Text: Qi Huxian
I can't remember most of the people and things in my childhood, but my partner Zhaohu and the childhood I spent with him are still fresh in my memory.
My uncle's house is a very large yard, almost two acres of land. On the west side there is a row of houses with people and kitchens, and on the south side there is a gate and a row of houses with mills, warehouses, storerooms and cattle feeders. There is no north room. The courtyard wall collapsed incompletely, and it was riddled with holes.
To the east of the courtyard is Zhaohu's house. Because I spent most of my time at my uncle's house when I was a child, Zhaohu naturally became my playmate. My grandmother told me that Zhaohu's father was also my uncle, and that he was just my grandfather's brother. Zhaohu is half a year older than me. But I don't call him brother, I just call him by name.
At that time, I was only four or five years old, half a head shorter than Xiao Zhaohu. The physique is weaker, the thinner side, and the strength is not as great as his. On the contrary, Xiaohu is tall, fat, powerful, and courageous. But he has no opinions, he has a poor memory, he always listens to my command when he plays together, and I can always play new ideas in the games he plays. Of course, I sometimes have to rely on his strength and courage, such as climbing trees and moving stones. There are also insects, frogs, I don't dare to catch them, so I have to rely on him. My grandmother sometimes taught us oral (children's songs) or singing tunes (Xintianyou), but he would never remember them. Some games rely on intelligence and skill, such as flipping flowers (using wool, two people cooperate, turning out various tricks), jumping square (a game) to shoot bread, rolling hoops and he will always lose.
At that time, there was no kindergarten, and children did not go to school until they were seven or eight years old, and they all played at home until they went to school. I have a lot of sisters in my family, and my mother often asked me to go to my uncle's house to help with some things, and I spent most of my time at my uncle's house. They all called me Mosa Shui, (the name of the Northwesterners for their nephews).
After the New Year, I looked forward to going to my uncle's house to help my grandmother pinch alfalfa, white artemisia, and pick up soft ground. You can also eat the delicious food that my grandmother made with these wild vegetables. Of course, what I'm looking forward to the most is playing with Zhaohu.
When I got to my uncle's house, I played with my cousin in the yard, but I always felt like there were a pair of eyes staring at us, and I knew it was Zhaohu. He wanted to play with me, but he was embarrassed, so he secretly looked at me, and I pretended not to see it and ignored him. He couldn't wait, so he threw dirt and dirt, or learned to bark cats or dogs, and got my attention, and then I went to him, and he deliberately hid it, and I knew that he was hiding there, and I pretended not to see it, and went in the opposite direction. He sneaked up from behind and shoved me, or suddenly covered my eyes. I struggled and screamed, we jumped, we laughed, and the game started that way.
The courtyard of my uncle's house, in front of the house and behind the house, is simply our paradise. There are many fruit trees alone, including peach trees, apricot trees, plum trees, persimmon trees, walnut trees, soft jujube trees, and so on. All kinds of other flowers and plants, stone mounds and clods are all places for us to play.
Spring is coming, the snow is dissolving, the grass is showing its buds, the sun for several days, the peach blossoms and apricot blossoms on the trees are blooming one after another, the fragrance is fragrant, and we are playing under the trees. When the flowers were gone, we pedaled and it rained peach blossoms for a while. We don't appreciate the scenery like the poets. I only know apricot blossoms, elm money can make flower cakes, which are delicious.
The buds of the locust, toon, the buds of the flowers, the wild mint buds, and the walnut whiskers are all on my plate. Today's children can't eat these home-grown delicacies.
Of course, the most commonly eaten is the acacia flower, which blooms after the valley rains, that is, in the late spring and early summer of the third lunar month. Acacia trees are the most common in rural areas, in front of the village and behind the village, on the side of the ditch road, you can see it everywhere, in full bloom, a pale yellow, the whole village is full of fragrance, from morning to night, bees buzzing, noisy branches, colorful butterflies flying, all kinds of birds also suck nectar. Like a grand honey harvesting feast, it is lively and noisy. The acacia does not bloom for a long time, about a week at most. The best is not fully opened, the fully bloomed nectar has been drained by bees, and if there is no fragrance, it will not taste good.
For the past few days, we have been circling around the tree, and when the flowers on that tree are good, we will go up to that tree. Not afraid of thorns, wearing shoes, no matter how tall the tree can go up. My grandmother used to call me down under the tree and hide the bamboo poles. But I couldn't prevent it, so I always took the opportunity to go up the tree, took a handful of locust flowers and ate them, and when I was full, I threw them down. I didn't get down the tree until I couldn't reach it. Take it home, sit at the door and choose with grandma, you can choose a few large baskets. In the past few days, my grandmother has either boiled and dried locust flowers, steamed wheat rice, scrambled eggs and locust flowers, or garlic moss locust flowers. In short, every meal is inseparable from acacia flowers.
