"Madan, which of you still has water? I'm dying of thirst. Wen Xiaoguo squinted, swallowed his saliva weakly, and muttered. After Ruiwen collapsed, Wen Xiaoguo also took a few steps back and piled up with his brothers.

"Don't think about it, didn't you see that I licked the cap of the last bottle of Nongfu Spring yesterday afternoon." Liu Jun responded helplessly.

"Where are you going to find some water?" Wen Xiaoguo asked:

"Yes, just find a park, there is a lot of water in the lake." Raven said with a wicked smile

"I really didn't expect that when I went out, I couldn't even drink a glass of water, alas, I miss home so much, I miss my dad's cup with the fragrance of tea, it would be so cool if I could have a can of Sprite at this time, it was really cold, and my heart was flying. It's really not good, even if you have a well! Liu Jun collapsed on the side of the road with his limbs weak, his eyes half-open and half-closed catching the light falling from the gaps in the leaves above his head.

"Homesick?" Wen Xiaoguo looked at Liu Jun, his words were concerned, and he was also a little lonely.

"No, it's not just a few days after it came out, and I haven't earned any money yet, so I can't go back in disgrace." Liu Jun comforted Wen Xiaoguo and comforted himself.

Liu Jun's complaint seemed to remind Ruiwen of something, he suddenly reached out and touched Liu Jun's head, and then turned around and patted Wen Xiaoguo's shoulder.

There was an eerie and excited smile on his face.

"What's the matter, you let Lao Tzu rest for a while before leaving!" Liu Jun grumbled, turning his head to the side while closing his half-open eyes completely.

"What's wrong?" Wen Xiaoguo looked at Ruiwen's strange expression and didn't understand his intentions.

"Water, tap water!" Raven smiled more and more strangely, his face full of smugness, and the corners of his mouth turned to the sides of his cheeks as much as possible, eager to show all his back molars.

"Where? Where is the water? Liu Jun turned around excitedly and leaned his head over, his two arms supporting his upper body, but the part below the waist was still lying flat on the road, half-prostrate.

Wen Xiaoguo followed Ruiwen's gaze and looked over, and he understood the water source that Ruiwen was talking about.

"Wouldn't it? This can also be done? ”

"It's supposed to be tap water, and it looks pretty clean." Raven stared at the place as he spoke, his eyes unmoving.

"Where? Where? Liu Jun hadn't reacted yet.

Rui Wen pointed his finger and said to Liu Jun with a smile:

"You go first?"

"Damn, tease! Can you drink it? I'm not going! Liu Jun instantly lost his face, turned around, and returned to his original position.

"It's a meal at this time, there aren't many people on the road, so if we want to drink, we have to hurry." Raven's eyes continued to stare at his water source.

"The question is, can you drink it?" Wen Xiaoguo screamed in surprise. In fact, it's not just Liu Jun, it's hard for everyone to accept.

"Do you want to do it?" Rui Wen moved his gaze to Wen Xiaoguo's face, and in addition to the corners of his mouth, there were also eyebrows.

"Or? Let's think of something else? What if the water is not clean? Wen Xiaoguo said resignedly.

"Are you afraid that the water will not be clean? Or are you afraid of losing face on the road? Raven smiled and asked:

"Although I don't know anyone in this place...... But this broad daylight ...... This is the big road, you say, right? ”

Wen Xiaoguo explained.

"Hurry up and decide, do you want to do it or not? After a while in the ink, if people don't spray, they won't have a chance to drink if they want to. As soon as Raven finished speaking, someone suddenly rolled over, hurriedly took out a toothbrush cup from his backpack, stepped over the guardrail, and stepped on the freshly poured water on the lawn and rushed towards the unkempt head of the dropper.

Liu Jun's movements were too fast, and Wen Xiaoguo and Ruiwen didn't react for a while.

Life often gives you some small surprises when you are about to despair, hinting to you, don't give up, continue to persevere, and the next situation will immediately improve.

Eventually, they found a place to settle at a construction site in Yinchuan New District, and the morning before, they had finally had breakfast. It is still good to walk with your head down, for example, Liu Jun, when he was dragging his steps and drooping his head, picked up a green two-cent banknote, at that time, this kind of two-cent banknote was rare on the market. Coupled with the last five cents on them, the three of them ran happily towards a breakfast stand at an intersection.

