Nongben is passionate

Chapter 1 The South

When Xie Xuan was 12 years old, she had a serious illness. Her weak body became thinner, and she had to go to the hospital every now and then.Parents are exhausted, busy fighting for power with his father's brother, and they care about him flawlessly. His sister is quite different in age from him, and she is already immersed in the colorful life of college. Friends can't take care of her, so how can she have the time to care about him?So mother and father discussed and decided to send him to his grandmother's house in the countryside.

It was dusk, and his mother drove him there, and he sat in the back seat, quietly looking at the strange scenery outside through the window - the scenery of the town was monotonous, and the buildings were not tall, showing a gray color, which was different from where he was. It’s quite different from the glamorous big city in the past, but the huge sycamore trees on both sides of the road look quite old, and the green broad leaves make the road an arched driveway, and the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkles from the leaves. ——An old man moved a bamboo chair and sat at the door after eating. He was wearing a thinly washed white sweater, shaking a cattail leaf fan, and slipping on slippers. He chatted with people, and the strong smell of food seemed to be in the air.

The car stopped in front of a long alley, my mother turned off the engine, got out of the car, opened the back seat door, led him out, grabbed his hand, and walked into the alley.There were neighbors looking around curiously, but my mother ignored them, and the high-heeled shoes tapped on the very smooth bluestone road, noble and cold.

At the end of the alley is the grandmother's house - the corners of the eaves flying to both sides, the layers of mortise and tenon brackets, and the exquisite and auspicious stone reliefs all amazed him in his heart, but he felt that his eyes were not enough.

But his mother seemed to turn a blind eye to this, and pulled him straight into the high threshold - behind the gate was a courtyard - an old lady combed her hair neatly, wearing a plain cheongsam, holding a shower Watering the flowers, the afterglow and the dust falling on her shoulders seemed to have traveled for a thousand years. She looked up at them—serious, not kind—it was his grandmother.

Grandpa was not at home—he couldn’t adapt to a leisurely life after retirement, and his temper became more and more irritable. As time passed, he had his own new hobbies, fishing, raising birds, and playing mahjong—he raised a pair of emerald green As a bird, every morning and after dinner, I will take the bird cage to the nearby park to walk the birds with my colleagues, talk about national events, daily news, and then exchange ideas about raising birds. Sometimes I am busier than before I retired.

Mother didn't stay long, and left in a hurry after telling him to listen to his grandmother.He leaned against the door, watching his mother leave noblely and gracefully. The red dress on her body was the only bright spot in the surrounding blue-gray buildings.

Adults always think that children don't remember things, and that their sadness is harmless, and it will be fine after a night of sleep.But in fact, the actions of adults are remembered by precocious and sensitive children, and will gradually affect their future personality.The feeling of being abandoned has been with him since then, causing him to feel dispirited in his bones no matter where he is.But Xie Xuan is really an introverted child, he carefully hides his grievance, anger and hatred, and silently deals with all arrangements.

Children are very adaptable, and Xie Xuan quickly adapted to life in the country—compared with the cold and fast pace at home, everything here is full of human touch—most of the time, Xie Xuan stayed in the house Do not go out.The old lady gets up at five o'clock every day and starts cleaning the room - mopping the floor, wiping the furniture, picking half-blooming flowers from the yard, cutting them out and keeping them in clear water, and putting them in the kitchen. In spring, there are camellias, roses, roses, and in summer, jasmine , lotus, gardenia, daisy in autumn, wintersweet and narcissus in winter—his grandmother had a very simple quality, which was not only the beautiful temperament of a lady, but also the energy to remain optimistic about life after the hardships of the world. Let people ignore all the dark side of life.

After packing up everything, she would go to the street to buy vegetables with a bamboo basket, and sometimes she would bring Xie Xuan with her, and when she ran into acquaintances and neighbors, she greeted, "Is this Nong's grandson?"

Grandma's always serious face will show a rare soft smile, "Yes, the eldest son's child is 12 years old." Then let Xie Xuan call the other party "Auntie" and "Grandma"——Xie Xuan obediently obeyed, Neither cowardly nor prudent, his manners are quite different from those of country children.

Then you will be praised by the other party as "good boy".

