Although it seems a little rushed, then again, it makes sense. After all, this is something that I was ready to talk about as early as the Chinese New Year, and the hasty thing is that no one knew that I had been in the mountains for so long, and when I got home, I was delayed for four days because of a coma, so after staying in the provincial capital for more than three hours, I boarded a flight to the city where Zhang Xiaowei's home was located.

Although Zhang Xiaowei's parents took the initiative to ask about their own reserved woman, my family finally remembered and decided to come to the door to say goodbye, but they couldn't set a date until they suddenly decided to have a lot of complaints, but they couldn't stand their daughter's elbow at this time has been completely turned out, and they spared no effort to help explain, so they gladly accepted.

The date can't be set because before yesterday, I was still in a coma, I don't know when I will wake up, and I don't know what the situation will be after waking up, but in order not to worry Zhang Xiaowei's parents, thinking that my future son-in-law is a sick man with a hidden disease, the little woman also advocated not telling them about the situation, saying that my family attaches great importance to this matter, and I can't set it because I want to pick a good enough day.

Zhang Xiaowei is an only child, her parents are intellectuals, and my family is an authentic farmer, so from the perspective of the family environment, there is no doubt that she is quite dissatisfied with me, the future son-in-law. What's more, it's still such a long distance, once you get married, it's not so easy to see your daughter again in the future, and if you just look at it, I'm actually a little unworthy of Zhang Xiaowei, so it's normal to not like it, it's weird to like it without saying anything.

But intellectuals are intellectuals, after more than half a year, their daughter's intentions have been understood, and what should be said has already been said, knowing that her daughter has identified people, forcibly breaking up is unrealistic and undesirable, so I didn't say anything embarrassing, and I received my family warmly.

So after staying for three days and talking seriously twice, Zhang Xiaowei's parents accepted the dowry, and the family affairs between me and my little daughter-in-law were also officially decided, and it was decided that at the end of the year, after both parties were fully prepared, they would sit down to discuss marriage.

With Zhang Xiaowei's parents' thoughts, they naturally don't want their daughter to be too far away from them in the future, but hope that I can come to the first-tier cities for development, and are willing to pave the way for me, as long as I am willing to come, my family will agree. However, judging from their existing understanding of me for most of the past half a year, knowing that even if I have this heart, I am afraid that I will not have the strength, after all, my life trajectory is not quite the same as that of ordinary young people, which they already know more or less, so they did not force it, but just mentioned it, so that we can have a direction that we can refer to in the future.

As for the material aspect, Zhang Xiaowei's parents don't have too many requirements, but they just said that their daughter grew up in the city, has never lived in the countryside, and doesn't understand all aspects of the countryside, and is not used to it, so if we can, we will take root in the provincial capital, buy a suite as soon as possible, and the cost of decoration will be paid by them, so that if they want to see their daughter and grandson in the future, it will be more convenient, and they will not have to toss back and forth so far.

In short, although I am not satisfied with my son-in-law in my heart, I have also shown a reasonable and impeccable open-minded attitude. Now that we have recognized each other, they have nothing to say, and are willing to accept me with all their hearts, and not to mention those who deliberately make things difficult for others, as long as we can live our lives well in the future, and do not let their daughters suffer.

The in-laws who are about to marry their daughter are so open-minded, and they think from the bottom of their hearts that they are the parents who have climbed this family business, so they are naturally not to be outdone, so they agreed to it and promised to buy a suite for us in the provincial capital to live in the future. Fortunately, although the housing prices in the provincial capital are also expensive, they are not as outrageous as the first and second-tier cities, although there will be pressure on a family like my family, but it will not be completely unable to achieve it, and my parents will also plan to do this, even if Zhang Xiaowei's parents don't say it, they never thought of asking us to go back to live with our parents, so there is nothing to hesitate.

After the family affairs were settled, Zhang Xiaowei's parents led them around for two days, and after having enough of the friendship of the landlord, the whole family returned happily and flew back to the provincial capital.

