After two train transfers, two more shuttle bus transfers, and nearly two days, Hong Yan finally set foot on the land of his hometown.

This is Lingxiao County, a small county under the jurisdiction of a fourth-tier city on the edge of the South China Sea, which has not enjoyed much of the benefits brought by reform and opening up due to its special geographical location and historical reasons. The county has a permanent population of only 300,000 and has jurisdiction over 24 townships with a total population of about 1.2 million. Due to the geographical remoteness of the town, it takes 45 minutes to drive from Qingyun City, and there are no characteristic industries, so the development degree of the town is average, and it is a sparsely populated type.

Hong Yan's home is not in Lingxiao County, but in Yunding Village, which is about a 30-minute drive away.

As the saying goes, the sea eats the sea and the mountains eat the mountains, so Yunding Village relies on the continuous mountains and forests of the village collective, and the lychees planted by every household are the main source of income.

Hong Yan's parents were not at home when he arrived home, the lychee ripening season was approaching, and he needed to make preparations before picking, and he didn't inform his parents in advance when he would go home, so he put down his luggage and went out to walk towards his lychee forest.

"Old man, our lychees are growing really well this year." A middle-aged woman said to the uncle next to her while pouring water

"The growth is really good, but it is estimated that it will not sell for any price." The uncle replied while taking the water handed over by the aunt

"Also, our lychees are growing well, and other people's lychees are also growing well, and this year is a bumper harvest year, and the market price is definitely lower than in previous years." The aunt said faintly, her face full of melancholy.

"That's no way, our family's annual income is counting on these dozens of lychee trees to account for the majority, and now we just hope to sell them." The uncle took a sip of water, took off the straw hat he wore on his head and fanned the wind.

There are also low and peak years for the ripening of lychees, which depends on many factors such as environment, climate, rain, etc. Prices are low in high-yield years and rise in low-yield years, which is the so-called scarce and expensive.

When the yield is high, the market is saturated, and the buyers have abundant resources at hand, because the purchase price is low, so there are many fruit farmers to choose from, so there will be a situation where the fruit farmers cannot sell unless they are willing to sell it at a lower price.

However, many growers would rather the fruit rot on the tree than sell it, otherwise the price is not enough for labor costs.

The uncle thought for a while and said: "If you can't sell it, you can't sell it, fortunately, Yan'er will graduate this year, and I used to count on these lychees to pay the children's tuition, but now that we have less of this expenditure, we can make it a lot easier." ”

When my wife mentioned the child, the aunt looked relieved and said: "Yan'er is really a worry-free child, and she is also sensible and distressing, and she has also suffered the child in the past few years." When this harvest season is over, let's go to the construction site to do odd jobs, save some wife books for the child, and when he finds a good job, let him marry Rin'er's girl as soon as possible, so that we can hold our grandson as soon as possible, haha. ”

Rin'er's full name in the aunt's mouth is Zhou Rin'er, a girl from Hongyan's neighbor's family, 19 years old this year, a freshman in the province.

Zhou Rin'er's father's name is Zhou Shusheng, originally an outsider, who was assigned here when he went to the countryside to go to the countryside, and later married Zhou Rin'er's mother and settled here.

Zhou Shusheng was only 18 years old when he first arrived, and he worked in the forest farm for several years, and then transferred to the school as a teacher after running a primary school in the township. At that time, there were few cultural people, and Zhou Shusheng's sophomore education was already one of the best cultural people in the township, so he was called by the lack of teachers in the township, and married Rin'er's mother.

Seven or eight years ago, because Zhou Shusheng's knowledge level could not keep up with the times, he was dismissed internally, and since then he has followed Hong Yan's parents to do odd jobs.

Zhou Shusheng suffered a lot after coming here, thanks to Hong Yan's parents helping again and again, and the friendship between the Hong family and the Zhou family was also established from the intersection again and again.

Later, Zhou Lin'er was born, and the parents of both sides were overjoyed and directly gave the baby parent.

When it comes to Zhou Rin'er, Hong Yan's father is very happy, he is well-behaved and sensible. Hong Yan is an only child, and after he went to school, his family usually seemed deserted, but fortunately, Rin often went to Hong's house to take care of the second elder, but also to help with housework or farm work.

