Happy home
Text/Feng Lianwei
In the New Year, only when you return to your hometown can you have the atmosphere of the New Year and find the happiness of the New Year when you were a child.
On the 28th day of the lunar month in 2021, braving the bitter cold wind, I was on the way back to my hometown.
Like a whistling north wind, one will go up, one will go down, suddenly left and right, hitting the car window; the crowd of people rushing to the New Year's Market is wearing thick clothes and wrapping thick scarves, wrapping the whole person tightly; I squint my eyes leisurely in the car, and the scene of talking to my little nephew on the phone comes to mind:
"Uncle Three, when are you coming back for the New Year?" You've killed two domestically raised roosters, two wild carp caught from the East River (Shu River), and your niece and daughter-in-law have prepared tangyuan noodles and sugar melons..."
When there is a mother, go home for the New Year and go straight to the mother. The mother is gone, the father is gone, and the lock on the door of the old home is always locked.
Before the Spring Festival, my nephews would call me, report on the New Year goods they had prepared for me, determine when I would go home for the New Year, and finally ask what else I needed them to prepare.
Every time the little nephew on the other end of the phone spoke very passionately, I was very excited on the other end of the phone.
People are so simple, so simple that they are reminded, remembered, cared for, and a greeting is like a ray of sunshine like a spring breeze in winter, and suddenly warmth overflows the heart. Involuntarily humming Chen Ming's "Happy Hometown":
Follow me and set off at dawn;
The dream has woken up,
The heart will not be afraid,
There is a place,
It was a happy home.
The hometown has a history, the original village of the hometown is called "FanMu Village", and it is said that the mother of the Han Dynasty general Fan Duo lived here.
The first to the hometown to set up camp is my old ancestor Feng Hejun, and then there are zhuge Liang's descendants five brothers to settle down, now the hometown of the villagers are Feng and Zhuge descendants, although there is a difference in surnames, but the warm nostalgia has been integrated into the two surnames living here in the children and grandchildren, as close as a family.
By the 1970s, the village was still a small village of more than 500 people, and an east-west street and a north-south alley formed the skeleton of the village.
North and South Lane originally referred to an alley located on the east side of the village, the southernmost end of the alley to the south side of the village of Shui wang, we call it "Qian Wang"; the north end of the alley extends to connect a road out of the village, all the way to an official road two miles away, formerly called Lan yan highway, has now become a national road.
Dongxi Avenue is the main street of the village, the street is the axis, developing north and south, and the east side of the street is the Shu River.
The Shu River is another mother river of the Linyi people, which originates in the southern foothills of Yishui County in the Yimeng Mountains, flows south with the level of Yiyi, and flows through Tancheng County into Jiangsu Province. The Shu River Basin is the birthplace of Chinese characters, the main birthplace of the famous Dawenkou and Dongyi cultures.
Ask me where my hometown is? The hometown is located on the west bank of the Shu River, where there is a flat river, the land is fertile, the folk customs are simple and the scenery is beautiful.
The Tang Dynasty poet Meng Haoran described it in "Passing the Old Man Zhuang": "The old man has a chicken and invites me to the Tian family." The green tree village is on the edge, and the green mountain is oblique. Open the noodle garden and put the wine into the mulberry. Stay until the day of the sun, and return the chrysanthemum. ”
The village where I was born can be said to have water without mountains, and the scene described by the poet Gao Ding's "Village Residence" is more in line with my hometown: "The grass is long and the warblers fly in February, and the willows on the embankment are drunk with spring smoke." Children return from school early and are busy taking advantage of the east wind to release paper kites. ”
Born in the 1960s, I have been full of longing for what my father called "East River" (the Shu River is located on the east side of the village, and the villagers call the Shu River the East River) since I can remember it.
At that time, the Shu river was as clear as a mirror, there was no pollution, and when thirsty, he could directly hold up the river water entrance with his hand, and a trace of sweetness moisturized his heart. On the banks of the Shu River are hundreds of acres of forest farms and orchards, along the Shu River is a row of weeping willows, warm flowers in spring, willows blowing noodles; catching fish and touching shrimp in summer; picking fruits and picking pears in autumn; snowing in winter, breaking the ice on the river and seeking fish.
Hometown, make me happy. The neighbors like relatives, the warm grass house, the father's trolley, the dry cigarette bag, the flower cloth scarf on the mother's head, the embroidered insoles in the hands of the eldest sister...
I was born in the countryside as the son of an authentic farmer.
Growing up, becoming an adult, working, becoming half a city person, often inadvertently, talking and doing things still shows the tone and habits of rural people, and the daughter-in-law will say at this time: "You can't change the habits you have developed in the countryside in this life." ”
I would reply to her with great pride: "That is a cell that has grown into the bone marrow, engraved with the deep imprint of my hometown, can't be changed, can't be worn off, I will bring it to the coffin." ”
In fact, the habit of my rural people, who make me proud, is simple and frank, and only wants others to say a good word to see the "face" infinitely large; in order to make others say good, they can endure hunger and hunger, and they must also hand the only pancake and an egg to other hands.
Compared with the neighbors who lived in the high-rise buildings of the city for a long time and could not recognize a neighbor in a building, I will never forget the affection of the neighbor, the warm village of less than a thousand people.
