Earn tuition money

Throughout the summer vacation, Xu Jianing followed Chen Tianying to the fields, sold vegetables, chopped firewood, and fed pigs.

The summer sun was scorching, and they had to get up before dawn. While washing vegetables, Chen Tianying reminded Xu Jianing to prepare baskets and carrying poles.

Xu Jianing was still quite young and unsteady on his feet. The bamboo basket wobbled, and cucumbers rolled all over the ground. He bent down to pick them up without asking for help.

Chen Tianying stood in front and looked back at him, "Be careful, don't fall."

They carried their vegetables from the village to the town market, a journey of seven or eight miles, their feet soaked in tattered cloth shoes, covered in blisters.

On the first night, Xu Jianing took off his shoes and found that the skin on his big toe was rubbed raw. Chen Tianying glanced at it and said, "It's okay, just put a cloth under it tomorrow."

The next day, Xu Jianing discovered that an insole had been sewn into his shoe. It was made by Chen Tianying from an old piece of clothing, with uneven edges, but it fit his foot perfectly.

He put on his shoes, limped behind his mother, went up the mountain to chop firewood, and then continued to follow his mother to the market to sell vegetables.

The market was noisy, with loudspeakers and bicycle bells mingling together. Chen Tianying would call out vegetable prices, and he would join in, shouting back and forth. Sometimes, when the weather was hot and humid, the vegetables would wilt and wouldn't sell. Chen Tianying would squat behind his stall, his back to the crowd, rubbing his eyes, saying it was from the smoke.

Once, when they still had half a basket of vegetables left, Xu Jianing watched as others sold out and packed up their stalls. He picked out the best few cucumbers, ran to the town gate, and shouted to the students who were leaving get out of class: "Fresh cucumbers, three cents a piece. They'll help clear heat and detoxify."

This is a prestigious high school he will be attending in a few weeks. With its white walls and red tiles, the sound of students reciting their lessons can be heard from within the high walls. It's a completely different world from the dilapidated classrooms in the village.

Several students coming out of the school gate passed by him, attracted by his appearance. Their gazes lingered for a moment before they quickly looked away. Xu Jianing hurriedly called out again, "Three cents a cucumber, crisp and sweet, freshly picked today!"

A boy wearing glasses stopped, took out a few coins, and said, "Give me two."

"Okay." Xu Jianing reached into the bamboo basket, picked out the two largest and straightest bamboos, and handed them over as a perk for the first customer.

The boy took the cucumber, took a bite, and nodded, "It is indeed quite crisp."

As he left, he said, "Are you selling cucumbers? Be careful next semester, the dean of students doesn't allow stalls at the school gate."

Xu Jianing replied, "I'm not setting up a stall, I'm a student." He paused, then added, "I enrolled this year."

"Oh? A freshman?" The boy raised an eyebrow and looked him over again. "My name is Xie Liming, I'm about to be a senior, and I'm here after evening self-study today."

“I come from the city and live at school,” he said with a strange sense of superiority.

Xu Jianing gripped the edge of the bamboo basket with her fingers, her tone still indifferent: "Senior year of high school, about to take the college entrance exam."

Xie Liming glanced at him, his gaze neither arrogant nor level, and asked, "You just said you're a freshman this year?"

"Um."

"Also in the city?"

“No.” Xu Jianing looked directly into the other person’s eyes. “I was admitted through the village examination.”

Xie Liming gave a half-smile and said "Oh," then took another bite of cucumber. "I'll take the rest."

"This cucumber is really good, very crisp and sweet." He said, throwing the leftover stem into the trash can, and picked up his schoolbag. "Don't be too nervous when school starts, the top classes are not easy to get into."

"How did you know I was in the honors class?" Xu Jianing asked.

Xie Liming turned his head to look at him, a slight smile playing on his lips: "Our homeroom teacher mentioned that there will be a new student from the village who will be admitted this year. He has excellent grades and gave up the opportunity to study in the city to come to this school. He is also good-looking. I guess it should be you."

"You know my name?"

“I didn’t hear the teacher mention it, but I’m guessing your name is probably not bad.” Xie Liming raised his chin and pointed to his face. “If you look like this, it would be a shame if it were a common name.”

