Ye Cheng

This Sunday, Ye Cheng and the others did not go out to repair shoes, but stayed in the yard with Qian Shouwan and his family to make preserved eggs. Can't wait to learn this craft.

I went to the town to buy some materials, and then boiled a pot of soup to soak in a jar of duck eggs. Those preserved eggs were also taken out, mixed with yellow mud and the leftover soup, and wrapped up again. Roll a layer of rice husk on the outside, basically, just like the preserved eggs bought on the street.

For this craft of making preserved eggs, Qian Shouwan's family is like a treasure. He is a countryman and illiterate, so it is really difficult to learn something.When making preserved eggs, he even sent the big fat and the fat two outside to play. Unlike Ye Cheng and the others, these two children have been careless since they were young. Here comes the gap.

Qian Shouwan naturally knows that a child with parents is definitely different from a child without parents, but he has been blind all his life, and his family has never been a master for several generations, so There is no status in this village.He usually has a stern face, and many people in the village are afraid of him, but when something serious happens, those people don't take Qian Shouwan seriously at all, no matter how fierce it is, it's just a joke.

He doesn't think too much about it now, he just counts on the big fat and the fat two to study for a few more years, at least don't pretend to be blind, and live a decent life in the future.For Ye Cheng, a nephew, Qian Shouwan is very proud. Although he said that his younger sister is from another family after she gets married, but as his uncle, he has been picking food from their family in the past two years. Ye Cheng will have a future in the future. Yes, there is light on his face.

As the weather got colder and colder, the final exam was coming. For Ye Cheng and the others, the final exam was not stressful.But after the final exam, Ye Cheng and the others planned to go to City C, and Ye Ping also made a fuss about going to the county town to sell salted duck eggs, so I had to discuss this matter with Cai Jinzhi and the others.

"Go to City C? That's fine, go and see your Grandpa Wu. The old man is getting old, and he doesn't know how many more years he can eat." After Qian Xingliang was taken away by the police station and sent back to his hometown, Ye Cheng He stayed in City C for nearly a year. During that time, Cai Jinzhi also had contact with old man Wu. Through several letters, he felt grateful to that old man.

"Yeah." Ye Cheng also wanted to see Gao Jinhua and the others.

"Are you two planning to go to City C to make money?" Luo Yueling asked.

"Yeah, let's go and have a look during the winter vacation. If it's okay, I'll go there next summer." It was originally proposed by Lu Mingyuan, but recently Ye Cheng has thought about it several times and thinks it's okay.

"Is it worth it? The fare will be quite a lot for the two of you to go back and forth." Ye Cheng has grown taller now, unlike in the past, you can save the fare by finding an adult to take it with you. With their current height, I'm afraid they won't be able to buy half of the ticket, they have to buy the full ticket.

"That's right. Neither of you has an ID card. What should people do if they want to check this thing? You don't even have an adult." Cai Jinzhi remembered this incident. I heard that if you are outside, if you don't have an ID card If you bring it with you, it will be troublesome if you get caught.

"Then bring the household registration book with you." Ye Cheng never thought of this question.

"Let me tell you, if the two of you want to make money, wouldn't it be good to stay in our city? It's close, and if something happens, we can find a few people in our village to charter a car and go straight there. You say City C With such a long distance, even if you make some money, how much money will you have left after deducting the round-trip fare?" Luo Yueling has always been a shrewd person, and she does her calculations logically.

"But Auntie, I don't have any acquaintances in our city, and renting a house is also very expensive." Ye Ping said with a smile, Luo Yueling has no daughter, and usually loves her, and loves to secretly save some for her when she has something delicious. After a long time, it will naturally get close.

"You girl can settle accounts." Luo Yueling also laughed when Ye Ping said this.

"Just go, the main thing is to visit your Grandpa Wu, it's been several years now, go and take a look." Cai Jinzhi still had the original meaning.

"Well, I just want them not to go so far, and be more at ease." For Luo Yueling, a rural woman who has never traveled far in her life, the outside world is very dangerous.

