I studied abroad in modern times

The afterglow of the setting sun fell on the eaves of Zheng's house, and water was sprinkled on the ground in front of the door, suppressing the dust at dusk and bringing a little bit of coolness.

At the small table facing the door, the three members of the Zheng family were eating.

"Steward Wang's son was beaten forty times by his wife. He was almost dead and he was brought back."

Zheng Fa held up his chopsticks and heard his mother talking about the gossip from Zhuangzi.

The younger sister Zheng Shan was sitting next to him, leaning half of her body against Zheng Fa. She was holding a rice bowl bigger than her head in both hands, her whole face buried in the bowl, and she was eating deliciously.

Hearing the gossip from Mother Zheng's mouth, the younger sister raised her little head and asked, "Wang Gui? Didn't their family fall into Madam's eyes and be chosen to be the seventh young master's book boy? Why did they get beaten?"

Zheng Fa glanced at the little girl and saw her round eyes were bright, and the corners of her upturned mouth were stained with dark green vegetable juice.

This little expression of gloating on someone else’s misfortune makes him look like a kid!

Although the little sister is only six years old, she also understands that Butler Wang's family does not have a good relationship with her family.

Both of them are tenant farmers in the Zhao family farm, but their conditions are very different.

In the early years, when Zheng Fa's father was the steward of the farm, the Zheng family's life was pretty good, much better than that of Steward Wang's family.

But five years ago, during a monster uprising, Zheng Fa's father died trying to harvest crops from the fields.

The mainstay of the family passed away, leaving him no longer in charge of the affairs. The Zheng family's fortune plummeted.

Zheng Fa's mother lived with a son and a daughter. She had to take care of both the children and the fields. Life was extremely difficult.

On the contrary, the Wang family got the managerial position left by Zheng Fa's father, and the family's conditions seemed to be improving.

On weekdays, Manager Wang is afraid of Zheng Fa, the son of the former manager, and isolates the Zheng family in a subtle way.

It is not impossible to see the other families in the village, but one of them is an orphan and a widowed mother, and the other is a steward who has won the favor of the superiors. People tend to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, so the life of the Zheng family is a little more lonely.

Although children may not necessarily understand the reasons for conflicts between adults, the exclusion in words and deeds will be even worse.

Wang Gui, as the only son of Steward Wang's family, was the head child in Zhuangzi. He often took the lead in bullying Zheng Fa and his younger sister Zheng Shan.

Fortunately for Zheng Fa, he has been tall and strong since he was young, and has a calm personality. He is quite majestic in the eyes of the children in Zhuangzi, and even Wang Gui does not dare to go too far.

The younger sister Zheng Shan has a lively personality and loves to play and make trouble, so she has suffered a lot of injustice. Now it is normal to feel happy when she hears that the other party is unlucky.

"What's wrong with you?" Mother Zheng glared at her younger sister: "It's said that Wang Gui has a naughty temper and didn't learn from the seventh young master. When the madam saw it, he was punished and went home to learn the rules. If madam sees When you're like this, I have to give you a good beating!"

Zheng Shan opened her mouth and said blankly: "I'm not as bad as Wang Gui! Besides, I can't be a book boy. When Wang Gui was chosen by his wife, he was so full of Zhuangzi that others didn't have the opportunity. !”

Zheng Fa shook his head secretly. He had already understood Wang Gui's character. He bullied the weak and feared the strong. Of course he was arrogant in front of his own family.

But he didn't believe that he had the guts to lead the seventh young master into bad ways.

It was actually still early at this time. The Zheng family had dinner at this time to borrow some light before dusk and save some lamp oil.

Every household in the village eats two meals a day, not just Zheng Fa's family, but also Steward Wang's family.

There are only two dishes on the small wooden dining table. One is a plate of green leafy vegetables. The villagers call it pigweed leaves. They are originally cut to raise pigs, but less wealthy people also eat them.

The Zheng family eats this every once in a while. It's a large pot of vegetables boiled in water with almost no oil or salt. It's really hard to eat.

There was another bowl that was different. It was a plate of tender bamboo shoots that Zheng's mother picked from the mountains early in the morning. On top of the long and thin tender bamboo shoots were two pieces of red and oily meat——

Meat!

Two slices of bacon!

