Kasan (novella)

After dinner, I asked Jenny Wang for leave and invited Meihui to a teahouse by the Ussuri River.

The river sky is cloudy, the half-moon rises and falls among the thick and uneven clouds, and the autumn river whimpers low outside the window, one after another, as if responding to the state of mind of the two of us at the moment.

The tea room was small and exquisite, and we sat across the tables. She was three years older than me, with elaborate make-up on her face, a few silver strands in her black hair, and she looked about the same age as the women in our town's forties and fifties. Judging from her appearance alone, no one believes that Sister Meihui is nearly sixty years old.

Across the table, her sorrow was hidden in a polite smile, and she habitually bowed to me—yes, habitually, to signal that my narration could begin.

So, I said, "Uncle's dementia precursors should be there." In retrospect, it must have been five years ago, when I raised that goat. ”

Sister Meihui listened quietly. In the morning, we had just sent Uncle Zhou, her father, to the cemetery. I glanced at her, and the story continued: "It was in the afternoon that the sheep you saw had a fine, fluffy white coat, with its horns crooked back and its ears pointed forward. When you see it in the afternoon, its horns are almost completely grayish-brown. When I first saw it five years ago, its horns were still a little more pink, and its beard wasn't as long as it is now......"

On that day five years ago, I returned from a business trip to Jilin and brought two bags of locally produced matsutake mushrooms to Zhou Bo. Since Uncle Zhou's wife, Aunt Li, passed away ten years ago, Sister Meihui, who settled in Japan, entrusted me to take care of her father on weekdays.

My family and Uncle Zhou's family are neighbors in the small town of Ussuri River, and our two families share a side courtyard wall. Our father grew up together with a bare ass. Seven years ago, after my father failed to fight the disease and left us, my mother, who was very sad, moved into my sister's house in Harbin. I've been living in the county since I started working. So, after my mother arrived in Harbin, my family's old house gradually became deserted. In the summer, white mushrooms grow on the wooden fence that serves as the courtyard wall, and the yard is overgrown with weeds, and the hares regard it as their paradise.

I remember Sister Meihui's entrustment, as long as I have time, I will go back to the old house from the county seat to have a look. It takes about forty minutes to drive back from the county seat.

On that day five years ago, when I first saw the sheep, it was grazing on the grassy slope in front of Uncle Zhou's house, which is also in front of mine. The grass slope is gentle, standing in front of the courtyard gate of my house or Uncle Zhou's house, the eyes of children can cross the top of the slope to see the top of a birch forest, the birch forest grows at the bottom of the slope on the side of the grass slope, and the grass slope on that side is not as gentle as the side in front of our door.

It was a June day, two or three flocculent white clouds drifting in the blue sky, the irises on the grassy slope had already bloomed a cluster of purple flowers in the east and a bush in the west, the flowers of Tongquan grass were yellow, and the grass was fragrant. Zhou Bo sat next to the sheep like a child, with a white sunhat under his buttocks, and his mouth was chewing a grass stalk like a sheep.

The sound of the brakes alarmed the sheep, and it raised its head and glared at me, its square pupils, which made me feel creepy. It was the first time I noticed that the goat had two-shaped pupils, and in broad daylight, I was brave enough to be curious, and I took a few steps towards it. It saw me approaching, and its four hooves stirred uneasily around Zhou Bo. Zhou Bo slowly stood up from the ground, grabbed the crumpled white sunhat stained with grass juice and mud in one hand, pinched the grass stalk that was still chewing in his mouth with the other, and walked towards me in confusion and anger.

I took off my sunglasses and asked curiously, "Uncle Zhou, why did you raise sheep?"

When Uncle Zhou heard my voice, he hesitated for a moment, stopped, and he took a closer look at my face: "It's Dacheng!" He said with a shy expression, "I'm not idle yet! Raise a sheep so that I can talk to it." Besides, didn't I grow up drinking goat's milk?"

I know this, Zhou Bo is a Japanese orphan, his parents were members of the Japanese invasion of China, when Japan surrendered and repatriated, Zhou Bo still remembers that his mother had fed him with goat's milk. Zhou's father, Jiro Ikeda, died on the way to repatriation, and the information of his mother, Miko Ikeda, after the repatriation is still unknown.

"Sister Meihui doesn't want to come back, and you don't want to live in her place permanently, you say how good it is for you to go to Sister Meihui's place! Of course, the conditions are another one, the key is to guard your daughter every day, isn't that the same as guarding the spring!"

Zhou Bo said aggrievedly: "Dacheng, even you say that." It's not that I don't want to guard Meihui, but your sister Meihui now has to take care of her husband and children, and it's not easy for her. Besides, the place was damp and stuffy, and when I went there, I got prickly heat, and I couldn't understand the language, and I felt like a monster when I went. Dacheng, no place is as good as your own home!"

I nodded: "Yes, you're right! WeChat video meeting, right? Anyway, you can see Sister Meihui every day through WeChat video!"

"Yes, yes, but after all, the video is different from being around. Zhou Bo said sincerely.

I smiled and said, "Then you don't want to live in that place permanently." The words came back around.

Five years ago, I was promoted from deputy director of a functional bureau of the county government to director. The work is much busier than before, and I can only go back to the small town of Ussuri once in a while, if I have to say the frequency, I can always come back once in ten days and half a month.

"Five years ago, my uncle didn't call it 'Cassan'. It was two years ago that I heard my uncle call it 'Kassan', and I couldn't tell when it started to be called, I was very careless and didn't take good care of my uncle, please forgive Sister Meihui. ”

"Daesung, if you want to ask for forgiveness, it should be me. Sister Meihui smiled sadly, "When I was on video with my dad, I also saw this sheep, but I didn't hear my dad call it 'Kasan', I heard the nurse Sister Sun say it a few times......"

Zhou Bo's "Kasan" is his biological mother, and Japanese children call their mothers "Kasan", a word that remains in his memory and has not been forgotten throughout his life. "You still haven't heard anything about your biological grandmother over there?"

Sister Meihui shook her head gently: "The last time my father came to look for relatives, the staff of the Ministry of Health and Welfare told him that it was almost impossible to find his biological mother. Even if my grandmother is still alive, even if she lives in Japan, there are many procedures to go through, from administrative means to scientific DNA identification......" Sister Meihui felt uncomfortable, she lowered her head, and her straight hair was draped down, revealing a thin, pale neck.

The seventeen-year-old Meihui sister, whose skin was like clotted fat and whose smooth neck shone with a charming brilliance like fine porcelain, walked towards me with a light smile after forty-one years.

In 1981, Uncle Zhou's uncle wrote a letter from Kyoto Prefecture to welcome Uncle Zhou's family back to Japan to settle down. My neighbor, Zhou Meihui, has changed her name to Ikeda.

When I heard the news, a chill rose from the bottom of my heart, and I was so shocked that I didn't close my mouth for a long time. My sister Fu Caixia is five years older than me, she is a bookworm, and she doesn't want to take me to play. In 1981, Fu Caixia had been admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology.

I grew up playing with Sister Meihui. One year, I guess it was when I was eight years old. It should be in the courtyard of Sister Meihui's house, it is winter, the snow outside is two feet thick, and the fire in the house is burning hot. I was supposed to be playing with Sister Meihui in the New Year's painting, with my head on my head. My mother and Aunt Li sat cross-legged on the kang, joking while holding the soles of their shoes: "In the future, let your family Meihui marry my family Dacheng, and our two families will be close to each other." ”

My father and Uncle Zhou were very happy when they heard it.

Sister Meihui's face is red and her ears are red. I was happy in my heart, but I said, "Sister Meihui is three years older than me!"

Aunt Li said to me with a serious face: "Isn't that right?

When Sister Meihui heard this, she was so ashamed that she opened the door and ran out, and I also pulled out and ran out with her, and the cold wind wrapped in snow particles smashed my face painfully.

