Li Juan: Isolated

　　In this era, there are no corners of the world, and even the moon is no longer mysterious. This sand nest in the heart of our desert has always maintained a proper connection with the outside world.

　　This is evident in the daily conversations that there are always so many topics to talk about.

　　Talk in the morning and talk in the evening. It's not over as soon as we talk. The speaker's voice was full of emotion, and the listener was amazed. There must be a steady stream of outside news entering this wilderness to sustain such conversations.

　　The main way to disseminate information is through greetings that meet immediately when shepherding sheep. The second is the wireless landline phone in the Novoshbek house.

　　But what about meeting an outsider once in a few days? And the broken phone had almost no signal (thanks to the signal search antenna for hanging up the phone at the door of his house), and it only flashed one or two squares in the middle of the night.

　　A phone call is like a fight: "...... Can you hear me? I can hear! You said! You said! I can hear! O Huda (Allah). Can't you really hear it? ...... "Still, for this wilderness, it is enough.

　　When I came here, everything settled down, and the most important tasks were over.

　　It's time for my dear Gama to head north and return to Akhara to take care of her sick grandmother. But how do you get back? Where can I find a car?

　　I embroider fast. Juma always exclaimed: It's like running on an asphalt road!

　　The cars that operate and carry passengers on the ranch are all illegal vehicles with no three licenses, commonly known as "black cars".

　　The condition of the car is so bad that it can shock all the people in the city. The car loomed over the wilderness, on the soft and crumbling sand road, crawling and crawling, and the speed could not exceed twenty kilometers per hour.

　　Only by secretly getting on the asphalt road on the south bank of the Wuhe River (there are few traffic police) can you suddenly be angry and drive fast.

　　But even such a car is rare. If you can come across one when you need it most, it's a lot of money...... Want...... I want to set off firecrackers! - Yes, only firecrackers, only this kind of thing of our Han people, only the indiscriminate "crackling" and nonsense fierceness can accurately express this excitement!

　　Finally, one day, Juma went to a relative's house in the north to help dig a nest in the ground and brought back a piece of news.

　　It was said that a car would pass by the nearby ranch the next day and go south to drop off. About two days later, he returned north. So Gama hurriedly began to prepare.

　　The so-called "preparation" is mainly to wash the hair. It's hard for me to understand. Not to mention that the drought was severe at that time, and water was very precious. And, isn't she going to leave soon? I'm about to go to the banks of the Wu River, which has plenty of water, so why don't you go there and wash it again? If it's for the driver and other passengers, it's too vain and extravagant, right?

　　On second thought, how can this matter be defined by such a simple two words as "vanity".

　　Life is cramped enough, and if you scribble it again, it will be "broken and broken".

　　No matter how embarrassed life is, it needs the word "dignity". And "dignity" needs to be cared for from the smallest details.

　　Even a few hours of cleanliness and decency in front of a driver and two or three passengers is not to be careless.

　　Think about it—the vast wilderness, the endless dirt road, and suddenly, the figure of a girl appears in the field of vision.

　　When the car drove closer, everyone looked: it was so bright and neat! It was like it fell from the sky, not out of the ground...... In this rugged and silent world, such a scene is both surprising and comforting, and adds joy and hope.

　　So, Gama not only washed his hair, but also straightened it from head to toe. I also opened the locked wooden box and opened a new pair of socks to put on.

　　I sat down and dressed up all morning—anointhed with osmanthus oil—yes, in such an age, the women of the pasture were still accustomed to using this ancient, cheap, and fragrant cosmetic product.

　　Applied foundation. It took half an hour to comb my hair, but even after combing for half an hour, I didn't see any pattern in it, just tied it into a ponytail.

　　In my opinion, the news of a car is too slim.

　　It's just a word of mouth, and there is no way to confirm it directly with the driver, and it's not sure if there will be any accidents and changes. But everyone accepted it as a conclusive fact.

