Chapter 7 Section VII

The next morning, when Runsheng was sitting in front of his net, eating the lunch his mother had sent for him, his mind was still haunted by the scene when he met Xiaolan at the management station last night.He realized that the relationship between him and Xiaolan had become complicated. Although there was no more evidence and facts, it was just a premonition!She is nice to him, and he likes her too.She kissed him, and sang the emotional song to him. He liked her cheerful personality and pretty appearance;Things are simple, love is not so simple: you love me!And where did that student-looking young man with glasses creep in?Is their relationship has indeed become complicated?Or is it that I am too sensitive, even narrow-minded, and complicate the problem?

In any case, from last night to now, too much thinking has already made his brain ache.He has always kept things in his mind, his test scores were a bit poor, and others were so worried that they could not sleep at night, but he still snored; when he lost a basketball game, his comrades were downcast, and he still hummed a little song.There is nothing in the world that can make him worry, or worry so much that he can't sleep.Now, since he could remember, last night was the first time he suffered from insomnia. His eighteen-year-old brother couldn’t sleep, his mind was sticky and he couldn’t tell his eyebrows.

His limbs were sore and limp, he couldn't use them, and his heart was depressed. The steamed bun was chewed in his mouth, like chewing a ball of mud, without fragrance.He felt that his simple mind couldn't hold so many complicated things... At this moment, two cars drove over from the river bend.On the beach, the people who were having lunch dropped their chopsticks and teapots, jumped up, and chased after the car one after another.He sat lazily without moving, and lowered his head to think about his own thoughts. The two cars turned into the beach and stopped abruptly. The driver threw off the entangled farmers, stood on the stone pile, and called Cao Runsheng and Cao Changcai loudly.Before Runsheng could move, Uncle Changcai was already smiling, shaking his slender arms, twisting his bowed legs that were deformed from carrying the load and pushing the cart, and rushed forward to lead the driver down.Runsheng suddenly felt relieved. Xiaolan respected his request and dispatched the car as scheduled. She must be... really too sensitive?

Runsheng helped the loading and unloading workers to load the trucks, and there was a sound of falling stones.After the car was loaded, Aunt Changcai arrived just in time with a bamboo cage to deliver the package. "Colleague, try a piece." Uncle Changcai grabbed the driver's arm, loudly and sincerely, "You should try it! Pancakes with hot noodles and oil are not often eaten by people in the city." Aunt Changcai’s pancakes are so well baked, the browned skin is so mouth-watering, it’s a pity that there are too few of them.She probably only considered feeding the man before eating a full meal alone. She didn't expect to meet the driver who pulled the stone, and there were five or six stevedores.Runsheng made trouble for the talented uncle, so who would eat a few pancakes?

"There are few pancakes and there are many people, so the two masters will eat first." The long-term uncle did not make it difficult, and told the truth to appease the loaders sitting in the car, "When we come next time, let everyone eat. There is no way. I I didn't know there were so many colleagues here..." His frank attitude made the stevedores smile generously. The two drivers just yielded and did not take their seats. "I don't recognize them, they are strangers; I recognize them, a family! The workers are the elder brothers of our peasants!" The long-talented uncle actually showed the demeanor of a diplomat, although the language was a bit confusing, his attitude was generous, "Now Farmers are no longer short of food! You have a ration for eating public grain every month, but I don’t have a ration for farmers, so I eat it all! Runwa, what are you doing standing so far away? Come and eat with the master."

The elderly driver was so kind, he started to eat the pancakes, and praised the pancakes for being well baked, saying that the pasta from the farmhouse was fresh and delicious, but the flour from the grain store could not taste the fragrance of the grain itself... … The young driver looked only twenty-four or five years old.While chewing pancakes, he naturally turned his head to Runsheng and asked, "Looking at your posture, it seems like you like sports?" Before Runsheng could answer, Uncle Changcai interjected and said, "I, Runsheng, play basketball first in the county, and won prizes even in the provincial capital!" He was obviously interested in all topics, as long as he got the driver ( God of Wealth), regardless of his ignorance of basketball knowledge.Basketball is a collective confrontation game. How can an individual win the first place?

