Spring 1997; My name is Feng Lin, 17 years old, a junior high school student in the class of 96, and our class has one more main course than the previous class

"English", since the beginning of the first year, many people have not been able to learn this course, I am no exception, I feel that I can't learn anymore, so I did not take the high school entrance examination, and only a few students in the school were admitted to high school, and most of them plan to go out to work.

The sky was gray, and last night's rain had stopped.

"Xiao Linzi, come out and leave." The sound of a small ingots came from outside; Xiao Yuanbao's surname is Cao, and his scientific name is Cao Yuanbao, and he is a classmate in my same village, because the two families are neighbors, so the relationship between the two is relatively good.

As early as a few years ago, several male classmates in the village discussed going out to work together, and I asked him to call me on the day of departure.

People living in mountainous areas, lured by the colorful and golden outside, go out of the mountains one by one to the cities to fight for a living.

When the village dug the main road out of the village with the help of the authorities, and the horse-drawn carriage could be driven into the county seat, it was no longer necessary to cross the mountains and mountains for several miles to buy bags of salt, and the village opened a commissary; When the first person in the village to go out to work returned with joy and shared the beauty of the city with everyone, the people who have been farming for generations began to yearn for life outside.

Starting from my parents' generation, more and more people are going out of the house. Those who remain in the village are either large plots of fertile land and inheritance, or illiterate old people and children.

The people who had gone out also brought money back and overturned the mud houses made of stone and slabs, and built brick-walled bungalows and small buildings.

From then on, as long as they had the strength, could write their own names, or just graduated from school like me, they all got into a carriage and left the place where they had lived since childhood, and went to the city that people yearn for.

I packed up my mood and went out of the room, wearing new clothes that I bought at the market a few days ago, and my grandmother said that I should dress more beautifully when I went out, and I carried my schoolbag when I was in school, which contained my usual clothes, ID cards, money and other things.

"Lin'er, you're going! When you go out, you have to eat and sleep well, and earn more money to come back and marry a daughter-in-law. "My grandmother, who was sitting outside the door basking in the sun, saw me come out and admonished.

"Grandma, don't worry, I'll call Uncle Xu when I get there." At the time, I didn't feel sad, and I was even looking forward to it.

Only Uncle Xu's family has a phone in the village, and almost all of his family helps to spread the word when he calls outside.

When I got out of my yard, I saw that Xiao Yuanbao was also carrying a schoolbag, and he was turning his head and looking at me with a smile.

I stepped forward: "Hey, how many are there today?" "The two of us walked side by side towards the main road at the entrance of the village.

"There are only four of us, you and me, Li Yuancheng, and Lei Xiaohu." He paused and said, "Zhang Hai and Zhang Qiang said that they would go in a few days. "Although they are classmates in the same village, Li Yuancheng and Lei Xiaohu are not in the same class as me, and they are only familiar with each other.

After a while, I came to the entrance of the village, Uncle Cao, who was going to go to the county seat to buy things early in the morning, had already driven the carriage and waited for us at the entrance of the village, Uncle Cao was the uncle of the little ingot, and I also called Uncle, Li Yuancheng and Lei Xiaohu were already sitting in the carriage, and they both smiled and waved to us when they saw us.

"Hurry up and go!" Seeing the two of us Uncle Cao talking, the two of us climbed into the carriage and sat in the back of the cart.

"Thank you, uncle," I began.

"Hey, it's still Xiaolinzi who is polite." Uncle Cao praised it, and the carriage moved as soon as he pulled the reins

"Sit tight." Just staggered towards the county seat. The main road in the village is a stone foundation with a layer of coarse sand, and the road is in good condition because there are few cars passing by.

Chatting along the way, the familiar road behind me disappeared from view little by little. After almost an hour, we finally came to the county seat, which is also where we went to school.

Students who are far away from the school are boarded in the school, and they come home from school on Friday afternoon and return to school on Sunday afternoon.

The dormitory is a Chase bunk, in fact, it was not a Chase bunk, but the students were cold in winter, so they put together the beds, and the upper and lower double iron beds became the upper and lower Chase bunks.

