Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 77
Liu Xiaonan has time to practice wrestling with her fourth brother again.His father has not been home recently, and he is waiting for his father to come back and take him to the mines, and return to his old job to help his mother with some odd jobs.Turn over the garden to plant autumn vegetables, pull weeds in the sweet potato fields, peanut fields, and rice fields, and dig a basket of wild vegetables to feed the pigs in the morning and evening. The fourth brother comes to him whenever he is free, fishes, shrimps, walks horses, and practices wrestling.

He frightened the fourth brother, you are now wrestling with a college student.The fourth brother was really afraid of his hands and feet and dared not use his strength. He pretended to be thrown by him several times and praised him for his strength.

Rolled all over the sand, the two brothers went down to the river to take a bath, and touched fish, shrimp, and crabs.The water level of the river in August is the highest in a year, and the river is turbid and fast-flowing, which is a good time to show off your skills.

In the evening, I would also sit in Yang Erya's small shop and chat with my uncle and aunt.The small shop has begun to take shape, and it is also a place for villagers to gather during the slack season. From international and domestic events, to family trifles such as spring planting and autumn harvest, they will be spread and interpreted here.

His uncle told him that the old Jia's family in the East Courtyard was also planning to move to the back street. He planned to buy those old houses, and the two brothers would build a new house on the old homestead of their ancestors together after autumn.

This is gratifying. When the time comes, the two brothers will live in the east and west courtyards, take care of each other, and will also receive the protection of their ancestors.

A few days later, Liu Zhixin returned home by taking advantage of the big shift and taking breaks.Jiang Changling told him immediately that her son was going to college, and she found the college admission letter from her son's backpack and showed it to him.

Liu Zhixin was holding his son's college admission letter, feeling mixed feelings in his heart.The son finally realized one of his own dreams, and one of Mr. Guan's dreams, and the son supported the facade of Lao Liu's house by himself.

Liu Zhixin looked around for his son, but Jiang Changling said that the four boys in the East Court would call him away, and they would either wrestle or fish and catch crabs in the river.Liu Zhixin blamed Jiang Changling, his son was about to go to college, why did he let him do those dangerous things?What if something unexpected happens?
Jiang Changling sneered at him, now that she knows how to care about her son, forgot that the father and son had a quarrel before?

Liu Zhixin stroked the back of his head and said, "In the past, no matter how I saw him, he didn't look like my son. Who knew that he had great stamina, and he did things we couldn't imagine."

When it was getting dark, Liu Xiaonan came back with a few river crabs, and Liu Zhixin reprimanded her head and face: "How old are you, why are you still so worried? Seeing you go to college and take risks, forgetting that you almost drowned when you were young ?”

This is the outburst of fatherly love. It looks fierce, but it is thick and loving.Liu Xiaonan comforted her father with a smile: "Now I am on land and in water, and I am proficient in all eighteen martial arts. I know it in my heart, and nothing will happen."

Liu Zhixin was still relentless: "If you kill the stubborn, you will be drowned. If something happens to you, what will your mother and I do? You are not a three-year-old child. I don't know which is lighter and which is heavier? Wrestling Touching crabs is so attractive?"

Liu Xiaonan was forced to promise her father again and again that she would never do anything risky again.

During dinner, Jiang Changling held back for many days, finally couldn't hold it anymore, and asked her son impatiently, "Gu Yu hasn't come to the house for a long time, why didn't you bring Gu Yu back, I miss her a little bit."

Liu Xiaonan put down her job and said, "Dad, Mom, don't have too much hope, Gu Yu may never come to Liuzi Street again."

Jiang Changling was in a hurry: "You two had a fight? Won't you let her order?"

Liu Xiaonan looked at her father and said, "We didn't quarrel, and our relationship is very good. The problem is that I didn't obey her parents' wishes and arrangements. Don't worry about it anymore, I will take care of my own affairs." Turning to her mother again He smiled and said, "Whenever I want to get married, you will treat the girl I brought home as your daughter-in-law."

Jiang Changling sighed, but Liu Zhixin never expressed his opinion, he had already foreseen this possibility.This is also good, so as to save the son from getting angry, the son is outstanding, and he doesn't have to worry about not being able to marry a good wife.

