(xii)

That morning, Zhong Shan left home and crossed the school gate, as if he didn't see the teachers and students who walked into the school gate one after another, and ran quickly to the bus station. He remembers that the morning train to Liushutun departed at 8:30 a.m., and he had to get to the bus station within an hour.

Zhong Shan ran into the station ticket room sweating profusely and panting, his head just exceeded the ticket window a little bit, he stood on tiptoe and stretched out his hand to hand the uniformed conductor inside 5 yuan, and said weakly to buy a ticket to Liushutun. The female conductor in a large blue cap and a white half-sleeved uniform did not lift her head, took the money, stamped the red stamp on the ticket, and pushed out of the window along with the recovered coins.

After waiting in the waiting room for about half an hour, the station radio shouted that passengers going to Liushutun should take their belongings and go to the No. 2 ticket gate to cut their tickets. People hula hued and hugged to the ticket cutting gate, Zhong Shan was squeezed to the back by the adults, holding the cardboard ticket with the red date printed tightly in his hand, after a while, the crowded flow of people went out, Zhong Shan stepped forward, handed the ticket to the ticket cutter, and saw a small gap cut out on the cardboard. Out of the door, a red and white road round-headed bus with the sign of "Qingshan-Liushutun" was parked outside, and there was already a car of people in the compartment.

"The back ones are squeezed in, and a few of them haven't come up." The flight attendant shouted.

The people in the car moved slowly, making a little space. The pedals at the door of the car were a little high, and Zhong Shan barely climbed into the trunk with his hands and feet.

The car started, and the people in the car stopped and stopped quickly with the car, and Zhong Shan was sandwiched between the thighs, and his hands had nowhere to grab and nowhere to put them, so he had to dangle with the rhythm of the car. The car was full of sweat and sour smell mixed with the smell of dry smoke, Zhong Shan felt a little dizzy and nauseous, and the rice porridge, steamed bread and eggs he ate in the morning seemed to be pouring into his throat. He desperately burrowed his head close to the window, and a breeze mixed with the smell of grass squeezed in through the open window and the gap between the thighs, and blew right into Zhongshan's nostrils. This breath was the taste of Zhongshan's hometown, and he reinvigorated his spirits.

When the car arrived at Liushutun, the sun was in the sky, the sky was blue and clear, there was not a trace of clouds and dust and mist, the leaves and crop leaves were curling in the sun, and the occasional breeze was also dry and hot.

There is still a section of road from Liushutun Station to the uncle's house, I heard my mother say that it is two miles, these Zhongshan are firmly in mind, although now the crops have grown more than one person tall, he also recognizes this road. From time to time, a grasshopper popped out of the grass on the side of the road, and two butterflies flew up, if he usually saw these by the pond in the suburbs after school, Zhong Shan would stop and quietly squat down to catch it, this time Zhong Shan did not have that leisure. Walking on this road, he felt refreshed, as cheerful as a bird out of the cage, and he imagined that new home, that new home with a large group of older brothers and sisters, there must be too many interesting stories. No one dares to mess with him anymore, if he is really bullied, there will be a brother who is a head taller to help him, and his sisters will protect him, of course, he doesn't have to always hide from those gangsters around the school as he used to, and he can't even get used to seeing who can provoke him occasionally. Thinking of this, Zhong Shan was happy in his heart, and his feet flew faster and faster, and then he was trotting all the way up and down.