When Gogarin woke up, he didn't know that it was nearly noon.

For nearly a month, he has been like this every day, going to bed early and waking up late. In fact, there is not much time to actually sleep; He spent the night in the dark with his eyes wide open. Judging from the tossed bedding, this painful rest is tantamount to living a sin. It was only near dawn that he began to get confused when his parents were groping to get out of bed and the village began to be noisy. He dimly heard his mother carrying firewood from the yard and pulling up the bellows with a clatter; Then he heard his father's lame leg walking up and down on the ground, packing up his tools for going out of the mountain, and telling his mother to cook for him...... He fell asleep with tears in his eyes. Now though he was awake, his mind was still drowsy. I can't sleep anymore, but I don't want to get up. He pulled out the few remaining cigarette cases from his pillow, took one out and lit it, inhaling greedily, and spewing smoke onto the roof of the kiln. His recent addiction to cigarettes has grown, and the two fingers of his right hand are scorched. But the cigarettes were gone—to be precise, he didn't have the money to buy them. When he was a private teacher, in addition to his work points, he also had a subsidy of a few yuan per month, which was enough for him to buy paper cigarettes to smoke.

After smoking two cigarettes in quick succession, he felt that he was fully awake. It would have been better to smoke another one to satisfy your cravings, but only one was left in the cigarette case – this is reserved for brushing your teeth. He began to get dressed. Every time I finish wearing one, I always have to be stunned for a long time before I wear another. It took him a long time to get off the kang, scoop a spoonful of cold water in the urn and pour it on the dry towel, and use the small piece of wet in the middle of the towel to wipe the swollen eyes. Then he scooped a jar of cold water and went out into the yard to brush his teeth.

How dazzling the sun is outside! It was as if he had suddenly arrived in another world. The sky is as blue as if it has been washed. Snow-white clouds float silently in the air. In Dachuan Road, patches of corn green felt are spread all the way to the foot of Laoniu Mountain in the west. The mountains passing by the river road blocked the view, and a pale blue mist filled the sky farther away. The sunny slopes are wheat fields, some of which have been turned over, and the soil is dark brown; Some of them have not been turned over, and they have been turned white by the sun, like freshly ripe sheepskins. All the millet and buckwheat replanted in the wheat field have been produced, and they have a light green color. Several villages up and down the river road are all covered in the shade of jujube trees, and few houses can be seen; I only saw that there were dense stacks of wheat straw standing on the threshing field in front of each village, which looked like yellow mushrooms from a distance.

His gaze was drawn to a green pool of jujube forest in the distance. He was afraid to see the place, but he couldn't see it. In that green shade, two neat rows of stone caves are faintly revealed. That's the school where he worked and lived for three years.

The school is jointly run by several surrounding villages, with a total of more than 100 students, the highest being the fifth grade, and a group of junior high school students are sent to the Chengguan Commune Middle School every year. Gogarin has been the right class teacher for five years. He also took the arithmetic and Chinese classes for this grade. He also taught music and drawing classes to all grades – he was a respected character there. Farewell, all this!

He turned his face listlessly, crouched on the riverbank and began to brush his teeth, and the village was silent. The men all went out to work in the mountains, and the children were out in the wilderness outside the village. There was already the sporadic sound of bellows clattering in the village, and blue cooking smoke began to rise on the roof of the kiln here and there. This is when some of the women of Mali are starting to prepare lunch for their men and children. In the river, in the dense willow bushes, grasshoppers let out a monotonous chorus that was annoying at intervals.

As he brushed his teeth, he saw his mother hunched up, pulling weeds in the eggplant furrow in the opposite plot, her white hair standing out in the sun. A feeling of discomfort and shame made his chest cramp. He quickly pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth and said in his heart: I haven't been talking for a month! Two old people are grinding in the field all day long, can I stay at home and make a fuss? Don't go out of the mountain, let the whole village laugh! Yes, he already felt that the whole village was looking at him differently. Everyone is accustomed to the unreasonable things done by Gao Minglou, but they are disgusted with any second-rate people in the village who do not work. Croppers, if they don't go out to work, they will be looked down upon by anyone. Garin thought bitterly, he couldn't go on like this anymore! Life is harsh, and he must admit his current status - he is already a real peasant! Thinking like this, Gao Jialin was about to turn around and walk back, when he heard someone behind him: "Teacher Gao, are you at home?" He turned around and saw that it was Ma Lian, the production captain of the first team of Houwe Madian Village.

