no longer ordinary friends

The night was hazy, the old light bulbs were hanging, emitting a faint light, and the red offering lamp on the land public offering table was also on.

Zhao Yanjia pulled Jiang Xianghuai and knelt facing the Lord of the Land. Anyway, neither of them had any other beliefs, so they could kneel if they wanted to.

Jiang Xianghuai knelt down piously at this moment, staring at the faint candlelight on the table, the stick of incense on Grandma Cai before the meal had burned down to the bottom, leaving only a small wisp of smoke, the last cluster of soot finally supported I couldn't help it, and it fell down.

The courtyard is always lingering with the aroma of delicious food at home and the scent of burnt sandalwood, which can easily soothe his hot and unstable emotions.

Before he met Chengcheng, he had never been to any temple, but Chengcheng liked to go.

At that time, a friend knew that there was a little girl who was studying in college next to him, and teased him about whether he would take someone to swipe the card to buy bags on the big weekend. Or old and solemn, he often smelled woody incense on her for a while, only to know that there is actually a kind of perfume called temple incense, L'Artisan's road to the underworld, the perfumer has no religious beliefs, but likes temples very much The tranquility brought by it, so she made a lot of scents related to woody sandalwood.

At first he was not used to the smell, he always had the feeling that he would be smoky by the incense at any time, but he gradually got used to it, even when he couldn't sleep and was restless, even if he took medicine, he would eagerly miss her A calming perfume, exactly what he missed about the girl with the woody oriental scent.

The folk culture of Nanri County is that Buddhism and Taoism are not separate from each other, so Chengcheng went to Buddhist temples and Taoist temples in Beicheng. Praying to gods and worshiping Buddha, they were extremely devout. I heard that on the night when the results of the examination were checked, both of them were still holding the talismans they prayed for from the temple.

Their grades were already good, and they prepared seriously for the competition. Naturally, they passed with high scores, but they neither thanked him for answering their questions, nor thanked themselves for their hard work. Incense money.

What they seek is peace of mind, not delusion.

Zhou Guohua did not expect these two people to kneel on the futon by themselves. Their Nanri gods believe in freedom and voluntariness. The belief lies in the individual, and he never forces it. He doesn't think it is a "superstition", but a folk belief. , everyone is an ordinary person, praying to God and worshiping Buddha, and working hard to live as well.

Zhou Guohua: "Okay, okay, stop kneeling, it's like I'm bullying you two. Get up, only our Zhou family's children are going to kneel."

When Jiang Xianghuai heard the words, he looked at the statue of the Lord of the Land with a devout expression, knelt with his back straight, and said nothing, but it was better than ten thousand words.

Sometimes Zhou Guohua likes him to go on the road like this. No matter what he thinks in his heart, his human face is always in place, but sometimes he can't help but worry that if he has such a temper, if he wants to play tricks on Chengcheng, what will Chengcheng do? May be able to withstand it?

Zhao Yanjia was very afraid that if he didn't explain now, he would be beaten by his brother when he returned to the hotel, so he confessed sullenly: "Grandpa Zhou, you see, it has expired for a long time, and what can't be used is a symbolic gift I gave to my brother. Gift, we are all men, you understand, Grandpa."

"I don't understand, you are not clean, I am not the same kind of person as you are." Zhou Guohua didn't accept this, "Do you know that in our era, it was a crime of hooliganism, and both of you should be arrested and put in jail!"

Zhao Yanjia: "I repent, I'm dirty, I'll embarrass our Zhao family..."

Zhou Guohua slapped him on the shoulder with a fly swatter: "You are the only one who can act." With a straight face, he turned to look at Jiang Xianghuai, and asked coldly, "How many girlfriends have you dated?"

"Just clear."

"Tell the truth." Zhou Guohua didn't believe it.

Zhao Yanjia added insult to injury: "Brother, we are all men. To be honest, Lawyer Zhou is not here."

He Yanming laughed: "Lawyer Jiang, did you rule out girls who only have physical relationships? I talked about three of them."

Zhou Guohua looked disgusted.

He Yanming asked again: "Lawyer Jiang, are you still a virgin?"

Seeing that the question was asked, everyone was silent, and Jiang Xianghuai couldn't answer it, which would drag Chengcheng into it.

In order to liven up the atmosphere, Zhao Yanjia slipped out an internet idiom: "A man who doesn't love himself is like a rotten leafy vegetable."

The atmosphere became more silent.

Zhou Guohua sent a few people out, and he was about to close the gate of the yard. Zhao Yanjia followed Jiang Xianghuai, and turned back: "Grandpa Zhou, our family has a deep affection, really, my father loves my mother, my uncle loves my aunt, and my brother-in-law loves me." My sister can make money and be good to my wife, don't worry!"

