Chapter 58 first quarter

Leng Yueruoxue sat alone in the yurt.This yurt is not a home for grassland people to live and multiply, nor is it a place for herdsmen to shelter from the wind and snow, but a place called Jiukeshu about 100 kilometers away from Shacheng, where three or five simple tents are set up for tourists to eat and stay. It has become a tourist attraction for the citizens of Shacheng.The yurt is small and dimly lit. Looking from the high rolled up curtain, there is a row of poplar trees outside.Leng Yueruoxue silently counted the trees, no more, no less, nine in total.This is the origin of the place name Jiukeshu.

Jiukeshu is located on the edge of the Badain Jaran Desert bordering the Gobi. Apart from yellow sand and pebbles, there are also a few camel thorns and wild seabuckthorn scattered on the open space in front of the yurt.In the dead yellow, camel thorns and wild sea buckthorn sporadic spots of green deduce the silent decline and desolation.It is said that trees that can grow in the desert are even rarer. Populus euphratica can be regarded as the king of trees in the desert. Once it takes root in the desert, it will not die for 3,000 years, and it will not fall for 3,000 years after death.However, the tall and straight poplar trees in front of us have been standing in decline and desolation for several years along with the years of quicksand. What is the strength to support them?No more, no less, a total of nine trees, what does this mean?Is it the tenacity of life?Or spiritual eternity?Although poplars are just ordinary trees, they are trees that grow on the edge of the desert and cannot be ignored.From time to time, there is an endless stream of people coming in groups. In the early years, it was a caravan leading camels, and later it was a tourist group driving a car. When people stop here, they will look up at the trees with what kind of respect and show their respect for What a worship of life!

Nine Trees Leng Yue Ruoxue has been here many times for the literary pen fair held here every year.Writers and literature lovers from the west (sometimes also from the east) gave speeches and expressed their literary opinions on the edge of this slightly empty desert, and then went to Nine Trees to pull down a banner of "XX PEN Club" for a group photo; You can also climb to the sand dunes not far away, watch the endless, undulating sand sea, or watch the spectacular sunset and sunrise in the desert.When literary friends are enjoying the scenery and taking pictures with great interest, Leng Yueruoxue usually sits alone in the yurt; and when others come back, she walks to the desert alone.She likes to be alone.

As the sun was setting, Leng Yueruoxue climbed up a sand dune alone.Looking around, the desert seems to be rolling with Jinbo, and she can't help linking the desert with the ocean, even though she has spent decades of her life in the west, and even though she has only seen the real ocean once, she is able to Feeling the breath of the sea in the long yellow sand, or the breath of life that once existed, made her have an infinite nostalgia for the desert, so much so that she was bored with the nine trees standing abruptly in front of her, and felt the abruptness of the trees. And unnecessary.Is it the tree that breaks the tranquility of the desert?They attracted yurts, many people, many cars, as well as discarded packaging bags and sheep bones after people left, making the pure desert full of fishy smell.It's like the long-lasting breath permeating in this yurt, wrapping her.Sometimes she felt that she should flee immediately, farther into the heart of the desert.

Going to the hinterland of the desert is the fantasy that Leng Yueruoxue has dreamed of for many years, and it often makes her passionate.Because of this, she often thinks of San Mao who is far away from the world.Legend has it that Sanmao went to the Sahara Desert in pursuit of eternal love, where he and Jose lived a life like a paradise of love and affection.Is it true?Perhaps, Sanmao's original purpose of walking into the desert was just to escape?What about Jose?Some people speculate that he is the protagonist of Sanmao's fictional love.Fiction should also be part of escaping, right?

At this moment, Leng Yueruoxue was sitting on the oil-stained rough cloth sofa in the yurt.On the small table in front of her was a tin pot and several white porcelain bowls with gilt rims. The bowls were filled with cheese, butter, brick tea, rock sugar, nuts and so on.If the guests want to drink milk tea, they can put the tea ingredients in the porcelain bowl into the tin pot by themselves, add mare's milk, and boil it on the charcoal stove in the center of the yurt.Drinking self-service milk tea is a tourist feature here.When Leng Yueruoxue first arrived, she made herself a bowl of milk tea, but the milky white thick liquid in the tea bowl was completely cold, so she didn't drink it, but stared at the nine poplar trees outside the curtain, Think of something to do with the desert.It can be said that very few people really like the desert. Although people often associate the desert with the ocean, it can only be the sea of ​​death, filled with dry breath of death that can devour life.Or, Sanmao who once walked into the desert is just a special case of love. She eulogizes the desert as she eulogizes love.Just like the nine poplar trees standing on the edge of the desert, they are just a special case of life in the harsh natural environment.