My mother pointed at me and smiled and bent over, and said to Aunt Li breathlessly: "After the calf, if you have a daughter-in-law, you don't want a mother, and now you will run away with your daughter-in-law." ”

If it weren't for 1981, if Uncle Zhou's family hadn't received an invitation letter from my uncle, maybe I would have married Sister Meihui when I grew up!

But that summer of 1981 turned my youthful thoughts into a beautiful dream.

In 1981, Uncle Zhou did have plans to settle in Japan. Not only did he restore his name "Zhou Zhengtai" to "Ikeda Zhengtai", but he also changed the name of his old wife Li Shulan to Ikeda Sakurako. In 1981, our Ussuri River town had not yet become a "town", it was called a village, and Aunt Li was a teacher at the village primary school, and Aunt Li had no Japanese blood at all. Aunt Li was reluctant to leave the Ussuri River, and she was reluctant to leave the children on the Ussuri River. That summer, she came to my house more than once, took my mother's hand, sighed, and said, "Where am I willing to go, I can't bear to pour cold water on Zhengtai's heat." ”

My mother grabbed Aunt Li's hand, as if she was about to say goodbye to life and death, and said with tears in her eyes: "It's not what's wrong, that's someone's motherland, his aunt, remember to write to me when you get there!"

At that time, we had already seen the rapid development of Japan on TV, and the speed of the Shinkansen reached 210 kilometers per hour, while the speed of the green train from our county to Mudanjiang was only 40 kilometers per hour.

Sister Meihui is smiling every day, her body is also light, and she feels like she wants to float into the sky when she walks, and the new world makes her cheer.

I reluctantly asked, "Sister Meihui, are you really going to Japan?"

Sister Meihui corrected my statement with a smile: "It's not going, it's going back! Dacheng, it's back!"

I was even more lost: "Then you won't come back when you go back?"

Sister Meihui looked at me with a smile and said, "Don't worry, Dacheng, I will come back to see you." Besides, you can go to Japan in the future. ”

I muttered, "What am I going to Japan for? My dad is not an orphan in Japan." ”

Sister Meihui laughed, and she patted me on the cheek. I was 14 years old at the time, and my height was just 1.6 meters, and my 17-year-old sister Meihui was actually about the same height as me, but she was about to go to Japan, and she put on high heels that we had never seen on the Ussuri River, and her height was a cut higher than mine. When I was fourteen years old, I had become a human physiologically, and Sister Meihui patted me on the face, so I buried my face in Sister Meihui's soft chest, but Sister Meihui quickly and still pushed me away with a smile.

That summer, Zhou Bo's family of three took a train with a speed of 40 kilometers per hour to Mudanjiang, and then transferred from Mudanjiang to a train with a speed of about 100 kilometers per hour to Dalian, Liaoning Province, where there is a Dalian Zhoushuizi Airport, and there are direct flights to Dongying.

That summer was unusually short, and now that I look back, one summer has only shrunk into two full days in my mind: one day I buried my face in Sister Meihui's soft chest, and I smelled a sweet and charming scent, and Sister Meihui quickly and smiled to push me away, and one day Uncle Zhou's family set off from our small village on the Ussuri River, and our family went to the village bus station to see me off. The small village of Ussuri River later became a small town of Ussuri River, and our town is still not connected to the train, and we have to take a car to the county seat, and the county seat has a train to Harbin and Mudanjiang. When I saw him off, my parents said something to Uncle Zhou's family, and Uncle Zhou's family told my parents something, no matter how hard I try to recall now, my mind is blank, and I can't salvage a trace of residual memories.

In my memory, there is only a delicate face that bloomed like a spring bud when I got into the car that day, and that face often rolled in my mind, and the more I flipped it, the clearer it became: Sister Meihui was wearing a dress full of pink flowers on a moon-white background, and she went to the county seat to perm a fluffy, curly, hairstyle like Taiwanese star Teresa Teng, which made her face more beautiful than the most beautiful flower by the Ussuri River.

That day, Sister Meihui's heart must have flown to Dongying, she didn't have anything to tell me, just smiled and waved to me against the window glass. The bus started, and the wheels rolled up a cloud of dust that rushed towards me, and I smelled and tasted the bitter and salty smell of the dust, and thought to myself, why did such a beautiful Meihui sister go so willingly, and never come back?

I secretly swore that when I grow up in the future, I must marry a beautiful woman like Sister Meihui from Japan, and I think I will take that woman to Japan to find Sister Meihui and let Sister Meihui take a look. When I grew up, I occasionally recalled this scene and was shocked by my psychology at that time, why did I think that I would take that beautiful woman to Sister Meihui in the future and let Sister Meihui take a look?

Of course, when I grew up, I didn't marry a Japanese woman, I married a wife named Wang Zhenni, a native of Heilongjiang, I met her when I was in college in Harbin. When I first fell in love with Jenny Wang, sometimes I hope that she is also like Sister Meihui, a descendant of a Japanese orphan, then I will marry a Japanese woman back in the future. But Jenny Wang is not, her parents, like my parents, are both natives of Heilongjiang, and there is no Japanese blood relationship at all.

That day, when I got home, my mother joked with me: "It's over, my daughter-in-law flew away, look at her happy appearance, and she will never come back!"

I blackened my face and said nothing.

It's fall, we start school, and it's my last year of junior high school. If I get admitted to high school next year, I will leave the small village of the Ussuri River and go to the city, our county seat. At that time, the road to the county seat was simply paved with stones, and the bus stopped and stopped along the way, and it took at least two hours to get to the county seat.

I suddenly realized that only by going to the county seat to study in high school can I have the opportunity to go to the provincial city to study at university, and only when I go to the provincial city to study at the university can I have the opportunity to go to Japan in the future, and I can find Sister Meihui in Japan, the sister Meihui when I first fell in love.

This semester, my academic performance has improved by leaps and bounds. My homeroom teacher was puzzled, and he silently observed me for several weeks and came to the conclusion that my family had good genetics – my sister was a top student. My homeroom teacher didn't understand that an internal drive to study diligently was growing and spreading like a weed in my heart, and no one could get rid of it now.

In the autumn of that year, memories were only short-lived. I remember that two days after the celebration of the National Day, the wind blew in the middle of the night, blowing the leaves of poplars, birches and wild hawthorn trees all over the sky. In the morning, the wind was a little lighter, and the front of my house and the door of Uncle Zhou's house were full of dead branches and leaves. As I walked from home to school, snowflakes began to fall in the cloudy sky. It didn't snow much in the morning. When it was time for school to get out, the wind was strong again, and the wind was overwhelmingly wrapped in snowflakes and leaves, and I fled all the way home from school like a deserter with my head bowed and my body staggered in the wind and snow.

"Dacheng is back!" I was taken aback when I heard the voice, why was it Aunt Li's voice? No, Uncle Zhou and Aunt Li were sitting cross-legged on my kang. My parents were also sitting cross-legged on the kang, they were chatting enthusiastically, and the smell of low-quality tobacco was in the air. Didn't Uncle Zhou and Aunt Li settle in Japan, why did they come back?

I haven't seen each other for more than two months, and the complexions on Uncle Zhou and Aunt Li's faces seem to be much whiter. Uncle Zhou wore an earthy yellow jacket and a pair of dark yellow trousers, Aunt Li wore a camel hair wool sweater with black straps and dark flowers, and a dark yellow trouser on the lower body—the fabric of the pants worn by Uncle Zhou and his wife became popular in our small village on the Ussuri River a few years later—it was washed fabric.

When I first saw Uncle Zhou and Aunt Li who came back from Japan, I felt that they were both dressed in a foreign style. My parents, on the other hand, wore tunics that my mother cut herself. My father wore a blue jacket with black cotton pants, and my mother wore a blue jacket with floral flowers and a pair of black cotton pants. If Uncle Zhou's family hadn't been to Japan, they must be dressed the same as my parents at this moment.

