One
1
In our East Dam, there is a long and narrow pond, which becomes larger and plump in summer, and thinner and a little desolate in winter.
It has all the basic elements of a pond, like a face with the right features. Fish, snails, loaches, ducks, reeds and bamboos, buffaloes bathing, stones thrown down by children, dead trees in winter, white ice in the river.
2
Hui Lan's home is behind the pond. She could see the pool from the window. This is the scenery she has seen the most in her life, and of course, her life is not very long.
Chen Huilan is her big name, and this name was given by Teacher Yi. In Dongba, most of the newborns are named by Mr. Yi, who is a primary school teacher. However, everyone doesn't call her Huilan, but Lan Xiao, just like she has a sister named Huifang, and everyone calls her Fang Xiao, and the whole village calls her that. In our case, the child's name is only called several times in class by the teacher in a non-decent Mandarin at school.
However, Whelan could not go to school, she never went to school for a day, and she never left her house. As a result, her name was never really called. It wasn't until her funeral that everyone remembered: Actually, Lan Xiao's name is Chen Huilan.
Of course, that will be much later, and I will tell you about her death later. This world is for people to be born and live, isn't it? I should tell you about what it was like when she was alive.
Whelan is an idiot. Note that not the madman, in Dongba, there are some details that are really quite exquisite, the madman, that is derogatory, and implies that the person is violent and dangerous, and the idiot, may be the opposite.
For example, Lan Xiao, she is a typical idiot. Quiet, gentle, quieter and gentler than the usual woman. Her face is very white, the women in their family have good skin, her mother is white, and her sister Fang Xiao is also white. But the whiteness of the latter two can't withstand the wind of Dongba, the work of Dongba, those family things, and all kinds of troubles, and slowly become yellow, rough, and wrinkled. Kelan Xiao doesn't, she stays in the house, and even stays in bed often, regardless of the spring, summer, autumn and winter in Dongba, there is no obvious joy, anger and sorrow, she has been white like this.
And, also fat. Lan Xiao's fatness, like her white, is not common in Dongba. Except for the brain, the rest of her body is undoubtedly extremely healthy, and if she is given food, she will eat it all and eat it all. Give her to wear, and she will put them on one by one, and she won't take them off even when it's hot. She may not know how to refuse and choose, and she may not know any way to cut in existence, the only thing she will do is accept. And the family, since they found out that she was an idiot, felt that they owed her, and felt a little sorry for her, but they didn't know how to feel sorry for the law, so they kept feeding her. After eating too much, Lan Xiaoqi would be a little sleepy, and wherever he sits, his white eyelids drooped and fell asleep, like a baby who had just been born, and the blue blood vessels on his eyelids trembled slightly.
In this way, Lan Xiao has grown up to the age of thirty-seven, and he is still like a white and fat child. There is no matchmaker, no love, no marriage. She lived like a blank slate.
And her parents, who have become an old couple in their sixties, have their hands stretched out like rattan. Fang Xiao, her sister, and her sons all went to the city to work. Teacher Yi, who named her child, is retired. There are many other people, in the more than 30 years that Lan Xiao has grown up, given birth to children, become old, or died.
Not only do people come and go, but our Dongba has also changed a lot. Our dirt roads were paved with stones, and the wooden bridges became concrete bridges. A small factory was set up in the village, first as a carpet factory and now as an embroidery factory, which recruited many girls who had dropped out of school. At present, most of the people who work in the fields of Dongba are middle-aged and above, and those who are younger go to other places to study, do transportation business, repair motorcycles, and go out with the construction team to find work.
And in the field, there are many fewer serious crops, replaced by boundless greenhouses, white, this one is over, that one is up again, looking at it from a distance, like a little beast running. The temperature inside the greenhouse was very high, and we went in with our cats waisted, and as soon as we entered, we took off our clothes half-naked, and men and women did not avoid them. Because of the limited height, we had to kneel or crawl around. We do spring work in the winter and harvest summer vegetables in the spring, and the seasons are completely chaotic. The smell in the greenhouse was very strong, urea, fermented soil, struggling seeds, sweat. The flavors are mixed together and stirred in high heat. Everyone came out of it as if they had just come out of the dungeon, drenched, their noses and eyes crumpled with smoke. Perhaps, this is a little price for us to reverse the four hours.
Also, our life has changed, almost everyone has running water, electric lights, televisions, some people have added telephones and fans, and some have even bought air conditioners. These things that are new are not very useful, or, when used, they do not feel particularly good. However, we are still buying the same, and what we don't are preparing to buy - this is an important decision and process in life, not bad, some steaming freshness.
Lan Xiao never knew about this, she just stayed in her house like that. In her room, there hasn't been much change either.
She seems to have been stuck twenty or thirty years ago. Every day I sat there, dressed in old clothes, and looked at the pond in front of the door, and the pond - the bamboo was green. The reeds are white. Buffalo bathing in a snort. The ducks are calling. Two small children play in the game.
3
One night, Lan Xiao may have been uncomfortable, she got up, and her heavy body rolled under the bed, maybe she called something, but no one heard it. Until the next morning, she had suffered a stroke while lying on the cold ground for most of the night, and half of her body was unconscious.
Her parents cried, frightened and frightened, trying to get her to the bed, only to find that Lan Xiao's body was amazingly heavy, picked up the left side, and the right side slid down again, dragging up the top, and sliding down the bottom again. Her shoulders and waist were as thick, her breasts as big, and her ass as fat. Over the years, she has indeed grown too fat. It seems that I didn't notice it before, but this time it rolled to the ground, and it swelled even more.
The barefoot doctor from Dongba came, and together with her sister Fang Xiao, everyone moved Lan Xiao back to bed. The doctor measures Lan Xiao's blood pressure. No wonder, he cried out. No wonder, look at her blood pressure, she is still so fat, it is sooner or later she will have a stroke, and it is sooner or later that she will be paralyzed!
In this way, Lan Xiao is not only an idiot, but also a paralyzed person when she is thirty-seven years old.
She eats with soup running down to the corners of her mouth and down to her neck. Her poop and urination have completely lost their former moderation and regularity. She would yawn and suddenly become incontinent, making a mess of her pants and bed.
Perhaps, this is not too much of a change for her, she is still so calm, quiet, white and fat, or even more white and fat. But for the family, taking care of her life has become a big problem - the parents have to take care of the field, otherwise, what will the family of three eat? Moreover, the two of them can't move Lan Xiao's body......
The two old men sat up in the night, and they didn't light the lamp, but only sat on the bed, somehow what to do. This girl is their lifelong sorrow. Giving birth to her has never really been easy.
Two
1
In this way, I am going to tell you about the treasure.
Noble is a mute. Like all villages, there are always all kinds of different people in Dongba, including village chiefs and accountants, barefoot doctors, tailors, deaf, dumb, and lame, widows who are not very beautiful, lay monks who give birth to sons and eat fish and meat, and Wubao households who have no children and no daughters. In this way, the village is like a village. It's like in your city, there are officials, there are journalists, there are professors, there are artists, there are civil servants, and so on. In the countryside and in the city, it is like this, people are always like bacteria, clustered and dependent on each other, without anyone, the structure is incomplete and unstable.
Or Noble. In fact, he was not from our Dongba originally, because his parents died early, and there was only one sister in the family, and when he got married, he took refuge in the village chief's house. The village chief is Noble's distant uncle.
Our village chief's name is Wan Nianqing, a very interesting name, and his life is more interesting than the name. Somehow, the family is relatively wealthy, and both sons work in the city. His family has a lot of houses, high and bright, and the village chief's wife has also opened a grocery shop on the side of the road, which not only does the business of passers-by, but also does the business of Dongba people. In this way, their family is more and more comfortable.
