Chapter 63 Chapter 63 We did it quietly, without letting Mom and Dad...
The day before the Wenju party, Zhao Ruyue and Ning Shaoming went around ordering things for tomorrow and confirming tomorrow's dishes.
The two busy people had no time to take care of the child, but fortunately Ning Shixia finally agreed to go to school.
When the brother and sister went home for lunch at noon, Ningda had already made the net they wanted.
He specially looked for unused stainless steel wire, thinking that the two children would use the net to play house and lift things, so he made handles on both sides to make it convenient for them to carry it while playing.
After Ning Shixia got the net, a string of nice words came out of her mouth for free, making her grandfather smile from ear to ear, and he agreed to the job of cutting bamboo sticks for them.
He took time to do it in between work and managed to get quite a bit done in a day.
Today is Friday. In order to make it easier for boarding students to get home before dark, the school only has afternoon classes until 3:30.
There are more and more left-behind children in their town. Some villages are far from schools, with few children and no village primary schools, or the village primary schools can only provide education up to the third or fourth grade. If children want to continue their studies, they can only live in the central primary school in the town.
Ning Shiqiu first sent his sister home, and then rode his bike to the town junior high school to pick up his cousin Ning Danping who also lived in the school dormitory.
There is only one junior high school in the town. There are still day students in the elementary school, but after entering junior high school, all students have to live in the dormitory, no matter whether they live on the street or in nearby villages.
The junior high school’s school dismissal time on Fridays is the same as that of the elementary school, so Ning Danping has to wait at the school gate for Ning Shiqiu to ride his bike over after school.
Classmates passing by were envious when they knew that she had someone to pick her up, even though it was her cousin instead of her parents.
If no one picks them up, they have to pay for the bus ride to the town. Some students have to pay again to take the bus back to the village after arriving in the town.
If parents don’t give money for bus fare, children can only walk home from school. Students who live far away may even have to walk for two or three hours along mountain roads. The journey to school is very difficult.
Ning Shiqiu rode his bike towards the junior high school gate and saw his cousin waving at him from afar.
Since the start of the school year, Ning Shiqiu has started to pick up and drop off his cousin every week. When he came before, most people in the school had left, and only his cousin was standing at the school gate, chatting with the security guard and the teacher on duty while waiting for him.
This time, there were two more people around my cousin.
Wait for Ning Shiqiu to stop in front of her.
Ning Danping asked tentatively: "Xiao Qiu, can I discuss with you and send my two classmates home as well? Their homes are also in town, but they are farther from the school than ours."
Ning Shiqiu was caught off guard by the question: "But I'm too young to ride back and forth so many times."
If he were a junior high school student now and had more strength, he would have agreed immediately. After all, it was not a difficult task. It was just a matter of sending two more people.
Ning Danping gritted her teeth, pulled Ning Shiqiu to the side and whispered, "My classmate promised to give 40 cents for the bus fare. Can I split it with you?"
Ning Shiqiu glanced at his cousin and thought: In the past, when my cousin was scolded by my aunt at home, she would not refute and seemed very honest. I didn’t expect that she was quite thoughtful...
If he had agreed just now, would I not have shared the money I earned from his bicycle equally with him?
Ning Shiqiu now suspected that her cousin's classmate had agreed to give her more than 40 cents for the fare. He felt that her cousin's classmate would at least give her 50 cents.
Because it costs one dollar to take a tricycle or motorcycle from junior high school to town.
There are not many people who own cars in the town, so this stretch of road, which is neither long nor short, is more expensive to take a car than to eat a bowl of rice noodles in the town.
The bus will stop at the junior high school gate to pick up passengers, but the bus fare is two yuan no matter how far the journey is, which is not as cost-effective as taking a tricycle or a motorcycle, so students generally do not take the bus.
Her classmate wanted to save on bus fares, and being able to save half of it seemed reasonable.
But it's a business with no capital in the first place, so even a little money is still meat, and if you save it up, you'll have a lot.
Ning Shiqiu said: "For your sake, I can agree, but I really can't ride it for many times. How about you take me home, and then you take them home?"
Ning Danping quickly agreed: "I'll take you home right now! By the way, I also want to borrow your bicycle to pick up my classmates on Sunday afternoon."
"Is that also one person giving me two cents?"
Ning Danping's mouth twitched. She calculated the money she could earn in an afternoon and felt a little distressed, but who could blame her for not having a car?
Borrowing someone else’s car to make money, I could only nod and agree: “Give it to you too!”
Ning Shiqiu immediately said politely, "Then I'll ask my dad to help me check the car on Sunday morning. I'll definitely inflate the tires before giving it to you. I guarantee it won't delay your earning money."
Ning Danping was worried that he would tell his father, so she hurriedly reminded him, "This is a secret between us. Don't tell anyone else when you get home, not even your parents or Xiao Xia."
Ning Shiqiu seemed to be possessed by his sister, patting his chest and assuring: "Don't worry, Sister Danping, I'm very tight-lipped. My parents won't ask any more questions about things I don't want to talk about."
Ning Danping had no doubt about this. Her parents always said that her uncle and aunt spoiled their children too much. If they were Xiaoqiu and Xiaoxia's parents, they would definitely deal with them in a very different way.
