Chapter 38 38 [Two-in-one]
Jiang Bai originally wanted to walk to the bus station. It didn’t matter to Jiang Bai whether he went back an hour earlier or later. He would be back the next day anyway.
Senior year students had evening self-study on Sunday night, and there was no holiday on Monday.
But Jiang Xi didn’t want to walk, so he stopped a small tricycle on the side of the road.
The small tricycles in the city were really small. Jiang Bai felt that he couldn’t even stretch his legs straight when sitting in it.
When he was about to pay, Jiang Xi paid first. On
the first day of school, it cost one yuan to go from the bus station to No. 1 Middle School. Now that school has started, it only costs fifty cents to go from the school to the bus station.
On the way back to town, the fare was 2.5 yuan per person, 5 yuan for two people. This time, Jiang Bai didn't wait for Jiang Xi to pay, and he paid first: "My sister and I."
When Jiang Xi was sitting in the car, she suddenly remembered that two years before she was reborn, she had a chat with her second brother.
It was on the way back from her hometown, and her second brother was driving. It was one of the only two heart-to-heart talks she and her second brother had.
Because before, she asked Jiang Bai many times whether he regretted not choosing to repeat his studies and not taking the college entrance examination. He said no regrets. Only that time, he was silent for a long time before saying, "It's no use to regret it."
He told her a lot about his high school life, which he had never told anyone before.
He said that when he was in the first year of high school, a boy in his class thought he looked like a girl and called him a beauty with a smile, which offended his scalp. He beat the boy up. He was very fierce and ruthless in fighting. He beat the boy's nose, face and nose. The boy was a relative of the physics teacher. The physics teacher came and beat him up with a bamboo stick and kicked him.
From then on, he had no interest in the physics class of that teacher and fell asleep in class. However, he got the first place in the class on the test, and the physics teacher asked him if he cheated.
Her second brother smiled and said, "Even if I copied, someone had to copy for me, right? All the people who took the exams before and after me were not as good as me. I got the first place in the class. He said I copied. Who should I copy from?" He drove with a cold expression, "I didn't want to study at that time."
Jiang Xi was thinking that in the same high school, when she was bullied by people, her math teacher rescued her from the abyss, while Jiang Bo was pushed into the abyss by his teacher.
Because she was rescued by others, she remembered for many years that she should be kind and willing to lend a helping hand to others.
You don't know what your little kindness will bring to others, just like her math teacher didn't know. If it weren't for her, there would be no Jiang Xi later, and it is possible that there would be no Jiang Xi in the world.
He said that he didn’t eat enough in high school, and his head was dizzy because of hunger. He couldn’t concentrate in class. For a while, he was only thinking about going out to work to earn money. He didn’t have any interest in studying after he finished high school.
After graduating from high school, he didn’t have the slightest thought of repeating his studies. He just wanted to go out to work and make money.
He said that his nutrition was not enough, and he grew too fast. He had growth pains, so painful that his legs cramped. He was often woken up by pain at night and couldn’t sleep well at night. He had no energy during the day, and his grades dropped very quickly.
He smiled and said, "I know it's not easy to study. My family spent a lot of money, so I had to study. I really relied on my willpower to support myself at that time." He
didn't know anything about nutrition at that time. During his adolescence, he only ate rice with salted vegetables all day, thinking that as long as he ate enough rice, he wouldn't be hungry.
But he was still hungry.
He said that at that time, it was thanks to Tong Jingang who brought him some saltwater duck or other food every week. He said that he chewed up the bones of the saltwater duck and swallowed them.
Perhaps it was because he saw Jiang Bo's wolf-like eating style and knew that he had leg cramps due to growth pain, Tong Jingang didn't say anything, but often brought him food, and sometimes took Jiang Bo home for dinner.
She had also heard these things from Tong Jingang, but he didn't mention that he brought food to Jiang Bai, but only said that Jiang Bai had long pains in high school.
At that time, Tong Jingang didn't go home every New Year, and stayed at Jiang's house for more than ten days. Later, when Jiang Bai started working, Tong Jingang lived at Jiang Bai's house all day, eating and drinking at Jiang Bai's house.
