Text/Lee Dehua
My village, hidden in a small valley in the Taiyi Mountains. A small winding river flows down from the depths of the valley, and the village lives next to the river, and the small river flows through the village. When I was a child, the mountains around the village were surrounded by terraced fields, and the adults were busy working and tending to the crops all day. At that time, each person had to complete a certain number of volunteer workers every year, and by the end of the year, if they could not complete the prescribed number, they had to pay money to the brigade. So the adults at that time couldn't take care of the children at all. We were the big kids taking care of the little kids, and basically every family did that.
The eldest children took the small children, played with the family, picked fruits and fruits, hopscotched, and played and played to the small river. In spring, the river is shallow. In the grass by the river, the older children gently remove the stones, catch river crabs and shrimp from the shallow water under the stones and put them into the basin, take them home and fry them in oil, sprinkle with salt, and the taste is extremely delicious.
At the same time, the river is also rich in piles of black tadpoles, floating on the surface of the water. Smaller children play with tadpoles, dig a pit in the sand by the river, wait for the water to be filled, hold the tadpoles, watch them swim around, and change the law. My sister had a soft spot for tadpoles when she was a child, she wasn't like other children torturing tadpoles, she had a little turquoise fence, which my mother had woven with thin locust strips, flexible and beautiful. Each time, she had to watch for half a day, and then very carefully fished out the tadpoles in her picture with a small fence and put them in the aluminum lunch box that had been prepared long ago, hoping to take them home. And I would yell at her roughly every time: "What's the point of catching that ugly thing, lose it quickly!" ”
She stubbornly refused to throw it away, I rudely grabbed the lunch box, poured all the water and tadpoles inside on the edge of the river cliff, looked at the soft stomping and writhing tadpoles, she cried: "I want tadpoles to become dolls, dolls..." But I was upset that she was crying, ignored her crying, stomped the tadpoles in the sand, and then dragged her home.
I don't know when my sister stopped being my. One evening, I played crazy for an afternoon, and when I came home, I found that I didn't see her shadow for an afternoon. Hurry out to find it, and the three aunts who carry the water use a finger to catch tadpoles on the edge of the river cliff. At this time, the tadpoles have begun to fade, it is difficult to catch, she stubbornly turned around the river cliff, ignoring my calls, until I promised her, another day to help her catch a beautiful tadpole, and then come home with me.
Those tadpoles made her heart and mind, remembering a spring.
When my sister was a child, she looked white and fat, with a sweet mouth and a very cute mouth. The cerebellum contained a lot of questions, always like to ask non-stop, once, she asked Westinghouse Sanyan, where the child came from. The third concubine told her that it was the tadpoles in the river that changed.
The third concubine said to her: "I was washing clothes by the river with your mother, and I saw a small tadpole swimming towards your mother, and in the blink of an eye, she turned into a fat doll, and your mother quickly wrapped you up with clothes, carried you home in her arms, and put it on the kangtou, and in just a few days, she grew such a big girl." ”
"Then my sister-in-law, my brother and sister are also tadpoles?" My sister continued to ask stupidly.
"Of course, children are all tadpoles!" The third concubine replied in the affirmative, which made my sister believe her words.
So, throughout the spring, my sister dreamed of catching a tadpole that could turn into a doll, and she wanted a little doll so much. And I, on the other hand, have rudely knocked her dreams over again and again, and now that I think about it, I'm really ashamed.
Parents are busy with food and clothing, and have no time to take care of their children, and their children enjoy themselves, and they do not feel sorrow, only childhood.
Anxin is my cousin and the daughter of Uncle Five. Her family lived in front of my house, close to the river cliff. One afternoon when I was a child, my father hurried home, whispered something to his mother, and then took my hand to the door of uncle Wu's house, where the gate and the courtyard were full of people. The second uncle crouched in the corner of the wall, holding my cousin in his arms, and his face was gloomy. The cousin had a white cloth wrapped around his forehead, his eyes were clear, he saw me, he wanted to break free of the second uncle's arm, the second uncle was not allowed, he pressed him down, took the white cloth from his head, tore off a wisp, and wrapped it around my head.
To this day, I remember that afternoon, it was very hot, there were many people, but it was very quiet.
Nine days after the fifth aunt gave birth to Anxin, she died. After dealing with the aftermath of the fifth aunt, the fifth uncle turned around and went down to Kanto, and the fifth grandmother fed Anxin with rice soup and goat milk to grow up day by day. In the memory, the fifth grandmother always had a straight face, a sad face, and a peace of mind in her arms, sitting on the threshold of the gate. When Anxin cried, she lifted the hem of her clothes, let Anxin hold her nipples, and gently patted her, and Anxin really didn't cry.
Peace of mind grew up slowly, and Grandma slowly grew old. Anxin is very sensible, and when he was four or five years old, he knew how to help his grandmother work. During this period, the second uncle never came back, and I heard that he married a northeastern woman in the northeast and started a family.
The East River is a paradise for children, and every summer, we will soak in the water and play and play. But there are exceptions, that is, when it has just rained heavily, when the water is heavy, the adults will admonish the children not to play with the water.
On that day, it had just rained heavily, and the water flowing down from the mountain was still glowing with yellow sand, turning over and running with wave after wave. Very few people play and wash in the river. There was only one bare stick, sitting on the bluestone slab by the river, idly staring at the river to pass the time, and then under the downstream bridge, the Yang family's three concubines were washing clothes there.