　　It was a cold day. Early in the morning, only a line of footprints stepped on the frost-covered ground and stepped on black dung, stretching through the entire sand nest and disappearing to the top of the dune.

　　As Ingama was leaving, her sister-in-law had cooked a large pot of meat the night before, and in the morning everyone had eaten some leftover meat and broth. Then each of them went about his own work, and no one disturbed Gama, who was dressing up.

　　When the time was almost up, the little girl, who had all her jewelry, a clean coat and decent little leather shoes—although they were thin, was her most beautiful pair of shoes—suddenly hugged her sister-in-law and kissed her, muttering a sentence in Chinese: "My beloved mother!" So the sister-in-law smiled and kissed her.

　　I said, "It's still early, can you carry another bag of snow before you go?" ”

　　She ignored me, twisted her body and continued to play coquettishly with her sister-in-law. Saying goodbye to the wilderness made her very happy.

　　I had already packed my bags the night before. Next door, Saina also came over to bring a small bag of candy to her grandmother. The sister-in-law brought her grandmother two horse intestines stuffed with horse ribs, a bag of boiled meat, two sheepskins that had been slaughtered and peeled some time ago, and a dough cake baked directly in the ashes of sheep manure.

　　This method of baking produces the most fragrant naan! Everything was wrapped in a white cloth. In addition, the sister-in-law also gave Gama a few extra pieces of more expensive candy, which made her cry out with joy.

　　Then the girl took out a small empty purse and stretched it out to Juma—asking for money. Juma immediately gave a hundred yuan, which made her even more happy.

　　She had planned to ask for fifty dollars. In addition, Juma also gave his grandmother 500 yuan, which was the money for living expenses and treatment.

　　When wearing the hat, the daughter held two hats and solemnly asked her father for advice.

　　Juma said that the snow blue was good-looking, so she immediately put it on her head and covered her forehead.

　　Looking at such a neat and happy daughter, Juma smiled and was speechless, rolling Mo Heyan and patiently waiting for her to clean up.

　　Compared to a decent daughter, the father is very gray. He was still wearing the patched toe shoes, and his shabby coat was crumpled and crumpled.

　　Compared with his daughter's excitement, he was a little lost and in good spirits. But he explained that he didn't sleep well last night: "The broth is too strong." ”

　　Then the two went out and got on the horse, and Juma sent her to the distant car to wait on the side of the road.

　　The car was rumored to be passing through the nearby wilderness around noon today.

　　Their horses disappeared into the wilderness on the other side of Beishaliang, and I stood on the sand dunes and watched for a long time. With two people missing, my sister-in-law and I felt lonely. She went to work alone in the sheepfold. After carrying the snow, I went to Saina's house to help with the embroidery, and I didn't go home until 2 p.m. As a result, when I went home and opened the door, I saw that the father and daughter were continuing to eat the leftover meat from the morning around the low table......

　　They said that after waiting on the side of the road for four hours, they couldn't stand the cold and had to come back. It seems that the car is either far from arriving, or it has long since passed.

　　Earlier, Gama and I solemnly shook hands and said goodbye. When we met again this time, we shook hands again at the meat plate, made a long-lost reunion and said, "How are you!" How are you in good health? "I think it's funny.

　　Garma changed out of clean clothes and nice shoes and went out to carry the snow. Juma continued to build the cowshed. The sister-in-law untied the white cloth, took out the horse's intestines and put them all back in the yurt.

　　I asked Juma, "Why do you want to wait for the bus?" Why doesn't the car come to pick up people? "If you can find out the direction of the car, you can send the message to the driver.

　　He said understandingly, "If it was your car, would you come and pick it up?" Gasoline is so expensive! ”

　　In the evening, the money for my grandmother and the pocket money for Gama were all taken back. Although he said that he would give it when he left, Gama was still very unhappy.

　　I also think it's weird, why take it back? Are you afraid of her messing around? The question is, where to spend money in this wilderness?

