South of Chutian

I can't bear you anymore.

His words were light, but like alcohol pouring on a raging fire, it made Tang Heng's whole body burn.He pursed his lips and remained silent for a moment before making up his mind. Tang Heng asked him, "Really?"

If he really couldn't bear him, then they... Tang Heng wondered confusedly, nine days later, if he really couldn't bear him, would there be any other possibilities for them.No, that's not right. Li Yuechi and the Tang family have a deep hatred. Back then, he stabbed his uncle with a knife and destroyed himself at the same time. How could they have any other possibility?But, but if—

"What are you thinking about?" Li Yuechi smiled and said briskly, "I've been out for two years. If I couldn't bear you, of course I would have gone to you long ago."

what.

That's right.

Tang Heng felt his body stiffen for a moment, what did this moment look like?When he was traveling in Finland, he saw local herdsmen put out a bonfire, scooped up a basin of cold river water, and threw it on the flame. With a bang, the fire went out.

"Don't worry, I won't pester you when the time comes," Li Yuechi promised with a rare sincere expression, "You will return to Macau as soon as work is over, right? For a person like me with a criminal record, a passport from Hong Kong and Macau It may not be possible to do it, how could it be entangled with you."

Tang Heng said, "That's not what I meant."

Li Yuechi just patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay."

But that being the case, why are we still together - nine days?

Li Yuechi turned and walked forward, Tang Heng had no choice but to follow.There were still intermittent cock crows in the distance, but other than that, the mountain road was quiet and empty, as if there were only the two of them left in the world.

"We're almost at the water pump house," Li Yuechi said. "It was repaired last year, and after that, every household has tap water."

"There was no running water before?"

"We use well water here. When the poverty alleviation working group came to build the road last year, they laid water pipes, and tap water came through."

"Oh... that's good." Tang Heng was a little stunned, struggling to understand Li Yuechi's words—this village only had tap water last year, so what about before?He realized after a few seconds that he couldn't imagine it at all.

"I haven't heard you talk about this before." Tang Heng said in a low voice.

"before?"

"Six years ago."

"Oh," Li Yuechi said calmly, "I was young at that time, so I tended to feel inferior."

But now that he said it, it was so easy and frank that he seemed to be talking about other people's affairs.He no longer feels inferior, or does he not care about what happened six years ago?

Tang Heng asked with a tight throat: "Is your home on the list?" Time was limited, and they used lottery to determine the list of household visits.

"No."

"Then can I go and see?"

"Teacher Tang," Li Yuechi finally turned around, showing that half-smile look again, "Do you think it's appropriate for you to go to my house given our current relationship?"

His eyes lightly brushed over Tang Heng's cheeks as if they were real, as if hinting, as expected.The hot-headed feeling came again, Tang Heng wanted to catch him very much, he was really afraid that he would disappear like a gust of wind in a blink of an eye, but what happened after he was caught?Tang Heng said in a panic: "That's not what I meant, I just...just take a look."

"My house is a bit far away from here," Li Yuechi said with a serious look, "It's nothing special. The dilapidated houses in the village have been renovated in the past two years, and they look pretty much the same after renovation."

Tang Heng looked at the two-story building on the mountainside in the distance: "Is that so?" It was a two-story wooden structure building, built facing the sun, and the sunlight fell unobstructed, as if brushing against the sun. Layers of golden honey.

Li Yuechi also looked over and nodded slightly: "Yes—but the first floor of my house is a brick building."

Tang Heng thought to himself that most of the houses he saw on the road were made of wood. After all, there are trees all over the mountains and plains here, and it is cheap and convenient to build wooden houses.Since Li Yuechi's family built a brick house, they must be living a good life.

Feeling a lot more comfortable for no reason, Tang Heng asked, "Usually you live in the county, and your parents still live in the village?" Remembering that he also has a younger brother, he asked again, "Is your younger brother going to college soon?"

"My father is gone, and my mother lives in the village by herself."

"……Feel sorry."

"It's okay, he's been gone for many years," Li Yuechi smiled, and said in a calm tone, "My younger brother is studying in high school in Tongren City, and it's time for the college entrance examination next year."

"You can go to the city to study in high school, and your grades are very good." After all, he is Li Yuechi's younger brother, so he must not be stupid.

"It's ok."

Tang Heng thought, that would be great.

From this point of view, it seems that Li Yuechi is probably doing well. Although he has been in prison, he is now running a small business, and his income seems to be quite considerable.The family built a brick house, and my younger brother was studying in the city, and his grades were good.Thinking of this, Tang Heng exhaled lightly, and the certain emotion smoldering in his chest became lighter.

He couldn't say what the emotion—like guilt—was.