"It's okay, we live at Grandpa's house."

Ye Cheng didn't have any fear of traveling far. What he was most afraid of was being homeless. He remembered that when he was a child, he and Lu Ming ran away from home for a few days. He hid every day and found a place to sleep when it got dark. ,.He lived in anxiety every day. He was afraid of being caught by the police station, being targeted by human traffickers, and those dark corners at night, which made him feel scared.

Compared with Ye Cheng and his group's long trip, Cai Jinzhi also planned to take Ye Ping to live in the county for a while. When Cai Jinzhi was young, she was actually the daughter of a worker in the town. Because of the severe famine in those years, Her father married her into the village.

When she first married Ye Cheng's grandfather in those years, she also brought a lot of food to the house to save her brothers and sisters from starvation in those years. It's just that her father died early and her mother was cowardly. The family property was quickly divided up by several sons. As soon as the old lady got old, she walked more than ten miles to Cai Jinzhi's house, crying with snot and tears, and then lived in the village until she died.

Cai Jinzhi's relationship with his brothers is very weak, and he had no contact with them in the first few years. It's just that he has grown older in the past two years, and he is not as serious as he was when he was young, and he gradually started to interact with them , There is a younger sister who lives in the county now. I just got in touch a while ago. The two sisters sat together and talked for a long time, and shed a lot of tears.Cai Jinzhi planned to stay at their house for a few days this time.

Let Luo Yueling take care of the family's ducks. She has been sleeping in Ye Cheng's house for a while, and will go back to her own house when Cai Jinzhi and Ye Ping return from the county.

When Ye Cheng and the others were still taking the exam, Ye Ping had already started her vacation. Cai Jinzhi and the others called a car and went into the village that morning. She went to move money to keep Wan's house again, and she said that even if the price was reduced this time, all the salted duck eggs had to be sold.

As soon as Ye Cheng and the others finished the exam, they told the class teacher that they couldn't come to get the report card, and then they packed up with Lu Mingyuan and prepared to go directly to City C. It only took a few days before and after a winter vacation, and they couldn't afford the delay.

On the day Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan went out, they said hello to Luo Yueling, and then left with their bags on their backs. In addition to a change of clothes, there were dozens of salted duck eggs and preserved eggs in the bags, which were brought to old man Wu and Gao Jinhua respectively.

The road from their village to the town is now paved with asphalt, and various cars pass by from time to time. Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan spent four yuan to take a car to the town, then take a van to the county seat, and then take a car from the county seat to the city.The process of buying train tickets was relatively smooth. Ye Cheng was worried that he was underage and the conductor refused to sell the tickets. Unexpectedly, the other party didn't even glance at them. He was busy collecting money and asked Ye Cheng where they were going. Tickets, and then received the money directly to two hard seats.

The ticket was bought after ten o'clock in the evening. Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan were hungry waiting in the waiting room, so they bought instant noodles alone. The things in the train station are very expensive. A box of Master Kong's braised beef noodles costs five yuan. , Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan ate ten yuan, and they were not very full. They finally got to the time to get on the bus. Fortunately, there are not many people going out from City H. Although the end of the year is approaching, many migrant workers are They began to return home one after another, but City H is not a big city, and there are not many foreigners working in City H.

The two of them slept on the train overnight, and arrived in City C early the next morning. It was just dawn, and they took the first bus of the day to the entrance of the alley. The steamed stuffed bun shop was still open. Ye Cheng When he and Lu Mingyuan walked in, the boss didn't recognize them.

"What do you want?" The chubby proprietress took away the bowls and chopsticks that the customers in front had eaten, and asked Ye Cheng with a smile what they wanted to eat.

"Eight meat buns, two bowls of egg soup." Ye Cheng was very hungry, and Lu Mingyuan's face was also yellow. He didn't know if he was in the car or hungry.

"Okay." The meat buns and egg soup came out soon. The meat buns were not as big as before. When I took a bite, the meat filling was not as much as before, but it was still very fragrant. The light egg soup was covered with green onion and sesame oil. After a few sips, the stomach will warm up.

