Liu Xiaoniu should be eighteen in a few days, think about it, it's almost time for Brother Ling Sheng to leave, but there is no sign of the poor child being in charge early, he still plays and spends his days, and has become the child king near Liujia Village. In three days, there were always people who came to the door to say that this child had caused some trouble for no reason, but Liu Laohan's ears were soft, and the older he was, the more he had the strength of the Hedong lion, the worse his wife felt sorry for this single seedling to the bones, and even couldn't say a cruel word, and over time, the seventeen or eighteen-year-old child became the heavenly stick in the mouths of the villagers.

In a field of wild grass, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy Lang rested peacefully with his hands on his pillow, biting a piece of grass in his mouth, he was lying down listening to the movement of the wind and grass, he suddenly opened his eyes, and said to himself vaguely: "It's all these years, I don't know if Brother Ling Sheng has become an immortal?", turned over, the young man felt upset, and simply sat up.

Just as a shout came, it was blown by the wind and became indistinct, but the boy instinctively stood up and took the call into his ears, without thinking that it was his mother who called his name, and responded loudly, and the boy turned around and went down the hill and walked home.

The boy lives at the end of the village, with his back to the field, and when he walked through the pavilion-like Bao Gu Field, there was some unexpected movement, the young man opened the Bao Gu leaves, and saw two buttocks in the field, and was fussing with something, the young man did not make a sound to disturb, quietly approached, and then kicked a foot, and said viciously: "Rabbit cub, stealing sweet potatoes and stealing them to my house!"

After the two dark-complexioned and similar-looking boys screamed in pain, they did not hurry to turn around and see who the person was, but first methodically stuffed the dug sweet potatoes into their coats, obviously a veteran who had done a lot of evil in the place, so that Liu Xiaoniu, who was about to criticize and fight, couldn't cry or laugh.

The two boys in their arms turned around together with their hands on their chests, and smiled at Liu Xiaoniu, who was full of anger, one of them was not afraid to ask, "Brother Yuanqiao, can you not tell my mother, or my two brothers will be beaten again." The smaller one was a little timid, with an unchewed sweet potato in his mouth, and he was terrified and didn't know whether to spit it out or swallow it.

Liu Xiaoniu asked with a straight face: "Do you know that you have to be beaten and come to Tai Sui's head to break ground?" I think you kid is itchy and untidy, digging other people's grain and stealing other people's fruits all day long. ”

The boy who was covered in mud and couldn't see a few white places seemed to be anxious, and explained: "Maomao came with him, I didn't bring him." After speaking, he gave the little brother next to him an elbow.

The boy named Mao Mao hurriedly swallowed the sweet potato in a few bites, and then said, "I want to come by myself, it's none of my brother's business." ”

Liu Xiaoniu crossed his hands and sighed, and said helplessly: "Forget it, for Maomao's sake, if you fill in the soil for me, I won't tell your mother." ”

The two children immediately nodded with a chick peck, and resumed their posture of pouting their buttocks, but they were digging just now, and now they are filling in the soil.

The young Liu Xiaoniu smiled, turned around and left, and when he arrived at his yard, a relatively young-looking woman greeted him, and asked implicitly: "Yuanqiao, do you see my little four and Maomao?" ”

The woman's smiling face disappeared immediately after hearing this, and she apologized to Liu Xiaoniu and hurriedly walked to the ground, looking at the woman's hurried back, Liu Xiaoniu estimated that the two little buttocks were indispensable and beaten, Liu Xiaoniu did not feel indebted, Brother Ling Sheng said a sentence to tell everyone to sweep the snow in front of the door, and don't care about the frost on the tiles of others, and this is the case now.

Just as he was about to enter the house, a middle-aged woman carried a pot of grass dregs out, with green grass blades on her hands, and should have just chopped this pot of pig food, Liu Xiaoniu hurriedly stepped forward, snatched the wooden basin, and blamed: "Mother, you are not in good health, and you have a back disease, what are you still tossing? I can do these jobs, you just go back to the house and sit." ”

Even if the eyebrows and eyes go back for another twenty years, the pretty woman smiled and said: "What can my mother do with this waist, it's good to ask your father to give me a cupping at night, but you hurry up and find a serious thing to do, don't always sit still and run around, if you have the ability to make a living, you can marry a daughter-in-law, and your mother is still waiting to hold her grandson." ”

Liu Xiaoniu frowned and complained: "Mother, how old am I, according to Brother Ling Sheng's words, I can't even reach the crown, what are you talking about now?"

Speaking of Ji Lingsheng, the woman was slightly dissatisfied, and gently scolded: "What three sentences are not separated from your Brother Lingsheng all day long, and you also want to learn from him and be as useless as him, and let the family be poked in the backbone by outsiders every day?"

Hearing that Brother Ling Sheng was degraded to worthless, Liu Xiaoniu was naturally unconvinced, his face was red and he wanted to defend something, he couldn't speak for a long time, and finally whispered, "Brother Ling Sheng went to be an immortal?"

The little cow lady who has a bad waist and legs and ears but is exceptionally good naturally heard this protest, and wanted to say something, Liu Xiaoniu had already carried the vegetable pot to feed the pigs, and then the little cow mother dared to bend down slightly, lightly hammering the sore back, but her eyes never left her son.

