The funeral was arranged in a chapel in the western suburbs of San Francisco.

This day happens to be the Chinese New Year, and it is also Valentine's Day in the United States.

There are not many people here, but they are all Zhang Xiaokai's mother's best friends and colleagues before her death. Because of his good personality before his death, the sadness on the faces of the guests was very sincere, and he was also very sincere when he comforted Zhang Xiaokai.

By the time the farewell ceremony was over and the burial was over, a light rain began to fall in the sky.

The people at the tombstone quickly left, leaving only the grandfather and grandson behind.

The spring rains in February are the most moist on the earth, and a little green can already be seen in the cemetery.

Looking around, every stone tablet carries someone's life behind it, no one wants to come to this kind of place, but in the end they have to lie down and sleep for a long time......

Old Ronald, who was wearing a black cotton jacket, did not sneer at him today, and was so quiet that Zhang Xiaokai felt strange.

It's right to think about it, he lost his mother, and the old man's only daughter is gone.

Although I haven't been in touch since the divorce and I'm not close, I'm my biological daughter after all.

The funeral was the ninth day after Zhang Xiaokai was led home by the old man, and the process was very simple, the invitation was sent out three days in advance, and he only came from the Cleveland Ranch yesterday.

The boy was not as grief-stricken as before, and he was so painful that he cried out loud.

In fact, his heart still hurts a lot, like a wound that can never be fully healed, but the truth is in front of him, and he has to accept it.

The potted plants in his small apartment have withered forever because no one has taken care of them for a long time, and from now on he will never be able to eat his mother's delicacies, and no one will help him with his homework and take care of him when he is sick.

For twelve-year-old Zhang Xiaokai, this is an unbearable pain in life.

Since he was picked up by the old man in the hospital, he often deliberately numbed himself and did not think about the accident, but today he could not escape it.

Zhang Xiaokai never thought that after this funeral, all the memories of his mother would only decrease, there would be no new stories, and his voice and face would always stay in his mind.

Until one day in the future, I suddenly remembered that the grief of this moment will always haunt my heart.

Standing with his head bowed for a long time, when he was hugged by the old man and left the cemetery, Zhang Xiaokai looked back, wiped away his tears and smiled, and said goodbye silently.

No one answered, only the sound of rain and spring thunder......

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No matter what you do, you can't get interested.

In order not to think crankily, he forced himself to take the initiative to help the old man work, so busy that he fell asleep after coming back every night, and even learned to drive a car.

Time quietly entered March, Daddy Zhang still did not wake up, the nurse came twice a day, during which the doctor also came to do a check.

Ronald Sr. talked to the doctor, the specific content Zhang Xiaokai did not know, but nothing bad happened after that, everything remained the same, because the bank mortgage was not paid off in time, and his family's apartment in San Francisco may be taken away for auction.

talked to the old man, and he helped pay off the remaining more than 600,000 US dollars, and agreed to return the principal with interest to Zhang Xiaokai after he worked.

All kinds of things went on one after another, and at the beginning of March, they were almost finished, and life changed greatly, and the boy's personality also changed.

Became disliked to talk, became often in a daze, former friends, former classmates have all cut off contact, just stay in the old man's ranch, help and accompany his father, hoping that he will wake up soon.

It was March 6, 2010.

This year, there was not much rain after the beginning of spring, and the grass seeds did not germinate after sowing, attracting a large number of birds to feed on the grass seeds.

The calves scheduled at the beginning of the year are about to be sent over, and there is a lack of pasture that can be grazing, and the old Ronald is anxious to turn around for this, Zhang Xiaokai already knows that he owes a bank loan, and someone just came to the door a few days ago to inform him and ask him if he wants to take out another loan, saying that a total of four million US dollars is about to expire in November this year.

This old man doesn't know how to transfer money online, Zhang Xiaokai helped deal with it, I don't know if there is any money in other accounts, but there are only more than one million dollars in that card, and only more than 900,000 US dollars are left after transferring the money to buy cattle and sheep.

Judging from the ugly face of the old man at that time, it was probably because he had no money to repay the loan.

This has a little to do with Zhang Xiaokai, but it doesn't have much to do with it, even if he didn't ask his grandfather Ronald to help pay off the bank loan, his money still doesn't seem to be enough.

