In his deep sleep, he had a sweet dream, in which he was covered with a thick quilt by his sister Liu Xia, warm.

"Hey, get up, hey, get up." A rough voice sounded in Liu Fang's ears, and then his arm was also shaken. When I opened my eyes, I saw the face of a weathered man, looking at me suspiciously. Behind the man's five-short stature was a cart pulled by a donkey, and an oil drum was placed upside down on the cart. And the morning sun is bypassing the adobe wall, shining on me, and the warmth of the dream comes from this warm sunshine.

Liu Fang hurriedly lifted the plastic bag, held the handbag in his arms with one hand, supported the ground with the other, stood up and asked, "Uncle, where is this?" ”

"Ten shallots." Maybe I've never seen anyone who can speak Mandarin come here, and the uncle pinches his tone and answers word by word.

Ten green onions, Liu Fang thought to himself that the place name here is really strange. But he couldn't think too much about it, so he quickly asked, "Uncle, how far is it from the village?" ”

"What are you going to beat up in the village? There are still more than ten miles to go. ”

"I want to sell something."

"We are poor here, we have no money, we have no hope of food and clothing, what are you selling."

"I sell needlework and thread, you see." As he spoke, he opened his handbag, and at this time Liu Fang found that his hands were pitch black, stained with soot, and the white vest was also black and yellow, and the sweat stains were still round and round, so he retracted his hand again embarrassedly. The uncle didn't care, because he himself was sloppy and sloppy.

"Oh, how do you sell it?"

Liu Fang was stunned for a moment, because he hadn't figured out how to sell it himself.

"2 cents a pack of needles, 5 points a pair of threads, 2 points for thimbles." Liu Fang quickly set a price. Because he wants to double the sale, he will never lose.

"It's too expensive, it's too expensive," the uncle said, shaking his head, "I can't afford it." ”

"Can't afford it so cheap?" Liu Fang deliberately pretended to be very old-fashioned.

"It's a green onion, I don't know yet." Liu Fang understood that the person he was talking to was the village chief. The place name he said here is ten "green onions" and ten "villages". Liu Fang hurriedly put down the handbag, walked forward and held the village chief's hand with both hands, and said while shaking it gently: "Good leader!" Good leadership! I didn't expect to meet the big leader when I first arrived. ”

When Liu Fang was studying art with Master in his hometown, every time he saw Master receiving people from the electrical factory, he pretended to learn it.

"Hmm, what kind of leader, it's a green onion, it's too expensive for you to sell." The village chief was touted and began to put on a pretense of leadership.

"Leader, how much do you think it can be sold?" Liu Fang still held the village chief's hand and sincerely asked the other party for advice.

"Needles are too expensive, one or two dollars is about the same."

"How much is one or two?"

"Oh, it's 1 or 2 cents!" The village chief replied a little arrogantly.

Liu Fang chuckled in his heart, and secretly pondered: "It's so cheap, it's not a big loss now." Before he had time to think about how to answer, the village chief said, "How much do I have?" ”

Liu Fang quickly let go of his hand, "Ah! "I almost didn't drop my jaw." 1, 2 cents a pack, has been paid to grandma's house, do you want to give him a share? I think it's better to change places again. Liu Fang thought to himself.

The village chief didn't pay attention to him, turned around and walked to the root of the adobe wall, pulled a few times in the place where Liu Fang slept just now, a cover made of wooden planks was exposed, the village chief gently lifted it, and a hole was exposed, and then turned around and went to the wheel to take down an iron bucket tied to the rope, put the iron bucket into the hole, and began to pull the rope out of the barrel, and then lifted it up, it turned out that this was a wellhead. Liu Fang was frightened into a cold sweat, but fortunately he covered the lid, or he would have fallen down and drowned.

The village chief was fetching buckets of water and pouring them into the oil drums that had fallen from the rack truck. Liu Fang was thinking at this moment: "I didn't say a few sticks in a pack just now, probably because of the information asymmetry with the village chief." I'll ask. When the village chief filled the oil drum, Liu Fang stepped forward again and handed over the only remaining tomato, and the village chief looked at him, took it, washed it in the bucket, and ate it.

"Leader, did you say one or two dollars and a few needles?"

"1, how many more?" Liu Fang was instantly relieved, it was no different from his own offer. In addition to the thread and thimble of the set, the ten needles in a pack must be disassembled and sold.

"Leader, what about the thimble and the thread?"

"Oh, I don't know much about this, if you want to give the amount, just go with the forehead, you can ask Aunt E!"

"Points, points, leaders, I have a big bag of 300 roots, and I will give you 1 yuan after selling out." Liu Fang learned how he measured money.

"Okay, let's go." The leader "snapped" and shook the whip, and Liu Fang was startled. Then the village chief made a sound of "boom, boom", and the donkey began to exert force, and the cart squeaked and walked forward.

Liu Fang followed behind, until his back hurt and his legs cramped, and he didn't mean to stop. When I started to get tired, I could still hold the frame car and follow along, as it approached noon, the loess road without any vegetation was filled with heat, and Liu Fang gradually couldn't bear it, and was slowly pulled farther and farther.

"Leader, I can't walk." Liu Fang shouted vigorously with his hands on his knees, and the leader in front reacted when he heard it, calling to stop the donkey and stop the car. Liu Fang got up and walked forward step by step. walked up to him, laboriously lifted the plastic bag he was holding, and said, "Leader, let's take a break and eat melons." ”

Yang Liufang took out the only remaining melon, knocked it open on the edge of the iron bucket, and handed the big side to the leader, who unceremoniously took it and ate it, Yang Liufang also walked to the side of the road, put the empty plastic bag on the ground, sat on it, and devoured it. The juice of the melon enters the throat and is as sweet as a syrup.

Before Yang Liufang could recover from it, the leader began to urge him to move forward, Yang Liufang stood up and held the wheel to walk forward, and soon he was tired and couldn't walk, and his feet were like being filled with lead, getting heavier and heavier.

After the leader saw it, maybe it was the power of the melon, or maybe he was dragging him down, so he sat on the wheel, and Liu Fang sat on it with great gratitude, although it was a little embarrassing, but it was much more comfortable than dragging his feet forward.

When the scorching sun was at the head, when he arrived at the village, on a low earthen wall at the entrance of the village, "Shibi Village" was written in white ash, and Liu Fang realized that because of the problem of dialect pronunciation, the "Shiguo Onion" in the leader's mouth turned out to be "Shibi Village". There were no houses in the village, but some of them were blocked by wooden planks on the earthen cliffs, some were blocked by crop poles, and some were simply empty holes.

Liu Fang sat on the wheel in confusion, until he entered a clearing planted with two poplar trees in the middle of the village, and there were more than a dozen villagers dressed in tatters, some carrying clay pots, some carrying iron buckets to cool off in the shade of the trees.