Chapter 24 escape

My uncle left Maple Poplar Village the next day.It rained that night, they slept soundly, and no one heard him open the door.My aunt was woken up by the rooster crowing and touched the bed beside her. It was empty and cold.She yelled a few times towards the hut behind the house, only to hear the water from the eaves ticking.The light of the blue sky squeezed through the south window, and on the ground stood a bag of rice that my uncle had brought back from the city, but the package was gone.My aunt just sat on the quilt and started crying, pulling her hair while crying.My aunt's hair is very black and hangs down to her breasts like black grass.She cried in shock like this, and said to her grandparents: "Sanmai is gone, and Sanmai let me drive away." My grandpa said, "Sanmai just arrived home yesterday, why did you drive Sanmai away?" Grandma said, "You bitch, don't you cover your tits?" My aunt said, "I didn't let him do it, he got dirty in the city. I told him to go away and he did. Three My woo woo woo..."

The rice bag on the ground was bitten by the mouse, the rice grains were rustling, and the fragrance of grain floated in the room.My aunt sat on the bed and cried.My grandma swept the rice on the ground into the bamboo dustpan.My grandfather went outside and saw Sanmai's footprints on the mud.Sanmai's footprints held up the rain like a boat.Sanmai didn't know where she went. This is the autumn of 1951.It's already very strange to say.My aunt said to me, think about how that shit in Sanmai would cause a revolution.My uncle Chen Sanmai sprinted in the night rain.Fengyangshu village was getting smaller and smaller crookedly. My black dog ran over from the dirt road, bit Sanmai's trousers, and barked several times.My uncle squatted down and touched the dog's wet fur. He said, "Don't rely on me, Xiao Hei, don't you smell my body is fishy and smelly?" : "Even I smell the stench, haven't you smelled it yet?" Sanmai looked back at the distant village and sobbed, Sanmai said: "My wife doesn't want me, why are you dragging me? "After Sanmai finished speaking, he swung the package in his hand and threw it at the black dog.The package with blue background and white flowers fell on the muddy floor, and the black dog ran home with it in its mouth.Sanmai yelled at the dog, stomped his feet, turned around and left.

