Chapter 19 Flying over my hometown of maple and poplar

Until the early 1950s, the area around my hometown, Maple Poplar, was covered with fields of poppies that are rarely seen in the south.In spring, the wilderness on both sides of the river was invaded by scarlet red, layer upon layer, with extraordinary charm, like a vast red wave swaying the remote villages, swaying the bloody breath exhaled by my fellow villagers.My uncle Yao was still in the country, and everyone said that he was like a wild dog haunting the firewood stacks, poppy fields, dry dung piles, and fat women in his hometown, and he didn't want to go home.I often think of him a thousand miles away, and think of him sitting in the big red flowers of the maple and poplar hometown, a short, strong and dark country man, facing the direction of the southwest city, with sleepy and dreamy faces on his small face Laughing and wanting to scold with a weird look, he sang a lot of messy songs, one of which was calling for his beloved dog.

Dog, dog, come here and take me to the cold kiln to kiss my little girl Grandfather lived in the city, old and feeble, but his memory was vivid.Whenever dusk fell, the house would be full of dusty grandfather's sighs.He refused to sleep for a long time, "I might be blind when I wake up tomorrow." So he sat in the darkening room with his eyes wide open, quiet and vigorous, like an ancient bronze eagle.My Uncle Yao can be seen in my grandfather's pupils dilated by memories.The grandfather got his younger son mixed up with a pack of wild dogs.In the past, Uncle Yao was just like a ghost, he loved to wear a sun hat from the city, and wandered in the poppy field with a strange appearance.One summer he threw his sun hat into the river and became fascinated by a pack of wild dogs.As a result, people saw the young master of the rich man's family hanging out with wild dogs all day long, crazy, not human, not dog, which became a rare scandal in the maple poplar village. "That beast is ignorant of worldly affairs, he only understands the nature of a dog." The grandfather cursed Uncle Yao.He said, "Leave him alone, let him become a dog too." My grandfather was saddened to think of that ghost.How many nights Uncle Yao was full of energy, followed the wild dogs scurrying all over the ground, stumbling and running on the field ridges, his footprints closely followed the dog's pebble-shaped hoofprints, all over every corner of the maple and poplar village.Sometimes Uncle Yao would break into a fellow villager's house to beg for water, out of breath, and the dog would bark loudly in the nearby fields.All the villagers of Fengyangshu who lived along the river knew Uncle Yao. When talking about Uncle Yao, they thought he was reincarnated from a ghost.During the Ching Ming Festival, when the family members lined up in a single file and went to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors, no one could find the figure of Uncle Yao.The grandfather kowtowed to the ancestral tablet in resentment, and when he came across a plate of offering fruit, he asked hoarsely, "The ancestor has a spirit. Did the wild dog seduce my son, or did my son seduce that wild dog?" The grandfather said desperately. It is foreseen that Uncle Yao's eccentric and hateful soul will live forever in the wild.Decades later, my grandfather sat under the roof of the city in a daze, polishing the bamboo couch made of maple and poplar until it shined. He told his family over and over again how Uncle Yao was abandoned when the flood came. , He said that a large white wooden boat was full of forty people and property in the family. When the anchor was about to be lifted, Uncle Yao and the wild dog arrived at the shore one after the other.Uncle Yao asked, "Where are you going?" No one answered him, but many hands went to drag him into the boat, and after a long time he couldn't move, when he found that the ghost's leg was tied with a long rope. A large wild dog is closely linked.When grandfather jumped down to untie the rope, Uncle Yao struggled desperately to free himself, scratching his face.When the grandfather scolded his mother to find the big axe, Uncle Yao yelled at the dog in panic, "Leopard, leopard, run, run away!" The scene was like two little beasts, rushing out of the hunter's muzzle one after the other.Grandfather looked up to the sky and let out a mournful cry, knowing that the boat should go away, and that ghost should be lost. "I can see maple poplars, as long as my eyes are not blind, I can see maple poplars every day." Grandfather said, in his desolate heart, it is enough to make red poppies grow in large tracts, so that Uncle Yao and His dog tramples every moment.Uncle Yao died in 1956, during the last glorious years of poppies.His death is related to a dog, a woman and other inexplicable things.Since the death of Uncle Yao, poppies have disappeared in the maple and poplar villages. Since then, the black soil there has grown rice as crystal as pearls and wheat as bright as gold.

