After seeing the school and having a simple meal in the town, Zhuo Ziyuan suggested that he wanted to go to a nearby village. Without saying a word, Mayor Ke took them to the nearest village. Mayor Ke's pleasure and accompanying him all the way made Zhuo Ziyuan feel that Mayor Ke should be a public servant of the people.

Principal Fang also accompanied him during the trip to the village. Originally, Zhuo Ziyuan said that the mountain road was not easy to walk, so Principal Fang didn't have to follow him. However, Principal Fang smiled and refused. This mountain road was just a pediatric department for him.

The facts also proved this. Principal Fang did not drag them back. Fortunately, Zhuo Ziyuan and He Xia were also the main players who exercised regularly and did not embarrass them.

It is really hard to walk on the mountain road. They have been walking in the nearest village for nearly an hour. The village is called Wujia Village. You can tell from the name that it should be formed by the formation of five families with surnames living here and slowly developing offspring. This village is located in a small basin between the mountains. The environment is excellent. A river that is not big or small passes through the middle of the basin. In addition to the large farmland, there are some houses intertwined in the mountains and forests. Like the houses of ordinary residents in the town, there are blue brick houses, and even some houses. Zhuo Ziyuan saw that it was just a roof built with a straw shed.

There are many farmers in the farmland. Zhuo Ziyuan even saw some children following the adults' butts to help. Zhuo Ziyuan and his group walked in a village built along the mountain. The path was made of rocks of different shapes. There were children playing with marbles on the roadside, and some children were chasing and fighting. Some children could tell at a glance that they were ethnic minorities, while others were Han people. However, the same thing was that their clothes were old, and Zhuo Ziyuan could not count the patches of all sizes. The shoes on their feet were also sewn. In such a cold day, some children's toes were exposed directly outside.

These children are very polite. When they meet their group, they will stop and politely shout "Hello Grandpa Fang, Hello Uncle Ke". Some people also call it "Hello Grandpa Fang, Hello Grandpa Ke". This kind of generation problem is very common in rural areas. A family of four generations living together may have two children of the same age, one of which is the other elder.

Looking at the children's sincere reputation of Principal Fang and Mayor Ke, Zhuo Ziyuan became more sure of his thoughts. These two people should be more prestigious in the town, otherwise they would not have been in the village. There are so many children who know them. Principal Fang is okay. These children will know him as long as they go to school, but Mayor Ke is different. If he doesn't run into the village often, who will know him? Even adults probably don't know him. Just like Zhuo Ziyuan, he only knew that there was a village chief in the village. What the mayor looks like. Sorry, I have never seen him.

Moreover, whenever these children ask them about their good wishes, Mayor Ke often calls out the child's name and asks his parents if they are at home. Zhuo Ziyuan is very pleased. At least, with such a mayor, there should be no obstacles to tomorrow's charity activities. As for Xiao Li's words yesterday, it may not be the mayor's meaning. In a town office, there are actually quite a lot of people in charge.

Whenever he met some children, Zhuo Ziyuan would take out some candies from his backpack and share them with them. He bought these candies in the county town.

After Mayor Ke asked a little girl again whether her parents were at home and received a positive answer from the child, Zhuo Ziyuan interrupted everyone, "Mayor Ke, can we go to the baby's house to see?"

Mayor Ke was stunned at first, looked at Zhuo Ziyuan with a strange look, and then looked at He Xia. Seeing He Xia nodding, he nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take you there."

He told the child that he would go to their house to play. Mayor Ke led the way without the child leading the way. The little girl held a lollipop in her hand and joined Zhuo Ziyuan and his team.

Looking at the little girl with big eyes and full of spiritual energy in front of her, Zhuo Ziyuan asked with a smile, "Little sister, what's your name? How old?"

"Big brother, my name is Ji Wusu. I am ten years old this year. Wusu means olfactory flowers. I like olfactory flowers. By the way, big brother, are you going to my house to play?" The little girl looked at Zhuo Ziyuan curiously and asked.

As soon as he heard this name, Zhuo Ziyuan knew that this little girl should be a Qiang tribe, but she spoke very well in Mandarin. It seems that the school taught it very well, "Yes, little sister, are you welcomed?"

"Okay, okay, I never thought that your beautiful elder brothers and sisters came to our house to play." Ji Wusu clapped his hands and smiled.

This sentence made He Xia laugh, and he couldn't help but touch the little girl's head and said, "Little sister, your mouth is so sweet, you are very beautiful too."

After being praised by He Xia, the little girl lowered her head shyly.

"Little sister, you are ten years old this year. Have you ever been to school? What grade are you in?" Zhuo Ziyuan asked in a gentle voice.

“I’m in sixth grade this year.”

"Oh? Then I'll go to junior high school next year?"

"I can't get there anymore." The little girl's voice suddenly became hoarse.

Zhuo Ziyuan turned his head to look at her, and saw that the little girl's cheerful smile had disappeared, and replaced by a cloud of sorrow, Zhuo Ziyuan felt a little distressed.

