Chapter 12 The children of the poor headed home early

Liu Dong is in the second grade.Every day at noon, Wang Guixiang would bring some food for the three children. There was nothing to bring at home, so each of them had a cornbread.Elder brother Liu Shu is a seventeen-year-old boy and a sophomore in high school; elder sister Liu Cao is thirteen and a junior high school student.Every morning, Wang Guixiang would bake three corn pancakes for the three children. The ones Liu Shu brought were bigger, the ones for his sister were neither big nor small, and the ones for Liu Dong were the smallest. The three pancakes were placed in the children’s schoolbags. It's lunch time.

At the beginning, Liu Dong ate lunch in the get out of class after class at noon every day. He took out the paper bag from his schoolbag, took out the cornbread and devoured it. Later, he found that the meals brought by his classmates were all rice. Boxed, with rice and vegetables, when the lid of the lunch box is lifted, it will be delicious.The smell made him drool, and he ate corn tortillas smelling the smell in the lunch box.When he choked, he scooped up the water in the bucket in the classroom, gulped a few sips, and washed down the dry and hard cornbread in his mouth. He eats corn tortillas every day, because there is no better food at home, so he can only eat this kind of tortillas.Later, the classmates found out, and said to Liu Dong: Liu Dong, why do you eat this all the time, can't you change it?

Liu Dong didn't speak, but lowered his head and gnawed hard on the pancakes. After a long time, his classmates nicknamed Liu Dong "Liu pancakes".It was noon one day, and everyone started eating after class.Liu Dong took out the corn pancakes wrapped in paper and was about to eat them when a classmate said: Liu Dong, you eat pancakes every day, so I will call you Liu pancakes from now on. Liu Dong listened, put down the pancake in his hand, walked over and shouted at the classmate: What did you say, say it again. The classmate said even more vigorously: Liu Bingzi, why did I call you Liu Bingzi.Your father Liu Erga is Liu Panzi, and your brother and sister are both Liu Panzi.

Liu Dong ran headlong at that classmate, knocking over not only the classmate, but also the classmate's lunch box. The rice and vegetables spilled all over the floor, and the two of them wrestled together.I don't know which classmate called the teacher, until the teacher appeared, the two stopped. As a result of the fight, they were punished by the teacher - when others were in class, they were shut out of the classroom.There was one standing on one side of the door, and one on the other. Both of them had their necks stuck, and no one looked at the other. Liu Dong naturally didn't dare to tell his family about his punishment when he got home. When he went to school the next day, his mother brought them corn cakes as usual.When eating at noon, Liu Dong secretly took out pancakes from his bag, put them in his clothes, and walked out of the classroom.There is a grove on campus, Liu Dong wants to hide in the grove secretly to have lunch.He walked into the grove, only to realize that he was not alone here, his brother was there, and his sister was also there.Brother and sister are struggling to eat tortillas.

The elder brother looked up at him and asked: Why do you also come here to eat? While taking pancakes out of his clothes, he said: I don't like eating in class. My brother said: After that, we ate here every day. The three children stopped talking, and they looked a little tragic while eating pancakes.During the eating process, the three children tacitly did not say a word. Liu Shu finished eating first, and he clapped his hands: "Listen, you two, you must study hard so that you can be successful in the future. If you are successful, you don't need to eat corn tortillas."

When my brother said this, he was like a philosopher, and he left after speaking.Liu Dong looked at the back of his seventeen-year-old brother. For a moment, he felt that his brother was tall. When Liu Dong came home from school, he didn't go home directly. He went to dig wild vegetables in the field, which was a task assigned by his mother to him and his sister.There are two pigs in the family, one big and one small. The pigs eat wild vegetables they dug up every day.When they went to school, they brought out the baskets for digging wild vegetables and hid them in a pile of grass. After school, they went straight to the grass, took out the baskets, and burrowed into the ground to find wild vegetables to dig.

Every morning when I came out, my mother would say: You dig more wild vegetables, and these two pigs will depend on you. When the time comes, we will sell one and kill another during the Chinese New Year, and our family will have meat to eat. They haven't eaten meat for a long time, and their stomachs growl when they think of meat.So, supported by their belief in eating meat, they went to dig wild vegetables every day.When he and his sister dug up two baskets of wild vegetables, it was not too early. When they walked to the pigsty where the two pigs were closed, the pigs could not wait any longer and were eagerly crowding in front of the door, waiting for their release. wild vegetables.

Liu Shu is not idle after school every day. He has to go to the mountains to collect firewood. When it is getting dark, he can carry a large bundle of firewood like a hill.When Liu Shu came back, the family's day's work was over. Wang Guixiang cooks, and the three children sit in the yard, doing their homework with the last touch of bright colors in the sky.While eating, Liu Shu flipped through a book while eating. At first, Liu Dong didn't know what his brother was reading, or Liu Cao told him that his brother was reading it.That was the first time he heard the title of the book.