Jiang's mother scolded them for being bad friends, two bachelors mixed together, one didn't get married, and the other didn't get married either, and there was no need to worry.
For many years before, he had never told anyone about these things, only Tong Jingang knew.
Later, there was another her. After
listening to this, Jiang Xi was silent for a while and said, "I thought you weren't hungry. I thought I was the only one who was dizzy and hungry every day."
She said it with a smile at the time.
The brother and sister looked at each other in the rearview mirror and both smiled.
Because in high school, Jiang Bai's monthly meal ticket was 50 kilograms, and Jiang's mother only gave her 30 kilograms.
She knew too well what it felt like to be hungry, and how it felt to be dizzy and unable to concentrate in class.
The car took two hours to reach Shuibu Town. It was not yet noon when they arrived. They were very lucky. They just caught up with the market and there was a boat to go home. The two hurried to the river bank and met Jiang's father on the boat.
Father Jiang came here to sell lobsters. There are not many lobsters left now. It is estimated that in a few days, there will be no more lobsters. And because he always comes here to sell lobsters, others see that this thing everywhere can actually be sold for money, so they also catch small lobsters to sell. However, they are not as delicious as he cooks, nor as good as he sells, but they sell cheaper, which more or less affects his business.
He mainly sells in neighboring cities, and only comes to Shuibu Town during the market. At this time, there are the most people. No matter how many lobsters there are, they can always be sold out with more people.
Jiang's father was surprised to see Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi coming back: "Baizi, Xixi, why did you come back at this time? Is it because you don't have enough money?"
Jiang Bai hadn't said anything yet, Jiang Xi said: "Of course it's not enough. Mom gave my second brother 800 yuan in total, and he spent more than 700 yuan on tuition. My second brother also has to pay for class fees, notebooks, pens, and tutoring books, and so on. How can the money be enough? I went to my second brother's dormitory to find him that day, and I saw that the hole in his trousers was so big that I could put a leg in. I thought there were three big holes in his trousers."
Of course, this was false. Jiang Bai's dormitory was a boy's area, and girls were not allowed to go there.
But what she said was true.
She sighed heavily, "My second brother is growing up, and he only eats dry rice and salted vegetables all day long. He doesn't get enough nutrition, and he has growth pains. His legs cramp every day, but he has to endure it. I heard from my second brother that he wakes up every night because of the pain, and can't fall asleep again after waking up. He can't sleep at night, has no energy during the day, and falls behind in his studies."
"My second brother said that he feels dizzy every day because of hunger."
Jiang's father didn't know what growing pains were at first, but after hearing Jiang Xi's description, he immediately understood.
As the tallest man in the village, and having grown up in the 1960s and 1970s when food was scarce, he knew all too well what growing pains were.
He asked Jiang Bai in surprise: "Didn't I give you 200 kilograms of meal tickets? Why is it not enough?"
Jiang Xi said: "What's 200 kilograms of meal tickets? Cauliflower costs 2 taels of meal tickets per spoon. Even if my second brother doesn't eat any other vegetables and only eats cauliflower, he needs at least 6 taels of meal tickets a day. With his height, he should eat at least 5 taels of rice a meal, right? This doesn't even include meat. The canteen's braised pork costs 8 taels per serving. Just eating rice and cauliflower costs at least 2 kilograms and 1 tael of food tickets a day. You still need food tickets to boil water every day. You can calculate it yourself. 2 kilograms and 2 taels a day, one semester is 120 days, is 200 kilograms of food tickets enough?"
"My second brother worries about not having enough food coupons and that I will starve to death. He didn't have to come back for the two-day National Day holiday, but he was afraid that by the end of the semester, we would both be starving to death. He came back to carry food for me."
Jiang's father was so distressed that he looked at Jiang Bo in annoyance: "How can you be hungry like this? Why don't you tell us every time you come back?"
Jiang Bo said coldly: "What's the point of telling you?"
Jiang's father was stunned and fell silent.
For many years before, he and Jiang's mother worked in other places and didn't care much about Jiang Bo and Jiang Xiao. Later, Jiang Bo said that Jiang's father and Jiang's mother were not his parents, but Jiang Song's parents. He refused to call them parents and didn't recognize him and Jiang's mother. Jiang's father and Jiang's mother took him out.