Anxin two small hands holding the basin of washing clothes, waddling down to the river, looking for the bluestone slab that usually washes clothes, the bluestone slab has been flooded with water, only a very small corner is exposed, washed back and forth by the water flow, Anxin put down the basin at the bluestone slab, took out the clothes and scrubbed on the edge of the bluestone slab, washed one board at a time. As she leaned over to rinse her clothes into the water, her feet slipped and she fell into the water, and the water enveloped her as if she had taken a piece of clothing and tumbled downstream.
Guanggun Erlang shouted twice, "Rush to the child!" Rush to the child! "But he didn't get up to save it."
The third concubine of the Yang family was shocked and quickly shouted, "Erlang, hurry up!" Let's go fishing for the kids! ”
Erlang did not get up, just sat there, Yang Family Third Concubine could not take care of anything else, rushed into the waist-deep water, snatched Anxin in her arms, hugged the river, at this time was turned over by the waves a few heels of Anxin has no breath, Yang Family Sanyan was terrified, while shouting Erlang hurried back to call people, while putting Anxin on her legs, slapping her back hard, after a while, Anxin's mouth spat out a few large mouthfuls of water, and woke up. When the third concubine saw that Anxin woke up, her heart also relaxed, and the person collapsed on the ground tired. Looking up, I found that Erlang had been sitting there, not moving at all.
She shouted angrily: "Erlang, Erlang, your heart is made of wood, wood has come home for you, this is a human life, you see death or not to save?" ”
When the yang family's third grandmother sent anxin home, she told the fifth grandmother about the thrilling situation at that time, and later, the third grandmother of the Yang family said that after the fifth grandmother listened, she did not show much fright, and only said a few words of thanks.
But it is reassuring, after growing up, I heard people talk about this matter, firmly remembered in my heart, every time I came back, I would go to the Yang family's third concubine to talk.
My mother said that there are more than a dozen of our cousins, who are at ease and thoughtful. Every holiday, she always prepared gifts and went back to the village to visit the elderly and children of her family, in contrast, the more those of us who grew up under the knees of our parents, the more widowed. I am deeply ashamed of this.
The East River runs through the village, along the bluestone slab all the way north, after crossing the bridge, the riverbed generated by the bluestone slab changes, no longer gentle, as if the knife is cut by an axe, the wall is standing thousands of people, the river water is divided into two strands, gushing into the big bay of the northeast ditch, and then slowly flowing west without a long section of sand and gravel riverbed, connecting with the tributaries from the northeast ditch, and then bending and stretching straight to the Longwan River reservoir.
The Xianglan family lived on the edge of the northeast ditch, Xianglan's parents were changing relatives, in that era, for various reasons, the brothers grew up to marry the age of marriage and could not marry a daughter-in-law, so they used the sisters in the family to change a daughter-in-law for a brother or brother. Xianglan's mother was exchanged for Xianglan's aunt, who married her uncle. Xianglan's father was black, thin and short, her mother was strong and beautiful, Xianglan's brother looked like her father, lean and black, and Xianglan and her sister's appearance followed her mother's, tall and beautiful. Brother Xianglan has been studying for several years, so he is not high or low, and he is not too concerned about things in the crop field. Xianglan and her sister did not study, and learned to hook flowers before they were teenagers, which was also a profitable industry in the countryside at that time.
When Xianglan was seventeen or eighteen years old, she was very handsome, with beautiful eyebrows, and sat down in the hook flower house, no matter how many girls of her age were around, they were like the stars holding the moon, especially outstanding. Pandan is not only beautiful, but also skillful, a crochet needle pinched in the hand, like a flying butterfly, quickly shaking a ball of plain white thread out of a piece of exquisite handicrafts, is the best among the members of the village crochet group. She will also look at all kinds of pattern drawings, and every time she comes to a new look, she will first hook out the sample according to the drawing, and the big girl and daughter-in-law in the village will then take the hook.
Similar to the convention, when it comes to the girl and young man who talks about the age of marriage, there is naturally a matchmaker who comes to the door to propose to him. Xianglan is no exception, this spring, the matchmaker came to the matchmaker, not only to Xianglan to kiss, but also her brother, it turned out to be a change of relatives.
At that time, the law of marrying relatives of the older generation was still followed, that is, the young men in the family said that they could not marry their daughters-in-law, and could only exchange their sisters in the family for daughters-in-law. By the 1980s, the new fashion had spread to the mountain villages, and there was free love in the village, and the girls and boys ignored the opposition of the family, and there were no shortage of successful love. Xianglan is full of eyes, and naturally has a beautiful yearning for love in her heart, so she is very resistant to changing relatives, and anyone who says that the media will not let go.
Although this is only a small mountain village of about a hundred households, it cannot be denied that it is a society. It has chickens and dogs, strong stems and weak branches, honor and shame, and prosperity.
At first, for Xianglan's resistance, the father was cold-eyed, the mother was sad, and the brother was silent. Later, the brother's age is getting older, many young people of similar age have married and have children, and his parents have also begun to be anxious, urging Xianglan to go on a blind date, eager to settle the family affair, and the brother also began to be cold to Xianglan, as if Xianglan hindered his steps of getting married and starting a family.
In the face of the family's forced marriage, Xianglan is silent, silently working on the hook flowers every day, ignoring the jokes of her companions, and rarely paying attention.
When Xianglan was twenty years old, a young man who had once confirmed her eyes waited fruitlessly and turned around and married someone else. After she was sad, she embarked on the road that her parents had walked and betrothed to a family in a neighboring village. This summer, the rain was particularly heavy, the water of the Longwan River reservoir flooded the dam embankment, gushing down from the dam embankment, people found a pair of shoes on the bank of the Longwan River, which was confirmed to be the pair of black velvet shoes that Xianglan often wore.
(Image from the Internet)
【About the author】Li Dehua is a member of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association and a member of the Zhucheng Writers Association.
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