一百分
Full marks
Name: ________________ Date: ________
三点整，对面小屋的门开了。一个穿军大衣的人拿着保温杯，慢慢走过空空的马路，嘴里呼出一团一团的白气。
自动门开了。“欢迎光临！”这一次，我比门早了一秒。
饭团爷爷看见我，一点也不吃惊：“今天没有送货车，我知道。”他看了看窗前的白师傅，白师傅朝他眨了眨眼。
黄姐站起来，打开饼干盒，眼睛一下子红了：“十二年，原来是您。”
爷爷看着那一盒纸条，好像在看一大堆学生的作业。他走到热水机前，像平时一样，把保温杯倒满热水，才慢慢开口：
“那年我刚退休，舍不得学校，就留下来看大门。一个人坐在小屋里，一夜一夜睡不着。整条街都黑了，只剩你们这儿还亮着。我就想，对面还有人醒着，这一夜就不算太长。”
他从口袋里拿出一支笔，在收银台上找了一张小票，翻过来，用很大的字写了三个字，压在零钱盒下面：
“一百分。”
我问他，这一百分是给谁的。他看看我，又看看黄姐：“给你们俩。她让这儿亮了十二年，你今天终于比门早了。”
黄姐愣了一下，接着叫了起来：“我当年最高才六十分！”大家都笑了，连小梅也笑出了声。黄姐一边笑一边擦眼泪。
早上七点，天亮了。白师傅开车把爷爷送回了对面，虽然一共才二十米。我们关了灯，锁好门，摘下了“一直在”的招牌。
一月的一个凌晨，我又睡不着了。我去斜对面的无人便利店，买了两个饭团，第二个半价。门很客气地说：“欢迎光临。”店里没有人，我也就没说话。
我穿过马路，敲了敲小屋的窗户。爷爷拉开门，看了看我手里的饭团，笑了。
他说：“欢迎光临。”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 秒 | miǎo | second (unit of time or angle) |
| 吃惊 | chījīng | to be surprised; to be startled |
| 窗 | chuāng | window |
| 师傅 | shīfu | (polite) form of address for a driver or tradesman |
| 饼干 | bǐnggān | cookie; cracker; biscuit |
| 满 | mǎn | full; filled |
| 整 | zhěng | exactly; sharp (as in 十点整) |
| 剩 | shèng | to remain; to be left over |
| 亮 | liàng | bright; shiny; to shine; to light up |
| 对面 | duìmiàn | the other side; opponent |
| 醒 | xǐng | to wake up |
| 压 | yā | to press; to push down; pressure (as in 压力) |
English (for the teacher)
At three on the dot, the door of the hut across the road opened. A man in an army greatcoat, holding a thermos, walked slowly across the empty road, breathing out puff after puff of white.
The automatic door opened. “Welcome!” This time, I beat the door by a second.
Rice Ball Grandpa saw me and wasn’t the least bit surprised: “No van tonight. I know.” He looked at Master Bai by the window, and Master Bai winked at him.
Sister Huang stood up and opened the biscuit tin, and her eyes went red: “Twelve years. So it was you.”
Grandpa looked at the tin of notes as if it were a great pile of pupils’ homework. He went over to the hot-water machine, filled his thermos as he always did, and only then began, slowly:
“The year I retired, I couldn’t bear to leave the school, so I stayed on to guard the gate. I sat alone in that hut, night after night, unable to sleep. The whole street was dark, and only your place was still lit. I thought, there’s someone awake over the road, so the night won’t be so long.”
He took a pen from his pocket, found a receipt on the counter, turned it over, wrote three big characters on it and tucked it under the coin tray:
“A hundred.”
I asked him who the hundred was for. He looked at me, then at Sister Huang: “For both of you. She kept this place lit for twelve years, and tonight you finally beat the door.”
Sister Huang froze for a moment, then cried out: “The most I ever got was sixty!” Everyone laughed, even Xiaomei laughed out loud. Sister Huang laughed and wiped her eyes at the same time.
At seven in the morning, it got light. Master Bai drove Grandpa back across the road, even though it was only twenty metres. We turned off the lights, locked the door, and took down the “Always Here” sign.
Early one morning in January, I couldn’t sleep again. I went to the unstaffed shop across the road and bought two rice balls, second one half price. The door said very politely: “Welcome.” There was nobody in the shop, so I didn’t say anything.
I crossed the road and knocked on the window of the hut. Grandpa opened the door, looked at the rice balls in my hand, and smiled.
He said: “Welcome.”