Another day is the [-]th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Ghost Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival, and Liu Zhixin took his son to visit the graves of his ancestors.On the back hillside, there are five tombs lined up in front and back, which are his ancestors and fathers.

He told his son that the Liu family has many branches, usually dedicated to three generations of clan members.Because of the reasons of his parents, he was forced to move out of the cemetery of his ancestors because of the bloody disaster and being excluded by his tribe.

After clearing the weeds, offering offerings and burning paper to burn incense, Liu Zhixin and his son kowtowed to the ancestors one by one.Other fathers have descendants, but today has a special meaning, so I made an exception and asked my son to kowtow to thank all the ancestors and protect his son's life.

Liu Xiaonan has only seen grandma for his ancestors buried in the ground, and the imprint in his memory is already blurred. He only remembers that grandma often urged him to copy Mr. Guan's stele.He also vaguely remembers what Mr. Guan said to him, "This is character. Your father has a talent for reading, but if you have bad luck, I don't know if you will be better than blue in the future."

Mr. Guan left him a stone tablet, which is a unique and precious spiritual wealth.On this special day, he proposed to his father that he wanted to offer incense and kowtow in front of Mr. Guan's tomb.

Liu Zhixin agreed, and brought her son to Mr. Guan's grave.It happened that Guan Deyu had come to visit his father's grave and hadn't left yet. After hearing Liu Xiaonan's request, he said, "Third Uncle, congratulations on your admission to college. Do you still remember what Third Uncle said to you before?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "I remember. No matter what kind of work you do in the future, whether you are far or near from home, you will go home every Spring Festival to write couplets for the villagers in the village."

Guan Deyu nodded and said: "If the old man is alive in heaven, he will definitely raise his pigtails in relief when he sees someone inheriting his calligraphy style and what you have achieved today. You should offer incense and kowtow to the old man, since you have such intentions, I have no reason to stop it."

Liu Zhixin was in front, and Liu Xiaonan was in the back. The two generations were devout and worshiped the same benefactor.

The solar term has passed the beginning of autumn, although the weather is still hot, the autumn wind is constantly driving away the heat.The rice has been filled, the soybean pods are full, the corn tassels are withered, and the apples are turning red. The leaves of the crops are swaying in the autumn wind, and the sound of brushing and brushing is pleasant to the ear.

Liu Zhixin and Guan Deyu walked side by side on the mountain road, talking about this year, the fluctuation of grain prices, and the foreseeable income of the villagers.

Liu Xiaonan followed behind the two elders, admiring the autumn scenery all the way, all kinds of feelings welled up in her heart.The state of mind is different, the angles and levels of appreciation are also different, and the murderous spirit is faintly visible. How can it compare with last year's autumn scenery?

In the autumn of last year, Gu Yu dressed as a peasant woman and sat on his cart, laughing all the way up the mountain.Gu Yu is lovely, he is happy, it is an autumn of harvesting love, it is an autumn different from any other autumn.

There was a bit of bitterness and sadness in the corner of his mouth. It was an autumn worth remembering for a lifetime. Can Gu Yu win the chance to sit on the trolley again?
Liu Zhixin was going back to work in the mine, Liu Xiaonan rode his uncle's bicycle together, and the father and father rode against the wind along the country road that Liu Zhixin had walked for 30 years.

Last night, Liu Xiaonan proposed to her father that she wanted to visit the mine and collect some writing materials.

At first, Liu Zhixin agreed with joy. His son was his pride, and the workers only heard about his name but never saw him, which just opened the eyes of the workers.When his son said he wanted to go down into the mine, he regretted it. He must not let his son take risks. He could tell his son the structure of the mine.

Liu Xiaonan felt that what his father said was too general, and he wanted to see with his own eyes the damage the mine had caused to the local ecology.Knowing that his son was stubborn, Liu Zhixin had the drive to find out the truth, so his son wanted to collect material, so he told his son two stories by the way.

A few years ago, a strange thing happened there.A man who had just been married for more than a year suddenly disappeared. The woman and her family members searched everywhere but failed, so they had to call the police.The police filed a case for investigation for more than half a year, but still found nothing.

In the winter of that year, workers in the nearby salt field wanted to pack and transport away the salt dried in summer. When half of the huge salt pile was gone, people found a dead body buried in the salt pile.After family identification and forensic identification, it was the missing man.