The vegetable market was some distance away, and the old lady would ask Xie Xuan from time to time on the road if she was tired and if she could walk, but Xie Xuan always shook her head silently.

The Yongfu Bridge Vegetable Market is divided into two halves by a river running from north to south. Yongfu Bridge is a typical stone arch bridge. There are various breakfast shops on both sides of the bridge. The old lady will give him two dollars to have breakfast here. Go grocery shopping.The warm coin is pressed in the palm of his hand, with the warmth of the old lady, he always chooses the one closest to the bridge, order a bowl of tofu flower, and ask for [-] cents for fried rice, which only costs one yuan.Then, while eating a hot breakfast, I watched the boats coming on the river. The boats were filled with fresh fruits and vegetables just picked from the field, and there were also clear water drops, green and sweet, all filled my eyes.Sometimes a larger cement ship will be parked at the bridge head, driven by a machine.The boat is full of tile vats of various sizes and styles, tied with ropes made of straw.There are shacks on the boat, and the simple living utensils inside can be vaguely seen. The owner’s family lives on the boat, walking through the criss-crossing rivers, mooring at different piers, and sleeping on the swaying river water at night——for the young Xie Xuan, that is It is extremely romantic and free, and it is extremely quack-like, which makes him fascinated——

After returning from the market to lunch, it is his free time for activities - doing homework, watching TV, reading, drawing, and no one cares about him.After lunch is the nap time stipulated by the old lady, which is unshakeable.

The room where he sleeps is on the west side, with doors on the east and west sides, windows on the north side, and a large Ning-style bed carved in mother-of-pearl wood is placed in the middle of the south wall, and the white cotton gauze curtain is blown gracefully by the east-west wind. Very cool.

He always waited until his grandmother left, and took out the hidden books from the small drawer in the big bed——"The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", "The Legend of Heroes", "Seven Swords Under the Tianshan Mountains"...Occasionally, he would read them from his grandmother's old bookshelf. I found incomplete romance and martial arts online, and every time I saw the love between my children, I felt flustered and nervous like a thief.Sometimes he fell asleep just looking at it, and when he woke up, there was always a red bamboo mat mark on his face-the old lady didn't allow him to sleep on the pillow, for fear that his bones would not grow well at a young age and he would become a hunchback.

After a nap, it's time for piano practice—the old lady has a brown upright piano, which has been around for quite some time. She is quite talented in the piano, but she was damaged by life, so she is very strict with Xie Xuan.

Xie Xuan has long been enlightened on the piano, but because of his poor health, he learned intermittently. It was the first time he played the piano in front of the old lady. Because of a wrong note, the old lady's ruler was knocked down without hesitation. Her delicate and white fingers Immediately, it became red and swollen, with burning pain, Xie Xuan's tears almost fell down, biting his lip and not making a sound.

The old lady was so harsh to him, wrong fingering, incorrect sitting posture, wrong pronunciation or incorrect pronunciation, never a second late when the ruler came down, slapping him, painful and ashamed——Xie Xuan was stubborn, never Ken begged for mercy and cried, and didn't complain, just gritted his teeth and worked hard to practice the piano, making rapid progress, the old lady was a little satisfied, and stopped using the ruler at every turn.

Because of this, Xie Xuan had a lot of resentment towards the piano at that time, not to mention how could he endure the monotony of repeated rehearsals at such a young age?Sometimes when he was practicing the piano alone in the room, he could hear the boys outside the wall downstairs playing marbles, fighting cocks, or calling friends to discuss where to take risks. Those novel and savage games always made him feel involuntarily. Stop and listen.

Zhou Nansheng is the king of children there.

That day he practiced the piano for an hour, felt a little thirsty, and went downstairs to the kitchen to drink water. There were lotus flowers planted in the earthen vat by the back door.A few goldfish were kept in the water for five years, and all of them are fat and attractive.Xie Xuan took the water glass and walked to the crock, and stretched his hands into the water to tease the goldfish. The little guys in captivity were not afraid of people, and their slippery bodies passed through the back of his hands, tickling them slightly.

A football flew in from outside the wall and hit the open window with a bang, causing the window to tremble violently and whine.Xie Xuan was startled, and at the same time heard the exclamation of a child outside the fence.

