Chapter 25
"Excuse me, is this Ajing's home?"
Chen Lanjun stood in front of a mud house built with yellow mud and asked politely.
Behind her, Cao Hongyao, Xiaonian, and Liu Li, who were just watching the fun, followed in a distinct manner.
There was a bamboo chair under the eaves, very old and shaky, but fortunately there were a few nails on the side to hold it together. A skinny old lady with very yellow skin was sitting on it, originally resting her eyes, but when she heard the sound, she opened her eyes and suddenly saw so many unfamiliar people standing there, she was startled.
"Who are you?" the old lady asked doubtfully.
Chen Lanjun raised her voice.
"Excuse me, is this Ajing's home?"
"What? Speak louder, young lady. I have poor hearing and can't hear you."
"Grandma, we are Ah Jing's classmates! Looking for Ah Jing..."
Chen Lanjun had no choice but to raise her voice by two octaves. When her voice was high, it sounded a bit like the shouting of a vendor. Cao Hongyao and others behind her had never heard her speak so loudly before, and were a little surprised for a moment.
Even with such a loud decibel, the old lady finally heard it clearly.
When she caught the word "Ah Jing", the old lady laughed and said in a tone of showing off her baby: "Ah Jing, my Ah Jing is so well behaved!"
"Grandma, who is outside?" Such a loud noise obviously startled the people in the house. The wooden door between the yellow mud walls creaked, and a girl walked out. It was Ah Jing.
Xiaonian was very excited: "Yes, this is the one! Ah Jing——"
When Ah Jing raised his eyes and met the gaze of Chen Lanjun and others, he couldn't help but become a little stiff, and his face showed the embarrassment unique to an honest debtor meeting his creditor.
"You--why are you here..."
Only grandma was still smiling happily: "Ah Jing, your friends are here to play with you! Come in quickly, my dear daughter, come in quickly."
Seeing that Chen Lanjun and the others were still standing at the door motionless, the hospitable Grandma Ajing put her hands on the wall, trying to stand up with the help of the wall. However, just the action of standing up was so strenuous that she staggered all over.
Ah Jing quickly walked over and said, "Grandma, please sit down. I'll take care of things."
"Is there any boiling water in the house? Pour some."
"Hey, I know, grandma, just take a rest."
Ah Jing comforted her grandmother and turned around, but she didn't dare to look Chen Lanjun and the others in the eye. She just lowered her head and said dryly, "Come in and sit down."
Only after coming in did I realize that this shabby yellow mud house was not unique to Ajing's family, as their family only occupied half of it.
The room was about thirteen or fourteen square meters, divided into two parts by wooden boards. The back part was near a narrow window, through which a few beams of dim light shone, illuminating the floating dust.
Ah Jing silently brought a kettle, picked up a mottled enamel cup from the wooden table, and was about to pour water in it, but suddenly put it down, scooped some water from the large water tank, washed the cup carefully, poured water in it, and handed it to Chen Lanjun and others.
"Thank you." Chen Lanjun hesitated and asked, "Are you... not going to school?"
"Well." Ah Jing said woodenly, "I'm not cut out for studying anyway."
Xiao Nian awkwardly interrupted: "You, I, I can lend you my information."
Ah Jing looked up at her and suddenly smiled, her single eyelids curved into a beautiful arc. When she smiled, she looked a little childish.
"Thank you, thank you," Ah Jing said "thank you" several times in a row, and then said, "But, I guess it's not necessary."
"I'm getting married."
Her tone was calm as she said this.
Xiaonian frowned and asked in confusion, "No, why?"
"Are you crazy? You don't even want to study and get married?" Liu Li looked incredulous.
Cao Hongyao frowned and advised, "You are already in the second year of high school, and you will graduate in one semester. You should think about it carefully. If you have any difficulties, tell us and we can think of a solution together."
Among the group, Chen Lanjun was the calmest one.
The figure of Ah Jing in front of her gradually overlapped with other girls that Chen Lanjun had known. For many rural girls at this time, no matter how well they studied, as they went up the grade in school year by year, the number of girls who appeared in the classroom was getting fewer and fewer.
According to statistics from 1980, girls accounted for only 23.6% of students enrolled in higher education that year.
Due to some reasons outside the examination room, they were marked as failing on the test papers.
Chen Lanjun looked at Ajing quietly, as if she was looking at some other girls.
Some of my good female classmates in elementary and junior high school once proudly said under the red flag, "I want to be an engineer" or "I want to be a scientist", and then disappeared because of a marriage certificate or some other reason.
More than ten years later, she returned to her hometown for some business. Amid the bustling crowds and the roar of motorcycles and vans, she suddenly saw a familiar face.
After looking at it for a while, he suddenly realized: "Ah, it's so-and-so!"
Then, like the spring breeze from Yumen Pass finally blowing up a pool of stagnant water, a smile bloomed on the face that had been somewhat numb due to the baptism of life. I suddenly remembered the smile on the lips of the little girl when she vowed to become a big shot under the bright and warm sunlight a long, long time ago.
"Long time no see, how are you?"
"Not bad, how about you?"
"Not bad."
