Teacher Xiao Zhong's adventures in the countryside

Li Hongfei returned to the office after the third class, and called Zhong Yiqiu to leave without sitting on the stool.

His family is in Lijiawa, which is the farthest village from the school. It usually takes more than half an hour to walk to school.

Li Hongfei borrowed a black [-] bicycle from someone, and locked it with an iron chain to a tree in the small field next to the office.

After leaving the school gate, he was about to leave as soon as he got into the car.

Zhong Yiqiu pulled him back, "How about I take you?"

"Hey! Teacher Zhong, although you are taller than me, you are definitely not as good at riding a bicycle as I am!" Li Hongfei had a look on his face that you don't look down on me.

Zhong Yiqiu hurriedly explained, "No, I'm afraid you won't be able to take me with you."

After thinking about it, it seemed that he was more satisfied with the fact that he was short, so he shut his mouth and remained silent.

"Haha, it's okay. The dirt roads in the countryside are not easy to walk. You have never ridden before. I will take you first, and you will take me when you come back." Li Hongfei comforted him with a smile.

It turned out that he was thinking too much. Not only did Li Hongfei ride a bicycle very well, but he was also very fast. He completely forgot that there was someone behind him, and his feet seemed to be on hot wheels, as if he wanted to take off.

The dirt road was bumpy, and Zhong Yiqiu jumped up, feeling like he was hanging all the way to the road.

Stopping at the entrance of the village, he raised his foot and rolled his legs, Zhong Yiqiu's eyes were quick and his hands were quick, and he jumped out of the car in a flash, avoiding disaster.

"How is it? Am I riding well?" Li Hongfei raised his eyebrows and begged for praise.

"Very good!" Zhong Yiqiu squeezed out a word between his teeth.

Li Hongfei didn't want to leave, so he braked his bicycle and squatted down under the shade of a tree.

Zhong Yiqiu looked depressed, why did the two of them squat on the side of the road as soon as they went out, like two villains who were going to enter the village to steal children, exchanging signals.

"It's the first house in the village, let me tell you first." Li Hongfei pointed to a blue-tiled house at the head of the village, calling Zhong Yiqiu to squat down too.

Zhong Yiqiu is wearing a pair of jeans today, which his sister bought for him when he was in college in Beijing. The pants are a bit tight, and it is a bit difficult to squat down.

"I went there last night, and Li Yunhuan's parents just insisted that they have no money to study." Li Hongfei said, sighing weakly, "But I think the child wants to go to school, and he dare not speak up when asked, since the child wants to go to school , we will make another trip and try our best to persuade you."

"How's her family situation?" Zhong Yiqiu asked.

"There must be school money, they don't have any burdens, the two older daughters are married, and one son is in junior high school in the town." Li Hongfei replied, changing his feet and continuing, "But, Li Yunhuan is not their own. , A family of relatives wanted to have a son, but had several daughters and didn’t want it, so I gave them one. There is no shortage of food in the countryside, so it’s no problem to support her, but it’s probably reluctant to spend money to go to school.”

"Then can we persuade you?" Zhong Yiqiu found it difficult.

"Her father can be reasonable. A high school student more than [-] years ago was considered the most educated in our village, but he was not in charge of the family. Li Yunhuan's mother is very evil. No one in the village can win a quarrel with her," Li Hongfei told him. Analysis, and finally decided, "Persuasion from her father should make sense."

The two discussed the countermeasures and pushed the cart into the village.

The doors of the house were all open and no one was seen, and the sound of cooking came from the kitchen. The two walked to the door of the kitchen, and saw a dark little girl standing on a bench in front of the pot, vigorously turning the spatula to stir-fry.

Li Yunhuan tidied up quite cleanly, with a ponytail and a set of purple short-sleeved shorts. When he saw them appearing at the door, he quickly jumped out to greet them.

Her upper teeth were so badly buckled that they almost seemed to stick out, and her lower lip was sunken.

When people stare at her, she will try unnaturally to draw in the exposed teeth, but to no avail, it looks more like she wants to suck her lower lip in.

"Your father and the others haven't dismissed their work yet?" Li Hongfei asked.

"Work is over, my father went to take a bath in the river, and my mother went to the third aunt's house in front." Li Yunhuan spoke loudly and very simply.

"This is the new teacher Zhong from the school, the university in the city..."

