Mother has been away from us for more than thirty years. She did not leave material wealth to her sons, but left many golden sayings that nourished her family.
As soon as the mother's embroidery mouth opened, it was half of the spring and autumn of the family. One of the sentences was highly praised by everyone: The eldest son was the first knife I sharpened. The knife is sharpened, and the back can be illuminated on the handle.
The metaphor of the mother is somewhat incompatible with the language expression habits of that era. In that era, "sharpening the knife" often referred to the movements made by the "class enemies", who "ye jiaogen was rotten and immortal", always thinking of counter-offensive reckoning. Therefore, with the heart of an innocent teenager, we will also erect an ear in our sleep, vigilantly searching for the sound of the enemy".
In any case, the metaphor of "sharpening the knife" to raise children is contrary to the times, but there is no sense of harmony with the mother's heart.
The mother's way of thinking and expression ability are often extraordinary. More importantly, after getting married, the mother has experienced the hardships of life and the cold of the world. From the pearl in the palm of a solid family, the housewife who is lonely as a family disciple, and the mother of four children, it is completely "falling from the rice basket to the chaff". In the bumps of life, her youth and dignity of her life were shattered and desolate.
The dowry was consumed. All she can really call capital is her four sons! In her heart, four sons and four knives, she will rely on these four knives to open up the way forward. Cut the ropes of poverty, cut off the humility of life, cut off the worldly snobbish eyes, the ridicule attached to the patches of his father's coat...
The mother of the sharpened knife was very attentive, dipping tears in blood, dipping in heart springs, and dipping in sweat. Sleep and forget to eat, dipped in morning dew and night frost; night and day, dipped in moonlight like water.
She uses her insight to "sharpen the knife.". Interpret the lyrics in ancient dramas, the sayings in the folk proverbs, and the rumors of positive energy in the world. She is a folk soul engineer who can achieve the effect of high-level indoctrination on the Na Liang bamboo bed. Borrow the world's major events, talk about the world's reasoning and human feelings; from the national major events, look at the world's taoist people's hearts. In-depth and simple, big talk novel, she is a magic master who can tie a concentric knot between her sons.
She used her meager financial strength to "sharpen the knife." When I was in middle school, I was hungry. Every night after the night of self-study, I would let my brother go to the next two or two Yang Spring Noodles to supplement my nutrition. In the third year of junior high school, she asked the neighbor who was making baked cakes in the bakery opposite the school to add a baked cake to me at noon. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, she would always steam a small bowl of braised pork with red oil and red sauce while steaming steamed buns, as a special offer for her eldest son...
Mother saw the light of her sharpened knife. When I was fourteen years old, I published a pair of Spring Leagues in the Yangcheng Evening News; after graduating from high school, I drew "Go to Anyuan" in the town; and I was sent to the team for a month to publish "Lugou January" in the "Jiangsu Workers' Daily". Later, he published poems, novels, reviews, singing, one-act plays in the army... Until the National Excellent Script Award, "Pi Jiu Spicy Zi" Jinjing participated in the China Arts Festival. These achievements are not enough to hang on, but they can make the mother warm.
Somewhat helplessly, the cold sword shadow of the years covered the mother's sword light. The first was my relegation stinging her. When I was in high school, my studies were seriously biased, I had a special love for Chinese, and the red lights of mathematics, physics and chemistry were hung high, and I finally had to repeat the grade. Therefore, my mother felt that her world was "discolored by mountains and rivers, and the heavens and the earth were without light." The next two times, it was because of the dust of the times. That year, the mountains and the countryside were stormy. My family was already poor, and my mother expected me to be the first person to earn money to support the family, but she had to go to the countryside to join the team. This is tantamount to letting the mother see that the first knife has only sharpened a little light, and then abandoned it among the mosses, in the ruins. The mother cried so hard that she searched for death and life. Another time, I was unable to do my job in the army, I returned from demobilization, and I had no work arrangements for half a year, so I had to go to the motor factory on the other side of the river to help run the mimeographed "Dagan Express". Fortunately, at this time, the two younger brothers had jobs. Her mother's first knife failed to show its color, but finally harvested a cluster of burning sparks that could make her eyes warm.
I always thought that the sharpened knife cut iron like mud, but I didn't think that the soil under my feet was as hard as iron, and I couldn't insert a machete that my mother wanted to build. This kind of struggle process of "rain hitting peach blossoms without results" and "bamboo basket hitting water is empty", the fierceness of the spiritual struggle, the cruelty of spiritual suffering, cannot be described in words. The entanglement of day and night, the stimulation of every moment, the repeated tossing, in the memory has been reduced to the bubbles of the mother's mouth, the lips that have lost blood, the gray hair in the wind...
The mother finally succeeded. The first knife was not sharpened badly. When my name appeared on the screen of the newspaper, the Huangqiao people would say "Liu Chixin's eldest son" and "little aunt and grandmother's boss". In the present moment, people will greet a "hello, He Yuying". The luster of the first knife reflected the lives of the brothers. Years later, my mother's three sons became writers, had a family and a career that could comfort her mother, worldly happiness and less worldly spiritual enjoyment. In her story of sharpening her knife, the sons found that the spirit of her mother had been cast into steel and shone in the edge.
The mother of the sharpened knife is actually grinding a copper mirror. In the days of poverty, my mother's heart was not defeated, and her heart was still very strong. She wanted to look at herself, to see if the arrogant second girl of the He family who had never been married had fled into the wilderness; to see if the little aunt and grandmother, who although she was downcast, refused to admit defeat still had a day to emerge; she wanted to see the smile of her children and grandchildren when they were full of halls in the light of the sword...
The mother who sharpens the knife is a knife. There is sharpness, there is light. However, the sharp knife can solve the difficulties and sorrows, but it will also hurt others and even hurt yourself when you are moving forward. The sharpness of the mother's language and the toughness of the pie sometimes make relatives and friends overwhelmed. And the overload of "fear of blunt knives and endless sharpening" also greatly damaged her health, causing her to bid farewell prematurely.
Decades later, the light of my mother's knife still shines in our hearts and shines in the memory of Huangqiao. She completed a statue in the shape of a knife: the mother who cut through the thorns!
About the Author
Liu Pengchun, a native of Huangqiao Town, Taixing City, is a first-class screenwriter and a young and middle-aged expert with outstanding contributions in Jiangsu Province. He once served as a director of Jiangsu Writers Association, the chairman of Yangzhou Writers Association, and the director of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group Creative Center. The large-scale drama "Pi Jiu Spicy Zi" won the Fifth National Excellent Script Award, and "The Executioner Family" won the 1994 Cao Yu Drama Literature Award.