In the first semester of the English exam of the second year of junior high school, I won the first place in the class, and the last place was my table mate Cai Daming, who only scored a pitiful twelve points. Teacher Ren Hui was very annoyed by this, and in front of the whole class, she severely criticized him, and asked him to completely change the volume and punish him for copying it twenty times.
When I was out of school at noon, my brother pulled me aside and whispered to me that I was going to eat at the Wrench Crossing. There is a wrench in the back hill of the school, where there is an earthen house where the widowed old man Yu Has eaten and lived for many years. Our school students are far away from home, and those who do not go home to eat at noon will go there to rest for hot meals. My brother and I sometimes don't want to go home at noon, and we will also bring some meals at home and go there to eat hot. My brother quietly told me that Cai Daming had brought rice and canned blue fish with eggplant sauce that I loved to eat at home, and said at noon that he invited me and my brother to eat together.
Unable to resist the temptation of white rice and canned fish, I followed my brother to the wrench. Cai Daming had already stuffed the rice with an iron stove, the large lunch box was steaming hot on the iron stove, and the aroma of white rice wafted out one by one, and I secretly swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Cai Daming and my family are neighbors, the only son of his family is very wealthy, her mother is an actor in the drama troupe, and her father is the head of the drama troupe. His family was very rich in our village, and we often saw large bags and small bags to give gifts to his father. At that time, it was rare for anyone in the village to have a tractor, but his parents had a small car, and every day his father drove it, dragging her mother to and from work with him, which seemed very loving. He eats very well, every day big fish and meat, across a wall, I can often smell the aroma of stir-fry stew floating out of his house.
Although my father works in the organization department of the city, but because of the large number of family members, coupled with the fact that the relatives in the northeast also rely on my family for relief, my family has a very difficult life, every day sorghum rice stick noodles eat the most, only during the festival, I will eat some white rice and white noodles, let alone buy canned blue fish in eggplant sauce that I like to eat.
A large lunch box of white rice, plus a box of canned fish and some stir-fried vegetables that Cai Daming took at home, all three of us ate it clean. Cai Daming said that if I could help him get his English scores, every day at noon, he would invite me and my brother to dinner. But this time, he asked me to help him tell him the correct answer in English, and my brother helped him copy the English questions twenty times.
Cai Daming said that his family had a lot of rice, which was sent to his father by people in the troupe, and that the canned fish was wholesale by her mother at the county food store. Her mother hurt him and knew he loved canned blue fish, so she wholesaled a box for him.
For several days in a row, Cai Daming would bring rice and a large lunch box from home, plus a box of canned fish and stir-fried vegetables. After a long time, my brother and I did not go home for dinner at noon, my mother felt that something was wrong, and under her questioning, my brother and I told her truthfully. After hearing this, my mother was so angry that she waved her rolling pin and said sternly: "I have no objection to helping others improve their academic performance." But if you mix some food please then absolutely not. This kind of cheapness, you two absolutely can not take advantage of it in the future! ”
Finally, the mother also said: "Cai Daming's child is very good and knows how to be polite, but look at his parents, or try to have less contact." ”
My brother and I knew that my mother said this for a reason, when everyone in our village had reclaimed the land in the back mountains, and my diligent mother and grandmother had also planted a lot of greens, edamame and sweet potatoes.
One autumn, my mother came back from the field and carried back a bag of sweet potatoes. Her mother picked the sweet potatoes one by one and placed them in the yard, saying that sweet potatoes would be sweeter when they sweated in the sun. As a result, Cai Daming's pig ran in and nibbled the sweet potatoes out of shape. Grandma heard the movement and came out to pick up the pig, and was also arched by the pig, and the waist could not move at that time, she lay on the ground, grinning in pain. The mother just came back from work, saw this scene, she picked up the stick to pick up the pig, Cai Daming her mother just came back from work, saw her pig running, and heard the pig barking, rushed into my yard, went up to grab the stick in her mother's hand, and said that her mother broke his pig and let my family lose money to her. Her mother was so angry that she reasoned with her that she picked up a stick and gave her a stick. Bring the pigs home, and still curse the dirty words in the yard every day. My brother and I wanted to theorize with his mother, and both were pulled back by my mother. Later, his mother said all the good things and gave him some pig feed before he could pull it down. And Grandma spent a lot of money to see a doctor, and his family did not get any money.
Afterwards, my mother said: "They are all neighbors living, be humble to each other, and eat some losses." ”
But since then, our two families have been very embarrassed to meet each other, and they have made a lot of trouble...
After my mother finished talking about us, my brother and I stopped eating at the Wrench Crossing at noon. But Cai Daming asked me questions, and I would still explain them carefully to him, and I would also help him memorize English words in his spare time. He would sometimes secretly stuff a lunch box of white rice and a box of canned fish for his brother's bag. Not to mention that with my help and his efforts, his English score has improved greatly, from the last place to the top fifteen. Teacher Ren Hui had a smile on his face and praised him for his rapid progress.
One day in the third year of junior high school, Cai Daming did not come to school, and I saw a large string of paper money hanging on the large black iron door in his yard. Neighbors said that his father had an affair, and his mother found out and theorized with his father, and was beaten up by his father, and his mother did not want to take her life.
