After completing the labor camp, Wang Hongju was placed in a mine that was shut down during the Cultural Revolution because of the depletion of resources, and he was sent to a remote village to work as a farmer.

Although Wang Hongju's composition is not good, he can seriously accept the transformation, he is not afraid of being dirty or tired when doing farm work, and he is educated, eloquent and can write well, and often writes family letters for the villagers. The simple villagers in the village respected the educated people very much, and the villagers simply stopped letting Wang Hongju go down to the field to do farm work, and let him be a clerk in the village revolutionary committee. From then on, the village's big-character posters, propaganda slogans, speeches by village leaders, and articles on criticism were all written by him. Later, due to the expansion of the commune primary school in the township, there was a shortage of teachers, and Wang Hongju, who had been a teacher, was transferred to the commune primary school as a private teacher under the strong recommendation of the village cadres.

The commune's primary school enrolls school-age children from seven or eight natural villages under the commune, and the school has no dormitory, so children who are close to the school come to school by themselves every day, and children who are far away from the school are picked up by their parents. There is a little boy named Ah Hua in Wang Hongju's class, his home is six or seven miles away from the school, and his father rides a bicycle to take him to and from school every day. Ah Hua's father is forty years old, he is a dark-skinned and honest farmer, he only has such an only child, let his child become a cultural person who can get out of the poor countryside, and changing the fate of generations of digging from the soil is his greatest life ideal, so no matter how busy he is with farm work, he insists on picking up Ah Hua at school every day in the wind and rain. But one day all the children in the class were gone, and then all the children in the school were gone, and I didn't see Ah Hua's father come to pick him up.

Seeing Ah Hua's anxious look, Wang Hongju asked with concern: "Ah Hua, why didn't your father take you home today?" Is there something going on at home? ”

Ah Hua said: "I don't know what to say, he said he would pick me up after school in the afternoon. ”

Wang Hongju asked again: "Ah Hua, are you hungry?" ”

Ah Hua nodded and said, "Well, I'm going home for dinner." ”

Wang Hongju saw that the sun was about to set, so he decided to send Ah Hua home in person. I also happened to make a home visit to the student's home. So he said to Ah Hua: "Your father didn't come to pick you up, you must have been entangled in things." Tell me how to get to your house, and I'll take you back on my bike, okay? ”

"Xie Lu, Mr. Wang!" Ah Hua agreed.

From the school to Ah Hua's home, there is a winding dirt road, flanked by clumps of wild plantain forests and weeds. When Wang Hongju rode halfway to find that there were a few banana trees on the side of the road that were knocked down, he stopped the car and saw that there were traces of being run over by wheels on the ground, and a pool of blood on the side of the road was covered by weeds. He immediately got on his bicycle and rode quickly towards Ah Hua's house.

After riding for more than half an hour, Wang Hongju saw a large coconut grove in front of him, and some houses with stone walls and thatched roofs could be faintly seen in the woods. It's a small village, and Ah Wah's home is right next to it.

At this moment, I saw a bicycle on the opposite side rushing quickly in their direction, and when the two bicycles staggered, Ah Hua saw that the cyclist was his neighbor and shouted: "Uncle, where are you going in a hurry?" ”

The man was riding hard with his head down, but when he heard Ah Hua's shout, he suddenly stopped the car, and when he saw Ah Hua, he suddenly stopped the car and said, "Andy, I was about to pick you up from school, your father died." Hurry home! ”

"Huh? Abba is dead? Ah Hua was taken aback when he heard this.

Hearing this bad news, Wang Hongju also chuckled in his heart, although he had a premonition that something might happen to Ah Hua's father just now, but he really didn't want bad luck to fall on Ah Hua's father. He asked Ah Hua's other neighbor, "I am Ah Hua's teacher, how did Ah Hua's father die?" ”

Ah Hua's neighbor dropped the handlebar and said, "Ah Hua's mother cried like a tearful person." She is anxious to see the child, let's go back and talk about it in detail! ”

When Wang Hongju and the others came to the entrance of the village, they heard a woman's cry from not far away, and Ah Hua told Wang Hongju that it was her mother crying. When they walked up to Ah Hua's house. A woman's heart-rending cry came from Ah Hua's house.

"Grandma, I'm back!" Ah Hua jumped out of the car in a hurry without waiting for Wang Hongju to stop the car and ran into the house quickly. Wang Hongju also threw out of the car and followed into the house.

On the floor of one of Ah Hua's houses lay a door panel, on which lay a man with gauze wrapped around his head, soaked with bright red blood, this person was Ah Hua's father, he was dead.

A woman who was nearly forty years old knelt beside the corpse of Ah Hua's father, and wept in a whisper, she was Ah Hua's mother. As soon as the young Ah Hua entered the house, he was stunned by the scene in front of him, and he ran to his mother and asked loudly, "Mom, how did my father die?" ”

When Ah Hua's mother saw her son coming back, she stopped crying and whimpered and said, "Ah Hua, your father was hit by a truck on the way to pick you up from school, and his head hit a stone, and then he died!" It was the truck that hit the man who brought back your dad's body. She began to cry again

"Ahh Abba, come back quickly, I don't want you to die! I don't want you to die! With tears streaming down his face, Ah Hua leaned over Abba's corpse and cried.

Wang Hongju, who was standing on the side, looked at the dead lying on the door panel and a pair of mother and son who were immersed in grief, and he comforted them with a heavy heart: "People can't be resurrected after death, please mourn, excessive grief will hurt your body!" ”

Hearing someone ask, Ah Hua's mother stopped crying, she raised her head and asked, "Which one are you?" ”

"I am Ah Hua's teacher, and I saw that his father had not picked him up, so I personally sent him back."

Ah Hua said to her mother in a crying voice: "Grandma, he is my homeroom teacher, Mr. Wang. ”

"Oh, hello Mr. Wang! You may be seated. Ah Hua's mother quickly stood up, she wiped her tears and reached out to give Wang Hongju a seat.

When Wang Hongju and Ah Hua's mother looked at each other, he suddenly felt that this woman's face was so familiar, and at this time, Ah Hua's mother's expression was also full of surprise when she looked at Wang Hongju.

"You are, you're Axia?" Wang Hongju couldn't believe his eyes, and he asked softly.

"I'm Ah Xia, you're Big Brother Wang, right?" Ah Xia's mother also felt that the man in front of her seemed familiar, and she wanted to confirm it again.

"Ah Xia, I am the big brother Wang back then! You and Uncle saved my life back then, I miss you so much! Wang Hongju couldn't help but get excited, but he really didn't expect to meet Ah Xia again on such a sad occasion.

"Brother Wang, we miss you too, my Abba often talked about you when he was alive!"

Hearing that the old man had passed away, Wang Hongju felt sad for a while, and he asked again: "Ah Xia, the old man is gone, your house is far away from here, why did you come here?" ”

"Alas! It's hard to put into words! Ah Xia sighed.

At this time, the people in the village brought a coffin, and several villagers put Ahua's father into the coffin, and then carried the coffin outside the house. Ah Xia was busy entertaining the villagers and neighbors who were helping.

It was completely dark, and the villagers who helped were all gone, only Wang Hongju did not leave Ah Xia's house for the time being. After Ah Xia's grief gradually calmed down, she told Wang Hongju about what had happened to her over the years. (To be continued......)