Sitting on the bus from the county seat to the town of Montenegro, everything outside the window is like a fast shot from a movie, appearing in front of your eyes. The floodgates of memory were opened again - he thought of his father Fang Baoguo.

His father, Fang Baoguo, was a private teacher who taught at the Yuanshan Village Primary School in Heishan Township, where their family was located. At that time, private teachers had their own responsible fields, and Fang Baoguo had to take time to plant his own responsible fields in addition to attending classes. During work hours, Fang Baoguo went to school to teach the children; After school, he had to help his wife with farm work.

Fang Xinning also has a sister, who is 10 years older than him, called Fang Xinxin. Since the addition of these two children to the family, Fang's mother has been chained to housework for a long time, and the farm work in the field has to be done by her father alone. I couldn't squeeze in time during the day, so my father went to the field at night. Watering, harvesting wheat, a lot of work was done by Fang Baoguo alone in the moonlight. It is for this reason that when Fang Xinning walks at night, when he sees people harvesting wheat on a moonlit night, he will always stop and listen to the sound of "chirping" and "chirping" when he is cutting wheat, as if he will see his father straighten up, put his arm on his face, and smile at him. This "chirping" and "chirping" sound is exactly the rhythm of his father's life as a teacher and a farmer, so that this kind of voice is always indispensable in Fang Xinning's memories. And whenever this kind of voice sounded in his ears, Fang Xinning would feel that his father's eyes were behind him, watching him walk forward.

When Fang Xinning was very young, his father occasionally took him to school. It was one of the most spacious courtyards in the village, with rows of bungalows, towering aspen, green holly, flowerbeds made of green bricks and lace, and improvised basketball hoops made of wooden stakes and nailed boards. Fang Xinning in the preschool is most willing to run and jump here and enjoy the happiness that only primary school students have. Sometimes, when I go to the office, I pick up a few chalk heads, draw whatever I want, and accept compliments from two of Fang Baoguo's colleagues, Mr. Xiao Liang and Mr. Lao Huang. In the young Fang Xinning's heart, it was the most comfortable thing in the world.

Most of the details of the past have been forgotten, but once, Mr. Huang pointed to Xiao Fang Xinning and said: "The child can be taught, and he is a person with lofty ideals." The words were abrupt, and Teacher Xiao Liang and his father looked at him puzzled. He pointed to the back of Fang Xinning's neck, which provoked everyone to daxiao, it turned out that his "Zhi" was a "mole". Later, Fang Baoguo really often used this mole to give his son a hard time. Now that I think about it, my father's words of education are still ringing in my ears.

Fang Xinning sometimes lies outside the window and listens to his father's lectures. My father spoke in his Xinxian Mandarin with a strong local accent, and his voice was loud and loud, so that every student could hear it clearly. The students loved him, his knowledge, his kindness, and especially the smile he always had in class.

In this school with only three teachers, there are not many students. Teachers and students live together every day, and they have already integrated more family affection. Whenever it rained or snowed, my father always had to find a way to send all the students home before leaving the school himself. Sometimes the lunch he brought was given to the students, and he had to stay hungry until the evening.

Once, it was raining heavily, and my father was in class when he noticed that something was falling from the leaky roof. My father was busy directing everyone to run out quickly. Suddenly, a large piece of the roof collapsed, and a beam struck him heavily in the back. The door was only a step away from where he stood, and he could get out with a slight step, but he couldn't do that, because there were still students in the room, and he had to direct them all to move to safety.

Fortunately, my father was blessed with a great life, and after lying at home for a few days, he finally escaped. When the superiors heard about the collapse of the roof, they wanted to reward the good teacher who had the courage to save people. On the same day, Mr. Huang, the oldest teacher in the school, accidentally slipped in the muddy water at the school gate and broke his leg, worrying about medical expenses. His father, who was the person in charge of the teaching site, reported Mr. Huang's name. Later, the superiors not only reimbursed Mr. Huang for his medical expenses as a reward, but also gave him priority to turning him into a public teacher, and it didn't take long for him to go through the retirement procedures, which is all a later story.

This secret is only known to the three teachers of the Yuanshan Village Elementary School, and if they don't tell it, no one will ever know it to the outside world.

