Sister Mei picked up the wine bottle and filled it for Teacher Shi, poured herself a glass and said, "It's boring to drink alone, I'll accompany you to drink two glasses-top-point-small-say-"

Teacher Shi came back to his senses, picked up the wine glass and touched it with Sister Mei, and said with emotion: "The house in Provence is expensive, and now it has risen to 8,001 square meters, and I can't afford this salary without eating or drinking for two lifetimes." ”

Sister Mei asked him, "How much can you take now?" ”

Teacher Shi said: "It's much better than being a teacher in the countryside before, I have been transferred to the city for four years, teaching in Shiyàn Middle School, and the monthly miscellaneous things add up, I can have more than 2,000, it's okay to support myself, it's too early to buy a house and marry a daughter-in-law." ”

Sister Mei smiled secretly in her heart, she has been in the industry for many years, and she knows the hunger and thirst of old men, and with the courage of Teacher Shi, she will definitely not dare to set foot in the Fengyue place, so she has to ask the marriage agency to help.

"More than 2,000 is good, more than the upper and lower than the bottom, those farmers only have a few dollars for a year's land, you are a teacher, equivalent to a national cadre, not to mention drought and flood protection, there are winter and summer vacations, and there is a lot of extra money to make up lessons for students in their spare time, a house, you can find a woman with a house." Sister Mei said with relief.

Teacher Shi reacted slowly, didn't notice the meaning of Sister Mei's words, and sighed and said: "Who can look down on me if you have a house, and I can't look down on those uneducated rural women. ”

Sister Mei asked, "Then where do you live now?" ”

"I live in a rented house, the rent is 300 a month, not far from the school, ten minutes by bicycle, I live alone, I don't pay attention to it, it's convenient." Teacher Shi was in a mood, drinking by himself, his body was hot, and he took off his down jacket, revealing the brown sweater inside, which he wore when he was in high school, the cuffs were bald, and the box of cigarettes on the table was a labor card of two yuan and five, which shows how difficult his life was.

Teacher Shi's amount of alcohol is not large, today is considered to be a hometown acquaintance, unconsciously half a catty, the words began to be dense, pouring bitter water on Sister Mei, he is the boss, there are younger brothers and sisters at home, and he depends on him to help him go to school, so many years have not saved a penny, all spent on the family.

"Now that they have graduated, they have found jobs in Beijing and Shanghai, which can be regarded as promising, but what's the use, they don't go home for the New Year, and they have to pay for the house to buy a house, which is a house in Beijing and Shanghai, and the down payment has to be hundreds of thousands, and I, who am the eldest brother, will be a cow and a horse for them all my life."

Sister Mei gently explained him: "Drink less, don't go to your heart, people live for a lifetime, the picture is worthy of your heart, you are worthy of your parents and family, learn to be smart in the future, think more about yourself, find a daughter-in-law, have a child, and have a long life in the future." ”

Teacher Shi came from the bottom of his heart, took off his glasses and began to cry, crying for a while, and simply fell asleep on the table. ”

Sister Mei went to pay the bill, asked the guy to pack the rest of the dishes, called Aunt Zhang from the marriage agency, asked for the specific address of Mr. Shi, went outside to stop a taxi, and asked the boss to help her help her get the drunk Mr. Shi into the car, and told the driver the address.

Ten minutes later, when I arrived at the place, the driver helped Sister Mei carry Mr. Shi to the door, Sister Mei paid the fare, and gave five more yuan, took off the key from Mr. Shi's belt, tried one by one, and finally opened the door This is a bungalow, the area is very small, a bed, a table, and a simple wardrobe, there is a damp in the room, cold and biting, there is a computer on the table, except for the position that the hand often touches, the other areas are a layer of dust, the bed is dirty clothes, stinky socks, and a standard bachelor's dormitory.

Sister Mei put Teacher Shi on the bed and pulled the quilt over to cover him, this quilt is also cold and hard, and it has not been dried for a long time.

Teacher Shi slept very soundly, Sister Mei looked around, began to clean, first threw out the garbage, all the dirty clothes were soaked in the basin, the table was wiped clean, the ground was swept, and I saw a small kitchen at the door, with a gas stove and an iron pot, so I helped him make a pot of rice, put the packaged mutton on the plate, and when the rice was cooked, Teacher Shi had not woken up, Sister Mei simply washed all the dirty clothes, dried them outside, wrote a note and put it on the table, closed the door, and went home.

It wasn't until seven o'clock in the evening that Mr. Shi woke up from his slumber, his head was splitting, and when he opened his eyes, he was at home, his shoes were taken off, and his body was covered with a quilt, so he quickly got up, there was no one in the room, and there was a note on the table.

The handwriting on the note is very beautiful, and it was left by Sister Mei.

"There is boiling water in the kettle, there is rice in the pot, eat it when it is hot, and don't forget to collect the clothes when they are hung outside, it is not well-known."

Teacher Shi put on his slippers and looked around, the house was clean, there were dishes on the table, the hot water in the kettle was full, and when he went out, the clothes hanging on the rope were frozen hard.

