Ice and snow memories on the banks of the Yongding River

Since I was a child, I have loved ice and snow, and I think that ice and snow are beautiful spirits, another world of life, and a pure, dreamlike thing that God has given to mankind.

Data chart Photo by Wang Haixin

My family lives on the west bank of the Yongding River, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with water on one side, and when it snows in winter, the mountains and rivers are covered with snow and ice, crystal magnificent. Looking out from the checkered wooden window, snowflakes fell on the small locust tree in front of the door, and without much effort, the tree was full of flowers. The snow stops, the sun comes out, and the snow water that is dissolved into the trees and flowers trickles into the land, watering the small trees from the roots, and in the spring, the small trees that have drunk enough snow water will grow taller. When it is cold and snowy, there will be a row of cone-shaped ice under the eaves, some people call it ice hanging or ice pendant, at this time, the farmhouse house, also has a bit of the appearance of a crystal palace. At this time, I would always let my father knock me out, hold it in the palm of my hand and watch, and sometimes I couldn't help but stick out my tongue and lick it, as if the cool ice cream really had a hint of sweetness, just like today's ice cream.

At that time, winter was colder than it is now, and snow was not easy to melt. In particular, the Yongding River rushed out of the mountain pass, starting from the sluice gate of the three stores, getting rid of the shackles of the mountain, and traveling south freely, making the river surface in winter a natural open ice rink and a paradise for children. The best children can glide freely on the ice without any utensils, becoming free fish in the glacier; some children use two sticks as ice sticks, like spring swallows that return early, flying around on the glacier and looking for yesterday's home; others sit on simple ice carts, mostly a wooden board, tied with two iron bars, and also supported by two small sticks, like a boat oar, paddling freely on the ice, sailing to the other side of the myth; and even more mischievous children, simply sitting directly on the ice, holding the ice with their hands, playing "ice out of the slippery". There are also adults or children who smoke "traitors" with pigtails on the ice, and the "traitors" at this time are much faster than the rotation on the ground. The cold and silent ice surface became very lively at this time, and a warm current of vitality turned into a mist of green smoke, swirling and rising on the river surface for tens of miles.

In the winter of my first year of junior high school, the snow fell so heavily that the wheat fields on the western slope of the village were covered with a thick blanket of snow. After the snow stopped, the teacher took us to the half-slope wheat field to step on the snow. The land on the half slope is not as easy to water as the flat land, and it needs to be pumped up with water pumps, and the villagers have long begun to transport snow from the fields on the road to the wheat fields in order not to waste the resources given by God. Our task was to spread the snow in the wheat field with a shovel and then step on it with our feet. I began to feel funny, stepping on it, my shoes were wet, my feet were frozen and painful, I gritted my teeth and insisted, slowly forgetting the wet cold on my feet, as if I had become a snowflake, rhythmically dancing lightly in the world of snow. Gradually, the feet warmed up again. The following spring, the wheat seedlings under the snow were stretched out and grew very strong.

The joy that snow brings to people is multifaceted, the snow white velvet by the Yongding Xifen River is a piece, and my junior high school homeroom teacher and his two precious daughters are slowly stepping on the snow, leaving behind them a big two small, three pairs of deep foot sockets, like an old bear playing in the snow with a bear and a big bear. Tired of stepping, the three people looked at their feet and laughed, they said, this is called "stepping on the bear tracks".

It was snowing one winter, it was almost time for the final exams, and the other classes were nervously reviewing in the classroom, but we were absent-mindedly looking out the window at the snow. The class teacher saw it in his eyes and ordered the whole class to quietly assemble and take us to the grove behind the school to have a snowball fight, and the students played crazy. As a result, the test score was higher than that of other classes.

As a child, ice and snow are definitely a luxury for summer, but in summer, you will also see crystalline ice cubes. At that time, there were no refrigerator freezers or other freezers, but there were ice cellars along the river next to the three shop villages, along with the river next to Mayu Village and the main river of the Yongding River, and every day a horse-drawn carriage would pull out large ice cubes from the ice cellars and send them to the food store. There are clean grass mats under the ice cubes, and the car is dripping with cold water droplets along the way, like the salivation of children chasing cars behind. Sometimes, the uncle who is driving the car will stop the car and hand the small piece of crushed ice on the car to the child who chases the car. The children took the ice cubes, dispersed with joy, and ran to the side to share them. The carriage brought ice cubes into the shop, and many of the food was chilled. Glass bottles of Arctic Ocean soda, placed on large ice cubes, that is the real "ice cold".

In late autumn, the first snow covers the distant mountains, blue sky and clear water, red ridges and silver peaks, superimposed layers, clear colors, like a fairyland. Snow bathing the mountains, covering the mountains with a white coat, where the wind blows, naked brown repellent. The sun shines high, burning in the blood, the snow, dissolving in holiness, the soul of the mountain, purified in the condensation of blood and snow, although there are no flowers and grasses, but you can smell the dark fragrance of the mountain.

Snow, the soul of whiteness, is quietly sprinkled in the pages of winter, and when passion freezes, the soul is filtered, and there is less vanity and glitz between heaven and earth. One year, when it snowed on the fifteenth day of the first month, the ancient banners of the Thousand Armed Forces Terrace and the Village of Zhuanghu in the mountains for more than four hundred years would be carried out as usual, and the hunting banners of the next generation would march on the snow-covered mountain roads and step on the ancient rhymes of spring and autumn, which was how touching and magnificent it was, and the mountain people of Lotte, under the cover of the snow in the sky, came and went in and out of the depths of history. Nearby, the hooves of the thousand-year-old road, covered with snow, precipitated a tired west wind and thin horse, and the holy Buddha land of Tanzhu and Jietai were covered with a mysterious robe...

Snow, sometimes on time and quarterly, sometimes out of the norm, or arrives early, or sneaks in after mistakes. One year, just into November, Wenyou and I went to the literary base built by Ma Bingchen, vice chairman of our Writers Association, the small village of Sidamo in the mountains. As soon as I got there, it was snowing, and it was getting heavier and heavier. The water of the spring stream was buried by snow, the stones in the ditch became large and small snow mushrooms, the cabbage that had not yet been harvested was covered with snow, and the trees in the valley were bent by the snow. The sheep on the opposite hill suddenly could not find the grass and cried out. At night, I sat on the warm earthen kang, looked out the window at the mountain magnified by the snow, listened to the screams of the shepherds on the opposite mountain, and wrote a poem "The First Snow in the Mountain Village", which was published in the first half of the February 2004 Poetry Journal.

The Capital Iron and Steel Company is on the east bank of the Yongding River, across the river from us, and many fathers and brothers in our hometown were once workers in Shougang. Steel splashing in front of the steelmaking furnace was once the most beautiful scenery in Hedong, and now the Shougang Ski Jump, as the location of the Winter Olympic Snowboard and Freestyle Ski Jumping Project, is overflowing with passion everywhere, and is using the snowflakes in Tang poetry to write a crystal clear poem.

(Original title: Ice and snow memory on the Yongding River)

Source: Beijing Evening News | Author Ma Shuqin

Process Editor: u029

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