all the way

Sitting in the small braised noodle restaurant, Liu Xia felt a little out of harmony.

It should be said that this owner who worked as a kitchen assistant in a well-known restaurant in Yuancheng kept the shop pretty clean, at least better than most of the small restaurants in Wangning and Rongze. There are all kinds of paper balls and plastic bags, and there are brand new bamboo curtains hanging on the door, so there are no flies in the store.

But even so, Liu Xia also felt that Wang Junyu sitting here was very unsuitable for the environment.

Wang Junyu's clothes are very ordinary, dark blue trousers, light blue shirt with fine checks, there is nothing outstanding, but he looks very refreshing and elegant, inexplicably people feel that such a small shop has buried him.

Unexpectedly, Mao'er's feeling was even more strange. He sat on the stool next to Liu Xia and looked around, looked at Wang Junyu, then knelt on the stool and looked at Liu Xia's face with his head tilted, his eyes rolled A few laps: "I don't know what's wrong, uncle, once you come here, I don't think it's so beautiful here, no, no, it's not that it's not beautiful here with you, yes, um--, it just doesn't look beautiful here It turns out that when my uncle brought me and my brother Rui here to eat stewed noodles, I always thought it was a beautiful place, with electric fans and floral paper on the walls.”

The owner of the small shop wearing a white chef's clothes and a white chef's hat just came out, and laughed when he heard the cat's words: "Oh boy, what do you mean is that my small shop is too simple to accommodate Mr. Wang and your uncle?" Such a handsome man, isn't he?"

He put two plates of green cold salad on the table, and said to Liu Xia and Wang Junyu: "It's really too simple, I'm planning to build two rooms in the future, and make two private rooms, Mr. Wang, this Little brother, don't be disgusted with you two, although my store is not very good, the things we make are guaranteed to be clean and delicious."

Liu Xia gave the cat a symbolic slap on the buttocks: "Look at you burning buns, how many times have you gone out to eat? Now you're picking places!"

Mao'er smiled and showed off: "I have eaten in Kyoto several times, and I have eaten in Jiangcheng several times with you, and I have eaten in Spring City with my third uncle several times, hehe, I just feel that uncle you It’s not good to eat here, it’s still so hot here, when I grow up, I’ll take you to Kyoto to eat, and you can eat it at the big round table, that’ll be beautiful.”

Liu Xia hugged him down and pressed him on the stool: "Uncle likes stewed noodles, there are no big restaurants in Kyoto, and I don't think it's beautiful to sit on a big round table to eat."

The boss said: "Hey, that's right. It's a taste when we eat. If the food is not to your liking, the table is of no use. However, if the food tastes good and the environment is good, that would be even better."

The cat raised her face and said to the boss: "When I grew up, I made stewed noodles for my uncle. It tastes better than yours."

The boss smiled and said: "Zhongbai, Zhong, if your rice is more delicious than mine, you open a shop, and I will support you."

Wang Junyu kept looking at Mao'er with a smile: This is a very unfortunate child who lost his mother at birth, and his biological father took it out on him because of this, and ignored him. According to common sense, he should be better than those parents on Wangning Street. A child who does nothing is even more miserable, either becoming a disheveled rogue with vulgar words and deeds, or a filthy wimp who has become cowardly and timid because he is often bullied.

But this kid, better dressed than most, neater, more cheerful and confident than almost any kid he's ever met, not the spoiled kid who acts recklessly and causes trouble and thinks he's justified Confidence, but the confidence that he can find joy in any boring place and enjoy it all. .

Compared with other children of the same age, he may be a bit more mischievous, but it is not an annoying trouble, but those games that boys usually like are always played by him with shockingly difficult tricks.

Wang Junyu saw with his own eyes that the cat came out after delivering the persimmon frost to him, jumped from the tree to the long, crumbling earthen wall, galloped across it to the other side, and then jumped over a distance of more than one meter. The high wall of the family next door, jumped from the wall to the tree, slipped down the tree like a monkey, made a slip in the stinky puddle, ran across the wheat field to the school, and put him and him together. Liu Rui who came with him was so frightened that he yelled to go home and tell his grandma to spank his ass.