"Did my son tell you when he would be back?" Father Yan asked happily

As soon as the words fell, Yan Mu was about to answer, only to hear a shout behind her.

"Mom, Dad, I'm back."

The second elder turned around and looked, and was pleasantly surprised, isn't this the son he hasn't seen for more than half a year?

Hurry up and take two steps to meet it, the second always looks left and right and touches, I haven't seen him for more than half a year, and my son has really changed a lot.

Hong Yan was as thin as a bamboo pole before, but when I look at it today, he has not only grown taller, but also become very strong, almost unrecognizable.

"When did you arrive?" Mother Yan looked at her son and asked happily

"I just arrived, no, I put down my luggage and came to find my parents."

"Let's go, mom child, go home and cook, the child is happy when he comes back today, he must drink two glasses." Father Yan said with a smile

"Okay, okay, it's up to you, let's go, let's go home."

On the way home, Yan's father also bought half a pork rib from the village butcher Zhang, because Hong Yan especially likes to drink pork rib soup.

After arriving home, Yan's mother opened up, and delicious food was placed on the table.

The meal was about to be ready, and Father Yan hurriedly went next door to invite Zhou Shusheng's family over.

Seeing Zhou Rin'er's mother Zhuang Chunmei helping the limping Zhou Shusheng into the yard, followed by Zhou Rin'er's twelve-year-old sister Zhou Ying'er, Hong Yan hurriedly went up to help her.

"Uncle, what's the matter with you?" Hong Yan asked with concern

"Hong Yan?" Zhou's father and Zhou's mother looked surprised, the Hong Yan in front of him was still the original Hong Yan, this was like a different person.

Tall, handsome, and strong, he exudes a sunny temperament.

"Isn't that what you're doing?" Hong Yan replied with a smile

"Hey, don't mention it, the construction site fell, it's out of the way." Father Zhou replied with an expression of no big deal

"Then I'll hold you, you slow down."

The countryside is large, and every family has a yard, and the dining table is placed next to a magnolia tree in the courtyard of the Hong family. This magnolia tree was planted by Hong Yan's grandfather back then, and now it is luxuriant, with clusters of small flowers hanging on it, and the fragrance is overflowing.

Hong Yan and Zhou's mother helped Zhou's father to sit at the dining table, Zhou's mother turned around and went into the kitchen to help Hong's mother prepare dishes and chopsticks.

As soon as Father Zhou and Hong Yan sat down, Father Hong was coming out of the house with a bottle of wine.

"Hey, okay, Lao Hong, I'm willing to take out this wine." Looking at the Wuliangye in Father Hong's hand, Father Zhou looked surprised.

"I'm happy today, let's dry this wine." Father Hong said happily

"Then I'm stained with Yan'er's light today." Father Zhou quipped

"Dad, I also want to touch my brother's light." Zhou Ying'er sat on the bench and said happily with big eyes

Zhou Lin'er and Zhou Ying'er are seven years apart, and the eyebrows between the two are quite similar, and they will definitely grow up like her sister in the future, destined to have the appearance of a disaster for the country and the people.

"Okay, I'll get you enough in a while." Hong Yan dotingly touched Zhou Ying'er's head.

"No, I want to drink Wuliangye too."

As soon as these words came out, all three of them were shocked.

"Okay, Lao Zhou, it's worthy of the tiger father and no dog girl, not bad, haha." Father Hong smiled and joked to Father Zhou

Father Zhou glared at Zhou Ying'er, and said sternly: "Go, what kind of wine do children drink, drink your Coke obediently." ”

"Puff, puff, don't drink if you don't drink, I'm not rare yet." Zhou Ying'er stuck out her tongue and glanced at her face.

Zhou Rin'er did not come back today from studying in the province, and the little naughty mischievous tricksters of the Zhou family were only cleaned up by her sister.

The dishes are all in place, and everyone is in place. While eating, they chatted about various topics, but the most talked about was the harvest of lychees this year, although Hong's father and Hong's mother said that they didn't care, but who didn't want to earn a little more. However, the Zhou family is obviously more concerned about the harvest of lychees, after all, Zhou's father is injured at home, and the family has lost an important labor force, so the whole family is counting on these lychees.