How many times I have flown over the distant hometown of maple and poplar in my dreams.I saw myself approaching a muddy yellow river running from east to west every day.I forded the river to the left bank.On the left bank, the red waves and mighty poppy field rolled up the dragon's head and gale, carrying me into the vague hometown of maple and poplar.One day, in Fengyangshu Village, the white banners were waving, and a gray mist rose from the roof of the house.There were many figures running here and there in the smoke, crying and crying, and the atmosphere was filled with panic all day long, as if the scene of the river flooding the village many years ago was reproduced.Did I witness the disaster across thousands of mountains and valleys?

That day was the death day of my Uncle Yao.The soul of the deceased Uncle Yao did not find a home and continued to wander all over the village, making the quiet village very noisy.When my maple and poplar folks went to the Tong family's old house to attend the funeral in the smoky wind of poppies, they heard a resonant sound similar to a death knell in their ears. They seemed to see Uncle Yao sitting on the stone mill in front of the old house. One leg crossed over the other, one after another big feet covered in dust, grass clippings and dog dung, five toes splayed boldly pointing to the sky.He smiled generously and gently, but his arms covered with lumpy flesh grabbed the bell rope on the old elm tree ferociously.

The dead man, Uncle Yao, struck his own death knell. The sound came from heaven or from the depths of the earth, making the villagers shudder.They loved and feared Uncle Yao. Many old people and women mourned on the anniversary of his death, and softly shouted at the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, plants and trees: "Take him, take him." Once upon a time, in my hometown of maple and poplar, everyone had a spirit tablet made of bamboo and placed it high in the clan house since birth.After a person dies, the spirit card burns and dies, and turns into an auspicious bird to carry the dead to heaven.After listening to my grandfather tell the story of the spirit card, I knew that Uncle Yao was an unlucky ghost who lost the spirit card.But no one can tell the secret.There is a legend that Uncle Yao has been wandering in the village and humiliating the village rules. After having a strange dream, the patriarch ran to the river, tied a spiritual tablet in his pocket around a stone and fell into the bottom of the river; One day, Suizi, a crazy woman, sneaks into the clan's public house and steals Uncle Yao's spirit card. She goes into the field alone and lights a bonfire, and burns Uncle Yao's spirit card in a frenzy, crying and laughing.My grandfather didn't believe these legends at all. He stared at the ceiling with dejected eyes and said to me, "Your Uncle Yao took the spirit card himself, and he sold the spirit card to the folks who were afraid of death. He used the money to drink and have sex with women." , that must be the case. He will do a lot of bad things when he is fifteen or sixteen."

But if my Uncle Yao’s spirit card is still standing in the patriarch’s house, I will fly to the distant hometown of Maple and Poplar, and bring Uncle Yao’s spirit back to the city and relatives he has never been to.I, a descendant of Fengyangshu people, will enter the Tong family ancestral hall and meet the ninety-one-year-old patriarch.The old patriarch's house was built on a sunny mound, and the windows were not opened, just a dark doorway sucked me in.I was dizzy in a cloud of musty, dark air.Subconsciously, he touched the light cord, fumbled along the wall with his hands, and suddenly caught a bundle of dusty bamboo sticks.The bamboo stick was terribly heavy, I lost it and kept bumping into the house, until it finally hit the patriarch's face, it was very painful, like hitting a century-old tree.Immediately afterwards, a ray of flame rose in front of his eyes.My ninety-one-year-old patriarch held up a candle.There is no light in his house.I saw the holy and detached face of the old patriarch clearly by the candlelight. His dry and old body was naked, old and vigorous, and his eyes burst out with blue flames that were younger than mine.what are you looking forTell me where Uncle Yao's spirit card is.

I don't know when I lost it.If the spirit card is lost, it cannot be found.The patriarch smiled kindly at me above the candlelight.And I rummaged through the pile of bamboo sticks distrustfully.I can smell the smell of poppies in the room getting stronger and stronger, and I can see the crowds on the walls and the ground to see the spikes of dried poppies, and even the old patriarch himself turns into a huge poppy, suffocating Ning Xin's country air.I was sweating profusely looking for it, and saw the names of all the maple and poplar people in the pile of bamboo sticks, including the names of grandfather and father, as well as mine, except that there was no spirit card of Uncle Yao.Who stole my Uncle Yao's spirit card?