Coming to Cleveland Ranch for so long, combined with what he usually sees and hears, it is enough for Zhang Xiaokai to have a realization - the old man is indeed not the material to be the boss.

Take, for example, yesterday's purchase of a farm vehicle.

was fooled by the salesman, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent, in fact, second-hand cars can also be used, after buying four cars, the already tight capital chain, suddenly more nervous.

There were twenty-one new employees in total, and three of them left in a row in the space of nearly a month, and counting the old employees, there were only twenty people in total who took care of this large ranch with an area of more than 4,000 acres, so there was always something to do, and the fishery also needed help.

When the equipment is turned on, the water pump is constantly pumping water from the river to flood the pasture, and the dry soil slowly changes color.

Not far away, you can see people driving hundreds of little lambs, are slowly walking into the forest, feeding with fodder and forage is more expensive, stocking in the forest they can find some food themselves, how to save money and how to come.

Zhang Xiaokai's new life has just begun.

At this moment, Zhang Xiaokai, who helped drive the tools and had frostbite on his face for a long time, sat under the tree with several employees to rest.

One of them, a young white man with long brown hair and a somewhat round face, named Terrence Pena, had a large personality and worked quite hard.

He asked, "School is open, why don't you go to school yet, Matt?"

Matt is Zhang Xiaokai's English name, and if you want to integrate into the school, you must have an English name, otherwise most of them will be excluded by other students because they can't pronounce the exact syllables.

"My old school was already open, yes, I was supposed to be in eighth grade, but I didn't want to go to school just yet, and I could do it at home. ”

Zhang Xiaokai replied with a smile, his tone was very indifferent.

When Ronald Sr. received a call from his teacher two days ago, he asked him about continuing to go to school, but he refused because he did not want to leave his father and was not ready to go back to school.

The old man has always had a laissez-faire attitude towards him, and he is no exception to going to school, so Zhang Xiaokai called the teacher to talk to him, and the application form for suspension has been sent to the school, and the teachers also know that there was an accident at his home during the holiday, so it was over.

"Your grades should be very good, right, the Asian students in my previous class had good grades, and my grades were only average, and I was finally admitted to Texas Agricultural University to major in veterinary medicine, and not many students were willing to study this. "The young man who spoke was named Louis, slightly dark-skinned, and his father was white and his mother was black.

Pena patted Louis on the shoulder and continued, "Texans are freaks, you should go to California or New York, and Boston is pretty good."

It's really useful to go to college, your salary is higher than ours, it's too late to study veterinary medicine now, my parents wanted me to be a dentist or a lawyer, but I wasn't that material at all, and in the end no one admitted me, except for a bad community college, I didn't dare to go after seeing the dormitory pictures. ”

The topic shifted away from Zhang Xiaokai's schooling, he had occasional contact with these employees who were a round older than him, but they were not friends, people knew that he was the grandson of Ronald Sr., and there was already a huge gap between employees and bosses.

Zhang Xiaokai didn't care at all, there was no traffic police in the ranch, and there were few people, so after returning to the car and starting, he drove away in the dilapidated pickup that once belonged to the old man.

Recently, the old man changed to a Raptor, the new Ford pickup truck that was just launched in November last year, in addition to being slightly expensive, is very suitable for use on farms and ranches, and the old car that is about to be scrapped was given to Zhang Xiaokai to practice.

Unlike in the city, people in this small place basically learn to drive by themselves after they can step on the brakes and accelerators with their feet, and if they are found by the traffic police, their parents are unlucky.

No one helped to give advice, so that Zhang Xiaokai at the age of twelve, he could choose to plan his life according to his own ideas, and he took the initiative to leave school at a young age, whether it was good or bad no one knew for the time being, he felt that the current life was okay.

When I got home, I saw the roses in full bloom again, and the other roses had just budded.

Looking closer and again, the more he thought about it, the more strange he felt, and after entering the room and seeing his unconscious father, Zhang Xiaokai took out the golden stone bird.

Then I sat down at the table, used the computer I had just bought, and searched the Internet for the origin of this thing, and the keywords were "golden bird" and "Indian......