Chapter 11

"What's the point of letting girls study? Aren't they studying for others?" Uncle Jiang squatted on the edge of the field, took a puff of cigarette while looking at Jiang's father who was cutting rice in the field: "Girl is already fifteen years old, and she can get married in a few years. Look at those families who love the country and the party, their daughters go out to work early and can earn a lot of money a year. They have built houses. Look at your family..."

He pointed to the small white building at the entrance of the village not far behind him, the only low and gray tile house: "In this area, your house is the shortest."

What he meant was, look, there are buildings all around, but yours is still an old gray house.

Uncle Jiang's proudest thing in his life is that he built two-story houses for his two sons by himself. He was full of confidence when he spoke, and his tone was full of pride and satisfaction.

Speaking of this, Father Jiang was also a little ashamed. In the countryside, a house is the confidence and root.

He sighed and said, "What's the use of just having a house? As long as the three brothers and sisters are successful, I am happy without a house!"

Father Jiang gave birth to two sons and one daughter, and the youngest was Jiang Liu.

Jiang Liu was still a little dizzy, looking at the familiar scene in front of her vaguely, thinking that she was dreaming, and dreaming about her childhood. Maybe

the memory of her childhood was too deep. Even though her family had built a three-story building later, every time she dreamed, the home in her dream was still that low old house with gray walls.

The big house she built herself had one floor for her eldest brother, one floor for her second brother, and one floor for her parents. On the second day after her wedding, her small room was occupied by her sister-in-law and her nephews and nieces, who couldn't even wait for her to return home in three days.

She once saw a sentence on the Internet that said that a woman has no home after getting married.

She didn't agree with that sentence at first, but on the day she returned home and saw her sister-in-law and nephews and nieces lying on her bed, she suddenly understood that sentence.

"What's the point of you being happy? The girl has to be happy. Jiang Song is already 19 years old. He didn't pass the exam this year, but he will have to get married in two years. Jiang Bai is also 17 years old. He will have to get married in two years. When the girl sees such a house, who would be willing to marry them?" Uncle Jiang said realistically: "Let Xiao Xiao go out to work and earn money for a few years. Even if he earns one thousand a year, it will be more than five thousand in five years. You and your wife can earn a little more and build the house by then. ", whether Jiang Song repeats his studies or works, he needs a house, and when Jiang Bai graduates from university, they can get married. Now there are three of us studying, and only two of you make money. I tell you, don't delay Jiang Song and Jiang Bai when the time comes!"

Thinking of letting his son repeat his studies for a year, Jiang's father was silent for a while, then waved his hand and said, "Don't say anything. It's definitely not okay to let Xiao Xiao drop out of school. At worst, I'll be a little tired and find something else to do."

Uncle Jiang sneered.

Jiang's mother, who had been concentrating on harvesting rice without saying a word, suddenly stood up and asked Jiang Wu, who had

just woken up and was lying under the shade of a tree, "Wu Wu, what do you say?" Jiang Wu had just woken up and was still a little confused. She instinctively retorted, "I don't want to work, I want to study."

Jiang Wu would never have said such words in the past. She was used to being obedient and never knew how to fight for it. Even though she was unwilling to drop out of school, after being beaten and scolded by her mother with both soft and hard methods, and after she cried and begged with soft words several times, she could no longer say anything to refute.

Jiang's mother was used to her daughter's obedience. When she heard Jiang Xiao's rebuttal, she was furious and frowned immediately: "Study? We want you to study, but where is the money? Where does the money come from? Girls your age have already brought tens of thousands of yuan to the family. You study all year round, not only do you not make money, but you also spend money!"

Jiang's mother has always had a hot temper and speaks like a machine gun.

If it were the former Jiang Xiao, she would have been so guilty and panicked that she didn't know what to do.

But she is no longer the Jiang Xi who grew up under criticism and oppression and was too cowardly to resist. She said, "Now it is nine years of compulsory education. I am only in the third grade of junior high school. It doesn't cost money to go to school."

Jiang's mother didn't expect Jiang Xi to dare to talk back. She was furious like a burning gunpowder barrel and said, "Do you spend money on food? Do you spend money on drinks? Do you spend money on clothes? If you are so capable, don't ask me for money to study!"

Jiang Xi smiled, looked down at his sleeves and trousers that were obviously too short, and said, "The clothes I have worn since I was a child are all the clothes of my cousins. Don't you want to wear something too small? It doesn't cost money in the first place, does it? "

She suddenly thought of something that happened in high school. She wore the same pair of pants from junior high school to high school. She was thin, but she grew fast. The pants that fit her in junior high school had become three-quarter pants in high school, and the sleeves of her clothes were also too short. It was winter, and her high school deskmate noticed it. He compared it with his own normal-sized clothes and deliberately asked her: "Jiang Xi, why are all your clothes hanging?"

