On Saturday of this week, Zhou Chunhua came to the detention center to visit Xu Li without the help of the Xu family.

"Sister Zhou, my parents are fine."

"Okay!" Zhou Chunhua said with a smile, "Although my hometown is a small city, it can't be compared with the sea market, but it is better because the environment is good, and the prices are also very low." It is no exaggeration to say that the living expenses of your family in Haishi for one month are enough for us to live for half a year! ”

Xu Li smiled: "Money is not a problem, you tell my parents, my money is their money, buy what you need, don't worry." ”

Zhou Chunhua sighed and said, "It's also my mouth." After telling them last time that Li Feng paid the compensation for you, although these old couples are still very generous to me, they are becoming more and more critical of themselves. ”

"Sister Zhou," Xu Li gratefully shook Zhou Chunhua's hand, "Thank you so much, I really don't know what to do without you." ”

"Girl! What do you thank, I should say thank you to me! I don't even have a place to stay in my hometown, but after your parents bought a house, they still let me live there, and I don't know how to thank you and your parents anymore! Don't worry, your parents and I will definitely take care of you! ”

"Well, Sister Zhou, I believe you."

"By the way, your last book!" Zhou Chunhua put a large stack of books on the table, "The books you want can't be found in our hometown, so I can only come to the sea market to find them." Not to mention, Haishi is worthy of being a big city, and you can find it by looking for a big bookstore. ”

"Thank you, Sister Zhou."

"Thank you, thank you! If you are so polite to me again, I will be angry! ”

Xu Li nodded with a smile and said, "By the way, Sister Zhou, there is one more thing I need you to help me do." ”

"You say."

"Next Wednesday, I have a friend going out from here, you come and pick her up for me."

"Friends?"

"The one who lives in the same dormitory as me is also a poor man."

"So what do you mean ......"

"Take her to Yongping City and live with you."

"This ...... Let's go! Since it's the person you recognize, then I'll take it! ”

"Also, how was the last time I asked you to find a storefront?"

"Found as you asked, in the city center, and the price is within the range you gave."

"Okay," Xu Li handed an envelope to Zhou Chunhua, "In this envelope is the decoration drawings I drew and the phone number of the decoration team that gave me the decoration last time, you ask them to decorate the store according to this drawing, as for the price, give it according to their requirements, don't bargain." ”

"Okay! I do! ”

"In addition, the remittance to Wang Meng this month must not be forgotten."

"I said, girl, why are you so stupid! This woman said it herself, she doesn't need you to pay back, why do you have to burden yourself? ”

Xu Li smiled: "It's fake that she borrowed my money, and it's true that she captured Li Feng's heart, so I won't believe that this woman will really be good to me, not to mention, I never owe anyone a favor." It is only natural that I owe her money, and I don't even have a friendship with her, so no matter how much money I owe her, I will pay her back a lot. ”

Zhou Chunhua saw that Xu Li was so persistent, so she didn't say anything more.

After the meeting, Xu Li returned to the dormitory with a stack of books in a good mood, and saw that Maggie Shen was the only one in the bedroom.

When Maggie Shen saw Xu Li coming in, she walked over with a smile and took the book from Xu Li's arms.

"Sister Xu Li, you can really do it, you are willing to study in this entire detention center, and other women are in a daze except for doing nothing, just getting together to chew their tongues."

Xu Li sat down on her bed, patted the vacant seat next to her, and motioned for Maggie Shen to sit down.

"Everyone has their own ambitions, and they have lived so long in a daze, and now they have the opportunity to go back to when they were twenty-three years old, of course, they must seize the opportunity."

"Back to being twenty-three?" Maggie Shen put the book on the bedside table and sat down beside Xu Li with a smile, "Sister Xu Li, what do you mean by that." ”

Xu Li said that she missed her mouth, and hurriedly made up for it: "I mean, time is precious, and I don't want to waste time doing meaningless things like before, to love people who are not worthy of my love." ”

Maggie Shen smiled evilly: "Sister Xu Li, you are so beautiful, you must have a good relationship outside, right?" ”

Xu Li smiled bitterly: "What if there is?" If it's not yours, you'll never get it. ”

Looking at Xu Li's sad face, Maggie Shen knew that she had said the wrong thing, so she hurriedly diverted the topic and said, "Sister Xu Li, show you something." ”

Maggie Shen handed a new book to Xu Li.

"What is this?" Xu Li took it and glanced at the cover, which was actually "Economics" that had been soaked in urine before.

"I begged Officer Chen for a long time before he agreed to report to his superiors, but I didn't expect it to be approved!"

Xu Li was moved in her heart, and she smiled and touched Shen Manyu's face.

"Manyu, thank you."

"What to thank! My life is yours, so what do you want to thank for this. ”

Xu Li smiled and said, "You're going out next Wednesday, do you have any plans?" ”

Shen Manyu's face was still sunny just now, and it was cloudy in an instant.