At this moment, they both looked at me kindly and smiled, I didn't actually say hello to them, and blurted out: "Where is my Meihui sister?"

Aunt Li said calmly: "Your sister Meihui doesn't plan to come back." "I can't tell from her face whether Sister Meihui is happy or annoyed that she doesn't come back.

"Then why are you two back?" I asked, dumbfounded.

My mother joked with me again: "It's over, Dacheng, my daughter-in-law is not coming back, you can go to Japan to find her." "My mother rubbed salt on my wounds at an inopportune time, so for a few years I wondered if I was my mother's own. Because my Uncle Zhou is not my Grandma Yuan's own.

Aunt Li lovingly dusted the snowflakes off my clothes. In a trance, Aunt Li and my mother had a kind of role swap with me.

Zhou Bo scratched his head and said with a shy expression that I had been familiar with for a long time, "The two of us," he pointed to Aunt Li, which was redundant. "I don't understand the language, I can't learn anything when I get there, and if I say a good job, it's a mechanic in a lumber mill, and we might as well come back!"

I reluctantly asked, "Then my sister Meihui's language is clear!, why don't you two bring her back when you come back!" I became angry, and I didn't care whether my mother was joking or not, and tears welled up in my eyes.

Aunt Li said softly: "Dacheng, good boy! She is young, she learns everything quickly, and her adaptability is stronger than ours. After all, they are better developed than us. ”

My mother probably felt that she shouldn't have made that joke with me, so she changed her tone of comfort and said, "Dacheng, you should be happy for your sister Meihui, that is her hometown." Put down your bag and do your homework!"

I couldn't be happier at all. Without saying a word, I went into the back kitchen, where the kang fire was blazing. I lay on the dining table at my house and studied hard, and secretly vowed that I must go to Japan through my own efforts in the near future, go to find Sister Meihui, and bring Sister Meihui back.

When Zhou Bo and his wife returned from Japan, we people in the village used their situation in Japan as a talking point, chewing over and over again for more than a month, and chewed until the end of November. By the end of November, the surface of the Ussuri River had frozen into a thick layer of ice. There was a big black bear that hibernated unconventionally, taking advantage of the night, swaggering from the other side of the river, to the courtyard of the old grandson's house in the east of our village to steal buds. People in our village, after the autumn harvest, like to hoard bud rice sticks in a corner of their yard and hoard them high together, forming a "bud rice hoard". The top of the "bud rice hoard" is covered with plastic film to prevent rain and snow from the wind. The "bud rice hoard" is built with slats and wooden sticks around the side, ventilated on all sides, so that it is convenient for the buds to dry naturally, will not become moldy and spoiled, and in the spring of the next year, we villagers will go to the grain purchasing station to sell the dried buds in exchange for the materials for spring plowing in the new year.

This bold black bear walked into the courtyard of Lao Sun's house, which had a courtyard gate, and at that time, the courtyard gate of our village was also nailed up with slats. The black bear smashed the courtyard gate with only one palm, and then pulled the courtyard gate aside, went straight to the bud rice hoard, and even gnawed and threw it, making the yard crackle. Lao Sun didn't expect it to be a black bear, he opened the door angrily with a wooden stick to catch the thief, and when he saw that it was a black bear, he exclaimed first, wanting to hide, the black bear had slapped Lao Sun's face with a palm, and half of Lao Sun's face immediately became bloody and blurred. The black bear fled in the wilderness. The people in our village said that if the black bear was not a thief and slapped down, Lao Sun's life might be gone. He also said that the black bear did not hibernate as usual, probably because he did not stock up on food for the winter, and he was very hungry before taking risks. After the end of November, the black bear slapped Lao Sun's face and it became the talk of our Murakami.

Half of Lao Sun's face later turned purple and purple, but I was not interested in Lao Sun's face, so I pieced together the small talk of my parents at the dinner table, and gradually pieced together the life of Zhou Bo and his wife in Japan for more than two months.

Zhou's family met his uncle, but could not find a single word about his mother. His uncle also applied to the relevant departments and civil society groups to find clues. Zhou Bo felt that there was another possibility, his mother may not have returned to Japan, but died on the way back like his father, which is very likely, but his father's name was found on the death list of the repatriators, but there was no trace of his mother.

Maizuru City belongs to Kyoto Prefecture, where Zhou's uncle runs a lumber mill called "Timber Co., Ltd." in Japan. Uncle Zhou's uncle arranged Uncle Zhou's family, who came to Japan, in the "liao" of the company. "Liao" is the dormitory, and Uncle Zhou's uncle doesn't know why he refuses to let Uncle Zhou's family live in his own home.

Uncle Zhou and his wife can work at his "Timber Co., Ltd." as front-line workers. Uncle has his own son, and his purpose is naturally not to train Uncle Zhou to be his successor, but to let him be familiar with the front-line workers.

In summer, Maizuru City is humid and muggy, like the Ussuri River, which is both dry and cool, and Aunt Li, who lives in the "liao", especially misses the children of the primary school in our village. As soon as the school season came in September, she often chatted with Zhou Bo, "I don't know which teacher is replacing me now?" Once she woke up in a dream and called the name of a student named "Zhang Jianguo", Aunt Li dreamed that this student was swallowed by the water of the Ussuri River, and showed a panicked and shouting for help face in the scroll of the river...... I woke up from my dream, still sweating profusely on my forehead.

Zhou Bo is also not suitable for the work of the front-line workers of the "Timber Co., Ltd.", he works as a rural agricultural technician in our small village of Ussuri River, and his dream is either rice flowering or budding rice heading. In addition, the couple could not stand the intertwined stares of sympathy, disgust, and curiosity that looked at them. Two months later, the couple discussed in the "liao" and decided to return to China. When they asked Sister Meihui's opinion, Sister Meihui was unwilling to change her original intention.

Sister Mihui, who studied at a Japanese language school, likes her classmates, her teachers, her uncle, Maizuru City, and everything about Japan from the bottom of her heart......

When Zhou Bo first proposed to his uncle to return to China, his uncle was slightly surprised, but there was no obvious objection. The second time he asked his uncle to return to China, he didn't look surprised at all, and expressed his respect for their choice. The uncle was going to give them a sum of money. Uncle Zhou did not accept the money, but he proposed to his uncle that when they returned to China, Meihui would be able to live in his uncle's house, and their only concern was that she would continue to live alone in the "liao" - a girl, unsafe. The uncle happily agreed, and explained to Uncle Zhou apologetically that his wife had a habit of cleanliness, and Meihui, who was gradually becoming daily and related by blood, lived in their house, and his wife must have welcomed it—uncle's words could not be pondered, and if he pondered, Uncle Zhou and his wife would have a sulk.

Sister Meihui stayed in Japan like this. That winter, Uncle Zhou and his wife came to visit my house, as long as Sister Meihui was mentioned, they said that they would go to Japan to see her in a year or two, and a girl was so far away from them, I didn't feel at ease. In the future, when they retire, they will also go there to live for a while longer, but they will definitely not choose to settle there.

Aunt Li - Li Shulan's Japanese name "Sakurako Ikeda" is hidden in her own memory. Aunt Li returned to our village primary school as a teacher, and it didn't take much trouble, but she didn't become a teacher as soon as she came back, but waited until the spring of the following year, the beginning of a new semester.

I remember that in the second year, Uncle Zhou and his wife did not go to Japan to see Sister Meihui. At that time, the transportation was not as convenient as going to Japan now, and the Zhou Bo couple had not yet retired, so their time was not free.

I remember that my father inquired about Uncle Zhou's biological mother, and Uncle Zhou shook his head and said that if there was any trace of his mother, Meihui would definitely write to tell him. I remember that at that time, Zhou Bo did not call his biological mother "Kasan", but like us in the small village of Ussuri River, we all called my mother "Mother".