When my uncle Chen Sanmai left, he was empty-handed.On the day I left, it was raining, but the sky did not collapse.My uncle is heading north.My aunt chased south.My aunt brought the package to Chenji Bamboo Ware Shop to inquire about Sanmai.The bamboo craftsmen said that Sanmai came home because of his wife?Why did Sanmai leave again?My aunt said that it was you who caused Sanmai, but the good Sanmai was spoiled by you.Where did he go?You set fire to your shop without telling me.Don't pass this day, everyone!But my uncle was heading north.No one saw Chen Sanmai's shadow.My aunt almost went crazy after searching for three days in a small southern city.On the fourth day, someone brought news that Chen Sanmai was seen begging for food with a broken bowl outside the pass.My aunt got on the train to Guanwai.That was my first time on a train, my aunt said.They told me that I had to stay on the train for two days and nights before I could get out of the customs. I said, can’t I just run away? I'm really going to pull.That was 1951.My aunt said that everyone is defending their homes and the country in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.Hey la la la hey la la la la, cross the Yalu River with high spirits.The railway line is full of military vehicles, and the men are all wearing new cotton jackets and big cakes to eat their fill and go to the front line.The train stopped at Dandong, and when the door of the carriage was opened, all those who jumped off were going to the front line.When a little girl saw me, she wanted to wear big red flowers for me. I quickly said, "I'm not a soldier. I'm here to find my men." The station was full of soldiers, all men.I put on a little flowered jacket and scurry around in the crowd. Where can I find Sanmai with so many people?I shouted on the platform, Sanmai Sanmai Chen Sanmai.No one can hear, Danton is too noisy, even I can't hear my voice clearly.A young man who went to war poked his head out of the car window and said to me, "I'm Sanmai, are you my sister-in-law?" I said, "I made a mistake, I won't call you, I call me a man." The young man looked seventeen or eighteen years old, and he patted his head in frustration: "I won't see my sister-in-law this time." I saw that he was so skinny and pitiful, so I smiled at him and said : "I'll be your sister-in-law, call me." I took out a big pancake from the package and threw it to him, he caught the cake and really called me: "Sister-in-law." My aunt has been sitting on the platform Waiting for Chen Sanmai's appearance.She somehow decided that Chen Sanmai was going to serve in the army.She thought that Sanmai would definitely join the army if he was on the verge of death.A soldier has food to eat, she thought that Sanmai's face was so thin, how could Sanmai be willing to beg for food?My aunt had been sitting on the platform gazing at the scenery of Dandong. It was getting dark, and when a train slowly pulled out from the platform, my aunt saw a face flashing behind the transom looking at her ghostly.My aunt jumped up from the warehouse and yelled: "Chen Sanmai!" She went over and grabbed the car window.Chen Sanmai, wearing a military cap and military uniform, looked at her blankly, with a tired and weary face.My aunt said Sanmai Sanmai, come down for me.Chen Sanmai can't hear, my aunt said Sanmai, are you stupid, you can tell me something.Chen Sanmai said in a hoarse voice that I was going to die.My aunt heard the train roaring desperately, and she couldn't hold it any longer.She took two quick steps and shouted to Sanmai: "Don't die, we have allocated five acres of land to grow food." My aunt cried and cried as she watched the train leave for North Korea, but she couldn't pull it. what.Once upon a time, my uncle Chen Sanmai was a cowardly and shy little man.You can draw this conclusion from his escape experience.My grandfather said that Sanmai Dog's hybrid could not help him on the sedan. You let him eat and let him eat, let him take a bath, and he escapes. .You don't know what Sanmai is doing besides trying to escape.Sanmai is really a bastard.My uncle was nineteen when he married my aunt.When my uncle was nineteen, he could only tread water wheels.His legs are strong and strong like two trees.But his hands were as weak and delicate as a child's.My aunt recalled that holding Sanmai's hand was as uneasy as holding her son's hand.Sanmai's hands were icy cold.My aunt still can't help laughing when she recalls the first bed life between her and my uncle.Sanmai said I'm not sleepy and I don't want to sleep yet.Sanmai said you sleep first and I will go to the latrine, but Sanmai ran out wearing a new shirt and pants.Where do you think he went?He went to tread the waterwheel.He took off his new shirt and trousers and hung them on a tree, and stepped on the waterwheel alone in the dark.Grandpa and grandma were mad when they found him.Guess what Sanmai said?He said you go back to sleep first, the water in the field is not enough.I dont want to sleep.My aunt said, Sammai is a bastard, even if you have a golden belt, you can't tie him.San Mai is not stable.In the fall of that year, Sanmai went to Wuqiao Town to sell sweet potato seedlings. When he met some bamboo craftsmen from the city who came to collect bamboo, he took the copper coins and left with them.My aunt said that Chen Sanmai got that place in the city?Thinking about it, Sanmai deserved what he deserved when he came back from a dirty disease.Dog Day deserves it.

The village of Maple Poplar is so far away, the air in 1951 was still green and damp, filled with the smell of rotting bamboo shoots.No one knows how the Korean battlefield is going.The men and women in our family plowed five acres of land with one cow.People have to work if they want to eat and clothe, so take good care of the five acres of land, you can't afford to worry about Chen Sanmai.The township government posted a red banner on the old cypress door of my house with the words "Revolutionary Army Members Defending the Home and the Country" written on it.My grandpa said that he didn't know what that bastard Sanmai looked like when he held up a gun. If Sanmai died for the country, it would be considered an honorable death.My grandfather touched the red banner and said, die as long as you die, there is nothing to be sad about.It's easier to die with a full stomach than to farm hungry.

