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Text: Zhang Shiren
Editor: Zhang Shiren
Short stories are pure fiction, please watch them rationally, and do not sit in the right seats
I grew up eating 100 family meals in the village, because no one disciplined me, I planned to grow up like this, but I didn't expect a young and beautiful widow to completely change my life.
Widow Feng is famous for her beauty in the village, and there are countless singles and divorced men who covet her all day long, and they all want to live with her.
But one time I sneaked into her house by accident, only to discover her secret, and she locked the door with her backhand after seeing the young me!
My name is Li Jianhua, I was 19 years old in 1995, my family is in the village, and almost anyone will shake their heads when they hear it.
My parents died when I was 6 years old, and since then I have been an orphan, and I can only barely survive on the handouts of my fellow villagers.
Whenever someone wasn't home, I would sneak in and gobble up all the leftovers at home.
Sometimes it's a bowl of leftover rice at the bottom of the pot, sometimes it's half a jar of pickled vegetables in a jar, and everything is stuffed into my stomach, asking me why I'm so wandering? That's because no one has cared about me since I was a child, and no one has taught me how to survive.
Although the villagers all have some affection for me, after all, they are not family members, they are just kind, so by the time I was 15 years old, I was already a wild child.
Every day, my hair was unkempt and my clothes were given by others, and the children in the village were three feet away, thinking that I was sloppy and greedy, and at that time I was even tired of begging for food for a while, so I simply laid a bunk on the side of the road at the entrance of the village, relying on the alms of passers-by to maintain my breath.
I remember one time, I was lying on the side of the road, and suddenly I saw a man walking briskly by, the man was in a hurry, and his expression was a little gloomy.
He was carrying a sack in his hand, probably containing at least 10 pounds of things, but when he passed by me, the bag accidentally slipped and opened his mouth, and a pile of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar ingredients were in a mess.
Seeing this, the man immediately became angry, holding his head in his hands and stamping his feet angrily, looking at him, he didn't look like a wealthy family, he should be an ordinary person who just got by.
I saw that the man was strange and pitiful, so he stepped forward to help pick up those things, he was a little hesitant at first, but seeing my sincere appearance, he finally nodded, let me help, the bag was filled with some ordinary people's daily necessities, including soy sauce, salt, vinegar and other seasonings, as well as a few bags of rice and flour, it seems that it should have just been purchased from the town.
I put the things back together in one go, and the man seemed relieved, perhaps out of gratitude, as he pulled two eggs out of the bag and shoved them into my hand.
"Thanks! You're a good boy, and I hope you can have a better future! After the man finished speaking, he hurried on.
After he left, I held the two eggs, and suddenly an indescribable feeling surged in my heart, am I going to spend my life rotten? That person said that there is a future, how can I find my own "income" in the future?
Just when I realized that I had to change my fate, fate began to open a new door for me.
One day, I was idle, doing nothing as usual, and when I was hungry at noon, I climbed over the wall and sneaked into the courtyard of the Feng family in the village, ready to steal some leftovers.
At that time, there was only one widow Feng left in the Feng family, she was famous for her virtuous and beautiful in our village, not to mention the delicious food she cooked, and she was also a good hand at working in the fields.
I crept into the kitchen of the Feng family, and sure enough, I saw a plate of leftovers and half a cold fried chicken on the dining table.
I gobbled up the half of the chicken until there were no bones left, but just as I licked the oil stains on my hands, Widow Feng suddenly pushed the door in, I was startled by her, and I was ready to flee with a weak heart, but I didn't expect Widow Feng to be angry, but quietly closed the door, just looking at me silently!
I just felt hairy, and I thought she was going to do something bad, could it be that she had a crush on me? This is obviously impossible, just when the two of them were silent, I cleared my throat and didn't make excuses to quibble, but I didn't expect Widow Feng to speak first.
Unexpectedly, she just asked me very calmly, "Have you eaten enough?" I was a little stunned by her extraordinary tolerance, and I couldn't speak.
