In the early morning, the sun quietly rose from the east. Before it was fully bright, a small town in the south was already bustling with activity. Residents came and went riding small electric cars through the busy city.
The town is located on the coast, and the breeding industry is very developed. There are many people raising poultry and seafood, and the average living standard is very high. People here live a comfortable and comfortable life, the pace of life is slow, and the large and small shops on the streets can basically meet people's needs.
"You will take Ziqing to dance class later. There is a batch of materials in the store that needs to be loaded into the car. They are already waiting. I have to go there first." Yin Cai said as he put on the top from the feed store and saw Ji Huai sleeping. He was so lifeless that he couldn't help raising his voice again, and he couldn't help but frown, "I'm talking to you, did you hear me?"
"I know." Ji Huai didn't open his eyes, and his tone was a little impatient. He turned over with the thin quilt in his arms and fell asleep again.
It was early in the morning, and Yin Cai was upset when he saw him like this. He turned to look at his daughter on the crib, trying his best to suppress his temper, "The teacher said the class is at 9:30, so you have to wake your dad up at 9 o'clock at the latest. Mom has cooked the noodles and put them on the table. Let’s go after eating.”
"Mom is leaving first."
"Yeah." Ji Ziqing responded very quietly.
Yin Cai took the bag and left in a hurry.
Ji Ziqing lost sleep after her mother left. She rubbed her eyes and stood up holding a half-meter-high bear hug pillow.
This bear was given to her by her mother on her birthday three years ago. It cost 78 yuan. She thought about it for a long time before mentioning it to her mother. Now it's a lot dirty, and the original pink color can no longer be seen. After being dismantled and washed several times, it became shriveled.
Dad fell asleep again on the bed, snoring slightly and sleeping soundly.
Yin Cai is only in the first grade this year. He is smaller than his peers, but much more sensible than his peers. He doesn't talk much and looks a little timid and inferior.
She climbed out of bed and walked out with her toothbrush and cup.
Jijia is located in the middle of Jijia Village. In recent years, the people in the village have developed well. Whether they rely on planting, breeding, or going to sea, as long as they work hard, their incomes are good. Every household has built a building with ceramic tiles on the outside. It looks no worse than the lives of people in the city.
Of course, there are a few families in the village who are not living a very good life, and are struggling to survive on the national subsistence allowance.
These people's families are either disabled or seriously ill. The only exception is Ji Huai's family. The couple's hands and feet are intact, but they still live in the tile-roofed house built by Mr. Ji forty years ago. The family of three is crowded into a small room, and their vision is dim. , dilapidated.
The windows and doors are all made of wood. Decades have passed and they are almost infested with insects. The cement floor was laid after Ji Huai and Yin Cai got married. The ceiling in the house is almost cracked and crumbling. The wallpaper has oxidized and changed color.
Ji's house is surrounded by small buildings with three or four floors, which further accentuates their family's abject poverty.
Ji Ziqing finished brushing her teeth in the yard and silently walked to the kitchen next to her.
There is a stove in the corner of the kitchen, and firewood is placed next to it. Yin Cai used his free time to pick it up. The wall near the stove is dark, and next to it is a wooden table. The table is old and has been eaten by insects. It was a mess, but it was covered by the tablecloth, with a bowl of noodles, vegetables and eggs on it.
Ji Ziqing pulled the heavy wooden bench aside, sat down silently, and ate the noodles in small bites.
She had a small appetite and didn't finish the meal. She couldn't waste the remaining bites. A few noodles fell on the table. She picked them up and poured them into a basin nearby. They had to keep them to feed the chickens.
The blue water pipe is connected to the faucet, and underneath is a brown earthen tank. She carefully took the water and started washing the dishes.
After finishing all this, it was almost nine o'clock.
She sat at the door and looked at the chickens in the courtyard. There was a pot for boiling bath water in the corner of the courtyard. Because she was afraid of the rain, she built a simple and ugly tent with rags.
"Ji Ziqing, why are you sitting on the steps stupidly?" On the tall building next to her, a fat little man stuck his head out of the window, eating bread, and shouted to her with a smile.
Ji Ziqing said nothing, turned around and entered the dilapidated room at home. Dad hasn't woken up yet, and his snoring is getting louder and louder.