But they were so busy at work, the work on the construction site was heavy, they were exhausted every day, and they didn't even want to move when they got home. Instead, the young and sensible Jiang Bai cooked meals for them at home.
They said that they took Jiang Bai to their side, but it was Jiang Bai who took care of them.
Jiang's father said: "Just tell me, I can always send you food."
There was no shortage of food at home.
Jiang Bai didn't want to talk to Jiang's father at all, just sat on the edge of the boat coldly, looking across the lake and looking into the distance.
Jiang's father sighed and stuffed the two hundred yuan of private money he had secretly saved during this period into Jiang Bai's pocket.
He didn't hide his private money before. The family owed so much foreign debt. If anyone in the family hid their private money, they would have no way to live. All the money in the family was with Jiang Ma and was managed by her.
It was during this summer vacation when he sold lobsters. He wanted his daughter to go to school, so he saved a little every day, a little every day, and saved this money quietly. He
gave the money he saved before to Jiang Xi, and this time he gave it to Jiang Bai. His pockets were clean again.
He said, "Don't be too stingy. Although we don't have anything else at home, we still have enough food. Tell me how many food coupons you need and I'll send them to the car tomorrow."
Jiang Xi said quickly, "Of course the more the better. Not only does my second brother need to eat, I also need to eat!" She deliberately pretended to be in tears, twisting her fingers, and looked very sad: "I don't eat enough, and I don't grow taller. My classmates call me a shorty."
In fact, she has grown a lot taller than she did during the summer vacation. The most obvious change is that she rolls up her trouser legs.
Her cousin is eight years older than her and has the height of an adult. Now the old clothes she wears are much bigger for her, especially the trousers. She rolls them up in circles and sews them up with a needle. She rolls them up in circles when they are longer, and then rolls them up again when they are longer.
But with her height, when the whole family, including Jiang's mother, are tall, she is really a small thing that has not developed. The reason
why there is such a big difference in height between her and her classmates is that in this era, students in their place generally enter school late, but she entered school early and was born in a late month. The age difference between her and her classmates is at least two or three years, and the most is four years. It is also in the stage of growth and development when the height explodes. The height difference between people who have just started to develop and those who have already developed is particularly obvious.
For example, she and He Xiaofang.
This is also the reason why the serving girl was so depressed when she was called auntie before. In this era, high school graduates who are 20 or 21 years old are not uncommon, and 19 years old are considered young. She is almost called auntie by peers who are not much younger than her.
The people on the boat they were on were basically all from their Linhe Brigade. Some of them were from different villages, but they all knew each other. When they saw Jiang's father talking to a tall boy like him, they all asked with a smile: "Big guy, is this your son? The eldest or the second oldest?"
"The second oldest." Jiang's father replied with a smile.
"As soon as I saw his height, I knew it must be your son. He's so tall. What did you eat to grow up? How come you're all so tall?" They looked at Jiang Xiao again: "Is this your little daughter? How old is she? Is she in junior high school?"
They thought Jiang Xiao was in junior high school in the town and was home for the holidays.
Jiang's father smiled and said, "They just started high school in the second half of the year."
The person who was talking praised him, "It's really not easy for you. All three children are in high school. The expenses for this year must be very high."
There were many people on the boat. The cabin was where the fish were kept. People generally did not go into the cabin. They sat on the sides of the boat or at the bow and stern.
Hearing their chat, many people nodded and agreed, "It's really not easy for you, big guy. You support three children to go to school. The high school tuition is expensive. The tuition alone is estimated to be several thousand a year."
Nowadays, many families don't have that much income in a whole year.
"That's right." They then said to Jiang Bo and Jiang Xi, "Your father has had a hard life. You must be filial to your parents in the future." They
said this mainly to Jiang Xi, because they felt that there was no need to let a girl read so many books. Since Jiang's parents were willing to let their girl read so many books, their daughter should reciprocate the favor double.
"But you must never forget the kindness of your parents."
"Our family was in such difficulty back then, and we owed so much debt."
