"I want to deliver the dates." Su Xian was obsessed with what she had not finished yet.
"I will go with you."
Su Xian took a look at his shoes: "It rained a few days ago, and the road is still a little wet. Your shoes will be even dirtier."
"It's okay, I can change to another pair tomorrow that won't get dirty."
Su Xian said no more and bent down to pick up the basket.
Zuo Yueyao took the basket and held it in his hand. Su Xian pointed at his sweater and said, "It will get your sweater dirty too."
"It doesn't matter."
People said it was okay, so Su Xian didn't force it. She walked in front and Zuo Yueyao followed behind her. Neither of them spoke anymore. They just went door to door. Every time they arrived at a house, people who usually praised Su Xian would turn around and praise Zuo Yueyao.
Zuo Yueyao accepted it all without any embarrassment, enjoying the baptism of words, smiling and polite all the way.
When all the dates in the basket were distributed, Su Xian thought Zuo Yueyao would be very tired, but he turned out to be as calm as ever without blushing or breathing hard.
This is somewhat different from her understanding of city people.
When returning, Su Xian still found a clean place to accompany Zuo Yueyao to rest for a while.
There were two big rocks on the side of the road. Su Xian put the paper in his pocket on the rocks and asked Zuo Yueyao to sit on them, but he didn't. Instead, he sat on the rock without the paper.
"Girls should avoid sitting in cold places. I'll just sit here."
Su Xian pouted and sat down on it.
Not only is she good-looking, but she is also a warm person. It really proves the saying that only an excellent mother can educate excellent children.
"You go to high school in town?" he brought up the topic again.
"Um."
"Do you live on campus?"
"Yeah, but I'll be back during holidays."
"I think the road here is not easy to walk on. How do you get there?"
"Just walk there. You'll get used to it after walking more. It's not that difficult, except when it rains. Sometimes I run into neighbors going to the market, so I can have some company."
Zuo Yueyao was silent for a while, then said: "It will be fine once the road is repaired in the future."
"Um."
"I heard from Uncle Zhao that you have excellent academic performance and have been awarded the title of "Three Good Students" every year. You are very smart."
This was not the first time Su Xian had heard such words. Today, he felt a little embarrassed. "Uncle Zhao praises everyone like this. Actually, I'm not that smart. I just spent more time than others. There is a lot of knowledge that I don't understand."
"We can study together in the next two days. You can ask me if you don't understand anything."
He spoke very confidently, so confident that Su Xian felt inferior to him.
He lowered his head: "Thank you."
Zuo Yueyao looked at Su Xian's rosy face and thought she looked pretty. He said casually, "I think you'd look better with long hair."
"Too much trouble."
When her mother was alive, Su Xian still had long hair, and her mother often braided her hair into various small braids. Every time she went to school, her classmates would envy her and praise her mother for being so clever and skillful.
After her mother left, no one braided her hair, so Su Xian did it cleanly and neatly. She was only eleven years old at that time, but she already knew what it meant to cut the Gordian knot.
Su Xian lived like this with a tomboyish hairstyle and was too lazy to even look in the mirror.
The next day, Su Xian did not really go to Zuo Yueyao to study together. She just thought that Zuo Yueyao was just being polite.
After finishing breakfast and washing the dishes, my father came with a large plate of boiled eggs and started his day's work.
"Take this plate of eggs to Secretary Zhou and the others."
Although eggs were not considered expensive in the village, it was a luxury to eat an egg every day, let alone cook such a large plate at once. Su Xian was disgusted by his father's excessive enthusiasm because he had ulterior motives.
"I have homework to do later, so I won't go."
Su Changlin was very upset by Su Xian's refusal. He put the plate on the stove with a bang and said, "You are almost starving. What's the point of still keeping this shame? If you have the ability, go out and make money like Xiaowu and the others. Throw the money in front of me and I won't give a shit!"
Xiaowu is Uncle Zhao's son. After graduating from high school, he went out to work with a few young people and went to a factory in the city. I heard that because of his diligence and activity, he became a team leader. He was doing quite well and would send money back to Uncle Zhao every month.
This incident deeply shocked Su Xian's father. He immediately put a bunch of reasons such as "A woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent" on the dinner table and talked about it.
Su Xian, who firmly believed that "books are the golden house", adopted the policy of letting her father's "teachings" go in one ear and out the other. She filtered out everything Su Changlin said, leaving nothing behind.
Su Changlin had been talking to himself for a long time and realized that his daughter was a typical example of "a rotten tree that cannot be carved", so he was too lazy to waste his breath on her.
But after seeing Zuo Yueyao yesterday, he didn't know what sensitive nerve in his heart was touched, and he started to treat Su Xian in a nonsensical way again.
Anyway, nothing looks right no matter how you look at it.
Su Xian was tactful enough to not hang around him, and this began to affect the boy named Zuo Yueyao, who began to become repulsed by his arrival.
