Chapter 11 run wild

When the wind blows, the house and the earth float together in the dark.Far away, perhaps in the old tile-roofed house where Yu slept, there was an invisible substance creaking and creaking.The wind outside was blowing so violently that Yu felt inexplicably afraid of it.He lifted the chintz bed curtain a little and looked out of the window.Outside the window is the blue-purple sky and a few sparse tree shadows, everything is very peaceful.Yu guessed that what made the noise at night might be a giant beast. He didn't know what it was called, and he couldn't see where it hid even if he opened his eyes wide.There are too many things Yu doesn't know. He is a weak and quiet child rarely seen in the countryside. Ever since he suffered from a headache, Yu has never left his yard. On the haystack, watch a group of chickens pecking at the remaining rice on the field, but this is usually after the morning.

When the sky was getting brighter in the morning, Yu hurriedly got out of bed to pee. When he passed by grandma's room, he opened the door and saw grandma sitting on the toilet, with one hand reaching under the bed to grab toilet paper, and the other hand covering her chest. coughing loudly.Grandma seems to have been coughing like this all her life.Yu said to the inside, I'm going to pee.When he passed the mother's room, he knocked on the door again, and the mother had already got up, she was doing her makeup in front of the mirror on the wall, her long black and shiny hair was tied up into a bow, hanging behind her head.Yu said, I'm going to pee, he quickly stepped up the threshold, and urinated on the frost-stained mud outside.When Yu was fastening his trousers, he saw that the round outline of the village was shining little by little, and gradually became clear. The cattle herders had reached the pond, and the fragrance of grain wafted from the drying ground.

Sometimes Yu sat on the haystacks in the drying yard and watched a group of chickens pecking at the remaining rice in the yard.This is after the morning, and villagers who have gone to the field will see Yu sitting motionless on the haystack: Yu is holding half of the leftover dry biscuit in his hand, and one or several flies are perched on the dry biscuit. Yu, have you suffered from headaches again? No, said Elm, I'm eating dry biscuits. Yu, is your dad coming home soon? Soon, dad will be home after Chinese New Year. The figure of the elm is as light yellow as a haystack in the sun.When he swallowed the last bit of dry biscuit, his head hummed and swelled again.Yu climbed down the haystack, and he heard his mother shouting loudly at the door, Yu, come home and take medicine.Yu staggered and ran across the drying yard when he saw a man coming down from the road.A carpenter with a canvas tool bag.Yu stopped and looked at the man. He was very similar to Yu's father. This was because of the way he walked and the saw axes and ink fountains. Yu didn't know him.That's not my father, Yu said to himself, and he spit in the direction of the carpenter, and then ran home in a hurry.

Yu drank bitter and astringent herbs, which my mother collected from the mountains according to folk remedies.The picked grass stems and leaves were piled up by the mother in a bamboo plaque and exposed to the sun. After drying, they were cut into powder and packed into baskets.Every day, Yu's mother grabs a handful of herbs from the basket and makes soup for Yu to drink.Yu was afraid of the bitter taste of the herbs, so he poured the medicine to the dog in the yard, who wagged its tail and walked away.Yu thought even dogs would not take this medicine, why should I take it?Yu always secretly poured medicine into the swill bucket.When his mother found out, she sat across from Yu and watched him drink up the medicine before leaving.She said, "Yu, you have to be obedient. If you are sick, you have to take medicine. If you don't take medicine, you will die. Do you understand?"Death is such a terrible thing, aren't you afraid of death?

There was a person standing at the door, and Yu found that he was the carpenter who came down from the road.Yu also found out that her mother knew the carpenter. They stood by the door and talked for a while, and the carpenter stepped in and sat on a stool to beg for water.Elm saw that his tool bag was as dilapidated as his father's, with a sharp planer blade protruding from it. This is your cousin.Mother took a ladle of water from the water tank, raised her head and said to Yu, "He is your father's good friend. He used to work in my house. Do you remember him?" No, Yu said, shaking his head, I don't remember anything.

Your father went to the Northeast to work, and he couldn't come back during the Chinese New Year.Mother handed a ladle of water to the carpenter, with a rare smile on her face, she said, Yu, your father brought money home, and he made a lot of money this year. Yu frowned and finished drinking the herbal medicine, and put the medicine bowl upside down on the table.He said, after I finished drinking, Yu raised his head and looked at the carpenter and his mother with puzzled eyes. They were also looking at Yu with the same eyes. The carpenter's face was covered with pimples and there was a big black mole.The carpenter suddenly smiled at Yu, showing his sauce-yellow teeth, and said, come here, and I'll give you candy.Yu said, I don't eat, I'm going out.Yu walked towards the door, and he heard his mother say in an apologetic tone, this child is not sensible, has a weird temper, and it's the damn headache that hurt him.