"Do you like football?" the young driver asked. "I like ball games." Runsheng's nerves became excited.In the few months since he came home, he had harvested first, then planted in autumn. As soon as the busy season of harvest and sowing was over, he plunged into the beach with a net on his shoulders, without even touching a basketball.The basketball hoop in Cao Village has long since been dumped, and the villagers have planted mustard greens on the court that are not afraid of pigs and chickens.The boys in the village are all busy with their own business, and no one is interested in basketball anymore.He has no partner, no bosom friend, who is willing to waste the good time on the basketball court now!Now, he met a strange driver, and his interest in watching football games made Runsheng feel close.He and he have common interests and a common language.He said, "Schools in the countryside only pay attention to basketball..."

"Have you watched the football group match in the Asia-Pacific region?" the young driver asked, and said in a deeply frustrated tone, "What a loser the national team is!" "The technology is poor." Runsheng also expressed regret, "That can't be helped. Of course, sometimes it depends on luck..." "The hope is slim!" The young driver smiled wryly, "China's football is as backward as China's industry; if you want to compete with the world powers, look at the end of this century! Wait for my son's generation..." "It won't be too long to break out of Asia." Runsheng nodded, expressing his agreement with the driver's estimate, "To compete with European and American teams, we really have to wait for the next generation, and the stadium is waiting for stars to be born..."

"I must train my son to be a football star!" The young driver smiled triumphantly, "I'm three years old, and I don't give him any toys to play with, only play with small balls for him. After get off work every day, I teach him how to practice. South American countries start training children at the age of six or seven, and I started from the time my son could run..." It seemed that the driver didn't want to be joking, he spoke very seriously, but Runsheng was emotional, and echoed, "In a billion-dollar country, losing football to Thailand is really suffocating..."

The older master ate the pancakes, licked his lips in disdain, and said mockingly, "Look at them, they are talking speculatively. What are you doing with your idle time? What about football, win or lose, don't care!" "You'll be satisfied as long as you can fill your pancakes!" The young driver said disrespectfully, also in a mocking tone.He turned his head, shook his hand, and said to Runsheng, "We have nothing in common with these old men..." Runsheng smiled restrainedly, not getting involved in the dispute between the two drivers. "Let's make friends!" The young driver stood up and stretched out his hand very loyally, "Go get the rocks, I'll take care of it! I'll get as much as you get. Don't say anything else, it's just for football..."

