There is a feeling called depend on each other

When I first met My brother, He was 12 and I was 9. He was in fourth grade and I was in second grade. He was a full head taller than I was, and his grimy appearance was disagreeable.

Brother Liangzi calls me sister, but I don't call him brother. I call him Li Guoliang, or just "Ai". In my mind, he is just a homeless man that my family has taken in.

My father was a militia company commander in the village. In 1982, my father and mother contracted an apple orchard in the south of the village. My father was capable and skilled. The output of apples in our family was higher than that of other people, and our life was among the best in the village.

However, the good times did not last. In the summer of 1984, my father came back from weeding the orchard and took a bath in the river to the west of the village. Later, a distant relative of the family introduced my stepfather to my mother. The stepfather's family was very poor, and it was not easy to get a daughter-in-law, but the daughter-in-law ran away with a grain peddler because she could not bear poverty. So, from that day on, the stepfather and his son began to live a hard life.

The second month after my father died, my stepfather came to live with me in the East House. My stepfather and my son lived in the West House.

The stepfather was a hard-working man who stayed in the orchard all day and never went home at night.

Mother was so busy that she sometimes gave us 50 cents each to buy pancakes at the school canteen. The shopkeeper bought the cakes from the town, and sometimes they could not be sold that day, and then they would turn sour the next night. The shopkeeper was so jealous that he would mix the stale cakes with the new ones that came in that day. Later, brother Liangzi simply learned to cook. In the beginning, he often made paste. Even if he gave me food that was not paste, I would not care for him.

The school is more than three miles away from home, to climb over a ridge, the mountain is full of lush trees and half man tall wormwood, sometimes can hear the Wolf cry not far away. Mother worried, let me go to school with brother Liangzi, and asked brother Liangzi to take care of me. I don't want to let the students laugh at liangzi brother's black face, liangzi brother for the first time to help me carry the bag, I threw him away, go ahead. So, every time we go to school two often keep a distance of more than ten meters.

two

One day in summer, I finished the school duty, the people in the same village went home early, I and liangzi brother carrying schoolbags one by one to go home. On the way, the sky suddenly darkened. The clouds were so low and dark that even the village not far away could not be seen. My brother, who had been following me, suddenly ran up and took my hand and ran home. I was so scared that I had to follow him.

After running more than ten meters, hailstones suddenly fell from the sky. Hailstones the size of corn grains fell sparingly. In the blink of an eye, the hailstones became as big as quail eggs. Ten minutes passed before the sky began to brighten. After the hail, only rain, I struggled up from liangzi brother's body, see the ground is full of hail, more than ten centimeters thick, I pushed Liangzi brother, this only found his coat back is blood, blood water mixed with rain kept trickling down from his head. Her brother curled up on the ground, frowning, his teeth chattering.

I was at a loss, scared to stand in the rain crying.

In a short while, the mother came with a sack, and when she saw the appearance of Liangzi brother, her mother pulled off a large piece of her coat, scrambled to wrap it around Liangzi brother's head, and then put the sack on him, squatted down and carried Liangzi brother to the town.

Four or five miles of mountain road, hail everywhere, mother carrying her head about the same son brother, one breath ran to the town hospital, the road shoes lost are not aware.

That was when my mother's cold legs fell down. To this day, whenever it rains or cloudy, my mother beats her knees with her fists. Later, every time he talked about that day, brother Liangzi's eyes were red.

That year, hailstones, square garden several kilometers of crops destroyed. You look at the tree trunks broken by the hailstones and the fruits scattered all over the garden, and then you have to repair the orchard and plant beans between the tree stands.

In 1990, when I was 15 years old, the contract on my family's garden expired, and someone gave the village head a gift. In addition, my stepfather was an outsider, so the village gave the orchard to someone else. My stepfather was so angry that he could not eat for several days. During that time, my stepfather and mother often sighed at night. Without the orchard, my stepfather bought a few sheep from the market and tended the sheep while farming. Although his life was not as rich as before, it was bearable.

