The children of the Qiao family

Chapter 7

6
Qiao Yicheng's math teacher can be regarded as his neighbor. In the next few years, Qiao Yicheng could hear about Teacher Wen occasionally.

It only took Teacher Wen two years to finish all the courses in the university and was admitted to the graduate school.

Qiao Yicheng asked: What is a graduate student?
The math teacher said: He said that he would go on to study after finishing college.

Only then did Qiao Yicheng realize that a person can go to school after finishing college.Moreover, Wen Qinghua's father also resumed his post and continued to serve as the principal of the university where Mr. Wen worked.

The math teacher said: How many people in the world can go to graduate school?It's not that the ancestral tomb is emitting green smoke, it's that the ancestral tomb was built in a treasured place of geomantic omen. Although unlucky and suffering, but after suffering, you can still have a glamorous life.

During the days when Qiao Yicheng was studying hard, Wen Qinghua was a bright light in front of him, leading him to move forward in a hurry.

The farther Wen Qinghua was from him, the more he wanted to move forward, Qiao Yicheng thought, no matter how far the road was, he had to go on.

He often took his younger siblings or went alone to Beijing West Road, which was the embassy area during the Kuomintang period, and now it is full of provincial high-ranking officials and cultural celebrities.

He walked back and forth on the road shaded by green trees, looking at the small buildings surrounded by tall acacia and covered with ivy on the walls, looking at the triangular roof with chimneys on the roof .For a long time, Qiao Yicheng thought that there must be a kitchen under the chimney, but later he realized that it was the chimney of the fireplace.The windows of that small building are always closed, and occasionally a figure flashes by.

Qiao Yicheng thought, after growing up, being an adult, and having read a lot of books, can he also live in such a small building?That strange, another world that is extremely tempting because you don't understand it.

In school, his grades are still leading the way. Back home, he works hard to take care of the house. When necessary, he turns into a hedgehog or a puppy with full teeth to protect himself and his brothers and sisters.

Teachers often say that Qiao Yicheng is the sky, and Qiao Erqiang is the leader of the reed mat. It is true that a dragon has nine sons, and two extraordinary characters come out of one mother's belly!
Qiao Erqiang was unresponsive. He couldn't understand any of the knowledge taught by the teacher, and he was not good at physical education. Run with the whole class.The gentle and kind middle-aged female music teacher had no choice but to give him a pair of small bells, and asked him to "accompany" the teacher's organ so that other students in the class could sing a song well: Where is spring? Where is spring?

Qiao Erqiang sat in the corner and rang the small bell earnestly, ding ding ding, not on the beat at all, but that was all there was to it.

The biggest characteristic of Qiao Erqiang is that he has an extremely sensitive nose, and he can tell where there is delicious food by smelling it.

He often reports to his elder brother his experience about food: Brother, there is a new thing called bread at the grain station, which is as soft as cotton, and costs ten cents each, and our classmates give me a little bit.Brother, if you eat steamed fish, dip it in vinegar, it tastes like crab!

The second uncle gave them two watermelons, Qiao Zuwang took one to eat for himself, and asked Qiao Yicheng to share the rest with his younger siblings, but it turned out that it was a raw gourd melon. Take out the sugar bowl, dig out the flesh of the melon and marinate it with sugar, it is really delicious.

He also invented a new way of eating rice, soaking rice in boiling water, pouring some soy sauce, sprinkling some fine salt, and then picking a piece of lard as small as a fingernail and mixing it into the rice, it is so delicious that you can eat a big bowl without vegetables .

He took Sanli to the grain station to get oil together, and called sweetly: Uncle, Uncle, control the oil terminal twice more, control twice more.

Sanli quickly learned: Uncle, control the oil terminal twice more!

Because of his greedy mouth, Er Qiang often caused troubles in school. Once, he sneaked into the cafeteria and ate all the meat dishes in his classmates' lunch boxes, and was caught by the cafeteria aunt.

The teachers said, this kid is really bad and honest, why are you stealing from different classes, and it doesn’t make much sense if a class steals food from a lunch box, Qiao Erqiang is good, he just steals from one class!The lunch boxes in the bamboo basket were all opened and scattered, like a nest of mice pulling over.

Qiao Yicheng stood in front of Qiao Erqiang's class teacher on behalf of his father and waited to be dealt with. His thin face was serious, and it was useless to feel ashamed. Whoever called Qiao Erqiang was his younger brother.

For a long time after the death of his beloved Luhua, Er Qiang, he didn't even care about food, and became more dull, until one day, he found a cat in a clearing.

He took the cat home, and Qiao Yicheng exploded when he saw it: what the hell is this?

The cat lost its hair, and it was covered in lumps like a dysentery head, and half of its tail was missing.

Qiao Yicheng sternly told Er Qiang to throw this thing away, and Er Qiang said, "Brother, let's raise it."Raise it, how much it looks like a reed flower!