The higher authorities built several new houses for the school. This made my father very happy, and he couldn't enjoy enough at school, and he laughed endlessly when he got home. His mother was upset and counted him down: "Let's not give the credit to others, won't you run out first when the house collapses?" You have three long and two short how do we girls live? My father said very simply, "I'm a teacher." ”

Another time, several first-grade elementary school students were naughty, knocking on the back wall of their house and singing vigorously over and over again: "Teacher, teacher, old teacher, catch the teacher and fry and eat." At that time, my sister was very angry when she heard this, picked up a stone and chased it out, and Fang Xinning followed her. The father happened to be at home and called out to the two of them, saying, "It's really boring to be joking." He went out and smiled and said to the children, "Who made it up?" It's also strange to rhyme. Hearing this, a group of children dispersed with a grin.

Of course, my father loves himself the most. Every time I came home from school, I shouted without entering the gate: "Ning Ning, Ning Ning." At this time, his father must have brought back something delicious and interesting for Fang Xinning, either a sweet fruit, a sugar man, or a grasshopper or a small fish. Some of these things were given by others, and some were bought by themselves or caught by themselves.

At that time, my father had always been a typical figure in the town, often going out for meetings. When he came back, he told his son about the new things in the town and county, took out the leather bag and various books issued by the meeting, pointed to the words on them, and explained in detail what kind of meeting was held and what awards he won. He said more than once: "Ning Ning, when I turn positive, I will definitely take you to the county seat." ”

His father's series of beautiful ideas added a lot of interest to Fang Xinning's childhood.

Fang's mother sometimes complained that her husband couldn't make a lot of money in the school, and the crops in the field were often delayed. At this time, my father did not say a word, but listened silently. In fact, Fang's mother just felt sorry for him and was afraid that he wouldn't be able to stand that sin. was said to be in a hurry, and his father only said, "I'm a teacher." The implication is that I don't have a choice. Fang's mother couldn't quarrel with him anymore, so she sighed and walked away.

Once, when the father saw that his wife no longer cared about him, he smiled triumphantly, and the other party said calmly: "Everyone is a flower, and so are you, right, son?" ”

The young Fang Xinning asked his father: "Dad, what about you, what kind of flower are you?" ”

My father thought for a while and said, "There have always been champion students without champion teachers, and I'm even a fig." ”

Father said a lot, but all he remembered was this, especially the demeanor when he said these words, Fang Xinning still remembers it clearly. These words made him deeply engraved in his heart, made him understand that his father Weishenme was so energetic all day long, and made him hear something else in a helpless tone.

In fact, my father had three opportunities to quit this private teacher. Once a nearby coal mine asked him to do paperwork, he had signed up and had already gone, but after thinking about it, he always felt reluctant to let this group of children go, and after staying in the mine for less than two days, he ran back again; Once, the old accountant in the village was old, and the village asked him to be an accountant, but he couldn't do what the leaders of the village wanted, and he had a conflict with others, so he simply went back to school; The third time was when an office in the town wanted to find a cultural person to write materials, and the village recommended him, but he said that he would not go or go and stayed in school.

Fang Xinning finally went to primary school and went to school with his father every day.

However, one day, on the way to school, my father suddenly fainted. Fang Xinning cried in fright, which attracted adults to send him to the hospital. However, he never came back alive. The doctor said that he had a liver disease, the same as Jiao Yulu's back then, this disease reached that point, it was very painful.

The old scalper-like capable and patient is gone. Few people think that the old scalper, who seems to be physically strong and hard-working, will fall to the ground with a bang, so suddenly, without even leaving the slightest room for salvation.

The mother and the child rushed to welcome the father's bones back from the town health center. On the day of the funeral, all his students came, including elementary school students and young adults, to accompany them, comfort them, and weep with them.

Seeing his father fall, I can't tell how sad I feel in my heart: in the future, who will shout "Ningning" and "Ningning" and bring those rare things to myself? Who would promise to take themselves to the county seat?

In Fang Xinning's eyes, his father at that time was simply not a living person, but a machine, a machine that did not need maintenance and did not know how to stop, and it was no wonder that the town called him "the iron man of the education front" at that time. For Fang Xinning, everything about his father has since become a memory. The pillars of the family fell in this way, and the burden of the family was all on the shoulders of the mother.

Not long after his father's death, the county's private teachers began to become regular teachers one after another. My father waited for 20 years for this day, but when this day came, he was already asleep in the ground.

A hard life, a dull life, all my father's desires for life have disappeared like smoke with the sudden appearance of his life.

At that time, Fang Xinning was only in the third grade, and he already had his own ideas.