Although Ma Lian is illiterate, he represents the Madian Brigade to participate in the school management committee and often comes to the school for meetings, so they are very familiar with it. This is an honest posterity, kind-hearted, but not rigid, and he is a good hand at making crops and trading.

He saw that the usually simple horse leash was unusual. He pushes a brand-new bicycle wrapped in colorful plastic bands with brightly colored pompoms wrapped around the spokes, giving it a tacky feel. He himself was dressed as decently as a bicycle: on a hot day, he wore a gray shirt and a blue polyester cardinal cover-up; He wore a yellow military hat on his head, and a bright gold-plated chain watch on his tanned arm. He was probably a little embarrassed about his own dress and outfit, and smiled awkwardly. Although Garin was in a bad mood at the moment, he couldn't help but smile at the eye-catching outfit of the horse, and asked, "Why are you dressed like a new son-in-law?" ”

The horse's face is flushed. smiled and said, "Look at my daughter-in-law!" People are telling me about the second woman of Liu Liben in your village! ”

Garin then understood why he was brand new inside and out today. At the moment, the peasants look at them in this way. He asked, "Is it Qiaozhen?" ”

"That's right." Then you pluck out the head of the river road! Don't you listen to people say that Qiaozhen is 'covering the river'? Garin joked.

"The fruit is a good fruit, I'm afraid I won't be able to eat it in our mouths!" The honest horse leash grinned and said a foul word. "What do you see? It's done, right? ”

"Fifteen miles from the city! We ran a few times, and I saw that the adults in their family didn't have any opinions, but I didn't even show up once. I probably think we are uneducated and have a black face. The face is white, in terms of culture, she is the same as me, she can't read a few liters! Alas, now women's hearts are high! "Take your time, don't rush!" "Yes, yes, yes!" The horse laughed.

"Let's go back to our house and drink some water?"

"No, I drank it at my father-in-law's house!"

This time, Gogarin laughed. He could not have imagined that this illiterate peasant spoke with such humor. The horse's watch-wearing arm was raised, and he said goodbye, then stepped into the car and galloped away to the frame car road in the river road.

Garin leaned against a date palm tree by the river, watching his back sink into the green sea of corn. He couldn't help but turn his head and look at the courtyard of Liu Liben's house in the back village. Liu Liben's nickname is "Erling Man," and he is not an official in the team, but the whole village respects Gao Minglou the most. He has a lively mind, speculation in the past few years, and in the past two years, he has started a business in a grand manner, making money so fast that he can't catch up with horses, and his family situation is the best in the village. Although Gao Minglou is a "powerful person" in the village, it is far from catching up with the "two capable people" on the economic line. "For the rich, the croppers are generally very respectful. However, there is another reason why the people in the village respect Liu Liben. Liben's eldest daughter Qiaoying married Gao Minglou's eldest son the year before last, so his status is a little higher in the village. The "powerful man" and the "two capable man" are married, and the two families have simply become the masters of the village. There are only two of them in the whole village to encircle the wall, build the gatehouse, one is in the front village, the other is in the back village, the tiger is in the dragon pan, it seems to be a decent big family in this Sichuan Road. From the bottom of his heart, Gogarin did not envy and respect these two families as much as ordinary croppers. Although he came from a poor family, his incompetent father, who used the money he earned from his labor to support his schooling, had almost washed away the smell of earth on his body. He already has what is commonly referred to as the "clear height" of an intellectual. In his opinion. Gao Minglou and Liu Liben are not worthy of respect, and their spirit is not even good for some croppers who are not doing well. Gao Minglou is not decent, relying on a little power, bullying and suppressing, and already has a bit of a "township tyrant" flavor; Liu Liben only knows how to save money, and the first two daughters are not even allowed to read books - he thinks that studying is a waste of money. It was only later that the third daughter Qiaoling was sent to school, and now she is about to graduate from high school. He didn't pay attention to the children of these two families. Gao Minglou took up all his essence, and his two sons were very stupid. If the second son Samsung, if he hadn't gone through the back door, he was afraid that he wouldn't even be able to go to high school. Liu Liben's three daughters are all as good-looking as flowers, and they are all shrewd, but unfortunately two of them are illiterate. Still, Garin stood on the riverbank and thought with disgust: though they were despised by him, what was his own situation?

