After a simple rebirth

During the two years that Fu Ying and Fu Zhe lived in his house, there were five children in his family, including his own youngest son, youngest daughter, the youngest son left behind by his uncle Zhao, and Fu Ying and Fu Zhe, but he never cared about them.

He didn't care whether the children had eaten or not, nor whether they came back to spend the night. If he won the bet, he would give his second cousin some money to buy them food. If he lost, he would get nothing, so he didn't bother him. He might not even be there to plant crops or harvest them. He would let them go by themselves after notifying them.

After Fu Ying and Fu Zhe were taken away by their mother, the remaining three children also chose not to continue their studies and were unwilling to stay at home. No matter how old they were, they all went out to work.

Although Sixth Uncle was generally unreliable, he did not ignore Fu Ying and Fu Zhe. At least he asked his cousin to find someone to help them enroll in school. Regardless of whether they did well in their studies, they lived a stable life for two years.

I closed my eyes and thought about the past, and arrived at the county. If Gumang is a basin among the mountains, then the county town and Zhaojiatun are completely built on the mountains.

The place to get off the bus in the county town is a long slope. They all got off at the foot of the slope. Because Gumang and Zhaojiatun are in the south and north, the places to get on the bus are also different. This is the boarding and alighting station for Gumang. Go a little further, in the middle of another slope, there is a bus for Zhaojiatun. They are all small seven-seater vans with a label on the car that says which town it is going to. Fu Ying and the others found the bus to Zhaojiatun.

Zhaojiatun is closer to the county town, the fare is only 6 yuan, and the road is not as difficult as that in Gumang, because Zhaojiatun is a border town, bordering Guizhou Province, and the next town becomes Guizhou Province. The altitude in Guizhou Province is lower, so it is all downhill in that direction, and there are no big bends.

Actually, they did. When the high-speed rail in the county was not open, they took the high-speed rail to Guizhou Province and then took a van back. The driver took a small road to save highway tolls and was afraid of being checked for overloading.

The path has cliffs on one side and high mountains on the other, with many bends. It takes a long detour from Guizhou Province to Yunnan Province. Fu Ying was terrified when she was on the road.

That road is too dangerous and people don't go there easily, so these relatively regular passenger buses all choose to take this easy road.

In less than an hour, we arrived at the intersection of my sixth uncle's house. Fu Ying still remembers that the elementary school was at the intersection below and my sixth uncle's house was at the intersection above. There was a preparatory bell five minutes before the morning and afternoon classes. When the bell rang, we had to put on our shoes and run from my sixth uncle's house to school.

Fu Ying and the other two got off the car. There was a convenience store at the intersection in the direction of the school. Fu's mother went there to buy two packs of cigarettes and a bottle of white wine. There were no children at the sixth uncle's house, and he just liked to order cigarettes and alcohol, so Fu's mother only bought these.

Going up the path, we arrived at my sixth uncle's house. My sixth uncle's house is also a building of a seal, but it is incomplete. There is a small yard in front of the door, a main hall in the middle, and rooms on both sides of the main hall.

Facing the field, the concave shape does not have the protruding left side, because it belongs to someone else's house, and there is one on the right. The right room is adjacent to a large open space, which is the foundation of my eldest uncle's house and the straw hut where my youngest uncle used to live. Now there are only weeds and a large prickly ash tree that has been there for many years.

When the peppercorns were ripe, Fu Ying had picked them there, but there were too many thorns, and she was pricked several times when she picked a bunch. Fresh peppercorns can be sold. They once carried a basket of peppercorns to the market and sold them on the ground at one yuan per pound. Half of them were sold and the money was divided up on the spot. The rest was carried back to dry, ground into pepper powder, and put into chili noodles, which was very fragrant when used as a dip.

On the left side of the house was the stove, where people would usually be. But there was no smoke coming out of the chimney and the door was locked, so Fu Ying suspected that her sixth uncle was not at home.

Mother Fu called out a few times, "Brother Lu? Brother Lu?" and then went forward and knocked on the door. No one opened the door and no one answered. He was really not at home.

Mother Fu put down the backpack, asked Fu Ying and Fu Zhe to sit at the door and watch, and she walked down the slope.

Fu Ying sat on the steps in front of the door, watching Fu Ma walk away. Sixth Uncle might not have a cell phone at this time, otherwise why didn't Fu Ma call? I don't know if Fu Ma went to ask the neighbors downstairs, or went to look for someone somewhere else.

In that direction, Xiaosan's family is over there, and the people in the village who have telephones are also over there. It's hard to say.

An adult passed by the Sixth Uncle's house, looked at them for a few seconds, and asked uncertainly, "Which family are you from? Are you looking for Zhao Zhenglu?"

Fu Ying nodded, "Zhao Zhenglu is my uncle, my mother is his sister, my mother's name is Zhao Feifei."

The adult nodded, probably remembering something, "You guys are here to see your uncle? You just came back from Guangdong Province?"

Fu Ying shook her head. "My brother and I returned to our hometown to attend high school. During the National Day holiday, my mother and I came to visit my uncle."

"Did you live at your uncle's house a few years ago? You two look so familiar to me." the adult continued to ask.

Fu Ying looked at her carefully. Yes, a nagging old lady, but she had no impression of her. "Yes, my brother and I studied here for two years. My cousins ​​were there too."

"No wonder, I said I had seen you. Then you sit for a while, I will help you ask where your uncle went." said the talkative but kind-hearted aunt.

"Thank you. My mother has gone to look for him." Finally she left.

Fu Ying exhaled, and Fu Zhe spoke, "Second sister, don't you remember who she is?"

Fu Ying? "Who? I don't remember. Why should I remember?"

Fu Zhe was shocked! "That's Zhu Xue's mother. Zhu Xue was in the same class with you in elementary school, and her sister Zhu Jin was in the same class with me!"

? Zhu Xue remembered, after all, she was a good friend at that time, a top student + school beauty, with a dazzling smile and dimples. Everyone loves beauty, so she must remember it.

But Fu Ying really doesn’t remember her mother. Although Fu Ying went to Zhu Xue’s house to play a few times, it has been so many years!

Fu Ying shook her head. "I don't remember. I just remember what Zhu Xue looked like."

Fu Zhe was speechless, and the two continued to wait.

Fu Ying was still thinking about Zhu Xue's family, which was a typical rural family. Her grandmother probably wanted to leave a descendant, so after four granddaughters, she still wanted a grandson, and her mother finally gave birth to a son as the fifth. But her family was not very patriarchal, her grandmother and mother were both very nice, and Zhu Xue was also cheerful and optimistic.

Similarly, because she had many children, her family's financial situation was really poor.

Fu Ying remembers that Zhu Xue had four sisters, all of whom had good grades. In 08, one was in college, one was in high school, Zhu Xue and her sister were in elementary school, and her brother was still young and had not yet gone to school. Her house was still built of yellow mud, and apart from the main room and the room where her grandmother lived, there were only three rooms, and the sisters slept together.

But her family also has a future. In the words of the older generation, if every child in her family works hard, her family will definitely develop very well once the children graduate.

I don't know if I can meet her this time. She should be in high school. There is no high school in Zhaojiatun, so she can only go to the county town. There is a holiday on National Day, so she should be at home. But Fu Ying will not take the initiative to find her, mainly because it has been too many years, she can't guarantee that she will recognize her, and she doesn't know what to talk about. It's too embarrassing, so I'd better let it go.

At this time, Fu's mother came back from the bottom of the slope, followed by her young sixth uncle. Fu Ying and Fu Zhe called her sixth uncle, who smiled and nodded, then took out the key to open the door.