Yu leaned against the wall and eavesdropped on the conversation between his mother and the carpenter, but they didn't say anything more. Later, his mother led the carpenter into grandma's house. They were obviously discussing something, but Yu still couldn't hear what they were talking about. He vaguely felt that this matter had something to do with him. What on earth were they trying to do? The carpenter surnamed Wang later stayed in Yu's house.The next day the carpenter removed the door of Yu's room and spread it on two benches to make a table.Yu screamed at the carpenter, what are you doing?What are you going to do at my house?The carpenter said, ask your mother, and Yu ran to his mother. He said, he opened the door of my room, what is he going to do?My mother said that he was about to start working, and he couldn't do carpentry without door panels.Yu said, my father is also a carpenter, why doesn't he come to the house to do carpentry?Why let that person come?Mother became a little impatient, she rubbed the elm, elm, where are your ears?How many times have I told you that my father went to work far away and will not go home this year.Yu stopped talking, and after a while he said, is he going to open the cabinet for my house?Mother said, what's the use of opening the cabinet?It's not a cabinet, it's a coffin.Yu's face turned pale all of a sudden, and he turned his head to look at the tools in the main room. Yu grabbed her mother's arm, why hit the coffin?Who is the coffin for?Mother was washing rice, and she seemed to be in a bad mood that day.Yu saw her mother throwing the bamboo pan to the ground, she said, you annoying child, I can't bear it, who will you give the coffin to?Just sleep for you, sleep for you!

Yu watched in horror as the rice in the bamboo basket splashed by the side of the water tank.Mother was furious. She was wearing a calico jersey and blue khaki trousers with the sleeves and trousers rolled up. Her face turned red with irritability and anger. Yu saw beads of sweat on her forehead, which could be seen faintly. Some light blue blood vessels wriggled like earthworms.Yu felt that everything was caught off guard, he muttered, what did I do wrong?I didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't like that carpenter. Later, the mother bent down and picked up the rice on the ground, and continued to rinse with water.Mother said, "Yu, I didn't mean to get angry at you. I'm too tired. I don't know if the rice from washing is enough for him. The rice tank at home is almost empty, but your father won't come back."

The carpenter's planer creaked from morning to night, and the ground was covered with sawdust and those coils of shavings. The fragrance of wood changed the composition of the musty smell in the air, and the elm was always surrounded by the smell of wood in sleep. He was awakened by the sound, his door was gone, and now he could see the movement of the main room while lying on the bed. The carpenter bent over and pushed a certain board flat again and again, with a red and blue two-color pen stuck in his ear.There is a bottle of white wine on the table next to it, and the carpenter often stops his work and walks over to take a sip of the wine.While he was drinking, the family returned to tranquility. Yu heard grandma's old coughing and spitting sounds, and his mother was panting in the yard feeding the chickens.

Yu picked up a piece of wood shavings from the ground, and he dug two holes in it with a knife, and put them on the eyes.Then Yu sat by the fire and looked at the carpenter Wang through the two holes.The carpenter is pushing hard to flatten a board, his movements are mechanical and full of strength. Hey, why do you come to my house to work?Yu said, why not go to another house? The carpenter does not speak, and he rarely speaks except when he is working. My house doesn't want a coffin, why did you come to my house to make a coffin? The carpenter looked sideways at Yu, but there was no expression on his face.Yu saw his two fingers pull up an iron nail from the board, and threw it to the ground with a wave of his hand.

