Summer 1996.

The afternoon in Da Lijia Village is hot and quiet, and the Ink River flows slowly, dividing this large village with a single surname into two halves, north and south.

My grandmother's house and my uncle's house are on the north bank, and the two tiled houses side by side sit on the north and face south, and only twenty steps in front of the door are the riverbank, and a row of strong willow trees stand quietly on the bank.

Grandma's house is not big, and there is a row of bamboo fences on the east and west sides of the gate, which surrounds the house in a circle, leaving only the gate out. The fence is wrapped with brightly colored morning glories, and the walls are crawling with honeysuckle and creepers. In the fence, the roses are gone, and only the various colors of the moon are left. There is a large locust tree planted on the west side of the gate, and an acacia tree planted on the east side, and in summer, the pink flowers are like smoke. There are a few toon trees planted under the courtyard wall at the back, and my grandmother often picks some scrambled eggs with young shoots, so that the children can eat a big bowl of rice.

Walking into the small courtyard, the east side is paved with cement, and the west side is a small vegetable garden, and the outside of the vegetable garden is paved with square bricks. There is a row of bamboos planted at the door, an old apricot tree is planted in the northwest corner of the yard, and a lush field of grapes is planted in the far west. There was a cool bed under the grape trellis, and my grandmother sat on the cool bed, sewing clothes stitch by stitch. The earth dog Xiao Hei obediently lay under the cool bed, sticking out his tongue constantly.

Seven-year-old Qiao Lin and four-year-old Li Baoqing sat side by side on the mat on the kang, holding half a watermelon and staring at the TV intently. Bao Qing is the cousin of her uncle's family, and Jolene likes him very much. Seeing that he was clumsy and couldn't dig a piece for a long time, Jolene dug a large piece and fed it to his mouth, and carefully wiped his mouth.

Baoqing, who was tiger-headed, pointed to the TV and said in a milky voice: "It's started!"

The colorful special effects shots instantly attracted the attention of the two children, and after singing a theme song, Jolene wiped the watermelon on the side of her mouth, raised her right hand, and shouted on the TV: "What kind of knife is a knife?"

Li Baoqing immediately took it excitedly: "Golden Silk Big Ring Knife!"

"What kind of sword is it?"

"Closed Moon Shame Light Sword!"

……

"What kind of love is love?"

"Beauty loves heroes!hahahaha......"

Jolene and Baoqing asked and answered, and finally sang excitedly along with the female voice, "His story is being praised by people." Their voices were so loud that they woke Hei up, and he stood up in a daze, spun in circles and screamed several times. Grandma patted its head, and it obediently lay down.

Grandma looked into the house a few times, smiled and asked, "It's that good-looking?"

This episode happened to be played Xu Liang to kill the martial saint, the two children stared at the TV intently, and forgot to vomit the watermelon seeds in their mouths, and when they heard their grandmother's question, the two just nodded perfunctorily.

Grandma was not at ease, so she came in and took a look, and immediately laughed: "Baoqing, you have eaten into a little flower cat!"

Baoqing rubbed his little feet and grinned, and his grandmother touched his round little belly, took the watermelon aside, and didn't let him eat it. Baoqing looked at his cousin and said timidly, "I still want it." ”

Qiao Lin was fascinated by it, and casually dug a spoonful to Baoqing, and didn't see if he could eat it in his mouth. Baoqing opened his mouth and said "ah" for a long time and didn't eat it, but he was not in a hurry or annoyed.

The plot is advancing, and Jolene's spirit is highly tense. At the moment when Xu Liang broke into the Valley of the Saints, his grandmother's door was suddenly knocked open, and Qiao Lin's mother Li Lanzhi broke in in a hurry. She took a so-so sip of water, and without saying anything, she picked up Jolene and walked out, as if kidnapping. Jolene cried so hard that she kept shouting for her grandmother.

Li Lanzhi ignored her daughter's struggles and said to her grandmother: "Mom, school is about to start, and I have to be busy with a lot of things, so I won't go to Lan Yun's (uncle)'s house, so I'll go back." ”

Grandma said, "I know, you are all busy with the start of school. However, you and Linlin will stay here for one night, and then we will go back tomorrow! I'll go to the field and break some corn for you, don't you like to eat boiled corn?"

Li Lanzhi insisted: "I'm free today, and if I don't take her back to the city, I won't have time." ”

Baoqing had long heard that his cousin was going back to the city to go to elementary school, but he didn't expect to leave today. He was always well-behaved, and suddenly burst into tears: "I don't like my aunt!

