Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 133 "Flying Sand and Walking Stones" - Four Shi Lazi
The torrential rain continued for two days and two nights without opening our eyes. The mountain was washed and soaked loose and fragile, and rocks rolled down from the top of the mountain from time to time.The rocks collided with each other and set off a chain reaction, sending more rocks rolling down the mountain, and the valley echoed with a low, powerful rumbling.

Sha Wanli hurried to Shilazi Village with four soldiers.It was just dawn, the rain was strong and sometimes weak, and the clouds were heavy on the top of the mountain, and the visibility was extremely low.A group of people bowed their heads and walked among the rocks, cautiously speeding up their pace.

Starting from the barracks halfway up the mountain, they had to climb two mountain ridges to reach Shilazi Village. They had to race against time.

As soon as I woke up in the morning, the company headquarters called an emergency call: a mudslide occurred in Shilazi Village, and the road was blocked due to multiple landslides on the mountain, and rescue troops and large machinery could not go up for a while.Order Sha Wanli to take a few soldiers to the nearest Shilazi to assist the local government and minimize the loss of local people and property.

After receiving the order, Sha Wanli gathered the whole squad of soldiers to do a division of labor.He asked the deputy squad leader Dong Jialin to lead some soldiers to stay behind to ensure the smooth communication lines, and he selected four veterans who were familiar with the mountain roads to go to the rescue.

Before departure, Dong Jialin pulled Sha Wanli aside and whispered, "Be careful of your safety. Don't be impulsive when you're about to leave the army. Your safety comes first."

Sha Wanli patted Dong Jialin on the shoulder, needless to say anything.

They were soldiers who joined the army in the same year. They were in the same squad when they were recruits, and they were assigned to the outpost located deep in the mountain together after they left the company.Patrol communication lines along the mountain ridge every day to eliminate dangers.

This is a national defense communication line. No matter how bad the weather is or how complicated the situation is, unimpeded communication must be guaranteed. A squad is stationed in the outpost all year round.

Both are recruits, but their purposes for joining the army are different.Dong Jialin came from an industrial city in the Central Plains. After graduating from a technical school, he worked in a steel factory of a state-owned enterprise. He was dissatisfied with his job and could not be transferred to the army. He hoped that he could change to a better job after retiring from the army.

But Shawanli hoped to stay in the army and leave the barren land of Shalitun far away.In the second year of enlisting in the army, he served as the deputy squad leader, and this year he served as the squad leader.Because of his outstanding performance, Lian Li also wanted to keep him, and gave him the only volunteer spot this year, but he unexpectedly applied for demobilization.

Dong Jialin didn't understand this: "Didn't you always want to stay in the army? Why did you give up such a good opportunity?"

Of course Dong Jialin would not understand.When I first entered the mountain, two people went to inspect the route once. After walking more than ten miles on the mountain road, I was tired and hungry, so I sat on the hillside to rest.

Looking around, this generation is full of bare stone mountains.The gray rocks are exposed on the ground, and there is no decent tree in sight. Grass and shrubs grow in the crevices of the rocks, sparsely thin and short.

There is no stretch of land, the crops are planted in the open space between the rocks, and a few corn trees will be planted in the cracks of the rocks the size of a washbasin, almost to the point where there is a need for stitches.

Dong Jialin wanted to break off a few ears of tender corn to roast and eat, but Sha Wanli stopped him.

Dong Jialin didn't take it seriously: "What's the matter with two cents an ear?"

Sha Wanli said: "It's nothing in your eyes, but for that family, it may mean that a meal of rations has been lost."

Dong Jialin didn't believe it would be that serious, so Sha Wanli told him about the days when Shalitun was short of water and food.

Dong Jialin is well-read and knowledgeable. He said: "This is a typical karst landform, also called land rocky desertification. It is of the same nature as the desertification in your hometown. No wonder once I went to a small store in a cottage to buy cigarettes. I took out A hundred-yuan bill, people were afraid to accept it, several people held it in their hands and checked it over and over again, saying that they had never seen it, which confused me at the time. According to what you said, maybe they really didn’t see it Over a hundred dollar bill."

Sha Wanli said to himself, I haven't seen many of them either.In the past three years, he has visited almost every mountain and every village here.

Most of the villages are built in ravines, and only the elderly and children are left in the stone houses with air leakage on all sides.Most of the grown-ups are out looking for a living, and living conditions are in some respects worse than those in Shalitun.

