Cartoonist's Dream

The car turned from Taoyuan Road into a small road and drove into a green bamboo forest path.After driving about 200 meters, you can see the yard of Li's family after bypassing a small fish pond.The courtyard is built on a high mud slope, and the area surrounded by the courtyard wall is more than 200 square meters. The courtyard wall is made of blue bricks mixed with yellow mud.

Because the mud slope is more rugged than the one in the bamboo forest, after all, it is a road for my family to walk, so I dug small pits for footholds to prevent accidental slipping when going uphill in wet weather.The potholed passage leading to the courtyard gate is not suitable for cars, and there are a few rustling green bamboos on both sides of the ramp, which may scratch the car, so Li Xiuli parked the car in the space between the mud slope and the fish pond. on the ground.

Qingdong Village is a real village. The villagers live together on the side of the bamboo forest, and the real vegetable field is on the other side of the road.On the other side of the road, there is a large lake that is wider than the Green River in terms of length and width. Due to microorganisms, minerals and aquatic plants, the water in the lake is blue, so it is named Qinghu.

Qinghu supports the villagers of Qingdong Village.

Unlike Pingnan Village, who are engaged in "non-dutiful" jobs such as rent collection, part-time jobs, and store openings, the villagers of Qingdong Village are villagers who really rely on Tianshui to farm their land. [

There is no need to carry water to water the vegetable fields here, and the canals have been dug during the planning of the village.Every morning at [-]:[-] and [-]:[-], the canal will be filled with the microbe-rich water of Qinghu Lake.What the villagers have to do is to stand on the field ridge, scoop up the lake water in the canal with a wooden extended ladle, and pour it on the rapeseed field section by section.

The source of the canal is naturally not a waterwheel. After all, Nanhua is also the capital city of the province, and it will not fall behind the era of waterwheels.

The source of the canal is a high-lying reservoir. The pumping machine is placed in the machine room. When the time comes, the person in charge will use the key to open the machine room and turn on the machine to store the river water in advance.When the storage is full, the sluice will be opened, and the water will rush from the canal.

The main canal is more than half a meter high. Children who are ordered not to swim in the lake in summer will swarm into the canal to play, and the canal is full to reach their chests.Afterwards, the main canal will be separated along the water distribution canals of each family, and flow into the ridges of each vegetable field.

Qinghu Lake covers an area of ​​450 mu, covering half the area of ​​Qingxu District. It only takes one rain to store water for the entire Qingdong Village for a long time.Moreover, the water supply in the south is sufficient, so there is no need to worry about running out of water in Qinghu Lake.

It is worth mentioning that Qinghu Lake is a dead lake that is not connected to the outside world. A huge three-meter-long fish was caught in a dredging a few years later.Before that, there were often rumors that people were dragged into the lake by fishing rods.

The fish pond under my grandma’s yard is also a small natural lake, but now a certain family raises tilapia. I don’t know which fish pond it is. Anyway, there will be no big fish that eat people two or three meters long.

A very old guava tree was planted in the grandmother's yard, which was located on the right side of the middle and back section of the yard after the entrance. The branches and leaves covered the sky and the sun, covering about a quarter of the sky in the yard.

After entering the courtyard from the entrance, you can see that there are two rows of longhouses on the left and right sides of the courtyard. Except for the kitchen, which is built with red bricks, the rest of the longhouses are all wooden buildings.The four houses on the right are woodshed, kitchen, utility room and chicken coop.I don't know if it's because it's blocked by tree branches, but the house on this side has only one floor.

The longhouse on the left is a bit like a palace, and the lobby has an area of ​​about three houses.The gate is two wooden boards two meters wide and three meters long, and New Year pictures have been pasted on them at this time.On the left and right sides of the hall are small rooms on two floors, which are used to store sundries such as kettles, tables and chairs, and the second floor is the attic for people.

Except for the mud brick walls that were gradually built up, the courtyard is actually all simple wooden buildings. There is only a peach tree in the open space in the middle, and there are no stone tables and chairs for people to relax under the tree.

At this time, Li Mu had already greeted his grandpa and grandma, and he and Da Shengnan came to assemble the easel outside the gate of the courtyard.

"Ah Nan, do you think my grandmother's family is poor?"

"poverty."

Because of the incredible answer, Li Mu corrected her mistakes without hesitation—"Ah Nan, you are too honest, if you don't want to lie at this time, you can answer ambiguously and say 'almost',"

"why?"

Why?This is the sentence that Da Shengnan has said the most since he followed Li Mu.

As for why "almost" is said, this word has ambiguous characteristics... It seems to know the answer in the mind of the questioner, and slightly agree with the statement that the questioner has already prepared.

...However, after experiencing repeated "why" questions, Li Mu said that she would never explain why to her on a topic that she was not interested in. [

"What, talking to Ah Nan is really interesting."

"Yes..." Shengnan was obedient, and she was familiar with Limu, so she knew that she shouldn't ask any more questions at this time.

Limu's daily task today is to draw an ink painting with the theme of "bamboo forest", which has been approved by more than ten people. 】As usual, there are tips under the task, describing the history and principles of ink painting [Ink painting is a form of painting, and more often, ink painting is regarded as traditional Chinese painting, which is the representative of Chinese painting...] and attached Precautions and tips for painting bamboo, etc.

