Jujube

My brother's mother, Sun Yuemei, is a very cunning woman. Meng Guanghui broke into her yard in summer, and this woman brought Lu Xinyao into my house in winter.

Sun Yuemei was very beautiful. When she was young, she was one of the most beauties in our Baique Squad. Now her son has surpassed her in size and still has a charming charm.She has a beauty mole between her eyebrows, and Meng Guanghui said that she looks like Guanyin in the painting.

Lu Xinyao's appearance is in the same line as Sun Yuemei's. At that age, Lu Xinyao was like a dewy bud, which hadn't fully bloomed and was not as sharp-edged as it was later. At that time, he had a kind of curled up, ready to move beauty.This is especially noticeable in summer.

I remember that in July, Lu Xinyao and his friends often went swimming in the river.The venomous sun of the white sparrows stripped their undershirts, and a group of people by the river "plopped" into the water like black water dogs.

I was catching small fish and shrimp on the river beach. When they jumped into the river, the splash splashed to the bank, which not only scared the fish and shrimp away, but also splashed my face.My friend Zhang Buyu quickly dodged it, laughing gloatingly at the side.

Drops of water rolled down my face, I raised my head, feeling foggy in front of my eyes.Strangely, in the misty field of vision, I could clearly see the shimmering waves shaking on Lu Xinyao's naked body.

Lu Xinyao in the river was shining brightly.

For a split second I forgot he was my brother—oh, that's wrong, I remembered he wasn't my brother at the time.

Zhang Buyu patted my shoulder and said, "Hey, little Lizi, I saw your brother."

I pushed his hand away and said: "My mother only gave birth to me, and she died after giving birth. I have no brother."

Meng Guanghui and Sun Yuemei are married, but Lu Xinyao is not my brother, and Sun Yuemei is not my mother.

My mother is a strange woman named Chen Meiling, she left less than a month after I was born.

Several people in the village who claimed to know the inside story said that she had abandoned her husband and son and escaped from the ravine, but Meng Guanghui disagreed.

He always corrected with a livid face, "My wife is dead."

When I was just able to understand human speech, Meng Guanghui tirelessly told me stories about my mother.In Meng Guanghui's narration, Chen Meiling accidentally fell while washing clothes by the river, fell into the river and drowned.

I don't know which is true and which is not, and I don't care whether she died or ran away. The only truth is that she has completely disappeared from my sight.

On the first day when Sun Yuemei moved into my house, at the dinner table, Meng Guanghui asked me to call her "Mom". I felt three pairs of eyes gather at me at the same time, and I was a little embarrassed for a while.

Under Meng Guanghui's urging, I replied according to his earnest teachings in the past: "My mother is dead."

Before he finished speaking, Lu Xinyao's inexplicable laughter reached my ears, and at the same time the table shook.

"Nonsense!" Meng Guanghui slapped the table with his palm, pointed at Sun Yuemei and said to me, "From today on, she will be your mother."

I was already in elementary school, and I knew in my heart that Sun Yuemei was not my mother who came back from the dead, and Sun Yuemei must also know that I was not her son, so she persuaded Meng Guanghui to say "forget it".

Under her persuasion, Meng Guanghui magnanimously asked me to call her "Aunt Mei"—just as he magnanimously forgave Lu Xinyao for calling him "Uncle Meng" instead of calling him father.

In fact, Lu Xinyao neither regarded Meng Guanghui as his father nor his uncle. Most of the time, he regarded my father as a lump of dirty air, and I was another lump.

During the first year when Lu Xinyao moved to my house, we lived in the same room. He never took the initiative to talk to me, and I didn't dare to provoke him.

There is only one exception.

I remember the scorching sun that day, and the sparrows on the bird net swayed beside the surging rice waves. After school, I walked home along the field ridge. Because I was thirsty, I walked for a while and then ran.

There was a boy who was older than me running towards me, and our shoulders bumped hard as he passed me, and I fell on my ass.

The boy stopped, and when he turned around he looked numb, and I saw a trace of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"You're bleeding," I reminded him.

He froze for a moment, pressed his tongue between his teeth, and suddenly opened his mouth to spit out a mouthful of bloody froth.

"My teeth are gone." He stared at me, "You knocked my teeth away!"

I said, "You hit me too."

He ignored my words and unreasonably pulled me up from the ground: "You pay for my teeth!"

At that time, I was not yet old enough to change my teeth. I didn't know that my teeth would grow back if they fell out, so I said to him: "If the teeth fall out, they will be gone."

I saw tears the size of beans rolling down his eyes when his brother came.