In the autumn of this year, I was admitted to the high school in the county as I wished, and only five of my classmates were admitted to the high school in the county, and the rest of the students all bid farewell to their student days. When we were in the small village of Ussuri River, Sister Meihui was not admitted to high school, at the age of sixteen, she graduated from junior high school, and went to Japan at the age of seventeen.

This semester, I received an unexpected surprise from afar in my high school in the county - Sister Meihui sent me a congratulatory letter with a photo of herself in the letter - I haven't seen her for two years, and her hairstyle is no longer the perm curl when she was farewell at the station, but a shoulder-length straight hairstyle, with one strand of hair swept behind the ear and one strand hanging down in front of the ear. In the photo, Sister Meihui is wearing a short sleeve with peony flowers blooming on a blue background, a string of light blue ribbons tied at the neckline, and a blue over-the-knee skirt that is slightly darker than the ribbon on the lower body. At the end of the letter, Sister Meihui said that she was also in high school. Sister Meihui encouraged me: "Come on, Dacheng, I'm waiting for you in Kyoto!"

I hid Sister Meihui's photo under my pillow and couldn't help but flip it out whenever I had free time. A curious roommate took advantage of me and pulled out this photo and exclaimed that I had such a beautiful girlfriend when I was a freshman in high school. At that time, I was very vain, and I didn't argue with him much after listening to what was beautiful in my heart. The news quickly reached the ears of the homeroom teacher, who entered the dormitory and confiscated the photo. No matter how much I begged and explained, the homeroom teacher was indifferent and refused to give me back the photo of Sister Meihui. It wasn't until I graduated from high school in my third year of high school, received the admission notice from Heilongjiang University, and excitedly reported the good news to the homeroom teacher, that this precious photo was recovered. Later, I sandwiched this photo in a book and brought it all the way to Harbin.

I was admitted to Heilongjiang University, and I learned from Uncle Zhou that Uncle Zhou's uncle also sent Sister Meihui to college. Mei Hui is a graduate of education at Kyoto Women's University, specializing in music pedagogy. After going to school in Harbin, I couldn't suppress my excitement and tried to write a letter to the Department of Education at Kyoto Women's University.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhou went to Japan again at the end of my junior year, just after the summer vacation. I had the opportunity to see off Uncle Zhou, but I met Jenny Wang that summer, and we decided to work as tutors in Harbin while walking the streets and alleys of Harbin. Towards the end of the summer vacation, I was scolded by my sister Fu Caixia before returning to my parents in Ussuri River. From my parents' chat, I knew that Uncle Zhou and his wife had gone to Japan, and I immediately remembered Sister Meihui.

My mother no longer joked with me and Sister Meihui, she said: "Your Uncle Zhou's home decoration is equipped with a telephone, but the cost of international calls is super expensive, Meihui is also studying, how many calls can you make to your home a year? Especially your Aunt Li, I wanted to cry several times when I thought about Meihui. ”

My father said, "My own flesh and blood, heart to heart." As he spoke, my father criticized my mother for being shallow, "Do you think Lao Zhou is just here to see Meihui? Of course, Meihui has to see it." He still has to find his mother!"

My mother sighed and said, "Old Zhou is always thinking about finding his mother!" and poked me a glance as she spoke.

I pretended I didn't see it. I returned to the small village of Ussuri at the end of the summer vacation, and I only stayed in my house for three days. Wang Zhenni sent a call from the county seat, and I immediately ran to the county seat with joy, and we took a fifteen-hour train from the county seat back to Harbin to welcome our last year of college.

Later, I pieced together in my memory the fragments of my parents' gossip about the chatter of Uncle Zhou and his wife before they left for my house:

After dinner that day, Uncle Zhou and his wife came to my house. My father knew that Uncle Zhou had just returned from Mishan, because Uncle Zhou had told him that he had heard that there were people in Mishan who were also orphans in Japan who were sorting out the list of the dead members of the Japanese Pioneer Corps, and he wanted to take a look.

My father asked him, "Did you get any valuable clues in Mishan?"

Zhou Bo said with tears in his eyes: "There is no clue at all, there is no name of my mother on the list." Eighty percent of my mother is no longer in the world. However, even if she is no longer in the world, how did my mother die? Did she die on the way back or on the ship to return home, or did she fall on the way home but did not have time to return home?"

My father's heart clenched like Uncle Zhou, and he said, "I don't even have any clues about the people who were repatriated with your mother back then?"

Zhou Bo just shook his head.

Aunt Li sighed and said, "My old Zhou, after I went to Japan from Meihui, my heart was idle, and all I thought about all I was thinking about finding his mother. ”

When my mother heard this, her eyes were red and she said, "People, crows still know how to feed back, how can Lao Zhou not want to find his own mother?"

Zhou Bo said sadly: "Now I don't have any extravagant hopes, even if all I find is a photo, a strand of hair, and a button...... As long as it is left by my mother, it is a thought......"

That night, my parents cried for a while with Uncle Zhou and his wife.

This time when they went back to Japan, Zhou Bo and his wife stayed for almost two months. When they returned, it was snow-covered season on the banks of the Ussuri River.

I went to school in Harbin, and I didn't know what it was like when Mr. and Mrs. Zhou Bo and his wife had just returned from Japan. My father didn't mention it once in his letters.

During the winter vacation, when I returned to the small village of Ussuri River, I learned that Zhou Bo had brought me a double lion watch from Japan, shining stainless steel, with both a date and a day of the week on the dial, and the hands emitting a tireless, metallic powerful and balanced croaking sound one after another.

When Uncle Zhou and his wife learned that I was back, they came to my house to chat. My mother burned the kang house warm. I said, "Uncle Zhou, why did you give me such a valuable gift!" I hope Sister Meihui bought it for me.

My mother said, "Dacheng, it's rare, and when I come back, I wear it on my wrist." ”

I stretched out my wrist and echoed my mother, saying, "That's not the case, it's going to cost a lot of money, Uncle Zhou." ”

Aunt Li looked at me lovingly and said, "What kind of money is not rich, as long as Dacheng likes it, you Zhou Bo will not feel distressed no matter how much money you spend." "The flame of hope that had been kindled in my heart was extinguished, and I said no more.

My father gave Uncle Zhou and Aunt Li a cigarette respectively, and many women in our small village of Ussuri smoke like men, but my mother doesn't. Aunt Li is a primary school teacher and also smokes, but she is not addicted to smoking, Uncle Zhou can smoke two boxes of cigarettes a day, and Aunt Li can smoke half a box at most. A few years later, Uncle Zhou was fine, but Aunt Li suffered from lung cancer directly related to smoking.

That day, in my family's kang house. The wind beat diligently on the window sashes, the window panes buzzed like bees from time to time, and the smell of low-quality tobacco filled the room.

When I came back from a big city like Harbin, I really couldn't get used to the turbid air, but I stayed that day and refused to leave. First, out of politeness, Uncle Zhou and his wife also gave me such a precious watch, and second, they also wanted to get some news about Sister Meihui from the conversation between Uncle Zhou and my parents. I already have Wang Zhenni, do I have a boyfriend anywhere? Eighty percent has already been disposed of, Sister Meihui has forgotten me, why didn't you even entrust Uncle Zhou and his wife to bring me a good word?

Who knew that what they talked about next was Zhou Bo's clue to find his mother.

My mother asked, "What is your uncle and the president, can there be fewer acquaintances?" Since you can find your father's photo, can you still find your mother's photo?"

Aunt Li skillfully flicked the cigarette ash on the kang head of our house and said, "If you want to talk about his uncle, he is also doing his best." The photo of Lao Zhou's father is still a group photo with his uncle when he was a child, and it looked smaller than Dacheng at that time, and the later photos are not ......"

I had the desire to speak, and I led the words to Sister Meihui, "Sister Meihui went to university in Japan and has a wide range of contacts with the world, why didn't you entrust Sister Meihui? Besides, isn't that also her own grandmother?"

