Memories of hometown: the warm winter in the heart

Author: Yang Ming

In the depths of my memory, the winter of the late seventies of the last century, although the ice and snow, the cold wind, the whole world is like a huge ice cellar, but in my heart is very warm.

That winter seemed to come particularly early that year. Shortly after the midterm exams, there was a continuous autumn rain, and the wind blowing on the body was as cold as a day.

One Saturday evening, the sky was overcast, the relentless cold wind was blowing vigorously, and when I walked home after I usually stayed at school to meet the cold wind and walked along the winding gravel path on the shore of the lake, my lips were purple and my face was pale, and my body was shaking vigorously like chaff on my body. My mother saw me and wept secretly. After dinner, under the dim oil lamp, my mother looked gloomily through the family's dilapidated wardrobe and wooden box, sighing as she turned over, and occasionally lightly wiped her eyes. After looking for a long time, my mother handed me a set of half-worn clothes and pants, a half-old sweater, and a pair of old nylon socks. I knew that this was the only thing I could find at home to keep me warm. Because my younger siblings wore no more clothes than I did, they were smaller and more afraid of the cold than I was.

Before you know it, winter is here. All day long it seemed to be overcast, and the cold wind blew vigorously from the cold lake surface of Chaohu Lake in the north, as if against people, and drilled into the thin clothes. Except for a thin old sweater and a yarn vest, the rest were singles and pants. At the foot is a pair of old nylon socks, plus a pair of old sneakers. Every day I felt a chill all over my body, and sometimes I felt that my body had become a popsicle, but there was still some heat in my chest.

It is often said that the more people are afraid of ghosts, the more ghosts come to their doors. The more afraid of the cold, the weather seems to specifically bully people who are afraid of the cold. Soon, sporadic snowflakes began to drift in the sky. The flying snowflakes look really beautiful, like willows fluttering, and falling on the ground is also very light and elegant. Otherwise, there would not have been so many beautiful poems and masterpieces of chanting snowflakes throughout the ages. However, I think that the literati who wrote those beautiful verses of The Snow Were certainly not starving and freezing when they wrote these verses. Just think, when a person can't even keep his life, will he still have so much leisure to chant poetry and enjoy the snow?

Soon, several hard red dots appeared on the back of my left hand. After a few days, the red dots seemed to be very restless and spread out to the surroundings, getting bigger and bigger, turning into red and bright red envelopes. Busy listening to lectures, taking notes, and doing homework during the day, often there is no special feeling, and when you wake up at night, the red and swollen parts are often itchy. I couldn't help but stretch out my fingers and scratch a few times, and it seemed to be a little comfortable. This practice is actually drinking to quench thirst, and the red and swollen parts become softer and softer, and soon they fester. At that time, even the bandaged rags could not be found, so they had to let the frozen wounds be exposed and suffer in the cold wind. Sometimes it was too cold to bear, so I had to shrink my hand into the shallow sleeve, and the wound appeared shyly in the cuff.

It was really a leak in the house that had been raining overnight, and the broken ship had encountered the wind. The frostbite on his hands was getting worse, and two red envelopes of copper money appeared on the heels of each of his feet. It's a symmetrical pair, almost the same size. During class time, or sitting in the classroom for a long time, the heels always hurt when I stand up. I have always been so strong that I always gritted my teeth and silently endured. When I woke up at night, the back of my hands and heels were itchy and unbearable, and the patience of fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenagers was always very limited, knowing that they could not scratch the red and swollen area with their fingers, but often it was natural to put their hands out and scratch them gently. Scratching and scratching, the red and swollen parts became more and more comfortable, and the scratches became heavier and heavier. Within a few days, the red and swollen area naturally festered. What to do? There was nothing he could do, so he let the wound fester and put on his socks and shoes during the day. When sleeping at night, gently take off the socks, the wound is always pus and blood blurred.

One evening when I went to the cafeteria to eat, several classmates who lived together saw me limping and asked me what was wrong. I have always loved face, and I am afraid of embarrassment, and I never say it. They were in a hurry, and after repeated questions, I pretended to be very relaxed and replied, that is, the heels were frozen, but you can rest assured, don't worry about things.

At night, when I was resting in the dormitory, when I took off my shoes and was carefully taking off my socks, a classmate saw that my movements were very slow, so he came to my bunk and sat down, carefully looked at the wound on my heel by the dim and faint light of the oil lamp, and then touched the socks I had just taken off, his eyes widened, and he was surprised to say, No wonder your scud has always walked slowly for several days, I feel strange. It turns out that the wound is so big! From tomorrow onwards, a few of us will help you to go to the canteen to make meals, and study with you in the evening.

