all the way

Liu Xia stared at Huang Youguang, dumbfounded.

He never thought about this possibility. Although he has stayed in this famous university for more than three years, and although college students are no longer just an unattainable term for him and their family, in his subconscious mind, the university The professor is still a legendary existence, he has never connected this profession with himself.

He himself felt very strange. When he knew that Zhan Wei wanted to stay in school as a teacher, although he was a little surprised, he immediately accepted Zhan Wei's idea and was happy for him. He felt that if they all graduated and left here, there would be Zhan Wei. Wei Zai, it seems that they still have deep concerns and sustenance here, and the brothers in their dormitory will not be like quicksand on the riverside. The tide of graduation washes away, and they are scattered in the end of the world.

But he himself, never had such an idea.

Growing up in that impoverished and closed valley, college students are already the highest point of his dreams, and those who teach college students are beyond his cognition, so even though he is already so close to them, they get along day and night, so close A teacher is like a friend, but he has lost the ability to imagine and look forward to this position.

Liu Xia suddenly felt a little uncomfortable and sad, and after a while, he shook his head gently and said to Huang Youguang, "I never thought about it."

Huang Youguang nodded and said, "Then think about it now, and let me know when you're done thinking about it."

Liu Xia looked at Huang Youguang in a daze, but still couldn't believe what he meant.

Huang Youguang said to him seriously: "You heard me right, I'm asking if you want to stay in our school, I've heard about your family's situation, I hope you can stay in school, or I hope you can have a better life in the future." development, not..."

He paused for a while before continuing: "Instead of being assigned to a construction company in a certain small town that may disintegrate at any time like many students graduating this year, being a dispensable surveyor, or being a dispensable surveyor in a certain city earthquake In the only office of the bureau, flipping through newspapers, drinking inferior tea, and spending your life doing nothing, Liu Xia, are you willing to do that?"

Liu Xia shook his head blankly: "Brothers and sisters graduating this year, is anyone assigned to such a unit?"

Huang Youguang didn't speak, but still looked at him so calmly.

Liu Xia understood. He lowered his head, and his eyes just fell on the letter from home. He held the letter in his hand and looked at the bold and free block letters behind the sender's address under the envelope: Rongze County, Yuancheng City, Central Plains Province Wangning Township Liujialing Brigade.

He raised his head and asked Huang Youguang: "Mr. Huang, if I work in Jiangcheng and I bring a person with me, a person who is closest to me, can I also move his household registration to Jiangcheng? No matter what method is used, it will cost money. , or find someone to go through the back door, or any other method, can you?"

Huang Youguang looked at him in surprise: "What?"

Liu Xia said: "I didn't know until I was in high school that the admission scores of the college entrance examination are not the same across the country. The admission scores of the Central Plains, Donghai, Zhongnan, and several other provinces are higher than many other provinces, and many of them are good. The number of people admitted by the school is very small, much less than that of big cities like Kyoto and Haidu, and no matter where you go to school, you have to go back to the Central Plains Province for the exam.

After I arrived in Jiangcheng, I learned that people with urban hukou will be supervised no matter what. Parents’ units and neighborhood committees, they will not be like rural people. human reason. "

Huang Youguang asked: "Do you want to talk about your little nephew?"

Liu Xia nodded: "No matter where I go to work, I must take him with me. Although the schools in Jiangcheng are tighter, they can't compare with ours. The high school there is really like hell. We go to school every day. I didn’t get enough sleep for six hours. I used to really hate our school there, but now I know that there is no way to do it. Only by working harder than others can we stand at the same height as others.

I originally thought that as long as I become a commodity food, have a job, and have a salary, even if my nephew doesn't go to school, I can support him for a lifetime and let him live happily for the rest of his life.

But now I know, that’s not okay, I’m ten years older than him, if I get old and die, what will he do?Either I think of a way to turn him into a commodity grain city man, or let him go to a good school, and then study hard to get into college..."

Huang Youguang interrupted Liu Xia dumbfounded: "Liu Xia, if I remember correctly, you are not yet 19 years old?"

Liu Xia nodded: "It will be over in just over a month."

Huang Youguang said: "Then you think about your nephew's life in a hundred years?"

Liu Xia said seriously: "Of course, I am his dearest person, if I don't think for him, who will think for him?"

Huang Youguang knew about the cat's lack of a mother, but he was still confused: "Liu Xia, I know you are very, very good to your little nephew, but, doesn't he have a real father? Isn't he the one who should be the one to do it for you?" Is your nephew's future worrying?"