Liu Xiaoniu poured all the crumbs of vegetables on the pig's head, causing a snort, and stood in the pigsty alone for a while before venting the complaint. When Liu Xiaoniu returned to the house, he found that his mother was still standing there, smiled at him, and said softly: "Yuanqiao, don't be angry with your mother, won't your mother say that you Ling Sheng's brother will become a brother in the future?", Liu Xiaoniu nodded lightly, he would never be angry with her for more than a night, and he would talk back to his mother when he was a child, but he hasn't had it all these years, maybe it was the tombs on the Ghost Knife Mountain that were too shocking to him when he was young, or maybe Ji Lingsheng's death silence in the past few days made him understand something.

It was just dark, Liu Dashui happened to come back from the market, the back basket was empty, and when he entered the house, Liu Dashui wiped his hands and said with a smile: "It's good today, all the dishes are sold out, and I'll rest for a day tomorrow." The woman was overjoyed when she heard this, got up and gave a bowl of rice to her man, Liu Xiaoniu also handed a pair of chopsticks with a rice bowl, although his father was the pillar of the family, he really didn't feel a little majestic to say, and his words were not as effective as his mother's words, but Liu Laohan was not afraid of being said to have soft ears, but he was happy in it.

Halfway through the meal, the woman suddenly asked, "Do you have the money to go to the county to study in Yuanqiao?" Liu Dashui wrapped the food in his mouth, said vaguely, swallowed it, put down the dishes and chopsticks, went to the corner to find a small jar, dumped it on the table, it was all broken silver, and took out today's harvest from his arms, counted it carefully, and nodded happily: "Enough!"

The woman smiled and gave all the meat in the bowl to Liu Xiaoniu, and suddenly saw Liu Xiaoniu bowing his head and sullen there, a little puzzled, so he asked, "Yuanqiao, what's wrong?"

Liu Dashui interjected on the side: "If you want to go to the county to study, won't you go far away, the child is reluctant to let us go, it's awkward." The woman was relieved and comforted: "The county is a little far from home, but if you want to go home, son, the gentleman there will definitely allow you." Don't worry about your father's work in the field, if you really can't rest assured, just go home every once in a while to live, but this book must be read, your father and I are both native farmers, and I am looking forward to you being a little bit out of my life. ”

Liu Dashui waved his hand again and asked rhetorically: "How can you run home from study, won't that delay your studies?"

Liu Yuanqiao, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said: "Dad, mother, I want to go to Siyue!"

Even if Liu Dashui doesn't know a few big characters, he knows that what his son said about Siyue refers to the national capital, the place where the Ji family is prosperous, and it is also a place where the people of Liujia Village can only wander in their dreams for the rest of their lives, seeing the reaction of their own man, no matter how stupid the woman is, she knows her son's intentions.

"Smack!", the chopsticks in the woman's hand slammed on the wooden table, making a crisp sound.

Liu Yuanqiao trembled in fright, he knew that his mother was angry, this was the first time in his life.

Liu Dashui, as the peacemaker in the family, took the woman's hand in time, and the woman did not have another seizure, Liu Dashui, who heard his son's ridiculous thoughts, just smiled gently at his son and did not say anything.

Liu Yuanqiao is really known for the stubborn temper outside the village, saying that he would leave the next day, Liu Yuanqiao took the ox cart of the third uncle to catch the market, and was ready to follow the freight horse team from the county to Siyue to the nearest post station, Liu Dashui and his wife just watched from afar, they have never refused a request from their son since they were young, and they will not stop him now, but they just hope to break into a famous place as soon as his son said, and then return to his hometown. The two stared at Liu Yuanqiao speechlessly sitting on the ox cart, and when they were about to leave, they got out of the car and kowtowed to them a few times, standing here they could also hear the few muffled sounds, the woman who was sick and weak and couldn't walk far and stood on the ridge with her waist finally lost her voice and cried bitterly, and when she couldn't see the shadow of the car, the woman fell into the field and desperately called the name of the calf.

Sitting on the ox cart, Liu Yuanqiao didn't dare to open his mouth or open his eyes, for fear that without the decision last night, the ox cart would go farther and farther, and Liu Yuanqiao would get farther and farther away from home.

After changing the team several times halfway, Liu Yuanqiao got closer and closer to the city that everyone yearns for, the feeling of leaving his hometown gradually faded, those ambitions filled his heart, he had a small pocket in his baggage, full of broken silver, he knew that what his mother secretly stuffed into it was all that the family had saved over the years.

Nearly ten years later, news came back to Liujia Village, saying that a young man died at the head of Siyue City, seventeen or eighteen, dressed very similar to Liu Yuanqiao, I heard that it angered a few sons and brothers who were playing at the city gate, and let people drown in the moat for no reason.

Liu Dashui and his wife were frightened for a few days, and then Liu Yuanqiao's mother was ill, but fortunately a letter was sent back later, the handwriting was ugly, and it was Liu Yuanqiao's own handwriting at a glance, Liu Dashui asked the village chief who had read the book for a few years to help him read that line of words, and the letter wrote that everything was fine, so that they should not read it and not worry.

It's just that no one understands the meaning of the word "practice" written in the letter.