She looked at the small alarm clock beside the bed. It was already nine o'clock. She walked to the bed and whispered, "Dad."
Ji Huai didn't respond.
She lowered her eyes and tried to shout a little louder, "Dad, get up."
The person on the bed still didn't respond.
Yin Cai stood by the bed for a few minutes, scratching again and again with his hands on his sides, and finally lowered his head and silently went back to lie down on his bed.
At the same time, Ji Huai's cell phone rang, playing a tacky love song so loudly that it echoed in the small room.
"I met you by chance today, and I discovered that I love you..."
Ji Huai put the thin quilt over his head and didn't bother to pay attention.
The phone continued to ring. He was extremely irritated and cursed. Ji Ziqing hugged the bear pillow and got into her quilt. She curled up and buried her head in the bear's arms.
"What are you going to do so early in the morning? Are you sick?" Ji Huai didn't even open his eyes. He picked up the phone and cursed, "Are you going to let me sleep?"
He was particularly angry and had a gloomy face when he spoke. This was an instinctive reflection of his body and he had no patience at all.
On the other end, Yin Cai's voice also rose, "What time is it? You're still sleeping. Zi Qing is going to be late for class. Can you do something serious? Sleep, sleep, sleep, what can you do besides sleeping and drinking?"
"Is it over?" Ji Huai's face darkened and he took a deep breath, "Aren't you awake now? Go now! Hang up."
After hanging up the phone, he threw the phone aside, closed his eyes and fell asleep again.
Ji Ziqing closed her eyes and shrank even tighter without making any sound.
A minute later, there was movement on the big bed in front of him. Ji Huai got out of bed and walked to the small bed, "Xiao Qing, get up and go to class."
"Yeah." She said like a mosquito.
"Dad, go wash your face first." Ji Huai took the toothbrush based on his memory and walked out, absorbing the memory as he walked.
Looking at the tall buildings and dilapidated homes outside, I was speechless.
He had to go to the kitchen to get the water for brushing his teeth. He took a red water ladle and went out to brush his teeth. He looked at the weeds in the yard and felt a little heavy.
It's the 21st century, and their family doesn't even have a toilet. There is only a "shed" made of bricks and an iron plate on top, where they can hide and take a bath.
To go to the toilet, you have to go to the public toilet used in the last century, and you have to squat in a latrine. Every household in the village has their own toilet, but his family is the only one using the public toilet. Even the low-income households in the village have built toilets through state subsidies, and their lives are not as good as those of low-income households.
A few years ago, the state had a policy that allowed villagers to apply for a subsidy of 30,000 yuan to build a house. A group of villagers with family difficulties also built new houses. Only their family will always be an exception.
The reason is that he is lazy.
Mr. Ji was a carpenter when he was alive, building houses for people. At that time, this was a craft job and he could earn a lot of money. Their family was once a prominent figure in the village. This small house was also considered a "luxury house" at the time. Unfortunately, he died early. Mrs. Ji raised him up by herself.
Although Mrs. Ji is fierce and troublesome, she basically dotes on her son. He also listens to her and his life is not bad.
Later, when Yin Cai married into the Ji family, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law deteriorated frequently, but both of them were diligent and their lives gradually improved. After Yin Cai gave birth to Ji Ziqing, Mrs. Ji was urging her to have a boy while saving money to build a house. She was also anxious when she saw that people in the village were building new houses.
It's a pity that she passed away within a few years and before she had saved much money.
The death of Mrs. Ji left him completely confused and didn't know what to do. He was originally lazy and relied on his mother to support him. Now he is completely peaceful. He doesn't care about his wife and children. He occasionally works hard to earn some money and uses it to eat and drink. , not taking a penny from home, being generous to outsiders, and indifferent to family members.
He is irresponsible and selfish. He feels that Yin Cai will take care of his daughter and he doesn't need to worry about it. Her daughter has grown up and can just live her life well.
Yin Cai helps people look after a feed store in the town. The salary in a small place is not high and he can't take a day off. It's only 2,600 yuan a month. He has lunch there at noon and has to come back from get off work in the evening.
The boss is stingy, and the year-end bonus is better than nothing, but there is nothing I can do about it, I have no time to work. She has not been in good health since giving birth to Ji Ziqing, and this job suits her.