Runsheng shook the hand of the young driver and nodded happily. The two cars roared, drove out of the beach, and turned onto the river bank. A thick cloud of yellow dust rolled up over the temporary driveway on the river beach. "You have made a good friend, Runwa." Uncle Changcai said happily, "He has such a friend, such a friend, you are a ball friend... Ha! No matter what, making this friend is very good! Let's I don't have to worry about selling my stones..." Runsheng also smiled. He didn't expect that because of his love for ball games, he made friends who were good at selling stones. It was a coincidence.Good luck!He thought so in his heart, what luck!Just eighteen years old, a lovely girl kissed him suddenly and sang to him affectionately "Ninety-Nine Sunny Days..." The young driver met him for the first time. , I didn't eat his pancakes with hot noodle oil, and I didn't smoke him a cigarette, but I want to underwrite his stones, isn't it bad luck?He smiles at him everywhere in life, and the eighteen-year-old brother is very happy in his heart, looking at the talented uncle with a naive smile. "Smoking!" Uncle Changcai stuffed cigarettes into Runsheng's hands loudly and proudly, and at the same time filled up the dry pouch, and clumsily put a cigarette with a filter tip on his generous lips, "If you don't smoke, what are you afraid of?" Runsheng shook his head with a smile.He did not accept the irritating demands of the smoke and fire, the pungent smell of smoke made his throat extremely uncomfortable.He looked at the face of the talented uncle, which was covered with thick and deep wrinkles. In these wrinkles, there used to be anxiety and sorrow, which made people see the urgency and crisis of his family situation at a glance. Struggles, people say this is a bad luck.Yes, the distressed melancholy was very evident in that face. Now, every thick or shallow, horizontal or vertical wrinkle on Uncle Changcai's face is overflowing with waves of joy.Similarly, when the joy in the heart is expressed on this face, it is also very revealing.He will not hide not only his difficulties but also his joy like some peasants with a deep city.Everything about him is always shown on that black and red wrinkled face.Two cars came to load his rocks at the same time, and they wanted to load Cao Changcai's rocks by name. They also agreed to buy and finish the pile of rocks he had piled up on the beach. The dowry gift money for his son's engagement has a hidden secret that cannot be revealed, that is: he feels that his face is radiant! He had no way to clear any channel through which he could sell the stones, and he was too clumsy to stop the car, so the stones he fished piled up on the sand.On this sandy beach far away from Cao Village, the peasants fishing for stones are both jealous and envious of those who have the means to find cars to sell stones, and they are also jealous and envious of those who are able to stop cars with their quick hands and feet.Cao Changcai, who couldn't sell the stone, was too incompetent to be looked down upon. Check it out now!Cao Changcai's stone was bought by someone by name!There are two cars at the same time, and it is decided to buy them all!Cao Changcai was left alone on the beach and broke the situation!He smacked a filter cigarette, put one hand on his thin waist, and straightened his chest to look at the farmers on and off the beach, and at the sun rising to the top of the mountain, like a learned man admiring a small river. The natural scenery in the early winter morning! Now, peasants in twos and threes, holding steamed buns in their hands, took advantage of the rest time of eating lunch, leisurely wandered to the net of Uncle Changcai, and asked with great concern how many cubic meters they had sold. Who were the two drivers? What unit... and so on. "Ha! Look at my porcelain hammer!" The long-cai uncle suddenly realized, and patted his dusty head, "I forgot to ask what unit it is..." No matter what, there are so many It is an honor for the township party members of the village to come to his trap to solicit words.He hastily took out the filter-tipped "Golden Monkey" cigarettes he had smoked while entertaining the driver, took out five or six cigarettes at a time, and forced them to the crowd, who could not accept them. Runsheng was sitting on the beach next to him, looking at the actions of the old man, it was a bit ridiculous, but in the end it made people happy. As a farmer, the old man was here, so he could stand up and talk to those farmers... For three days in a row, two domestically produced "Yellow River" trucks made more than ten round trips to clean up all the backlogs of Uncle Changcai and Runsheng.In three days, Aunt Changcai moved the old glutinous wine jars made from glutinous rice to the beach. Four or five thermos bottles with red or green shells were placed for the drivers and stevedores to drink the old bad wine. Just like celebrating a big event, this steaming scene shocked all the farmers fishing for stones on the beach. Who can be lucky enough to sell seven or eighty cubic stones at a time?Cao Changcai is really a blessing and a fortune.Those peasants who were more or less overstocked finally figured out why, and shifted their anxious eyes from their long, miserable faces to the bright purple oval face of their eighteen-year-old brother Cao Runsheng... … The young driver and Cao Runsheng have become very good friends. This is the last time he went to the beach of Cao Village to pull rocks. After the car was loaded, he left the address of his unit for Runsheng and warmly invited him to Xi'an. When the time comes, you must go to him.Runsheng nodded movedly and sent him to the car.As soon as the young driver got into the driver's building, he yelled and stretched out his head: "Ah! Runsheng, I almost forgot your letter!" Runsheng took the letter, saw the handwriting on the envelope, and felt hot. The letter was delivered by Xiao Lantuo's driver.He immediately tore it open, and there was only a note with a short line of small characters, asking him to go to the management station tonight.He stuffed the letter into his trouser pocket, jumped on the pedal, got into the car, and sat next to the young driver: "Take me to the three-way intersection" "Are you on a date?" the young driver asked with a smile. "Yes." Runsheng revealed his secret for the first time, and poked his head out of the window again, "Uncle Changcai, take my shovel home..." The car drove past the river beach in Cao Village, rows of poplars that had lost their leaves flashed past the window, and gray fog and frost rose from the ground and diffused towards the treetops.Runsheng's heart was in his chest, beating wildly with the speeding car. "Driving so fast!" "You are in a hurry, I am also in a hurry!" "Are you in a hurry to go home and train your son to play football?" "Television broadcast of international football matches tonight." "meet……" It was also the first time for Runsheng to feel that the fascinating football game has lost its appeal now...