When I asked the old patriarch loudly, seeing his face gradually disappearing into the darkness, he breathed a sigh of relief, blew out the candle in his hand, and drove me out.I walked down the mound in a daze, and I will search for the last trace of Uncle Yao in the hometown of Maple Poplar.With my sensitivity to the black rubber shoes worn by Uncle Yao, I will smell his smell mixed with sweat and wine.Vinyl shoes are produced in factories in our city.On the day of my 60th birthday, my grandfather saw a torrential rain falling outside the window. He suddenly remembered something and braved the rain and went to the street to buy those black rubber shoes. It was the only gift my grandfather gave Uncle Yao in his life.I heard that Uncle Yao put on black rubber shoes for the first time during the Ghost Festival in July and a half.The Ghost Festival has evolved into the Flower Burning Festival in the area of ​​Maple and Poplar.Every time the elders who stayed in my hometown recalled the past of the Flower Festival, it made me feel like I was in a fairyland.They said that Uncle Yao was standing next to a bullock cart in shiny black rubber shoes.The bullock cart is full of sun-dried poppies, ready to go.The whole body of the cow is covered with fragrant peanut oil and poppy pollen, and it is tied to the car Xuan in a dazzling way.Uncle Yao raised his bamboo whip. They said that was the most beautiful time for him in the village. He jumped onto the car seat, and his big black rubber shoes gently tapped the belly of the cow twice. The big ghosts and little ghosts followed Uncle Yao all over the car. let's go.Under the clear sky and blue sky, the firecrackers ignited, and a cloud of dark red smoke rose from the bullock cart, galloping across the wilderness like flowing clouds.Behind Uncle Yao, big ghosts and little ghosts transformed into dried flowers, buds, and leaves in the flames. They all excitedly stirred up, and the wilderness was filled with shrill and magical voices of ghosts.People heard Uncle Yao laughing happily. Before the ghost-sending flames could lick his back, Uncle Yao sang and shouted, as happy as a fairy.Every year, Uncle Yao acts as a ghost sender, which seems to be the only thing he is willing to do in his hometown of Fengyangshu.They said that when the cow saw the black rubber shoes, it screamed: "The bull's eyes see the National People's Congress." My uncle's two black rubber shoes were like two disaster peaks, oppressing the nerves of the cows.He often told others about hearing the cows cursing him as he walked past the pen.Uncle Yao will die.That's what the maple and poplar cattle say.Those old cows who send ghosts have appeared in my dreams many times.I saw many cows die under Yaoshu's buttocks.The spirits of the beasts were stunned by the poisonous flower flames, and were driven mad by the atmosphere of the Ghost Festival.A bull finally broke free from Yaoshu's shackles, escaped from the ghosts, and finally forded the river of maple and poplar trees.I tried my best to imagine the image of the bull flying away, hoping that it escaped all disasters, and I wanted the bull to wear a pair of huge black rubber shoes.My grandfather once predicted that Uncle Yao would die under the hoof of a cow.He had a vague feeling in his heart that the black rubber shoes given to Uncle Yao would become a disaster and arouse a lot of jealousy.In 1956, news of the death of Uncle Yao came from the countryside, saying that he died in the river in his hometown.When he died, he was naked, with a pair of black rubber shoes on his feet.