The desks and chairs in junior high school are also much better than those in elementary school, using a yellow belt lattice table for two people and a single bench, and the one I sat on was used from the first year of junior high school to graduation.

A group of four people got out of the carriage, walked along the street, and came to the side of the road. This road is paved with asphalt, it is the main road for long-distance buses, and the four people are squatting and standing on the side of the road waiting for passing vehicles.

I subconsciously touched the money in my schoolbag, which my grandmother gave me last night to pay for the journey, and this time I was going to Guangdong Prefecture, where many people in the village worked.

Xiao Yuanbao said that he had already contacted us, and someone would pick us up when we got there.

"Hey, here's the car." Lei Xiaohu jumped up from the ground, only to see a passenger car coming slowly from the downhill road, and a sign from Pingli to Luya was handwritten in front of the windshield of the car.

When the car came to a stop, a woman opened the window and stuck her head out and shouted: "Luya bus station, the train station is on the train, five yuan, the train station..."

The car waited in place for about ten minutes, and when it was full, it finally set off slowly.

I sat in the corner of the last row by the window, and the little ingots were right next to me. Through the car window, the familiar county town is slowly getting farther and farther away, and the rape on the roadside is green.

It's going to bloom in a few weeks, and at this time my heart began to have a trace of sadness and reluctance to part, grandma, my room, the school teacher, and the girl at the same table, Liu Yun.

Just when I was immersed in the sadness of parting, the little ingots next to me pulled me and said in my ear: "Look, that old man is dozing off, look at you, it's about to hit the skull, haha... Haha...".

I looked into the carriage, and there was indeed a man dozing off, leaning forward little by little, but suddenly he seemed to wake up, and as soon as he sat up straight, he dozed off again and leaned forward to the edge of his seat.

A bumpy car is wobbly and can hit your head at any moment. I turned around and asked the little ingot,

"You're leaving home soon, aren't you sad?" Xiao Yuanbao put away his smile, looked at me and said with a little doubt: "What's so sad?" It's not that he won't come back. I was speechless for his rhetorical question, and repeated lightly: "Yes, it's not that I won't come back." "The car stopped and walked all the way, staggering, some people got in the car, some people got out of the car.

Unconsciously, I fell asleep by the window, and when I woke up, I had already arrived at the train station, and Xiao Yuanbao shook me: "Xiaolinzi, we have arrived, we have arrived." I rubbed my eyes and followed him out of the car.

At noon, we arrived at the train station, and Xiao Yuanbao volunteered to help queue up to buy tickets, and the three of us followed him.

Li Yuancheng took out the poop made at home from his schoolbag and distributed it to us to eat, and also handed a piece to the little ingot.

I also brought my own poop to eat, and I heard that things on the train were very expensive, so everyone brought food.

After tossing for more than half an hour, I finally bought a ticket to Qianyang, and took the first train ticket in my life from Xiao Yuanbao's hand, which felt like a two-finger-wide piece of cardboard, and there were many small holes at one end of the ticket.

I didn't have time to take a closer look at the others, and Lei Xiaohu dragged him to the waiting hall, and he said: "Let's go, I'm going to drive!" "When I came to the crowded waiting hall, the spring had just finished the New Year, and there were a lot of people going out.

In the noisy voices, people exchanged loudly, we looked at the signs at the entrance one by one, and found the waiting gate that was already full of people, so the four of us found a place, leaning against the wall and waiting for the ticket check to get on the bus.

Not long after, a man with an armband and a megaphone shouted, "It's time to check the tickets, everyone line up." "The train we took began to check tickets, and the people who heard the sound exploded and walked towards the ticket gates, some people hurriedly packed up their scattered luggage, and women picked up children playing on the ground, and all actively stood up in an irregular long line.

After a slow creep, I saw the ticket inspector in front of me holding a plier and clamping his ticket for each person who passed.

I also handed over the ticket in the same way, and after a little clipping, there was a small gap in the train ticket. Following the flow of people to find the carriage to ride, after all four of us got on the train, we found that it was a standing ticket, and there were no seats.

