June 6, 2014, Grain in Ear.
On Friday afternoon, after school, Xue Yuantong rarely went to the snack street, but took a ride home.
Usually, in addition to playing games in the room, the two also like to wander around. Before it gets dark, Xue Yuantong asks Jiang Ning to go for a walk on the river dam.
Looking down from the dam, the fields are golden and the grains of wheat ears are so full that they seem about to burst.
"Jiang Ning, it's time to harvest the wheat." Xue Yuantong.
"It's almost there."
"Has your family planted wheat?" Xue Yuantong asked him.
Jiang Ning thought for a moment and said, "I stopped farming a long time ago and rented the land to someone else."
His parents were working away from home, so they naturally had no time to take care of the few acres of land at home.
"My family still has some. My grandparents grow them in the village." Xue Yuantong said, "We use a combine harvester to harvest the wheat every year."
It was getting close to evening, the sun was not too strong and there were people walking on the river dam.
She told Jiang Ning about her childhood in the village, claiming that when her family worked in the fields, she also went to help.
Jiang Ning said, she is playing by the fields, right
After talking for a while, Xue Yuantong looked towards the Huishui River in the north and found a large ship docked near the shore.
"Jiang Ning, let's go to the river to see the big ships."
Jiang Ning agreed, and they walked along the path along the dam towards the river. The dam was about 100 to 200 meters away from the river, and both sides of the path were planted with wheat.
Jiang Ning walked slowly forward, and Xue Yuantong followed beside him, wearing sandals and jumping around like a child, not feeling the heat at all.
Her voice was clear and pleasant: "After harvesting the wheat in our village, we would light a fire in the fields. It was a spectacular sight, with fire all over the fields!"
"But there are also bad things." Her tone dropped again, and she could no longer dance. She said quietly:
"Many years ago, when I was in the second grade of primary school, someone from the village next door brought gasoline to burn wheat straw. It was very windy that day, and the wind blew so hard that it burned other people's wheat!"
“Dozens of acres of wheat were burned!
Jiang Ning: "Is he okay?"
Xue Yuantong: "Yeah, the person was fine, but we burned their wheat, and later we had to pay a lot of money for it."
They kept walking and followed the dirt road to the river. The big ship was on the east side, so they continued to turn east.
There were only small paths nearby, and the area was bumpy. A few hundred meters ahead, there was a pond in front of us. Several people, young and old, were sitting by the pond fishing.
Xue Yuantong stood by the pond for a while. The water was calm and bottomless. An old man who was fishing stood up and cast his hook, causing ripples.
"Jiang Ning, I feel the water must be very deep!" She spoke in a low voice for fear of disturbing others fishing.
Jiang Ning scanned it with his spiritual sense: "More than two meters deep, not bad."
The old man next to him glanced at him.
Xue Yuantong walked along the pond for a distance to the south. Here was an almost dry ditch, about three or four meters wide and two meters deep. It was very steep because the banks had been dug by excavators.
If you want to see big ships, you have to pass by here.
Xue Yuantong stood on the shore, hesitating to go down the slope for fear of rolling down.
"Jiang Ning, you go first." She knew that Jiang Ning was very capable. If it were him, it would be easy for him. Then he could let Jiang Ning catch her at the bottom of the slope and she could successfully climb over and achieve her goal.
"Okay." Jiang Ning responded, took a few steps back, took a run-up, and with a light leap, he jumped directly to the other side.
Xue Yuantong: “?”
She wanted Jiang Ning to go to the bottom of the slope, not to the other side!
Jiang Ning looked across the river at the little Xue Yuantong and said with a smile:
"Come here soon."
Xue Yuantong had no choice but to spend five minutes to reach the bottom of the slope, cross the stream, and then with the help of Jiang Ning, he climbed to the other side with difficulty.
She stood on the shore and brushed the mud off her clothes, puffed up her lips and looked resentful.
Fortunately, after crossing the ditch and walking a few dozen meters forward, they climbed a slope and stepped on the weeds to reach the shore where the big ship was docked.
Looking at it from a close distance, Xue Yuantong was quite shocked by the huge size of the ship.
The big ship dropped anchor and tied to the shore with a hemp rope as thick as an arm. With the evening breeze blowing, the huge hull gently slapped the water.
Xue Yuantong looked up. The ship was at least five meters high. There were room-like buildings on the ship, but it seemed that no one was there.
Xue Yuantong looked at it for a while and guessed, "Is this a sand-carrying ship? I heard from my mother that many people don't have houses and usually live on boats."
Jiang Ning nodded: "Yes."
He used to have a classmate whose family lived on a boat. Later, when it came to his generation, he chose to study and escaped that fate.
"Jiang Ning, do you know what a ship looks like?"
“No.”
Xue Yuantong looked at the hemp rope used to secure the sand-carrying ship, and suddenly had an idea: "Can I step on the hemp rope and get on the ship?"
Jiang Ning said: "If you keep your balance, you will definitely be able to go up."