Seeing this, Widow Feng pulled a chair and sat down across from me, and spoke earnestly about what happened to her.
It turned out that Widow Feng's husband, a former worker at a nearby mine, had been killed in a mining accident a few years ago, and since then, she has had to rely on pensions to make ends meet, and she has to support her children on her own.
I know it's not easy for her, but I'm not a person with a good life, I'm too busy to take care of myself, and I'm not in the mood to be considerate of others.
"You see, we're all poor people who shouldn't have been like this!"
Widow Feng said helplessly, "However, at least you and I still have a breath of hot air, which is better than those who don't even have their lives." "
I have been unloved since I was a child, and I am idle all day long, but Widow Feng has to carry the burden of the whole family on my shoulders, and I am indeed much luckier than I am, and at this moment, Widow Feng said something that I did not expect.
"Otherwise, you're going to move in with me, right? You also know my situation, there is a lot of farm work, I really can't take care of the family, you live here, do some housework every day, and you can have a person on duty at night, as for food, what has me is yours......" babbled a lot.
I was almost dumbfounded. Although I am a poor boy, after all, I also know that there are many rights and wrongs in front of the widow's door, although Widow Feng is pitiful, she is still less than thirty years old, and the charm still exists, it is really not suitable for me, a half-old man, to live with her!
How can you take advantage of others in vain? But Widow Feng's tone was sincere, and she seemed to have some trust in me, a villager from the village.
"Sister, you are so kind, I... I..."
Widow Feng rejected my words and asked me not to think about it, because there were too many people outside who beat her idea, but she just wanted to pull the child to grow up and didn't want to remarry, but there must be a man in the family to support the scene, so she would open her mouth to me.
Widow Feng felt that I was the most suitable person in this village, firstly, my parents died and had no family, and I was still unmarried, so there would be no trouble in interpersonal relationships, and I could call the shots, and secondly, I did not have a serious job, but she observed me and felt that I was not bad, but no one had guided me correctly since I was a child.
She is willing to be the one who guides me, and I have a fixed meal at her house, so I don't have to run around from east to west, which is a win-win situation.
As she spoke, Widow Feng had already gotten up, dug out some old clothes from the cabinet, and compared them to me.
"Then it's decided, you'll stay with me from today onwards, and you'll have to wait for you when the time comes!" In this way, I became a member of the Feng family, and at first I was a little restrained, for fear of causing trouble to Widow Feng, but she loved me as a younger brother and never complained.
During the day, I was mainly responsible for household chores, such as cleaning, chopping firewood, and occasionally going to the vegetable garden to weed, and at night I had to keep an eye out for movement outside to prevent thieves or single-bloods interested in Widow Feng from causing trouble.
Although Widow Feng is just an ordinary peasant woman, she cares for me like a younger brother, she always prepares three meals a day, even if the family is poor, she tries to let me eat a little meat and vegetables, sometimes watching me work too tired, she will even give me a few wontons to cushion my stomach in private.
After getting along like this for more than half a year, I gradually discovered how lazy and ridiculous my past was, at first I came here with a mentality of compromise, but seeing Widow Feng's hard work and enthusiasm, I had a heartfelt respect for her in my heart.
But at the same time, rumors spread in the village.
Some people say that Widow Feng always refuses to go on a blind date on the outside, but in fact, she is hungry and thirsty on the inside, and she is unwilling to be lonely, so she seduced me to live together.
Some people also say that Widow Feng is quite scheming, looking for a half-sized son like me, much better than the old bachelor and the second-married man outside, at least I have a clean background, and there are no seven aunts and eight aunts to find things, these words are ugly, and I am a little embarrassed to hear too much, because Sister Feng and I are not that kind of relationship at all.
Women are always more sensitive, but Sister Feng is very generous, she didn't listen to the gossip outside, but touched my room one night, and said earnestly that she had something to say.