Hanging is the local dialect of Jiang Xi's hometown, which means that the clothes are too small and the sleeves and legs are too short, hanging on the top.

Jiang Xi was just telling the truth, but Jiang's mother was so angry that she rushed over to hit Jiang Xi, and Jiang Xi got up and ran.

Jiang's mother couldn't catch up with her, so she waved a sickle and shouted from behind: "You still dare to run? Unless you die outside today, I will peel off your skin when I get back!"

The air seemed to be distorted by the scorching sun in summer.

Jiang Xi was barefoot, her feet were covered with mud, and the ground was hot from the scorching sun.

She must have had a heat stroke, her head was dizzy, and the bends of her arms were full of red sand.

This is their folk remedy for dealing with heat stroke. If anyone has a heat stroke, just scrape out the sand from the neck, eyebrows, and bends of the arms.

Jiang Xi didn't know whether this was an illusion or reality. She only knew that if she didn't take a rest, she would faint on the road.

She sat under the shade of a tree by the pond to wash her feet and rest at the same time.

The leech on her leg was firmly attached to her leg, as if it was going to drill into her flesh, and she couldn't pull it off. After

finally pulling it off, blood was flowing.

The leeches in the pond swam seductively and leisurely, and in the cracks between the rocks by the pond, the lobsters waved their lobster claws.

She had nothing to do, so she found a snail, smashed it, tied the snail meat with straw, and fished for lobsters by the pond.

People passing by on the road shook their heads when they saw that she, a grown-up girl, did not help her parents with work, but was leisurely sitting under the shade of a tree fishing for lobsters. "She is so ignorant. She is already such a grown-up girl, but she doesn't know how to help her parents with work. She is still fishing for lobsters. She is really studying for nothing."

"Isn't it a waste of money to let a girl study?"

"What can we do if her father is willing to let her study? Big Guy is just a brain blockage. He wants to support three college students!" The women washing by the pond chatted and laughed.

Big Guy is the nickname of Jiang's father. He is 1.84 meters tall and the tallest in the village.

Rural people don't have any implicit thoughts about saying bad things about others behind their backs. They always say it to others' faces, and they want to make sarcastic comments as loudly as possible, laugh as loudly as possible, and be happier as more people agree with them.

This is their general idea, and they also do so.

Jiang Qi remembers that among her generation of girls, only three went to college: one was the daughter of the brigade secretary, one was the daughter of an elderly woman in the family, and the other was her.

She dropped out of school and repeated her studies before she was admitted to college.

Seeing that she didn't say anything, the aunt who was washing clothes started to lecture her, saying, "Little Liuzi, your parents worked so hard to support your education. Now they are harvesting rice in the field, and you don't even want to help?"

Another aunt who was washing vegetables said, "My third daughter has been able to harvest two acres of rice since she was twelve years old. She works better than her brother. If my third daughter was so lazy, I would have broken her legs long ago."

"Girl is so lazy, no one will want her when she gets married in the future."

"Wasn't she beaten to death by her in-laws?"

Then a group of women talked about the women's lazy wives and the in-laws who beat them after they got married.

Jiang Liu was still fishing for lobsters.

At this time, no one eats lobsters. Lobsters can be seen everywhere. There are so many that you can pick up a basketful of them from the ditch. These lobsters are also very stupid. They are always caught with snail meat.

After a while, Jiang Xi caught a small pile of them. She picked two large lotus leaves from the lotus pond and took them home.

The house is brighter than the gray and dusty appearance in her memory. There is a cement floor and a newly built rice warehouse. On the white lime wall, someone wrote with a brush the neat and childish words "Fire prevention, there are people to rescue" and "Forest fire prevention, everyone is responsible". She still remembers that she wrote these when she was practicing calligraphy as a child. Because she wrote on the white wall, her mother beat her.

In addition to the ceiling fan in the living room, there was also a table fan. The metal frame on the fan was gone, and the blades were exposed.

She turned on the fan and fanned it while looking at the home in her memory. She could see every detail of the home clearly, just as she remembered it, as clear as if it was not a dream.

On the coffee table in the main hall of the living room, an old-fashioned pendulum clock was ticking, indicating that it was already past ten in the morning. On the wall next to the table clock, there was a palm-sized calendar. She walked closer to see the time on it, which read July 20, 1995.

In 1995, her elder brother had just finished the college entrance examination. His results were not satisfactory, so he did not want to come back and stayed in the city to work. Her father wanted her elder brother to repeat his studies, but he refused to do so and went to work.

Her second elder brother would be in his third year of high school in the second half of the year and would not have a summer vacation. She had just finished her high school entrance examination, so she dropped out of school and went out to work.

Her mother had put a lot of effort into getting her to work, including playing the big stick and red dates, singing, reciting, and acting.