It's useless if you fight well.Yu said to the carpenter, no one in our family wants to sleep in a coffin unless you go to sleep by yourself. Yu heard the carpenter laugh loudly, he straightened up and walked around the board, raised his foot and kicked the sawdust all over the floor towards the corner.The carpenter touched the rectangular plank that gradually became smooth. He said that after the coffin was finished, someone would sleep there. The coffin is the best wooden utensil in the world, and you will understand when you grow up.Then the carpenter suddenly sat on the wooden board and lay down slowly. The carpenter's body lying horizontally looked extremely huge. He still smiled and said to Yu, lying on the coffin board is so comfortable, you will understand when you grow up. When the carpenter jumped to the ground, Yu couldn't help but backed up a few steps. The carpenter's bright eyes made Yu feel frightened.Yu saw the carpenter open his arms towards him, and he said, child, I will carry you up and taste the feeling of sleeping in a coffin. This is the best bed in the world, much more comfortable than your little bed.Yu leaned against the wall, almost crying, no, I don't want it.But the carpenter's powerful arms still embraced the elm.Yu felt that he landed lightly on the coffin board like a grass seed. The coffin board was icy cold, and the fragrance of pine wood was strong and matched, followed by a fatal dizziness, and Yu passed out on the coffin board. . Yu woke up half an hour later, and he saw his mother, the country doctor, and the seriously ill grandmother all around the bed.My mother's eyes were so red that she seemed to be crying all the time.Grandmother's old hands like chicken feet repeatedly stroked Yu's forehead.The country doctor said with a sigh of relief that he was fine now, he was just frightened. I don't sleep.Don't make me sleep in a coffin.Yu told his grandmother that he felt very weak, as if he had really died. Poor child, how can you sleep in a coffin?Grandma said, that is my birthday material, I am old, and I am about to enter the coffin. Yu sat up from the bed, and he saw the carpenter surnamed Wang still working in the main room.The carpenter turned his back to them, and no one could see his expression.Yu's mother said, "What did Carpenter Wang do to scare the child like this? I don't know what to say." Don't make me sleep in a coffin.Yu grabbed his mother and said, I'm afraid, you promise me not to let me sleep in the coffin. You can scare a child like this.Yu's mother choked up and said, "Yu, don't be afraid. You didn't hear grandma say that this is grandma's birthday cake. Your father respects grandma and specially invited Uncle Wang to come home to make this birthday cake." But I feel like I'm dying.My head is about to explode.Yu held his head and said in pain. This autumn, Yu no longer lives alone in a room, and sleeps with his grandma at night.The old and bitter smell of grandma accompanied Yu to sleep.Her nasty coughing went on from midnight until early morning.Yu was often awakened suddenly, and he saw grandma's mouth slightly open, like a black hole, and her cloudy eyes flickered under the light moonlight.In the main room outside, the carpenter surnamed Wang was snoring loudly, and Yu really wanted to plug his mouth with a rag.He complained about why they refused to sleep quietly for a while. It was almost dawn, and they had to get up at dawn. Strange is this autumn night.In the middle of the night, Yu saw grandma standing by the door leaning on the wall, her old and frail body swaying to and fro.Yu jumped out of bed to help her, Yu said, what are you doing, grandma?Grandma said, "I'll relieve myself, don't worry about me."Yu returned to the bed in a daze, and he heard grandma gnashing her teeth in the dark saying, slut, shameless slut.Yu didn't understand who grandma was scolding, he thought to himself, who is the slut?Anyone who doesn't sleep well is a slut. The white wooden coffin soon took shape, with half of it lying on the door panel and the other half leaning against the wall.Grandma often came out to supervise the carpenter. She knocked on the coffin wall with a walking stick and said, "It's thin, but I didn't cultivate any blessings in my previous life, so I am content to sleep in this coffin."The carpenter never explained anything. He just glanced at the old grandma with a mocking look. There was an unconcealable coldness in his eyes, and these eyes also made Yu feel deep fear and sadness. Yu's later astonishing move was aimed at the carpenter surnamed Wang.Yu accidentally found half a bottle of pesticide in the warehouse. The red letter and skull on the bottle label symbolized death.It is conceived that people in the village swallow this kind of pesticide and die every year.Yu thought about it, and then he poured half a bottle of pesticide into a water glass and quietly put it on the table. He knew that the carpenter surnamed Wang was used to drinking water from the table.It was noon, and the carpenter was sweating profusely patting the head between the two coffin boards.Yu peeped at the movement inside from the outside window. He saw the carpenter wiping his sweat, and then he stretched out his hand to the table and grabbed the water glass.Yu's heart was beating wildly, and he suddenly squatted down and covered his eyes. The carpenter surnamed Wang screamed wildly in the room, and the water cup flew out of the door and fell to the ground.Yu ran away, not daring to look back, and ran all the way to the playground of the rural primary school.There was no one on the playground, only a few big haystacks rustling in the breeze, Yu found a hole in the haystack, he went in, grabbed a few more bundles of grass to block the hole, everything became dark and boundless, One could faintly hear the sound of reading in the classroom of the primary school. Those children were healthy and healthy. They were reading this morning, and no one knew what Yu was doing. Yu