Something happened. This is not going to be bloody.

The bus drove away into the distance, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The afternoon sun made people feel dizzy, and there were almost no people walking on the dirt roads in the village.

Zhou Leng carried her luggage, took out the remaining two buns and continued to eat while walking. She looked particularly conspicuous walking with the bag on her back, and after walking for a few minutes she met someone she knew.

The person walking towards him was an old lady from the village. According to seniority, Chen Wang should call her Third Aunt.

The thin woman in the distance was looking at Zhou Leng, and a hint of hesitation appeared on her tanned face.

Zhou Leng was the first to speak and greeted: "Aunt San, long time no see, you are still so energetic. I am Chen Wang, I see you don't recognize me?"

"Chen's girl, oh my goodness, you've been in school for half a year now, and you've changed so much. How did you become like this? But you look a lot stronger. I heard from your grandma that you also work part-time to earn money for your studies. That's amazing."

Zhou Leng imitated the way Chen Wang looked in his memory and smiled shyly, then said, "Third Aunt, I'm going home to see my grandma first because I'm still carrying my things. We can talk later."

"Okay, go ahead. You have a lot to carry. Your grandma will be happy to know you're back."

"Goodbye, Third Aunt."

"We'll talk later."

After Zhou Leng said goodbye, she continued on her way. Next, when she met an acquaintance, she would take the initiative to say hello.

After all, she didn't know whether the photo had spread to this somewhat backward village through the Internet. Saying hello would allow everyone to re-recognize her new image and avoid any gossip reaching her grandmother's ears.

Most of the houses in the village are brick and tile houses. Some of the houses have white tiles on the exterior walls. Red brick walls surround the courtyards. Some houses even have landscape paintings on their tiles. Only a few houses are still rammed earth houses with thatched roofs.

The Chen family is one of the families with the most dilapidated houses in the village. It is not easy for an old man to support a student and his own food, so the Chen family's conditions have always been not very good.

Zhou Leng walked to the gate of his yard. It was exactly the same as he remembered. The wooden door was tightly closed. Through the gap, he could see an old man picking vegetables in the vegetable garden in the yard.

Chen's grandmother is Wang Xiuli. She is old now, a little deaf and blurry-eyed. Now she is busy with farm work and two meals a day.

"Grandma, I'm back." The girl called kindly outside the door.

After Zhou Leng finished shouting, she looked at her grandmother who didn't respond. She could only go into the yard to put down her luggage and then shout again from a distance: "Grandma, your granddaughter is back."

She was afraid that if she approached suddenly she would scare the old lady, so she decided to shout from a distance.

The fact that the door could be opened so easily also showed that the Chen family had no intention of guarding against thieves at all. If a thief came, he would probably leave a few dollars before leaving.

Wang Xiuli raised her head and looked towards the gate. She stood up and said, "Who is it? It sounds like Chen Wang is making noises."

Zhou Leng walked closer to the old woman and said loudly, "Grandma."

The old woman looked at her carefully for a few seconds before clapping her hands and laughing happily. She took Zhou Leng's hand and said:

"Granddaughter is back, is the school on holiday? You look a lot darker this time. Did you go out to work again? Grandma can still make money. The crops in the fields are growing well, and the policy is good now."

As the old woman spoke, she went to pick up the woven bag that Zhou Leng had put on the ground. She always felt that her child was still small and she was still young, so she had to carry the heavy things by herself.

Zhou Leng took up the luggage first and said, "Grandma, I'll take the bags into the house first. You continue to pick vegetables. Today I will honor you by making you a dish that I am good at - potatoes and eggplant."

Wang Xiuli's eyes narrowed into slits as she smiled, and the wrinkles on her dark yellow skin deepened a little. She walked back to the vegetable field to continue picking vegetables, saying, "Okay, just don't set the house on fire."

Zhou Leng entered the house, put away her luggage, and began to clean. It was not that she disliked the old man, but the old man's eyesight was blurry and he couldn't see clearly, so many places were easily covered with dirt because of the unclear vision.

When Wang Xiuli brought the vegetables into the house, Zhou Leng was already cooking rice. Farmers who don't have electric rice cookers cook rice in a big pot and then scoop it out and eat it.

"Our girl has suffered a lot outside, but now she can do this job quite well." The old man said with some heartache.

Zhou Leng replied loudly: "Grandma, go to the room and watch TV. I'll call you when the meal is ready. After dinner, I have something to discuss with you."

The old man patted his granddaughter on the back and said, "You are just like your dead father. If you have anything to say, just say it. Saying it in advance makes people worry about you. I will light the fire for you. Just say it now. It's not time for me to watch TV yet."

Zhou Leng brought a stool for the old lady to sit on and did not let her go forward to light the fire. The two of them talked in front of the stove.

Seeing that the old lady was in good spirits, she said with confidence: "Grandma, I don't want to go to school anymore. I want to go home and be with you."

The old lady stared at her granddaughter with her cloudy eyes. She did not ask excited questions nor did she express any puzzled doubts. She just said calmly, "Have you thought it through?"

This was an unexpected result for Zhou Leng. She said tentatively, "Grandma, I thought you would be angry."

Wang Xiuli sighed with emotion and said calmly:

"Grandma is old and her eyesight is blurry, but her heart is not muddled. Why doesn't your mother come back? Life outside is too harsh and can't accommodate a child like us who was raised by others. It's better to go home. Life at home is peaceful and you can always live comfortably by guarding the land. Isn't this how life is? You have to live anyway. You can only sleep on a one-meter-wide piece of land and eat grains."

