Li Ran walked into the hall with a lost face and fumbled to find the switch of the electric light. There was a foul smell in the hall, stuffy and mixed, giving people a strong sense of suffocation. The black concrete walls looked unusually heavy in the dim light. There was only a small square table in the hall, and the table was a mess. A few dishes and chopsticks were piled up in a mess, and the bottles of drunken wine lay silently in the corner of the table, like a dehydrated fish, gasping for breath with its mouth wide open.

Li Ran looked around, and his heart was gloomy. He knew that his father must have fallen asleep drunk, and he knew that he had long been accustomed to watching this kind of life. A terrible thought had popped up in his mind countless times, but after weighing it for a long time, he still didn't dare to leave this family that he loved and hated.

The lights in the room were still on, and snoring came from inside. Li Ran walked to the door of the room and raised his eyes to look at his father lying on the bed. Li Guangkun was lying on his back on the bamboo bed, his mouth wide open, like the empty wine bottle on the table. The sound of thunderous snoring erupted rhythmically from his big mouth, causing Li Ran to be upset.

Li Ran raised his eyes and looked at it for a while, and finally walked in. He found the broken fan, fanned it a few times, drove away the mosquitoes inside, and then removed the net from the hook and carefully stuffed it.

Li Ran stretched out his hand to turn off the light and walked out of the room. He simply cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks on the small square table, and then felt that he didn't have any strength in his body, so he didn't even bother to take a shower, so he climbed back to his bed and lay down.

The night was getting darker, but Li Ran was still sleepy, and his head was full of thoughts. At this time, a "buzzing" mosquito sound whistled past his ears, and Li Ran closed his eyes and pricked up his ears to carefully identify the general location of the mosquitoes. Just when the arrogant "buzz" sound came back, Li Ran slapped it violently.

Who knows, this slap slapped heavily on his ear. He didn't know if he had slapped the mosquito to death, but he knew that his ears were buzzing with his own swatting. Li Ran suddenly felt annoyed and turned over vigorously.

Since he promised Zhang Yuanchun to pay tuition a while ago, Li Ran is full of confidence and enthusiasm every day. In addition to helping his father get out of the cage every day, he also tinkered with some cages and started his own "small business". Although he didn't earn much, he couldn't help Li Ran's persistence every day, and soon Li Ran saved enough money for himself and Zhang Yuanchun's tuition. When he came back from selling yellow eels in Hexia Town in the morning, Li Ran's heart was full of a sense of accomplishment. At lunchtime, he specially told Li Guangkun that he was going to start school tomorrow and that he would prepare for the start of school in the afternoon. Li Guangkun didn't ask much, so he went to the river alone to go to the cage.

It's just that what Li Ran didn't expect was that Zhang Yuanchun was not very willing to ask for his money, and his ambiguous attitude made Li Ran feel very disappointed. Fortunately, Lin Miaoxiang's warm words alleviated Li Ran's incomparable loss in time. Throughout the afternoon, Li Ran and the little sisters of the Zhang family had a lot of fun. Until the evening, when Lin Miaoxiang invited Li Ran to dinner at her house, Li Ran agreed without thinking about it.

The liveliness of the little sisters of the Zhang family and the incomparable gentleness of Lin Miaoxiang made Li Ran have the idea of not wanting to leave Zhang Yuanchun's house. Because of the loneliness of his home, Li Ran's heart swelled with loneliness. This kind of loneliness has been with him since he was a child, just like Lin Miaoxiang's gentleness is like accompanying Zhang Yuanchun.

Last year, Li Ran accidentally found a photo of his father and a strange woman at the bottom of the closet. Li Ran felt very strange, so he took the photo and secretly found Grandma Wang next door. Grandma Wang quietly told him that the woman was his biological mother, Zhou Manli.

Li Ran cried at that time. It was the first time he knew what his mother looked like when he was so old, and he knew that his mother was also a clean, down-to-earth and generous person. Grandma Wang told Li Ran something about his mother, which made Li Ran full of grief and sigh. When he returned home in the evening, Li Ran handed the photo to Li Guangkun and asked him if he knew where his mother was.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Li Guangkun saw that photo, his face immediately changed. He grabbed the photo violently, tore it in half without saying a word, and threw it on the ground. Looking at his father's angry appearance, Xiao Li Ran didn't dare to ask more, so he could only secretly cry sadly. When his father returned to the house after drinking and fell asleep, Li Ran picked up the torn photo with tears in his eyes and carefully hid it.

At this time, Li Ran moved his body, and his fingers inadvertently touched the thick pile of change in his pocket. His heart moved, thinking that since Zhang Yuanchun didn't need his own money, he would save it, and when he had time to go to Nan'an County for a few days, he might be able to meet his mother.

The total was decided, and Li Ran suddenly felt a burst of relief. He rolled over and lay on his back on the bed, staring at the dark roof. It didn't take long for fatigue to strike, and Li Ran soon fell asleep deeply.

This night, Li Ran slept very sweetly and comfortably.

