On June 15, 1996, heavy rain fell in Xuxingzhuang, Chengde, Hebei.
Heavy rain collapsed the Xu family's decades-old house. Xu Youwen, an old man with a conservative and stubborn personality, ignored the advice of his wife and granddaughter Xu Ping and insisted on rescuing the bags of wheat in the warehouse. He fell on the slippery mud bricks and fractured his right tibia.
With the help of his son's family who lived in a separate house in the same village, he went to the county hospital for surgery and stayed in the hospital for more than half a month. He just came back from the hospital.
The old house was made of mud bricks. After it collapsed, it was hit by heavy rain for several consecutive days and was no longer worth saving.
The bags of wheat that Old Man Xu had been thinking about so much had already sprouted and taken root under the nourishment of soil and rainwater. Right at the location of the Xu family's warehouse, the dense wheat seedlings had grown wildly for several inches.
The doctor at the county hospital said that the old man's bones are brittle. Although he has a cast on, there is probably no hope for the bones to fully heal. The old man will probably have to spend the rest of his life in bed.
Because of the doctor's discouraging words, Xu Youwen has been in a bad mood since the day he was discharged from the hospital. His eldest son, that unfilial thing, came back in a hurry to take a look, threw down a thousand yuan, and ran away again, leaving his 12-year-old daughter in his hometown without any care.
It was fine before, as it was no big deal for the granddaughter to live with her grandparents. But now, the old couple have to make a living under the care of their second daughter-in-law. It is really unacceptable that the eldest granddaughter Xu Ping has a father and a mother who don't take care of her, and let the uncle and aunt from the next room raise her.
The low pressure in the Xu family has lasted for more than half a month. The three naughty boys from the second house, Xu Xiaomin's family, have been much more obedient recently. They no longer climb trees or go to the river, and they no longer chase chickens and dogs. They are afraid that they will offend their parents during this period and get beaten.
Not to mention Xu Ping, who was living under someone else's roof. She was busy and hardworking, ate little and worked a lot, and was cautious in every move she made, observing the expressions of her second uncle's family, although her second uncle and aunt had always been nice to her.
I am both excited and worried about the future.
What she is looking forward to is that the last time her father came back, he had promised her grandmother that he would pick her up before school started, so that she could stay with her biological parents and go to school in Beijing.
What made her nervous was that her father was a very unreliable person who broke his promises and went back on his words a lot. She couldn't be completely sure whether they would really come to take her to live with them. After all, according to what her father always said, it was not easy to make money in a big city like Beijing, and it was also difficult for them. Even the alimony for her grandparents and her living expenses had not been paid in several years.
"Xu Ping, are you planning to go to the town middle school or the No. 2 middle school in the county? Have you decided?" asked Erxia, a classmate and good friend.
Xu Ping frowned slightly: "I, I should go to Beijing to study in junior high school."
......
July 18, 1996. Today is the day I go to the town primary school to collect my transcript and diploma.
Xu Ping had just walked out of the school gate with her schoolbag on her back and was saying goodbye to her classmate Erxia when she saw her second uncle riding a bicycle from the opposite direction and stopping in front of her.
"Daping, is the school on vacation?" Xu Xiaomin's face was covered with sweat and her hair was half wet, but her face was full of joy. She seemed to have never seen such an expression on her second uncle's face since her grandfather's accident.
"Uncle, we're on vacation." Xu Ping waved goodbye to Erxia, then showed his graduation certificate from his schoolbag to his uncle. "You've graduated from elementary school, so you don't need to come here anymore."
Xu Xiaomin grinned and said, "Okay, you go back first. I'll go find the teacher to handle the paperwork for your two younger brothers." After saying that, he touched the top of his niece's head, then rode his bike into the campus.
"Go through the formalities?" Xu Ping looked at his second uncle's back in confusion.
When she returned home, she found out that her grandparents and her second uncle's family had decided to go to Beijing together to make a living.
Xu Ping's eyes lit up: "Are you going to be with my parents? Are they coming back to pick me up?"
Grandma Xu also understood the old man's crazy behavior. When she heard her eldest granddaughter ask this, her face suddenly fell and she said unhappily: "Don't mention your father's terrible thing."
Hearing this, Xu Ping glanced at his grandfather who was slumped on the kang, and only then did he realize that his grandfather's expression today was surprisingly peaceful, no longer as depressed and irritable as before.
Seeing her looking at him, the old man immediately gave her a gentle smile: "Daping, you came at the right time. Grandpa was just about to discuss something with you."
"Grandpa, tell me." Xu Ping said with some doubt and uneasiness.
"Well, you are a grown-up girl now, and you will be going to junior high school soon. Junior high school is different from elementary school. Without a household registration, you will not have a school record. Your parents have had it for years, but it's the same as if they didn't have one. There is probably no hope for you to rely on them. Grandpa has discussed it with your second uncle and second aunt, and they want to register your household registration under their names first.
I've asked around in the village. As long as you pay the fine for having more than one child, you can get your household registration. With a household registration, it won't affect your schooling. Do you agree to have your household registration registered at your second uncle's house?
Of course, this is just a temporary measure. If your father ever feels guilty and remembers this, you can ask him to move your household registration back." Xu Youwen said gently to his eldest granddaughter.
Xu Ping understood what her grandfather said. Not to mention registering her household registration under the name of her second uncle and aunt, she had no objection even to being adopted by them. Her parents were not around all these years, and thanks to her second uncle and aunt's care, she had imagined more than once: it would be great if her second aunt was her mother.
"But......"
It seems that the fine for having more children than allowed is quite a lot of money. Her second uncle's five-year-old third cousin has not yet been registered. She heard from her second aunt that in a few years, before Xu Bei goes to middle school, they will save enough money and pay the fine for him and register him.
Now, where would grandma and grandpa get the money to register her? Would they register her but not Xu Bei? Would Second Uncle and Second Aunt be unhappy?
"Don't worry about money. You're still young. Just grow up healthy. Grandpa will take care of everything else."
?
Just like that, Xu Ping, with a lot of doubts, settled under the names of Xu Xiaomin and Qiu Fenglan, becoming the eldest daughter in their household registration book. Her name was also changed to Xu Xi. Also registered with her was her younger cousin Xu Bei. Of course, judging from the household registration book, they were now siblings.
Before she could digest this sudden "surprise", on July 23rd, she was taken by her grandparents, uncle and aunt to a truck to Beijing...
My grandparents sat in the cab with the driver, and only my second uncle and aunt were watching them in the back truck bed.
In addition to their family of eight, there were more than 20 ducks, two sheep and a pig raised by their second aunt on the truck. There were also two geese and six chickens, but grandma decided to give them to the cousin next door. Grandma said that the house had to be entrusted to the cousin to take care of it.
There was a large tarpaulin more than one person high on the truck bed. As the vehicle was driving on the road, the whistling summer breeze blew in through the gaps in the tarpaulin, bringing a hint of coolness. The three cousins excitedly looked out through the transparent plastic windows on the tarpaulin.
Second uncle and second aunt also had happy faces. Xu Ping was infected by the five of them, and felt that the uneasiness and confusion in his heart had eased a little, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but rise slightly.
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