1990, graduated from secondary normal school. This year should be my lucky year. Just as other students were assigned by the state to be primary school teachers in rural areas, together with the other two lucky ones, I successfully passed the selection examination organized by the Provincial Department of Education, stood out from many competitors and was admitted to a normal university in the province.
As a matter of fact, there are differences at home about my entering the university. Parents are old and have long lost their ability to work. They only expect me to come back from normal school, take part in work, support myself and support my family. And I, not only don't worry about earning money to support my family, but also let my family pay for my college tuition. There is such a big contradiction between my dream and my parents' wishes, so naturally my parents are firmly opposed. However, how can you blame your parents? They have no financial resources, where can I afford to go to college? What's more, for a poor family like me, the tuition, books and living expenses of a four-year university are astronomical figures. They must do the same! However, I don't want to live like this all my life! I am eager to go to college, and I am eager for my future self to embark on a road that my ancestors have never walked and live a good life that I have never lived!
Mom said that the family did save a little money, which she and dad saved through their teeth. However, this money, which she discussed with her father, is for my future wife! I knelt down with tears in my eyes and begged my mother, "mom, take out this money!" I want to go to college! I don't want a penny from my family when I get married! You can use this money to marry your son! "
Mother lifted me up, her eyes filled with tears and kept shaking her head. ...
However, the admission notice finally came down. Looking at the gold-plated red notebook, dad just squatted at the door, bowed his head and smoked without saying a word. Mother sat on the heatable adobe sleeping platform with an admission notice in her hand, but she kept crying. Niang suddenly stood up, took out a copper key from her waist, opened the old box in the corner, tossed around for a long time and took out a red bag. Then, shaking the cable, she opened the layers of bags and took out a passbook, which seemed to be handed to me reluctantly.
On the passbook, a set of numbers stung my eyes. From the first deposit, year after year, parents put thirty yuan and fifty yuan into it one by one. However, how can the money in it be enough for four years of college? Look at my disappointed eyes, I never spoke, stood up and shouted:
"Dad, mom! My brother finally got into college. This study is a must! I can't afford my brother to go to school. I am ashamed to be a brother! Then let my brother help me in the summer vacation! He works as a stevedore for me, and I pay him. As long as we are willing to endure hardships, we may be able to make up the annual tuition! "
Looking at my brother's firm expression, my tears of disappointment also fell from the corner of my eye. I got married a few years ago. I have a son and a daughter under my knee. I only rely on a few acres of thin land and an old small four-wheeled tractor. I work hard to support my parents and two young children. His family burden is already very heavy. If I give up going to college, I can naturally relieve him of a lot of pressure. However, like this, it is obvious that a heavy burden has been placed on his shoulders. However, I know that he has a heart disease in his heart-1979, the fixed income system was implemented in rural areas, and there was no labor force at home. It was my parents who forced me to give up the opportunity to enter the university and go home to farm. I don't want to see me go back to his old way, and I don't want to delay my life because my family is poor! He hopes to see his dream university through my eyes and make up for the deep regret that he can't erase all his life!
(2)
That year, a township paper mill was established in the village, specializing in making the rough yellow wrapping paper. The main raw material for papermaking is nothing more than wheat straw that can be seen everywhere in rural areas. There are small four-wheel farmers in the village. After the wheat autumn, they all began to sell straw. They collected wheat straws from four towns and eight villages, loaded them into cars and sold them to paper mills to subsidize their families.
I have no helper, so I can only hire a young man from my neighbor to work with him. If you make money, of course you have to pay others. Now, I want to go to college, and I need to earn tuition. It is better for two brothers to work together than to hire others. But in fact, I'm not a full-time worker at all. I have been studying at school since I was a child. I have never suffered or done anything. What's more, I am deeply nearsighted. Elder brother woman.she patted me on the shoulder:
"These are not afraid, I have everything! Your salary will only be more than that man, and it will never be less than him. If you work as a stevedore for my brother, even if you make money, I will send you tuition! "
I nodded, adjusted my glasses on the bridge of my nose, rolled over, and climbed up the Tuo Dou of the small four-wheeled tractor.
Tuo Dou of a small four-wheeled tractor is not big. If the bucket is used alone, it is impossible to hold much wheat straw. I'm afraid that I can't afford the diesel money back and forth because I earn less money from pulling wheat straw. The villagers have their own wisdom: on the Tuo Dou of a small four-wheeled tractor, four long rafters are tied into a "well" shape with iron wire, and then two thumb-thick lassos are tied to bind the wheat straw. Of course, a set of tools for twisting the rope should be prepared. This can hold more wheat straw.
