between clouds and mud

Chapter 1 The moon is the hometown of Ming Dynasty

Protagonist list—————

Zhou Song: The nickname is Xiaoliu.She was sent to the countryside by her grandfather when she was six years old. Under the influence of her adoptive parents and friends, she grew from a clumsy girl to a girl who could distinguish right from wrong, brave and unyielding, and inspired and sunny.In the end, he was admitted to a first-class university with excellent results and engaged in geographical scientific research.

Zhang Chengnian: Zhou Song's guide in studying, he is outstanding in appearance and firm in heart.After starting a successful business, he began to pursue the love he missed when he was young, and contributed to the construction of his hometown.

Zhang Fang: Xiaoliu's childhood playmate. She was born in a patriarchal family and dared to fight against fate.Because of her escape from marriage, she fled to Zhou Song, who was studying in Changsha, and faced Zhou Song's biological mother's dislike of the poor and love of the rich. With her hard work and hard work, she won respect.

Jiang Lele: Zhou Song's good friend when he was studying in Changsha, she is the only daughter, she was loved and grew up, which affected Zhang Fang's perception of women.

Chi Yi: Zhou Song's second relationship, the two came together because of a blind date.He is a playboy with a rich family background and a free and easy personality. After liking Zhou Song, he changed his irresponsible attitude towards feelings.

Zhou Laoliu: Although Xiaoliu's adoptive father is a farmer, he can read and distinguish between right and wrong. Because of his hardships in childhood, he adopted Zhou Song who was abandoned by his family. After Zhou Song's biological parents appeared, he chose to let him go.

Zhou Huaiming: Zhou Song's biological father is a high-ranking, honest and honest man who is irresponsible and wants to make up for his daughter and family.

Feng Yi: Zhou Song's biological mother was born in a wealthy family, with arrogance and arrogance. She looked down on rural people, and finally understood that the difference between clouds and mud is not a material difference, but a spiritual difference.

Teacher Wen: A teacher who spreads ideas, the world is full of peaches and plums.

Zhang Jiaxiang: Xiaoliu's childhood playmate, who served in the army for eight years, responded to the call and participated in the construction of his hometown after retiring.

Lao Gu: Zhang Cheng's colleague who joined the workplace at the beginning of the year, a secular and smooth ordinary engineer, he is content and happy.

Zhou Li: Zhou Song's younger brother.

Text dividing line————

In the late 90s, it was the time when family planning was severely cracked down.Although the promotional slogans posted on the road are similar - it is the same to have a son and a daughter, and the daughter is also passed on to future generations.But the traditional thinking of Chinese people is hard to change for a while.

In an isolated village in the mountainous area of ​​Hunan Province—Dengxinqiao Township, due to poverty and decline for too many years, the roots of the ancestors have disappeared.

Zhou Laoliu, the only man with a foreign surname in the village, is a farmer but can read and write.He is nearly forty years old, and he has no children under his knees so far, so the husband and wife are counting on adopting a child.

As the saying goes, if you raise a child to guard against old age, only a kid will continue the incense.

He had worked as a carpenter in Changsha City earlier, and had some connections. The husband and wife listened to someone's introduction, took a bus to Changsha City, and fell in love with a fat boy who was about two years old and looked upright.Unexpectedly, this channel has already become a business.

The introducer in the middle didn't even inquire about the situation of the sixth family. He didn't care about where the family lived, the size of the family, or the economic conditions. The only thing he cared about was whether the child in his hand could be sold at a good price.This is a prudent businessman, and the identity of the information is not disclosed. The place is also temporary, and each child has secretly marked the price.

Although Zhou Laoliu did not know much about writing and ink, he had an upright personality and could distinguish right from wrong and right from wrong.Knowing that this is a business of cutting off children and grandchildren, he quickly dismissed the idea.

The son is a sought-after commodity in the market, and people who listened to good things said that someone took it away within two days.The buyer's family gave birth to three daughters, but the daughter-in-law was unable to give birth to any.Driven by obsession, he gritted his teeth and bought a kid to go home to carry on the family line.

The daughter-in-law, Zhang Fuying, has been taking medicine for food all these years, and her stomach has never lived up to expectations. She can only secretly touch her tears when she is alone.

Until Zhou Laoliu, a distant relative in Changsha wrote a letter, saying that he had a girl of the right age in his family. Because of the poor conditions in the family, the burden of having an extra mouth was too heavy, and it was enough to give him food.

This relative has gone so many ways, Zhou Lao Liu can't think of this person at all.

Fu Ying is very concerned about this matter, although it is a pity that she is not a boy, but at least she has some relatives with her husband's family, which can be regarded as blood, which is better than buying from outside without knowing the details.

This night, Fu Ying, who has always talked about frugality, brightened the kerosene lamp, and no longer cares about the little oil.The ups and downs of the lines on the paper, her mood was lifted high, Fuying was looking forward to it, but she was afraid that her expectations would fail.