Just a few words, and half a life has passed.
Chen Lanjun lowered her eyes and looked away from Ah Jing. The room was too stuffy and dark, she thought, and stood up and walked to the small window, trying to breathe some fresh air.
Facing a series of questions from everyone, Ah Jing sighed and said:
"There's nothing I can do."
Perhaps because she submitted her application to drop out of school, Ajing was willing to open her heart and speak her mind.
After all, if you don’t say it now, you will never have another chance.
In fact, she envied these classmates very much, envied Cao Hongyao's natural intelligence, envied Xiaonian's frankness, envied Liu Li's innate confidence, and envied Chen Lanjun's composure.
It would be great if she could be friends with them, Ah Jing had thought more than once, but when she saw the patches on her clothes, the torn socks, and the not-so-good-looking report card, she consciously backed away.
Later, if she made a mistake, she would lose her qualifications even more.
Ah Jing lowered her head and said, "I... you have seen the situation of my family. Our economic conditions are not very good. My grandmother is also ill and needs money for treatment."
Chen Lanjun immediately thought of Grandma Ajing at the door. No wonder the old lady’s skin color was an abnormal yellow. It turned out that she was sick.
It was not a new story. With just a few words, Chen Lanjun had pieced together the general outline of the incident.
She hesitated for a moment and asked, "How much money are you short of?"
Xiaonian nodded in agreement: "Yes, if it's a matter of money, tell us and we'll lend it to you."
Ah Jing shook her head and said, "Thank you, but my grandma's illness needs to be cured, and she said it would cost at least four hundred yuan."
Four hundred dollars!
Xiaonian took a deep breath.
There was no way they could raise such a sum.
So there was only silence.
Ah Jing smiled, opened the only tattered wooden box in the house, and took out a pair of gloves. They were obviously hand-woven, with a simple style. The fingers were open for writing convenience, which was enough for the southern weather.
Ajing pulled off two wooden sticks for making gloves, tied a knot flexibly, cut off the excess thread with scissors, and handed it to Xiaonian.
"Xiao Nian, I'm really sorry. I don't have anything to give you. I bought some wool and knitted a pair of gloves. If you don't mind, please accept them."
Xiaonian held the pair of short gloves knitted with red wool in his hands, feeling very cheerful.
When the group was leaving, Jing's grandmother, who had been kept in the dark by her family and knew nothing about this, smiled and said, "Come and play with Jing more often. She doesn't have many friends."
Chen Lanjun calmed herself down and forced a smile: "Grandma, take care of yourself."
"Well, okay, you guys should study hard too!"
Ah Jing put on a patched coat and told her grandmother loudly: "I'll go and see them off."
The clouds were low and the narrow dirt road stretched forward in silence. Ah Jing sent Chen Lanjun and the others a long way, until they came to a small fork in the road, and then they stopped.
"I'll take you here," Ah Jing said. "Study hard and get into a good university. If possible, write to me and tell me what university is like."
Then she turned around and walked back the way she came, getting farther away step by step.
*** ***
When I got back to school, my other roommates gathered around me and asked with concern, "What happened?"
It would have been fine if you didn't ask, but as soon as you asked, Xiaonian burst into tears.
The roommate who asked the question widened her eyes, not knowing what had offended her, and asked cautiously, "What's wrong?"
Xiaonian lay down on the desk and cried.
When other students in the classroom heard the crying, some gathered around, while others remained in their seats but quietly pricked up their ears to listen.
The roommate was a little worried and guessed: "Is he sick?"
Xiaonian was crying so hard.
The roommate blinked. Seeing her crying so sadly, even the monitor and deputy monitor were silent. Something must have happened. He had a vague unfortunate guess and asked anxiously, "Could it be... that the person is gone?"
The more I guess, the sadder I get!
"Pooh, pooh, pooh," Cao Hongyao quickly explained, "Ah Jing is fine, it's just..."
She sighed, tried to be brief, and told the story again.
At this moment, the strange silence spread to the whole class.
Liu Li was very annoyed. He picked up the book on the table and tapped it: "It's almost done. Don't make it look like a funeral. It's unlucky."
Xiaonian suddenly raised his head and stared at her.
Liu Li was ready to fight with Xiao Nian, waiting for her to spit out nasty words like a squid, but Xiao Nian said something with a hint of pleading: "Liu Li, can you help her?"
"How can I help? That's four hundred, not forty!"
Cao Hongyao, who had been frowning the whole time, suggested: "What if everyone in our class comes together? After all, she is our classmate."
Liu Li pursed his lips and said, "I can take out five dollars, but what about others? One or two dollars is the best they can take out."
Then silence fell again.
Xiaonian wiped his face, not knowing what to say, and turned to Chen Lanjun for help.
"Sister Lan!" Xiaonian said aggrievedly, "Do you have any good ideas?"
Chen Lanjun stood under the window with her back to everyone, and turned around when she heard the words.
"Four hundred yuan is not that hard to earn." She raised her eyes and glanced at Xiaonian, Cao Hongyao, Liu Li and other classmates who said they wanted to help.
"It's just that we need everyone's help, and there will be risks."
"Would you like to?"
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