As soon as the days are comfortable, people are not likely to be able to endure hardships, so what can be done with the work in the fields and at home?
However, it should have been so coincidental and so good that Noble had come to him.
Noble was only thirteen years old when he arrived in Dongba, and his body was a little thin, and he didn't have a good life before he came. When I arrived at the house of the village chief Wan Nianqing, it was only half a year before the person grew, with broad shoulders and thick shoulders, and when I looked at it from behind, I didn't look like a child at all.
This grown child understands his situation and role very well, although he can't speak, he has work in his eyes, work in his hands, inside and out, and covers all the work of the village chief's family. Not to mention the crops in the field, even the small things such as holding chopsticks, adding rice, and pouring water for washing his feet will be handled very properly with his hands and feet, as if he were treating his own parents or life-saving benefactors - so low eyebrows and pleasing eyes, so respectful and natural, it seems to be completely heartfelt. Not only are the village chief and his wife comfortable, but we sometimes go to see it, and we also think it is a kind of picture, which makes people like and comfortable.
Therefore, we sometimes feel that this Noble is like a long-term worker in the past, as if it was destined to work for others in this way. Of course, the village chief and the village chief's wife are very kind people, they treat Noble really well, and during the seedling or harvest season, they will buy a lot of meat and fish, so that Noble can eat long. During the New Year's holidays, they will also give Noble red envelopes and buy him clothes and shoes. In his room, a small TV and even a small electric fan were bought for him - Noble is really not bad.
During the Spring Festival of this year, the sons and daughters-in-law of the village chief Wan Nianqing returned to their hometown from the city to celebrate the New Year, and suddenly noticed that Noble Treasure served them as little masters, and they had not come back for several years.
The village chief's sons and daughters-in-law all study outside, and they pay the most attention to human rights, equality, and freedom. Seeing Noble like this, his eyes seemed to be in the sand of a stone, so they took turns talking to his father like wheels, asking him to "send Noble back to his own home", let him "reunite with flesh and blood", let him "be the master of the house, self-reliance", and let him start a "new life".
Wan Nianqing smoked a cigarette, and his cheeks were sunken, looking very old. When a person is old, he becomes weak, and he is a little afraid of his son, and although he does not like to listen to his son's words, he must listen to them.
It's just that if Noble goes back and goes to the in-law's house where his sister married, he will inevitably be angry, and if he wants to live alone, he doesn't want to make a living by himself? But he is still a child, how can he rest assured? Wan Nianqing lowered his head, thinking about Noble's life, how could he be so cold.
Noble is dumb because it is deaf. He couldn't hear what they were saying. However, those who have some physical defects, such as the blind and the deaf and mute, always have the supernatural ability that they receive information. Seeing that the two sons were talking to Wan Nianqing behind closed doors, he somehow understood, rushed in, and whined in his throat, no one could understand, but everyone understood: he didn't want to go back!
When Wan Nianqing saw it, he almost burst into tears. This kid is reluctant to leave Dongba!
The sons and daughters-in-law felt great sorrow for Noble's ignorance, sighed repeatedly, and stretched out their hearts to discuss the education, medical care, and social security system in the countryside today. We talked almost for most of the afternoon. It wasn't until dinner that they saw that Noble was still serving tea and water with a low brow and pleasing eyes, like an old servant, that they remembered their original intentions again, and told their father like an ultimatum: In short, you can't let him stay at home and wait for you, what era is this! You are the village head, and your identity is different, you have to spread it out, spread it to the top, and if it gets to the media, people will make a fuss...... It's okay for him to find something to do in another house, not in our house......
2
And just before this Spring Festival, Lan Xiao had a stroke. The family urgently needed someone to help.
3
Wan Nianqing, the village head, first thought of this matter: let Noble take care of Lan Xiao. It's like a piece of steamed bun and a piece of cake, isn't it just right?
He went to talk to Lan Xiao's parents. The parents rubbed their hands, thought for a long time, didn't know what to say, and rubbed their hands for a while, Lan Xiao's father coughed and said: That's the best...... But where would Noble be willing? The conditions of our family are much worse than those of the village chief, and you bought him a TV and a fan...... Taking care of Lan Xiao is another thankless job.
Wan Nianqing laughed: Where would he refuse? He is an orphan, he has no land, no craft, he can't speak, it would be good to have a place to stay...... Besides, he came to my house at the age of twelve, and now he is seventeen years old, and after five years, he listens to me the most...... It would be best if you cleaned up a place for him to live, eat and drink like his family, and subsidize him as much as he had any money to spare...... I have a small TV and fan, he is used to using it, I will bring it to your house for him...... Speaking of this, Wan Nianqing suddenly felt a pain in his heart, and then realized that he was a little reluctant to come to the treasure.
Lan Xiao's mother thought of something, rolled in her mouth for a long time, and still said: It's just that Noble is still a boy and takes care of Lan Xiao...... Will others say anything......
Sister-in-law, don't you want to think about Lan Xiao's size, where can a woman move a mile...... As for gossip, these people in our Dongba, I know best, don't look at the broken mouth, but there is no bad intention, Lan Xiao is like this, Noble has this kind of life experience, and he is a child, who will say anything? Besides, everything is good, get used to it, and it will be fine...... If there is ideological work, I will do it, and I am good at it.
And so it was settled. There is no need to discuss with Lan Xiao or Noble anymore, those two people, an idiot and a deaf and dumb child, what is there to discuss.
The village chief took Noble to the small room and gestured. Noble blinked, as if he was a little confused--after five years in Dongba, he knew Lan Xiao, but he didn't expect, never expected, that this idiot in bed would become his new life.
The white and fat Lan Xiao lay on the bed, and also looked at Noble, as if he saw a new home.
Noble looked at Wan Nianqing, and there was one or two sounds in his throat, and he didn't know what it meant. I happened to see some filth in the bedpan in front of Lan Xiao's bed, so I lowered my head and took it out.
Lan Xiao's parents watched from the side and knew that Noble was starting to work, so they discussed giving Noble a place to live.
Their house is still an old-fashioned bungalow, front and back. In the front, because it is near the pond, it is given to Lan Xiao, and in the back, it is the residence of the old couple, and there is another room for agricultural tools - this one, you can clean it up for Noble to live. But because it was for sundries, it was built very simply, and there were no bricks on the floor, let alone electric lights and plugs. Besides, Noble's ears are useless, and if there is a yard in the middle, it will definitely be inconvenient to take care of Lan Xiaolai. However, if he is in the front room, where is the right place for him to sleep?
The village chief turned back and forth, and pointed with his hand: "Build a new one outside the small room in Lan! Open a doorway in the middle, like a suite in the city!
It's a good idea, it's convenient, it's pompous, and it's not bad for Noble at all.
So the local bricks were laid and the walls were plastered, and the village chief brought in the TV and fan he had promised. The village chief's wife found some old wall calendars out of nowhere and pasted a long row on the wall of Noble. Fang Xiao also happily rushed back to her mother's house, she will help the embroidery factory to process some odd and entrepreneurial work when she is not working, there are a lot of leftovers at home, she came to the east and the west, and the next day she hung a snow-white embroidery curtain in the treasure room, and the TV and electric fan also added a blue embroidery sleeve, although there are traces of patchwork, but take a look, not to mention how elegant.
Noble opened his mouth and laughed, and pointed to Lan Xiao's window again, but no one had noticed that Lan Xiao's window was bald without a curtain. Fang Xiao promised to hang a better picture for Lan Xiao immediately.
After the house was built, everyone went to see it, some brought an old table, some brought a coffee table, and some gave Noble a new basin. Noble is a poor child, as if he has a home of his own.
