Author: Ai Ping
"Peacocks fly southeast", these years have become the fashion of Hulunbuir people. People are keen to travel throughout China, to Hainan Island to buy even small houses, like migratory birds, to return in winter and spring, just to escape the long cold season in their hometown.
Located at the northern end of the cold temperate zone in the northern hemisphere and the entrance to the Siberian cold current, Hulunbuir is indeed cold, with only a frost-free period of more than a hundred days a year, and the rest of the time is left to ice and snow and wind, covering the earth little by little. The cold lingered in the land for a long time, until the warm sunshine returned. See how the Hulunbuir people of the nomadic era spent the winter - leather pants covered with cotton pants, Mongolian robes covered with leather and large leather.
Six years ago, I also bought a small unit in Hainan, but I have only lived for twenty-one days: once to accompany my old mother, but only half a month; the other time to Hainan to attend the Boao Forum on Chinese Literature, to clean up the empty house by the way, used it for a week, and then hurriedly returned to Hulunbuir, where the snow was flying. Do I have any urgent matters? Not really. My daughter said that my mother, like a camel, could not live without the hulunbuir snow field all her life.
At this moment, outside the window of my study, the motherly Emin River, white snow and blue ice. Tired of reading, I looked out the window and saw two old naughty boys on the ice waving multicolored long whips and smoking ice. Immediately, put on thick down, pedal on the hairy Mongolian boots, go downstairs, trot to the river, and instantly return to childhood. When I was a child, I played with ice, which was to carve a rough wooden top, nail a nail at the bottom, and then grind the nail cap smoothly, rotate and throw it on the ice, and occasionally use a small whip to gently draw it, and the ice will never stop turning. I used to compete with a bunch of Tao boys, from the afternoon until it was dark, until my grandmother went to the river with her little feet to find me, and she refused to give up. Look at the ice of the two old naughty children in front of you, the shape is exquisite, the volume is increased, the sound and color fluorescence flash, and a whip is drawn for a square dance song. I want to whip it up, and the ice is like an empathetic little doll, and with a little light, it flashes from side to side, circling and moving. Suddenly, the foot slipped, and the person fell on his back on the thick snow pile, as if falling into the waves, soft and gentle, sitting up, regardless of the snow and ice on his face and neck, laughing.
After the snow falls, there is always a good weather with clear blue sky, if you don't go out of Hailar City, don't go to the grassland forest to walk around, as if you have become a rusty clock, you can't get up all the time. Most of my travels are spontaneous and have no destination. When I ask a friend out, I often say something like, "Go, go outside and walk around." Then, sail deep into the earth far from the hustle and bustle.
The sky is as blue as the sea overhead, the air is clear as jade, grab a handful of snow, the snowflakes are angular, firm and fresh, and it is clear that it is the bloom of life. Not far away, several horses stood motionless, as if asleep, and between the sun, the snow, and the blue sky, their brownish-red fur shone brightly. A camel dragging a plow quickly enters the picture, and the shepherd wearing a red lambskin hat is pulling his wife and children for a ride in the snow. The iron-colored goshawk swept by, and in the crevices of the rocks sheltered from the wind, it folded its wings, where there were its children waiting to be fed. The dark green shadows of magpies brought the snowy plains to life, waiting for scraps from the yurt or leftovers from steppe wolves.
I like to go into the primeval forest in winter, the migratory birds are gone, the brown bears are hibernating, and even the chipmunks are falling asleep. The snow is evenly swept by the north wind, every boulder, every mountain bag, every big tree, is protected by snow, and the world is as chaotic as ever. Confused about where the black-billed grouse went, only a few jays flew with their tails swaying. In the moment of looking down, we found that the vast snow was actually a map that had escaped alive, which was outlined by the footprints of animals.