After waiting for a while, the old lady did not come, apparently not paying attention to the movement here—Xie Xuan was holding the water glass, staring at the cheap football, hesitating whether to throw it out and return it to others, Zhou Nansheng Jumping down from the wall, the plastic sandals collided with the ground and made a loud noise. Zhou Nansheng put his hands on the ground and jumped up nimbly. He saw the football at a glance, picked it up a few steps forward, and turned around. Just as he was about to kick it out of the wall, he saw Xie Xuan standing aside.Zhou Nansheng didn't expect to meet someone, his eyes were a little stunned and flustered, his face was flushed, and his voice stuttered——

"I, I'm here to get the ball."

Xie Xuan didn't speak, in fact, he didn't know what to say.Xie Xuan has always been lonely and has no one to talk to him, because he is often sick and has no good classmates in school.

Zhou Nansheng stared at him with puffy eyes for a long time, but he didn't wait for Xie Xuan's word, so he was a little embarrassed and annoyed, so he simply ignored him, put the football under his arm, and searched back and forth by the fence for a place to get out.

Xie Xuan saw his intention and said, "You can go out through the front door."

Zhou Nansheng turned his head and glanced at him, without saying a word, threw the football out of the wall, then stepped on the tile vat with lotus in the corner, climbed up the wall and jumped onto the wall, riding on it and looking down at Xie Xuan, "Hey, Who are you, why haven't I seen you before?"

Xie Xuan was silent.

Zhou Nansheng puffed up his cheeks, breathed out, and said in a stiff tone, "Do you want to play with us? They all listen to me, can you play football?"

Xie Xuan still didn't speak.

"Then play marbles?"

Xie Xuan shook his head, turned and walked into the house.

Zhou Nansheng shouted from behind: "Forget it, who cares!" Then he jumped off the wall nimbly.

Xie Xuan went back to the piano room on the second floor and sat on the piano bench. After only playing a few notes, he found it boring. He began to involuntarily think that the fresh excitement that Zhou Nansheng could bring him belonged only among real boys. After playing games, he felt a little lost in his heart. He came to the south-facing window and looked out from there just outside the wall. He could see four boys playing ball in the small alley. He saw Zhou Nan at a glance. Because he played the best, the ball seemed to stick to his feet. At this moment, Zhou Nansheng also looked up, and the eyes of the two collided in the air.

Because he was distracted, a tall and strong little fat man pushed him and took the opportunity to snatch the ball away.Zhou Nansheng got angry, and immediately chased after him——

The next afternoon at the same time, Zhou Nansheng came again, still to pick up the ball. This time he seemed much calmer, and he was not in a hurry to go back after picking up the ball. He looked inside as if he was looking for something.

He was unlucky, the old man didn't go out, and said with a stern face: "Whose child are you, why did you come to someone else's house?"

The old man had been in the army for most of his life, and he had a lot of prestige. He immediately scared Zhou Nansheng, who was still a brat, to the point where he didn't even care about the ball, and jumped over the wall in a panic. After a while, when he landed, he fell to the ground, with a big hole in his knee, dripping with blood.He was afraid that people would chase him out, so he limped away, ignoring the pain.

The children in the country are solid, stumbling and stumbling with big and small injuries, and dare not go home to tell their parents, fearing that they will be beaten up, so they wash their wounds clean with tap water, no matter how painful they are, they will not shed a tear. When you are a companion, show the wound with a ostentatious tone, as if it is a medal.

Xie Xuan waited for a few days, but did not see the young boy who jumped from the wall, feeling a little disappointed in his heart.

That day, when Xie Xuan and the old lady came back from the vegetable market, they saw a group of boys playing marbles around the hundred-year-old camphor tree. Among them was Zhou Nansheng who sat on the ground with his legs crossed, with five marbles in front of him. The marbles, each about seven or eight centimeters apart, yelled, "One pays five, one pays five..."

Xie Xuan looked at it for a while, and the old lady said, "Go and play with them for a while." Then, she went home with a vegetable basket.

Xie Xuan looked at grandma, and then at the bunch of monkey-like strange children, feeling a little at a loss.

