Solstice Secrets

Ling Dongzhi finished class, and before he walked out of the teaching building, he saw through the glass window of the corridor outside a group of students gathered around the flower garden, not knowing what they were doing, accompanied by bursts of laughter.There were a few girls standing outside the circle, whispering to each other, all with a little excited expression on their faces.

The last time something like this happened was when the boys dug out a nest of little mice in the sports equipment room, what's the fuss about this time?I don't know why boys and girls in this age group are so interested in the small animals that appear in the school. Sometimes a stray cat scurrying outside the window can make them chirping excitedly for a long time.

When Ling Dongzhi walked down the steps, he heard a few faint cat meows coming from the noise of the crowd, the ending sound was very long, soft and sticky, with a faint trill, as if begging for mercy.Ling Dongzhi felt that the voice was slightly familiar, so he pushed aside a group of half-sized children and squeezed in to see, it was indeed the children of the wild cat family who lived in the mountain behind the school.

The little brown fur kitten had one of its paws tied to the railing at the edge of the flowerbed with a shoelace, struggling and meowing continuously.Ling Dongzhi frowned slightly.Probably because the food of the old cat has been better in the past few months, the new litter of kittens is more lively than the previous kittens, especially this little brown fur kitten, who likes to run around the most.He was only fished out by Ling Dongzhi from the ditch behind the cafeteria two days ago, and today he ran to the teaching building again, and the little milk cat saw him, stopped struggling, but became more and more coquettish.

Ling Dongzhi shook his head, squeezed over and stretched out his hands to untie the shoelaces tied to the cat's legs, picked it up and shook at the surrounding students, "Whose is this?"

A tall boy took it with a smile, "Mr. Ling, is this your cat?"

"No. But I know it, I'll take it back later." Ling Dongzhi pinched the back of the cat's neck and lifted it into his palm.The little milk cat suffered a loss, and nestled in his palm obediently, lowering its head and licking the bound paw.

Ling Dongzhi waved his hands at the students around him, "Go back to class, didn't you hear the bell?"

The students ran away talking and laughing, Ling Dongzhi looked down at the limp little kitten in his hand, and resignedly carried it to the direction of the school's back hill.The little milk cat licked his finger, and lay down lazily, it seemed that it was exhausted from all the tossing just now.

Ling Dongzhi touched its back twice, and said softly: "I told you to avoid those kids, why can't you remember?"

The little milk cat buried its head under its paws and meowed pitifully.

Ling Dongzhi thought about it, and put it into the pocket of the windbreaker.Although it was class time, there were still classes in the playground taking physical education classes, and when these half-grown children saw that they were walking around with a cat, they wanted to boo again.

Nanshan Middle School is the earliest private middle school in Binhai City. The hardware and software facilities are first-class in Binhai City and even in the whole country.But the good thing is that the school has included the top of Banla Mountain into its own territory. In the past few years, it has successively built biological laboratories and student labor bases, which has established a good reputation for the comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, physical education, art and labor.Walking up the hill from the edge of the playground along the steps, on both sides of the path are experimental fields with signs of different grades and classes. They are red and green, but they are also very beautiful.

Ling Dongzhi roughly judged the direction, walked towards the orchard of the high school group, took out the kitten from his pocket and put it in the grass nest under the apple tree.

The little milk cat rolled over in the grass nest, raised its head and meowed weakly.

Ling Dongzhi stretched out his hand to pat it on the head, turned around and walked down the mountain.As soon as he took two steps, he heard a rustling sound coming from behind him. Ling Dongzhi turned his head and took a look. A brown civet cat with shiny fur was walking out of the grass, and was lowering its head to lick the little tit in the grass nest. cat.As if sensing Ling Dongzhi's gaze, the civet cat looked in his direction and let out a meow.

Ling Dongzhi shook his head, "You don't need to be thankful, take a good look at these little guys. Those kids are very skinny, if they catch them, they will have to suffer a little bit."

The old cat meowed again.Ling Dongzhi waved at the mother and son, turned around and went down the mountain.He knew that the old cat's guarantee was useless, and maybe a few of her family's cubs would rush out again in the next turn.Cats, who can expect them to be obediently guarding the yard like a watchdog, I just hope they won't be discovered by the students again.