In the past few days, Zhaohu and I have been both cooperating and opposed, and we are looking for suitable targets together. He went up the tree and threw it down, and I protected the trophy from other children in the tree. After he got off the tree, we parted unhappily for half of the points, and sometimes for the unfairness. But before it got dark, there was reconciliation as before. Again to cooperate, again to oppose. It's ridiculous to think about, pure, naïve, for example, no one is allowed to steal food when picking flowers, and the inflorescences on the branches are allocated. Count and forget it, and no one knows how to count until it reaches more than twenty, so they start all over again, and the allotted time is longer than the time spent picking flowers. It's really easy to pick flowers and difficult to distribute. In this way, we are still inseparable from anyone.
After the beginning of summer, fires are lit everywhere. The temperature rises rapidly, and the wheat is changing day by day. In the blink of an eye, it was time to harvest crops such as rape, barley, peas, lentils, etc. Our job is to take care of the crops harvested in the wheat field. By the way, the unripe peas are picked and boiled. That's it, Zhaohu and I still have contradictions, our beans are early, we said okay, I gave him a bowl of beans, his family harvested, and then returned me a bowl of beans, sometimes it was less, we had a conflict, in fact, the adults didn't know. They don't delay our work. After the contradiction passed, we made a big fuss in the wheat field, jumping from last year's wheat straw stack or the tree on the side of the field to the harvested rape stack, on the pea pile, jumping higher and farther than anyone else, there were budworms on the rape stalks, sticking to the clothes and sticky and could not be washed, and my hands became black, and my grandmother often brought soaphorn water to wash me.
Or we will catch and herd the cow baby to play, and now we know that it is called the seven-star ladybug, which eats bud worms. After we caught it, we put it in the palm of our hands, let it crawl to our fingertips, and read in our mouths, herd the cow baby, fly quickly, the rain is coming behind Nanshan. Talking and talking, the cow baby climbed to the fingertips in a few circles and flew away, we are more than who caught the cow baby, more than whose cow baby on the fingertips of the circle more, often for the number of turns of the face red ears, unhappy and parted.
Or play with Tsubaki's daughter-in-law on the Tsubaki tree. Tsubaki's daughter-in-law, may be called Tsubaki moth, it should be the same as the silkworm moth, but it is better looking than the silkworm moth, the outside is a pair of gray wings, there are black spots on the top, and the polka dot coat is lined with red and blue, bright and eye-catching, very beautiful. After we caught it, we pinched the wings, the stomach was facing the sky, it kicked the front and rear limbs, we found a piece of soil and put it on its belly, it was like an acrobat to kick the soil in a circle, and suddenly kicked hard, maybe it collapsed into someone's face, everyone was stunned, and then laughed, saying that the daughter-in-law of Tsubaki collapsed the soil into whom's body, on the face, that is, who we liked, who will marry the daughter-in-law, everyone is happy, and we are tired of it.
Sometimes we rummaged for fart bugs under the broken bricks and tiles at the base of the courtyard wall, and when we found them, we pressed them with sticks, and a basket-colored smoke was released from behind its buttocks, which was continuously pressed and sprayed, and after three or four times there was no smoke. We put it in a bottle and continued to rummage, sometimes turning over centipedes, geckos, and watermelon bugs. When it catches a watermelon worm, it always rolls into a small round ball, and when it doesn't pay attention, it spreads out and runs. My cousin often said that there was a snake spirit under the rotten bricks, which was more than three feet long, and sometimes it would turn into a human form and harm people. I was so scared that I didn't dare to dig through the broken bricks and tiles anymore, I was always afraid that a big snake spirit would suddenly burst out, and I was afraid that it would turn into a human form and harm people, and when I met a stranger from the yard, I always wondered if he was a snake spirit. However, after all, we have never seen a snake, let alone a person who has become a snake spirit, and when we grow up, we think that it may be that my cousin scared us.
We dug the low courtyard wall with holes, and we could go from one end to the other. The grown-ups had just patched up the hole here, and we dug it up there again. Dig a hole in the top of the wall and make a hole in the wall to make a pot stove, put firewood in it, and learn to cook.
