Chapter Ten Brothers (Seven)

  Xiao Lanfang returned home and learned of a piece of news: Li's father had actually died.

  The body of Li's father was found on the seventh day after his death, when Li Lie and Li Yang were no longer at home. According to the analysis of the police station, Li's father died from falling off a cliff after drinking, and his body was discovered by two working couples who smelled a strong odor while working in the field. The man, driven by curiosity, found the body, which had already started to rot. Later, some people from the village put him in a coffin and carried it back to the Li family home. On the second day after Li's father's death, his older brother was guarding the house when Xiao Lanfang returned. At that time, Li's father's older brother was preparing to go to Xiao Lanfang's hometown to ask her to come back. Although Li's father had many unpleasant aspects during his lifetime, now that he is dead, everything has returned to dust, and past matters should be let go.

  The day after Xiao Lanfang returned, Li's father was buried. The funeral was much simpler, and people familiar with the Li family thought that Xiao Lanfang had done a better job. At the funeral, Li Yang and Li Lie did not feel any sadness or anything, as if the person lying in the coffin was someone who had nothing to do with them, then dug a hole, put the coffin in it, and covered it with soil.

  When firecrackers went off in the cemetery, Li Yang and Li Lie lost interest in picking them up for the first time. The things left by Li's father were taken out by Xiao Lanfang, and then burned one by one in front of the grave. Under the scorching sun, the flames made people feel especially hot, and soon Xiao Lanfang was covered in sweat, soaking a large piece of her clothes. Seeing this, Li Yang also picked up those clothes and threw them into the fire one by one.

  "Li Yang, Li Lie, don't hate your father anymore." Xiao Lanfang said to the two brothers while throwing clothes.

  "Oh." Li Yang raised his head and glanced at his mother before saying that, then pulled out some of his father's daily necessities from the bundle and threw them into the fire.

  After the funeral, Li Yang and Li Lie started a thorough cleaning at home before their mother had instructed them to do so. There was a custom that after a funeral, the family would conduct a thorough cleaning of the house. For the two brothers, they wanted to have a complete cleaning to sweep away all the aura that belonged to their father.

  After Li's father died, the village returned to calmness, as if this matter had passed for a long time, and there was no need to recall it. Xiao Lanfang decided to stay in Mengjiawan.

  After Li's father died, all the burdens of the family fell on Xiao Lanfang alone. As the saying goes, "Poor people's children grow up early", from then on, Li Yang also took charge of more things at home, and the two brothers did more too.

  Not long after Li's father died, the two brothers made a private decision to change their surname to Xiao, following their mother's surname. For their father, it was an unpleasant memory that they did not want to recall. Before their father passed away, the two brothers had discussed changing their surname many times at night, but at that time, their father was still alive, so they could only think about it. Now that Li's father was no longer around, they could take matters into their own hands. Xiao Lanfang did not find out about the name change until half a month later. One day, while helping the two brothers tidy up their textbooks, she discovered that on top of the character "Li" on their textbooks, a piece of white paper had been stuck, and on it was written the character "Xiao".

  Li Yang and Li Lie changed their surname, Xiao Lanfang didn't say anything. For what Li's father had done to her before his death, she already hated him to the bone. There wasn't a single unblemished piece of skin on her body. Her sons were born by her and raised by her, as if Li's father was an outsider, a cruel one at that. After Xiao Yang and Xiao Lie changed their surname, although some people in the Li family opposed it, most people didn't express any opinion, which meant they tacitly approved of it. Xiao Lanfang had thought there would be a big fuss about it, but in the end, nothing happened, as if this was how things were supposed to be all along.

  When Xiao Lie was ten years old, Xiao Yang, who had just graduated from junior high school, only attended the first semester of high school and never went again. Xiao Yang said to Xiao Lie that he was not born to be a good student, and his grades were always poor every time he took an exam.

  It's probably the same, every time Xiao Yang's exam results are not dare to show people, Xiao Lie seems to have never seen how good Xiao Yang's grades were, only knowing that he was originally admitted to a key high school but went to a ordinary high school in the town. One day, when Xiao Lie returned from school, she saw Xiao Yang's head teacher sighing and shaking his head on the road.

  "Are you Li Lie?" The class teacher asked Xiao Lie.

  Xiao Lie nodded slightly.

  "Study hard and work diligently." The class teacher said something inexplicable and left.

  After returning home, Xiao Lie saw that Xiao Yang had prepared a table of dishes, as if there was some good news. Seeing Xiao Lie, Xiao Yang excitedly said to him: "I found a job in the county, and from now on I can earn money."

  Xiao Lie actually didn't know what work Xiao Yang was talking about, and it wasn't until later that he found out Xiao Yang had been introduced by his head teacher to a relative's restaurant in the county town to work as a cleaner, earning less than 200 yuan per month, but for the Xiao family, that counted as a decent income.

  After Xiao Yang left, things at home became even busier, but every time Xiao Lanfang insisted on doing a little more herself, so that Xiao Lie had more time to study.