"What can you do? I don't have any skills other than dancing, and yesterday the doctor told me that I couldn't dance at all, not even do heavy physical work. But you say, when I go out, will I be able to find an easy job that doesn't require hard work? What else can I do other than work as a female worker in a factory? But no matter what, I have hands and feet, and I will never starve to death wherever I go. ”

"Would you like to help me?"

"What can I help you?"

"Remember what I said yesterday?" Xu Li felt the sketch of the decoration design she drew from under the pillow, "Take a look for yourself." ”

Maggie Shen took the sketch from Xu Li's hand and glanced at it.

"What is this?"

"It's the design of my dessert shop."

"Dessert shop?"

"That's right! Get up from where you fall! I still have to do the dessert shop, and I have already instructed Sister Zhou to do the decoration for me. But Sister Zhou alone is not enough, she has to take care of my parents for me, and on the other hand, she has to be busy with decoration and preliminary preparations, plus there are still many materials to buy in Haishi, although she has lived in Haishi for a long time, but in addition to factories, vegetable farms and homes, she has not been to other places, so she is not very familiar with Haishi. Manyu, if you want, I want you to join me and start a business with me and Sister Zhou, what do you think? ”

"Entrepreneurship? It's a word that's a little too far away for me to think about before. ”

"People start from scratch before they can have a future one. I'm the same, in the beginning, I was scrambling to just open a store, but now, I've got a handle on the matter of opening a store, and I'm sure you can do the same. ”

"But ......" Maggie Shen was still hesitating, but it was not that she didn't believe Xu Li, but she was afraid that she would drag Xu Li back.

"Also, where you live is a problem. You have always lived in the dormitory of the dance troupe, and you don't have a fixed residence in Haishi, and the little money you saved is used to compensate Cheng Jia for her medical expenses, so you can't go back to the welfare home to live. Although Yongping City is only a small city, it cannot be compared with Haishi, but the environment for entrepreneurship there is relaxed, and it is relatively far away from Haishi, and most importantly, there are definitely very few people who know about my affairs, which also makes me have no worries. Of course, I will not stay in Yongping forever, I will take Yongping as a starting point and open a branch in Haishi in the shortest possible time. ”

What else can Maggie Shen say? How could someone like her, who has no ability and poor health, be willing to take her in, or even help her, how could she shake her head and refuse?

Maggie Shen hugged Xu Li, thousands of words, thousands of words, and finally only said one sentence.

"Sister Xu Li, I will always be with you."

……

After Maggie Shen left, the four women in the dormitory and the newly moved women all consciously regarded Xu Li as a queen.

Xu Li was really uncomfortable at first, and repeatedly emphasized that she was not Maggie Shen and did not need special care from them, but these people were used to being followers, and they had no backbone, and their hearts were not steady.

Xu Li had no choice but to inherit Maggie Shen's queen seat for the time being.

Speaking of which, these women are actually very pitiful, each has its own difficulties, and each has its own suffering, after going out, life must be even harder than before coming in, plus they are all semi-literate, reading books and newspapers are very difficult, and the days ahead will definitely be very bitter.

Although Xu Li can't empathize, she can understand the situation of these women when she thinks of the hard life she lived before. Seeing them surrounding her when she was studying, pitifully staring at the words she didn't know on the page, Xu Li felt strange and uncomfortable, and wanted to help them as much as possible before leaving, and do more things for them, after all, this backbone can't be done in vain.

One day, when they went back to the dormitory to rest, Xu Li asked them to sit in front of her bed with the small notebook and pen they had just used for studying.

These five women didn't know what Xu Li was going to do, but Xu Li told them, and they could only do it.

After the five women were seated, Xu Li sent five pieces of paper to the five women.

Ten Tang poems were written on each piece of paper, all of which Xu Li copied from the book.

The five women stared at the paper in their hands, but they couldn't read what was written on the paper for a long time.

Xu Li sighed and said, "You answered me truthfully, did anyone go to high school?" Raise your hand if you have one. ”

As expected, no one raised their hand.

"What about junior high school?"

Still no one raised their hand.

"Elementary school?"

Only a tall, lanky woman raised her hand timidly.

"Did you go to elementary school?"

The tall, lanky woman grinned, smiled and nodded.

"But I only studied for two years, and after that, my father and my mother didn't let me read it again."

"What can you do if you don't study?"

"Farming! Later, when I was sixteen years old, my father and my mother took me and my brother to Haishi. ”

Xu Li couldn't bear to ask any more, so she could only smile and say: "You are not very old, some of you don't even look like you are even twenty years old, and the road of life is still very long, so it is too late to learn anything now." But whatever you're going to learn in the future, words are the foundation of everything, you know? ”

One of the girls smiled and asked, "Sister Xu, are you going to teach us to read?" ”

Another woman hung her head and said, "I don't want to learn!" What's the use of learning this? ”

Xu Li smiled: "Is it useful, you will understand after you learn, at least don't let your descendants say that their mother is an illiterate person who doesn't even know a word." ”

All five women were silent.