"Wow, why is this steamed bun so big?" Wen Xiaoguo said in surprise:

"Boss, let's have a steamed bun!" Liu Jun shouted:

"Okay, come on, Bamao." The boss said:

"Huh? Eight, what about eight cents? Liu Jun's expression was a little stiff, and no one dared to reach out to pick up the steamed bun.

The three of them hesitated around the steamer for a long time, and at the last moment of desperation, Raven put his face in the trouser pocket closest to his ass and told the boss about the downfall of their three students.

The boss stopped what he was doing and listened to Raven's narration while looking at the three of them unkempt. Finally, he smiled and said:

"Seven cents is seven cents, what's the matter?"

Obviously, for three hungry men, it doesn't work to divide a steamed bun equally, although I don't feel anything in my stomach after eating it, but I feel some comfort in my heart.

On the first day at the construction site, it was difficult to make it to dinner time, and the appearance and amount of food of the three children really frightened the kitchen aunt.

A shopping mall is being built at the construction site, the foundation has been laid to the seventh floor, and the three of them are part of an engineering team that is responsible for the installation of water pipes on each floor.

At night, more than 20 men from all over the world live in a color steel house, and the summer in Ningxia has two characteristics: high temperature and many mosquitoes. In this group of people, Liu Jun and the three of them were a little out of place with the surrounding environment. Fortunately, everyone sees that they are young, and they are also taken care of when they go to work and rest. However, the construction site was relatively remote and desolate, and a bunch of rough and unbridled men were huddled together, and the topic of conversation in the evening was naturally mostly related to both sexes, so the eldest sister of the saleswoman in the only small shop on the site became the most unlucky person in the conversation. The other adult males also used to tease the three boys about the subject.

The three children all slept on the top bunk, huddled together, and at night, the sound of sound of sleep in the Caigang room came and went, and the first night of life on the construction site was sleepless for them, Wen Xiaoguo got up and whispered: "Brothers, we have finally settled down." Send a short message to the family to say goodbye to safety. ”

"Let's just say that we work in the hotel, eat well, live well. Tell the good news and not the bad news. After Liu Jun proposed, different mobile phones were sent to different numbers, but the content was roughly the same.

When Liu Jun was editing the text message, he saw a message that he hadn't even bothered to consult:

"Son, Dad knows that working hard outside, and if you can't bear it, you'll come back, Dad is still raising you, it doesn't matter if you don't have money to go home, Dad just gave you five hundred yuan in your card today, you can come back if you want to come back, there's nothing to be ashamed of."

Liu Jun didn't know how to reply to this message, so he wrote it and deleted it, deleted it and wrote it again, and finally simply covered his head in the quilt, saying nothing and dreamless all night.

Although the farm work is hard, compared with the construction site, they are still a little unbearable as minors.

The summer sun always gets especially hot when the workers are at their busiest, and the sweat runs down the young cheeks onto the scaffolding, on the concrete that has not yet set, and then disappears after a trace of steam. No matter how eclectic the personality in the school, there is no trace of it being worn out under the cover of the helmet. The white jeans that I washed on weekdays were also stained with cement and dust, but now I can stand up on my own when I take them off.

Within a few days, layers of skin began to peel off on their bodies, and their arms were tanned with brown-black dividing lines, and the hottest time of noon was also the heaviest time for shadows. Fortunately, after two days of work, they could find a contractor to advance a salary of one or two hundred yuan, and the most comfortable moment for them was to hide in the rough house full of decorations at noon, and the three of them took turns drinking a bottle of cold Hans cabin. Although the hot wind was blowing through him, he was also sheltered from the direct rays of the sun. In this summer, the most memorable ones are the songs they listen to most often, Xu Wei's "Blue Lotus" and Wang Feng's "Blooming Life".

Every day is a panic, when will such a day be able to get through.

Yinchuan is the rainy season, and when it rains heavily, work is stopped. Sometimes, it rains for two or three days, and the people on the construction site will hide in the color steel room to rest.

That day, Liu Jun didn't know when he found a dilapidated Internet café closest to the construction site, and Wen Xiaoguo's ID card often disappeared with him. Raven often lies on the bed with his mobile phone in his arms, occasionally calling his mother or sending unknown text messages.