"In this poor place, what's the point of a girl reading so much? You might as well find a proper job as soon as possible. When you get married, your in-laws won't care how much you read, they will only care how much money you make. Don't look so gloomy when talking to you. At least I paid for your education, don't act like I owe you anything!"
Su Xian washed the dishes and shook off the water stains on his hands. "Take a rest. I'll take it. Okay?"
It's worth it to sacrifice my old face for a peaceful life.
Who said that sixteen is the prime of life? Su Xian is just a period of bad luck and is about to become an old woman.
Su Xian took off his bib and was about to go out when Zuo Yueyao stepped in.
The light at the door was half blocked. Zuo Yueyao just stood at the kitchen door and called "Uncle" to Su Xian's father.
Su Xian didn't even have to think about how quickly his father's expression would change.
Sure enough, when Su Changlin heard the call, all the wrinkles on his face gathered together, and his eyes were narrowed into slits that could not be opened.
"Xiao Zuo is here, don't stand here. There's a lot of smoke in the kitchen. Come on, go to the main room." Su Changlin pushed Zuo Yueyao out, as if there was no one else in the kitchen.
Su Xian held the bowl of eggs and stood for a long time before bringing it to the main hall and placing it in Zuo Yueyao's hand: "This is for you. Remember to return the plate to us after you finish eating."
"How can you talk like that!" Su Changlin started to get angry when he saw his daughter being so unsophisticated: "Didn't I teach you how to entertain guests?"
Su Changlin's dislike for Su Xian never matters the occasion.
But seeing Zuo Yueyao, he was like a man who had a child in old age seeing his own son, his brows were filled with joy and his face was full of smiles.
Su Xian couldn't bear to watch it anymore, so she turned around and left, but she heard Su Changlin's accusing explanation behind her: "Ever since this child's mother left, her personality has become weird. I can't talk her down or beat her. When her mother was around, she listened to her. Now that her mother is gone, I'm raising her alone, and I'm really worried sick. Our family conditions aren't good, and she keeps making me worry all day long. My life is getting more and more hopeless. With my physical condition, I don't know how long I can survive."
"Xiao Zuo, I'm sorry to make you laugh."
Su Xian knew that Su Changlin was only playing the victim for Zuo Yueyao to see. To be more precise, he wanted Zuo Yueyao to go back and tell Zhou Ling the original words without changing them. Su Changlin felt that only by describing the family situation in a moving way could he get a bigger share of the poverty subsidy in the future.
What Su Changlin didn't know was that the word "mother" was Su Xian's most vulnerable nerve, which could not be mentioned, spoken, or even used.
So as the autumn wind lingered, Su Xian's nerve was suddenly pulled out, and it hurt so much that she almost cried.
"Uncle, don't be sad. When I went to deliver dates with Su Xian yesterday, everyone praised her and said that she would be a very promising person in the future. Moreover, Su Xian is so filial. My mother asked me to learn more from her. She went to visit early this morning and asked me to find Su Xian to do homework together."
"Okay, okay, then you study."
"Then can I take her to the village committee office to study? This way it won't disturb you."
"Of course, go ahead, go ahead."
Just like that, Su Xian was like being sold, and she was driven away without even being asked any questions.
Su Xian still walked in front of Zuo Yueyao, and kicked the pebbles on the roadside with his feet whenever he felt indignant.
Today, her self-esteem was trampled to pieces by her own father.
And in front of Zuo Yueyao.
In fact, Su Xian was thinking from another perspective at that time. She comforted herself and thought, let him be trampled on. Anyway, she would never see this boy again. After a few days, they would leave here and no one would remember who.
But what Su Xian never expected was that one day later, they not only met again, but also maintained a complicated relationship for a long time.
So, no matter what time, don't jump to conclusions. Who knows what unexpected plans God will come up with
The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. Su Xian walked faster and faster. The consequence of focusing only on speed and not quality was that he didn't see the potholes and almost fell headfirst.
Zuo Yueyao held her with one hand, while holding the plate of boiled eggs steadily with the other hand.
"Are you mad at me?"
Su Xian shook off his hand: "No."
Zuo Yueyao is considered to be a good-tempered person. He looks calm and composed despite receiving such a distinguished guest. He doesn't look like a boy of only sixteen years old. He looks so mature and steady.
"Actually, there's no need for you to be so angry. Although we can't choose where we're born, we can change our lives. We can't choose our parents, but we can change their views of us through practical actions. You should understand these principles without me having to explain them."
Su Xian also understood these profound principles.
She finally slowed down her pace, and when he came up, she walked side by side with him. Su Xian, who was able to realize her own mistakes, finally calmed down and found a topic to ease the atmosphere: "These are eggs laid by the chickens we raise at home. They are delicious and you can't eat them outside."
"I know." Zuo Yueyao replied with a smile: "We will eat them all, not a single one will be wasted."
When they arrived at the village committee office, there was a small square table inside. Su Xian spread out the books and sat face to face with Zuo Yueyao. She looked at the black metal ballpoint pen turning in Zuo Yueyao's hand, feeling a little envious.