Chapter 236 Backbone
After all, the end of the lunar calendar is most like the end of the year.

Every household was busy, slaughtering chickens and sheep, and buying New Year's goods. Red lanterns were hung high on the streets, and there were many vendors selling New Year pictures, calendars and couplets. Adults and children were full of energy and joy. Even in the sky, the New Year was coming. There were flashes of light in the heavy gray evening clouds, and there was always a faint nostalgic smell of gunpowder in the air. Zhang Yunqi went back to school on this day to get his final exam report card.

He ran into Wang Xiaokai, Yang Wei and Tian Zhuangzhuang in the teaching building. They chatted in the corridor, and Wang Xiaokai approached Zhang Yunqi and said mysteriously: "I heard that Wu Yali was raped."

Zhang Yunqi tilted his head: "What's wrong?"

Wang Xiaokai whispered: "He had a broken leg and was covered in wounds. He was thrown on the street. He looked so miserable."

Zhang Yunqi was a little surprised: "There is such a thing."

Wang Xiaokai didn’t say anything else. The four of them received their report cards, had lunch together, and then went back to their own homes.

The Zhang family was quite busy that day.

In two days, Zhang's father would be released from prison. The whole family seemed to be taking the matter very seriously, but they also tacitly tried not to mention the matter. Everyone was silently preparing some things that would be needed at that time, including Zhang's father's clothes, hat, shoes, a car, red cloth strips, firecrackers, incense paper, candles and a sumptuous meal.

The folks in Yunxi Village seemed very thoughtful. Many people came one after another in the past few days, including close relatives, distant relatives, and several cadres from the village committee led by Zhang Guorui. They came probably to find out what time the Zhang family would go to Guiping County to pick up Zhang's father, whether they would return to Yunxi Village, and so on.

The village committee of Yunxi Village also called on the villagers to pool a considerable sum of money and buy a large number of firecrackers to prepare for the celebration of Zhang's father's release from prison. However, such a large-scale event caught Zhang's mother off guard.

The Zhang family has lived in Yunxi Village for generations, and they have had many grudges with the villagers, even standing on the rooftops to curse at each other. Of course, they were all trivial little things, not a big grudge that should be remembered in their hearts. But these little things made the Zhang family's life in the village really unhappy, especially when Zhang's father had just gone to prison. The village spread all kinds of gossip every day, saying things like "the house is full of beasts", "a poor family", "a bastard", "a fool"... every word was really a prick!

Niu Fen, who is now in charge of the raw material procurement of Longjingyuan Cannery, is clear about this matter. His brother from his mother's family wants to build a vegetable production base in Yunxi Village. Who wouldn't want to get involved in such a good way to make money? Now, taking advantage of the opportunity of Zhang's father being released from prison, he should show his face in front of Yunqi, so that he can talk to him more easily.

However, no matter what her purpose was, Zhang's mother rejected the kindness of the village committee without hesitation and asked them to return all the money to the villagers, because she did not want to make too much noise about this matter. Zhang's father's release from prison was a big deal, but it was only a big deal for her Zhang family. She just wanted to get him out so that the family could be reunited and live a simple life.

Of course, although Zhang's mother was thinking about Zhang's father's release from prison, she did not forget the study problems of her children. She knew that today was the day when the final exam results would be released, so just like before, after they came back, she took the report card and asked each of them one by one. Chunlan was still the top student in the first grade of the city's No. 1 Middle School, no doubt about it. Zhang Yunqi was also good. Except for his English, he was in the top two in all subjects, only slightly worse than Chu Jian. Only the fifth child, Zhang Xiaoxiao, had really bad grades and was at the bottom of the class. His mother poked him on the forehead and scolded him, which made him cry.

During dinner time, Zhang Xiaoxiao was still hiding in her room and refused to come out. Zhang Yunqi went to the bedroom and called her. The little girl was lying on the bed with her head covered by the quilt, her head bulging like a small hill, and she didn't say a word.

Zhang Yunqi walked over and patted the quilt: "What's wrong? Are you still angry? You didn't do well in the exam this time, just work harder next time."

Zhang Xiaoxiao's muffled voice came from under the quilt: "But I can't do well in the exam."

Zhang Yunqi said happily: "That means you are not attentive enough." Zhang Xiaoxiao poked his head out from under the quilt, pouted and said: "I am attentive."