Liu Xia stared blankly at Huang Youguang for a moment, then took Mao'er's letter out of the envelope and handed it to him.

Huang Youguang took the letter suspiciously and read it:

…Uncle, I don’t know why, but I can’t control my mind all the time. Tell me, you can’t make unreasonable demands on the Bodhisattva. If I always tell the Bodhisattva to let you come back early, then you should be punished by the school. fired.

But every time I see Bodhisattva, I always think this way in my heart. Just now when I looked up and saw Bodhisattva smiling at me, I thought this way again. Said to the Bodhisattva: Bodhisattva, I just miss my uncle too much. I am just thinking about it. Don't ask my uncle to be fired.

Uncle, Bodhisattva is so good, she must know that I miss you so much, and that I just want to call you nice, and she will definitely not let you be expelled from school.

I went to the Post and Telecommunications Office yesterday to see if there was any letter from our family. I saw that the Post and Telecommunications Office began to sell wall calendars and calendars for next year. I knew that Uncle San’s unit would send them out in a few days. After a while, after the new year, there are 126 days before your graduation...

Huang Youguang looked at it slowly, trying to find a reason to clear up his confusion.

Liu Xia slowly began to tell him about the cat, about the snowy night nine years ago, about the beautiful and gentle second sister-in-law, the second aunt who treated him like a son, the father whose palm was pierced by a needle, and the stitches on his head. Wu Ge who had received a few injections but was lucky enough not to fall off the cliff;

The cat who refuses to eat the sister-in-law's milk;

A cat that drank spoiled milk and nearly died;

The cat who was hugged by his mother and sister-in-law and stood on the slope waiting for him to come home;

As soon as he can stumble and walk, he wants to find his cat along his way to school;

Considered an ominous cat by almost everyone I know...

Huang Youguang listened quietly, gradually forming clear pictures in his mind:

In a family surrounded by mountains, a little child is alone in front of his house, digging soil with twigs to play;

A small child squats on the ground, watching the ants running around all day long;

A little child wonders how the path before the door stretches in countless other directions, but he can never follow any of them to go further where others of his kind live;

A little child is looking at the mountain road that can bring his dearest uncle home in the afterglow of the setting sun...

In a small school built of cave dwellings, a large group of shabby-dressed primary school students huddled and played together, only a small figure stood alone outside the crowd, looking at the road leading to the outside of the mountain in the distance.

A child knelt on the kang and marked a mark on a wall calendar, and then looked at the seemingly endless numbers behind him in frustration...

"It's been almost nine years. I have never brought a surprise to our cat. I always let his expectations fail. He can calculate the time of Sunday very accurately when he is three or four years old, but I often have it because of the weather. , I couldn't go back for several weeks... Now, he finally waited until I was about to graduate, a real graduation, and never had to leave him again. I didn't want to let him down again.

Mr. Huang, I heard that in Jiangcheng, if students with registered permanent residence in this city want to go to a good school, they have to pay a lot of sponsorship fees or tuition fees. To enter a better school or kindergarten, if my cat comes here, I am willing to pay the sponsorship fee, will any school accept him? "

Huang Youguang looked out of the window and thought for a while: "I don't know, my family is in Hangzhou, and my children have been going to schools near my house step by step. I know that many good schools in Jiangcheng, from kindergarten to high school, have to pay sponsorship fees to get in. , that is still registered in this city, you are from the Central Plains, and you have to cross provinces, maybe... no way..."

Liu Xia took Mao'er's letter back, and read it again by himself: "I asked Yun Jian and Zhan Wei, the sponsorship fee in Kyoto is higher than in Jiangcheng, and Jiangcheng seems to be higher than Yuancheng, but for foreigners, even if you are willing No one is willing to pay sponsorship fees and borrowing fees.

I am from the original city. If I go back to the original city and look for someone, the cat may still enter the school there. I may be able to pay the sponsorship fee and borrowing fee there if I work hard! "

Huang Youguang asked: "Are you sure you can be assigned to the original city? Most of this year's graduates returned to the prefecture-level city where they came from."

Liu Xia said: "Our family belongs to a county below the original city. Worst case, I will be assigned back to our county, right?"

He didn't mention Wang Ningxiang, because from the bottom of his heart, he really didn't want to go back to that closed and dirty place after going to college.

Huang Youguang said: "It should not be assigned to the county level, our school is a national key and has a very good reputation in the professional field.