When he looked at the backwardness and poverty caused by soil erosion and environmental degradation from the perspective of a bystander, he understood why his father was burdened with a heavy sense of guilt, and why Sha Liu left Do not look back.

The company commander's instructor talked to him, hoping that he would stay in the army and take root in frontier defense.He expressed his attitude: to return to Shalitun and share the burden and pressure on his father.

There was a rumbling roar in the rain, like thousands of troops and horses galloping and roaring.

Sha Wanli and his party were descending the mountain, and they were stunned by the scene in front of them: muddy water wrapped in mud and stones, forming an unstoppable torrent, pouring down from the top of the mountain with the power to destroy everything.Houses collapsed and roads were destroyed.

Shi Lazi was trembling in the heavy rain, and his shrill cries rang out.

Several soldiers rushed into the stockade to assist local cadres to evacuate the masses and search for the missing.Sha Wanli rushed to the edge of the mudslide, shouting at the collapsed houses, looking for signs of life.

Suddenly, a half-grown girl rushed out of the stockade and rushed to the collapsed house desperately, crying hoarsely: "Dad! Mom! Brother."

Sha Wanli grabs her.The girl was not wearing a raincoat, her body was thin, the rain was dripping from head to toe, and her little hands were cold.

Sha Wanli took off his raincoat and put it on the girl. The girl kept crying, trying to break free from his hands.

Sha Wanli hugged the girl tightly, and the girl kicked and hit her with great strength.In desperation, Sha Wanli wrapped the girl in a raincoat and carried her on his shoulders, leading her away from the dangerous place.

The sky was fine, and the long-lost sun was shining brightly, and the mud and stones were strewn all over the stone plaster, mixed with damaged doors, windows, beams, furniture and clothing, and it was a mess.

Since the mudslide occurred in the early morning, people were sleeping soundly, and Shilazi Village suffered heavy losses.Two dozen houses were destroyed, and more than a dozen people died or disappeared.

A family surnamed Shi was the most miserable. Except for the daughter who went out to work, the other three members of the family were killed, and the family was almost wiped out.

Shi Lazi was shrouded in an atmosphere of eerie terror and grief.

After the disaster, the army mobilized more than a dozen soldiers from the countryside who knew how to build houses, and Sha Wanli led the team to stay in Shilazi to assist in local reconstruction.

Shilazi was short of everything except stones. As soon as other supplies arrived, the house would be built immediately.

When the house was being built, Sha Wanli noticed a little girl sitting alone on a rock, her small round eyes stared at them motionlessly, her sad face was splashed with mud, and her thin and thin body seemed to be in the cold wind. shivering.

It was he who was forcibly carried away, the only surviving girl in that family surnamed Shi, and it was the girl's new home that they undertook to build.

During lunch, Sha Wanli walked up to the girl and said, "Little sister, can you have dinner with us?"

He hoped that the girl could get out of the shadow of the disaster as soon as possible with a group of soldiers.

The girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes.Sha Wanli brought a basin of clean water for the girl to wash her face, took her by the hand and led her to everyone, saying, "Little sister will have lunch with us, everyone welcome."

The soldiers applauded enthusiastically, and their emotions were mobilized at once. They hurriedly placed several wooden boards on several stones to form a simple dining table, and everyone sat around and had dinner together.

Sha Wanli served the girl a bowl of rice, and the girl quickly ate up all the rice.

Sha Wanli thought to himself, maybe it's because he hasn't been able to eat a full meal in the past few days. Seeing that the child was hungry, he gave her another bowl of rice.

The girl was full this time, so she put down her rice bowl and sat with her eyes straight, which made everyone afraid to talk and laugh. After a hasty meal, she took a short break and continued to work.

The workload is close to [-] hours a day. At night, people are tired and horses are exhausted, so I lie down in the tent early to rest and sleep.Sha Wanli, who was sleeping late, saw a figure shaking outside, and asked who it was.The figure didn't answer, just stood still.

Sha Wanli dressed and walked out of the tent, and took a closer look under the starlight, it was the little girl from the Shi family.He asked softly, "little sister, what's the matter?"

The girl said, "Don't call me little sister, I'm Shi Xiuxiu."

Although the voice was small, it expressed great dissatisfaction.

Sha Wanli was secretly happy, it was better to be able to speak than to suppress it, so he slightly bent down and said, "Okay, Xiuxiu, what's the matter?"

