Back home, Mrs. Li was used to seeing the pheasant in Zhenzhen's hand, but she circled around the shirtless Mingbei twice. Mingbei was holding a vest of mushrooms in his left and right hands, and his dirty pants in his right hand. He trembled under Mrs. Li's gaze: "Grandma, your gaze is a bit scary?"
Old Lady Li took a puff of her pipe and looked at Mingbei meaningfully: "Why did you change your pants?"
Mingbei's eyebrows jumped and he quickly said with a smile: "I fell down on the mountain and fell into a puddle. Fortunately, I found a pair of pants on the way, but they were a little too big for me."
Old Lady Li glanced at Mingbei's pants, her eyes fixed on the dirty pants: "Why do I smell something fishy? Are you sure you didn't pee in your pants?"
Mingbei's face immediately turned red. It was because he was dark-skinned that it was not obvious. But when Mrs. Li, who knew everything about her grandson, saw his expression, she knew that she had guessed it right and burst into laughter. Mingbei threw the mushrooms on the ground and dragged Mrs. Li to a corner: "Grandma! Grandma! Grandma! My dear grandma! You can't cheat your grandson like this!"
Old Lady Li walked a few steps with her grandson, and when she stood firmly on her feet, she looked at Mingbei with a teasing look in her eyes: "I didn't cheat you, I just told you the truth. But you are not a child anymore, you will get married in a few years, why did you wet your pants?"
Mingbei was so anxious that he almost jumped up and down. He stretched his neck to see that no one in the family had come out. Then he lowered his voice and begged, "Grandma, can we keep our voices down?"
"Okay!" Mrs. Li took a puff of her cigarette and looked at Mingbei happily: "Then tell grandma how to pee?"
Mingbei didn't dare to tell anyone about the tiger, and only stammered, "I was holding my pee, and when I was looking for a place, I almost stepped on a trap and got scared, so I peed my pants."
Old Lady Li laughed out loud and patted Mingbei on the head: "Wash your stinky pants yourself, and wait for the whole family to know?"
Mingbei touched the back of his head with a grin, went back to the house, found a basin for washing clothes, soaked his pants in the water, asked Wang Sufen for half a bar of soap, and sat in the yard to wash his pants.
Zhenzhen was sitting nearby and picking mushrooms in a basin. Mingbei saw that no one was around and couldn't help but lower his voice and said to Zhenzhen, "Next time you go to see Dahuang, remember to call me." Mingbei turned around and saw that no one came out, so he asked Zhenzhen softly, "Does Dahuang have any tiger cubs? I also want to be able to tame a tiger like you."
Raising wild animal cubs is the best way to tame wild animals. In the early years, there were brave hunters who tamed tigers or wild animals, but most people did not dare to take the risk. Nowadays, there are no professional hunters in Beicha. Usually, in order to improve their lives, men only go to the mountains with hunting knives. It is rare to hear of a girl like Zhenzhen taming a tiger.
Zhenzhen threw the mushroom roots she had picked on the ground and tucked her fallen hair behind her ears: "Da Huang doesn't have cubs, he's a male."
Mingbei sighed regretfully and couldn't help asking Zhenzhen again: "Then how did you save it in the first place? Did you really treat it as a cat?"
Zhenzhen blinked her eyes, lowered her head and continued to work: "I saw it was tied up by the rope net in the trap, so I let it go and fed it the pheasants I picked up. Later, it often came to play with me when I went up the mountain."
"How come you are so lucky!" Mingbei believed it without any doubt: "I heard that the rescued wild animals will repay the favor. You are so lucky that you can even meet this."
Zhenzhen washed the mushrooms she had picked several times and sent them to the kitchen. Mingbei washed his pants and his vest, wandered around the vegetable garden, picked up a tomato and rinsed it with water. Just as he was about to put the tomato to his mouth, Zhenzhen came out: "Brother, you are quite free."
"Ah?" Mingbei took the persimmon down from his mouth, looked at Zhenzhen in confusion, and tentatively handed the persimmon to her: "How about I give it to you?"
