Liu Dong is in the second grade. Every day at noon, Wang Guixiang has to bring some food for the three children, and there is nothing to bring at home, one corn tortilla for each person. Brother Liu Shu is already a seventeen-year-old young man, in his second year of high school; My sister Liu Cao is thirteen years old and is also in junior high school. Every morning, Wang Guixiang has to make three corn tortillas for the three children, Liu Shu brings the bigger, the sister's is not big or small, Liu Dong's is the smallest, and the three cakes are put in the children's school bags, which is their lunch.

At the beginning, Liu Dong had lunch in the class every day after class at noon, took out the paper bag from his schoolbag, took out the tortillas and devoured them, and later found that the meals brought by his classmates were packed in lunch boxes, with rice and vegetables, and the lunch box lid was fragrant as soon as it was lifted. The smell made his mouth water, and he sniffed the scent of the lunch box and nibbled on the tortillas. Choking, he scooped water from the classroom bucket, took a few sips, and washed the dry, hard tortilla down in his mouth.

He was a tortilla every day, and because there was no better food at home, he had to eat this kind of bread. Later, when the classmates found out, they said to Liu Dong: Liu Dong, why do you keep eating this, you can't change it?

Liu Dong didn't speak, lowered his head and gnawed on the cake with difficulty, and after a long time, his classmates gave Liu Dong the nickname "Liu Cake". It was noon one day, and everyone started to eat after class. Liu Dong took out the corn tortillas wrapped in paper again, and was about to eat them, when a classmate said: Liu Dong, you eat cakes every day, and I will call you Liu Cakes in the future.

Liu Dong listened, put down the cake in his hand, walked over and shouted at the classmate: What do you say, you say it again.

The classmate said even more energetically: Liu Biscuit, why did I call you Liu Bizi. Your father Liu Erga is Liu Biscuit, and your brother and sister are Liu Biscuits.

Liu Dong ran headlong into the classmate, not only knocked over the classmate, but also knocked over the classmate's lunch box, the rice and vegetables were spilled on the ground, and the two scuffled together. I don't know which classmate called the teacher, but it wasn't until the teacher showed up that the two stopped.

As a result of the fight, they were punished by the teacher - they were locked out of the classroom while others were in class. There was one standing here and one on the other side of the door, both of them with their necks stiffened, and neither of them looked at anyone.

Liu Dong naturally didn't dare to tell his family about his punishment when he returned home, and the next day he went to school, his mother brought them corn tortillas as usual. At noon, Liu Dong secretly took out a cake from his bag, put it in his clothes, and walked out of the classroom. There is a small forest on campus, and Liu Dong wants to secretly hide in the small forest to have lunch. He walked into the grove and realized that he was not alone, his brother was there, and his sister was there. My brother and sister are struggling to eat tortillas.

The elder brother looked up at him and asked, "Why did you come here to eat?"

As he pulled out the bread from his clothes, he said, "I don't like to eat in class."

My brother said, "Since then, we have eaten here every day."

The three children stopped talking, and the appearance of eating the cake was a little tragic. In the process of eating the bread, the three children tacitly did not say a word.

Liu Shu was the first to finish eating, and he clapped his hands: You two listen, you have to study hard, so that you can have a good future in the future, and if you have a good life, you don't need to eat tortillas.

When my brother said this, he was like a philosopher, and he left when he finished speaking. Liu Dong looked at the back of his seventeen-year-old brother, and for a moment, he felt that his brother was very tall.

When Liu Dong came home from school, he didn't go home directly, he had to go to the field to dig wild vegetables, which was the task assigned to him and his sister by his mother. There are two pigs at home, one big and one small, and the pigs eat every day because of the wild vegetables they dig up. When they went to school, they took out the basket and hid it in a pile of grass, and after school, they went straight to the grass, took out the basket, and went into the field like smoke to find wild vegetables to dig up.

