farm life

Chapter 1 Grandma Died

"Lin Jiangsui, I have your letter!"

After the morning class, Lin Jiang went back to the dormitory to get the cutlery and prepared to eat in the cafeteria. Then he walked into the dormitory door, and the aunt who guarded the door yelled at him.

"My letter? Where did it come from?" Lin Jiangsui wondered to himself, and walked over.

The aunt gave him the letter and ignored him.

Lin Jiang casually looked at the letter. It was a very ordinary khaki-colored envelope, which was so thin that he hardly felt it in his hand.On the envelope was written "Sent by Lin Jiang, Class [-], Grade [-], Qiao Yu High School, City C", "Sent by Lin Quan, Village Committee of Linjia Village, Huaye Town, City C".

The sender, Lin Jiangsui, did not know him, but he knew the address. Linjia Village in Huaye Town, that was his hometown, where his grandmother lived.

After returning to the dormitory, he greeted his classmates and asked him to help bring meals. Lin Jiangsui lay on his bed and opened the envelope.

There was only a thin piece of letter paper in the envelope, a few simple sentences, and even a few typos, but Lin Jiangsui still understood the meaning of the letter.

His grandmother passed away half a month ago, and left the family house and land to him before she died.The members of the Linjiacun Village Committee hoped that he could go back and go through the formalities.

When he heard the news of his grandma's death, Lin Jiangsui was stunned for a moment, but he soon recovered. He was brought up by his grandparents, but he didn't know each other very well. I remember that the other party was a difficult old lady. He was even a little afraid of her, but he never thought that she would pass away so early. After all, the old lady is only in her 60s this year.

But now she left the inheritance to him...

He found a public phone outside and dialed the number he remembered but rarely called.

The person who answered the phone was a middle-aged woman with a sharp voice. After the other party knew it was him, she called the person he was looking for in a bad tone.

【Hey? 】

"……it's me."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while before a voice came, [What's the matter?I have paid the living expenses for this month to your account. ] "Well, I received it. I received a letter from grandma today, saying that she passed away."

There was another silence, the other party's tone seemed a little low, 【...I know. 】 "Grandma left everything for me..."

The other party interrupted him impatiently, [If she gave it to you, it's yours, don't tell me, I have something else to do, that's all. ] "That's good." Without saying goodbye, Lin Jiangsui laughed at himself as he listened to the blind voice on the other end of the phone.Hadn't he always known how ruthless the man called father was?Why bother to test whether he seemed to know about grandma's death, but didn't tell him and let him go home to see grandma's last side?

As soon as Lin Jiangsui's mother, Jiang Feng, graduated from junior high school, his grandparents told his mother to drop out of school and work as a farmer at home, waiting to get married and have children.

Mother was also stubborn, so naturally she disagreed, secretly took the money from the family, and went to work in other places.There was no news for several years, which made her parents angry and anxious, they cut off the relationship with her directly, and went to other places with the elder son's family, and never came back.

Later, my mother came back to visit relatives, but she could no longer find her relatives. She felt helpless, and happened to meet her junior high school classmate, Lin Youwei, Lin Jiangsui's father.

At that time, Lin Youwei was in the third year of high school, which was a critical period, and he was overwhelmed by the pressure of studies and the expectations of his parents.

So the two people who were in a bad mood bought a lot of wine and side dishes, and toasted Mingyue in the small hotel where their mother was temporarily staying.

Both of them didn't drink very well, so they had sex after drinking.

A girl lost her virginity, which was a major event in those days when people would cast aside her chastity. The mother was helpless, and the father thought that he was a man who should be brave, so he took his mother home to meet his parents. After a meal in the ancestral hall where they were fined to kneel all night, their parents agreed to their marriage.

In those days, people’s ideas hadn’t been completely separated from the feudal society, especially in remote rural areas, there were not a few children aged [-] or [-] who were married to boys and girls. Relatives and friends have fun, and worship the ancestral hall, and they are considered married.

Maybe it's because people are in good spirits on happy occasions. Lin Youwei successfully passed the college entrance examination that year and entered a first-class university in the country. The whole family was very happy.Grandpa went to the village to buy firecrackers and set them off for a long time.

Later, Lin Youwei went north to study with all the money, and he left for four years. At that time, Jiang Feng's belly was already bulging. Four months after Lin Youwei left, Lin Jiangsui was born.

At the beginning, Lin Youwei often wrote letters home, talking about himself, asking how the family was doing and how the child was doing.Later, the letters gradually decreased, and the occasional letters were just asking them to send more money.Even if it is a holiday, they only say that they will stay there to work to earn tuition fees.