The case soon came to a conclusion. It turned out that the woman conspired with an unmarried man from the neighbor's house to trick her husband to a remote salt flat and kill him.The perpetrator was brought to justice, but the reason behind it is deplorable.

The relationship between the two of them was not good after marriage. The man liked to drink and beat the woman when he was too drunk. The woman often hid in the street and cried.When the unmarried man from the neighbor's house saw him, he couldn't help comforting him a few words, and the two of them fell in love after a while.A woman wanted a divorce, but was beaten more severely. An unmarried man wanted to save a woman from suffering, and a man who had always been honest and responsible was moved to kill.

There is an old saying: color is full of courage, and there is a knife on the head of color.It can be seen that it is true.

Liu Xiaonan felt that this story was commonplace, nothing more than the murder of her husband after her adultery was revealed, and it would be difficult to write novels.Liu Zhixin told his son a second story.

In the late autumn of last year, three women went to the sea at night, but they encountered heavy fog and could not find the coast.After the high tide, the water got deeper and deeper, and the three women had to climb onto the net poles separately, waiting for the dawn to ebb and the mist to clear.

The sea water in late autumn was icy cold, and the three women were half-soaked in the sea water, and soon lost consciousness.Two women were washed away by the tide one after the other, only one survived.

The surviving woman happened to be Liu Zhixin's classmate and the daughter of her best friend.

Liu Xiaonan was very interested in this incident.Why catch the sea at night?How terrible is the heavy fog on the sea?What is the net pole used for?What kind of mood would a woman feel when facing the threat of death alone in the dark sea?What will come to mind?Desperate or numb?Or resign to fate, want to cry but have no tears?

Liu Zhixin couldn't explain clearly, and couldn't stand his son's insistence, so he had to agree to take his son to see it.

Along the way, Liu Zhixin kept introducing every village he passed, and told what he saw and heard on the road in the past 30 years. In the past 30 years, except for the ten years of being accompanied by Lin Yidan, the rest of the time has been lonely.

He kept going back and forth between the mine and Liuzi Street, changed three bicycles, and witnessed the passage of time and the changes of the world, tired and happy.Inadvertently, my son grew up gradually, and I grew old. In a little more than a year, this road will come to an end and I will retire with honor.

He talked endlessly, as if he wanted to pour out the words accumulated in the past 30 years to his son.The son has become sensible, not only willing to listen to him, but also fully understand his heart.

After his son's novel "Father's Land, Mother's River" was published, he sent him a copy.He didn't understand at the time that his son could take it home and show it to him directly, so why go around and send it to the mine?

After reading the novel, he understood his son's painstaking efforts.The son was afraid of touching the pain and secrets in his heart, and afraid that the father he described was not the real father. The father and son were embarrassed face to face, and they cleverly avoided it in this way.

He wanted to say loudly to his son, you are definitely my own son, and you have figured out all of Dad's thoughts.

He took his son's novel home and showed it to Jiang Changling.Jiang Changling burst out laughing after reading half of it, thanks to her son, it turns out that you and Lin Yidan have so many things to do.

He was very helpless, there were so many things, most of which were made up by his son, which was only a little bit close to the truth.Still, the end result is real.

Jiang Changling asked him suddenly: "How can my son know about things that I don't even know? Can he pinch and count?"

He suddenly woke up, that's right, how could his son know that there is a saying of "a loyal heart"?Could it be that Yue Zifan revealed it?Lao Yue hates such things the most. No matter how good the teacher-student relationship is, it's unlikely, right?
Only later did he learn from his son that his son had known Yue Zifan and Lin Yidan's daughter for some time, and that this novel was conspired by the two juniors.No wonder the son always likes to run to his teacher Yue's house when he has nothing to do, is he also hiding some other thoughts?
If that's the case, the origins are deep.

Therefore, Liu Zhixin didn't ask too much about his son's relationship with Gu Yu, he vaguely had another kind of expectation.When his son returned home this time, he brought back good news about going to college, and also revealed that his relationship with Gu Yu was facing many crises.He knew that his son was not feeling well, and he also knew that his son didn't need to preach. He just wanted to tell his son what he had seen and heard in the past 30 years.

The world is complicated, and everyone has to go through several hurdles, big or small, tall or short, it's no big deal.

