Chapter 48 forty seven

Maria goes on a trip (1) Maria stood on the wasteland, blowing the south wind, her mood suddenly brightened.She came by late night train.At that time, she fell asleep on the train, and the train swayed, and she had many strange dreams. After waking up, she forgot all of them, and only remembered a dream about snakes.In the dream, those nimble and delicate green snakes drilled into her house everywhere.Then a stranger's voice was heard in the house, and the snakes swam up into the air one by one and disappeared.She didn't wake up when the train arrived at the station, it was the conductor who woke her up.The conductor was a snub-nosed little girl with freckles, sort of Cambodian.She stood aside and watched Maria pack her luggage, as if she wanted to say something, but stopped talking.When she got out of the car, she also helped her carry her luggage, exhorting her old-fashioned way: "The weather outside

It's cold, you need to prevent a cold. "Maria felt that she was a little strange. This is a place called "North Island", which was Maria's childhood dream.Her grandfather had told her about this place in a few words before he died.In the following years, Maria would have this thought in her mind from time to time—could the North Island be her real hometown?At this moment, she felt that she did not come here on a whim, but came here after decades of premeditation.It was a secret trip, and she didn't even tell Daniel. The house is hidden in the bamboo forest, and it is a village that occupies a large area.Maria had never seen such a tall bamboo tree, taller than trees like poplar, and the bare trunk made people feel frightened.The village consists of thatched-roofed earthen houses scattered sparsely over a large area.

The taxi driver took her to the entrance of the village and left.Looking at the endless wasteland, Maria was full of doubts: what do these villagers do for a living? According to the prior contact, she was received.A tall woman with a manly voice took her suitcase and led her through the bamboo forest.The woman was barefoot, wearing a dark blue linen gown, with a heavy bronze bun hanging down her back.Maria thought that this woman named "Ulla" was about 40 years old, and she also felt that her whole body was filled with the power of a beast.The woman walked too fast and always had to stop and wait for Maria, which made Maria feel very sorry.

They stopped in front of a mud house. This house was larger than the others, but it was very old and decayed, and even the wooden door was rickety.As soon as you enter the door, you will find a large main room. In the room, there are many large ceramic water tanks along the walls. There is a huge square table in the middle of the room. Those wooden chairs are also thick and big, but they look very comfortable.Maria thought, maybe the people here are very tall.After Maria sat down in the chair, Ulla disappeared.She heard the water in the tank make a "ding dong" sound, as if there were aquatic animals staying in it.Maria looked into the bedroom, and saw that the quilt on the bed was of a very aggressive color. The home-woven homemade cloth was dyed dark blue with a pattern of golden flowers on it, emitting ambiguous light in the dim light. "How beautiful!" Maria was secretly surprised in her heart, and for a moment there was some kind of regret in her heart, feeling that she was not good at those handmade weaves.

Someone knocked on the door, and Maria went to open it, and saw a man with a figure like an iron tower, whose hair was already white.He asked if Ulla was there, and Maria said she had just left. "Poor woman!" said the man as he bent down and lifted the lids of the water tanks to examine them. Because the room was too dark, Maria couldn't see the animals in the water tanks clearly, but she vaguely saw that there was a big thing in each tank.The tank is very deep, and they try to climb out, but they can't. "What kind of animal is this?" Maria couldn't help asking.

"It's unique to our place. They used to be wild, but they have been domesticated for many years. At first they came to the village in groups, jumped into our water tank and squatted down. Later We just turned them into domesticated animals. We called them 'golden turtles', but they didn't have shells. In this house, they were raised by Ula. Before we lived on rice, and then the golden tortoises came, so we didn't have shells. People are planting food again. You saw it when you came here, the land is completely deserted, what a turtle of desire. How does the old saying go? 'Where there is desire, there is wasteland', right?"

When the man spoke, Bai Shengsheng's teeth gleamed, which made Maria terrified. She always felt that this man was prone to violence, but she also thought that this kind of violence was harmless. "Why did the beetle seek death?" Maria fell into confusion. "Probably they want to live a life of security. Every tank is a dungeon." "What do they eat?" "They have stopped eating for a long time, and live on their own nutrition. So think about it, who would not want to do this kind of business without capital? Just change the water every other day! And a beetle can be sold for 200 yuan. The days are long , the people in the village have also become like golden turtles. Didn’t you see anyone on the way here? Because everyone is lying in their own homes. Except for children, most of them are lying down.”

"Why lie down? You can go out and play." "Who is in the mood to play? They are all thinking about their own painful lives." "Ulla is like this too?"