Chapter 3: The Story in the Clouds

Zhang Yunfeng was almost going crazy this morning.

Zhang Yunqi secretly ran into the city to sell cigarettes. This was no longer a matter of selling a few thousand yuan worth of tobacco. Zhang Yunfeng's mind was full of his brother's safety. He was a sixteen-year-old boy who had never driven a car and was unfamiliar with the place. He risked being caught and ran to Jiangchuan City to sell cigarettes. What would he do if something went wrong?
The Zhang family, which has suffered so much, can’t afford any more trouble!
It was not until the rumbling sound of the tractor came and he saw his brother coming back safe and sound that he finally felt relieved, after being in suspense for the whole morning. However, he still scolded Zhang Yunqi harshly.

Zhang Yunqi didn't talk back, he knew his elder brother was worried about him, and when his elder brother's anger had almost subsided, he took out a handful of money from his pocket and said, "Brother, this is the money I earned from selling cigarettes in Jiangchuan City. I sold 1113 kilograms of flue-cured tobacco for ."

"How much, how much?"

Zhang Yunfeng was stunned.

"1113."

This time Zhang Yunfeng heard it clearly, but he couldn't believe it.

He knew that the tobacco he planted was of the quality of the middle grade II. If it was sold in Fengyang County, it would be 3 yuan per catty, which is 900 yuan, but his brother sold it for 1113. This means that 213 catties of the middle grade II tobacco were rated as middle grade I at the Jiangchuan City Tobacco Station, and he made an extra 213 yuan by reselling it, which is almost a month's salary for a worker in the city!
Zhang Yunqi looked at his elder brother's face, and was obviously slightly shocked by the money he earned. He felt that the time was right, so he told him the idea of ​​becoming a tobacco dealer. He could go to the nearby countryside to buy flue-cured tobacco, and then resell it to the Jiangchuan City Tobacco Station, and he would definitely make money.

It took Zhang Yunfeng a while to recover. He puffed hard on his dry tobacco stick, thought for a while, and then sighed and said, "I know that being a tobacco dealer can make money, but have you ever thought about why so few people dare to sell flue-cured tobacco in Fengyang County now?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "In the past, people would say that selling a pin was speculation. Now there are peddlers everywhere, but are they the ones who get rich? It must be the ones who sold pins in the past."

Zhang Yunfeng was speechless.

He didn't sleep all night that day.

Sometimes I thought about my brother Yunqi’s words, and sometimes I thought about the messy situation at home.

Since his father Zhang Liushun was arrested by the police and sentenced to two years in prison for theft years ago, he has become the pillar of the family. The meaning of the pillar is that if anyone else falls, you cannot fall, because if you fall, the whole family will fall!

So day and night, he thought about how to make the Zhang family prosperous and get rid of the plight of being impoverished, but in recent years, the family's situation has been getting worse and worse.

In theory, with so many people, he and his father should be able to make ends meet, but over the years, farmers like them have suffered a lot. However, the levies have become more and more, and farming has become less and less cost-effective. The cost of seeds, fertilizers, and labor has been rising. Year after year, they often have nothing in their hands and their income is not enough to make ends meet. In addition, there are several students in the family, and his mother has heart disease and needs medicine. As a result, they have a large debt. How can the family not be poor? In this situation, he digs in the land all day long. How can he have a good life?

What Yunqi did today had a profound impact on him. He earned more than two hundred yuan in just the morning. It was impossible for him not to be moved. He also felt deeply that his younger brother had grown up and matured in an instant, and he could no longer act as the boss in front of him as he did in the past.

In fact, Zhang Yunfeng had already seen that his younger brother was different from him. After all, he had studied, had his own ideas, and was not willing to dig in the soil day and night. However, some of his younger brother's recent behaviors always made him feel strange, but he couldn't say what was wrong. He did make money, and a lot of it. Originally, he should be happy for his younger brother's growth, but at this moment, he felt a little sad.

******
Zhang Yunqi slept well that night.

He has done his best as a cigarette dealer. Whether the elder brother is willing or not depends on whether he can think it through. There is a saying that goes, change what you can change and accept what you cannot change, that is the brilliant life.

The next day, Zhang Yunqi got up at nine o'clock and squatted at the gate of the yard to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth. Apart from eating and defecating, this was one of the few free times for him.

"Zhang Yunqi, you just got up?"

Suddenly hearing a voice, Zhang Yunqi looked up and was stunned.

A girl was standing at the door of Zhang Xiaomei's house, a neighbor across the street. She had a delicate face with clear features. She was wearing a light blue shirt and navy blue jeans. At this moment, she put her hands behind her back, smiling at him in the sunshine.

"Ji Ling?"

"What, you don't recognize me anymore?"

Zhang Yunqi shook his head with a silent smile on his face.

In fact, his friendship with the girl can be traced back to elementary school. Even though nearly 30 years have passed, he still vaguely remembers the situation at that time, but he is not sure about the specific year. It was probably a summer vacation in elementary school. That summer vacation, Yunxi Village was hit by a severe flood. He and several boys were playing in the water in front of their house. A little girl came out of the neighbor's house, squatted at the door, holding her cheeks with her hands, a pair of big black and white eyes blinking, and the sunlight shone through the treetops on her face. She was really delicate.

Zhang Yunqi still remembers his reaction at that time. He took one look at her, then turned his head away because he was embarrassed, and then secretly glanced at her again.