Everyone is happy for Noble and happy for Lan Xiao. But no, the arrangement of this thing is like a drizzle falling from the sky, strangely moisturizing.
After the people left, Lan Xiao's parents rubbed their hands again and rubbed them for a while, for some reason, they looked at each other, their eyes were red, and they looked like they were about to cry.
Three
1
Fava bean blossoms are blooming. The locust horn flowers are blooming. The vines are starting to turn green. Those little beast-like film greenhouses were opened by people to a corner, and the heat inside and the heat outside were together, and everywhere was hot. This spring, it seems to be coming very quickly.
Mr. Yi's family does not have a greenhouse, and his field is very small, so he only grows some vegetables for the dinner table. After all, he has a retirement salary, which is not much, but in Dongba, money can be used as money, and he can live quite comfortably.
After retiring, he had two hobbies, one was bookkeeping. Every day, he has to remember the little bit of going in and out.
Buy fifteen metasequoia saplings. Buy wine for fourteen dollars eight. Sell thirty pieces of rabbit hair for long-haired rabbits. Sell short wine bottles for two pieces of four.
He remembers it well in his books, and derives a down-to-earth pleasure from this rigor. After writing down each day, he drew a red line underneath it, and made the balance a pair with the wallet. Flat. He said loudly with satisfaction, and then took a sip of "tangerine peel wine" into the bottle. Tangerine peel wine is a kind of sweet wine unique to Dongba, made with glutinous rice, and if you drink it at night, you will sleep very well.
The second hobby is journalism. He had a television, a few newspapers, and a daily news broadcast -- which country had launched a satellite, and what hours the total trip was. Which city has built a subway, and the subway has several stations. Where is the World Expo, what is the mascot. The price of gasoline has risen, and how much it has increased - he will pay close attention to it and remember it very well.
It's kind of a giant's pleasure to pay attention to these things that are far away and have nothing to do with your own life. There is no one else in Dongba like him, so this has almost become Mr. Yi's secret pleasure. For this, he often feels a sense of happiness and is full of sincere gratitude for television and newspapers.
Sometimes, he also notices some social news, and to his surprise, he sees a lot of pretty bad things on it. Uncle and sister-in-law incest, students open hourly rooms, friends change wives, gang rape female lunatic, it's just dirty. Teacher Yi read them carefully one by one, and after reading them, he would sigh quietly, alas, why do newspapers publish these things? Do people think about that kind of thing all day long?
Sometimes he would be preoccupied with a lot of things, and thought of a poem by Lu Xun, "The heart is vast and even Guangyu, and he listens to the thunder in a silent place", and he feels that this poem is very similar to his mood. He chewed the poem in his head and began to go for a walk.
--After dinner, Mr. Yi likes to go out for a walk, take a walk along the pond, and then walk on the highway. Walking is a very urban habit, and coincidentally, Mr. Yi likes it so much. He kept it in the habit very seriously.
On this day, he walked to the edge of the pond and stood still as he usually looked into the village.
The lights in the village are sparse and yellowish because people are reluctant to use bulbs that are too bright. People sit in their corners in the shadows of the yellow lights, peeling peanut shells, sifting soybeans, picking out the bugs inside, or peeling the potato for tomorrow's potato porridge. These tasks are suitable for being done at night, and it is too wasteful to do them during the day, so they should go to the fields during the day.
Halfway through, Mr. Yi noticed that the lights of the East Dam were a little different from usual. Like a necklace worn with beads, one pearl is missing somewhere, and in the other corner, there is a small pearl.
Teacher Yi thought about it - he paid attention to the personnel outside, but he didn't ignore the small things in Dongba - by the way, the less was the village chief Wan Nianqing, and the more was next door to Lan Xiao. Noble moved to Lan's house. His lamp was turned on in a different place.
Finding the reason, Mr. Yi breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had found a reversed account. But...... However, at the same time, he felt that he was not very down-to-earth, which made people feel a little uncomfortable.
He stood still, and carefully re-examined the window of the treasure. He noticed that the embroidered curtains on it, looking through the light, were particularly full of a certain mood, which was a mood that only Mr. Yi could perceive. But it was this mood that made Teacher Yi very worried--Noble, seventeen-year-old Noble, sleeping under such embroidered curtains, what kind of dreams would he have?
No, it's not Lan Xiao, it's Chen Huilan. Teacher Yi quietly corrected in his heart, as the person who gave her name, he should call her Chen Huilan. However, it's really strange, once Lan Xiao is called Chen Huilan, she doesn't seem to be a fat idiot, not an incontinent paralytic, but a girl, a girl with good skin, and not as old as thirty-seven.
Thinking about it like this, Teacher Yi became even more uneasy. He looked at the two windows that were leaning together, and the curtains above, and he remembered the social news in the newspapers he had read. The expression was really very sad, but there was no way to say it. Moreover, he also felt a little angry: what is wrong with him, the whole village does not see this as a thing, how can he see it as a thing? Is it not his own dirty mind, or is it something else?
Alas, it is really "the heart is vast, even Guangyu, listening to the thunder in a silent place". Teacher Yi walked back sullenly, and when he got home, he wanted to drink two more sips of tangerine peel wine.
2
Noble would not have known that someone was watching his window and compared it to a displaced pearl. He was paying full attention to Lan Xiao. He's wholeheartedly readjusting to this new role.
Like most people in Dongba, he doesn't have any particular joy or sorrow about this change in his life.
He lost his parents. He was deaf and dumb. He has no land or a house, and he eats and serves others all his life under other people's roofs. Serve the village chief Wan Nianqing. Serve the idiot Lan Xiao. It's like rain in the sky and water flowing in a river, it's arranged, there's nothing to say. To be accepted is, to be obedient is. That's what he does.
Besides, he is not so unbearable, there are many worse things than him. Wang Mazi of the village, walking at night drunk, fell under the bridge, and because it was winter, he drowned all at once. One of Mr. Yi's students fired a cannon fight during the Chinese New Year and blew up an eye. The man next door to Wan Nianqing's house accidentally fell into the lime pond while building a house, and his whole body burned like crocodile skin, and the bottom was broken, and he couldn't do that with a woman anymore. Such unfortunate events, one after another, make people can't remember to be sentimental or complaining, and even people will remind each other, recalling some ominous signs and details before the accident. They speak with relish, sincerity and fear, that is God is talking about it, how can they hide from it!
Noble has bad ears, but a particularly good nose. He was lying next to Lan Xiao, and as long as he sniffed his nose, he knew what Lan Xiao needed.
For example, before pooping, Lan Xiao would fart, put several in a row, and the fart was stuffy in the quilt, but through a secret passage, Noble smelled it. He hurriedly rushed to Lan Xiao's bed, helped her pull down her pants through the quilt, and then stuffed it into the spittoon, the kind of flat one, which is specially used on the bed. This is what Mr. Yi especially thought of after Lan Xiao's stroke, he saw this kind of thing on TV, so he asked one of his former students to buy it and send it back to Dongba.
Or, Lan Xiao licked her lips, the smell of dry wheat coming from between her teeth - it was time to drink water.
She yawned, and her tongue was like a smoky evening breeze - she was sleepy, so Noble took off her coat for her, washed her face and wiped her mouth, put down the pillow behind her, and she slipped down to sleep.
She shrugged her shoulders sharply, her nose retracted, and a fishy smell came deep in her throat - Noble took her a tall spittoon near the head of the bed, and just enough to suck the phlegm in.
-Cut just by leaning on the nose and it's just right.
