It was just dawn, and the mist hung on the treetops and condensed into dewdrops. Dozens of people rustled under the treetops, and their shoulders inadvertently shook the dewdrops to the ground.
This group of unfamiliar faces were waiting for a breakfast cart to appear at the school gate.
They keenly observed the two ruts on the ground like hounds, determined that this was their target, and then surrounded the "long guns and short cannons" on the site they thought was the best, using spotlights. The light path passes through the fine mist and casts on the ground, like the center of the stage in a grand theater waiting for the singer to take the stage. Parents who originally had to go to work after sending their children to school could not help but be attracted by this unprecedented formation. Soon after, the sound of metal friction as the breakfast cart ran over a stone was heard in the distance. The breakfast cart they had been waiting for finally appeared. Sister Zhang who was pushing the breakfast cart thought that the school needed to occupy her stall, so she stopped on the right side of the school entrance. Before Sister Zhang could step on the brake of the cart, they had already brought their own diners and crossed over. The traffic at the school gate wrapped Sister Zhang in the middle, and he took out his "long gun and short cannon" and pointed it at Sister Zhang.
"I heard that you have been selling breakfast for fifty cents for thirty years...?"
"Ah? Yes, that's right...it's fifty cents...it's all fifty cents..." Sister Zhang was at a loss. smiled.
"Old fellows, conscientious sellers, you haven't changed your mind since the beginning of your thirties! We have to support you. The boss will give me 10 meat buns!" A middle-aged man with a big body and a round waist and oily hair said to yelled at the camera.
Before Sister Zhang could respond, another huge lens looked at Sister Zhang's cage and asked.
"Excuse me, why are you doing this? Your family must be very wealthy, right?" Their questions were like bullets, hitting Sister Zhang's heart one after another.
"No, no, just make some food for the children in the village... They..."
"It turns out to be a good intention, so why don't you give it away for free?" Rumbling chaos In the chaotic sound field, Sister Zhang looked at the crowd with an embarrassed expression as if she had a fish bone stuck in her throat.
A group of childish students, clutching 50 cents, did not dare to step forward when they saw the breakfast cart being surrounded. They could only wait anxiously. After waiting to no avail, they entered the school desolately.
The street trees outside the car window enter the field of vision from small to large, and then disappear from the car window when they gradually grow to the extreme. Next to a steaming tree, I pulled the handbrake, lowered the window, and said out the window: "Sister, bring me two meat buns and a cup of soy milk."
Sister Zhang's Breakfast Cart There is a bamboo tip tied next to it, with a large bunch of fragrant glutinous rice dumplings tied with bamboo leaves hanging on it. The steaming basket like a train chimney is filled with steamed buns with thin skin and large fillings. The sizzling pancakes, the marbled spiced tea eggs, and the fragrant and rich soy milk freshly ground a few hours ago...
"Okay, it's still so early today." The eldest sister wore a red and white striped apron outside her fat beige coat, and tied her hands with a pair of red sleeves. Her movements were very skillful, and for a moment He subdued the beating basket and took out two steamed buns, then lifted the long-necked kettle that was boiling and screaming on the coal stove, and easily grasped nine percent of the soy milk.
"Yes, come a little later, and all the students will be here. Come on, eldest sister, one and a half dollars." I took the breakfast and handed her one and a half dollars.
"Okay."
She put it directly into her apron pocket without looking at it.
The twenty minutes before the school gate closes are the busiest time for Sister Zhang. A large number of students came on foot from villages several kilometers away, and the eldest sister made sure that they would not be late and still have breakfast. The energetic children received the equally hot breakfast and handed the money to the eldest sister in pieces of fifty cents. The eldest sister generously gave the children a simple smile.
The deepest desk in the office is the principal's desk, which is only 5.6 meters deep. There are two rows of desks on the outside.
My desk is closest to the door. On the left is Zhang Fangping's desk. He is busy revising the lesson plan with his head down. I put the breakfast on the desk, took off my coat and put it on the back of the chair. Zhang Fangping turned his head and glanced at the breakfast. Said: "She won't leave the stall in a week."
"Will you go home to retire? That's good! My eldest sister has been doing this for some years." The wind coming in from the outside blew my back. My back felt cold, I slapped the door with my palm and replied.