Although the top two absurdly compared birds and mammals, but for some reason, Qiao Yicheng didn't insist.

Qiao Erqiang called the cat "Half Section", and Qiao Yicheng said: What the hell name!

Er Qiang and "Half Son" are as close as brothers, coming and going, inseparable.Er Qiang picked up fish bones in the trash can and fed it to "Ban Duan Zi", and mixed rice with leftover juice for it to eat. Quietly following Er Qiang's side, really like Lu Hua back then.

This week, "Half Section" followed Erqiang to the school, quietly hid outside the window of Erqiang's classroom, curled up like a ball, basking in the sun, waiting for Erqiang to play with it for a while after class, and then curled up into a ball Ball, wait.

Stupid Qiao Erqiang's cat is actually human, which arouses the children's curiosity and sadism.A few boys lit a match to singe "Half"'s hair, and pulled its short tail, and two other boys held the top two to prevent him from jumping.

The "half" was blocked in a corner, surrounded by the slender legs of boys, desperate, screaming in despair.Heartbroken, Er Qiang struggled to get out and slammed into the crowd, successfully knocking down a boy who was the leader of the crowd. The boy fell to the ground and broke his head.

The boy yelled: lose money!lose money!Sorry to kill you!

Qiao Erqiang calmed down, and was startled silly by the sharp "Money! Money! Money!"

Qiao Erqiang didn't dare not tell his elder brother, it's better to tell his elder brother than to let his father know.

Qiao Yicheng didn't dare to let his father know that if the parents really asked them to pay for medical expenses, Qiao Zuwang would take Qiao Erqiang's skin off.

Qiao Yicheng was afraid of extreme changes, so he decided to strike first.

He took the second strong, pulled the two younger sisters, hugged the "half", and walked up to the door of the boy's house in a mighty way, blocking the door of the boy's house without speaking, like a silent accusation.

The boy's father came out and asked: What are you doing?
Qiao Yicheng held the "half" under his eyelids and said: Your family's Li Qiang burned our cat.

He pulled Er Qiang again to show the bruises and scratches on his arm: he also injured our Er Qiang together with others.

The boy's father said: What do you want?Didn't the second strong man in your family break a piece of Li Qiang's head from our family?
Qiao Yicheng said: Er Qiang is a legitimate defense. If he does not fight Er Qiang, Er Qiang will not beat him. Chairman Mao said that if someone does not attack me, I will not attack him. If someone attacks me, I will attack him.

The boy's father said: You are a set of things.

Yicheng fell silent, but Erqiang sobbed, with snot and tears all over his face.A few children and a cat block the door of someone's house. Children without a mother are a bit pitiful. In this way, it becomes reasonable to be unreasonable, not to mention a little reasonable in the first place.

The boy's father had no choice but to say: Forget it, we don't care about each other, and you don't play together in the future to save trouble.

Qiao Yicheng used his young wisdom to become the most powerful figure in the hearts of Er Qiang and his sisters.

Er Qiang followed behind his brother, hugging his "half", while Sanli and Simei were holding Yicheng's hand.

The children of Qiao's family don't have a mother, and they don't care about their father, but they are not easy to bully. Qiao Yicheng is not an easy kid, the neighbors think so.

Only once did Qiao Yicheng get angry in front of his younger brothers and sisters.

That day, the neighbor's mother's house had a wedding, and they went into the courtyard twice to set up a dozen tables of wine, and specially invited the chef from Yongheyuan to cook.The fragrance passed through the wall and crossed the house, as if it had turned into a real shape and put it under a hood. Er Qiang couldn't sit still. Taking advantage of his elder brother's absence, he took his two younger sisters into the next yard and found a table crowded in the corner. The table is seated.There were a lot of visitors, and the big round table took up quite a lot of space. Adults and children, plus the kitchen helper serving food, the scene was lively and chaotic, which made Erqiang and Sanli Simei feel at ease, and ate a lot.

The bride and groom are toasting at the table. The bride is wearing a rose-red spring and autumn shirt, her hair is combed smoothly, and a pink silk flower is pinned to her temple. The groom is wearing a navy blue dress with knife-like creases on it. They all looked happy, followed by the groom's mother.

Er Qiang saw the man, pulled San Li and Si Mei, slipped off the seat, and rubbed against the wall, but the groom's mother still caught sight of him.

She was the one who was knocked to the ground by Qiao Yicheng at Qiao's mother's funeral. Her surname was Wu, and she was famous for her sharp eyes and sharp mouth.

Aunt Wu grabbed the second strong and the fourth beautiful, and asked: Why are you here?Is your family with you? Do you eat right after you sit down?
The words were asked with a smile, but they were not pleasant.

A neighbor came to persuade: Forget it, on the day of great joy, even if you accumulate virtue for your son, you can quickly hug your grandson, seeing that their family is in trouble and the child is pitiful.

Aunt Wu said: "It's poor and you can't be cheap. If they don't have a father, I'll let their brothers and sisters eat together. It's no big deal."But he has a father, and his father has money to sit at the poker table but has no money to feed his children?