Speaking of which, the high-legged spittoon in front of Lan Xiao's bed is really a little dirty, and after using it for an unknown number of years, she can't see the original color, her mouthwash, vomit, snot, and tissue paper are all concentrated in the spittoon. Noble pointed to the spittoon, then to his nose, and slowly turned his hands to Lan Xiao, making a dizzy and uncomfortable look. Lan Xiao looked at it with her eyes open, not smiling or annoyed, and after a few glances, she was sleepy and fell asleep again.
While she was asleep, Noble exerted his strength on the spittoon, using a lot of salt water, vinegar, and soapy water, as if cooking, and he tried all possible methods, and in the end, the spittoon was washed off two layers of color, and completely became milky yellow, and it smelled like cream, a little greasy, but it did not make people nervous and dizzy.
Noble happily held the dried spittoon in his hand and sat down in front of Lan's cot to wait for her to wake up.
When Lan Xiao woke up, the first thing he always did was to urinate, which was a pattern that Noble slowly observed, and as soon as she woke up, he stuffed the spittoon into it. It doesn't seem so easy to urinate while lying down, Lan Xiao's body will always tense, and her face will be red. Noble then came up with a solution, he put a basin of water next to the bed, and then an empty basin, he slowly poured the water from one basin to another, and the water flowed, making the sound of water that Noble couldn't hear—and Lan Xiao, listening to the sound of water, would suddenly breathe a sigh of relief, and her urine came out.
Lan Xiao woke up, she opened her eyes, and she saw the tall spittoon in Noble Treasure's hand. Noble stared at her attentively, keeping an eye on her eyes. Lan Xiao was completely indifferent, she slowly turned her eyes over, from the tall spittoon to Noble's face, and then from Noble's face to the roof, like the light slowly moving, and then, she tensed as usual, her face turned red, and she was about to urinate.
Noble laughed: What a complete idiot, a tall spittoon with such a big change, she didn't even look like she had seen it.
After the spittoon, Noble moved the idea of Lan Xiaoya again. Dongba people don't like to brush their teeth, they feel that brushing their teeth will damage their gums and waste money. Moreover, the act of brushing your teeth is really ugly to look at - poking around with a toothbrush, all of a sudden, it is a steady stream of foaming at the mouth, which is really ugly.
So, Lan Xiao, not to mention, her teeth, which have not been brushed since she was a child, are so yellow that they seem to have a thick cover, and when she opens her mouth, her teeth are like soybeans that are about to sprout, expanding and fermenting.
Noble also didn't brush his teeth in the past, because the village chief didn't brush his teeth either, and stayed in the village chief's house for five years, and his living habits were all with the village chief. It's just that this Spring Festival, he noticed that the village chief's son and daughter-in-law, which they wrew, which they worn, and which they used, were very extraordinary, but after seeing it, they had seen it, and it was nothing. It's just that the whiteness of their teeth, that kind of whiteness, is too dazzling, and Noble is a little angry and sad when he sees it. Later, because he was busy moving to Lan Xiao, he put aside his anger and sadness for a while.
But now, the days are slowly passing quietly, and he thinks of the whiteness in the mouths of several of them, and he wants that whiteness to appear in his life.
Noble is rich, and the red envelope given to him by the village chief is used very carefully, and every time he spends a sum of money, he has to think about it for a long time, reflecting all the care and wisdom of a mute orphan. Now, he has decided to buy a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush. Yes, one is enough, he and Lan Xiao use it.
He demonstrated it in front of Lan Xiao first, slowly breaking down his every movement, while restraining the nausea that rolled up, even so, he still swallowed several mouthfuls of foaming water. Then, it was Lan Xiao's turn. Noble was sweating profusely, and the head and end of the bed were busy. It's not just hard work, it's also technical. However, in the end, he still brushed Lan Xiao and rinsed it clean.
He opened his mouth at Lan Xiao and exhaled a fresh white breath, then opened Lan Xiao's mouth and inhaled her taste hard—the latter calmly looked at his nose that had suddenly approached him.
Then there is the busy hair.
He laid her body across the bed, put her head on the side of the bed, supported her on his legs, and washed her hair. The washed water looks like the hair is fading, from black to gray to yellow, and finally, it slowly becomes clear.
Lan Xiao has lice on her head, as well as white lice eggs. Noble knows how to treat it, and it is from her sister that she sees it. He asked someone to ask for some dichlorvos, wiped it on his head, and then covered it tightly with a plastic bag, at night, the lice were smoked by pesticides, Lan Xiao's head thought it was very itchy, and writhed on the bed, Noble sat on the side, scratching and patting her evenly through the plastic bag, and comforting her vaguely......
This scene, if someone sees it, may think that it is warm and comedy, but if you think about it, it is a little sad and desolate, and it is tragic.
The next day, I untied the plastic bag and washed my hair again, and a layer of black, black and white lice corpses really floated on the water. Lan Xiao's head won't itch anymore.
In this way, Noble began to comb Lan Xiao's hair. He found a wooden comb with two missing teeth, as well as some head ropes. This rope has not been used for many years, the color is very old, and the hair of the small one is darker and brighter, and the complexion is whiter.
But Noble still thought about when he remembered and bought her a new comb and two new headbands.
And the TV. He moved the television from his room to the Orchid hut, and in the evening, he sat with her and watched it. Noble never turns on his voice when he watches TV, he mainly watches the figure walk around. But for Lan Xiao's sake, he turned the volume button to the right as far as he could—he didn't count, the sound was too loud, and Lan Xiao's parents had to come from the backyard with their clothes on, and twist it back to the left for him.
I don't know if Lan Xiao has watched TV before, in short, she didn't show any special surprise, she looked at it lightly, but if Noble blocked it, she would also hum quietly to express her dissatisfaction, and say something. Noble couldn't hear it, but he was glad that Lan Xiao liked to watch TV! Who said she was a complete idiot!
Looking at it, Lan Xiao slowly slid down from the backrest and dozed off, her shiny saliva slowly dripping down and hanging long, reflecting the blue light of the TV screen.
Now, it is mid-spring, and when the sun is good during the day, Noble will bring Lan Xiao to the middle of the hall and bask her in the sun.
In order to get Lan Xiao out of bed and get out of the room, from grooming to dressing, half of his body and half of his body to wear, move, and settle properly, it took him more than an hour. However, after only half an hour of sunbathing, Lan Xiao was going to sleep again. He would have to spend another hour or so getting her to bed. It's just a bad deal.
But in that half-hour in the sun, Noble was the happiest. His main thing is to accompany Lan to look down on the pond.
The pond in spring is the most beautiful, the kind of green, faint, timid, and fluffy. Sometimes a bird suddenly flies and frightens people.
Sometimes, while Lan Xiao was watching the pond, he was next to him, holding up a small round mirror, reflecting the sun, shining on Lan Xiao's knees, hands, hair, and her cheeks, Lan Xiao's skin became transparent.
He also brought the mirror to Lan Xiao and asked her to look in the mirror. Lan Xiao looked in the mirror and saw a figure with a head rope, white teeth, and black eyes, and screamed in fear. Noble could not hear her cry, but felt strange joy from the shape of her open mouth.
Noble couldn't be happier. How good a day like this is, like the embroidered curtain on the window, so white.
3
It's almost the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival is a big festival, because it is necessary to pick zongzi leaves, dry japonica rice, pick red beans, soak salted meat, pickle duck eggs, buy sugar, and pull red cotton thread. Finally, you have to eat zongzi, in the long days of spring, eat a few zongzi, which are firm in the stomach, and you will not be hungry for half a day.
It generally rains around the Dragon Boat Festival, and it can't go down, so people will choose a rainy day to slowly wrap zongzi at home. The zongzi leaves have been boiled in the pot in advance, and they are already half-cooked, and they are faintly fragrant, although the japonica rice is raw, but because it has been soaked in water, it is also lightly fragrant.
