In the autumn of 2001, several outdoor expedition members came to a rolling and inaccessible mountain in Chongqing, where they walked for more than two days without seeing a single person.
Suddenly, a team member found that on the edge of the steep cliff, there was a stone ladder artificially carved by one step, and he could not see his head at a glance.
Curious, they climbed for more than two hours, climbed more than 6,000 steps, and when they came to the top of the mountain, they saw two old men.
The old man asked, "Is Chairman Mao and his old man okay?" ”
A sentence to ask the expedition members stupid, the team members looked at each other, you know, this is 2001 ah, ask this question? At this time, a team member took a picture of the two old people, and the flash flashed, and the grandmother was frightened and quickly hid behind the grandfather, "The light is bright, this is a blood that will kill people." ”
After sitting down to talk carefully, I realized that these two old people were originally villagers in a village under the mountain, and they had come to live in seclusion in this deep mountain for 50 years.
Why did they hide in the mountains and what happened to them 50 years ago?
In the summer of 1942, Zhongshan Ancient Town, Jiangjin, Chongqing.
A little boy stopped a group of flower palanquins that were delivering relatives.
"Why?" Little fart, flash away. ”
"I want the bride to touch me."
The crowd began to laugh.
"You little thing, the hair is not even long, you want a woman?"
"My uncle said that if the bride touches my open teeth, it will grow fast, and it will be white and neat." This is a local custom.
The bride lifted the curtain and smiled slightly, and touched the little boy's teeth.
The bride did not take it too seriously, and the person who sent the relatives did not go too far into his heart, only the little boy, at a glance, the beauty of the bride was imprinted in his heart.
The little boy's name was Liu Guojiang, and he was only 6 years old that year.
The bride's name was Xu Chaoqing, and she was 16 years old that year.
Later, whenever he met Xu Chaoqing in the town, Liu Guojiang would look at her twice, and sometimes quietly follow her. Such a small child can have any thoughts, but he thinks she is beautiful and wants to be close to her.
Fate was uncertain, 10 years later, Xu Chaoqing's husband fell ill and died, leaving her and her four children alone, the eldest 9 years old, the youngest only 1 year old.
The in-laws did not want to see her, saying that she was a kef.
During that time, Xu Chaoqing's life was very difficult, she knitted straw shoes to sell for money, a pair sold for 5 cents. She kept making up, and she still couldn't fill the stomachs of her four children.
Once, Xu Chaoqing carried the youngest child to the river to fetch water, accidentally fell into the river, the child on her back, she could not climb up, thanks to Liu Guojiang passed by, he fished Xu Chaoqing from the river.
Yes, at this time, Liu Guojiang was already a 16-year-old strong and handsome young man.
According to the generations, Liu Guojiang also called Xu Chaoqing aunt Xu.
After that, Aunt Xu had the strength to carry water and chop wood, Liu Guojiang rushed to help her do it, and Aunt Xu thought of him if she had anything delicious.
As soon as they came and went, the meaning of the two of them was hidden in their hearts, their eyes rested, and their eyebrows were tucked in.
It's okay now.
But in those days, the spit stars of the villagers could drown people.
Liu Guojiang's family disagreed:
"She's 10 years older than you, 10 years older, she's married, she's married, she's got four kids."
Xu Chaoqing's family also disagreed:
"If you take four children and find a poor boy, how will you live in the future?"
The people in the village even said something:
Some people say that the little widow is charming and hooks up with teenage boys.
It is also said that the age difference is so much that it is not too long.
Even the women's representatives in the village talked to Liu Guojiang and said that you can't please the younger ones? You have to ask for a "married sister-in-law" in someone' house.
The families of the two sides did not agree, the neighbors gossiped, relatives and friends were kind to persuade each other, Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing were like who grabbed a handful of salt and threw it into the boiling oil pot, crackling, the whole town had to be a month or two without stopping.
Until one day, Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing disappeared, along with them, and Xu Chaoqing's four children. They evaporated like the world, and since then there has been no news, and the town has gradually returned to calm.
So, where did they go?
Liu Guojiang took Xu Chaoqing and his four children to "Banpotou"—a good place he had inadvertently found before.
The half-slope is facing the mountain on all four sides, with an altitude of 1500 meters, and the temperature difference with the outside world in summer is about 8 degrees Celsius. At the foot of the mountain is a forest of chestnut trees, with a brownish-red Danxia landform in the forest, and there are slowly flowing clouds on the mountainside.
Beauty is beautiful enough, and the curtain is also very romantic, but it can't live a life.
