Chapter 31
At night, Shao Qinghe dreamed of a magnolia tree for the first time in a long time.
When they are still in bud, they look pink and purple from a distance, but when they bloom, the whole tree will be brilliant and flawless white.
In the dim light, a slim woman stood under the window, wearing a blue cheongsam with exquisite workmanship, a sparkling and cool color.
"Xiao He, Mom may not be able to wait until the flowers bloom."
He woke up from his dream, gasping for air like a drowning man being pulled out of the sea by a fishing net. The moonlight shone on the floor, as calm as the sea.
The next morning, Uncle De, who came from Hong Kong and grew up with Shao Qinghe, saw him and asked curiously, "Didn't you sleep well last night?"
Shao Qinghe's eyelashes trembled slightly: "Yeah."
He said expressionlessly: "I dreamed about my mother."
"Wow, I haven't dreamed about that in a long time."
"yes."
Shao Qinghe bent down and got into the back seat of the car. The scenery outside the window quickly receded. After driving on a relatively flat road for a while, they came to a dirt road. The car was bumpy like a boat in the heavy rain. After an unknown amount of time, it finally stopped.
The mainland companion said apologetically: "The road ahead is blocked, so we have to walk."
"It's okay, it's a good time to breathe some fresh air." Uncle De said with a smile.
When I got off the car, I saw endless green. The winter in the south is also painted green, but the color is darker.
The ridge of the field was uneven. Shao Qinghe walked with one foot deep and one foot shallow, listening indifferently to Uncle De talking with his companions.
"The village ahead is where Mr. Shao's grandfather lives."
"I heard Mr. Su say that he missed his hometown a lot in his later years. Ah, Miss Su seemed to have lived here for five years."
"Ms. Su is?"
"That's Mr. Shao's mother, um, Mrs. Shao."
Shao Qinghe was annoyed when he heard this, so he picked up a small stone with his leather shoes and kicked it far away.
Uncle De glanced at him and silently changed the subject: "The trees on the hill ahead look like magnolias."
"Hey, you can tell it hasn't bloomed yet?"
Uncle De smiled but said nothing.
"There used to be a lot of magnolia trees in this village, but a lot of them were cut down in the past few years. I heard it has another name, 'Magnolia Village'."
We arrived while we were talking.
The roofs of the several black-tiled houses with blue bricks and black tiles have been damaged for a long time, but this does not hinder the bustle under the eaves. The gables are painted white and are now used as bulletin boards, recording the work points earned by members from January to December.
An elderly member was sitting on the doorstep watching children play. Suddenly he saw so many people and stood up anxiously.
"Who are you?"
The county official smiled and said, "You are old and have much experience. Su Zhengan remembers that his grandson came back to visit his ancestors."
"But Su Zhengan's family is not..."
Seeing the visitor making faces, the old member swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth and simply stopped talking. How could he not remember Su Zhengan? This big house belonged to him, but his family ran away during the war, and later this house was used by the entire group of members to live in.
Uncle De saw this and was worried about scaring people, so he smiled and said, "It's nothing, you can come over now, I'll accompany the young master to take a look."
We wandered around, led by the elderly member of the commune, to look for the ancestral grave of my maternal grandfather.
The member was very experienced and brought a sickle.
The further we went into the secluded areas on the mountain, the more thatched and vine gates there were, making it difficult to walk. We cut the vines and cleared them as we went. We finally arrived at a cemetery. The wild grass all over the ground had turned green dozens of times.
Shao Qinghe did not have any special feelings towards these ancestors whom he had never met, but he just performed the routine memorial service.
However, the local people accompanying him shed a few tears, looking very sincere and heartfelt.
In a secluded place, Uncle De said to him, "Have you seen it?"
Shao Qinghe leaned against a bamboo pole and said calmly, "There's really nothing to see."
"I told you long ago that it's not difficult to come, but you have to pay for the travel expenses when you come. Have you thought about it?"
When the Jia family met Granny Liu, they would give her twenty taels of silver and a big bag of clothes. When a rich man came to her grandmother's hometown, he would do something for the folks.
"It's just a small amount of money." Shao Qinghe said.
On the day of leaving, Uncle De took out two documents with a smile and handed them to the local officials.
"Our young master plans to donate one million yuan. Eight hundred thousand will be used to support the hospital, and two hundred thousand will be donated to the school. It's just a small gift, please don't despise it."
Are you kidding! Who would refuse a good thing like money falling from the sky?
This small thought was instantly accepted with great joy.
