Return To 1998

Tongdao Xu had a dream, a very long dream. He hadn't had that dream for a long time. After all, it was more than 20 years ago.

In the dream, his father suddenly disappeared. Afterwards, many creditors came to his house to ask for debts, saying that the night before his father Xu Weixi disappeared, he lost the gambling money to them, and the widow of his uncle Xu Weidong disappeared on the same day— his great aunt.

In a daze, Xu Tongdao knew in his heart that this was not just a dream, but also what really happened in his family more than 20 years ago.

It was this incident that changed the fate of everyone in his family.

At that time, he had just finished the high school entrance examination and was waiting at home for the results of the senior high school entrance examination. Because his father suddenly disappeared and left a large amount of debt, he could not go to high school. County No. 2 Middle School.

There is also his younger brother Xu Tonglu, who is only one year younger than him. Originally, his academic performance was very good. Since childhood, he has won awards every year. He is a good seedling of reading. After barely finishing junior high school, he went out to hang out. Later, he went to the police station every three or five years. The most serious one was three years in prison before he came out. The whole person was considered a waste.

There is also the daughter adopted by his parents, his sister Xu Tongdao Ge Yuzhu... At the age of 18, he was married off by his mother early, and married a second-generation ancestor who was illiterate and ignorant. Life has been very hard. Years, finally divorced, with a daughter, life has not improved.

As for his mother...

He passed away just three days ago.

He was just buried in the daytime today, and until the burial, his younger brother Xu Tonglu was nowhere to be seen, and no one could contact him.

He Xu Tongdao has been divorced for 6 years and has no children.

His family was living like this, and he was naturally depressed.

In addition, his mother had just been buried, so he drank a little more alcohol at night, and he didn't know when he fell asleep, and then he had this long dream.

He knew it was a dream, but he still didn't want to wake up.

Because in the dream, although his father disappeared, his mother, brother and sister were still there.

Except for his unsatisfactory dad, his whole family is fine.

Big brother... Big brother... Big brother, wake up...

Tongdao Xu suddenly heard his sister's voice, she seemed to be calling him, as if she was shaking his shoulders while shouting.

Sister came to see me?

He sighed in his heart, he actually didn't want to wake up from this dream.

Frowning and opening his eyes, Tongdao Xu saw his sister Ge Yuzhu sitting on the edge of his bed, shaking his shoulder with one hand.

For a moment, Xu Tongdao was stunned.

She stared blankly at the younger sister Ge Yuzhu in front of her. Ge Yuzhu, who was already in her thirties...but she looked like a teenager.

A slender figure, delicate facial features, black pearl-like eyes, and... a shiny black complexion.

This little sister... is actually not related to his family by blood.

Back then, the reason why his parents adopted her as an infant was mainly because the family was poor and worried that their two sons would not be able to marry a daughter-in-law in the future, so they adopted a girl from a young age, and planned to wait until the two sons grew up so that she could marry her. One of them is to reduce the burden on the family.

For this purpose, Xu Tongdao, this little girl, is not named Xu, but is surnamed Ge with his mother.

From the perspective of appearance, Ge Yuzhu is very beautiful. She has been slender since she was a child, and her facial features have been delicate since she was a child. A pair of black pearl-like eyes are particularly beautiful.

It's the kind with dark, shiny skin.

Therefore, some people think she is beautiful, but more people think she is too dark and ugly.

For example, his younger brother Xu Tonglu thought his younger sister was ugly since he was a child, and he had never seen such a black girl.

As for his fellow Xu?

He didn't think his sister was ugly, but he didn't marry her later for two main reasons.

One is that they grew up together, and they only have brother and sister feelings, no other feelings.

Two... It was because their family was too poor when they were adults. As the eldest brother, he didn't want his sister to continue to live a hard life with him, so he let his mother be the master and betrothed his sister Ge Yuzhu to someone else.

Later facts proved that my sister married the wrong person.

But that was later, and there was no way to change it.

But in front of...

My sister Ge Yuzhu is still in her teens, what's going on?

Tongdao Xu frowned and looked around, and what he saw made him even more surprised.

The earthen walls around, the leaves on the roof... the old wooden bed, the old clothes by the bed, the old wooden table by the window, and two old chairs...

Everything you see is so familiar.

These are what his home looked like before!

Brother, are you feeling better? Has the fever subsided?

Seeing that he was silent, Ge Yuzhu frowned, asked worriedly, and reached out to touch Xu Tongdao's forehead.

fever?

Tongdao Xu blinked and remembered.

——The day after his father disappeared suddenly, those creditors came to the door one after another, first asking if his father was at home? Then they asked for money, but they didn't have it, so these creditors started to do it.

All the two pigs, chickens, ducks, etc. raised by him were taken away.

