The second uncle of the fallen
Wen | Li Hongchang
The first day of the Chinese New Year, also known as the first day of the first lunar month, according to traditional customs, due to the high score of the elders, the villagers will give their fathers a New Year's greeting, so our family, before dawn, we have to get up, eat dumplings (according to the custom of eating dumplings on the morning of the first day of the first month), we will drive back to our hometown.
As soon as I entered the bridge at the east end of the village, facing the dazzling headlights, came a bearded, scruffy old man, about sixty or seventy years old, my father sat in a car with motion sickness, the windows were not closed, and a thick wine wafted in through the window, and my father asked: "Who is this?" Drink so much wine early in the morning! I didn't look closely because I was concentrating on driving, and my wife looked through the car window and replied, "It's our second uncle who is good at drinking." "Your second uncle's life is over, your second uncle used to be capable in our village, but unfortunately it was destroyed in the hands of his daughter-in-law!" Oh..." Father's words were filled with infinite regret and helplessness.
My father's words reminded me of the ancient adage that "a family has a virtuous wife, which is better than a good field." I remember when I was a child, my father often said this to my cousins, and at that time, I was too young to know the meaning. As I grew older and more knowledgeable, I grew older and married and had children, and gradually understood the meaning of what my old father said to my cousins.
In the 80s, there was a young and capable person in the village, who was one generation higher than me, the second oldest, and this person was the "second uncle". Speaking of the second uncle, he is really a "capable person", the ancestral martial arts of the clan he will, not only can play several sets of boxing, even knives, guns and sticks in his hands are not a word... On the living room wall of the second uncle's house, there is a beautiful western palm four-way half-frame routine fist wall chart, also drawn by his hand, every year the second uncle often paints for others, the surrounding villagers which build new houses, need the roof mountain, gatehouse, cornice board painting is also often invited to him, for the new house "icing on the cake" to draw a few strokes. If people don't invite him to dinner, they will give the second uncle a little money in return. Later, the second uncle pleased a daughter-in-law, very beautiful, a few years later gave birth to two men and two women, the small life is tasteful, everyone said that the second uncle has a good life, in that era, let the villagers envy.
Every time the second uncle earns money to go home, the second aunt will give the second uncle a dish, heat a pot of wine, treat his own man, and drink some wine to let the second uncle relieve his fatigue. Speaking of this daughter-in-law, it is quite painful! But perhaps since then, the second uncle has begun to change.
Wine, although this thing can relieve fatigue, but the second aunt does not know, long-term drinking has made the second uncle addicted to alcohol (ordinary people say alcohol poisoning). Gradually, the second uncle changed from a "capable person" that everyone admired and envied to a drunkard who was annoying to everyone.
In the early 1990s, when the second uncle first started to work with the construction team of the surrounding villages, he was clean and sharp, plus he was a very good mason master. Whenever a new house is tiled, the owner of the household will always get a table of wine and dishes for the masons, the purpose is to let the craftsmen eat well and drink well to do a good job, the tiles of the new house will be tiled well, and the house will not leak rain for one or two decades. But once, the second uncle and a mason in a neighboring village, in charge of the bricklayer of the new house, the head of the household did not have a table of wine and vegetables before noon, and the second uncle, who loved to drink, unconsciously had been poisoned by alcohol (drunk), and the head of the household was embarrassed to say that he, the neighboring village and other personnel, all advised him not to drink too much, indicating that he would just eat a good meal and go to the house to work, but the second uncle did not listen, three times five to two, another bottle was all into the stomach, and the result was a mess of drinking, and the mason of the neighboring village who was with him was scolded. The head of the household saw that he was drunk and could not go to the house, and could not tile. He arranged for someone to take care of him as an alcoholic, and found a way to send him home. After arriving home, the second aunt not only did not appreciate the person who sent the second uncle home, nor did she complain about the second uncle's drunkenness, but she counted down the neighboring village mason responsible for sending the second uncle... The masons in the neighboring villages are also Xiucai who met the soldiers, and it is reasonable to say. At that time, the family did not say anything else, and never worked with the second uncle again.
The second uncle is like this, once, twice, three times... The second uncle not only did not recognize himself, but also became more alcoholic. The people who worked in the village were no longer willing to be with him. Even the other people in the village did not dare to let him work outside. The key is that they don't want to mess with the second uncle, this is:
Sweet mouth Sweet Du Kang legend, thousands of years of incense people lineage.
Drink more than enough to be healthy, when to covet drunkenness.
A person's depravity and scorn are not because of the dislike and abandonment of the people around him, but because of his own arrogance and disregard for his own faults to shirk responsibility, not to see the problem from himself, not to recognize his own shortcomings, but to think that others deliberately embarrass him and look down on him. In addition, the second aunt has never said that her man is wrong, and she knows that she has repeatedly protected the second uncle. At that time, I was young and didn't understand why everyone was afraid of him.
The second uncle's alcoholism did not know when it became endless. After twenty years, the second uncle became even more intense, drinking three times a day, drinking when he got up, drinking at noon, and drinking at night. It seemed that in his eyes there was only wine, or wine. If you don't have wine, you buy it, you sell grain without money, and you go with wine every day. At this time, the second aunt could no longer control her own man, otherwise she would be scolded and beaten. Because of the bad luck of the day, the second uncle smashed the bowl every day, scolded and beat people, and used wine every day to numb himself, just like others said - tuck the deck card in the waist - who came with whom. Slowly, the villagers saw him and began to hide. Even so, the people in the village were still distressed and angry with him. A nice guy, but because of drinking, it's over.
The second uncle is now a man in his sixties, no longer the clean and graceful person he used to be, and has become a scruffy old man. The second uncle came to this step, in the final analysis, most of it was due to the second aunt's protection and pampering of him, and he did not know that he had to stop at anything, so that he became an alcoholic. If he had managed the second uncle to drink earlier and not condoned him to drink heavily, perhaps the second uncle would not have fallen like this. Fortunately, several of the children of the second uncle did not follow him, one by one they were very industrious, and they also built the old house of the second uncle, which was much happier and more comfortable than the second uncle.
Throughout history, since ancient times, how many charming things, celebrity anecdotes, red and white events are inseparable from wine. As early as 2,000 years ago, Cao Cao had "how to relieve worries, only Du Kang." How many heroic figures with distinct and vivid personalities in Shi Nai'an's pen are also distinct in personality, full of characters, and full of pride because of wine...
Wine, we have a thousand years of wine culture. Using wine well can solve many things, but there is no need to "live happily" to open up and drink and get drunk. The key to reason is wine, rational use of wine, and control of human nature's selfish "desires", the key is still people.
Of course, behind every successful man in ancient and modern times, there is no shortage of great women. It is precisely because of their silent support, encouragement and encouragement that the road to success is very broad. It is the so-called "family with a virtuous wife and a prosperous family". Happy family. I hope that there will be fewer depraved "second uncles" in the world, don't cause trouble for their own families, and bring more harmony to society.
About the author: Li Junjian, pen name Li Hongchang. A native of Li Chaohua (Kuiqiu Lizhuang) village in Heze City, he is currently a member of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, a member of the Heze Writers Association, and a member of the Heze Poetry Society. His works have appeared in many newspapers, magazines and online platforms: Heze Daily, Heze Radio and Television News, Xijiangyue, Capital Literature, Lingnan Writers, Jiaodong Prose Annual Selection Micro-Publication Platform, China Writers Network, China Poetry Network, Chinese Poetry Society, etc.
Submission email: [email protected]
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