After finishing the work, he opened the car door and said, "Well, this is probably the first time and the last time."
Shao Qinghe did not comment.
He looked out the car window at the low houses receding into the distance. The clouds and the sky were low, with the usual gloomy feel of winter.
In some time, in spring, the magnolia flowers should bloom as promised.
In this brief moment, for some reason, he suddenly thought of the girl named Chen Lanjun.
I wonder what she is doing?
*** ***
"Ah——chu——"
Chen Lanjun sneezed, and Xiaonian, who was listening to her explain the question, smiled and said, "Someone must be thinking of you."
"Whoever can read my mind and not scold me will do."
Chen Lanjun picked up a pen and highlighted the key points in the book.
After Ah Jing's grandmother was rescued that day, she returned to school and explained the whole story to Cao Hongyao, Liu Li and others. Liu Li had a bad temper and took people to the hospital as soon as school was over, which shocked Ah Jing's father again.
Ajing's father had a headache. They were just classmates, but these girls stared at him as if he were a class enemy.
They had no choice but to maintain superficial peace and never mentioned Jing getting married again.
Cao Hongyao took another route. She took a few students from the countryside and took advantage of the weekend to visit Ajing's village and nearby villages and chat with them.
"Alas, we have a classmate who has a miserable life," Cao Hongyao said sadly, "She and her grandmother were almost driven to death by their family."
There weren't many entertainment activities in the village, so people just loved listening to this kind of gossip. They couldn't wait to prick up their ears to listen to Cao Hongyao's stories.
After Cao Hongyao went back to school, Ajing's father returned to the village and tried to find help, but no one paid attention to him.
Some villagers who hated evil even scolded him: "Don't come to my house if you are unfilial."
The team leader and the brigade cadres also tried to persuade him: "You can't do this to your mother."
With these two approaches, Ajing's father's arrogance was completely suppressed.
On Friday, after school, Chen Lanjun and several good classmates made an appointment to visit the hospital.
The doctor came to check on the condition.
"It's a small miracle. Luckily, the half bottle of pesticide you had was expired!" The doctor sighed as he listened to the sound with a stethoscope, "You mixed it with something else, otherwise it would be hard to tell."
The doctor told Grandma Ajing: "Old sister, you have to take care of yourself. Your granddaughter's eyes were swollen like walnuts because of crying that day."
On the hospital bed, Grandma Ajing lay quietly with her legs curled up. Although she was still haggard, at least she could open her eyes and eat a few mouthfuls of white rice porridge.
"Is grandma feeling better today?" asked Chen Lanjun.
"Better." Ajing replied quickly.
"It's not possible that the medicine, which costs seven yuan per tube, is not wasted," the doctor put away the stethoscope and said, "Your classmates are really friendly. They come here more often than her own son. Please keep your voice down so as not to disturb other patients."
"Hey, don't worry, we are very quiet." said Chen Lanjun.
It was obvious that the doctor was in a good mood today and was smiling the whole time.
Chen Lanjun asked: "Is there any happy event?"
"Yes," the doctor said with a smile, "a kind person donated money to the hospital. We can buy some advanced equipment. Oh, that's right."
She turned to Ah Jing and said, "There is a device that is very effective for your grandma's original illness. You can try it when the time comes."
Ah Jing was overjoyed: "Really? That's great!"
She went to hold grandma's hand and said, "Grandma, you heard me. You must cooperate with the treatment. You must live a long life and stay with me."
Grandma Ajing smiled and said, "If you live a hundred years, you will become a monster."
"It doesn't matter if it's a monster. As long as you are here, I'll feel at ease." Ajing said.
After watching the doctor leave, Grandma Ajing put her hands together and bowed to Chen Lanjun and the others: "I heard what Ajing said. Thank you, thank you."
Chen Lanjun and the others could not bear it, so they quickly stood up and said, "We are all classmates, so we should help each other."
After visiting Ajing and her grandmother, they went their separate ways, each returning to their own homes and looking for their own mothers.
As soon as she got home, there was a steaming hot meal waiting for her.
Zheng Mei brought a bowl of fragrant winter bamboo shoots fried with bacon to the table and said, "Your father specially went to the mountain to dig bamboo shoots. You must eat more."
Chen Lanjun and her younger sister were very supportive and their first chopsticks reached out for the bowl of fried winter bamboo shoots with bacon.