It was Li Yuechi who lied to him.It was Li Yuechi who stabbed his uncle.It was Li Yuechi who said he hated him.

What is he to be ashamed of?However, they have had the closest relationship after all. He knows what kind of person Li Yuechi is: at the age of 17, he came to Wuhan from a mountainous area. In order to save money, he went to a state-funded normal school. With the first grade in the grade, he was sent to his uncle's graduate school by cross-professional recommendation...Later, Tang Heng also met many smart and hardworking people, but Li Yuechi was the only one who fascinated him while being smart and hardworking.

For such a person, if his life is too poor and desolate, Tang Heng thought, if his life is too poor and desolate, who can not feel a little bit guilty of injustice?What's more, he loved him.

Li Yuechi took Tang Heng to stop and go in the Liba group, climbed several hillsides, saw the pump house, cooperatives and terraced fields, and it was soon after one o'clock in the afternoon.The sun was setting straight down, the sky was pure blue, and several families passing by warmly invited them to come in for dinner.Tang Heng received a call from Sun Jihao: "Brother, where are you?"

"Still in the Liba group."

"Oh, we're all back at the village committee. How's it going with you?"

"The students said there was one last household."

"OKOK, then we'll wait for you to eat! We can go back after eating!"

"it is good."

Tang Heng hung up the phone, and sent a WeChat message to the student to ask, and the other party said that work would be finished in about 10 minutes.

"Then you go back to the hotel?" Li Yuechi asked.

"Well, I'll be back after dinner."

Li Yuechi nodded and said nothing.The two were sitting by the well at the foot of the mountain. There was a family on the hillside about ten meters away, which was also a wooden house. The cattle are grazing with their heads down.

Tang Heng was a little tired. He closed his eyes, and after a while, he smelled the aroma of chili peppers.He thought of the summer when he was promoted from junior to senior year. At that time, Li Yuechi graduated from undergraduate and could not move into the school where he was studying for graduate school, so he had to rent a house by the East Lake.It was a very dilapidated, old and small house, with a musty smell that had lingered everywhere. When he went there for the first time, he frowned the whole time from entering to leaving, thinking that Li Yuechi could really bear it.When I went there for the second time, I bought an aromatherapy diffuser from Yintai Creative City.The third time I went there, Li Yuechi was squatting in the corner cooking. I saw him chop the bright red peppers into fine pieces, pile them on the ham fried noodles that cost five yuan, sprinkle a few peppercorns, and then plug in the electricity. Heat up the wok, pour oil, and when the oil is hot, pour it over the fried noodles——with a "stab" sound, the hot and choking spicy smell explodes and fills the room.At that time, Tang Heng thought to himself, this thing is much more useful than aromatherapy.

When I went there for the fourth time, I kissed Li Yuechi, and the two of them kissed so ecstatically that they almost knocked over the jar of peppercorns on the table.

"Tang Heng, is that your student?"

Tang Heng opened his eyes suddenly, and saw two girls waving at him in the distance.Tang Heng got up and sent a WeChat message to one of them: "Go find the driver and go back to the neighborhood committee for dinner."

So the two girls bounced away, and Tang Heng came back to his senses before he dared to look at Li Yuechi: "Let's go back too."

"You go, I'll go home and eat."

Tang Heng froze for a moment: "Then will you go back to the county with us?"

"I'll come back tomorrow," Li Yuechi paused, "Drinking is not allowed, do you hear me?"

"why--"

"Because I don't like it. Also, no smoking."

"..."

"Hold it," Li Yuechi said softly, "Tomorrow we will go to the next step."

When Tang Heng returned to the neighborhood committee, Sun Jihao, the village head and the village party secretary were already waiting for him at the dinner table.He and Sun Jihao were still seated, the bowls and chopsticks had been set, and a small glass of white wine was poured in front of each of them.

Tang Heng said, "I don't drink."

"Teacher Tang, let's drink less to relieve fatigue," the village chief said earnestly, "Is it hard today? The roads in our place are really difficult."

"The roads in your village are very good," Sun Jihao took a sip from his glass, "The roads are organized in groups, and the households are hardened. They are all well done."

The village head said with a smile: "It's all good policies. Macau also allocated special funds for transportation construction...Mr. Sun, Mr. Tang, I would like to offer you a toast. It is too hard to come to us from all the way."

"Everyone has worked hard, and you still have to receive us, isn't it tiring?" Sun Jihao bluntly clinked glasses with the village chief.

"Teacher Tang, you..."

"Junior brother, let's have a drink, the work is over," Sun Jihao said half-jokingly, "Now you can ignore the work discipline for the time being."

