The sun shines.

Ye Qin was wearing a straw hat and holding a bamboo basket in one hand, walking slowly along the knee-high river water. His feet broke the calmness of the river surface, and the sound of whirling water sounded from time to time.

Through the clear river water, Ye Qin's eyes kept patrolling the pebbles at the bottom of the river, leaning over from time to time, his arms passed through the warm water flow, groping on the pebbles.

Every time he leaned over, he would pick up a few snails from the pebbles and throw them into the bamboo basket he was carrying.

Snails are very common in streams and rivers in the south, and are shaped like snails. However, the surface of its shell is not as smooth as that of snails, but it has many rotating ribs, and most of them are smaller in size.

However, no matter how small the legs of a mosquito is, it is still fleshy.

Ye Qin looked at the snails in the bamboo basket and thought that he could probably stir-fry a bowl when he went back, so he swallowed his saliva gently. Grandma was very good at cooking, so she took these snails back and rinsed them in clean water for an afternoon, and she could stir-fry them in the evening.

I drank two bowls of sweet potato porridge this morning. I felt a little bloated at the time. I ran out and wandered around for a whole morning. I felt a little hungry after sweating and moving.

Grandpa often said, "I'm a half-baby, but I'm poor."

Ye Qin himself also felt that since he had grown up in the past two years, he had a very large appetite. At the beginning, he only had the same amount of food as his grandparents. Until now, he could eat one meal by himself for a day.

"In the afternoon, we should go to the canal to see if there are any loaches or eels."

Ye Qin stood up straight, gently wiped the sweat from his face, took off the straw hat from his head, and slapped it gently, thinking that he should continue to find out what to eat.

July is the day of summer. He is swaying by the river, which is cool and hot. The red sun is hot, and his black calves, arms, neck and cheeks are all red from the sun.

Ye Qin spit out a breath of hot air and watched the rippling river flow slowly in the sun. He has been swaying in this small river since he was a child. He had read some local chronicles before, saying that this river is one of the three major sources of the Minjiang River. It goes south from the north of Fujian, winding hundreds or thousands of miles, and I don’t know where it entered the sea.

"Ye Qin, Ye Qin..."

"Come up!"

Just as Ye Qin stood up and used the straw hat as a fan to blow the wind, a crisp sound suddenly came from afar on the river bank.

On the pebbly river beach on the shore, a girl in a light green dress covered her forehead with one hand and the other gently waved at him.

"Why are you here?"

Ye Qin turned around and looked at the shore. He immediately laughed, put his straw hat on his head again, and walked towards the shore with a hula step.

"You can peel off your skin with such a big sun?"

Ye Qin lifted his feet from the river, took two tiptoes, and hurriedly threw the slippers in the basket to the ground and put them on.

The sun is too strong in summer, and every pebbles on the river beach are so hot that they are burnt. Even if you beat an egg, it will probably not take long to cook.

"Wow, have you picked up so many?"

Before Ye Qin's slippers were put on, a breeze blew by the side. The girl had already run over, pulled open the bamboo basket on Ye Qin's arm, and looked at the snails inside.

The girl's voice was particularly pleasant with a soft and soft voice from the south, and her crisp sound.

"Your mom won't let you eat this."

Ye Qin put on the slippers that were a little hot, took off the straw hat on his head and covered the girl's head, "Why not at home so hot?

"I want to eat too."

The girl pursed her lips slightly, withdrew her hand holding the bamboo basket, straightened the straw hat on her head, and then laughed again, "Your admission notice has arrived. The postman sent it directly to the convenience store. You don't know when I went to get it for you. They all thought I was admitted to high school, haha, I'm only in the third year of junior high school in the second half of the year."

Ye Qin tilted his head and looked at the empty-handed girl. She didn't even have a pocket in her dress. Her expression suddenly became a little nervous, and her voice slightly raised a little, "Chen Zixi, have you taken it home for me?"

"Yeah." The girl nodded briskly, "When I got the notice, I happened to run into your grandfather and gave it to him directly. He was so happy."

"Oh, I asked you to help me pay attention, and I took it back to me directly." Ye Qin became a little annoyed for a moment, "Why are you giving it to my grandfather!"

When the high school entrance examination scores came out some time ago, he had inquired. The students admitted to several high school middle schools in Xiushui County were admitted according to the region and grades.

Xiushui No. 1 Middle School directly admitted the top 300 with the best grades in the county, and No. 2 Middle School admitted 100 students from 300 to 400. The rest were admitted to several township middle schools in the high school department according to their grades and regions.

Ye Qin's score in the middle school entrance examination was actually not ideal. He originally estimated that he could enter No. 1 Middle School directly, but he was two points away from the No. 1 Middle School score line, so he had to choose to go to No. 2 Middle School.

And when he went to No. 2 Middle School... Ye Qin felt a little trouble when he thought of this problem.

When I went to the county town to go to high school, the tuition cost was much higher than when I went to junior high school in the town. If I got into the first middle school, I might be able to find "that person" to ask for tuition fees. If I were to the second middle school, I would be really unsure.

When Ye Qin thought of that black face, he would rather not go to study and go to another province to work next year.

"What should I do?" Chen Zixi pouted and looked at Ye Qin's expression, "Has I done something wrong?"

"Forget it." Ye Qin shook his head. He wasn't so ignorant. He didn't even say thank you for helping him.

