After dinner, He Zhiyuan took care of the half-drunk father-in-law into the house to rest, and then he sat down at the dining table alone. Staring at the dishes on the table, he was too tired to breathe.

Life was like a quagmire, he moved forward one foot at a time, walked for a while and looked back, there was still a quagmire behind him, the endless stretch ahead made him panic, he didn't know whether to continue to move forward, or stop to rest and rest.

He had too many expectations for writing novels, so much so that now that the road is broken, his whole person seems to have fallen into a bottomless black hole, and his heart is too heavy to recover. The words he carefully pondered, the plot he carefully constructed, and the delicate descriptions of his heart and emotions...... In the end, it became a pile of waste paper and no one cared about it. Hundreds of thousands of words, no one reads it, and I finally participated in the competition thinking that there would be a turnaround, but now I can't even be shortlisted......

He Zhiyuan's heart sank and couldn't breathe, he felt that his whole body was collapsing, and he could barely come out after dividing it into seven sections in one breath.

At half past nine in the evening, Gui Ying came back with Xiaotang and Xuemei. Xiaotang went to bed as soon as she got home, Xu was pregnant and tired, she couldn't even think crankily when she faced the corner. Xuemei, who was allowed to drink for the first time, was even happier after being slightly drunk, and was humming a song alone to clean up in Xiaotang's house. A small place of 30 square meters seems to be divided into two planes.

Xuemei's good interest made Xiaotang even more silent. Will she give birth to this baby? Will this kid be as sensible and motivated as Xuemei in the future? How can she raise a palm-sized thing into a handsome daughter or boy like Xuemei? Xiaotang shed tears, touched his stomach, and the great panic weighed on his heart.

Once, for countless nights, she cried because she couldn't get married, cried because she was too old to have children, and cried for the life of Woqu, but now, the process of life is fast forward all of a sudden, she is tormented as if the sky has fallen, and any good news is a cold joke in her eyes. Bao Xiaotang's life collapsed.

After returning home, Gui Ying saw Zhiyuan alone at the dining table in a daze, his expression was unpredictable and a little abnormal. She stepped forward to chat with her husband, and in order to open the topic, she complained to Zhiyuan about her work.

"My dear, today our business will be special...... Uncomfortable! ”

"What's wrong?"

"If you don't summarize it, I really don't know what the result will be. I feel okay, but when you calculate the general account, the first half of this year this show was the worst in the history, and the income was flat - the big boss barely made money! There are a few customers in my hands who are not satisfied, and the overall is okay, guess what about other salesmen? ”

"How?" Zhiyuan refreshed his mind and matched his wife's interest.

"Long Shisheng is the largest number of big customers, and he has lost four big customers - four super large! Only these four are enough for him to lose more than 200,000 yuan in personal income! Hua Haiyang is the most small customers, after this exhibition, many of his small customers have said that they will not participate in the exhibition again, and I know that there are seven or eight customers who have gone out of business! Zhao Binbin, who has the strongest ability, has gone four or five, and the loss is quite large! ”

"Didn't you say that the May show was very well received?" Zhiyuan recalled Gui Ying's fighting spirit in the first two months.

"The exhibition itself is good, there are a lot of idlers watching the exhibition, but there are very few professional visitors in the upstream and downstream of the industry! If you think about it, a company has such a big stall and spends so much money to participate in the exhibition, but its customers don't come! So what's the point? Gui Ying spread her hands.

"Why didn't you come?"

"The environment is not good! The past two years have been difficult, and the business volume is much less today, and the big boss sighed at the meeting, I don't know how to open this exhibition in the second half of the year! ”

"What about you? How much of your customers are churned? ”

"Hey, it's not clear yet! I have few resources, and if I don't have the title of business manager, I don't think it's much! The two major customers in Shenzhen did not say that they would not participate in the second half of the year, but only said that the effect in the first half of the year was not good, and the largest customer they Manager Zhang directly said 'no effect', and there were three small customers - one closed the factory and two did not come! By the time we get to November, I don't know how many customers we will lose! Gui Ying sighed.

"It's okay, it's not you who loses, everyone loses!" Zhiyuan comforted Gui Ying.

