At that time, we watched from a distance as a small figure disappeared on the bank of the Dongda River, and Jiang Sheng and Zhao Dahai shouted Xiao Wu's name while running.

They threw their schoolbags to the shore, jumped into the river and dragged Xiao Wu to the shore, Xiao Wu choked on the water, lay on the ground and coughed for a long time.

Zhao Dahai cried and said: "Xiao Wu, why are you still jumping into the river, do we dare to come here to take a bath in the future?" ”

Jiang Sheng was also pale with fright, seeing Xiao Wu's dejected appearance and not knowing what to say, Xiao Wu turned his face to the side, his eyes were red and said, "I really want to die, I don't want to live at all." ”

The news of Xiao Wu's jumping into the river soon spread throughout Sanlitun, and the village chief pulled Xiao Wu to educate for a long time, and when he saw that Xiao Wu was angry and did not speak, he stood for a long time, and gathered all the village households together to discuss Xiao Wu's adoption.

The village chief said: "Fellow villagers, the patriotic family suffered a catastrophe, only a child is left in Xiaowu, and now everyone has seen that the child has no food to eat, I think our children in Sanlitun still want to be raised by people in Sanlitun, and they can't be sent to outsiders, who is willing to adopt the child of Xiaowu, and every household will donate some surplus food!" ”

"Village chief, it's not that the villagers are ruthless, you also saw that this year's harvest is not good, the harvest failed not long after the plague, and every household still has to pay half of the public grain for this little grain, even if you want this child, you just let him starve to death with the family!"

"Yes, we all know that Xiao Wu has a lot of strength and can work when he is raised, but the problem is that he can't survive now, you look at the small half warehouse of grain at home, where is there enough to eat, and he can't survive the winter when he plows wild vegetable roots every day."

The village chief listened to the villagers gossiping, and suddenly a person said: "Zhao Fugui's family is so rich, why can't he take in Xiao Wu?" ”

"Shh Immediately, some villagers signaled silence, and some villagers looked at Zhao Dahai, who was standing not far away.

The village chief summoned the villagers to come, and the heads of every household would come to the meeting, but Zhao Fugui was the landlord, even the village chief couldn't control him, and he was too lazy to participate in the general village meeting, plus he knew that the village chief convened everyone to discuss Xiao Wu's adoption, so he would not participate.

In addition, the landlord owns 1,000 acres of land, and he has to collect an unknown amount of money every year when he contracts it to the peasant households, and even if the landlord's family has a lot of fish and meat every day, they can't eat it poorly.

The village chief didn't mention the issue of Zhao Fugui's adoption of Xiao Wu, for Zhao Fugui, let alone taking in a child, even if he took in ten, he could afford to raise it, but the problem is that people don't want to raise children anymore, there is a Zhao Dahai in the family itself, and now Shen A-Niang is pregnant again, everyone is looking at their own children, and there will always be some problems when they raise other people's children.

At this time, Zhao Shugen said: "Why don't Xiao Wu follow me, it's not difficult for me to be frugal and support him." ”

"Forget about the roots, it's hard for you to support yourself, and you still have children?" Some villagers said.

Zhao Shugen raised a Zhao Zhuang has a big problem, no one is worried about Xiao Wu in his home, Zhao Shugen is not honest in the village, although the person is good, but there is still some delicious and lazy, the village chief also saw it, and finally asked Xiao Wu's opinion, seeing that Xiao Wu did not agree, he politely rejected Zhao Shugen.

Zhao Shugen is a single old man, his wife died early, his son was shot again, it is usually difficult to live alone, the family is too lazy to clean up, clothes are thrown on the bed at will, life is a mess, there is a musty smell in the house and on the body, if Xiao Wu arrives at his house, he doesn't know what he will be tossed into.

