Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 21
The college entrance examination in [-] was approaching day by day, and the school decided to end the courses for returning students three days in advance, and let them go home and arrange a series of preparations before the college entrance examination.

On the last day of her stay at school, Liu Xiaonan got up early as usual, and walked out of the school gate with her books in the morning light.He paused for a while, looked to the west, and turned to walk east.

The main entrance of the school is located in an alley. Go east to the main road, turn a corner to the Central Street, and continue east to the only remaining east gate after the demolition of the city wall; to the west, you can directly reach the small river that is suspected of being a moat. On the side, the shallow clear river in the small river ditch flows slowly, and there are sparse willow forests on the bank, which is a place he must visit every morning.

Today he didn't want to go west to the moat, which left him with cruel and bloody memories.There is only a dozen meters to the west of the school gate, and there is a public toilet. Outside the toilet is a garbage dump.

He had to go through the garbage dump every morning to recite the text by the moat.But just yesterday, he saw an unimaginable "something" that made him terrified. That kind of creepy feeling is still unforgettable to him.

That was a dead child.When he walked out of the school gate yesterday, he went to the toilet first as usual, and just as he walked to the toilet, he saw a very obvious "foreign object" on the garbage dump: it was about the size of a kitten or a puppy, with a naked body curled up, and the transparent skin was light red. The limbs are complete, the facial features are complete, the two small hands are tightly clenched, the head has sparse yellow hair, the legs are shrunk, and it is impossible to tell whether it is a boy or a girl.

He stared blankly, trembling all over.It's not that he hasn't seen death before, he himself almost drowned in the river, although his memory is vague at a young age, even though it can be treated as a joke afterwards, it was a real brush with death.

After grandma fell ill, her body weakened day by day, until she closed her eyes and put her in a coffin, carried her up a mountain and buried her in the soil. He still had no intuitive impression and feeling of death.All he knew was that grandma would never come back, never tell him stories again.

My father worked in the mine and experienced dangerous situations twice, which were even more dangerous.He heard his mother talk about it, but he didn't have an intuitive feeling.

But what he saw at this time was the real death, which was shocking.He strode away from the garbage dump as if escaping in a hurry, feeling nauseated in his heart, and tears of anger and compassion kept pouring out of his eyes.

He was not afraid of such a lifeless hatchling, but had witnessed the sinister and dirty human heart.

No matter what the reason is, the larva that lost its life should not appear on the garbage dump. It is a contempt for human dignity and a desecration of life.

He came to the moat and washed his face with cool water, but his uneasy thoughts still remained in that horrible scene.

He sometimes hates himself for being rich in associations and not good at forgetting. No matter good or bad, as long as the sensitive nerves in his heart are touched, he will brood and start associations.

Perhaps it is a pair of young people who love each other sincerely like uncle and sister Erya, who are not tolerated by the families of both parties, so they can only secretly deal with the evil that has just been born into the world.But how hard will it take to do that?
Perhaps it is a normal small family who welcomes the arrival of a newborn with joy, but unexpectedly discovers that they are disabled.Staying will only drag down the whole family and make him or her live in pain all his life.

It is better to find an eternal way of liberation for him (her) before he (she) opens his eyes to see the world clearly, and drown him (her) in the washbasin.Isn't being a parent a permanent nightmare?

Liu Xiaonan's thoughts were churning, unable to get rid of the raging wild thoughts, and unable to calm down to recite a page of the book.Simply think through the cause and effect of the incident, and only when you have nothing to think about will you completely forget it.

The biggest possibility is the evil result of "playing hooligans".I heard people in the village talk about it before. It was about the educated youths who went to the countryside in the youth spot. There were people who played hooligans in the woods and gnawed each other with their heads in their mouths.

At that time, he didn't know the specific behavior of playing hooligans. He only knew that after being caught, he would hang a few broken shoes around his neck and parade through the streets.

Recently, I heard my classmates discuss in private that the police station often goes to the movie theater to catch hooligans.When the film was at its climax, the male and female policemen quietly entered the movie theater, looking for young men and women in pairs with flashlights. As long as they kissed, they would be taken back to the police station for interrogation.

Perhaps the dead baby was created by those hooligans, who dared not go to the hospital to have an abortion, so they had to wait until it was ripe and take extreme measures to deal with it.

This incident left an immeasurably profound impact on Liu Xiaonan's heart.

When he went back, Liu Xiaonan felt relieved to see a group of old men and women surrounded by the garbage dump.Handled by these elderly people with rich life experience and common sense, it will surely give the larva that once had the rhythm of life with the necessary dignity and a reasonable destination.

