Ordinary people's rice bowl

Chapter 36

Although the winter vacation life is short, for Mu Zhen, this vacation is happy and meaningful. Not only has the mange that harassed her for more than two months disappeared, but more importantly, he feels at home that his parents care for him more than any love. Their concern may be that they still cannot get rid of the torment of the disease.

School will start in two days, and Lao Mu has been thinking about Mu Zhen's accommodation after school starts these two days.If Mu Zhen is allowed to live in school again, she may be infected with that terrible disease. If she stays at home, after light class, the child will come home by herself. It's a pity.Although it seems that this is not a big problem, it is a thorny problem in front of Lao Mu. For two days, he was unwilling to eat and couldn't sleep at night. Xiuhua saw it in her eyes and was anxious in her heart. If the problem cannot be solved, he will become insane. Once he becomes insane, it is like being possessed by a demon. The problem triggered the mental illness he had suffered.

According to local customs, the seventh day of the first month of the lunar calendar is the day to send off the kitchen god, commonly known as the day to send off the fire god. After eating dumplings at noon, older children will find some dry reeds or velvet poles by themselves, and tie some flammable sticks around them. Make a knot with straw every [-] centimeters, and naughty children will also insert two firecrackers on each straw knot. For smaller children, parents will help them tie smaller torches so that The child follows the older child to send off Vulcan.There is a lot of attention to sending the Vulcan. According to the old people in the village, sending the Vulcan is not as far away as possible, but to the neighboring village. When you arrive at the entrance of the neighboring village, if you are far away, you need to tie some long torches, or take two, and relay them until they are sent to the neighboring village. Only in this way can the Vulcan be sent away.

As soon as the sun set, torches were lit at the west entrances of the villages. Just like the battlefield where torches were raised to fight night battles in movies, the torches gathered and rushed to the southwest.The flames are sometimes big and sometimes small, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, sometimes urgent and sometimes slow, and the running children keep yelling "Rush, rush", mixed with the sound of firecrackers ignited in the torches, forming a special scene in the dark field. symphony.In this music, the children are playful and cheerful, releasing their wildness to their heart's content. When they are tired from running, they will wave the torches in their hands to fight a fire battle, and the flames will then turn into fire dragons, chasing them in the field with screams. .

Old Mu lives at the east end of the village, so he naturally pays attention to the children of the neighboring village who send Vulcan to him. He is worried that the children will behave excessively and cause unnecessary troubles, so every year at this time, he will stand quietly at the entrance of the village , Keep an eye on the children of Zhangji Village in the neighboring village to send the Vulcan children to prevent accidents.

From the moment the torch left the west entrance of Zhangji Village, Lao Mu's eyes never left the direction of the torch. It was no different from previous years. The height of the torch was scattered, and the long dragon formed by the torch was getting closer and closer to him in the darkness. As the team got closer, Old Mu faintly heard a child shouting loudly: "Run quickly, and send it to the entrance of the village today!"

This shout was immediately responded by several children: "Send it to the entrance of the village, send Vulcan to the entrance of the village!"

Then he saw several burning torches running towards the direction where Old Mu was standing.

Lao Mu's heart tightened. This is a bad omen. According to past experience, the Vulcan escort team would walk along the road in the east of the village for a certain distance before stopping. He rushed towards the entrance of the village, and it was too late for him to call for help, and his mind was constantly changing how to deal with this group of children who had escaped from the border like wild horses.

Before Cheng thought about it carefully, the first child holding the torch had already rushed forward. By the light of the fire, he saw Lao Mu standing at the entrance of the village. He was obviously stunned. He immediately stopped there and threw the torch on the road. The children followed suit and threw the torch to the first child. Old Mu stared at the torch and did not move. He didn't have to worry that the children's torch would pose a threat to him. , it is safe for him, as long as the children leave, he will take the water to extinguish it and it will be fine.

However, the horror happened in an instant. Suddenly, a child's scream broke his thoughts. He saw a child throw a torch at a child who ran to the fire and threw a torch in a panic. The child then screamed The sound came, and Lao Mu didn't think much about it, and hurriedly ran towards the fire. He only had one thought, to see if the child hit by the torch was injured. The children of God looked completely different. They thought that Lao Mu had come to expel themselves, screamed, and dropped the torch in their hands and retreated. Only the child who was hit by the torch just squatted there, shouting Crying, his heart tightened, and he ran over. Through the light of the fire, he saw the child's face clearly. This was a child under ten years old. The child's cotton padded clothes had already been ignited, and the left side of his face was like a pot that had been smeared. Like ashes, Lao Mu went up and took the child's hand with one hand, and with the other hand he vigorously beat the embers of the cotton-padded coat.