After watching the mine warfare movie, we also dug pits in the road, filled them with water and covered them with grass. Hiding in the shadows, pedestrians accidentally stepped into the mud puddles, we jumped and shouted happily, the devil stepped on the landmine, and the adults were angry and scolded. But we ran early. This kind of prank always makes the adults unguardable, and everyone shakes their heads when they see us.
Zhaohu's father could grow watermelons, which was a rarity in those days. His family's melon field is not far from the village and very close to the official road, which is for the convenience of care and sales. The wheat was harvested, and the watermelons were almost small again. In order to prevent pigs and badgers from spoiling, Zhaohu's father built a melon shed on the ground and slept there at night. Sometimes bring Zhaohu with you. I saw it and wanted to go, but my grandmother was always afraid that I would catch a cold at night and wouldn't let me go. I made an appointment with Zhaohu the next night, and we went to play in the melon shed before it got dark. After dinner, Zhaohu's father came, and he asked Zhaohu to go back with me, saying that it was cold in the fields at night. But we insisted on playing for a while and then going back, so Zhaohu's father had to agree, and let us play nearby, not running far. He himself was lying in the melon shed listening to the radio Qin dialect.
In the distance was a cornfield more than a man high, and the wind blew and rattled, as if something had come out of the field. I asked if Zhaohu was a badger. Zhaohu said no, it was the wind, and the badger always came out in the middle of the night.
The bright moon shone on the field, and the watermelon lay brightly with its round head exposed. The village was vague, and the village loudspeakers sounded. Unknown bugs chirped, and bats flew around in the air. The moon passes through the clouds, one moment bright, the other dark, and there is silence beyond that. I was both curious and scared. I hope that the badger will come out, but I am afraid that it will come out. We each took a stick and I felt my palms sweat.
Suddenly, something came out of the ground, and I screamed, it was a badger, a badger. Instinctively, he raised his stick and jumped back. Zhaohu laughed and said, look at the scared you, that's a rabbit, and the early runner is gone. If the badger doesn't run like that, it is like a pig, it will gnaw on the watermelon when it sees it, and it will even grin when it sees people, but it will be fierce.
I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that Zhaohu was still bold. Not far away, there was a man walking slowly. It shouldn't be stealing melons again, this time I didn't shout, I just pointed to Zhaohu. Zhaohu said that it must be grandma who came to you. As soon as I finished speaking, I heard my grandmother shouting Hu'er, Hu'er, walking towards us with a cane.
While I agreed, I didn't care to say a word to Zhaohu, and at once I ran across the wheat stubble, and the grove fell into my grandmother's arms. My grandmother caressed my head lovingly, saying that it was late, and I knew you were here. As he spoke, he brought me a pony clip and put it on me, saying that he should go home quickly.
When she turned around, she beckoned Zhaohu again, and Zhaohu also ran over. Zhaohu's father waved his hand at us from afar, shouting, "Mother, you slow down, and told us to help grandma." We replied aloud, got it. One after the other, bouncing and bounced, playing and walking back.
The bright moon still shone on the paths of the fields, and the shadows of young and old followed us.
More than 60 years have passed, and my grandmother who loved me has passed away a long time ago. My aunt and uncle, my cousin, they all died. Last winter, Zhaohu also passed away, he was only a year older than me, new crown pneumonia, white lung disease, did not escape. When I heard the news, my heart was sour. Life is like a dream. He didn't wear a decent garment, he didn't eat a good meal. The mother-in-law who married did not know how to take care of the housework, and the son she gave birth to was not successful. In this way, I lived my life in a blur.
I felt that only in childhood was he happy and carefree. I often think that if we could turn back the clock and we wouldn't grow up and play together all day, how nice it would be!
But the years are not forgiving, and the older you get, the more you love to think about the past. Spring is here again, and when I see the acacia flowers, I recall the interesting story of me and Zhaohu sharing the acacia flowers. I bought the watermelon, but I didn't want to eat it, it didn't taste sweet, and it didn't have any fun.
There are too many funs that are only hidden in my heart, savoring, sweet and sour, and laughing in tears. The kids didn't understand, and they always said I could stand at the window for hours, what was I doing? I didn't say anything. I don't want to say anything.
The baby grandson always stared at me with innocent eyes and asked me, grandpa, do you miss what happened when you were a child, if you feel lonely, you can play with me, I have a lot of toys at home, I agree with you to play with my toys, good friends can be shared, because you are my friend.
I hugged my grandson and loved her, yes, we are friends, the dearest friends.
【Author's profile】Author, Shaanxi Qianyang Qi Huxian. Retiree.
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