But the next time I see the cat, the little guy will still look sensible and polite in front of him. Once out of the sight of the adults, he will still be mischievous and scary, but also happy and comfortable, which makes people yearn for it.

The cat's self-satisfaction should have been a continuation of the tragedy, because he has no playmates, because he is rejected by the people around him, so he has to find something that is only happy for him to spend his lonely days.

But the current situation is that because he has the love of his family and a brother-in-law who treats him as a treasure and gives him the love that belongs to him alone, loneliness can no longer cause harm to him, and he can enjoy the care and happiness to the fullest. free territory.

Because there is hope in his heart, he has unconsciously learned to despise loneliness, and then forgets loneliness, confidently creating his own happiness.

The cat noticed that Wang Junyu was looking at him all the time, and asked bluntly, "Uncle Wang, why are you looking at me all the time?"

Wang Junyu said: "I want to see if you can finish a bowl of stewed noodles in a while. Didn't you tell uncle that you have grown into a big child?"

Half an hour later, the cat proved to Wang Junyu and Liu Xia with his swollen belly that he had really grown up and could eat a whole bowl of braised noodles.

Liu Xia hugged him onto his lap, rubbed his stomach and said, "Baby, does your stomach hurt?"

The cat puffed its stomach again and said, "No, it doesn't hurt at all. Uncle said, I'm old and thin, so I eat more. Changli is tall and fat. I can protect you when I grow up."

Mao'er now knows that no matter how hard he tries, he can't catch up with Liu Xia and grow up to be the same size as Liu Xia, so he revised his goal, to grow taller and fatter, so that he can protect Liu Xia when he grows up. Uncle, don't let my uncle be bullied by people like that Mr. Huang Sun.

After dinner, Liu Xia told Wang Junyu that he went to buy peanuts and cornstarch and walked back slowly with the cat.

Wang Junyu said: "If you leave now, you will take up the hottest hours of the day. Let's go later, at three or four o'clock, so that you can cool down more or less in the next two hours, or you can stay here with me." Stay overnight and leave tomorrow morning when it is cool."

Liu Xia has only been out for half a day, and he is very homesick. He misses his elder brother and Liu Ling. unwilling.

But Maoer wanted to go home too. When he saw Liu Xia was sweating all the time, he thought of the shady cave dwelling at home, the swing in the shade of the trees, and the clear and cool Fengxi River. , it won't be so hot, so he doesn't even want to stay in Wangning for a while, he insists on being here now.

Wang Junyu saw that they really wanted to leave and didn't force them to stay. He suddenly thought of a question and said to Liu Xia: "On the day of Liu Yu's wedding, if your elder brother and the others set off from your village in the morning, it would take at least five hours to reach Sunjia Village. , It will take five hours to come back. It is really hard work. On such a hot day, I am afraid that their clothes will be soaked before they can reach the kiln. It is not appropriate to wear sweaty clothes to the woman's house.

You go back and discuss with your family, let them come early the night before, stay with me, and leave here early on the morning of the [-]st, so that after picking up the bride, they can go back while it is cool.

The people from the woman's family who sent off relatives are no better than those from your family. Thirty miles of mountain road, when will they have to go?They still have to come back that day. Do the math, is there enough time? "

Liu Xia doesn't need to count, the family has already considered this problem more than once, and there is no way to solve it.

After discussion, Liu Changqing, Liu Changchun, and Liu Kui made a decision: the four people who greeted their relatives set off at 02:30 in the morning and arrived at the north slope of Shangyao at [-] o'clock. Liu Chuan's car stopped there ahead of time and took them to Sunjia Village.

After the brief ceremony, at about 07:30, the wedding team returned. Liuchuan drove, and it took about an hour from Sunjiacun to the north slope of Shangyao, and it took about five hours for the wedding team to reach Liujialing, which was around one o'clock in the afternoon.

After one and a half hours, he entertained the bride's relatives for dinner, and then Liu Chuan accompanied the relatives to return, and then drove them back to Sunjia Village from the north slope of Shangyao, and finally, Liu Chuan returned by himself.

In this case, the hardest one is Liu Chuan. He needs to go back and forth four times from the north slope of Shangyao to Liujialing in one day and one night.

