Text: Ping Shuxian
My hometown, Liuhewan, is located in the bend of the Yellow River in southwest Luxi. The unique customs show the unique charm of this yellow earth. Returning to the door is a piece of hometown memory
Soulful landscapes. A frame of youthful back, so that many nostalgic eyes, over and over again, iron out the imprint of the water waves, in the long river of my colorful childhood, leaving an indelible imprint.
Jin Zi is the daughter of Liu Gen in the front street of Liuhe Bay, and Liu Gen and my grandfather are uncles and brothers, so I call Jin Zi "Gu". Grandma said: "Gold is a golden phoenix in our Liuhe Bay, you have to have good looks, you have to have talents, you have to be good at home and abroad, you will be able to find a good mother-in-law!"
Kaneko studied in junior high school for two years before dropping out of school and returning home to work in the production team. In those years, the village was in full swing, and the villagers of Sanli and Wu Villages gathered together to do farm work. Although Jin Zi was young, he never spared no effort to do farm work, and won a good reputation for hard work in Liuhe Bay. When the gold child was nineteen years old, she had become a slim and handsome girl. Big eyes, shallow dimples, high breasts, two big black and long braids hanging down to the hips, only made the young men's ears red and hot. The matchmaker who proposed marriage suddenly stepped through the threshold of Lord Liugen's house, and Jin Zi always shyly and timidly rejected their hospitality.
Two years later, Liuhewan implemented a production responsibility system, and the fields were distributed to each family. Our family's responsibility field is adjacent to Liu Genye's house. In the middle of summer, I often see Jin Zi wearing a straw hat and carrying a sprayer on his shoulder, shuttling through the cotton bushes to spray pesticides, apply fertilizer, and manage the cotton fields. At that time, because my father was working in the army, the family lacked labor, so my mother and grandparents discussed planting less cotton and more corn.
When I first entered elementary school, I liked to go to the corn field after school to help my mother pull weeds. In fact, I still have a little secret hidden in my heart: I went to the field to peek at the handsome appearance of Aunt Jinzi. Once, I was spotted by Kaneko-gu when she was changing her sweat-soaked clothes. I was afraid that she would suffer family punishment if she told her mother, so I begged her to spare me this time. Jin Zi glared at me fiercely with a red face, and then smiled again: "Okay, you little brat, you still have a lot of eyes! Okay, my aunt promised you not to sue your Zhuang, but you will listen to your aunt in the future!" "Okay! I will be your little guard from now on!" With that, I ran away like a smoke......
When the school was about to end the winter vacation, I heard my mother say: "Your Aunt Jin is getting married, she is a veteran in Puyang, the young man looks very spirited, and has a good character, they are really a natural pair!" After dinner, I sneaked into Aunt Jin's room and saw her smiling at a photo, so I shouted: "Report!" Aunt Jin was startled, and when she looked up and saw that it was me, she raised her fist and beat my chest: "Okay, you little villain, scared my aunt to death!"
"Aunt Jinzi, I'm here to congratulate you, I heard my mother say that you are getting married!" I said a little nervously.
"Yes, my aunt is getting married, don't you want my aunt to go?" said Aunt Jin Zi blushing and quipped with a smile.
"My mother said, you and your new son-in-law are a natural pair!" Hearing my words, Jin Zigu couldn't help but smile.
In the rural areas of southwest Lu, most of the daughters and daughters-in-law are chosen in Layue. In addition to the 23rd day of the lunar month, until the 29th is an auspicious day, the firecrackers of the village will sound non-stop. On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, it was a good day for Jin Zigu to get married, and early in the morning, my mother led me to Liu Genye's house to say goodbye. After a short time, the sound of "crackling" firecrackers sounded outside the village, and a team of marrying relatives poured into Liuhe Bay lively. In the courtyard of Lord Yanagi's house, there was a clear laughter of joy. As the door of the hall, the grandfather and the lord Liu Gen invited the people who came from Puyang to marry at the table of the eight immortals, drinking tea and chatting, and politely talking about the return of the new son-in-law.
The people of Lunannan refer to the new son-in-law Xi as a "new guest". The new son-in-law who has just passed the door returns to the woman's maiden home for the first time, which is called Huimen. It is a very grand thing for the new guests to return to the door to recognize their relatives in Liuhewan, and the ceremony is also very particular, and the new son-in-law generally chooses to return to the door three days after the wedding. Because the three days of Jin Zigu's marriage coincided with the New Year, the return was set on the second day of the first month.
Sending off the marriage team, I asked my grandfather about Aunt Jinzi's return, and my grandfather said: "If we marry a daughter-in-law in the moon of Liuhewan, we will choose to return to the door on the second day of the Lunar New Year." When the time comes, all the relatives of your Aunt Jinzi family will come over to get to know each other, and the next time we meet, we will call each other well. The rule in the countryside is that as long as there is no return ceremony, and the new son-in-law is always a new guest, he cannot enter the door of his mother's house. Grandpa also said that the banquet for entertaining new guests in Liuhewan is generally three or eight seats, that is, 24 plates, some of which are hung with four large pieces, that is, a soup, and some of which are hung with two large pieces, which are two soups.
