"It's just my incompetence. I haven't been able to go to high school for two consecutive years. But I have made an appointment with several other scholars to study together in a study in the county seat, and prepare for the exam in half a year. I will leave at the end of the month. Please rest assured. In the future, Liu Ming will be the champion of high school. Returning home in fine clothes will allow you and Feng'er to live a good life." The middle-aged man put the woman in his arms and whispered in his ear.
Hearing that she was leaving the village and entering the county seat, the woman could no longer hold back the waves in her heart, and two lines of tears quietly slipped.
"Husband, you can go without worry. I will take care of the family affairs. Feng'er is not a little baby anymore, she is already sensible, so you can study with peace of mind and get fame as soon as possible. But the husband should pay more attention to your body. , Don't be too frugal and treat yourself badly. If you don't have a good body, what can you do even if you have fame?" The woman bit her Zhu's lips lightly, resisting the reluctance in her heart, and said slightly sobbing.
"Don't worry, the lady will go here for her husband. If you don't go to high school, you won't return home!" The man gently patted the woman's back and said with firm eyes.
When the woman heard the words, her face turned pale, she wanted to say something, but she was afraid of damaging her husband's enthusiasm, so she hid her grief in her heart and smiled bitterly.
Seven days later, by the winding road outside the village, a man wearing a white blouse with a bag of baggage on his back was reluctantly saying goodbye to the mother and child.
The man hugged his wife tightly in his arms, kissed his forehead lightly, and then bent over and touched his son's head.
"Feng'er, take good care of your mother, Dad will be back soon." The man smiled, holding back his heartache.
"Father, Feng'er knows, my mother and I are at home waiting for you to come back." The boy nodded, his eyes firmly said.
The man patted the boy on the head again, and after a chuckle, he turned and walked towards the entrance of the village, but he did not look back.
Because he was afraid that when he turned around, he would lose the courage to leave.
His wife and children reluctantly looked at his distant back, reluctant to leave for a long time, until the figure drifted away, and finally turned into a white spot, disappearing at the end of the trail outside the village.
Half a month later, in a small county hundreds of miles away from Liujia Village.
At this moment, it was midday, a main road from west to east was crowded with crowds, traffickers and pawns shouted endlessly, and it was a bustling scene.
A middle-aged man dressed in a white blouse, with a handsome appearance and a light bookish temperament between his brows, was carrying a baggage and dragging a long figure, slowly walking towards a college at the corner of the main road.
From then on, in the wing room of this college, there was always a candlelight lit up all night every night, against the silhouette of a figure holding a scroll in his hand and shaking his head to study carefully.
Half a year later, before the red list, the crowd was crowded, and congratulations and laments came and went one after another.
"Brother Liu, don't be discouraged. I didn't pass the exam this year, and I can take another exam next year." A scholar in a green robe, standing in front of the crowd, said to a man in a white shirt next to him.
"I haven't been admitted for three years, Liu is really ashamed of his family." The man in the white shirt shook his head sadly, and slowly squeezed out the noisy crowd.
Half a month later, in Liu's village.
"Mother, there is a letter written by my father!" Holding a roll of bamboo slips in his hands, the child ran into a paddy field as high as one person in excitement.
Upon hearing the words, the plainly-dressed woman stopped her work immediately, wiped her hands on the skirt, and then took the bamboo slips from the boy with a smile on her face and opened it.
But the smile on his face gradually faded, replaced by a faint sadness.
"Feng'er, your father may have to stay in the county for another year before coming back next year." The woman slowly put away the bamboo slips and smiled reluctantly.
The boy seemed to understand something, and silently lowered his head without speaking.
In a blink of an eye, another year has passed.
This year, the mother and son lived on each other's lives, and they had been extremely hardships.
The lack of men in the family means that there are fewer pillars and major sources of income. In addition to the drought in the fields this year, the farmer’s harvest is not only bad, but also unable to make ends meet. If it weren’t for the woman to bite her teeth and sell the only remaining old man in the family. Niu, only then changed some silver taels, barely maintaining the expenses.
However, the same scroll of bamboo slips means that the man is still not nominated on the red list, and the two women still have not waited for the man to return home.
This is another three years.
On the bed in the old wooden house, the woman was finally bedridden due to years of exhaustion. Now there are no grains of rice left in the house, and the things that can be sold have already been sold.
"Mother, there is a letter from Daddy!" The boy ran into the house again excitedly, rushed to the bedside of the woman, and said happily.
At this time, the boy was already twelve years old, and his figure was obviously bigger than three years ago. He was six feet tall and had a strong build. He was no longer the boy at that time.
"Cough...cough..." The woman heard the words, with a smile on her face, barely propped up her body, but kept coughing.