"Young man, haven't you seen him before?" It was too early, and few people came over for breakfast. When the boss was not busy, he started talking to Ye Cheng and the others.

"I haven't been here for several years." Ye Cheng ate the steamed stuffed bun with big mouthfuls.

"Oh, I'm sure I can't recognize it, but uncle, I have set up this stall here for more than ten years. In this area, there is no one that we don't know. Tell me, which family's doll is it?"

"Shoe repair shop." Ye Cheng took another sip of soup, Gululu swallowed it together with the buns in his mouth.

"Old man Wu..." The boss pondered for a moment, then carefully sized Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan: "Are you... the doll who was with Qian Xingliang back then?"

"Yeah." Ye Cheng nodded.

"Isn't he then?" The boss still vaguely remembers that a few years ago, there was a doll who squatted in front of his shop all day waiting for buns to eat. At that time, it was not easy for him. Sometimes he gave, sometimes he didn't. Qian Xingliang took it back, and then something happened, and he lived in the old man Wu's shoe repair shop for a long time. The two children were inseparable, and they often went to him to buy buns. Now, in a blink of an eye, many years have passed.

"He's Lu Mingyuan." Ye Cheng said.

"Yes, yes, it's called Lu Mingyuan. Hey, look, you've grown up so much now." The owner of the bun shop was a little agitated. Seeing that the soup in Ye Cheng's and Lu Mingyuan's bowls had bottomed out, he quickly asked his wife Make a bowl for the two of them, and then serve fried dough sticks and side dishes.

"Come on, eat more, you can grow taller if you eat a lot." The proprietress was also very happy, she pulled Lu Mingyuan to look and look, and even shed a few tears.

They would not accept the money for this breakfast no matter what: "Uncle, the steamed stuffed buns are sold here. I don't know how many people and things have passed by. You two bastards don't have to be polite to me. It's free. Just this one meal, if you want to eat it tomorrow, you have to pay, hey, how about it, our taste is still as authentic as before, right?"

"The bun is too small." Lu Mingyuan discussed the matter.

"Hey, not only is it smaller, but it's also more expensive. It costs fifty cents a piece. If you don't sell it, you won't sell it." The boss is still very happy: "But you have to go to the city to see it. Our steamed stuffed bun shop is already very kind. Well, the steamed stuffed bun in the city also sells for [-] cents, but it’s only a bit bigger than the Xiaolongbao, so if you two want to eat enough, you need a basket.”

Ye Cheng and Lu Mingyuan sat there obediently and listened to the boss boasting. After a while, they hiccupped and said, "We're going to grandpa's place."

"That's right, hurry up to see old man Wu. That old man has been alone all these years, and his life is really boring." Speaking of this, the boss suddenly thought of Qian Xingliang again, thinking that the two of them could still talk about it back then. When I have nothing to do, I like to get together for a drink. "Uncle Qian, are you alright?"

"I've been working outside, and I went home during the Chinese New Year last year, and it looked pretty good." Ye Cheng couldn't say whether it was good or not, as long as he could live on, it was probably good.

Old man Wu is getting older and less sleepy. He tossed and turned the night before and didn't sleep well. He woke up again at dawn and went downstairs to set up a stall with his back hooked. A boy next year came towards him. It is rare for a child nowadays to wake up so early, and I don't know whose family it is. Old man Wu didn't wear reading glasses, so he couldn't see clearly.

The two boys stopped in front of the shoe repair shop. Old man Wu saw that they were carrying bags on their backs, like children studying, but wasn't the school closed two days ago?During the holiday, the whole alley was very lively. Those children ran in groups in the alley, shouting while running, and sometimes they were annoyed by the noise, and old man Wu would scold them a few words.

However, the two children were quiet. They stood at his door for a long time without making a sound. Old man Wu removed the door panel and put on the reading glasses on the shoe repair rack. Just after putting them on, he heard someone Call grandpa crisply.

--grandfather?