It's that aunt and uncle like to play mixed doubles with their young son...

He silently added this sentence in his heart.

He responded with a "bang" mercilessly closing the door of the Zhou family.

Zhao Yanjia followed behind Jiang Xianghuai, and asked tentatively, "Brother, are you angry?"

Jiang Xianghuai said, "At first I thought the matter was outrageous, but knowing that you did it, it made sense again."

Zhao Yanjia: "...My brother-in-law gave it to me in the past, saying that it wished me to grow up. Brother, you see, you took a step with great difficulty. You are about to live your new life. It is another kind of growth."

His voice was a little low and muffled: "Before you came to Nanri County, you didn't pay much attention to me. We are several years apart. I know you don't like me following behind you. When you were young, you often chased me away. I... But my mother said let me follow you, she hopes you can really be happy, sometimes I just want to do something to make you happy, but it seems that I have been doing wrong things, making you disgusted, making you impatient... "

Jiang Xianghuai turned his head to look at him, saw that he was pitiful like a wronged and lost puppy, sighed silently, and resigned to his fate: "I don't dislike it, I'm not angry, and I'm not impatient, I know you and my aunt are worried about me..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhao Yanjia rushed into his arms and hugged him tightly: "I knew it, brother, you like me."

Jiang Xianghuai endured it for a long time before he didn't scold him or push him away, but he also knew in his heart that Zhao Yanjia's temper was entirely because he grew up in a family that lacked neither material nor love, and his parents had nothing for him. Hope, let him grow up as he wants, and do whatever he wants.

Jiang Xianghuai just thought that if he had a child with Chengcheng, he probably wouldn't give the child expectations, and it would be good for her to grow up freely, but on second thought, it's not good to be as stupid as Zhao Yanjia if she is too free.

Zhao Yanjia lay down in the bed of the hotel contentedly, and clicked into the family group.

"Today's diary, brother hugged me."

It was too late, only his sister was still awake: "What are you doing?"

"I didn't do anything, but I seem to have reconciled with Lawyer Zhou." He @ his parents, "Are you going to Nanri County to play? Propose marriage by the way."

Zhao Yanting only said: "Auntie doesn't know yet."

Zhao Yanjia: "If Auntie wants to hit someone again, for the sake of brother, I am willing to contribute my handsome and pitiful face..."

Zhou's house is quite big, with several vacant rooms, so it's not a big problem to stay with Li Yafang overnight.

Cai Mei changed a new quilt for her, and Li Yafang lay on the quilt full of sunshine, feeling an urge to cry.

The night she was released from prison, she also slept in Zhou's house. She took a bath, cut her hair, stepped over the brazier, and ate a delicious dinner. Only then did she feel that she was really reborn.

She turned over and stared at the prints on the curtains, feeling guilty and sad again, she can't find a job now, her parents don't recognize her, she doesn't know what to do, I'm sorry for sister Zhou and herself .

……

Although Zhou's house looks outdated now, it was also a big mansion in Nanri County in the 80s. After all, Grandpa Zhou also had a brief period of glory.

When Zhou Zhicheng went downstairs, he heard Grandpa Zhou bragging about his history: "When you drove into the county, did you see that big mountain, Phoenix Mountain, I contracted all the mountains before. Yes, does the owner of the wood factory know? I didn’t do it later, so I continued to be a chef of the flowing water table. I am not an ordinary chef. I formed a floating table team. I am the boss. It's all done by me."

Ye Bai cheered sincerely: "The big boss of the running water table!"

"That is, when I was young, I was an apprentice tailor. The sewing machine at home, I made a lot of clothes for Chengcheng when he was a child."

Ye Bai gave a thumbs up: "You are a role model for the men present, role model!"

Aunt Cai poured cold water on him: "He was doing business with people, and he went to cut down trees without getting a permit. He almost went to jail and lost all his money. Fortunately, I have a shop to support a family."

Zhou Zhicheng smiled and explained: "Grandpa's partner didn't tell him clearly, the logging permit was not issued, and he didn't understand the law, so he started hiring people to cut down trees, and filed a case for the crime of deforestation. "

Grandpa Zhou insisted: "I didn't break the law on purpose, and many people don't know about it."

Just as the photographer was there, Grandpa Zhou also told the story of popularizing the law in a serious manner: "There is another person in our county who is also a farmer. He is honest and honest. He also planted a large poplar tree on the top of the mountain contracted by his family. I fell down and planned to sell it for money, but I thought I planted it myself, so what’s the problem with cutting it myself? But before I got the money, the police came to arrest people, saying..."

