Chapter 1: Leaving Home (Part II)

Zheng Yue'er has a big temper, but her heart is not very hard. Seeing that her husband's face was always depressed, holding a needlework basket, he stepped forward and comforted him softly: "Don't worry, it's useless to be anxious!" With the ability of our family boss, I can't stop a third baby?! Sensei said that Liucheng was so close that even if San'er ran to Qingdao, he could also get him off the steamer. I asked Wuya to give you hot wine, you take a few sips while it's hot first, and get a good night's sleep. When the third son returns home tomorrow, he will have the energy to pick him up! (Note 1)

"Alas, San'er is older! How can you clean him up like a child again! If he really wants to fly on his own, can I still find a rope to tie him to the door frame?! Zhang Youcai sighed and responded faintly.

"Not necessarily!" Zheng Yue'er threaded the big thick needle in her hand to the window, and while holding the soles of her shoes, she pulled the words to the happy place, "You can't be tethered, but not necessarily others can't be tethered." Give him a daughter-in-law, give birth to a baby, and he will be relieved. The housekeeper of the old Bai family on Hanzheng Street came to visit the door a few days ago and asked me about the birthdays of our three sons. I estimated that it was his master who saw that our three sons were promising, and planned to send his daughter over! ”

"Just those two girls from the old Bai family! No, no, absolutely not! When Zhang Laocai heard this, his eyebrows immediately gathered together, and his head shook like a rattle.

The Bai family is a Zhenghuang flag, a Han surname that was changed in Xinhai to avoid disaster. The surname has changed, but the tradition in the clan has not changed. are all like their ancestor Empress Dowager Cixi, women ride on men's heads. If the third child of his family did not study in high school, and he was looking at the other party's family business and connections, Zhang Youcai would reluctantly consider this family business. And now that San'er graduated from the first high school in the national province and can go to college steadily, how can parents bear to let him suffer this grievance again? !

"I'll talk ugly things to the end, don't go behind my back. Otherwise, even if the Bai family comes to the door with eight characters, I won't recognize this account! "Lest Zheng Yue'er take the child born by his deceased wife as an inappropriate person, Zhang Youcai quickly added.

"Isn't that still a word?" Zheng Yue'er grabbed an awl, stabbed it into the sole of her shoe, and responded loudly. "Besides, in this family, when has it ever been my turn to call the shots?! If I don't pass you, I dare to promise others without permission, and after I say it, you will not finish with me, and even the eldest young master of your family will also blast me out of the house as a mother! ”

"Nonsense again, what kind of person is the boss!" Zhang Youcai straightened his face and retorted in a low voice. "Although the three of them are not your own children, who dares not to call you mother. Especially the boss, when he goes far away, he doesn't want to buy things for your mother and his two sisters! ”

"That's because I didn't mess with his brother!" Zheng Yue'er pursed her lips and threaded the needle and thread into the eye of the needle that had just been pierced with an awl.

Zhang Laocai was unwilling to continue to dwell on this topic, so he lowered his head and continued to drink stuffy tea. Zheng Yue'er came up again and said in a low voice: "You said that the third child studied in high school, and some people can't wait to paste their daughter upside down." Our four and fifth girls are not small, can you send the two of them to school to recognize a few words? You don't need to go to the provincial capital, just the church primary school at your doorstep! “

"....... the two of them?" Zhang Youcai thought about it, and his face obviously showed hesitation. It's not that he is reluctant to spend money to send his two daughters to school, but looking at the entire Lucheng, there are only a dozen families who are willing to send female dolls to the school. If the little girl is willing to put all her books on her studies, it is not a bad thing to know a few words. In case he reads a book, has his own ideas, and runs away with someone like his third brother when he grows up, where can parents cry?!

"I knew you were eccentric!" Zheng Yue'er pushed her husband with her elbow and began to sulk with her cheeks. "The year before last, I wanted to send the four girls to study. At that time, I felt that the third child spent a lot of money in the provincial capital, and I couldn't bear to tell you. Now that the third child has graduated, he will soon be able to make a lot of money in a foreign bank, and you are still reluctant to let go of these three melons and two dates? ! Although the two of them are girls, they are also the girls of your old Zhang family! In the future, if you marry a coolie and suffer a lifetime of sin, you will live in peace in your heart?! ”

"Not really!" Although Zhang Laosan has the unique thrifty style of Lucheng people, he will not detain his own children, "Aren't I thinking, where to send them to study?" The church school in front of my house was full of boys, who taught them to recite foreign scriptures every day. Once you are fascinated by the foreign scriptures, you may be a foreign sister-in-law when you grow up, and you don't even recognize your father and mother! ”

What is the foreign sister-in-law in the church, Zheng Yue'er has not heard the sisters around her talk about it. I was startled in my heart, and my mouth immediately softened, "Haven't I never read and have little knowledge?!" If you say you don't want them to go to church elementary school, then we won't go to school! You can find a school at will, as long as you can make them know two words, and don't be blind like me! ”

"Last time I went to the provincial capital, I heard from the second child that there was a special girls' school over there!" Zhang Youcai responded casually while thinking about his thoughts. "From teachers to sweepers, they are all women. I just don't know how high the threshold is, whether I can stay or not! ”

"Then why don't you hurry up and find someone to ask?!" When Zheng Yue'er heard that she could send her daughter to the provincial capital, she immediately smiled. "Hurry up and write a letter to the second child and let him inquire about it!"