Every morning when I came out, my mother would say, "You dig more wild vegetables, these two pigs will depend on you, and when the time comes, we will sell one and kill another one during the New Year, and our family will have meat to eat."

They hadn't eaten meat in a long time, and the thought of it made their stomachs growl. So, supported by the belief in eating meat, they went to dig wild vegetables every day. It was not early when he and his sister dug up two baskets of wild vegetables, and when they reached the pigsty of the two pigs that were closed, the pigs could not wait, and were eagerly crowding in front of the door, waiting for their wild vegetables.

Liu Shu is not idle after school every day, he has to go to the mountains to collect firewood, and when it is almost dark, he can carry back a large bundle of firewood like a small mountain. When Liu Shu returned, the family's day's work was over.

Wang Guixiang cooked, and the three children sat in the yard, writing their homework with the last bright color of the sky. During the meal, Liu Shu read a book while eating, Liu Dong didn't know what his brother was reading at first, or Liu Cao told him that his brother was reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". That was the first time he had heard the name of the book.

My brother is very hard at reading or studying, and in a year my brother will graduate from high school. The elder brother said that as soon as he graduated from high school, he would join the army and become a glorious PLA officer, so that he could earn a salary. My brother is now working in this direction.

My brother worked hard to exercise his body well, but he was afraid that he would not be in good health and would not be able to pass the physical examination. My brother's method of exercising is to run to and from school every day, get a rope to bundle firewood and a woodcutter when he comes home, and run back to the mountain. My brother never walks, he only runs, and his face is always sweaty. My brother always reads the book late and then turns off the lights and goes to bed every day.

My father's health seems to have been not very good, and now he has a dry cough, as if something is blocked in his throat, and he has to cough twice when he has nothing to do. My father's face was yellow and thin, and because of the dry cough, his words became less and less, and his words were replaced by dry coughs.

Dinner is the happiest time for the family. Because only in the evening, there is an extra dish on the table. In the morning, all year round, I eat corn tortillas, drink porridge, and eat pickles; You can only see some oil stars in the dishes at night. The family is very happy, the mother often thinks of the future life at this time, the mother said: our family, the three of you are growing up, a year's rations are always not enough to eat, and when your brother graduates, he is willing to be a soldier and let him go, so that there will be one less fight for food in the family, at that time, the food will be enough to eat, let's eat a meal of sorghum and small rice in three days.

When his mother said this, Liu Dong was fascinated.

Mother also said, "When autumn comes, the big pig will be sold, and each of you will tear a few feet of cloth and make you all a new dress." If it's the New Year, the little pig should be big, and after a year of hard work, kill it, sell some meat, and keep the pig's head and pig in the water and eat it ourselves.

From that moment on, Liu Dong began to look forward to autumn and the New Year, and as soon as autumn arrived, the New Year would not be far away.

When my mother thought about this, my father didn't say anything, and he coughed dryly while eating.

Regarding his father's illness, his mother was also concerned and asked him to go to the clinic to see him, but the barefoot doctor at the clinic couldn't see anything, so he prescribed some licorice tablets and came back. My father ate it, but it didn't get any better, so he simply stopped looking at it.

The mother said, "The child is his father, it's not a problem for you to cough all the time, go to the big hospital to have a look?"

My father said, "It's nothing, it's just that there seems to be something in my throat and eyes, and I'll be fine if I cough."

The mother knew that the father was reluctant to spend money to see a doctor, so the mother discussed with the father: If the pig is sold in the autumn, you will go to the county hospital for examination?

The father reluctantly said, "Let's talk about it."

That's all about my father.

In the dead of night, the mother turned over on the kang and woke up, she glanced at the white moon outside the window, and remembered "that child", she pushed her father: The child is his father, I don't know what happened to the child?

The father woke up from the dream: don't think about it, go to sleep.

Soon, they were all asleep again. The hard work of life makes them have no more time and energy to think about things outside of them.

Brother Liu Shu's biggest dream was to become a member of the People's Liberation Army, and in that era when he had no choice, his brother pinned all his ideals on joining the army.

