Early the next morning, Zhou Jingming took the earliest train and embarked on the way home. Three months have passed, and I don't know if everything is okay at home.

The train swayed for several hours, and by the time it arrived at Gusu Railway Station, it was already past twelve o'clock in the afternoon. After a tiring morning, Zhou Jingming's stomach was already hungry, there were several small restaurants outside the station, and there were bursts of tempting fragrance from the restaurants, Zhou Jingming touched the money in his pocket, and was not willing to eat it, but took out a few steamed buns bought from the factory canteen from his bag, and filled his stomach with cold boiling water.

After having a full meal, Zhou Jingming rushed to the bus stop and prepared to take the bus to the small county town where his hometown is located. Although it is already September, the hottest time has passed, but at twelve o'clock at noon, the weather in Gusu is still very hot, and the bus frequency is already very small, Zhou Jingming has been waiting under the scorching sun for nearly half an hour before getting on the bus.

An hour later, Zhou Jingming finally got off the bus in the county seat, anyway, it was still early, and the bus home would not stop for a while and a half, Zhou Jingming simply walked around the county seat, ready to buy something to take home.

The first thing is to go to the supply and marketing cooperative, buy two catties of pork back, basically all lean meat, the uncle who sells meat asked Zhou Jingming to buy some fat meat back, saying that there is a lot of fat and oil, what does it mean to just eat that lean meat, Zhou Jingming just smiled, and did not buy according to the uncle's intentions.

After buying meat, Zhou Jingming bought some more cloth and went back, Xuan'er should go to school in a few days, buy some cloth and go back so that Zhou's mother could make her a schoolbag. Now that the schoolbags are ready, Zhou Jingming simply bought all the stationery used in school, and finally came to the county seat once, and did everything that should be purchased, and the province had to run again.

The meat stamps and cloth stamps used to buy meat and cloth were all exchanged by Zhou Jingming from the factory and were used throughout the country. Although Shencheng has gradually begun to abandon the ticket system, only retaining the ticket system for grain and edible oil, but after all, the hometown is not as good as the big city, and you have to use the bill to buy anything.

When he got out of the car, Zhou Jingming was still empty-handed, and he only carried a bag behind him, but at this time, his hands were already full of things, and he estimated that he had bought all the things he should have bought, so Zhou Jingming took his things and prepared to take the car home.

On the way to the bus stop, Zhou Jingming happened to see a store selling candy, thinking that the last time he went home, the few pieces of white rabbit toffee that the little girl specially left for herself had been melted, Zhou Jingming smiled, and then walked to the store and bought twenty toffees to take back.

By the time Zhou Jingming got off the bus, it was already past three o'clock in the afternoon, and the remaining short stretch of dirt road had to be walked to get home. In that era when transportation was extremely underdeveloped, it was not easy to go home.

Along the way, Zhou Jingming met many fellow villagers, as the first college student in the village, the villagers naturally knew Zhou Jingming, and they all greeted him warmly.

Finally walked to the door of the house, Xuan'er, who was squatting at the door to catch ants, saw Zhou Jingming returning home at a glance, and hurriedly rushed towards him, with an excited look on his face, shouting "brother" while running.

"Brother, you're back!" the little girl hugged Zhou Jingming's thighs and shouted sweetly with her head up.

Zhou Jingming freed his right hand and touched the little girl's head, "Xuan'er, do you miss your brother?"

"Yes!" Xuan'er nodded heavily.

"Look, what is this?" As he spoke, Zhou Jingming took out a few pieces of toffee from his pocket and sent them to Xuan'er.

"White Rabbit Milk Candy!" The little girl immediately screamed in surprise, holding Zhou Jingming's hand and jumping and jumping, not to mention how happy she was.

After putting the things away, Zhou Jingming simply sat on the threshold and picked up the little girl, "Xuan'er, where has my mother gone, why isn't she at home?"

The little girl was busy peeling candy paper, and replied without raising her head, "It seems that I have gone to work in the fields, so let me wait at home." ”

After peeling off the candy paper, the little girl couldn't wait to send the candy to her mouth, and when she was halfway there, as if she suddenly remembered something, she took the candy out of her mouth again and handed it to Zhou Jingming's mouth, "Brother, eat sugar." ”

Zhou Jingming touched Xuan'er's head dotingly, "Xuan'er eats, my brother doesn't eat, there are a lot of them!, but you can only eat two pills a day, you can't eat more, you know?"

But the little girl didn't follow, seeing that Zhou Jingming didn't eat, the hand she was holding just didn't put it down, Zhou Jingming had no choice but to take a bite gently, and the little girl happily put the rest of the toffee into her mouth.

After the brother and sister sat at the door for a while, Zhou Jingming stood up, "Xuan'er, go with my brother to find my mother." ”

The little girl didn't make a fuss, and walked forward with Zhou Jingming's hand. It's just that the two of them didn't go far before Zhou's mother came back with a hoe.

"Ah Ming, it's really you! Your second uncle said that you came back, but I still don't believe it!" Zhou Jingming didn't notify the family in advance because he came back suddenly, and Zhou's mother was naturally very happy to see her son who hadn't seen her for three months.

Zhou Jingming took the hoe from Zhou's mother's hand, wiped her sweat, and said with some disgust, "Why are you doing in such a hot world! What should I do if I have a heat stroke!"

"It's okay, Mom knows in her heart, I've been doing farm work for so many years, and I don't know this thing yet? Okay, give me the hoe, you must have been in the car for a long time when you came back from so far." Zhou's mother felt sorry for her son and didn't want Zhou Jingming to hold the hoe.

"It's okay, it's all sitting, what's so tired. Zhou Jingming said with a smile.

I don't feel hard to get home, no matter how tired I am.

"Mom, eat candy. The little girl took out another piece of toffee from her pocket and handed it to Zhou's mother sensibly.

"Mom doesn't eat it, Xuan'er just eats it. Who bought this candy?"

"It's my brother!" the little girl immediately ran to Zhou Jingming's side, hugged Zhou Jingming's hand and said.

Seeing the little girl looking happy, Zhou Jingming and Zhou's mother couldn't help laughing, and the family was happy.

After returning home, Zhou Jingming first made a basin of cold water and asked Zhou's mother to wash her face, then sat down and asked, "Is Dad still working in the original small factory? I'll go see him later." ”

Zhou's mother, who was washing her face, couldn't help but look back at Zhou Jingming, "Why didn't your father go to look for you last time?"

"Here we are. I went back the next day, didn't you ask him to come?" Zhou Jingming didn't know why Zhou's mother asked this, so he could only answer truthfully.

"Why hasn't this old man told you the truth yet? After washing her face, Zhou's mother said while drying a towel, "Your father has stopped working here for a long time, and that small factory has closed down." ”

"It's out of business, no wonder I met so many idlers. So what is my dad doing now? Zhou Jingming asked curiously.

There is no other place to work in my hometown except for that small factory.

"Didn't he tell you? Didn't he go to Shencheng to work, he has been there for more than a month. Zhou's mother replied.