"Hey, why are you here in a daze today? Didn't write a novel? Gui Ying turned around and found out.

"Hey...... These two days off! Zhiyuan lowered his head, with a look on his face that he didn't want to mention.

"Isn't it going to be a deadline? Didn't you rush some time ago? Gui Ying asked sharply.

"It's early!" Zhiyuan glanced at the sky.

"How? Do you think there will be a result of the competition? Gui Ying craned her neck.

"The online text market is completely different from what I imagined, not to mention ...... What's more, I didn't finish it, so I gave up the game! Zhiyuan rubbed the chopsticks in his hand.

"How so? Aren't you almost finished? Gui Ying sat up straight, and her voice vibrated violently.

"It's not ...... Recently......" Zhiyuan frowned and swallowed what he had to say.

Gui Ying stared at Zhiyuan with her head and eyes powerfully, and after pondering for a moment, she understood. She let out a long sigh, not knowing how to comfort her husband.

"Don't worry, I'll send him away when his feet are healed!" Gui Ying remembered the incident of getting up early again.

"Tsk, it's not for this reason, how can you speculate! What do you make your dad and relatives think of me and you? Zhiyuan suddenly looked angry.

"He's not an ordinary person!" Gui Ying blamed her father for missing the tournament.

"It doesn't matter whether he is an ordinary person or not, the important thing is that he is the child's grandfather and our family! How do you ...... Tut! Zhiyuan was stunned, like a chain reaction, one problem leads to another, which is not what he wants to face.

Gui Ying was speechless, and she was indignant in her heart.

"It's my own bad state, I've been unsettled in the past two years, don't talk nonsense, don't shirk responsibility at will, let Dad hear how sad he is! I'll adjust, you give me time, just leave me alone! Zhiyuan's words were firm.

Gui Ying withdrew her eyes and bit her lip, her eyes a little stinging.

"Okay, let's go to bed early." Gui Ying found the conversation to end the conversation, and after saying that, she got up and went to wash.

It was not yet ten o'clock in the evening, Gui Ying missed Yangyang, I don't know if she slept, hesitated again and again, and finally lay on the bed and dialed her mother-in-law's WeChat phone. Luckily, Yang Yang hasn't slept yet—he's playing. After Zhiyuan left today, the old lady bought a pink three-wheeled scooter with more than 500 yuan, such as the child who got the treasure is still in the living room at night! Gui Ying also heard a crisp and hearty laugh from the phone.

When I drove back, I fantasized about how my daughter cried and screamed for her mother in front of her, but the child was so happy that he couldn't call the phone to come to him. Gui Ying's mother hung up the video call in great frustration, lying on the bed alone, unhappy and disappointed, and she was even more depressed.

After entering the house, the old horse still did not fall asleep at ten o'clock in the evening. Maybe I slept too much in the afternoon, but at night the alcohol was still there, and my head was so swollen that I couldn't stand it, and I couldn't sleep. Alcohol anesthetized his body but could not anesthetize his will, and in the afternoon he talked a lot of old things to Xingxia, who had been away from his hometown for many years and was curious about his hometown, and also to his own self who was far away from the past.

The neem tree with bitter fruits, the persimmon tree with flowers like six-petaled snow, and the poplar tree with straight stems...... These tree-covered places are the small alleys of Majiatun. The lotus cabbage wrapped in layers under the courtyard wall, the round and heavy red lotus in the self-kept field, and the strange and delicious soft ground after the rain on the south slope...... These God-given things nourish the people in Majiatun. After the rain, the village path is dark yellow, the floating soil of the clear field is light yellow, and the houses of different shades of yellow seem to be part of the earth, and they are embedded in the Guanzhong Plain like mushrooms.

The old horse was born there and grew there.

Dozens of meters high water tower, yellow trunk canal that drains irrigation, and tap water to each house...... Those miracles that belong to history are also the ordinary life of Lao Ma's generation. Majiatun and Lao Ma - Lao Ma and Majiatun are like a symbiotic coexistence, and only when they are separated can they realize each other's status. In the past, he hated it, complained about it, and hated it, but now Lao Ma is full of Majiatun's goodness.