Aunt Li said: "Meihui is a girl. Oh, Dacheng, you only know when you go to Japan that Japan is different from our China. ”

I wanted to say, "What does Sister Meihui like about Japan?" but I didn't say it.

Zhou Bo said in a low voice: "Dacheng, this time we will go and apply to the Japan-China Friendship Association to find it, maybe there will be a little hope." ”

Sister Meihui must not have entrusted them to bring me a greeting, otherwise why didn't Uncle Zhou and his wife mention a word until now? At that time, my heart was indeed a little lost. But no matter how lost I am, I won't be as lost as when I saw off Sister Meihui at the bus station.

As mentioned earlier, because at this time I already had Jenny Wang.

Jenny Wang and I are classmates at Heilongjiang University, I am in the Department of History, and she is in the Department of Foreign Languages. At the beginning of the first semester of my junior year, I was walking to the library reading room, and Jenny Wang was walking out of the library reading room, holding a large stack of books in her hand. I walked in a hurry, and suddenly collided with the book in Wang Jenny's hand. I hurriedly apologized, bent down to pick up the books that Jenny Wang had dropped to the floor, stacked them one by one, and when I raised my waist, I first saw a pair of white and smooth calves, a knee-length dress with a light fragrance, moon white background with blue flowers, and then I saw a pair of almond eyes staring at me intently. Soon, I learned that her name was Wang Zhenni, and I was from the same county, but her family was in the county seat, and my home was by the Ussuri River. The two of us talked about life and ideals on campus, and the three views were surprisingly consistent. The bright moon testified, the breeze testified, and the water of the Songhua River testified, Wang Zhenni occupied my heart little by little, and the Meihui sister in my heart was squeezed out by Wang Zhenni little by little.

I married Jenny Wang in the QQ era. After graduating from college, we both returned to our county seat. Originally, Wang Jenni had a better development opportunity to stay and work in a foreign trade company in Harbin, and she was fluent in English, Japanese and Russian Chinese. However, I graduated from the Department of History and am proficient in the history of Britain, Japan, and Russia, and it is difficult to find a unit in Harbin that is willing to accept me. I went to my sister Fu Caixia to find a way, Fu Caixia was married at this time, and found me a brother-in-law whose glasses were thicker than the bottom of the wine bottle. My brother-in-law is a southerner, and when he saw me, he hated me and taught me: "Dacheng, the goose (I) rushed to you at the beginning, don't learn history, you can't listen to it, this time it's okay......"

In a fit of rage, I walked away and returned to the county seat to work as a secretary in the county government office. Wang Zhenni has the virtue of marrying chickens and dogs, so she had to go back to the county with me and become an English teacher in the county high school.

After Jenny Wang returned to the county with me, my father-in-law-to-be took a fancy to the Double Lion watch on my wrist. When I returned to the county, I owed Wang Zhenni and my father-in-law-to-be, and I couldn't compensate for it, so I generously took off the watch on my wrist.

Jenny Wang worked as a foreign language teacher in a county high school, teaching both English and Russian, but Japanese was useless. When we first graduated from university, there was not a single undergraduate graduate of Heilongjiang University among the teachers in our county high school, and the other teachers in the school were all graduates of the Normal College. The superior conditions allowed Wang Zhenni to develop a character of saying nothing at school, and slowly speaking at home. If I disobeyed her will, I became a white-eyed wolf, forgetting that she returned to the county seat for me.

Seven years ago, after my father died, my mother went to my sister's house in Harbin without hesitation, and one of the important reasons was related to Wang Zhenni's personality.

My family and Uncle Zhou's family are both withered by their parents. My family was my father who died first, and Uncle Zhou's family was Aunt Li who died first. Aunt Li died of lung cancer at the age of 65. After my father died, my mother went to my sister's house in Harbin without hesitation, which was also related to the suspicion that Uncle Zhou was the only one left next to him, and he wanted to avoid being a lonely man and a widow.

Aunt Li died 10 years ago, when I had been promoted from the secretary of the county government to the deputy director of a functional bureau. Ms. Wang Zhenni also became the vice principal of the county high school.

Sister Meihui learned the news of her mother's death and rushed back from Japan with her husband. We already know that Sister Meihui is also married, her husband is a president, he is in the agricultural products business, and the company's name is "Rice Field Industry Co., Ltd." That year, Sister Meihui already had a daughter, and her daughter was about eight years old, but Sister Meihui did not bring her daughter back. I guess there are two reasons why she didn't bring her daughter back: one is that the funeral is always unlucky, and Sister Meihui doesn't want her young children to be mixed in and contaminated with bad luck, and the other is that the time is unfortunate that Aunt Li died in March. In March, our small town on the Ussuri River (at this time the small village of the Ussuri River had been changed to the town of the Ussuri River) was still snowy and snowy. Although the cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan's primary and secondary schools implement a three-semester system per school year, with the first semester from April to July, the second semester from August to December, and the third semester from January to March.

After so many years, Sister Meihui returned to China for the first time. At that time, the girl who set off from the bus station in our village, with a new curly hair like a flower, was already middle-aged, slightly blessed, and lived in Japan for many years.

When I saw Sister Meihui, I didn't ask why she didn't reply to me when I wrote to her back then. After many years, the past is like smoke. And she came back to mourn, and it was not appropriate to mention this.

Sister Meihui's husband, named Kenta Yoshimura, is about 1.71 meters tall, which should not be short in Japan. But I'm 1.82 meters tall, and Kenta Yoshimura is only as tall as my shoulders. Kenta Yoshimura was wearing a white dress, I thought to myself, this Japanese is more polite than us Chinese, Aunt Li died, I only put a black armband on my arm, and Kenta Yoshimura, who was a son-in-law, wore a filial piety suit. I couldn't help but think of when I was a child, if Sister Meihui hadn't gone to Japan, this son-in-law would probably be me now, and I felt even more ashamed and uneasy.

After Aunt Li's funeral, I discussed with Wang Zhenni that we had to do our best to entertain Sister Meihui and her husband Kenta Yoshimura. I'm not bad now, I'm the deputy director of the county bureau, I can't drop the price in front of Sister Meihui, it's best to make her feel a little remorseful - regret that I went to Japan without hesitation and found such a husband, so it's good! Of course, this is just what I think in my heart. What I said to Wang Jenni was: "Although she is Zhou Bo's daughter, she is now Japanese, and she has brought back a Japanese husband, we represent not only the two of us, but also the image of Chinese!" Wang Jenny smiled and nodded yes.

I found a quiet and elegant private room in the county seat. Jenny Wang and Sister Meihui hit it off at first sight, they talked in Chinese for a while, and in Japanese for a while - after so many years, Jenny Wang's Japanese is not rusty. They left me and Kenta Yoshimura aside. When I saw Kenta Yoshimura smiling at me flatteringly, sympathy swelled up and I decided to talk to him without words. I don't speak a word of Japanese, but the fragments of "Tunnel Warfare", "Railway Guerrilla" and "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" that I watched when I was a child still remain in my mind, and of course it is certainly not appropriate to ask him "yours, eight-way, work", Kenta Yoshimura is Japanese.

I thought about it and asked him, "Is it a curse word?"

Kenta Yoshimura smiled and nodded at me.

I said, "It's really interesting, they all say that Japanese is evolved from Chinese, so why does 'Bage Yalu' become a curse word? Bage-Yalu——, has nothing to do with Chinese scolding, Bage Yalu!"

Who knows, the smile on Kenta Yoshimura's face froze, and in an instant, an angry look appeared on his face.

Sister Meihui saw that it was not good, and said it to her husband in a mumbled manner, and Kenta Yoshimura's face returned to normal. Sister Meihui explained to me: "Dacheng, he doesn't understand a word of Chinese, what you say, he only understands the 'Eight Grid Tooth Road'!"

Jenny Wang burst out laughing.

My good mood disappeared all of a sudden. Jenny Wang learned that Sister Meihui was now just a housewife, and it seemed boring, so a well-designed banquet ended in a hurry.