Ji Huai spit out the foam, rinsed his mouth a few more times, washed his face quickly, stood up and said to the room, "Hurry, you're going to be late."
"Oh." Ji Ziqing's voice was weak, and she sounded like a child with no energy, let alone liveliness. Outsiders would always comment on his daughter when they saw her: quiet and well-behaved.
She talks little. Except when she goes to school, she doesn't leave the house at home, and she doesn't communicate much with others. He is introverted and dull, and sometimes even looks lifeless.
In short, not very likable.
Yin Cai came from a poor family. She was given away when she was a child. Later, she worked hard to study, but her adoptive parents refused to let her go because they could not afford to support her. She went out to work early, otherwise she would not dislike the Ji family for marrying into the poor family. .
She was deeply afraid that her daughter would not live well, marry well, or have temperament problems, so she gritted her teeth and sent her to the so-called "art class" in the town.
In this small town, there are no high-end training institutions. They are all small institutions run by teachers from outside.
Yin Cai enrolled Ji Ziqing in a dance class and a painting class. She didn't take classes on weekdays, but would go on weekends and Sundays. There is one class a day, and the fees for small places are not expensive. Dance classes are only 200 yuan a month, while painting classes are a bit more expensive, 350 yuan a month.
This amount of money is small money to many people, but not to Yin Cai. It is close to one-fifth of her salary. Ji Ziqing almost gritted her teeth and let Ji Ziqing go for it.
Firstly, I have to work, and I am afraid that my daughter will get bored if she stays at home. Over time, personality problems will arise. Secondly, the other party has a boring temperament, and it is too important to have some hobbies.
I heard that all the children in the city were learning piano, but my family really didn’t have the conditions to do so. Fortunately, the fees for painting and dancing were not expensive, and she could still support them.
To her delight, Ji Ziqing was good at dancing and painting. Others always praised her daughter for having a certain temperament. She looked like she had learned dancing. Ji Ziqing often won awards for her painting.
But this child has learned too early. As long as the competition introduced by the teacher is free, even if it only costs one or two hundred for clothing, she will never go home and tell the teacher that she does not want to participate.
Ji Huai casually took a wrinkled dark blue shirt and put it on. He looked down at his slightly bulging beer belly and another row of black lines on top of his head.
He is only in his early thirties, and he feels like he is about to turn into a greasy uncle. If this continues, before he is forty years old, he will be able to have a beer belly like "ten months pregnant", and he will always have a big belly.
"Dad, car keys." Ji Ziqing gave him the car keys.
"Let's go, let's be late, hurry up, hurry up." Ji Huai recovered his thoughts and urged her to go out.
After putting on his shoes, he closed the door. The small broken wooden door was very difficult, mainly because it was moth-eaten inside and out, so he had to lift it up to close it.
Close the door and leave it unlocked at all. As long as wild cats and mice don’t come in, how do you expect to prevent thieves? Besides, no thieves would enter this place with bare walls.
There was only a small broken TV in the house, probably not even worth a hundred yuan. They bought a cabinet when they got married, and one of the cabinet doors fell off and couldn't be closed.
Oh, the cabinet where the TV is placed also has two chipped corners, but they were padded with newspapers.
Ji Huai rolled out the small electric car that he had driven for eight years. The battery of this antique car had been replaced countless times, but it was one of the few possessions of their family. It had to be pushed into the kitchen and locked at night.
After he sat in the car, Ji Ziqing also climbed into the car.
"Sit tight."
"Um."
The Xiaopo electric car drove forward. Even though it had a new battery, it still drove slowly and made a harsh sound when passing through potholes. Ji Huai was worried that it would be scrapped at any time.
There are many breakfast shops and teahouses opened next to the town, which is very lively at this time.
Ji Huai drove the car and shuttled through the crowd. He turned his head and asked his daughter next to him, "Have you had breakfast? Do you want to buy you steamed buns and soy milk?"
"Eat." Her reply was small.
"Huh?" He didn't hear clearly.
"Eat." She replied a little louder.
"Oh." Ji Huai nodded, turned a corner, and drove into the alley.
The so-called dance institution is a self-built house with the second floor used as a dance studio. The teacher is not very professional, but it is okay, so-so.