When discussing this matter, Liu Yu almost went crazy, he said: "Don't ask my brothers to follow me to greet the relatives, and don't ask their people to see the relatives, I will pick Yufang back by myself, so that there is no need to turn around Come on, my third brother is not an iron man, who can stand it four times a day?"

Liu Changchun said: "Marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime event. If so, wouldn't Yufang be too wronged? There is not even a wedding ceremony, but it's really not good to ask Chuan'er to run like this. What should I do? "

In the end, it was decided, because the whole family knew that even if they refused, Liu Chuan would definitely insist on entertaining the woman's family as thoughtfully as possible, and he was the most thoughtful for the person who sent the woman off by himself. arranged.

After listening to Wang Junyu's words, Liu Xia felt that it was totally advisable, at least Liu Chuan could rest for one night before making those three trips.

Saying goodbye to Wang Junyu, Liu Xia and Mao'er went to a small private shop to buy peanuts and rice flour. He also wanted to buy a watermelon, but felt that watermelon was too difficult to get. On the way back, he had to carry Mao'er on his back After a while, the round and gurgling watermelon became a big burden.

Mao'er resolutely pulled Liu Xia away from the watermelon stand: "I don't want to buy it, I don't have a car, and I can't carry it on my back. Uncle, let's go to the post office to have a look. My brother Rui and I I used to go to the post office to check it every day.”

Because the brothers were all at home, Liu Xia originally thought that there would be no more letters from their family, so he never thought about going to the post office. In the end, there were not only two letters, one from Chen Zhenbei and one from Zhang Fusheng. .

The two passed through Fujiazhuang, and sat down under a big willow tree by the roadside. Liu Xia opened Zhang Fusheng's letter to read.

There is nothing special about Zhang Fusheng, that is, they made an appointment before the holiday. If there is nothing to do, they should communicate with each other and get to know each other's addresses. The situation like last summer when Liu Xia arrived in Beijing but couldn't find Yun Jian's house, Zhang Fusheng, as the boss I practiced it personally, and really wrote letters to the other six people in the dormitory.

But it can't be said that nothing happened. Zhang Fusheng's letter was full of sadness and joy. The joy was that he found Qiao Yanfang's house. Zhang Fusheng felt as if his boyfriend status had been established, and he was secretly delighted.

The sad thing is that the dispatch certificates of Qiao Yanfang and other graduates from undergraduate colleges were sent directly to the region and city where they were located, and then Qiao Yanfang and the others were notified to consult the distribution situation in September. Zhang Fusheng had a hunch that Qiao Yanfang's distribution should be very unsatisfactory.

Liu Xia was also surprised. The school had told them that over the years, the graduates of their school were at least assigned to provincial-level units. The difference between good and bad is only: you only need to sit in the office and drink tea An administrative unit that can receive wages just by flipping through newspapers is still an enterprise unit that often needs to carry out field work.

Qiao Yanfang, what's going on?Was it sent directly to such a small prefecture-level city?

However, although there were doubts, Liu Xia didn't care too much. He felt that Zhang Fusheng must have thought too much. After all, the dispatch certificate is not the final distribution decision. Maybe this is just to reduce the concentration of students in the distribution of provincial labor and education departments. What about the pressure?

In short, Zhang Fusheng's letter only made Liu Xia's already good mood even happier.

When Liu Xia was about to carry the cat on his back, the cat broke free from his hand and started to run. It stopped only about ten meters in front of him, and turned back to him and said, "Uncle! , look how energetic I am, running so fast, I won't tell you to recite, look how hot you are."

It was just before noon, and the sun was really scorching the earth like a flame. Although most of the way they walked was shaded by trees, the temperature was still there, and the shade of the trees had no effect at all.

In addition, Liu Xia bought a few more catties of peanuts on a temporary basis. The seven or eight catties that are usually nothing to him have become a heavy burden at this moment. He has already taken off his shirt, and his upper body is really dripping with sweat now. of.

Liu Xia called Mao'er to rest under the shade of a tree, but Mao'er stood three meters away from Liu Xia and refused to approach him, for fear that Liu Xia would suddenly attack and carry him on his back.

Liu Xia sat on the ground: "Boy, come here, my uncle is probably too sweaty to carry you on his back today, he must be slipping around and walking, let's take a rest for a while and let's walk slowly."

