"Teacher Xu, then we'll go."

"Principal Miao, Aunt Guo, goodbye." Xu Shuangchuan stood at the school gate, smiling and waving his hand, "I'll take care of Xiao Hei." ”

"Look, look, how many people bother to raise a sheep." Principal Miao smiled and said, "Let our little teacher Xu learn to be a shepherd." Teacher Xu, you just let the sheep be locked inside, just throw a handful of grass for it in the afternoon, and we will come back at dusk. ”

"Yes, Teacher Xu, it's rare to have a day off, you take a break."

"Okay." Xu Shuang said with a smile and glanced at the shore, where a small wooden boat was slowly approaching. "The fourth grandfather is here, Aunt Guo, get a sweet potato for the fourth grandfather, I'm still hot."

Aunt Guo held up the two sweet potatoes in her palm: "How much I take, you can eat it yourself." He enthusiastically instructed again, "Teacher Xu, the marinated meat is hung on the big iron hook, you take it down and cut two slices and steam it yourself." ”

"Got it."

Xu Shuang watched Principal Miao and Aunt Guo walk down the slope, and the fourth grandfather put down the oars and stood at the bow of the boat to wait.

There is a light layer of smoke on the surface of the river, and there is a kind of poetry that is commonplace here in the morning.

The fourth grandfather always wore the blue tunic suit, and the needlework on the back of his right shoulder was cracked, but he didn't care about it, and calmly wore the boat every day. When Xu Shuangchuan first arrived, he took his boat across the river to school. This sixty-seven-year-old five-guarantee household, with a lot of strength, picked up Xu Shuang's big box with one hand, and said happily that it would not sink.

At that time, it was a summer evening, and the fourth grandfather was wearing an old white shirt with a collapsed round neck, an open Mao suit, and the sunset on the river pulled out a long red belt, which was beautiful. Xu Shuangjiang sat at the stern of the boat, and he didn't dare to look at the shoulders of the fourth grandfather Zhongshan with stitches, for fear that the old man would mind. Later, she found that the fourth grandfather didn't mind at all, and in the autumn, the weather was cold, and the fourth grandfather changed into a white shirt with hairy cuffs, and added a wool vest, and the coat was still the single cloth tunic suit, and the body bones were more cold-resistant than the young man Xu Shuang.

Xu Shuang went to the town street on Saturday to buy daily necessities and vegetables, that is, to take the fourth grandfather's boat, cross the river, walk three kilometers of rugged dirt roads, and then take a country minibus with only four flights a day, and travel for two hours.

The fourth grandfather's boat carries seven students from the village on the other side of the river to school every day, and it seems that the village over there has given a little subsidy. On weekends, if someone in the villages on both sides of the river wants to cross the river, tell him in advance, and he will also come to pick him up and collect a dollar. This very small business is also difficult to do, now which village is left behind are the old people and children, in addition to the children go to school, the old people at home to pick up the farm, rarely go out, some old people are used to saving, even if they carry the burden to catch up with the big set, they will go around the mountain road, will not spend this money to cross the river.

Xu Shuang watched the fourth grandfather carry Principal Miao and Aunt Guo, and shook the wooden oars to the shore.

She picked up the sweet potato and peeled a piece of it, leaned in and took a bite, a smile leaking from the corner of her eye. When she was abroad, she was hungry for that bite of sweet potatoes, which was really only sold, a big bag of potatoes on top of a sweet potato, and she had to go to the Chinese store. Now there are so many sweet potatoes that she panics when she eats them, she eats steamed sweet potatoes every other day in the morning, and sometimes there are stove ash roasted sweet potatoes as snacks after dinner, Aunt Guo will cook, sweet potatoes are cut into pieces and fried in oil, put a few peppers, it is a dish, bite into it salty and spicy and eat sweet, the taste is so complicated that she can't describe it.

Xu Shuangchuan walked under the old locust tree, and before she reached the door of her room, she had already eaten the sweet potato in her hand.

