There are three days left on New Year's Eve. The New Year atmosphere is getting stronger and stronger in the streets and alleys. The Chinese people who have been tired for a year are no longer as anxious and uneasy on their faces, and are no longer so exhausted. The arrival of the New Year has made them temporarily forget the inexplicable anxiety and worry in panic caused by the impetuousness and urgency caused by the continuous acceleration of society. They temporarily put the expectation and fear of the future aside, preparing to welcome the New Year and celebrate the New Year.

It is probably because everyone wants to have a harmonious New Year. These days, surprisingly, except for the urban management and hawkers' clearance movement is still booming, or the gossip of a wife beating a mistress in the street, there is still no major incident in Jiangcheng, and it is so calm that it is so peaceful.

Even if the sun is big in winter, it is not warm. However, sometimes it is not just sunshine to warm people's hearts.

Two pickup trucks filled with New Year's goods were parked on Jingyang Street, the most remote university town.

There are three horizontal and three vertical and six main streets, and more than a dozen side streets, with an area of ​​about 35 square kilometers. There are many schools and many students. However, in addition to more than 100,000 students, there are nearly 400,000 indigenous residents. In fact, this place originally belonged to the suburbs of Jiangcheng City. Later, the university was relocated and concentrated in construction. A town here was transformed into a university town and expanded the scale, and the current university town was now. Except for the workers of some old state-owned factories, the remaining farmers were concentrated in urban household registration. But although they turned into cities.

But what follows is that the land that was once taken back as a farmer was given limited compensation and did not have other means of making a living except farming. Life became difficult. At most, it could only rely on the university town to do some small business and support their families. Life was tight. There was no way. During the period of social transformation and reforms entering the deep waters, the first thing was to give birth to a group of poor people. If you want to achieve a smooth transformation and transition in the true sense, it was still unrealistic to have such a large population and such a large country. This is also one of the so-called Chinese characteristics.

On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, it was three days before the New Year was approaching, and there were people coming and going, with the atmosphere of the New Year. Everyone's face was filled with a smile on their faces, but Li Jinxi and Wu Baolian's family were sitting on the slightly warm kang and worried.

Li Jinxi is not old, only in her early forties, but her face is full of ravines and textures. At first glance, she looks like she is already in her fifties and sixties.

Wu Baolian is also older than women of the same age, but her once shiny hair is now half gray.

The heavy days almost crushed the two of them.

The couple were originally local farmers, but later they were transferred to urban household registration. The few acres of thin fields that they rely on to make a living were collected. Then Li Jinxing went out to work and was in a car accident. Although he was cured, he suffered from severe emphysema and accidentally contracted liver disease during blood transfusion. He could not do physical work for life. He even had a few steps and was a little asthma. He could only recuperate at home. Now his family can only rely on Wu Baolian to go to rural greenhouses more than ten miles away every day to prepare vegetables, and then push them back to the market with a cart to sell, and make a living with a meager income. Now there is a 16-year-old daughter at home. She is in the first year of high school and is in the Affiliated High School of Normal University. The tuition is extremely expensive. Although the school showed her family's difficulties, she gave her a certain amount of tuition reduction, and the local town government gave them a minimum living allowance, but for this poor family, it was just a drop in the bucket and it was useless.

Because I was treating Li Jinxing, my family, which was not generous, had already spent all their savings and owed more than 100,000 yuan in debt. As the New Year was approaching, I had just sent away a group of relatives and friends who were asking for debts. But next, in a dozen days, the child was about to start school again. Seeing that my 16-year-old daughter was in bud, she was thin like a bean sprout because she didn't supplement her nutrition. She looked at her husband leaning against the corner of the wall with difficulty and panting like a bellows. Thinking about her just now, she was almost crying and finally said that she had left a few relatives and friends who came to ask for the debts. She touched her pockets.

With 40 or 50 yuan in the New Year, Wu Baolian's eyes were dark, and she felt that the world was constantly collapsing. The strong New Year atmosphere outside and the smiling faces of passers-by, everything had nothing to do with her. She really couldn't hold on. If the child wasn't really sensible, she knew that she would help her push carts and sell vegetables after school every day. If she hadn't saved nearly half a year of breakfast money secretly for nearly half a year, she fainted in class when she was hungry, and she really didn't want to live anymore. She didn't want to live in this dark home and in this world without any hope.