Xu Li didn't care if they wanted to or not, she used her prestige here to force them to read poetry and read words. Of course, at first, they stumbled, and because of the poor cultural foundation of these five women, they often remember today and forget tomorrow, but Xu Li always took the trouble to teach patiently.

Officer Chen was very curious after knowing about this incident, and one day at noon, he deliberately went to Xu Li's bedroom, but did not push the door in, but stood outside the door, listening to the woman in the door follow Xu Li to read words and poems.

Officer Chen thought this incident was interesting, so he reported the matter to the leader. After hearing this, the leader couldn't stop nodding his head in praise, and asked specifically: "What did this Xu Li do before she came in?" ”

Officer Chen smiled: "I make desserts and open a dessert shop." ”

"And what did she come in for?"

"The desserts she made made people sick, and later after investigation, it was found that the desserts she made contained substances harmful to the body, so ......"

"Oh, I remember, the Windy City Daily reported on the front page before, and it turned out to be her. Regardless of this person's fault, I think it makes a lot of sense just for what she did. To put it bluntly, the vast majority of the women who come in have a very low level of education, and it is really good to have someone teach them to read and write, so as to prevent them from having other troubles because they have too much free time. ”

"Then what do you mean ......"

"What is her education?"

"In high school, I didn't go to college, but I read books about economics, management, and history."

"Interesting, this Xu Li doesn't look like an ordinary woman. Let's do a pilot first, let the women in the neighboring dormitory follow this Xu Li to learn first, if the effect is good, and then expand the trial, what do you think? ”

This is exactly what Officer Chen wanted, and that's exactly what he meant when he came to the leader.

After Xu Li knew about this, she hurriedly refused: "Officer Chen, this burden is too heavy for me to bear." The five people who taught me the dorm were exhausted to death, not to mention the others. ”

Officer Chen sighed and said: "In today's society, let alone whether there is culture or not, if you don't even know a word, you say, how difficult it is to live this life!" The vast majority of the women who come in our detention center are illiterate or semi-literate, and it is precisely because they have no education that they do stupid things and enter here. ”

Xu Li smiled bitterly: "I'm a bit cultured, but don't I come in the same way?" ”

"So, why are you doing that?"

"What to do? I didn't do anything. ”

Officer Chen stared at Xu Li for a while and said, "Since you didn't do anything, why don't you defend yourself?" ”

"How to justify? The person I suspect has disappeared into thin air, there is no evidence, and the police can't help me find someone, so what excuse do I have? ”

"And who is the person you suspect?"

"Youhui, an employee in my dessert shop."

"Then why did she do it?"

"She's just being instructed."

"Oh?" Officer Chen became interested, "Hearing you say this, do you still have a secret in this case?" ”

"Would Officer Chen be interested in hearing it?"

"Tell me about it."

So, Xu Li told Officer Chen about the cause and effect of the whole incident.

After hearing this, Officer Chen was silent for a long time before saying: "If what you said is true, then this person named You Hui is indeed suspected of committing a major crime, but as you said, there is no evidence pointing to her at present, so it is indeed difficult for our police to help you find someone." As for the woman named Hu Jie you mentioned, everything about her is just your speculation, and it is impossible for our police to accept it. ”

Xu Li smiled: "So you listened to me so much, just to relieve boredom?" ”

"You think I'm that idle?" Officer Chen walked to the window with his hands behind his back, "Xu Li, I want to believe you," Officer Chen turned around and looked at Xu Li, "If you are willing to teach the women here to read, then I will try my best to help you find this woman named You Hui." ”

"Really?" Xu Li was overjoyed.

"But don't expect too much, like you said, in the vast sea of people, it's too difficult to find someone, and I can only ask my colleagues to try to find it in the province, I mean, you know."

If it were 2021, how nice it would be! There is surveillance everywhere, where can this Youhui run? But now it is 1995, when science and technology are not developed, so this is the only way.

Xu Li nodded in agreement.

Officer Chen patted Xu Li on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Even if you don't find it, it doesn't matter, you still have more than two months to go out." ”

……

Before entering the detention center, Xu Li would never have imagined that her life would be like this, no matter how optimistic she was.

At nine o'clock, she would stand on the podium in the small hall and teach the more than 100 women in front of her to read and write, and from the afternoon, because of her contribution to the literacy eradication in the detention center, she was exempted from labor and had a lot of time to read.

In this originally lifeless detention center, a wave of learning gradually blew up, not only women, but also men were infected, and they began to ask Officer Chen to recommend a teacher to teach them to read and write.

Such a peculiar phenomenon soon attracted reporters with a keen sense of smell, and in the face of the reporter's interview request, Xu Li hesitated again and again, and finally agreed, but the premise was that her name could only appear on the relevant reports, but her photos could never appear.

Journalists readily agreed.

As a result, the fifth page of the Haishi Daily's morning newspaper set up a headline on the matter, heading: Life has gone astray, but it can also go back to the right path - recording the story of literacy in the detention center.