Shi Xiuxiu said: "I was so scared that I didn't dare to sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes, I saw mudslides rushing down."

She lives in a small makeshift tent opposite.

This is not easy.Sha Wanli thought for a while and said, "Do you think this is okay? You go back to sleep, and I will stand guard for you."

Shi Xiuxiu went back to the tent to lie down with half-belief, and Sha Wanli stood outside her tent looking up at the starry sky.

The starry sky is deep and far away, and the surrounding mountains are dark and quiet.Through the night he seemed to be able to see Shalitun.Parents who have been tired all day far away in the sky should lie down and rest, right?
A few days ago, my parents wrote in a letter saying that if I can stay in the army or stay in the army, don't worry about my family.The old river loop has been preserved, and the water has not been cut off in the past few years. The grassland on both sides of the river has not only not degraded, but has expanded in size, and the old walnut trees at the entrance of the village are still bearing fruit every year.

Everything is fine at home, and the flock of sheep still maintains the number before he enlisted in the army, so he can rest assured.How can he rest assured?Parents don't know how much hard work they have put in for this.

Drowsiness gradually hit, Sha Wanli didn't dare to move and could only stand upright, it would be worth it even if she didn't sleep all night to get Shi Xiuxiu out of the fear of mudslides.Unable to hold on, she found a wooden plank and placed it outside Shi Xiuxiu's tent, lay down in the open air and fell asleep with her eyelids closed.

When he woke up, it was dawn, and Shi Xiuxiu sat quietly beside him, her round eyes shining like stars.

Sha Wanli sat up straight and asked her, "Did you sleep well at night?"

Shi Xiuxiu said, "I'm not afraid when you're here."

Sha Wanli said: "Then I will stand guard for you every day."

Shi Xiuxiu said: "You're too tired now, move my tent to your tent, and you can sleep on the side of my tent."

The little girl is quite considerate.Sha Wanli thought about it, he really couldn't take it like this every day, at worst, he gave an order: when he gets up at night, stay far away.

From that night, after the rest, Sha Wanli insisted on standing outside Shi Xiuxiu's tent first, and did not go back to sleep until he heard a slight snoring sound from inside.

After more than 20 days, the house was almost built, and Sha Wanli was ordered to withdraw from the outpost, and his special task came to an end.

A few days after Sha Wanli returned to the outpost, the company came down to inform that his superior had approved his application for demobilization.He wrote to his parents in the barracks, telling them that he would be home soon.

Halfway through writing the letter, Dong Jialin came in and told him, "A girl is looking for you outside."

Sha Wanli ignored him. He had been in the army for three years and he had never dated any girls.Dong Jialin said, "Shall I bring people in?"

Sha Wanli didn't believe it at all: "Let's bring it in."

Dong Jialin really led someone in, Sha Wanli looked back and saw that it was Shi Xiuxiu who was neatly dressed.

Sha Wanli got up and gave up his seat: "Xiuxiu, are you looking for me?"

Shi Xiuxiu looked at Sha Wanli and said, "After you left, I couldn't sleep all night, and I was always scared."

Sha Wanli sat next to Shi Xiuxiu and said, "This is Xiuxiu, I'm about to be demobilized, you have to learn to be strong yourself."

Shi Xiuxiu said, "I'll go with you."

The child was quite self-willed, Sha Wanli said patiently, "My hometown lives in the desert, in the barren desert, what are you doing with me?"

Shi Xiuxiu said, "I'll give birth to you."

The eyes are bright.

Before Sha Wanli could think about it, the soldiers in the room laughed together like cramp.Sha Wanli jumped up and shouted loudly: "Shut up." Then he said seriously to Shi Xiuxiu: "You are still a child, you can't talk nonsense about some things."

Shi Xiuxiu stood up and announced loudly: "I am not a child, I am eighteen and an adult."

Sha Wanli was completely taken aback, and looked Shi Xiuxiu up and down again.No matter how you look at it, she is still a little girl, but she doesn't look like a big girl.From Shalitun to the military camp, he had never met a few girls. In his impression, only mature girls with the figure of Salix.

Now that she says she is an adult, she can no longer be accommodated and let her do whatever she wants.Sha Wanli said seriously: "You are an adult, you must be responsible for yourself in every word and deed, understand? There is no relationship between us, right?"