However, I’m not sure. In fact, many of the graduates this year were still doing internships at the climax of the movement and did not participate. The main force for initiating and organizing that movement was your class and the 8* students below you. level, I am concerned that your graduation assignments may be worse than this year.

Liu Xia, it is because of this factor that I want you to stay in school. Before that, what I hope is that you will be my postgraduate student until you get a Ph.D. and then stay in school or go abroad for further study. "

Liu Xia stared blankly at Huang Youguang, something that he never dared to think about, but this teacher has already planned so long for him.

"It's not that foreign countries are definitely better than our country, but if people travel more, see more, and see more of the world, their minds will be more open. When one day...disaster, or bad luck comes, the way you think about the problem will be different from others.

You have seen more, so there are more choices you can imagine, and it is not easy for you to dig into the horns. At critical moments, you can think of more ways to get out of trouble, instead of sticking to a certain narrow thinking. Push yourself into a dead end.

Your ability and character should have a better stage to display in a wider world, but now, because of an accident, you may not be able to be on the stage that already belongs to you, I think it's a pity.

But I read Mao'er's letter, but I don't know how to persuade you.

Not to mention staying in school to teach, the graduate student who took my exam will stay in school for two or three years. After two or three years, the limelight will pass, and your prospects for graduation may be very different. Are you unwilling to consider this? ? "

Liu Xia lowered his head and stroked the envelope in his hand and said: "Let the cat wait for another two or three years, let him get up at four ten in the morning and arrive home at eight o'clock in the evening for two or three years... I can't do it, I can't bear it, I can't do it." I don't want him to run away for a day;

And my elder brother, he has to travel farther than our cat and Xiaorui to pick them up every day, he has been picking me up and my other brothers for many years..."

Huang Youguang stared out of the window for a long time before sighing softly: "I see."

After returning from Huang Youguang's place, Liu Xia lay on the bed in a daze for a long time, wondering whether his choice today was correct, and whether such a choice was the best for Mao'er's future.

It was on the Sunday before returning to school during the summer vacation that Liu Xia heard what Liu Chuan said, and he began to reflect on whether his attitude towards Maoer's going to school had to be changed.

A friend of Liu Chuan's in Rongze, his father is a retired worker, his mother is an ordinary rural woman, and her health has always been poor. Usually, it is the father who takes care of the mother. Although there are occasional frictions between the brothers and sisters in the family, overall It's pretty peaceful.

Last winter, my friend's father died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. In the past few years, several sons in the family have been married one after another, and the mother has been taking medication for many years. The father's salary is not high, so there is no savings left for the mother.

In this way, after the father passed away, the mother's upbringing became a difficult problem, and the sons were unwilling to let the mother live with them.

Liu Chuan's friend was the third child in the family, and he was admitted to a technical secondary school, and the fourth child took over from his father and became a regular worker.

When a friend suggested that several sons take turns taking care of their mother, the eldest and second child disagreed, saying that the fourth child should take responsibility for providing for the mother until the end of her life after taking over from her father;

The fourth child said that even if he took over by himself, the mother had given birth to several brothers and sisters, and they were also obliged to support the mother. It was impossible to push all the responsibilities to him alone.

The two daughters said that they still have their father-in-law and mother-in-law to support, and it is not appropriate to take the mother to the husband's family to support them.

Now, my friend's mother cooks and lives by herself, and doesn't talk to anyone, saying that one day she can't cook anymore, and she will find a place where there is no one to die.

After listening to Liu Chuan's story, Liu Xia immediately thought of Mao'er. He is ten years older than Mao'er. If Mao'er doesn't pass the college entrance examination, he will have no job and no salary in the future. Then when he gets old and dies, Mao'er How to do it?

Liu Xia didn't realize that his thinking had run into a dead end. The cat in his mind was always the little cat that sat in his arms and listened to his family with him at that time. cats can support themselves.

He didn't tell anyone what he thought, so no one reminded him of this. Liu Xia planned his life path with such infinite worries about Mao'er's future.

Liu Xia thought for a long time, and felt that his choice was correct. He had to go back to the Central Plains Province, and return to the best environment he could get for Maoer's current life and education.

In the following months, several things happened that impressed Liu Xia deeply:

The first thing is that their English grade test results came down, he and Zhan Wei both passed, Heideqing did not waste the foreword, and took the whole dormitory to rub the Hongbin Building again.

Zhan Wei asked his mother to steam a large pot of steamed buns with the dried Sophora japonica flowers that Liu Xia brought him when he came back from summer vacation, and the people in 218 opposite also got a few of them. Steamed several times in a row.