Chen Lanjun hadn't eaten winter bamboo shoots for a long time. The jade-colored bamboo shoots, with the unique fragrance of bamboo plants, were cut into small pieces and fried with bacon and lard. They were very fragrant and fresh, without any greasy taste.
"It's really delicious." Chen Lanjun held the bowl and said with a smile, "Mom and Dad, hurry up and put some in the bowl, otherwise it will be gone."
Zheng Mei had just eaten two bites when someone came to her door:
"Director Zheng, there's a quarrel in the factory! Can you go check it out?"
"What's going on?" Zheng Mei put down the bowl and was about to stand up.
Chen Lanjun hurriedly took a few bites of rice and said vaguely, "Mom, wait a minute, I'll go with you."
"What are you going to do? The air there is bad."
"Go and watch the fun."
The furniture factory in the village was really established. The factory was finally located in a few rooms at the west end of the village. Because there were not enough rooms, the team members built a large shed with iron sheets.
Some work that is likely to produce sawdust is done in the shed.
The employees in the factory are all villagers. They get up early in the morning to water their own vegetable fields, then wash the mud off their feet at the pond, and go to the factory to work. When they get off work in the evening, they take care of the fields while there is still some light. They are busy every day.
Chen Lanjun followed Zheng Mei and hurried to the scene. The people on the other side were already arguing so fiercely that they were about to start a fight.
"What are you doing? What are you doing! Stop making noise!" Zheng Mei yelled, and everything became quiet in an instant.
Wow, mom’s prestige is still very high.
Chen Lanjun secretly gave Zheng Mei a thumbs up behind her.
Being praised by her daughter, Zheng Mei showed disdain on her face, but she straightened her back even more and said, "Tell me, what's going on?"
At first, the quarrel was between a male and a female member, and the cause was work points.
When the new work points were calculated, the female member was not very happy and muttered, "He made fewer stools than me, but he got more work points."
The male member was embarrassed and said angrily: "Which eye of yours saw it? Ah! What kind of work can you women do? It's normal for you to get fewer work points."
This time, a quarrel broke out.
Although after liberation, the state advocated that men and women work together and get the same work points, in practice in many places, the difference in work points between men and women was huge. For example, in the brigade where Chen Lanjun's family lived, if a man worked for a day, he would get 5 points, and no matter how hard-working a woman was, she would only get 3 points at best.
Now the furniture factory in the village also uses the method of recording work points, calculating profits and paying wages uniformly. Since work points are recorded, the old habit is retained.
But there is a difference between farming and craftsmanship. Farming requires labor, and strength is very important, but now this furniture factory in the village produces small items such as benches. Judging from the final results, the difference is not that big.
Therefore, a contradiction arises.
It was getting late, so Zheng Mei scolded both parties and asked everyone to disperse.
On the way back, Chen Lanjun suggested to her: "How about we change it and determine the work points based on the number of finished products?"
Zheng Mei thought about it and said, "That's fair. I'll talk to everyone about it later and see if we can come up with a new charter."
After two days of rest at home, it's time to go back to school.
Chen Lanjun and Cao Hongyao each rode a bicycle to school, and when the road was wide, they walked side by side.
"That's good, you can rest assured." Cao Hongyao said, "Sister Lan, now you can focus on your studies. You were busy with this and that for a while. You didn't have time to study hard, and as a result, you only got fifth place in the exam this time."
This is true. Chen Lanjun was indeed neglecting her studies some time ago.
She didn't deny it, saying, "Yeah, I understand."
"Come on! It's only the last few months. Work hard. Once we get into a good university, we can relax a little. By the way, which school do you want to apply to?"
Chen Lanjun hesitated for a moment and said, "Mingda University."
Although she had a new life, Chen Lanjun still had some self-awareness. With her level, it was not even a question of whether she could get into Yanda or Huazhong University. Being reborn did not mean that one's brain had changed.
As a key university in the province, Mingde University was more practical after all. Moreover, this was a small regret that she had originally wanted to make up for.
In her last college entrance exam, she had applied for Mingde University, but unfortunately she was not admitted. For this reason, Chen Lanjun has been upset for many years. This feeling of missing out is always particularly painful.
If she could do it again, she would definitely be able to make up for this regret. Of course, the premise is that she would devote herself to study.
There's still too little sense of urgency.
Chen Lanjun reflected on herself.
After returning to school and consulting with Teacher Qin, Chen Lanjun wrote a line of chalk words in the lower left corner of the blackboard.
"There are XXX days left until the college entrance examination!"
Don’t say it, as soon as these words come out, I immediately have a special feeling.
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