In the hot summer, after the wheat harvest, my brother took me and drove a small four-wheeled tractor day after day in the surrounding four townships and eight towns, car after car, pulling the wheat straw back and selling it to the paper mill to earn my family and tuition.
There are not a few farmers who make a living from this. In a few days, the straw in the nearby village will be swept away. Everyone takes the village as the center and gradually advances to the surrounding towns and villages. Slowly, the round-trip distance is getting farther and farther.
If you want to get a lifeline before others, you need to start early. The earlier mother gets up, the more she has to get up at two o'clock in the middle of the night to cook for our brother. The two brothers got up in a daze, washed their faces at random, pulled the rice into their mouths and set off in the dark night.
(3)
The night is quiet, the waning moon hangs obliquely, and the faint milky light is quietly sprinkled on the earth like running water. The stars in the sky are like sleepy eyes, obviously extinguished, but lazily attached to the sky. The trees on both sides of the road are dark, and there are occasional singing bugs in the grass. This song, with the "chug chug" sound of the small four-wheel engine, makes the night seem more and more silent. The headlights of the tractor are on, but they can only shine ten meters ahead. Under the cover of the vast sky, this lonely tractor, like a boat sailing in the vast sea, kept bumping along the bumpy country road.
My eyelids are a little heavy, and I always want to stick them up and down. The brain is surprisingly awake. After years of hard work, my brother has never done any heavy work before, but now he is very strong. My neighbors praised me as a good worker with a wide waist and endless energy. I never use a jack to repair tractors. I just need to turn my back to the front of the tractor, sink, separate my feet and hold the front bumper of the tractor with my backhand. Then, I can use my strong waist and legs to lift the front of the tractor alive with a bang. Seeing this, the villagers gave him a nickname-"Hercules". Whenever there is some work in the village that needs to be done vigorously, as long as there is a brother present, all the work is not a problem.
These days, after repeated running-in, our two brothers have become more skilled in cooperation. Waving the plane with iron teeth and fork, I first scraped the wheat straw out of the pile of wheat straw piled like a hill, then the iron fork was forked, I raised my hands, and a large mass of wheat straw was firmly thrown into the bucket. I stand in the car with an iron fork in my hand. I just need to fill the shallow bucket first, and I need to step on the empty straw back and forth and put the car on a long and wide "well" shaped wooden shelf. This work is not only a manual work, but also a real technical work. If you don't know the doorway, put it in the middle of the shelf first, then put it around the shelf. Then, the piled wheat straw is like a yurt, high in the middle and low in the periphery. Before long, the wet wheat straw will roll down the slope to the bottom of the car. This method can't hold much wheat straw. The villagers are very kind. They sell wheat straw and charge only five yuan for a car. As for how much goods a car can hold, they never care. It all depends on the loader. Because of this, people who make a living from it have to think more, think more ways and pretend as much as possible. After a long time, slowly, everyone found the doorway: the four corners of the shelf must be installed first, then the four sides, and finally the middle of the wooden shelf. Moreover, at the corner of the wooden shelf, when the wheat straw is loaded layer by layer, you should consciously look out to avoid the space area of the roof getting smaller and smaller with the increase of height. Layer by layer, after the four corners are packed and compacted at right angles, the four sides of the wheat straw stack should also be at right angles to the ground, so that it can be finally installed in the center of the wooden shelf. In fact, there is another trick that other colleagues are not clear about. When I load a car, I often choose to put the relatively dry wheat straw in the corner of the shelf and press the relatively wet part of the wheat straw in the middle of the shelf. In this way, the heavier wheat straw is pressed in the middle, and the wheat straw pile full of cars is not easy to collapse. Our two brothers, who are willing to endure hardships and use their brains, have a cart full of wheat straw, which is square and has neat corners. They look like a long bus, even longer, wider and higher than the bus. The wheat straw alone was put back into a car, and the highest record was four tons. Such clean and beautiful works often attract the envy of peers, give thumbs up and praise our two brothers for their ability and ability.
(4)
It was still early when the brothers arrived at their destination overnight. I can only squat down beside the tractor and wait for the dawn.
With the crowing of the rooster in the village, the dark sky in the east first showed a faint navy blue, and then the color changed from heavy to light, gradually showing a faint transparency. In a short time, the morning sun rises from the eastern horizon bit by bit like a huge egg yolk. At first, only a small part was exposed, and the light was not very strong. It only dyed the eastern sky orange. Slowly, it rose higher and higher and its color changed from orange to red. It seems that with a loud noise, it suddenly jumped out of the ground and projected its radiant light on the earth and our brothers.