"The junior high school only needs to go to the county. It takes half an hour to go from their village to the town. This is the closest village. It takes another hour to ride a bicycle from the town to the county middle school. It's okay for those who live in the town, and you can get through a bicycle for an hour. However, in the mountain village, the children can only choose to boarding, and the cost becomes a big problem. It may be okay for a family to bear the tuition for a child, but if the boarding fee is added, the harvest may not be so much in the year. Therefore, it is good for the children in the village to finish elementary school. Some parents are more open-minded and may be willing to spend a few years of savings to board the children, but there are very few such people. After junior high school, high schools, and universities, that is the big deal. Many parents have to give up because they don't see hope." Principal Fang explained next to him.

Zhuo Ziyuan sighed a little. Yes, the transportation here is inconvenient and the connection with the outside world is very few. How can these farmers who have been in the mountains all their lives know the wonderfulness of the outside world? Those who have given birth to boys must be thinking of staying at home to inherit the family business and extending their children, and girls will not be taken seriously. Being able to finish elementary school is considered an enlightened parent. In the future, they will always marry, so they can marry someone in the mountains and go back to their parents' homes during the Chinese New Year.

"Do you like going to school? Do you want to go to middle school?" Zhuo Ziyuan asked the little girl.

"I like it, going to school is interesting. I can learn a lot of knowledge and know a lot of stories. Grandpa Fang often teaches us that knowledge can change our destiny, but unfortunately, my brother didn't go to school."

"Oh, you have other brothers and sisters? Why doesn't your brother go to school?" Zhuo Ziyuan asked.

"Well, my brother and I are the only ones in my family. My brother has also been to school before, but later when I went to school, he never went to school again. He said he didn't like to go to school. He liked the crops in the mountains and wanted to stay in the mountains freely. However, I knew he still liked school. He just left the opportunity to go to school for me. He often secretly read my Chinese books, and thought I didn't know." The little girl said with a smile.

Zhuo Ziyuan's nose felt sore and he couldn't help but touch her head. He was such a simple and sensible child. In just a short while, the sorrow just now had disappeared, "Well, it's really good. You have a good brother, so you should study harder, repay your brother well in the future and be filial to your parents, right?"

Principal Fang, who was walking behind, showed a smile on his face. Looking at the little girl, he knew that the fate of this little girl might have changed from today.

After a while, everyone came to the little girl's house without knocking on the door. As they came over, the doors of every household were almost closed. Mayor Ke patted the door and said hello and went straight into the simple courtyard. Everyone entered one after another. The man in the yard was repairing farm tools. When they saw everyone coming in, they showed a curious look and communicated with Mayor Ke. Zhuo Ziyuan and the others were confused. Zhuo Ziyuan felt that the language they spoke could not be hooked from Mandarin at all. Zhuo Ziyuan guessed whether this was the local language of the Qiang people.

After the two talked for a while, the male owner shouted, and a 14- or 15-year-old boy jumped out of the inner room. He should be the little girl's brother. The little girl shouted something and stayed obediently beside the boy. After the two said a few words that Zhuo Ziyuan could not understand at all, the big boy ran into the inner room and soon took two crooked benches out. Mayor Ke signaled everyone to sit down. The male owner did not call out the children's mother, and took the two dolls and moved the stone in the yard that looked like a bench and sat directly on it.

Zhuo Ziyuan saw similar stones in the yard and signaled He Xia to sit on the bench. He took a stone and sat on it. Zhao Qiang and another bodyguard also sat on the stone bench. He Xia and Chen Qiang sat on the bench. This behavior attracted He Xia's big eyes, and he liked to pretend, pretend, and everywhere he went.

The male host looked quite hospitable, but Zhuo Ziyuan couldn't understand what he said at all. Zhuo Ziyuan didn't want to translate it through Mayor Ke and Principal Fang. Fortunately, the little girl's brother, Ji Ridamu, had been studying for four years and could speak Mandarin that was not very fluent. However, there was no obstacle to the conversation with Zhuo Ziyuan and the others.

Through chatting, Zhuo Ziyuan knew that their family’s income was crops. At most, it was worth the money to get the wild game in the mountains. However, in Shankou Town, they really couldn’t buy the price. They had more choices to eat by themselves. Therefore, although life was difficult, they still had a lot of food. Vegetables were all from their own fields, meat dishes were fish in the river, chickens and ducks raised at home, and wild game in the mountains, which were also very good. However, the source of income was too small. The crops had to be paid for public grain, and they had to keep their own food. The income of the whole family was less than 500 yuan a year. Fortunately, they had no place to spend money, and they basically had to eat self-sufficient food. They bought some improvements and improved their lives. They could wear them for several years after buying two or three clothes. But when the children grew up, they would buy new clothes. Many of the clothes of the little girl were worn by her brother.

Zhuo Ziyuan asked Principal Fang again, the county middle school cost one year, but was told that the tuition fee was 60 per semester, and the boarding and three meals were 260 per semester, which was 640 yuan a year. Their annual income was really not enough. This was still the case when the family was not sick or disaster-free. If they got sick and went to the hospital, they would probably have to spend years of savings. So many times, the elderly in the village fell ill and had no money to treat them. Until they died of illness in the end, the little girl's grandparents died of illness. Sometimes human life was really worthless. Spending all their savings and living hard and leaving money for future generations is a choice that everyone in the mountains may face.
Chapter completed!