Since then, Cai Daming has stopped going to school, and I often hear his cries next door and his father's scolding. What was even more infuriating was that his father went out to work every morning, locked the big iron door, and sometimes did not come back for several days.
One day, the brother climbed up the wall and said that he saw Cai Daming sitting on the ground with his hair messed up, his eyes sluggish, and he seemed to be insane.
The mother said, "This child is so pitiful, why should we help him?" ”
Every day, when his mother made a meal, she would take advantage of his father's absence and let his brother climb up the wall to give him food, but every time he ate very little. The brother said that he sat on the ground every day, day or night, crying and shouting at his mother. His father sometimes came back, would cook a pot of rice, cook some dishes casually, go to work in the troupe, and then simply did not come home, saying that he and his new girlfriend had bought a house in the county. Later, someone reported that his father had embezzled the company's public funds for buying the house, embezzled and accepted bribes, was arrested, sentenced, and the woman left him.
One day, my brother went to deliver food and said that he was lying on the ground very hot, and he cried cold. My mother said that he had a fever, his mother was anxious, he couldn't take care of much, he stepped on the ladder, so he went to his house, and we took Cai Daming to my house together, and found him the village doctor Wang, and gave him an injection and medicine.
Since then, Cai Daming has lived in my house, and my mother and grandmother have taken good care of me. Every day, when my brother and I came back from school, we would help him with his homework and make him happy. Cai Daming was not accustomed to eating coarse grains, so his mother specially steamed a lunch box of white rice for him, and his father also used his own money to buy him canned fish from the city. A few weeks later, Cai Daming's condition improved, he took the initiative to go to school, and studied hard, school money, with my family's help, and some of them were the village people's help points. Later, after his grandmother and grandfather heard the letter in Longhua, they came to live with him in Chengde's house, and he moved back from my house to his own home.
In high school, he and I were admitted to the county no. 1 Middle School. In the third year of high school, we were in a school, and we both returned to Chengde together during the holidays. Fortunately, the wrench is still there, Uncle Yu is also there, every time we go home, we will go to the wrench to make a box of white rice and open a box of canned fish.
During the college entrance examination, I was admitted to Hebei Medical University, and he was also admitted to Tianjin Polytechnic University. But he eventually gave up his studies, saying that his father had served his sentence in prison and had contracted a serious kidney disease that needed his care. He said his grandparents were older and he couldn't add to their burden. Even if the father has many faults no matter how bad he is, he must remember the family affection and cannot ignore it. He went to a factory near my house and worked as a furnace foreman. The furnace worker was very hard, but in order to earn more money and treat his father's illness, he also fought hard.
When the family home was relocated en masse, I didn't meet him when I came home from school. His mother said that in order to treat his father's illness, he borrowed a lot of foreign debt, so he had to sell the newly divided building, pay off the foreign debt he owed, and buy some of the remaining money to buy a simple house in the suburbs. He also bought gifts and rice noodles for the relocated neighbors, thanking him for helping his family over the years. In addition, he also went to the wrench room to buy a gift for Uncle Yu. His father and he also came to my house personally to bring a bag of rice, two carp.
In the second half of my sophomore year, my mother died, and I received an anonymous remittance slip for $1,000. It comes from a steel company in Chengde and has no specific address. The pedogue reads only: "Come on! You can do it! Wait for you to return to Chengde to invite you to eat canned white rice fish. ”
During my years at the university, I received several remittance slips from one place, with the following words: "Come on! You can do it! Back to Chengde please eat canned white rice fish. "I saved all the money in the mail, didn't move a cent, and by the time I graduated from college, the remittances added up to $6,000. Whenever I encounter difficulties in studying, when I am in a bad mood and want to give up, look at the words on the remittance slip, I will dry my tears, silently say to myself in my heart, I will do it! In the summer vacation of my junior year, I went back to Chengde and went to the suburbs that my mother had said, but I did not find Cai Daming.
After graduating from college, I went to work in a third-class hospital in Chengde, where I unexpectedly met him who came to the hospital to accompany my father to see a doctor. His father was visibly old, but in good spirits. Cai Daming has also lost a lot of weight, he said that he has now become the head of the furnace, his father is currently in stable condition, but he needs to come to the hospital for review on schedule, and insist on taking medicine for a long time and will be fine. He also said that as long as he was there, his father would be fine.
When I was about to break up, I added his WeChat and transferred the money to him, but he did not receive it. He replied to me in WeChat: "When your mother died, I was accompanying my father to see a doctor in a foreign country, and when I rushed back, you had already returned to school." I deeply understand the suffering of a child who has lost his mother. I've been in pain, so I know how much you hurt. I can only give you encouragement as much as I can. Know you can do it! Not much money, it's a heart. In fact, what I need to thank most is your family and all the neighbors of the family home who have given me warm help. It was you who gave me the courage to live and made me understand gratitude. ”
Finally, he said, "Old classmate, when you are free, let's get together." ”
I said, "Then eat canned white rice and fish." ”
He laughed, and so did I.