Liu Xiaonan walked across the central street to the east gate, this morning he wanted to change his mood.

The city wall of Fuzhou City had been dismantled long before he was born, leaving only the east city gate and a section of the city wall less than a hundred meters away.

The city gate is built with huge bluestone strips, but it is more than three meters high and four meters wide, and it is already a little skewed. The top is the ruined wall left after the gate tower was demolished.

Connecting the south side of the city gate is an ancient city wall of less than [-] meters, all built with rectangular black bricks, and the seams are tight.The top of the city wall is also bare, and the wall stacks have been demolished long ago and are covered with weeds.

It is hard to imagine how many tragic wars have occurred here for thousands of years, and how many thousands of troops have been submerged in the long river of history.

Standing under the city wall, Liu Xiaonan seemed to hear the roar of war drums, as if he saw banners hunting arrows like rain of blood and mountains of corpses.

If you are a soldier attacking a city, do you have the courage to attack upwards with a shield in one hand and a blade in the other, stepping on a ladder with a knife, gun, sword, and halberd against a rolling wooden rock?
If you are a soldier defending the city, do you have the courage and courage to live and die with the city in the face of the siegers who are not afraid of life and death?
More than a month after the start of school last year, a demobilized soldier came to the class to resume classes and lived in the same dormitory with Liu Xiaonan and the others.Everyone was very curious. Before going to bed, they surrounded the demobilized soldiers and asked about this and that.

The demobilized soldier said that he originally planned to join the army to enter the military academy. In his second year of enlistment, the army suddenly received an order from his superiors: be ready to go to Laoshan and Fakashan in southern Xinjiang at any time.

The troops entered the intense pre-war mobilization training, and the mobilization order was not lifted until they were discharged from the army, thus missing the opportunity to apply for the military academy.

Everyone asked him if he knew he was afraid of going to the battlefield.He said that as an individual, there is no one who is not afraid, but in a group, fear of death becomes a shame.

The comrades-in-arms all wrote suicide notes, and some even wrote blood letters and asked to go to the battlefield.In addition to the daily targeted training, the daily compulsory course is to practice chopping and thrusting against a humanoid target.

The cat's ear holes in southern Xinjiang may not be able to use bayonets, mainly to temper a kind of blood: kill the enemy or be killed by the enemy.

He especially emphasized that when the comrades practiced chopping and stabbing, their killing sounds were so loud that their eyes were red.

Liu Xiaonan thought of her uncle and second uncle, they had experienced real wars and crawled out of the dead.Were they timid when they first went to the battlefield?

Recently, Liu Xiaonan also got a definite news.Two male classmates in high school did not repeat their studies after failing the exams, but directly embarked on the road of joining the army, and both were admitted to the military academy this year.

He thought that if he still failed this year, he should also try to take a roundabout route.You can not only exercise yourself, but also find a way out.

Along the city wall all the way to the south, at the southeast corner of the original city site, there is a small mound of low height, which is the commanding height of the city.

On the top of the mountain stands an ancient pagoda built in the Tang Dynasty, which is also built of black bricks. After years of wind chiseling and rain erosion, it has become grinning.The tower body is slightly inclined, old and dignified, as if it cannot bear the burden of time.

There is another Yongfeng Temple under the pagoda. Most of the temple has been destroyed, leaving only a few monks' rooms covered with weeds. There are no monks chanting scriptures, but wild birds are heard.

I heard from the elders that there is a magical scene in Yongfeng Temple: whenever the sun goes down, the last ray of light before sunset shines directly on the eyes of the Buddha statue sitting in the middle of the main hall through the window lattice, and the Buddha's light in the main hall shines everywhere—— Commonly known as Yongfeng Sunset, it has become a major cultural landscape in the local area.

It's a pity that it only exists in people's memories and legends now.

At this time, the morning light was twilight, and the orange-red glow coated the ancient pagoda with a layer of faint golden yellow, and the half-light and half-darkness suddenly added a bit of mystery.

Liu Xiaonan looked up, but saw the small peach tree on the top of the tower, with sparse branches, strong leaves, and an indomitable and stubborn appearance, which made people admire and move.

How did the peach pit containing life fly to the top of the tower?How did it take root on the top of the tower without the soil layer?The magical power of nature is amazing - Liu Xiaonan is immersed in her own imagination.

The dust in the sky, after thousands of years of accumulation, formed a shallow soil layer in a low-lying place on the top of the tower.A greedy bird pecked off a peach and flew to the top of the tower, leaving the core after eating the pulp.

