After Ma Laojiao returned from Luofengpo to the village, he turned left and right and didn't see Ma Tianbao, so anxious that he stood or sat like a thorn in his buttocks. Listening to the people in the village, Tianbao seems to have ridden the half-hung Hu Dashun's donkey to the county seat after he went to Luofengpo at noon, except for the bell that did not ring and the other parts were ringing. He asked Hu Dashun, who was half-hanged, confirmed the people's news, and went to the door of the village to look at the road with a blindfold, but still did not see Tianbao's figure. The more he pondered, the more tense his heart became, and he thought that at this time, he would go to the county seat to find Tianbao, but this long road and the county seat were so big, where could he find it? Besides, his old bones could not withstand the toss of such a long road. On weekdays, if you walk three or five miles with your own head shaved burden, you will be so tired that you will sweat and pull your throat and pant for breath. If you rush to the county seat at this time, and when you get to the county seat, you will get up early tomorrow in the morning. He looked down the road with a blindfold again, and his heart was as unsteady as if he were on fire.

Although Ma Tianbao is not the descendant of Ma Lao's blood, in Ma Lao's heart, Ma Tianbao is his precious golden pimple, and it is his lifeline. It is precisely because he has Ma Tianbao by his side that he does not end up as cold and lonely as the old bachelor Zhao Dashan. Every time he came back from outside with the burden of shaving his head and saw his Ma Tianbao, his heart suddenly became steady. Ma Tianbao, a child who also knows the number of etiquette, has just been able to pick up firewood to burn pots, every time he sees Ma Lao picking back from outside, he will always call Ma Lao "Dad" very affectionately, and then Zhang Luo and Ma Lao scalded a bowl of tea, and then a person was busy boiling water and cooking. If Ma Lao was distressed and didn't let him show this, he would smile at Ma Lao with his little face, and persuade Ma Lao to rest, saying that he could do it. At this time, Ma Laoli no longer stopped him, and looked at Ma Tianbao as if he had drunk honey. Gradually, Ma Tianbao grew up, and many things in the family were taken care of alone, and he rarely let Ma Laojiao interfere in the work of gravity, saying that Ma Laojiao had suffered a lot for him over the years. At this time, Ma Laoyan always wanted to cry comfortably, and finally he didn't worry about him in vain all these years.

Ma Lao picked up and walked back and forth at the door for more than an hour, but he still didn't see his little Tianbao, and he was so anxious that tears were about to fall out. Just when he was in a panic when he was standing around the gate of the stockade without landing in his heart, Ma Tianbao rode the half-hung family's broken donkey and came to him in a blink.

Ma Lao glanced at Ma Tianbao, and his whole heart fluttered and fell to the ground. He rubbed the tears that didn't flow from his eyes, and asked in a hard voice, "Why didn't you come back until this time?"

Ma Tianbao saw Ma Lao picking his eyes with his hands, turned his head to stare at Ma Lao and asked, "Dad, why are you still crying?"

"No, no. It was the bug that flew into the eye just now. Ma Lao rubbed his eyes and said to Ma Tianbao with a smile.

"Dad, I met a good master in the county today, he is the same age as me, and I don't want to talk about the craft. He also agreed to let me learn how to barber with him. Ma Tianbao looked at Ma Laolu, couldn't help the joy in his heart, and told Ma Laoli about how he met the master who was the same age as him in the county.

Ma Laoli didn't show any joy, looked at Ma Tianbao and said, "I'm going to Luofengpo today, and if someone has something to say, I promise to marry you right away." ”

Ma Tianbao was stunned when he heard Ma Lao say this.

Ma Laojiao has been counting on staying up to this day all these years, Xiao Tianbao can get married one day earlier, and then he can hold his chubby grandson in the next year, and the family will live a hot life, and he will not have been in vain all these years. However, he didn't expect that Xiao Tianbao would be obsessed with shaving his head during this time.

"Luo Fengpo really plans to do this?" Ma Tianbao asked as he looked at Ma Lao. On the way back from the county seat, he has been thinking in his heart that if my master of the same age as me said, he can also open a haircut shop alone in three months. At that time, he can also give people an angular haircut, and he can count on this craft to make his father moisturize and enjoy a few days of happiness, but he didn't expect that his father would let him marry so quickly.

"Let's go back and talk about it. It's been a long walk, you should be tired, go back and rest for a while, take a breath. Ma Lao said and took the donkey from Ma Tianbao's hand, "I'll send the half-hung donkey, you go back and drink some water first." There is a bowl of sugar water on the table between the doors of the hall, and it is estimated that it should be cold at this time, so you can add some hot water to it, and you can drink it. With that, he pushed the donkey awkwardly.

Ma Tianbao took a step, looking at the shadow of Ma Lao's back, and there was always a little bit of a bad feeling in his heart. Over the years, it has really not been easy for my father to bring himself up.

