Text: Lu Guolin
I haven't been back to my hometown for a long time, and when I returned to my hometown, I remembered that I should go to my second uncle's house, but my relatives at home advised me not to go, my second uncle has passed away for many years, and there is no one at home for a long time, but I still insist on going. In fact, my second uncle's house is not very far from my house in the town, and it will be there after a short ride. When I came to the town, I turned into a familiar alley, and at the end of the alley was the second uncle's house. The town has changed a lot, and many buildings have been built, but the second uncle's house has a declining appearance, the stone courtyard wall is mottled with green moss, and the walls are covered with all kinds of weeds, swaying weakly with the wind. The door to the compound was closed, and the lock was rusty. I pushed the door hard, and from the crack in the door, I could see that the courtyard was overgrown with weeds, scattered with some sundries, and it looked like no one had taken care of it for a long time.
When I was young, my second uncle had an inch head, he was not tall and strong, his voice was loud, he was a cheerful person, and in my opinion, he had the taste of a hero. My mother had a lot of contact with my second uncle among my siblings, and my second uncle would come to my house every once in a while. The arrival of the second uncle is like a festival for me, every time I hear the crisp bell of the bicycle at the gate of the courtyard, I know that the second uncle is coming. I rushed out of the house quickly, and by this time my second uncle had already pushed the cart into the courtyard gate, and when he saw me, he smiled and took out a few pieces of fruit candy from his pocket and gave it to me. Of course, sometimes there are unexpected surprises, once he found something in his pocket and hid it behind him, and asked me mysteriously: Guess what? I guessed a few times but I couldn't guess accurately, and I kept jumping up in a hurry, seeing that I was about to cry, and then the second uncle revealed what was hidden behind me, and it turned out to be a homemade wooden pistol! The arrival of the second uncle also has the advantage of being able to eat a good meal. From the second uncle entered the door, the mother was busy, the father accompanied the second uncle in the courtyard under the plane tree to drink tea and chat, the mother prepared lunch alone, and when it was time to eat at noon, bowls of fragrant noodles or dumplings were served on the table. Seeing his father lying crookedly on the kang and snoring, the second uncle greeted him with a flushed face and rode away on his old bicycle.
The turning point in the second uncle's life began with the birth of children. He thinks that it is a shame to not have a son in the countryside, and he will be laughed at and looked down upon, so he wants a son. But what he didn't expect was that the first child born to his uncle was a girl, and the second uncle was unhappy, but when he gently held his newborn daughter in his arms, he still smiled like a father. Everything is difficult at the beginning, so he pinned his hopes on the second child, and the pregnancy fell to the ground in October, and unexpectedly the aunt gave birth to a girl, this time the second uncle was a little anxious, so he simply gave the second daughter a name called a boy, and he must give birth to a boy. The second uncle wanted his son to be heartfelt, and it didn't take long for the aunt to become pregnant again. This time, the cadres in the town came directly to the door and painstakingly explained to the two of them the family planning policy, giving birth to boys and girls the same, asking them not to have children, and the newly conceived fetus must go to the hospital to take measures. But how could the second uncle listen to it at this time, and thought that he would definitely give birth to a boy this time, isn't the old saying said, and again and again. The cadres in the town came to the door every once in a while, and the second uncle quietly transferred his aunt to hide his relatives in his mother's family. The town was very annoyed, so they directly stopped the second uncle's family's rations and fined them, and asked the second uncle to go to the town's family planning study class on time every day to receive education. Eating was not a problem, but the fine put a heavy burden on the second uncle's family. Even this did not dispel the second uncle's desire to continue to have a son. Soon, news came from her mother's family, and it was like a bolt from the blue for the hopeful second uncle, and the aunt gave birth to another girl. This time, the second uncle couldn't bear it, he couldn't figure out what was going against him in the dark, why couldn't a virtuous and capable wife give birth to a son? He was both disappointed and aggrieved, picked up the wine bottle and drank it, the wine could make the second uncle forget the troubles in front of him for a while.
The second uncle wanted his son like a demon and wanted to go crazy, and then he secretly wanted a child, but it turned out to be a girl. This completely annoyed the cadres in the town. During that time, the second uncle was like a fugitive and did not dare to return home, so he hid everywhere. I heard my mother say that on a night of lightning and thunder, it was pouring rain outside, and in the middle of the night I suddenly heard someone knocking on the door, and when I got up and opened the door, my second uncle suddenly appeared at the door, and I saw that he was already soaking wet, standing there trembling, seeing his brother's pitiful appearance, my mother's tears fell, and persuaded him to go back to the town to admit his mistake, and the second uncle only cared about gobbling up food and did not speak, and disappeared in a hurry in the rainy night after eating a full meal.
After another period of time, the second uncle estimated that he couldn't bear it anymore, so he returned to the town to admit his mistake and accept the punishment. Because of this turmoil, my aunt also returned to her parents' house with several daughters. When he returned home and looked around the empty old house, the second uncle felt that the world was spinning, and he seemed to have fallen into a bottomless black hole, and it was difficult to climb out. Later, when everything gradually returned to normal, the second uncle couldn't do without wine, he couldn't eat food, he couldn't drink wine, he drank a wine bottle as water all day long, and fell asleep when he was drunk. I think maybe the second uncle regretted it from the bottom of his heart at that time, his stubbornness and madness almost ruined this good family, and the hard-working and virtuous aunt and four daughters followed him for a few days without a good life, isn't it all his own fault. That year, I returned to my hometown from other places, thinking about going to see my second uncle, knowing that he couldn't do without wine, so I specially bought a few bottles of good wine, but my mother saw it and sighed and said to me, don't buy such expensive wine, a few bottles of wine are not enough for him to drink, and he can drink two more boxes of ordinary wine. I hesitated for a moment, but finally I believed my mother's words and bought two cases of ordinary wine. When I came to the second uncle's house, I felt that there was a lot of change, the dark light in the house was dim, and the aunt dragged her thin body to take care of the four children while farming and doing housework, which was really too busy, and the person was even thinner, and her waist was tired and bent. When I saw my second uncle's appearance, I was really surprised. The sturdy and cheerful second uncle in the past was gone, and I saw a gray-haired, thin little old man sitting on the bed, with two teeth missing, and an empty wine bottle beside him. I was both surprised and uncomfortable to see this scene, and I knew that the second uncle, who was physically strong and cheerful, had left me, and alcohol had completely destroyed his body. A few years later, my mother told me that my second uncle, who had just celebrated his 53rd birthday, had passed away, leaving without a word.
Leaving my second uncle's house, I came to a hillside north of the town, where there was a tomb where my second uncle was buried. Maybe no one has come to the grave for a long time, and the grave of the second uncle is already overgrown with weeds. The four daughters had grown up, some went to the city, some got married, and they were far away from the land, and the aunt did not remarry, but also went to the city with the daughters. I cleaned up the weeds in front of my second uncle's grave, took out the liquor I brought, and gently sprinkled it in front of the grave.
In the clear blue sky, the white clouds are long. A line of geese is slowly flying from north to south.
Lu Guolin, a bank staff member and senior economist, has published prose and poetry in newspapers and periodicals.
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