The neighbor persuaded again: His father can't earn much, and he still owes him money.

Aunt Wu said in a high-pitched voice: Does his father have no money?His father works in a welfare factory, which belongs to the Civil Affairs Bureau, a decent state-owned unit, and now the price has risen to [-] yuan a month. The salted and dried fish is buried in the rice bowl and eaten. He doesn't raise his son and daughter and tells them to go to other people Do you eat at the dinner table at home?

Qiao Zuwang's father originally opened a barber shop, and Qiao Zuwang helped there from a very young age. Once liberated, the small barber shop became a cooperative.When Qiao Zuwang was about to leave the teacher, a big fire burned down the shop. When Qiao Zuwang ran out, he was smashed with a toe of his left foot, so he was counted as a disabled person, a blessing in disguise, and entered the welfare factory.

Aunt Wu's words became more and more unpleasant, and Er Qiang scowled, neither leaving nor answering.

Neighbors come to round up the field: Forget it, come and say congratulations to Aunt Wu, Aunt Wu will bring you a bag of wedding candy, go home.

Aunt Wu's tone also softened: Forget it, I'm just talking about fun, how can I really care about children, come and eat candy.

But at this moment, Qiao Yicheng swept in like a gust of wind, pulling Er Qiang, Er Qiang, Sanli, Sanli, Simei, and the four children were like a bunch of grasshoppers strung together. ran out of the yard.

Qiao Yicheng dragged his younger siblings home, and slapped his face like cakes.

The children of Qiao's family have become famous all of a sudden.

As time went by, whether it was Qiao Yicheng, the second strong, the three beauties, or the neighbors, they seemed to have forgotten that the Qiao family originally had not four children, but five.

The youngest, Qiao Qiqi who was fostered at the second aunt's house, Qiao Zuwang would only think about it every month when the second aunt came to ask for living expenses.

The child is more than one year old, still surprisingly beautiful, but thin into a big-headed baby, the thin neck almost can't support the head, the head is slightly crooked because of this, big and round eyes, the eyes are always downcast He looked up, occasionally swishing up to look at people, like a frightened little rabbit.

His eldest cousin Qi Weimin is also a junior high school student, and he loves this little brother very much. Qiao Qiqi is also very attached to him. After hiccupping, Qi Weimin was overjoyed.

These days, this child often has stomach troubles. The second uncle took him to see a doctor once, but it seemed that the effect was not obvious. He took the medicine and he was cured, and he still had diarrhea within two days after taking the medicine.The second aunt said that the doctor said it was not bacillary dysentery, so it doesn't matter, don't go to the hospital all the time, just treat it with the old method.

So he fried the rice and made rice paste tea for him to drink.

This day was as usual, as soon as Qiao Qiqi saw Qi Weimin came back from school, he ran over and hugged his leg, and bit his thick denim pants with his newly grown fine teeth, biting out a small piece of wetness.

Qi Weimin picked up his little cousin, but he smelled some stench on his body. He opened the little guy's pants and saw that there was a piece of feces on the diaper in his pocket, which was almost dry.

Qi Weimin hurriedly cleaned up the little guy, who was only a teenager, and he did it very carefully with light hands.

Qi Weimin said to his second aunt: Mom, Xiaoqi is still pulling.dirty.

The second aunt said: There is nothing I can do about it being dirty. I washed it several times a day, and the diapers are still dry. Maybe it's because the intestines haven't grown well yet, just wait a little longer.

Qi Weimin couldn't say anything more, so he cleaned up his younger brother and hugged him aside to coax him.Suddenly, I saw Qiqi's baby bottle nipple on the table, there was a yellow mark on the nipple, and there was a sticky ring around the mouth of the bottle.

Qi Weimin said: Mom, that... I read in the book that the tableware of the little doll should be washed clean, and it is best to boil it in hot water...

The second aunt said: Why didn't I wash it?Haven't you washed it?Burned once a day.

Qi Weimin said: Actually, I have to burn it once...

The second aunt threw down the vegetable bowl heavily: You don’t need coal to heat the hot water, but you need money to turn on the water in the tiger stove.You are a boy's family, don't be such a mother-in-law.

Qi Weimin didn't dare to say anything anymore, but carefully remembered to help his little cousin boil the bottle nipple with hot water every day. After two weeks, Qiao Qiqi's diarrhea healed.

The second uncle had a quarrel with the second aunt about this matter, and the two of them talked about the old things in their words, and they ignored each other for two or three days.

Afterwards, the second aunt ran to Qiao Zuwang and asked, since the prices of vegetables and rice had risen, and Qiao Qiqi's health was not good, should there be some extra living expenses every month?

Also, can the medical expenses be paid off in one go?The second and third children in the family all go to school, which costs a lot.Otherwise, really, I'm afraid I won't be able to take this child with me.

(End of this chapter)