"Well, it has been about thirty years since I was in elementary school." Zhang Fangping said.
"You can earn a lot of money then?" A teacher in front turned his upper body towards us and leaned on the back of his chair with his left arm.
Zhang Fangping glanced at him, then turned back to continue reforming the teaching plan without responding to him.
"A cup of sugar cane juice at the school gate costs 5 yuan, and a steamed bun or a sesame seed cake costs 50 cents. You can't make much money..." the principal said with unfinished meaning.
Outside the school gate, a group of people were inquiring about what time Sister Zhang would set up her stall in the morning. The owner of the canteen pointed at a tree at the school gate and said that there were two black ruts on the ground.
During the few days when I went to the city to study, I heard that a group of Internet celebrities came to "besiege" Sister Zhang every day. Among them, the middle-aged man with oily hair bought 10 buns at a time. One was eaten clean in front of the camera, while the other nine were put into black plastic bags. Later, I heard that Zhang Fangping would not let his mother go out. Sister Zhang is an honest person and has weathered the storm for thirty years. She said that one week would be one week, so Zhang Fangping had no choice but to drive away the group of Internet celebrities at the school gate.
I went back to school on a weekend afternoon when there was no one around. I carried a lot of study materials from the city. Everything during the weekend came to a standstill. The printer no longer beeped. The light snow that had been falling for the past few days also stopped today. Zhang Fangping was lying in the office enjoying some time to himself.
"Sister Zhang, should she rest?" I piled the study materials with my sweat on the desk and asked him casually.
"Well, let's take a rest." He was holding a copy of "The Crowd" and always facing me with half of his face.
"I heard that you drove away those Internet celebrities at the school gate. I can't tell, but you are pretty awesome!" I teased him.
"If Sister Zhang is willing to keep it open for a few more days, let her do it. Why are you driving away the guests?" I asked indifferently.
Zhang Fangping turned his head, rubbed the title page of the book with his thumb, frowned and said: "After you arrived in the city, the group of Internet celebrities came over again and again, and even posted the videos they took on the Internet. It was so hot that many people came from out of town to have breakfast. My mother used to get up at four o'clock, but she got up an hour earlier in the past few days. She was so busy that she worked too hard. " Zhang Fangping seemed to be waiting for me to ask him another question. Before I could ask him, he couldn't wait to continue: "I am also naive. How could I support this small industry with an income of dozens of yuan a day? If I hadn't been in the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau When I met her at the door, I didn’t even know that she had put all her pension money into it.” Zhang Fangping pinched the pages of the book with his fingers and continued: “In the past, she put it in so that her children could have breakfast, so it was worth it. After all, who wants their children to go hungry? But what about those Internet celebrities who come to fight for a breakfast with their children without knowing why? The more these "guests" come, the more she will pay. The more we eat, the more children will not be able to eat breakfast." After Zhang Fangping finished speaking, he closed the book and sighed deeply.
When I went to study in the city, I owed a lot of uncorrected homework and had to stay in school. It was already 10 o'clock in the evening after finishing the homework. I closed the door of the office and went to the activity center in the village. Many people began to disperse, and the chats of the elder brothers and sisters could be heard in the wide field without any obstruction.
"...For those children who live seven or eight kilometers away, their parents have to go to the fields at sunrise, so how can they have time to make breakfast for them. My sisters will pay for breakfast for their children, and then they will I just opened a breakfast shop. Otherwise, I am a college student and I can make all kinds of steamed buns and rice dumplings.
The ones they made by themselves were sold for 50 cents, and the cost price was not even enough. I put in the pension for my children. If I hadn’t been away that day, I would have taken a broom to smoke those things! "The angry elder sister was already sweating profusely after dancing in the square, but she was still not ready to rest.
During the Spring Festival, my wife and I took our children to pay New Year greetings to elder sister Zhang. The child sat next to her, innocently He asked the eldest sister: "When will you sell breakfast again? I want to eat zongzi. ”
Zhang Fangping said that the eldest sister had not smiled with such satisfaction for a long time.
From now on in the morning, I can turn left directly into the school and no longer need to pull the handbrake at the school gate.
In just a few days, the cleaning staff washed away the ruts that Sister Zhang had accumulated on the floor for decades, making them so clean that it seemed they had never appeared before.