"Mother, are you okay." The boy rushed forward, helped him up, and asked with concern.
"Ah... Feng'er, my mother has taught you a lot of words over the years. This time, mother... Heh... I will test you, open it and read it to my mother." The woman coughed a few times and lay back again. On the bed, the voice said weakly.
"Lian Xi, it's useless for her husband. She hasn't been in high school for six years. She really has no face to return to the village to meet the villagers and elders. But I miss you and Feng'er very much. No..." The boy read the back, and his excitement gradually lowered.
"Feng'er... Cough... Hurry up, get a pen and paper, and reply to your father." The woman said anxiously when she heard the words.
Half a month later, in the school wing of the small town, the haggard-faced man in white shirt was holding a family letter in his hand, but he could not see his wife write by himself, but his childish handwriting.
"Husband, everything is well with Feng'er. Your husband can go to school without worrying about it. We will go back to your high school at home. Feng'er not only reads and reads words, but is also getting stronger and stronger. He hopes that one day he can run on the battlefield and serve the country."
It took another three years.
On this day, in front of an uninhabited grave, a strong young man picked up a letter in his hand, but his eyes flashed with anger and bitterness.
"Mother, why don't you let me tell my father that you are so ill, and you want me to write back every time to tell him that everything is okay with my mother, why? Dad has been away from home for eight or nine years, but He never came back to see us once, and now you are gone, he still doesn't know.
He failed again this year. I really don’t know that he has to wait until that day. Is the high school imperial examination so important to him, even so important that he can stay away from home for so many years to see his wife and children? When is he still obsessed with not realizing it! "
As soon as the voice fell, two lines of tears gushed out, and the young man slammed his fist on the boulder beside the tombstone.
With a "bang", a thin crack appeared on the boulder, and the back of the boy's hand was stained with blood.
At the same time, in the academy in the county seat, Liu Ming, dressed in a white robe and full of scumbags, was still studying day and night.
For nine years, he has forgotten the time, as if he would not feel tired as long as he read a book, reading the book again and again every day.
Finally, in the tenth year.
"Brother Liu, you're finally in high school, and you're still a flower hunter."
"I'm hit, I'm hit, I'm finally hit!" Liu Ming held a piece of paper with trembling hands, with the word "Tanghua" written on it, and its name and square red seals at the bottom.
Gently stroked the white hair on his temples and adjusted his appearance, two lines of turbid tears couldn't help streaming out, and he burst into laughter.
On this day, Liujia Village seemed particularly lively.
On the only road leading to the village, a group of people was walking slowly.
The leader is riding on horseback, wearing a red robe and a high crown. Needless to say, it is naturally the current time to explore the flowers, Liu Ming.
And the group of people behind them are all wearing red robes, beating gongs and drums, looking so lively.
"Liu Tanhua, the Liu Family Village is in front of him." The groom with the horse pointed at the signboard at the entrance of the village and said to Liu Ming.
After Liu Ming squinted his eyes, he leaped off his horse back.
"I want to walk back by myself. I didn't expect that this walk will be ten years old, and I don't know how Lian Xi and Feng'er are now." After Liu Ming said lightly, he suppressed the excitement in his heart, and looked forward to himself. Walked to the entrance of the village.
After another glance at the entrance of the village, after that obsolete sign, Liu Ming quickened his pace and walked quickly toward the house where he was.
Compared with ten years ago, the village seems to be much deserted. At the bustling crossing in the village, there are only a few elderly people sitting at their door, playing with the grain harvested from the ground.
"You are, the third member of the Liu family, you are back!"
After a white-haired old woman in her sixties looked at Liu Ming for a few times, she seemed to recognize Liu Ming's identity, and said with some excitement, but then she looked away, as if she had thought of something.
"Aunt Fifth, your old eyesight is still so good, I came back, I was in high school. What's wrong, Aunt Fifth, how is Lian Xi, where is Feng'er?" Liu Ming looked at the old woman with an uneasy expression. The feeling of rushed to my heart and asked eagerly.
The old woman didn't say anything, but shook her head slightly and sighed slightly.
Seeing this, Liu Ming couldn't help but chuckle, and then rushed to his home without looking back.
Just like ten years ago, over a small mountain in the village, in a depression, there is a small wooden house built with thick logs.
Liu Ming pushed open the door of the empty house, but found that the house was empty.
The dilapidated house was covered with dust, as if no one lived in it for a long time.
On the table and on the ground, there are a few dried wooden basins in a mess. It is obvious that the wooden house leaks on rainy days and is used to collect rainwater.
"Feng'er, Dad is back." Liu Ming called out loudly when he saw this.