Lan Xiao's parents sat in the hall, talking while making zongzi. They were full of thoughts about making the festival a little more solemn. This is Noble's first festival here.
When they think of Noble, they can really make up for the laughter of the first half of their lives. This child seems to have been specially born to accompany Lan Xiao, the reason why he went to Dongba at the beginning was not to go to the village chief Wan Nianqing at all, but to wait for Lan Xiao to collapse here and ask him for help. Of course, the two of them just whispered about this, whispered when making zongzi, and couldn't say it outside, for fear of being scolded, and afraid that they wouldn't be able to deal with their dead parents.
Now, thinking of Lan Xiao, they no longer feel guilty and worried as before. For the first time in more than 30 years, this girl was not so heavy and like a stone, falling in their hearts.
Now, the only thing they are worried about is how to repay Xiao Laibao? What to use, is it a few meat dumplings, or a bean paste rice dumpling with a lot of sugar? Of course it can't be. If they had a third daughter, virtuous and capable, they would have been willing to give that daughter to Noble, but no. The two old men thought about it, maybe the only way to make Noble happy was by giving them more wages.
Money, they have never been particularly important, but there is no other way, I can't think of a better way, money is a way.
For the sake of money, the two old men restarted their brains. We Dongba people are really fun, we usually don't have anything to do, just live step by step every day, farming, eating, sleeping, and definitely don't want to make money to get rich. But if something happens, they use their brains, and then, if they have a way--
Lan Xiao's mother, although she is old, her eyesight is okay, and when she saw Fang Xiao processing for the embroidery factory, she asked her daughter for more materials - the so-called processing is to use small scissors to empty the solid flowers in the finished computer embroidery products to form a hollow effect. In this way, Lan's little mother can be regarded as having found a job.
She sat in the brightly lit yard, buried her head, with a small pair of scissors, clicking, doing it for half a day, she could earn five or even two pieces a piece, it was really good, no effort, no electricity, no scissors, and she could also take care of the boiling water in the pot, the pigs eating, and the chickens laying eggs. It's nice to not delay anything.
Lan Xiao's father, that's even more powerful. This old man is very tall, he was a very active character in the village when he was young, and he can blow and blow, and now although he is old, at least the sense of music is still there. Coincidentally, there was a red and white etiquette band in Dongba Village, and one of the bowl-beaters in it had left for some reason, didn't it happen to be missing? When Lan Xiao's father heard this letter, he went to the house of the leader of the band at night.
The leader was a young man, but he had a scruffy beard, and the sky was starting to get hot, and he was still wrapped in a military coat, and he looked like he was at home from all over the world. Lan Xiao's father grasped these two characteristics and secretly gave him a nickname: "beard coat".
"Bearded Coat" found two bowls, and let Lan Xiao's father knock it a few times, and then a few times, "Medium, it's good, it's a little interesting." "Bearded coat" vaguely exaggerated. Just like that, Lan Xiao's father found a new livelihood. The salary is much higher than Lan Xiao's mother.
The red and white ceremonies of Dongba, especially the white events, are the most grand and prosperous. In our place, we have always been born and died, those old people, who are terminally ill, rarely go to the hospital to see, maybe they are reluctant to pay, or maybe they don't trust medical skills, in short, they feel that they have lived to this point, almost seventy or eighty, and they should go, and there is no need to make more far-fetched efforts to increase unnecessary expenses. Their longevity has been painted many times and is shiny. Their shrouds were also made a long time ago, with a cloth satin finish and a total of six layers of collars. How good, those shrouds are all the colors and fabrics they picked out by themselves when they were in good health before.
The money that I was reluctant to spend during my lifetime, saved it, stayed it, and spent it very happily after death, which is a custom, a human favor, and a sophistication, and not a penny less. Wreaths, to be the largest, filial piety, to be the whitest and longest, meals, to pay the most attention to the highest level, etiquette team, to be the best.
And the team of "Beard Coat" is the best in Fang Yuan, the members of the team, regardless of men and women, are all wrapped in military coats, with open arms, and some Jianghu artists are the best. They have a strict form and process, the "bearded coat" is to preside, give orders, when to kowtow, when to recite eulogies, when to bow, when to circumambulate. And the long circumambulation is the most solemn farewell ceremony, that is, the time when Lan Xiao's father and several other musicians are going to be busy, trombone, French horn, drums, gongs, bowls, banging on the ground, the tune is familiar, loud and sharp, announcing the blessing and send-off of the deceased.
After such a scene, after being busy for a long time, Lan Xiao's father can get twenty yuan of blowing fees. Some people are particular about it, and they also wrap a small red envelope of five yuan. In short, the money came quickly.
Lan Xiao's father handed over the money to his mother, and they gathered the money together, divided it into several parts, and when it came to the lunar solar term, he wrapped one of them into a dignified and full red envelope and solemnly handed it to Noble.
Noble did not shirk, he also solemnly accepted it, carefully hiding it in a place unknown to others.
Since Noble arrived in Dongba at the age of twelve, he has begun to have small red envelopes, maybe not too much every time, but in five years, it should be a lot. Some people will also joke with Noble, quickly twisting their thumb, index finger, and middle finger to indicate the meaning of money, but Noble pretended not to understand, smiled and walked away.
In addition to the money given to Noble, Lan Xiao's parents will have some surplus money in their hands, and in the past, they must have been reluctant to spend it, always worried about what terrible difficulties there would be in the future. But now, because Lan Xiao's affairs have such a good arrangement, and in order to make Noble happy and comfortable, they also dare to spend some money. In the past, when eating leeks, it must have been stir-fried, but now, it is added with thousands of sheets or eggs. Sometimes, they also make eggplant tongs, lotus root balls, and meat and vegetable dumplings.
Because of these small meals, the days suddenly became fragrant, and every day seemed to be hopeful.
Four
1
The days passed slowly, and they flew by quickly. In this way, quickly and slowly, summer arrived.
Our place, hot in the summer, is dry hot. Behind the house and in the shade of the trees, there was also some wind, but it was hot wind, and the dirt on the main roads and small roads flew inch by inch. And in our house, the windows are always small and dotted - since ancient times, the first thing to build a house is to protect against cold and animals, and ventilation and lighting are ignored and despised. In this way, the inside of every house, under the stove, and on the bed, it is no different from a steamer.
In summer, it's not just the heat, but also flies and mosquitoes.
Here, under the thatched hut of each household, there is a huge circular dung pit, about two meters deep, where the excrement of men and women, as well as pigs, rabbits, cattle and sheep is concentrated and stored - the dung pit will freeze in winter, and it will not smell much. But in the summer, the stench was doubled, and the maggots in it were tumbling and sweet, and they were fattened and transparent at the sight, and their mothers, the little black-headed flies, were flying all over the sky. Every thing it eats, it must be the first to taste, rub its two front feet, taste it, and rub it again. In addition to eating, they also like everything that smells, such as spatulas, sweaty clothes, pus cells on children, women's hair that hasn't been washed in a long time, and so on.
The food served from the kitchen to the orchid hut was like this, and it was tasted by houseflies rubbing their feet. Noble hurried and danced, but he couldn't fight them, so he had to forget them—they were just dingdings, and there was nothing missing or more in the meal, and the days were not affected.
But mosquitoes, it's a bit of a problem. The mosquitoes here are a bit like the locals, small in size, not amazing, flying in front of their eyes, staggering, almost silent, gently falling on the flesh, only a little pain, and is reaching over to shoot, but it is invisible. What is left behind is a "bag" that is forming, and immediately begins to itch, scratch it, the skin will break, run water, and become an ugly scar. And it was still itchy, so we continued to scratch, when we talked, when we were eating, when we were doing work, and the scar became bigger and more ugly -- so that in the summer, our exposed necks, arms and legs were rarely smooth, and they were always covered with pimples. However, no one was upset by this: there were no mosquitoes and no pimples, so it was called summer.