heard the bell for the end of the elementary school, and the children rushed out of the classroom, passing the playground and the haystack where Yu lived. A child opened the hole, and he shouted in surprise, what are you doing hiding here?are you shittingYu covered his face with his hands, he whimpered and said, I have a headache, I have a terrible headache. In the evening, Yu climbed out of the haystack, and he walked home with a pale face and staggering.From a distance, I could see smoke coming from the chimney at home, and my mother was raising vegetables in the vegetable field in front of the door, as if nothing had happened.When Yu walked to the door of the house, his mother said, Yu, where have you been all day?Yu stopped, and stretched out his fingers to pick at the putty on the door frame.The mother said again, looking at your distraught appearance, has anyone bullied you?Yu shook his head, he said, I have a headache, I have a terrible headache. Yu shivered when he stepped into the house, and the carpenter surnamed Wang sat alone at the table sipping wine.The carpenter's eyes pierced Yu's heart as sharply as a knife.Yu lowered his head and kicked the shavings on the ground.He heard the carpenter chuckle.The carpenter said, are you back?Your mother has been looking for you for a long time.Yu said, what do you want me for?The carpenter said, do nothing.My work is done and I'm leaving tomorrow.Yu looked up and saw the white coffin standing by the wall. He had never been so close to a coffin before.The newly opened coffin has a clean and smooth surface, exuding a fragrance of trees. Is this coffin well beaten?said the carpenter. I have no idea.Elm said.Anyway, I don't want to sleep in a coffin, no matter how good it is. You are a smart kid.The carpenter came over, put one hand on Yu's shoulder, and twisted Yu's face with the other hand. He said, this is the best coffin I have ever made. Someone in your family will always sleep in this coffin. A good coffin. The carpenter surnamed Wang left the village the next morning.Yu was surprised that he didn't disclose the matter of pesticides. A kind of deep confusion enveloped Yu's future life. Yu couldn't ignore the traces and shadows left by the carpenter surnamed Wang at home. Autumn and leaves gradually go with the wind. The huge coffin was parked on one side of the main room, and the sunlight illuminated one corner of the coffin through the window couch, while the other half was an irregular shadow part.This was during the day, and at night Yu still dared not look at the coffin, he was afraid that it would suddenly open the cover and lock him inside.At night, Yu still heard something creaking and creaking in the house. He suspected that the sound came from the inside of the coffin, the most secret and darkest place. My mother said that grandma's illness was getting worse every day, and I'm afraid she wouldn't survive this autumn.Grandma said so herself.Autumn has passed, but grandma is still fine. She put on a cotton quilt, sat on the bed with a small heater in her arms, and coughed loudly, and grandma's temper became weird and unpredictable. She often sat on the bed and cursed Um Yu didn't know why, he saw tears in his mother's eyes, and Yu didn't know if grandma would die, he didn't want grandma to die, but once grandma died, he would sleep in that coffin, and The coffin will also be carried out of the main room and buried in the cemetery by the river, which is what Yu hopes. Yu Ye didn't dare to sleep with grandma anymore, so he started to move to his mother's room for the night.This made Yu's sleep sweet and calm. Yu once saw her mother put a lot of plasters on her stomach. Yu said, why did you put so many plasters on? My mother replied, "My stomach hurts, and it doesn't hurt after I put the plasters on." .This is a detail that Yu recalled a long time later, and it helped Yu finally figure out the cause of her mother's death. One cold and windy morning, Yu found her mother lying on her back in the warehouse, the bottle of pesticide used by Yu was dumped beside her.Yu smelled a strong choking smell, which was a mixture of pesticides and wound plasters. Yu was almost suffocated. He struggled to hold his mother's hand, which was cold and stiff. Yu's mother stayed at home for three days.The villagers who came to watch the spirit whispered among each other. They asked Yu many inexplicable things, among which the carpenter surnamed Wang was mentioned many times.Yu just cried and said, I don't know, I don't know, I thought grandma was dying, I don't know why my mother died.People in the village said that the child is not sensible yet, and if his grandma doesn't say anything, who can tell? Yu's father didn't go home to attend the funeral. Everyone knew that he was also a carpenter who wandered the streets, but no one knew where he was. On the fourth day, Yu's mother was put into the coffin.The coffin was in primary colors and hadn't been painted yet because everything was caught off guard.Death is an unexpected event.Yu followed the four men who carried the coffin and walked towards the river. It was when the frost fell in the morning, and the frost from the snow fell silently on the coffin and on the heads of the mourners. The scenery is as solemn and serene as ever, suitable for any form of funeral. On the road a few steps away from the cemetery, Yu suddenly stopped.Yu's eyes fell on the front of the road, where a carpenter with tools on his shoulders appeared, and the mourners also stopped and looked there.Someone said, could it be Yu's father?They soon discovered that it was not Yu's father. There were many craftsmen in the village on the upper reaches of the road, and it was another strange carpenter who appeared this morning. I'm afraid. It was at this time that Yu let out a shrill scream.He pushed away the crowd and galloped on the road. Yu Yu wore a white burlap cloth and galloped on the road. From a distance, he looked like a galloping horse with a mane.