Zhou Lao Liu picked up his old pen holder, the tip of which was worn out a bit.In the letter, I briefly greeted this distant relative who did not know where, and then talked about the child, stating that as long as the body and mind are healthy and the appearance is normal.He also introduced the family situation of the husband and wife, and finally stated that if there is a relationship with the child, he will definitely love her as his own daughter.

Early in the morning, I carried it in my arms and went to the post office in the town to reply the letter.

After waiting for half a month without waiting for a reply, a strange middle-aged man knocked on the door of his house with a little girl in his arms.It is said that there were seven or eight bus transfers along the way. It took two days of bumpy journey and turned over two hills before arriving here.

The child in the arms of a man is not like a country girl.Waist-length black hair is long and shiny, well-dressed, and a pair of clean leather shoes.His skin was clean and fair, without signs of wind and rain, and he didn't look like a child raised by a poor family.

She looked a little dull, and was held in her arms all the time.After the man put her down on the ground, she swayed left and right when she walked. Even standing for a long time, it was difficult to maintain her balance, and she swayed tremblingly.

Zhou Laoliu and his wife and children looked at each other for a moment, then made up their minds.

He politely invited him to have a meal, although he was short of money, he still thoughtfully prepared some meager travel expenses, and negotiated that he would work harder to take Xiao Nier back in the afternoon.

The man said in embarrassment that he was only temporarily entrusted to deliver a courier, oh, to someone.He doesn't know the specific situation, and the road is so far away, you can send it yourself, and you will have to talk about it if you can't find it.

The man is an old man, seeing that the husband and wife are not easy to fool, he promised that he would take Xiao Nier back after he untied his hand, but he ran through the window of the thatched hut while he was untied.

Xiao Ni'er stood in the yard blankly for a while, her expression slowly began to panic, as if she finally knew that she had been abandoned.First, the nose was sour, and then tears fell one by one.She is a good child, she is sensible and doesn't make a sound, she just sobs on her shoulders.A six-year-old girl stood at a loss in this strange environment, surrounded by an obscure accent and two unfamiliar faces.

It was night, the crescent moon with one petal missing hung in the night sky, and the gentle moonlight fell on the porthole.

On the solid old wooden bed, little Nier lying beside the woman finally fell asleep, still snoring lightly, Fu Ying asked in a low voice, "The clothes Xiao Nier wears don't look like someone who can't afford to eat."

"The family specially bought a new dress for her." Zhou Lao Liu slept on the other side. He had already noticed something was wrong, but he couldn't bear to shake his wife and children's only expectations.Obviously, the person who wrote the letter deliberately concealed the real information and fabricated an identity for this little Nier at will.He didn't have expectations for distant relatives at all, but he was still annoyed because he was tricked.

He thought, Xiao Nier just looked demented, she shouldn't be a fool.

There is no problem with my legs, and I can always go to the hospital for treatment if I can’t walk steadily.

But what does he want these things for?

He planned to wait for daylight again, then went to the town to take an early bus to take Nier back to the city to find her family.

The plum rain in the south fell at this time, with the patter of rain, beads strung from the eaves and penetrated into the moss on the bluestone slab, the whole world was beaten wet.It has been raining for several days without stopping, and the clothes have a musty smell from the weather.

The road will be easier to walk when the rain stops.

The continuous rain continued for half a month, and the river also swelled, submerging the Wick Bridge, which was the only link between the town and the outside world.

Wait for the water to recede before crossing the bridge.

Zhou Laoqi put on his coir raincoat, carried a hoe in the rain, and went to the field to dig ditches to divert water.The stunned green rice was overwhelmed by the rain, and there was no energy.

And he swung the hoe up and down with callused hands, forming a ditch, and the accumulated water in the field rushed into the river dam.

In this way, when the weather clears, the rice he has worked so hard can grow straight again, with perseverance and unlimited vitality.

Zhou Laoliu learned the craft when he was young, and was a half-hearted carpenter. Besides relying on it for food, he could always conjure up tricks delicately, sometimes a bamboo dragonfly, sometimes a straw grasshopper.

But now that they were all in the little girl's arms, her infatuated look faded away, and besides the lackluster expression, there were pure and satisfied eyes.

Send her home when the rain stops?
He is blessed to the heart, the original dull child is like a seedling, just need to loosen the soil and fertilize her, and it will be able to thrive in the sun and rain.

This kind and honest farmer doesn't know yet that the seeds he cultivated diligently will be full of family in the future.

In early summer, the weather is cloudy and cloudy.Zhou Laoliu's house is close to the field, and occasionally a few villagers with hoes would run in to hide from the rain. They would sit in the open and bright hall with their trousers rolled up, chatting with their parents when the rain stopped.The sixth daughter-in-law will enthusiastically serve several bowls of herbal tea to cool off the heat.

Seeing the "little six" girl in the house, the villagers couldn't help joking.

Who in the village doesn't laugh at Lao Liu's stupidity?

The ones driven in by the rain today are the mighty cattle herding squad, and the chattering of these boy scouts is more annoying than the sparrows.They were not as tall as a cow, and each of them was swinging a small stick cut from a willow branch.

