Chapter 6 B-2

Sang Li's father, Sang Yuecheng, is that kind of silent man. He doesn't talk much, doesn't smile much, and often frowns, as if there are always some unsolvable problems.He and his wife are classmates in middle school, so it can't be said that they are like glue, but after his wife died, he didn't have a strong desire to remarry.He always stared at Sang Li, watching her digging soil in the yard and scooping water in the bucket to play, sometimes teaching her to walk a few steps, sometimes saying a few words.He has never even been so eager to teach his daughter to say "Dad" like other fathers. He looks at her like a lost and strange animal.

Therefore, Sang Li relied on Nan Yang, rather, she was subconsciously looking for her missing fatherly love from Nan Yang. At that time, Nanyang was already in the third grade of elementary school, and under the guidance of his mother, he could recite a lot of Tang poems such as "the sun shines on the censer to produce purple smoke, and the waterfall hangs in front of the river in the distance".The little boy's nature has been fully discovered by the lively campus life, and he basically belongs to the death squad members who "dare to go to the nine heavens to embrace the moon, dare to go to the five oceans to catch turtles".Not only did he knock out a front tooth of a boy who bullied girls in his class with a chair leg, but he also threw a brick on the glass of the teacher who scolded him.Mom basically didn't listen to what she said, and Dad's "bamboo board stew" didn't work.But the strange thing is that as long as the matter is related to Sang Li, there is room for negotiation.

For example, that summer, the nine-year-old boy always liked to go crazy outside, and sometimes he was so crazy that he couldn't go home.Nanyang's mother searched everywhere anxiously, and finally found Nanyang, who was walking home dripping wet with a shoe in hand, before dark. Nanyang's mother was so angry that she looked at her son who was walking from a distance, wishing she could throw the spatula in her face.Nan Yang probably also knew it was not good, and walked home in a despondent manner with low eyebrows. When he passed by his mother, he almost ran into the back room as if he had installed an engine.

"Stop!" Nanyang's mother stretched her face and shouted. Nan Yang stopped obediently. "Where did you go?" "Go...to swim." Nan Yang's voice sounded very guilty. "Don't go home after school, go swimming?!" The mother's voice became high when she saw it. "Everyone go..." Nan Yang timidly looked up at his mother, "If I don't go, I will be laughed at!" "Where are the shoes?" Mom was so angry that she was about to smoke. "Liu Jie from the third class is too bad. He pushed me when he was going ashore, and I tripped and my shoe fell into the river." Nan Yang bowed his head and obeyed.

Nanyang's mother finally couldn't bear it anymore, and hit her son's back with the spatula.Nan Yang saw that it was not good, so he ran around in the yard and ran for his life. Nan Yang's mother followed behind, occasionally rubbing a shovel to the side, and heard Nan Yang's bluffing screams.If you don't pay attention, you will step on the pots and cans in the yard, and the yard will be flying around for a while. Nanyang's mother scolded while beating: "You don't study hard, you just know how to play! You only think about yourself, why don't you think about others? You clearly agreed to pick up Xiaoli, how could you forget so quickly? 5 years old, does she know the way home? You usually see Xiao Li as a treasure, but when you want to play, don’t you forget her behind your head?! She squats alone at the kindergarten gate and waits for you. You almost got heat stroke, you know that?"

With a "boom", a large mushroom cloud exploded in Nan Yang's head—Xiao Li? ! It was only then that Nanyang remembered that this morning Uncle Sang specifically asked him to go to the kindergarten to pick up Sangli on his behalf, saying that he had to work overtime! Nan Yang stopped abruptly, and froze in the middle of the yard with a terrified expression.Nanyang's mother didn't expect her son to stop suddenly, and slapped her son's neck with a shovel, causing a large red swelling.The mother was so frightened that she threw the spatula and wanted to rush up to see if her son had been beaten, but at the same time Nan Yang had already started running to Sang's house, shouting "Xiaoli, Xiaoli..."