The pond in front of Lan Xiao's house, it gave Lan Xiao some scenery that could not be described as scenery, but it also gave more mosquitoes than ordinary people. And Lan Xiao's skin and meat, compared with ordinary Dongba people, are tender and fat, and the blood and deliciousness in them are probably really better than Tang monk's meat.
So, think about it, where is Lan Xiao's summer hers, it's simply a mosquito.
In the past, she didn't have a stroke, but she still had some self-protective reflexes, knowing how to stretch out her hand and wave it away. But now, she would only lie there, completely like a meal on a plate, with mosquitoes embroidering flowers on her white face and arms, staggering in an orderly manner, outlining red and bright plum blossoms everywhere, and she, like a plum blossom branch, had no special reaction.
Noble bathed and wiped her body, and found those plum blossoms, so angry that the throat gurgled - this spring, how refreshing and comfortable he made Lan Xiaoshi, could it be that he was defeated by mosquitoes in the end?
2
Starting from the tall spittoon in the front, to brushing teeth, killing lice, watching TV, basking in the sun, etc., we can know that although Noble is still a child, he is a very patient person and a person with ideas. Now, he's got the mosquito again.
He experimented with himself, and soon found that people sweat a lot, their bodies are sticky, and mosquitoes are their favorite. On the contrary, if you take a bath with hot water and wipe it dry, the mosquitoes will be embarrassed to come again. In addition, cool oil, wind oil essence, and prickly heat powder, these are three treasures, rubbed on the body, cool and spicy, even if you have been bitten by mosquitoes, it is not so itchy.
Noble took out a few tickets from his unknown corner, went to the store to buy towels, soap, and "three treasures", and for some reason, he did not go to the shop of his young wife, his distant aunt, but walked a long way to another unfamiliar storefront. The seller saw that he was extraordinary, he didn't look like a dumb person, and tried his best to recommend mosquito coils and mosquito fly sprays to Noble, Noble smelled them before getting them to his nose, his nose was the best, smelled for a long time, and looked at the price for a long time, and finally chose mosquito coils, which is much cheaper.
The hot summer is approaching, but Noble is well prepared. He boils hot water four times a day. Got up together, waited for Lan Xiao to defecate, to defecate, and after breakfast, he washed her hair and took a bath, which could save her a morning. After taking a nap at noon, Lan Xiao was sweating again, and he boiled a second pot of water to take a second bath. The third is after dinner, so that Lan Xiao can watch TV comfortably. The fourth is the long night before going to bed to deal with the most rampant mosquitoes.
3
Taking four baths, except for talking a little verbose, it sounds so ordinary, but Noble slowly discovers that this matter is very difficult, more and more difficult, his hands and eyes have no place to put them, his strength is no longer available, and his whole person is about to be wasted.
Before this, because it was all the way from spring, because I was afraid that Lan Xiao would catch a cold, and because Dongba people didn't like to take a bath in the cold weather, every time they scrubbed and changed clothes, they were all across the quilt, and they were about the same.
But, summer, it's summer, and things are completely different.
Noble was first startled by Lan Xiao's meat.
He could not have imagined that a person could have so much flesh on his body, piled up, surging, layered, so soft that everywhere he touched it, it was as if he had fallen into a trap......
He couldn't imagine that a woman's flesh could be whitened like this. Lan Xiaobai, he also knew it before, but the white on the face is completely different from the white on the body. On the body, there are so many ups and downs, so many light and dark, and there are huge mysteries buried everywhere, which pierce into the eyes of the treasure, make him dizzy, make him anxious, lose his temper, beat someone, and break something.
However, not only the meat, but also the other components of Lan Xiao's body made Noble even more angry and anxious, he had never been so uncomfortable when he was so big! Not only did he have to watch it, but he also had to wash and wipe it for her, and wipe the prickly heat powder and wind oil essence for her.
Kelan Xiao was still so calm and quiet, as if she was still wearing a full set of clothes. She didn't know the look on her face, she didn't know it since she was a child. What she learned from an early age was obedience. She has some stupidity and indifference common to fools, and the laziness and powerlessness of semi-paralyzed. Half of her body was warm, the other half of her body was cold, and she let Noble clean up for her, raise her arms, turn sideways, lie down, and turn over again. Thick and deep body hair flashed innocently and frankly.
Noble's anger would reach its climax in the middle of the night, and the seventeen-year-old boy would begin to lose sleep, and he would get up and sit down in the dark ground, unable to see, hear, or speak, like a tiger in a cage, like a lion cub in a deep valley. He could only sniff his nose, but everything was cleaned up for him too well, the spittoon didn't stink, Lan Xiao's hair didn't get rancid, and the mat didn't smell musty.
All he could smell was Lan Xiao's meat, so kind and insidious, soft and sharp.
Noble couldn't get enough of smelling it, so he got up like an ape and sat down a little closer to Lan. But he still felt that it was not enough, so he sat in front of Lan Xiao's bed. Still felt that it was not enough, so he slowly turned over and got on the bed, and quietly lay down next to Lan Xiao, like a big dog lying next to his master.
He stuck to Lan Xiao's side as much as possible, and stuck it to her flesh, but, why, was he still so manic?
Lan Xiao exhaled a deep breath in her dream, so comfortable. Noble touched her, and touched her, up and down, inside and out, and she seemed to sleep deeper.
This girl, who has never been conscious all her life, doesn't know if she can dream of a peach forest where the ceiling falls, a teenager looks around, hesitantly, and walks to the deepest part of the landscape.
Five
1
And so it happened quietly in the heat of life, like a seed sprouting out of the ground, and the earth could not bury it, the grass could not cover it, and the stone could not hold it down.
Sow the seed, and it's about to sprout.
2
In the summer, people sleep in two parts, one at noon and the other at night. At noon, it was so hot that the sound of cicadas made people annoyed, and they couldn't do anything but sleep, but they couldn't sleep in the house, it was too stuffy. Everyone loves to unload a door panel down, and the man puts it under the eaves of the back door, a bit through the hall. The woman was placed on the side of the hall, face inward, curled up and slept. Flies and mosquitoes flew around with their mouths open, and some of them snorted loudly. They went on sleeping like this, until the pigs were eating, and the sheep were calling, and then they rubbed their eyes and woke up, and their cheeks were pressed out by the door panel with a few red marks.
With the ignorant sleep of noon, in the evening, people can hold fans and hang out with each other.
Lan Xiao's father is now a member of the etiquette blowing team, and he has some meaning of going to thousands of households, so everyone also likes to go to his house, where someone died, which son married what daughter-in-law, what kind of pomp and circumstance, what kind of details, what funny mistakes have been, etc., listening to him, it is really interesting, and he can talk until the middle of the night, and when he is leaving, out of courtesy, everyone will go to Lan Xiao's room to see her.
From this point of view, people inevitably have to talk to each other.
This said, look at this Lan Xiao, look at the treasure, it seems to have changed, I don't know where, it's very different.
That said, what to change? Where can it be? This is still stupid, still paralyzed, still fat. That one is still deaf and dumb.
Some will talk about other things, they noticed the smell in the small room of Lan, alas, it is simply fragrant, prickly heat powder and wind oil essence are mixed together, and there are mosquito coils smoking, like a fairyland--isn't it too much, so exquisite!
You should also be careful. You said, Lan Xiao's pitiful, cold and warm unconscious, has to be bitten by flies and mosquitoes, and her pile of meat will already stink...... It's really a shame to get this kid from Noble, and the Bodhisattva will bless him in the future......
