Spring City.

Winter.

Gu Yulan got off work at half past four. By the time she pushed her bicycle out of the hall of the institute, it was already dark. She subconsciously pulled her headscarf forward, because it was not only cold, but also windy. Although she had seen the cooling forecast on TV two days ago, she still did not expect the temperature to drop so much when the cold snap rolling in from Siberia swept across the Northeast Plain.

The street lights are on.

At this time in the past, bicycles in the slow lane have already formed a traffic flow. Today, however, they are hard to find. Only occasionally one or two people sit on the bicycle hunched over, or push the bicycle with their necks bent, which makes the road that is a little narrow every day wider.

Gu Yulan is cold. When she came out of the house after work and was blown by the northwest wind, she couldn't help but shiver several times. For a moment, she also had the idea of skipping her bike and taking the bus home. However, it was just a flash of thought, and I gave up immediately. Because she had to reverse on the bus, it would cost two yuan more than riding a bicycle and she would not have to get home late, which she would not have done unless she had to.

As soon as Gu Yulan got on the road, she got on her bicycle. It's just that she hunched over but didn't shrink her neck. She doesn't shrink her neck not because she is not afraid of the wind and cold, but because she is in a hurry to go home.

Gu Yulan lives in the southeast of Chuncheng City, a place called "Xiao Nan Yu", which is close to the suburbs. Although everything has been expanding in recent years, especially the city, where last year's cornfields have grown high-rise buildings this year, the changes in Xiaonanyu have not changed much: they are still those squeezed, low and old bungalows; It's still the kind of alley that twists and turns, sometimes wide and sometimes narrow; Still is......

Ten years ago, if you had been to Xiaonan, and if you came here ten years later, you would have found that except for the increase in the number of potholes on the road and the decrease in the number of trees on the side of the road, everything else is almost the same - Gu Yulan rushed here. It usually takes her 45 minutes to get from home by bike to work, and 50 minutes to get from home because she has to walk uphill more uphill than downhill to get home.

However, today is a little different, the wind is strong, with the light of the tailwind, coupled with the lack of bicycles on the road, Gu Yulan only took 46 minutes to get home. She took out the key, opened the courtyard door, and entered.

When she was about to open the door, the door opened, and through the cotton curtain, she heard an anxious and helpless voice from inside, saying, "Mom, why did you come back!" "The person who opened the door to Gu Yulan and talked to Gu Yulan is named Gu Hongli. The Gu family only has this mother and daughter.

Gu Yulan entered the house, gasped, and said, "It's cloudy today, and it's dark early." ”

Gu Hongli said: "Mom, I've already led our stove three times, and each time it was extinguished soon after adding coal, why can't it be stopped, is it blocked again?" ”

Gu Yulan took off her mask and said, "It's not blocked." I cleaned the chimney and the ash from the stove only the day before yesterday. ”

When she walked into the house, Gu Yulan hurriedly took off her scarf and down jacket. There was an iron stove in the middle of the room. Gu Yulan picked up the stove hook, lifted the lid of the stove, looked at it, and said, "There is too much coal." ”

It was hot in the hearth, so Gu Yulan had to use a stove hook and a shovel to collect the coal in the stove.

When the fire was re-lit, Gu Yulan said while putting the firewood: "You look, you have to light the pine needles first, and then put the wooden halberd when you are done." ”

The pine needles she picks up on her days off are under the evergreen pine trees.

Gu Honglizha held her hands and said, "Mom, I'll do the same as you." ”

Gu Yulan said: "The same...... I've taught you several times, why can't I get it? ”

Gu Hongli said: "It's not that it can't be attracted, it's that it will be destroyed if you add coal." ”

Gu Yulan said: "After the firewood is prosperous, add two shovels and a half of coal, and then add one shovel at a time when the coal is burned through, and add a shovel and a half of coal at most." ”

There are two kinds of coal bought by the Gu family: one is more and more expensive, which is used to lay the foundation when the fire is ignited, which can account for one-fifth of the amount of coal used by the Gu family; One kind of noodles is more, and the price per ton can be dozens of yuan cheaper than lump coal, and it will be used again after the bottom is laid, accounting for four-fifths of the amount of coal used in the grain household.