When they first came to Banpotou, they first lived in a cave and spent some time relying on the food they brought down the mountain.
In order for the family to live forever on the mountain, Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing suffered a lot, but with their loved ones, the bitterness and tiredness are willing and worth it.
They set up a vegetable garden near the cave and planted sweet potatoes, corn and vegetables. But the crops grew little by little, and when the grain he brought was finished, Liu Guojiang went to the river to catch some fish and shrimp, and Xu Chaoqing took the children to dig wild vegetables. As long as it is edible, wild walnuts and dates are picked back, and they also pluck the leaves of the wood pulp and dry them, grind them into flour, and they can also fill their stomachs.
In order to have a stable place for his lover and children, Liu Guojiang burned tiles with dirt himself, burned them for two years, and finally built three rooms. In this big mountain pass, they finally have a warm home.
The youngest child that Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing brought from the bottom of the mountain died unexpectedly when they were 5 years old, and later they gave birth to 4 more children, all of whom were born by Liu Guojiang. One dares to pick up, one dares to let him pick up, and this is how much trust each other has.
A family, 7 children, in Liu Guojiang's own words, "Seven mouths lined up together, it's all good." "Two people are stunned that in this big mountain, they have raised 7 children.
A few years later, Banpotou went from the beginning of the barren deep mountains and old forests, no land, no houses, weeds and thorns around, to now, sweet potatoes, potatoes, buds, greens, are thriving, Liu Guojiang also raised chickens, pigs.
Although the mountains are so different from the town.
For example, monkeys will come and steal corn.
For example, eagles will come and bite chickens.
For example, you can still hear tigers calling at night.
……
But the family was together, far away from the gossip of the world, Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing were very content.
Xu Chaoqing called Liu Guojiang a young man, Liu Guojiang teasingly called Xu Chaoqing's old mother, the two people have never argued in their lives, and their faces are red.
At that time, it was the fifties and sixties, and love was like a fugitive, there was no place for him in a bright and upright occasion, no one was allowed in the play, no one was allowed in the book, and no one was allowed in the song. But the love between Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing is in this big mountain, and the water is long.
After living in the mountains for so many years, they almost lived an isolated life, and occasionally, Liu Guojiang went to the bottom of the mountain to buy some daily necessities, he never spent the night outside, he was afraid that the old mother was afraid.
Once, Liu Guojiang came back late, Xu Chaoqing anxiously went down the mountain to find it, and fell down halfway, Liu Guojiang was very distressed.
There is food, there is shelter, and there is still a road.
Liu Guojiang decided to build a road down the mountain for the old mother.
How easy is this?
But Liu Guojiang didn't think so, thinking that back then, for his lover, he ran to this place where birds don't, and fought with the heavens and the earth, didn't he also come over? As long as you want to do it, nothing is impossible.
Liu Guojiang, who had made up his mind, from then on, whenever he went to the farm, he took a steel braze and an iron hammer to chisel the stone ladder, and when he was hungry, he took a few bites of steamed buns, and when he was thirsty, he drank a few mouthfuls of mountain water.
In this way, more than 100 steps were repaired a year, and even he did not know when he would be able to finish it.
When the first step was repaired, Liu Guojiang was still a young man, and when he was repaired to the middle, he was already a middle-aged man.
When Liu Guojiang was building the stone ladder, he was afraid that Xu Chaoqing would fall, and he also had a small design of his own, that is, on this side of the mountain, he chiseled out a place where his hand could grasp, called "hand pickpocket nest".
Later, the children were all older and went down the mountain to go to school and work. Only Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing were left in the mountains, and Liu Guojiang still went to the stone ladder as soon as he had time.
In this way, winter to spring, cold to summer, I don't know how many years have passed, after Liu Guojiang broke more than 30 steel brazes and chiseled more than 20 iron hammers, finally one day, a mountain road snaked down under Liu Guojiang's thousand chisels, straight to the foot of the mountain.
6208 steps, ah, a seemingly impossible thing is done in the support of love.
This is a unique gift from the young man to the old mother.
Simple tools, a care for the lover, that simple long-cherished wish, and nearly half a century of persistence, are all on these 6208 steps.
Later, locals called it the "Ladder of Love".
After 2001, the story of Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing spread.
Many people lamented this untainted love, and they came to Banpotou to meet these two legends.
In 2006, Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing were named "Top Ten People Who Moved Chongqing".
The TV station asked both of them to record the program. Xu Chaoqing had limited mobility, Liu Guojiang went alone, this was the only time in so many years that he went out at night and did not come back.
At the scene of the program, the host asked Liu Guojiang to say something.
