03City
The sky was also gloomy on the day of the final exam.
While writing a Chinese composition, Yang Xiao glanced out the window at the lightning and thunder. The sky was terribly dark, so she buried her head in her writing again.
After the end of the semester, the town would take all the second-year junior high school students to the city to take the biology and geography final exams. They gave them half a day off the day before the exam so that the boarding students could go home and pack their luggage.
Yang Xiao returned with an empty schoolbag. Zhou Daye was drying fish in the yard. Seeing her return, he picked up a small salted fish and offered her some porridge. Yang Xiao quickly waved her hand, saying she was packing some things to take the final exam and would not be eating at home. Only then did Zhou Daye sit back on the stone bench in the yard.
Yang Xiao really had nothing to pack, so she packed her fixed set of summer clothes, picked up a handful of dried peanuts from the table in the main room, stuffed them into the side of her schoolbag as a snack, and left in a hurry.
When Yang Xiao boarded the suburban bus, she deliberately chose a window seat next to Li Maoqiu. This was her first time in the city, and she wanted to see what it looked like.
The trees fell backwards, but the car kept moving forward. After turning a few corners on the mountain road, Yang Xiao felt her stomach churning and her saliva kept flowing back.
Li Maoqiu knew she was carsick when he saw her like this. He fished out a plastic bag from the front seat compartment of the bus and handed it to her, along with a sour plum candy. The period of vomiting, the one that didn't, was the most torturous. Yang Xiao had no time to look at the steel forest that suddenly appeared outside the window. Her face paled as she sipped the water Li Maoqiu had brought her.
They arrived at their accommodation, and only when the teacher in charge told them to get off the bus did Yang Xiao feel a little better.
But after getting off the bus, the heat that hit her face made her feel a little dizzy again. The fresh smell in the air seemed to have been left in the mountains by the moving bus. At this moment and in this place, all she could smell was the air mixed with a strange smell and then the warm breath.
So this is the taste of the city, Yang Xiao thought.
The place we lived in was a high school dormitory vacated by a city middle school.
The teacher in charge assigned rooms to the students, four people in a room.
The beds were already made, and they could rest after washing up. Yang Xiao and Li Maoqiu were the first to arrive at the dormitory this time. They finally chose the lower bunk by the window, put their backpacks on the corner of the bed, and then walked towards the window at the same time.
From the window you can see the playground and the tall buildings nearby.
It turns out that the high school in the city has such a big playground, and it turns out that there are such tall buildings in the city.
After thinking about this, Yang Xiao suddenly burst out laughing. Li Maoqiu asked her what she was laughing at, and she said that she felt like a country bumpkin who had come to the city. Li Maoqiu also laughed and agreed, saying, "This is also the first time I've seen such a large playground."
That night, knowing the next day would be the final exam for biology and geography, Yang Xiao suffered a rare bout of insomnia. She discovered that in her city dormitory, there were no insect sounds. The chirping of crickets, the clamor of cicadas, were gone. Even the most common summer sounds, frogs, seemed to have stopped croaking. All that remained was the endless sound of the wind and the clatter of passing cars.
The next day, Yang Xiao took the exam with dark circles under her eyes and naturally did not escape Li Maoqiu's questioning, but she did not hide her surprise and told Li Maoqiu that she couldn't sleep last night because she didn't hear the chirping of insects.
Li Maoqiu laughed out loud.
The return bus seemed to be going exceptionally fast, and she arrived in town before she even started to feel any discomfort. After her first bout of motion sickness, Yang Xiao didn't dare stare out the window anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut as soon as she got on the bus, but after getting off, she regretted not opening them to look at the city streets.
There are few students in the town, and the two days of delay in the final exam are enough time for teachers to mark the papers. So as soon as we returned to the classroom, the results of the second-year junior high school final exam were posted next to the blackboard.
A lot of people gathered around at once, and before Yang Xiao could squeeze in, she heard wailing from the table behind her.
"Oh, I don't want to study anymore. My mom wants me to go to the city to learn how to be a barber."
Yang Xiao was a little surprised. Both Yang Guoqiang and Zhou Yigang had instilled in her that one had to go to a good university to make a lot of money.
Yang Xiao turned to face the table behind him and asked, "Does learning hairdressing make money?" At the table behind him was Song Haoxuan, the youngest son of the Song family, who owned the town's funeral clothing store. Song Haoxuan replied weakly, "At least it makes more money than studying. Studying only brings in money, not money out."
Yang Xiao suddenly felt that this made a lot of sense. If one only studies to gain something, then when will he be able to earn enough money to pay back Uncle Zhou?
So she didn't even look at the final exam, packed up her desk and went back to Zhou's house.
As soon as Yang Xiao entered the room, she put down her schoolbag and found Uncle Zhou. She pulled him aside and said, "Uncle Zhou, I haven't made any money from studying so far. I've been spending money all the time. Song Haoxuan said he won't be coming next semester and wants to go to the city to learn hairdressing and make money. I want to go too."