That was 1951, which is already very strange.my aunt said.My aunt made cotton shoes under a kerosene lamp every night, and sent them to the countryside to be women's pacesetters.The cotton shoes made by my aunt are strong and durable, and they are very popular in North Korea.My aunt's hands were scabbed with blood from the needlework.With so many cotton shoes, there will always be a pair that will be worn on my uncle's feet.My aunt said that she was ready for the sacrifice of Sanmai, and she worked hard to make cotton shoes for the front line to prepare for the sacrifice of Sanmai.My aunt said that when a person dies, the feet should not be cold, and the feet should be dressed warmly.This is how my uncle Chen Sanmai described the days after he left for the first time.The next winter my uncle showed up in the maple poplar with two feet.The hardest hit was my aunt.She knelt on the ground and rubbed Sanmai's cracked and dirty feet and said, "Where are the cotton shoes, where are the cotton shoes I made?" My uncle was so cold that he couldn't speak, he just shook his head.My aunt began to cry. "Why don't they make cotton shoes for you? I made a carload of cotton shoes!" She helped my uncle walk home, vowing along the way that she would never make cotton shoes for the front line again.

My uncle Chen Sanmai brought a peace medal with him when he returned home.Chen Sanmai's lower abdomen was instantly covered with a purple earthworm by North Korean artillery shells. In my opinion, that is also a glorious medal.I think back in 1952 how vigorous and beloved my uncle Chen Sanmai was.Fengyangshu village slaughtered chickens and sheep to welcome the heroes of the Chen family.My grandfather drank eight bowls of sorghum wine in a row at Chen Sanmai's celebration party, laughed wildly, fell asleep laughing, and did not wake up after falling asleep.My grandfather was the first old man in Fengyangshu to die of joy. Until now, people still remember my grandfather’s thunderous laughter before his death, and his relaxed and lively face under the red square handkerchief.If you think about it, an old man in the countryside lived to be sixty-one years old, what death could be happier than my grandfather?My uncle Chen Sanmai was enshrined by my aunt and grandma after he returned to his hometown.It is unconventional for two women to support one man.But it's about the freedom of our family members.No one has the right to make irresponsible remarks on my uncle Chen Sanmai.You walked in front of my house and saw Chen Sanmai wearing a khaki and dirty military uniform leaning against the wall to bask in the sun.Chen Sanmai's face was as thin as a macaque, like a piece of scrap copper and iron mottled with rust, Chen Sanmai's brows were furrowed, and there was a pitiful helpless look in his bloodshot eyes.Many people have heard that Chen Sanmai's right hand is broken and he can no longer do farm work.Chen Sanmai stroked his right hand with his left hand and said to people: "The joints of the cannon were damaged, and the arms could not be lifted." Others asked: "Can you still step on the water wheel?" Chen Sanmai smiled and said: "I can't step on it anymore." , I can’t do what I should do.” You see Chen Sanmai leaning against the wall to bask in the sun, his posture and expression have undergone a qualitative change compared to before.After all, Chen Sanmai is a person who has made a fortune.

The gentle spring came to the maple and poplar countryside as scheduled.My uncle Chen Sanmai became obsessed with making kites.During the spring plowing season, Chen Sanmai avoided my family's five-acre land and was obsessed with making kites.All kinds of kites are hung on the beams on the wall and at the head of the bed.Kites dotted the peaceful sky of maple and poplar trees, making the old dull countryside lively and vivid.Chen Sanmai took a few children to fly kites around the village, and colorful divine birds hovered over the heads of the villagers. They were auspicious and wonderful messengers of heaven. arm.When Chen Sanmai was running wildly in the wild with his kite, his lazy face became full of heroism, and his whining voice was full of wisdom and magic.Chen Sanmai and the kite floated in the wind together.I really saw Chen Sanmai and the kite floating with the wind, and he was about to take off into the air and fly over the heads of the spring plowing people.