After the young people in the former village and Houtun joined the army, they occasionally went home to visit relatives on vacation, and the elder brother would walk a long way to follow others, looking at the green military uniform of others, and he was so envious that he died. He followed people for a long time, just to let people notice him and say a few words to him, so that he would take the trouble to ask people about the affairs of the army, and my brother felt mysterious and full of awe about everything in the army.

My brother has a **gun, which is made of a bicycle chain, which is very exquisite, and he used this **gun to exchange for a fake military shirt. The elder brother couldn't put it down and put the fake military uniform on his body, and he looked much more energetic. My brother said to Liu Dong: Do you think my brother looks like a People's Liberation Army?

Liu Dong looked at his brother from head to toe: If only there was a hat and pants.

The elder brother looked into the distance and said fiercely: There will be one day.

In May of that year, that is, in two months, my brother was about to graduate from high school, and as soon as he graduated from high school, his brother was not far from the day of becoming a soldier. But in May of that year, his father Liu Erga had an accident. Liu Erga was participating in the field labor with everyone, and suddenly fell headlong and fainted in the field. At that time, Liu Erga's face was already sallow, his dry cough was still there, and his thin body seemed to be lit with a match.

Liu Erga really fainted this time, first let a carriage pull to the commune health center, the doctor listened to the heart and lungs or something, said that he was very sick, but he couldn't say anything sick, so he asked his father to go to the county health center, and finally came to the county health center. Soon the results were checked: my father had tuberculosis, which was already in an advanced stage. According to the doctor's words, there is no good place left in my father's lungs, and there is no value in rescuing him.

My father was pulled back by a carriage. Since then, my father has been lying on the kang, his face is still scorched, and he vomits blood when he coughs, only his eyes are still moving. He swept his gaze over the three children in turn, first sweeping Liu Shu, then looking at Liu Cao, and then fixed on Liu Dong's body.

He is nostalgic for this world and for his loved ones.

My father was holding on like this. On that day in July, when Liu Shu was attending the high school graduation ceremony, Liu Shu and his class invited a cameraman from the city to take a group photo of the class. Naturally, my father didn't see the group photo, it was daytime when my father left, and the three children were all in school, and only Wang Guixiang was by his side.

Father's eyes stopped on Wang Guixiang's face, he was reluctant to leave for a long time, he seemed to want to raise his hand, but he didn't have the strength, Wang Guixiang leaned his ear over, and said: "Child, his father, if you have anything to say, I'll listen."

Liu Erga said intermittently: I miss that child.

One sentence made Wang Guixiang cry, this was Liu Erga's last sentence before he died, and he swallowed his breath after speaking. Wang Guixiang was crying while looking at Liu Erga, who had already left, her heart was uncomfortable and extremely aggrieved.

Wang Guixiang shed tears and prepared for Liu Erga's funeral. She hasn't shed a single tear since she knew that Liu Erga had tuberculosis, she didn't want her husband to see her tears, she wanted to be a strong woman. When she listened to her husband's last words, she couldn't stand it anymore and tears flowed down her face.

Liu Erga went, and half of Wang Guixiang's sky collapsed.

After sending Liu Erga away, Wang Guixiang stopped crying. She brought her three children together for a family meeting. She first looked at the three children one by one, and then said in a dumb voice: Your father is gone, and this family will depend on our mother in the future.

In the end, she stopped her gaze on Liu Shu's face: You are the boss of this family, you are eighteen years old this year, and you are an adult. I know you want to be a soldier, Mom won't stop you, you can go.

Liu Shu is worried about his future and fate, his father is gone, the pillar of this family will fall, and he is worried that he will not be able to realize his ideals. These days, on the one hand, he is immersed in the grief of losing his father, and on the other hand, he is also sad about his own ideals. His mother's words reassured him, and his collapsed waist stood up little by little.