When the neighbor saw him going out, he smiled and asked, "Teacher Shi, is it your daughter-in-law who came in the afternoon?" ”

"Oh no, it's a classmate." Teacher Shi explained, his heart is warm, it is good to have a woman in the family, he put away the clothes, the dishes are hot, he ate a hearty dinner with rice, turned on the computer to write, but he couldn't write, his mind was completely messed up.

At night, Mr. Shi lay on the bed and couldn't sleep, staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning, and his heart was numb.

……

Early the next morning, Mr. Shi got up and hastily put down noodles to eat, rode a bicycle to school on duty, and came down in the morning, unable to give up, and wanted to call Mei Ruohua several times, but he still held back.

Shi Guoying was transferred to the city by pure chance, that year Zheng Jiayi had an accident in Pingchuan, his testimony played an important role, contributing to the stability of the city, the municipal party committee transferred him from the township to the school in the city to work, at first he was very excited, thinking that life began a new page, full of ambition to develop his ambitions, but the dream was soon shattered by reality.

He has a low education, is old, can't talk to young teachers, and those older teachers in the city also look down on him, plus his own ability is not high enough, Mandarin is not standard, he doesn't understand English, and he can't talk to leaders, so he was gradually marginalized and became a transparent person in the school, almost forty years old, and he didn't even have a senior teacher.

The heavy family burden made Shi Guoying unable to save money, let alone buy a house and get married, the girls in the city were demanding, and he didn't want to find an uneducated village girl, after thinking twice, he decided to retreat and target the divorced and widowed middle-aged intellectual women, before meeting Sister Mei, he met several women in a row, and the other party didn't take a fancy to him, which was a big blow to his self-confidence.

What does Sister Mei do for a living, Shi Guoying has heard of it, in short, it is not a job that can be put on the table, but then again, who hasn't gone over, should give others a chance.

Sister Mei's real name is actually not called Mei Ruohua, she was called Mei Ling when she was a child, and she changed her name to Mei Ruohua when she was in school, and later learned that this is Mei Chaofeng's name, and it is too late to change it.

At noon, Shi Guoying went out to eat, and suddenly the mobile phone rang, he took out the Nokia mobile phone with a black and white screen and answered it, and Sister Mei's voice came from the earpiece: "Teacher Shi, come to dinner at home in the evening, I bought an elbow." ”

"Don't go, it's troublesome." Mr. Shi said politely, in fact, a heart is pounding, he yearns for the Provencal Garden, a colleague bought a house there, he once visited, if there is a paradise on earth, it is none other than the Provence Garden.

"What are you polite to me, if you don't come, I will send you the specific address." Sister Mei said undoubtedly, hung up the phone, and sent the address information.

Shi Guoying spent the afternoon in apprehension, just after five o'clock left the school, now the vegetable market bought two catties of apples, thought about it and went to the supermarket to buy some puffed food with large bags but cheap prices, and also found a barber shop to spend twenty yuan to shave his head, this is the first time he entered the barber shop in the city, he used to go back to the countryside to let the village master help him shave his head.

At six o'clock and five o'clock, Shi Guoying came to the gate of the Provence Garden, and the security guards standing in the sentry box gave it a sense of noble community, and the residents who came in and out were also dressed decently, not as sloppy and casual as the countrymen.

The community has only been built for four years, the facilities have not yet aged, and the provincial health city has been evaluated recently, so the ground is quite tidy, Shi Guoying walked slowly with his things, imagining that he was a resident here, and his heart was full of happiness and pride.

When I came downstairs, Shi Guoying called Sister Mei, and Sister Mei said that you can just come up and knock on the door, and I won't go down to pick you up when I'm cooking.

Teacher Shi went upstairs, knocked on the door, the door opened, and a little girl of six or seven years old stood at the door, and turned around and shouted, "Mom, the guest is here." ”

Sister Mei's voice came from the kitchen: "Get slippers for your uncle." ”

The little girl took a pair of cotton slippers from the shoe closet, brand new men's slippers with tags.

Shi Guoying scanned the room, the living room was covered with laminate flooring, fabric sofas and glass coffee tables, a 52-inch LCD TV hung on the wall, and the cabinet air conditioner in the corner was blowing warm air.

"Uncle, change your slippers." The little girl said.

"Thank you, thank you." Shi Guoying woke up from the hallucination, took off his cotton shoes, changed into slippers, his socks were torn a few holes, and he was a little embarrassed, but the little girl didn't care at all, and ran back to watch cartoons.

Sister Mei came out of the kitchen with the dishes, she was wearing a tight sweater and apron, she looked like a housewife, Shi Guoying wanted to help, but she refused: "You sit down, how can the teacher do this, I'll just come." ”

It didn't take much effort, the table was full of sumptuous dishes, chicken, duck and fish, it can be seen that Sister Mei had made sufficient preparations for this meal, and there was a bottle of Jian Nanchun on the table, which sold more than 200 yuan of good wine in the supermarket.

"Smoke, you're welcome." Sister Mei took out a box of Su cigarettes from her apron pocket and handed it over, "Don't smoke those cheap cigarettes in the future, it's not good for your health." ”

"I'm going to quit smoking in the future." Shi Guoying, but still took the pack of cigarettes.

"Wash your hands and eat." Sister Mei took off her apron and sat at the dining table, Shi Guoying went to wash her hands and sat opposite Sister Mei, with Sister Mei's daughter in the middle, like a happy family of three.