The child was so frightened that he cried louder. Just now he was afraid that his clothes would be burned by fire, but now he was afraid that Lao Mu who pulled him would hurt him, so he cried louder.

"Why are you crying, quickly put out the fire on your body, or the clothes on your body will be burned out in a while!" Lao Mu said while slapping the embers on his body.

The child seemed to want to break free from Lao Mu's hand, and shouted: "Don't, don't!"

"Quick, come with me to put out the fire at home!" Lao Mu didn't care about thinking too much.

Lao Mu picked up the crying child and ran towards the house. The children standing in the distance didn't understand what Lao Mu meant, and they didn't dare to approach, and they didn't dare to come over to ask a question, watching Lao Mu drag the child away The back of the man was in a daze, and someone in the crowd shouted: "Go home quickly, tell Zhang Chao's house!"

The cry immediately reminded the children who sent Vulcan, they came back to their senses, turned around and ran towards their home.The children at the back saw that the team in front had withdrawn, and they stopped moving forward. According to the position of previous years, they threw the torch on the side of the road and followed them back.

The first child who ran to the village ran to Zhang Chao's house and shouted out of breath, "Hurry up, Zhang Ran was taken away by the adults of Xiaowangzhuang!"

Zhang Ran's parents opened their mouths in shock when they heard this.

The second child repeated: "Zhang Ran was really taken away by them!"

At this time, Zhang Ran's father, who didn't know what was right and wrong, hurriedly grabbed the iron shovel in the yard, and ran aggressively in the direction of Xiaowangzhuang, followed by the older children who reported the news.

When they came to the entrance of Xiaowangzhuang Village, Zhang Chao's father was taken aback. In the darkness, the child was taken away by someone. Who caught it?He couldn't figure it out, and then he remembered to ask the older children who followed: "Who did you see Zhang Chao was arrested? Why is there no sign?"

"I only saw it here, and it was taken away by an adult. As for which one, we don't know!" One of the children pointed to the pile of ashes that was still emitting sparks, and the others also nodded.

"Then, then, where can I find it?" Zhang Ran's father was a little at a loss.

"It must be from their village!" The child who first pointed to the ashes said with certainty.

"Okay, go to the village and look for it!" Zhang Chao's father said firmly.

Zhang Ran's father was named Zhang Gongyun, who was not well-educated. At this time, he was desperate to find his own child. He shouted loudly in the village: "Who has caught my child, release it quickly, you beat the child!" What kind of idea, come to me if you have the guts!"

Xiaowangzhuang, which had just entered the quiet place after sending off Vulcan, immediately became agitated again. Everyone heard the yelling and walked out of the house, especially the children of Xiaowangzhuang who had just finished sending off Vulcan immediately flocked to the street to watch the excitement.

When the first few adults gathered around saw Zhang Gongyun, they were just trying to understand the situation. Someone who knew Zhang Gongyun stepped forward and asked, "What happened to your child? Who in the village arrested your child?"

"When sending off Vulcan just now, his son was caught by the adults of your village!" The one who spoke was still the child who pointed to the ashes just now.

"You can see clearly, what happened to arrest his child?" The person who knew Zhang Gongyun continued to ask.

"At that time, at that time..." The child squeaked and couldn't speak.

"At that time, someone threw a torch on Wang Chao, as if it was on fire!" Another child in the crowd finally explained the reason.

Zhang Gongyun immediately understood what was going on, and became like a dead ball, speechless.

Just as he was talking, the old Li head in the clinic pulled Zhang Chao into the crowd and stood in front of Zhang Gongyun.

"Do you think this is your son?" Old Li asked Zhang Gongyun who had just fallen down.

"Big Daddy!" Zhang Chao, who was standing in front of his father, yelled, immediately making him at a loss for what to say.

"Your son's face was burned by the fire just now. Brother Mu brought me here to deal with it briefly. He was discussing sending it back to you, but you yelled at the door to ask for your son to come. This is really a deal! You have to Thank you, Brother Mu, for being the one, your son’s cotton padded clothes are on fire, if it wasn’t for Lao Mu, your son might have returned home with bare buttocks!” The last words “going home with bare buttocks” immediately made everyone laugh Zhang Gongyun also laughed.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't find out the truth, I'm really sorry, I will definitely come to thank you tomorrow!" Zhang Gongyun said, holding Lao Li's hand: "Look where is the old Mu brother you mentioned ? I will make a special trip tomorrow to express my thanks!"

"It's fine if you don't wrong him. If you really want to thank you, you can talk about it when you come tomorrow!" Old Li replied.

