——When he was a child, Song Chen did not fall into the water, and Lin Cheng was not washed away by the flood.

…

1974.

A remote small village in southern China.

7:30 in the morning.

Birds sing in the quiet forest, smoke curls up, and dew bends the green grass.

"Brother Lin Cheng, Brother Lin Cheng, it's time to go to school."

Eight-year-old Song Chen, carrying a military green schoolbag with several patches on it, ran to the neighbor's yard and called out to someone in a very loud voice.

Seven-year-old Lin Lu wrinkled her fair and tender face, yawned, and stared at the people in her yard with resentment: "Song Lao Si, you're shouting so loudly, you're going to make me deaf."

Song Chen went to the neighbor's house and said, "But it's time to go to school, Lin Lulu. You're such a sleepyhead.

Lin Lu said shamelessly: "You are the sleepyhead."

Song Chen poked his head in: "Where's Brother Lin Cheng? If we don't leave now, we'll be late."

"Brother is still cooking pig food. If you can't wait, you can go first and we will follow you." Lin Lu was about to pick up the book and take a look at it.

Song Chen: "I don't want it. I want to go with you. You can't monopolize Brother Lin Cheng for a while."

It's strange to say, there are many children of the same age in the village, and Song Chen and the other two are still in elementary school, but this guy just doesn't like to be with them. Instead, he likes to go to and from school with the Lin brothers and sisters.

To explain it in his own words, other kids were either dirty, ugly, or had poor grades, and he didn't like to "go along with the crowd" with them.

Both Lin Lu and Lin Cheng are good-looking, hygienic, and have good grades. Song Cheng likes to be with such wonderful people.

The teacher said that we should learn from the best, and he is trying hard to put his teacher's words into practice.

Besides, their house is very close to the Lin family, so it would be more convenient for them to play together.

"Lin Lulu, come play games with me and wait for Brother Lin Cheng." Song Chen compromised and came up with a solution.

Lin Lu: "No, I want to read."

"Didn't you watch it last night? Come on, come on, play with me, Lin Lulu. I learned this new game from my brothers. It's really fun."

Lin Lu was merciful, or perhaps he couldn't stand this person's coquettishness.

She pursed her lips and asked, "What game?"

Song Chen seemed to know that Lin Lu would agree, and he had already taken out the stones he had prepared last night: "Pick up stones, come, I'll teach you, it's fun."

He demonstrated it in front of Lin Lu, explaining the rules to her while she was picking up the items, and finally asked, "Do you understand?"

Lin Lu had a good brain and could understand it after reading it once. He nodded, "Yeah."

Song Chen was very fair: "Then let's play rock-paper-scissors and see who gets to play first."

As expected, Lin Lu won, because they had played rock-paper-scissors with this guy many times, and he always played scissors first the first time, and Lin Lu had already figured it out.

Song Chen was also very generous and gave her the stone he had spent two hours polishing: "Here, you go first."

As happy as he was now, he would be as sad five minutes later, because Lin Lu had never made a mistake and didn't leave him a single chance.

"Let's go, Lulu, Xiaochen."

Lin Cheng finished the work his mother assigned him. Seeing that time was running out, he eagerly put on his schoolbag and called the two people who were playing games under the eaves.

Lin Lu immediately returned the stone to Song Chen and took his schoolbag from his brother.

Li Xianglian and Lin Changchun had already gone to the fields. Lin Cheng got up in the morning to make breakfast for himself and his sister first, and then continued to add fuel to the fire to feed the pigs that Li Xianglan had not yet cooked until two-thirds of the feed was ready.

He is a well-known and sensible child.

The school is more than 20 minutes away from the village. Classes start at 8 o'clock, but you can actually leave at 7:40. As long as you walk faster, you can always make it to class on time.

On the way, Song Chen invited them to play with stones with him after class.

Lin Lu refused immediately: "I want to read a book, you can find someone to play with you."

Song Chen was extremely confused: "What's so interesting about that crappy book?"

I really don't understand Lin Lu.

She changed her face and faced Lin Cheng: "Brother Lin Cheng, are you coming? Let's play together, okay, okay? If you don't come, I won't find anyone to play with me. Please have pity on me. Okay, okay?"

Lin Cheng was pestered by him and said, "I'll play with you when I have time."

"Brother Lin Cheng, you are so nice!" Song Chen deliberately said loudly in Lin Lu's ear.

"Childish." Lin Lu curled his lips and looked stern.

Since they started elementary school, their relationship had become increasingly strained. Song Chen didn't like studying, while Lin Lu preferred the opposite. He always liked to ask her to play with him while he was studying, thus interrupting her studies. This often annoyed Lin Lu, who would ignore him for days at a time.

Lin Cheng was more indulgent towards him. Even if Song Chen disturbed his studies, he would just patiently let him study with him, or compromise and play with Song Chen.

——

During recess.

Lin Cheng had to help the teacher supervise his classmates in memorizing their lessons, so he didn't end up playing with Song Chen. Song Chen was extremely bored, his eyes rolling around, and he went to find Lin Lu.

"Will you play with me, please?"

Lin Lu pointed to the text in the book and said, "If you can recite it, I will play with you."

Even though Song Chen knew that she was rejecting him in disguise.

But he really likes her tricks.

I negotiated a deal with Lin Lu: "If I memorize it, we don't have to do homework tonight and can just play with me."

Because every day when she comes home, Lin Lu will first finish the homework for the day and preview the lessons for the next day before playing with him.

But Song Chen only has a little time, and after playing for a while he has to go home to help with work.

Therefore, after finishing homework with Lin Lu, there is basically no time to play.

"Okay." Lin Lu agreed.

Take out the math homework assigned by the math teacher today and start writing now.

Song Chen held the Chinese textbook and studied it painfully.

The child has a good memory. After two Chinese classes, he can memorize the text.

He was very excited and asked Lin Lu to recite the whole text to him. On the way home from school, he could hear his reciting.

"Hey, the fourth son of the Song family, you are studying with your young wife again." A foul-mouthed aunt passing by joked.

Song Chen glared at her fiercely: "Auntie, your mouth stinks. Did you forget to brush your teeth this morning?"

He knew that Lin Lulu didn't like to hear these words, and whenever someone teased her, she would always respond seriously.

The aunt might have been struck by what Song Chen said. Her face flushed slightly, and her fingers trembled with anger. Lin Lu and his sister covered their mouths and laughed.

"Song Chen, since you've finished reciting, let's play pebbles with you today. But we'll still play rock-paper-scissors to see who starts first. Do you want to join us, little brother?"

Lin Cheng shook his head: "No, come on, I'll watch you play and be your referee."

Song Chen didn't notice his little quirk when playing rock-paper-scissors, so he lost to Lin Lu again and again.

But this time Lin Lu was kind enough to let him play with it for a short time.