So fucking beautiful!
Later, he learned the girl's name, Ji Ling, a native of Jiangchuan City, the cousin of his next-door neighbor Zhang Xiaomei, who came to Yunxi Village to play during the summer vacation.

At that time, I played well with Zhang Xiaomei, and naturally I became familiar with Ji Ling. Moreover, she often came during the winter and summer vacations in those years. As we got to know each other more, we became particularly close. We spent almost every day together, picking fruits from trees, roasting corn and sweet potatoes on the ridges of fields, fishing and catching crabs by the river... Throughout my childhood, in the green melon fields, in the evening breeze with flying fireflies, in the deep night sky full of stars, in the blue sky and white clouds and the vast land, there were their running figures and unbridled laughter. Looking back now, that was probably the most unforgettable childhood in my life, as sweet as a peach just picked from a tree, full of fragrance. However, many wonderful things, you think are just the first warm-up of life, but in fact, they are the swan song of life. If you repeat it again, it will no longer be the same taste, and you will never find it again.

I remember one year, probably when I was in junior high school. At the end of summer vacation, Ji Ling was going back to Jiangchuan City to study. She took a candy box and said innocently, "I'm going home. I won't be back for a long time. Yunqi, I'll write you a sentence, and you write me one too. Let's find a place to bury it and come back to see it when we grow up, okay?"

So he brought a shovel and she held the box. They dug a square pit in a small bamboo forest behind their home and buried the box. They agreed to open the box together when they grew up to read the words written to each other. To this day, Zhang Yunqi can still remember some details, a certain frame, and a certain smell emanating from Ji Ling.

Later, Ji Ling left Yunxi Village.

After a few years, their relationship faded, because Ji Ling seldom came to Yunxi Village, and the two grew up and lived in different worlds, so they could not get along. Of course, the most important thing was the huge gap between him and Ji Ling.

At that time, he was no longer a naive child, but he was just in the puberty period. There was a sensitive and shy heart beating in his chest. He had a very strong self-esteem, but his family was really poor. Every time he stood in front of Ji Ling, who was dressed like a princess, wearing tattered clothes, the inferiority that welled up in his heart was, to put it exaggeratedly, like being forced to shit in the crowded street.

People are like this, when they grow up, they will lose a lot of things for one reason or another, such as those simple but fulfilling and happy things, such as the ability to cry and laugh freely, such as those who once walked together, and then leave behind stories that can only be chewed alone in sleepless nights. Zhang Yunqi is no exception. After Ji Ling went to college, he never saw her again, and the candy box with a secret was buried forever in the bamboo forest.

After living in the city in his previous life, every time he returned to Yunxi Village during the Spring Festival, Zhang Yunqi couldn't help but think of the afternoon when they put the box together. The sky was blue, the sunset was warm, and the two little kids were deep in the bamboo forest. They buried the box in the soil carefully. He didn't know if she dug it out to see the secret that belonged only to the two little kids. Maybe Ji Ling forgot, so the box and the boy's childhood rotted in the soil together.

Light and shadow change, and time passes.

Since his rebirth, Zhang Yunqi has never thought of Ji Ling. Facing the mess at home every day, how can he have the energy to think about these trivial things? But after a long time, when he met Ji Ling again, he didn't know what to say for a while, so he asked for nothing, "Have you had breakfast?"

"My uncle and aunt are not at home, and my cousin went to school early in the morning. I got up late and haven't eaten yet." Ji Ling sat down on the stool next to Zhang Yunqi. The wind blew, and a few strands of soft bangs swayed in front of her bright eyes, so beautiful that it was frightening.

Zhang Yunqi said, "How about eating at my house?"

Ji Ling shook her head: "I want to cook noodles, but I don't know how to light the earthen stove at my aunt's house."

"It's okay, I'll give it to you." Zhang Yunqi rinsed his mouth quickly, then went to Zhang Xiaomei's house with Ji Ling to light a fire and wash the pot.

Seeing that he was skilled in the movements, Ji Ling took out the ingredients from the cupboard: two eggs, a bag of bulk alkaline noodles, and a tomato. There were enough ingredients for Zhang Yunqi to make a simple bowl of tomato and egg noodles.

Ji Ling said, "You haven't had breakfast yet, why don't you cook two bowls?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled: "It's nice to watch you eat."

"What do I have to see?"

"A pretty girl who says something like that will easily lose friends."

"Hey, you know how to please girls now?"

"I'm not trying to please girls, I'm trying to please you." Zhang Yunqi sprinkled chopped green onions on the noodles, put them on the table and said, "Eat the noodles, or they'll get mushy later."

The noodles obviously tasted good, and Ji Ling ate them with great relish, but she ate very slowly and without saying a word. The slanting light of the early morning shone into the courtyard, and her long eyelashes cast two shadows on her face. When she was almost done eating, she suddenly said, "Yunqi, why do I feel like you've changed?"

Zhang Yunqi asked: "Why has it changed?"

Ji Ling tilted his head and thought for a moment, then said, "It's become uglier!"

Zhang Yunqi looked at Ji Ling, whose eyes were smiling like crescent moons, like a little witch who had successfully played a prank. At that moment, a little bit of the feeling of childhood welled up in his heart.

It was late. After parting with Ji Ling, Zhang Yunqi returned to his home. Zhang Yunfeng, with a pair of panda eyes, was sitting on the doorstep eating sweet potatoes. When he saw him, he shouted.

What did Zhang Yunqi ask?

Zhang Yunfeng said, "After dinner, let's discuss how to sell cigarettes."

******
(End of this chapter)