between clouds and mud

Chapter 9

After a summer of tutoring, the grades of primary six have made a qualitative leap, one step from the middle to the upper reaches. Before, only more than 20 students could take the exam, but now they are steadily in the top ten of the class.

Every semester, I can still go home with a certificate of merit. I was an activist at the beginning, and sometimes I can get a three-good student.The teachers felt that after teaching for so many years, they actually underestimated this dark horse.

At the parent meeting, Zhou Laoliu and his wife once again experienced the feeling of boundless scenery.The daughter's grades are really like driving a roller coaster, which makes people nervous.

During these years of long-term resistance, both father and daughter had overreacted.

Xiaoliu's stress response was to jump and shoot—turn off the TV, lock the door, and open the homework in one go.

The first thing Zhou Lao Liu came home from the field was to touch the TV. The temperature is not deceiving.

Once on the way to the farmland, the husband and wife once had a bet. Zhou Laoliu bet that his daughter would turn on the TV, and Fu Ying also bet that her daughter would turn on the TV. Although they all hoped that they could lose, just lose once, Xiaoliu, please. .But how could the daughter be willing to let them lose? The husband and wife who went back home halfway watched the TV and turned it off, yes.Xiao Liu is doing homework, very good.

The husband and wife felt that it was a good idea, and touched the back of the TV again.

After that time, Xiao Liu always remembered to lock the door of the room, otherwise it would easily lead to family conflicts and hidden dangers to life safety.

Now facing his daughter who is no longer just superficial, Lao Liuyi is not used to it for a while.

Xiao Liu's bicycle skills are already very good, and he has researched several postures for getting on the bike, and finally chose the one that he thinks is the most chic.She can still hold the steering wheel with one hand, and she tried to let go of both hands. After falling a few times and smashing the basket, she became much more honest.

In addition to parents who care about her grades, there is another guy who always loves to greet her.Every time Junzi explicitly or implicitly asked her how her school was and how her grades were, Xiao Liu frowned and sighed: "Oh, I didn't do well in this exam." ideal."

When she said this, Junzi would pat her on the shoulder: "It's okay, just do your best." Then he smiled brightly.

Xiao Liu knew that if he was careful about his poor grades, he would definitely not see others doing well.

Every Sunday at noon, Xiaoliu likes to ride his bicycle around the village several times under the sun. According to Junzi, Xiaoliu always wants to show off when he knows how to ride, and he is very childish.

During those two years, Zhang Chengnian came home from school every week, and often met Xiao Liu by chance.The girl has reached the age of beauty, she began to pay attention to her image, she no longer wears a short short hair, but slowly grows her shoulder-length hair.

"Xiao Liu." He greeted.

Hearing the voice, the little girl glanced at him inadvertently, turned around on her bicycle, and stepped on slowly: "Do you have anything to do with me?"

Zhang Chengnian slung his schoolbag: "It's noon, where do you go for a walk?"

Xiao Liu glanced at him up and down, thinking that he was a strange recruiter, so he took the initiative to teach him: "Zhang Chengnian, can you carry your schoolbag better."

Zhang Chengnian hung his schoolbag on her car, stretched out his hand and gave her two loving aunts on the head: "What are you calling? Didn't your father say that you have passed the period of rebellion?"

During this time, Grandpa Chengnian found that his grandson's mentality was better than before.When Zhang Chengnian was just in high school, he was suddenly turned into the tail of the crane, because the education level in the countryside and the city was very different, and the quality of the students was naturally uneven.

Zhang Chengnian was in the bottom group, so he could only study harder and spend time in the library when he had time. At that time, his temperament suddenly became much duller.Now that he is in his third year of high school, Zhang Chengnian is willing to take the initiative to say hello to his father when he returns home, and the relationship between father and son that has been frozen all year round has also eased a little.

But on this day, a strange middle-aged man and woman suddenly came to the village. They were very well dressed. The man was wearing a neat suit with a silver watch on his hand. It looks like a family that is either rich or expensive.They pulled the villagers to ask: "Hi fellow, do you have any girls here who have some walking problems and some dementia?"

As he spoke, the man planned to take out the photo.

Zhang Zhijun looked at the two of them up and down, he didn't even bother to look at his photos, there really is a silly girl in all directions, Junzi is carrying a hoe: "Does she have long hair? About fifteen or sixteen years old?"

