There is an apricot tree in the courtyard of the big bride

The eldest lady knew that I was particularly fond of eating the apricots on this tree, and whenever the apricots were ripe, she always told me to climb up the tree and pick the sour and sweet ripe apricots. (ICphoto/Photo)

The eldest lady's house has an old almond tree, in the middle of the yard.

The old apricot branches are luxuriant, the branches are curved, the old branches are brownish black, the branches are wrinkled, and the cracks look irregular, but in fact it is very regular. The new branches are translucent green, crystal clear, fresh and tender, and the leaves are dense, like a big umbrella.

When this apricot tree was planted and who planted it here, almost no one knows, nor can it be verified. According to the eldest bride, when their family built this yard, they had this tree. It is precisely because this tree grows beautifully that they chose this place when they built the yard, which can be said to be built around this tree.

There are few apricot trees in Gangnam, and at first we didn't know what kind of tree it was, but we just thought it was good and cute. The southern yard is particular about plants, elm trees, mulberry trees, such as trees, can not be planted in the courtyard, but the big mother's family believes that this tree is not a taboo tree. When building the yard, the trunk of this tree is already high, and the general trees in the southern yard cannot exceed the roof ridge, the so-called tree is a big wind, and no one wants this. I heard the eldest lady say that this apricot tree they have been pruning, never let it over the roof ridge.

In spring, summer and autumn, in addition to heavy rain, the family basically eats three meals a day under the tree. In the summer, this is also a good place for the villagers to cool off, because this old apricot village, coupled with the personal charm of the big bride, has gathered a lot of popularity under the old apricot tree.

The eldest bride was born in a large family, a beautiful person, a typical Jiangnan woman's face, delicate breath with aura, able to speak the Tao, do things sharply, wrap their small feet all day, smaller than the southern rice dumplings. When she washes her feet, she is not afraid of us children to see, sometimes let us help her undo the shroud, we look at her little feet, very curious, ask long questions and short questions, she always tirelessly talks about the past of her feet wrapping when she was young. She said that in their time, all girls of some social status generally had to wrap their feet, and foot binding was a very painful thing, and when girls were growing their bodies, in order not to let their feet grow, they had to wrap their feet layer by layer with a long shroud, so that the blood was not clear, and the pain was unimaginable. The wrapped little feet are often inflamed and pusy, and they are not good, and they will waste their feet.

Born in Suzhou, the eldest bride was well educated when she was a child, had seen the world, knew the book, and spoke with a bit of elegance. The reason why I married my uncle and was taken to live in the countryside is because my uncle learned martial arts when he was young, had a good kung fu, and worked as a "buddy" in her family for a long time, often playing with her, coming and going, eyebrows. At that time, the eldest lady ignored the opposition of her family and insisted on following the uncle who was seven or eight years older than him, and she would rather suffer hardships and marry love. The family had no way, and they were afraid that she would suffer hardships with the uncle, so they prepared enough "coiling" and dowry for her, so they had the money to build this yard. Her family's yard is really well repaired, in the countryside is like a "Western scenery", in fact, it is a typical Jiangnan courtyard, green brick tiles, horse head wall, sitting north to south, antique, carved beams and paintings are very chic.

When I was young, I liked to stay in the big mother's house, her children have grown up, rarely around her, I like her very much, she often teaches me to read and read; her family is lively, often full of high friends, the big lady has an otherworldly temperament and a person, ten miles and eight townships are obedient to the big lady. Whoever has a difficulty, as long as the eldest bride comes forward, the quasi-guarantee can be solved smoothly, the eldest bride is also worried, and she knows all about the short things of the Zhang parents Li family. For example, if there is a quarrel between the two sons of the family and any contradiction between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, she will invite them to this old almond tree and make some persuasion bitterly, until the misunderstanding and estrangement between them is eliminated, and the eldest lady will send them away.

The eldest lady also knows some medical techniques, and her children's headaches and fevers have never been to the hospital, and they are all treated by the eldest mother herself. Children from all over the neighborhood have a "small exquisite", and they will also go to the apricot tree to let the eldest bride see, and small problems will often be removed by hand. When I was young, my tonsils were often inflamed, I had never taken medicine and injected, and whenever I started, I would go under the apricot tree and sit down on a small chair, and the eldest lady would rub it with her slender fingers for half an hour, and the lump would disappear. When rubbing, the eldest lady always asked me in Wu Nong's soft language, how did I accidentally get cold again, was it not honest to kick the quilt when sleeping, the baby has grown up, to learn to take care of himself, to get up at night to pee to put on clothes, usually do not drink cold water, do not eat cold things... The eldest bride's words always sound so heartwarming.

The eldest lady knows that I especially love to eat the apricots on this tree, whenever the apricots are ripe, always tell me to climb up the tree to pick those sour and sweet ripe apricots, and then she washes them before letting me eat, seeing that the apricots she picked are very tempting, I can't help but rub it with my sleeve and stuff it into my mouth, the eldest lady will immediately stop it after seeing it, saying that it can't be like this, the apricots just picked are blown by the wind and the sun, the flies and insects are stung, and if you don't wash and eat, you will get sick, and the illness makes the big lady feel more painful.

That year, it was the time when the apricot blossoms were blooming, it was the rainy season in my hometown, but there were several torrential rains, which knocked the apricot blossoms to the ground, and the eldest lady looked at the mud on the ground and said to me, Baby you can't eat apricots this year. Sure enough, not a single apricot had a fruit that year. Not only that, but who knows this is a bad omen.

One day, my mother woke me up from my sleep and dragged me to the courtyard of my mother's house, and the scene in front of me stunned me. The eldest lady was tied up, kneeling on her knees under the apricot tree, her head was a hat made of newspaper paste, her body was plastered with notes written in red ink, and someone was holding a stick in her hand, pointing at the eldest lady and shouting: "Fight you capitalist lady..." At that time, when I was six or seven years old, I firmly believed that the eldest lady was a good person, not what they said. I went forward to push them away, hugged the eldest bride and shouted, "My eldest bride is a good person, you are not allowed to bully my eldest bride!" "Because of my hustle and bustle, the criticism fight will end hastily, and the people watching the liveliness will soon disperse."

After that, the eldest bride had a serious illness and was bedridden. The big lady's yard is no longer as lively as before, I will come to talk to her every day after school, and the big lady is very happy to see me every time.

One day, I was called out of school by my mother and brought to the eldest bride, at this time the eldest bride was dying, and the mother told her loudly that I was coming, only to see the eldest bride open her eyes with difficulty, a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, and then she closed her eyes.

In the spring of the second year after the eldest bride's death, the apricot tree did not sprout, and in the third and fourth years, it did not germinate, and it died. But in my memory, the apricot tree of the eldest mother's family has always been alive, red apricot branches, green leaves like umbrellas.

Zhao Anhua