April 1997, the last half year of kindergarten.

At that time, a very wealthy company funded a 'XX Oral Liquid Cup Children's Talent Contest'. All kindergartens in the city enthusiastically signed up to participate, and our class sent Yiqing, who usually likes to show off, to participate in the competition. Yiqing also lived up to expectations and went all the way to the finals. But coincidentally, before the finals, Yiqing didn't know what the hell she ate, vomited and diarrhea, and couldn't even go to kindergarten, let alone participate in the competition. Originally, this kind of thing was over if the competition was abandoned, but the kindergarten felt that it had already entered the finals, and it was a pity not to go, and the kindergartens that went to the competition were rewarded. Therefore, I am not dying, so that I, the person closest to Yiqing in the class, will participate in the competition instead.

I didn't know how to dance at all, but looking at the expectant eyes of the kindergarten teacher and the envious eyes of the other children, I agreed by surprise. After coming back to his senses, he was afraid, and the thought that he might have to stand on a stage as big as the Spring Festival Gala made me tremble all over my body, and I was anxious all day long.

When I got home, I told my parents about participating in the competition on behalf of Yiqing, and I wanted them to intercede for me so that I would not have to worry about participating in the competition. I never thought that after listening to it, my father would hold me up in the air and turn in circles as if he had taken the wrong medicine, and said, "Our Miao Miao is going to perform on stage, and there will be big stars in our family in the future!" ”

My mother said calmly: "It's also a good thing to exercise on stage." ”

I was carried in the air by my father, and I resisted the urge to vomit and said, "But I can't dance!" ”

My mother was worried that my father would fall me by mistake, so she took me into her arms and said, "Let your godmother teach you some dance moves, anyway, this kind of competition is about participation!" ”

In my family, as long as my mother opens her mouth to decide, it is basically a certainty, and I know that no more words will help.

At dinner, Yiqing learned that she had worked in vain and made a wedding dress for me, so she was so angry that she was like a toad puffing out two cheeks, and she went back to the room to recuperate after a few bites. My godmother is full of joy, the fat and water do not flow into the fields of outsiders, after all, her stupid girl has worked hard for so long to earn the final place, and it is better to take it for others, it is better to give it to her family.

After dinner, in the yard, my godmother personally taught me dance moves to the beat. One click, two clicks, three clicks, I couldn't step on the beat at all. After a few times, I began to get discouraged, and my godmother came over to comfort me and said, "Miao Miao, we still have time, godmother slowed down her movements and came step by step." ”

This time, my godmother broke down one action at a time to teach me, but even then I still took the wrong step and raised the wrong arm. My godmother was not impatient and helped me correct my movements. After practicing for nearly an hour and a half, I basically found some feeling, and I was able to follow my godmother to complete a set of movements in a coherent manner.

My godmother has always been a gentle and understanding woman for as long as she can remember, unlike my mother, who loses her temper at every turn. I think I'm a lot like my godmother, Yiqing is like my mother, and sometimes I think they hugged us wrong when we had a baby.

What my godmother taught me was a simple set of Northeast Yangge, which is a bit similar to today's twisted square dance. The next day, my godmother also specially got a set of costumes from the art troupe, a red cotton jacket, red cotton pants, tiger head shoes, and a tiger head hat. I put it on and was very happy, like a fat doll in the north during the Chinese New Year on the calendar. I thought to myself, although we don't have an advantage in dancing, we definitely don't lose to others in this equipment.

The final is on Friday morning. Probably during this period of time, the venue fee of the Children's Palace is cheap, and the organizer can save a lot of expenses, but it is a lot of parents. My parents couldn't take leave, my godfather had a performance to go on a business trip, and my godmother had to take care of Yiqing at home, so I had to send me to kindergarten and the teacher sent me to the competition. The teacher in our class took more than 20 children by herself, and when she left, there was no one to take care of the other children, so the teacher sent me to the kindergarten principal.

Our teacher knocked on the door a few times, but when no one answered, he pushed open the half-hidden door. I saw the kindergarten principal sleeping on the desk. The director is a middle-aged woman in her early forties, wearing a dark green tight-fitting suit, but the clothes obviously do not fit, and there are lines of flesh marks, like zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Our teacher used not too much or too little, and just woke up the principal's voice and shouted: "Principal." ”

After being woken up, the director stretched his waist and turned his face and asked impatiently, "What's the matter?" ”

After the teacher explained his intentions, the principal rubbed his temples vigorously and said, "Got it, got it, you go back to class first, and I'll send this child over." ”

After our teacher left, the principal took a cup of coffee on the table and poured it down, then got up and glanced at me standing at the door, and said, "What are you wearing, it's thick and ugly, isn't it hot?" ”

I didn't answer. I originally thought that the tall clothes were so said by the director that I felt like a clown on the street, and I felt that this April day was extremely hot.