Zhou Leng leaned over and held grandma's hand. She explained loudly:

"Grandma, I couldn't keep up with the learning progress in the county school. What I learned in the city was different from what I learned in the countryside. I couldn't keep up with English either. Gradually, I didn't like studying anymore. Grandma, you're right. I didn't feel at ease when I was outside, but I felt much more at ease when I returned home."

"Our roots are here, and the land here allows us to grow well."

Zhou Leng nodded.

As the grandparents and grandchildren were talking, Zhou Leng was skillfully scooping rice and cooking.

Today, the old man finally doesn’t eat alone in peace.

At the dinner table, Wang Xiuli was worried that her granddaughter would be in a bad mood when she returned, so she took the initiative to start a conversation, talking about interesting things happening in each family in the village, as if to imply that the village was also doing well.

After dinner, Zhou Leng took out the clothes and shoes he bought for the old woman and asked her to try them on.

Wang Xiuli couldn't stop smiling. Although she said it was a waste, she was happy in her heart.

The next day, Zhou Leng made a big renovation at home. He first cleaned the house, took off the quilt that could crush a person to death, and fluffed out the cotton. He also replaced the roof with new straw and re-nailed the courtyard wall and wooden door.

In just one week, the house looked brand new.

The two of them were working in their own yard, and few people came to disturb them. Zhou Leng felt particularly peaceful inside. She liked such simple and quiet days. Here she would not communicate with outsiders unless necessary, and she rarely spoke at other times.

Wang Xiuli also likes to do things with her granddaughter. She feels much happier having her family around.

The old woman has never been to school and is illiterate. She only knows how to do farm work. Although she knows that her children can have a better future if they go to school, she knows that she is getting older and the cost of her children's schooling will become more and more expensive. If she dies one day and her children haven't finished their schooling and haven't learned farm work, how will she live? She might as well come back. At least she can have enough food and clothing and be free.

After finishing most of the housework, Zhou Leng took the elderly to the county town to do some shopping. She wanted to buy a pair of reading glasses for her grandmother and a new TV for the family.

The TV we watch at home now is an old-fashioned one, and it doesn’t even have an antenna. The knitting needles at home are bent and plugged into the place on the back of the TV where the antenna should be connected. It can only receive the national channel No. 1 and the provincial channel No. 2.

Wang Xiuli likes watching TV, which is her only way to understand the outside world and also the place where she witnesses the rapid development of modern society. Every night, the old lady lies on the table in front of the TV without fail, with her head pressed tightly against the screen, watching seriously.

Now Zhou Leng has completely become the head of the family. The old woman complained about wasting money, but her arms and legs followed her granddaughter obediently. She knew that this was the child's filial piety, and she couldn't disappoint him, nor did she want to shirk it. She knew that Wangwang had a strong self-esteem since she was a child, so she should praise him more and criticize him less.

This was the second time the old woman came to the county town after taking her son's ashes home. The last time she held little Chen Wang's hand tightly, and she was little Chen Wang's support. This time it was her granddaughter who held her wrist tightly, and this time her granddaughter was her support.

The two of them bought Wang Xiuli a pair of reading glasses, and Zhou Leng bought a few feet of cloth. Her grandmother had always said that she wanted to teach her how to make shoes and clothes. She knew that the old woman was afraid that she had no life skills, so she just had to do whatever the old woman wanted to do, as it was always good to have many skills.

lunch time.

Zhou Leng took the old man to a restaurant with a better appearance for dinner. The old man nervously pulled her granddaughter's sleeve and said in what she thought was a very small voice:

"Spendthrift child, how much does it cost to eat here? I asked you to bring two steamed buns this morning but you wouldn't let me. Why spend this money? Spendthrift child."

Zhou Leng wanted to answer in a low voice, but the old man couldn't hear her, so she could only wave her hand and pat the old man's arm soothingly.

The two entered the restaurant, sat down and ordered food.

At Zhou Leng's insistence, we ordered a vegetarian dish, a meat dish, and two bowls of rice.

In the few times that Wang Xiuli went to restaurants, she always went to roadside fly restaurants. She didn't even dare to eat in those neatly decorated, clean and bright restaurants, because she always felt that the food there was more expensive. In fact, the difference was not that big.

Under Wang Xiuli's cloudy and sharp gaze, Zhou Leng didn't dare to leave a single grain of rice, and he almost licked the plates and bowls. Looking at the excessively clean tableware, the old man still secretly hit Zhou Leng to vent his little emotions.

Check out and leave.

After we walked out of the door, the waiters on both sides said politely, "Welcome to visit us next time."

Wang Xiuli tried to straighten her back, then walked out slowly. A few meters outside the door, she said dejectedly, "Two dishes, two bowls of rice, almost a hundred yuan. Oh my, I feel so sorry for you."

"Grandma, what do you think? They serve you tea and water, and greet you with a smile. Do you think it's worth the money?"

The old man hit Zhou Leng gently again. She didn't say anything. She thought that the money was worth it. She was also a person who had eaten in the restaurant, so it was worth dying for.

The two went to buy a TV, and Zhou Leng also secretly bought some cakes that the old man liked. There was no door-to-door service or home delivery for purchasing electrical appliances here.