"My name is Zhong Yiqiu, and I will teach you mathematics this year." Zhong Yiqiu introduced herself before he said the word college student.

"You are the college student in the city, no wonder! You are different from us rural people!" Li Yunhuan said with a smile.

Zhong Yiqiu felt a little uncomfortable. Li Yunhuan didn't speak and behave like a child, but like an adult, pretending to be polite with real indifference.

Before she had time to ask her "what's the difference?" her father came back.

He was in his 40s, with a square face and an overly large mouth that made his smile look like it was wide open.

"Uncle Shui, this is Teacher Zhong from the school," Li Hongfei greeted.

"Sit in the house, sit in the house" he enthusiastically gave up the door.

"It's still about the black ring. The baby is still too young to go to school for another two years. Don't you think so, uncle?" Li Hongfei went straight to the point as if he was in a hurry.

He took out the shredded tobacco, rolled a cigarette and handed it to Zhong Yiqiu. Zhong Yiqiu waved his hand to thank him and said that he didn't know how to smoke.

He put the cigarette in his mouth, turned out a match and lit it, and then said, "Why don't I know what you said! It's necessary to learn some culture, but in our situation, the new teacher doesn't know, and you don't know it." You know? It's really unbearable for her brother to go to junior high school and then for her."

Zhong Yiqiu felt that a sentence of "no money" could seal all the truths.

"You came here because you knew about me! Uncle Shui, I didn't say I would let you support her in junior high school and high school, at least for a few more years, and wait for Heihuan to grow up before coming back to help you work." Li Hongfei sincerely suggestion.

Before he could speak, Zhong Yiqiu added, "She's only in the first grade now, she doesn't know many words, she can't count well, and she will encounter difficulties in life in the future."

Li Yunhuan's father's expression was a little loose, and he nodded slightly in the choking smoke, "That's right."

"Fei Wazi, why are you here again! You expect us to pay you a little tuition to marry yourself!" A pungent female voice sounded from outside.

Li Yunhuan's mother is in her early forties, wearing a black red flower short-sleeved dress with her waist akimbo. She has a slender face, thin lips, and a very high nose bridge. Regardless of the loose wrinkles now, she should have been pretty when she was young.

"Aunt Mei, I have already said that the tuition fee is for books and miscellaneous fees, and I will not charge a cent for the school." Li Hongfei cooperated with her and said pretending to be joking.

"It's not your fault that you accept it. You go here and there just for money, or you bring people here again in hot weather!" The short-sleeved and wide neckline couldn't hang on her thin body, and she kept tugging on it when she was talking.

"Heihuan is my student this year, and I came here as a teacher." Li Hongfei suppressed his voice.

"Last school, no matter how much you study, you still don't come back to farm, and you won't be able to do the work you went to school!" She squinted at Li Yunhuan's father, pointing at Sang and scolding Huai.

Zhong Yiqiu straightened her waist, summed up what Li Hongfei said just now, and said to her seriously, "A child should go to school at this age. After she finishes the nine-year compulsory education, you can decide whether she needs to continue studying."

She picked up the basin on the table, kneaded a small lump of hairy noodles inside, and didn't look at Zhong Yiqiu, cursing so hard that she couldn't hear what she said.

"That is, the nine-year compulsory education stipulated by the law now! Let's not say nine years or not nine years in our rural areas, at least two more years, okay? Uncle Shui?" Li Hongfei slowly guided with his probe.

Li Yunhuan's father hasn't said a word since his wife came in. He rolled several cigarettes with Erlang's legs up. Last two years..."

"Fuck your mother!"

Hearing a rude curse, bang—the basin was thrown towards Li Yunhuan's father's head, hitting the back of the chair he was sitting on and flipping out again!

Zhong Yiqiu sat diagonally across from him, and the washbasin flipped out from the back of the chair and threw it at him as if aimed at him!

He subconsciously raised his right arm to block it, and the basin fell to the ground again, a heart-rending dull pain spread from his arm to his whole body!

"What are you doing!"

"My wife, you don't want to live anymore!"

"Mr. Zhong, are you okay!"

...

Zhong Yiqiu hated his damn inertia. Just a few months ago, when his father hit him with a wheelchair, he subconsciously raised his right arm, causing a fracture.

Now I can't tell if it hit the same place again, so I can only hope that it is not.