Walking on the bustling streets of the city, the warmest in my heart is still the difficult to change the hometown sound, the unforgettable or the home cooking of the hometown, let me no longer feel lonely or the smiling faces of the villagers without return.
On the eve of the Spring Festival this year, the eldest brother, who was over 60 years old, returned to his hometown to give the ancestors a new year's grave, and stayed in the old house for a night. The eldest brother said I needed to see our "third uncle".
When the eldest brother said the name of the third uncle, I knew that this was a neighbor of the Zhuge surname of the village. The two of us asked while looking, when we saw the third uncle who was almost seventy years old, his vision was blurred, the eldest brother reported his name, the third uncle was excited at this time, grabbed the eldest brother's hand, pulled the eldest brother to his side, and the two people who were already gray-haired began to relive the unforgettable time of childhood.
Decades of time have passed, so that the third uncle's knife-like face has been carved with wrinkles, the once upright body has been bent by the weight of life, only two people recall the events that made the two unforgettable, it seems to have returned to the fiery youth.
"Do you remember that my mother had acute enteritis, the pain was rolling on the bed, three times in the middle of the night, my mother asked me to smash the door of you and the second uncle's house, and then you and the second uncle used the ground platoon car to pull my mother to the commune hospital, the doctor on duty was very impatient to give the mother a small needle, the mother still hurt to roll on the bed, I was small at that time, only tears, you and the second uncle discussed, made up your mind to go to the Xianggong Hospital, and then used the ground platoon car to pull the mother for more than an hour, to the Xianggong Hospital, the doctor hung a hanging bottle for the mother, and finally the mother no longer cried out in pain." At dawn, you and your second uncle pulled the mother home with a row of cars. The eldest brother said this in a huff, and the third uncle's hand still tightly grasped the eldest brother's hand, and then said: "Your mother and I have to call the sister, the sister is sick, the other can't help, the strength does not cost money, watching the sister roll in pain, we must go to find a doctor who can treat her." ”
While wiping away tears, the eldest brother said: "My mother often talked about this matter when she was alive, she said that it was not your second uncle and third uncle, your mother may be dead, and you can't forget the kindness of your second uncle and third uncle." ”
"What a grace! When my sister was young, she was a women's director, and she also worked as a midwife, these children in the family were all delivered by my sister at that time, whether it was raining on a snowy day, whether it was day or late at night, as long as you knocked on your door and said that you would deliver a child, my sister would put on clothes and take the baggage and leave, there must be hundreds of people in our village who were delivered by my sister, and she never wanted anything in return. ”
"Alas, speaking of this, our son is indeed proud of her mother, before she died, hundreds of villagers came to visit her, sending eggs and milk; on the day of her death and funeral, hundreds of people sent her off..."
That afternoon, the third uncle and the eldest brother have been pulling for more than two hours, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying together, the eldest brother put down a thousand yuan for the third uncle when he left, and the third uncle packed a bag of his own fried New Year goods for the eldest brother.
On the way home together, the eldest brother was still talking to me about his nostalgia for the villagers, he said: "You are happier than me, close to home, you can often go back to the old house to see, usually when the villagers need our help with something, as long as it is not a matter of violating the law and discipline, we must help them without reservation." ”
In fact, without the advice of the eldest brother, I have been bathed in a strong nostalgia and felt the warmth of nostalgia.
"Is the third old man back?" Come to my house for dinner, let's kill a chicken and drink it. "Almost every time I go back to my hometown, my neighbor's big brother will say this.
The life of the eldest brother is not so generous, the two sons and daughters-in-law must keep up with the pace of the times, the large bungalow with four ears, the woman's bride price should have a palanquin car, when the two sons are married to the daughter-in-law, the eldest brother is also tired and bent, but for the eldest brother, what has survived in a lifetime? After staying up all the children and grandchildren, this is satisfied.
Every time I go back to my hometown, as long as I am met by my eldest brother, he always smiles and invites me to his house for dinner, although I have not made the trip, and his big rooster has been chirping, but this friendship makes me unforgettable.
The determination to leave his hometown at that time has long been synonymous with youth and ignorance, and he cannot remember the tearful eyes of leaving his hometown with a heavy bag, but what he remembers is the warm affection of his hometown.
Tired, hometown is the warmest headrest for wanderers to fade away loneliness.
Written on the night of March 9, 2022 in Jinan
【About the author】Feng Lianwei, a native of Linyi, Shandong. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, the China Essay Literature Association, the China Natural Resources Writers Association, the Shandong Writers Association, the vice president of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and the deputy secretary-general of the Shandong Natural Resources Writers Association. His works have been published in magazines such as "Reading", "Overseas Edition of Prose", "Hundred Schools of Prose", "Oasis", "Chinese Reportage", "Contemporary Prose", "Shandong Literature", "Times Literature" and other magazines; some works have been selected into various annual prose anthologies, and have won several awards such as "Times Literature" Annual Prose Award, "Qilu Works Annual Exhibition" Best Work Award, National Prose Competition, etc.; authors of "Still Water Deep Flow", "True Water Without Fragrance", "Like Water Flow Year", "Water Leaving Fragrance", "Water, Speaking" and other prose collections.