"Wait for the third child to come back and ask him! He reads a lot, and his knowledge is always better than that of the second car mechanic! Zhang Youcai shook his head and said without a match.

"When will the third child come back?!" Zheng Yue'er was anxious, so she asked casually. After asking, she secretly glanced at her husband's face, and quickly lowered her head again.

The husband and wife faced the window, looking forward to the news of their third son, Songling. From dawn to dark, and from darkness to dawn. It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that I saw my eldest son Shouling leading a tired horse and bowing his head into the courtyard gate.

"What about your third brother, did you receive it?!" Zhang Youcai hadn't even eaten well for more than a day, so he immediately rushed out of the house and asked his eldest son.

"Nope!" Zhang Shouling shook his head, his face full of exhaustion.

"I didn't catch up, what are you doing when you come back alone?! Why don't you chase it yet?! Zhang Youcai was so anxious that he ignored his eldest son's dusty face, and asked sharply.

"I can't catch up, you won't chase anymore!" Zhang Shouling glanced at his father and replied weakly. "I blocked him at Liucheng Station, but he wouldn't come back with me. Not only did he refuse to come back with me, but he also turned around and persuaded me not to patronize and do business, lest I become a slave of the country and not know what hatred ......is and what shame is."

"Then you're not going to catch him back?!" Without waiting for the eldest son to finish the details, Zhang Youcai roared and asked.

Zhang Shouling shrugged his shoulders and replied weakly, "I want to arrest him, but I can't stand the large number of them in the car." Almost half of the people in the carriage stood up and counted me down. Saying that I have lost my own money, I also hindered others from contributing to the country. It's a fool, it's a traitor! ”

In order to reassure the old father, he deliberately told the story extremely vaguely. In fact, the train stopped in Liucheng for several hours, and the third child and the group of students who abducted the third child walked off the platform. Sing to the people who enter and leave the station, tell the story after the fall of the Northeast, tell the Great Wall of Resistance, and tell how the 29th Army Broadsword Team killed devils. He also became enthusiastic and shouted a lot of slogans. After that, he rushed forward to pull the third child home, of course, he couldn't be straight, and he was not strong. And almost half of the people at the station stood on the side of the third child, counted him down, and took him as a negative example of being willing to be a slave to the country.

The hat of "traitor" is too big, and Zhang Youcai is unwilling to put it on his head no matter what. refuses to let his son go to Peking to toss around with a group of unreliable people, what does it have to do with "traitors"? He had no way of knowing the answer. When he was about to pack up and ride a horse to chase the train himself, the eldest son Zhang Shouling stretched out his arm to block him, and advised with a wry smile: "You don't have to go, you can't chase it back if you go." I've seen it through, and I'm afraid this world will be chaotic again. Our family is an honest businessman, and we will definitely suffer in troubled times! The third child went to Beiping to join the army, and with his belly of cultural water, he would definitely not start as a small soldier. As long as you hang a chapter on your chest, even if it's just a blue edge, you can go sideways when you return to our Lu County! (Note 3)

In these years, Zhang Youcai knows how majestic an officer is in front of businessmen. But that majesty is all exchanged for life, my third son has never even killed a chicken since he was a child, how can he have the ability to go to the battlefield?

"Don't worry, as long as you are an officer, it will definitely be safer than being a soldier! Besides, these days, scholars are expensive, who is willing to use them as cannon fodder? ! I don't know about other places, just take our Shandong side as an example, in the most critical time a few years ago, I didn't see Chairman Han send his cadet team to the front line! ”

"That, that ......" Zhang Youcai was moved by the eldest son's words, and he had already walked to the gate and slowly took it back. Chairman Han is a talented person and attaches the most importance to reading. It is said that when there is a war, the scholars are never allowed to rush forward. During the march, donkeys and students with heavy burdens were placed in the middle of the procession.

Whether this rumor is true or not, Zhang Youcai does not know. But the eldest son's mouth about the benefits brought to the family by the third child after becoming an officer, in Shandong, can see many living examples. Thinking of his son hugging him wherever he goes in the future, and then thinking about the anger he has suffered when he has been doing business for many years, his heart slowly began to heat up again. After hesitating again and again, he finally sighed and said in a low voice: "My son can't help it!" Forget it, send him to finish middle school, and I can count myself as fulfilling my responsibility. Whether it will be a blessing or a curse in the future depends on his own creation! ”

With a sigh, he turned around and staggered back into the house. In an instant, the whole person seemed to be ten years old!

Note 1: Pick-up. Tongues, packing, lessons.

Note 2: Sister-in-law, nun.

Note 3: The blue border, the rank symbol of the army in the National Revolutionary Army, is usually a square badge, and the blue border is a lieutenant. The general's badge is red-bordered, and the school's officer is yellow-bordered.