Since Zhang Xiaowei has not been at home during the Spring Festival this year, he suddenly said that he would go, and the Mid-Autumn Festival was also close at hand, so he did not go back with us, and wanted to stay at home with his parents for a period of time before returning to the provincial capital.

After stopping in the provincial capital for another day, I met with Sister Yun's family, recognized my relatives, and visited the small courtyard and shop where our master and apprentice lived, and then set off home at noon on the 14th. Since tomorrow is the fifteenth, the three uncles and aunts did not go back to their hometown, and drove directly back to the city, only to accompany us out of their hometown to go back together, while Li Lin stayed at school because the Mid-Autumn Festival did not last weekend this year, and only one day of vacation could not come back.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is naturally the autumn harvest. A lot of rice planted earlier, before the Mid-Autumn Festival has begun, after the Mid-Autumn Festival began to enter the climax, everywhere are busy in the rice field of people, the power of the rural clan is also at this time once again shown, today and tomorrow two days to help your family harvest, the day after tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to help my family harvest, the roar of the machine and the sound of artificial threshing rice grass hitting the wooden bucket one after another, lively and extraordinary. Although my family does not have many rice fields, and it takes four or five days to harvest them by themselves, but in the case of helping each other, they also helped back and forth for more than ten days, until the entire Li family's rice harvest was almost finished, and they were able to stop.

Speaking of which, although I am still a rural person, but since I followed the old man to the provincial capital, I have been in my hometown for very little time, and I have hardly touched the farm work.

As the autumn harvest gradually became idle, I naturally returned to "normal life" gradually.

Since the contact with the painting spirit, every three or five practice drawing, there is time to remember the picture, has been regarded as a habit of deep into the bone marrow, at first a person stayed in the mountain, the reason why manic, self-abandonment, to a certain extent, there is no way to draw, the reason for the itchy hands. It wasn't until I understood the old man's good intentions and began to have some enlightenment that the restlessness of wanting to draw a picture in my heart calmed down little by little, and as I gained more and more things in meditation, my heart became more and more peaceful.

It wasn't until I went down the mountain and saw the old man standing in the middle of the gate of the hall wearing a wide robe of the Spirit Painting School that the long-lost feeling suddenly reappeared: Oh, it turns out that I haven't drawn a spiritual map for so long.

But even so, from waking up from a coma, to going to Zhang Xiaowei's house to say goodbye, and then coming back in the past few days, I have never moved to re-study the ink, draw Zhang Lingtu to see what is different from before, and even the pen, ink, paper and inkstone that my mother has helped me put away have not opened and looked at it. Although I still remember that on the morning of leaving the mountain, when the general's soul left, I asked me to take the time to meet him and tell him about the recent situation of the white-faced scholar for most of the past six months.

Because there is no need for the old man to say more, I know very well in my heart that there is still one last and most important step to go before I become a true painter, and it is not yet time.

So I'm waiting.

And the old man is just waiting.

If you want to know the current situation of the white-faced scholar, you need to draw a picture to summon him and Xiao Qinghe back, so the general soul on the bank of the Xinyang River also needs to wait as much as us. It's not waiting for the time when I can draw, or waiting for Xiao Qinghe to come back next time - for most of the year, because I failed to draw a picture and summon a meeting as scheduled, Xiao Qinghe really couldn't wait to come back once, but he didn't see me that time, but just found me on the mountain, he was stopped by an old man who was secretly watching all the movements, and when he saw my mother, he left with peace of mind after learning about my situation at that time, and never came back, so the general soul wanted to know the current situation of Qingci, and the more realistic way was to wait for me.

But I don't know exactly how long I will have to wait, the only thing I know is that it won't take too long, at least compared to the time spent meditating on the mountain.

So when the rice recovered from the rice field was dried and put into the warehouse, the farm work was a little idle, basically I didn't need to do anything, and my parents could cope with it, so I rarely went out again, and contracted the family's three meals a day, in addition to doing housework every day, fixing the time and contacting Zhang Xiaowei, who still stayed at home with my parents, most of the time returned to the state of sitting quietly on the floor of the room.

