When Zhou Huaian, Fang Dongming, Lao Xiazi and a group of children walked to the brigade's drying dam, which is now the brewing workshop of the pickle factory, Zhang Xiuxiang came out pushing a bicycle.
Since Zhou Huaijun worked at the hydropower station, after the pickle factory was established, Zhang Xiuxiang stayed in the village to manage the pickle factory with Zhou's mother and Secretary Xu and to look after the school-going children.
Zhou Huairong and Zhao Huifang were responsible for coordinating farmers to grow vegetables needed by the pickle factory, Li Qiuyue and Zhou Huaishan were in charge of collecting mushrooms and truffles, while Zhou Yiding and his wife followed Zhou Huaian to the county town.
Zhou Jiakang saw her coming out and said, "Mom, we'll have lunch at Dad's house. Let's go fishing with Dad!"
"Be obedient when you get there, and don't run around." Zhang Xiuxiang bent down and touched Xiao Mi'er, who was holding Xiao Jiu'er's hand tightly. "Yaoyao, it's so sunny, come home with Er Niang, okay?"
Xiaomier shook her head and pushed her out, "If you don't go home, just go fishing!"
"Okay, okay! I won't go back. Second Mother will go back first." Zhang Xiuxiang gave Zhou Jiakang a few more instructions before riding her bicycle back.
A group of children were walking in front, carrying buckets of water. Xiaomier didn't want Zhou Huaian to hold her. She used her short legs to move her legs vigorously and followed her brothers and sisters, fearing that they would abandon her and run away.
As soon as the group arrived at the bridge, they saw sisters Zhou Xiaoqian and Zhao Meina riding bicycles in front, followed by brothers Zhou Jiaming and Zhao Xiaochuan.
"Sister, we are going fishing. Do you want to come with us?" Zhou Xiaowen's cousins cheered and ran towards them.
Zhou Jiakang pulled Zhou Huaian, asked him to bend down, and whispered: "Dad, Brother Liang said that I like Sister Mina!"
"Don't talk nonsense!" Zhou Huaian knocked him, "Your sister Mina is Brother Ming's master, he worships her, don't you know?"
"Oh!" Zhou Jiakang covered his forehead, "I also admire Sister Mina. I want to go to the university where she studies in the future."
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "As long as you can get into Mena's school, Dad will give you a motorcycle."
Fang Dongming smiled and said, "Xiaokang, it's a motorcycle! If it were me, I would do my best too!"
"Uncle, I know!" Zhou Jiakang looked at Zhou Huaian with shining eyes, "Dad, do you keep your word?"
"Humph!" Zhou Huaian glared at him, "I can't do anything except play with you guys. Didn't I give you the reward for good grades that time?"
"Hehe!" Zhou Jiakang smiled innocently, "I started working hard when school started. I will study hard in the next six years and try to earn a motorcycle."
Zhou Huaian smiled and rubbed him, "Okay, I'm counting on you!"
Xiao Jiuer, who was holding her sister's hand, pulled him back and said, "Dad, I want a motorcycle too!"
Xiaomier quickly followed her brother and said, "Dad, I want one too. Mine is for you, brother!"
"Hey! Whose little fool is this!" Zhou Huaian picked up his daughter with a smile and said to Xiao Jiuer, "When you can get into the best university like your brothers and sisters, I will buy you a car!"
Xiao Jiuer looked at him, "Are you talking about the kind that can carry people? Not the toy kind?"
Zhou Jiakang pulled him, "Silly boy, of course it's the kind that can carry people! You have toys too!"
Xiao Jiuer looked at Zhou Huaian, and when he nodded, she counted on her fingers, "I will be in the second grade at the beginning of the school year, and the third grade next year, junior high school, high school..."
The little guy stared, "Fuck! There are still eleven years left?"
"How do you talk like that?" Zhou Huaian tapped him on the forehead. "Who did you learn this from?"
"I learned it from you!" Xiao Jiuer covered her forehead, "Let's write a contract when we get back, in case you forget it after a long time."
Zhou Jiakang hurriedly said: "Dad, there's also mine!"
Zhou Huaian rubbed his hands and said, "Don't worry, your father keeps his word!"
Fang Dongming looked at the three of them and laughed, "As expected of a businessman's child, he knows how to sign a contract at such a young age."
"The children follow and imitate whatever the adults do. Look at the one in my house!"
Zhou Huaian smiled and shook his head, picked up Xiao Mi'er, pushed her straw hat down, looked at the chattering children, and said to Zhao Meina, "College student, when do you plan to leave?"
"Aunt said that you and Uncle Yiding will go to the provincial capital on the 27th, so she bought me a ticket for that day." Zhao Meina handed the straw grasshopper in her hand to Xiaomier, "Big sister made it, isn't it pretty?"
"It looks good!" Xiaomier took it and started playing with it.
Zhou Huaian looked at Zhou Jiaming and the others who ran after Fang Dongming with buckets of water, "I haven't had a good time since the holiday. I've been busy giving them extra lessons every day!"
Zhao Meina smiled and said, "I don't have extra classes every day. I was picking mushrooms in the mountains a few days ago."
Zhou Xiaoqian: "Dad, there are too many people picking mushrooms after the holiday. We couldn't find any good mushrooms even if we went early in the morning. We only found some good mushrooms when we went to the big pit these few days."