  Many years later, Xiao Lie thought back to when he was ten years old, his mother, who was only in her thirties at the time, looked even older than a woman in her forties.

  Eleven-year-old Xiao Lie finally graduated from elementary school. After receiving the admission letter, he was assigned to a key middle school in the town. Upon hearing the news, Xiao Yang returned from the county and took Xiao Lie to play in the county for a day.

  That was Xiao Lie's first time in the city, and the tall buildings in the county were only seen on TV for him. When he first came into contact with modern industry, he suddenly felt that his small mountain village and town were like a primitive society, and a strange feeling rose up in his heart.

  Xiao Yang took Xiao Lie to the top of the mountain, and on the mountaintop, they saw the entire Jianmen County. Xiao Yang carefully placed a pen in Xiao Lie's hand and said: "I'm also in the county now, you must study hard, that place is Pu'an High School, our county's best high school. I believe you can definitely get into it."

  Xiao Lie suddenly found that school in the high-rise building. He looked at the school, pinched the pen in his hand and said, "I will."

  At that time, Xiao Lie did not know that the pen in his hand was half a month's salary for Xiao Yang.

  (PS: I still remember when I was in elementary school, a Hero pen only cost 2 yuan. I thought it was expensive back then. If I had known that the pen I held in my hand was worth 113 yuan, which was half of his monthly salary, I think I would have scolded him for being an idiot, but at the same time, I would have been deeply moved. It was the first and also the last time I received such a precious gift.)

  In the second year of Xiao Lie's junior high school, Xiao Yang changed jobs again and started working on a construction site. Although it was much more tiring than his previous job at the restaurant, his salary was twice as much. Every week, Xiao Lie would have 10 yuan in pocket money, but after a week, he would still have 2 to 3 yuan left over, which he would save up.

  Xiao Lie didn't know when his brother started dating Xu Jia Dai, he only remembered that every time his brother came home, except for staying at their own house, he would sneak out and not let Xiao Lie follow. And Xu Jia Dai was getting nicer to him. Xu Jia Dai is only one year older than Xiao Yang, after Xiao Yang left, she would often come over to help with things when she had time, because they attended the same school, just that Xu Jia Dai was in the high school department while Xiao Lie was in the junior high school department. Sometimes when Xiao Yang came back, he would pick up Xiao Lie from school, but most of the time it was Xiao Yang and Xu Jia Dai walking together, with Xiao Lie being shooed away to the side. But dim-witted Xiao Lie still thought they were just chatting.

  One day, while Xiao Lie was doing his homework, Xu Jia Dai's brother Er Pang quietly ran to Xiao Lie's front and mysteriously said: "I just saw your brother go into the thatched cottage with my sister."

  After hearing what Er Pang, who was seven years old, had said, Xiao Lie continued to do his homework and ignored him. Er Pang saw that Xiao Lie didn't react and said again: "I saw your brother bullying my sister, just like how my dad bullies my mom."

  Adolescence, apart from physical development, is also a time of curiosity about sex. At 13 years old, Xiao Lie had already started learning about physiology in school, but whenever the teacher got to the chapter on puberty, they would let everyone study it on their own. Many of his peers began to notice which girls were pretty and would hear rumors like "so-and-so wrote a letter to so-and-so". If Xiao Lie didn't have these kinds of thoughts, it was only because he was really too busy. Just the other day, he had received a note from a girl in his class. The note only had one sentence:

  "I've been noticing you for a long time, can we get together?"

  Xiao Lie, who only read sacred books with one heart, felt tense like a drum when he received such a note for the first time. As a representative of three good students, Xiao Lie nervously handed over the note to the teacher. The class teacher read out the note in front of everyone during the class meeting and told them to focus on their studies and not to fall in love early.

  As a result, on the evening of that day's self-study session, the girl stopped Xiao Lie, who was the last to leave the classroom, and said:

  "Now the whole class knows about us, and tomorrow the whole school will know too. I guess I'll have to spend the rest of my life with you."

  Xiao Lie almost fainted on the spot after hearing these words.

  When Xiao Lie heard Er Pang's words, he felt a stir in his heart and had an urge to sneak a peek, although it was at the expense of his most respected brother. After struggling with himself for a moment, he still followed Er Pang to the side of the thatched hut, where Er Pang led the way and then pointed to the ladder by the wall, saying "Go up and you'll see".

  Seeing the ladder placed right next to the window, Xiao Lie suspected that Er Pang might have planned this in advance.

  "Did you see it?" Er Pang asked from below.

  "There's nothing, really nothing." Xiao Lie suspected that Er Pang was deceiving him - apart from some farm tools, there was really nothing else in the room.

  "What are you doing?"

  Xiao Yang's voice suddenly came from around the corner of the wall.

  "Ah."

  Suddenly hearing Xiao Yang's voice, Xiao Lie on the ladder was startled, his foot slipped and he fell off the ladder.