The director's car was a yellow two-row car, probably the engine was not well sealed, and there was a strong smell of gasoline after getting into the car, which immediately choked my heart. The director hurriedly rolled down the window and said, "If you want to vomit, stick your head out, don't vomit in my car." ”

Seeing the disgusted look on the principal's face, I was so frightened that I swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva and swallowed the sour water that had reached my throat back into my stomach.

After the car drove out of the kindergarten, the principal kept on the phone. She was holding a flip phone that was relatively rare back then. At that time, there weren't many telephones installed in small towns like ours, so my mother bought a pager because of work needs, and she had to run to the fat aunt who opened a new grocery store to return the call. The principal's flip phone was very loud, and I could hear a man's voice inside, "Let you go to the hospital to take care of my mother?" She usually cooks for our family and takes care of the children, and she must have a conscience. ”

When the director heard this, he scolded on the phone: "You bastard, why don't I have a conscience." If you don't take care of your mother when she is sick, you call me. You're busy, my wife is busier than you, you only earn a few dollars a month, and you still have the face to yell at me. Let's talk about your mother taking the child, how did you get the scar on our son's forehead, have you forgotten? Didn't your mom get the money out of my pocket for groceries? Don't think I don't know, your mother secretly stuffs money into your little sister every month, that's my hard-earned money. If you want to say that you have no conscience, you have no fucking conscience. ”

The man on the phone was also anxious and said: "Don't look for a casserole with beans, if it weren't for the money compensated by the unit when my father died, you can run a kindergarten?" Now the wings are stiff, and I don't admit it, right? If you want to settle the account, you will calculate it, your brother borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from our family for business, you played mahjong and lost every three or five times, and your nephew came to eat and drink all day long, these are not money? ”

Listening to the scolding of the two people on the phone, for some reason, I suddenly thought of the shrew Qin and the drunk Li.

Such a plot is staged almost every day by the shrew Qin and the drunkard Li, but the language is more vulgar. The son of the shrewd Qin and the drunk Li was a year older than me, and he sat behind the grocery counter and cried when his parents were arguing endlessly. The people of Lao Cai are kind-hearted, and they persuade the two to think more about their children regardless of themselves. Then, the nameless evil fire of the two people was transferred to the child. Their son cried so loudly that his throat was about to burst. It's as if you're complaining to your parents with a heart-rending cry, since you don't love, why did you give birth to me in the first place.

Although my mother's temper is a little hotter, as long as my father says a word, my wife is right, and all problems will not be a problem. Feeling one's own happiness from the suffering of others is probably human nature, regardless of quality. So every time I see that child as old as me crying heartbreakingly, in addition to feeling sorry for him for a while, I feel more that I am really lucky, lucky not to be born in such a family.

As cars drive from the old town to the new town, high-rise buildings have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and our small city surrounded by mountains is quietly changing with the times.

It took about twenty minutes to finally arrive at the Children's Palace. The director parked in the square and asked me to get out of the car and drive the car to the parking lot myself. I stood in the open square, looking through the rainbow looming in the fountain pool to the oval building not far away, with a high dome and low all around, like a giant turtle looking for water. It didn't take long for the principal to walk up to me, still on the phone. I followed the principal's buttocks, and I didn't dare to look around. Through the side door of the performance hall, the director took me directly into the backstage. At this time, the director finally yelled two sentences into the phone, and hung up the phone decisively without waiting for the other party to reply. The director turned his head to look around, and when he found a staff member wearing a work badge, he walked over and asked, "Hello, is this the staff in charge of this competition?" ”

The staff member turned and nodded.

The principal beckoned me over, and then said to the staff, "I am the principal of Lianglianghua Kindergarten, and this is the child from our school who came to participate in the competition. There's something urgent for me to deal with at our school, so please take care of it, and I'll pick him up after the game. Regardless of whether the others agreed or not, he bent down and said to me: "Wait for me here after the game, don't run around, do you hear?" ”

To be honest, this place is so big, and there is no one I know, so I am somewhat scared. But thinking about the conversation on the principal's phone, her matter should be more urgent, and I don't seem to have a choice.

The director explained a few more words to the staff, and then turned to leave. I shouted at the back of the principal, "Principal, remember to come and pick me up." ”

The principal didn't look back, and then took out her flip phone and started calling.