The sun never sets in America

Chapter 9 School and Girls

"At the beginning of human beings, nature is good."

"Sex is similar, habits are far apart -"

In a classroom on the west side of Liujiabao, hundreds of children of different ages are reciting the Three Character Sutra.

The middle-aged teacher in white Confucian uniform keeps wandering around the classroom with a ruler in hand. When he sees a lazy student, he will take advantage of it and rub it on the back of his hand or buttocks.

It makes students wake up instantly, and the teaching is very strict, which is deeply trusted by the people of Liujiabao.

Everyone is willing to send their children to this teacher named Chen Chen to learn cultural knowledge.

As time goes by, a few years later, when these children who have been taught by Chen Chen grow up and occupy high positions in Liujiabao, the words "peach plums all over the world" are not enough to describe this teacher's contribution to Liujiabao.

dong dong -- dong dong --
The school bell rang suddenly, causing the voices of the students in the classroom to memorize and recite aloud to pause. However, after seeing that Teacher Chen on the stage did not show any expression, he could only suppress his inner excitement and excitement for school to be over, and continued to read. I have finished reciting the Three Character Sutra just now.

"Okay, classmates." After the students recited the last sentence, Chen Zhan stopped the students who were planning to repeat it again. "After everyone goes home, you can preview the next text. I will talk about it tomorrow, students." Goodbye!" After showing off, he greeted the students present.

"goodbye teacher!"

All the students present bowed to the display and responded in unison, showing the etiquette that students should have towards their teachers.

Display nodded with satisfaction and then left the teacher.

As soon as the display left, the whole classroom became noisy. The children's repressed nature due to the teacher's authority was vividly displayed. For a while, the whole classroom was filled with chirping sounds and it was very noisy.

"Zhou Xiang, how about we go fishing in the river today? It's still early anyway. My parents are still working in the workshop. Will they be back in a while?" Lin Xiaolong, who was carrying a blue cloth schoolbag, smiled and said to him who was packing up his classes. Zhou Xiang at the table invited.

"I have something to do today, so I won't go. You go ahead!" Zhou Xiang replied to Lin Xiaolong while packing his schoolbag.

"What's going on? Is it something fun? Come and play with me." Wuhu, a young man with an Indian appearance on the side, asked Zhou Xiang enthusiastically, with a look of curiosity on his face.

In addition to the Chinese in Liujiapu, there are also a group of naturalized Indians. The life of the older group of Indians is still very different from that of the Han people, but for children like Wuhu, in the After education, there is basically no difference between them and Han children.

As you can tell from the name Wuhu, although some Indian characteristics can still be seen, the basic naming of the surname is no different from the Han surname.

In order to integrate into Liujiabao, some Indians will also give themselves a Han name. Most of them are based on transliteration, and only a few are chosen from hundreds of surnames.

Until now, most of the Indians in Liujiapu, except for a few elderly people, have Chinese surnames and can write some Chinese characters, especially their own names.

This kind of cultural level is actually higher than that of the Qing Dynasty at the same time. After all, the Qing Dynasty was more illiterate, and many people could not even write their own names.

It is not easy for the Indians in Liujiapu to achieve this level. As for the improvement of higher education level, they can only wait for the next generation of Chinese Indians to grow up.

"It's nothing, it's all about the family." Zhou Xiang immediately denied it as if he was being poked into the center of things. "I'm leaving first. We still have things to do at home." Zhou Xiang picked up the gray cloth bag and left the classroom, leaving behind Lin Xiaolong and Wu Hu looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes, not knowing what to say.

Step-——Tap-——
As soon as he left the school gate, Zhou Xiang started running quickly, as if there was something urgent.

"I'm selling steamed buns, freshly baked meat buns."

Zhou Xiang stopped in front of a shop selling steamed buns on the street.

"Uncle Wang, bring me four buns." Zhou Xiang skillfully called the bun shop owner Uncle Wang, then took out a purse from his arms, and took out the pocket money he had saved for a while. A copper coin engraved with Liu Yan's face was handed to Boss Wang who was busy in front of the steamer.

The so-called copper coins are actually the currency circulating within Liujiabao, mainly silver and copper coins, used for internal transactions.