Early the next morning, when Li Ran woke up, it was already bright. He was shocked, and hurriedly rolled over and got out of bed. He looked at where the sun was shining on the wall, and couldn't help but congratulate himself that he hadn't overslept, otherwise he would have been late for the first day of school.

Li Guangkun's house is surrounded by walls, not to mention the clocks that are shaped like chicken ribs in his eyes. Since Li Ran was in the first grade, he has invented a set of methods for looking at time. That's where he sees the sun shining on the walls of his room in the morning, and where the sun shines through the door of the hall at noon. After so many years, although he doesn't know the exact time of day, he is almost never late for school.

Li Ran put on the school uniform that had been prepared long ago, tied the red scarf seriously, put on the schoolbag and went out. Before going out, Li Ran didn't forget to take a steamed bun from the pot and eat it while walking.

Hebian Primary School is one of the few complete primary schools in Hexia Town, with relatively complete teaching facilities and teachers. In addition to Zhangjiakeng Village and Liuzhuang, children in several nearby villages are basically studying in riverside primary schools, and even Linwei on the south bank of the Chuanghe River has people sending their children to riverside primary schools.

It is about a mile from Zhangjiakeng Village to Hebian Primary School. Li Ran walked happily on the road with his schoolbag on his back, and most of the steamed buns in his hand had been gnawed off.

"Li Ran, wait for me, wait for me ......" A little boy's voice suddenly came from behind him.

Li Ran immediately heard that this voice was his classmate Wang Xiaobin. He stopped, turned around, and looked back. Sure enough, Wang Xiaobin rushed over from behind with a big schoolbag on his back.

Wang Xiaobin is the only son of Wang Chuanxi of Xiaowang Zhuang, who is not short and thick, dull-headed, and his IQ and size are seriously disproportionate. The classmate who had good deeds gave him the nickname "Silly Head", which was full of irony. Wang Xiaobin didn't seem to mind, but whenever someone called him stupid, he always agreed casually and didn't get angry.

Wang Chuanxi is an accountant in Zhangjiakeng Village and has never been elected for more than ten years. His family built a small building early, and his family seems to be very wealthy. So Wang Xiaobin's pockets are always bulging, and he carries snacks and candy anytime and anywhere. Since the first grade of primary school, Wang Xiaobin seems to be particularly good at communicating, and he can always play well with the class cadres. As a result, although Wang Xiaobin's grades have always been at the bottom, he has never been bullied in the class.

"Ah, squad leader, why do you only eat steamed buns?" Wang Xiaobin squinted his little eyes, looked at the half steamed bun in Li Ran's hand, and screamed in surprise.

Li Ran didn't answer him, just raised his hand and nibbled on another bite of steamed buns, and continued to walk towards the school.

Wang Xiaobin followed Li Ran closely, for fear that Li Ran would get rid of him. As he walked, he took out a handful of colorful fruit candy from his pocket, spread out his palm and stretched it out in front of Li Ran.

"Li Ran, I invite you to eat sugar. This is what my dad bought from the county seat, and it's very delicious. Wang Xiaobin looked at Li Ran's face as he spoke.

Li Ran lowered his eyes and looked at the fruit candy in Wang Xiaobin's hand, and seemed to hesitate a little in his heart, and finally picked a white fruit candy and held it in his hand.

When Wang Xiaobin saw that Li Ran asked for his candy, he immediately became happy. "Class leader, I still have a few questions to do in my summer homework, why don't you lend me your summer vacation homework."

"Only a few questions?" Li Ran asked nonchalantly.

Wang Xiaobin smiled, raised his hand and scratched his head. "Hehe, I've only done a few questions."

Li Ran knew that Wang Xiaobin had always been like this, so he didn't say anything more. He reached out and took out his summer vacation homework from his schoolbag and handed it to Wang Xiaobin. "You've only done a few questions, is it too late?"

"It's not up to you to make it too late." As he spoke, Wang Xiaobin reached out to take over his summer vacation homework and happily stuffed it into his schoolbag.

"If the teacher finds out, I don't care." As he spoke, Li Ran stuffed the remaining steamed buns in his hand into his mouth and peeled off the white fruit candy.

"If you don't say it, how will the teacher find out? Don't you say? Wang Xiaobin said flatteringly.

"Hey...... I said you, if you could put more effort into studying, you wouldn't have grown so much meat. As he spoke, Li Ran stuffed the fruit candy into his mouth. A burst of cool sweetness suddenly bloomed on Li Ran's tongue, teasing Li Ran's taste buds. Li Ran suddenly felt a trace of incomparable comfort, which was extremely refreshing. At this time, he suddenly had a thought, turned his head to Wang Xiaobin and said, "Dumbfounded, give me all your candy." ”

"All for you? Can you finish eating? Wang Xiaobin asked curiously.

"If you can't finish eating, don't worry about it. Do you say give or don't give? ”

"Give, give ......" Wang Xiaobin saw that Li Ran's tone seemed a little impatient, and hurriedly responded. He immediately turned out all the fruit candy in his two pockets and stuffed it into Li Ran's pocket.