Menjia Village is not big, less than 100 households, living in four or five hillsides and ditches, there is almost no flat land, many paddy fields are still agricultural villages, at that time it was the commune organization cadres, educated youth, The militia and the common people dug up the soil and stones along the hillside, so that they could peacefully have the same crops in two seasons a year, one season of rice and one season of wheat, but there were many times when they relied on the sky to eat, and the yield was very low, and there were very few fields in each household, only a lot of stones, on the slopes, in the ditches, everywhere, but there was no value, so Menjia Village has always been a poor village in Hanshui Town, and Hanshui Town is a poor town in Shiqiang County, and Shiqiang County is a state-level poor county, and the first-level poverty has been pressing on the heads of the people of Menjia Village。 The road in Menjia Village is not good, it takes half an hour to walk from the road to the town and the original township government, and there are two small rivers to cross, and the township government used to have a small street, and there are primary schools, supply and marketing cooperatives, health centers, and so on. Shops or something, a few years ago the township was also withdrawn, all the units are gone, now in addition to those old houses live some people, the small street is also wasted, fortunately, the nearest river from the highway built a cement bridge a few years ago, the river near the village is still a temporary bridge tied with wood, and motor vehicles can only drive to the front of this bridge. On the highway, it takes an hour to walk to Hanshui Town, and it is fast to make a car, less than half an hour.

The people who have a little ability in Menjia Village are all going out to run business and do business, and those who have the strength are all working outside for many years, and those who have a way to move their families to the town or county, and now, there are less than 40 families still guarding Menjia Village, guarding these hillsides, planting these lands, and looking at this home, most of these 40 or so households have no education before, or their health is not very good, or because there are sick people at home, There are families who have students who owe debts when they go to school, in a word, they are all poor households, and they are all families who have no choice.

Mendegui is such a person. Mendegui three brothers, he is the eldest, when his father was there, the family was poor, so he didn't read a day, he didn't know a big word, he didn't smoke or drink, two brothers, the second went to junior high school, and now he is doing a food and dough business outside, raising two children, a boy and a girl, and the economy is also average, the third is going to school, after graduating from the secondary school teacher, he taught in the primary school in the town, the daughter-in-law has no job, only raised a son, and the economy is only slightly better. Mendegui's body has always been relatively thin, when he was young, he didn't have much strength, and now he is old, and he is a little weak, his wife, like him, is also illiterate, and his health is not very good, with severe rheumatoid arthritis, once in season, he can't leave the support of painkillers all day long.

There are three earthen houses in the family, or when Mendegui's father was there, he built it with him, the second and third elders have no houses in Menjia Village, and it is rare to return to the village in ordinary times, but every year in Qingming and Chinese New Year's Eve, to burn paper for the old man, will come back, finished, many times without eating and leaving again.

In addition to feeding the stomach of the family a year, there is not much excess food left, let alone money, and the wife feeds a pig every year, usually raises some chickens, relying on the pig and chicken butt bank, but the money is more expensive than Mende, and the family eats salt, dresses, and goes to school or something depends on the income of the wife. Until Mentao went to college, there was no electricity at home. There are more than 40 households, and only one of them has no electricity, no electricity, one is because Mentao has been going to school, and the other is because Mentao wants to go to college, Mendegui is a dime a dime in the province, anyway, he is saving all the money he can save, he can't help it, who makes him unable to earn money!

The first three years of Mentao's primary school were in the countryside, but it was okay at that time, he came home from school every day to eat, and he never went hungry. After finishing school in the third grade, the township was withdrawn, and the fourth grade was going to go to school in Hanshui Town, that year, several children in the village later went to school, but Mentao wanted to go to school very much, and Mendegui gritted his teeth and insisted on supporting. In the town, most of the primary schools are lived, but Mentao insists on not living in the school, so that he can save a lot of costs, which is basically the same as going to school in the township. The fourth grade is eleven years old, and the slightly thin Mentao walks for an hour and a half to school every day, and another hour and a half after school The road is still a mud road, there are a lot of deep ditches pressed by the car that pulls the goods, it is muddy and difficult to walk in the heavy rain, the second semester of the fifth grade just walked on the road after school, suddenly it poured down, and Men Tao did not bring rain gear, and the place where he could hide from the rain had to be one or two kilometers, in order not to get wet with the schoolbag, Men Tao took off his coat and wrapped it in the outside of the schoolbag, and then stuffed the schoolbag under the shirt on his chest, bent over and ran to the place where he could hide, the schoolbag was not wet, but Men Tao had a cold for a week. When you go to middle school, you have to live on campus, and the cost is getting bigger and bigger, and the pressure on Mendegui is getting bigger and bigger. At school, Mentao has always been able to save money, and he can use a toothpaste for a semester, and there will be some leftovers. In high school, Mentao was admitted to the county's high school, but Mentao gave up without telling his family, and still went to the town's high school. During the whole school period, especially after living in the school, many times, Mentao spent half full and half hungry, he was the same as his father, he was also a dime a dime, anyway, he was saving all the money he could, he couldn't help it, who let it be time to make money! He has always been studying in the middle, sometimes on the upper side, but he has never lagged behind, nor has he ever been the best.

In the first year of high school, he borrowed a book from his classmates "The Story of Yuhua Stone", he read it with great emotion, Yuhua Stone is so precious, why not grow in Menjiagou, Menjiagou can have stones, since then, he remembered Yuhua Stone, remember Jinling, where there is Yuhua Stone. When filling in the college entrance examination, according to his own results, in addition to choosing several schools in the province, he also chose a Jinling University of Science and Technology. Who knows, fate is so magical, Yuhuashi seems to be psychic with him, and finally he was admitted to Jinling University of Technology. When the notice came down, Men Degui was silent, and his second and third uncles both persuaded him to give up, saying that it was too far away and the burden would be too heavy. But Mentao, who has always been sensible, obedient and weak, this time he is very determined, he wants to go to college, he wants to go to Jinling to go to college. He promised his father that he only needed the tuition fee for the first semester and the minimum living expenses, and when he arrived in Jinling, he could support himself while going to school. Looking at his son, who has been so resolute and resolute for the first time in 19 years, Mendegui made the most important decision in his life, that is, even if he demolishes his house and sells tiles, and sells his own blood, he must support his son to go to the university he wants to go to.

After a lot of hard work, every possible way, and a thousand words, Mendegui exhausted his best efforts in this life, and sold everything that his family could sell, as long as he could borrow a place of 1,000 yuan was not too much, and 30 or 50 yuan was not too little, and finally he had never seen so many 6,200 yuan. On the first night of Mentao's departure, Mendegui opened a bottle of wine given by Mentao's third uncle for the New Year, poured a bowl for himself, and also poured a bowl for Mentao, and said: " Tao baby, your Lao Tzu has no interest in his life, your baby fell in our house, treated your baby badly, you went to school, Lao Tzu also did his best, I really have no choice, go out and you have to fight for yourself, although I have not been far away, but I have also heard people say, poor family rich road, me and your mother you don't have to worry, take care of yourself, study hard, in the future like your two uncles, marry a daughter-in-law, raise a child to settle the home outside, can no longer fall in the door of the village, as long as you can do that, your Lao Tzu is buried in the grave, I will also say, Tao Wa, you are a good baby, you are a good baby of your fatherMentao took the wine, looked at his exhausted father, didn't say anything, he had never drunk alcohol, a big bowl of wine, drank it all, got drunk, and slept. He didn't know that Mendegui was also, a big bowl of wine, drunk it all, drunk, and slept.

In this way, Mentao came to Jinling, a place where flowers fell like rain and flowers fell to stones, a place that changed his life.