Wen Xiaoguo took out his "Ordinary World", he has read it many times, and he doesn't know when the cover of the book will be worn off, and in the middle of the book, there is the old photo.

Ruiwen suddenly answered a phone call, turned over and hurriedly put on his shoes, patted Wen Xiaoguo and said:

"Let's go, Liu Jungang said on the phone, start filling in the volunteers! Let's go to the Internet café and meet him......"

When Wen Xiaoguo heard this, he quickly got dressed, and the two of them braved the rain in Yinchuan, stepped on the muddy road of the construction site, and ran all the way towards the Internet café where Liu Jun was, splashing hope and future along the way.

When he arrived at the Internet café, Liu Jun had already filled in the volunteer and sat in front of the computer to video chat with Chen Wen. Liu Jun looked at the two people who were wet and said:

"You guys are finally here, we have all signed up for the volunteers, Chen Wen volunteered to fill in the Jiangxi Institute of Technology, and I filled in the Hubei Institute of Technology. What are you two going to do? ”

"Where's Little Demon Yao?" Raven asks:

"It seems to be Henan Technology. You two go to the bar and turn on the computer! Liu Jun said:

When you want to make some kind of choice in your life for the first time, you will be nervous, you will be confused, you will be ignorant, at this moment, no one can predict the future path, no matter how good your eyesight is, you are also blind.

Ruiwen seems to have a plan, and all the volunteers are colleges and universities in the province. Liu Jun also teased him that he had no ideals, why didn't he go to other places to see, if he didn't go out, how would he know what China was like outside Gansu.

"I said brother, in such a big China, you really don't have a place to yearn for except for our big Gansu?" Wen Xiaoguo asked with some surprise:

"Yes, Tibet, I've always wanted to go, but it's too far from home." Raven replied:

"Huh? Literary young man? Do you want to go on a pilgrimage to Tibet and wash away the dirt of your soul by the way? ”

Raven smiled, not refuting or justifying anything.

And Wen Xiaoguo just wanted to get as far away from home as possible, and originally wanted to go to Hainan, which place was his farthest understanding of the idiom of the ends of the earth. But later, I was confused and applied to the university in Tianjin.

Jiangxi, Tianjin, Hubei, Lanzhou, Henan.

No one will always be with you, but being able to entangle and play together at the best age is also the joy of a lifetime.

On the 32nd day of the construction site, they were ready to end their part-time jobs, because the university acceptance letters were sent to the school one after another. The day before leaving, the three children invited the contractor to have a meal in the restaurant, thanking him for taking him in when he was in trouble and taking care of him during the construction site.

When they came back in the evening to pack their luggage, the workers took the initiative to start talking with them, with envy, goodbye, and blessings in their words.

Rui Wen looked at these comrades-in-arms who had been together for a short time, thinking that it would be difficult to meet again in the future, because the three of them were admitted to university, the future road was always much brighter than that of other workers. But when I think about the age of these people in their thirties and forties, and now these are such days, but in a few years there will always be a time when they are too old to do hard work, so what should their fate be like?

"Raven, my phone seems to be in arrears. Lend me a text message on your phone, and I'll tell my family that we're going back soon. ”

Wen Xiaoguo's words interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh, in bed, you go up and get it yourself." Raven responded:

After Wen Xiaoguo heard this, he jumped on the bed on the tripod, climbed onto Ruiwen's bed, and took out his mobile phone from under the pillow, he wanted to send a text message to Lao Zhao and ask him to pick him up at the station on the day he went home. When he turned on his phone to edit, he saw a text message that had not yet been sent, as if it had not been edited, and his curiosity drove him to browse all the text messages sent to this number:

June 9, 13:25

Dad, today my mom gave me a mobile phone, saying that it was my graduation gift. The college entrance examination is over, I feel that the test is okay, last night my classmates and I stayed on campus for a night, and everyone was reluctant to graduate. When I came back in the morning, my mother hadn't slept yet, and it turned out that she had been waiting for me to come home last night.

Dad, I miss you.

June 15, 0:12

Dad, I'm going to work in other places tomorrow, I feel like I've grown up, and I talked to my mom for a long time in the evening. I told her not to think too much about me, and that I would call home often. Mom didn't seem to be asleep yet, and when I came out of the room, I saw her wiping her tears.