Zhang Gongyun nodded: "Okay, okay, how can you be wronged? Isn't it strange?" He squeezed out of the crowd and took his son home without mentioning it.

The eighth day of the first lunar month was the big market in Binhu Town. Zhang Gongyun went to the market early to buy a basket of eggs, and then rode to Xiaowangzhuang. When he walked to the village, he met Wang Sanyuan standing at the gate of the school. You ask me, where does the old Mu brother from your village live?"

"What business do you want with Lao Mu?" Wang Sanyuan looked at him suspiciously.

"He saved my son last night, I'm here to thank him!" Zhang Gongyun was a little embarrassed.

Although Wang Sanyuan was not present, he had already heard about what happened last night, but he did not expect Zhang Gongyun to come so early.He pointed to the small courtyard behind his school house and said: "That's his house, you can go there, just now I saw him carrying water!"

Zhang Gongyun and Wang Sanyuan thanked each other, and pushed the cart into Lao Mu's house. Lao Mu who was standing in the yard was already mentally prepared when he heard the conversation with Wang Sanyuan just now.

"Look, at that time, I happened to see your son being hit by a torch, so I took him to the clinic desperately and let Old Li take a look at it. You are really polite!" Old Mu looked When Zhang Gongyun came in, he said a few words that he had prepared before he could open his mouth.

"Yesterday I only listened to the nonsense of a few children who went back, so I didn't ask clearly. Don't take those bastard words to heart. I really want to thank you. I went back to listen to my son yesterday. At that time, I only knew pain. I don't know how you will deal with him, no wonder the children in the village are talking nonsense!" Zhang Gongyun said, and took off the egg basket hanging from the handlebar and put it on the ground.

"You are too polite, come into the house and talk!" Lao Mu greeted Zhang Gongyun, and shouted to Mu Zhen who was reading in the kitchen: "Mu Zhen, go and ask your mother to clean up and cook! Let your uncle eat at our house! "

Lao Mu suddenly felt that Zhang Gongyun in front of him was a real person. He said thank you yesterday and rushed here this morning, which shows that he is very honest and sincere. It doesn’t matter whether he mentions things or not. Come on, this is the duty of being a human being, and Lao Mu loves to make friends with such trustworthy people from the bottom of his heart.

Sitting down in the room, Lao Mu picked up the water glass and poured a glass of water and put it in front of Zhang Gongyun. What day is it?"

"Second year of junior high school!" Lao Mu replied casually.

"My son is also in the second grade of junior high school, in class one!" Zhang Gongyun responded.

"Classmate!" Lao Mu was a little surprised.

"What a coincidence!" Zhang Gongyun also exclaimed.

The two of them immediately got closer to each other as they talked. It was true that "a thousand cups of wine are too few to meet a bosom friend, and there are too many conversations without speculation." The topic of Lao Mu and Zhang Gongyun began to turn to the students.

"So, my child often mentions that the top student in his class is your son!" Zhang Gongyun said bluntly.

"Hey! He did okay in the exams this semester, but he feels wronged living in school!" Old Mu replied with a sigh.

"What? Do you still need to live on campus so close?" Zhang Gongyun felt that although Xiaowang Village is a little farther away from the school than Zhangji Village, it is not necessary to live in the school. After all, Xiaowangzhuang and the school are not even separated by a village. Even the school bell can be heard at home.

"Although we are close, since we are not in a township, all the students in our village go to our town middle school, so we are the only students in Binhu Middle School." Lao Mu confessed sincerely, which made Zhang Gongyun suddenly feel, Why don't the two students live together? Firstly, it will solve the problem of the children living in school, and secondly, it will also be of great help to their own children's studies. But when the words came to their lips, they were suddenly afraid that Lao Mu would disagree, so they didn't say it.

Lao Mu also had the same idea at this time, but he was worried about causing trouble for the other party, and even if the parents agreed, the children might not get along well!So this thought flashed through his mind, and he swallowed his thoughts back.

Seeing that the sun had risen to the roof, Zhang Gongyun got up and was about to go home. Lao Mu tried to persuade him to stay, but seeing that Zhang Gongyun insisted on going back, he quickly picked up the basket of eggs.

"Speaking of which, the child is a classmate, a classmate for a lifetime and relatives for three lifetimes. If one family does not speak two different languages, I can't keep this egg!" While talking, he hung the basket on the handlebar, and Zhang Gongyun was quick to hold Lao Mu's hand. : "Don't be too polite, can you count it as a gift for the child?" Then he pushed the car and went out the gate.

Old Mu stood at the door blankly watching Zhang Gongyun ride away on his bicycle, and sighed thoughtfully: "Hey!"

(End of this chapter)