When passing by the playground, the class in physical education happened to be free to move around.Seeing Ling Dongzhi coming from the back mountain, the boys whispered to each other, all showing tacit smiles.

Ling Dongzhi was somewhat helpless.He wasn't really that patient, nor was he as loving as they whispered, he just couldn't help it.Every time he was blocked by a small animal, blinking his watery eyes and shaking the hang tag on his neck pitifully, it was difficult for him to pretend not to see it.What's more terrible is that they will follow him and call his name.

Ling Dongzhi sometimes feels like a teacher in a remote village before liberation, because there is only one scholar in ten miles and eight towns, so everyone knows him.

That's right, in the area of ​​Nanshan District of Binhai City, Lingdong Zhi is so famous that almost all cats and dogs can call him by his name.Even the mynah who just moved in behind the building where he lives knows him. Every time Ling Dongzhi walks past his window, it draws out its tone and shouts old-fashionedly, "Winter Solstice , are you going to class?" However, it was still shouting in a human voice, and Ling Dongzhi couldn't pretend that it wasn't talking to him.

After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, Ling Dongzhi was employed as an art teacher at Nanshan Middle School. The house in the teaching area was a welfare house allocated by the school. Because he was single, he was only allocated a flat of about [-] square meters.The house is not big, but it is enough for him to live as a bachelor.What made him particularly satisfied was that the upstairs and downstairs of his unit were all single teachers from the school, who were either preparing lessons at home or correcting homework at night.There is neither the sound from the TV stereo in the front, back, left, or right, nor the noises of husband and wife quarrels or children's noisy noises from neighbors.After listening to the noise of the children and the nagging of cats and dogs all day, Ling Dongzhi paid special attention to the rare quietness after returning home.That's why he would rather live in a teaching room with one bedroom and one living room than go home.

There are two brothers in the old Ling family, and there is an older brother on the winter solstice. After getting married, he has been living with his parents.With the couple and a three-year-old nephew, the house is full of excitement at all times.Ling's father and Ling's mother liked to watch children making noise when they were old, but Ling Dongzhi couldn't do it, it really couldn't, he heard far more noises than ordinary people during the day, so he couldn't stand the noise especially during the rest time.

Everyone in the Ling family knew about his problem, and Ling's father and mother didn't force him.The old couple had retired long ago, and they would occasionally stroll over to help their son tidy up the room and cook something delicious when they had nothing to do during the day.Fortunately, the Ling family also lived in Nanshan District, and the distance between the two sides was not too far.

Ling Dongzhi stuffed his hands into the pockets of his windbreaker, lowered his head and walked towards the office building.There is no class for him this afternoon, but the eighth grade interest group needs him to lead after school, so he can't leave early.Ling Dongzhi stood under the office building and pondered for a while, then turned and went to the studio.

Nanshan Middle School has several studios in the teaching building for students to teach, and also set up several independent studios for art teachers in the wing of the library.The art teachers teaching here not only have to teach the students well, but also have to constantly launch new works to participate in various activities.Because it is a private middle school, the school pays more attention to the prestige of teachers in the industry than ordinary public schools.

The library is located in the northwest corner of the school, surrounded by shade and very quiet.As soon as Ling Dongzhi stepped on the steps with one foot, he heard a burst of cooing laughter from not far behind, and a slightly rough voice gloated and said, "You deserve it, you deserve it too much, in my opinion The blows were light."

Ling Dongzhi stopped in his tracks, and heard another slightly clear voice snort in dissatisfaction, "Look at your virtue, if you get beaten up, how can you be so happy?"

The previous voice said angrily: "Why not, last time I was shot down with a slingshot by that little devil king, and I was almost eaten by his hair-plucking!"

The clear voice hesitated slightly, "Is it scaring you?"

"I'm not trying to scare you, let me tell you, Xiao Jiu," the rough voice immediately became agitated, "That little devil even lit a fire, if it hadn't been seen by the winter solstice... hey, winter solstice, winter solstice, you Come to testify to me, am I not lying?"

Ling Dongzhi glanced at the pair of gray-feathered pigeons on the sycamore tree. Although he didn't want to talk to him, his instinct as a teacher made him immediately grasp the sensitive word, "Who did you say was beaten? Didn’t the students fight again? Where is it?”