However, after all, Leng Yueruoxue can't go to the hinterland of the desert to pursue the unforgettable love like San Mao did back then.A love built in the desert is too groundless and unreliable, like a mirage.Jose's death is a fateful interpretation of Sanmao's mirage-like love.Every time Leng Yueruoxue came to the edge of the desert called Jiukeshu—in the name of PEN, of course, it was not just to find the passion and materials for creation.She just wanted to take a look. The undulating and endless yellow sand in the distance is like strands of love threads that will never stop, carrying her nostalgia and family affection for a lifetime, so clean and holy that she has no distracting thoughts; while the setting sun The sea of ​​sand with sparkling golden waves below made her linger even more.

It is said that the mother was born in Jiukeshu.In the year my mother was born, except for the nine poplar trees standing against the desert wind in this desolate place, there were few people here, and occasionally a caravan on camels or horses passed by.One day, when a middle-aged couple who were riding a camel and dressed strangely passed by, they saw a woman in a red turban leaning against a poplar tree from a distance, with a bundle tied to her chest. Wrapping a slightly crying baby.The baby appeared to have been crying for a long time, and his voice was hoarse and intermittent.The middle-aged couple walked over and yelled at the woman twice, but there was no response.she died.Not far behind the woman lay several bloody male corpses and several dead horses.It seems that there has been a killing here not long ago.This is a common occurrence, and caravans traveling between the desert and the Gobi are often attacked by bandits.Shatoubao, not far from Jiukeshu, is the lair of bandits. From Pingan County to Dunhuang, including the Ayou Banner and Shahu area between the Tengger Desert and the Badain Jaran Desert, the area centered on Shatoubao Hundreds of miles is the area where bandit activities are most frequent.This is also the reason why Nine Trees is inaccessible to people. The rampant bandits make it a dead zone.

The middle-aged couple unwrapped the woman's chest and saw a crescent-shaped wound on the baby's left cheek. The wound was very long, and the flesh had been opened, extending from the corner of the mouth to the left earlobe.Probably in order to stop the bleeding, the dying mother pressed a layer of fine sand on the baby's wound, and the dark red blood mixed with the sand had already solidified on the baby's pale face. The middle-aged couple were witch doctors from the Western Regions. They took away the baby, which was a baby girl.That baby girl is Leng Yueruoxue's mother.

That being the case, Jiukeshu is not the real birthplace of the mother.But Leng Yueruoxue has nothing to do, she doesn't know who the person killed in Jiukeshu is and where she came from, so she just thinks Jiukeshu or the desert as her mother's hometown, which is also her own hometown. Leng Yueruoxue sitting in the yurt stared at the row of poplar trees.It is the end of summer, and the leaves on the treetops are turning yellow. Slowly, the yellow will become more and more serious, from light yellow to withered yellow, and will eventually blend with the surrounding yellow sand.Behind the poplar tree, a man in a red T-shirt was holding a camera and taking pictures endlessly. He was busy there for most of the afternoon, and he didn't know whether he wanted to take pictures of the trees or the sand dunes in the distance.Later, the man left the tree and walked towards the sand dunes. As he gradually moved away, he condensed into a small red dot in the background of the yellow sand.The place he walked left a series of shallow traces, and the breeze swept by, and the traces were quickly covered by fine sand.

Looking at the moving red dots in the distance, Leng Yueruoxue thought, there is nothing left for a person in the desert, so how can he regard the desert as his hometown?She couldn't help feeling sad.But she didn't expect that the man in the red T-shirt would take endless pictures of the deserted yellow sand.Or, like himself, he is also an obsessed person with a soft spot for the desert?Under Leng Yueruoxue's gaze, the red dot went further and further away.Is he really the same as himself?Go to the sand sea to find it, or escape?Her gaze couldn't help following the fuzzy moving red dot obsessively. Leng Yueruoxue is no longer young.Facing the vast sea of ​​sand, she can still feel a kind of passion, mostly because she thinks of her mother—a mother who has no foundation and no sustenance. This passion can only be the struggle and unwillingness of life.As a woman, she also had expectations for romance, but she never placed such expectations on the desert.Because she didn't want the result she expected to turn into a fleeting mirage in the desert, and then fall into a deep loss. After a long time, the red dot has not left her sight.