The last miner’s lamp in the small coal kiln Miner’s lamp

With the harsh sound of chirping, Erwa poked his head out of the cave, dragging a basket full of shiny coals behind him. He straightened up and poured the coal from the two-meter-high ridge into the trough of the donkey cart on the roadside. Then he took a deep breath of the icy cold air. With his slim body naked, he walked down the steps and ran to the window of the small house on the roadside. Get a bamboo stick, then go up the mountain, carry the basket and go into the cave.

This lane is an old cave. The dome is made of intertwined rocks of various colors, with a ferocious appearance, like a man-eating monster. At the end of the cave, there is a mine that goes straight up and down and is lifted by a windlass to produce high-quality anthracite coal. There is no electricity in the small coal kiln, and the animals cannot turn around in the cave. Therefore, the output is limited and there are not many employees, so extraction is all done manually. There are two things that have something to do with modern civilization. One is a single rail and a piece of steel placed under a wicker basket, and the other is the miner's lamp that Erwa longs for.

Miner's lamps can only be worn by adults who go down into the mine. There are only twelve miner's lamps in small coal mines, and they are not allowed to be worn out of the cave. The miners wear camouflage uniforms, fasten batteries in the holes, and wear safety helmets with miner's lamps hanging on them. They look majestic. The lamp post emitted by the miner's lamp looks like a sharp sword piercing the front, like the sunlight breaking through the dark clouds and revealing the gap, and like the light shining from the sky deep in the dense forest, it is particularly dazzling and beautiful. Whenever a miner's lamp passes by in the cave, each lantern hung twenty meters apart in the cave suddenly dims. Thirty-two lanterns are not as bright as one miner's lamp.

The small coal kiln can produce more than 20 tons of coal every day. Earn fifty yuan by plowing a ton of coal. Using a windlass to lift a ton of coal from the pit costs five yuan. Pulling a ton of coal out of the hole costs two yuan. It costs ten yuan to transport a ton of coal down the mountain in a donkey cart. A four-wheel tractor delivers a ton of coal to the mountains for 25 yuan. Comparing time and again, nothing can earn more than wearing a miner's lamp. You can earn hundreds of yuan by digging coal in a well for a day, and your monthly income is at least 3,000 yuan. If you work for two months, you can earn more than one year for farmers. The miners eat first at noon, and the leftover vegetable soup is eaten by the people in the well.

So in small coal mines, the miner's lamp is the dawn, the hope of happiness, and the symbol of wealth.

The second baby wanted to wear a miner's lamp and go down the mine, but he was still young, only twelve years old during the Chinese New Year. He carried his mother on his back to work part-time in a small coal mine in Beishan, hoping to share some of the hard work with his mother. When the second child was six years old, his father died of illness. It was his mother who took care of his older brothers and sisters, and also had to take care of his seventy-year-old grandparents. Early last year, my mother was busy from spring to autumn with her back to the earth and her back to the sky. The harvest on several slopes on the hillock was not good. My sister and my mother went to the city to sell red dates, walnuts and persimmons to raise tuition for my brother who went to college in the provincial capital. My brother is also working as a tutor for others, so he cannot go home to celebrate the New Year because of the round trip cost of more than 100 yuan. The second son was exempted from paying tuition and books when he entered the fourth grade. However, the whole family was busy making a living, and he also had to do some things. He couldn't help much, so his biggest wish was for the whole family to spend the Chinese New Year in peace and harmony. He is an upright man and never regards himself as a child. Since he is a man, he must earn money to share her mother's worries. If you want to do well in school, you should wear a miner's lamp and earn three thousand yuan a month for your mother.

The village distributes trees and fruit trees on the mountain to each household. Erwa’s family doesn’t have many fruit trees. They only have pine trees sown by plane forty or fifty years ago. There is no money now. Neither the Lin family nor the Shan family is a wealthy family. Whichever family has more fruit trees will live a prosperous life. However, the two hills surrounding the village chief's house not only have few trees, but also few fruit trees. From a distance, they are covered with rocks. Beishan is a barren mountain, and there are scorpions and poisonous snakes hidden in the caves on the mountain. The village chief's two precious sons, Dashengzi and Xueming, had very lively minds, but they let their father leave two bald hills to their family. It turns out that there is coal buried in the caves of Beishan. Because the reserves are not high and have little economic value, few people used to pay attention to it. Now the market price of anthracite has soared to 2,000 yuan per ton, and demand exceeds supply. Dashengzi and Xueming set their sights on Beishan, and persuaded their father to get Beishan who couldn't win. They were so bold that they opened a coal mine as soon as the road was built to accommodate the donkey cart, and they became rich within a year. The two elder brothers did not forget their fellow villagers and hired two old miners with just money from outside. If any family in the village had difficulties, they could go up to the mountains and work as miners to earn money to support their families.

