Chapter 8: Joy in Suffering (1)
Dad came back in the third year of compulsory drug rehabilitation.
When he came back, his mother was still helping his aunt take care of the children.
There was a scene that I still can't forget and deeply touched. My father was addicted to cigarettes, but he didn't have a penny, so he curled up and rolled tobacco leaves with toilet paper by the stove, and asked me to go to the silk reeling factory to ask my aunts for money to buy cigarettes.
I have been to the silk reeling factory many times, all to deliver food to my aunts, and for the first time I felt that the road was so long. While thinking about how my father rolled tobacco leaves, I wondered how to tell my aunt that my father was asking for money to buy cigarettes.
In the end, I didn't come up with any flowery rhetoric to wrap up my father's unreasonable request. After explaining the intention, maybe the aunts were not surprised and gave me two yuan to go back to pay the errand. At that time, two yuan could only buy a pack of the most inferior "World Show".
Fortunately, it didn't take long for Dad to go out again, and no one told me what he was doing when he went out, not even saying goodbye. But I was relieved that I didn't have to see him crouching by the stove anymore rolling tobacco leaves.
My grandparents remember my first birthday in the countryside, but they can't celebrate my birthday like before. But they were afraid that I would be disappointed, so they went to the street and bought a large piece of fat meat and stewed me with lettuce. Looking at the pot of fatty meat, I couldn't get off the chopsticks for a long time.
There are so many people in the village who like to carry bowls when they eat and go from house to house in a dragon gate formation.
The aunt entered the hall with a bowl, looked at the white fat in the porcelain pot, and said with some disdain: "You have a birthday today, so I will give you this? I didn't buy a cake?" Hearing this, the tears in my eyes before were held back, and I picked up a piece of fat and dipped it in soy sauce and fed it to my mouth, regardless of the fat in my mouth, I raised my head to her and said, "I like to eat this!"
One year, when I saw that the crops in the field were missing the best time if I didn't apply fertilizer, my grandfather couldn't get the money to buy fertilizer, and he was sad all day long.
I played alone in bed, put on my aunts' clothes hanging on the bed frame, and jumped barefoot in front of the mirror. A green shirt with a collar and a high shoulder rest sewn into the shoulders, I liked it very much, thinking that in a few years I would be able to come with my aunt when I grew taller. When I was about to hang up my clothes, I pinched the bag of my clothes, and there was a hard thing inside, and when I opened it, it was folded into a small triangle of 50 yuan.
I am very happy, with this 50 yuan, the problem of fertilizer is solved, and my grandfather may be happy. But I made a mistake, if I told my grandfather directly where the money came from, would my grandfather think that my hands and feet were not clean? But the 50 yuan stayed in my bag for two days, and I didn't think about how to give the money to my grandfather.
On the third day, I met my uncle, probably because he was in a good mood, bought me a bouncing ball, and gave me 5 yuan of change. I had an idea, went home and handed 50 yuan to my grandfather, told him that he asked my uncle for it, and showed him the bouncing ball and change.
Grandpa may or may not believe it. Seeing him buy fertilizer made me feel a little more at ease.
Not long after, the aunts came back from vacation and had a big fight with their great-grandmother. The reason for the quarrel was the 50 yuan in the pocket of the clothes, and they thought that the money was taken by the great-grandmother, because she had a criminal record and was the key object of suspicion. It was impossible for the great-grandmother to admit that the matter was settled in their many quarrels.
Grandpa may have guessed it, but he never confessed to me, and he didn't even ask me. This pot was carried by my great-grandmother.
Since then, I've started saving money.
At most, I saved 9 one-yuan coins, and when my grandmother needed change to exchange with others, I directly gave her all the belongings I had saved for more than half a year. I also had a time when I was very likable, and I would tell my grandmother that when I grew up, I would buy you a nice and warm quilt and earn a lot of money for you to spend.
My grandmother was proud of this, and when she saw people, she praised me for my filial piety.
But she will not condone you to make any mistakes because of your filial piety.
The students on duty are responsible for cleaning the classroom after school, including cleaning up the garbage from each student's desk. As I bent down to check for garbage one by one, a pair of butterfly clips, glowing a little against the light, fluttering their wings, attracted me in the corner of a table.
I saw female classmates wear it during the daytime when I did recess exercises, and the butterfly clip in my hair was more eye-catching than in the table. Under the light of the sun, there was a little bit of light, and with the jumping of the female classmates, the butterfly clips flapped their wings as if they were alive. If such a clip is worn on Xiao Yoyo's head, it must look good.
I gently took the clip out, and its wings flapped even more, as if to tell me to take it back and put it on little Yoyo's head. After hesitating for a long time, I put the clip in my bag.
I had already figured out the wording, and the pair of clips were forgotten by the vendor at the market stall, and I happened to see it when I was passing by, so I picked it up. Grandma obviously didn't believe this clumsy excuse and pressed me again and again, but I just wouldn't change my words.
Just as she was holding a stick and trying to whip me, a middle-aged woman who made a living by breeding pigs knocked on the door and made a loud noise at the door, saying that she happened to be passing by my house and remembered that my pigs were bred without money. Grandma couldn't stand this slander and didn't care about me, so she went up and quarreled with her. My grandmother gave her money, and I saw it with my own eyes, a crumpled 5 yuan, or a pencil for me to change.
Most of the people around were watching the excitement, and there were also one or two people pulling grandma to persuade them. But the middle-aged woman didn't give up, and sat directly on the ground and sprinkled it, saying that her grandmother bullied her and killed the man.
The uncle went to the village to pull sweet potato leaves and saw this scene, wanted to be a peacemaker, and took out 5 yuan to the woman and told her to leave quickly. Grandma grabbed 5 yuan, tore it to shreds, and raised it up to the sky. Under such dejected conditions, in her eyes, it is more important than money, it is dignity!
When the woman saw this posture, she must not be able to make money, so she scolded and left. Grandma took out 5 yuan from her pocket and wanted to return it to her uncle, but the uncle said that he didn't ask for anything.
After everyone was gone, I knelt down in front of my grandmother with the butterfly clip and admitted that I had stolen it from my classmate's desk.
I thought I would be beaten up, but my grandmother only said one sentence to me: "People are not poor!"
The next day I woke up early in the morning, went to school without eating, and secretly put the clip back on my classmate's desk.
The price of that pair of clamps is 5 yuan, and it just so happens that it is 5 yuan for a sow to breed once.