The two nodded quickly when they heard the information provided by the fellow, and they matched.

Junzi pointed in the direction of Wutong Village: "Go there, there is Wutong Village in Wulidi, and there is a silly girl who often lives at the entrance of the village."

The strangers thanked her quickly and turned to go there. Before they left, they heard the fellow sigh: "That little girl is so pitiful, her body is smelly and her hair is full of lice, she is almost like a vagabond."

The hurried footsteps of the two paused slightly.

The willow branches on the side of the river spit out new buds, and in the beautiful spring, Xiao Liu, who received the final report card, rode a bicycle all the way past leisurely, and saw Junzi chatting with someone on the Dengwick Bridge from a distance, she lightly rang the bell Say hello.

Junzi glanced at the items in her basket with sharp eyes, and grabbed her handlebars: "I got the grades, how did you do in the exam?"

"Oh, this time the topic is too difficult and the result is not satisfactory." Xiao Liu stopped the bicycle, tiptoed to the ground, and put on a bit of pretended dignity on his bright little face.

Junzi was dubious, and quickly took out the paper rolled up in her basket and spread it out.

On the bright red page, four eye-catching big characters were on the paper, Junzi gritted his teeth: "You can still get a three-good student if you don't pass the exam."

Xiao Liu climbed onto the bicycle and pulled back his certificate, his crisp voice lingering in the wind: "I didn't pass the exam, and I didn't get full marks in English."

A man and a woman heard the crisp sound of bells. They looked back for a while, and then continued to go in the direction of Wutong Village.

Zhang Fang is the third teacher in Wutong Village. She has worked in Wutong Primary School for three years. At the beginning, she was overwhelmed with this group of children and now she is able to handle it with ease. There is a delicate balance between teachers and students.

The group of children she personally took care of has grown from 25 in the initial class to [-] now, and nearly half of the children have dropped out of school.

There are two more seats vacant this semester, so she is not in a good mood.Until two strange men and women asked her about it, Zhang Fang casually pointed to Xiao Nier, who was still giggling under the tree, and left with her bicycle.

The man quickly followed her, said it wasn't the child, and took out an old-fashioned black and white photo from his arms, asking her to look at it again.

Zhang Fang took the photo, looked at the villain on it, pinched the photo tightly with her fingers, and finally took a serious look at the two people in front of her.The two are well dressed, the middle-aged man is about in his early forties, his bulging belly is a little fat, he has a standard Chinese character face, he speaks with a bit of an official accent, and his attitude is quite humble.

The woman has some fine lines at the corners of her eyes, but they have been well maintained, so she looks younger, but her slender face is a bit harsh, her attitude is a bit arrogant, and she looks down on the backcountry in her bones.

The man is an old man, and he knew a thing or two when he saw Zhang Fang's expression.He did not reveal his identity, but officially stated that he was a distant relative of the girl.

Zhang Fang was a little hesitant, and returned the photo, saying that he didn't recognize him, and then rode away on a bicycle.

The strange couple managed to find some clues, and followed Zhang Fang's car along the way back to Dengxinqiao Township.

Along the way, the more Zhang Fang thought about it, the more something was wrong. She thought that she would tell Uncle Six after dinner.Before she could leave, the family's Heizi stood at the door barking non-stop, which made people feel irritable.

Zhang Zhijun went to reprimand Heizi with the bowl and chopsticks in hand. He saw the backs of two strangers in the distance.So I told my sister what happened during the day.

Zhang Fang quickly untied the dog leash, patted Heizi's buttocks: "Go."

"What are you doing?" Zhang Zhijun looked at the figure of Heizi jumping out, and reminded him friendly: "If Heizi bites someone, dad will not beat you to death."

Zhang Fang didn't eat anymore, she explained: "I came here for Xiaoliu."

"Do you remember when you were a child?" Zhang Fang reminded: "That house."

Although Zhang Zhijun was dull for a moment, he also remembered the nightmare that Xiaoliu often had when he was a child. When he woke up crying, he said he was locked in the house.

Zhang Zhijun thought about it, and hurriedly whistled at Heizi.Hearing the code words, Heizi rushed towards the stranger even more fiercely, barking non-stop.The two siblings stood under the eaves and heard the screams of strange men and women. When the woman ran, her high heels disappeared.