The last one was a little radish head leading a buffalo. The buffalo was strong and strutting, and the ox prongs on its nostrils were held tightly by a drenched child.

Zhou Laoliu greeted at the top of his voice: "Brother Nian, if it rains so heavily next time, don't worry about the cow, the baby will run into the house first, stupid stupid head, this is a "water" cow."

The intonation of the dialect in the mountainous area of ​​Hunan is flat and ups and downs, so he deliberately accentuated the word "Shui".

Xiaodouding held a fragrant glutinous rice dumpling in their hands and laughed. The dumpling was just steamed by the sixth daughter-in-law. The white and fat stuffing was still steaming, and the sweet brown smell filled the room.

Little Nier, who was playing with straw grasshoppers in the back room, also poked her head out following the smell.

"Who are you?" The Doudins of the cattle herding team saw the figure behind the door, and a brave boy spoke first.

The figure behind the door shrinks back timidly, only a shadow can be seen vaguely.

Aunt Fuying wiped her hands on her apron, she pushed open the door, led the little girl from the back room out, and introduced enthusiastically: "Look at my Xiaoliu, I'm afraid of being born, you little cats ate aunt's rice dumplings , I have to take her with me when I play in the future."

The two little girls leaned closer and looked at her frankly.The boys only glanced at it curiously, they were more keen to gather in the corner to discuss whose crickets chirped louder.

Obviously, a rice dumpling can't buy off these gluttonous brats. Zhou Lao Liu added while rolling a tobacco leaf: "Your aunt knows a lot, such as crispy fried cat's ears, fragrant fried rice fruits, and sweet sugar oil cakes."

The kids got hungry after hearing this, and they didn't forget to respond when they were playing with the grasshopper: "We will definitely play with her."

"Auntie, how did you give birth to such a big little girl?"

"What's your name?" The enthusiastic friends nodded one by one: "This is Hong Nier, my name is Zhang Fang."

Zhang Fang, the boy fighting crickets in the corner, didn't count: "Daxiang, brother Nian, the shortest one is my brother Junzi."

Xiao Liu was stunned, her face turned red from thinking, like a silly girl in the next village, no one would play with a silly girl.

Little Bean Ding actually doesn’t care about one more playmate and one less playmate. At this moment, they only think about cat’s ears, rice crackers, and sugar oil cakes, so they pick up the topic: “Your hair is long and black and shiny, so handsome.”

The locals burn acacia water to wash their hair, but when the hair grows, lice are easy to grow, so the girls have short hair that is easy to manage.

The rain gradually stopped, and Zhang Fang was still chatting with Xiao Liu. In fact, the two of them did not understand each other.

It wasn't until Zhou Laoliu handed over the last zongzi on the red lacquered wooden table to Zhang Fang, and the greedy little guy held the extra zongzi, and then he slipped away contentedly.

Zhou Laoliu likes to listen to Huagu Opera and often hums a few words.He breathed out from the back kitchen with a hot sea bowl, and when it got colder, he peeled off the leaves, revealing the round rice dumpling stuffing, and the fragrance wafting along the rice dumpling leaves was stronger than before, and it made him salivate when he smelled it.Unlike the previous rice dumplings which were white and clean, this one is darker in color and still has a meaty aroma.

Zhou Laoliu strung it on the chopsticks and put it in Xiao Nier's bowl.

Xiao Liu was the only child who didn't eat the zongzi. She took a bite carefully, and the taste spread from the tip of her tongue to her heart. It was as sweet as honey.

May [-]th, to Duanyang.

Ai is inserted in the door, and the rice dumplings are fragrant.

Drink rice wine and put paper kites.

Noontime water, Pei damselfly.

Multicolored silk wraps hands and ankles,
The dragon boat launched into the water with joy.

On the evening of the Dragon Boat Festival, the Dim Wick Bridge became lively.

People from several nearby villages came here, and the adults gathered scatteredly. The men were practicing paddling on the shore, preparing for the dragon boat race.

The little bean dings gathered in a pile, each with multicolored silk wrapped around their wrists and ankles, a sachet on their chest, and a round of cinnabar marks on their foreheads.

Xiaoliu's only close friends were Zhang Fang and Hong Nier. Aunt Fuying carried her over and told Zhang Fang to take care of Xiaoliuer when she left.Zhang Fang agreed, but she forgot about this person in a blink of an eye, and she had a great time playing with a group of little girls.

Hong Nier doesn't like to talk, so she doesn't have such a good popularity.

Xiao Liu's dialect has improved rapidly, and she is very talented in languages, so she took the initiative to ask, "Why haven't I seen you for a long time?"

Whenever it rains, Xiao Liu begins to look forward to it.But after looking forward to it for several days, there was no sign of the cattle herding team.

"We're going to school." Hong Nier said, "But maybe I won't study in the next semester. My parents said it's useless for girls to study."

"Why didn't it work?" Xiao Liu continued to be curious.

"Because I still have to herd cattle after school, and the way to school is too far, the class is very boring, more tiring than herding cattle." Hong Nier explained.

(End of this chapter)