Li Lanzhi didn't have time to coax Baoqing, so she took out a bag of candy from her bag, said it was for Baoqing, and took Qiao Lin away. Jolene kept kicking her legs, and her cries rang out. Li Lanzhi rudely stuffed her into her colleague's car and threw her grandmother's luggage into the trunk.

Grandma chased after her worriedly: "Your three children, where will Linlin go back to live? Don't put her in her aunt's house again!"

"Packed up, don't worry. Li Lanzhi said dryly: "It's hot, go back quickly, I'll come back on August 15, and I'll call you when the time comes!"

Qiao Lin was still crying, and Li Lanzhi said with a straight face: "If you cry again, get out of the car and run home by yourself!"

Jolene bit her lip, too timid to cry, leaning on the window of the car, looking at her grandmother.

Grandma stood at the gate, still holding the really good little dress she had just sewn in her hand, and said melancholy and helplessly: "It's done tomorrow, but you left today!"

***

"I'm not leaving, I'm not leaving, I'm going to stay at my grandmother's house!"

Jolene woke up suddenly, looked around blankly, and found that the teachers and classmates were all looking at her, and some people were covering their mouths and chuckling.

This is a well-known cram school in Hong Kong City, and the small classroom is full of 20 people. Behind the classroom, there is a row of photos of test results and outstanding students, and the most eye-catching place is a poster of the national football team.

On the top are a few vigorous and powerful big words: "The national football team can qualify, what else is impossible for you?"

It turned out that it was 2002, the seventh year that Jolene had returned to the city, and in a few days, she would be a junior high school student.

Jolene carefully wiped the saliva from her face, glanced timidly at the teacher, and then lowered her head in shame.

Alas, it's all to blame on the bulky ceiling fan overhead! Buzzing like a lullaby, it just hypnotizes itself. If it weren't for the dream of separating from my grandmother, my heart was too uncomfortable, and I would have slept again in this class.

"Qiao Lin! In this mock exam, you have not made any progress in the whole Jixianglu Primary School! With your results, even if you are qualified for the exam by lottery, what hope do you have of being admitted to the second middle school? I advise you to give up your qualifications to others and give up the exam early! Don't take advantage of it..."

The chubby teacher has short ear-length hair, and his eyes are hidden behind thick lenses, revealing a look of hatred for iron but not steel. Jolene lowered her head in embarrassment, tears of grievance rolling in her eyes.

Zhao Linlin, who was at the same table, gently poked her and whispered, "It's okay, don't take it to heart." ”

Zhao Linlin came from the development zone, and every time she came to the city, she had to take a car for an hour and a half. Maybe because there is a word "Lin" in her name, she and Jolene are very close to each other. Jolene listened to her comfort and smiled bitterly.

The teacher also felt that she was talking too much, so she took a big sip of fat sea soaking water and said, "I hope you can be more conscious and make your math as good as Chinese and English." ”

Jolene nodded and scribbled on the stationery box, the little swallow's eyes had been painted blue by her, revealing a strange light.

It's the sixth grade, and most of the students' stationery boxes have all kinds of cool mechanisms, and they can pop up several dark grids when you press them. But hers is just a double-layer iron box, and it has been used for more than a year, and the sticker was still pasted when "Huanzhu Gege" was popular the year before last.

As soon as the teacher finished getting angry, he breathed a sigh of relief from his waist, and said bitterly: "You must not believe those chicken soups for the soul, what do you say that there will be a chance in the future." You know, getting into a good junior high school is much more important than going to a good high school! It's like being reincarnated into a good family and winning a lot more than others!"

The students nodded one after another, and the teacher restarted the lecture, "This problem can eliminate A at a glance, you can't choose B if you kill you, D has nothing to do with the problem at all, so which one should you choose?" This kind of brain-burning math problem Qiao Lin didn't understand at all, she looked out the window with her arms on her pillow, and in early summer, she could already hear the cicadas.

In today's summer, there is no watermelon soaked in the ancient well, no grandmother's homemade old popsicle, no "White Eyebrows" and "The Legend of the New White Lady", I can't go to the woods with my uncle and Baoqing to catch knowledge, and I can't take Xiao Hei and the four grandmothers to see the watermelons in the melon shed...

For her, this kind of summer is just a little hotter than other times, and there is no difference.

However, this year is still a little different, because there is a World Cup this year, and the Chinese team has reached the round of 32 for the first time! Qiao Lin is a little fan, and she thought that she would be able to go home to watch the football game after class later, and she suddenly laughed again.