Ma Lao pushed the donkey and quickly entered the stockade.

When Ma Tianbao got home, there was a bowl of cold sugar water on the table between the doors, and he looked at the bowl of sugar water, and he didn't realize that his throat was a little hard. Over the years, in order to bring himself like other people's children, my father was reluctant to eat and drink, and kept all the delicious things for himself. Dad is saving as much as he can for himself, and making do with what he can. For as long as I can remember, I have never seen my father add any new clothes for him, and he has always been picking up his old clothes to wear in the past few years.

After Ma Lao sent a donkey to the half-hung Hu Dashun family, he thought that he would be able to marry his son soon, and he didn't feel that the whole body was as light as a change of blood, and he hummed a tune all the way into the house. As soon as he entered the house, he couldn't help but say to Ma Tianbao happily: "Tianbao, do you know what Luo Fengpo said over there? I also pondered, your father and I will have a happy event in your life, we have to be lively and lively decently, we must do a decent show, and we can't let others grab your father's pigtails and call your father old because of your happy event. ”

Ma Tianbao knew that the father-in-law on the side of Luofengpo was waiting to marry a daughter-in-law in the two rooms, and he was not married, although he could still marry a daughter-in-law on Luofengpo, but he would end up gossiping that the barley was not ripe and the wheat was ripe. Moreover, Luo Fengpo's father-in-law is going to marry two daughters-in-law next, and the money on hand will not be spacious, at this time, urging himself to marry his daughter, it is natural to ask his father for more dowry to entertain their affairs. He looked at his father's happy appearance, and his heart suddenly felt very painful. Dad has been frugal all these years, and he has finally accumulated this big tiled house for himself, and he has not yet breathed evenly, and he has to do this marriage for himself. But, I feel sorry for my father, and I can't let my father not do these things.

"Tianbao, when your family affairs are done, your father and my heart will be steady, and your father and I will not have to be busy like before in the future. Ma Lao thought about the sun and moon after his son got married, and said with some eyebrows raised, "In this life, your father is just your hope, you can get married, and your father won't think about anything." ”

Ma Tianbao looked at Ma Lao, and suddenly his whole heart was blocked and uncomfortable, this is Dad!

Ma Lao's words are true, he really let go of his hands and feet and happily started the marriage of his son Zhang Luo. Although he is not as rich as Zhao Liuyou, the scene of his son's wedding banquet made Zhao Liuyou, the most decent person in the village, a little surprised. He asked the half-Hu Dashun to help invite a loudspeaker team, and the whole wedding was a lively and festive celebration.

"Lao Li, this banquet, I can't call you Lao Li in the future. Zhang Lao Donkey's wine cup did not leave his hand to congratulate Ma Lao and said, "Look, this banquet, this cigarette, this wine, although I know a lot about wine, I really have never drunk such good wine." ”

"That is, you really can't call him old pick in the future, and if you call him old pick again, you will trample him. You see, not only the wine, but even this cigarette, I'm afraid it costs more than a dollar a pack, and it's all filtered. The three old bars next to him continued Zhang Lao Donkey's words, "In the whole village, whether it is the front village or the back village, he is still full of hospitality." ”

Ma Lao picked up the side and played haha, persuading the people who came to congratulate him to eat and drink well.

"Lao Li, this is considered to be boiled out, it is not boiled in vain, it is worth boiling!" said someone on the table next to him.

"It's worth it, it's worth it!" Ma Lao smiled from his heart and nodded in response.

