Chapter 17 second quarter

Luo Yang still remembers that in the early winter when he was five years old, the severe cold came to Ping'an County prematurely.The northwest wind howled all night, and the county town turned into a world of pure white snow sculptures. The morning after the snow was very quiet.Just after dawn, a visitor from afar suddenly came to the Luo family.She got off the plane in the provincial capital, took the train to Shacheng, and then came to the county seat by ox cart.The middle-aged man driving the cart parked the ox cart in front of the Luo’s courtyard, unloaded the two suitcases of the guests and put them in the snow, and then there was the sound of “moo-moo” yelling at the old cow and waving his whip. the crackling sound.The bullock cart left, and the creaking and creaking of the wheels resounded through the whole street.The warm breath of the distant guest permeated the cold air.The family members were startled, they walked out of the house one after another, looked at the guests standing in front of the courtyard, and looked at each other in a daze, speechless for a moment.

The visitor was an old lady who was not very old, she looked much younger than my grandfather.She was wearing a dark red woolen coat, with a layer of fluffy white snowflakes on her head and shoulders.Her short gray hair is curly, with beautiful ripples. She wears a pair of tortoiseshell glasses on her straight and straight nose. Her fair skin shows an irresistible elegance and richness. What a beautiful old lady! The grandfather stared blankly for a while, then walked up to her tremblingly, showing a child-like joyful expression, and said, "You are back!" The old lady said, "I'm back."

Grandpa said: "Aren't you leaving?" The old lady said, "I'm not leaving." The old lady turned to her father and said, "You are Luo Xinyu, right? I haven't seen you for decades, and you should be a father." So the grandfather turned to his father and said, "Come here, Xinyu. She is your aunt. You liked playing with her the most when you were young. You even cut off her silk handkerchief and gave me a slap in the ass." The father smiled naively, and called "Auntie" to the old lady with a cooing voice as if someone had pinched his throat. He walked over with his head down, picked up the suitcase in the snow and put it back in the main room.

The mother also called out "Auntie", then followed behind her father and asked in a low voice, "I have been married to your family for several years, why have I never heard anyone mention that you have such a decent aunt?" The father replied in a low voice: "I will tell you later..." and stopped talking. Probably because the grandfather was too happy and didn't know what to do, it took a long time to pull Luo Yang who was leaning against the door but still blindfolded, and solemnly led him to the guests and said, this is Xinyu's son. , I am five years old this year, and I want Luo Yang to call my aunt again.

The cold air in the yard and the sudden appearance of strange visitors made Luo Yang wake up quickly.He stared fixedly at the strangely beautiful old lady in front of him (it was the first time he saw an old lady with red clothes and curly hair in the small county town when he was five years old), and guessed her suspiciously. identity and history.The aunt looked at Luo Yang kindly, and took out a beautiful and delicate paper box from her handbag and stuffed it into his hand.Therefore, Luo Yang saw the pair of white and plump hands and the turquoise jade bracelet on the wrist from a very close distance.

In Luo Yang's memory, his grandmother also had such a jade bracelet.But grandma kept the jade bracelet in a black wooden box and only took it out occasionally to look at it.He couldn't imagine what the yellow and thin grandmother's hand would look like with the jade bracelet on.In Luo Yang's impression, her grandmother was always dry and thin, with a tired and malnourished look on her face, as if her jade bracelet never matched her skinny arms—maybe this was why the grandmother locked the jade bracelet forever. Why is it in the box?Luo Yang once made such an inference when he was young.

The whole family greeted the guests before welcoming the old lady whom Luo Yang called his aunt into the main room.The mother called half a basin of hot water for the guests to wash their faces.Grandfather took out the jade tea set that had not been used for a long time, and brewed a pot of fragrant tea named Fenghuang Dancong. Luo Yang was still standing in the yard, and he opened the beautiful paper box that his aunt gave him.The snow light reflected on the colorful balls of cellophane in the box, which were some colorful candies he had never seen before. It was an amazing day.The adults drank tea and chatted with the guests throughout the morning.During the conversation, everyone noticed that the grandfather used the word "you" very vaguely when talking to the old lady.Moreover, in the days to come, my grandfather always used "you" to address her when speaking to her aunt, until one day the two of them passed away one after another.

Many years later, Luo Yang, who had grown up, couldn't figure out why his grandfather used "you" when speaking to a person who was his peer and looked many years younger than him. It was a more polite address for his aunt. Or was he deliberately nasal when he spoke?Or maybe the aunt is actually older than the grandfather?Until one day, Luo Yang, who has become a well-known lawyer, heard a colleague half-jokingly dismantling the meaning of the word "you" at the wine table. The colleague fabricated that "you" means putting "you" on "heart".There seems to be some truth.Luo Yang completely believed this statement, and couldn't help but think to himself, the grandfather had such respect for his aunt back then, is it because he always cared about her all his life?

However, soon, the whole family suddenly realized that the appearance of the aunt in Luo's house shocked the grandmother greatly, or it was a blow. In the whole family, grandmother is usually the first to get up.On the morning when my aunt arrived, my grandmother got up earlier than usual. After cleaning the snow in the yard and spreading a layer of burnt charcoal in the yard to prevent slipping, she started to light the stove and prepare the family's breakfast.When my aunt was wrapped in a snowstorm and pushed open the courtyard door, my grandmother was going to the kitchen with a dustpan of crushed briquettes in her hand.My aunt called out "sister".The grandmother turned her head and stared at her, her body was frozen in shock, her mouth was half-opened for a long while, she didn't know if she didn't want to believe the facts in front of her or she was really hard to confirm the unexpected guest in front of her.After a while, grandma finally seemed to recognize the stranger in front of her. She said in a low voice, you are finally back!As the words fell, her face immediately darkened as if it was covered with soot, and she walked silently to the kitchen with the dustpan in her hand, leaving the visitors and family members in the yard to dry.Later, the whole family sat around the main room drinking tea and chatting with the guests, but the grandmother was never seen.

That day, my grandmother kept doing housework, but her spirits were sluggish, and she was as silent as the pair of stone rollers outside the door.She has swept the yard three times.The briquettes brought into the kitchen are stacked like hills behind the stove and can be burned for at least half a month.She also rummaged through the old mattresses that had been left unused for many years and the clothes that Luo Yang had never seen worn by anyone, hung them on the porch and dusted them again and again.However, winter is not the season for drying clothes and bedding, and she doesn't need to be so busy at all.

For many years, those colorful and eccentric clothes that my grandmother found out and hung in the porch always flashed in Royan's mind.Later, Luo Yang realized based on the movies and movies he had watched that they were probably the dowry of his grandmother when he was young. They were in the style of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. The skirts or skirts were embroidered with various flowers, and the neckline and cuffs were edged with black satin.One day later, Luo Yang returned to his hometown and wanted to see his grandmother's clothes again. He searched in the old house, but he couldn't find them anyway.He wasn't sure if his grandmother had brought her wedding dress to another world when she passed away, a world that belonged only to her.