Undoubtedly, this is another training task of the "Ultimate Painter" system.Since the mother came back early, the other sisters were not there yet.Limu hopes to complete the task of "Bamboo Forest" as soon as possible, otherwise it will be very shameful for him to draw while others are celebrating the New Year.It's fine if it's in another house, but this is my mother's natal house, and it's enough to annoy me to death if each of the three aunts and six wives comes to care about her.

"It's a bit shabby on the surface, but my grandparents are rich."

While talking, Li Mu waited for Katsuo's shelf to be pulled away, while he himself judged the angle with the set screws.The angle required for the ink painting board is 0 degrees, that is, it is parallel to the ground.Generally, ink and wash painting is done on a long table, but Limu bought a very long drawing board, and the current painter is enough to do the job.

"Why?" Katsuo asked blankly.

"Because they are very rich, they don't lack anything materially, and they are also very happy spiritually." Thinking of what happened to Dasheng's family, Li Mu sighed:

"Grandma gave birth to seven children, and her material life could not keep up with the times, but none of the children were left behind, and all of them have grown up, and now they have married and established businesses.

"Look, after going through the most difficult days before, now there are groups of children and grandchildren. They usually go to water the vegetables in the morning and afternoon, come back to feed the chickens, and raise cats. It's not like Pingnan who only chats and chats. Talk about the gossip about that family, brag about your own family. If you don’t chat, you can go to play chess, play chess to add some luck, and then go to play cards, and go to drugs when you are in a hurry. This kind of life is not rich, but empty.”

Compared with Pingnan, although the courtyard of the Li family is empty, it is not empty.There are chickens running all over the ground outside and inside the courtyard, pecking at the ground, not knowing whether they are eating insects or stones.In front of the threshold of the lobby, there is a dog named Liangliang lying on the ground, guarding the cured fish on the door beam.Squatting on the fence at the gate of the yard to observe Limu's cat, it is an old female cat picked up by grandma who is older than Limu's grade.

At this time, my mother accompanied my grandmother to cross the bamboo forest road to pick vegetables on the road.Grandpa reads the newspaper in the hall and waits for lunch.But even if there is no one inside or outside the yard for a while, there will be no sense of emptiness here.

"Why is it empty?" Da Shengnan asked.

"They have no ideals, so they have no soul, and then there is emptiness."

Why would I have such a conversation with Da Katsuo...

Li Mu guessed that he would not understand even if he said it, so he suddenly thought of a question and asked, "I said, Ah Nan, what ideal do you have?"

"Eh? Me? I want to make our family eat meat, I want to build my house to the seventh floor, I want to buy new clothes for Ah Zi Ah Han, I want to"

"Stop, stop! You are a wish, not an ideal." Before Da Shengnan continued, Li Mu interrupted suddenly, and then complained: "And it is illegal for you to build seven floors, man."

"Ah!? Then build one less floor."

"It's not ideal to build one floor less, unless you want to build a [-]-story commercial building of your own, then it is probably ideal."

"What wish? What is ideal?" Da Shengnan was confused.

What is a wish?What is ideal?Li Mu himself was stunned by the question.Reflecting on the past, I found that I actually had a draft, and explained with a slight smile: "Actually, no one else has defined it, so let's take it as my point of view—[

"Wish is what you want to do, and others can help you realize it. For example, if I give you 30 to [-] yuan, then your wishes of eating meat, building a house, and buying new clothes will be fulfilled.

"Ideal is something you want to do, but you have to do it yourself. For example, I want to be a cartoonist, but the things I draw are not as good as graffiti. Even if the president of the country wants to seal me as a cartoonist, no one will approve .”

The ideal is to rely on one's own hands to strive for, a good wish that is realistic and achievable.

"I understand." Da Shengnan showed a dazed expression.

"Understood?" Li Mu raised his eyebrows.

"understood."

"Tell me about your ideal."

"I'm going to grow up to be a big man."

"What"

click.

Li Mu returned the elongated lower jaw to the upper jaw with his hands, and the teeth collided with each other to make a crisp clicking sound.

...It is true that it can be realized through surgery, but such an ideal, no, it should be called a wish.

"Isn't it grafted from your father?"

"It's so profound, I don't understand."

"It is your father's wish to turn you into a man, he just wants a son..."

Just in the middle of Li Mu's words.

"Hey, who are you?"

The two chatted and fiddled with the easel.As soon as the easel was installed successfully, two women walked up the slope slowly from the bamboo shade, carrying two large packages of New Year's goods in red plastic bags.When they first saw Da Shengnan's behemoth, they asked the two of them in amazement.

"The tiger is gone, the rabbit is coming, the toads are shining everywhere, the three phoenixes have returned to their nests, the third mother and the fourth mother, happy new year." Standing by the easel, the childish child clasped his hands together, bowed slightly, and paid New Year's greetings.

Although the Heita Mountain looks fierce, but in the Li family's three-acre land, how dare to block the door to scare people?

Waiting to see that childish boy with outstanding appearance, wearing red clothes and black trousers embroidered with auspicious clouds, his demeanor and demeanor are extraordinary and refined, he is completely a peerless person.The two of them retreated suddenly after being frightened in their hearts.

He calmed down and took a closer look, noticing the address he used for the two of them, and then thinking about the car under the ramp.The two women were extremely surprised and stared at each other:

"This fairy-like golden boy is Li Mu, Yaomei's son?!"