A strong psychological feeling of revenge made him grit his teeth. He suddenly had this thought: If there was no Gao Minglou, if fate made him a peasant, he might die on the land for the rest of his life! But now, as long as there is a Gao Ming Building in Gaojia Village, he has to be more productive than him! If they are stronger than Gaominglou, they have to leave Gaojia Village! It's hard to beat them here! He is determined to be spiritual, in front of the society, and Gao Minglou is one high and two low! He returned the toothbrush to the kiln, opened the box to find a coat, and prepared to take a bath in the pool under the Qianchuan vegetable garden.

He pulled out a yellow military shirt, and his eyes suddenly lit up. This dress was sent back by his uncle from the Xinjiang army, and he was so precious that he was reluctant to wear it. His father's only younger brother went out to serve as a soldier when he was a child, and only got in touch with his family after the liberation, and he didn't return home for decades. Write to them a few times a year, send them a little pocket money at the end of the year, and that's all. The uncle heard that it was the deputy division political commissar, which was the glory and pride of their family, but it was far away from home and did not play much role in their lives.

Gao Garin picked up the dress and suddenly remembered to write a letter to his uncle, telling him about his current situation and seeing if his uncle could find him a job in Xinjiang. Of course, it immediately occurred to him that his parents were the only one of them, and even if his uncle could find him a job there, they would not let him go. But he decided that he would still write to his uncle. He longed to fly away - and when the time came, he would convince his parents.

He quickly slumped down on the table and, using his liberal arts expertise, wrote a letter to his uncle with great emotion and put it in the box. He wanted to meet in the county tomorrow, and he asked someone to send the letter in the city soon.

This sudden thought brought him great spiritual comfort. He immediately felt relaxed, even a little happy.

He put the yellow military uniform on his body, happily went out, and walked along the road leading to Maekawa, towards the colorful vegetable garden.

The fields of the Loess Plateau in August are extremely charming, and the mountains and mountains in the distance are only at this time dressed up in a striking green. In Dachuan Road, the corn is already more than one person tall, and each plant is pregnant with one or two cute little green sticks; The top of the green rod spits out pink tassels. On the hillside, mango beans, adzuki beans, soybeans, and potatoes are all blooming, red, white, yellow, and blue, dotted among the boundless green. Most of the crops had just been hoeed twice, and because of the rain not long ago, there was no drought in the field. Gogarin walked briskly, his troubles set aside for a moment, and the young man's warm blood stirred up in him again. He folded a pink bowl of flowers, twisted the stems with two fingers, passed through a field of gray cabbage, and jumped over several mounds in succession to the river.

He quickly took off his long clothes, stretched his chest and squatted on the rocky cliff in the pool of green water—he had decided that he would not simply take a shower, but a good swim.

His nudity is very toned. Slender in stature, without any marks of manual labor, but strong in strength, it can be seen that he has carried out regular physical exercises. The skin on the face is slightly darker; High nose bridge, large eyes, and two sword eyebrows are particularly attractive. The hair is unkempt, but it's not that it's not exquisite, but it's specifically about this look. He is handsome, especially when he is contemplative and frowning, and shows a very attractive masculine beauty. After moving for a while, Gogarin walked like a diver from the rock. He jumped off the cliff, and his body arced in the air, and he sank gracefully into the turquoise pool. He swam in the water in a variety of positions, and it looked quite like the same thing.

