Vernacular Prose: Remembering the Swallow's Nest in the Old House

Text: Wu Jianchang

　　In the past few days, I suddenly found that there are always a few swallows flying around outside the balcony, it seems that I have taken a fancy to the place under the balcony canopy, and I am secretly happy, the swallow is an auspicious bird, but it seems unlikely in a blink of an eye, because the community is still a little far away from the farmland outside the city. But the arrival of the swallows still brought back memories of the swallows' nests on the beams of old houses in the countryside at that time

　　I remember when I was a child, my family lived in a tiled house (someone else's), and later built a "four or six houses" grass shed, and in the early seventies of the last century, the grass shed was demolished to build a brick and tile bungalow, which is the kind of old-fashioned "four broken five" bungalows, that is, the kind of "one into three rooms". There are two rooms on the east and two on the west, one in the middle of the hall, and a wall in the middle of the three rooms. Then in the southwest corner of the house, a stove room was built, which was not large, only enough to accommodate an old stove, a water tank and a bamboo kitchen. The house was built during the slack time after the autumn harvest and winter planting. The main beam of the house is cedar, and the other beams are made of very thick bamboo, that is, the two bamboos are nailed with long iron nails and then tightly tied with thick wires, and there is a draw between the two bamboos.

From winter to spring, the fields planted with milk vetch in the team have been ploughed first, because they are going to be seedlings. The mud of the rice fields filled with water is black, black, soft, and mushy. One day, I suddenly found two swallows flying in front of my house. They first chirped around the eaves of the gate for a while, and then flew into the gate, entered the hall, and stopped directly on the bamboo beams of the hall. The two swallows, perched on the beam, played with each other, and then flew out of the gate and towards the field. After about lunch, the two swallows came back. This time it flew from the gate to the beam, but this time it was different from the last time, the two swallows stopped on the bamboo beam, lowered their heads and pecked at the bamboo with their beaks on the beam, and looked closely, where their mouths pecked, leaving a mud mark. Oh, it turns out that the swallows have come to build a nest. The parents were very happy to see the swallows coming to build a nest. Because I lived in a straw hut before, the straw eaves were very low, and the gate was blocked by a grass fan, so it was difficult for swallows to come in, and now it has become a tiled house, although it is not very spacious, but after all, the eaves are high, and the gate is also high, and swallows can also fly in and out, so swallows are willing to come to build nests. My father said that the elders call the swallow the purple swallow, and if the swallow nests in your house, it means that the purple air is coming from the east, and it also indicates that the family is auspicious and prosperous, and happy. At that time, we were still young, and we didn't quite understand the meaning of "purple gas coming from the east" and "auspicious prosperity". It's just that the swallows come to the house, and it's nice to hear the chirping of the swallows every day. Since the swallows came to build their nests, our parents took care of us not to close the door during the day, if we had to close it, the window on the left side of the door must be open, otherwise the swallows will not be able to fly in. In this way, we watched the swallows fly in and out every day, and the mud marks on the beam slowly became thicker and thicker. Gradually, the mud marks turned into a small nest, and the small nest slowly became a large nest, and after about five or six days, this nest turned into a "half a big bowl" and stuck it on the bamboo beam. The color of the bowl slowly changed from brown to earthy white: the bird's nest changed from moist to dry. Then the industrious swallow found soft hay, feathers, hair, etc. out of nowhere and spread them in the bird's nest.

In this way, throughout the summer harvest and summer planting season, when we eat, they watch, we talk, and they also interject a few words from time to time to make a joke, and we never care. Subconsciously, we also think of them as members of our family. We witness each other's lives, joys and sorrows, although there is no intersection, but we are safe and happy.

But occasionally, there will be conflicts between humans and swallows, because after all, the bird's nest is built on the beam of the hall, and the swallow is a swallow after all. It was a lunchtime, the table was placed a little closer to the bird's nest, and the family sat together, eating and drinking, but somehow, a few black and white swallow droppings happened to fall into a bowl of plum dried vegetable roast pork, and the plum dried vegetable roast meat that can only be eaten in the busy farming season was mixed by swallow feces. You must know how difficult it was to get a bowl of roast pork with dried plum vegetables in that year, and now it has been stirred up by swallows in vain, do you think you can not feel distressed. The angry eldest brother found a long bamboo pole and went to poke the bird's nest, and the swallows were frightened and chirped and flew around, but they refused to fly away—there were still their children in the nest. The parents also tried their best to persuade the eldest brother not to beat the swallow's nest. Later, the swallow's nest was finally saved, and the little swallow was finally saved, but the bowl of meat was not saved, which really made our hearts ache for several days. After more than twenty days of living in harmony with each other, the swallow parents flew away with their litter of children.

Winter goes to spring, and in a blink of an eye, it is the time to harvest rape and wheat in the second year, and I originally thought that after last year's conflict, after all, there is a dislike between each other, and the swallow may never come to my house again, because safety is a matter of not child's play. Surprisingly, however, the swallow is back. They are still flying in and out every day as they did when they first came last year, bringing in dirt and hay to repair the broken bird's nest. After repairing the swallow's nest, within a few days, the swallow's nest was filled with the sound of "chirping" and "chirping, chirping". After a few days, the eaves of the bird's nest first revealed four or five cute little heads, black feathers, milky yellow mouths, as long as they heard the sound of the swallow's parents flying into the house, they would lie on the eaves of the nest in unison, open their mouths wide, and wait for their parents to feed them. With each other, it's as if nothing has happened. The swallows of ordinary people's families may be like this, everyone will let go of their previous suspicions, continue to be under the same roof, and continue to do their "free to go to the beam on the swallow".

At the end of the seventies of the last century, the eldest brother got married and had children and built another house, and within a year or two, the second brother also got married and had children. I live in the town because I have already joined the work and have a public house in my unit, but every year when the wheat turns yellow, as long as I go home, I still see the swallow's nest on the beam and the swallow's family. In the 84th bar, with the improvement of economic conditions, the second brother decided to renovate the old house into a building, so he demolished the old house and built a new building. My parents built two bungalows on the old foundation to the west of the building.

After the second brother built a new building, we thought that the old house would be demolished, and the swallow would not come, but we didn't expect that at the turn of the spring and summer of the second year, there was a swallow's nest at the junction between the corridor wall and the floor slab of the building. In short, "Little Swallow, wearing flower clothes, comes here every spring...... because spring here is the most beautiful......

Later, the construction of a new countryside was implemented, the peasants moved to the city to gather, the houses in their hometowns were demolished, and the homesteads were recultivated into farmland.

I deeply miss the swallow's nest in my hometown at that time...... I miss the countryside in the south of the Yangtze River, the purple swallow returns in spring, the male and female fly together, and the new mud of the withered grass is mixed with their own saliva to build a nest and feed the chicks.

Today, the occasional flying swallows in front of the balcony bring back memories of the swallows' nests on the beams of my old house.

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