Dad, I miss you.

June 17, 3:09 a.m

Dad, the train has entered the boundary of Ningxia, and it is raining here. Outside the window, the lights of villages and cities flashed. I just went out today, but I miss home, and I miss my mother. As soon as I chatted with Guoguo, I learned that his father was a martyr and died in his third year of junior high school, but we never knew it. But he's strong, and I'm going to be as strong as he is, and we'll be good friends for life."

Dad, I miss you.

June 28, 14:18

Dad, the college entrance examination results are out, and I scored 512 points, more than 20 points more than the undergraduate line. I want to apply for a university in Lanzhou, so that I will be very close to home and close to my mother. Working on a construction site was a difficult life, and now I'm glad I was able to get into university, but I'm really scared when I think back to the consequences of not studying well in the past.

Dad, I miss you.

July 25, 9:26 a.m

Dad, just now the school teacher called me to tell me that my college acceptance letter has arrived. I really got into college, Dad, did you receive it? I've been admitted to university, and this must be the news you'd like to receive the most.

Dad, I miss you.

The last text message that hasn't been edited yet:

Dad, I'm finally going home, I miss you, I miss Mom......

All of these text messages were successfully sent, but none of them were replied to.

The most painful thing may not be the nostalgia for the person who has been lost, but the fact that I am deeply aware of this loss, but I am still stubbornly persisting and insisting on living in my imaginary world.

Wen Xiaoguo was silent for a long time after reading these text messages, and after he quickly sent the text message to Lao Zhao, he re-edited the text messages that Ruiwen had not sent before, he thought about it and thought that it was better not to let Ruiwen know that others had discovered his secret, but he felt that he was a little funny, and he used his mobile phone to send text messages, how could Ruiwen not be aware of it?

The most important part of the so-called friendship in youth is to witness the quiet growth of friends.

The clouds are rolling and the wind follows the clouds, chasing the sun.

Sitting in the courtyard, I could hear insects flapping their wings from five meters away.

The rustling of corn leaves could be heard from 500 meters away.

You can hear the cuckoo chirping leisurely five miles away.

At dusk, the sky gradually darkened, when Wen Xiaoguo just walked out of the long-distance station, he saw the old beige jeep parked on the opposite side of the road from a distance, he walked straight over, Lao Zhao didn't notice him, holding a small book in his hand and carefully checking, the shopping list listed on it was the result of a long discussion between him and his lover last night, there are all kinds of vegetables, chickens, ducks and fish, and some fruits and drinks, as if preparing all kinds of New Year's goods for the New Year, Lao Zhao piled all the goods he bought on the back seat of the car, but emptied the trunk of the car, Lao Zhao felt that this loading would make the car space full enough. These things are also prepared for Wen Xiaoguo.

Wen Xiaoguo came back this time and couldn't stay at home for half a month, and will soon go to college in other places, before leaving, the couple wanted to set up a sumptuous small banquet at home, one was to pick up the dust for Wen Xiaoguo, who had been working outside for more than two months. Second, it is also to see off Wen Xiaoguo's upcoming college career.

Wen Xiaoguo could see that Lao Zhao had been waiting on the side of the road for a long time, because at Lao Zhao's feet, he saw a lot of cigarette butts that had been stepped on.

Wen Xiaoguo stood behind him all the time, without speaking or greeting. He saw that Lao Zhao was very serious, and he didn't know if he could be disturbed. The main thing is that he doesn't know what to call this adoptive father in front of him, and he hesitates repeatedly in his heart, as if he forgets that he has a mouth, as if he has forgotten that he has the ability to speak humanly.

Lao Zhao inadvertently swept his afterglow to a person standing behind him, turned around vigilantly, and looked at Wen Xiaoguo. He found that Wen Xiaoguo had lost a lot of weight, his hair was a little long, the bangs on his forehead almost covered his eyes, and he was carrying a big black bag with almost worn out sides and feet, and a paper bag in his hand.

The two men looked at each other and were silent for a few seconds, probably waiting for the other to speak first, but those few seconds were long and anxious for both of them.

"Let's go, get in the car."

Lao Zhao first broke the slightly awkward silence and took the things in Wen Xiaoguo's hand and the schoolbag on his back.