The crowded carriage staggered, and it was difficult to see the outside. Not long after the train started, someone pushed the long and narrow cart and began to shout and sell things, and although no one was buying, he still shouted and pushed the cart towards the next carriage.

Squatting in the gap between the intersection of the two carriages, after staying up for more than three hours, the train slowly drove into the Qianyang Railway Station, with the noise of people and cars, the attendant opened the door.

We were the first to get off the bus and walk down the stairs to the exit.

"Does the boss want to stay in a hostel?"

"Hey, where is the boss going? Do you want to send it? ”

"Handsome guy, can't you live with a TV for thirty-one nights?" As soon as they came out of the exit of the station, a group of people rushed up, and the shouts of various solicitors were chaotic.

The four of us lowered our heads and walked in the direction of the ticket office. At this moment, a person approached us head-on and said abruptly, "Where are the little brothers going?" I have tickets here, and they are cheaper than the ones sold inside. Li Yuancheng subconsciously said: "Let's go to Guangdong." The guy was overjoyed and hurriedly spoke.

"I have a ticket now, I don't have to go in and queue up, na, a hundred will be sold to you." He quickly pulled out a few tickets from the inside pocket of his clothes and handed them over.

Xiao Yuanbao pulled a handful on the side, and Li Yuancheng whispered: "Don't believe him, the ticket is fake." The guy's ears were also bright, and then he said unhappily: "If you don't buy it, forget it, how can you say that my ticket is fake?" Then he walked to a girl in the back.

Qianyang is the provincial capital, and many people transfer here. There was already a long queue in the ticket hall, and you couldn't see the ticket counter from the outside.

"Why don't the four of us line up separately, and whoever arrives first will help buy it," Cao Yuanbao made an idea.

"This way it works." Lei Xiaohu agreed. After a long queue of waiting, almost an hour later, it was finally almost me, seeing that there were only two people in front of me, I turned my head and said to Li Yuancheng beside me: "Let me tell them not to line up, I'm almost there." Li Yuancheng found that his line was much slower than mine earlier, so he got out of the queue early, and this will be following me.

"Oh, okay, I'll go tell them." After Li Yuancheng finished speaking, he turned around and went to look for them. Just as it was about to be me, all three of them came over.

After buying the tickets, we went to the door of the ticket hall together and distributed the tickets to them. This train ticket is not a two-finger-wide piece of cardboard, but a piece of soft paper with black letters on a red background, and the back of the ticket is not like a cardboard ticket with words, but blank.

I looked at the time on the ticket and looked up at the clock on the wall of the ticket hall, which was only about 5:40.

Several people discussed going out for dinner first, and then going to the waiting room to wait for the bus. Out of the ticket hall, in front of the island garden is surrounded by towering buildings, which are full of advertising signs.

Cross the street from the sidewalk on the left and come to the shops along the street, where there are restaurants, clothing stores, and hotels.

The four of them walked forward looking around.

"Eat, eat, eat for five yuan, choose whatever you want..."There was a piercing sound of a loudspeaker in my ears.

Turning his head to look at the fork in the road on the right, I saw smoke and the aroma of rice, and a row full of fast-food restaurants of similar size.

We looked at each other, turned and walked in, it was almost dinner time, and we were walking into this fast food street one after another.

I saw that there was a glass vegetable table in front of the business, which was full of all kinds of dishes, and there were a few simple big characters on the signboard next to it

"Five dollars to eat all-you-can-eat". Our saliva was about to flow out one by one, so we chose a random one and went inside.

The boss saw someone coming in: "Little brother eat, come to each of the five pieces, do the food yourself, eat whatever you want." Xiao Yuanbao took out twenty and handed it over, Li Yuancheng looked at him and said, "That, Xiao Yuanbao, I'll give you the money later." Xiao Yuanbao didn't care, maybe his family still had a little money, he said casually: "Brother family in the same village, what kind of money, I have a treat this time, come to eat, starve me to death." With a large bowl in his hand, he walked towards the large basin full of meat.

It took the four of them half an hour to eat, and although the meal was not delicious, there was nothing to be picky about in terms of limits.