"Father won't let you go." Zhang Fang pushed out the bicycle from the house, intending to drive to Xiaoliu's house, but Junzi followed him quickly and sat down on the back seat of the car.

After the two siblings explained the situation to the old sixth uncle, seeing that the old sixth uncle's expression was the same, the two siblings felt a little more relaxed.But I saw the man's hands shaking the tobacco leaf slightly, the dry tobacco that could be rolled neatly usually, but today it shakes loosely.

During this period of time, my mother’s eyes were getting worse and worse, and she finally dragged her to the hospital for an examination. The doctor said it was an advanced stage of cataract. The father and daughter didn’t know what it was. When they heard that it was an advanced stage, they felt a little bit in their hearts. The doctor continued to add , the disease can generally be cured, no problem.

So during this time, the husband and wife were busy running to the hospital.Xiaoliu went home after school to make dinner, and waited for her parents to come back. Sometimes she was too sleepy, so she propped herself up on the table and fell asleep. When she woke up in the morning, she was in her small room again, with her body properly covered. quilt.

Father rarely had time to check her homework today. The father and daughter sat at the desk, after reading Xiao Liu's homework and checking her text, Xiao Liu could answer well.Dad can't understand English, and Xiao Liu sometimes makes random nonsense anyway, Dad can't understand it anyway.

Father touched her head, and the rough calluses stroked her hair.Xiao Liu tilted her head to avoid it. When she was a child, her father liked to stubble her cheek with a beard. Later, when she grew up, such intimate behavior between father and daughter was rare.

Xiao Liu's handwriting was taught by her father, and she would imitate her father's handwriting to sign the test papers during the naughty days.Her handwriting can be beautiful, but she is a little impatient and has a lot of homework, so she gets sloppy every time, and she is only willing to write neatly during the exam.

Dad checked her notebook, and she was about to be scolded again.

Dad took homework and sighed: "Xiao Liu, your vertical hook is not good-looking, Dad will teach you again."

So the father and daughter leaned on the desk again and started writing stroke by stroke.Father's palm was very generous, and wrapped around Xiao Liu's palm for a while, he slowly finished writing a line of repeated words and began to write the next one.Xiao Liu looked at the tree ring on the desk, and his thoughts began to wander.

She was knocked back to God by her father's pen, and the father and daughter continued to write at the desk.

After school, Xiaoliu went home as usual to make dinner, and waited for his parents to come back.The door of the room was open, and she was sitting on a chair in the main room, holding her own English book, and began to feel sleepy after reading it for a while.

Xiao Liu heard the noisy voices from a distance, and saw a car stuck in the mud from a distance, it was really rare, this broken road can also be driven into a car, it takes a lot of spectacle.

Xiao Liu continued to read his book, but he was not sleepy now.Hearing the scattered and hurried footsteps, Xiao Liu didn't raise her head, she knew that these steps were not the sound of her parents walking.

But the voice stopped in front of his house, Xiao Liu closed the book in surprise, and saw two richly dressed men and women standing at the door, their hands full of gift boxes.

At first glance, they came for their family, and wondered when the parents had royal relatives.

"Who are you looking for?" Xiao Liu stood up and explained, "My parents haven't come back yet, so you are looking for the wrong person, right?"

The woman's eyes looked at her, from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top, tears burst into tears.The man's expression was okay, but there was also a kind of secretive sadness in his expression looking at her.

The woman opened her mouth, but didn't speak a few times.But the man calmed down, and his tone was a little trembling: "It's not wrong, it's here."

Only then did Xiao Liu get up, moved a chair for the two of them, made a bowl of hot tea with the enamel pot at home, and then continued to read a book by himself.

The two put the tea aside and followed Xiao Liu closely.Seeing that Xiao Liu was making a move, he moved the chair instead of the guest and refused to let her do it.

After all, it was the woman who couldn't help it anymore, she held Xiao Liu's hand, tears streaming down her cheeks, and hugged her tightly: "Son, my Xiao Song."

Hearing this, Xiao Liu was also stunned.She was anxious to break away from the woman, and the figures of her parents were already standing in the moonlight outside the house.Xiao Liu ran out quickly, following behind his parents.

(End of this chapter)