Shi Xiuxiu said firmly: "You hugged me, took my hand, and stood guard for me at night, why doesn't it matter?"

"That's why I treat you like a child."

"But I'm not a child."

A few soldiers covered their mouths with quilts or pillows to suppress their laughter.Sha Wanli knew that if he continued to entangle, it would only become more and more troublesome. He pointed to Dong Jialin and said, "You brought people in, and you are responsible for sending them away."

He rushed out the door and went up the mountain to check the line.

For a whole afternoon, he couldn't figure out whether Shi Xiuxiu was too naive or if she had misunderstood him somewhere.In any case, it must not be entangled anymore.

A little girl who hasn't grown up yet, she opened her mouth and gave birth to a child, did that happen by the way?Sha Liu never said that she was going to have a baby.

When the sun was about to set, I returned to the outpost and learned from the sentinel that Shi Xiuxiu had left, so I went back to the barracks with confidence.The strange thing is that the few soldiers in the class didn't take advantage of the problem, and all of them looked calm.

Sha Wanli knew that they would never let go of such a fun thing easily, so he slapped the table and said, "I will warn you first, if she comes again, she will say that I am not here, and whoever causes trouble will take care of it."

Dong Jialin pressed Sha Wanli on the chair, sat opposite him and said solemnly: "Squad leader, after you left, we discussed it collectively and agreed that you two are quite a good match. Don't stare, listen to me You are sand, she is stone, and then there is reinforced concrete, that is reinforced concrete, indestructible and indestructible."

Sha Wanli didn't understand: "What reinforced concrete?"

Dong Jialin said: "Reinforced concrete is like a child."

Sha Wanli was about to jump up, but was firmly held down by several soldiers around him.

Dong Jialin went on to say: "Don't get excited, we will analyze it for you and see if it makes sense. We don't doubt that you regard her as a little girl, and you care about her and take care of her. That's all right. The problem is that she is born She has a baby face, and she is petite. You may have misread it, but others may have missed it.

"I just went through a disaster and endured the great grief of the loss of my relatives. She regards you as a backer and is willing to give birth to a child for you. This is the most rare thing. You see the truth in adversity. Bro, which woman has experienced it?" They all have more experience than you, and even if you are the squad leader, you are really not good at this.

"Do you think sweet words and sweet words are love? Bullshit! A good woman is a woman who follows you wholeheartedly and is willing to bear children for you. She is a little short in height, but that face is beautiful. Think about it from another angle, when you are seventy or eighty , you are still facing a girlish face, how beautiful it must be in your heart."

Sha Wanli couldn't stand it anymore, and said angrily, "You guys know nothing! She is unfortunate enough. I will lead her into the desert and let her continue to suffer with me? Whoever messes around again, don't blame me for turning my face."

Fortunately, Shi Xiuxiu never came to the post again.It wasn't until he left the barracks and got on the train to bid farewell to his comrades in tears, but he didn't see her, that Sha Wanli felt at ease.

The train started, but the buttocks were still hot, and the tears on her face hadn't been wiped off, but she saw Shi Xiuxiu in a new suit, carrying a bulging blue canvas travel bag, half her head taller, walking from the other side of the carriage. come over.Flicking the ponytail at the back of his head, he walked straight to him and stood there with a smile on his face.

Dong Jialin stood up and gave up his seat, and Shi Xiuxiu happily sat beside him.

Sha Wanli had a big head, glared at Dong Jialin, looked at Shi Xiuxiu and asked deliberately: "What a coincidence, where are you going?"

Shi Xiuxiu said proudly, "I can go wherever I want."

The voice is small and loud.

Dong Jialin put Shi Xiuxiu's travel bag on the shelf, turned and left.Sha Wanli got up and chased after him, grabbed him at the junction of the carriages and asked, "You told her our itinerary?"

Dong Jialin said very seriously: "She has been looking for me secretly, and has repeatedly stated that she is determined to go with you. Anyway, I was moved, and I bought the train ticket for her on my own initiative. I think so, she is helpless, I'm afraid it won't be easy for you to find a partner when you go back, and the two of you will share joys and sorrows together, and maybe you will be happy for a lifetime."

"Happy for your size." Sha Wanli punched Dong Jialin hard.

Now that the matter has come to this point, Sha Wanli has calmed down, and it will be clear when he returns to Shalitun, and it will be a big deal to send her back.