Mother Zhan was also very happy to ask Zhan Wei to bring back two jars of the rice wine she brewed for them. Everyone clinked glasses with rice wine to celebrate their victory.

Grandpa Peng introduced Li Ming, the grandson of an old friend, to make up lessons with Liu Xia. The tuition fee was the same as that of Peng Fei, and Liu Xia agreed.

If it hadn't been for Zhan Wei who said that Che Hongmei's daughter, Xiaoli, had started learning the keyboard during the summer vacation, Liu Xia would have wanted Che Hongmei to introduce him to a few more children who wanted to learn calligraphy, so that they could come back three days after Peng Fei and the others had no classes. Open a calligraphy training class.

Now his mind is full of thinking about making more money, the more the better, so that he can afford the sponsorship fee and tuition fee of the best middle school in Yuancheng.

In mid-November, Qiao Yanfang finally got a job. She was assigned to a lighting factory in her city. Her letter described the factory as follows: Although there were only two rows of dilapidated factory buildings, although there were only fifty or sixty workers. , but it is a state-owned factory.

Before New Year's Day, Zhang Fusheng asked for leave and returned home once because he received a letter from Qiao Yanfang saying: Our deputy factory manager asked someone to introduce his son to me, but I refused. He asked the middleman to tell me that if I agree, it will be over. I got married and let me out of the workshop immediately, and arranged to be a deputy director in the office or something;

If I don’t agree, I’ll just wait to work in the workshop for the rest of my life. He said that for a person like me who has political problems, he can ask me to clean the toilet, and no one from the superiors will say anything to him.

Zhang Fusheng didn't go back to his home, but went directly to Qiao Yanfang's factory. Four days later, he returned to the dormitory in the early morning and fell asleep on the bed until the next afternoon. Fang said, we will get married as soon as I graduate, and you will all have to attend my wedding."

Liu Hai wrote in a letter saying that when he was helping a friend of Zeng Guangtong arrange an art exhibition, he met a girl named Fei Wenwen.

Fei Wenwen is a third-year student in the foreign language department of a normal college in Kyoto. She is also a native of Kyoto. She is beautiful and enthusiastic. She left Liu Hai with her BB phone number.

Liu Hai is very tangled, this is a bit different from the romantic encounter he imagined.

The love he imagined was always in a place where he visited by chance, and found a girl at a glance, and then no matter how he asked, he could never get news of that girl again, so he didn't want to toss and turn The night was sleepless and his thoughts turned to ashes. Just when he was about to despair, the girl reappeared in front of him in another form of a fairy descending from the earth.

Then he pursued her in various ways, and the fairies rejected her in various ways. After going through ninety-nine and eighty-one hardships that were more difficult than Tang Monk's study of scriptures, he finally embraced the beauty.

When Liu Hai described his ideal love process to his family, Liu Chuan slapped him hard on the head: "There's something wrong, it's a lot of trouble when you're in love, and it doesn't stop much after you get married, master, you plan to have three Are you going to your father-in-law's house to apologize and pick up your daughter-in-law?"

Liu Ling said, "Xiao Hai, why does it sound like you have masochistic tendencies?"

Now, Liu Hai is a little confused by the love rhythm that is completely out of his ideal pattern. He has a good impression of Vivien Wen, except that he is too active.

On New Year's Day, Heideqing's parents came, and they stayed in Jiangcheng for three days. Liu Xia and the others thought they would live in a more luxurious hotel in Jiangcheng, but who knew they booked a very ordinary hotel, Heideqing's mother said : "Just sleeping in the dark at dusk, what a pity to spend so much money!"

Hei's father and Hei's mother came here this time not only to see the city where their son went to college, but also brought Hei Deqing a very big piece of good news: He had already asked someone to talk to the leader of their Provincial Public Security Bureau. Speaking of Heideqing's school, they agreed without saying a word, saying that as long as Heideqing's file passes the customs, they can ask the labor department in advance when the time comes for distribution.

Hei Deqing's internship unit has also been found, which is the Surveying and Mapping Design Institute of their province. Hei's father said: "I heard people say that it is also very important to go to a good unit for internship. In case we can't get in when the police station arrives, if you You performed well during your internship in the design institute, and your school is so famous, maybe you can stay in the design institute!

However, I will still try my best to get you assigned to the Public Security Bureau. The benefits there are very good. I heard that their annual bonus is more than the salary of many units for several years. "

The internship, which symbolizes the imminent graduation, has thus entered into the topic and life of Liu Xia and the others.