Li Jinxing leaned against the corner of the wall, looking at his wife and his daughter who was silently facing their learning under the kang. He now had the same idea as his wife. He really wanted to die. If he left this world, would he not drag down this family that was swaying in the sea of ​​suffering?

The iron door outside sounded "clang", and then several tall young people walked in. Wu Baolian's heart tightened again. She thought someone was coming to ask for the account again - they were spending the New Year, but they passed the New Year.

She sighed deeply, and she moved her eyes helplessly to the outside, looking out of the window where the plastic paper was still making a sound. She opened her eyes wide in surprise because she saw a few tall and strong young people walking quickly towards the room with something. She couldn't see clearly because there was a layer of frost on the glass and the plastic cloth pasted on the window.

"Are you a member of the town government? Are you here to visit and condolences? Hey, they seemed to have been here a few days ago, why are there anyone coming?" Li Jinxing moved to the window with difficulty and looked out, a little surprised. This dilapidated home, except for those who asked for debt and those who helped them, no one came here. As the saying goes, no one asked about the poor and downtown city, and rich people have distant relatives in the deep mountains. There is no way, this society will always be such a cold reality. Throughout history, times have different, and people's hearts are the same.

"Oh, they are not from the town government." At this time, Li Fang, the daughter who was studying on the small red painted square table under the kang, which had been around for nearly twenty years, looked out, suddenly screamed excitedly, and stood up.

"Not from the town government? Then who are they? Not that they are, what bad guys are?" Those young men were so tall and strong, each of them was like a mountain. Wu Baolian was a little brave, and subconsciously moved off the kang and protected Li Fang. In fact, there was nothing valuable in this family, including the old-fashioned long rainbow TV, which had been taken away by someone. The only treasure left was her daughter. Subconsciously, the only one worthy of her protection in this family was her own daughter.

"No, they are not bad people, good people, heroes of Normal University, heroes of the university town. I know those people and have seen them from afar, the one named Ma Tao, and the other named Gao Yu, God, they are all the five tiger generals of Normal University..." The little girl screamed excitedly. Such a quiet and sensible child is now like those crazy star-chasing people, and can no longer suppress his excitement.

"What Five Tiger Generals? It's a mess, what are you talking nonsense?" Wu Baolian looked at her daughter, shook her head and sighed, thinking that this child is usually very obedient, doesn't talk much, is silent, has a heavy heart, and doesn't even smile. Why is he so surprised today? Not only do he talk a lot, but he is also so excited.

"I didn't talk nonsense, really, they were from Chaoyang. Now our school, no, including all the students from schools near the university town, admire Chaoyang people the most. If I could join Chaoyang's company one day in the future, it would be great." The little girl chirped, with a look of admiration and expectation in her eyes. She was about to run out to open the door, but was stopped by Wu Baolian, "Why is a girl's house so crazy? Wait, what are you talking about? Chaoyang?" Wu Baolian frowned and suddenly seemed to remember the name of Chaoyang. It is said that in the past six months, a student club called Chaoyang has turned the university town upside down, and fought with the underworld, and has beaten many big and small gangsters away. Now she has a very famous reputation. She sells vegetables in the vegetable market and has heard of these.

When Wu Baolian thought of this, her heart suddenly became tight. She was an honest rural woman who had been through the spring and autumn. She didn't know anything else. She only knew that the public spread the student club around them in the university town very well. However, no matter how amazing it was, in her heart, it was just a group of students who didn't study hard, did not do their jobs, and did not follow the right path. No matter how good it was, how good it would be? Now, what would they do when they come to their homes?

"Can they be the debt collector company? Who invited us to ask for money?" Wu Baolian thought along the way, and her heart suddenly became trembling. Li Fang was about to go to greet her and saw what was going on, but she stopped her and shouted sternly, "Come back for me." As she said that, she had already pulled her daughter behind her back, protected her, and looked at the half-down well door nervously. (Downwelling the well, in the northern dialect, means that the level of the ground in the house is lower than the level of the ground outside the house.)
Chapter completed!