In order to make up enough money for the bride price at the end of the year, Niu Tiangou raised two pigs at home.

It was Sunday, and Niu Tiangou came to the Qingshui pond on the west side of the village to hunt pigweed.

This clear water pond made him vaguely think of the original Bilian Pond in the east of Niujiazhuang, but the area of Qingshui Pond is not as large as Bilian Pond, and the surrounding scenery is not as beautiful and charming as Bilian Pond.

Although the grass is green and the flowers are fragrant, there are no dragonflies circling around the pond or butterflies flying, and the abusive pesticides have long since cut them off.

Although the water in the clear water pond is clear, there are no green lotus leaves, only bright green aquatic plants.

Niu Tiangou used a long bamboo pole with a sickle tied to the top to stretch out into the water and cut the green and tender aquatic plants, because the two pigs weighing nearly 100 catties at home are eating time, and they have to eat three pots of pig food every day.

In the countryside at this time, feeding pigs was the main source of income for farmers in addition to grain income.

Due to the lack of compound feed and additives, the feed is single, the nutritional value is low, the growth cycle of pigs is long, and a pig should be fed for about 12 months.

The main source of feed for farmers to feed their pigs is rice bran and water weed.

The aquatic plants in the clear water pond are very abundant, such as flat grass, oak grass, fishing grass, etc., which are good green fodder for pigs.

Niu Tiangou has to chop the pigweed every day after beating it back, and the pigweed will feel very itchy after it touches the skin.

Especially in the summer evening, when cutting pigweed, a lot of mosquitoes bite around it, and the hands itch and mosquito bites, which is very unpleasant.

Niu Tiangou's parents had already decided that these two fat pigs would be raised until the end of the year, and after they were sold, they would give Niu Tiangou the bride price money and marry back their daughter-in-law Qian Xiaohua.

Thinking about his parents' serious decision, Niu Tiangou secretly felt funny in his heart. Nima, this marriage and love in this world is really interesting, two fat pigs for a daughter-in-law, he doesn't know if he can smell pork on the body of the freckled girl Qian Xiaohua in the future.

……

Niu Tiangou held the bamboo pole and pulled the last sickle vigorously, looking at the water surface has a large patch of fresh pigweed, feeling that it is almost over, he stopped his hand, turned his head to look at the pond full of green grass and wild flowers.

The fresh green grass by the pond was trampled on by him and slumped to the ground, and clusters of beautiful little wildflowers were everywhere: pure wild lilies, pale pink stars, purple rowlands, pale yellow dandelions, and many unnamed small flowers like Milanese butterflies, dressed the pond in a flowery way, and seemed to whisper to each other in the breeze.

A spring breeze blows, and the green air of the grass and the fragrant fragrance of wild flowers are refreshing.

"Teacher Niu!" Niu Tiangou was about to go to get a basket, and then scooped up the pigweed and put it in, when a voice like a silver bell suddenly came.

As soon as Niu Tiangou looked up, he saw a girl walking along the path by the pond, greeting him with a light smile.

Niu Tiangou was stunned, looked closely, and finally recognized the girl, stopped his movements and smiled: "Is it Teacher Cao?" What are you...... Where are you going? ”

Teacher Cao's name is Cao Yanfang, a classmate of Niu Tiangou in junior high school, and now he is also a private teacher, from a neighboring village primary school.

Because Niu Tiangou is small and introverted, he basically hasn't talked to her much, but he is also a private teacher, and he often meets teachers in the township or town when they are studying, training or holding meetings during the summer.

In Niu Tiangou's impression, Cao Yanfang is just like her name, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, exuding the fragrance of youth. He is slightly taller than him, about 1.59 meters, and 20 years old. As early as when she was in junior high school, Niu Tiangou had an indescribable good impression of her.

Looking at her, Niu Tiangou couldn't help but think of Niu Yu'e in the village, in his eyes, Niu Yu'e and Cao Yanfang were the little fairies he envied in his heart, they were beautiful jade with crystal color, and fragrant flowers.

Compared with these two little fairies, the freckled girl Qian Xiaohua can only be regarded as an insignificant little mortal girl at best, a piece of inferior jade that has been eaten thoroughly by black moss, and a small wildflower submerged in the flowers.

"Go to relatives." Cao Yanfang showed a hint of shyness on her face, came to Niu Tiangou, and stopped, "Are you fighting pigweed?" ”

"Hmm." Niu Tiangou looked at Cao Yanfang in a daze.

She was wearing a snow-white blouse, and her delicate face looked as white as jade; The hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and a delicate flower bow is tied on it, revealing a pure and lovely atmosphere, and she is alive and like a lotus fairy.

Niu Tiangou looked straight at it in a daze.

Cao Yanfang is also strange, this Niu Tiangou turned out to be an honest man, usually a "stuffy gourd", and he didn't dare to take a second look when he saw her, what happened to him today? As if you want to stick a hook out of your eyes?

"How can I still have time to hunt pigweed?" Seeing Niu Tiangou staring at him in a daze, Cao Yanfang hurriedly smiled and changed the topic, "How are you preparing for the review during this time?" ”

Cao Yanfang's "review preparation" refers to coping with the private teacher entrance examination.

Because there is an acute shortage of public teachers in rural primary and secondary schools, Yunyang County, where they are located, has decided, in accordance with the spirit of its superiors, to recruit a number of private teachers from all over the county to study in the county normal schools in a planned way this year, and to enrich them in rural primary and secondary schools after the two-year study period has expired. That is, to turn some private teachers into public teachers in a planned way.

This is the top priority to determine the fate of private teachers, very early on the private teachers got the news, the town education group also made a propaganda at the general meeting of all teachers, asking the town's private teachers to take a good class at the same time, a solid review, make good use of this opportunity.

"Ahem, I have to go to class during the day, and I have to change a lot of homework, most of which can only be reviewed at night, how can I still review?" Niu Tiangou came back to his senses, "I don't have a good grasp of this recruitment, let's do my best." How are you studying? ”

"I have almost reviewed politics, but I am a little worried about the composition in the language, and there are geometry problems in mathematics, and many of them will not be done."

"Oh, then ask for more advice."

"Hey, the teachers in the school are all at that level, who do you ask, please teach you?" Cao Yanfang tilted her head and smiled.

Seeing that Niu Tiangou had something in his hands, Cao Yanfang joked a few words and said, "Then you can get busy slowly, I'll go." ”

"Well, you can go quickly." Niu Tiangou was a little insincere. He wished she could stay a little longer and talk to her more.

Somehow, with her, he felt an inexplicable warmth; Listening to her soft voice, he felt the cells in his whole body become excited, and he talked more.

Looking at Cao Yanfang's back as she gradually moved away, Niu Tiangou stood stunned for a while.

When he finally picked up the bamboo pole and sickle and scooped up the pigweed, he saw that the pigweed floating on the water was jagged and messy, and with the sickle on the head of the bamboo pole swirling left and right, he suddenly remembered the sentence in the "Book of Songs" inexplicably:

Jagged wattles, left and right flowing.

My Fair Lady, I covet it.

I can't ask for it, but I can't think about it.

You're wandering, tossing and turning.

……

Nima, these poems seem to have been written for him, it's really strange, how could the ancients guess his restless mind?

Alas, restlessness is restlessness, he has self-knowledge, whether he is asleep and convinced, whether he tosses and turns, that illusory dream can only be hidden deep in his heart.

Grandma's, the appearance is not enough, the wealth is not good, the fair lady can't ask for it, and the beauty is like a flower across the clouds.