Every time the train stops at a station, former comrades-in-arms get off the train, shake hands, embrace and bid farewell with tears. Shi Xiuxiu also cries and laughs.As the train headed north, the number of veterans decreased, until only Sha Wanli and Dong Jialin remained.

The sadness of parting had already been exhausted along the way, Dong Jialin's face showed fatigue and melancholy, and the usually talkative and noisy people fell silent, it didn't look like he could go home in one stop.

Sha Wanli asked with concern: "What's the matter, brother, I'm worried."

Dong Jialin smiled sadly and said: "Three years as a soldier may have been the happiest time in my life. I know that you rural soldiers usually envy me. You join the army with your salary, and there are good jobs waiting for you after you leave the army. You face the loess and your back to the sky, and the conditions for planing food in the soil are superior. In fact, I envy you more, and I want to live a life like yours, a flock of sheep with a whip, and I am the only one who lives at ease in the vastness of the world."

Sha Wanli retorted: "In the desert, a person is as small as a grain of sand, and the world is so big that I am the only one. If you put sheep with me for a day, you won't think so."

Dong Jialin sighed and said: "You yearn for the city, but I would rather be born in Shilazi or Shalitun. You know the sky in the city, is it blue or yellow? Is the snow white or black? Is the air fresh or choking your throat? of?

"Three generations of my family have worked in steel mills. Before retirement, my grandfather lost an arm by a rolling mill, and my father lost five toes. The worst thing was my second uncle, who was poured on his head by thousands of degrees of molten iron. There was a wisp of green smoke, not even a bone stick left.

"Casualty accidents occur in steel mills every year. If you are injured, you will be injured and you will die. In order to survive, people are still scrambling to go to work. Tens of thousands of people form a huge bicycle team and rush into the factory. won't fall on your own head.

"There is a common slogan across the country, go to work happily and leave work safely. This tells you clearly that you are risking your life to work. Can you really be happy in your heart? Working in a steel mill for a lifetime , How lucky to retire with no scars on his body.

"I graduated from a technical school and entered a steel factory. I am a furnace worker. Hundreds of tons of molten steel tanks weighing more than 1000 degrees come and go above my head. A handful of molten steel can kill a person. I am not afraid of death, but half-death. Do not work.

"There are many disabled workers in the factory. Those who lack arms and legs, those who are paralyzed in bed all year round, and those who have severe burns and deformed limbs. They are all kinds of strange things. Living on a pitiful disability wage, what is the meaning of such a life? So I escaped as a soldier for three years."

Sha Wanli comforted: "Are you too pessimistic? There is a big saying that people can't change the environment and can only adapt to it. If you think like this, everyone should go into a cave and be a savage."

Dong Jialin laughed and returned to normal: "When I think of wearing the same overalls as a labor camp prisoner, wearing a helmet that cannot guarantee safety, and walking into a factory with high temperature, dust, high noise and high risk factor, I just complain in advance. That's all."

As night fell and the lights came on, the outline of a big city appeared in front of us, and the train began to slow down.

Dong Jialin pointed to a place with raging flames and said: "During the day, there are clouds of black smoke, and at night, there are clouds of fire. That is the steel factory where I work. I can still catch up with dinner when I get home, but you guys There is still a long way to go, so take care along the way.”

He took out two brand-new hundred-yuan bills and put them in Shi Xiuxiu's hands, saying meaningfully: "You have a good eye, and you won't give up unless you leave him. Cherish it well. Brother, I wish you happiness in advance!"

Sha Wanli held Dong Jialin's hand tightly: "Brother, take care."

Dong Jialin said calmly: "We will meet again if we are destined, and we don't need to contact again if we don't. The mountains are high and the roads are far away, each has its own life, and each has its own life. It is enough to remember this friendship in my heart."

The train came to a complete stop, Dong Jialin got off the train with his luggage on his back, waved to Sha Wanli Shi Xiuxiu freely through the window, turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

The train moves on.

Shi Xiuxiu kept wiping away her tears, and Sha Wanli rubbed her little head lightly, like caressing her own little lamb.The hair is fine, soft and withered, which is completely different from the feeling of playing with big braids of salix, and a feeling of pity suddenly arises in my heart.

Picking up such a little person on the way, bringing it home will definitely scare parents.

Sha Wanli's occasional intimacy has become Shi Xiuxiu's special enjoyment at this time and in the future.She hugged Sha Wanli's arm tightly, and leaned on his shoulder happily and worriedly, as if she was afraid that he would sneak away and leave herself alone on the train.