Even the nearby Indian tribes used Liujiabao coins when conducting trade with Liujiabao. In the end, the entire Indian tribe near Los Angeles had this kind of coins engraved with Liu Yan's head, with the words Arabic, as well as Chinese characters for copper coins and silver coins.

Liujiabao unexpectedly received a wave of seigniorage.

It can also be seen from this point how much the local Indians distrust the pesos issued by the Mexicans.

After all, when you sell goods to Mexicans, the price will be lowered, and after you receive the money and spend it, the price of the things you buy will be raised.

It turned out that there was no way to find a third party to trade with, so the Indians endured it. Now with Liujiabao, whether it is salt, the required cloth, or even some luxury goods, such as glass, which are very important to the Indians Liujiabao can provide everything from things that are fatally attractive to people to guns that symbolize violence, so why should we be exploited by those white Mexicans?
This is also the reason why Liu Jiabao gets along well with these Indians in the Los Angeles area, and is even able to get married, and the basis for their interactions.

"Take it." Boss Wang wrapped the four meat buns with oil paper, tied the rope, and handed it to Zhou Xiang who was waiting on the opposite side. "Xiao Xiang, your parents are not cooking today, but they still have something to do. Otherwise, you How can I be willing to buy steamed buns today? You boy is actually reluctant to buy a candied haws on a stick!" Boss Wang inquired about Zhou Xiang's family news, and also told Zhou Xiang that he was reluctant to spend money when he was a child. He stood in front of the candied haws on a stick stall. The whole afternoon was told.

In the end, Zhou Xiang still ate the candied haws on a stick, but it was given to him because he couldn't bear it.

A few years ago, this incident was considered a joke on this street.

After hearing this, Zhou Xiang blushed and quickly left the bun stall, heading towards home.

Boss Wang was left laughing.

Zhou Xiang stopped in a residential area. It was said to be a residential area, but it was actually a community composed of a series of tile-roofed houses of varying heights.

Seasonal vegetables and fruits were planted in front and behind the door of every household. The Chinese people’s talent for farming was clearly revealed at this moment.

If you are white, you won't do this. In their view, home is home and farm is farm, and they cannot be confused.Of course, there are also a few families with sensible sentiments who plant bright flowers in front of their homes, which are particularly eye-catching among the vegetables.

Zhou Xiang stopped in front of the yard of a red brick house, opened the fence and walked directly in.

Zhou Xiang took out a brass key from his arms, gently unlocked the front door, pushed the door open, and walked in.

Without making any stops in the living room or room, he directly opened the wooden board in the cellar, took the meat bag wrapped in oil paper in his hand, and got into the narrow cellar.

"Cucko——"

Standing in the cellar where farm tools and grains were placed, Zhou Xiang screamed a few times strangely.

Then I saw an Indian girl in tattered clothes, with straw stains on her face, and an appearance that was obviously different from that of the Han people, carefully walking out of the corner where the grain was piled.

When the girl saw Zhou Xiang, her eyes lit up and she ran over and hugged Zhou Xiang tightly, as if she was hugging her own hope.

"Zhou, you're back, I'm so scared." The girl muttered a sentence that Zhou Xiang could barely understand. Even this sentence was learned from his Indian classmate Wu Hu.

"Sheila, I'm back, don't worry, they won't arrest you." Zhou Xiang said this in a very forced Indian language to comfort the girl, "Look, what I brought you." Zhou Xiang broke free of Silla from his arms, and then opened the oil paper in his hand, revealing the faint smell of meat.

"Here, here you go." Zhou Xiang held one of the buns in his hand and handed it to Silla, fearing that she wouldn't understand, and made an expression like putting it in his mouth.

"It's so delicious!" Silla smelled the aroma of the meat buns, and swallowed first, then took the buns handed over by Zhou Xiang, took a bite, with a happy expression on her face, and sighed to Zhou Xiang as she ate the buns. eat.

"Eat slowly, there's still more!" After Sheila devoured the buns, Zhou Xiang reminded with gestures with his hands. After Sheila swallowed the buns just now, he handed the second one to Sheila's hand. , for fear that she would eat too quickly.