Zhenzhen glanced at him, turned around and went into the warehouse. A few minutes later, she took out a summer homework book covered in dirt and threw it into Li Mingbei's arms: "Grandma asked you to go to school to change your summer homework for the second year of junior high school, didn't you say you didn't have it? What is this?"
Mingbei touched his nose guiltily, his eyes wandering: "Well, didn't I do the second grade last year?"
"Then you can do the third grade questions, too." Zhenzhen washed her hands, and snatched the tomato from Mingbei's hand that he hadn't eaten yet. She washed it carefully, put it in her mouth and took a bite. It was sour and sweet and delicious.
Mingbei held up his summer homework with a look of disdain: "I'm in the third year of junior high school and I don't know how to do it. Can't I do it next year?"
"No." Zhenzhen glanced at him, ate the persimmon in her hand in a few bites, and dragged Mingbei into the house: "Hurry up and go back to the house to do your homework. If you don't get into high school next year, I'll let Dahuang bite you."
Mingbei was about to struggle, but he almost fell to the ground when he heard this: "Zhenzhen, my dear sister, that Dahuang is not Li Mingzhong, can a bite from it kill you?"
"Then will you write it or not?" Zhenzhen smiled sweetly at Mingbei.
Mingbei shuddered, lowered his head and walked into the house resignedly: "Write! Write! Write! I'll listen to you, you have the final say."
As it was hot today, there were fresh vegetables everywhere in the fields and mountains. Wang Sufen was impatient to cook too many hot dishes, so apart from the pheasant and mushroom soup stewed in the pot, the rest were various pickled vegetables, and a plate of washed cucumbers and persimmons.
The food was ready, and Wang Sufen called everyone to eat one by one. As soon as she entered the east room, she was surprised to find Mingbei sitting obediently at the table under the window doing his homework.
"Oh, Mingbei actually remembers to do his homework." Wang Sufen looked at him and laughed: "Did you do something wrong and get scolded by your grandma?"
"My grandma didn't scold me, but now my sister is even more fierce than my grandma." Mingbei raised his head and looked at Wang Sufen expectantly: "Mom, is the meal ready? Let's go eat."
"It's ready, let's go eat." Wang Sufen replied, and called Zhenzhen, "You've already eaten two tomatoes, are you going to eat dinner? Hurry to the west room, didn't you ask me to make mushroom chicken soup? It's ready, you and Roubao will each have a chicken drumstick."
"I don't want to eat chicken legs, give me the chicken legs. Just give me the two wings." Zhenzhen said as she got off the kang. Mingbei threw down his pen and tried to run out, but Zhenzhen caught him quickly: "Where are you going?"
"Eat?" Mingbei looked at Zhenzhen in confusion: "Didn't mom call us to eat?"
"How many pages of homework have you written?" Zhenzhen went to the table and flipped through it with a look of disgust: "You only wrote half a page after all this time? If you can't finish these two pages, don't go to dinner."
"Why?" Mingbei couldn't bear it anymore, and he touched his stomach with a wronged look on his face: "I climbed the mountain for so long this afternoon, and then came back to wash clothes and do homework. I was starving to death a long time ago."
Zhenzhen gritted her teeth: "I haven't done anything all day, why don't you hurry up and do more homework before it gets dark, otherwise..." Zhenzhen glanced at Wang Sufen who was laughing beside her: "How about I talk to mom about your pants?"
Mingbei immediately became depressed, and he sat on the stool reluctantly, looking out with his pen in his hand: "You must leave me some meat from the pheasant, don't just leave the soup, I won't be full."
Zhenzhen stood on her toes and patted Mingbei's shoulder: "Don't worry, as long as you do your homework well, you will have meat." Then she turned around and took Wang Sufen away: "Mom, let's go eat quickly. I can smell the aroma of chicken soup."
Mingbei stretched his neck to watch the disappearing figures of Zhenzhen and Wang Sufen, and rubbed his belly in frustration: "This is not a sister at all, she's simply an ancestor."
"What did you say?" Zhenzhen's voice came from the next room. Mingbei shivered and immediately said sweetly, "Say my sister is good, I will listen to my sister and do my homework quickly."