In her 18 years of life experience, there has never been a person like Sha Wanli who cares about her from the bottom of her heart and loves her without seeking anything in return.

In Shi Xiuxiu's childhood memories, because she was a girl, she was not popular, and she hardly ate a full meal, and never wore a new dress.

In the early years, in order to build a house for the family, my father went up the mountain to cut trees and broke his leg.What accompanies her growing up is the heavy sigh mixed with smoke from her father's mouth, the sad face that will never be wiped away in the wrinkles of her mother's premature aging, and the big rocks all over the mountains and plains.

When I was five or six years old, I followed the adults up the mountain to dig herbs and grow grain in the crevices of the rocks. At the age of 14, he managed to finish elementary school and became the main labor force in the family. He followed his mother to work everywhere, and the farthest was to Xinjiang to pick cotton.

In the late autumn of that year, she was drenched in the rain in the cotton field, and at night she developed a fever and coughed continuously.Mom didn't take it seriously, and only bought her some cold medicine. The next day, she was top-heavy again, and she worked softly like stepping on cotton.

On the third day, she passed out in the cotton field.Under the persuasion of others, her mother carried her to the hospital, and she was burned to pneumonia after an examination.

She was lying on the hospital bed, her body was so light that she didn't look like her own. How she wished her mother could hug her and feed her a sip of water like she did when she was a child.

But my mother muttered irritably at the side: "I haven't earned money, and I have to pay a sum of medical expenses. It's really a loser."

Even though she was confused by the fever, even though her mother's voice was very low, she heard it clearly.She couldn't believe that such cruel words came from her mother's mouth.

Poverty made family affection indifferent and life humble. She couldn't shed tears, but felt that she was about to die.But she survived tenaciously, growing crookedly like grass in the crevices of rocks.

After returning home to recover from her illness, she began to wander alone.The first job was as a waiter in a small hotel. After working for less than a month, the boss threatened her with no salary and asked her to serve men.

She doesn't know how to serve a man.The boss played the video for her to watch. The picture made her feel horrified, nauseated and retched, so she jumped out of the window and fled decisively that night.

Later, she was only looking for physical work, and she met some unscrupulous bosses.Either working day and night, or finding various excuses not to pay wages.She still adopted the usual strategy: run!I would rather not have wages than suffer greater harm.

It was not until this year that I found a decent job in a glove weaving factory in the county seat, with piece rate wages, and I earned [-] cents for weaving a pair of gloves.At first she was not proficient, and she couldn't weave a few quilts a day, and she couldn't even earn her own food expenses.

Everyone is busy with the work at hand, and no one is willing to spare time to help her.Later, Tian Erbao took the initiative to teach her techniques, his chest was pressed against her back, and his buried face was pressed against her face, which made her very uncomfortable.

In order to learn technology and earn more money, she endured it.Don't look at Tian Erbao as a man, with good skills and quick hands, ordinary women can't beat him.The man was short and short, dark and strong, with a good heart, and his words were not annoying, so he smiled at him.

Living in the simple dormitory at night, the twenty or so sisters always had to chatter for a while before going to sleep.Talking about Tian Erbao, they all say that he is a poor man, lives in the mountains in the neighboring province, is poor, and works the same as a woman, just trying to trick a woman back to be his wife.

He has thought about all the sisters in the factory, but no one pays attention to him, and now he is going to attack the ignorant little sister.She heard that the sisters told her on purpose, she didn't take it seriously, who of you helped me?I'm willing to lie to you.

Finally earning her first salary, she rushed home in the rain.The younger brother is about to start school, and he is still waiting for her money to pay the tuition.She was full of joy that she could finally provide for her younger brother to study.In the end, she saw the most tragic scene, and Shi Lazi became her eternal nightmare.

During the critical period of girls' growth and development, due to the lack of care and adequate nutrition from their loved ones, not only the body does not grow, but the mind also lacks the ability to bear and is not healthy enough.

It was Sha Wanli's appearance that made her feel the sunshine-like warmth in the pain, and see the hope of life in the despair.

Sha Wanli hugged her tightly in the rainstorm and carried her on her shoulders. She experienced the mighty power of a man.Sha Wanli took her hand and sat down to eat together. It was a rare full meal before this.When working part-time, in order to save money, she only ate two meals a day.