After this banquet, Sister Meihui is going back to Japan, and from then on, she will be at the end of the world, and I don't know when we will be able to meet in this life. Parting, I gave her two old ginseng sticks from the Northeast, which were packed in a glass ginseng box on the front of a wooden box, and the roots were fixed with pins to fit properly. Sister Meihui reciprocated by giving me and Wang Zhenni two carefully packaged gift boxes.

It was rude to unpack in person, we went home and opened it, the packaging box was unpacked layer after layer, and at the end, the last layer of a packaging box was a thin silk scarf, with fine workmanship, and Wang Zhenni still liked it. The other packaging box is also unpacked layer after layer, and at the end, inside is a handicraft fan, a sandalwood handle, and a woman wearing a kimono is painted on the white silk fan. This woman's face is like a silver platter, she does not smile, and purses her fat lips, perhaps Japan still pursues the aesthetic standard of "fat is beautiful" in the Tang Dynasty on the mainland. The workmanship is exquisite, the key is that this fan is not as big as a child's palm, which makes people suspect that it is the banana fan that the iron fan princess held in her mouth in "Journey to the West".

Soon after Jenny Wang became the vice principal, when her life was on the rise, she was more tolerant and generous. She held the fan and said in a loud voice: "Yo, what is the use of such exquisiteness?"

I never knew the intention of Sister Meihui to send such a delicate fan, just like the intention she sent me a photo of herself back then.

Jenny Wang soon forgot about the fan, and she didn't know which corner of the drawer she threw it into. But I didn't forget, after Sister Meihui left, I checked it with Baidu, and Du Niang said: Japanese people usually use fans as gifts and souvenirs, and white fans mean lucky. What does the woman's head on the fan mean? pursed her fat lips, as if someone else owed her money. Du Niang couldn't find the answer. Later, I thought that maybe Sister Meihui was suggesting that I should stop beating her idea. After I met Wang Zhenni, I didn't beat her idea at all, and besides, we are still far away from each other, even if the thief doesn't die, there is no chance, maybe Sister Meihui doesn't mean that.

Jenny Wang forgot about the fan, but she didn't forget the photos that Sister Meihui gave me. When she found that yellowed photo in one of my books, she couldn't help but be jealous, and interrogated me a hundred times. Now Jenny Wang still mentions that photo from time to time, of course, she doesn't suspect that there is anything between me and Sister Meihui, but when she is angry, she just uses that photo to tap me, so as to vent the fire in her heart.

After Sister Meihui returned to Japan, Zhou Bo remained alone by the Ussuri River, when he had already retired. After Aunt Li died, my father accompanied my elder brother Zhou Bo by the Ussuri River for three years, and after my mother went to Harbin, Zhou Bo was the only one left in the old house of our two families.

When Uncle Zhou's uncle died, Uncle Zhou went to Japan once. However, this time there is no need to take a plane from Dalian, and there are already direct flights from Harbin to Japan.

Uncle Zhou came back from Japan, and no one in our town mentioned that Uncle Zhou had found a clue about his biological mother, and he should have not found it. People in our town are saying that the Japanese are stingy, and the Japanese go to the market to buy green onions one by one, and they also buy apples one by one. Everyone in our town understands why Uncle Zhou doesn't stay in Japan, and maybe his daughter Meihui is also so stingy - this point, Wang Zhenni and I have already had a real experience. How can Uncle Zhou get used to staying over there!

In the era of WeChat, the front waves of my era have not been slapped to death on the beach by the back waves, so I naturally use WeChat. I have a lot of WeChat friends, but I set up my friends in a general working relationship to neither look at his Moments nor let him see my Moments. There are only a few people who are friends and can see each other's circle of friends, and Sister Meihui is one of these few.

Sister Meihui loves to post on Moments, and I often enjoy the beautiful scenery of Kyoto Prefecture on the other side of the sea through the graphic messages she sends, as well as the little insights in Sister Meihui's life.

There is a church near Sister Meihui's house, with a spire, and the side walls are painted bright yellow from top to bottom. In spring, the grass has just turned green, and the apricot trees next to the church are already full of flowers. An asphalt bike lane separates the green meadows, and at the front of the road is a green and yellow grove of low hills at the end of the forest, which looks similar to the Sikhote Mountains on the other side of the Ussuri River. I didn't ask her if the other side of the mountain was the Sea of Japan. The strange thing is that Sister Meihui and I rarely chat, and the limited few chats are limited to talking about Uncle Zhou's physical condition. Adult men and women who can't walk together will build a wall in their respective worlds that they can't see, touch, but feel.

At the beginning of April this year, when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, Sister Meihui sent another message to the circle of friends. She smiled at me in her colorful sunhat as she saw a pale green embankment winding across the turquoise sea, connecting the cities near and beyond. Sister Meihui's picture text is called "Spring in Tianqiaoli". I looked up Tomume again: Amanohashidate is a scenic spot in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture, with a street of about 8,000 pine trees on a sandbar about 3.6 kilometers long that separates the Aso Sea of Japan from Miyazu Bay. Originally, "Amanohashidate" refers to this embankment. Du Niang also said that "Amanohashidate" is listed as one of the three scenic spots in Japan along with Matsushima (Miyagi Prefecture) and Miyajima (Hiroshima Prefecture). It is said that its shape resembles a white bridge dancing in the sky, so it was named "Amanohashidate".

I was lying in bed at night admiring Sister Meihui's "Spring in Amanohashidate". Vice Principal Wang Zhenni came over to look at it, and said half-jealously and half-sarcastically: "Your goddess has become more and more blessed, why does she look more and more like Uncle Zhou?"

I said casually: "Of course, she is Uncle Zhou's daughter, and her daughter looks more like her father!"

Vice Principal Wang Zhenni has reached menopause, and if she is not allowed to share Sister Meihui's photo with me, she will be even more suspicious. Another night, I was appreciating Sister Meihui's information about her visit to the fisherman's town, the pictures of Jiugongge, one of which was a lonely alley, with two-story buildings on both sides of the narrow street, bicycles parked in front of almost every house, and a row of cement telephone poles on the left side of the street, wires intertwined in the air like cobwebs. Such alleys seem to be nostalgic, reminding us of the small village of the Ussuri River when we were children.

Vice Principal Wang Zhenni said disdainfully: "This can't catch up with our Ussuri River town," she then said passionately, "Director Fu Dacheng, our country's development is changing with each passing day, and the train of the times has surpassed Japan, let your sister Meihui regret it!"

I deliberately raised the bar with her: "Dear Principal Wang, have you traveled to Japan?"

Vice President Jenny Wang said: "Director Fu Dacheng, the so-called 'seeing and hearing' includes both direct and indirect experience. Do you understand?"

I said, "Direct experience has to be right, indirect experience is not necessarily right." ”

Vice Principal Wang Zhenni rolled her eyes at me and said, "You can't teach your children!"

"The first time I heard my uncle call that sheep 'Kasan' was two years ago, and I remember telling you in WeChat at that time...... "I reminisced about the past. Sister Meihui also followed my memories into the past, and across from me, it seemed that there was a wood carving.

Two years ago, it was also a summer. If it's winter, the sheep won't graze in my yard. Yes, Uncle Zhou's sheep graze in the yard of my old house.

My old house and Uncle Zhou's house share the side wall of a wooden fence, and my old house has been uninhabited for a long time, and the house is about to collapse. Uncle Zhou was old and didn't know how to replace the slats of the wooden fence, so the wall separating our two yards collapsed. The sheep has probably been to my yard a few times, and has been grazing in my yard without any scruples.

But it was the first time I had seen a sheep grazing in my yard, and I couldn't help but be amazed and angrily drove the sheep away.

The gray-haired Zhou Bo, dressed in a gray-covered cloth as old as his age, ran out of the house like a wild dog, and he ran so fast that perhaps I should not use the word "wild dog" to describe it. Zhou Bo ran over and hugged the sheep, staring at me with cloudy eyes and shouting, "This is my Kasan, my Kasan!"