"Now it's better, the children have grown up. In two years, the children will be earning money. The three children will earn money together, and we will be able to buy back the building in a few years."
Speaking of the building, they couldn't help but think of the gossip about Jiangjia Village that had been circulating in the village recently, and asked Jiang's father: "I heard that there are girls in your village doing that thing outside, is that true?"
The person who spoke emphasized the pronunciation of "that thing", and the others immediately understood.
"I heard that she came back to take people from the same village with her. Is that true?"
"That woman harmed people. I heard that she not only took people from her own village, but also the girls from her mother's village."
Jiang's father said quickly: "No, she didn't take anyone away. She wanted to come back to harm people, but was found out. She didn't take anyone away."
He didn't say that Jiang Yueqin wanted to take his daughter with her. He only clarified that there was only this one harming person in their village, and she was found out and didn't succeed in harming anyone.
"That's good, otherwise people's lives would be ruined."
"That's right, how can there be a good person in that place?"
They didn't doubt what Jiang's father said, because they heard that a woman in Jiangjia Village did that kind of thing outside, and came back to harm someone but was exposed, and failed to harm anyone. The women in their village who were married to Jiangjia Village hurried back to their parents' homes to report the news, asking them to keep a close eye on their girls and never let them be taken away by people who don't know the details. The elders
in the village are still more reliable. After all, the aunts and aunts are old and can only work in the factory, and it is impossible for them to go to such a place.
A group of uncles and aunts chatted, and soon it was time to set sail. When they got home, Jiang Xi walked past the door without entering the house and went straight to the mountain.
Father Jiang called her: "Xingxi, where are you going?"
"I'm going to the mountain."
At some point, her expression became cold, and she turned her head to look at Father Jiang with an expression that could even be described as indifferent: "Don't tell my mother that I'm back, unless you just want to see me get beaten."
Father Jiang stammered and said nothing.
He felt that it was impossible for a daughter to return home without telling her mother.
Jiang Xingxi went up the mountain without looking back.
Grandpa Jiang was lying alone on a recliner on the mountain, with a radio beside him, listening to a storyteller telling the story of Yue Fei.
Seeing Jiang Xiao, he did not stand up, but just swayed slowly, his eyes all on Jiang Xiao, with a happy smile on his face: "Xing Xiao, are you back?"
Jiang Xiao went into the hut, took out a bamboo chair, sat next to Grandpa Jiang, took out the "Reader" from her schoolbag and handed it to Grandpa Jiang: "Grandpa, I won the first prize in this composition competition and it was also published in the magazine." She flipped out her She showed Grandpa Jiang the page where the work was published and said, "Grandpa, look, this is what I wrote. It's the top magazine in the country. It's so hard to be published!"
Grandpa Jiang smiled so hard that his mouth was almost stretched to his ears. He said excitedly, "Great! Great! My eldest granddaughter has made it!" He didn't even dare to touch the magazine, for fear that his rough hands would damage the book that published his granddaughter's composition.
He had attended a literacy class and knew a few words. He approached the Reader to see clearly what his granddaughter had written, and then pointed at the word "lemon" and asked, "Lemon...what is it?"
"Lemon! My pen name! Isn't my name Jiang Lemon? You see the people here all use pen names, so I also gave myself a pen name, Lemon. It's my name, and it's nice to hear and easy to remember."
Grandpa Jiang smiled and nodded in agreement, "It sounds nice. My granddaughter has a really nice name."
"Grandpa, I also won a prize of one thousand yuan!" Jiang Qing boasted proudly, and then said: "By the way, Grandpa, this essay competition is held in Shanghai. The Shanghai government has also cooperated with the local hospital. In addition to the prize of one thousand yuan, the winner of the first prize will also have a free physical examination and can bring a family member."
She pulled Grandpa Jiang's arm with some concern: "This competition was recommended by our school, but we have to go to the competition ourselves to receive the prize. "I can't go there by myself. The teachers at school don't have time to take us. But the farthest place I've been to is the neighboring city. I've never taken a train. I don't dare to go alone for fear of meeting bad people on the road."
She looked at Grandpa Jiang pitifully: "Grandpa, can you accompany me to Shanghai?"