That cold sweat broke out -- this incident directly caused Nan Yang to be the most careful, prudent and reliable student in the class for more than ten years.Of course, this is something. And the incident that day also ended when Nanyang rushed into Sang's house and saw Sang Li lying on the kang flipping through the comics.At that time, Nan Yang really wanted to hug Sang Li tightly in his arms!However, after Sang Li saw Nan Yang's body drenched in water, he immediately retreated to the kang, which was out of Nan Yang's reach.She stared at Nan Yang who was standing on the edge of the kang with a smirk on his face, his face was full of suspicion.

But after seeing with his own eyes that Sang Li was fine, Nan Yang really breathed a sigh of relief. It was only later that I found out that the neighbors passing by the kindergarten that day saw the pitiful Sang Li squatting at the entrance of the kindergarten, so they kindly took her home.But from then on, Nanyang took the initiative to take over the responsibility of bringing Sangli home until she was in the third grade of elementary school and could go home by herself.For this reason, Nanyang's mother said to Nanyang's father with great comfort: "Our son is really sensible, and he knows to go home on time after school. I have to thank Xiao Sangli for this, right?"

And Nan Yang will remember that time for many years afterwards: At four o'clock in the afternoon, he took Sang Li's hand and walked on the sidewalk, the setting sun shone behind them, casting a slender shadow ahead.They mischievously stepped on each other's shadows and ran forward. At that time, Sang Li would show an innocent smile, and his laughter was as clear and sweet as silver bells. It was the rare Sang Li's big laugh, and it was also the eternal Nan Yang's boy. Thinking about it now, fortunately, the term "puppy love" was not very popular at that time, otherwise, as an educator, Nan Yang's mother must have doubted whether her son had been in puppy love since elementary school.

Because, Nan Yang really held Sang Li in his palm, carefully and cared for her tightly. The first time Nan Yang fought for Sang Li was before Sang Li was about to enter elementary school. One day, about one afternoon during the summer vacation, Nan Yang fell asleep looking at his "Summer Homework" booklet at home. Youdao thinking question: There are five boxes with the same number of apples, if 45 apples are taken from each box, the sum of the number of apples left in the five boxes is equal to the number of apples in the original two boxes of and.So, how many apples are in each box?

