Lou Xinyue (3)
During dinner that night, my brother pushed me and the candies that I hadn't had time to deliver to grandma fell out of my bag.
My mother took the bamboo stick outside and scolded me for being dirty and calling me an ungrateful person.
I have no way of explaining it.
In summer, people wear thin clothes, and the bamboo sticks hit their bodies, leaving red marks.
She didn't stop beating me until someone outside called her.
I curled up in the corner, sobbing quietly.
The village chief came again to persuade my parents to let me go to school. This time, he brought Mr. Xu and Xu Chunian with him.
My mother grabbed my ear and asked me to go out.
Xu Chunian was a little surprised to see tears on my face.
My mother said that it is useless for girls to read so many books, and they should just find someone to marry as soon as possible.
I stood in the corner, listening to them hastily arrange my life with just a few words.
When they learned that there were subsidies for studying, my parents temporarily agreed.
At dawn
I ran to the dam and met Mr. Xu. There was a woman standing next to him. The woman looked like a movie star and her smile looked very much like Xu Chunian.
Xu Chunian saw me, walked towards me, and handed me a banana.
"Thanks."
The woman came over, bent down, and asked me my name.
I moved my mouth.
"Her name is Yueyue." Xu Chunian said.
Mr. Xu pointed to the list and pointed it at her.
I felt so ashamed that even my toes curled up.
Her mother looked at me and smiled kindly, "Yueyue, you can go to school in September."
"Thank you." I didn't know what to say.
"Do you want to eat wild fruits? I'll take you to pick them." I asked Xu Chunian.
I saw her eyes light up.
She went with me.
The man named Uncle Zhu followed us.
We were walking side by side, and Xu Chunian suddenly reached out and held my hand.
I ducked. “My hands are dirty.”
"It's okay, it will be clean after washing."
"It can't be washed clean."
"How can it not be cleaned?"
She grabbed my hand and I couldn't break free, so I just let her go.
I took her to pick a lot of berries and wrapped them in mulberry leaves. Her hands changed color from eating them.
She opened her hands and said, "Look, my hands are dirty too."
The sunlight was a little dazzling, or maybe it was her dazzling smile, I squinted my eyes uncomfortably.
We lay on the hillside, and I was a little worried that the juice from the crushed grass would stain her skirt.
She said it was okay, she had plenty.
I looked at my clothes, which had lost all color and even my slippers were half broken.
Suddenly, Xu Chunian sat up and took out a cartoon-like thing from her small bag. She said it was called a Band-Aid.
She covered the stab wounds on my ankles, and her hands formed a sharp contrast with my feet.
"Do you know what's on the other side of the mountain?" I suddenly asked her.
"Over there?" She pointed to the hilltop in the distance.
I nodded.
She shook her head. “I haven’t been there.”
I turned my head and watched the white clouds moving slowly.
Yeah, how would she know.
From the moment she was born, her life was a wilderness.
The sun set and we walked back. When we reached a fork in the road, Xu Chunian stopped me and asked me to wait a moment.
I saw her run to the dam and come back with a lot of things in her arms.
She handed me two cups and held a bottle of yellow drink in her arms.
She raised her little face and said, "Uncle Zhu, please help me open it."
The man unscrewed it easily and it made a sound.
She filled both cups and handed me one.
Then she suddenly knelt down. I was confused. She pulled the corner of my clothes. I was stunned but knelt down with her.
She said, "In the name of the Heaven above and the earth as my witness, I will grant your wish."
I've heard this on TV.
She nudged me with her elbow. "Your name."
"I'm Zhang Zhaodi."
"No!" She twisted her face, "Yueyue."
I was stunned for a moment, "I'm Yueyue."
"Sisters of different surnames."
"I don't want to live together, I want to... die together."
"Pfft." A laugh came from behind.
Xu Chunian turned around and said fiercely, "Uncle Zhu!"
"sorry."
"Okay, I forgive you." She turned back to look at me again, "Drink it."
We tilted our heads back and drank the drinks in our hands. They were really delicious. I had never tasted such sweet water before.
Later, when she wanted to pour more, the man stopped her and said, "Nian Nian, you drank too much today."
Xu Chunian held the cup in his hand like a little adult, "I'm happy, can I drink two more cups?"
"No way!"
"knew!"
We became sworn sisters for a while, but she left the next day.
The day before, she said that I would go to City A to find her later.
I didn’t know where City A was, so I asked my grandma where City A was.
Grandma said City A is very far away and it takes several days to get there by car. It is the capital.
It was like a dream. In order to study, I worked even harder, fearing that if I did not do well at all, they would not let me go to school. Sometimes I secretly ran to my grandmother's house and studied under the kerosene lamp.
I work harder than others, and I am better than others.
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