Zheng Shan's mouth was filled with pigweed leaves, her cheeks were bulging, and her big eyes were staring at the two pieces of bacon.

If her eyes could eat, she would have swallowed these two pieces of bacon.

She remembered that the bacon was pickled during the Chinese New Year, and only a thin strip was pickled in total. Zheng's mother cut two slices in ten and a half months, and ate very frugally.

The last time I ate bacon was a month ago.

Zheng Shan is not greedy either. Two pieces of bacon, one for her brother, just give her one piece...

No, mother wants to eat too, so she will eat half of one piece...

No, one bite!

One bite made her happy!

Finally, Mother Zheng's chopsticks reached for the two pieces of bacon.

Zheng Shan's eyes moved with the chopsticks, and even her little head turned slightly.

My mother put the first piece of meat into my brother's bowl.

Well, it should.

On the second piece of meat, Zheng Shan saw her mother's hand pause in front of her.

In the end, it still fell into my brother's bowl.

Zheng Shan blinked her eyes, feeling a little aggrieved, but she comforted herself: My brother has to work every day and eat more meat.

Hogweed leaves are delicious too!

She lowered her head and didn't look at the meat in her brother's bowl. She just chewed the vegetable leaves harder with her cheeks, as if she was eating meat.

…

A pair of chopsticks fell from above her head.

The chopsticks holding the meat were so close to her, and the smell of the meat was almost slapping her face.

Zheng Shan suddenly raised her head and looked at Zheng Fa putting a piece of bacon in her bowl with a smile.

"Brother!" She grinned at Zheng Fa, happiness gushing out from the missing front teeth.

"Eat meat." Zheng Fa touched her little head.

"Yeah!" She picked up the bacon and took small bites, feeling satisfied.

…

Zheng's mother saw this but said nothing. No matter how much she valued her son, her daughter was also a piece of her flesh.

Why would she be willing to be wronged?

She favored her son for a reason.

The heavy work in the fields needed men to do it.

For example, whether there was a man in the family or not, the status in the village was different.

If her husband passed away and Zheng Fa was not there, Zheng's mother and her husband would have a harder time.

In Zheng's mother's heart, it was her son Zheng Fa who supported the Zheng family.

She was also happy that her son was willing to get close to his sister and take care of her sister.

Unexpectedly, Zheng Fa picked up another piece of bacon and put it in Zheng's mother's bowl.

Zheng's mother looked up at her son, and there was something indescribable in her heart.

After her husband left, she felt like the sky had fallen, and she wished she could die with him.

Unexpectedly, her son became more and more sensible, which made her reluctant to let him go, and she also had some hope.

"Mom is so old, eating meat is useless, and mom doesn't like it. You are growing up..."

"My son has grown tall enough."

"..."

Zheng's mother looked at her son's figure of more than seven feet and almost eight feet, and she couldn't refute it.

She was also puzzled. In the past few years, the family was short of food and clothing, but her son was getting taller day by day.

At the age of seventeen or eighteen, he was half a head taller than other people in the village.

The family lived a hard life, but this child was the best in the village.

Those people in the village dared not insult him lightly,

...

At night, Zheng Fa lay on the bed, with mottled blue tiles above his head and starlight leaking.

He heard the sound of his sister sleeping in the next room smacking her lips in her dream, and the sound of his mother turning over.

The quilt on his body was old, some places were light and some places were heavy, the light places were empty, and the heavy places were clumped together, which was not very comfortable to cover and not very warm.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep with expectation.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.

The sun shone on the plain white ceiling of the house, and the sound of car horns on the street outside the window came one after another.

The duvet gently embraced his body.

The quilt was so gentle, but Zheng Fa didn't miss it for a moment.

He jumped out of bed barefoot, put on slippers, rushed out of the room, opened the refrigerator, picked up a whole braised chicken and four steamed buns bought at the vegetable market the day before, and put them in the microwave.

The aroma of chicken gradually spread from the microwave to the whole room.

Zheng Fa took out the roasted chicken that had just been heated up, the chicken skin sizzled with golden fat, and the heat and fragrance teased his taste buds unscrupulously.

He tore off the chicken leg and stuffed it into his mouth, not caring that the chicken was still hot.

The fragrant and hot chicken went from his mouth to his stomach, and then went up along his spine, turning into a happy sigh.