The car drove out of the bustling township streets, crossed the old bridge over the Zuli River, and greeted the setting sun, all the way to the mountains to the west, as if chasing the sun that was about to be swallowed by the mountains in the distance. This is Wen Xiaoguo's favorite scenery to see, and the screen name and pen name he gave himself are the same, called Xia Chen Sunset. Because he always has an unspeakable plot about the summer twilight, this scene is deeply imprinted in his memory a few years ago, and because he often thinks of his father in this environment.

The jeep winds its way through the mountains, where the sun is obscured and soon reveals itself at the bend at the foot of the next mountain. Half an hour of climbing the road is over, the car drove to the field, the field of vision has become a lot broader, both sides of the road are full of apricot forests, the branches of apricot trees are green and verdant, a few years ago the state implemented the policy of returning farmland to forest, the peasants' cultivated land has been trimmed into fruit forests.

The setting sun appeared again at the end of the distant mountains, struggling to leave the last light on the land at the end of its set. Sunset, sunset, you are like an elderly father, with the last gesture and afterglow, guide and remind the wanderers outside, go home......

Wen Xiaoguo sat in the co-pilot's seat, looking sideways at the apricot groves and small villages outside the car window, he enjoyed the world outside the window being accelerated and flashed out of his field of vision. Compared to walking, it usually takes an hour to watch the human drama, but it may only take a few minutes to complete it. Just as life can be fast-forwarded, in the four-dimensional space, life has more depth.

"Why didn't you pull passengers today?" Before Wen Xiaoguo spoke, he had already organized the language in his heart over and over again, and the silence of the two people along the way was a little depressed.

"Oh, when I came, I pulled people, and when I didn't go back, there were a lot of things in the back, and I couldn't sit down. Besides, your aunt and Ah Luo are still at home waiting for us to go back for dinner, so we have to rush back early today. ”

"How do you buy so many things? The trunk is also full? ”

Lao Zhao turned his head slightly towards Wen Xiaoguo beside him, hesitated for a few seconds, paused and said:

"Well...... Full ......"

After saying that, he took a cigarette out of his pocket, pulled the car to the side of the road, and when the speed slowed down a little, he lit the cigarette.

"What kind of cigarette did you smoke?" Wen Xiaoguo asked:

"Heilanzhou."

"How many do you smoke a day?"

"Not much, two packs." Lao Zhao said:

"Two packs are not much?"

Wen Xiaoguo's tone had a hint of criticism in it, he wanted to persuade Lao Zhao to smoke less on weekdays, but after hesitating, he still didn't say it, but he hoped that Lao Zhao could hear from his tone that he cared about Lao Zhao.

"It's okay, your aunt always nagged me to quit smoking and quit smoking at home, and I was arguing in my ear every day that if I quit smoking for a year, I could save a lot of money, and I said this yesterday, I was really annoyed, and replied to her: Then you let me quit eating in my life, wouldn't it be more economical?"

Lao Zhao's words made them both laugh, Wen Xiaoguo had never found out that Lao Zhao had such a humorous side.

"What do you do on vacation?"

For the first time, Wen Xiaoguo had the desire to take the initiative to chat with Lao Zhao.

"This kid, after the high school entrance examination, went crazy for a summer vacation, it is rare that he has no holiday homework, sometimes he helps your aunt do some farm work in the field, or he just watches TV and doesn't listen to what he says. Now I'm getting more and more disobedient, and sometimes I talk back to my parents and have a little temper. Lao Zhao said:

"Ah Luo was still a child, anyway, his academic performance is good, and his lively personality is not in the way. By the way, why does she want to be admitted to the second middle school? ”

"I don't know about this, your aunt and I don't choose, it's the same whether it's a middle school or a second middle school, it's a key high school anyway, as long as you can get in. I heard her tell your aunt that because you are in the second middle school, she also wants to go to the second middle school. This girl is big, unlike before, she always tells her family about everything, but she has always listened to you, what you say, it's what. I am worried that after she goes to high school, she will be far away from home, and her parents will not be able to control it, so she will begin to let herself go and study hard. ”

"No, Ah Luo is timid and a good doll."

