“…… Now, please allow me to introduce one of the most outstanding Asian American students in the 120 years of our Johns Stanley Private High School. Li! ”

A middle-aged white lady wearing gold-rimmed glasses stood on the rostrum and waved her hand to a sunny young man about seventeen or eighteen years old, with yellow skin and black eyes.

The boy stood up, smiling kindly like the rippling waters of Lake George, and bowed down to greet the students and parents present, surrounded by applause and congratulations.

"As we know, in two years, Li Ling has made hundreds of very comfortable reclining chairs and exercise chairs for the elderly and disabled people in five small towns in the southeast suburbs of New York;

His eco-friendly furniture made from waste newspapers and disposable plastic boxes not only won the championship of the National Skills Olympiad for Middle School Students, but was also received and promoted by the United Nations Environment Programme.

He is also one of only three students at our Johns Stanley Private High School who have scored all of their GPAs in more than 120 years, and his SAT1 and SAT2 scores are the best students in our school in half a century!"

The enthusiastic applause from the audience drowned out the voices on the rostrum for a while, and the white lady who spoke also stopped to applaud.

"So, Columbia University, one of the top Ivy League schools in the United States, has already extended an olive branch to Li Ling in advance, and when we hold a graduation ceremony for these more than 60 children tonight, he is also one of the eight students who received a full admission offer from the university in advance, and he is the only student who has applied for a full scholarship!

"Awey, everyone on the scene is sharing your kindness, success and joy, as the principal, I am proud that you are a student at Johns Stanley Private High School, if we can hear your heart, this night may be even more perfect!" After the headmistress finished speaking, she sent an invitation to Li Ling.

Li Ling stepped onto the podium, and he first expressed his gratitude to the female principal, and then congratulated the graduates and their families...... These were all cutscenes, and then, his tone calmed down:

“…… I am here to salute and congratulate a woman. Do you believe that a single woman, and a person of color, can make a career in a country like the United States with her own hands, so that her son can attend an excellent private school like John Stanley,

And to be able to listen to the call of Columbia, the top university in the United States, this is the American dream she created, and she has paid too much sweat and tears for it, which is beyond the comprehension of anyone who only sees the surface of her success.

"So, I congratulate her, and if I say I'm good, it's because she's good enough...... Hey! Mom, you know what, you really did it, you succeeded! Then, thank you for your success and for giving me the opportunity to sit and drink coffee with the mainstream society of this country, Mom, I love you! ”

When Li Ling said this, he compared his heart with one hand and a flying kiss with the other hand on his mouth, and at the same time gave it to a Chinese lady in the audience who was graceful and had an outstanding temperament.

The Chinese lady had tears in her eyes at this time, and her happy smile made her look as if she had stepped back in time to be twenty years old.

"Then, I would like to thank my third senior brother, thank him for his help and cultivation for me for so many years, without him, I would definitely not be standing here! Of course, I would also like to thank my three good friends: Pine Cone, Maple, Kiriko, and the beautiful and lovely female man-——Brother Sakura, thank you! ”

After Li Ling finished speaking, he looked at the four Chinese men in the audience and a handsome Chinese girl affectionately.

The four men, one old and three young, including the girl, clapped their hands one after another, and the corners of the elderly man's eyes were also faintly covered with tears.

Next, the graduation ceremony was followed by a sumptuous buffet banquet and graduation ball. But at this time, Li Ling quietly walked out of the auditorium.

In 1998, on a July night in New York, the moon was shining brightly and the evening breeze was blowing, and he jumped on the gift that his mother gave him to his 18-year-old adult and admitted to Columbia University - a silver cool 84 version of the Buick convertible, Tongzi sat in the passenger seat, Li Ling just started the car, and a tall, plump white girl ran over: "Li, didn't you say you wanted to dance with me at the graduation prom?" ”

"Oh, Alice, I'm sorry, I've got something urgent right now, I'll explain it to you another day, okay, have fun!" Li Ling waved his hand to her after speaking, and drove away.