Hong Kong City doesn't even have a professional team, but its fans are no less passionate about football than any other city. What's more, tonight's match between the Chinese team and the Brazilian team, the fans in Hong Kong City are like a holiday, and fans wearing red jerseys, national flags painted on their faces, and headscarves around the streets can be seen everywhere. Every shop has the phrase "gogogo tired tired tired tired of" and although the song is not the theme song of this World Cup at all, it has become synonymous with football. Perhaps because of the existence of these, the port city, known as the "slow city of Ninghai", has also become enthusiastic.

Finally got out of class, Zhao Linlin smiled mysteriously: "Old place?"

Jolene's stomach was already hungry, so she nodded happily: "Let's go! ”

The two girls hurriedly packed their schoolbags, but the long-haired girl Shen Chunxiao stood in front of Qiao Lin and asked angrily: "Qiao Lin, isn't your mother a teacher in the second middle school? Why do you still occupy the exam quota?"

It's okay that she didn't ask, but when she asked, she poked Qiao Lin's sadness, she bowed her head and said, "My mother didn't sign me up." ”

Shen Chunxiao sneered and said disdainfully: "You don't lie, you don't need to occupy such a good resource, is your mother a fool?"

Jolene was already very angry with her mother, and when she was stimulated, she felt even more uncomfortable. So, she said angrily: "Our family is all fools, as long as you are smart, you are happy, right?"

Shen Chunxiao still sneered: "Your family is not stupid! Didn't your sister be admitted to Fudan last year? I heard that your brother is also one of the best in the second middle and high school, why are your grades so poor? Could it be? You're not biological?"

Shen Chunxiao looked curious, but there was a bit of smug and ill-intentioned look in the depths of his eyes. The other students also gathered around and asked, "Aren't we all only children, and why do you have three children?"

Are all three of your children biological?

This is the question that Jolene has been asked since she was a child, and she would love to put a sign on her chest - and then ask about suicide!

She couldn't understand why others were so curious about this issue, whether it was biological or not, what did it have to do with them?

Jolene blushed, not knowing how to answer. The math teacher just now returned to the classroom and shouted, "You guys don't leave after class? What's the ink?

The classmates dispersed, and Jolene glanced at the teacher gratefully, thanking her for helping her, but the teacher left as if nothing had happened.

Shen Chunxiao left in a huff, quite unwilling. She took out a black Nokia mobile phone from her schoolbag and called exaggeratedly: "Mom, I'm not going home for dinner tonight... Well... Go to KFC for a bite to eat, study for a while, and then go home in the evening. ”

In Jolene's opinion, having a mobile phone is indeed something worth showing off, and being able to go to KFC to eat burgers and drink Coke is also something to show off. There are not many KFC in the small port city, and Jolene doesn't have that much pocket money to eat KFC. I heard that KFC is not rushed, there is air conditioning inside, and rich girls often go there to eat and read, these are the most fashionable little things in Hong Kong City.

Shen Chunxiao was still talking on the phone in a voice that could be heard by the whole class, Zhao Linlin took a deep breath and took out her mobile phone. Although her mobile phone is domestic, it is a color screen, as if it is the "fighter in the mobile phone", which is better than that used by many adults.

"Wait a minute!"

Qiao Lin was afraid that she would go back and compare with the girl, so she grabbed her: "What are you going to do?"

Zhao Linlin smiled mysteriously again, found "Shen Chunxiao" from the address book, and dialed it out. The general ringtone of Nokia's mobile phone rang suddenly, and Shen Chunxiao, who was "making a call", covered his mobile phone in a panic, but laughter was already ringing all around.

Zhao Linlin shook her head proudly: "Keep fighting! Oh, no, keep acting!"

Shen Chunxiao was so angry that he stomped his feet, picked up his schoolbag and fled from the classroom, ignoring the ridicule of his classmates.

Jolene said admiringly, "Why are you so good?"

"Her mobile phone screen is always black, how can she be on the phone!" Zhao Linlin said again: "I am from the same elementary school as her, and her vanity is strong! If you don't stab her, she will blow to the sky." ”

Qiao Lin smiled and said, "Okay, ignore her, let's go to the gate of No. 2 Middle School to eat skewers!

***

At half past six, the big characters of "Auspicious Wonton Restaurant" were plated with a warm golden yellow by the sunset, and a sign stood at the door, which read "Today's fans charter the stadium, and tomorrow will make wontons, forgive me".