I was just born in 1956, a beautiful and quiet baby.But in my memory, I clearly witnessed that night of vigil.The sound of autumn cicadas floated in the moonlight, and the stone mill of the old house was surrounded by dark guardians.Silent people stand like a mountain peak, and many old people, women, children and men are scattered in order to surround a lotus heart-my dead Uncle Yao.I heard a snow-white boy knocking on the bamboo clapper, and he knocked sixty-six times every time a stick of incense was burned. The thirty-six bamboo clappers gradually thickened the night.I was sleeping in the cradle with a crying expression on my face, immersed in a kind of simple sadness from family affection.For the first time, I saw Uncle Yao who had died from drowning. He was blue all over, with his eyes wide open, lying beside the huge stone mill in his hometown.The spiritual field is thousands of miles away from me, and it seems to be set beside my cradle.My little life was surrounded by mountains, rivers, people and animals in my hometown of maple and poplar, my face was flushed and I was panting endlessly.The river where Uncle Yao was drowned was exposed in my eyes, the river was buzzing under the moonlight, and the poppies on the left bank that could not be seen to the side fluctuated and swayed with the wind, overflowing with infinite scarlet desire.A tragic atmosphere of life and death filled the whole world. I was moved by something profound and heavy, and I stood up unsteadily from the cradle, crying loudly at the moon outside the window.My grandfather, my parents and brothers ran over in panic and saw me standing in the cradle crying like a trance, a pure tear in my eyes became brighter and brighter.Did I still see Uncle Yao's spirit floating from the river's left bank to the right bank, glowing all over his body?Did I foresee that Uncle Yao would not be able to cross the turbulent and turbid river, and saw in horror the harmony and unity of a dead man and the world?Over the years, I have been trying to find the witnesses of Uncle Yao's drowning, the crazy woman Suizi and the wild dog.Grandfather remembered that Uncle Yao was very good at water, even if he tied an iron weight around his neck, he would not drown.So what ability does the crazy woman Suizi have to toss the eel-like Uncle Yao to death?According to the villagers of Fengyangshu, they did not expect that Uncle Yao would be drowned by the river. Later, when they saw the crazy woman Suizi crawling up the bank wetly, holding a black shiny black rubber shoe in her hand, they knew that something had happened. .People were drying flower seeds on the yard, and no one paid attention to the movement in the river.Only Uncle Yao's wild dog could see everything clearly. When the dog saw the long splashes in the river and the naked shadows of a man and a woman like fishes, the dog didn't make a sound.No one heard the barking of the dog.They said that if I flew to the hometown of maple and poplar at that time, what I would look down would be a quiet noon.But I vaguely feel that Uncle Yao's death is a big conspiracy created by heaven and earth.I take that to heart.During the three days and three nights when the people of Fengyangshu guarded Uncle Yao, the crazy woman Suizi haunted the stone mill near the cemetery, dressed in sackcloth and filial piety.Her hair was disheveled, she was dazed, and she had a strangely beautiful expression on her face.She knelt beside Uncle Yao's body, gazing tenderly at the sapphire-like shining face of the deceased.Suizi's half body was buried in the paper money all over the ground, and a sudden night wind blew the paper thread away. The guardian saw that her left foot was bare, but her right foot was wearing my uncle's black rubber shoes.

The other black shoe was missing.I don't know when the pair of black rubber shoes on Uncle Yao's feet escaped from his muddy soles and went their separate ways. I've heard some stories about the madwoman Suiko.In the area of ​​maple and poplar trees, many men carry tassels into poppy bushes in spring, and have sex in the middle of the night in the field. The men patted tassels' plump breasts and ran back home, leaving tassels to sleep alone in the poppies. in the waves.People who go to the ground in the early morning can often see Suizi sleeping naked.She faces the rising sun, her lips are slightly parted, and countless crystal clear and cool dewdrops permeate the depths of her body and mind. Looking at the tassels lying on the poppy field in the morning, she seems to be a rudderless boat drifting in the scarlet flower waves on the left bank.I heard that the crazy woman Suozi gets pregnant every two years.No one knows the date of delivery, only that she often crawled to the river after the blood bag was broken, and the baby fell into the water and floated downstream.Those babies are extremely beautiful, but their cries are as desolate and gloomy as the old people.