But she envied Xiaoqiu and Xiaoxia for having such good parents.
I also fantasized that if my third uncle and aunt were my parents, I wouldn't have to be scolded all the time, and I could keep some of the New Year's money to buy what I want.
During the Chinese New Year, my three-year-old cousin can spend some of her New Year's money, but her mother has already calculated how much money she can get, and will ask a lot of questions if she gives her a penny less.
Ning Shiqiu's bike is not as good as a large-sized bicycle for adults, and the back seat can only accommodate one person at a time.
So Ning Danping could only send him back first, and then send her classmates back one by one.
Ning Shiqiu climbed onto the back seat and sat firmly: "Sister Danping, just take me to my new home."
Ning Danping joked, "Are you worried that I'll carry too many people and give you less money? Do you want a supervisor?"
His new home is near the fork in the road that leads from the junior high school to the town. The town bus also passes by his home on its way to the county town from the station.
How could Ning Shiqiu admit that he now felt that his cousin was also very smart and he really needed to keep an eye on her.
"I've already lent you my precious bicycle, how could I not trust you? Xiao Xia wants to tinker with something in the new home, and I want to go and help her."
Ning Danping just said that and changed the subject: "What are you two busy with? Aren't you going to have a warm-up party tomorrow? Aren't you going to help your uncle and aunt?"
Ning Shiqiu: "We are only a few years old, how can we help? It's good enough that we don't cause trouble for my parents."
The two chatted all the way back to Ning Shiqiu's new home. As expected, Ning Shixia moved a small stool and sat in the corner of the door, fiddling with something.
Ning Danping thought they were going to play house, and she had to hurry to earn some pocket money, so she didn't ask any questions, dropped Ning Shiqiu off, and quickly rode her bike back to school.
Ning Shixia raised his head when he heard the noise: "Brother, you're back! Why did Sister Danping leave? Doesn't she want to eat?"
"She still has things to do, let's talk about it after she finishes," Ning Shiqiu walked to his sister and squatted down, reaching out to touch the cement between two bricks, "It feels a little damp, why did you take out all the things? Can you use them?"
Ning Shixia pouted and complained: "Dad said to put some charcoal and grill it, but he was busy with other things and didn't help me to light the charcoal. He said that children can't play with fire. Brother, we are both children, what should we do?"
Ning Shiqiu stood up and patted his hands that had just touched the cement, imitating an adult: "You are a child, I am not."
"Then why don't you go into the house and ask?"
Ning Shiqiu went into the house to ask, and was ruthlessly judged as a child by the adults.
Ning Shixia followed behind and laughed happily.
In the end, I could only ask my grandfather, who had the least time, for help.
Ningda had suffered a serious illness before. After he recovered, he could no longer do heavy work. He could only do some light work such as herding cattle, growing vegetables, feeding chickens, ducks and cows, and taking care of children.
The job of herding cattle was done by families in their production team who had cattle. Each family took turns to herd the cattle for one day, and usually the elderly in the family were in charge.
Today, everyone else went to work in the fields, and it was not their turn to herd the cattle, so Ningda had a lot of free time.
He cleaned the cowshed and saw that it was still early, so he planned to go to Haijie to play chess with his old friends. Unfortunately, before he could even leave, he was dragged to the third brother's new home by his grandchildren.
"What are you doing?" Ning Da fooled the children, "Grandpa is very busy today and doesn't have time to play house with you."
Ning Shixia entered the room and brought out a stool, then pulled him to sit down: "Grandpa, please sit down. We are not playing house here. Didn't we promise before that we would make something really, really delicious for you? This is it!"
Ningda loves to eat, but he looked left and right and said, "There's nothing to eat here." If he were to associate food with it, it would seem more like playing house. They wouldn't let him eat the dishes they pretended to cook, would they?
Unexpectedly, his little grandson actually carried out the real stuff. He brought out a bag of charcoal that his father had left over from roasting lamb, and also took out a lighter and some resin sticks for starting the fire.
Ning Da hurriedly said: "Children should not play with fire!"
Ning Shiqiu: "But Grandpa, you are an adult, you can play."
Ning Da: “…” He always felt like he had been fooled by these two kids.
"Grandpa, please help us order some so we can grill something to eat." Ning Shixia followed his brother and also brought out a small bag of food.
He opened it and took a look: "Isn't this the sausage and bread your parents bought for you to take to school? You can eat it just by peeling off the outer packaging. There is no need to bake it."
Ning Shiqiu explained: "We saw people grilling hot dogs on TV, which are the kind of hot dogs with grilled sausages sandwiched in bread. They looked delicious, so we wanted to try it."
They originally wanted to make it themselves and then give the adults a surprise after baking it successfully.
Who would have thought that even after the barbecue grill was set up, his father said that children shouldn't play with fire, and this plan almost failed.
Fortunately, there is grandpa!
Ning Shixia leaned close to Ning Da's ear and whispered, "Grandpa, let's do this quietly and don't let Mom and Dad know."
Ning Da wanted to laugh but looked behind her with an indescribable look. Ning Shixia waited for a long time but didn't get a response from her grandfather. Then she realized that something seemed wrong.
When she turned around, her parents were standing behind her, looking at them with a mixture of anger and amusement.
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