The village chief saw that after discussing for a long time, no family could take Xiao Wu away, and finally he sighed and said: "Then follow the rules of the ancestors, eat a hundred family meals, no household shall have objections, and those who have objections should be raised now, don't wait until tomorrow morning to kowtow and say that you are unwilling!" ”

The villagers whispered, and the village chief raised his voice again: "Which other family has objections to raise, if there is no objection, it can be dissolved now, starting tomorrow, Xiao Wu will eat and live in my house for a day, and then arrange them in order, if someone is not at home, the next turn is to eat and live for two days, we have always been a family in Sanlitun, everyone has taken some responsibility, natural disasters and man-made disasters in this year no one can tell which day will come to their heads, when their children and future generations have difficulties, My people in Sanlitun still uphold the legacy of our ancestors and will not let children starve to death! ”

After the village chief finished speaking, he walked to Xiao Wu's side, patted Xiao Wu on the shoulder and said, "Don't forget to get up early tomorrow." ”

Xiao Wu wiped his tears and nodded, wanting to live, this is the rule.

In the posthumous training of Sanlitun, to eat a hundred meals, you must first kowtow to a hundred families, the boy kneels to the sky and kneels to his parents, and what he gives himself a mouthful of food is food and clothing for his parents, and kowtowing is nothing.

That night Xiao Wu slept at my house, and the next day when he was early, Xiao Wu got up, and he sat in the yard for a long time, and waited until the red glow in the east covered the tunzi before he walked out of the yard.

At that time, some children had already gotten up and followed Xiao Wu from a distance, Xiao Wu began to kowtow from the first house in the village, at that time Shen A-Niang stood at the door, holding a big belly, she wanted to help Xiao Wu up with tears, and said: "Child, I am suffering from you, I don't need to kowtow to A-Niang." ”

Xiao Wu knocked his head three times and said, "Auntie, I will stay at your house for two more days in the future, and you can cook more delicious food for me." ”

Shen A-Niang nodded, watching Xiao Wu walk towards the next family, the second home was the village chief's house, he calmly accepted Xiao Wu's kowtow, and then instructed Xiao Wu a few words. At that time, the adults of every household had already gotten up and were ready to accept the kneeling of Xiao Wu, a hundred families.

Xiao Wu knocked from the head of the village to the end of the village, and when he arrived at my door, his mother did not appear at the door.

Xiao Wu frowned and looked at Jiang Sheng in the courtyard, Jiang Sheng looked at his mother sitting in the hall and shouted, "Mom." ”

Mother got up and walked to the door, Xiao Wu said, "Auntie, Xiao Wu kowtowed to you." ”

Before Xiao Wu knelt down, his mother helped Xiao Wu up and said: "Let's not eat a hundred family meals, not everyone can afford to eat these hundred family meals, you have such a temperament, you can't stand the eyes of others." ”

My mother stood at the door, took Xiao Wu's hand, and said to the rest of the villagers who were looking in the direction of my house: "From now on, Xiao Wu is my son." ”

"Xiumei, you have two in your family, and you can afford to raise more Xiaowu?" The village chief asked.

The mother said: "If I can afford it, my three children will be the champions who will come out of Sanlitun in the future." ”

The mother led Xiao Wu into the courtyard, she looked at Xiao Wu and said: "Although I am at odds with your mother, there is no big contradiction, recognizing you as a son is like treating Jiang Sheng and Jiang Rong, if you want, kowtow to me and call me Mom." ”

Xiao Wu turned his head and looked at Jiang Sheng on the side, Jiang Sheng was naturally happy, they changed from brothers to brothers, but I had a straight face.

Seeing that I was unhappy, Xiao Wu looked at his mother and said, "Auntie, Jiang Rong doesn't like me. ”

My mother glared at me, and I said, "Jiang Sheng and I call Mom, you have to call Mom, otherwise it will be uncomfortable to hear." ”

The mother also nodded and said, "Then call it Niang." ”

When Xiao Wu heard me and my mother say this, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed to his mother, shouting, "Mother, my son Xiao Wu has kowtowed to you." ”

Mother nodded and said, "Get up, in the future, you will go to school with Jiang Rong and Jiang Sheng, you have great strength and learned martial arts, you have to protect them, you can eat whatever they eat, and you will wear whatever they wear." ”

So Xiao Wu has become my family since then, he is half a year older than me, he is Jiang Sheng's younger brother, my elder brother.