Zhou Huaian thought about taking the kids to shoot birds tomorrow. He hadn't been to the forest farm for two years. "How about this! You guys pack up in the afternoon, and tomorrow we'll go to the forest farm to find Grandpa Daqing. There are more mushrooms there."
"Yeah!" Zhou Xiaoqian happily pulled Zhao Meina, "Sister Meina said there is a natural ice cave there. We have wanted to go and see it for a long time."
Zhao Meina also smiled and nodded, "Let's go to the pine forest to pick up matsutake and morels."
Zhou Huaian looked at the two happy girls and said with a smile, "Okay! Go back and tell your aunt first, we'll go back after we catch the fish."
"Okay!" Zhou Xiaoqian got on the bicycle and patted the back seat, "Teacher Zhao, I will continue to serve you!"
"Naughty girl!" Zhao Meina sat on it with a smile, and the two sisters walked back slowly.
The gentle slope beyond the stone bridge was repaired two years ago, and now a strong laborer can go up it pulling a cart weighing 100 to 200 kilograms.
Zhou Xiaoqian looked back at her and said, "Sister Mina, didn't you say before that when you get into the school over there, you would go find them and ask them why they left you here?
Why didn't I even come to see you all these years? Why didn't I go back after I went there? "
Zhao Meina smiled slightly. "Before going there, I was thinking about what I should do after I find them there? Should I cry or blame them?
After getting off the train and stepping onto the land over there, I suddenly felt that it was meaningless. I thought it would be better for us to live our lives as we do now, three siblings and them.
There is no need to see them again, nor to listen to their meaningless explanations. We have completely let them go. Even if we meet them on the road, we are just passers-by with blood ties. "
Zhou Xiaoqian stopped after hearing this and looked at her distressedly, "Sister Mina, you, Xiu Na, Xiao Chuan and us!"
"Yes! And you too!" Zhao Meina smiled and patted her, "Hurry up and leave. If your teacher gets tanned and doesn't look good, you'll have to pay for it!"
Zhou Xiaoqian said with a smile: "It has become darker. When you first came back, your face was as white and tender as a peeled egg. Is the sun over there not as strong as here?"
Zhao Meina nodded, "Yeah! It's not as dry over there as it is here. I think it's too cold in winter, just like when I was a kid and didn't have cotton clothes or shoes to wear.
When I spent the winter there last year, other classmates didn’t wear as thickly as I did. My aunt sent me a cashmere sweater and winter clothes, and I put them on early and wrapped myself up like an old bear in the forest.
In the summer, it is so hot that people can hardly breathe. Unlike here, we don’t have to worry about the sun drying clothes and quilts in the coldest months of winter. Even in the hottest days of summer, as soon as the sun goes down, the weather becomes cooler.”
Zhou Xiaoqian nodded repeatedly, "I heard from my father that he has traveled to so many places, but none of them has as comfortable weather as here."
"Yes!" Zhao Meina reached out and touched the pomegranate hanging on the branch. "I think the street trees in the village are more distinctive than those in the city."
Zhou Xiaoqian smiled and said, "My father and his family found someone to graft the fruits. The ancestors and a few elders are in charge of it. Now only our village still has the fruits. The ones in Fangtian have been picked clean a long time ago.
It is more beautiful when it blooms. We took a lot of photos when we came back. A few days ago, Grandpa Xu brought people to pick a batch of pears, and each family got a few.
At the beginning of spring, some people from the city came to visit us and there were several movie screenings on the dam. Unfortunately, we were not at home and didn't get to see any of them.
In recent years, there are fewer people quarreling in the village. People are busy planting crops, growing vegetables, picking mushrooms, and digging truffles at the end of the year. Those who work in the pickle factory are also busy working.
My grandmother said that in the past, girls from the village would go to the town or places at the foot of the mountain to marry, but now even girls from the county town are willing to marry in our village.”
"Uncle Zhou and his friends can be considered the first batch of people to try out new things after the reform and opening up."
"I also think they are very capable, especially Uncle Wang Zhen. I heard from my father that he has already started planning to set up a pharmaceutical factory, and he also said that the pharmaceutical factory is his main business."
"They are working so hard, we have to work harder too!"
"I want to study medicine in the future. I think herbs are amazing. The same herb, when combined with different herbs, can produce completely different effects. It can be a good medicine or a deadly poison."
"Xiao Qian, the one sitting behind you is Mina, right?" Ma Chunhua asked as she looked at the two of them while holding a basket by the ditch.
"Hey!" Zhao Meina smiled and nodded, "Aunt Ma, have you had lunch?"
"Not yet!" Ma Chunhua walked forward with a smile and took her hand. "Why are you so good at studying? Some of my kids have a hard time even passing the exams. Do you have any tips?"
Zhao Meina said embarrassedly: "I don't have any tricks. Just what the teacher taught us, read more, watch more, and write more, and you will naturally learn it."
Mrs. Xu smiled and said, "Chunhua, Mina's parents are both educated, and they grow good crops, don't you know that? You can't even recognize a single word, but her child has graduated from elementary school, so her education level is much higher than yours."
"...Your words stink worse than farts!" Ma Chunhua angrily glared at her, then turned her head and smiled at the two of them awkwardly, "The sun is too hot, you should go home quickly."
Seeing Ma Chunhua's expression change faster than turning the pages of a book, the two nodded with pursed lips, "Then we'll leave first." (End of this chapter)
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