Gu Hongli said: "Mom, let's not buy flour coal in the future, can't we buy a piece of coal?" ”

Gu Yulan said: "Buy a piece of coal...... That's a lot of money. ”

Hongli said: "I can't add less coal to this kind of noodles, and I can't add more, so I can get exactly how much to add!" ”

Gu Yulan said: "If you can't figure it out, don't be afraid, just learn to introduce it a few more times." In the future, if you get married, you have to cook every day, and you won't start a fire! ”

Gu Hongli said: "Mom, I have already thought about it, the first condition for me to find a partner is to live in a building and have gas heating. ”

Gu Yulan said: "Net is stupid. Looking for objects is looking for people, not houses, and the most important thing is to be good. ”

Gu Hongli said: "Good people...... There is no good house, no matter how good a person marries him, he has to suffer with him, what is the use of being a good person? ”

Gu Yulan said: "If you are good, you can be good to you, which is more important than anything else." Otherwise, even if you have a good house, you won't have a good life. ”

Hongli said: "Mom, now is a material society, no matter what is related to material, you are still ...... Also ......"

Gu Yulan asked, "What else?" Gu Hongli said: "I still think so, and I'm so naïve." ”

The fire was on fire.

Gu Yulan said: "Of course, it is good to have a good house, but you can't force it. ”

Gu Hongli said: "Our classmates' families live in heated houses, but our house is not only unheated, but also ventilated; It can heat people to death in the summer, and it can freeze people to death in the winter - I don't know when I will be the leader. ”

Gu Yulan said: "People are people, and our family is our family; Let's live our own, we don't need to compare with others; Even if our house is not as good as others, it has not been here for so many years. ”

Gu Hongli said: "Mom, I've come over, how many sins I have suffered!" You don't go to anyone's house, except for your work unit is your own home, two o'clock every day, and you don't know how other people's lives are lived. You only have to go to the homes of those who live in the building, and you will immediately find that people like us can only be regarded as ...... Even if you are alive, that is life - in summer, when you come home from the sun, you will be cool as soon as you enter the house, and you will disappear without fanning and sweating; In winter, the heat hits your face as soon as you enter the door from the icy snow, and your hands that are frozen outside are quickly warmed. Our family is the opposite of others. When I first came back from outside, my hands were not frozen, but after I finished digging out the stove and lit the stove three times, my hands that were not frozen were frozen. Mom, look at it, you won't even bend your fingers back. ”

Gu Hongli said as she sent her two hands to Gu Yulan.

Gu Yulan grabbed her daughter's hand, which was red from the cold and smeared with black ash, and said, "What's the matter...... How can you let it freeze like this? Come on, wash up. ”

After saying that, she let go of her daughter's hand, turned around, picked up the water from the bucket, and poured most of the scooped water into the basin.

Gu Hongli saw that Gu Yulan wanted her to wash with cold water, but instead of moving forward, she took half a step back and said, "Mom, it's all frozen like this, why are you still ...... What if you don't give me hot water? ”

As he spoke, he bypassed Gu Yulan and went to get the thermos on the desk.

Gu Yulan said: "You can't use hot water now. ”

Gu Hongli asked, "Why?" ”

Gu Yulan said: "Washing with hot water now will not only not warm your hands, but will also cause chilblains." You have to wash it with cold water first, and when your hands don't feel cold, I'll change the warm water for you. ”

Gu Hongli was skeptical and said, "Mom, wash your frozen hands with cold water, this is the first time I've heard of it - can it work?" ”

Gu Hongli said: "You forgot? Last winter, I washed it in snow once! ”

Gu Hongli didn't forget. It was last winter when the Spring Festival was approaching, Gu Yulan went to the coal factory to buy coal, the temperature at that time was more than minus 20 degrees, and when she came back from buying coal, her hands were already frozen and couldn't move, or she took the basin to collect the snow outside the house!