Zhang Yunqi just smiled.

In his opinion, at Lao Wu's age, it is time to unleash his nature. He likes to play, and it is not a big mistake for him to have poor grades: "Get up, let's go to eat. We will go to see Dad in two days. Tomorrow I will ask your sister Ji Ling to take you to Ximen Street to buy new clothes. Then you can dress up beautifully to see Dad."

"Okay!" Zhang Xiaoxiao was so happy that she jumped up from the bed. However, when she was sitting on the bed putting on her shoes, she suddenly said, "By the way, second brother, is Dad a bad guy?"

Zhang Yunqi was stunned for a moment: "Why do you say that?"

Zhang Xiaoxiao shrugged his head and said with a sad expression: "I heard from my classmates that people in prison are bad people who have done bad things, so Dad is a bad person."

These words left Zhang Yunqi stunned.

He felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, as if he was pricked by a needle.

Children always think in a simple way. Zhang Yunqi did not blame Xiaoxiao for saying such a thing, but he never wanted and could not let his own sister look at his father in this way! But what made him powerless was that he could not refute such a simple and direct point of view as "people in prison are bad people". After a long time, he whispered: "Xiaoxiao, do you know why your sister Chunlan and I have such good grades?"

Zhang Xiaoxiao may have sensed that Zhang Yunqi's expression was not right, and asked timidly, "Why? Second brother."

"Let me tell you something, Xiaoxiao." Zhang Yunqi pulled a chair from the side, sat down, and then said to Xiaoxiao with a pair of big eyes blinking, "One winter vacation, our father plowed the tobacco field and took advantage of the slack time before the New Year to work as a laborer on the construction site of a textile factory in the city to build a residential building. About seven or eight days later, my eldest sister called me to go to the city to play, and my mother asked me to go to my father's construction site and give him some food, a jar of pickled peppers and sour cabbage, and a tattered cotton jacket."

Zhang Yunqi said: "I remember when my brother-in-law took me to the construction site, it was around 4pm. There were many workers on the site, some throwing bricks, some building walls, some pulling steel bars, and some carrying cement. The people carrying cement were all laborers, and their jobs were the hardest. I saw them carrying cement up the stairs from underground to the rooftop. Their bodies were bent like a bow by the cement on their backs, their heads almost touching the ground, and they were groaning like seriously ill patients. Our father was also there."

At this point, Zhang Yunqi couldn't help but think of "The Volga Boatmen": "That night, I slept where my father lived, in a building being built on a construction site. There were no doors or windows, only four walls. I spread a pile of tattered bedding on the wheat straw on the ground in the corner of the wall as my bed. It was very cold, so cold that I couldn't sleep at all. But I couldn't sleep either. I tossed and turned in the tattered bedding, and my mind was full of scenes of our father carrying cement. When my father saw me like this, he sat up and patted my shoulder and said to me: Third brother, I don't have any skills, only brute force. I can only do such hard work in this life to try to feed you five children. Don't feel ashamed and sad. Don't worry, I will fight for my life to get money to support you. You must also fight for your dignity and read your books. Don't be a farmer like me, who will be looked down upon all your life. You must live with dignity."

"Xiaoxiao, do you know? When I heard this, my heart was shaking! Our father was 50 years old. For 5 cents, he carried 100 kilograms of cement from the first floor to the eighth floor in the middle of winter! From then on, I felt that I had no reason to degenerate. I studied hard and swore that I would make it out of Yunxi Village! So I became the first number one scholar in Yunxi Village, so I did everything I could to make this family better, so that our relatives could have enough food and clothing and live with dignity! So that you can have 5 yuan pocket money every day!"

"Second brother, you...don't be angry, I know, I know." Zhang Xiaoxiao was obviously frightened, her eyes were red, and she almost cried. In her impression, her second brother has always been considerate and responsible in the past two years. He never lost his temper with his family and never said such harsh words.

Zhang Yunqi looked at the ignorant little girl in front of him and reached out to touch her head: "Xiaoxiao, I'm not angry. Maybe you are still young and don't understand many things, but I hope you can remember this sentence: Thirty years ago, we hoped that fathers would respect their sons; thirty years later, we hope that sons would respect their fathers. Our father has given everything for us. Anyone can slander him, but we can't! We must work hard to make sure he has someone to rely on when he grows old! Stand up straight and be a good person!"

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(End of this chapter)