The drunk old horse couldn't control his brain, and he couldn't tell whether he was asleep or awake in a daze. People and things from the past poured out like a movie - Yingying's mother, Yingying's grandfather, Yingying's grandmother, her own grandfather, neighbors, friends...... These people seem to be gone, and they never seem to have left, and they appear in the life of the old horse from time to time, constituting the old horse's past and the old horse of the past. Whenever he recreates certain words or deeds or scenes from the past, he will think of these past people.

When a man reaches seventy, half of his mind is immersed in the past, and half is in the present; Half of the body is dead, half is alive.

It is said that after Yangyang got a scooter that could resist all other toys, his life seemed to have entered a new realm. When I get tired of playing at night, I fall asleep as soon as I get out of bed, no matter who the people around me are, and who cares where I am. Zhiyuan's mother put the scooter at the head of Yangyang's bed before going to bed, Yangyang woke up in the morning and saw the scooter first, everything is not happy, as long as there is a high-end pink omnipotent scooter in her world.

A scooter fully satisfies all He Yiyang's good expectations for life, but Gui Ying, who just arrived at the office on Wednesday morning, is jealous that she is not as important as a scooter in the eyes of her daughter.

Career can bring people a sense of belonging and achievement, and the career they like can make people feel more value and meaning, and to some extent, career can offset the nothingness of life more than children and love. Thinking of the novel that her husband spent his heart and soul on, Gui Ying was even more sad, because she couldn't do anything about it.

Since the day they got married, their husband and wife have become a symbiote, and she regards Zhiyuan's frustration more than her own frustration. The clinging love made her blame herself for the other party's frustration, and the resentment since childhood urged her to pass on the mistake or failure to her father, Lao Ma.

Lao Ma got up early in the morning and was dazed, yesterday's drunkenness had not completely subsided, and he didn't wake up until the phone rang - Ma Baoshan called to ask about the village. Baoshan has always been shrewd, how can he ask Lao Ma about some trivial things, Lao Ma disdainful in his heart, and hung up after three or five sentences.

Hung up the phone and tore up the calendar. Today is the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the second day of the month of Xinwei in the year of Jihai, it is appropriate to sacrifice, pray for blessings, fasting Jiao, travel, and collect, avoid marrying, opening the market, planting, and longevity wood. After tearing up the calendar, he lay on the rocking chair and shook his fan to listen to Qin's play. The old horse who listened to the play only felt stuffy, and the towel on his shoulder was wet for a while, so the old man carried the towel to the bathroom to cross the water.

At nine o'clock, Zhiyuan came back, and the two of them had breakfast together face to face.

"It's hot!" The old horse opened the hot soy milk and closed it again, so hot that he didn't want to drink it.

"Tomorrow a typhoon is coming! Before the typhoon came, it was generally hot and humid, but fortunately, the path of the typhoon passed in Shenzhen! ”

"Hmmm! I don't know how Yangyang is in Hunan? The old horse happened to think of his little foolish fairy.

"Yesterday I was crying when I left, my mother bought her a scooter in the afternoon, and she had a good time, and Yingying called her in the evening and ignored her! Haha......"

"The kid forgets quickly!"

"Dad, my mom brought you something! You went to bed early last night and I didn't take it out. Zhiyuan put down the eggs, went to rummage in the box, and then carried a bag of things to Lao Ma and said, "These are two boxes of Ganoderma lucidum spore powder, my uncle's son bought it on a business trip, and I will bring you a little by the way." Changbai Mountain's, pure natural, improve immunity! ”

"Oh! It's expensive, isn't it? ”

"It's okay, your old man is making up for his body!"

"Thank you Mom, you really have a heart!" Lao Ma put down the gift, looked at Zhiyuan solemnly and said, "Do you know what I ate yesterday morning?" Let me tell you, you can't guess it even if you guess it in your brain......" Lao Ma learned from Zhiyuan about the five eggs yesterday, and Zhiyuan shook his head again and again.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Xingsheng called. It turned out that there was hail at about 9 o'clock this morning, and the most serious rain was on the land of the youth group in the northeast of the village, which is where Majiatun grows grapes. Worried that the grapes would be seriously injured this time, the villagers drove to the fields to see the movements, and Xingsheng's phone calls also came from the fields. In extreme weather, how can the old horse be relieved, but it is a pity that it has worked hard, and I only hope that the fruit will be less lost.