The whole west room was filled with laughter. Wang Sufen scooped out a bowl of soup and handed it to Old Lady Li: "Mingbei is as naughty as a monkey. Only his sister can control him."
"That's right." Mrs. Li drank a mouthful of soup and picked up a chicken wing for Zhenzhen. "Bao'er, watch him do his homework from tomorrow on. After finishing his summer homework, watch him copy books. I don't believe his grades can't go up. This hydrolysis plant is such a good plant, but they only hire so few people a year. Does he think it's that easy to get in?"
"That's right." Wang Sufen agreed, and then said to Zhenzhen, "When you see your brother finish his summer homework, Mom will give you money to go to the hydrolysis plant to watch a movie."
"Really." Zhen Zhen's eyes lit up and she nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, Mom. I promise to let my brother finish his homework in three days."
Although most of the movies at that time were old black-and-white movies, for Zhenzhen, who hadn't watched TV for five or six years, being able to watch a movie was already great. Even if she was asked to watch a pantomime at this time, she would still enjoy it. With motivation, Zhenzhen felt that she had more energy to urge Mingbei to do his homework.
When Mingbei was in the second grade of junior high school, Mingnan watched him do his homework every day and his academic performance was good. Although he had forgotten half of what he learned after playing for a year, he could still remember it by flipping through the book. After stumbling and scribbling for a long time, Mingbei finally finished two pages of homework before dark. He took the homework book and put it in Zhenzhen's hand. Mingbei didn't even want to wash his hands. He picked up the cold chicken soup and gulped down half a bowl.
Zhenzhen sat next to him and smiled as she kept picking up meat for Mingbei: "Brother, eat more." Mingbei was flattered and quickly took it with his bowl: "No need to pick it up for me, just eat it yourself."
"You should eat more. Doing homework is very taxing." Zhenzhen also put the chicken head into Mingbei's bowl: "Eat brain to nourish your brain. Eat the chicken head."
"..." Mingbei stared at the chicken head with little meat on it for a long time. He really didn't want to eat it. "Actually, I think I'm quite smart. Maybe I don't need to take supplements."
"That's fine. After dinner, write two more pages of homework and I'll see if you're smart or not." As soon as Zhenzhen finished speaking, Mingbei bit off the cockscomb: "I think my sister is right. I think I need to make up for what I need."
The braised chicken squatting below the window had a look of disdain on his face:... How shameless!
****
With the promise of going to the movies and Zhenzhen watching over him, Mingbei honestly finished all his summer homework, read the textbook from beginning to end, and finally got fifty cents from Wang Sufen. He happily took Zhenzhen to the hydrolysis plant to watch a movie.
Zhenzhen had been to the hydrolysis plant many times before, but she always went to the bathhouse with Wang Sufen and Guihua to take a bath. This was her first time to watch a movie. Based on her experience of watching movies in her previous life, Zhenzhen fried the melon seeds stored at home, found a cloth bag to put some washed tomatoes and cucumbers in, and finally poured a pot of honey water. This was considered complete preparation.
Mingbei squatted at the door and watched Zhenzhen prepare one thing after another, scratching his head anxiously: "Sister, don't you think you don't eat enough at home? Why are you thinking about eating even when watching a movie?"
"You don't understand. Movies are more interesting when you eat while watching them." After packing up her things, Zhenzhen put them together and handed them to Mingbei: "Okay, let's go."
Mingbei quickly jumped up from the ground, happily took the bicycle key, and pushed out the "28-inch" bicycle that Li Muwu had polished to a shine.
When Li Muwen took the gold bars, he sent about 200 yuan to his family over the years. This bicycle ticket was sent back during the Chinese New Year last year. Li Muwu took the ticket and the money and went to push the "Forever" manganese steel bicycle that he had seen many times back. At that time, the neighbors and colleagues were all excited, and they all came to watch and touch it.
Usually, Li Muwu only rides this bicycle when he visits relatives, and usually he hangs it on the wall. Today, because he didn't want Zhenzhen to walk too far, Li Muwu agreed to let Mingbei ride it for once. He also nagged him several times, saying that he was not allowed to ride in mud pits or on rocks, and that he must wipe the bike clean and hang it on the wall when he came back. Mingbei made several promises before Li Muwu gave him the bike keys.
