Since the master stood up for me and became angry in front of Director Tong, in the next few days, the master's cold and awkward face made the entire insurance class feel in panic. Fatty Zhang lowered his head and lowered his eyes, and Xiao Li was like an eggplant made by frost. Without the spirit of the past, I could finally raise my head and raise my chest, and no one would tease me for the embarrassing thing about "eating milk".

During the lunch break that day, Senior Brother Xiao Cai secretly called me out and whispered in my ear on the asphalt road outside the workshop: "My master Zhang Fatty Man asked me to tell you that he followed Xiao Li to tease you that day, and he was stunned for a moment. I hope you master and apprentice can forgive him."

"Fatty Zhang wants to apologize. Why don't he say it himself and ask you to pass the message from the middle?" I glanced at him with a little dissatisfaction.

Senior Brother Xiao Cai looked at me and was a little gloating: "Aren't he afraid?"

"Are he afraid of me or the master?" I felt unhappy and teased.

"Of course I'm afraid of your master. Can he be afraid of you?" Senior Brother Xiao Cai laughed.

"Hmph—then he doesn't really want to apologize." I snorted and said to Senior Brother Xiao Cai, "As long as he no longer bullies people, my master and I will not provoke him, but I have to remember this for the rest of my life!"

When I got off work in the evening, I was packing up my tools. The master suddenly turned his body and asked me: "What do you do when you go back every night?"

I don’t know what the master meant. Of course, I couldn’t say that I was lying on the bed bored and thinking about the beauty. I stammered and said that I had been tired for a day and hurried to go to bed after dinner.

The master looked at me with his eyes curled for a moment before saying, "I told you last time that people need not only courage but also talent. Only with talent can they have more courage to live."

"But... I have only been in junior high school for a year and a half, and I have been chaotic with Wei Yanjing at school. What kind of talent can I have?" I looked at the master and said in frustration.

To be honest, from the beginning of elementary school to junior high school, except for the recognition of some words, the Chinese textbooks are filled with various quotations and slogans, and there are almost no decent literary works.

The master opened his locker and took out an old book without a cover and handed it over: "Whether you have talent or not depends on how much you go to school, there was a great writer Gorky in the Soviet Union, who had never attended much. He wrote a book called "My University", which was about his experience of studying in suffering and studying in social colleges. Your current environment is much better than him. If you have nothing to do, you can read more. It can not only relieve you of boredom, but also let you know a lot of things and live a fun life."

The master's words made me feel ashamed. Actually, I love reading very much, but at that time, I couldn't even solve the problem of food and clothing in the countryside. Which family had the spare money to buy books for their children? Apart from stealing half of the broken "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" in school, I have not read a literary work seriously yet.

"This is a novel, war-torn story, it's very good. Take it back and flip it out at night." The master looked at my eyes and enlightened.

"Well, I remember." I took the master's book and nodded seriously.

The master smiled and said lightly: "First look at such literary books, and then develop the habit of liking reading, and then slowly read some other types of books. You can't just sleep at such a young age."

I put the novel into an old electrician bag and followed the master to the bathroom with towels and soap.

The spring scenery was already deep, and the evening breeze became refreshing and warm. Walking under the sycamore tree with lush spring leaves, a group of small mobility blockers followed us and whispered. I heard that they were talking about me and my master. I couldn't help but look back and glanced at me. The girls immediately lowered their heads and giggled shyly.

"Hello." A girl with a big forehead with dark skin did not avoid my gaze, but greeted her friendly.

"Hey-Hello." The first time a girl took the initiative to chat with me, I suddenly blushed.

These girls were also apprentices who had just entered the factory. When they heard my conversation with my big forehead, they also raised their heads one after another. In the pair of autumn eyes, I quickly turned my face with blushing.

"The orioles are singing in the river island. A beautiful lady is a gentleman." The master glanced at me jokingly and said casually to the blue sky.

"Master, what does this mean?" I was a little embarrassed by the master's smile, and I didn't know what he was saying, so I asked embarrassedly.

"I read the sentences in the Book of Songs, which describe your current situation." The master explained as he walked.

"What is the Book of Songs? How can it write to me?" I felt a little confused after hearing what the master said.

"This "Book of Songs" is the first collection of poems in our Chinese history, which describes the love between men and women and the beauty of women in large quantities." The master did not laugh at me, but continued to explain seriously.

