The late autumn twilight of 1978 was just like that night seven years ago, with the waning moon and the stars brilliant.

The autumn night is so clear and hazy stationed in the Xinghua Village as in the past. She unfurls her dark sapphire blue cloak studded with glittering stars, obscuring the watery moonlight and transparent landscape. A galloping meteor slid through the satin-clad curtain and plunged into the shadows of the mountains that rolled beneath the curtain.

The hiss of autumn insects struck in bursts, tearing apart the silence of the autumn night. It also carried the color of the mountains and fields to tear it apart, tear it into pieces of dead leaves, and throw it at the feet at will. When the light comes back on, leave a desolate scenery for people to browse.

The courtyard of the xylophone family is still quietly located on a flat ridge in the south of the village. The layout of the courtyard has not changed much, but many new farm tools and supplies have been added. Xylophone is still busy at home and outside.

In addition to going to work, Maosheng takes care of his family wholeheartedly. With the help of his dexterous hands, he tried his best to buy daily necessities and labor tools at home. Therefore, there are all kinds of farm tools and living utensils in the courtyard of the house, and in the hundreds of courtyards in Xinghua Village, it can be regarded as a family with many names, complete varieties and large quantities.

The biggest change in the family is the babies. Jing'er is 16 years old and is attending the commune middle school.

The village primary school was admitted to two junior high school students last year, that is, Jing'er and Lao Mo Ye'er of the Sour Xing family. Jing'er's height has already reached Maosheng's ear root platform, and he is still seeing Tian'er looking forward to how to surpass him. On the trunk of an apricot tree in the yard, Jing'er used a pencil knife to deeply carve out her height. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, he always went to compare the measurements every now and then, but found that he was getting longer and longer. He was so angry that he carried an axe and insisted on cutting down the almond tree. He also said, you dare to grow faster than me.

Ye Er came to call him to go to school in the commune together, and happened to meet him. She made fun of him and said, Jing'er, you have a big temper. If your academic performance fails, you can't beat the teacher.

Jing'er lives in middle school and can only go home with Ye'er once a week. Stay at home overnight, and then meet up the next night to go back to school together.

On weekdays, there is only Zhong Er and the late students of the sour jujube family in the yard playing wildly. Both of them are studying in the village primary school.

Zhong'er is smarter and top-notch in learning, but he is greedy and lazy and unwilling to work. It annoyed Mr. Hu for a while, and when he saw the xylophone, he talked about the child's cleverness and laziness. Xylophone had no choice but to apologize to Mr. Hu. When I get home, count the clocks again. At this time, Maosheng will definitely stand up and protect his baby. He kept saying that Mr. Hu was nosy, saying that my cubs don't work, and they don't need him to provide for them. It makes the xylophone say that it is not, and it is not to fight, so it is a dilemma.

In his later years, he never opened his mind, and his studies were so-so, but he loved to work, his hands and feet were diligent, and his mouth was sweet. No matter who he meets, he will open his voice like a brass bell, and call him a Taoist from afar, and everyone loves him, and he has become the pistachio of the villagers.

The west courtyard is still borrowed by the sour jujube family. Behind the xylophone house, Sujube is hurrying to build his own house. The frame of the house has been built with stones, and the wood and red grass are being prepared to raise the roof after the autumn harvest.

After the sour jujube mother gave birth to a late birth, she still wanted to give birth to a few babies with great energy. The two of them even used the strength to breastfeed, but they sank into the sea like a stone, and there was no movement anymore. The mother-in-law said that the sour dates were useless, saying that the tail tips were dry and hard, and the seeds created were all blind seeds, and they could not sprout. The sour jujube smiled and persuaded him, a little bit, so that people could hear and make fun of it. We can still have a cub bud when we are old, and we should be content. The mother-in-law is just not satisfied. When she saw a family with many babies, her eyes were hot. When she saw the nursing child in someone's arms, she was greedy, but she couldn't help it.

Xylophone and Maosheng were sitting around under a kerosene lamp reading a letter.

The letter was sent by Sour Apricot's third son, Labor. He said that his father told him to hurry up and hand it over, it was a letter from Nanjing, and he couldn't delay it. I also asked, you still have relatives in Nanjing, why have you never heard of it?

This letter was sent by Mao Shengniang from Nanjing. On the envelope were the words "The head of the brigade (pro) received".

The sour apricot has been opened and seen. The content is: people are also getting older, and they are gradually becoming useless. I don't want to call myself that this old bone is still outside, and I have become a lonely ghost in a foreign country. Ask the brigade to clean up their old house, as long as they can block the wind and rain. And he said that she was going to leave in twenty days in a month. Accompanied by a seven-year-old boy, Mao Xiang's only child. His parents were busy with work and couldn't take care of him, so they brought him back together, so they could have a companion. The implication is that he did not regard Maosheng's family as his own home. Moreover, the fact that the letter was sent directly to the brigade makes this clear.

After reading the letter, Xylophone didn't speak for a long time. Mao Sheng sat sullenly with a gloomy face, and did not squeak.