In the villages on the lower reaches of the Maple Poplar River, many children who came along the river grew up slowly, like wild millet joints, filled with primitive sap.Those dark and dirty children have vivid faces and quick limbs, and they have appeared in my dreams many times.In a trance, I feel that they are exactly like my dead Uncle Yao. They may be the crystallization of blood essence of the deceased Uncle Yao, randomly sown into the black soil to grow, blossom and bear fruit. I will meet the wild dog raised by Uncle Yao by the river.I heard the dog's footsteps following, and I could smell the stench of its fur growing towards me.I crouched down and stared back at it angrily.The wild dog was huge, with a sly face, its front legs were raised like hands, and its hind legs supported its body weight, making human movements.I saw the dog's back covered with scarlet poppy petals, and even the eyes were smoked into two agate stones.Uncle Yao was very close to wild dogs during his lifetime.The dog would often walk up to Uncle Yao's skinny belly when he was asleep and bark loudly.I think that wild dog is like a whore who clings to Uncle Yao all day long, dragging him down and then dragging him into the river of death.I lifted a stone and confronted the dog for a long time, and when I lifted the stone high above my head, the dog let out a mournful cry from the depths of its throat and disappeared into the poppies. Uncle Yao, hurry up and kill the dogs, kill the wild dogs and come home with me When I was chasing that wild dog along the river, I vividly remembered the poems I sent to Uncle Yao when I was eight years old.That day I was in a hurry, bumping into my hometown of Maple Poplar like a headless fly.I will see the soul of the deceased Uncle Yao shooting white light across the front, leading me to complete the impossible trip to my hometown. Along the way, I will see strange scenery scattered on both sides of the river.The tung oil waterwheel that my grandfather stepped on when he was young creaked and twisted endlessly. A man and a woman stood cross-legged, standing on the waterwheel left by their ancestors. The water in the canal stagnated like solid ice.At the end of the field, a black bull ran away desperately, and a large number of wasps gathered in the air, buzzing and chasing the black bull's festering horns, and gradually returned to the river.When I walked to the left bank of the river, I saw with my own eyes the crazy woman Suizi in sackcloth and mourning.She was wearing a pair of black rubber shoes and walked towards the water step by step.When the water submerged her plump and swollen belly, Suizi raised her beautiful face to the sky and then suddenly pressed against her collarbone, letting her hair hang down to the surface of the water.She grabbed the lock of long hair tightly and rinsed it in the water over and over again.Many red blisters appeared on the surface of the water when the ripples first moved, and gradually half of the river turned red.Everything will be deja vu, as I dreamed about it at home in the city.Only my dark, strong, thin and downcast Uncle Yao, his undead in black rubber shoes come and go without a trace, is he smiling or crying?My Uncle Yao!On the eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in 1956, the day before my Uncle Yao was buried, the villagers in the distant Fengyangshu hometown were all talking about the deceased who had lost his spirit card.The dead without a spirit card will not enter the tomb.The folks scoured the houses and fields of the whole village, and searched the skirts of all the women who had been with Uncle Yao, but the bamboo spirit card was still missing.The village was in chaos.The deceased Uncle Yao lay on the stone mill and endured the commotion created by him.In the middle of the night, the guard boy knocking on the bamboo clapper suddenly fell to the ground, crying loudly.He yelled that Uncle Yao opened his eyes after his death, and his eyes were like the buds of poppies in spring, in which a woman and a dog bloomed. People say that it was women and dogs that got into Uncle Yao's eyes.My grandfather said the same thing.On the last night of vigil for Uncle Yao, my grandfather heard the boy’s cry from thousands of miles away. Uncle Yao's name was engraved on it.After all this was done, he laughed a few times, choked up a few more times, and then he slowly climbed up a ladder to the roof of my house.Grandfather stood on the roof overlooking our city, twitching like a wizard, talking nonsense, and tortured the roof for a long time.Pedestrians who passed by my house that day said they saw will-o’-the-wisps. The will-o’-the-wisps flew down from the roof of my house, stopped on the street, crackled and burned, and ignited a foot-high blue flame.The ghost fire was very fragrant, and it sang and danced unscrupulously on the concrete road, burning for a whole evening. take uncle yao home In the spring of the year before last, my grandfather sat on a bamboo couch brought from his hometown in Maple Poplar, dying.Uncle Yao, who has been dead for many years, was tossed in the old man's chaotic thoughts at this time. My grandfather couldn't stop, he desperately pulled my grief-stricken head to his chest, and whispered to me, take uncle yao home I will eventually fly over the distant hometown of maple and poplar, and complete the unfinished business of three generations of my family.But no one has ever told me why such wild red poppies were planted on the left bank of the river, and why the red poppies, like the Son of Man, were born and died, but now they no longer exist.When I escape from my hometown in Fengyangshu with my uncle who has passed away for many years, I will see the old poppy field again.It's going to be a sweltering night, with the moon dropping every hour, a boiling moon that will almost set us on fire.The dark red night stream of the hometown is in constant turmoil, together with the night tide of poppies, surrounding the fugitives in the middle of the night.How many gray frogs did I step on? The gray frogs yelled and frantically followed us on the field ridge. I will hear the voices of people in the village, the lights flashing everywhere, the dogs swarming out, and the villagers chasing me, trying to capture the dead soul of Uncle Yao who was born here and returned here.The old dog left by Uncle Yao was swimming in the wild. Its immortal eyes were shining like shooting stars piercing the night sky, and it quickly swooped towards us.Human voices, dog voices, natural voices chasing me, the hot moon sinking down, perched on the serene black face of the dead, the loved ones on my back will be a millennium volcano. During the night of my escape, a mad woman delivered yet another baby in the distance.Everyone will hear that desolate and gloomy cry, which contains the vicissitudes of life in the hometown of maple and poplar for thousands of years.Can I cross the river across the left-bank strip in that sound of life? Many former rural migrant families live under the roofs of our city.They snore irregularly every night, and each has his own worries and dreams.If you're like me, you've had weird dreams since you were a kid, and you've dreamed about your homeland, your family and relatives.There is a river innate, you seem to sit on a bamboo raft and go down the river, looking back at your hometown far away.