Mingbei was more excited than watching a movie when he saw the big bicycle he had been dreaming of. He hung Zhenzhen's cloth bag on the handlebars and turned around to ask Zhenzhen, "Sister, come sit in the front."
Looking at the thin and long stick in front of her, Zhenzhen felt that it would hurt her buttocks: "I'd better sit in the back. I'm afraid I'll fall if I sit in the front."
"No." Mingbei said, "The kids are sitting in the front, how are you going to get in if you're sitting in the back?"
"I can even climb trees, but I'm afraid of this bike." Mingbei thought of Zhenzhen weaving between trees like a monkey on the mountain. It seemed much more difficult than this. "Okay, I'll ride slower, and you be careful when you jump on."
Mingbei swung the pedals a few times, stretched out his long legs and stepped onto the back seat. Zhenzhen ran a few steps behind him, held Mingbei's waist and jumped to sit steadily on the back seat.
Finally riding his bike out, Mingbei felt like he had to show off. Seeing that no one was out near his home, he deliberately shouted at the top of his voice: "Zhenzhen, you are really amazing. You can even jump onto the back of a bicycle that is so high."
At this time, every household had their doors open, and when they heard the bicycle coming out, they all came out to look. Mingbei was very proud, and he walked around the two rows of houses several times to make sure that his classmates had seen it. Then he went to the hydrolysis plant with a proud look on his face.
The hydrolysis plant is too large, so there is no main gate. There is only a beautiful courtyard in the four-story office building located in the center of the plant. Mingbei took Zhenzhen to take a look on his bicycle. There is a wooden corridor inside, which looks very grand.
"This Dahuang Building is the tallest building in our Beicha." Mingbei didn't dare to enter the yard, and just rode his bike around the door. Zhenzhen patted him on the back and said, "You like the hydrolysis plant so much, then you should study hard and pass the exam to get in. Then you can get movie tickets and watch movies every month."
"I just feel that the exam is a bit of a headache." Mingbei rode his bicycle towards the cinema again: "If you go to a forest management office or something like that, you don't have to take an exam, and you can earn quite a lot."
"How can it be the same?" Zhenzhen slapped Mingbei on the back in disapproval. "Is carrying wood a good job? From morning till night, several people carry such thick wood down the mountain. Look at the people who earn money from this business. They all have hunched backs and shoulders, and their faces are covered with cuts from the wind. If you go there, you will definitely not have any pretty girls to follow you."
Mingbei is at an age when he secretly likes pretty girls but is too stubborn to admit it. When he heard that he would become ugly, he hesitated: "How about I try to get into a high school?"
"Take the exam. Grandma always said that studying more is never a bad thing. Besides, you were good at studying before, but my third brother ignored you and let you go this year. You should focus on studying and work hard for another year. It would be great if you can get a job in the factory directly after graduating from high school." Zhenzhen looked at a girl wearing a red dress with small flowers on it on the side of the road and secretly poked Mingbei's waist: "Look at how pretty the girls who live here are."
Mingbei secretly turned his head to glance at the girl. She was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with two thick and long braids and fair skin, which looked even prettier against the red dress.
Mingbei forgot to look at the road and suddenly he rode onto a big rock on the road. He seldom rode a bicycle and in panic he twisted the handlebars twice. Zhenzhen hurriedly jumped off the bike and was about to hold the bike when Mingbei fell to the ground with the bike.
"Bang!" Seeing the dust rising from the ground, Zhenzhen quickly took two steps back and watched her cloth bag fall to the ground with the wool inside scattered all over the floor. Zhenzhen picked up the cart and picked up Mingbei from the ground.
Regardless of the pain from the fall, Mingbei carefully checked the bike first. Seeing that the handlebars were not twisted and the paint was not chipped, he breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, it's not broken. I was scared to death. If it was broken, my father would beat me to death."
Looking at the hair scattered all over the floor, Zhenzhen showed Mingbei two rows of small white teeth: "Li Mingbei!"
The author has something to say: Update first, then check for typos, never after 12 o'clock