Cat ran over and sat beside Liu Xia, watching him worried: "I'd rather tell you to buy a watermelon and I'll carry it on my back, and now I can beat it open and tell you to eat some, you must be thirsty after sweating so much. "

Liu Xia wiped the sweat from his little face and said: "Uncle is fine, you are so young, you can't be thirsty, the slope ahead will not be so steep, let's go down to Fengxi River to drink some water." He also said to himself: "Ye'er is carrying such a big bag of vegetables, and he is also carrying that Nier, so he doesn't know how to walk back!"

The cat didn't make a sound, just scratched the sweat beads on Liu Xia's back with his little finger and flung them away.

The two of them went down the slope of Shangyao, went down to the Fengxi River to drink water twice in a relatively gentle place, and borrowed water from the house that lived on the side of the road when they arrived at Guanjiayao, and returned at 06:30. home.

Liu Xia and Mao'er came back from Fengxi River after taking a shower and changed their clothes. As soon as they entered the cave dwelling, they saw Liu Lingzheng holding 20 yuan in one hand and Chen Zhenbei's letter in the other hand to Liu Changqing, Liu Changchun and others read:

"...I wanted to buy a gift to express my congratulations. One is that I have been busy with training recently and I don't have time to go back to Kyoto to pick it out. The other is that I don't know much about it. I'm afraid it may not be suitable for me to buy it. In the end, I might as well send money. 20 yuan is not a respect, so tell Liu Yu not to think it too little.

Uncle, Uncle, you heard it all. I didn’t specifically tell Lianchang Chen about the fourth brother’s marriage. It was the fourth brother who wrote to me and said that the auspicious day he saw was “August [-]”. I found it very interesting. Received Company Commander Chen, oh, I’m used to it, he is now my deputy battalion commander, I just received a letter from Company Commander Chen that day, and when I replied, I casually mentioned it as a joke, how could I know that he has such a good memory, Will give gifts! "

Liu Changchun was very embarrassed and said: "Oh, I've only met a few times, so it's inappropriate to accept such a heavy gift from someone."

Liu Changqing said: "That child is a loyal person, since people have sent it, just accept it, Xiao Ling, remember, when this child Xiao Chen gets married, let me know in advance, we have to return the gift. "

Liu Ling folded the letter and stuffed it into the envelope: "Zhong, I remembered Uncle, and I will give him a big gift when the time comes to ensure that we don't owe him anything."

Liu Chuan rushed home before dark the next day and brought back thirty catties of dried noodles.

Liu Xia thought that it was so difficult for him to walk yesterday after carrying seven or eight catties of things, and even the cat refused to let him carry it on his back because of his cowardice, so he was really convinced by the third brother.

He also sneaked a look at Liu Mao who was sitting on a tree bump and looking at Liu Chuan with a smile, and Liu Nana who was sitting on the mat and playing games with Liu Yun and Liu Lei. The most useless person at home seems to be myself.

More than an hour after Liu Chuan came back, Liu Yu's first bed-pressing ceremony began.

Liu Yun and Liu Lei were placed in the middle of the bed, and the cat yelled excitedly and jumped up and danced around them to warm up a few times, then Liu Wei, Liu Rui and Liu Xin also stood on the bed, Liu Xia, Liu Ling and Liu Hai sat on the edge of the bed, and the three brothers Liu Miao, Jian Bin, Cheng Bin, and Yong Bin who came to join in the fun couldn't sit on it. They all stood around the bed and prepared to cheer. The red guest was put up.

Hong Bin is two months older than Mao'er, but half a head taller than Mao'er, and has a big circle of fat, which makes Liu Xia envious. He touched Hong Bin's soft waist and sighed: "Oh, what about my cat? I’m happy to be able to eat so fat even now.”

Mao'er jumped over and sat straddling Liu Xia's arms, hugged his neck, looked at him with bulging cheeks, and said angrily, "I've eaten a big bowl of stewed noodles today, I'm going to gain weight soon gone."

The bed-pressing ceremony officially started, and the cat refused to get up, so he sat in Liu Xia's arms and shouted with everyone: "press the bed, press the bed, press out the whole house, heheha, hehehe, hehehehehehe; Squeeze the bed, press the bed, press out a good room..."