Then there is the grandson of the old doctor in the village who got married, and Xingsheng didn't know how many portals to do, so the old horse gave a number, and the two hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Xingsheng wore a big hat and a plastic helmet under the hat, and the middle-aged man carried hail to patrol the field. Ma Xingsheng walked from the south to the north, and from the north to the south, a lot of grape beads were smashed down on the ground, and he couldn't bear to step on the green grapes, and the three acres of grape fields were full of his sighs and regrets.

There are only two people in the family, Lao Ma and Zhiyuan, except for eating, Zhiyuan has been hiding in the house, and Lao Ma doesn't know what he is doing. The air conditioner may be as old as an old horse - it doesn't make a strong sound, it is the same as if it is not turned on, and the balcony is uncomfortable. The old man was so hot that he was sweating, he drank a sip of water to sweat, he drank half a glass of water to sweat, and the wrist of the fan was already sour. The old horse turned the air conditioner on and off, and when he turned it on, he thought it smelled and stuffy and cost electricity, and if he didn't turn it on, he thought the house was hot.

It was too hot to sleep at noon, and at three o'clock in the afternoon, my body was finally exhausted, and I collapsed on the rocking chair and was confused. There was no ripple by his side, as if there was no sun in the sky—the old horse was surprised that he had only been here for a few days before he was fascinated by the little fairy. The old man was so lonely that he missed the four big yellow dogs at home, as well as the plain wind, the smell of loess, the fragrance of fruits, the summer sun, and the water of the Wei River......

Suddenly, the phone rang, and the old man, who seemed to have not slept yet, glanced at a strange number.

"Hello?" The old horse has a sleeping cavity.

"Hey! Brother Jianguo, it's me, Tianmin! When Lao Ma heard that it was Ma Tianmin, he glared at him.

"Oops, rare!"

"Yesterday Xingxia called me and said that you are here, I still don't believe it! He gave me your number! I heard that you can use WeChat? Hehehe...... Is it? "Tianmin doesn't believe that Lao Ma will use WeChat.

"My grandson taught me that I can't type, I can only shout!" Old Ma was a little shy.

"Can you walk on your legs and feet now?"

"If you can walk, you can walk, walk slowly! Can't go big! ”

"I'm the first to call you, it's a special trip to tell you something, I'll be sixty-five next Friday, my son will celebrate my birthday, there are no other outsiders, I think how about our brothers get together?" The Celestial People asked the old horse.

"Done! I haven't seen you in years! ”

"I miss you so much—the old village chief! Originally, I didn't want to have a banquet, so I had a home-cooked meal - sixty-five and not seventy! As soon as I heard that Xingxia was here last night, I immediately changed my son's words, and made a special trip to let a few of our old men outside get together and meet! Then I'll send you the address on WeChat, how can you come over? If it's inconvenient, I'll ask my son's driver to pick you up! ”

"No, my son-in-law is at home, and he will drive me when the time comes!"

"Okay, I'll get us a big private room, and let's have a good chat with a few fellow villagers on the wall! Xingxia said that yesterday you two drank and punched, and I was itching when I heard it—why didn't you call me? Later, I thought, you have bad legs and feet, so I'll organize everyone, while I can still move and have some energy! Huh! Your distant relative Zhong Neng will call him later, and you can come over together when the time comes! You can't walk, he can help you! "The people of heaven have put a lot of thought into welcoming the old horse.

"It's done, it's done! Na...... See you then! Take care of yourself! Lao Ma knew that he had never been in good health, so he didn't want to say more. The old man was happy and shouted hard.

"Okay, Brother Jianguo, I'll hang up first, you take care of your foot injury!" Tianmin hung up after speaking.

Lao Ma was happy, and then chatted with Zhong Neng on WeChat, and the two brothers made an appointment to go to the banquet together.