Liang Haixing always felt the poverty of his family. Liang Haixing's mother often said that in those days, it was good to be able to support the children she was born.

My friends sometimes wear new cloth shoes made by their mother, or plastic sandals they bought, and they are very energetic and proud, but Liang Haixing seems to have rarely been able to wear new shoes for many years, and it is good not to show his toes. In summer, when you are barefoot, and when it is colder in spring and autumn, you may also wear single shoes, but in the cold winter, when the weather is extremely cold, you can wear cotton shoes. In the late autumn and early winter, it is really freezing and there is no way, when the work is over, often encounter cattle working in the field passing by the village, sometimes occasionally in the village to discharge some kind of feces, Liang Haixing quickly stepped forward to step into the old cow pulled down the dung to keep warm. Even in winter, when she couldn't afford to wear socks when she wore cotton shoes, Liang's mother spread a layer of wheat straw or corn wrapping in Liang Haixing's cotton shoes.

Like other children, carrying a brand new schoolbag to school is Liang Haixing's desire, and he cherishes it very much. But the family is poor and can't afford to buy pens and notebooks. Without a pen, Liang Haixing went around picking up the discarded battery, gently smashed it open, took out the carbon rod inside, and then found the discarded hacksaw blade, sharpened the blade on the stone, sharpened the carbon rod, and used it as a pencil. I didn't have a notebook, so I picked up the cardboard, cut the carbon powder from the carbon rod, or the carbon ash at the bottom of the pot, dyed the cardboard black, and then stole some machine butter from the warehouse of the production team, lightly smeared it on the blackened cardboard, and then spread a thin layer of plastic on top of the butter, and then found a sharp branch to write lightly on it, or calculate. When it was finished, it was gently revealed, and all the handwriting disappeared at once. Such a book,There's also the benefit that it can be reused.。

Every time he saw his classmates holding new books and wearing beautiful clothes, Liang Haixing's self-esteem seemed to be greatly hurt. Every New Year's Day, Liang Haixing goes to the village garbage dumping place or the ditch at the edge of the village to pick up the old calendar books that have been discarded. Being able to do homework and write on the back of the old calendar book is a great luxury for Liang Haixing.

When he was in the second grade of primary school, Liang Haixing had a lesbian table, his ancestors made a living from inlaid teeth, and his family life was relatively solid, and he often brought some snacks such as steamed buns or buns to eat between classes, which was a delicacy that Liang Haixing was difficult to eat during the New Year. Especially whenever the female classmate eats white bread stuffed with leeks, what a temptation it is for Liang Haixing, who has always eaten dried sweet potatoes and sorghum noodles as the staple food, and can't even eat cornmeal nests often, and his stomach keeps secreting acid. Liang Haixing used the excuse that the leek stuffing was too tasteful, so when the female classmate ate the leek stuffed buns, stay away from him. Later, the lesbian table finally saw Liang Haixing's thoughts. One day, during recess, the lesbian table was eating white bread stuffed with leeks as usual, and Liang Haixing still smelled bad and asked him to eat outside the classroom, but the lesbian table still did not move. Holding a bun in one hand to eat, he took out a bun stuffed with leeks from his schoolbag with the other hand and handed it to Liang Haixing, saying: "The bun stuffed with leeks smells stinky and tastes fragrant, don't believe it, you taste it." Liang Haixing didn't say anything, glanced at the lesbian table, took the leek stuffed bun handed over by the lesbian table, and ate it in a big gulp, sighing in his heart: "It's so fragrant!" In Liang Haixing's memory, it was the best steamed bun in the world, and it is still preserved in his memory. It's a pity that although his life is better in the future and he can eat all kinds of steamed buns, in Liang Haixing's heart, he always feels that the world's food is the leek stuffed meat buns that the lesbian table gave him.

Later, by chance, Liang's father went to work in the commune brick and tile factory, and Liang Haixing's family situation improved greatly, but Liang Haixing seemed to feel that his childhood was more difficult.

Not far from Liang Haixing's house, the commune built a new brick and tile factory, because it occupied the cultivated land of several nearby villages, or because it was closer to home, the commune brick and tile factory recruited some workers from nearby villages, because the newly recruited workers had no skills, only did some manual work of bulldozing, the labor intensity was very high, and the remuneration was naturally richer, ordinary workers were paid 15 yuan per month, in addition, 5 yuan were reimbursed for medical expenses, and a meal was taken care of at noon. Since the land belongs to the state, but the workers are selected by the nearby villages, the brick and tile factory pays a certain amount of land use fees to the nearby villages every year, and the village pays the entire labor force to the people who work in the brick and tile factory every day.

Since the remuneration is very good, it is natural that the village will carry out selection, and the result of the selection is that the relatives and friends of the village cadres have become the targets of recruitment. However, the result was unexpected, the soil layer was shallow at the beginning, the management of the brick and tile factory was not formal, and the workers were more at ease, for a long time, especially with the deepening of the soil layer, coupled with the frequent excavation and collapse accidents, often injured people, most of the workers recruited before, especially the relatives and friends of the village cadres, returned to the village to participate in labor, and the brick and tile factory recruited workers into difficulties. When Liang's father heard about it, he took the initiative to sign up for a job in the brick and tile factory.

Maybe he has been used to suffering since he was a child, and the pay for working in the brick factory is much higher than that of working in the production team, Liang's father naturally likes it very much, although the work is very tiring and the conditions are relatively difficult, but Liang's father is very helpful. Liang's father was reluctant to eat the six taels of pure cornmeal wotou provided by the brick and tile factory at noon every day, so he brought some sweet potato noodles or sorghum wotou to satisfy his hunger, and took the pure cornmeal wotou provided by the brick and tile factory home for the whole family to enjoy, so every evening, one of the happiest things for Liang Haixing was to see his father and find the wotou brought back from the bag that his father brought back every day, even if it was very cold, but it was very fragrant.