In a blink of an eye, it was the day when Aunt Jin returned to her parents' house on the second day of the first lunar month, and it was also an auspicious day for the new son-in-law to return to the door. In addition to inviting relatives such as seven aunts and eight aunts, Lord Liugen's family also invited my grandfather, the most prestigious person in Liuhe Bay, and Uncle Yama, the village leader, to accompany the guests. Because the accompaniment must not only be able to speak well, but also have the amount of wine to drink. On the new son-in-law's side, in addition to Aunt Jin and his uncle, he also found an elderly companion and a young man carrying a basket to follow. It is said that accompanying guests requires a large amount of alcohol and can speak well, because all the relatives of Yanagi Lord will toast the new guests together at the banquet, and in addition to drinking themselves, the accompanying guests must also block the wine for the new guests. At this table, you can neither let yourself get drunk, nor can you let the new guests get drunk, and whoever has a foreign appearance will show the poor level of accompanying the guests, so it all depends on the language skills of the guests.
At half past eleven o'clock in the morning, the return procession of Jin Zigu and her new son-in-law came with a sense of ceremony, driving a Taishan-25 tractor, which was very fashionable at that time. A few of my cousins came up from afar to help park and pick up their things. Jin Ziniang, my grandmother, my mother, and a few cousins and other people also went over, holding Jin Zigu's hand tightly, hugging each other and asking long and short questions. Grandpa, Uncle Yama, and the relatives of Aunt Kaneko also greeted the new son-in-law and accompanying guests with cigarettes from afar. Amid the coaxing of me and my friends in the village, the new son-in-law was tightly surrounded by the crowd and hugged each other into the living room.
The living room for entertaining newcomers is located in the front yard and the neighbor Liu Zhanghai has the right door to the house. The new son-in-law sat at the top of the door in front of my grandfather's humility, which was the only time in his life that the new son-in-law was able to sit in his mother's house as the door, and since then he has become a guest of the stove nest. In addition to sitting in the center, the seat should also use a large circle chair, and a new sheet should be placed on the circle chair to show respect for the new customer. The seats of the accompanying guests next to the new son-in-law sit on the right side of the east side, and the seats of the relatives of Aunt Kaneko's family are sorted by generation, one of them sits next to the man's house on the east side, and the other sits on the outermost side of the door directly opposite the new guest, so that it is convenient to receive food and pour wine. Jin Zigu's uncle sat next to the new son-in-law, followed by the seven aunts and eight aunts in order from the inside to the outside.
After all the guests were seated, they began to drink tea for a while, and the guests who came from Aunt Kaneko's house got up and said, "It is the Spring Festival, and we should go to your Lord to say hello." My grandfather immediately stopped him and said, "Just say it, let's sit down and eat tea first, and the banquet will start immediately!" He accompanied the guests and said, "The new society, new things, new things, and the old rules should be simple!" So he proposed to my grandfather to remove the red cloth hanging on the table of the Eight Immortals.
Then my grandfather sat all the relatives down and arranged for the kitchen to be served. Don't look at this little sentence, it is very particular, if the man accompanies the guest and does not say that he unravels the table, the woman will not serve the food all the time, and will always let the new guest drink water. Xiao Lou in our back village once accompanied a guest and forgot to untie the table for a while, and let him drink water until one o'clock in the afternoon and did not serve the food. Untying the table is indeed a rule in our local area.
The busy chef in the kitchen is named Pi Hang, who is a well-known chef in the Yellow River Beach. On the afternoon of the first day, 24 dishes were served, and by this time the appetizers were already ready. My grandfather beckoned, "Let's serve!" and my two cousins held trays in their hands, one by one, one by one, one vegetable plot at a time, and ran non-stop. The wine cup on the banquet is also very particular, it is the kind of small wine cup that can hold two coins a piece, and the wine pot is a small black pot made of pottery, which can be roasted on the fire. It was also two people who poured the wine, and kept changing the wine and putting it on the briquette stove in the kitchen to warm it. My grandfather said: "If the wine is not hot, it will seem that our Liuhewan is disrespectful to the guests!"
At the banquet, my grandfather, the village uncle, and the relatives of Kanekogu took turns to toast the new guests. In the middle of this, my uncles, uncles, and cousins kept interspersing with a pot of hot wine to persuade them, because this is the time to show the strength of the people in Liuhewan. The villagers said: "This is directly related to whether the backbone of the gold family in the future will be straight or not, and whether it will be angry or not." There are many people who persuade the wine to go at our banquet, and it can also show that the people of Liuhewan are prosperous and the family is prosperous!" Finally, the new son-in-law accompanied the guests, "Don't pour the wine, let's eat!" Under the repeated suggestion, my grandfather asked Liu Genye to come forward, and asked my cousin Liu Zhanghai to come up with a pot of wine and two boxes of cigarettes to persuade the wine, and the whole toasting ceremony was over, and then the meal began.
