A River in the Distance (short story)

Anyone who has been to Oak Bay knows that it is not only a beautiful village of peach blossoms, but also a beautiful village. And the most handsome woman among the beautiful girls should be the Xiangyu of the old Liu family in the south of the village. Xiangyu graduated from junior high school a few years ago, and is twenty-one years old this year. Whenever she walked down the street, she would always provoke some of the younger generations of the past to stop, staring at her relaxed and rhythmic steps with eyes that could no longer be opened, and her fascinated gaze kept sending her to the end of the street. Xiangyu's figure seems to be made of water, with white skin, lotus-like arms, translucent cheeks, curved eyebrows, and big eyes.....

Xiangyu walked with a gust of wind, like a fairy descending from the alley. People on the street discussed: "Look at Xiangyu, this girl, she walks in a hurry, you can't see her heels on the ground at all."

"A woman walks so neatly and nimbly, she will definitely be good at work in the future!"

Xiangyu's mouth is also sweet, and her personality must be gentle.

Whenever she heard these words, when Xiangyu turned around, her silver bell-like laughter came from the alley. Like a drought and a long time of rain, like a mellow and simple rain, it is so moisturizing and so fascinating.

In recent days, due to the aging of the lines on both sides of the road in Liutuan Town, the Municipal Electric Power Bureau has set up an electric power poverty alleviation task force to update the poverty alleviation lines for the construction of beautiful villages. Oak Bay suddenly became lively, everyone gathered around them to see how to cut off the rubber of the thread little by little, and little by little to pull away the copper wire, wearing white gloves like iron pliers, and tighten the end of the thread, for fear that the copper wire would not be loosened if the connection was not firm, always use the iron pliers to twist back and forth several times, and then put on a protective rubber tube and tie it to the telephone pole. The boys wore bulky iron shoes, but their bodies were as agile as monkeys, and they climbed to the top of the pole with their hands around the pole and swished a few times.

Xiangyu was also crowded in the crowd, she was here to work. Because burying cables requires deep trenches, especially trenches that cannot be entered by machinery, they also need manual cooperation. She stood waist-deep in the ditch, picked up her arms and scooped up the loess one by one, and then shoveled it away with a shovel...... It can be seen that the amount of labor is quite large, but Xiangyu works very hard.

"Hey, let's take a break!"

Xiangyu hurriedly put down the trowel in her hand, looked up and looked around, and when she saw that there was no one around, she straightened up and gently beat her sore waist with her right hand. Xiangyu stood in the ditch, looked back and forth again, but still saw no one, thinking: No one talked to me? Qi, obviously someone spoke to me just now, and the voice was still a man, not like the voice of a local. The voice was loud, crisp, and magnetic, but why was there no one there? Could it be that my ears are broken? I'm only twenty-one years old, how could I be?

"Hey, hey, what about you!"

The voice came from the pole behind him, and Xiangyu raised his face to see clearly that it was the young man on the pole who spoke just now. Suddenly, Xiangyu's face flushed with shame and lowered her head embarrassedly.

Minggui was on the telephone pole and shouted at her, "Hey, come up and rest for a while, let's drink saliva." The man said and slowly got down from the telephone pole, threw the clumsy and heavy iron shoes on the ground, untied the military kettle he brought on his waist, skillfully twisted the lid with his hands, raised his head and drank a few sips, and saw that the people around him had gone to the shade under the tree, and then he handed the kettle to Xiangyu, who was shy in the ditch.

"It's so hot, come up and drink saliva and rest!" As he spoke, Ming Gui stretched out his hand to pull her.

"No, no, I'm not hot." Xiangyu hurriedly waved her hand at him, stood waist-deep in the ditch, and bowed her head shyly.