I was stunned and said, "Oh, then let it graze here, let it graze here." ”

Zhou Bo still shouted at me: "This is my Kassan, my Kasan!" I know that Zhou Bo has Alzheimer's disease, and he probably doesn't recognize me at the moment.

"I told you about it that day. Sister Meihui's body trembled slightly, and she gently took a sip of tea as if she was grieving.

The tea is the top grade green tea of Huangshan. Vice Principal Wang Zhenni's students work in Huangshan, Anhui Province, and do not forget their teacher's kindness, and send a box of green tea to Wang Zhenni every year. Sister Meihui came back to mourn, I knew that the Japanese love to drink green tea, so I took a small box of one of them from Wang Zhenni near Shuiloutai - the teahouse by the river must not have such a good tea as Wang Zhenni.

But at the moment, neither of us is in the mood to judge this tea.

This was the first time I had heard Zhou Bo call the goat "Kasan". That night, I found Mayor Li in the town, and I told him that Uncle Zhou's Alzheimer's disease was more severe, and he called a sheep "Kassan".

Mayor Li said smartly: "Uncle Zhou is a Japanese orphan, and their Japanese children call their mother 'Kasang'. ”

I already knew this, but I didn't scold him. I thought about it for a while and said, "Mayor Li, you can't let Uncle Zhou live alone, it's not me who scared you, Uncle Zhou has an accident, and the town is also responsible." Can you put him in a nursing home in town?"

Mayor Li scratched his head and said, "Director Fu, the town has been paying attention to Uncle Zhou's affairs. We have also tried the plan you mentioned, and Uncle Zhou is not unwilling to live in a nursing home, the key is that he wants to bring the sheep. ”

I didn't understand the rules of the nursing home, so I asked, "The nursing home is not allowed to raise sheep?"

Mayor Li explained, "It's not that the nursing home is not allowed to raise sheep, we also took Uncle Zhou to the nursing home, and Uncle Zhou must take the sheep to live in the same room, he has to say that the sheep is his 'Kasan', and he can't be separated from his 'Kasan'." There's no precedent for this, there's no such precedent for this nursing home!"

It was really scratching my head, and I decided to go back to the county seat first. In those days, the county had to meet the provincial and municipal inspections, and I planned to deal with the matter of Uncle Zhou's pension after I was busy with the inspection. This dragged on for a week.

When I returned to the town of Ussuri, the streets were already brightly lit. The door of my yard had collapsed—most likely by the sheep, and the door frame was tilted and crooked, and it hadn't yet fully fallen to the grass.

The door of Uncle Zhou's courtyard was open, and the door was only half-hidden. I knocked on the door and no one paid attention to me, but I heard the sound of someone moving in the house. I pushed open the half-hidden door and walked in, and I saw Zhou Bo and his "Kassan". It's only been a week, and Uncle Zhou looks even older, gray, as if he has just been dug out of the soil. Under the light, he was eating dinner, a large enamel jar soaked instant noodles, and while eating, he picked up instant noodles with chopsticks to feed the sheep. The sheep was sucking instant noodles like a human, and when he saw me come in, he bleated, and a few noodles fell to the ground, and the sheep's square pupils shone with ill intentions.

Uncle Zhou raised his blank eyes and asked me, "Who are you?"

To be honest, I felt a sense of disgust in my heart. I tried hard to suppress this disgust and said, "Uncle Zhou, I am Dacheng!"

Zhou Bo continued to ask blankly, "Who is Dacheng?"

The aging of life can be so sad, and a layer of pity welled up in my heart, and I inspired Uncle Zhou to say: "I am Dacheng, just next door to you, and I often played with Sister Meihui when I was a child." ”

"Oh, oh, it's Dacheng!" Zhou Bo seemed to be a little more sober, "Why did you come back by yourself? What about Meihui?" Zhou Bo was confused again. At this time, he was sometimes sober and sometimes confused. I can't tell what percentage of his life he is now sober and confused.

I reminded him: "Isn't Sister Meihui in Japan? She can't come back! Uncle Zhou, why do you feed the sheep instant noodles? Why do you eat instant noodles with the sheep?"

Zhou Bo's cloudy eyes immediately widened, and he said to me angrily: "Why is it a sheep? It is my 'Kasan', my 'Kasang'! I grew up drinking its milk when I was three years old. ”

Zhou Bo said, his hands clenched into fists, about to pounce on me, and the sheep also held his head high and hated him. At that moment, I was so frightened that I retreated again and again, and I really regretted that I didn't call Mayor Li to come with me.

I said, "Yes, yes, your 'Kasan', your 'Kasan'." ”

Only then did Zhou Bo quiet down.

Later that day, I took a short video with my mobile phone: "At that time, I sent you my uncle's situation! That night, I went to Mayor Li to discuss, and decided to hire a live-in nurse in the town to take care of my uncle's diet and daily life, and we will pay for it ourselves. This nurse is the daughter of the grandson who was slapped in the face by a blind bear, only in her fifties, down-to-earth and capable, her husband unfortunately died in a car accident, but the child is promising, working in the field, and there is no family drag. You know all of this. ”

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you've done for me!" Sister Meihui said, burying her face in her hands, her elbows propped up on the tea table, her hair falling down, revealing a pale, slightly loose-skinned neck, in a trance, reminded me of forty-one years ago. After a while, tears dripped from between Sister Meihui's fingers, at first just a drop, and gradually turned into a pool of tears.

I was also in a bad mood, after my father's death, deep down in my heart, I actually regarded the living Zhou Bo as a continuation of my father's life. Therefore, at this moment, I didn't say a word of comfort to Sister Meihui, nor did I hand her a tissue. In Zhou Bo's later years, her responsibilities and obligations to her father could not be compared with mine.

I remember that after I returned to the county that day, I consulted the experts in the county hospital the next day, "Why does Alzheimer's patient stubbornly remember what happened when he was a child, especially when he was three years old, his mother fed him goat's milk?"

The expert politely replied to me: "The situation you said exists, and the cause of Alzheimer's disease is a condition caused by the deterioration of brain function as we age. In general, mild dementia is staged, and the forgetting of recent events is prominent, and the memory of past events is relatively deep. When he was three years old, his mother fed him goat's milk must have been his fondest memory when he first started remembering. ”

"Are you saying that my Uncle Zhou is still in the mild dementia stage?"

"This is not absolute, the condition varies from person to person. The expert said.

When I gave my mother a WeChat video, I mentioned Uncle Zhou's current situation. I suddenly thought of a key question and immediately asked my mother: "When Zhou Bo was three years old, he fed his mother with goat's milk, is it his biological mother or his adoptive mother, my grandmother Yuan Liqing?"

My mother didn't wear dentures at the time, and she curled her cheeks in the video and said, "Who knows, Dacheng, you are also stupid, your Uncle Zhou is older than me!"

I asked unwillingly, "Didn't you hear the old people mention it when you were a child?"

My mother joked with me again: "My Biao'er, your mother was in Munihe Township when she was a child, and she didn't marry into a small village on the Ussuri River. ”

I retorted, "That's not far away." ”

My mother said, "That's something that has nothing to do with me, maybe someone mentions a sentence or two, but who remembers it in their hearts!" My mother muttered, "Your Uncle Zhou is old, why do you live with the sheep?"

One day, I heard that someone had compiled a directory of orphaned adoptive parents in Japan in Mudanjiang. I took advantage of a business trip to find this directory in Mudanjiang, bound in A4 paper, a thick one, sorted by the strokes of the surname - the wish of the collator is to publish a book, and I promise to do my part at that time - I will definitely buy one. I looked for "Ikeda" first, but I didn't find the name of "Shota Ikeda". I immediately looked up the surname "Zhou", and the surname Zhou included a total of nine digits, and I saw the name of "Zhou Zhengtai" in the fifth place - the compiler indexed the adopted son.