He stopped downstairs two minutes before class started. The lively sounds of children chirping and the sound of classroom music could already be heard from the second floor.
Ji Ziqing got out of his car obediently and said, "Goodbye, dad."
"Wait." Ji Huai stopped her.
Ji Ziqing said nothing, stopped, looked at him with eyes that were very similar to Yin Cai's, and said nothing.
He rummaged around in his trouser pockets and finally found a few banknotes in his back pocket. He took out the largest one worth twenty yuan and gave it to Ji Ziqing, "Didn't you say you want to buy crayons? Take it."
Yin Cai worked in the town. Ji Ziqing went to her shop to rest after her dance class. In the afternoon, she went to take a painting class nearby. In the evening, mother and daughter came back together.
"Thank you, dad." Ji Ziqing reached out to pick it up.
Ji Huai looked at the remaining ten yuan and five yuan bills in his hand, thought for a moment, and handed her another ten yuan card, "Is that enough? I'll give you another ten yuan."
"That's enough." Seeing that Ji Huai didn't take back the ten dollars, she stretched forward and slowly reached out to take it.
"Here are the five yuan for you, go to class quickly." He said and gave her another five yuan, urging her to go upstairs quickly.
Ji Ziqing ran upstairs with her small schoolbag on her back, her tied pigtails swaying from side to side, and disappeared before his eyes with a turn.
Ji Huai didn't even look back. Looking back on his previous life, he could be said to be an extremely irresponsible father. He drank and bragged, muddle along, and only cared about himself.
Yin Cai is a great mother, weak in body but tough in temperament. She had been unlucky since she was young, and later married an inhumane man, and was frail and sickly. It could be said that Ji Ziqing had only one hope in life.
If he doesn't care about anything, the other party will handle it all by himself. The salary of 2,600, after deducting household expenses, enrolled Ji Ziqing in a hobby class. She was still in elementary school. She had no time to pick her up at work, and she couldn't cook for her, so she had to stay at school for lunch, a meal. Ten yuan, that’s two hundred a month.
Under such circumstances, when Ji Ziqing finished elementary school, Yin Cai saved tens of thousands. Instead of building a house in the village and buying a car to show off her appearance like others, she resolutely sent Ji Ziqing to the aristocratic school with the best resources in the city, which cost nearly 60,000 yuan a year.
When Ji Ziqing was in junior high school, she also left the town and home, renting a house in the city and continuing to work.
If you don’t have a diploma or ability, then do something you can do, such as cleaning, serving dishes...
Ji Ziqing is also very ambitious. She always ranks among the best in her grades. She is on the recommendation list of high school in her department. She can go directly to high school with free tuition and living expenses.
He turned a blind eye to Yin Cai's suffering, and was proud of his daughter's ability to read, thinking that he had made considerable contributions. Because he didn't care about his family, although Yin Cai didn't divorce him and they were strangers, he didn't care at all.
Yin Cai didn't go home. He was hooking up with many girls because he was lonely and bored. He had no money to pay Ji Ziqing's tuition, but he had money to spend on those widows or divorced women, living a happy life.
And Yin Cai has been suffering all her life. Although her daughter saved a lot of money in high school, she has to spend money to go to college. It will be college in three years, so she has to save every penny.
Because she was frail and overworked, she had gray hair on her temples when she was only in her forties, making her more than ten years older than her peers. What she feared most was that she would not be able to save for Ji Ziqing to pay for a good college.
In the end, the tuition and living expenses were saved, but she couldn't wait until Ji Ziqing graduated from college.
And he was indeed a scumbag. Knowing that Yin Cai had left some money for Ji Ziqing, he asked her to "borrow" it, saying that he wanted to repair the small shabby house in the village. It was already leaking at the time and it was indeed very dilapidated.
After Ji Ziqing refused, he came to see her again and again. At one time, he said that he needed a minor surgery and had no money, and at another time, he said that he wanted to buy a car with others and enjoy the scenery.
Ji Ziqing had no feelings for him and hated him to the core. He was heartless and complacent. When he saw that his daughter had gone to college, graduate school, and later a Ph.D., he would brag to everyone.
She was just waiting for the other party to pick her up and go to a big city to enjoy life, but she never thought that after Ji Ziqing came back, she took away her mother's memorial tablet and never heard from her again.