"That's right, Mr. Tang, this wine is brewed by ourselves, and the alcohol content is not high."

Tang Heng was silent for a few seconds, but still shook his head: "It's easy to get motion sickness after drinking - I won't accompany you."

After four o'clock in the afternoon, the group returned to Shijiang County.The students were so exhausted that they rushed to their rooms as soon as they entered the hotel. Sun Jihao chased after him and yelled: "Remember to have dinner in the restaurant! There will be no more after eight o'clock!" Then he stretched himself and said helplessly to Tang Heng : "The physique of this group of children is not as good as mine. We are going well today. Banxi Village is doing well, and there are no moths."

Tang Heng asked: "Did something happen to you last year?"

"Hey, it's hard to say," Sun Jihao patted Tang Heng on the shoulder and handed him a bottle of milk, "Try it, the special buffalo milk here—are you tired too? Lu Yue and I will sort out the data at night, and you have a good rest."

Tang Heng returned to the room and sent Li Yuechi a WeChat message: I have arrived at the hotel.

After taking a shower and waiting for another 10 minutes, the other party still did not reply.

Tang Heng put the phone on the bedside table, thought about it, and set it to silent mode, but left the vibration.

Maybe it was really tired, this sleep was so deep that I didn't even dream.When Tang Heng opened his eyes again, the sky outside the window was completely dark, and the room was also dark, except for a small green light on the air conditioner.

Tang Heng was in a daze for a few seconds before realizing where he was.

He wasn't woken up by the vibration of his phone?I grabbed the phone and pressed it, but there was no response, so I realized it was turned off.

Tang Heng charged and turned on his phone. At 21:32, he fell asleep for nearly five hours and managed to miss dinner.

The phone started vibrating non-stop, and one message after another popped up.

After five o'clock in the afternoon, Director Xu said in the group: You have worked hard, students, you must eat more for dinner!

After 10 o'clock in the evening, Sun Jihao sent a WeChat message: Junior brother, are you going to eat?Twenty minutes later, he sent another message: Well, the restaurant is out of food...

At 27:[-], Li Yuechi replied to his message with only two words: OK

Tang Heng clutched his cell phone and realized that he was not hungry, not only was he not hungry, he even felt nauseous and dizzy, probably because he had slept for too long.

Just as I was about to open the window to get some air, the phone vibrated again.

Zita: Good evening, Teacher Tang... I'm Lu Meining, a senior student in the School of Social Sciences, and I'm doing research with Teacher Sun and the others in Banxi Village today... Is it convenient for you now?

Tang Heng: What's wrong?

Zita: Can you come out for a moment?I'm on the terrace on the fourth floor.

Tang Heng: Wait a minute.

Zita: Please do it yourself, don't tell anyone.

The fourth floor of the hotel is a sightseeing terrace. Tang Heng opened the door and went in, and saw two students sitting together. The girl was on the phone, speaking Cantonese very fast, and the boy was sitting beside him frowning.

Tang Heng thought to himself, so it was the two of them.This boy was the one who asked Sun Jihao to put himself and Aning in the same group in the morning, and this girl——A-Ning's name was Lu Meining.

"Teacher Tang." Ah Ning hung up the phone and bit her lip.

Tang Heng sat down opposite them, "What's wrong?"

"I...we have a matter..." she muttered, "this matter..."

"Hey, teacher, let me tell you." The boy patted the back of Aning's hand and said in a low voice, "We are really not sure about this matter, so I can only ask you."

"Ah."

"That is, when we visited today... a mother-in-law said that before we went, several people were sent away in the village. One was injured while working and lost his calf; one was blind; one had taken drugs; and one was mentally ill. There is a problem. We talked about it with Mr. Sun, and Mr. Sun said that he checked with the village head, and it was the mother-in-law who was talking nonsense... But the two of us think that the mother-in-law is not like she is talking nonsense."

"We also recorded my mother-in-law's words..." Ah Ning handed Tang Heng an earphone, and asked softly, "Can you listen to it?"

Tang Heng put on the earphones and said calmly, "Play it." Although he was surprised, it wasn't that surprising. Director Xu had already mentioned similar things.Village cadres do not want them to meet certain people—vulnerable groups such as the disabled and the seriously ill.But in fact, what they mainly examine is facility construction and per capita income, and disadvantaged groups are not included in the investigation at all.

However, the village cadres don't understand these principles and just want to hide all the "bad things".

The old man's voice came from the earphones, in local dialect with a strong accent: "I am a part-time worker, my leg was broken, and I have been idle around the house... and the girl from the Gong family, who can't see... ah, and the old man from the Li family Second, the Li family is the worst offender, the older one is in jail, and the younger one is a fool..."