These were the footprints of the moose, a pair of even hooves, like an iron seal, pressed firmly into the hard snow shell, each one so clear that you could imagine the tall moose calmly. Moose emerge from the depths of the dense forest and walk toward the misty, unfrozen river, where they drink water, eat aquatic grass, and perhaps warm up with geothermal water. A cluster of plum-like footprints at the mouth of a bowl is left by a lynx that does not appear easily. The lynx's claws are extremely sharp, usually buckled in the toes of the seams, and the blade is only sharp when fighting with various animals. The soles of the lynx's feet have thick meat pads, and walking on the snow shell can disperse the pressure of the body, will not sink, walk on the ice and do not slip, and the horse cannot catch up when running. The slender-footed roe deer jumped out of many small snow holes, like a suspense deliberately left behind, leading you to explore the secrets under the snow. Scattered on the ground were the feathers of the flower-tailed grouse, and the red fox had just eaten the flower-tailed grouse, but he was also eaten by predators and left with only a fiery red tail. There are also many strange little footprints, I don't know what animal left behind, I took pictures, asked around for advice, but never understood. Many people have told me that in the vast primeval forest of the Daxing'an Mountains, known species are becoming more and more prosperous, and unknown creatures are emerging.
Sometimes, I would hear a crisp copper bell on the forest road, which was to make the reindeer herd of the Deer Tribe Evenk on their way out or back to the camp. The Evenk people tied "Qiao Erran" (Evenk, i.e., copper bell) to the neck of reindeer in order to find it. Reindeer is a semi-wild herbivores, can be described as a natural pan-Arctic Circle Taigarin petite, after tens of thousands of years of evolution, even the nose wings, toes in the slits of the thick fluff. The herds of reindeer in the great forest are like the horses on the grassland, unattended all year round, returning to the camp ten days and half a month to ask the humans for a little salt. In winter, under the thick white snow, the moss grows slowly, and the reindeer dig up the snow with a developed sense of smell, find the moss to eat, and absorb nutrients.
The heavy snow since ancient times has bred the endless ecology of Daxing'anling, and all things in the landscape are integrated, you have me, I have you. One spring, we crossed the mountains to see the dance drama of the black-billed grouse courtship, and on the way into the Khanma Nature Reserve, we inadvertently witnessed the awakening of a river.
The road opens in the mountains, and a meter away, is the valley. In the depths of the rime, the Thalia River appeared, what a magical river, it had already flowed through the solid ice and was running like a song! The river turned yellow-brown, hitting the stone wall with an amber luster from time to time, shaking the brightness of the sun from time to time, and the whirlpool that surrounded the dead trees in the river was like a golden flower about to bloom. The riverbed is filled with colorful gold and silver jewelry, and they scream and beat as they flow past us.
Every autumn here, the snow comes too quickly, and the leaves fall unevenly, accumulating into a dark brown layer of humus. Streams from the mountains and dark rivers underground pass through here, and in the long run, there is this rushing river.
When they arrived at the reserve, the host brought a cup of strong tea, the entrance aroma was slightly sweet, refreshing, and could not help but exclaim: "Good tea!" The master smiled: "What is a good tea, but it is just the original Thalia River water." "It turned out that it was willow leaves, pine needles, birch bark, and rhododendron root that concocted a good tea!" Forget it? It is by relying on this divine water that we humans stand up, learn to slash and burn, and eventually become intelligent animals. How fortunate we are to inadvertently kiss the mellowness of the distant past in our original hometown. I couldn't help but think of something my Evenk hunter friend said. In order to record a TV show, a reindeer was transported to a city in the south, but unexpectedly it suddenly refused to drink water, whether it was mineral water or pure water, preferring to be thirsty day by day. It was not until the water in the Daxing'anling forest arrived that it returned to its former state.
Every year in the early autumn snow, the grasslands, forests wandering gods of love, animals began to multiply, new life have sat on the mother's hotbed. Ice and snow slowly come, hiding the world in a white, and all life quietly sucks time. Finally, in the midst of the snow, the pony landed on the ground and rolled and stood up; the little lamb barked and lay in the snow nest; the calf did not see the world clearly, and grabbed the cow's nipple dipped in frost... Moose, red deer, reindeer, roe deer, brown bears, mink bears, the first lesson of their lives is to adapt to the touch of residual snow.
I live in the thick snow and ice of my hometown, and I know how happy it is to be a camel that walks on snow and drinks ice. Whenever the snow falls, although the cool breeze whizzes into the knee slit, although every self-driving is thrilling like sliding on the ice rink, my heart is still full of joy and excitement. Wandering and reading in the great work of nature, getting close to the secret realm of freedom of all kinds of frost and heaven, enjoying the openness and purity, enjoying the greatness of the unity of heaven and man—a feeling that no other beauty can give.
At this time, warm ice and snow covered my hometown.
Guangming Daily (2022-01-28 15 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily