On the winding yellow mud road, a faint green smoke was emitting from the exhaust port of the rear of a Jialing motorcycle, turning around with some difficulty, driving slowly.

A few days ago, there was a sudden sleet, and many potholes and depressions on the road had some water, which looked a little slippery, and the wheels of the motorcycle ran over, leaving a deep rut mark.

There is no too beautiful scenery in the countryside of Xiaoli Town in winter, although the distant mountains are vaguely like daisies, and occasionally there is no lack of verdant grass and trees on the roadside, unlike the northern villages at this time or yellow and desolate or snowy, but the dense and bare rice stubble in the large farmland on both sides of the road still adds a bit of gloomy atmosphere.

At the head of the bridge at the entrance of Shangyun Village, Ye Qin got off the car from the back seat of the motorcycle with his schoolbag on his back, gently rubbed his cheeks that had been blown by the wind all the way, and then gently patted the back of the middle-aged man in front of him.

"Uncle Youbiao, thank you!"

"What's the point?" The driver of the motorcycle was a round-faced middle-aged man, with his feet on the ground, who was busy lighting a cigarette, when he heard Ye Qin's words, he turned his head and grinned, "It's rare for you to come back after you go to high school, and you just happened to be hit by me, can I not take you for a while." By the way, your holiday is later than others, and it's not a few days before the New Year? ”

"Well, I've been at school for a few more days." Ye Qin stomped his feet on a dry hard ground on the side of the road, and after sitting on a motorcycle for half an hour, the cold wind poured straight into his neck, and his feet were a little frozen and woody.

"You are diligent enough to study, study hard, and be admitted to a university in the future!" The round-faced middle-aged man smoked a cheap cigarette and pointed at Ye Qin, "Okay, hurry home!" ”

"Okay, then slow down!"

Ye Qin smiled and waved his hand, watching the round-faced middle-aged man sipping a cheap cigarette and driving his motorcycle towards the fork in the road on the other side in the cold wind.

It has been several days since the winter vacation, because he has been selected for the squad of the Nanxiu City team, and not long after returning from the Spring Festival, he will go to the province to participate in the youth track and field championships, so he stayed at school to train for a few more days.

I just came back from school today, took a minibus to the town, and when I got off the bus, I met Uncle Youbiao from the same village who was riding a motorcycle to come back, and he followed and took a ride.

Walking all the way along the path to home, the small river below the bridgehead has entered the dry period, the river surface that was originally dozens of meters wide is now only four or five meters, and many places are exposed to fine and dense cobblestone riverbeds, and a few willow trees on the side of the road have withered their leaves in this season and only bare branches remain.

But farther away, Ye Qin saw the big tree in his house, which was still lush. Compared with the summer, the leaves of the tree look darker in color, and there is less of that oily green luster, but the branches and leaves of the tree are still energetic and energetic.

"Grandma!"

Before entering the courtyard gate, Ye Qin shouted excitedly and shouted towards the small courtyard from afar.

The last time I went home was in November, before I went to the city to participate in the junior high school sports meeting, and in the blink of an eye, it was already January. In the four months of this semester, he went home once in between.

The teenagers go to school in the county seat, although they don't feel much homesick, but they really feel very friendly and comfortable when they really return to the familiar grass and trees.

"Huh?"

Liu Lanzhi, who was busy in the kitchen, heard the sound from outside, and almost instantly identified who the owner of the voice was, and ran out of the kitchen without having time to throw down the rag in his hand.

"Grandma, I'm back!" Standing in the middle of the small courtyard at the door of his house, Ye Qin was looking at some fallen leaves under the frost and snow on the ground, and suddenly looked up and saw an old woman with crane hair appearing in front of the kitchen door, and immediately shouted cordially.

Liu Lanzhi looked at Ye Qin, who was standing in front of him with a schoolbag on his back, first a little happy, and then suddenly his face turned pale, "You are still willing to come back, and you don't look at what time it is now, it's going to be the New Year." When you go to high school in the city, everyone is playing wild, isn't it? ”

"Grandma, we're late for the holidays, and I've been waiting at school for a few more days." Ye Qin threw his schoolbag on the bench under the wooden tree, and when he heard Liu Lanzhi's complaining tone, he immediately shrunk his neck, grabbed a broom next to him and prepared to clean the yard.

"Ye Qin is back, it's not easy to walk on this road, it just rained and snowed two days ago." While he was talking, in the hall of the red brick house, Ye Guandi, who was slightly hunched back, walked out.

"Yes, grandpa." In the middle of the yard, Ye Qin started to clean up with his hands and feet, and when he heard Ye Guandi's words, he raised his head and replied, "The road is a little muddy, I took Uncle Youbiao's motorcycle back." ”

"You're back later than me?" As he spoke, a figure followed him out of the hall of the guest hall.

"Uncle?!"