Located in the Adirondack Mountains in northeastern New York, the Punal Valley is not far from the town of Manglai, along Highway 218, which is about a 20-minute drive, and the "Lihua" wood processing factory run by Li Ling's third brother, Qin Shaonan, is located here.

There are more than 30 or 40 wood processing factories or furniture workshops in the Punal Valley, and most of the operators are Chinese, especially carpenters from Guangdong and Chaoshan, China, and a few Vietnamese and Burmese.

In the mid-19th century, a group of Chinese came to the United States to pan for gold, they went to San Francisco and New York, where they took root and survived, and contributed their sweat and even their lives to the rise of the United States after World War I.

No matter where the Chinese go, they will bring their skills and eating skills with them, and they will always survive, which is the reason why the descendants of Yan and Huang have continued to reproduce for thousands of years.

Half an hour later, Li Ling parked the car in the Lihua wood processing factory, a barking dog in the factory saw the owner to be very intimate, Li Ling and Tongzi climbed the back mountain of the factory, from the back mountain to a small hill, you can reach the highest peak in the Punal Valley - nearly 300 meters above sea level Levigang.

At night, there is a quiet place on the Levigang Peak, from time to time there are some mountain birds chirping, fireflies hovering around the two, and the moonlight is sprinkled on the mountains like mercury, making this mountain peak have a bit of the feeling of a fairyland in the Toad Palace.

Looking at a black house in front of her, Kiriko stopped: "Xiaoling, you have been admitted to Columbia University, and there is a white girl with big breasts and round butts chasing you, life is so beautiful, do you want to think about it carefully?" ”

", am I going to be cautious and come to climb the mountain with you so late? Do you want to do it? Don't be verbose, open the door! Li Ling pushed him.

"But you're not a carpenter! It is said that a man who was not a carpenter went in and went insane when he came out......"

"You should think so, maybe I went in, and when I came out, I was always in good spirits!"

"But I'm really scared, in case you-"

"Grind again, if you peek at Brother Sakura's bath, I'll ......"

"Oops! Come on, but that's it, just one time! Not an example! ”

"Of course, who is with whom of our brothers, when did I lie to you......" Speaking of this, Li Ling's face burned, didn't this girl be deceived by her brother like this since she was a child.

The house on the peak of the Villegaon is the Luban Temple built by Chinese carpenters who came to the Punal Valley in the 19th century, hoping that their ancestors would bless their carpentry business with prosperity and success in a foreign land.

However, it is rumored that the carpenter who built the temple once placed a spell on the temple: if a person who is not a carpenter enters the temple, he will be cursed and will be in trouble.

The local Chinese Carpentry Association also explicitly forbade non-carpenters to enter the temple, and they were strictly guarded. If it weren't for the turn of the Lihua Wood Factory to preside over and maintain the temple, Li Ling would not have had a chance to go in at all.

Li Ling always thinks that there are ancient carpenter books in this Luban Temple, such as the "Wood Scripture Essentials" in the Sui Dynasty, or the "Wood Classic", "Building the French Style", "Luban Scripture" and so on after the Song Dynasty.

Books such as "The Book of Wood" and "The Book of Wood" have long been lost in China, especially after several wars, and after the catastrophe of the sixties and seventies, some national art inheritances have almost been artificially extinct in the land of China.

But Li Ling knows that some classics have been lost in China, which does not mean that they have not been inherited overseas, and some carpenters who came to the United States in the nineteenth century to pan for gold may have brought some ancient carpenter books that were lost in China here.

"Bang dang" woke up Li Ling, who was deep in thought, Tongzi had opened the temple door, Li Ling turned on the flashlight, and stepped in.

There was no electricity on the mountain, so Kiriko took out a lighter and found a kerosene lamp in a corner, lit it, and the dim light set off the environment a little.

