Yellow Lotus
From the moment she was carried into the hospital, Huang Lian knew that this home was finished.
She first thought that Ankang would not be able to eat when he returned home— he was in high school in the county, lived on campus, and had two days off a month—just in time for the monthly break. Ankang is the only child in Wanzi to be admitted to a key high school this year, and Huang Lian is very proud of it. Many children go to the county high school to be accompanied by their parents, but Huang Lian is so busy that one person is two people, where is that time! Not to mention that the economic conditions are not allowed, the eldest daughter is in the third year, the second daughter is in the first year, the tuition and living expenses are earned by herself, where is the spare money to make up for the broken pot?
A few days ago, the boss sent a message saying that he wanted to go to graduate school, the cotton clothes that the second brother wanted had not been sent over, and he didn't know whether he knew whether he would add clothes when he went home - seeing that the frost had fallen, the rice in Badoutian had not been cut... This year's weather is evil, first it was sunny for a long time, but the rice ears are still green, and the people of Wanzi say wait. As soon as it began to rain, it rained for half a month, and the rice ditch was filled with water, and the rice fell in pieces. The rice cutter can't go down, please people, everyone is busy, can't open their hands. This delay, that field of rice is still not known...
The chicken in the chicken pen should be released, the wheat bran mixture of food is still in the kitchen, the vegetables in the vegetable field should grow high in the city wall these two days, only to pour the dung, but the strength is long, originally to cut down and sell, the peel of the broken vegetables chopped and fed to the chickens. This is all lost.
Dogs are not fed, fat dogs are the most humane, and the doorkeeper is good. Afraid that it would run around, now hit the dog more, it is said that shooting a poisonous needle, Ya Que unknowingly dragged the dog away. Two days ago, the old Wu family's dog only slept outside for one night, and the next day it was gone. As the saying goes, children are not ugly, dogs are not poor, but poor families are a home, and now even home is gone.
It's time to dig up sweet potatoes in the mountains. This year's sweet potato harvest was good. Last time she hit the ridge head, she pulled out a tree with her bare hands, ho, a big purr, a big foot of four or five pounds, like a string of gourd babies! Her family grows egg yolk sweet potatoes, everything is open, golden yellow, bite, sweet silky, crispy! She also planted a piece of purple potato, which is said to be high in vitamins, and people in the city love to buy it, and the price is still expensive. The old stupid sweet potato has also planted a few furrows, and hitting sweet potato flour is the best... The peanuts were picked, filled with four pockets, and it was time to drive to the oil mill to squeeze the oil. I heard that peanut oil is 15 yuan a pound, can squeeze more than a hundred pounds of oil, in addition to eating, you can also sell a thousand dollars ...
What about the hotel? Since she can work, alone with two people, the hostess is particularly satisfied with her. Every day before dawn, she gets up, feeds the chickens and ducks, cleans up, and then goes to work. Pulling weeds, spraying medicine, picking up dung and water, planting and harvesting seeds. If she had chopped vegetables the night before, she would pick them up and sell them in the city. At exactly eight o'clock, she hurried to the store, put on her apron, and began to pick vegetables, wash vegetables, and cut vegetables. Sometimes the boss bought chicken, duck and fish, and she also scraped the fish scales and cut the chicken and duck. Once the boss bought a pot of cocked fish, a hundred and ten of them, and she sat by the basin for three hours, her face swollen.
Busiest at noon. When the guests arrived, she asked for side dishes, served dishes, made tea, and then cleaned up the table and mopped the floor to wash the dishes. After a busy day, I was like a stick, lying on the bed and lazily moving, and as soon as my eyes were closed, I purred and shook the sky. How can women also snore, Huang Lian began not to believe, once Ankang Yue went home, slept for one night, the next day frowned and said, Mom, why do you snore so big, noisy I did not sleep well all night. Huang Lian blushed, really, that Ajie couldn't laugh when he heard it--he slept so deeply, like a dead pig... She used to laugh at him.
What to do with the hotel, the hostess can not leave her for a moment. Alas, this woman, how can I say that she is good? Man is a good person, not mean, interesting enough, just won't live a life. I know how to dress up all day, get up in the morning and sit in front of the mirror, and there are more than a dozen bottles and cans on the dresser. It was water again, frost again, foundation again, and a white face was like a ghost. In particular, I can buy clothes, more than a thousand pieces of coats, say buy it, and don't blink an eye. You can also throw clothes, just after winter, you don't like the jacket to throw away. "Big sister, you remember, women have to be nice to themselves. Don't be too upset about money, money is earned, not saved. Dress well, wear a mood, the mood is not good, just throw it away, the old one does not go, the new one does not come..." She has a lot of reasons to waste money. Hmm, it's better to say than to sing, if you can't earn it, and don't save it, will the family drink the northwest wind? Who doesn't know that she loves beauty, before, she was also beautiful... Or is the mother right, the field is false, the dung is true, the man is false, and the fate is true. She didn't have a good life, and like her name, she was bitter to the heart. Blame the mother, what a bad name, called Huang Lian!