My elder brother works very hard no matter whether he is reading or studying, and he will graduate from high school in one year.My brother said that he joined the army as soon as he graduated from high school, and became a glorious PLA. He tried to be promoted and became an officer, so that he could earn wages.My brother is working hard in this direction now. My brother tried his best to exercise his body well. He was afraid that his health would be bad and he would fail the physical examination.The elder brother’s way of exercising is to run to and from school every day, and when he gets home, he grabs the rope for binding firewood and the firewood knife, and then runs to the back of the mountain.My brother never walks, he only runs, and his face is always sweaty.My brother always reads the book very late every day before turning off the lights and going to bed.

Father's health seems to have been poor, and now he has a dry cough. There seems to be something blocked in his throat, and he coughs twice when there is nothing to do.Father's face was yellow and thin, and because of the dry cough, his words became less and less, and his words were replaced by dry cough. Dinner time is the happiest time for a family.Because only at night, there will be an extra dish on the table.In the morning, corn cakes, porridge, and pickles are eaten all year round; only some oil stars can be seen in the dishes at night.The whole family looks very happy. My mother often thinks about the future life at this time. My mother said: Our family, the three of you are growing up, and the rations for one year are always not enough. When your brother graduates, he If he is willing to serve as a soldier, let him go, so that there will be one less person in the family fighting for food. By then, there will be enough food, and we will eat sorghum and millet every two days.