While Xue Yuantong was thinking, a dark figure jumped out from the boat: "Wang Wang Wang!"
The black dog bared its teeth and growled at the two people on the shore.
Xue Yuantong was so frightened that she wanted to run away, but when she remembered that Jiang Ning was there, she stopped being afraid.
The black dog kept barking on the boat. After Xue Yuantong calmed down, he found that the black dog only dared to bark but did not dare to get off the boat to bite people, so he gradually felt relieved.
She gestured to the black dog, and the dog became furious and barked non-stop.
Xue Yuantong remembered a movie about a pianist who had lived on a boat since he was a child and had never left the boat in his life.
She suddenly asked, "Is it possible that this dog never got off the boat in its entire life?"
Jiang Ning thought about it and said, "It's very likely."
Xue Yuantong sighed slowly.
After enjoying the breeze for a while, she went home with Jiang Ning.
It's getting dark, and it's time for mom to cook at home.
On the way back, Xue Yuantong answered the phone and said a few words. She looked excited, "Jiang Ning, Chuchu's family will have dinner at our house tonight."
"My mother asked me to see if there was anyone selling vegetables on the dam and buy some to take home."
Jiang Ning: "Are they coming over to discuss the house?"
"Yeah, yes. Are you happy that Chuchu will be our neighbor from now on?"
Jiang Ning: “Not bad.”
We walked around and went up to the dam. It was evening and the temperature had dropped. The dam was full of people taking a walk. At a distance, there were old people riding tricycles selling vegetables.
"Let's go buy some groceries and wait for Chuchu."
Xue Yuantong went to a vegetable stall, but found that the vegetables were not very fresh, so he did not buy any.
While shopping for groceries, Chuchu's mother passed by on an electric scooter. Xue Yuantong called out to her and Xue Chuchu got off the scooter.
"Chu Chu, let's eat at our house tonight. Come on, look at the dishes with me."
Xue Chuchu responded, then smiled and greeted Jiang Ning.
Xue Yuantong ran to another vegetable stall and bought a head of lettuce. Passing by an old man selling fish, she stopped in front of the stall.
She seldom bought fish because Jiang Ning was very good at fishing, and if she wanted to eat fish, she could just go fishing with him.
But it was getting dark today and it was obviously too late.
When Xue Chuchu saw Tongtong stop, she reached into her pocket and found that she still had ten yuan, which should be enough.
Besides them, there were several other people looking at the fish in front of the stall.
Xue Yuantong squatted in front of the basin, watching the fish in the water swimming around and blowing bubbles. Her dark eyes stared at the bubbles in a daze.
She pulled Jiang Ning and praised: "Look at this fish, it's so cute~"
Jiang Ning lowered his head and said softly, "Well, then you pick two and we'll stew the fish tonight."
Xue Yuantong smiled and said, "Okay!"
While chatting and laughing, the two selected a few live crucian carps.
Xue Chuchu, who was watching nearby, felt something was wrong for some reason.
…
Dinner was braised crucian carp, Xue Yuantong was in the kitchen and Jiang Ning was in charge of the fire.
After cooking, the meat was tender, spicy and delicious. Xue Yuantong even grabbed a piece of steamed bun and dipped it in the soup to eat.
After dinner, Aunt Gu and Chuchu’s mother went to talk to Aunt Pan next door about selling the house.
Xue Yuantong was enjoying the cool breeze at the door, imagining her summer vacation life: "Chu Chu, let's go out and play together during the summer vacation?"
The summer vacation at No. 4 Middle School is very long, lasting two months, so she can definitely have fun!
Xue Chuchu squeezed her legs together and said hesitantly, "I don't know when summer vacation will start."
After saying this, she pursed her lips. As a member of the Tsinghua and Peking University class at No. 2 Middle School, her curriculum was very tight. In addition to the usual courses, her classmates had already begun preparing for various competitions.
There are two other students in the class who have started to participate in the junior class program of Anjo University of Science and Technology.
In this kind of competition, Xue Chuchu didn't dare to play too much.
Xue Yuantong felt regretful for a while. It seemed that such a beautiful scenery could only be appreciated by her and Jiang Ning together.
However, she did not forget Chuchu: "Jiang Ning has a camera, I will take pictures for you when the time comes."
Xue Chuchu smiled: "Yeah, okay."
Not long after, Aunt Gu came back. Chu Chu's mother chatted with her at the door for a while and declined the invitation to stay overnight:
"Once we buy a house, we will have a long time to live in the future. There is no need to rush now."
Aunt Gu said, "Okay, be careful when you ride your bike at night."
“There are street lights.”
After Chuchu left, Xue Yuantong asked, "Mom, have you decided on a house?"
Aunt Gu didn't hide it: "It's settled, but Chuchu's family is still trying to get the money. It will probably take some time to buy the house."
…
In the evening, Jiang Ning was enjoying the cool outside the door. He sat on a small stool and played with his mobile phone.
Xue Yuantong next to him didn't play with his phone.