Xu Jianing was too lazy to explain further. He packed the cucumbers from the basket and handed them to the other party, quoting a price that was a few cents more than usual.

Xie Liming took the cucumber and asked curiously, "So what's your name?"

"So what if I know?"

"Not so good." Xie Liming deliberately dragged out the word. "Next time you meet me, make sure you call me by my name. If you're from the village, you're not really called Tiezhu, are you? No wonder the teacher doesn't mention your name anymore."

Xu Jianing glanced at him and asked, "Are all the people in this school like you?"

After saying that, he moved the bamboo basket to his side, looking very wary: "Welcome to visit again next time."

Xie Liming sensed the other person's aloofness, chuckled softly, and walked into the street corner under the streetlights, his shadow stretched long by the lamplight.

Xu Jianing stood there, the few coins still warm in his palm, his eyes downcast, lost in thought. After a moment, he put the coins in his pocket, picked up his bamboo basket, and turned to disappear into the crowd.

Chen Tianying was squatting on the street corner, arranging the remaining vegetables one by one, when she heard the shout. She looked up and saw her son running around, covered in sweat.

"Sold out?"

"Mmm!" Xu Jianing panted, placing the few coins he had been clutching until they were warm into her palm, his voice filled with barely suppressed pride, "Sold them all! At the entrance of the county high school, I just had to shout a few times and people would buy them! Some even said my cucumbers were crisp and very sweet!"

Chen Tianying's fingers were rough, covered in thick calluses. She held the coins in her hand for a while, then wiped her son's sweat and smiled happily.

"Jianing is really capable."

“They seem to know me.” Xu Jianing sat on the ground and wiped his sweat with a towel. “Next time I’ll have to sell in a different place to avoid the trouble.”

Chen Tianying looked down and counted the coins in her hand, then replied, "Who knows you? Someone from town?"

“No.” Xu Jianing looked at the street corner where the crowd was gradually dispersing and lowered her voice: “They are students from the county high school.”

"I might have seen your name before." Chen Tianying glanced at him, then looked down and put the coins into her bag. "Didn't you get into the honors class?"

The mother and son sat on the side of the street, leaning against a wall that was half-painted and peeling, drinking warm water and eating a few bites of the pancakes they had made that morning.

A night breeze blew by, the streetlights cast a dim glow, and the market in the distance slowly packed up. Chen Tianying looked at the sweat on her son's face, brushed aside the stray hairs on his forehead, and revealed a relieved expression.

"If you grow a little taller next year, you'll be taller than your dad."

Xu Jianing, munching on a dry biscuit, pushed the water bottle toward Chen Tianying, gesturing for her to drink more.

He knew that although his mother didn't say it, she actually hoped more than anyone else that he would grow up and go out into the world, preferably as far away as possible, as long as he didn't end up like her, trapped in this small plot of land, unable to hold his head up for the rest of his life.

Chen Tianying tilted her head back and took a sip of water, then suddenly laughed, “Don’t be like your father, always spouting that ‘girls are useless when they study’ nonsense. I want to slap him every time I hear that.”

“If your sister and brother hadn’t given up on their studies, I would definitely have gritted my teeth and helped them continue their education.”

“I won’t follow his example.” Xu Jianing raised her head, her voice firm. “Mother, I want to follow your example.”

Chen Tianying paused for a moment, then looked down at him.

"Where did you learn from me?"

"Mom, you are very smart and capable. You are the one who holds up half of my sky."

Xu Jianing was still munching on a pancake, while Chen Tianying stared at the shadow of the county middle school building across the street, remaining silent for a long time.

“Jia Ning, do you know?” she began, as if talking to herself, “I was very smart in school when I was a child.”

“That year, my family was relatively well-off. My father taught me to recognize many characters. In winter, I even sewed a cloth schoolbag and ran to school.” Chen Tianying smiled as she spoke, but there was no light in her eyes. “But when I was in the third grade, there was a war on the other side of the mountain. Our house was burned down, our land was gone, my father was gone, and my mother hanged herself.”

"Only my younger brother and I were left. No one mentioned the word 'studying' anymore. My brother eventually starved to death."

When Chen Tianying said this, his face was frighteningly calm.