When his mother said that, Liu Dong was fascinated. Mother also said: Wait until autumn, sell the big pig, and everyone will tear a few feet of cloth for you, and make you a new dress.If it's Chinese New Year, that little pig should be big too. After a year of hard work, kill it and sell some meat. Let's keep the pig's head and offal for our own consumption. From that moment on, Liu Dong began to look forward to autumn and the new year. When autumn comes, the new year will not be far away. When my mother thought about it like this, my father didn't say anything. He coughed dryly while eating. My mother also cared about my father's illness and asked him to go to the health center. The barefoot doctor in the health center could not see anything, so he prescribed some licorice tablets and came back.My father ate it, but he didn't see any improvement, so he simply stopped looking at it later. The mother said: My son's father, it's not a problem for you to cough all the time, go to a big hospital to see it? My father said, "It's nothing, it's just that there's something in my throat, and I'll be fine after a cough." My mother knew that my father was reluctant to spend money on medical treatment, so my mother discussed with my father: If you sell the pigs in autumn, you can go to the county hospital for a check-up? Father reluctantly said: Let's talk. Let's talk about my father. In the dead of night, the mother turned over on the kang and woke up. She glanced at the white moon outside the window and thought of "that child" again. She pushed her father: the child's father, I don't know what happened to the child ? Father woke up from the dream: Don't think about it, go to sleep. Soon, they were all asleep again.The hard work of life leaves them no more time and energy to think about things outside of their surroundings. Brother Liu Shu's biggest dream is to become a member of the People's Liberation Army. In the era when he had no choice, he pinned all his ideals on joining the army. After joining the army, the young people in the front village and the back village occasionally go home to take vacations to visit relatives or something. My brother will go a long way to follow them, looking at their green uniforms, envious to death.I walked a lot with him, just to let them notice him and say a few words to him, so that he would take the trouble to ask him about the army. My brother felt mysterious and full of awe about everything in the army. My brother had a fine powder gun made out of bicycle chains, which he traded for a fake army jacket.The elder brother put on the fake military uniform fondly, and he looked much more energetic.My brother said to Liu Dong: Do you think my brother looks like a PLA? Liu Dong looked at his brother from head to toe: It would be great if there was a hat and pants. The elder brother looked into the distance and said fiercely: One day there will be. In May of that year, that is to say, my brother would graduate from high school in two months. Once he graduated from high school, my brother would not be far away from being a soldier.But in May of that year, something happened to his father Liu Erga.Liu Erga was participating in the labor in the field with everyone, and suddenly fell down and fainted in the field.At that time, Liu Erga's face was already sallow, his dry cough was still there, and his thin body seemed to be lit with a match. Liu Erga really fainted this time. First, he was pulled by a carriage to the commune health center. The doctor listened to the heart and lungs, and said that he was seriously ill, but he couldn't tell what was wrong, so he asked his father to go to the commune health center. The county health center, and finally came to the county health center.The result was checked out soon: my father had tuberculosis, which was already at an advanced stage.According to the doctor, there is no good place for my father's lung, and it is not even worth saving. Father was brought back by carriage.My father has been lying on the kang ever since, his face still scorched, and he vomits blood when he coughs, only his eyes are still moving.He swept his eyes around the three children one by one, first at Liu Shu, then at Liu Cao, and then settled on Liu Dong. He is nostalgic for this world, but also for his relatives. Father is so struggling.On that day in July, Liu Shu happened to be attending the high school graduation ceremony. Liu Shu and his class invited a cameraman from the city to take a picture of the whole class.Naturally, the father did not see the group photo. It was daytime when the father left, and the three children were all in school, only Wang Guixiang was by his side. His father's gaze stayed on Wang Guixiang's face, and he was unwilling to leave for a long time. He seemed to want to raise his hand, but he didn't have the strength, so Wang Guixiang put his ear close to him and said, "My son's father, if you have anything to say, just say it. I'll listen." It's on. Liu Erga said intermittently: I miss that child. One sentence made Wang Guixiang cry. This was Liu Erga's last sentence before he died, and he died after speaking.While crying, Wang Guixiang looked at Liu Erga who had already left. She felt uncomfortable and extremely aggrieved. Wang Guixiang shed tears and prepared for Liu Erga's funeral.Ever since she knew that Liu Erga had tuberculosis, she hadn't shed a single tear. She didn't want her husband to see her tears. She wanted to be a strong woman.When she heard the last words left by her husband, she couldn't take it anymore, and she burst into tears. When Liu Erga went, half of Wang Guixiang's house collapsed. After sending Liu Erga away, Wang Guixiang stopped crying.She called the three children together for a family meeting.She first looked at the three children one by one, and then said in a hoarse voice: "Your father is gone, and this family will depend on our mother from now on." Finally, she fixed her eyes on Liu Shu's face: You are the boss of this family, you are eighteen this year, and you are an adult.I know you want to be a soldier, but Mom won't stop you, just go. Liu Shu was worried about his future and destiny. When his father left, the pillar of the family would fall. He was worried that he would not be able to realize his ideal.These days, on the one hand, he is immersed in the sorrow of losing his father, and on the other hand, he is also sad about his dying ideal.His mother's words reassured him, and his slumped waist straightened up little by little. It soon entered October, which was the day when the army was recruited. In those days, trees and walls were covered with slogans saying "One man serves as a soldier, and the whole family is honored." Young recruits also flocked to the brigade to sign up. Liu Shu also went.Lao Hu, director of the Revolutionary Committee of the brigade, saw Liu Shu in the crowd at a glance. He pointed to Liu Shu and said: You can't go. Liu Shu looked at Director Hu and asked: Why can't I go?Three generations of my family were poor peasants, so there was no problem politically. Director Hu put his hands behind his back and said seriously: Your family has no political problems, but your family has difficulties. Your father died, and the family has no labor. If you leave, who will support your family? I'm gone, and my mother is there. Director Hu said: "Your mother is a woman, so that doesn't count. You can only recruit those who have no financial support. You are not qualified. You can't apply for this job." Liu Shu didn't sign up that day, and cried when he got home.Wang Guixiang asked and understood the whole story, and after a moment of silence said: Tomorrow, I will take you there. The next day, Wang Guixiang and Liu Shu appeared in front of Director Hu of the brigade. She said, "Old Hu, my Liu Shu wants to enroll in the army." Director Hu said: No, your Liu Shu does not meet the requirements. Wang Guixiang said: Director Hu, don't worry, if Liu Shu can serve as a soldier, he won't go to the government if his family encounters serious difficulties. Director Hu said: That is to say, if Liu Shu leaves as a soldier, your family is a member of the military. If the military members have difficulties, can the brigade ignore it?So Liu Shu couldn't go. Speaking of this, he pointed to the young people queuing up to sign up and said: So many people signed up, and Liu Shu from your family is not missing. Wang Guixiang just froze there, and Liu Shu was also dumbfounded. Wang Guixiang suddenly bent over, knelt down in front of Director Hu, and said in a low voice: Please, Director Hu, my Liu Shu just wants to be a soldier. Director Hu said helplessly: "Then you can report, as I said, it is useless." Liu Shu, who signed up, seemed to see a glimmer of hope, which was shattered two days later.The first test was an officer receiving troops. When he walked up to Liu Shu from the head to the tail of the team of young recruits, he asked: Is your name Liu Shu? Liu Shu nodded, and the officer pulled him out of the line.It was dark in front of Liu Shu. Liu Shu didn’t know how he got here in those days. He went to work in the fields every day without saying a word. At some point, the fake military uniform he was wearing disappeared. Since then, he has refused to wear grass-green clothes.When he got home, he didn't say a word, flipped through the book, not sure if he really read it in, or pretended to show it to others. After a while, the two young men who joined the army in the brigade settled down. They wore big red flowers on their chests and were sent away solemnly with gongs and drums. Liu Shu was lying on the kang, crying suppressed at first, and then burst into tears.Wang Guixiang stood aside, looked at Liu Shu, and wiped away tears. Liu Dong didn't know all this. He stood in the crowd and watched the excitement in front of him.He was attracted by the two young men in military uniforms and red flowers on their chests. Finally, he ran back with his face flushed, and shouted as soon as he entered the door: Mom, I want to be a soldier when I grow up. Soon, he was startled by the sight in front of him, his brother and mother were crying.He stood there, biting his lip, glanced at his mother, then at his elder brother, and said after a long while: Mom, I won't be a soldier anymore. The mother cried out suddenly: Our family has no such life. Later, my elder brother learned to play the flute, which made people want to cry.After finishing his work every day, he would sit in front of his house and blow in the dark for a long time. One day, Liu Dong stood beside his brother lightly, and murmured, "Brother, don't brag, I feel bad when you brag." Liu Shu pulled Liu Dong in front of him, looked into the distance and said, "Brother, you won't be able to be a soldier in this life. When you grow up, you must go."If there is a brother in this family, they have no reason not to let you go. When my brother said this, his eyes were full of tears, so Liu Dong nodded seriously at his brother.