Qingwei | the fourth grandmother

Text | Yang Aiwu

The fourth grandmother is the concubine of the grandmother's concubine.

The fourth grandmother was originally born in a wealthy family. Unfortunately, my fate was not good since childhood. When she was a little girl who was only a few years old, because of family changes, she was sold to my house to give her fourth grandfather as a child bride. The fourth grandfather is not bad-looking, but when he was a child, he had measles and fell on his face. The little fourth grandmother hated my fourth grandfather's face, and all day long her heart was pimples, but she did not expect that later she also fell into a pothole because of measles.

With a little reluctance, the fourth grandmother and the fourth grandfather rounded the room. In a few years, the fourth grandmother and the fourth grandfather gave birth to three sons and a daughter. The three sons are all burly and handsome; the daughters are quiet and beautiful. The fourth grandfather looks at the four children every day, always feels that there is no end to the strength, and the fourth grandmother feels that her heart is sweeter than eating honey... Just when the days passed and felt a taste, the fourth grandfather unfortunately died young.

In the face of the sudden change, looking at the little son who was still waiting to be fed in her arms, the fourth grandmother did not dare to have more tears. She had to straighten her thin body and tenaciously pick up the burden of life.

Day by day, the four children grew up slowly.

I never asked how difficult it was for my four grandmothers, who were thin and weak, to raise four children in those years, but when I remember, my aunt was already married, and my three uncles were at the age of talking about marriage.

Looking back on those years, the fourth grandmother never forgot my grandmother. She often said to people, "My sister-in-law is more dear to me than my mother."" ”

I love Grandma Four. She is clean, has a good temper, and the steamed nest is delicious. My favorite errand at that time was when my grandmother asked me to call the fourth grandmother to accompany her. Every time I went to Grandma Four's house, I would first eat her family's sweet potato noodle nest, and grandma Four's thick noodle cakes were also delicious. Grandma always said to me, don't eat her family's things, your uncles have a large amount of food, afraid that their food will not be enough to eat.

I like to eat at Grandma Four's house and I like to live in her house. The futons of the fourth grandmother's house, inside and noodles are all old coarse cloth spun by themselves, old age, stacked with many patches, the cotton inside is not new, but inside and outside is clean, refreshing, and there is always a fragrance of cotton in her quilt. I loved the feeling of lying in her bed.

Now that I think about it, what's good, hard, cool, very heavy. I slept at home, and the quilt moved when I turned over; when I slept at the fourth grandmother's house, only my body moved when I turned over, and the quilt did not move, and I did not move the quilt with the strength to turn over. When Grandma Four spun cotton at night, I asked her, Grandma Four, can you weave the yarn into cloth made of quilts? Grandma Four said yes. I asked her when she could change the quilt to a new one, and Grandma Four smiled bitterly. When I was a child, I didn't realize that my question touched the heart of the fourth grandmother, and she still had to marry her daughter-in-law for her three unmarried sons Zhang Luo, how could she change her turn to change the new quilt?!

Grandma Four is a very careful person. She sewed the quilt on her own quilt, which is convenient for dismantling and washing at any time; when she needs to remove and wash the futon, she always picks up the dismantled inside and the noodles to look at it carefully, and then sews stitches in some places, I asked her what it is, she said that what she sews is dirty, make marks, and you can focus on scrubbing when washing. This small detail of the fourth grandmother has always been remembered by me.

I like to go to Grandma Four's house because of her big pomegranate tree. In early summer, I like the flowers of that tree, the clusters of pomegranate flowers blooming so warmly and brightly, in full swing. Knowing that I like flowers, the fourth grandmother often picked a few flowers for me to insert on the braid, and the fourth grandmother said that I wore pomegranate flowers, which looked better than pomegranate flowers. In the blink of an eye, the pomegranate flower of the tree became a finger-sized fruit, and the fruit grew slowly in my longing, growing into a green pomegranate, and then becoming a red pomegranate, and when it finally revealed the clear seed in shame, the fourth grandmother would point to the pomegranate full of trees and say, see, which one we like to pick.

When the pomegranates are ripe, it's when I go to their house the most. The pomegranates that were dotted with branches were crystal clear and full of grains, and the sweet juice nourished my childhood.

The three sons of the fourth grandmother are all talented, because the family is not well-off, it takes some trouble to find a daughter-in-law, especially the eldest son and the second son. My mother first gave my uncle Zhang Luo a daughter-in-law, and then helped my second uncle become a family. The year I married my little aunt Chinese New Year's Eve, my fourth grandmother called me to her house. She happily took out from her closet a scarf with a black checkered red background (after more than thirty years, I still clearly remember the color and style of the scarf) and said, "It's the New Year, Grandma bought you a scarf." See like it? ”

When I looked at it, it was the same as Xiaofang's in our class, Xiaofang looked better after wearing that scarf, and I always wanted my mother to buy me one, but I didn't find the right opportunity to say. I was a little excited to see the scarf, but my mother repeatedly told me not to ask for other people's things. I said no, no, and ran outside. Grandma Four caught up with me and said, "Hold it, you must look good on it." ”

I thought about it for a moment, the fourth grandmother is her own grandmother, what do you want her things to be afraid of?

When I got home, I happily put on the scarf and circled a few times in front of the mirror.

When my mother came home, I took out the scarf. Seeing the scarf, the mother asked who sent it, I said the fourth grandmother, her face changed suddenly, she said, "The fourth grandmother is so tired, how can you ask for her things?" "She ordered me to send the scarf back. The fourth grandmother sent the scarf back again, and counted down the mother. But that scarf, which I kept at the bottom of the box, never wore it again.

Grandma four and grandma have a very good relationship, whenever my family makes good food, grandma will arrange for me to send some to grandma four; they are in contact very frequently, or my grandma asks me to go to her house to find her, or she comes directly; every summer, grandma four will go to my house with grandma to help us remove and wash the bedding, until when I am thirteen years old, I learned to take it apart with the help of her and grandma, and I have taken on this heavy responsibility ever since.

When Grandma died, Grandma Four did not go to see her off, and many people in the village said that Grandma Four did not understand things. With the deepening of my experience, I knew that the weathered fourth grandmother could not bear too much grief, and how could she bear to send her sister-in-law who loved her mother-in-law.

After leaving my hometown, my fourth grandmother became the person I was most worried about. That year, when I got the news that she was sick, I went to visit her, and she was much older and haggard a lot. But her thinking was clear, and she asked me about my work and my children. I couldn't bear to look at her more, and left in a hurry with the child.

When my fourth grandmother died, I didn't go to see me off because I couldn't get out of work. This makes me feel very sorry every time I think about it.

About the author: Yang Aiwu, pen name Ami. He is a member of the Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party, a member of the Chinese Essay Literature Society, a member of the Provincial Youth Writers Association, an executive vice chairman of the Municipal Youth Writers Association, and a columnist of Zibo Evening News. The articles have been scattered in newspapers and periodicals inside and outside the province such as Zibo Financial and Economic News, Ten Years of Literary Scene, Zibo Sound Screen Newspaper, Qingdao Morning Post, Beijing Youth Daily, China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Daily, Shandong Pictorial, Rural Public, etc. Over the years, I like to wander in famous works, record my life in words, and continue to practice in writing, hoping to gradually perfect myself.

One point number Shandong financial literature