A quarter of an hour later, he climbed up from the side of the sentry whistle, washed himself with soap in the shallow water above, then hid in a stone nest, changed his trousers, and returned to the cliff naked, lying down under a peach tree. This peach tree belongs to the old man of Deshun who has been beating singles all his life. Before the peaches were ripe, the kind-hearted old bachelor picked them all and distributed them to the village dolls. Now there are only some leaves left on the tree, which are not very dense, but they can also provide some shade.

Gogarin spread his shirt on the ground, crossed his hands behind his head, stretched out and lay down, looking through the gaps in the leaves, unconsciously looking at the blue sky as clear as water. It was noon, but his stomach didn't feel hungry. The river was close, but the sound of the water sounded far away, murmuring, as good as the sound of a violin playing. At this time, in the cornfield to his right, there was a sudden burst of girl's melodious Xintianyou singing:

Ducks in the upper river and geese in the lower river,

A pair (which) pair of hairy eyes look at the elder brother......

The singing is sweet and loud, just lacking in training, with a hint of game. He listened carefully, and his voice was like Qiaozhen of Liu Li's family. He suddenly remembered the appearance of his daughter-in-law just now, and thought of the song Qiao Zhen sang, he couldn't help laughing, and said in his heart: "Your brother came to see you, but he didn't see you; He is gone, and you only look at him now......" He thought this ridiculous thing when he heard a rustling sound in the corngrove beside him. Broken! Probably Qiaozhen passed through here to go home.

Gogarin hurriedly sat up and put on his clothes. Before his last button was fastened, Qiao Zhen was already standing in front of him with a basket of pigweed.

Liu Qiaozhen doesn't look like a rural girl at all. Needless to say, the outfit is neither rustic nor tacky. The grass green trousers, the white-washed blue labor cloth blouse, and the large lapels of the water-red shirt are turned out, making a beautiful face look extremely vivid.

She flashed a pair of big watery eyes, glanced at Gogarin crampedly, and then took out a ripe melon with a slightly yellowed skin from the straw basket and handed it to Gogarin, saying, "Our family keeps their own land." I planted it. Eat it, it's so sweet! Then she took out her well-washed handkerchief from her pocket and gave Garin a melon. Gogarin reluctantly took the melon, but did not take her handkerchief, and said to her lightly: "I don't eat each other now, I will ...... later"

Qiaozhen seemed to want to talk to him, but seeing him like this, she hesitated for a moment, lowered her head and walked up the path on the side of the ground.

Gogarin put the melon aside, subconsciously glanced back at the ground, and found that Qiaozhen, who was walking, was also looking back at him. He hurriedly turned his head and lay on the ground in annoyance, he was emotionally disgusted with this illiterate handsome woman, because her sister was Gao Minglou's daughter-in-law!

He didn't want to eat melons, he wanted to smoke a cigarette at the moment. He knew that the paper cigarettes had already been smoked, and he didn't bring the dry tobacco leaves he was smoking, but his two hands still subconsciously pressed all the pockets on his body, and only sighed in disappointment. "Garin! Garin! Let's go back to dinner! What are you doing lying here? And he heard his father calling to him from the shore of the earth. He stood up, put the sweet crawl that Qiaozhen had given him in his jacket pocket, and walked towards the vegetable patch. He went to the ground, took his father's smoking pot first, lit a pot, and took a desperate sip, and immediately choked him and coughed for a long time.

His father sighed and said, "Don't smoke this dry tobacco, it's too strong!" He snatched the dry tobacco pot from his son's hand and said, "Garin, I have been thinking about it in the mountains, and there will be a market in Ming'er County, so let your mother steam a pot of white buns, and you can sell it!" The oil and salt for the lamps in our house are almost finished, and there is no place to pay for it! Besides, if you sell it for two dollars, you can buy you a paper cigarette! ”

Gogarin wiped away the tears choked from his cough, straightened up and looked at his father's gaze waiting for his answer, and hesitated for a long time. He quickly remembered the letter he had written to his uncle, and thought that he could send it out in person if he went to the county tomorrow - what if he entrusted it to someone else, what if it was lost? He then agreed to his father's proposal and decided to go to the county seat tomorrow to catch the market.