“I was only eleven years old at the time.” She looked down and tugged at the ripped seam on her trouser leg. “I picked wild vegetables, stole sweet potatoes from other people’s fields, and ate tree bark in the winter. I’m really lucky to have survived.”

"Later, when I was so hungry, I met your father, who was a carpenter at the time."

"He gave me a bowl of rice, and I went with him."

"Back then, we didn't dare to be picky. We were starving." Chen Tianying smiled, the fine lines at the corners of her eyes swaying in the wind. "I'm not afraid of hardship, I'm just afraid that I'll never be able to overcome it in my lifetime."

She lowered her head, glanced at Xu Jianing, and continued to reminisce: "When I was in the third grade of elementary school, I wrote with charcoal pencils and my writing was better than your brother's scribbles."

Chen Tianying looked down at her calloused hands, with a thin layer of dirt still clinging to her knuckles. So much time had passed that she had forgotten how to hold a pen and write.

Xu Jianing had never heard Chen Tianying mention these things before. He asked, "Mother, do you still want to study?"

Chen Tianying paused for a moment, then smiled and patted Xu Jianing's head: "Mother doesn't want to think about it now, Mother wants to see you study."

"Keep reading, just as if you're reading both of our shares."

Xu Jianing looked up and stared at Chen Tianying's face. He felt that it was not a relieved smile, but a bitter smile, a bitter smile from being forced by life to the point of having nowhere to escape.

His lips were pressed tightly together, leaving only a hint of dark emotion in his eyes.

The mother and son walked in silence, carrying their empty vegetable baskets, towards the village along the dark road. All was quiet except for the chirping of insects in the grass.

When Chen Tianying got home, the house was pitch black. He fumbled for a match, lit it, and the light illuminated the mottled walls of the old house.

Xu Guoqiang and Xu Chengtao were already asleep. Xu Jianing tiptoed off her shoes, lay down on the bed, touched the thin admission notice under her pillow, and only after feeling its presence did she hug the quilt and fall asleep peacefully.

The next day, before dawn, Chen Tianying got up. She heated up the porridge in the pot, bent down to tie up her trouser legs, and then patted Xu Jianing awake: "Get up, we're going to the market in the south today, there are a lot of people there, let's pick the cucumbers first."

Xu Jianing opened her eyes, rubbed her temples, and asked in a low, hoarse voice, "Mother, what time is it?"

"It's almost 4:30. We need to get to the early market, or we won't be able to sell our goods at a good price."

As Chen Tianying spoke, she ladled out two bowls of the hot porridge from the pot and sprinkled some chopped pickled vegetables on top.

It was still dark outside, and no chickens were crowing in the distance. Inside the house, you could hear Xu Guoqiang and Xu Chengtao snoring.

The mother and son sat on small stools, quietly eating their porridge.

After finishing his drink, Chen Tianying wiped his mouth, got up, and picked up his bamboo basket. "Hurry up, while the dew is still heavy and the cucumbers are still tender."

Xu Jianing responded and lifted the curtain, a wave of morning dampness washing over him. He took a deep breath, glanced up at the faint glimmer of dawn on the horizon, and thought to himself:

He vowed that he would let his mother sleep in later.

Upon arriving at the field, Chen Tianying bent down and entered the cucumber patch, deftly turning over the vines and picking the ones that looked best.

"Jia Ning, this one."

Xu Jianing responded and quickly took the cucumbers, placing them one by one into the bamboo basket, arranging them carefully so as not to crush them.

"mother."

"Um?"

"After I get into university, will you be able to handle all this by yourself? Why don't we move to the city together?"

"What, you haven't even taken the exam yet, but your mind is already so far ahead."

Chen Tianying, carrying her shopping basket, waved to Xu Jianing, "I have to go, or there won't be any good seats left."

Xu Jianing nodded, gently placed the last cucumber down, lifted it with both hands, and the two walked towards the town one after the other.

As dawn broke over the other side of the mountain, the sky turned a pale white, and the outlines of the town's rooftops could be seen in the distance.

Xu Jianing carried the vegetables, walking forward step by step. He had walked this road countless times, the pebbles beneath his feet worn smooth. But he knew that one day, he would walk out of this road.

He must get out of this village.

Otherwise, this is a path they, mother and son, would have to walk for the rest of their lives.