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Chapter 32 Lao Meng
"Hiss...hiss...forty-seven is twenty-eight, forty-eight is thirty-two, thirty-two divided by eight plus fifty-six...hiss..."

After get off work, Xie Qimao walked into his mother's yard carrying a bottle of Yaoshan Daqu and two dishes. He saw his daughter kneeling on a futon, doing homework with an oil lamp in front of the dining table. She was breathing cold air, her eyes were swollen from crying, and her hands were still trying to figure out the answer.

This scene of my daughter studying hard is something I only see once a year.

He turned around and prepared to walk out the door, and said to his wife Chen Chunxiang who was following behind him: "What should we do if Daxiuer cries to us? How about letting Hu Saner come to our house to eat, so that I don't have to feel bad when I see Daxiuer?"

Chen Chunxiang pushed her husband and said, "Why are you so distressed? Pretend you can't see it! Come inside and eat! Mom is so old, why do you let her walk to our house to eat?"

"What?!" Xie Qimao asked loudly. He was deaf in his left ear and his hearing was far worse than that of ordinary people.

Xie Yuxiu was doing her homework at the table, shouting, "My mom told you to pretend you can't see me! Come in and eat!"

"Oh! That's fine!" Xie Qimao agreed and gave his daughter a simple smile: "Study hard! My daughter! Dad will save some food for you!"

Xie Yuxiu rolled her eyes at her parents. Her brother beat her so hard and forced her to do the test. It must have been them who taught her. Now she is pretending to be a good person...

Xie Hushan was holding a burning wormwood rope in his hand and hanging it next to Xie Yuxiu. There were no mosquito coils in the countryside, so he dried wormwood, which had a mosquito repellent effect, and weaved it into a small fire-resistant hemp rope and lit it.

"Grandpa and Auntie are here?" Xie Hushan lifted the curtain of the main hall and welcomed the two people in:
"The porridge is still too hot. Let's wait until it cools down before eating."

Xie Qimao and his wife greeted him, carried their things to grandma's east room, and talked to the old lady.

Xie Hushan sat on the threshold of the main hall, watching Xie Yuxiu doing her homework in the courtyard. After a while, a tall figure appeared outside the courtyard gate, poked his head at the door and peeked inside, shouting in a low voice:
"Xie Siling~Xie Siling~"

"Lao Meng, come in!" Xie Hushan said as he sat on the doorstep and waved at the other party.

"Yes!" The other person stood at attention like the child, then trotted in.

Seeing Xie Hushan make room for an empty seat, he sat down on the threshold next to Xie Hushan and began to fiddle with a wooden pistol in his hand: "Da Xiuer told me to come to your house for dinner at a certain time."

He is Li Meng, Xie Hushan’s childhood friend and best playmate. Although his body has grown up, his mind remains at the age of nine forever.

According to the popular saying in the previous life, Li Meng was the guardian of Zhongping Village.

Li Meng's family lived very close to Xie Hushan's family, only four households apart, so they often played together when they were young. Li Meng was a veteran of Xie Hushan's army.

After all, the two were only five years old when the team first opened, and there were as many as two members in the team, Xie Hushan was the Si Ling and Li Meng was the deputy Si Ling.

As for Han Hongbing, he was very happy. Ma Saner and the other kids who lived a little further away were from another unit at that time, but were later incorporated into the unit by Xie Hushan and Li Meng.

When he was nine years old, Li Meng had a slight fever in the morning. His mother did not take it seriously and let him stay at home and wrap himself in a quilt to sweat out the fever. But she did not understand one thing: not all fevers can be relieved by sweating. For some fevers, the more you wrap yourself up, the worse it gets.

This is what happened to Li Meng. After his parents went to work, he covered himself from morning until his parents came back from work. He had already fainted, and it was too late to send him to the hospital. Although he was saved, the high fever damaged his brain, and he became a fool in people's eyes.

Although he is tall now, he is not considered a laborer in the production team because his children are playful and cannot do boring farm work for a long time. He can only occasionally help the production team do some work that children do to earn some work points, such as cutting grass, herding cattle, chopping firewood, etc.

After he became a fool, his parents gave birth to a sister and a brother for him. He was also the one who was neglected or abandoned by his parents among the three children. His parents had no time to take care of him when they were taking care of the other two children, which led to him always being hungry. Fortunately, he was a child and did not know how to be sad or blame his parents. He lived a carefree life until now.

Xie Hushan took out the two steamed buns and meatball soup he had bought at the market. He had already heated them up again and handed them to Lao Meng: "I asked her to call you here. Eat them. I saved them for you."

"Hey!" Lao Meng didn't hesitate or say anything to Xie Hushan. He put his wooden gun on his waist, grabbed the bun in his left hand, held the soup in his right hand, sat on the doorstep and started eating. While eating, he told Xie Hushan the information he thought was important:

"Xie Siling, I found a particularly straight stick that is perfect for use as a sword. Even the command knife of Zuoshandiao is not as majestic as it. I will peel off the bark and give it to you tomorrow."

"Is it delicious?" Xie Hushan reached out and picked up a meatball directly from the bowl and put it into his mouth. He tasted it and found that there was too much flour mixed in.

"It's delicious, full of meat! Xie Siling, after we finish eating, shall we go to some hill to fight?" Lao Meng swallowed the bun in his mouth hard and asked Xie Hushan.

Xie Hushan looked at Li Meng with a smile: "Do you want to eat meat every day?"

Lao Meng took a big gulp of meatball soup, continued stuffing buns into his mouth, and said vaguely: "Think about it, don't you say that we become bandits just to rob the rich and help the poor, and eat a lot of meat?"

"Gather outside my house at two o'clock in the night, follow my cart and follow my orders. Do whatever I tell you to do, and I'll let you eat meat every day."

"Hey, okay! You are Si Ling, I'll listen to you." Lao Meng laughed, then ate all the food in big mouthfuls and handed the empty lunch box to Xie Hushan:
"I'm done. I'm going home to eat."

"Go ahead." Xie Hushan nodded.

Lao Meng walked out, took two steps, turned around and looked at Xie Hushan, lifted his clothes mysteriously, revealing the wooden pistol at his waist: "Xie Siling, do you need to carry a weapon at night?"

"Just in case, take it with you." Xie Hushan frowned and nodded.

Lao Meng nodded, imitated the lines from an old movie, stood at attention and saluted: "Yes! Si Ling, your opinion is great! I understand!"

Then he ran out of the house.

"Brother, why did you ask Lao Meng to go with you so late at night? If I had finished writing, could I go, hiss..." After Lao Meng left, Xie Yuxiu turned her head curiously and asked. When she twisted her butt, she couldn't help but gasp in pain.

"Come with me to the market and set up a stall."

"He can't even do math, why would he go with you?" Xie Yuxiu asked.

Even the children in the third grade don’t want to play with Lao Meng, thinking he is stupid. But his brother still wants to take him to the market?

Xie Hushan slowly stood up from the threshold, put the lunch box back on the stove, and said softly:
"In the countryside, it's not illegal for crazy or stupid people to beat people up, but if someone dares to bully them and is seen by people from the same village, then you'll be in big trouble."

"Hu Saner, let Daxiu write it himself, and you come into the house and have a couple of drinks with your uncle!" Chen Chunxiang shouted from inside the house at this time.

(End of this chapter)