A letter to my father

Author: Hu Yali

Dear Dad

Hello! Always excuse busy, seldom call you, seldom visit you. Home, in addition to summer vacation, is winter vacation, every time in a hurry, as a child, left you and your mother too much blank.

When I went home in December this year, I passed by Biyu Town and had a fair. However, because of the New Champions epidemic, the street was deserted and there was no bustle of the fair. When the car passed the corner of the street, I saw some wheat plaits scattered at the door of a shop, and I couldn't help thinking of the first time I came to the town to go to the market when I was a child.     

I was eleven years old that year, and I was in the fifth grade. After the final exam, the head teacher announced the results. I was the first in both Chinese and Maths! When I hold the golden certificate in front of you, facing the warm sun in front of the window, and looking at the red flowers shining in the middle of the certificate, you are happy like a child, and promise to take me back to Biyu Town! To tell the truth, before I graduated from primary school, the joy of going to the market was no less than traveling. To go to Biyu Town was more like a trip to a foreign country! Because the market is dozens of miles around, Jasper is the nearest to the county seat, and it is also the busiest and most "prosperous" in December! 　　

At that time, our family did some small businesses, selling wheat weaving. Every New Year's Day, you get up early to go to the market, come back before dark, and occasionally come back in the dark. Sometimes when the business is good, you will buy some things like this, eat and play. When you put the things you bought that day on the edge of the kang like the same, our brothers and sisters will not mention how excited we are when we come to see them! In the December, when it was freezing cold, my mother was rolling pepper and incense at the table, while I was doing my homework in the winter vacation. I heard the rhythm of "crunching", smelled the smell of spices in the room, and when I returned home, the fire was booming, I knew that the year was coming. 　　

Before the New Year, you seemed to talk about going to the market every day, planning what else you need at home, and calculating whether you have enough money. In any case, the rich and the poor will give us some new clothes. We have seven brothers and sisters. When the New Year comes, you and your mother will do everything possible to wear new clothes for our brothers and sisters. Especially for me, we have new clothes every New Year, which is the only "advantage" as the family leader because of ranking.   

The day of the town fair is the "February 8th" day of the lunar calendar. If you still go to the fair after the 23rd of the lunar new year, you can only go to the fair on the 25th of December and the 28th of the end of the year, and most of you are people who live in a tight life. Our family is no exception.    

The 25th day of December. When I got up in the morning, there were scattered snowflakes in the sky. I was worried that you would not go to the market because of the weather, and naturally I could not go. You had three or two cups of tea when you got up that day, and said that you had to go to the last fair even if it snowed that day because you had pressed noodles at home! While talking, I packed up my business and said I would start. I'm so happy! I know that one of the reasons for this market trip is to hope that Mai Bian can sell at a good price, so that we can buy new clothes for our brothers and sisters before the New Year; Second, I came here to take me to "see the world" and honor my promise of winning the final exam.    

It was really cold in winter when I was a child. The snow was not heavy at all. When I started from Hujiazhai for more than ten kilometers, I "crossed mountains and mountains" all the way. But when I arrived at the ridge, it was covered with white snow. The wheels pressed on it, creaking and creaking. When you pushed the car past the Liujiageng beam, sweat drops fell down, and I gasped for breath, The road becomes flat and the front is much wider. You can breathe a sigh of relief. The town is near!

It's finally here! From east to west, people who can't see the edge at a glance, colorful, men, women, old and young, are really crowded! You took me across the crowded street to a slightly wider place at the end of the street to collect straw -- the first time I saw bundles of wheat straw, white or yellow -- piles and bundles, rows and rows of shops on the corner, even at the door. Stop the car and take off the wheat straw knitting. At this time, a middle-aged man with a beard came over. He was not big and slightly fat. He held a palm sized calculator in his hand. From time to time, he murmured the multiplication formula. He held a cigarette in his mouth and tilted his head. He was probably smoked. He closed his eyes slightly and asked how many sketches you had made? How much do you want to sell? I remember you said sixty cents, a total of five hundred (according to your price, it should be three hundred yuan). Who would have guessed that the middle-aged man would not pay the price of sixty cents. He stretched out five fingers of his right hand and pushed forward twice, meaning fifty fifty cents. Later, you said fifty eight cents and waved your hand with a beard. What else do you want to say? The man no longer looks at our wheat knitting.

Dad, you are stunned there - the cold December in the town - our wheat weaving looks like a cheap sculpture!

A cold wind blew and several snowflakes fell on the tip of your nose. I saw that you could not help pressing your temples and sneezing!

You are embarrassed! To sell or not to sell? If you sell it, you will lose money. That's fifty fifty or even sixty cents you received from inside and outside the village! No, we haven't got all the New Year's goods this year, especially we can't buy new clothes for us! What's more, I'm waiting for your new cotton padded clothes, and the only money in the family is invested in these five hundred pieces of wheat!

You have no choice but to push the 500 handfuls of straw weaving from the street to the end of the street, and then from the end of the street to the street, and ask each other clearly. Only then did you know that the straw weaving has no good price since the last fair, that is, after the 22nd of December!

As the time approaches noon, the number of people on the street is gradually decreasing, and the larger straw weavers are ready to leave. It seems that the small traders were unwilling to accept more straw weavers years ago. You sighed and touched my head. I looked up and saw that you were looking at the bearded wheat weaving stall. He was going to close the stall and go home! You hurried up and asked again with a pale face if you could raise the price? The bearded face shook like a rattle... Finally, we had to sell the wheat knitting you dragged from thirty miles away at a loss, which was fifty-five cents, a total of two hundred seventy-five yuan!    

The December in the town is cold. With the two hundred and seventy-five yuan in your hand, you bought me hot onion cake and soybean milk. It's delicious! You refused to eat anything and saved lunch! I followed you to a clothing store. You soon took a fancy to our brother and sister's clothes. There were seven pieces of red cotton padded clothes in total. You said with a smile that you could wear them during the New Year and school! Say, put the biggest one on me. Your eyes are smiling all the time, as if you saw the shining red flowers on my certificate again! The shop and home decoration started with a full bag, tied to one side of the bike, and I sat on the other side of my leg. When the road is flat, you ride your bike, while I sit in the back, wearing a red new cotton padded jacket, with my arms open, happily like a free flying bird. The sky is still scattered with snow, but you don't seem to feel the cold at all!

I took a look at you in front of the car. You dragged me and the new cotton padded clothes, but it seemed that you dragged a world! Yes, forever new clothes! Eternal Dad!

I will never forget the Jasper Town in the December of that year. I will never forget the loss of our wheat knitting. I will never forget your dilemma! Even ashamed of your "loss" of wheat weaving and sweating, but reluctant to eat for our brothers and sisters to buy new clothes that fair! However, on the way for parents to raise their children, such difficulties, such sweating and forgetting themselves have never been repeated!     

As time goes by, I have passed through the town. I am your age! After experiencing the storms of life, I understand the difficulties of you and your mother today. "Who can say that the heart of grass can be rewarded by the sunshine of spring." The years are silent, and you are nearly sixty years old, and you have long been full of bright hair! Even if I feel a thousand regrets, I will feel guilty! After more than 20 years of time and space, standing on the high cliff of your life, I really want to shout "Dad, you have worked hard!"

Hey, Dad, paper is short and love is long. Thank you and your mother for more than 30 years of nurturing. I think that you and your mother will be my children in the next life, and I will also love you and your mother for a while - to buy you red cotton padded clothes!

Wish Dad healthy, happy and happy every day!

Your daughter: Hu Yali

March 7, 2021

(Recommended by: Tongwei County Siyuan Experimental School)