A rain came unexpectedly, washing the fruit cores to low-lying places and burying them in the soil.The sky cleared, the sun shone brightly, and the fruit pit began to take root and sprout.

Perhaps there are other, unexpected coincidences that humans have contributed to the occurrence of this miraculous phenomenon.

No one can tell which year and month that peach pit began to break out of the ground on the top of the tower and grow tenaciously.People didn't discover it until they grew taller and stronger, and they felt miraculous and unbelievable.

In the evening of summer, people unexpectedly discovered that whenever the sun sets, the peach tree on the top of the pagoda is always shrouded by an "auspicious cloud", which is erratic and mysterious.

Reminiscent of the Yongfeng Temple under the pagoda and the former Yongfeng sunset, people rushed to tell each other that this is the manifestation of the Buddha.

After dark, people knelt down under the pagoda, burned incense and prayed, held water bowls in their hands, and prayed to the Buddha for a panacea to cure all diseases.

In the water bowl in his hand, a small "powder powder" really fell, and he drank it together with the water, and the refreshing medicine cured the disease-this is a real incident, which was once widely known.

Later, relevant departments came forward to confirm that the so-called "auspicious cloud" was just a common small midge in the local area. For unknown reasons, it gathered around the peach tree on the top of the tower.

The "powder powder" in the water bowl is actually the fallen midges.A superstitious farce came to an end.

Liu Xiaonan withdrew her admiring gaze and sighed endlessly. The tenacious vitality of the peach tree on the top of the tower is worthy of people's worship.He sat under the pagoda and opened the book, reading with the gentle breeze, which was a special feeling.

After lunch, there is another class in the afternoon, and Teacher Yue wants to say goodbye to the students alone.The students came to the classroom early and sat down, waiting for Teacher Yue's final instruction.

Teacher Yue walked into the classroom empty-handed, his silver-white hair was combed surprisingly carefully, and it was no longer messy with angry crowns.

He walked up to the podium with a solemn expression, crossed his arms in front of him, and said slowly: "Students, as of today, the fate of our teachers and students has come to an end. I wish all the students can get their titles on the gold list and write their most magnificent life. "

The students responded enthusiastically with applause.Teacher Yue walked to the side of the desk and said: "Over the past year, due to my own reasons, I have scolded some students unreasonably and inexplicably, and I feel deeply guilty. I'm sorry, and please forgive me for being an incompetent teacher."

Teacher Yue bowed deeply, and the students applauded enthusiastically again.

Teacher Yue waved his hand and said, "I can only say that I am deeply regretful. Excellent teachers have been transferred to key high schools in the county one after another. Teachers like me have to be reluctant. But I think that the road of life will ultimately depend on you one step at a time. Going forward, being admitted to a university does not necessarily mean smooth sailing, and failing to enter a university does not necessarily mean losing your dreams forever. At this moment, stepping out of this classroom means that you will lead your own different lives. The teacher blesses you. "

Teacher Yue stood at the door of the classroom and sent the students out of the classroom one by one.

When Liu Xiaonan walked up to Mr. Yue, Mr. Yue said to him with a more serious tone: "If you realize your dream, remember to tell me as soon as possible; if you fail to realize your dream, you and I don't need to see each other again."

Liu Xiaonan only answered two words: "Definitely."

Liu Xiaonan rode a bicycle with luggage on the narrow dirt road in the streets of the ancient town, on her way home.

On both sides of the street are crowded low-slung and quaint shops and private houses, which are far less spacious and bright than rural houses.What makes people in small towns have a sense of superiority over rural people?
Isn't it just having an urban household registration and a household registration book for eating commercial food?You don’t have to face the loess and your back to the sky, and you can still eat food provided by the state. After graduation, they are called unemployed youths. They will also be assigned jobs by the state. After work, they will be ranked according to seniority and wait for housing.

To put it bluntly, isn't he born with an iron rice bowl in his mouth?
The household registration of Guan Xiaoyun's family has two kinds of treatment.Guan Deyu has an agricultural hukou, a real farmer, who earns food by digging from the soil; her mother is a working teacher, and several children follow her mother to non-agricultural hukou, and they eat commodity grains, but they are one level lower than urban hukou, and lower than agricultural household registration. The account is one level higher.

Liu Xiaonan suddenly figured out one thing: Rural students who study hard for ten years in the cold window for university entrance exams are essentially trying to obtain an urban household registration book with commodity food and the right to live in the city?
(End of this chapter)