The Jixiang Wonton Restaurant is about 50 square meters, the place where the guests eat is about 30 square meters, and there is a small room connected to the east of the kitchen, where Qiao Jianjun and his son Qiao Nan live.

Although the Jixiang Wonton House is a small restaurant, it is wiped clean everywhere, each table is pressed with a pure white tablecloth with glass, and there are soft and comfortable high-end paper towels printed with blue and green flowers on the table, and several small bamboo baskets are hung on the wall, with seasonal flowers inserted on them. It's the beginning of summer, and the bright red roses are planted inside, and the whole small restaurant is filled with a faint aroma, which makes people feel very happy.

No wonder old customers often say that this is not like a wonton restaurant, but like a coffee shop, petty bourgeoisie. If it weren't for the delicious and cheap ravioli, they wouldn't have come!

Near the main entrance, there is a 21-inch color TV with a big head, and the "Song Table" column is playing. Next to the kitchen door, there is a small three-layer storage cabinet, and the next two layers each contain the complete works of Jin Yong's novels and Japanese comics. The top layer is not full, but it is full of books by a writer named "Arbor". The old customers vaguely knew that "Qiao Mu" seemed to be a relative of the owner who lived overseas.

On the top of the bookcase is a family photo of the Qiao family, which was taken by the Qiao family of five under the sign of "Jixiang Wonton Restaurant" when the eldest daughter Qiao Lu was admitted to Fudan. Qiao Jianjun and his wife Li Lanzhi sat on the stool, Qiao Nan, Qiao Lu, and Qiao Lin stood behind in turn according to their height, Qiao Nan showed a row of big white teeth, Qiao Lu smiled gently and reservedly, the youngest Qiao Lin had just finished arguing with her brother, and she was a little unhappy.

In today's terms, the three of them seem to be lined up with wifi signals.

Qiao Jianjun was busy in the back kitchen, skillfully heating the pot with oil, his face was dripping with sweat, and he wiped it with a towel hanging around his neck. There are already several dishes in the kitchen, such as spicy fried clams, spicy fried long conch, fried peanuts, etc., which are all essential side dishes for watching the ball, and Qiao Jianjun has prepared a lot. There were still a few mentions of beer piled up on the ground, and he was going to have a good time with the old buddies tonight.

For the next dish, he asked for french fries, which his youngest daughter, Jolene, ordered. Qiao Jianjun didn't know what French fries were at all, but he heard that these things were fried in those foreign restaurants, and last time a few high school students came to eat, Qiao Jianjun asked them for a few, and he knew how to do it.

The potatoes went down to the oil pan, causing a "bang" sound. Qiao Jianjun vaguely heard someone breaking in, and as soon as he heard the footsteps, he knew who it was.

"Boss, let's have a bowl of ravioli!" The voice was crisp and sweet, like the sound of a ripe watermelon being cut with a knife.

Qiao Jianjun laughed unconsciously, and echoed: "That kid outside, what do you want to eat?"

Qiao Lin crossed her waist and said like a little adult: "Old rule, let's have a bowl of pork with shepherd's cabbage first!"

"Okay!"

Just as the potatoes were fried, Qiao Jianjun put out the fire and brought out a bowl of wontons. Jolene jumped and said, "Dad, why are you serious? I'm not hungry!"

Qiao Jianjun looked at the quartz clock on the wall, and said suspiciously, "Isn't this enough to eat?"

Qiao Lin had just eaten a bunch of messy skewers with Zhao Linlin, her stomach was so strong that she couldn't eat anything, but she didn't dare to tell her father to run for snacks, so she lazily lay on the table.

Qiao Jianjun was a little disappointed: "Then I'll keep it first, if you don't eat it, I'll give it to your brother later." ”

Jolene sniffed like a puppy and asked with a smile, "Dad, did you fry the french fries?"

"Well, do you want to eat it?"

"Eat, eat!"

Jolene munched on French fries and happened to order Sun Yue's "Let's Come Together" on the stage, and she danced to the music. A few days ago, at the last June 1st show, she also performed this song, and she was the lead dancer. Although her family didn't go to see it, her classmates said she danced well.

"Linlin, after you finish eating the fries, go and call Cheng Lin over, today his mother went to the countryside to move his grandmother, he must have no place to eat. ”

"Okay, I'll give him a call!"

Qiao Lin threw fries into her mouth and walked towards the phone, but was picked up by her father: "Miss, it's only 200 meters, can't you call him?"

Qiao Lin patted the residue on her hands, gave a mischievous military salute, and imitated the tone in Hong Kong films and said, "Yes sir!"