Xiaoya is the daughter of the village chief, the sister of Dashengzi and Xueming, and the classmate of Erwa. Although Dashengzi and Xueming are always so oily and well-dressed, wearing suits and ties, they still have to give way to the most beautiful sister in the village in everything. The two brothers were not good at studies and failed to get into college several times. The village chief's family pointed out that Xiaoya was just a facade and a college student, but Xiaoya was really working hard. Erwa went to work part-time in a coal mine because Xiaoya begged for help. I worked for more than a month during the summer vacation and earned more than 200 yuan. After honoring my grandparents, I also bought two science fiction books for Xiaoya, so Xiaoya asked her brother to make room for the second baby during the winter vacation.

Xiaoya knew that her brother liked Erwa's Hu Jin very much, and the old miner hired out also doted on Erwa, especially the gray-haired Master Wang who loved Erwa even more. When they are out of school, Master Wang often waits by the roadside. When he sees the second baby, he hugs and kisses her so much that Xiaoya is particularly jealous. In terms of height, the second baby is one head shorter than her; in terms of looks, she is one of the best. She lives in a foreign-style building, uses a computer, and plays the piano. What does the second child have? Even the clothes she wears are old clothes donated by city residents for poverty alleviation. She eats sweet potatoes and pickles all day long, and is as thin as a hemp stalk. It just depends on how well Erwa studies and is sweet-tongued. Otherwise, Xiaoya would ignore him! In school, Xiaoya is the captain of the brigade, Erwa is the squadron leader, Xiaoya is the leader of the class, and Erwa is her. His study committee member. Xiaoya is the leader of the second baby, and she is still the older sister regardless of her age, but the second baby is loved wherever she goes, unlike the proud princess Xiaoya who is disliked by others. Angry as hell, to be honest, Xiaoya also likes Erwa.

As for the idea of ??Erwa wearing a miner’s lamp, Xiaoya was the most opposed to it. Her face, which looked like the moon on August 15th, turned red, and her bright round eyes glanced at her: "You are no taller than a shovel when you stand, and it is illegal to work part-time. I hope you study hard and go to junior high school, high school and college. , we can still be in the same class, and we will all work in the city in the future."

Erwa does not have the ambition of Kunpeng to spread his wings, let alone the ambition to shine through the ages. His only ideal is to let his mother and grandparents live a good life. The days will no longer be filled with hardships, and we will no longer endure hunger and cold. He longs to build two plastic greenhouses on the slopes of the hillside so that he can grow vegetables, crops and fruits all year round. His mother controls the growth of crops in the greenhouses through a computer at home and sells fresh vegetables and fruits online. Then my mother can avoid the wind and sun, and she will be as fair and beautiful as the little girl. His dreams and hopes must be realized by wearing a miner's lamp and obtained by hard work, but he still has to wait until he is eighteen years old. He clapped his fingers at Xiaoya and said: "I have to wait seven years, the flowers bloom seven times, the leaves fall seven times, the hens that lay eggs change three times, and the puppies they raise become old dogs. My family is too poor, and my mother is too tired. , I can’t wait seven years. Sister Xiaoya, please intercede with Brother Dasheng and Brother Xueming and let me be a miner!”

“No, it can’t be done!” The little girl pursed her lips so hard that she poked Erwa a few times with her white and tender little chubby hands, "I won't let you wear a miner's lamp. If you think the miner's lamp is fun, I'll give you a big electric stick - a big electric stick with five batteries. , you take care of me, I take care of you, that’s so fun.”

Erwa had to say shamelessly: “I just like miner’s lamp, I won’t lie, you want to play with me when I get rich.” Anything is fine."

"I won't!" Xiaoya pressed her face against Erwa's ear and shouted, "Don't ever think about it. From now on, you will study with me, and you are not allowed to wear a miner's lamp."

Probably because of Xiaoya’s strong opposition, Dashengzi and Xuemingge issued a strict order: No one without a helmet is allowed to go down the well, otherwise their work will be in vain. They leave immediately and are never allowed to step into the coal mine.

However, Erwa had worn a miner’s lamp, and when it was time to finish work, Uncle Wang put the helmet on his head and tied the battery. Erwa ran back and forth in the cave for several times with joy. Laughter like silver bells resounded throughout the cave. Even the man shaking the windlass still wouldn't let him go down the well to have a look, and Uncle Wang wouldn't let him either. Therefore, the underground world seems very mysterious, and I don't know if there are scorpions, poisonous snakes, or more ferocious animals hidden in the dark well.