly, but he had to convince his mother.