It was Zhou Nansheng who saw him and yelled at him: "One pays five, come or not?" After a while, probably thinking that Xie Xuanzi couldn't play marbles at all, he got up from the ground with one bone—the one on his knee The injury was not healed yet, and it was shocking to see him walking unnaturally, but he didn't seem to care. He pulled Xie Xuan two meters away, drew a line on the ground with the edge of his shoe, and kicked Xie Xuan with his toe. , "See, start hitting from here. If you hit any marble I put there, I will pay you five. If you miss it, it will be mine, understand?"

As he spoke, he grabbed a large handful of marbles from his swollen trouser pocket and stuffed them to Xie Xuan, "Here, I'll lend you this first."

While they were talking, a thin, black boy with a crew cut yelled, "Zhou Nansheng, are you still coming, hurry up!"

"What's your name, here we come!" Zhou Nansheng replied arrogantly to the black and skinny boy, returned to his original seat, and sat on the floor, "Okay, let's get started—"

The black skinny boy didn't even lift his trouser legs, he knelt down skillfully on the ground, bent his body, his neck was stretched out like a goose, his right index finger was tightly hooked to a marble, his thumb was ready to go, and his eyes were engrossed. Aiming at the marbles in the distance, Zhou Nansheng yelled again, "Beyond the line, step back a little bit."

The black skinny boy reluctantly moved back a bit.

Xie Xuan looked at the black and thin boy with a full posture, but he hit six or seven marbles without touching the edge of those marbles, which made Zhou Nansheng smile.The black skinny boy felt that he was out of luck, so he didn't give up, he got up and gave his seat to Xie Xuan, "Come on—" He said and stood aside to watch Xie Xuan fight.

Xie Xuan hesitated for a while, then followed his example and lay down on the ground, knocking out the marbles in his hand, but because of incorrect force, the marbles slipped off the track. A marble was in the bag.

Xie Xuan was a little nervous, tiny beads of sweat dripped from the tip of her nose, and she turned her gaze to the marble in front of Zhou Nansheng—this time, after the marble bounced out, it rushed to Zhou Nansheng's feet, but still did not hit the marble, but It has improved a lot.

The black skinny boy looked at it for a while, blinked his small black bean-like eyes, sat down next to Zhou Nansheng, spread his legs apart, placed five marbles in front of him, opened another set, and shouted: "One pays seven, One pays seven, my side is one pays seven—”

The high odds immediately attracted many children.Zhou Nansheng calmed down.Zhou Nansheng was upset, put away the marbles, got up from the ground, dragged Xie Xuan into the crowd, just in time to see the black skinny boy earning a lot of money.

Zhou Nansheng squeezed away a boy who was beating him, "Go away, I'll do it!"

Obviously, Zhou Nansheng has a high prestige among the children, and no one dares to comment.Zhou Nansheng stood on the striker's seat, and first said harsh words at the black and skinny boy, then rubbed his arms, rubbed his palms, and then took out a jade-like marble from his trouser pocket, and blew—— "This one is my magic weapon, ever victorious, even if you lose so much that you don't even have any pants left—"

The black skinny boy raised his head and said disdainfully: "Who is afraid of whom?"

The battle quickly kicked off. Xie Xuan and other bystanders held their breath and stared without blinking.Zhou Nansheng is indeed a good player at marbles. He kneels on the ground like a soldier in an ambush, with a serious expression and bright eyes. His shots are fast and accurate. A cheer.

After winning the first battle, Zhou Nansheng showed a smug smile on his face, but quickly suppressed the smile, as if this was not worth mentioning at all, and shouted for the dealer to fill up the vacancy——

pop, pop, pop—

The surrounding atmosphere became more and more enthusiastic, cheering and cheering were louder and louder, and even Xie Xuan felt the excitement and tension. After winning four rounds, the black skinny boy quit and threatened to compete again in the afternoon. gone back.Zhou Nansheng yelled a few words before letting him go. A group of people surrounded Zhou Nansheng and asked him to count how many he had won——Zhou Nansheng happily counted them one by one. When he looked up, he saw the Xie Xuan, he pushed aside the crowd and squeezed to Xie Xuan's side, and asked him, "Are you coming this afternoon?"

Xie Xuan handed him the remaining marbles, "Give it back to you."

Zhou Nansheng waved his hand old-fashionedly, "Here you are." Then he smiled, showing his white teeth, "Come play again in the afternoon, I will teach you how to play marbles, and there are other ways, they are not as good as me— —”