I pushed hard, but from this day on, every night after self-study, several of them never ran to the dormitory like a gust of wind in the past, always accompanied me, or supported me, step by step to the dormitory two miles away from the school.

About a month before the winter vacation, it is already nine cold winters, and for several consecutive days, the drizzle is misty, the north wind is whistling, and it is frozen everywhere. A few of them did their best to take care of me, and almost all three meals a day were sent back to the class by them in the cafeteria, trying to avoid me from getting cold when I went out, and it was better to be warmer in the classroom than outside! Although the wound on the back of my hand was bleeding with pus and blood every day, it was finally controlled, and the scope of ulceration never expanded. It's just that the weather is getting colder, and the wounds on the heels are getting bigger and bigger, and they are getting worse. Every night when I take off my socks before going to bed, it is an indescribable pain. During the day, socks and pus-bleeding wounds are tightly glued together, and taking off socks at night is actually a hard tear off a piece of skin on the heel, and every time it hurts so much that it hurts so much that it breaks out in cold sweat. When I woke up at night, the wounds on the back of my hands and heels were so itchy that I couldn't express them in words.

One night, I was sleeping so well that I didn't know who suddenly shouted, "It's not good, it's already bright!" Hurry up and go to class to read! At that time, the students were timid, and the students who arrived late were punished and not allowed to eat breakfast. A few of us immediately jumped up like springs, hurriedly got dressed, pulled open the dilapidated dormitory door to see that there was a heavy snow in the night, and the white expanse outside was already a silver world. The light of snow shone through the cracks in the broken door, as if the sky had brightened. Looking at the dark and heavy night sky, I don't know what time it is. We were all dumbfounded, wanted to continue sleeping, and were afraid of delaying time. We had to go out the door, a classmate immediately came to me and pulled my left hand on my shoulder, supporting me, and several other people or before or after, we slowly walked towards the school one foot deep and one foot shallow. When I got downhill, my heels ached, and one toe fell forward, and the classmates who helped me fell into the snow together. A few of them hurried over and picked us up with all their hands and feet.

Entering a pitch-black campus, we went into the dark and turned on the lights and started reading. After a while, I felt a chill relentlessly burrow into my clothes, trembling all over my body. The most uncomfortable thing was that the heel began to hurt in bursts, like a large mouth with huge teeth that was relentlessly biting and chewing. Several of them began to stomp their feet for warmth, and my heel pain did not dare to stomp, and the cold was unbearable. When they saw it, they sighed helplessly. After a while, a classmate found a wooden stick in the corner of the class that was a foot long and arm-thick and placed it at my feet, smiled and said, rolling back and forth on the foot to see if it worked. I stepped on the stick with both feet and rolled it back and forth. After a while, there began to get some improvement on the feet. In this way, a few of us slowly survived until dawn.

One day, the homeroom teacher saw me walking with a limp, very concerned to stop me to inquire, and then looked at my wound carefully, I saw very clearly, the teacher's eyes were moist, some surprise said, frostbite is so serious, why didn't you say it earlier?

After about a week, the homeroom teacher called me to his room, very gently helped me to sit on a stool, and persuaded me to take off my socks. He took a wet towel dipped in hot water to help me carefully wipe the wounds, wiped the two wounds on my feet clean; then took out a small green plastic round box from the pocket of my coat, and after opening it, a pungent smell of medicine quickly dispersed, and the teacher dug out some with his fingers, and with one hand supported my foot, carefully applied it to the two wounds on my feet. While applying it, the teacher gently said that this is a frostbite cream specially used to treat frostbite. Just bought it today. You have the most severe frostbite and give you half. Some other students also suffered frostbite.

The plastered wound suddenly felt an indescribable coolness and comfort. A warm current quickly rushed into my heart, and my eyes became moist. The teacher took out two clean old cloths to help me wrap the wound. I slowly put on my socks and shoes and tried to say a few words of thanks, but my throat choked and I couldn't say a word.

With the frostbite cream sent by the teacher and the help of several classmates, my wounds were effectively controlled. A few days later, it was winter vacation time, and several classmates helped me back home to step on the ice and snow everywhere. My whole body felt hot.

At home, my mother arranged a brazier for me every day, and I read and did my homework by the brazier every day. The short winter vacation was not over, and the wounds on the back of my hands and heels were generally healed.

More than forty years later, these things still come to my eyes clearly. Although this winter has been very long, every day the wind whistles, the ice and snow, but in the depths of my soul, I have always felt very warm.

(Author: Chaohu Yinping Middle School Yang Ming Member of Anhui Essayist Association)

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