Silla ate three buns in one breath before stopping. She looked at the remaining meat bun in Zhou Xiang's hand with some longing. Finally, she pushed the meat bun in front of Zhou Xiang and said: "Zhou, you eat, I'm full." Got it!" Sheila looked at Zhou Xiang with dark eyes and said.

"You go ahead and eat. I just ate and I'm not hungry yet." Zhou Xiang was moved in his heart, and then pushed the meat bun in front of Silla. He could see that Silla was not full yet.

"Otherwise, let's take half each of us." Looking at the unmoved Sheila, Zhou Xiang broke the bun into two halves, but deliberately took out the meat filling and handed the other half with the meat filling to Sheila's before.

Silla hesitated for a moment at first, but finally, with Zhou Xiang's concerned eyes, she took the bun that was broken into two halves and ate it with big mouthfuls.

After eating, Silla was a little embarrassed and didn't know what to say. She even lowered her head shyly under Zhou Xiang's gaze.

"Sheila, where is your family?" Zhou Xiang asked the question he had always wanted to ask, that is, the family of this Indian girl Sheila. You must know that Indians have a tribal system. There are actually very few people living outside like Sheila. Zhou Xiang, who had experienced some Indian history, was very confused and puzzled.

Although he rescued Sheila in the back mountain, until now, he knew nothing about Sheila except her name.

After asking Silla several times, she was unwilling to answer. This time, after the two became more familiar, she continued to ask him about things that had always confused him.

That's where Sheila comes from and why she fled to Liujiapu.

The reason why the word "escape" is used is because when Zhou Xiang found Sheila, she was in a very embarrassed state, and she looked like she was running for her life.

"Me, my family, they are all dead -" After hearing this, Sheila cried and told Zhou Xiang her experience.

Sheila Ben was the daughter of the leader of a small tribe called Black Lake in the Midwest. Due to the westward expansion of the United States, their tribe was dying and had to flee. Like most Indians, their family fled to the West Coast of Mexico.

However, because she was not familiar with the place where she was born, and her parents died of illness while fleeing the desert, she was taken in by an Indian tribe called Red Earth. However, the good times did not last long. This tribe has a tradition of using people to worship the gods, and every year they select a few. Underage children made sacrifices to the gods.

As an outsider, Sheila inevitably became the target of sacrifice. After all, the Hongshan tribe could still distinguish between sacrificing oneself and sacrificing outsiders.

Thanks to Sheila's popularity among the young people of the Hongshan tribe, a little boy named Hongte learned from his parents that Sheila was going to be sacrificed, and sneaked to Sheila's residence overnight to report the news.

Because of this incident, Sheila embarked on the road of exile again.

It was not until he accidentally entered the back mountain of Liujiabao and was discovered by Zhou Xiang who went up the mountain to catch bugs that he survived. Otherwise, given the temperature in the back mountain at night at that time, he would have been thin and weak with thin and tattered clothes. My body definitely couldn’t withstand that night.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Zhou Xiang is Sheila’s savior!
After understanding all this, Zhou Xiang looked at Sheila who was still crying with some distress, and gently wiped away her tears with his hands.

He said softly: "Don't worry, this will be your home from now on. No matter what, I will let you live, I promise!" Zhou Xiang reassured Sheila, with a tender and sympathetic expression on his face, just like caring for a bird. Wounded deer.

Silla raised her little face soaked in tears and looked at the young man named Zhou who cared for her in disbelief. Her already painful heart suddenly warmed up.

Then he mustered up the courage to kiss Zhou Xiang's left cheek under Zhou Xiang's surprise, and then shyly hugged Zhou Xiang tightly, as if he was hugging his most beloved person, unwilling to let go no matter what. .

Zhou Xiang was at a loss and let Sheila hug him, touched the left side of his face that was still warm, and looked down at Sheila who was holding him tightly in her arms. An unprecedented sense of responsibility filled his heart.

And even he himself didn't know that his mentality towards Sheila had completely changed. This was a manifestation of a man's attitude towards his beloved.

Although he is young, Zhou Xiang still doesn't know what love is.

But love is probably like this! !

Just when Zhou Xiang was worrying about how to explain to his parents and how to let Sheila gain a foothold in Liujiabao, something happened that would completely change the historical course of Liujiabao, the Los Angeles area, and even the entire West Coast of North America.

(End of this chapter)