Grandpa Jiang hesitated: "Then can you ask your dad to accompany you?"
He had never been far away, never taken a train, and he had never even been to the neighboring city. He only dug wild lotus roots on the big river beach outside the city.
Jiang Xi hung his head and said sadly, "If Dad knew that I won a prize of one thousand yuan, he would definitely tell Mom. Then I would be left with no money, and Mom would definitely not give me the money to pay for my tuition. I wanted to save this money for next semester's tuition."
"I was in a hurry for next semester's tuition, and I rushed to participate when I saw the school announced this competition."
Grandpa Jiang immediately felt extremely guilty. Before Jiang Xi started school, he went to the brigade to ask several times if they could give him his first half salary in advance so that he could use it to pay his granddaughter's tuition. But the people in the brigade said that the salary was due at the end of the year, and they couldn't make the decision, so they couldn't give it to him.
"Okay, okay, Grandpa will go with you."
Jiang Xi smiled happily: "Thank you, Grandpa. I knew that you are the best to me. I will go pack my things now." She immediately went back to the house and packed clothes for Grandpa. Grandpa Jiang was surprised and sat up straight in the recliner: "What? Leaving now?" "
Yes, I only have three days off in total. Most of the day has passed. We will set off now and go to Wucheng to take the afternoon bus to Shanghai. We will arrive in Shanghai at about eight or nine o'clock in the evening. We will go to receive the award tomorrow morning. The Shanghai Municipal Government has also arranged a free physical examination for us." Jiang Xi pouted aggrievedly, "I always feel hungry and I am not growing taller. My legs often hurt recently. The teacher said it was due to malnutrition. Liang, let me get a check-up. The teacher said that because there are too many students suffering from malnutrition, the Shanghai Municipal Government arranged this check-up as a reward. They said that they would check what nutrients are lacking and give out some nutritional supplements to make up for what is lacking.
Jiang Xi pretended to be indifferent and said, "Actually, there is no need for a check-up. If you eat well, you will have no problems."
Grandpa Jiang immediately Ma disagreed and said, "Why don't you have a physical examination? Why do you have leg pain when you are fine? Come on, go,
go check it out, let's go check it out now." Grandpa Jiang hurried back to the house, packed two sets of clothes again, took a canning cup filled with boiled water, a bag of hot pot to eat on the way, locked the door and said, "Let's go down the mountain, I'll ask your father to come up and show me Tianshan for two days."
Jiang Qing reminded Grandpa Jiang, "Grandpa, don't tell my mother. , she didn't let me go to school before, I ran away secretly, I was afraid that she would know I came back and would not let me go to school. "
Grandpa Jiang's heart ached when he heard this, he nodded solemnly and said: "Don't worry, don't go with me, you go to the ferry first and wait for me, I will ask your uncle to come up and help me patrol the two Tianshan Mountains."
Although he was assigned to the second family and raised by the second family, such a small thing can still be done by the first family.
There is more than one way to get to the ferry from the village, you can also go through the road of the first and second houses, directly to the hydropower station, to the ferry.
At this time, there was no boat to the town, Jiang Xi waited at the ferry for a while, and Grandpa Jiang came. The two took the ferry to Tanshan, and took a tricycle from Tanshan to Shuibu Town.
Tanshan has abundant coal resources, so there are a lot of vehicles coming and going every day.
At this time, there are no minibuses from Shuibu Town to Wucheng. To go to Wucheng, you can only take the bus tomorrow morning, but there is still a bus to the neighboring city.
Jiang Xi had to give up taking the bus and transfer to the neighboring city to take the train.
When Jiang Xi arrived at the neighboring city, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.
Jiang Xi directly called a tricycle and transferred from the Ximen bus station to the neighboring city train station. Because there was a one-day holiday for National Day, there were many more people at the station than usual. Jiang Xi was originally worried that there was no train to Shanghai, but she didn't expect that there was another train to Shanghai at 5:10 in the evening, so she quickly bought a ticket.
Grandpa Jiang had never been away from home before, so he held Jiang Wu's wrist tightly the whole way and kept telling Jiang Wu: "You have to stick to Grandpa closely, okay? Don't let go, don't let go, there are a lot of bad people outside."