In the winter of 1991, while tending sheep on the back hill, my stepfather accidentally fell and broke his arm. To the county hospital to take CT, unexpectedly in the stepfather arm fracture found cancer cells, the doctor said that this disease is caused by long-term exposure to pesticide infection. My mother regretted all those years when my stepfather carried a bucket of medicine to spray medicine for the tree and sometimes didn't even wear a shirt on a hot day. An operation to remove the diseased bone and replace it with a rib was not enough to keep my stepfather alive, and by the next year's harvest he was gone.

Stepfather's death, let my heart suddenly empty a lot. I knew that my stepfather's illness had eaten up our family savings, and my mother would not be able to afford both of us to study at the same time. I was worried that once he was admitted to college, my mother would definitely ask me to leave school. I knew my mother well and she could make such a decision.

However, it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. The second day after the college entrance examination, liangzi brother left a letter of gua to his mother and went to work in the provincial capital. In the letter, he said he only took the gaokao to prove his own strength. Without his father, it was his responsibility to support the family. He also said, sister, you must study hard, brother is willing to pay for you to finish university......

Liangzi brother's college entrance examination result is 16 points higher than the admission score line, the score down that time, the mother went crazy everywhere to inquire about Liangzi brother's whereabouts, but also went to the provincial capital by car, all the construction sites in the provincial capital, still could not find him. In the end, all this became the mother of the rest of her life forever guilt.

three

In the fall of 1993, I was admitted to Nankai University.

One afternoon in early winter, when I came back from reading in the library, my roommate told me that my mother had asked a fellow villager to bring me winter clothes. When she opened the bag, she found a pair of woolen trousers and a brand-new down jacket inside. Feeling the down jacket, Du Mei, who was sleeping on my upper bunk, exclaimed, "Oh, Shu Min, your mother is really willing to spend money. The down jacket is really down!" I asked the people who delivered the clothes, and they said they had already left. I listened for a long time without a word. I know, this down jacket must be liangzi brother bought, at that time, down jacket just fashionable, the price is very expensive, let alone students, is the general work people wear this thing is also very few. Du Mei said, you come to ask this to ask that, looks very concerned about you. I said, that's not my countryman, that's my brother. She said why did he say you were a countryman? I bit my lip and tears welled up in my eyes.

In the second year of my study in Tianjin, my brother got married to a girl from our village and gave birth to my nephew, Xiao Qiang. After graduation, I moved to the county seat, got married and had a child. Brother Liangzi was working in a construction site not far from me.

Unit of early winter day in 2004, I was finishing statements, suddenly got a call from the sister-in-law, sister-in-law cried and told me, brother yoshiko built in to the new building exterior wall paint, tied to the scaffold of the wire off the hook, yoshiko elder brother and another worker high fell off the shelf from the third floor, are on the way to the third people's hospital at the moment.

I threw away what I had in hand and ran out to take a taxi to the third hospital. At the door of the emergency room, I ran into two people from the same village. They were carrying Liangzi brother from the car. Hearing my cry, brother Liangzi tried to open his eyes and mumbled: "Sister, if something bad happens to brother, mother and your nephew will be yours!" My lips trembled, I could not speak, and tears streamed down my face.

My brother broke his left leg and two ribs, one of which went into his lung. I stood outside the door for more than six hours, distractedly. When the doctor came out to tell me that the patient was out of danger, I suddenly gave way and fell to the ground.

It had never occurred to me before that this person, with whom I have no biological connection, would be so important in my life. At that moment, I suddenly knew that 18 years ago, when he shaded his body from the hail, my life was destined to be with him again.

People say that blood is thicker than water, however, thicker than blood, is this kind of life and death interdependent family. There is a kind of feeling, called dependent on each other, it is the closest to happiness, and will not be broken, it is a kind of enduring mutual penetration, is a kind of warmth into each other's lives.