His brother and he are twins, and the two brothers look exactly the same. I only found out later that one of them is called Da Peng and the other Xiao Peng.

Xiao Peng pointed at me and complained to his brother: "Brother! My teeth were knocked out by him!"

"He hit me too..."

Before I finished speaking, Da Peng grabbed my collar indiscriminately and punched me.I headbutted him and he grabbed my hair and kicked me into the field.

I was lying on the hot ground, and Xiao Peng rushed towards me. His nails were very sharp, and he scratched and scratched my neck and face. The scratched place was hot and painful.

After the twin brothers beat me up together, Da Peng stepped on my chest with his feet in flip flops, and spit at me condescendingly.

"Let you bully my brother!"

When he stepped on me and said such a sentence, a violent grievance surged up, and I almost shed tears.

I am not wronged by their slander, but by my isolation.

Xiao Peng tugged at his crotch and said, "Brother, I want to pee."

"It's right here!" Da Peng said.

With tears in my eyes, I saw Xiao Peng tearing off his pants with a smile, and whistled to me.

A huge humiliation made me struggle hard, and Xiao Peng said to his brother: "Brother, step on him tightly."

Then he said to me triumphantly: "If you move around again, don't blame me if you pee in your mouth."

In my humiliation and anger, I acted like a tiger, and brought out Lu Xinyao to frighten them. I said: "I will tell my brother, let my brother beat you to death!"

After I finished speaking, I shed tears.I didn't cry when I was wronged or beaten by them, but this lie made me burst into tears.

"Who is your brother?" I don't know if it was Da Peng or Xiao Peng who asked.

"My brother is Lu Xinyao!"

Lu Xinyao, this is the first time I say this name, I choked up.

At the same time, there was the sound of splashing water on the ground next to my ears.

"Oh, you scared my brother to the ground!" Da Peng laughed.

That afternoon, I was immersed in grievance and sadness, lying on the ground crying and my body convulsed. Da Peng and Xiao Peng had left me long ago, and I was still crying.

It wasn't until evening that I finished my tears before I got up from the ground and walked home alone in embarrassment.

Lu Xinyao was reading a book on the wooden table in the courtyard. When I opened the door and entered, he raised his head and glanced at me.During this short look at each other, I found that my exhausted tears gushed out again as if they had found a source of water.

I faced Lu Xinyao and cried hoarsely.

He looked at me in astonishment, put down the book after a while and walked towards me.

Lu Xinyao stood in front of me and stared at me for a while. I felt the wounds on my face and neck start to get hot after being stared at by him.

"Why are you crying?" His voice was cold, but it was warm in my ears.

I don't understand why, but when he opened his mouth, I cried even harder.

Lu Xinyao stopped talking. He watched me cry silently, and then watched me wipe away the tears with his arm.

I shook my head at him after wiping away the tears, then walked into the room, crawled under the bed and dug out my piggy bank.

All my savings were in it, a total of 13 yuan and seven cents. I poured out all the money, held it in my hand and walked out the door.

Lu Xinyao returned to the small wooden table, and I walked up to him, put the money on the table in front of him, and asked him in a low voice, "Can you beat two people for me?"

Lu Xinyao glanced at the reward I gave, then stared at me for a while, and said contemptuously, "Why do you want me? Go find your father."

He won't talk to me at all, I should put my tail between my legs and get out of here.

But when I lowered my head, I heard him ask, "Who?"

I just remembered I didn't know their names, so I said, "Twins."

Lu Xinyao didn't say anything more.

At that moment, a violent impulse burst out of my heart. I wanted to ask Lu Xinyao how much it would cost to make him agree to become my blood-linked brother.

But I murmured and didn't dare to ask. I knew that 13 yuan seven was far from enough, and I would never be able to save that much money.

There is only one school in Baiquedang. The junior high school of 11-year-old Lu Xinyao and my elementary school are on the same campus. In a year, we never walked side by side like other brothers.

After that day, Lu Xinyao was still Lu Xinyao who left early and returned late. He still left for school before me, and always returned home later than me.

It was often when I was doing my homework in the yard that Lu Xinyao opened the door and came in.At this time, I will pretend that I have finished my homework, sweep the things that belong to me on the table into my schoolbag, and then quickly get into the room that used to belong to me but now belongs to both of us.

Lu Xinyao never chased me, I did it myself.

I know that Lu Xinyao doesn't like Meng Guanghui or me, I just instinctively want to please him.Children are born with a kind of inspiration. At that time, I showed my affection to Lu Xinyao cautiously within the range that he could tolerate, as if I had already foreseen that in the near future, this person would become my only reliance.