When Zhou Daye heard this, he immediately looked at Yang Xiao angrily, spatula in hand, and was so anxious that he couldn't speak for a moment, his face flushed and his neck thick. Yang Xiao patted him on the back, brought him a bowl of boiled water, and told him to speak slowly.
Zhou Dashe threw the spatula aside, grabbed Yang Xiao's sleeve, found the cell phone in the box under the bed, and called Zhou Qi.
After two seconds of beeping, Zhou Qi picked up the phone and tentatively called out, "Dad?" Zhou Daye rarely called Zhou Qi.
Zhou Daye was still in shock and pointed at the phone, asking Yang Xiao to speak for herself. Yang Xiao called out "Zhou Qi" and then began to say that she wanted to quit school and go to the city to work and earn money.
Zhou Qi was also annoyed after hearing this, and answered her in a somewhat aggressive tone: "What did I tell you before I left? Study hard? I've only been here for a few days? Are you an adult now? Who would dare to hire you for a job? Do you want your dad to sew those insoles in vain?"
Yang Xiao didn't say anything, so Zhou Daye hung up the phone.
Zhou Qi, hearing the beeping, realized he had spoken too harshly and quickly called back. Only Zhou Daye spoke slowly, saying, "Yang...Xiao...ran...out, I...will go find her..."
Zhou Qi was a little worried. After hanging up the phone, he walked around in the kitchen, not knowing who to contact. He simply took off his apron, lifted the curtain, and went to the front desk. He found the boss hiding behind the order machine, asked for two days off, and immediately took a taxi to the train station.
When Zhou Qi rushed home, he saw Yang Xiao sitting alone on a stone bench, and Zhou Daye curled up under a yellow orchid tree smoking.
Zhou Qi ignored Yang Xiao, reached out to pull Zhou Daye up, put out his cigarette, and helped him to the inner room.
When he came out and walked up to Yang Xiao, she also kept her head down and didn't say a word.
"Yang Xiao, look up and let's talk."
Yang Xiao raised her head slightly and looked at him.
The anger in Zhou Qi's chest suddenly disappeared. That's right, why should he be angry with a child?
So he sat on the stone bench on the other side, knocked on the stone table and said, "Tell me what you think."
Seeing him exhausted and his usually neat hair now sticking up in tufts, Yang Xiao said with some guilt, "I was adopted by Uncle Zhou. I want to earn money to support Uncle Zhou as soon as possible. I don't want to keep him at a disadvantage."
Yang Xiao made a lot of small movements with her fingers, and seemed a little nervous about chatting with him, and kept rubbing the edge of her pants.
Zhou Qi understood and gave her a soothing look. Then he took out his cell phone, opened the calculator, and calculated it for her one by one.
"I'm currently an undergraduate student with a scholarship that covers my tuition fees. I'm doing odd jobs for living expenses and even have some money saved up."
"My dad used to work in the mines and bought pension insurance. He now gets three to four thousand a month. If we really didn't have the ability to adopt you, he wouldn't have taken on this job in the first place."
"I know you're always worried about not being able to pay us back for spending our money, and you always feel guilty about it, but Yang Xiao, you're just a child."
"We adults save money not to make you, a child, feel guilty, but so that you can go to school with peace of mind and pursue your dreams."
"Do you like going to school, Yang Xiao?"
Yang Xiao nodded, and the feeling in her heart was a hundred times sweeter than those two fresh lychees.
Zhou Qi also nodded and continued, "Studying medicine is my dream. I didn't give up because I was afraid that my father couldn't afford me. I chose to work hard with him and try to reduce his burden. Yang Xiao, do you understand what I mean? Don't give up what you want because of guilt and insecurity. Don't be a coward."
Yang Xiao understood.
Zhou Qi didn't want her to compromise because of her predicament and choose to become a sensible "adult". She was eager to repay Zhou Daye's feelings, and Zhou Qi knew it.
Zhou Qi also knew that Zhou Daye and he wanted Yang Xiao to do what she liked and not be constrained by life.
Zhou Qi left in a hurry again that night. Before leaving, he bought a bunch of fresh lychees for Yang Xiao and placed them on the table in the main hall.
Yang Xiao immediately understood Zhou Qi's intentions and, using the lychees, told her: express what you want and what you like, and be a hardworking "ambitious person." So, early the next morning, Yang Xiao rushed to school to check her final grades. Then, excitedly, she ran back to tell Zhou Daye that she had once again taken first place. She then used a long bamboo tube to knock down several branches of yellow gelan orchids, found needle and thread to string them into flower arrangements, and took a textbook and a bamboo basket to town to sell.
Ever since Zhou Daye heard that Yang Xiao was going to continue to go to school, he smoked less and drank less, and was happy for Yang Xiao from the bottom of his heart.
The summer vacation passed by like this. The yellow orchid became more and more luxuriant but the flowers became fewer.
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