This is a remote village in Baiyin, Gansu Province, where 85-year-old Sun Gucang lives alone in an old house.
The old house has been more than sixty years old, and it has been repaired while living, but Sun Gucang still likes to stay in this old house the most. When the state remodeled the dangerous houses, the brick houses next to them had already been built, and he did not agree to demolish the old houses.
The old house is not only his home, but also carries too many years and memories.
1. The day of departure is tomorrow
More than a year after his wife's death, Sun Gucang finally agreed to go to the city with his daughter.
The day of departure is tomorrow.
On this day, Sun Gucang got up early and slowly boiled tea and drank tea, and the day before the parting seemed to be no different from every day on weekdays.
After that, he staggered up the roof with a wooden stick to clear the snow, and when he rested, he supported the wall of the old house with trembling hands, looked into the distance, and breathed a long sigh of relief. The years had left a deep and shallow mark on his face, and his back, which had been hunched over into a bow, was becoming more and more bloated under the cotton coat.
He looked into the distance like this, his eyes were full of parting sorrow and reluctance, and his hands could not stop trembling. What's in the distance? It is the homeland, it is the old man.
2, "I will come when spring begins"
At breakfast, the daughter let him finish eating and pack his things.
"There is nothing to pack, since we want to leave, we will go, and I am also panicked when I treat this alone." When the cold three months have passed, I will come in the spring. ”
"Never again."
"Alas, I'll come when spring begins."
Before leaving, he still remembered the weeding and planting trees that came back from the spring, and although his daughter said that "if he went, he would not come back", he still insisted on his own ideas, thinking that he would come back to this old house.
At breakfast, Sun Gucang carried the last water for the family, put the pigeons into the cage, and entrusted the dogs to the neighbors.
Subsequently, he began to print paper money for his wife. After his wife died, he basically did not burn paper money for her, saying that it was because she had deceived herself.
"We said okay, I went ahead of her, and she went ahead. She just lied to me like that and left. ”
The old man, who has always been calm, is full of grievances at this moment, like a "complaint" to accuse his wife of not saying goodbye. The tears in the corners of his eyes could no longer be stopped, and the thoughts and loneliness wandered so wantonly, and the words were full of deep sadness.
When burning paper money for his wife, the old man poured out his grievances to his wife: "I feel that you have no conscience." You deceived me, left, I was alone, I had no choice but to go over, I had a home and no house. ”
The words are full of "accusations", full of grievances and heartache, complaining that the wife took the first step and left himself.
3. The old people are inseparable, and the homeland is difficult to leave
As he packed up his things, he carefully wrapped the only picture frame in the house with a clean and beautiful cloth.
"What are you doing with this?"
"Carry it to Yinchuan."
"What's the matter with this?"
"Take a look at the days."
Knowing that he would not know when he would return from this trip, and that he might never come back, he did not want his wife's photo to be left alone in this old house.
Things had been put away, the door had been locked, and for some reason Sun Gucang had opened the door again, and he looked around the hall, as if something had fallen, perhaps just to remember what it looked like.
Outside, his daughter urged him to hurry up, and finally, he closed the creaky wooden door and took away the joys and sorrows that belonged here.
The time of parting always came quickly, and when the pigeon cage was put on, the old man got into the car into the city, and through the window of the car, he looked at the homeland affectionately and reluctantly, his lips trembling, as if he wanted to say something, and his dark and old hands were tightly clasped together.
His heart had always been reluctant.
Nostalgia, Sun Gucang in this land with a lifetime of time to form a habit, until the departure, still continues.
It is because of this land, but also because of the people in this land.
The old people are inseparable, and the homeland is inseparable. After parting, nostalgia is a tree without annual rings, never getting old.
• end •
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