Chapter 45
When Zhong Xing returned to the dormitory, he saw a letter from his hometown on the table. His roommate was chewing a corn. "I went to the mail room at the door to get something, and I saw your letter, so I brought it back for you."
"Oh, thanks."
Zhong Xing sat down at the desk and opened the letter.
In fact, he was busy with work and didn't write to Jiang Jiang very often, but Jiang Jiang would always reply to him very actively. When he saw the girl's beautiful handwriting on the letter paper, he couldn't help but smile. After reading the letter, he was about to put it away, but he found that there seemed to be something inside the envelope.
He took it out and saw that it was a photo.
The little girl in the photo has smiling eyes and is wearing a goose yellow dress. She has fair skin and long, shiny black hair. She is in her prime.
Zhong Xing was stunned for a moment, and it took him a long time to realize that Jiang Jiang was no longer the child he remembered.
The next morning, Jiang Jiang had just sat down in the classroom when a male classmate in the front row leaned over and asked, "Lin Jiang Jiang, what is your relationship with Xie Jinyan from Junior 2 (Class 1)? I saw him stuffing something into your drawer when I came this morning."
Hearing this, Jiang Jiang reached into the drawer and felt around. Sure enough, there was a lunch box. Chen Qiannan, who was standing next to him, also leaned over and urged curiously, "Open it and take a look."
Jiang Jiang opened the lid of the lunch box, and the fragrance of dried osmanthus filled the air. The lunch box was filled with a box of osmanthus cake, which was golden and soft in color and looked very tempting.
"It looks delicious." Chen Qiannan said.
The boy in the front row added, "The scent of osmanthus smells very fragrant."
Jiang Jiang pursed her lips. It should be made by Xie Jinyan’s mother, Aunt Huang. “Let’s share it.”
"Okay, okay."
Jiang Jiang kept two pieces for himself and shared the rest with everyone. The osmanthus cake made by Aunt Huang not only looks great and has a soft texture, but also has a special fragrance. Even after eating it, the fragrance of osmanthus will still linger on the tip of the tongue for a long time.
After eating the osmanthus cake, we gathered on the playground. Today is Monday, the day when the school holds the flag-raising ceremony.
Students from the first to the third grade of junior high school gathered on the playground. The junior high school and the senior high school of the county middle school are not in the same campus. The playground was crowded with people. After the flag-raising ceremony, the principal gave a speech first. It was nothing more than a long speech about correcting the style of study. After the principal's speech, it was the turn of the teacher representative to give a speech. The sun was shining under the playground, and Jiang Jiang felt a little dizzy.
The school bell rang in the morning. Chen Qiannan looked at Jiang Jiang, who was lying on the table, holding her stomach, with cold sweat on her forehead. She sighed, "Jiang Jiang, if it really doesn't work out, I'll go with you to ask Teacher Fang for leave and go back to rest."
"I'm fine, just bear with it." This is Jiang Jiang's second period. Her mother said that she suffered a lot when she was a child, which resulted in her poor physical condition now, so her period is so uncomfortable.
Li Yanhong was originally writing down his notes. When he saw Jiang Jiang's condition, he couldn't help but put down his pen and asked, "Jiang Jiang, what's wrong with you?"
Jiang Jiang looked at Li Yanhong, the squad leader who was asking about her in a gentle voice. Her expression suddenly became a little strange and awkward. She stood up from the table and straightened her hair. "No... nothing, I just have a stomachache."
"Let's go, Qiannan. I'm going to have dinner with you."
"Oh." Chen Qiannan helped Jiang Jiang up and went to the cafeteria.
The meat dishes served in the school cafeteria at noon are twice-cooked pork and cabbage stewed with vermicelli. The vermicelli is mixed with thick slices of meat, while the vegetarian dishes are cabbage, beans, celery, etc. Jiang Jiang received her meal according to the meal list she registered yesterday, which included one meat dish, one vegetable dish and two cornmeal steamed buns. Chen Qiannan also received the same meal as Jiang Jiang.