He said, "I want to go home. ”
Seeing that others laughed, Liu Guojiang followed up again, "I am afraid that monkeys will steal my bud valley." ”
In fact, Liu Guojiang later said that he was worried about his mother, and he had never left her to stay out for even a whole day in so many years.
He was not at home, and the old mother went to the mountain road every day to wait for him to return. After that, another TV station came to Liu Guojiang, and he said he would not go.
The two people usually make small dishes in the mountains, grind beans and flowers, Xu Chaoqing often sings the mountain songs he loves to listen to Liu Guojiang, and he never tires of looking at each other for a lifetime, so the days are not too long for a hundred years.
However, on December 7, 2007, after 71-year-old Liu Guojiang went to the field to look around and came back, he fell on the kang and did not get up.
Xu Chaoqing was frightened, crying and shouting that he could not afford it, and she hurried down the mountain to find her children.
Xu Chaoqing had never been down the mountain alone, and it was Liu Guojiang who had previously held her hand and helped her down the mountain, and Liu Guojiang never assured her to walk alone.
But this time, it was dark and raining, and the 81-year-old Xu Chaoqing fell several times along the way because she was anxious and old, and her arms were broken, and when she finally walked to the foot of the mountain and knocked on the door of her son Liu Mingsheng, she had no strength.
The son quickly ran up the mountain, but Liu Guojiang still left.
In the middle of the slope of this day, the air is still fresh, the water is still clear, and the alder forest is still lush, but there is no boy.
For Xu Chaoqing, the day after Liu Guojiang left was longer than the decades she and the "young man" had lived in seclusion in the mountains.
The young man went first and was buried next to the ladder.
Xu Chaoqing followed the previous agreement with Liu Guojiang, and she lived in the home of her son under the mountain.
For several years, she used to look at the long ladder, and she once told reporters, "I want him to take me away." Although the children were filial, she still felt lonely, not the loneliness of the boys.
By October 2012, Xu Chaoqing's body was getting weaker and weaker.
On this day, Xu Chaoqing instructed his daughter-in-law Chen Caifang to help her to the foot of the 6208-level love ladder.
Xu Chaoqing is 87 years old and can't eat for a few days. But she climbed the steps, the first step, the two steps, the third step... After walking more than a dozen steps, she really couldn't walk, so she simply squatted down, sat on the steps, and touched the steps in her hands, which her young man knocked out with a hammer and a hammer, and she was there, touching the stone steps, and sat for a long time.
Xu Chaoqing said that in the past two or three days, she had dreamed of the young man, and in the dream the young man looked at her with a smile and squinted, and she said, "Very good, I know, he will come to pick me up soon." ”
Yes, there are people over there who are particularly missed, death is no longer a terrible thing, she is not afraid, she is even happy when she thinks about it.
Just after Xu Chaoqing went to bed at noon on the day she finished touching the ladder, she never got out of bed again.
Feeling that the old man's time was running out, the descendants of the Liu family began to rush back one after another.
Over the years, the children of Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing have long since blossomed, and several of them are also grandparents.
When the children and grandchildren arrived, Xu Chaoqing's old man's breath was already very weak, and when she saw that the children were coming, she raised her eyes, and the eldest son knew her intentions, saying: "Rest assured, bury you and your father together, just bury you next to the ladder." ”
Hearing this sentence, Xu Chaoqing went to sleep with a smile, and on October 30, 2012, Xu Chaoqing, the heroine of the Love Ladder, passed away at the age of 87.
The descendants of the Liu family buried Liu Guojiang and Xu Chaoqing together, and on the day of the burial, many people who lamented their innocent love rushed to the funeral and offered flowers.
On that day, flowers spread from the tombstone to the ladder.
Although the two old men have left, the 6208-level "love ladder" that has been chiseled for half a century is still there, and their love is still there.
A reporter once asked Liu Guojiang what is the secret of their love for so many years?
Liu Guojiang said, "Just don't think about it." ”
Don't underestimate this simple sentence "Don't think about it", it is the true meaning of pure love.
We always say that we can't find love, and that's because if you are Xu Chaoqing, you may not be able to bear the simplicity and suffering in the mountains.
If you are Liu Guojiang, you can't fight for love, be dedicated, have responsibility and responsibility.
So their story is a classic, a legend.
Fortunately, there are still such classics in this world.
Thanks, there is such a legend in this world.
Let us in today's era of cheating at every turn, divorcing at every turn, and tearing at every turn, we can still see the true appearance of love.
It turns out that there really is spotless love in this world.
-END-
Author: Chun Chun
EDIT: Willow Leaf Nagging
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