……

Ma Laojiao is also in his early fifties, and like the old bachelor Zhao Dashan, he didn't live a few days in a stable life, and he survived all the way, just like a lame riding a wheelbarrow, and he fell crookedly without peace. Ma Laolu's father is also a craftsman, and he also makes good tofu, but he is not like his elder brother, Ma Guohai's father, who will make trouble when he is rich, he still makes his tofu as he does his duty. When the People's Republic of China was founded, his family's tofu was still very prosperous. At that time, Ma Laoli was only a teenager, and he helped his father greet the grinding donkey when he had nothing to do, and the family lived a very prosperous life. However, an anti-bandit and anti-hegemony movement put down their family's life as soon as it came to an end. Zhang Lao Donkey's father, who had long been jealous of their family's life, said that Ma Laolu's father had dealings with bandits before liberation, and after he led people to divide Ma Lao's family property, he twisted Ma Laolu's father to the 10,000-person meeting for criticism. Ma Lao's father was so angry that he ended his life with a hemp rope one night. Ma Laolu's mother saw that Ma Laolu's father had gone, and she also looked for a short time. Ma Lao picked up his brother and had no sisters in the morning, so he left his parents alone. A shaving master who went to the village saw that Ma Lao was pitiful, so he accepted Ma Lao as an apprentice. At that time, although Ma Laojiao was young, he already knew the way of horizontal and vertical in his heart, and he learned very hard with the master, plus he was ingenious, and the master was also attentive to teaching, and it didn't take long for him to go to the village for the master. At the end of the three years, the master prepared a head shaving burden for him, and divided some villages for him, so that he could make a child alone with a clipper and a knife. In those years, he ran with his feet and neck connected to his buttocks, and he could make ends meet. Just in time for him to step towards the age of twenty, another big Yue Jin came from above, Zhao Dashan's brain was congested, and he smashed the shaving pot that boiled water and threw it into the iron-making stove, and then asked him Ma Lao to pull the big bellows next to the iron-making stove. In all dynasties, no matter what kind of exercise, no one moved the head shaving master, but when it came to his Ma Lao, Zhao Dashan broke this example. Ma Lao has run away from many villages, and his knowledge is also broad, no matter what others arrange, he will do what he does, although there is no shaving pot, he has not had any major disasters. Ma Lao, who was dry and thin, escaped Dayuejin, and was even more bitter by the three-year "natural disaster". At that time, Ma Lao was already in his early twenties, and there were enthusiastic girls in the village who were trying to give him a matchmaker, and there was just a girl's family who had a little thought about him Ma Lao, and Ma Lao was pulled out by Zhao Liuyou, saying that he was born in a "capitalist family" and needed to clean up the capitalist ideas that came with him. With such unfortunate luck, where would a girl dare to follow him and pick up his old man? Zhao Liuyou, who was wearing a red armband, heroically pulled his nickname with him, saying that he had counterrevolutionary ideas, otherwise, how would he be willing to accept the nickname of "Lao Li" given to him by the people? In this exercise, because he was often beaten by wind, sun, rain and frost, he finally fell into an asthma problem. After surviving the "Cultural Revolution," Ma Laojiao is already in his thirties, and which girl's family is still willing to follow him into such a shabby household as nothing? Ma Laojiao took the time to meet a few senior brothers, and saw that several senior brothers still carried the burden to go to villages and villages to shave people's heads, and when he returned, he sharpened an old clipper and an old razor given to him by his senior brother, and repurchased a shaving head. In order to prevent anyone from smashing his head shaving pot to make iron, he bought a large urine jar for three cents to make a shaving pot for boiling water, and started his old business again. The flat pole flickered on his shoulder for several years, and nothing flickered at all, so he was relieved. After a few years, he could get by with the shaved head in his hands, but he didn't expect that God would make another big flood and wash away the nest he had just built. Ma Lao picked up the burden of shaving his head and went to a high place to avoid the flood, and when he was halfway down the road, he heard the cry of a child on the side of the road, so he followed the sound to find it. On the side of the road, he found a little baby with a few rags wrapped in it. Ma Laoli put down the burden and picked up the little milk baby, and waited there for a long time, but no one came to claim it. The flood behind his ass couldn't allow him to wait any longer, so he bit his heart with his teeth, picked up the shaving pick and walked away. As the saying goes, "a widow with a baby rolls and climbs". Although Ma Laoli is not a widow, but he brought this baby, even a widow is not as good, he can't roll, he can't climb, he doesn't know what to do with a handful of and urine. Every day when he went out, there was no one to help him take care of the child, so he simply tied the child to his chest, carried the burden of shaving his head and left. When he arrived in which village, he first inquired about whose woman was in confinement, and then told the people to help feed his child two mouthfuls of milk. When the child stopped eating, he tied the child behind him, and then shaved his head and beard. The child on the back spine was ignorant, and he urinated down the groove of the spine. He was busy with the work in front of him again, so he gritted his teeth and endured to let the child feel comfortable on the back of his spine. But the child behind him couldn't help it, and the little butt was uncomfortable with the urine soaked shit, so he cried with his small mouth open on the back of his back. In order to catch up with his subordinates, he had to flash his legs to coax the children behind him. Later, the child slowly became able to walk, and his heart became more delicate, lest the child bump into something. In this way, he took the child day by day to the present. Today, Ma Tianbao got married, and he can be regarded as a complete breath of relief, and in the future, he will go to the village with a pick, and his son and daughter-in-law will be cleaned up at home, and he will save his heart.

Hu Dashun, a half-hanger, seemed to understand Ma Lao's thoughts over the years, and the little horn blew so loudly that the earthquake sounded, blowing Ma Lao's entire yard in his house to be festive.

Some people said that Ma Lao's body bones were not very good, and he couldn't be too busy, so he persuaded him to rest.

Where can Ma Lao pick up, how many years have been for this day. He waved his hand and said that he didn't feel tired, and he should be busy with Zhang Luo today, and others came to eat and drink today.

When people saw the spring breeze on Ma Lao's face, the wrinkles on his face were cracked and he smiled, so they no longer persuaded him to rest.