As soon as Ye Qin saw the figure that appeared, he was so excited that he threw the broom in his hand aside, and directly jumped to the other party's side, and asked again and again, "Uncle, when did you come back?" ”

"I'm three days ahead of you." Ye Mingcheng patted Ye Qin's head with a smile, and then looked at Ye Qin, "You have lost a lot of weight." ”

"I haven't lost much weight, uncle, you've lost a lot of weight." Ye Qin shook his head, looking at Ye Mingcheng with some distress.

Ye Mingcheng is quite tall and has a large skeleton, but he is very thin. Although he is only in his early thirties, he is a little old. Ye Qin grew up with Ye Ming since he was a child, and he knew that his uncle Ye Mingcheng used to be in good health, with great strength, and he was a good laborer, including when his grandfather was young, he was a person who could drive dozens of miles of mountain roads with a burden of one hundred and fifty or sixteen.

If it was according to the past, he would not have to be so troublesome about going to high school, and his uncle Ye Mingcheng would be able to afford him to study even if he was shaving food in the field.

It's just that Ye Mingcheng once helped someone carry wood a few years ago, and when he sprained his waist when he was on the shoulder of hundreds of pounds of logs, he was pressed by the log and suffered internal injuries.

The men of the peasant family, at this point, are basically abolished, and they can only go out to work and find some light things to do.

"I work late in the factory, don't talk about this." Ye Mingcheng didn't pay attention to Ye Qin's eyes, but said with a straight face, "How are you in high school, have you studied hard, I came back to listen to Zhang Jianping and Wang Wu say what kind of competition you went to the city to participate in......

"Uncle!" Ye Qin heard Ye Mingcheng mention this, and hurriedly pulled his sleeve to stop him from going on, and glanced at his grandfather Ye Guandi who was not far away, and saw that he didn't pay attention here, "Let's go outside and talk." ”

Zhang Jianping and Wang Wu, two junior high school classmates, stuffed money at home, one went to No. 1 Middle School and the other went to Sanyang Middle School, and they didn't know that they heard about going to the competition.

Ye Mingcheng glanced at his father Ye Guandi, understood what Ye Qin meant, and nodded.

The two went out of the courtyard and came to the side of the road outside the house, Ye Mingcheng looked at Ye Qin, and said with some doubts: "Say, what's the situation?" ”

"The last time I went to the city with my teacher, I won two running championships, and there were hundreds of dollars in prize money......"

"Race?" As soon as Ye Qin said half of his words, Ye Mingcheng's brows furrowed tightly, "You are here to study, not to do such messy things for a few hundred yuan." ”

Ye Qin's voice lowered, and then said: "There is also a coach of a professional team who came to me at the school and asked me to be an athlete, saying that I have a salary for food and housing, and I am also assigned a job ......."

"You didn't promise, did you?!" Ye Mingcheng's voice raised slightly.

"Nope." Ye Qin shook his head, "I just promised to practice physical education with my teacher, and there will be extra points in the physical education college entrance examination, and then the school will give me a subsidy and exempt some tuition and miscellaneous fees." ”

"It's good if you don't have it." Ye Mingcheng seemed to let out a sigh of relief, "If you agree to come down and become an athlete, your grandfather will have to be angry with you." Your grandfather has wanted to have a college student in his family all his life, and your father is a high school student...... Forget it, don't talk about him. I can't study, I can't even pass the high school exam, and your grandfather is counting on you. We are poor, the school is willing to reduce the tuition fee, if not, I will provide for you, not to the point where you want to make money, you don't want to tell your grandfather about this. ”

"Then what about me practicing physical education at school and being a sports student?" Ye Qin looked at Ye Mingcheng and felt a little more apprehensive.

"You can go to university, right?" Ye Mingcheng frowned and asked, he sounded a little unfamiliar with the term sports specialty, and he had vaguely heard of it, but he didn't know what it meant.

"Well, you can take the test, and there are extra points in the college entrance examination." Ye Qin nodded seriously and replied.

"That's fine." Ye Mingcheng thought about it, and then said, "I don't understand this physical education, I'm afraid that you will work too hard and your body will not be able to bear it, and when the time comes, your body will collapse like me, you have to grasp the degree yourself." Don't tell your grandparents about this, they know about it and they are verbose, so tell me if you have something. ”

"I'll take care of it, uncle."

The tense look on Ye Qin's face eased slightly. He was really afraid that Ye Mingcheng would not agree, and his grandparents didn't know how to hide this matter from them, but Uncle He was unwilling to hide it from him no matter what.

"Wait." After the two finished speaking, they were about to go home, Ye Mingcheng suddenly said, "There is one more thing, you don't go to the brick factory next time to do things, if Lao Zheng didn't tell me that I don't know about this, you can study hard in school, well, and what kind of sports student, I don't care about you." I have this family, and it's not time for you to take on it. ”