Xiao Ke's parents are both top scientific researchers in China, and they were sent abroad as national-level training talents when Ke was very young. Xiao Ke had to be sent to his hometown by his mother to live with his grandparents. Xiao Ke's hometown is in the Jiangnan Water Town, where the rivers extend in all directions. The ancestor ran a tea and medicinal herb business, and his family was well-off. The family was once prosperous, with extensive financial resources, and the ancestral ancestral hall was even more prosperous. The rules of the clan are strict, and the children and grandchildren of each hall have to go to the private school next to the ancestral hall to study at a young age. As soon as the school enters the door, there is a large courtyard, on both sides of the courtyard are two huge camphor trees hugging one person, and the eight strict family rules are impressively engraved on the brick wall shadow wall next to the ancient tree. The school in the courtyard is open and can accommodate more than 50 people, and behind it is an annex with two ancient pine trees on both sides. After the courtyard, there is a living room on the left and a closed study on the right. The whole courtyard is a Qing Dynasty building with a blue brick structure, which is strict and simple. After the liberation, the local expropriation was made into a local cultural relics protection unit.

Xiao Ke's grandfather was the youngest of the four brothers, and when his grandfather was born, his grandfather's father was in his forties. I also had a son in this year, and I was naturally very happy in my heart. According to the rules, the villagers should be invited to eat and drink, and the feast should be held for seven days. Grandpa's father called a family member to follow him into the city and buy dozens of jars of old wine. The old man had an old friend in the city, and when the family was shopping for wine, he took the opportunity to go to the old friend's house for a tryst. This woman's name is Mingxiu, she looks very smart, can speak well, and cooks good food. The old man told Mingxiu the good news, and she was also very happy for the old man, so she cooked a few of the best side dishes, scalded a pot of soju, and the two of you took a sip of a glass of wine. At this time, it was late autumn, and the autumn in the south of the Yangtze River was heavy and cold, and the two of them drank a pot of hot wine. The old man remembered that his family was still waiting for him, and he was worried about goof, so he hurriedly said goodbye to her, and the two of them were reluctant, and Aunt Mingxiu was in tears when she left.

When it came, the awning boat was empty, and it sailed fast. When he returned, dozens of jars of old wine were filled, and the ship was crushed and sailed slowly. The old man ate a lot of wine, and he felt stuffy when he sat in the warehouse, so he had to go to the bow of the ship to breathe the wind. The boat sailed to the center of the lake, and the old man looked up, and the Taihu Lake in late autumn was gloomy and white, and he couldn't see the edge. Just as the old man was watching, a cold wind blew, and the old man suddenly felt the wine surging upward, dizzy, and wanted to help, but the bow of the boat was empty, and there was nothing to support, so he plunged into the lake. When the family saw the old man fall into the river, they hurriedly staggered to the bow of the boat in three steps and two steps, and used the boat oar to fish, but the lake was bottomless, and the person was long gone.

Grandpa has never seen his father since he was a child, and he was raised by his mother, and because of his solid family background, although he raised four children, his life is still passable. Grandpa is very talented in reading, he is the best reader among his peers, and at the age of fourteen, he became a local prodigy, and the whole family has high hopes. That year, when I was preparing for the township examination with the infinite longing of young people for life, news came from the provincial capital that the imperial examination was abolished. This was like a thunderbolt in the sky for the grandfather, and the family hugged their heads and cried. There was no way, my grandfather was not interested in business, so he had to become a teacher, and all the business affairs were taken care of by my brothers.

Grandpa later married a lady from the same township, and grandma gave birth to two boys and a girl for the family, because it is a moon generation, and the three children are Yueming, Yuesheng, and Yuexia. Grandpa is very strict with the children's reading, especially for the boss, it can be said that it has reached the point of harshness, and I don't know how many times the ruler has been beaten. The three children were very good in their studies, and after liberation, they were admitted to famous universities in Beijing, Shanghai and other places. Lao Eryue was Ke's father, and later stayed at a university in Beijing, engaged in scientific research for a long time, and became a famous scholar at home and abroad.

Ke's memories before he was seven years old were all in the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. The grandparents are full of love for Ke, although the grandfather is a little strict, but he has never beaten Xiao Ke, nor has he been fierce, these treatments have not been enjoyed by Xiao Ke's parents. In Xiao Ke's memory, his mother had seen him three times, the longest time should be less than ten days, and his father seemed to have only been here once, but every time he saw them, there was always an indescribable feeling, both strange and familiar, both distant and close, hazy, and those days with them seemed to be spent in a dream. When they left, they all went to the docks of the town, and they took a small canopy boat, which slowly drifted along the river into the distance, and finally turned into a black spot. Every time Xiao Ke and his grandparents passed by the small pier, he looked into the distance, imagining where his parents were in the distance, and the awning boat became a beautiful memory of his childhood.