In those years, there were few entertainment projects for rural people, everyone was at home during the New Year, and often the people who watched the new guests were surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside, from the beginning of the new guests to the table until they left, the door of the living room was surrounded by people, the new son-in-law in order to take care of face, although it was a good table, but often did not dare to casually pick up the dishes and drink, if the chopsticks were big, the children at the door would open their mouths to laugh: "The new son-in-law is really greedy! Look how big the mouth is!" A sentence caused the whole room to burst into laughter, and the new guest was made to blush and have a thick neck.
After eating, the table was cleaned up, tea was poured here, and fruit fruit began to be served there, the fruit fruit is a snack made according to the model after melting white sugar, the large shape is like a stele fang, a lion, a horse, there are dozens of centimeters high, and the small one is the size of a sugar cube, a few centimeters high. The bigger the fruit, the more expensive it is, and the main relatives of Aunt Jinzi, the grandmother's family and aunt's family, will buy the big ones, and the other relatives will only buy some small fruits, and when they are served, they will be served in special small plates. When the fruit was served, Aunt Jinzi's family was the first, a family of six to eight small plates, two plates each contained a large one, and the rest of the plates contained five or six small ones, my grandfather followed behind the person who carried the tray, carrying a bed of red sheets in his left hand, and said as soon as he entered the door: "This is the respect of my grandmother's family!" At this time, Uncle Jinzi quickly stood up and said: "Four taels of thin candied fruit is not a tribute, please taste it." Liu Dashan, the village head, hurriedly motioned for everyone to sit down with both hands, picked up chopsticks to lead everyone together: "Come on, come on, let's talk about it." One of them gently took a small piece of fruit and put it in his mouth, and then asked him to take it down.
Then, Uncle Dashan asked the newcomer to take out the handkerchief in his pocket and spread it on the table, and poured two plates of fruit and fruit into the handkerchief nearby. In this way, when all the fruits of the relatives of the gold were repeated, the handkerchief in front of the new son-in-law had been poured to the brim. The guests who came from Puyang got up and said some goodbye to everyone. At this time, Liu Genye's family had already prepared the things that the man had brought, and the gifts that should be returned had been packed into baskets and loaded into the car. Because Liuhewan has the custom of messing with the new son-in-law, at this time, the courtyard and alley of Lord Liugen's house are full of old and young neighbors watching the excitement, and half of the street is full.
At that time, there happened to be a snowfall, and the women in the village encouraged me, Dong Liang, and Erwa to make a few friends: "There is just snow, you children throw the new son-in-law with snowballs!" Because the snowball hits the body without pain, but you can put the snow into the neck of the new son-in-law, so that he can keep shaking his clothes, which is the greatest pleasure of the old and young masters! Chaotic newcomers are a popular local Xi in southwest Luxi, if it snows, there will be people in the village who are half of the street blocked in front, cut in the back, and surrounded by left and right, forcing newcomers to have no space to escape. The young men and women of the same generation were more anxious, some prepared a hand of pot bottom ash, some prepared a bag of ice and snow eggs, and the new son-in-law sat together, and the relatives present hugged the new guest in the middle. In this way, it was inevitable that the man threw the snowball into the neck of the new son-in-law, and the man smeared the bottom of the pot on the new son-in-law's face. The old and young masters of the whole village laughed and shouted, and sent the new son-in-law out of the village. The whole ceremony ended with lively laughter.
Time is like an arrow, the sun and the moon are like a shuttle, and dozens of spring and autumn seasons have been spent in a blink of an eye. In the swaying greenery, time has jumped into a tactful and melodious little note! The ceremony of the new son-in-law returning to the door to recognize his relatives that was prevalent in southwest Lu has long been abolished in the construction of the new socialist countryside. The beautiful and generous Aunt Jin Zi in the past is now full of children and grandchildren, and she lives a happy life in Peony City. When I went home for the Spring Festival last year, I saw Aunt Jin and my uncle, who has always been able to do things, riding the "Audi" driven by my eldest cousin, to come to Liuhe Bay to pay New Year's greetings to Lord Liugen. Talking about the interesting story of Aunt Jin Zi's marriage back then, we couldn't help but laugh again. Jin Zigu said: "The countryside is our soul, no matter when or where we go, we can't lose our soul!"
About the author: Ping Shuxian, pen name Cong Xiao, a native of Heze, Shandong, now living in Jinan, has a university degree, a member of the Communist Party of China, and a journalist. He is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association, the Chinese Poetry Society, the China Forestry Ecological Writers Association, the Tianjin Prose Research Association, the Anhui Prose Essay Society, the Shandong Prose Literature Association, the Jinan Writers Association, and the Heze Writers Association. His works have been scattered in "People's Daily", "Popular Daily", "Writer's Daily", "Poetry Magazine", "Selected Prose", "Shandong Literature", etc., and many literary works have won awards and been selected for the annual selection of books.
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