It's just that when I meditate, I have more pen, ink, paper and inkstone in front of me that have accompanied me for more than ten years.

But just like in the first days, even though the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone were placed in front of me, I never had the idea of grinding ink and picking up the pen, or rather, I had been suppressing the idea of drawing with a pen. Not only did I not try to draw a picture, but even when I took these things out and placed them on the lazy table in front of the meditation place every day, I didn't touch them at all, but asked my mother to help me take them out and put them away.

And in the case of sitting quietly in front of the pen, ink, paper and inkstone every day, but always refraining from touching it, the flame in my heart is also growing stronger and stronger in this torment, and it is more and more irrepressible.

Until one day, I couldn't hold back the flames that had grown to a certain extent, as if they were about to erupt and burn, engulfing me whole, my hand couldn't help but stretch out, only a few millimeters away from the pen and ink close to my fingertips, I took a deep breath and raised my left hand, slapped the back of my right hand with all my might, forcibly withdrew it, got up and left the room like a runaway, and didn't dare to look at it again, I decided to give up this self-torment for the time being, go out for a walk and relax.

"Boy, still not ready?" At dinner that day, when I inadvertently caught a glimpse of the back of my right hand being swollen and high, and it was already a little inconvenient to hold chopsticks, the old man asked softly. This was the first time since I had begun to prepare for the final step that the old man had said anything to me about painting spirits, and only in front of my family, and he hadn't said a word before.

"Still no, I feel a little difficult and a little scared." Subconsciously retracted the swollen hand, I shook my head and smiled bitterly.

Hearing that I was a little difficult and a little afraid, the old man suddenly had nothing more to say, nodded slightly, and continued to eat.

"Then continue to prepare, don't rush it, the water will come naturally."

At this time, my mother and grandfather also noticed the redness and swelling on the back of my hand because of my action of withdrawing my hand, and looked at me a little strangely.

"Mom, don't worry, I made it myself, it's not a big deal, it will be fine in two days." I shook my head at them gently, smiled and said that it was okay, and after thinking about it, I looked at the old man again and said, "Master, I plan to take a day off tomorrow and go out for a walk to relax again...... You don't think it's going to work. ”

"Go, it's okay to go out for a walk, one day is not enough for two days, two days is not enough for three days, for the teacher is still the same sentence, don't be in a hurry, and don't embarrass yourself." As soon as the words fell, the old man nodded briskly, without any doubts.

"Okay, then I'll go out for the day tomorrow and come back before dark." Seeing that the old man agreed happily, his heart felt like there was a fire burning, and it seemed like there were a hundred mice crawling, and it suddenly eased a lot.

After dinner, my mother, who had been busy all day, did not let me clean up the dishes and chopsticks, saying that I was bored in my heart, so I took advantage of the dark to go out for a walk, not always bored at home, and asked me if I wanted money to go out tomorrow.

In the past few years, whenever I have a lot of money, I will give the extra money to my mother for storage, and I only have some enough turnover and living expenses. Originally, when I completely handed over the store to Zhang Xiaowei to take care of, I still wanted to hand over all the remaining savings to her, but I didn't want her to say that she didn't want anything, so when she continued to pay the rent, she also borrowed it from Sister Yun and then paid it back, and said that she didn't want to touch my hand, so the card, which was about 70,000 yuan, was left in my hand, and after I came back from Zhang Xiaowei's house, it was all handed over to my mother, so I was basically in a state of abject poverty at this time.

But no matter how poor you are, you won't be so poor that you have no money, and you won't have to spend money when you go out tomorrow, so I smiled and rejected my mother's idea of returning the card to me, and led the energetic Huanhuan out of the house, strolling on the road, and walking towards Yangjiaba without looking back, until my father drove a tractor back from Chashantang, and a person and a dog climbed onto the cargo bucket and blew a cool breeze all the way home.

Early the next morning, I got on the tractor again and went to the county seat with my father, who was going to pull cement.