The hostess is delicious and lazy, and with a handsome face, coaxes the boss to turn around! Still not have a man who can make money? Anyone who has money will put gold on their faces, stand and talk without waist pain. If the three strong men were still there, wouldn't she also be held in the palm of her hand?
Oops, it's useless to think about it. It's past four o'clock in the afternoon, and it's time to prepare the evening vegetables. The fish bought by the boss has not been cut, and the day is wiped black on the person, if you can't find a helper for a while, don't rush people to death! Sooner or later, she would not be sick, who would have thought that she was usually like an iron strike, how could she suddenly faint?
There should have been signs long ago, not two days a day. First of all, I was very flustered and dizzy. After squatting for a long time, he stood up violently and saw a blackening in front of his eyes, and several times he almost fell down. The face also seemed to be swollen, swollen purple, and the eyelids were black. At first, she didn't care, seeing that the sky was so busy like a gyroscope, where did she have time to take care of her face? Or the neighbor Ye Da Niang suddenly looked at her one day and screamed, Oh Huang Lian, your face is swollen, and it is still black, it will not hit the evil, right?
She ignored her. Ye Da Niang is the kind of old woman who is warm and fast-hearted, nosy and inquires. I remember when she first married, the old lady took a picture of her, skimmed her lips, and said to her mother-in-law, your little daughter-in-law has high cheekbones and a hard life! The mother-in-law twisted her head and retorted without much pain, "Look at what Aunt Ye said, our cheekbones are not high, and our lives are not soft." "She was a bit taboo at that time, her father-in-law had died for more than twenty years, it was said that the three strongest sons were only two years old at that time, and Ye Da Niang was also a widow who had accumulated years. Comparing her to the two of them, it is really obscure! She remembered the three strong boys, and the first time they met, she fell in love. He was not tall, polite, like a white-faced student. According to the introducer, he graduated from high school, joined the army, and learned to drive in the army. After changing careers, he returned home and drove a large truck. Who is not rare in such a cultured and skilled man? After marriage, the three strong sons were out of the sports car, she took the children at home, planted the fields, and the days got better day by day. Every year, when the New Year paper is burned, the mother-in-law will say something: Bless the children with peace and security, and drive smoothly and smoothly. But who knows, her life is so poisonous! She clearly remembered that it was a cold winter, and she was pregnant with well-being, and had secretly made a B ultrasound, saying that it was a boy. She liked it so much! Finally there is a son, for this third child, she is afraid, hiding in Tibet, can be considered to have survived to the end. But a thunderbolt splits down, the three strong have a car accident, and her sky collapses...
She had almost forgotten how she had spent those miserable days. There was a lot of cacophony, and there was crying everywhere. She only remembered the eldest sister with red and swollen eyes and said to her, give birth to a child, this is the only seedling of the three strongest, grow up to give him a grave. Alas, Ankang had never seen His father's side. He should know everything, Old Lady Ye often looked at him and sighed, Ankang, how old are you—heck, the three strong men have been dead for ten years, and you were still in your mother's belly when he left. Once she heard Ye Da Niang pointing at Ankang and saying to someone, Look, that's the widow of the three strong sons, thirteen years old, and his father has been dead for thirteen years... Ankang is sensible, that is, he often locks his eyebrows and looks very worried. "Ankang, what's wrong, who bullied you?" "Where is it—net blind guessing!" He glared at her. She found that her son was becoming more and more like his father, and she liked and was sad.
Is it really bad fate? Huang Lian remembered what Ye Da Niang had said about her high cheekbones. But the mother-in-law is kind and good-intentioned, why is her fate so bad? About three years after the accident of the three strongmen, the big strongmen overturned the car while driving three wheels of goods, and the people smashed into meat cakes. Disaster after disaster, the mother-in-law's tears never dried again. "If I don't arrange it for you, I won't close my eyes when I die!" - Someone introduced her to Ajay. Ajay was black, thin and tall, doing muddy water work, and his wife fell ill and died, leaving a pair of children. Huang Lian hoped to recruit a husband and adopt a son, but Ajie lived for a while, relieved not to be at home, and went back again. Because they are both concerned about the family affairs, the two people get together less and leave more. Ajay is diligent and can endure hardships, but her mother-in-law is satisfied. The fly in the ointment is that the two do not have common children, each for their own home, it is inevitable that there will be selfishness. After the eldest sister-in-law remarried, the mother-in-law died of angina.
