Mysterious city

In the memories of Xiaoyan and Jiang Zhe, grandma was once a young and beautiful woman.

Her originally straight and upright back was crushed by the burden of raising herself and her brothers and sisters.

Her originally white and smooth hands were roughened by hoes and shovels.

Her soft and beautiful face was damaged and aged by the scorching sun and frost every day and night.

It can be said that every wrinkle on grandma's face, every inch of rough skin on her body, and every curve of her stooped back are all for this family and Xiaoyan.

This made him, or rather Xiaoyan and Jiang Zhe, not feel their noses sore, how could they not want to cry?

After seeing her precious son suddenly shed tears, the old woman immediately showed a distressed expression on her face, and even her originally extremely slow and trembling speech speed became much faster.

"Son, this is your big day, why are you crying?"

"You will be successful soon, and our family and our village will be able to get out of the hard days soon. Don't cry, grandma feels sorry for you!"

Although she said this, looking at her son with tears streaming down his face, the old woman's eyes soon started to shed tears.

Tears soon covered the old woman's face. Xiaoyan and Jiang Zhe could clearly see that the teardrops filled every wrinkle on the old woman's face.

Those are the traces of time, the rings of passing time.

Along with the great sadness in my heart, there were many ordinary but very familiar smiling faces.

Gradually, Jiang Zhe "remembered" Xiaoyan's other family members.

Xiaoyan has one brother and two sisters. He is the youngest in the family and the most beloved son.

His father passed away due to excessive alcoholism when "he" was very young, leaving his mother alone to take care of this large family.

But you can imagine how difficult it is for a woman to raise four children who are waiting to be fed in such a backward and difficult environment.

Especially Xiaoyan, the youngest, is at the best time of development and most in need of adequate food, energy and nutrition.

However, due to the poor family conditions, Xiaoyan is not surprisingly the kind of person who doesn't have enough to eat. This kind of thing may be extremely rare in modern society, but when it comes to Xiaoyan, it is very rare. It's very appropriate, it's no exaggeration.

Even Xiaoyan's clothes were all left over from her older brothers and sisters. They were either too big or too torn. Even though they were mended again and again, none of them still fit.

Xiaoyan's mother saw it in her eyes and was anxious in her heart.

This youngest son is not only the youngest in the family, but also the smartest among the four children.

Both she and Xiaoyan's brothers and sisters regard this little guy as the apple of their eye. Even though the conditions are very difficult, everything depends on the youngest.

Seeing that Xiaoyan was at the best time of development both physically and mentally, being naked and without food was not an option.

After all, this smart youngest is the hope of their family!

So Xiaoyan's mother had no choice but to work harder and harder, but most people could guess the result.

It goes without saying how meager a farmer's income is, let alone in such an extremely backward village or in a family that relies solely on one woman.

Even though Xiaoyan's mother worked day and night, and the amount of hard work and sweat she put in was several times that of other villagers, the family's economic situation still showed no improvement.

Fortunately, her eldest son, second daughter and third daughter are all very sensible and upbeat. When they have just reached their early teens, the children in other people's homes are happily eating Western food, watching TV, and playing computer games. When they were living a carefree life, her children already knew how to share their mother's worries, how to help her mother work, and share the burden for the family.

Although the qualifications of her first three children were not dull, they were far from the level of "gifted and intelligent".

Coupled with the extremely backward educational conditions in Wangcun, it is almost impossible to expect these three children to succeed in school.

And these three children can be regarded as "self-aware" and know that no matter how hard they try, they may not be able to get out of this remote mountainous area in their lifetime.

So Xiaoyan's brother and sister simply dropped out of school, hoping to reduce the burden on the entire family.

Especially Xiaoyan's two sisters, at an age when ordinary girls were still studying and living carefree lives, they had already married early in order to find someone to share the family's worries.

A dragon matches a dragon, a phoenix matches a phoenix, and children born from mice will get through. It can be said that China has paid special attention to four characters from ancient times to the present, that is, "well-matched". In a remote and backward country like Wangcun, which is extremely backward and has very feudal ideas, Even more so.

Due to the extremely poor family conditions, a single-parent family, a poor family, and a "slutty" younger brother, Xiaoyan's two older sisters, who have average looks and figures, naturally cannot marry into a good family. Although in a place like Wangcun, everyone is from a poor family, and there are no wealthy families.

Although the conditions of the two sisters who married into families are far from "well-off", the two sisters who married early still relieved a lot of worries for their mother, at least they no longer had to worry about the food, drink and diarrhea of ​​the two of them. Worried.

Moreover, Xiaoyan's two sisters are very true to their roots, and they are not like the "water thrown out by a married daughter" as the proverb says.

Even though they were separated from their original family, Xiaoyan's two sisters still often helped their mother work in the fields.

The sisters’ in-laws are also very friendly. Although they won’t send money to their family and they can’t help them financially, they will give it to Xiaoyan’s mother and him once the family has surplus food or clothes they can’t wear. , which somewhat relieved their family’s burden.

And because Xiaoyan's family is so poor that they can't even afford a penny for the bride price, Xiaoyan's eldest brother is single without any suspense and has been living a bachelor's life to this day.

Coupled with not having enough to eat and not wearing warm clothes, Xiaoyan's eldest brother was very short in stature. However, because he helped his mother work all year round, he had a lot of tendons and endless strength.

Although he could not marry his mother-in-law, Xiaoyan's brother was very good at working in the fields. This also gave their family a capable man and an additional pillar of support.

In this way, although Xiaoyan's family has never been able to have enough food and clothing, their living standards have improved a lot compared to before.