Nan Yang stared at the topic while biting the end of his pencil and was furious: There are really people in this world who have nothing to do!If you don't eat good apples, what are you doing with them? ! He was still thinking about the cartoon that was going to be played in the evening, and his thoughts were flying everywhere, so when someone knocked on the glass outside the door, he heard it immediately, and immediately got up to open the door. The boy standing at the door was gasping for breath, panting and saying, "Hurry up, Sangli... at the intersection, there's a fight..." Nan Yang became anxious as soon as he heard it, and ran towards the alley regardless of whether he was still wearing slippers.He could smell the faint fragrance from a distance, Nan Yang hurriedly looked towards the hibiscus tree while running, but he couldn't see anything. The alley where Nanyang's family lives has a nice name "Huashuli", which is named after a big hibiscus tree at the entrance of the alley.Every June, the hibiscus tree blooms. The red fluffy flowers are very fragrant, not only children, but also adults like it very much.Sang Li also liked this fragrant tree with red flowers very much, so Nan Yang also carved a huge character "Li" on the tree with a pencil sharpener.Not long after the engraving was finished, he was discovered by his father, who was a policeman and gave his son a few slaps on the buttocks for "vandalism".However, Nanyang is a typical example of "forget about the pain when the scar is healed". Every time I walk past the hibiscus tree, I have to look at the word "li" contentedly before going home. On this day, just as Nan Yang ran under the tree, he heard a noise not far away.He hurried over and saw a group of boys surrounding Sang Li. An eight or nine-year-old boy in the lead poked Sang Li's head with a finger, and said in a very bad tone, "Little broom star, what's wrong with you? Am I wrong? Your mother was killed by you, your grandpa I was also killed by you, it seems that your grandma was also killed by you a few years ago, isn't it? What's the matter, are you not convinced?" While he was talking, a boy behind him deliberately pulled Sang Li's hair, and Sang Li felt the pain, so he kept shrinking back.While shrinking, he said loudly: "I am not a broom star, whoever says others are broom stars is a broom star!" "Hey!" The leading boy stared wide-eyed, "You stepped on my foot and knocked off the popsicle I just bought, are you still reasonable!?" While talking, he kicked the custard popsicles that fell on the ground, and said to Sang Li: "Either you eat it, or you pay me for the popsicles!" The boys behind him also started booing, and some even sprayed Sang Li with a water gun.Sang Li tried his best to avoid the jet of water, and finally couldn't help crying "Wow": "You bully people!" Nan Yang felt like he was about to explode. He only remembered that he yelled loudly: "You are courting death!" Then he rushed up and got into a ball with a group of boys.He can't remember the specific details, he just remembers trying to avoid those fists and feet, swinging his hand hard, hitting someone, and then being beaten again.Dust billowed up on the ground and choked Nan Yang's eyes. His eyes hurt and he couldn't see anything.The specific battle situation was chaotic, and in the end it was "a hungry tiger was defeated by a pack of wolves"—Nan Yang was covered in bruises and swelling from head to toe, and it looked like he had been beaten as a living target. And the worst thing is: after returning home, Nan Yang, who was covered in bruises, was "deepened" by his father with five finger marks on his buttocks! However, he still wiped Sang Li's tears with a smile, and scolded Sang Li who was sobbing: "Why are you crying, you are a faucet?" Carefully avoiding his injured buttocks, he laid down on the kang to tease Sangli, and said, "Little Li, don't cry, Xiaoli is not a 'broom fine', how can there be such a beautiful broom? Brother here you are." Let's tell a story... um, what are we going to tell..." He rolled his eyes and finally remembered a story: "Listen, Xiao Li, I'll tell you the story of "A Crow Is Thirsty". Listen carefully." "A crow was thirsty. It looked for water everywhere. It saw a bottle with water in it. But the bottle was very high and the mouth was small. There was not much water in it, so it couldn't drink it. What should I do?" Yang kept a secret, seeing that Sang Li really stopped crying, and looked at him with wide eyes, very proud. "The crow saw many small stones nearby, so it figured out a way. The crow picked up the small stones one by one and put them into the bottle. The water in the bottle gradually increased, and the crow drank the water," Nan Yang said. Looking at Sang Li happily, "Is the crow very smart?" Sang Li thought for a while, nodded, and grinned a little, Nan Yang was very happy. He thought for a while, propped up his upper body to move his numb arm, and decided to tell another story: "Then let me tell you another story about Sima Guang." "What is Sima Guang?" Sang Li articulated clearly. Although he didn't know what three characters "Sima Guang" were, he imitated them very accurately. "Sima Guang..." Nan Yang was stunned for a moment, thinking how to say this, what did the teacher say in class?After thinking about it for a while, he couldn't figure it out, so he told Sang Li decisively: "Sima Guang is just a child, his surname is Si, and the one who raises horses at home is called Sima Guang." Sang Li nodded in admiration. Nan Yang continued: "Sima Guang is a very naughty kid. Once he was playing with some children in the garden, and one of them accidentally fell into the big water tank. The other children panicked and cried. I went to look for the adults. Only Sima Guang did not panic. He lifted a stone and smashed it hard into the jar, and it broke in a few hits. The water in the jar flowed out, and the child who fell into the jar was saved!" While continuing to lie on his stomach, he happily asked Sang Li, "Is Sima Guang also very smart?" But he never expected that little girl Sangli's ability of analogy and association is really superb, because she stood upright by the kang, looked at Nan Yang lying on the kang seriously, and asked solemnly: "But Brother, why didn't Sima Guang put stones in the jar? When the water flows out, the kid will be saved!" Nan Yang was completely dumbfounded. Later, many years later, Nan Yang argued that he was not stupid or slow to respond, but was frightened by Sang Li's talent.Sang Li always looked at him with pursed lips, seeing his embarrassment, waving his arms in a gesture of "killing people to silence", and finally laughing, accompanying him crazy and making trouble with him. And often at this time, the weather outside the window is just right, the leaves are glowing brightly, the hibiscus tree at the entrance of the alley is in bloom, and the fragrance permeates the whole summer. It's like the Song Ci that she liked very much by chance - "The flowers fade, the red and green apricots are small, and when the swallows fly, the green water surrounds people." The reason why she likes it is because this sentence is full of green indifference and idyllic tranquility, as if it is a gentle summary of the innocence and tranquility of childhood.