At first, Xiao Wu lived in the same bed with Jiang Sheng, but later his mother asked the carpenter Wang in Tunzi to make a bed for Xiao Wu, and the side room could accommodate three beds, and Xiao Wu slept in the same room with us.

Since Xiao Wu became a family with us, his temper has been restrained a lot, he still fights at school, but rarely for himself, sometimes there are gangsters on the road who stop us from asking for money, and Xiao Wu will be beaten with blue nose and swollen eyes.

Xiao Wu never disobeys my little temper, and he doesn't like to take off his pants in front of me and play hooligan like before.

The most important thing is that his grades have skyrocketed, from the bottom to the bottom, to the middle student in the class, and then to the top three, our three brothers and sisters will really be the champion in the future as my mother said.

Mother is a stubborn person, she assured the people in the village that if she can afford to raise three children, then she must be able to afford it, except for simple housework, my mother is never willing to work in the fields for the three of us, the only thing she asks us for is our academic performance, and we want to study hard.

There is a very small library in the school, a total of two bookshelves of books, in addition to the content of the textbook to memorize well, most of the rest of the time in the library, Mr. Zhang looked down on Xiao Wu, but a later test found that Xiao Wu's grades reached the third in the class and did not say much.

At that time, students studied from the early years of the Republic of China is the school system, the main spirit is to abolish the reading of the scriptures and respect Confucius, but Mr. Zhang is a generation of Confucian students, this school is opened by him, he respects Confucian culture, still let us read the scriptures and memorize poems, the teaching concept is controlled by themselves, do not report to the Beiping Education Headquarters, only when the big exam is the school in other urban areas of Beiping City is the unified test paper.

Qiantang Town Primary School is according to the five-year education, and there is no middle school, if you want to go to middle school, you can only get other towns, or be admitted to Beiping No. 1 Middle School, Beiping No. 1 Middle School is the best middle school in Beiping City, and those who can enter are outstanding top students.

At that time, Beiping No. 1 Middle School only enrolled a few classes every year, and after being dispersed to various urban areas, it would be good if one of each school could be admitted.

My mother found a hard job outside the home to provide for our education and daily living expenses.

From 1947 to 1948, my mother never let the three of us go hungry.

And this year, I was sometimes awakened by nightmares, I saw Xiao Wu and remembered Niu Aihua, my mother thought I could forget, saying that Niu Aihua's death had nothing to do with me.

I remembered that morning, Xiao Wu went from home to the town to find Wu Qingyun and Wu Yao, and my mother went to Niu Aihua's house to help Xiao Wu clean up the housework, and took home the soup bowl of our house the day before.

Mother knew that Niu Aihua was not sober-minded, so she gave the soup bowl to Niu Aihua, but Niu Aihua chased out and beat her mother unrelentingly, at that time I just saw it, so I stepped forward to hit Niu Aihua, Niu Aihua and I tore up, my mother pulled me away, so that I don't have to deal with a madman.

Niu Aihua seemed to remember something, saying that Ma Aiguo was killed by her mother, she said that if our family hadn't lent Ma Aiguo so much money, Ma Aiguo would not have died when he died, and she was still talking about repaying the money.

I protected my mother and quarreled with Niu Aihua, I said: "In the end, it wasn't you who killed Ma Aiguo by yourself, I didn't see that Xiao Wu was killed by you sooner or later because of your malaise all day long, if you really love them, it is better to die with Ma Aiguo and hang yourself." ”

I was just angry for a while, but I didn't expect Niu Aihua to turn her head and go into the hall and hang herself.