Everyone ate it, and one person bought a bottle of pure water, which was paid by Li Yuancheng. After eating, it was already past six o'clock, it was already dark, the street lights were already on during the meal, out of the alley to look at the cars and pedestrians on the road, as if to another world, the four of them walked around again, along the street there were vendors selling things, some selling baked sweet potatoes, selling fried potatoes, selling nail clippers, belts and other gadgets.

We didn't lose sight of the time, and at about half past seven, the four of us slowly walked towards the train station.

Entering the waiting hall and looking up at the train information displayed on the huge screen, the four people looked up to find the corresponding waiting room and looked at it for a while before finding it.

"Wow, this TV is so big." Lei Xiaohu sighed on the side. When we arrived at the corresponding No. 3 waiting room, it was already crowded with people, so we found a corner and squatted as usual.

As I looked around, I saw women carrying small plastic stools and toys selling them around, and in a short time they came around to me.

"Little brother, do you want to buy a stool, it's hard to stand on the ticket!" She spoke. The ticket I bought this time was seated, and I waved my hand to indicate that I didn't need it, and she turned her head and asked Xiao Yuanbao.

The ticket check-in began at eight o'clock, and there was another long queue, and we stood in the middle of the line and slowly walked towards the entrance.

When they got on the car and found a seat, the four people sat facing each other, Xiao Yuanbao and Lei Xiaohu found someone to change their seats, and they were sitting opposite each other with great interest.

It didn't take long for the train to move slowly, pulling a car full of travelers out of Qianyang Railway Station.

After the train started, the announcer's voice came from the loudspeaker on the car, and began to broadcast the information of the train's driving route: "This train departs from Qianyang Railway Station to Yuezhou Railway Station, passing through nine stations, which are ...... "As the train came in, there were people running into the train to sell things, and some were peddling through the windows, and it wasn't quiet until the second half of the night.

We started walking in the morning today, and everyone didn't stop to rest, and they were all a little tired. As the night wore on, the chatter in the carriage became less and less, and everyone gradually fell asleep.

"Fenglin, do you know how long it will take to get to Yuezhou?" Li Yuancheng asked me quietly, I didn't look up, and I lowered my voice and said, "I heard that it will take twenty-three hours, and tomorrow will be almost there." Hearing my answer, he sighed and didn't ask again.

The next day, everything on the train was fresh at first, but after a few hours, everyone gradually lost interest.

Boring and pulling homely things, they all talked about how to make money in the future, or who liked who in school before, etc......, and so on.

That night, the train slowly drove into Yuezhou Station. Xiao Yuanbao called the eldest brother in Guangdong before getting on the train in Qianyang, saying that he would come to the train station to pick up the four of us tonight.

The train exit in Guangdong is as lively as Qianyang, and there are many people soliciting customers. The four of us stood at the exit and waited for the eldest brother of the Cao family, and at the beginning, someone came to talk to us from time to time, but when I saw that there was no business to do, no one came to ask.

After waiting for about half an hour, I finally saw the eldest brother of the Cao family, he was happily waving to us, and the four of us also picked up our respective luggage when we saw this, and walked to him, and the first thing we said when we met was: "Oh, I'm sorry, the bus is a little slower." "The eldest brother of the Cao family, whose scientific name is Cao Yuanguo, is a cousin with Cao Yuanbao.

I met in the village two years earlier, and I also came to Guangdong to work after graduation, and this time the four of them traveled to discuss with him, it was originally six people, but the Zhang brothers did not come, maybe they had other plans.

I have a good relationship with Little Ingots, so I knew about it from the beginning. As for why I don't go to my parents' side, maybe it's because I haven't lived together since I was a child, and I feel a little rusty with them.

Of course, my parents also knew that Cao Yuanbao and I came to Guangdong together, and they were also in eastern Guangdong Province. Under the leadership of Cao Yuanguo, we took the night bus and went to his rental house.

On the bus, Cao Yuanguo said that he was going to have a good meal in a while, and said that we should rest assured that he would take us to find a job .....and so on.