"Not...isn't a rogue poem? It's a bourgeois thing." I felt a little trembling in my heart and couldn't help asking.

"Thousands of years ago, what bourgeoisie was there? There was never a truly mature bourgeoisie in China." The master was a little amused by my childishness and ridiculousness. "Love is the most beautiful emotion of mankind, an ancient and always new theme in literature. Love poems are the artistic crystallization of this beautiful emotion. This love poem in the Book of Songs is particularly free and lively, and truly conveys the love and longing between boys and girls."

"Master, have you...have you ever had such love?" I couldn't stop asking when I saw the master speak vividly and vividly.

"I..." The master's voice suddenly broke, and a trace of melancholy light flashed in his eyes as bright as a lake, "It's considered that it's true, but unfortunately I lost it in the end."

"She... can she be as beautiful as Yin Hong?" I blurted out without thinking about it.

"What did you say? Yin Hong...they should be differently beautiful." The master didn't care about my abruptness. He thought for a moment and replied seriously.

"What are you talking about me?" Before the master finished speaking, a tactful female voice rang behind him.

The master and I quickly looked back and saw a beautiful face filled with a faint smile, and a pair of clear big eyes staring at us.

"Qinghong." The master was a little surprised and his face turned slightly red.

"What are you talking about me?" Yin Hong smiled cleverly and looked at us with interest.

"Sister Hong, we say you are handsome and like a fairy." In that seductive gaze, my heart accelerated the rhythm.

"I didn't say it." After hearing my praise, the master was busy trying to defend himself.

"Then do you think I'm ugly?" Yin Hong stared at the master a little reluctantly.

"I don't dislike it..." The master's eyes were a little distracted. This was the first time I saw the master panic. I felt very interesting for a moment. Yin Hong and I couldn't help but feel happy.

That night, I went back to the guesthouse where I lived. I was busy eating pancakes. After washing up, I pulled the incandescent lamp that was originally on the table to the head of the bed with a rope, and lay in the quilt, ready to read the novel lent to me by the master.

This book is very broken, with thick kraft paper on the cover. It is a contemporary Soviet novel. It tells the story of a Red Army scout who took a submarine to investigate in the enemy's rear. Under the siege of the enemy, he finally completed the mission successfully and returned to the rear safely. The thrilling plot of the novel attracted me from the beginning. I read it hungrily, and until the sound of rooster crowing in the village outside the north wall was faintly heard. If I hadn't been afraid of being late for work the next day, I would have wished I could have read it all night and finished it in one breath.

This is the first literary work I have read in my life. This distant and strange legend has almost nothing to do with my life, but I feel the suffering of mankind and the beauty of life from these worlds composed of words. Many years later, I saw a reporter's interview with the writer Mr. Chen Zhongshi in an exclusive interview with TV characters. He said that when he was grazing sheep on the White Deer Plain, after watching Shaulokhov's "Quiet Don River", he imagined the Wei River at the doorstep as a quiet flowing Don River, and he also became those Cossacks riding tall horses and charging with swords "Ula-Ula-" waving the sword. The power of literature not only makes people grow the courage to live, but also brings people a longing for the future.

The name of this novel once puzzled me for a long time. Until I was on a business trip to Beijing in 2010, I met it again in a frivolous market in Panjiayuan. When I held the cover of this book, yellowed and crisp, published by Beijing Dazhong Publishing House and covered with the blue seal of the xx agency library, I suddenly felt unspeakable as if I had met my loved ones who had been separated for many years. The smart boss who was good at observing words and saw an old man in his fifties holding a thin booklet and moving expression, and the price was 150 yuan, so I took out my pocket without hesitation and bought it directly.

When I went to work the next day, I was still thinking about the plot that I had not finished reading later. During the lunch break, I couldn't help chatting with Senior Brother Xiao Cai about the stories in the book, and my story moved him. Senior Brother Xiao Cai begged me to lend it to him after I finished reading it. I was afraid that the master would blame me if he knew it, but I couldn't resist his hard work, so I finally agreed secretly. Since then, whenever I read any interesting book, I would lend it to him. After reading it, the two would whisper and communicate secretly.

I don’t know if the master discovered it later, but he did not give me any advice. Because of studying, my relationship with Senior Brother Xiao Cai was one step closer, and our friendship became even more magnetized. We have maintained this innocent friendship until today.
Chapter completed!