If there is an afterlife (novella) Zhang Baotong

Li Xiuying looks forward to her son being admitted to university all day long. The son was quite competitive and was really admitted to college. I was admitted to Xi'an Northwestern Polytechnical University, and I heard that it is still a very good university. Originally, Li Xiuying always regarded being admitted to university as a goal that he and his son worked hard for, and they all worked hard for it. However, when her son was actually admitted to university, she realized that their goal was just the beginning of a new goal.

How happy she and her son were when they got their acceptance letter. Because in their Lingquan Village, her son was the first person to be admitted to university in many years, and the whole village was envious of their family, saying that her son would have a great future in the future. This did excite and rejoice for her and her son for a long time. However, when the school year started, they began to worry, because the fee and accommodation fee for the start of school cost five or six thousand yuan. However, her son has been in high school for the past few years, and she is almost overwhelmed by the fact that she has paid this money today and that money tomorrow, so how can she still save money? So, Li Xiuying had no choice but to take out a loan to let her son go to college.

In order to help her son repay the loan, Li Xiuying felt that the burden on her shoulders was heavier. She raised sheep and pigs, and raised a large flock of chickens, and was busy with the work in the fields all day long, and then went to pick up the rags. However, these incomes are still very meager.

One morning, she got up before dawn so that she could finish hoeing the grass in the field and pick up the rubbish. However, because it was dark and he couldn't see the road clearly, he was mixed with a stone, and he was immediately thrown to the ground, and the person was in a coma for a long time before he woke up. However, when she got up from the ground with great effort, she found that her left leg was so weak that she could no longer touch the ground, so she limped home and lay on the bed for a whole day and a night. The next morning, she still felt stuffy in her chest, panting, her eyes were glazed, her brain was heavy, especially her left leg didn't know if it was broken, or which tendon was twisted, and she not only couldn't use it when she walked, but also hurt all the time.

She used a stick as a crutch to support her and walked on the ground. Originally, she thought that it would take 100 days for her injured muscles and bones to heal, but after two or three months, her left leg still did not heal, and she felt pain when she walked. Only then did she realize that her left leg might not be better, and she could only walk with crutches.

Li Xiuying was originally very lonely and pitiful when she lived alone, but she was injured again, her left leg was disabled, and she was even more uncomfortable. Every day, she walked up and down the path from the hut to the ditch with a cane, a snakeskin bag on her back, and two goats, looking old and lonely. However, it was her son who worried her the most. She misses her son very much. In the past, when my son went to school in the township, he came back once a week, and when he went to high school in the county, he came back once a month, but now my son goes to Xi'an, the provincial capital, to go to university, and he can only come back once a semester. She heard from others that Xi'an is hundreds of kilometers away from the county seat, and it takes several hours just to take the train. It costs forty or fifty yuan to come and go. Sometimes, she really wants to take the train to Xi'an to see her son, but she also knows that this is only one of her dreams. Because she couldn't find the direction when she went to the county seat, she heard that the provincial capital was much larger than the county seat, and it took several hours to travel from one end of the city to the other.

She knew that her son would not come back until the winter vacation before the Chinese New Year, so she counted and looked forward to it day by day. By the time the son left, the corn in the field had begun to fill. The reeds in the ditch are also in the season of felling. Now, however, the corn has been harvested, and wheat has been planted in the field. The reeds have also withered and yellowed, and it is a good season for cutting and weaving. However, she hadn't made a table for many years now. She felt that she could no longer do these tasks, so she could only pick up the scraps and scrap.

Since that fall and fainting, Li Xiuying felt that she was really not good, not only was her left leg somewhat disabled, but she also obviously lost her strength to work. In the past, she picked up the hoe and hoeed the ground, and she could hoe half an acre of land in the morning, but now she picked up the hoe again, and before she could swing it a few times, her waist began to hurt, and her breath began to wheez, so she had to stop and rest for a while. When picking up rags, in the past, she could squat in front of the garbage heap and pick up the ground for most of the day, but now, as long as she squats on the ground for a while, she feels that she can't support it, and she has to stand up, but as soon as she stands up, she feels that the world is spinning and she is about to fall to the ground. So, now she sits on a small stool, works for a while, and then rests for a while.

She felt that she was really not good, old, useless. Thinking like this, a wave of sadness poured into her heart, making her sigh and sorrow incessantly. No, the child is in college and needs her to earn more money, but she can't. How sad and sad it was for her.

Because she always thinks about her son, she always looks in the direction where her son left, hoping that her son will suddenly appear there. Sometimes, as soon as I think of God, I get the old thing wrong. So, she blamed her own brain for not being able to do it, and began to forget things.

I counted day by day, looked forward to day by day, and finally looked forward to the students' vacation. She thought that her son would come back after the holiday, but his son still didn't come back, so she continued to wait. On the afternoon of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, she was picking up the junks in front of the garbage heap, when she saw a young man from Svenwen walking towards her, although her eyes could not see clearly, but the general appearance could still be seen roughly, the person's thin and tall figure, handsome face, elegant demeanor, neat clothes, at first glance was a young man from the city. Just as she wondered why the people of the city had come to this place, she saw the young man shouting at her from afar, "Mom, I'm back." ”

She heard it, it was her son's voice, and she immediately got up from the stool and answered, "Lele, my son." Tears welled up in her eyes. The son ran over and grabbed her hand and said, "Mom, it's Chinese New Year's Eve, it's going to be the New Year, are you still picking up waste?" Li Xiuying held her son's hand tightly and said, "Didn't you have a holiday a long time ago, why did you come back at this time?"