Knowing that she could not convince Jiang's father and grandfather, Jiang's mother kept telling her how difficult the family was, how it was not easy for her, Jiang's father and grandfather to send three children to school, and how they were being drained of blood. She also told her how capable other people's daughters were and how much money they had earned for the family. They were so good to her and had let her study until she was fifteen years old. Then they would fight with her and say cold words to her at home, and then they would use the policy of playing the victim towards her, sighing, "If the family really had no money, I would never have let you go to work!"

Jiang Qing started school early and was only fifteen years old. Because she was born in winter, she was only thirteen years old. She really loved her parents, so she could not withstand her mother's soft and hard tactics.

It just so happened that one of her elementary school classmates came to her house every day and said that she was working as a waitress outside, earning at least 200-300 yuan a month, and those with strong working ability could earn 500-600 yuan a month. She said she was willing to take her to work with her.

When her mother heard this, she coveted the huge salary of 200-300 yuan a month, and begged her grandfather to take her elementary school classmate to work, and asked him to take good care of her.

She didn't think about it. Now the monthly salary of workers in the city is only 800-100 yuan. What kind of waitress can have such a high salary, earning 200-300 yuan a month, or even 500-600 yuan.

Jiang's father and grandfather didn't let her go, so Jiang's mother cried and made a fuss at home, dragged Jiang out of the house, and pushed her onto a tricycle.

She was so cowardly at that time that she didn't know how to resist at all. She was so frightened and confused that she was taken by her elementary school classmates to be a "waitress".

The waitress was a real waitress, just a waitress in a nightclub.

In such an environment, no matter how good a girl is, it is easy to be influenced astray over time.

Jiang Xi was young and ignorant at that time. Seeing such a scene, she instinctively felt scared and felt that something was wrong, so she sneaked back when those people were not paying attention.

It was the first time she went away from home. She had less than two yuan on her and couldn't afford a train ticket, so she walked all the way home along the railway track. It was a road of several hundred kilometers, asking people and begging all the way. I don't know how many times I got lost in the middle, and some people even deliberately gave you the wrong way. When I got home, I was no different from a beggar.

Even now when she thinks back on it, Jiang Xi still feels scared. She was so young at that time and didn't know anything. She dared to go on the road alone. She was really lucky to be able to go home. Even

if it was another time, Jiang Xi would not dare to walk the same road again.

It was really God's blessing that the little girl in her teens, alone, was not sold by a trafficker.

Thinking of that dark day, Jiang Xi felt sad.

She pushed open the door of her room.

The door was made of wood, and it made a creaking sound like in a horror movie when touched.

The room was separated from the kitchen, and because it faced north, only a little sunlight could shine in from the narrow window in the evening.

Her memory of her childhood room was nothing but darkness, as if it had never been lit up, and the light was very dim.

The only window was covered with a transparent plastic bag, emitting a faint light.

In front of the window was a wooden table made of bricks. It was called a wooden table, but it was actually just an old board. To keep it balanced, there were piles of books on both sides, all of which were hers.

She flipped through the books on the desk. Almost every book was filled with notes. The homework books and notebooks on the desk were also full.

The dusty memories seemed to be opened along with the notebooks. The knowledge that she had learned but forgotten gradually came back to her mind as she flipped through the notebooks, even clearer than before, and she understood it more deeply.

She smiled as she read.

She had been looking at it for a long time without realizing it, until she was suddenly slapped on the back of her head, causing her entire upper body to crash against the table. Then, her ponytail was grabbed and slapped all over her face, while she was being beaten and scolded: "I thought you were dead outside, and you dared to come back? Can't you run? If you run again, I'll see where you can run! You little thing, you dare to bump into me, I worked so hard to support you to study, but you have read so much that you have gone to waste! You still want to study?"

Then she slapped her several times.

Jiang Xi was stunned.

Jiang's mother worked on the farm all year round and was very strong. She grabbed Jiang Xi's hair and held her like a little chicken, and she couldn't get rid of it.

She originally thought she was dreaming, but she didn't expect the dream to be so real, and the pain and humiliation were so clear.

She was no longer the little girl who was submissive and didn't dare to fight back when she was beaten. Even though she was so thin that she had nowhere to escape, the suppressed anger and humiliation in her heart made her rush into Jiang Ma's arms while she was holding her braided hand, knocking Jiang Ma onto the table and grabbing the sickle that Jiang Ma had placed on her desk.

Jiang's mother was hurt by her collision, and her hands loosened up unconsciously, but she didn't completely let go. She slid from the roots of her hair to the middle of her hair, still holding it tightly. Seeing that she dared to take a knife, she was furious: "You dare to take a knife again? You are getting more and more courageous. What do you want to do with the knife? Do you still want to kill me?"

Jiang Xi took the sickle and slashed at her hair from bottom to top. The black hair was cut off along the scalp by Jiang's mother's force.