Li Ling saw clearly, there was a statue about three meters high on the shrine in the front hall - the ancestor Lu Ban, holding an axe in one hand and a saw on his back.

Li Ling kowtowed to Master Zu, bowed three times, and then looked around the front hall, there was nothing special, and went around to the back hall, and this small temple is just a little place.

Tongzi followed with a kerosene lamp, and saw that Li Ling was rummaging through a pile of miscellaneous items in the back hall, with a disappointed look on his face, and said with a smile: "Let me say, how can there be any ancient books and collections in this broken temple, you don't believe it!" ”

"Kiriko, do you think there will be a basement in this temple?" Li Ling picked up a long wooden stick and looked around.

This back hall is a utility room, full of all kinds of wooden frames and planks, and some wooden benches and horses, but there is no dust and cobwebs, after all, people are always cleaning.

Tongzi said disdainfully: "You think this ancestral temple is a treasure cave, even if there is a treasure, think about it, more than a hundred years, can it still be you and me?" ”

"Kiriko, bring the lamp!" Li Ling's gaze fell on a wooden board at the top of the back hall wall—on which stood something more than a foot high.

Tongzi came over with a lamp, saw Li Ling staring at the wooden board, patted his chest and said: "What are you excited about, isn't it the statue of the ancestor and master, don't we also have one at home, we have to worship a stick of incense every morning and evening." Okay, it's time to go back, it's almost eight o'clock, and the master and master should be looking for us now! ”

"Wait a minute." Li Ling shot the flashlight over, it was indeed a small ancestor wood carving, something that was very familiar, but he thought about it and decided to take it down and take a look.

There happened to be a wooden horse under the wall, and he climbed up it. The Trojan horse is a simple frame used by carpenters to support wood, which is supported by three legs, which is naturally very strong, and unfortunately, one of the feet of the Trojan horse in front of him has been decayed.

As soon as he climbed up, the Trojan's foot snapped off, and then fell against the wall!

Li Ling on the wooden horse had no hands to rely on, and in his desperate situation, he had to grab the wooden board on the wall.

But even more unfortunately, the plank was not nailed, but moved, and he grabbed it with both hands, and with a "bang" he knocked it over.

But the most unfortunate thing is that a heavy object then hit him on the forehead with a "bang" -

"Ouch!" Li Ling screamed and fell.

Fortunately, it was a mud floor, not a cement or wooden floor, and Li Ling propped his hands on the ground, and he didn't fall so badly, but he was bleeding from his forehead.

"Damn, I'm bleeding! Look, the curse is coming! Kiriko hurriedly stepped forward to pull him up and covered his wound to stop the bleeding.

None of them noticed that the small Luban statue that smashed Li Ling's forehead suddenly flashed with a layer of green light, and then there was no abnormality.

Li Ling picked up the statue of Lu Ban, saw that there was also a layer of blood on his head, wiped it, and ridiculed: "Master Zu seems to have a fate with me, let's call it 'not the same door and don't meet'!" ”

There was only a small wound on his forehead, and after holding it down for a while, it would no longer bleed, Li Ling put the wooden board on the wall again, returned the original statue of the ancestor master, and then kowtowed respectfully to it and said:

"Although the disciple is not a carpenter, but he has a blood relationship with the ancestor master, the ancestor must bless the disciple, don't be cursed by any spell, the disciple can burn incense for you at the third senior brother's house every morning and evening!"

After that, he and Tongzi went out of the temple, Tongzi locked the temple door, and kept asking Li Ling how he was doing along the way, for fear that he would be insane or have an accident.

But nothing happened to Li Ling except for a slight skin wound on his forehead - until about nine o'clock, when he returned to his home in Manglai Town, coped with his mother's interrogation, and took a shower to go to bed.

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The old open the new book, please new and old book friends to support, vote, click, collect, thank you!! This book, Lao Zhang will definitely write it with heart and finish it, and there is a character guarantee!