My heart tightened, thinking that she had other ideas, but what I never expected was that Sister Feng had already helped me plan the future.
Widow Feng suddenly said, I have also reached the age where I should learn a trade, and I can't always stay at her house in the future, I have to plan for my future.
I was a little confused, what was the way out for a poor family like me? I don't know a few big characters, and I don't know any skills, my future is very slim for me, and getting married and starting a family is something I never thought about.
Widow Feng only sighed when she heard this, and said slowly after a while: "Yes, it is indeed difficult for a poor family like us to get any good places, but if we keep staying up like this, we can only become poor for life in the future, you and I are still young, and we should plan for our future in time!" "
It turned out that she had already helped me find out that a carpenter in the village was looking for an apprentice, and asked me to report to the carpenter's house the next day.
At first, the life of the apprentice was quite difficult, I have always been a master of idleness, where can I stand such a hard work, often tired all day and night with a sore back, when I return home I go straight to sleep, sometimes I can't even take care of washing, the smell of greasy welling up on my body for a few days without time to take care of it.
But I always remember Widow Feng's words: "As long as you work hard, you will be able to live a good life in the future." So I gritted my teeth and persevered, and I just endured the hardship.
In the blink of an eye, a few years have passed, and in this long apprenticeship, I have seen too many ups and downs in this world.
Sometimes I was scolded by the master, sometimes I did more than ten hours of hard work a day, and I was scolded by the guests because of the rustiness of the craft, but it was this setback that invisibly exercised my inner toughness, and my craftsmanship became better and better.
After studying, I gradually grew from an ambitious bastard to a new young man with ideas, and my understanding of wood art became more and more profound.
Master's gaze on me has gradually changed, and even the daughter of Master's family, Xiaomei, has ignored me from the beginning, and now she is shouting at me, but my goal is not in the village, and I don't want to send people under the fence, I still want to go out and wander.
I left Master's house, sold my family's old house as a start-up fund, and said goodbye to Widow Feng, making a living by doing excellent carpentry work, sometimes working with my fellow masters, sometimes taking on some casual work, and barely getting by.
Master's daughter Sister insisted on following me, the poor and humble could not be moved, the two of us came together, from a small workshop to a carpentry factory to get bigger and bigger, Master saw that I had a chance to make a difference, and I was very pleased to see that I had a career, so far I have a career and a family, but Widow Feng has always let me feel at ease.
Widow Feng has the grace of knowing me and teaching me for several years, and it is she who took me to the carpenter to learn the trade, which is why I am today.
My sister and I opened a factory and bought a house in the city, and Master also closed the carpentry shop in the village and went to the city to take care of our husband and wife's life, but after so many years, what happened to Widow Feng?
She is still alone with children, doing farm work alone, and her life is very difficult.
I told my wife about my predicament back then, I wanted to give Widow Feng some help, and my wife not only did not feel jealous after hearing it, but praised me for having a conscience, we returned to the original village, knocked on the door of Widow Feng's house, after the words, she was very pleased that I could have the current development, and I also repeatedly said that in the future, I will cover the daily expenses of this family, and I will also cover the children's tuition fees and the cost of starting a family in the future.
Widow Feng repeatedly refused, and my wife and I dropped 50,000 yuan, and left without looking back.
When I have the ability, the most basic thing is to give back to the people who helped me and loved me back then, and in the future, I will help more children like me.
It is the careful teaching of Widow Feng that pulled me back from the lowest point of my life, so that I have the courage and determination to fight again, although the road is very long, but as long as I don't give up, I will definitely be able to find the other side of happiness, and my life has finally found sunshine and hope, everyone's starting point in life is different, but this does not need to be inferior and anxious, living your own wonderful is the real thing to do! What do you think?
Disclaimer:
This content is a fictional short story, and any name, place name, or other aspect involved in the text has nothing to do with reality (without any implications). If there is any similarity, it is purely a coincidence, please read it rationally.