Baiquedang is a small village, news of Meng Guanghui marrying Sun Yuemei quickly spread to the school, and the news that Lu Xinyao became my elder brother spread like wildfire.

My classmates were very envious when they found out. They all thought that having such an older brother was a glorious thing—in fact, it was true. Because of his outstanding looks and natural leadership, Lu Xinyao had a lot of friends in school.

But only I know that Lu Xinyao is not my brother.

With envious eyes, I lowered my head and hid in my own shadow.Until one day my friend Zhang Buyu suddenly dragged me out.

The incident happened on an ordinary Friday. Zhang Buyu and several male classmates were caught by the student on duty and deducted points because they slipped out of the school through a dog hole during physical education class.My elementary school head teacher, Teacher Li, is a ruthless middle-aged woman. She has a bamboo whip as thick as a pinky finger, which is specially used to punish students who do not obey discipline. ".

After Zhang Buyu committed a crime with those male classmates, he was terrified. Fear reminded them of many things.For example, there happened to be Lu Xinyao among the value weekly students that week, and he was in charge of the point deduction booklet.

Then they thought of me again.

My classmates learned to go through the back door at a young age, and they sent Zhang Buyu to win me over.When Zhang Buyu came to look for me, he had a mournful face and asked me to help him with tears in his eyes.

"Meng Li, can you ask your brother to cross out our names? Don't you want to watch me be beaten to death by the wicked woman? Meng Li, Meng Li..."

Zhang Buyu called "Meng Li" loudly, I twisted my trouser pockets, bit my lips with my teeth, and told him in embarrassment: "But... I can't do it."

Zhang Buyu didn't believe it, and still called my name sadly. Every time he called "Meng Li", my heart echoed "Lu Xinyao" sourly like an empty valley.

I don’t know how many times Zhang Buyu yelled, but his accomplices finally couldn’t listen anymore. They pulled Zhang Buyu away, gave me a sideways look, and said to me: “What excuses are you making? help!"

They didn't ask me for help. I should have breathed a sigh of relief, but I felt like something was stuck in my throat, which was extremely uncomfortable.

In the afternoon, I met Zhang Buyu on the way to school. Instead of stopping to wait for me, he accelerated his pace and walked forward.I looked at his back from a distance, feeling both sorry and wronged.

At the school gate, Zhang Buyu slowed down, and he and I saw Lu Xinyao who was on duty at the same time.

His eyes swept over every student who entered, including me, and when I realized this, I was suddenly a little timid.

In fact, I just need to treat myself as a ball of air in Lu Xinyao's eyes as I am at home, and leave his sight lightly. There was a timid expectation.

Like a drop of dew shaking off the tip of the grass, this trembling expectation wets my heart.

Then it fell through.

Lu Xinyao's eyes swept over me lightly, as a matter of course - it was not looking at my younger brother, but looking at a stranger.

I felt anticipation shattered, and frustration swallowed it down.

"Hey, Lu Xinyao!" Zhang Buyu stopped suddenly. He waved his hands warmly and said to Lu Xinyao, "I'm a friend of your brother Meng Li."

My heart skipped a beat, and I froze suddenly.

I thought my face must be pale, but Zhang Buyu didn't notice it, he didn't get Lu Xinyao's attention, he turned his head and said to me with a smile: "Your brother ignores me, you call him."

I suddenly raised my head to look for Lu Xinyao, he had already looked away, leaving me with an indifferent look on the back of his head.

I think I'm done.My careful advances at home were ruined by Zhang Buyu's stupidity and recklessness.

The frustration and anger that surged made me glared at Zhang Buyu and kicked him.

"What are you doing!" Zhang Buyu yelled loudly, staring at me in puzzlement.

I was in a hurry to jump over the wall, eager to draw a line with my friends in front of Lu Xinyao, and even hoped that Zhang Buyu would bark a little more, so that my future brother would know that Zhang Buyu's behavior had nothing to do with me.

With despicable thoughts in mind, I secretly looked at Lu Xinyao, and begged him to take a look at me in my heart.

Take a look at me.

I am more eager than anyone else for him to look at me, but my behavior is in the opposite direction. I have always been in school, and when I see him from a long distance, I will detour.

I am so guilty.Day after day, I humbly indulged in the vain dreams and scenery fabricated by the envious eyes around me, and I saw more and more clearly the gap between the dream and reality.In the corner where Lu Xinyao didn't know, I called him brother countless times across the gap.

My brother was once my darkest secret.

Now I have to protect it with lies. When Lu Xinyao's eyes finally moved slowly over, I said loudly to Zhang Buyu: "Fool, he is not my brother!"