When she was most sad and fearful, Sha Wanli was like a big tree sheltering her from the wind and rain. The tall figure stood motionless outside the tent, making her feel stable and secure in the dark.

She knew that Sha Wanli regarded herself as a child who hadn't grown up, and she enjoyed this very much. Whenever Sha Wanli called her little sister or Xiuxiu, her heart would always tremble softly a few times.

She knew that Sha Wanli was tired from building a house during the day and needed a good rest, so she snored early and pretended to be asleep to let him go.In my heart, I especially hope that he can accompany me for a while, or even a lifetime.

In the once barren heartland, tender grass grew irresistibly, and it was full of fragrant wild flowers.She has never loved or been loved, and she doesn't know how to express her emotions, but she knows that women can have children, so she will have children for him.

After the disaster, Tian Erbao also visited her several times, and repeatedly said that if she was helpless, it would be better to go with him, and he would treat her well.If it wasn't for Sha Wanli's unexpected appearance, she would really have left with Tian Erbao.

Now, the man who made her willing to bear him a child, even though he refused to accept herself, went home with him has become a reality.No matter what he thinks in his heart, he has followed him anyway, and he has to rely on him if he cheats.At least, he won't hurt himself.

I changed to a train halfway and continued to drive north. The chilling autumn scene in the north was already presented outside the window of the train.

Shi Xiuxiu, who was dressed thinly, could feel the coolness of autumn in the north even sitting in the carriage, and her body shivered slightly from the cold.

Sha Wanli found out his military coat and put it on for her, her eyes were flickering with fear and uneasiness.After all, he ran from the south to the north with a man he hadn't known for a long time, and at such a young age, it was inevitable that his heart would be pounding.

Sha Wanli couldn't help feeling a little affection in his heart. During the long journey, the mutual dependence and care had made him confused about what role he was playing.He deliberately joked: "Can you tell me now, where are you going?"

Shi Xiuxiu blinked her eyes and shook her head, and said timidly, "I don't know."

Sha Wanli rubbed that little head again: "Remember, it's Shalitun."

Getting closer and closer to home, the transformation and adjustment of roles in my heart have been completed.After serving as a soldier for three years, he turned around and returned to the starting point. He is Sha Wanli who has grown up.

When I got off the train at the county seat, the first thing I needed to do was to buy Shi Xiuxiu a full set of cotton-padded clothes, trousers, cotton shoes, and a cotton coat, which are necessary for wintering in Shalitun.

Sitting in the car, the car is filled with a strong local accent, kind and desolate.After getting out of the car, in front of you is the gravel road leading to Shalitun.

The autumn wind blows the sand and dust, and a few lonely trees can be seen in the distance, and the mottled withered yellow grass blends with the wasteland.The hometown is still barren and desolate, and there has not been much change in the past three years.

Sha Wanli told Shi Xiuxiu that he would arrive home after walking more than 20 miles.

Shi Xiuxiu looked around, the expression on her face changed rapidly, she couldn't tell whether it was happiness or worry, joy or regret, and suddenly squatted on the ground and cried bitterly.

Sha Wanli pulled Shi Xiuxiu up and said, "Don't cry, it's easy to get sick if you get the wind in your stomach. I'm not used to staying here, and I'll take you back in a few days."

Shi Xiuxiu raised her tearful eyes and said, "I won't go back."

"Then why are you crying?"

"If my family lived in this place, my parents and brother would not have died."

Shi Xiuxiu cried more and more sadly.

Sha Wanli pulled Shi Xiuxiu to his chest to shield her from the wind.Shi Xiuxiu lay in Sha Wanli's arms, and finally stopped crying.

Sha Wanli picked up his own luggage and carried Shi Xiuxiu's travel bag on his shoulders. It felt quite heavy, tilted his head and asked, "What are you packing here?"

Shi Xiuxiu said, "I brought everything I could."

This is all her belongings.Sha Wanli took one of her hands, sighed softly and said, "You are not afraid that I will throw you into the desert to feed the wolves."

Shi Xiuxiu said, "You are a big bad wolf."

Like a rabbit, jumping around Sha Wanli.

The gravel road of more than 20 miles is not too far for them.Talking and laughing all the way, turning over a gentle sand dune, the old walnut tree at the entrance of the village can be seen from a distance.

Sha Wanli put down Shi Xiuxiu's hand, pointed to the front and said, "Look, we're home."

(End of this chapter)