Gu Hongli soaked in cold water for a long time, and then washed it again with the warm water that Gu Yulan gave her. Although the feeling on my hand is not good, it is still numb and crispy, but my fingers can stretch freely, and the color has become lighter.

Twenty minutes later, when the water in the kettle was steaming on the stove and the lid of the kettle crackled softly, the room finally came to life.

The Gu family's house is a half-tiled house, sitting north and facing south, at the very ends of a two-slope bungalow. Attached to the west gable is the outhouse, which is only half a room, which is the kitchen and the corridor to the inner room. Entering through the entrance door on the south wall of the outhouse, on the right is a kang stove made of bricks on one side against the east wall. This kang stove is not large, the upper plate is cast iron, and the furnace is about the size of an iron furnace used for heating. The outside of the stove is covered with white tiles. Although the white tiles are neither neat nor flat in the eyes of the insider, they are clean and look like new.

There is a space more than 30 centimeters wide between the kang stove and the south wall, which is used to hold coal. To the north of the kang stove, one meter away from the kang stove is the door to the inner room. Between the door and the kang stove is an old iron bucket. There is no sewer in the Gu family, and the domestic wastewater is packed in this iron drum.

Diagonally opposite the door of the inner house, 20 centimeters from the west gable, there is a water pipe about 90 centimeters high that stands upright on the ground, and all of the Gu's water comes from here.

Next to the north wall, to the west is a small pale yellow cupboard. This small cabinet is 120 centimeters high and has two levels; Above is a sliding door, with black glass; Below is the plywood door that is on the opposite side. Inside the glass sliding door are tableware such as dishes, chopsticks, plates, and saucers, as well as condiments such as oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, and inside the door are rice, noodles and other foods. Behind the cabinet is the north wall, which is not only covered with hoarfrost, but also thicker and thicker the way down. Next to the small cupboard, on the east side is a jar more than half a meter thick and nearly one meter high: in winter, Gu Yulan uses it to pickle sauerkraut; In the summer, Gu Yulan uses it to store water.

Entering through the door on the east wall, there is a kang on the south side, on which are mats made of straw, and the pyrotechnics of the kang stove in the outhouse enter from the west side of the kang and discharge through the chimney on the east side. Therefore, the west end of the kang is the kang head, and the east end is the kang tip. Next to the wall are a pair of small yellow-red half-flapped wooden cabinets about 90 centimeters long, 55 centimeters high, and 55 centimeters wide. Although the pair of small wooden cabinets were half-old, they were polished and shiny, and they could almost shine on people. Such small wooden cabinets, which were common twenty or thirty years ago, are now replaced by new high-end furniture, and it is rare to see them.

The small cabinet is stacked with futons, and the futons are covered with a white cloth sheet embroidered, which is very neat. The size of the premises is less than 9 square metres. In the middle of the ground is the iron stove that was used for heating and cooking that winter, Hongli had just been drained three times, and Gu Yulan came back to lead the fire. The distance between the iron stove and the south kang is about one meter. To the north of the iron stove is a small wooden trough for coal.

Under the neck on the east side of the stove was a stack of split wood for starting the fire. Next to the north wall, on the two sides is a small square kang table standing diagonally against the wall. On the east side of the small kang table is a washbasin stand. Between the washbasin stand and the east wall is a rectangular writing desk. On the desk, on the left is a 12-inch black-and-white television, and on the right is a small dressing box. Between the TV and the vanity box is a tin printed thermos. On top of the dressing box was a small round mirror with an iron frame that was not much bigger than a palm. There is a wooden stool underneath the desk.

This is the Gu family.