The villagers who got up early took us to the empty yard. There, piles, clusters, stood dozens of wheat straw stacks. As usual, a car costs five yuan. If I give him money, we can load the car.
"load the car!" My brother cheered, and his voice was sonorous and melodious, which scared the sparrows living in the yard to jump and fly, chirping and screaming, and fled in a hurry.
My brother is topless, with protruding chest muscles, flat abdominal muscles, smooth back muscles and powerful arms, which glow with bronze luster in the gorgeous morning light. That way, it suddenly reminds me of the sculpture of David under Michelangelo's knife, which is the embodiment of strength and beauty and embodies the vibrant and high-spirited color.
In the morning sunshine, two brothers are in an empty yard. One is responsible for transporting the wheat straw to the car, and the other is responsible for packing the wheat straw. Dust is flying, sweat is dripping, fingers are black, nostrils are black, and even spit is mixed with black. As the pile of wheat straw in the car is getting higher and higher, it is more and more difficult for me to send the wheat straw up. Sweat seeped from the bare skin bit by bit, mixed with the raised dust and condensed into patterns of different shapes on me. The two brothers looked at each other's big faces and couldn't help laughing.
It takes about three or four hours to load a cart of wheat straw. When the wheat straw with a width of five or six meters and a length of more than ten meters was as high as two stories, I threw the lasso tied to the wooden frame to me from below, and I leaned down and dragged him to the top of the building along the rope. The two brothers tied two lassos, one on the left and the other on the right, and inserted a long wooden stake with a root tip deep into the center of the wheat straw pile. Then, they grabbed the two lassos with a V-shaped kidnapper made of red dates, twisted them round and round, and hooked the V-shaped kidnapper on a stake. This process is very important. The lasso is tightened so that the wheat straw pile can be firmly fixed on the car. If the rope is not tightened, the tractor will bump back all the way, and the wheat straw pile is likely to collapse completely. Our brother suffered such a loss. Once the installed car collapses, it is natural to rework it. This situation often blocks pedestrians' roads. What is more troublesome is that on the way, the weather has become extremely hot and people are already very tired. The difficulty of rework can be imagined.
However, such things are rare after all, and the losses are fresh in people's memory, and rich experiences and lessons have been accumulated. Only when the way back is extremely difficult and the car bumps badly will such an accident happen occasionally. Because of this, on the way back, the tractor walks very slowly and often takes a lot of time.
It's time to return, start the tractor, and the cat bends down and dives into the driver's seat. The straw pile is very low, leaving only a small area for driving. My height is 1.8 meters. I was humbled when I went in. I'm afraid I can't even breathe easily Me, on the other hand, is much simpler. Lying on his back on a tall pile of wheat straw, basking in the sun and bathing in the breeze, although it is a little hot, it is also very comfortable. Sometimes I cover my face with a straw hat and fall asleep quickly with the swing of the tractor.
(5)
On this day, when I came back, it was almost noon. When I slowly drove out of the yard and onto the wide asphalt road, as usual, I lay on the roof and met Duke Zhou unconsciously.
In a daze, just when I was looking forward to going to college, my brother's eager phone call woke me up. Open your eyes and look around. I don't know when the sky has been covered with thick clouds. It's like standing on the roof of a car, and you can touch the dark clouds when you raise your hand. The strong wind whirled from the southeast, wrapped in dust and gravel, and kept hitting my body and face, making it difficult to open my eyes. An agricultural proverb says, "The east wind blows and the rainstorm comes; The west wind goes and the dark clouds sweep away. "It seems that a storm is coming. I quickly slipped off the roof, hunched my back, got into the driver's seat and sat on the fender of the tractor's front wheel. The space inside is getting narrower and narrower, but there is no other way but to shelter from the rain.
In an instant, a red lightning flashed across the southern sky, clicked, and a loud thunder suddenly exploded overhead, and then boomed to the northern sky. With this thunder, raindrops as big as copper coins fell from the sky, one after another. Raindrops hit the road, raising a strong earthy smell. After a while, the thunder was loud, the rain poured down, and there was hail the size of a thumb cover. Raindrops and ice cubes hit the ground together, causing layers of spray. It doesn't matter if it rains. We two brothers hid under the pile of wheat straw and won't get wet. However, the wind is getting stronger and stronger. The strong wind tore at the trees on both sides of the road and howled. The branches of those trees seemed to be frightened and shook back and forth in panic. Their leaves were torn off by the wind and flew into the sky with the whirlwind.