The sweet potato's memory tracked deep into the depths, and there was always a person, laughing and groaning in his little apartment, and she sat on his lap and broke a sweet potato in half, half of her and half of him.

Xu Shuangchuan licked the sweet potato powder on his fingers, and the memory was annihilated.

Sundays are always very lonely, and the whole school is quiet and there is no voice. On this day, Principal Miao and Aunt Guo had to go home. Their home is far away, and they originally went back every Saturday morning and Sunday night, but after Xu Shuang came, they were afraid that it would not be safe for Xu Shuangchuan to sleep alone at school at night, so they compressed their home to Sunday and back and forth.

Xu Shuangchuan is actually very tolerant of loneliness, and he is busy running in and out. Principal Miao left, and she just took the clothes out of the house to bask in the sun. She stepped on a stool and tied a loop of rope to the trunk of the old locust tree, pulled it to the wooden strips of her pane and tied it tightly, and threw up the little clothes and pants that were usually embarrassed to dry one by one.

The silk quilt was also brought out. This quilt is now one of the few assets she has in her belongings, and she took advantage of the fine weather today to ride on the crossbar of the basketball hoop to blow the wind.

Just after half past ten o'clock in the afternoon, she began to make lunch.

Since calling here, Xu Shuangchuan's routine is like returning to his childhood, going to bed early and getting up early every day, along with the three meals of morning, noon and evening in advance. There is no way to do this, there is no entertainment at night, the telephone signal is not good, the Internet is not good, there is no TV, sometimes it is windy and rainy and there is no electricity, she basically sleeps after completing her homework, and her life is regular and simple, and it is also very good.

She learned to use a big stove to steam rice, stir-fry vegetables is really not good, often turn over the spatula and forget to add firewood under the stove, busy and busy. But she made pumpkin stewed rice for lunch today and added a bowl of steamed egg drops, which is still competent, she only needs to put rice and water and pumpkin, add a wood steamed on top, put the beaten egg mixture, and then cover the pot, you can always sit behind the stove and simmer on the fire.

Now she doesn't use the cooker very much.

Aunt Guo burned the stove not only because the iron pot on the stove has a large capacity, but also to save electricity bills. Xu Shuangchuan stayed here, and he couldn't help but save it, the power of the induction cooker was too great, how many electric lights were there.

This kitchen was built a few years ago when the teaching building was built, Principal Miao Yang mason laid bricks in the old house by the way, looking simple and practical, Xu Shuangchuan admired Principal Miao's ingenuity. The pool is a long cement trough, and the children can rush in to wash the dishes after eating at noon, and there is always endless fun. Next to the sink is a long tile table, where you can cut vegetables and place bowls, and there is enough space.

Xu Shuangchuan likes the design under the tile counter the most. The base is a hollow brick, Principal Miao put a few bamboo poles in the brick holes, and weave them with cloth strips, which becomes a grid shelf, with a total of three layers, several long-necked old pumpkins, and a basket of newly dug potatoes and sweet potatoes this year.

She was a little shrewd, she took a skinny pumpkin without a potbelly, didn't need to dig up additional seeds, cut it from the head, peeled it with bared teeth, and was busy scooping rice with a plastic basket. The eggs were bought by her from the fourth grandfather, and after the old man sold her thirty eggs, he didn't even charge her the dollar for the ferry on Saturday, which made Xu Shuang extremely embarrassed.

She boiled twenty eggs and gave one to each of the children, adding a dish. Two of them were taken down to the confused noodles for her birthday, and now there are eight left, Aunt Guo put them on the ground for her, took a small basket and put it in the only wooden cabinet, covered a newspaper, and when cooking, she never moved, only asked her to fry and eat by herself on the weekend.

Aunt Guo set up a vegetable garden next to the toilet at the back of the teaching building, planted some beans and greens, and those pumpkins were also planted by Aunt Guo this summer. She and Principal Miao went home every week and brought back some potatoes and cabbage grown by their in-laws, sometimes with a strip of cured meat, so that they and Xu Shuangchuan had three meals a day.

