On the second day of junior high school, I went to pay my aunt a New Year's greeting. Auntie, living in Yangtang Village, Daxin Township, is more than 20 kilometers away from her mother-in-law's home. Before the road, they all walked, empty-handed, over a few mountains, and walked for a few hours.
Auntie's house, once, the ravine is like an oxygen bar. Fresh air wafts in. That year, the road along the river had not yet been repaired, and the ferry boat was stopped for some reason. Going to my mother-in-law's house became quite troublesome for a while, and my brother-in-law had a car to go there, from Lianyuan to Tuoshan, passing through Shatang Bay in Lengjiang River, Heqing Town, copying the township road to bypass more than a dozen mountain villages, and then circling back from the front of the aunt's house. There was a slender deep ravine, so high that it was impossible to see the top, the water was as clear as silk, and the riverbed was like a scar that had been drawn into the depths, and there was pain everywhere.
The country road is not easy to walk, it has just been paved with sand, and it is also upside down. The villagers along the road are rich, with high-rise buildings one by one, and many cars. But when you look up, your heart is extremely heavy, the mountain is full of stilt houses, and the wooden houses are blown thin and black by the wind, like a pile of scattered skeletons, more like a crumbling bird's nest. The high place is not cold, the aunt's family is on the hillside, it is also a wooden house, can not find a brick, the house is old-fashioned, the threshold is very high, the door is a wooden board, the door is also a wooden board, step in, the soles of the feet bang, where to know that people are coming.
The aunt knew we were coming, and the aunt was preparing a meal with her uncle. Seeing us, I hurried down the hillside to help us carry things, and my aunt looked at me and smiled, and I looked at her and smiled. The aunt asked, this is the nephew Lang, I laughed and did not speak, the brother-in-law helped me to break the siege, the aunt pulled me into the house.
The house is unprecedentedly simple, a stove room, a living room, a living room, a bedroom, a pile of firewood in the stove room, a pot and a stove, the hall house is empty, like a wide heart. The living room has a table and four stools, a cupboard, a bedroom and a bed, nothing else. My uncle's salary is not low, why is he still living so coldly? Puzzled, I didn't dare to ask more, so I ran out and looked around. There was a wooden house in front of my aunt's house, the neighbor's house, the house was as simple as it was, as low as it was, less than five meters apart, separated by a mountain path. Neighbors squatted under the eaves to cut pig grass, and kitchen knives slashed cutting cutting boards and banging. The pig house door is like a row of leaking teeth, as if smiling. The pig was lying on the fence door, posing as if he was not afraid of boiling water.
Further up, there is the village council. Reinforced concrete structure, the decoration is very luxurious, like a city person going to the countryside, especially eye-catching. Next to the village committee, there are broken bricks and tiles, and there are stones everywhere, and the stones are carved with dragons and phoenix ghosts and gods. Hearing that it was the ruins of the ancient ancestral hall, I was frightened and shivered, and the yin qi was too heavy, and I hurriedly retreated. The gate of the village council is locked. In front of the door stood a public notice board. The stele lies horizontally and vertically, which always makes people feel depressed, and the village committee occupies the nest of the dove, and the good man is difficult to fight the snake.
Time flies fast, and in the blink of an eye, it is another year, the village committee has changed its name, the wooden house has collapsed in half, the uncle's body has recovered a lot, and the neighbor's house has been turned over from the old to the new. It's changed so much that people are eager to see it. New Year and new atmosphere, playing cards, drinking wine, we don't play cards, don't drink, idle, meet to climb the mountain. My mother-in-law's family has an old house, in the mountains not far away. The old house has been uninhabited, has not been seen for many years, the mother-in-law wants to see, thought for several years, did not go to success. I don't know if the mountain is full of thorns, I don't know if there is a road to go. No matter what his situation is, there is a car and a companion to go forward together. The car was parked on the side of the road and abandoned the car to go up the hill. The mountain road is still faintly visible, and it is very laborious to walk up and hang on to the stomach. Unexpectedly, the seventy-five-year-old mother-in-law actually walked like a fly, cut through thorns, and opened the way ahead. I was afraid of hanging up my torn clothes, falling far behind me, and I was able to keep up with them.
Waiting for my kung fu, my mother-in-law picked several wild herbs, which made me a very ashamed student who had studied Chinese medicine. My mother-in-law picked four-sided grass, ground tea, purple flower and tendon grass. There are many herbs on the mountain, but there is no horse chestnut leaf and no flower. Horse chestnut flower is a good medicine, can fight cancer, cure snake venom. Speaking of which, my mother-in-law seemed a little sad. I knew she missed her father-in-law, who had died of terminal lung cancer, and that a horse chestnut leaf and a flower might save his life. Fuxing Village No. 3-o5, will arrive in a moment. The mother-in-law smiled with satisfaction. Look around the room. The house has not been repaired for many years, the eaves have collapsed, the walls have begun to be broken, the wooden doors are not known, the house number is still there, the trees piled up in the house are still there, the windmills are still there, and the old cupboards are still there. The mother-in-law sighed that if she did not move away, she would be able to get the money for the renovation of the dangerous house. The house is older than my mother-in-law, my grandfather bought it from someone else, and I don't know which dynasty it was built in.
Now that I had come, I took a picture together, and my mother-in-law straightened her waist, while I braced myself with a crutch. Descending the mountain, my mother-in-law was still striding like a fly, leaving me and my brother-in-law far behind. Looking at her back, the brother-in-law exhaled a long breath, and today, finally for the old woman, he had a heart matter. I didn't respond to him and read happiness from his face. Happiness is actually very simple, parents are alive, children are complete, do not worry about food and clothing, do not worry about family affairs. With a son like him, the mother-in-law is happy. With such a good mother-in-law, I am also happy.