There is a feeling called heartache

Chapter 42 The Story of Three Bags of Rice
We don't know what our son was thinking at that moment, and we believe that the shock to him is no less than the stormy sea.

this is a true story.This is a very poor family.When the son was in primary school, his father passed away.The mother and daughter supported each other, and gently sent their father away with a pile of loess.

The mother did not remarry, and pulled her son with painstaking efforts.At that time, there was no electricity in the village, and the son read loudly, writing and drawing under the oil lamp every night, while the mother took a needle and thread, and gently and carefully sewed mother's love into the son's clothes.Day after day, year after year, when certificates of merit covered two mottled earth walls, my son was like green bamboo in spring, growing upwards.Looking at her son who is half a head taller than her own, the wrinkles in the corners of her mother's eyes are full of smiles.

When the trees all over the mountain were full of autumn, my son was admitted to the county's key No. 30 middle school.However, my mother suffered from severe rheumatism and could not do farm work, and sometimes she couldn't even eat enough.In No. 16 Middle School at that time, students had to bring [-] catties of rice to the cafeteria every month.The son knew that his mother couldn't get it out, so he said, "Mom, I want to drop out of school and help you do the farm work." The mother touched the son's head and said lovingly: "You have this kind of heart, mother is happy from the bottom of my heart, but the book You must read it. Don’t worry, when your mother gives birth to you, there will be a way to support you. You go to the school to sign up first, and I will send rice later.” Er stubbornly said no, and mother said to go quickly, but son still said no, mother waved her rough This is the first time a [-]-year-old son has been beaten... My son finally went to school. Looking at his back, his mother was silently thinking.

Not long after, the big cafeteria of County No. 5 Middle School ushered in the belated mother. She limped into the door and unloaded a bag of rice from her shoulder panting.Master Xiong, who was in charge of registering the scales, opened the bag, grabbed a handful of rice, looked at it, frowned, and said, "You parents always like to take advantage of it. Look, here are early rice, Mid-season rice, late rice, and fine rice, it’s like using our cafeteria as a miscellaneous rice bucket.” The mother blushed and said she was sorry.Seeing this, Master Xiong didn't say anything, and accepted it.The mother took out another small cloth bag and said, "Master, this is [-] yuan. Please transfer it to him for my son's living expenses this month." Master Xiong took it over, shook it, and the coins inside were jingling.He joked, "Why, are you selling tea eggs on the street?" My mother blushed again, thanked her falteringly, and limped away.

At the beginning of another month, the mother walked into the cafeteria carrying a bag of rice.Master Xiong opened the bag to look at the rice as usual, his brows were tightened again, it was still variegated rice.He wondered if he hadn't explained clearly to the mother last time, so he said to her word by word: "We will accept any kind of rice. But the varieties must be separated, and they must not be mixed together, otherwise they cannot be cooked. The cooked rice is also raw. Next time it’s like this, I won’t accept it.” The mother asked with some trepidation: “Master, my rice is like this, what should I do?” Master Xiong couldn’t laugh or cry, and asked: "Can your family grow a hundred kinds of rice in one mu of land? It's funny."

Being robbed like this, my mother didn't dare to say anything, and Master Xiong ignored her.

At the beginning of the third month, my mother came again with a bag of rice on her shoulders. She looked at Master Xiong with a smile that was uglier than crying.When Master Xiong saw the rice, he was furious, and in a tone that almost lost his mind, he scolded fiercely: "Hey, you mother, why are you so stubborn? Why is it still variegated rice? You, How did you recite it today, or how do you recite it back!"

The mother seemed to have expected it a long time ago. She bent her knees and knelt in front of Master Xiong. Two lines of hot tears flowed from her sunken eyes: "Master, let me tell you the truth. I begged for...begging for rice. He's here!" Master Xiong was taken aback, his eyes widened, and he was speechless for a while.

The mother sat on the ground, rolled up her trouser legs, revealing a pair of stiff and deformed legs, swollen into fusiform... The mother wiped away her tears and said: "I have advanced rheumatism, and it is difficult for me to even walk, let alone farm. My son Sensible, you want to drop out of school and help me, but I slapped you to school..."

She explained to Master Xiong that she kept it a secret from the folks, and she was even more afraid that her son would hurt his self-esteem if he found out.

Every day at dawn, she would sneak into the village more than ten miles away with an empty rice bag and a stick to beg for food, and then sneaked into the village after dark.She gathered the rice she had collected and sent it to the school at the beginning of the month... As the mother babbled, Master Xiong was already in tears.He helped his mother up and said, "Good mother, I will tell the principal right away to ask the school to donate money to your family." The mother waved her hands in panic and said, "Don't, don't. Ruined his self-esteem. It is not good to affect his studies. I have accepted the kindness of the master, please keep it a secret for me, remember it!"

Mother was gone, limping.

The principal finally found out about this, and he kept his expressions and exempted his son's tuition and living expenses for three years in the name of extremely poor students.Three years later, my son was admitted to Tsinghua University with a score of 627.On the day of sending off the graduates, the county No. [-] Middle School was full of gongs and drums, and the principal specially invited his mother's son to the rostrum. He wondered: There are several students who got high marks in the exam, why did he only invite me to the stage?What is even more strange is that there are three bulging snakeskin bags piled up on the stage.

At this time, Master Xiong came to the stage and told the story of his mother begging for rice to go to school, and the audience was silent.Pointing to the three snakeskin bags, the principal said emotionally: "These are the three bags of rice that the mother in the story begged for. This is food that cannot be bought with money in the world. Next, we invite this great mother to come on stage."

The son looked back suspiciously, and saw Master Xiong supporting his mother moving up the stage step by step.We don't know what our son was thinking at that moment, and we believe that the shock to him is no less than the stormy sea.Thus, the warmest scene of family affection in the world was staged. The mother and son looked at each other. The mother's eyes were warm and soft, and a strand of gray hair was scattered on her forehead. The son rushed forward and hugged him. She wailed loudly: "Mother, my mother..."

Years have passed, and the mother's story is still being told.

(Wang Hengji)

(End of this chapter)