　　A few days later, the phone next door (which had been out of signal for more than a week) received the safe news that a pickup truck would be heading to the drought-stricken northern pastures to deliver ice and return to the Ulungu River that day. So the father and daughter decided to rush to a relative's house over there and wait for the car to come.

　　But it was far away, and you had to ride a horse for two or three hours. Coupled with waiting for the car, Juma may not be able to rush back that day.

　　And so another round of goodbye began. The next door came to express greetings to grandma again. The sister-in-law began to pack the things for her grandmother again.

　　Juma re-gave the money and re-reckoned the accounts. This time he gave an extra twenty dollars, and he also grabbed a small handful of change. Gama counted and counted happily, and sighed repeatedly: "So much, so much money......"

　　Because of the last experience, I understood that saying goodbye is a big deal. I want to send her something, too. But Li Juan in the winter nest is too poor. After thinking about it, he freed up his handbag containing toiletries for her. She was pleasantly surprised and embarrassed, and she excused herself for a long time.

　　She doesn't have her own bag like other girls. The bits and pieces she had carried with her before were packed in a thin plastic bag, which was certainly not strong.

　　I said to her, "Riding on a horse, carrying a bag in your hand, hanging a hole, walking for a while, my phone is gone." After a little further walking, the little mirror was gone again.

　　And then the wallet was gone...... Then Gama cried! She hugged me and shook her back and forth to show her gratitude.

　　This time, I got up early in the morning and combed my hair, applied oil, applied foundation, and wore flowers for a long time. No one is missing.

　　When the figure of the father and daughter on horseback disappeared behind the sand dunes again, I was still fantasizing: in the evening, as soon as the door opened, the two came back with a smile: "How are you?" How are you in good health? - Hey! Still no car! ”

　　But this time it's really gone.

　　Juma didn't come back until noon the next day. He described to us what the car looked like.

　　He said he watched the car disappear completely before turning around and going home. The sister-in-law carefully asked for some details. Then the couple fell silent for a long time.

　　Gama is gone! Like a hundred people gone! How lonely we are for the rest.

　　From then on, the night was longer and quieter. Under solar light, I learned Kazakh, my sister-in-law twisted yarn, and my kitten practiced catching mice.

　　Juma carefully flipped through a stack of old Kazakh newspapers. After reading each copy, it is folded into several folds, cut into long strips, and wrapped into paper rolls - used to roll Mohe cigarettes.

　　When I came across a newspaper with interesting content, I stopped and read it aloud to my sister-in-law.

　　Every time my sister-in-law finished listening, she would put down her work and go to read the newspaper silently. When the couple was a child, they learned the Latin alphabet, and although they gradually taught themselves the Arabic alphabet, they could only read phonics and could not use it.

　　On nights like that, Hurmassi would occasionally come to visit. Talk to Juma for a while, and then hand me the phone, saying that there is a problem again, and ask me to help adjust. Because the prompt for the operation of the mobile phone is in Chinese, he can't understand it.

　　During the day, I help with household chores in the morning, washing, cleaning, and then going out to drive cattle and carry snow. In the afternoon, I went to Saina's house to help embroider felt. The sister-in-law cleaned the sheepfold and cowshed, baked naan, and sewed felt. When Juma is at home, he tinkers, knocks and beats everywhere, and then sleeps heavily.

　　Then smoke for a long time in a daze.

　　Then look around for something that needs to be repaired. I couldn't find anything to do, so I grabbed the kitten and massaged it indiscriminately with someone's little head, saying that it probably had a headache too - I had a head massage for him when he had a headache.

　　When he saw that the kitten was like a human, with its two front paws tucked up on its chest, sleeping on its back, he quickly beckoned everyone to come and see. Then lie down on the spot and imitate it...... In short, it's so lonely.

　　If a guest comes to the door at this time, it is like saving his life.

