Storytellers and long childhoods

Every day on the way to work, I can meet a master who plays saxophone, he blows better and better, intermittently, and already has a melody. You can also meet an aunt who plays Tai Chi sword, and one move and one style are very powerful. If there is no particularly large sun, there will be a running uncle who does not look like he has reached retirement age.

These vivid contemporary retirement atlases make me update my retirement plans several times a day.

When I get to the workstation, I think of some of the grandparents I played with when I was a child, and they always sat in front of their own door or gathered in front of a certain house. As I walked by, they would beckon me in the door, and then take out the watermelon blown under the electric fan from the rice cover, or take the oil mound that had just been made from the greasy cupboard, and without chopsticks, grab it in their hands and hand it to me. I ate a lot of oil, and Grandma washed me and sent me home. Some grandfathers drank a little wine at dinner and began to talk a lot, pulling a lot of things, one moment saying that they wanted to go to a good university, one moment saying that they wanted to find a good boy, and the next moment reminiscing about their past... Living to be sixty or seventy years old, there is so much to talk about. I listened to half and forgot half, only remembering that there was a grandfather who made a bamboo dragonfly that was beautiful.

Today I want to write about Grandpa Cow.

01

When I was a child, there was that kind of dirt road, very narrow, and you had to wear rain boots when it rained. On both sides of such a narrow dirt road, everyone also has to put on the kind of big stones that can be used as seats, most of those big stones are left after building the house, originally I don't know who only put one or two pieces, and then everyone followed more and more, these big stones became flat and smooth after thousands of butts "polished", and then everyone added wooden planks to the big stones, so more and more people came to sit. Grandpa Niu is definitely the number one contributor to "polishing" the big stone, and it is half a day to sit on the big rock with a few of our children, because the story of Grandpa Niu is so wonderful!

The stories of Grandpa Niu are all cow ghosts and snake gods, mixed with some ancient myths. Later, I read a little book, and I learned that many of Grandpa Niu's stories were in "Liaozhai", Nie Xiaoqian, Ning Caichen, and Xin Fourteen Niang. Listening to grandpa cow's story at night did not dare to sleep by himself, always wondering if there was really a hades world, sleeping at night whether there was a fox turned into a beautiful woman quietly lying next to me, and then shivering, plunging into grandma's arms, but the next day still couldn't help but listen.

02

I don't know if my memory is right, the memory of Grandpa Cow is always wearing very, very loose clothes, stepping on a pair of cloth shoes, the heel is usually worn out, no hair, or I don't think the few white hairs that grow randomly from the back of the head are hair, on crutches, when he tells stories, his crutches are always held by a few naughty boys in their hands, and he does not stop. I remember that Grandpa Niu didn't drink water when he told the story, and I can't remember the end of his story, but I remember that he would say after he finished speaking: "Go home for dinner." "Then the little boy took the crutch in his hand and swallowed a cigarette slowly, and we all scattered, and he sat alone for a while.

We have listened to the story of Grandpa Niu for several years, heard that everyone has gone to school, and there are new and better stories to listen to. Grandpa Cow is also old and really has no hair. The big rocks we sat on together turned into small pieces with the demolition of the old house, and the original friends were busy with their own business. We haven't seen each other in a long, long time. Are there a new batch of children? Will a new group of children run over to listen to Grandpa Cow tell the story of demons and ghosts, and will there be a new group of children who will not dare to sleep at night because they are afraid of the fox spirit climbing into bed? I don't even know.

Later, I heard my grandmother say that in fact, we should not be called "Grandpa Cow", Grandpa Niu's generation is older than his ancestors, it should be the ancestors of the ancestors, but for so many years, he did not care about the matter of generational division.

03

A few years ago, my grandmother went to Grandpa Cow's funeral and came back to ask if I remember Grandpa Cow, who told stories to our children when I was a child. I said remember. Grandma said that you had been pestering Grandpa Niu to tell stories, sitting on the big rock for a long time and not coming back, and now he is gone. I don't ring.

When I was reading, the teacher used Mr. Guo Moruo's words to evaluate Mr. Pu Songling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi" - writing ghosts and writing demons is superior to people, and stabbing greed and stabbing into the bone. I think of Grandpa Cow and the long childhood of listening to Grandpa Cow's stories, and I feel very lucky and grateful.

Grandpa Niu was talking about demons and ghosts, and he said that good people will not become ghosts, and even if they become ghosts, they are also good ghosts, ghosts who cannot make trouble, ghosts that can help people. He also said that good people should not be afraid when they walk on the road at night, and ghosts will go around. I don't know where Grandpa Cow went, or if anyone was with him, but I think Grandpa Cow should not be afraid wherever he goes, because he is a really good person.

Now, I have passed the age of pestering Grandpa Niu to tell stories, and gradually become a storyteller, of course, my story is not as good as Grandpa Niu's, but sometimes what I write will be said by others to be "very storytelling", I think this time Grandpa Niu is helping me.