It was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon when Zeng Cheng got off the bus, and green smoke rose everywhere in the countryside, and it was the farmers returning home preparing dinner. Far from the coal source, electricity is expensive, and the main fuel for farmers is wood, which is brought home from the hills on the dam or the surrounding hills.

Zeng Cheng set his eyes on his own house on Qilin Mountain, and sure enough, he also saw that his roof was also rising green smoke, and it seemed that his parents had already begun to prepare dinner.

When Zeng Cheng just got off the train, his father called and asked where he was. Zeng Cheng reported his itinerary, estimating that they should have estimated the time for them to go home, and put down their work in the field and went home in advance.

Zeng Cheng quickened his pace.

Two or three minutes later, Zeng Cheng came to the yard in front of his house.

This is a large wooden house with nine pillars, and the main house has five large rooms, and there are three nine-pillar wings on each side. The so-called nine pillars here refer to the fact that the house has nine column heads side by side, which is basically the largest of the rural wooden houses, and few people add the number of columns to eleven or even more, because that is considered to be transgression and will bring disaster to the family.

Just like the dam where Zeng Cheng's family is located, thousands of families, I don't know how many such wooden houses have been built for hundreds of years, and only one has built eleven pillars, but the house has only been built for less than ten years, and the family has turned from extreme prosperity to decline, and finally when New China was founded, it became the target of the key attack - the bully landlord, the main members of the family were all knocked out of the sand pot (as the local saying goes, that is, shot), and the large-scale house was also confiscated and became the second primary school in Jiuli Township, which was used until the turn of the century, because of the damage to the strict zhòng deprecated.

Although this statement seems a little superstitious, it is like a magic spell, which is believed by all people, and they dare not take a step beyond the thunder pool.

In fact, even the big house of nine pillars is rarely dared to rise, and the family that has a big house of nine pillars has not had a good end result. Just like the nine-pillar house of Zeng Cheng's family, the house was started by his maternal great-grandfather, Zeng Cheng's maternal great-grandfather was very prosperous at that time, not only the patriarch of Cheng's big family of more than 200 households and more than 1,000 people, but also the family industry is huge, with more than 300 acres of fertile land, and it is a well-known wealthy family in the entire Jiuli Township.

However, since the house was built, the family has been in bad luck, first his younger brother became addicted to drugs* and lost a lot of money, until his younger brother set up his own business, and only improved slightly. But it's only a slight improvement, and it's still continuing.

After the founding of New China, although he was one of the first uprising personnel in central Sichuan, and became the political commissar of the regiment after the reorganization, he suddenly fell ill on the eve of going to North Korea and had to change jobs and return to his hometown, becoming the principal of Shicheng County No. 1 Middle School at that time.

The dignified political commissar of the colonel's regiment has only become the principal of a county middle school, which is already an obvious derogatory.

But this bad luck is still not over, followed by a series of movements, Zeng Cheng's maternal grandfather was also beaten down along the way, first from the principal of the county No. 1 middle school to the principal of the Jiuli Township Agricultural Middle School, and then the principal of the primary school, and finally in the ten years of catastrophe, he was directly swept to the end, and was almost killed. It was not until the end of the catastrophe that the chaos began anyway, but it was staggered again and again, and it was not until 85 years ago that his reputation was restored. Before he had time to wait for the resumption of treatment and work, the old man finally couldn't hold it anymore and went west, so there was nothing left.

The old man has been kind to others all his life, and he has been a soldier for 20 years, and he has not been stained with a drop of blood on his hands; He has been engaged in education for more than ten years and has cultivated a lot of talents, but he finally couldn't withstand the catastrophe of the times, and in the end he didn't get anything, not even his descendants - Zeng Cheng's mother had three sisters, no brothers, and it was Zeng Cheng's father, the son-in-law, who inherited the family fire.

And Zeng Cheng's parents have not had a good life in their lives. has been busy all his life, and as a result, he is tired and sick, but he has been able to maintain the life of his family without any savings. Even in order to send Zeng Cheng's sister and brother to study, he still owed a lot of debts. In his previous life, Zeng Cheng took several years after graduating from college to pay off his debts.

It is Zeng Cheng himself, who inherited this house, and he also stumbled in his previous life, although there were no major disasters, but small disasters continued, and he did not live a good life.

It's a bit far, let's get down to business. Zeng Cheng, who walked into his yard, saw the door of the room used as a kitchen at the corner of the house open, and his parents were busy preparing dinner.

Zeng Cheng said hello to his parents loudly, "Mom and Dad, I'm back", and then heard his mother Cheng Yan's voice: "The third baby is back, the meal will be ready soon, you put down the bag first." ”

But the father, who was burning the fire in front of the stove, kept his head shut and did not speak. This is a problem that most fathers and sons have, that is, they don't communicate with each other much, which may have something to do with the idea that many fathers want to maintain their dignity in front of their children.

Zeng Cheng returned to his room, put down his backpack and computer bag, and then came to the kitchen again, chatting with his parents while waiting for the meal to start. In fact, it was mainly Zeng Cheng who talked to his mother there, and his father rarely interjected.

When Zeng Cheng entered the house, dinner was almost ready, and in less than five minutes, the family of three began to eat dinner.

Dinner is not sumptuous, just four dishes. A fried bacon with chili, a fried potato chips with chili, a scrambled egg with tomato, and a green vegetable tofu soup. It's all home-cooked, home-cooked.

My mother's cooking skills are not good, and the dishes are not good at color, but they are packed in four large bowls, but they are a lot of them. But Zeng Cheng felt extraordinarily fragrant when he ate it, he usually ate very little in the cafeteria, but he made an exception to eat three bowls of rice, and almost half of the four bowls of dishes went into his stomach.

Seeing Zeng Cheng's appetite, his mother's face was full of smiles, and she kept telling Zeng Cheng to eat more. It's all a family, but his mother didn't give him vegetables, which is too raw.

After eating, Zeng Cheng lay on a wooden chair without any image, touching his round stomach with both hands. This chair is a century-old chair, handed down from Zeng Cheng's maternal grandfather, and it is even older than Zeng Cheng's house.

At this time, my mother said: "I heard on TV that it's not good to lie down like this when you're full, so you can go out for a walk." ”

Zeng Cheng agreed, got up and walked out of the door slowly.