The anger rolling in his heart rushed straight to his forehead, Zhong Yiqiu gritted his teeth to shut himself up.

He stood up with his arms hanging down, Li Hongfei hurriedly supported him to check, but he stopped quickly, worried that if it was a fracture, he would cause secondary injuries if he moved around.

Coming out of Li Yunhuan's house, Zhong Yiqiu's whole body was almost drenched. The hot weather and the pain in his arms made him sweat mixed with cold and hot sweat, which flowed down his body onto the yellow-brown soil.

"It's okay, Mr. Zhong, I'll take you to the clinic." Li Hongfei was anxious and blamed himself, his eyes turned red with sweat, as if weeping.

Zhong Yiqiu comforted him, "It's okay, don't worry, it just hurt when I hit it just now, and I don't feel it now."

"The old lady is too evil, I won't come here in the future, don't care!" Li Hongfei was indignant.

He was a shy young man, and he didn't like to talk to the teachers in the office. It was the first time Zhong Yiqiu heard him swearing like this, and it was all for himself.

"Go to my house for dinner first, and I'll take you to the infirmary immediately after eating." Li Hongfei led the way.

Zhong Yiqiu didn't want to go, it was the first time he went to a colleague's house and had to eat, he didn't prepare anything.

"I'll go back and eat, Uncle Yi left me some food," he pretended to say affirmatively.

"You're welcome, go ahead, my dad still asks me how you are these two days?" Li Hongfei said with a smile.

"your dad?"

"Do you still remember, when you were waiting for Director Yuan in the town, he was selling fish there and met you?"

"Oh! Oh! It turns out that your father is Li Ya--Mao" Zhong Yiqiu said half a sentence and realized that it was too impolite to call him an elder, so he stopped halfway and blurted out.

Li Hongfei didn't take it seriously, "Haha, that's him. My family has raised ducks for many years, and others gave him this nickname."

"Then I should prepare before going, it's too abrupt to go like this." Zhong Yiqiu became more serious.

"Stop being abrupt and sweet and sour, the countryside is not prosperous, even if you have a light meal, I won't make a special banquet for you." Li Hongfei just led the way, and he had to follow if he didn't want to.

Lijiawa is not big, with only thirty or so households, arranged in a slender shape at the foot of the mountain. Li Hongfei's home is at the front of the village, with a pond at the door, and a flock of ducks shuttles around under the thick lotus leaves, quacking.

The family lived in a low adobe house, and Zhong Yiqiu had to bow his head when entering the door, otherwise he would bump into the door frame.The room is fairly neatly furnished, with a TV, a tape recorder and two rows of neatly stacked tapes on the table facing the door.

Li Hongfei's mother is honest and simple, like Li Hongfei, she is not tall, and she doesn't like to talk too much. When she saw Zhong Yiqiu, she was embarrassed and polite, and she hid in the kitchen after saying hello.

As soon as Li Yamao sat down, she came back with the bamboo frame on her shoulders, and Zhong Yiqiu recognized that it was still the frame used to hold the fish in the town.

Li Yamao was very happy to see Zhong Yiqiu. He smoked cigarettes and made tea. He even took out a set of glasses with red flowers from the large cabinet for entertaining guests during the Chinese New Year and made Zhong Yiqiu a glass of honey water.

Zhong Yiqiu was overwhelmed by the flattery, since Li Yamao entered the door, he never sat back on the stool, stood up and nodded his thanks.

The two sides were polite for seven or eight minutes before the dust settled.

During the meal, Li Yamao must accompany Zhong Yiqiu to drink some wine. Both Zhong Yiqiu and Li Hongfei almost knelt down before him to convince him of his enthusiasm. They also promised to pick a special Sunday, when they were not in class, to come for a drink.

Li Yamao poured himself half a glass of white wine, and while drinking, asked Zhong Yiqiu how life was going.

"Uncle Yi can take care of you, you can have something to say, he also went to school in the city," Li Yamao said.

Zhong Yiqiu was not surprised, from what Uncle Yi said and did, he was educated, thoughtful, and experienced in the world, but somehow he came back here.

"Did Second Brother Xiao bully you?" Li Yamao continued to ask.

Zhong Yiqiu was puzzled, "No, he doesn't bully people."

"Don't mess with him, he is very evil!" Li Yamao warned seriously.

Zhong Yiqiu: "..."