Xu Shuang went to town on Saturday and would buy some dishes that Aunt Guo didn't have to make a contribution to the food. When the weather is hot, she doesn't dare to buy meat, so she buys some sausages, dried tofu vermicelli, and dried kelp, and so on, she brought back a pork belly and a plate of oily meat in one go, smelling the meat all the way, it was greasy, the vegetables fried shredded meat, but it was extremely fragrant, boiled in oil, and it was fragrant.

Speaking of meat, Xu Shuangchuan looked up at the cured meat of Aunt Guo's house hanging under the roof beams, and the red and lean texture on the cut surface made her stare at it for half a second before turning into the stove to make a fire.

The half-hour of burning the fire was really idle for her to be in a daze. The surroundings were so quiet that even the air seemed to be waiting for a meal, the small branches in the stove creaked and cracked, and white steam curled up from the cracks along the lids, quietly bringing out the aroma of rice and pumpkin. She fiddled with the tongs, always thinking stupidly, where to find a nest of chicks, and encouraged Aunt Guo to build a chicken coop for her behind the toilet, and she also tried to raise chickens?

You haven't had chickens? Gu Yiwei was once so sure. Xu Shuangchuan is holding his mouth, anything is possible.

After eating alone, Xu Shuang wiped the stove table, the pot can not be washed, mixed with some water in the evening, hot is a pot of porridge, just order pickled vegetables and radish strips, dinner is also available, look, she has to plan well.

"Blackie, let's go."

Xiao Hei is a black goat, called a sheep in Aunt Guo's mouth, Xu Shuang was very rare to see it when he first came, and when he helped Aunt Guo throw the grass in, he would call: "Xiao Hei, come and eat, come and eat." ”

Principal Miao said that before the Spring Festival school holiday, he killed it, just in time to give the children a bowl of mutton soup in winter. The rest of the meat is eaten at home for the holidays. When Xu Shuangchuan heard this, he regretted calling it so, there is a name that he can't eat, but this name is also used to it, so he has to continue to call it.

The docile little black is good except for a little smelly, Xu Shuangchuan thought that she would also share a bowl of yokan in the future, especially good for it, when she and it were left in school on Sunday, she would always take it out to eat grass with great interest.

In the early winter, there is not much grass, and it is rare to see a stall or two of wild grass green on the ground, she holds the twigs used to drive the sheep, and follows Xiao Hei slowly.

Aunt Guo often let Xiao Hei out, Xiao Hei recognized the way, found a place to bow his head and gnaw on the grass roots, and didn't have to worry about Xu Shuang at all.

Xu Shuang likes to climb the high slope in her spare time, so she picked up three small stones and built a place to sit.

There was no one for most of the day, only one lady passed by, it may be the mother-in-law and grandmother of a student in the back village, the distance was a little far, I glanced at her a few times, and the footsteps were slightly hesitant, as if I wanted to go around to say hello, but in the end I didn't come. Xu Shuangchuan smiled lightly, she is here, in fact, it is easier to recognize, this child is estimated to have poor grades, and parents are so afraid of teachers.

She looked at the river below, and the few rooms on the mountainside on the other side of the river, she would think about her parents when she was too idle, as well as some other people she knew in her distant hometown, sometimes thinking of Chen Chi, and even Lu Qing, who had only met once, and pondered a question in a trance.

If there were a pair of eyes in the sky that penetrated the roofs of all the houses and took in everyone's activities at the same time, would it be embarrassing if it could sort out their mutual relationship?

Because it always sees the story in advance.

Some people are doing their own thing every day, but they don't know that in another place, there is something going on, which will be, or will eventually affect them.

She looked up at the sky, did she have such eyes?

All she knew was that she didn't have such eyes, so she went about her own thing, walked along her own path, waited for the wind of the butterflies there, and kept her steps as much as she could.

The same goes for the kids.

The years are long and steady, what is she?

Forever knot ruthlessly travels, and Miao Yunhan is her favorite poem.