Some said she married outside the province, some said she settled in the capital, and some said she got a green card and went abroad. Until his death, he never showed up.
His old age was not good. He drank beer and seafood all year round and ate a lot. Before he was fifty, he developed severe gout. His feet were often unable to walk and were so swollen that those women only played with him. In the end, they even gave him sexually transmitted diseases. Dye it to him. In the end, the small shabby house could no longer hold up, and it collapsed in the middle of the night, almost killing him.
As for Ji Ziqing's ending, Ji Huai looked through the memories of his previous life, and there was no news about the other party. According to his guess, even if Ji Ziqing read a lot of books and made a lot of money, his life might still be bad. Die alone.
She is not good at communication and has low self-esteem. She was isolated in elementary school and junior high school because of her beauty and poor family background. The relationship between her parents was not harmonious. Although Yin Cai endured it again and again for the sake of her children and was unwilling to have disputes, Ji Ziqing Sensitive mind, see clearly.
In college, after Yin Cai passed away, Ji Ziqing also suffered from depression. He didn't know what the disease was, but he just thought she was eating too much and thinking nonsense.
As a father, he has not set a good example. Even if the other party enters marriage, he may face many difficulties.
Ji Huai sighed deeply, why is he such a scumbag
He went to drink last night and fell asleep when he came back. Now he was so hungry that he touched his slightly bulging beer belly and started to look through his trouser pockets to see if he could find dozens more yuan.
After looking through it twice, there was not a penny left. The front right trouser pocket was still torn, and you could reach your thigh if you put your hand in it.
Ji Huai: "..."
The small electric car only had one rearview mirror. He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was greasy, and his originally handsome face had become fatter and had a lot of flesh on both sides.
I haven't shaved my beard in a few days, and I look like a greasy old man.
He really couldn't accept himself like this. He thought that he was also the class leader back then, but now he couldn't bear to look at her. He quickly looked away, sat up straight, turned around and drove away in his snail's little broken tram.
During this period, Yin Cai also called and asked him if he had sent Ji Ziqing to class. He drove the car with one hand and replied, "No!"
Yin Cai was furious and was about to curse, but he laughed and said, "Give it away. I paid her back. It's so early in the morning. Why are you so angry?"
She held back the words she was about to curse and laughed angrily.
"Okay, hang up." Ji Huai clicked twice on his smartphone with a smashed screen, and put the phone back into his trouser pocket. He had to put it in his left trouser pocket, because the right trouser pocket was torn and couldn't fit it in.
Yin Cai also put her cell phone away. The worker who came to move the materials heard her cursing and joked, "I didn't expect you to be so fierce."
The other party just said something and continued to carry the feed, while Yin Cai fell into a trance.
Yes, when did she become like this
I remember that when she was in school and working, everyone's impression of her was that she had a gentle temper. But now, life has hardened her into this horrible appearance.
She didn't believe in fate before, but now she does.
But even if people can't escape their lives, they can't accept their fate.
"I want three bags of feed. Put it in the account." A dark-skinned man walked in and started to move it.
"Okay, Brother Hai, you have taken thirty-four packages this month." Yin Cai looked at the ledger and added three more packages.
The other party is an old customer, so don’t worry, they will settle the bill at the end of the year.
After the other party left, she felt a little more relaxed, stood up, and gave her aching waist. After giving birth to Ji Ziqing, she couldn't sit properly during confinement and her waist always felt uncomfortable.
Walking aside, she poured half a cup of freshly boiled hot water into the cup, then added two spoons of milk powder to make a cup of milk. She took out a piece of bread on the table and started eating breakfast.
She never eats breakfast at home, and she never goes to a breakfast shop to have breakfast, she only comes to the shop to eat. Customers often come to the store, so the table is equipped with biscuits and bread, as well as milk powder and various teas, which she can eat.
Bread has a shelf life. If it is not finished, the proprietress will throw it away and buy a new one, and she can save breakfast money by coming to the store for breakfast.
Although she can only save a few dollars a day, she still has to save it because her children still have to go to school.
After preparing the milk powder, she took a few sips and ate the bread in her hands without any expression on her face. She has been eating these breakfasts for several years, and she has long been tired of them. She just chews them in order to feel full.