"It's not hot, you see the beads of sweat on your forehead are about to roll down!" After his prompt, Xiangyu realized that the sweat on his forehead had glued the hair on his forehead into locks of hair, clinging to his front face and cheeks, and the beads of sweat dripped down the hair pin, and he gently licked the corners of his mouth with his tongue, salty and sour. The sweat that seeped into the corners of the eyes was itchy, sticky, and a little painful. She quickly took out a white handkerchief from her trouser pocket, gently wiped the sweat beads from the corners of her eyes and forehead on her face, and moved her upper body slightly, so that the flower gown that was tightly attached to her back loosened a little, and let in the air, and then she felt cooler.

"Come up and go for a while!" As he spoke, Ming Gui bent down and stretched out his hand again to drag her up from the gutter, turned around and touched the kettle on the ground and handed it to her, and whispered, "Here, drink some water, breathe through the wind, cool and cool!" ”

Minggui said as he handed her the kettle. Xiangyu slowly raised her head and glanced at the unknown young man in front of her. He's so handsome! Two eyes are staring at him fiercely. At this time, she seemed even more cramped and uneasy, and she no longer dared to look up and look at it, her chest fell together, and bursts of heat emerged, and her face was hot. Xiangyu stood in front of the man, feeling very uncomfortable, so she lowered her head and looked at her toes.

Suddenly, the man seemed to remember something and quietly asked, "What's your name?" "Xiangyu!" "Xiangyu?"

"Hmm." She nodded.

"What a beautiful name, very poetic." Then, he introduced himself, "My name is Ming Gui, tomorrow's 'Ming', and Gui' of Guishu." Working in the Municipal Electric Power Bureau, I am here to help your village replace the poverty alleviation lines. In the end, he seemed to be afraid that Xiangyu would not understand, so he deliberately added two more sentences: "I am just twenty-five years old this year, and I am still unmarried." After hearing this, Xiangyu almost laughed out loud, thinking to herself why this person is like this, I didn't ask you for your address and name, but he introduced himself, hehe, like a stunned young man.

"Don't laugh yet, I'm really twenty-five years old, a rabbit.

Unbelief? If you don't believe it, you count it. As he spoke, he counted with his fingers, "Zi Mouse, Ugly Cow, Yin Tiger, Mao Rabbit ......" Xiangyu saw that he was serious, so she stopped laughing, she raised her head slightly, habitually shook the hair of her shawl, and then raised the kettle in her hand and drank it gently.

Ming Gui stood aside and was stunned, where is this drinking water? It's like a concubine drinking, no, it should be Chang'e's wine. Look at the expression, look at the hair, and then look at the small mouth like a mandarin duck playing in the water, sucking and sending, gently and gently "kissing" the kettle, mouth to mouth, mouth to mouth, so kind, and so charming. When Xiangyu removed the kettle from her lips, she saw that Minggui was still looking at her stupidly, so she smiled at him. Ming Gui felt that he was a little out of shape, and at this time he felt a little embarrassed.

"Technician Ming, when do you think the line in our village will be repaired?" She asked curiously. "Oh......" Ming Gui thought for a moment and replied casually, "Three or five days!" “

"Oh, that's good." "Good what?"

"You think, the line has been repaired, the power is no longer as often as before, the mobile phone also has a signal, you can charge at any time, surf the Internet, make and receive calls, I can not go out of the village in the future, just touch the mobile phone and shout a few times!"

She speaks a little innocently, but also very sincerely, with a bit of romance and nature. Ming Gui smiled and nodded, and explained to her: "Of course, but there are more advanced things than mobile phones!" ”

"What?"

"SG Smartphone Color Screen Videophone."