That's all people say. Let's talk about it, everyone is also sleepy, it is not early, the stars in the sky are beginning to sloce, they yawn all the way and go all the way away, everyone goes home to sleep.
No one would ever think of those scorching peach blossoms that bloom at night.
Even Lan Xiao's parents are the same, and even when they see Noble bathing Lan Xiao four times a day, they can't think of anything other than gratitude and crampedness.
It's no wonder they are so careless, Lan Xiaome, because she is her own daughter, she has been watching her fat meat since she was a child, looking at it year after year, and it has been almost forty years, except for heavy grievances, where do you still treat her as a girl!
Laibao, from the age of twelve to Dongba, was such a helpless background, poor deaf and dumb defects, in the eyes of everyone, he has always been a hard-working child. You say, if such two people want to think of anything else, it is really unkind and too practiced.
3
Only Mr. Yi, as long as he thinks of Lan Xiao and Noble, he will be very sad - why others are indifferent and treat it as usual, but he is the only one who is anxious and restless, always feeling that something is going to happen, always feeling that something has happened.
Every night, he went out for a walk, looking at the two windows connected to Noble and Lan Xiao from a distance, he couldn't see the light in there, nor could he see the people under the lamp, but he would still stare involuntarily, staring desperately, as if he would see something heavenly.
Sometimes, Mr. Yi will also visit Lan Xiao's house, chat with everyone, and say goodbye to Lan Xiaolaibao. Every time there was such an opportunity, Teacher Yi would pay attention to Lan Xiao, observe Noble, and even, sweep it over Lan Xiao's stomach very quickly. This is really a shameless move, and Mr. Yi himself feels ashamed.
However, what made him feel a little relieved was that there didn't seem to be anything, Lan Xiao, except for being cleaner, was still like that - fat, white. But the kid from Noble Treasure, who had a bit of a bitter summer physique, lost some weight, sat on the stool, sleepily blinded.
4
Finally, the autumn wind slowly rose, and all the creatures in the ground showed each other various achievements. So, we had to break corn cobs, pick cotton, dig peanuts, cut soybeans, dry yams, and beware of the rain in the sky and the rats in the ground, which made people go crazy.
When the farm is busy, in addition to the fact that there is no way, the red and white things are always to let go, there is an old man who has passed away, the next person will kowtow and pray, everything is important to the agricultural time, and for the time being, it is simple, and the formal ceremony is postponed to the winter and then seriously and vigorously operated. In this way, the members of the ceremonial team, including the "bearded coat", were also able to go home to harvest, and they were all busy with their feet facing the sky. And the more busy the farm, the more sloppy the food, therefore, women are more difficult than men, but also focus on preparing meals and soups, and serving pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks, in short, every autumn harvest, there is really no idler, all nervous.
In this way, as if reciting a mantra, they were busy for a while, and all the men were twice as dark, and they were as thin as the harvested earth, and their faces were wrinkled like swords, and the old age of the countrymen always happened in autumn, and they looked at each other's old state, and laughed and mocked each other.
Lan Xiao's mother also grew old in this autumn, mainly because her eyes were old.
At night, peeling cotton fruit under the lamp, and during the day, doing embroidery work in the yard, there will always be bunches of tears. When you rub and rub it, it turns red, and when you go to the stove to burn firewood, you are even more confused and can't open it.
This afternoon, the mother in the yard looked up from the computer embroidery work in her hand, and while wiping the endless tears, suddenly, she remembered something.
It's not a big deal, she almost forgot about it, but when she thinks about it, it still seems to be a big deal: she hasn't helped Lan Xiao wash her bloody clothes for a long time.
Lan Xiao's menstrual affairs, his mother has never come to the treasure to serve, first, let him have a few days a month to rest; more importantly, we have a custom here, a child man is not allowed to touch a woman's menstrual blood, in the end, it is not clear, in short, this is a small taboo, just like a woman can not stand on the threshold of the gate, this is not good, should not be done.
Lan Xiao's menstrual affairs have always been accurate, overwhelming, the bed is connected to the bed, and after four or five days, she retreats neatly, and if she is clean, she is as white as a lotus flower. My mother figured out the pattern, and always pinched a large piece of plastic film on the bed, changed her clothes and washed them.
When his mother was so busy inside and out, Noble always stayed in his room with a focused expression, allowing the salty blood smell with the smell of flesh to permeate his room like a mist. His mother went to pull him out, and he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, but he remained there. As soon as his mother was gone, he opened his eyes again, his nose fluttering, and he was immersed in it.
Lan Xiao's mother pinched her fingers and thought back. She can't read the calendar, she has her own algorithm.
Mother first remembered from Qingming that before and after Qingming, Lan Xiao's father wanted to move a willow tree by the small pond in front of the door and give it to the village chief Wan Nianqing. Lan Xiaoyin had to stare at the small pond every day when he was fine, and found that the willow had fallen, and suddenly, he sobbed and cried, and while crying, the blood below also came down...... While the mother cleaned up, she tried her best to persuade her, but she couldn't calm down. When Noble saw this, he had to go and ask his father to stop. In the end, the willow tree was not moved.
...... Then, after the Dragon Boat Festival, yes, what did she still have on her body in the month of the Dragon Boat Festival, that day, Lan Xiaoyi held two hands, with rice particles hanging from the corners of her mouth, and ate three zongzi in one go, and ate it too late to eat, regardless of the bubbling spring below.
...... Then, it seems to be Xiaoxia, the old sheep in the family is about to give birth, the mother is busy boiling hot water to deliver the baby, and Lan Xiao has another menstrual affair...... The mother ran on both sides, the flesh of the sheep, the blood. Lan Xiao's healthy blood clots, the lamb staggered to his feet. The mother was so busy that she was so happy that she had delivered three sheep. A sheep can be sold for seventy or eighty yuan just by eating grass, and it will be big and fat.
But after that, the mother raised her head, looked at the sky, and lowered her head again, and looked at the earth. Yes, later, the autumn harvest was busy, and Lan Xiao never had a menstrual affair there......
The mother sat in the yard and was stunned, a little uncertain and confused, uncertain and afraid.
The Trail?
Ryūdo!
She rubbed her eyes, and shed another line of tears—her eyes, perhaps not sick, not old, but presciently, grieving and weeping in advance for something she did not yet know.
Six
1
On this day, Mr. Yi came to the village chief Wan Nianqing's house.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and from the Mid-Autumn Festival onwards, the days will be idle day by day, and the smell of the festival will float sweetly in the air, so people's pace will slow down.
In the corner of the drying field, every household has piled up a new firewood pile, although it is only some cotton stalks, soybean stalks, corn bud husks, worthless things, but they are neatly packed, and some have made rainproof grass roofs, hanging wooden planks or bricks with ropes, looking from a distance, like the former thatched hut. Yes, we have to protect ourselves from the rain and the wind, and with this firewood pile, there will always be a strong flame in our stove throughout the cold winter, so that the mothers can boil hot water and soup.
Mr. Yi stood on the drying field of the village chief, praised his firewood pile for a while, and then told him about the news he had seen recently: there is a food company in the city that makes the world's largest mooncakes......
Is the biggest in the world or the biggest in China? The biggest in the world, that's Guinness? Wan Nianqing interrupted him and used a very clever word to show that he was knowledgeable and calm.
Isn't the biggest in the world the biggest in China? Teacher Yi retorted slyly. At the same time, continue to say: This moon cake uses hundreds of kilograms of flour, hundreds of kilograms of sugar, and hundreds of kilograms of eggs...... The whole city can go and eat as much as they want, but I'm afraid they won't be able to eat it......
