Heyang County is not big, there are only two intersecting main streets, which are divided by crosses and are named East, West, South and North Streets respectively.

At the intersection of these two main roads, the most prosperous area of Heyang County is formed, where the county party committee and county government, major institutions, Xinhua bookstores, post offices, banks, and department stores are gathered.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the sun was setting in the west, but the fire was still fierce, and the sky and earth were like a big steamer.

There were no cars or many people on the streets, and the occasional pedestrians who walked by were all steam and roasted listlessly by the hot weather. Xiao Fei followed his memory and rode his bicycle to a newsstand next to Xinhua Bookstore.

In the newsstand sat a girl in a floral dress, the girl had a ponytail tied behind her head, she was about 20 years old, fair-skinned, with a lovely round face, a pair of dark eyes, curved and thin eyebrows were very delicate, cherry lipstick was gaudy, the corners of the mouth were slightly upturned, with a little playful energy.

Seeing Xiao Fei, the girl stood up and smiled slightly.

"Finished the exam?"

"It's over."

"How's it going?"

"Not so good."

"Are you going home?"

"Yes."

The two gossiped a few words, the girl took out two magazines from under the counter, looked around to see that there was no one, and stuffed them into Xiao Fei's hand: "This is the latest issue of "Poetry Magazine" and "Harvest", you can take it and read it, remember not to get dirty, just return it in time after reading it." ”

Her name is Wu Aizhen.

Her father, a teacher at Heyang No. 1 Middle School, died of lung cancer four years ago, and now she and her mother are the only ones in the family.

Wu Aizhen graduated from high school the year before last and did not repeat her studies, so she found a job and began to earn money to support her family. She's been working at this newsstand for two years.

Xiao Fei often comes here to read books, and occasionally buys magazines, such as poetry magazines, Liaoning youth, Chinese campus literature, etc.

The more they came, they got to know each other.

Wu Aizhen has always taken good care of him, and when the boss is away, he reads the books on the stall casually. The two have also chatted many times, and when Wu Aizhen knew that Xiao Fei liked to write on weekdays, and had published articles in middle school reading, middle school days, and Chinese newspapers, she admired him very much.

She also told Xiao Fei about herself.

Wu Aizhen's family lives in the family home of the teachers of Heyang No. 1 Middle School, she and her mother are at home, her mother is a housewife, she has never come out to work in her life, after the death of her father, the pillar of the family has fallen, the backbone of the mother and daughter is gone, and her mother is worried every day.

In fact, Wu Aizhen also wants to continue studying, and is also eager to be admitted to university and change her destiny. But the bleak situation at home made her break her dream of studying and take on the responsibility of supporting her family.

This is a sensible girl.

Xiao Fei deeply sympathized with her, but he couldn't help her.

On the contrary, Wu Aizhen helped Xiao Fei more.

In his previous life, throughout his senior year of high school, he took books from her for free and never bought a single book. Once, she flipped through his article in a magazine and bought the book out of her own pocket and gave it to him.

Xiao Fei wanted to return the money to her, but she resolutely didn't want it.

Not only that, but she also invited Xiao Fei to her home for dinner twice.

For Wu Aizhen, Xiao Fei's heart is complicated at the moment, and he can feel that she seems to have a little hazy liking for him. In his previous life, he was relatively sluggish, and he never thought too deeply about it.

Now, I can only continue to pretend to be confused.

Perhaps, he could find a way to compensate her elsewhere.

"Wu Aizhen, I don't like to read these magazines now, I just want to copy a few submission addresses today." Xiao Fei didn't take the magazine handed over by Wu Aizhen and explained.

Most of what Xiao Fei remembered in his mind were the e-mail addresses of those newspapers and periodicals in later generations, and he really didn't remember a few of the mailing addresses of various print media in 1996.

"Oh? Haven't you always loved these two magazines? Why don't you like it all of a sudden? Wu Aizhen was a little surprised by this.

Xiao Fei scratched his head and said, "After I go home, I have to work in the field, I have a little free, and I want to write some manuscripts, so I don't have time to read it." ”

This explanation pales in comparison.

In fact, after being reborn, Xiao Fei felt that he had long lost his desire and interest in reading. What's more, the contents of the two magazines handed over by Wu Aizhen have long been in his head.

"So, what are you going to do if you can't get into college?" Wu Aizhen tilted her head, her big eyes staring at him without blinking for a moment.

"I'll repeat it for another year." Xiao Fei said.

"Oh." Wu Aizhen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, "Will you come over to read books in the future?" ”

"I will." Xiao Fei replied.

Wu Aizhen said with a smile: "I haven't seen your article published for a long time, this college entrance examination is over, and you finally have time to continue writing and submitting, does that mean that I will soon be able to see your new work in the magazine?" ”

She stood across from him, her ponytail swaying at the back of her head, her delicate face covered with beads of sweat, and her eyes full of joy.

Xiao Fei could see that she was really happy for herself.

"I hope that's the case." Xiao Fei also laughed.

Talking to Wu Aizhen made his heart relax.

"Well, I'll keep an eye on it for you, and when I see the newspaper or magazine that publishes your manuscript, I'll keep a copy for you and give it to you when you come back." Wu Aizhen took the initiative to ask Ying.