Grandpa's family was originally a big family, and the blue brick compound with five entrances before and after the liberation was all returned to the local area, and they mixed with some civil servants in the town. After the policy was implemented in 1981, the town cadres talked to his grandfather and said that the entire yard had to be returned to his family, but considering that it was really difficult to arrange the housing for the cadres of the government organs at present, they could only return the three entrances to them, and the remaining two settlements could not be returned to them. Grandpa hurriedly said that it doesn't matter, it's okay, let the comrades continue to live, it's good to be able to give them back some of it. Before leaving, he held the cadre's hand tightly and thanked him a thousand times.

Grandpa's yard became three entrances again. The first entry is the living room and a patio, in the middle of which is a small well with a stone pedestal, which is covered with an ebony lid. Next to the well is a huge tank of water that is full of water all year round, and it is said that it is used to extinguish the fire in case of a fire. The floor of the patio is paved with stone slabs, and under the stone slabs are waterways, from which domestic waste water is discharged directly into the sewage pipes of the street outside.

Grandparents live in the second entrance, the second entrance has a large yard, when there were many people in the family in the past, the family chatted and drank tea after dinner was here, and now it has become a world for Xiao Ke to play. My grandparents lived in a small two-story building in the second entrance, and the stairs were made of thick solid wood planks. Xiao Ke and his grandmother live together, the corridor is very dim, Xiao Ke is careful every time he walks on it, holding the handrail of the stairs with one hand, slowly going up and down.

There was originally a small garden in the third entry, but now it is not like before, there is no servant, and the garden is no one to take care of it, but grandpa planted a little simple flowers and plants, which seems sparse. The third bedroom is for the children, and they don't come back much, so they usually lock the door, and grandma only cleans it once a month or two when she remembers it. Jiangnan is humid and the houses are less inhabited, so these rooms have more of a damp smell. Although there are not many flowers and plants in the garden, in summer, there are cicadas chirping and insects singing, and small frogs singing, so it is not lively. Xiao Ke Xia Ye learned to catch crickets and raise grasshoppers here, which is also the intoxicating pleasure of Midsummer Night.

Aunt is also Xiao Ke's favorite person, he has met her aunt twice. Every time I came back, I bought a lot of things for Xiao Ke, which was also Xiao Ke's happiest day. The little aunt is also very good at making Xiao Ke happy, making him giggle every time, and his little face seems to be raised to the sky. Uncle has never seen it, I heard that in the northwest, the uncle in the photo is wearing glasses, with a straight face, and looks like a very serious person, Xiao Ke feels a little scared every time he looks at the uncle's photo.

Grandpa has been carefully training Xiao Ke since he was a child, and Xiao Ke is also very talented, and when he was five or six years old, he could already memorize the "Hundred Family Names", "Three Character Classics" and "Thousand Character Text" taught by his grandfather. Grandpa also has high requirements for Xiao Ke's brush words, just can afford the brush, grandpa began to teach him to paint red, five years old began to copy Yan Zhenqing's "Duobao Pagoda", more than a year of hard work, a handmade full of childish face has begun to emerge. In addition to ancient texts, grandpa also told Xiao Ke some practical things, about the great leader, about the capital Beijing, about the big square, about the monument to the people's heroes, about Peking University, about science and technology, and also about the parents are contributing to the great motherland. These words are heard by Xiao Ke, most of them are half-understood, but looking at the pictures, he knows the capital Beijing, in his young mind, day andm

It is a sacred temple, a golden light, and Mom and Dad are the most glorious scientific and technological workers, and the satellites and the sky also have their contributions. In his young heart, he may have made a wish at that time, to become a person like his parents when he grows up, to go to Beijing, and to stand in that big square.

The childhood full of warmth, dreams, and love in the water town came to an abrupt end when Xiao Ke was seven years old. It's time to go to elementary school, and my mother has found the best primary school in Beijing, and he is going back to primary school. In those days, he was looking forward to the early arrival of the canopy boat carrying his mother, and he was reluctant to leave his grandparents. Grandma also hugged him and cried several times in those days, and her eyes were red and swollen all the time, but this day still came. My mother originally asked my grandparents to go to Beijing to live together, but my grandfather said that someone always had to take care of such a big house, and I really couldn't leave. Seeing Grandma's sad appearance, the whole family discussed and decided that Grandma would follow Xiao Ke into Beijing, which was the best result for Xiao Ke, and a happy smile appeared on his little face again.