(xviii)

By the third grade, the teacher was changed to a peer in Xiazhai.

My father was Mr. Jiang's teacher, and Mr. Jiang became my teacher. In the countryside, there are always many things that go on and on.

In my impression, Mr. Jiang has a humble and gentlemanly style, not only reading a lot of books, but also speaking chapters and mouths. In ancient times, he would have been a talent.

On weekdays, when explaining Chinese textbooks, Mr. Jiang can always explain the lessons vividly, and also extend to some interesting knowledge outside the books. From his mouth, I also knew that there used to be a rooster outside the mountain to get up and get up in the early dynasty, and the emperor's banquet was much more pompous than the banquet of the wealthy people in the village.

Many students who like to skip school will also sit in the classroom honestly when they encounter Teacher Jiang in class.

Every week, Mr. Jiang has to give us a "novel lesson" with ingenuity. Of course, he didn't talk about boring novel theories, but read a martial arts novel. When he encounters a profound place, he always has to explain it. And when it comes to the highlights and climaxes, he will put down the books and play his memory to the fullest.

More than 30 years later, I have forgotten the title of that martial arts novel, but I still remember the sentence "one bucket of three liters of rice, two flies hugging the pen".

I always thought it was the best class I've ever heard. It was at that time that I first felt the infinite charm of books, and that little bit of a hazy love for literature began.

Mr. Jiang was not born in a professional class, but he can write a handful of calligraphy characters that are very elegant and free. Whenever an old man passes away in Xiazhai, ask Mr. Jiang to write couplets. The couplets he wrote always allowed the host family to earn enough face in front of many guests.

My family and Mr. Jiang's family are both in the foot of the village, his family is in the foot of the lower village, and my family is in the foot of the upper village, and there are only two chongs in the middle. Every day after school, my father and Mr. Jiang, two private teachers, had to rush home, carry the plough and rake, and follow behind the ploughing ox, doing their duty as a farmer.

The water head of my family's rice field is in the stream next to Mr. Jiang's house, and every time my father goes to check the water source, he always has to talk to him for a while. When they talk about farming, they always talk about it. Perhaps, even they can't tell whether they should be a teacher or a farmer. But whether they are teachers or farmers, they are good hands.

"Holding a whip in one hand and a plough in the other, he runs a life that is neither humble nor arrogant." It was many years before I finally got to the bottom of it.

It's a pity that the martial arts novel hasn't been finished yet, and Mr. Jiang is not a teacher. The reason is that he, like my father, is a private teacher, and his salary is too low to support his family. What's more, he is younger than his father, unwilling to completely succumb to the arrangement of fate, and still has a little idea and courage in his heart to "change the way of living".

My father persevered, and after being a private teacher for twenty or thirty years, he was finally taken care of by the policy.

But in my mind, Mr. Jiang is definitely a qualified and competent teacher, but he doesn't have a diploma that he can get his hands on.

Later, the school increased the salary again and hired Mr. Jiang to come back as a private teacher. And he also had a chance to become a regular in the exam, but for some reason, he failed to become a public teacher.

Later, he was no longer a teacher.

The whole village felt sorry for him.

However, another job he ran was successful. The family is rich and the children and grandchildren are full,......