Then I'll go to the village tomorrow to broadcast the radio, and everyone will go to the city together to do a favor...... It's not easy for people in the city...... Mutual assistance between urban and rural areas......
The two of them laughed merrily as they walked into the house—and that was their greeting. The greetings between village cadres and retired teachers are much more interesting and high-level than those of us ordinary people.
After entering the house, thanking for tea and cigarettes, Mr. Yi slowly stopped smiling on his face. He coughed, waited for a while, and then spoke clearly: Village Chief Wan, I'm afraid, Noble has made Lan Xiaoyou pregnant.
Teacher Yi is like this, when it comes to business, he always goes straight to the point. When he finished speaking, his mouth pursed tightly.
The village chief lowered his head, picked up the tea, lit a cigarette again, lowered his head, and prepared to listen.
Teacher Yi then dissected layer by layer: As for me, I have thought of this layer for a long time, but it is difficult to say, and I think it is unlikely...... However, recently, they heard Lan Xiao's mother sitting in the yard crying every day......
That's a problem with her eyes, and her eyes will be watery. Village Chief Wan raised his head.
yes, her eyes haven't been getting better lately, so I didn't take it seriously. Teacher Yi agreed. However, they added that Noble had been so thin lately that he was always dozing off during the day......
That child has a bitter summer, and he has been like this for several years, and he has to lose weight in the summer...... What's the matter with dozing, who said this, he went to take care of Lan Xiao to see if he dozed off...... Village Chief Wan retorted in a hurry, as if he was going to quarrel.
yes, I see it that way, too. Teacher Yi still nodded, calm. However, they also said that what those mothers-in-law said said that Lan Xiao is not like that now...... And there is a reaction, retching day and night, and the vomiting is very loud, and people can hear her throat hanging dry when they walk on the west road...... Looking at the past with anxiety, Lan Xiao's cheeks were densely covered with freckles, and the women said that they were child spots, I am afraid that she was really pregnant......
The village head, Wan Nianqing, raised his head and lowered it again.
Alas, I actually know what you said. My wife told me when she came back, she talked more than you, she opened a shop on the side of the road, whoever came to buy something, she had to stop and say a few words of news, Lan Xiao's matter, they have been talking for a long time...... I just don't believe it, Lan Xiao, a person who is about to be forty, and he looks like that again, an ordinary person, he can't hide...... I have always looked at the bitter treasure as a child, and he was still the same as when he came to the house, twelve years old, standing under the eaves, very smart, with long trousers and short trousers, how could I have thought that he would know these things......
Both of them were silent, not knowing what to say.
Seeing Wan Nianqing bowing his head and distressed, Teacher Yi threw another cigarette. The two twitched at each other, but they were a little embarrassed, unwilling to look at each other.
After a while, Wan Nianqing reluctantly reopened his mouth: Teacher Nayi, in your opinion, this must be true? It can't be wrong? For example, could it be that Lan Xiao is not in good health and has some gynecological disease? Or, was it something else that touched her house at night and did this?
This sound a little bizarre and weak, and Wan Nianqing himself can't speak it well, and his voice gets shorter and shorter the more he speaks.
Don't feel guilty, it's not your fault. Teacher Yi helped him out.
It's not that I feel guilty, I just blame myself for being confused, at that time, seeing that Lan Xiao's family needed someone, and it happened that the sons were going to let Noble go again, I was in a hurry, and I was so frizzy about doing things...... You say, this matter is wronged Lan is small, right, she is an idiot and doesn't know these things...... However, how do I think, I have also wronged Noble, put him there, and wait for and urine every day, even a stone will have feelings, not to mention that Noble is such a well-behaved child, but, why did he open up so early...... Alas, this is the ......
The village chief, to look at the problem dialectically, to divide it into two. You say, wronged two people, isn't it? In my opinion, it is not necessarily a grievance. You think, Lan Xiao, this girl, for her, no matter what happens, there is no good or bad, and there is no grievance, she lives in this life, like a normal woman, everything has to be experienced to not be wronged, right? Noble Treasure, although she is only seventeen years old, but if she is a thoughtful young man, she would have to ask someone to talk about the matchmaker! The matter of men and women, we are all from here, the purest, as long as both parties are happy, it has nothing to do with everything else, but Noble is happy, he doesn't feel wronged...... In short, this matter, when you look at it from the front, is an ugly thing, and when you look at it the other way, think about it quietly and fairly, it is a good and happy event.
Wan Nianqing's face was relieved when he heard this, and when Mr. Yi said this, it seemed that he had made sense of this matter in terms of morality and public opinion - in the future, if there was some gossip, it was that the person who spoke did not understand human feelings.
But looking at Mr. Yi, his expression was still not good. Sure enough, Teacher Yi paused, and then continued.
...... You and I can figure it out, and so can the neighbors in Dongba -- don't look at them like to talk long and short behind their backs, it's just because life is too dull and they need something to talk about...... But in their hearts, they are the same as the two of us, they are also thinking in the good heart, who will really do those two poor people...... It's just that I'm afraid that it will spread to other villages, to the top, and to the law: I have read a lot of reports, like Lan Xiao, as long as others touch her, no matter what the cause and effect of the matter is, strictly speaking, it is rape, and if you are convicted, you will go to the bureau.
Teacher Yi always spoke with a ruthless spirit, and he dug his words to the end at once, and when he heard it, the village chief Wan Nianqing's face turned blue all of a sudden: Then you are here to tell me that Noble is going to prison? Damn, I knew this earlier, it was better to let him beg for food along the entrance of the village than to go in......
Not really. I'm here today to ask for a solution: I want to volunteer to be a matchmaker. How about you, as the man's family, are willing?
2
Lan Xiao's parents are now up and sitting on the bed again in the night. Father lit his hookah, the end of which flickered in the black.
These days, because I went to the farm, there were more red and white things. But my father was always a little uncomfortable in the blowing team. He always felt that as soon as he struck the bowl, the villagers must have started whispering about Lan Xiao, and as soon as he stopped, in the aftermath of that conversation, they had to temporarily suspend the conversation. He didn't dare to look at others, and at the same time, he noticed that others were also trying to dodge him. He knew that it was a kind of good-natured, helpless avoidance, but because it was good-natured, he felt doubly uncomfortable.
Lan Xiao's mother was even more salty and indifferent, and she was restless. I wanted to talk to her, so I went around the room a few times and looked at the two men -- one was completely ignorant, her clothes were held up tightly, and her belly, stomach, and breasts were big before, the size of a fat man, and now, of course, bigger. Looking at the treasure again, he walked around silently, washing this and that, and everything was busy in an orderly and neat manner. His mother pulled him, and he stopped and looked at her with some questions.
That question, firm and innocent. The so-called ignorant are fearless. The mother opened her mouth, finally not knowing how to talk to a mute child.
Alas. Mother sighed.
Alas. Father sighed.
Perhaps, they involuntarily pricked up their ears to hear the movement in the front room.
But where can you hear anything? The two children, quiet...... So many nights, it was so quiet, as if nothing had ever happened......
You say, my father seems to have thought about it for a long time before he said such a sentence, you say, Noble, do you like our family Lan Xiao, is it like this?
Our family orchid ...... When the mother mentioned her daughter's name, she burst into tears. Who just likes her, what's the use? And the treasure, I don't think, this kid doesn't know the stakes of this incident very well, he doesn't necessarily mean it...... Alas, how can this matter be cleaned up in the end......
The two old men were so sad that they couldn't get through the long night. It was the white dew of mid-autumn, and it seemed that you could hear the dew drops crying on the leaves in the yard.
......
(Won the 2007 People's Literature Award for Outstanding Novella)