　　There is a Kazakh proverb: "One out of forty guests must be a god of happiness." "There are two messages that are conveyed: first, everyone is hospitable; Second, there are too few guests.

　　Even if life is so ordinary, even if nothing has happened, there is always something to desire to share, and there is always something to explore, right?

　　One day, Juma came back and didn't say anything for a long time. Later, he said to me in Chinese: "Li Juan, today, when I was herding sheep, I saw a mouse with only three legs, jumping and walking. "I was immediately amazed and wanted to know more details.

　　Seeing that I was so interested, this guy began to play: "Well, I saw another mouse with only one eye. ”

　　I began to wonder, "Really? ”

　　"And a rat without a tail," he said. ”

　　I don't believe it at all. But he couldn't hold it anymore: "There is another fox, with red fur, very good-looking." But there is still no tail. ”

　　I don't even bother to pay attention to him. But his interest became higher and higher, and the more he made up, the more he became more and more unbounded: "I got up last night to relieve my hands and saw a bear!" ”

　　I said to my sister-in-law in Kazakh: "He said there are bears!" The sister-in-law stopped him.

　　For the rest of the day, he repeated the joke endlessly. It's really uncreative, and all the things that lack arms and legs in the world have been encountered by him.

　　There's really nothing new.

　　After entering the winter pasture, Li Juan had an excellent appetite, especially when she saw the oily food, her eyes were green. At first, I thought it was because of the lack of material abundance.

　　But on second thought, his family in Akhara is not rich, right? It's not even as good as it is now (now at least there is meat to eat).

　　Come to think of it, it's probably insecure. Subconsciously, there is an existential crisis - in this inaccessible wilderness with no foreign assistance.

　　I'm also lonely. When I am free, I take a long walk, and walk far, far away. When he got home, Juma said, "What have you seen after going for so long?" I said angrily, "I see a bear, no eyes!" ”

　　But one day Juma came home from herding sheep and told me: "Seven people came and walked in the Gobi Desert for several days!" ”

　　I started to think he was. But then I heard him say the same thing to his sister-in-law in Kazakh, so I believed it. What a surprise!

　　Juma said that they were in business, mainly to sell clothes. When they entered the desert, they stayed with a herdsman's family.

　　Every day, each person carries two or three large woven bags and walks to a nearby ranch to sell their goods. But any "nearby" is a distance of more than 10 kilometers! They don't leave until all the clothes are sold.

　　When Juma met them, he invited them to come to our side of Shawozi to show off their products. But they inquired about the direction and immediately shook their heads in refusal. It's too far, it's a five-hour walk, and you can't get back to your accommodation at night.

　　It's unimaginable!

　　It was only when they encountered insurmountable survival difficulties in the outside world that they thought of the wilderness. They thought it was a world in a barrel (which was pretty much the case), and they came to do exclusive business.

　　In any case, it is because there is always some hope for such a hard life.

　　Late one night, Novoshbek came running quickly to inform: "Quick! Garma's call! Hurry up! "—If it's slow, there's no signal.

　　The husband and wife bounced up from the bed together, and ran out without putting on their coats.

　　Gama said on the phone that her grandmother was hospitalized alone in the small town of Chakutu and that her condition was much better. She also said that she took care of the family's cows and some goats by herself, milked cows every day, and did household chores. He also said that the sheepskin he brought last time was sold for one hundred and forty yuan.

　　This incident made Juma and his sister-in-law discuss it for several days, repeatedly recalling every word of their daughter.

　　Not long after, the veterinarian in Gamato village brought in a package, sewn it invulnerability, and wrapped it in layer after layer. It took a long time for the two to be torn apart.

　　In addition to a few oil cakes and two pieces of raw sheepskin that Grandma cut to make leather pants, there were also two good things that Juma thought about day and night: a TV selector and parts for a satellite pot.

　　From then on, the silence of the wilderness was torn apart. We, we have TV to watch!