She is playing on the tablet.
This is Jiang Ning’s iPad mini2. Xue Yuantong wanted to buy it for a while, so she made a strict money-saving plan, such as not eating at school at night, asking her mother to cook to save money, and giving up snacks, etc.
Overall, some money was saved, but she found that Jiang Ning hardly used the tablet.
After rubbing it a few times with a shameless face, Xue Yuantong figured something out.
If she spends a huge amount of money to buy a tablet, she has to live frugally. When she and Jiang Ning eat together, if she doesn't eat well, it means that Jiang Ning doesn't eat well.
So she decided to let Jiang Ning eat better, at the cost of using Jiang Ning's tablet.
Xue Yuantong placed the tablet on his lap, tapping it with his fingers, and game music came from the speakers.
Jiang Ning glanced at her. She was playing "Kingdom Rush". This game was of good quality and was considered the best among tower defense games.
Xue Yuantong built many turrets, which were densely packed together, and every monster he bombarded was killed in large numbers.
She placed a stool next to her with a plate of spicy potato chips on it. While playing the game, she would touch the potato chips and bite them, making a crunching sound.
Then I took another sip of water and it was such a pleasure.
"Mom, drink some water, it's gone." Xue Yuantong shouted.
Aunt Gu held the cup and refilled it for her.
"Mom, no ice water?"
"You can't drink ice water today." Aunt Gu warned.
Xue Yuantong concentrated on playing the game, completing one level after another.
Jiang Ning browsed the Diba section of Baidu Tieba for a while. Diba is currently at its peak, with the number of followers having just exceeded 10 million. Many newly published posts were drowned out in the blink of an eye, making it impossible to read through them all.
After browsing some posts, he saw messages popping up in the class group. He clicked on them and saw that Dong Qingfeng was showing off his newly bought mobile phone, a OnePlus 1.
"What brand is this? I've never heard of it before," Cui Yu said. "One plus one? Why not just call 2?"
Dong Qingfeng posted a few pictures and said: "I bought the 64GB version, which has 3GB of RAM and is equipped with a Qualcomm 801 CPU. I tell you, this configuration is top-notch now!"
As soon as these words were spoken, all the male classmates were stunned.
Ma Shicheng said: "3G memory is really powerful and can run many software."
Guo Kunnan: "My phone only has 1GB of RAM, a three-fold difference."
Dong Qingfeng posed for some more photos, enjoying the new phone to the fullest: "It's very smooth."
Zhang Chi suddenly spoke up: "Dong Qingfeng, you got a new phone, where's your old one?"
"Use it as a backup phone." Dong Qingfeng said.
Zhang Chi: "Why not sell it?"
He was also thinking, if Dong Qingfeng was selling his old phone, could he get a bargain and buy his classmate's old phone.
Dong Qingfeng: "I like dual-wielding my phones."
Zhang Chi said: "What a luxury! My screen is broken."
You can't compare people. He remembered that Dong Qingfeng's previous mobile phone was well maintained and it was a vivo brand, unlike him who could only use a miscellaneous brand.
Guo Kunnan: "Is it very bad?"
Zhang Chi was in a bad mood: "There are several cracks, and it doesn't work to touch it."
Guo Kunnan: "It's rotten, let me see if the inner screen is broken."
So Zhang Chi took a screenshot and sent the photo to the group.
Guo Kunnan took a look and said in confusion: "It's not broken, it's fine."
Zhang Chi: "Look carefully, it must be broken."
Guo Kunnan looked to the left and saw that the screen was still intact. He typed: "Kaiquan, do you think Zhang Chi's phone is broken?"
Shan Kaiquan, who was peeking at the screen, replied immediately: "It's not broken."
"You're trying to fool me, right? It clearly breaks when I look at it from here." Would Zhang Chi really lie to his classmates
He took a screenshot and sent it to the group: "Look carefully, both of you."
Then, several people started arguing about whether the screen was broken or not.
Yu Wen was surprised: "Zhang Chi's screen was indeed broken that day. I saw it, but it's fine now. Did they replace the screen?"
Huang Zhongfei sent a string of ellipsis.
Zhang Chi @ squad leader: "Zhongfei, do you think it's broken?"
Huang Zhongfei had no choice but to dismiss the question: "This is a screenshot, not a photo. A screenshot cannot see outside."
…
"Mom, I want some water!" Xue Yuantong shouted. He ate too many spicy potato chips and his mouth was dry.
Aunt Gu poured another glass of water for her daughter. This was the third glass of water she had poured.
Xue Yuantong passed two levels of the game and then asked her mother to help her pour water.
Aunt Gu felt annoyed by her daughter's happy look, so she said earnestly, "Tongtong, Mom is tired, you can pour the water yourself."
Mom is of no use...Xue Yuantong had no choice but to press pause and ran back to his room.
Aunt Gu smiled. Her daughter was quite obedient.
After a while, Xue Yuantong walked out of the door in slippers, grabbing a popsicle and eating it non-stop.