But when his grandfather knew that he was admitted to the No. 2 Middle School, this matter was a bit troublesome. He originally wanted to ask the person if he would give him a tuition fee. If he didn't give it, he would just rude to his grandparents and say that he had not passed the exam.

Hearing Ye Qin say this, a hint of cunning appeared on the girl's face under the straw hat, and then she shouted softly, "Ye Qin..."

"Well, what's wrong?"

"I...you...you...you'll still have to go to high school and take the college entrance exam in the future." The girl was a little reluctant to speak, but after saying a word, she breathed silently.

"What, it's so far." Ye Qin patted the straw hat on the other party's head, "I'm back, I'm back, otherwise you'll be tanned like me."

"Oh." The girl nodded slightly.

Ye Qin walked in front with a bamboo basket on his back. The pebbled river beach is not easy to walk on. It is a river beach. It is not a smooth and neat tree-lined path in the city park community. Wear slippers and sandals. If he doesn't pay attention to raising his feet, it will easily bump into his toes. However, since he was a child, he would have run barefoot if he didn't bake the pebbles too hot.

After walking two steps, Ye Qin suddenly paused, turned his head to look at Chen Zixi who was paced carefully, and laughed again in an instant.

"Take it in hand." Ye Qin stretched out his hand to Chen Zixi behind him.

"I can go by myself."

"Hurry up, who hurt her feet last time after being hurt for a week."

...

After passing through the pebbled river beach, the two of them quickly returned to a small path outside the river dam on the shore.

There are large fields of farmland on both sides of the road, and the rice fields are green. Occasionally, many ears extend from the middle of the green leaves, and there are also several golden rice fields further away.

Going further ahead, there are houses with different heights. Some people have built new houses. The white tiles are still particularly eye-catching even if they are far away.

The others are mostly ordinary red brick houses or solid mud houses. In recent years, many people in the village have earned some money when working outside, and they have become rich and demolished old houses and built new ones.

Shangyun Village is a village below Xiaoli Town. Xiushui County has lagged behind the development of several surrounding counties and cities in recent years. In the early years, it was a large grain-producing county. In an era when many people were not full, it naturally attracted many people around to Xiushui County.

In recent years, the economy of other places has gradually increased, and the income from digging food in the fields is small. Instead, the people of Xiushui County began to go south and north to work and do business.

This is also the source of Ye Qin's idea of ​​going out to work with others. He had to continue spending money when he went to high school. It would be better to come out early to reduce some burden.

"Ye Qin, look at that?"

The two were walking on the small road from Heba to the village. Ye Qin lowered his head and thought about how to tell his grandfather later. Suddenly, Chen Zixi gently pulled his arm down.

"What?" Ye Qin looked in the direction of Chen Zixi's finger. Not far from the path was a courtyard with a two-meter-high wall. A bayberry tree stretched out from the yard. The plump bayberry hung among the green branches and leaves, bright red.

"You want to eat bayberry, Uncle Yan is no longer here."

Ye Qin stood on tiptoe and looked into the yard. The iron gate outside the yard was closed and the yard was quiet.

"I'll go back to Chuanshan to pick it for you. The bayberry in Chuanshan is bigger and sweeter than this one. Let's go back."

This season is the peak season for bayberry. Ye Qin will go to Chuanshan on the other side of the river to pick bayberry every year. Grandma who can’t finish eating will dry bayberry, add some sugar and put it in a glass jar, so that it can be eaten as a snack for several months.

After walking two steps, Ye Qin turned around and found that Chen Zixi did not move. He looked at him and looked at him with his eyes blinking.

"Okay, okay, I'm afraid of you."

Ye Qin was a little helpless, and this has been the case since he was a child.

"Get it."

He walked back and handed the bamboo basket in his hand to Chen Zixi. Ye Qin turned directly outside the wall, helped him run a few steps, and jumped up.

He has good physical fitness. When he slipped out of the school in junior high school, he could only kick up the wall that was more than three meters high with just a few feet. This kind of small courtyard wall of more than two meters in the farmhouse is no problem.

After climbing up the courtyard wall, I reached out and carefully pulled down a branch full of bayberry. As soon as I picked one, a dog barking suddenly sounded in the courtyard.

A big yellow dog crawling in the shade of the tree to cool off suddenly had his ears trembling, noticed the movement, and rushed directly to the wall of the courtyard.

"Ouch……"

Ye Qin was startled by the big yellow dog, turned around and jumped out of the courtyard wall. The big yellow dog in the yard barked and crawled out directly under the iron gate at the entrance of the yard, and chased Ye Qin directly.

"Come back?"

Ye Qin watched the big yellow dog come out of the yard, and without thinking, he turned around and ran away.

Chinese pastoral dogs in farmhouses usually run around. If you usually encounter them wandering around, don’t run or move, and it’s basically okay.

But he just overturned someone's wall, so he couldn't run away.

While running, he turned his head and shouted in the direction of Chen Zixi: "I'll go back first, you can send the basket to my house later."

Chen Zixi, who had been standing quietly on the roadside, suddenly burst out laughing and raised his hand gently, "Ye Qin, come on!"

In the bright sunshine, the shouts of the boy, the barking of the big yellow dog, and the laughter of the girl like silver bells spilled all over the floor.
Chapter completed!