Soon it was October, which was the day of conscription in the army, and in those days, the trees and walls were plastered everywhere with the slogan "One person is a soldier, the whole family is glorious", and young conscripts also flocked to the brigade to sign up.

Liu Shu also went. The director of the Revolutionary Committee of the brigade ** saw Liu Shu in the crowd at a glance, he pointed to Liu Shu and said: You can't go.

Liu Shu looked at Director Hu and asked: Why can't I go? Three generations of my family have been poor peasants, and there is no problem with politics.

Director Hu put his hands behind his back and said very seriously: There is no problem in your family politically, but your family is in difficulty, your father is dead, there is no labor in the family, you are gone, who will feed your family?

I'm gone, and my mom is gone.

Director Hu said: Your mother is a woman, that doesn't count, recruiting can only recruit those who have no burden on the family, you are not qualified, you can't report this name.

Liu Shu didn't report that day, and cried when he got home. Wang Guixiang asked what happened, was silent for a while, and said: Tomorrow, I will take you there.

The next day, Wang Guixiang took Liu Shu to appear in front of Director Hu of the brigade.

She said: **, my Liu Shu wants to sign up as a soldier.

Director Hu said: No, your Liu Shu is not eligible.

Wang Guixiang said: Director Hu, don't worry, if Liu Shu can be a soldier, he will not look for the public if his family has great difficulties.

Director Hu said: If Liu Shu leaves as a soldier, your family will be a military family, and if the military family is in difficulty, can the brigade ignore it? So Liu Shu can't go.

Speaking of this, he pointed to the young people who were queuing up to sign up with his hand and said: So many people have signed up, and it is not worse than your Liu Shu, even if he signs up, he may not be able to go, and our team will only recruit two people this year.

Wang Guixiang was stunned, and Liu Shu was also stupid.

Wang Guixiang suddenly bent down, knelt in front of Director Hu, and said in a low voice: Please, Director Hu, my Liu Shu just wants to be a soldier.

Director Hu said helplessly: Then you can report it, I said that it is useless to report.

Liu Shu, who was named in the newspaper, seemed to see a glimmer of hope, which was dashed two days later. The first test was an officer who received the troops, and when he walked up to Liu Shu from the head of the conscripted youth team, he asked: Your name is Liu Shu, right?

Liu Shu nodded, and the officer pulled him out of the ranks. The sky in front of Liu Shu's eyes was dark.

In those days, Liu Shu didn't know how he came over, he worked in the field every day, without saying a word, and at some point, the fake military uniform he wore on his body disappeared, and since then, he refuses to wear grass-green clothes again. He didn't say a word when he got home, flipping through the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", I don't know if he really saw it, or if he was showing it to others.

After a while, the two young men who joined the army in the brigade settled down, and they wore big red flowers on their chests, and they were ceremoniously sent away by the beating of gongs and drums.

Liu Shu was lying on the kang, crying suppressively at first, and then he started crying. Wang Guixiang stood aside, looked at Liu Shu, and wiped her tears.

Liu Dong didn't know all this, he stood in the crowd and watched the excitement in front of him. He was attracted by the two young men in military uniforms and saffron on their chests.

In the end, he ran back with a red face, and as soon as he entered the door, he shouted: Mom, I want to be a soldier when I grow up.

Soon, he was stunned by what he saw, and his brother and mother were crying. He stood there, biting his lip, looking at his mother, then at his brother, and then said, "Mom, I won't be a soldier in the future."

Mother suddenly cried: Our family doesn't have that life.

Later, my brother learned to play the flute, and the flute made people want to cry. When he finished his work every day, he sat in front of his house and blew in the darkness for a long time.

One day, Liu Dong stood lightly beside his brother and whispered: Brother, don't blow it, I feel uncomfortable when you blow it.

Liu Shu pulled Liu Dong in front of him, looked into the distance and said: Brother can't be a soldier in this life, you must go when you grow up. This family has a brother, so they have no reason not to let you go.

When the elder brother said this, his eyes were full of tears, and Liu Dong nodded seriously at his brother.