The steamed buns in the school cafeteria are well-cooked, fluffy and soft, with a light sweetness. The dishes are fried in a big pot. Some of the vegetarian dishes have been over the hot pot and are a little wilted, yellow and soft. The twice-cooked pork fried with garlic sprouts is very fragrant and tastes good with rice. Some students will bring some homemade chili sauce and pickles to eat with the rice.
After Jiang Jiang finished lunch and sat down in the classroom, the boy in the front row came over and asked, "Lin Jiang Jiang, can you lend me your notes from the Chinese class this morning?"
"Sure." Jiang Jiang agreed readily. She was about to take out a Chinese textbook from the drawer to lend it to him. As soon as she put her hand into the drawer, she touched a bunch of strange things.
She pulled it out puzzledly and saw that it was a pile of pills, including those for treating gastritis, indigestion, bloating, suppressing stomach acid, and stopping diarrhea... Not only Jiang Jiang was confused, but even Chen Qiannan was dumbfounded.
"There are so many pills that I can't finish them even if I take them as meals."
Jiang Jiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. How could she not know who sent it? She tore off half a page of white paper from the notebook, wrote a few words on it, and then asked someone to help pass it to him.
"Thank you, squad leader!"
Li Yanhong smiled slightly and added a sentence on the paper, "You're welcome."
Feng Yin looked at Jiang Jiang's back in the front row thoughtfully.
That afternoon, after dinner, He Guijuan was busy in the kitchen for a while and came out with a bowl of black medicinal food.
He Guijuan placed the medicinal food on the table in front of Jiang Jiang and said, "Drink it quickly."
A strange smell rushed straight to the tip of Jiang Jiang's nose. He resisted the urge to vomit and asked, "Mom, what is this?"
"This is a medicinal diet recipe that I specifically asked the old Chinese medicine doctor in our hospital for. It nourishes the blood and replenishes the Qi, regulates menstruation and relieves pain. Be obedient and drink it quickly."
Jiang Jiang looked at the black medicinal food, her porcelain-white face wrinkled into a ball. After a struggle, she picked it up and gulped it down.
Although the taste of the medicinal herbs is a bit strong, it actually tastes quite good. It is sweet, and it even seems to have red beans added to it, giving it a mellow texture.
He Guijuan saw her daughter finish all the medicinal food, and a smile appeared on her face. She glanced at Jiang Jiang's messy hair and gently stroked her hair, "Mom will comb your hair neatly."
"Okay." Jiang Jiang sat down on the chair.
Combing your hair frequently can unblock the blood circulation. He Guijuan held a wooden comb in one hand and a strand of her daughter's hair in the other, combing from the roots to the ends.
Jiang Jiang just washed her hair yesterday, and there is still a scent of shampoo on her hair, which is light, refreshing and smells good.
"Mother."
"Um?"
Jiang Jiang reached out and hugged her, "I love you."
He Guijuan kissed her face and responded with a smile, "Mom loves you, too."
Jiang Jiang washed the bowl containing the medicinal food, came out of the kitchen, and grabbed a handful of coarse corn to serve as a snack to the old hen.
Since Jiang Jiang brought the old hen from Dongxi Village to the county town, she has been kept in the small yard of their home. Every week, Jiang Jiang would take a morning to clean its chicken coop. When the weather was good, he would carry it to the mountains on the outskirts of the city, and it would find insects to eat on its own.
Its fur is very clean, with black feathers, the tip of its beak and toes are yellowish brown, its face is as red as Guan Gong, and its short and stubby legs support its body like pillars.
The old hen never lays eggs. Considering the time before Jiang Jiang's father bought the chicken, it should be about eleven years old.