"Wu Aizhen, thank you so much." Xiao Fei is grateful for this.

In fact, Xiao Fei doesn't pay attention to sample newspapers and magazines now, what he is looking forward to most now is to send manuscripts one after another to earn manuscript fees.

"By the way, Xiao Fei, where is your home, you have never told me, if you are too busy and inconvenient to come, I will send it to your home." Wu Aizhen's enthusiasm burned Xiao Fei.

"How can I bother you so much, Wu Aizhen, I will come to the county seat regularly." Xiao Fei said.

Wu Aizhen looked at him and giggled: "Are you afraid that I will go to your house?" ”

"How so? It's too late to welcome, it's just that the road is too far away, it's still so hot, and it's too hard for you to ride to us. Xiao Fei said.

"I just want to go and recognize my home, can't I?"

Speaking of this, Xiao Fei had no choice but to tell Wu Aizhen the direction of the route where he was located.

He thought, he is a little bit obsessed, can't men and women be good friends except for the relationship between lovers?

Next, with the help of Wu Aizhen, Xiao Fei copied the submission addresses of some newspapers and magazines, said goodbye to her, went to a nearby store to buy 20 checkered manuscript papers, and then went to the post office to buy some envelopes and stamps.

This can be regarded as preparing for the great cause of writing.

At the same time, the little money in Xiao Fei's pocket was also completely bottomed out, and with the only dime left, he bought a popsicle to quench his thirst.

In this college entrance examination, his family gave him fifty yuan to eat.

Because he ate and lived at Uncle Wang Likai's house, he barely spent much money, otherwise, he would not have had such sufficient funds to buy manuscript paper, envelopes, stamps, and other things.

Xiao Fei's home is in the northeast of the county.

The name of the small village is Xili Village.

The village is located in a sand nest, with a lot of sand and barren land, and the village is enveloped by a rolling hill. There are two or three hundred households in Xili Village, with a population of nearly 1,000 people.

In these years, the boom of part-time work has not yet risen, and every family guards a few acres of thin fields, and life is miserable.

Xiao Fei pedaled out of the county seat and galloped along a big road.

There are poplar trees on both sides of the road, which shade the sun and are much cooler.

It's just that Xiao Fei saw that everywhere he looked, the leaves on the trees were mottled, and many trees were sparse and almost bare. The nose smells pungent with pesticides.

Almost all sides of the road are cotton fields, many people are working in the fields, and the sprayers spray a mist of water, which shines in the sun.

Xiao Fei suddenly remembered: In 1996, there was an extinct cotton bollworm disaster in H Province.

How serious is this disaster?

In the past, the plains of H Province were traditional cotton producing areas, and cotton was the most important cash crop, which was related to the family income of thousands of farmers.

The 96-year cotton bollworm plague directly wiped out hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton on this plain.

The whole plain is full of mourning, thousands of families are depressed, and thousands of households are scattered.

Since that year, the tradition of growing cotton in this great plain has been completely abandoned, and corn and peanuts have been replaced by cotton, and the rural economic model has been turned upside down.

The cotton bollworm is rampant to such an extent that people in the city can't imagine it.

Day after day, the peasants catch insects and moths in the cotton fields, spray highly toxic pesticides, and kill the enemy, and the cotton insects are beaten over and over again.

But the cotton bollworm is inexhaustible, the poison is inexhaustible, and the stubble insects go one after another, raging wildly.

The cotton flowers are eaten by insects before they are in full bloom, and the cotton peach has a little shape, and the insects gnaw it away.

The farmers were unable to control the catastrophe with huge debts to the agricultural input station, and by August, despair had begun to spread in the countryside.

The fragile smallholder economy simply cannot withstand this kind of devastation.

Xiao Fei clearly remembers that his poor and weak family reached the point of extreme poverty in 1996, and the family did not even have money for soy sauce, and he had to go to the commissary on credit to eat salt.

This year's Spring Festival is the most tragic Spring Festival since Xiao Fei's memory, the family has no money to buy meat, and they can't even afford to eat dumplings, let alone add a new dress.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the family sat silently around the dinner table, with only one plate of pickles on the table, each with corn paste in their bowls and some yellow noodles in the bun basket.

That night, my parents were smiling at first, but when they turned their backs, tears rolled down.

A family, everyone wept.

Even so, the family did not let Xiao Fei drop out of school, but gritted their teeth and let him continue to repeat. In 1997, when Xiao Fei was admitted to university and went to school in the provincial capital, the tuition fee was borrowed by his father from the bank.

The arrears were not paid off until he graduated from college.

The tragedy of the past is vivid.

Do you have to repeat it again?

No, never!

Thinking of this, Xiao Fei's heart became heavier, he had to act as soon as possible, and he had to change this unbearable fate.

The county seat is fifty miles away from his village, and it took Xiao Fei more than an hour to ride a bicycle to reach the entrance of the village.

The first thing that catches the eye is the tall mounds that stretch from the east side of the village to the south of the village, enclosing most of the village.

To enter the village, you must pass through a valley pass that is just over two meters wide.

Looking at the green fields, the busy villagers in the fields, and the familiar faces, Xiao Fei's heart suddenly rose to the feeling of being close to home.