The wheat straw we loaded was tall and long, which obviously blocked the way of the wind. It became more and more angry, even red-eyed, pushing the wheat straw pile with its invisible big hand, as if it would never stop until it was knocked over.
The wheat straw pile on the roof shook violently, the veins stood out suddenly and violently in the hand holding the steering wheel, and the muscles on the face changed shape. Brother said, it's broken. I'm afraid this load of wheat straw will be blown over by the wind! Looking ahead, the heavy rain is obliquely woven into thick curtains, and it is a problem to identify the road in a foggy place. Helpless, I had to turn off the engine and park my car on the side of the road.
The two brothers hid in the pile of wheat straw and stared out, hoping that the wind and rain would stop as soon as possible, so as to bring back the hard-packed wheat straw.
However, God doesn't do whatever he wants. Suddenly, a gust of wind came with rain, and the wheat straw pile on the roof shook violently like a drunk, and finally collapsed with a bang. In an instant, our brother was completely exposed to the heavy rain, which hit him unceremoniously and drenched his head. Soon, the two of them became a drowned rat. When I got off in the heavy rain, I found that the wheat straw of the whole car had tilted to the right side of the car. The wind swept across the earth and the rain kept pouring down. Our two brothers can't help but provoke a cold war, and our breathing becomes heavy. How can thin clothes keep out the cold in the storm? The rain flowed down the forehead through the tip of the nose and into the mouth. The dirt and sweat on the face were salty. I don't know if it's the smell of earth or sweat.
Through the misty glasses, I saw my brother take off his sweatshirt trembling, naked, twist it into a ball, throw it down, hold it above his head, say hello to me, and hide under the rain with him. However, how can a small dress protect the two brothers from the wind and rain at the same time? My body was completely exposed to the raging wind and rain, but stood proudly. The muscles of his body show axe-like lines and a deep dark red, which seems to loudly declare that he will never bow to the biting wind and rain! I hugged him tightly, resisted the wind and rain with him, sneezed constantly, and a thin layer of white fog transpired around me, and my lips turned iron blue. ...
The heavy rain lasted for nearly an hour and finally cleared up. Where the dark clouds receded, the sun gradually smiled.
Brother said, rework and load the car. I took off my wet clothes, shaking all over, dug out an iron fork from the collapsed wheat straw pile, and the two brothers went shirtless and began to rework and load the car. The collapsed wheat straw has been scattered and entangled, so it is very difficult to pick it up with a fork. In addition, after the heavy rain, the originally dry wheat straw absorbed enough rain and became very heavy. But what can be done? You can't give up halfway. The two brothers bent over and said nothing, just buried themselves in their work.
Near sunset, a cart of wheat straw was neatly reloaded. Touching the sweat on my face, beating my sore waist and rubbing my numb arm, we set foot on the road home again. I can't lie on the straw pile anymore. I sat next to the driver's seat, listening to the monotonous roar of the tractor, leaning on my brother's shoulder, dizzy and closing my eyes. ...
When the wheat straw is pulled to the paper mill, it's time to turn on the light. In the dim light, the door of the paper mill was open. On weekdays, there is no traffic in the crowded yard. When it comes to weighing, the staff in the paper mill turned us down. There is a simple reason. Wheat straw was washed away by heavy rain and its weight increased by several percentage points. How can a paper mill accept it?
Without saying anything, my brother quietly got into the driver's seat and drove towards a clearing in the village. We unloaded the car to the construction site, and I'm afraid we can't send it to the paper mill until the wheat straw is completely dry.
When the exhausted brothers dragged their heavy legs home, their parents still didn't sleep. They have been waiting for us anxiously for fear that something might happen to our brother.
Mother saw us walk into the yard, and tears came down.
"Son, you two can come back! Come back, come back! Normally, you should come back. Mom and dad have been worried about you. If anything happens, you can let your mother live! "
Mother wiped her tears with her cuff, sighed and kept nagging.
"Hungry? Mom, I'll give you hot food. Come back, come back! " ……
(6)
I'm going to the newspaper office. My brother has been carrying his luggage to the county railway station. When he got on the bus, he took out five brand-new 100 yuan from his pocket, held my hand tightly, put the money in my palm, then shook my four fingers and closed my palm. He didn't say a word, but patted me on the shoulder with a big hand like a cattail leaf fan. At the moment, I clearly see that this iron man, in his eyes, has a circle of shiny things constantly spinning. ...