"Cuckoo, cluck, cluck..." Jiang Jiang scattered coarse corn into the chicken feeder in front of her, but did not see the old hen come out to eat as she did in the past. Jiang Jiang felt a little strange. Usually, as long as she heard her call, the old hen would come out and wander around outside the chicken coop even if she didn't want to eat. What happened today?
Jiang Jiang went back into the house and got a flashlight. She used the light from the flashlight to look inside and saw the old hen curled up into a ball. She couldn't see clearly what was going on, so she simply reached in and picked up the old hen, only to find that it had rolled its eyes and was motionless.
Jiang Jiang panicked, and the flashlight in her hand rolled to the ground with a snap. She cried anxiously, "Mom, the old hen, the old hen won't move..."
In the evening, after dinner, Xie Jinyan went out for a walk. Huang Shuhua asked her son to bring some freshly cooked mung bean soup to He Guijuan's family.
The mung bean soup cooked by Huang Shuhua tasted sweet and refreshing. Each mung bean was blossoming and sandy. It was the most suitable drink to cool down in this hot weather. He Guijuan poured the mung bean soup into her own soup bowl and returned the bowl to Xie Jinyan, "Thank your mother for me."
Xie Jinyan looked around and didn't see Jiang Jiang, so she couldn't help but ask, "Auntie, where is Jiang Jiang?"
"She's in the house." He Guijuan sighed and looked at the child in front of her. "Alas, the chicken that Jiang Jiang had raised since she was a child died of old age. I went to several veterinary stations yesterday, and they all said that it couldn't be cured. I just buried it this morning. She is feeling very sad."
Hearing this, Xie Jinyan looked at Jiang Jiang's house and couldn't help feeling a little worried.
Two days later, after the mother and daughter finished dinner, Jiang Jiang helped to clear the dishes and said to He Guijuan who was reading a book, "Mom, I'm going to take out the trash."
Hearing this, He Guijuan closed the book in her hand and said, "Mom will accompany you."
"No, I'll be back soon."
Jiang Jiang went out carrying the garbage.
After throwing away the garbage, Jiang Jiang did not go back immediately, but walked slowly along the road, with her hands folded in front of her chest, and the evening breeze gently blowing her hair.
In fact, Jiang Jiang didn't have anywhere she wanted to go, so she just wandered around aimlessly. She probably thought it was about time to leave, and her family would get worried if she stayed any longer, so she took a deep breath and started walking back.
When Jiang Jiang got home, she saw that her father had already returned. The two of them were looking at a cardboard box. When she saw Jiang Jiang come back, He Guijuan excitedly waved to her and asked her to come over.
"Look what your dad brought you."
Jiang Jiang leaned forward to take a look and couldn't help but exclaimed, "A puppy?"
In the cardboard box was a snow-white puppy without a single stray hair. Jiang Jiang was watching from the side and couldn't help but reach out to touch it. Its hair was very long and soft. When Jiang Jiang was touching it, the puppy seemed to sense something and actually opened its eyes and licked Jiang Jiang's hand with its tongue.
"It seems that this puppy likes Jiang Jiang very much." He Guijuan said with a smile.
Lin Youqing touched his daughter's head lovingly, "Jiang Jiang, give it a name. This puppy will be a member of our family from now on. From now on, you will be responsible for taking care of it."
"Me?"
"right."
"Is it a male dog?"
"No, it's a little bitch."
Jiang Jiang thought for a moment and said, "Then let's call it Lele."
Jiang Jiang took Lele out of the cardboard box and fed it some cool boiled water in a small bowl. Fearing that it would be uncomfortable in the cardboard box, she also got some old cotton wool and rags to pad it. The puppy was very well-behaved and had a pair of big ears covered with long hair.
He Guijuan couldn't help but smile as she watched her daughter busy at work, praising her husband beside her, "You are the one who has the ideas. Thank you for your hard work."
Lin Youqing breathed a sigh of relief. "It's worth it that I went to several free markets to buy this puppy. Finally, my daughter can be happy."
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