Later, the brick and tile factory carried out some reforms, from the original wage system to the piecework system, and formulated different income standards for different types of work such as bulldozing, yard kiln, unloading bricks, buckle bricks, etc., and the more you work, the higher the income. Later, Liang's father found that it was good to unload bricks in the brick factory, there was no technology, and the income was high, so he changed from sending bricks to the brick factory to unloading bricks and pushing bricks, but later found that he bent down every day to push the freshly burned bricks and tiles from the kiln room to the outside, which not only had a lot of labor, but also had very difficult conditions. Not to mention breathing a lot of dust every day, more importantly, the temperature in the kiln room is extremely high, Liang's father is often on fire, and when he has a toothache, it is very difficult to swallow. Liang Haixing changed to a yard kiln, and his work was relatively leisurely, but his income also decreased.

Later, Liang's father found that the most technical content of the entire brick and tile factory and the highest income were naturally the buckle bricks. When the yard kiln is free, he helps the master who buckles the bricks to do some small work, and more importantly, he secretly learns the art. It won't take long for Liang's father to be able to buckle the bricks independently. Liang's father quit his job in the yard kiln and changed to buckle bricks. Because the buckle brick blank has seasonality, generally from the spring to the beginning of winter to the winter ice, because the buckle brick is recruited from all over the country workers, the buckle brick season is over, are back to their own homes busy with other things, Liang's father is a worker in the kiln factory, in the season of not buckling the brick blank, you can continue to yard the kiln.

There are two major processes for buckle brick blanks, in addition to the mud, that is, the mud is put in the billet bucket, after some processing, it is poured on the flat and empty ground, and then neatly stacked, completely dried, and pushed to the kiln factory by the workers for firing. The billet bucket is generally divided into two buckets and three buckets, and the two buckets deduct two bricks at a time, the weight is lighter, and the technology is easy to grasp. Each newly deducted brick billet weighs about six or seven catties, and Liang's father uses two buckets, plus the weight of the buckets, about twenty catties. From making the reconciled mud into bricks to buckling the ground to leveling the farthest part of the square, about a dozen meters, Liang's father had to buckle about 1,300 bricks every day. After the brick is buckled, a series of processes such as covering the surface and beating the head are also carried out. In the evening, all the bricks that have been basically dried should be stacked on the stack, so that the square where the bricks are dried can be cleared out, and the bricks will continue to be dried the next day.

In order not to affect the next day's work, after stacking the bricks, the soil and mud pushed by the bulldozers should be turned into mud, and after waking up for a night, prepare to buckle the bricks the next day. Liang's father was often busy until late at night before he could get home. After a long time, Liang's father was a little unbearable. One Sunday when Liang Haixing was ten years old, Liang's father taught Liang Haixing to palletize, and Liang Haixing was in the fifth grade of primary school in another place. The first thing Liang Haixing needs to do after school in the afternoon is to walk to the brick factory six miles away and help stack the 1,300 or so bricks that his father deducts every day. Although it was dried for a day, the weight of each brick was still about six catties.

Perhaps because of his youth and excessive labor intensity, late at night, Liang Haixing often sat on the back seat of Liang's father's bicycle, leaning on Liang's father's back and falling asleep. Once, Liang Haixing accidentally fell off the bicycle that Liang's father was riding, because there was some floating soil on the dirt road in the countryside, Liang Haixing fell to the ground, and he didn't know it at all, and continued to fall asleep. Liang's father was also very tired, he didn't pay attention to Liang Haixing behind him at all, and after riding for a long time, he found that Liang Haixing fell off at some point, and then returned to look for Liang Haixing. Liang's father told Liang's mother about Liang Haixing's falling off the bicycle as a joke, and Liang's mother couldn't help but feel afraid after hearing it. Liang Mu is also very familiar with that section of the road, where there are often large trucks to deliver coal to the kiln factory, and it is late at night, if there are coal trucks passing by, it will be troublesome. Father Liang couldn't help but feel a little chill in his back after hearing this. After the incident, Liang's mother found a thick hemp rope and tied it to the back seat of Liang's father's bicycle, and when Liang's father and Liang Haixing went home at night, they asked Liang's father to tie it to Liang Haixing, so as not to happen again Liang Haixing fell on the road and Liang's father did not find out.

Recalling the difficulties of his childhood, Liang Haixing's heart was full of infinite emotion, and he said to Liang's father and Liang's mother: "When I was young, why did you always look at me unpleasantly, and often beat and scolded me for no reason, I always felt that I grew up under your sticks." ”

Facing Liang Haixing's question, Liang's father and Liang's mother looked at each other. Liang's mother glanced at Liang's father and muttered, "It's not because you were naughty when you were a child. Father Liang was happy when he heard it, and said with a smile: "Xing'er was not skinny when he was young. Mainly because the family is poor, the adults have been working outside for a day, and when they come home, they see the four of you, all of them are like hungry wolves, when will you get through this day, when will you be disobedient sometimes, and you are the boss, don't you be angry with you? Liang Haixing seemed to understand his parents' thoughts and didn't say anything more.

Liang Haixing remembered the matter of helping his father palletize in the brick and tile factory, so he looked at Liang's father and said: "Dad, do you remember that once when my foot was in school volunteer labor, I was punctured by a dung fork, and I didn't go to the kiln factory to help you pick up bricks, and you came home and beat me?" ”

Father Liang glanced at Liang Haixing with guilt and did not answer. Liang's mother glanced at Liang's father and said to Liang Haixing: "Maybe your father doesn't remember, but in my heart, I have been hating your father." Liang's mother then told Liang's father everything that happened that night.