I had done a few official duties, and when I returned to the Zishui River, the wheat had already spit out ears.

I was a little anxious to rush back to my hometown in the countryside, just to feel the weather of the season when wheat spits ears and flowers. For the first 50 years, I spent the most beautiful and moving season of the year in the countryside. I haven't felt the grace and charm of the rivers and the plain slopes of the white deer for about seven or eight years.

The sun has sunk to the flat top of Nishihara again. In the T-shaped puddle of the embankment and stone dam, three and a half children are swimming and playing. I saw a net propped up on the beach on the other side. The woman is swinging a shovel and throwing sand and gravel at the net. The sound of the stone hitting the brush is intermittent, lacking in enthusiasm and a bit monotonous.

What about men?

What about the man who especially likes to admire women's good waists and is scolded as a hooligan and a hard bear?

I took off my shoes and socks and waded through the shallow river. The water is still a bit cool, and the stones in the middle of the river are slippery. I walked over to the sand beam in front of her net and lit a cigarette.

"Where's the hard bear?"

"Didn't come. ”

I asked about the reasons that I usually think of, such as being sick, visiting relatives, and going out to run errands. She replied with only one word: no.

I consciously stopped asking questions. Her face was displeased. I immediately guessed the usual upsetting things such as quarrels, quarrels with neighbors, quarrels, accidents in relatives' homes, and so on, but I did not dare to ask any more.

She sighed softly.

I decided to ask, "What's going on?"

She stopped the shovel in her hand and exhaled heavily: "I didn't do well in the women's exam. ”

"That's it?" I also breathed a sigh of relief, "I didn't do well in the exam this time, so I'll try to do well in the exam next time!"

She smiled wryly: "This exam is not an ordinary exam. It's a placement test. If you do well in the exam, you can enter the key class. If you don't do well in the exam, you will be assigned to the ordinary class. There's no hope of being assigned to a regular class. ”

This is something I never expected.

She talked a lot at this time: "The woman didn't dare to tell her father."

When he heard this, his whole body went limp, and he couldn't even lift his head with a shovel.

"He lay on the kang for three days, drinking only water and not eating, not blinking and sleeping all night long, sighing and not speaking. I tried a thousand words of persuasion, but he still didn't say a word. ”

"Where do girls go to school, high school or junior high school?"

"In the county. Freshman year of high school. This semester is divided into key classes. ”

I've also experienced my children going to school. I can also weigh out the weight of the key classes. But I still didn't anticipate such a serious psychological setback.

She said sadly, "This doll is ...... too I usually study very well, and my test scores are always at the top, but when it comes to the knot of class, I will take the test ...... as soon as I take the exam."

"It wasn't until last night that he said, "What am I doing with the stones......!"

"Didn't you say he was a hard bear, and that such a little setback would slump down?" I said.

"He is hard at everything, but he is too heavy on the children's schooling. He almost didn't get a score in college, and he hoped that the children could ......

He often said that as long as the children can go to college, he is ready to turn this beach upside down......

"He's saying he's still fishing for this stone!"

"Can I go talk to him?" I asked.

"Don't go, it's useless. ”

Naturally, I know the expectations of a peasant family and a peasant couple for their children, and the significance of a child who walks from Chaimen Tukang to the gate of the university to his parents. My heart sank.

"He's coming! Oh my God! He's coming by himself—"

I heard the woman's cry, and I saw her tears welling up with her trembling cry.

I saw him walking towards the sand beam on this side.

He carried a net on his shoulder, a shovel on his head, a burden on his other shoulder, and two cages woven of wire hung from the hook of the water load.

He smiled faintly at me.

He began to prop up the net.

"It's getting dark, what are you going to do!" she said.

"Dig a load is a load. He said.

I wanted to talk to him, but before I could open my mouth, he motioned to stop.

"Say no more. He said to me.

The woman also wanted to say something to him, but he was also stopped by him.

"Say no more. He said to her.

"Say no more. He said to everyone and to himself.

"Say no more. He said it again.

I sat on the sand beam, and my heart was a little sour.

For a long time, he didn't speak. The sand layer of the head plank hits the stone with a screeching noise, and occasionally bursts out of a spark.

After a long time, he straightened up and said calmly:

"It's a big deal to give the woman another net on this beach!"

My heart fluttered.

I saw the woman slowly discarding the shovel. I watched her lie slump in the wet bunker. I saw her put her hands over her eyes and hang her head. I heard a suppressed sob.

My eyes were blurry.

Originally below, 12 May 2001