He saw that Xiangyu was a little puzzled, and further introduced, "Let's put it this way, the phone needs a phone and wires, and it is inconvenient to fix it in one place when it is used, and now the smart phone in your hand avoids these shortcomings, no matter where you stand, where you go, what time, you can find out at any time to get through to the other party's mobile phone, and you can also shop online, chat, order food, and see the other party's appearance." However, there is a flaw. For example, when watching movies, watching TV, or downloading things, not to mention, you can't download a movie in half a day, and watching videos is intermittent, which is time-consuming, traffic-consuming, and costly. ”

Ming Gui saw that Xiangyu tilted his head and listened to him carefully, and he was even more energetic, and further added: "The 5G mobile phone avoids this defect, it includes all the advantages of smart phones, and it only takes a few seconds to play a movie or a movie, and the signal is very good, just like you and me talking face-to-face." ”

"That'...... How much does that cost? ”

"It's quite expensive now, about eight thousand!" "Eight thousand?"

"Hmm." Ming Gui looked at her a little surprised, and added to her with a smile, "5G mobile phones are more expensive now, and they will be cheaper in the future, the price may be similar to the current mobile phones, and they will also be applied to driverless cars, as well as all corners of our lives, in short, it is very convenient to use." ”

"My dad won't approve of me buying it!" When Xiangyu said this, she deliberately accentuated her tone.

"Why?"

"He said that there was no power at home all day long, and he couldn't connect to the Internet, which was a waste of money and electricity." Xiangyu lowered her head embarrassedly.

"This time, we came to Oak Bay to help your village solve this problem, and after the poverty alleviation line is replaced and repaired, the electricity consumption of the whole village will be normal, and there is no need to worry about power outages or power outages at home. Because this is a poverty alleviation project in the province, with high specifications, new lines, and guaranteed quality, it is integrated with the current village-to-village and household-to-household project, and is part of the construction of beautiful villages! ”

"My dad said he didn't have any money at home." Xiangyu followed her small mouth and looked a little aggrieved.

"Then what did your dad save up for?"

She replied with a sad face: "My father said to save money and marry my brother's daughter-in-law." ”

"How old is your brother?"

"Chinese New Year's Eve is thirty or seven years old." "What's your name?" "Liu Cai."

Ming Gui still wanted to ask, but when he saw Xiangyu's sad face, he pouted, and there seemed to be something unspeakable in his heart. He wanted to speak and stopped, so it was not good to ask any more questions. Xiangyu didn't know how to speak, speaking from her heart, she liked the young man in front of her in her heart, but she was embarrassed to open her mouth to express her position. Seeing that she was silent, Ming Gui stepped forward and gently hugged her into his arms, affectionately, and hugged...

This is the way life in the countryside, especially in Oak Bay, there is no radio in the village, and there are no newspapers in the village, relying on the way of people-to-person, streets and alleys, and hundreds of neighbors, the news that Xiangyu and Minggui are together quickly spread throughout Oak Bay.

In the countryside, there are some good people in every village, there may be a kind of jealousy in their hearts, or they may be not afraid of big things, I don't know who has learned the tongue of the old willow head behind his back, the old willow head is conservative and antique, where has he been so angry? Immediately angry, scolded for a while, still not enjoyable, ran to the construction site again, and scolded the eight generations of Ming Gui ancestors who were on the pole. Then, Xiangyu was locked up at home and strictly guarded. After such a toss by the old willow head outside the village, Ming Gui could no longer continue to work in Oak Bay. The next morning, he handed over an application for a job transfer to the bureau leaders. The leaders also understood Minggui's difficulties, so they transferred him to work in other townships.

Xiangyu didn't eat or drink at home, crying and crying all day long, which frightened the old willow head, and hurriedly found someone to persuade a large basket of good words, but Xiangyu just didn't accept this feeling. In the end, there was no way, and the old willow head asked a distant brother of the same clan to introduce the matchmaker. A year later, he secretly married Xiangyu to Hedong City. Oak Bay returned to its former calm and silence, and no one in the village told the story of Xiangyu and Minggui anymore.

The path leading to the river beach had long been sealed off by cattail reeds and shrubs, and only the river in the distance, as usual, bypassed one river beach after another, and slowly flowed towards the Xiashan Lake downstream......

Author: Zhang Shoushi