He imitated: "The tree is indeed yours, you have the ownership, but for the sake of environmental protection, ownership and logging rights are separated, you can't log it privately, you have to apply for a logging permit!"

Grandpa Zhou sighed: "How can we ordinary farmers know this? No one told us that the trees we planted and the firewood we cut by ourselves were also committed crimes. Not only will we be imprisoned, but we will also lose money. It's too miserable."

The following is the story of Li Yafang.

She is very numb when she talks about her own story. She has chanted the slogan that all children are the same for many years. It seems that everyone can say a few words about equality between men and women. The society seems to be beautiful everywhere, but why is she still living so miserable Woolen cloth?Sometimes she tries to tell others about the unfair treatment she has suffered at home. Some girls will lightly say: "Is it too sensitive? I am a girl, and I don't think there is anything wrong with it." Some boys say: " No way, let’s make up a story. This should have happened many years ago, right? Aren’t sons and daughters all the same? In my opinion, you girls are the only ones who enjoy welfare. You don’t have to shoulder the responsibility of supporting your family, you don’t have to buy a house, and you don’t have to think about it. Dowry, just have a baby."

In fact, it is not the same at all. She often falls into her own thinking swamp. If only she were a man, she will be loved by the whole family since she was born. She doesn’t have to do any work. She can’t read well and has a bad temper. Mom will tell him, Boys are late mature and smart, so it will be fine in the future. As for the dowry house, there is no need to worry at all, there will be parents, sisters, and sisters who will make money.

After she finished thinking about it, she occasionally felt guilty and guilty, and felt that she seemed to be too egoistic, but then she thought, isn't that what her brother is like?She has been working at home since she was a child, and her brother doesn't have to do anything, and she can also get her parents' real estate. The nickname is: men are more stressed and need a house.If a man feels a lot of pressure and feels that women's current benefits are better than theirs, wouldn't it be good to exchange them?They don't want to.

Li Yafang continued: "After I graduated from junior high school, I went to work. My parents asked me to hand over my monthly salary to them because my brother got married. Then I met my ex-boyfriend. He is more than me. Ten years older, he gave me more money than my salary every month, and then he took me to other cities. He told me that he just coaxed customers into teahouses and bars to spend a lot of money. He said he felt distressed. I won't let me be a 'drinking girl', just need me to provide the QR code for receiving money, saying that his ID card is restricted, I just need to collect the money and transfer the money to him." She said After a pause, "He promised me that nothing will happen, and I'm still underage... I don't know the law, because the last one is a crime of fraud, but I'm an accomplice, and I've only been sentenced for a few months."

Her voice is very soft, and many thoughts are only dared to be backlogged in her heart.

"Although the prison time is very short, and although the prison has been protecting my files, many people in the town and village knew that I had committed a crime when I was arrested. I used to work in a restaurant. A few days ago The customer lost something, and the monitor couldn't see it, so the boss suspected me... because I was the only one who was in jail, their suspicions were reasonable, and then the boss fired me..."

When she said this, she was a little choked up, her eyes were red: "But it's really not me, the customer also called the police, and the police also questioned me..."

But when she faced the doubts and cross-examinations of the crowd, she only had a pessimistic mood in her heart. Her life was over, no one would believe her again, and she would wear the shackles of being in prison for the rest of her life. The price of crime?

Zhou Zhicheng sat quietly, she didn't go to comfort Li Yafang, she didn't know what she was thinking.

Seeing Avon crying like that, Cai Mei felt distressed, but there was nothing she could do about it. Nanri County is a small place, so everyone knows what to do, and everyone is an ordinary person, so of course people who commit crimes in prison are taboo.

After Li Yafang finished recording, she left Zhou's house, and she wanted to continue looking for the next job.

Zhou Zhicheng's mood was a bit dull that day, she was still thinking about those things, does the price of crime have to endanger her future life, as well as the criminal's relatives and friends?

Of course, it’s useless to think about it. She’d better help Avon to see if there is any suitable job for her. Before, some factories participated in the donation of the “Freshman Fund”. I don’t know if Avon would like to work in the factory. fundraising meeting.

Zhou Zhicheng handed over the task of the law firm to produce a program to the versatile young master Zhao Yanjia.

Seeing Zhao Yanjia first distressed, and then happily ready to show off his ambitions on the show and surprise the group of country folks, she couldn't help feeling envious, he was so easy to be happy.

Although she is also very happy.

Her recent happiness comes from Jiang Xianghuai, that kind of secret and frank delayed happiness.

She is in Nanri County, the place where she grew up, the small seaside town she is familiar with, and realized the two dreams she wrote down in her diary ten years ago, lawyer and Jiang Xianghuai.