Zhou Zhengtai, adoptive father Zhou Shunsheng, adoptive mother Yuan Liqing. In October 1945, he was raised in Miyama, and the words "Shota Ikeda, born on April 25, 1943, biological father Jiro Ikeda, biological mother Miko Ikeda, Maizuru City, Kyoto Prefecture" was hidden in the padded jacket. His biological parents were members of the Japanese Pioneer Group, and after Japan surrendered, his biological father died of illness in Mishan on the way back, and his biological mother is unknown.

I calculated, the person who fed him goat's milk when he was three years old in Zhou Bo's memory should be Yuan Liqing, a Chinese adoptive mother. In my memory, there is no longer a little impression of Zhou Shunsheng's grandfather, Yuan Liqing's grandmother has a bit of residual memory, she seems to have wrapped her feet, tiptoeing on her little feet, not tall, thin, like to wear clothes made of blue Shilin cloth, always standing outside the wooden fence wall, shouting at us who are playing on the grassy slope: "Little Meihui - come back for dinner-"

Back in the county, I found out through the public security department that Zhou Shunsheng's grandfather died in 1966, and Yuan Liqing's grandmother died in 1972. I was born in 1967.

I decided to tell Uncle Zhou all this, and the "Kassan" in his memory was actually his adoptive mother, my grandmother Yuan Liqing, who would tell him everything the next time I went back to the town of Ussuri River. All this was learned a little later, but it was not too late.

However, Zhou Bo's body has deteriorated, not only Alzheimer's disease, but all the organs of his body are like dead grass in winter, constantly drying up and shrinking.

"I gave the health care products you specially came back from Japan in time to my uncle's grandsister. In fact, the decline and death of life is a natural process that cannot be reversed. Health care products can only play a role in comforting the psychology of children. I said.

"Thank you, Dacheng, thank you, Dacheng......" Sister Meihui sobbed softly, and after a while, she lifted her face from the palm of her hand, took out a tissue and wiped her face and eyes, and smiled apologetically and sadly at me.

The wind rose outside the window, and the leaves of two wild hawthorn trees swooped on the glass window, peeping into our eyes as if they were sticking to the glass, and suddenly they were swept away by the wind.

In the end, I still told Uncle Zhou the truth, but the timing was so inappropriate. On that day, I had a whole day meeting in Mishan, and at the end of the meeting, it was past the usual dinner time, and the meeting party arranged a dinner table that met the standards of official reception. If you go home for dinner, you can drive back from Mishan and take the highway for an hour and a half. After I was in my fifties, I felt that my body was no longer suitable for high-load operation, so I planned to have a conference meal in the evening, drink two glasses of old local wine, and go straight to work the next morning. I have asked Jenny Wang for leave.

The wine made from pure grain, when I opened the bottle, a burst of fragrance hit my nose, seducing the greedy worms in my stomach to "coo". The host smiled and raised his glass and said, "Fu Ju's stomach has already sounded the horn of marching, let's all move forward bravely!" Before the words fell, my mobile phone WeChat sent out a voice invitation sound, I put down my wine glass in annoyance and thought, Vice Principal Wang Zhenni has changed his mind?

When I opened it, it was Sister Meihui. I had a premonition that something was unusual, motioned for the host to open the table, and walked out of the restaurant myself. WeChat was connected, and I teased Sister Meihui: "Why do I think the sun is coming out of the west?" - we have never used WeChat voice to chat.

Sister Meihui's voice was anxious with crying, "Dacheng, my dad is dying!"

"Really, where are the people now?" I was nervous.

"Sister Sun told me that I have been sent to the emergency room of the county hospital! Dacheng, I am checking the flight, my dad is not good, this time, I have to rush back no matter what!"

I went back to the private room and apologized for explaining to the host why I had to leave immediately.

An hour and a half later, I arrived at the emergency ward in our county seat. I learned from the attending doctor that Uncle Zhou's life was on the verge of dying. I think no matter what, before Zhou Bo closes his eyes, tell him that the "Kasan" he first remembered when he was three years old was actually his adoptive mother Yuan Liqing, and it was Yuan Liqing's grandmother who fed him with goat's milk and was skinny at that time, and he almost couldn't survive, if there was no goat's milk, no Yuan Liqing's grandmother, there would be no time for my Zhou Bo to spend eighty years later.

The doctor motioned for me to go in. I stepped into the ward, the lights in the ward were snow-white, Zhou Bo's eyes were closed, and his cheekbones were sunken. Life seems to be a reincarnation process, and at this moment, I look at his face and can't help but think of the word "skinny" related to him when he was three years old.

Sister Sun, the nurse, walked in, she leaned down and called out in Uncle Zhou's ear: "Uncle Zhou, it's Dacheng, Dacheng has come to see you." ”

Zhou Bo's eyelids trembled and fluttered—his eyes opened. I immediately instructed Sister Sun: "Open the video and contact me Sister Meihui!"

Sister Sun's hurried video invitation immediately sounded in my ears. Sister Meihui appeared, and she shouted softly in the video: "Dad-Dad-"

At that moment, I felt that Zhou Bo's eyes were exceptionally clear, and the turbidity of the past disappeared at once, so pure that it seemed to be a beautiful morning and the clear water of the Ussuri River.

Uncle Zhou's lips trembled slightly, and Sister Sun held the video to his ear. I leaned down and put my ear to his lips. But the sound of the video interfered with me, and I motioned for Sister Sun to take the video away first. A vague breath drifted into my ear drums, "Kasan-Kasan-" I heard it, Sister Meihui in the video must not have heard it, she was still calling one by one: "Dad-Dad-"

Uncle Zhou's eyes are darkening, darkening, maybe at the last moment of his life, he saw his biological mother, maybe for so many years, his biological mother has been looking for him, across the time and space that we ordinary people can't touch and perceive. And now, at the last moment when Zhou Bo's life remained in our time and space, his biological mother finally found him and hugged him.

However, I want to tell Uncle Zhou the fact that the place where he remembered the beginning, the "Kassan" who fed him goat's milk was actually his adoptive mother, my grandmother Yuan Liqing. I said it out loud into Uncle Zhou's ear.

After speaking, I closed my eyes when I saw Uncle Zhou, and an intoxicated and satisfied expression appeared on his face.

The wind outside the window only rose for a while, and the wind blew away the uneven thickness of the clouds in the sky, and the stars flashed in the blue sky one by one. The half-moon rose much higher at this moment, flashing with white light, making a moonlight path rise on the river, and the moonlight path flickered sparkling with the river. The forest on the other side seemed to have been dyed with ink, dyeing the silence of the place.

In fact, I have a lot to ask Sister Meihui, for example, why did she go to Japan to settle down without hesitation, and what was the biggest force that attracted her back then? For example, if I didn't want to go to Japan, was it because the Japanese only bought one green onion at a time and only one apple at a time? For example, why did she say, "This time, I have to rush back anyway", and did Kenta Yoshimura prevent her from visiting Uncle Zhou? In fact, what I want to ask most is why she sent me a photo back then, and why she never replied to my letters. But I finally didn't ask. Wang Jenny's text message came: Fu Ju, the moon is bright and the wind is clear, and I don't return all night? I seemed to see Wang Jenny's face with restrained anger and a mocking expression, and I replied to her with two words: Return.

Then I suddenly saw the sheep, just outside our window, its square pupils like the two leaves of the wild hawthorn tree swept by the wind, which were pressed to the glass for only a brief moment, and then it walked away, with its light hooves, its curved horns shining holyly in the moonlight. It walked along the river, in the moonlight. I saw Sister Meihui can't help but stand up, and we walked to the window together, leaning against the windowpane, looking at the sheep, and seeing whether it was going to walk into the primeval forest by the river, or to walk along the moonlight road on the river, to the moon.

Author: Yu Sheng