My son still has a long way to go, stumbling is inevitable, not necessarily all bad things, let him figure it out by himself.What's more, the son accompanied him for the first time on this familiar and no longer familiar road, and he was satisfied, relieved, proud and disappointed.

I am afraid that I will never have the opportunity to walk such a long road with my son again. Maybe my son will walk a different road.

Passing by a watermelon stand under the shade of a tree, a middle-aged woman selling melons called Liu Zhixin to stop and asked him to eat a few pieces of watermelon to quench his thirst.

Liu Zhixin stopped her bicycle in front of the melon stand, slightly afraid of hitting some watermelons on the chopping board, picked up one and handed it to the melon seller.

The melon seller didn't say anything, and cut the watermelon in half with a knife in her hand, and it was sandy.He cut it into pieces without hesitation, and exclaimed on his mouth: "Brother really has you, you are an expert in everything you do."

Liu Zhixin picked up a piece of watermelon and handed it to his son beside him, took another piece and took a bite and said, "I can still eat your watermelon for free for a year. After I retire at the end of next year, I will grow watermelons at home by myself, and then we will become friends." competitors."

The melon seller said bluntly: "There are tens of miles away, and we can't be competitors. I wish we could get closer, so I can ask you for advice at any time." She glanced at Liu Xiaonan and asked, "Your son?"

"It's my son, did you realize that? Follow me to the mine to have a look."

"You are so talented! Do you have a partner? My family has two daughters who are about the same age as him. Pick whatever you want. How about Ga's family?"

"It's too late for you to ask. I have a partner, and I'm going to college soon."

"If you ask too early, you won't be able to get close to this family." The melon seller sighed regretfully, and said to Liu Xiaonan with a smile on her face: "Your father is also a talent. The year before last, my family had no experience in growing watermelons, and the watermelons were not too small. Sweet. Your dad stopped by to buy my watermelon, and while eating, he talked about the problem with my watermelon.

"When I heard it made sense, I thought your dad was a passing agricultural technician and begged your dad to go and have a look in the melon field. Your dad was also kind-hearted, and he looked at the melon field and gave some pointers. My family didn't believe your dad. Mines workers can understand any agricultural technology, but they are just blind.

"I still trust your dad, so I planted watermelons just as your dad said, and sometimes blocked your dad on the road, and dragged him to the melon field to give pointers on the spot, and the watermelon turned out to be big and sweet. I was really convinced , I admire it from the bottom of my heart, letting your dad eat watermelon for free is a technical reward for your dad. I don’t feel bad about eating as much as I want, and I have taken advantage of it.”

Liu Zhixin said: "I used your land for experiments, and I earned your family watermelon for several years in vain."

The melon seller smiled heartily, and Liu Zhixin also smiled happily.Sitting in the shade of a tree, Liu Xiaonan ate watermelon, listening to his father chatting with the melon woman with great interest.My father is really good at spreading his agricultural technology so far, and this woman can easily believe a stranger's words.

The hot sweat on his face subsided little by little.According to my father, this was only half the journey.He hadn't ridden such a long distance before, his legs were sore and weak, and his buttocks were sore from the bicycle seat.My father has been able to walk on this fixed route for more than 30 years. Do you feel tired and lonely?
On that cold winter night 30 years ago, my father fled Liuzi Street with a simple bag on his back, and ran along this road to the mine seventy miles away, looking for a place to live.At that time, my father was about the same age as I am now, walking alone in the howling cold wind, walking so freely and helplessly.

What gave the father the indomitable strength? In the past 30 years, my father's youth has been slowly consumed on this road.

The father and son ate the whole watermelon.The woman who sells melons joked: "My son is like Lao Tzu, eating watermelon is the same. I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't the two of you."

Liu Zhixin said proudly: "Like a father, like a son, it's not worth making a fuss about."

Saying goodbye to the melon seller, the father and father continued to ride along the dirt and rocky road in the country.Liu Zhixin's narration gradually dried up, but Liu Xiaonan's thoughts bounced back and forth between her father and herself.

Did father ever think about walking on a different path?A road goes to the end, the end can be seen at a glance but it is endless, there is no more attractive scenery, no more heart-pounding experience, and going around will eventually return to the starting point.Is it inertia or a lack of courage?Or do you get used to it, or stick to the rut and don't want to change?
In one's life, shouldn't one try to explore different paths?

(End of this chapter)