Huang Lian remembered that she had just had a fight with Ajie two days ago, because Ajie had worked for more than half a year and did not see him a single penny. In fact, she also understood that Ajay had an old mother and children, and she had to save money for her daughter-in-law, and it was impossible to give all the money to her. But as the saying goes, marry a man, dress and eat, can't earn money to support the family, what is the use of marrying a man? "Chicken skin doesn't stick to duck skin. You walk your Yangguan Road, and I cross my canoe bridge! Let's shoot twice! She yelled angrily at Ajay, and she remembered Ajay going out of the house with a somber face, and the roar of the motorcycle still seemed to echo in her ears.
Ajay probably would never come back, and if he knew that she might never be able to stand up again, he might be secretly glad. Who would look for lice to scratch their heads? Since the ancient road husband and wife were originally the same forest bird, the great disaster is about to fly separately, not to mention that the two are only halfway husband and wife?
Alas, each of them swept the snow in front of the door, and the others frosted the tiles. When something happened, I found that there was no reliable person to count on. If the mother-in-law is still alive, she can still help take care of the family. Now it is time to call the heavens and the earth...
"This family is scattered!" Huang Lian thought desperately.
"Acute cerebral obstruction!" "There are several large blood vessels blocked..." "Intensive care..."
Huang Lian's ears were filled with mixed voices. Her heart sank to the bottom of the lake. "It's over, it must be paralyzed!" Can't move, like a dead man! She remembered the second son in the village, also dizzy, his wife asked him to check, he did not do anything, and as a result fainted on the construction site. When he was carried to the hospital, he was killed and retrieved, but the wind was paralyzed, and he urinated on the bed. It is often said that there is no filial piety in front of the bed, and the wife who has been sick for a long time is also suspicious. The family frowned and lived. Not long ago, he finally died, and the second daughter-in-law burned the big bed where he slept. If only I were to collapse on the bed, and there would not even be a waiter. In the busy season, everyone is sharp-headed to earn money, eager to be one person to be two people, where are the idle people to serve the sick?
Huang Lian lay on the bed, her body full of tubes. She felt like a pig carried to a board, waiting for the butcher to open his stomach. Instead, it is better to stab it with a knife, and it is better not to see it. But even if people are dead and still alive, who will clean up this rotten bag? Huang Lian really wanted to jump out of bed, run home, feed the pigs and chickens, cut rice, sell vegetables, help at the restaurant, make a delicious meal for Ankang, buy a jacket for her daughter and send it over... Although it is said that you are tired and stinky, it is a blessing to be able to move your hands and feet. Now I am idle, but most of them are dead, and they are a waste!
The eldest sister-in-law and the second sister-in-law came to see her, comforted her to take good care of her illness, and said that everything would be fine. "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and the boat is naturally straight to the bridge - there is always a way." The eldest sister-in-law said with red eyes. After the eldest sister-in-law remarried, she was relieved not to go into the house and ran back in the end. To be a mother is to not be able to give up the child.
The neighbors also came, and Lady Ye told her that the water in the rice ditch was dry, and Lao Huan turned on the rice cutter and collected all her rice. The dishes in her field were sold to the canteen by Uncle Cai. The most unexpected thing was that the hostess also came, bringing wages and donations of five thousand yuan.
"Oops, big sister! But don't go to your heart, who doesn't have a calamity? You are too tired, even the iron has a grinding time! Don't I often tell you that women should feel sorry for themselves, don't tie themselves too tightly, and relax from time to time... Illness comes like a mountain, illness goes like a thread, you must not be in a hurry, when the illness is better, still ask you for help..."
The eldest sister who was far away in Shanghai sent ten thousand yuan. The village has handled the procedures for her to be a poor household, and the medical expenses can be reimbursed. What surprised her most was that Ajay also came. He was dark and thin, like a telephone pole. He sat on the edge of the bed, taking her hand, shoulders twitching, crying like a child. "The construction site can't get out, I stole out... I asked my mother to come and watch, chickens, ducks, cats and dogs are all right, just wait for you to go back..."
Huang Lian wanted to sit up, but the whole lower part of her body seemed to be dead, and she didn't listen to the call. She opened her mouth to speak, her lips moved a few times, and a line of tears flowed down the corners of her eyes, wetting a large chunk of the snow-white sheet.
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Editor-in-charge
Zhang Hui
About author:Wu Feng, a native of Shangcheng, Henan. He loves to read and write. Record the bits and pieces of life and show the folk customs of the small town. Willing to step on the solid and deep soil layer, with quiet words, remember the years like water. The novel "Cockscomb Blossoms" won the first prize of the National Novel Essay Contest held by the "Writer Shinkansen" platform.