Jiang Wu nodded repeatedly: "Yeah, yeah, I know, I will hold on to Grandpa closely, and I will definitely be a good Grandpa."
In fact, Grandpa Jiang was also unsure and very nervous. He didn't even know where to buy the tickets. Jiang Wu took care of everything for him. But he still had to pretend to be calm and looked around like he was patrolling the mountains, looking at the people around him, looking at the surrounding environment, looking at the train that the educated youth mentioned, and looking at such a large train station.
Seeing that there was still time, Jiang Xiao took Grandpa Jiang to have dinner. Grandpa Jiang was still unwilling and wanted to eat boiled hot pot.
Jiang Xiao said, "The organizer will reimburse our travel expenses, meals, and accommodation. Just have the ticket." She shook the train ticket in her hand, "But there is a limit on the amount of meals. It cannot exceed one yuan a day."
Now two fried dough sticks cost 1 cent, a large meat bun costs only 1 cent, and a bowl of shredded pork noodles costs only 50 cents. One yuan is enough for two bowls of shredded pork noodles.
Jiang Xiao ordered the green vegetable shredded pork noodles.
Grandpa Jiang heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Just order one bowl. You eat noodles and I'll eat hotpot." He said, "I don't like noodles. They're so soft and so delicious. Hotpot is still delicious. It's filling. One bowl of hotpot is equivalent to two bowls of rice."
In fact, Grandpa Jiang's teeth could not bite the dry and hard hotpot at all. All the hotpot he baked was for Jiang Xi to take to school.
Jiang Xi ordered a bowl of noodles and asked the boss to get another bowl. He divided the full bowl of noodles into two portions and gave half of the shredded pork and vegetables to Grandpa Jiang. Grandpa Jiang didn't want it and wanted to take it back. Jiang Xi put the bowl down angrily, picked up the shredded pork in the bowl and was about to throw it into the trash can: "If you don't eat it, then I won't eat it either. Just throw it away!" She threw the shredded pork on the chopsticks away with a snap.
Grandpa Jiang felt so sorry for her that he said quickly, "I'll eat, I'll eat. Hey, girl, why are you so bad-tempered now?"
The noodle shop owner saw her and said
with a smile, "Grandpa, your granddaughter is filial to you!" Grandpa Jiang loved to hear people praising his eldest granddaughter the most. Hearing that, he smiled happily and said, "Yes, yes, my eldest granddaughter has been filial since she was young. When she just learned to walk, she would stuff half of a candy into my mouth. I really feel sorry for her."
In the eyes of Grandpa Jiang, his eldest granddaughter was perfect and there was no other granddaughter like her in the world.
"It's a good thing that your granddaughter is filial to you. You should also listen to your eldest granddaughter. When you are older, you should eat and drink. Only when you are in good health can the younger generations feel at ease, right?" The boss's wife advised the old man.
The old man is so thin and his health does not look good.
"Yes, the boss's wife is right." Grandpa Jiang nodded with a smile.
After dinner, the two got on the train. Grandpa Jiang's eyes never stopped looking, and everything he saw was fresh.
For the first time, he truly felt everything that the educated youth said the big city had.
At night, Grandpa Jiang asked Jiang Xi to close his eyes and sleep for a while. Jiang Xi said that he slept on the boat at noon and was not sleepy, so he let Grandpa Jiang sleep.
Grandpa Jiang was worried and didn't want to sleep, but the train was shaking and he fell asleep before he knew it.
When we arrived in Shanghai, it was already past eleven at night, close to midnight, but the lights outside the Shanghai Railway Station were still bright, and the neon lights on the doorplates of various hotels, guesthouses, and restaurants were flashing.
As soon as Jiang Xi looked up, he saw a huge GG sign across the street from the train station. The lights were shining brightly, and it read:
Key room near the subway, six-story villa-style luxury apartment, four bedrooms and two living rooms, six meters and two meters high, with a 20-square-meter balcony and a 15-square-meter terrace, 70 years of ownership of the water and electricity, special price before delivery, only zero down payment...
(Note ①)