"This girl, since last night, I have to come to the station with me to pick you up today, I originally agreed, but when I set off this morning, there were too many passengers, and I couldn't sit in the car. When I left, I returned this girl to tears. ”

Wen Xiaoguo laughed out loud, and every time he thought of this sister, he felt warm in his heart.

He thought about it carefully for a while, as if in the past three years, today is the first time to say so many things to Lao Zhao, maybe it's because he is about to leave, he just thought about it when he was in high school, he must be admitted to a foreign university in the future, the farther away from home, the better, so that he can find a part-time job during the winter and summer vacations, and he doesn't have to come back for the New Year.

When the jeep just appeared from the top of the hill opposite the house, Ah Luo jumped up excitedly at the door of the house, and shouted loudly into the yard:

"Mom, Brother Xiaoyang is back, and when I got to the top of the opposite mountain, I saw Dad's car."

Ah Luo had been wandering around the door of his house all afternoon, occasionally running out to look at the opposite hillside. Although the mountain is far from home, it is unbeatable, and after the car has driven, the huge dust kicked up on the dirt road in the mountains is immediately noticeable, just like a surfer on the sea, and the snow-white waves are set off under the pedals.

This day's dinner was a celebration banquet specially prepared by this family for Wen Xiaoguo, and Lao Zhao rarely cooked it himself, Wen Xiaoguo was a little surprised and muttered to Ah Luo:

"So your dad can cook?"

"Yes, it's just that I don't do it often, and my dad's craft is quite good, and my mother said that he used to learn the craft in the army."

"Troops? Learning to cook? It can't be a cooking class, right? ”

"You ask him, I don't know, it seems that he fed pigs when he first went to the army."

"Feed the pigs? Belch...... All right. ”

The clouds are rolling and the wind follows the clouds, chasing the sun.

The shade under the tree slowly stretches from west to east, climbing over the east wall, the smoke on the top of the kitchen has not completely dispersed, a table of sumptuous meals has been set up in the courtyard of this farmer's house, the fragrance wafts in the backyard by the wind, the tiger screams a few times, the tiger is a white Chinese pastoral dog raised by Lao Zhao's family.

Sitting in the courtyard, I could hear insects flapping their wings from five meters away.

Five hundred meters away, the rustling of corn leaves could be heard.

You can hear the cuckoo chirping leisurely five miles away.

Lao Zhao's lover frequently gave Wen Xiaoguo vegetables, and Ah Luo kept asking about his part-time work experience in Ningxia. And Lao Zhao Yi didn't speak much, watching the three of them talking enthusiastically, looking at Wen Xiaoguo with the corners of his mouth curled. After the five flavors of the dish, Lao Zhao opened a bottle of beer, and after two cups, he handed Wen Xiaoguo a cup.

"Dad, I want to drink it too." Ah Luo weakly proposed:

"Female dolls can't drink, you eat more meat, and see that you are as thin as a root of noodles."

Lao Zhao decisively rejected his daughter's request, raised the cup in the air, looked at Wen Xiaoguo's somewhat surprised expression, and the pause of more than ten seconds made Wen Xiaoguo a little overwhelmed.

"Come, Xiaoguo, let's have a drink with Uncle Zhao today."

Lao Zhao's face revealed a bit of solemnity, and at the same time a little joy.

Wen Xiaoguo muttered wildly in his heart:

"Drinking? Can I drink with adults? Is this adult in front of you or your own father? ”

Lao Zhao saw Wen Xiaoguo's surprise and concern, and explained:

"Today is the celebration banquet prepared for you by the family, our rural areas are not as good as the city, other people's children are admitted to college are in the hotel restaurant feast, entertain guests, our family does not engage in those pomp, I and your aunt specially make a table for you, give you a part-time job to come back to pick up the wind and wash the dust, but also give you the next college stage to celebrate, and uncle touched this glass of wine, you will grow up. Come on......"

In the past few years of family life, for the first time, I was touched by Lao Zhao's words, and my heart slipped through the warm current, and I didn't seem to resent Lao Zhao so much.

This was originally the place I had been longing to escape, and when the day of escape really came, I suddenly felt a little nostalgic.

Wen Xiaoguo raised his glass in a panic, nodded his head heavily, and watched Lao Zhao empty his wine glass after drinking it all.

There will always be a day, that moment, maybe a word, or a small gesture, that marks the father's recognition of his son's growth.