The days of waiting were torturous. When Lin Jiangsui was three years old, his mother saved up enough money and decided to go north to find a husband. No one knew the process, and everyone only saw her crying all the way back.Not long after, one night, she packed up her things, left only a letter, and left.

The villagers helped to search for a long time, but they couldn't find anyone, so they had to let it go.

Later, I heard from someone who went north to study with Lin Youwei that Lin Youwei met the daughter of a rich family in college.

When grandpa heard this, he was not in good health, so he collapsed directly, and passed away not long after.Grandma was also the root cause of the disease at that time, and her health deteriorated day by day.

When his grandfather passed away, Lin Youwei took a leave of absence from school and came back. That was the first time Lin Jiangsui saw his father. He was tall, handsome and full of books.

Not quite like himself, he thought so when he was young, but when he grew up, he realized that they were actually [-]% similar, and the rest should be like his mother, right?

Maybe it was because he hadn't authenticated his birth, or maybe it was because of other reasons, Lin Youwei didn't show closeness when he saw him at first sight, even though Lin Jiangsui kept looking at him with longing eyes - his mother always held a The photo of his father made him recognize the person, so he recognized that the person in front of him was his father.

He just gave him a casual look, as if he was just the kid next door who didn't matter.

Children are always sensitive, he could feel that there was no love in that look, on the contrary, he saw a touch of disgust.That glance ruined all Lin Jiangsui's knowledge of his father.

His father doesn't like him, doesn't even recognize his existence...

After the funeral, Lin Youwei left, and Lin Jiangsui never saw him again.

Later, Lin Youwei graduated from university and did not come back. Instead, he stayed in that city. With the help of his girlfriend's family, he found a good job and got married again.

When Lin Jiangsui was seven years old, they had their own child, and they took the child back to see grandma. The woman knew about Lin Jiangsui's existence, but she didn't want to see him, so they packed him up and threw him into a boarding school, even during the holidays. Instead of letting him go back, he enrolled him in various interest classes in the Children's Palace, and only sent him enough living expenses every month.Until now, he has never returned to that home.

Lin Jiangsui didn't know if grandma missed him. In my memory, grandma was a very traditional Chinese woman who followed the three obediences and four virtues, and she would not disobey her son's words.However, she was illiterate, but she would ask someone to write letters to him every month. In the past few years, the letters have become less and less, and he has not received any letters for more than half a year.

Is it because you are sick that you stopped sending letters?Are you afraid that he will worry?

It's just that it's too late...

"Are you still calling? If you don't call, get out of the way." The person waiting in line behind him patted Lin Jiangsui on the shoulder, pulling him back from memory.

Saying "I'm sorry," he paid and left the phone booth.

Returning to the dormitory in a daze, Lin Jiang packed up his simple luggage and planned to ask the teacher for leave later.

Seeing the shoe box under the cabinet unexpectedly, the movement of the hands stopped, put down the things, took out the box, sat on the bed and opened it.

Inside the box are letters written by grandma, a talisman for every birthday, and a jadeite Fulu card, which was sent by grandma on his birthday.

Jadeite is waxy green jadeite with a white background. The material is thick and square, with rounded and blunt corners. It has a double-happiness-shaped frame with hidden vertical edges. There are perforations on the upper end for wearing.The head of the tablet is engraved with the pattern of Ruyi cloud head, and the four characters of "Fulu Chengxiang" in seal script on the back, but on the front where the pattern of bat and gourd was originally carved, there is a piece missing, which is exactly the size of a gourd, leaving only one A bat flies alone in the upper left corner.

The position of the missing piece looks like a groove, and the remaining thickness is just enough to make the characters on the back form a hollow pattern. I think this Fulu card should be made of two pieces of jadeite, but I don’t know if it is How did you lose that piece.

Lin Jiangsui saw this Fulu card when he was a child, and he said it was a family heirloom. At that time, his grandfather would always hug him and say that when he grew up, he would pass the card to him. It was put away by grandma, but unexpectedly it was still in his hands.

The missing piece on it has never been there. According to the words passed down by the ancestors, whoever can find the missing piece will be blessed and prosperous. Everyone in the Lin family only listens to it as a story, and no one really believes it.

Hang the Fulu card with the red string around his neck, stuff it into his clothes, put the rest of the things back in place, and Lin Jiangsui continued to pack things.

After asking for leave from the head teacher, Lin Jiang left the school and got on the long-distance bus to Huaye Town.