Not only that, but he also emptied all the rice in his barn and the rice in the rice jar.

The only electrical appliance in the house, the TV, was also removed.

After these people left, Xu Tongdao's family was really a mess.

Of course, this was not the direct cause of his fever.

The direct reason was that after there was no rice at home, my mother sat for a long time in a daze, and suddenly got up and called him to go to Tankou Village across the river - his second aunt's house to borrow rice.

When you go, it's fine.

On the way back, it suddenly started to rain. He and his mother were dragging two bags of rice in a wooden cart. After the hard journey home, both he and his mother had a fever.

He remembered this very clearly.

Because it was this time, and because the family had no money to see a doctor, he just took some antipyretics. He was young and in good health, and he would recover soon.

But after his mother's fever subsided, she kept coughing for half a month.

After that, his mother got bronchitis. When the weather is cold, this old problem is easy to make, and the coughing keeps coming.

Huh, it's okay! Brother, your fever seems to have subsided.

The younger sister Ge Yuzhu touched his forehead, and then touched her own forehead, and then heaved a sigh of relief, showing a delighted smile.

Tongdao Xu smiled. Although the fever has subsided, he is now all weak, and the sequelae of the fever are still there.

Where's Mom? And what about your second brother?

The younger brother Xu Tonglu slept with him on this bed since he was a child, but now he is nowhere to be seen, so Xu Tongdao asked subconsciously.

Ge Yuzhu sighed, Mom went to the polder, the second brother just went out to fish with a harpoon, brother, are you hungry? Get up and eat! There is still porridge in the pot, specially reserved for you, Get up quickly!

Shangwei (wei)?

Xu Tongdao frowned again.

Because of these two words, more distant memories were suddenly remembered by him.

That's right!

When there was a change in his family that year, it happened just after the end of his senior high school entrance examination, which belonged to the rainy season, and it was the rainy season in 1998.

During the rainy season this year, the precipitation was particularly heavy, and the quays in many places burst.

Fortunately, the Zhulin Township where their family was located was not broken, and several earthen huts in the family were saved, but all the crops in the fields suffered. He remembered that all the farmland in their village was flooded this year.

All the crops in the fields were submerged under the water.

Standing in the village and looking towards the farmland, it was like seeing the sea, a vast expanse of whiteness and water.

Because of this, his family had a particularly difficult year, and the food production in the fields was greatly reduced.

And now...

It is still in the rainy season, and it rains almost every day.

Sometimes it is day and night, and the rain is continuous.

Occasionally sunny for a few hours, then suddenly rain.

In such bad weather, every household has to send a person to the polder to protect the polder. It is mandatory, and no one can be absent.

That's why, even though his family has been so difficult recently, his mother may have a fever, but she still went to the polder to protect the polder.

Tongdao Xu was worried about his mother.

As for his younger brother Xu Tonglu taking a harpoon to fish, he thought it was normal.

In my memory, every year during the rainy season, he and his younger brother would go out to fish.

Because during the rainy season every year, the precipitation is generally large, and many fish in the river ponds will swim into the fields and the ditches beside the fields.

At this time of the year, as long as you have the ability, you can do whatever you want with the fish in the fields and ditches. Even if the fish pond owner sees it, there is nothing to say.

After all, it wasn't done in other people's fish ponds.

You go out first! I'll be out right away!

Tongdao Xu sent his younger sister Ge Yuzhu away, and got up to put on clothes and shoes.

When he was putting on clothes and shoes, his brows had been frowning slightly, thoughtfully.

How did you go back to 98 for yourself? He doesn't know why, and he doesn't care why.

Maybe he was born again... Or maybe his original life was just a dream, and the life in front of him is the reality...

He doesn't care.

What he was thinking about at this time was how to lead this family out of the current predicament.

In any case, he didn't want the future of the whole family to be so unbearable. His father ran away, and his eldest son, who was about to come of age, would become the pillar of the family.

Last time, he failed to do this pillar.

Now that he has a chance to do it all over again, he will not allow himself to fail like that again.

He was determined to hold the family up.

When he walked out of the room, Xu Tongdao had already made up his mind.

Under his 17-year-old appearance, he already has a heart of nearly forty years old.

It seems to have matured a lot overnight.

He is not tall, about 1.7 meters tall, with a slender body and light fur around his mouth.

His expression was flat, his eyes were piercing, but he had a calm taste.

The younger sister Ge Yuzhu came in from the back door of the main room holding a large bowl of coarse porcelain. The large bowl contained a very thin bowl of porridge.

On the old Baxian table in the main room, there was only a small bowl of dark pickles.

Seeing him come out of the room, Ge Yuzhu smiled, Brother, I brought you some porridge, come and eat it!

it is good!

Xu Tongdao smiled slightly and his voice was gentle.