It is never a good thing for poor people to be happy.My aunt said she felt uneasy from the beginning.She saw Sanmai's kite flying higher and higher, and she felt that Sanmai's soul was getting farther and farther away from her.My aunt said that she was sure that Sanmai would hide something from her again.On the day of Guyu, when my aunt was picking seeds in front of the door, she saw Sanmai running towards the house. Sanmai staggered over with an eagle-shaped kite and pushed her into the house.Sanmai closed the door and leaned against it panting loudly, her face turning purple. "What's the matter with you?" "They're coming, they're coming."

"Who's coming?" "They're coming. They're taking me back to fight." "Is it a soldier? When did you see it?" "I was flying a kite on the graveyard and saw them standing up from behind the grave." "How many people are there?" "Two." My uncle's kite fell to the ground." They hid behind the grave and stood up like ghosts. "Fighting them." My aunt screamed, "Isn't it enough to have a broken arm?" "They took me back and shot me down. I know they're going to kill me .In North Korea, they specialize in catching deserters, and when they catch them, they shoot them down." "Sanmai, are you a deserter?" My aunt suddenly had an epiphany, and she grabbed Sanmai by the collar and shook his stiff body, "Sanmai, are you a deserter?" Mai, are you a deserter?" Chen Sanmai closed his eyes tightly and let my aunt shake, he floated like a kite and suddenly said to my aunt: "I don't want to die, so I ran back home."

"Why did you go and run away?" "I can run away if I want to, why can't I run away?" My aunt fell down on a dustpan of millet. She cried and grabbed the millet and slapped Chen Sanmai in the face. Chen Sanmai leaned against the door and remained motionless.He covered his face with his left hand and remained motionless.My aunt did not see the turbid tear that flowed from Sanmai.After about two minutes, my uncle Chen Sanmai quickly pulled the latch and rushed out.My aunt chased him out and found that he had taken the eagle kite with him.He ran through the village like an antelope, making a hoarse and weak growl along the way: "Flee-flee-flee--that's how my uncle Chen Sanmai left and never came back.

The strange thing is that no one has seen the two people who followed Chen Sanmai.Did those two people appear in the maple and poplar country?This is an old topic in our house.For a long time after my uncle fled, you can often find large and small kites made by Chen Sanmai on the chimneys of houses by the ditch in the wild.They were all kites whose strings were broken by the wind, just like my uncle's unpredictable fate.My aunt found out she was pregnant.That was a month after my uncle disappeared.My aunt wants to cry but has no tears.She wanted to tell Chen Sanmai the news but didn't know where he was.You think how pathetic it is for my aunt when a woman is pregnant and doesn't know where her man is. "Chen Sanmai dog bastard, I will chase you to the sky, and I will cut you into pieces, throw your heart to the dogs, and fry your skin in the pan." My aunt said to my grandma while spitting out sour water .But my grandma complained to my aunt: "You bitch, why can't you hold on to Sanmai's heart and say that Sanmai will be driven away by you." My aunt jumped up and grabbed my grandma's hair, Head butt her.My grandma hastily accepted the challenge, picked up the bamboo raft and scratched my aunt's clothes. My aunt's breasts were exposed. My aunt was stunned for a moment, and then burst into tears. She covered her breasts with her hands and fell on the haystack He went on a hunger strike without moving for three days and three nights.It is said that the baby in her womb died of starvation in this way, but it was later found that the stillborn baby was starved to death by my aunt.In 1952, my aunt was struck by five lightnings. In this year, she lost her beauty and black hair, and she became a hunchbacked ugly woman who was prematurely aging.My aunt said that she couldn't marry a good man even if she wanted to remarry.She just wanted to find Chen Sanmai, hug him, jump off the rock and hang himself into the river, whatever. Tell me, what else can I do?My aunt untied the gray hair bun on the top of her head, and held the old hair with her hands to show others. Tell me, what else can I do?In the long 1950s, the maple poplar had undergone a vigorous revolution just like the outside world.My aunt led a cow and a dog, and joined the cooperative with Chen Sanmai's medal and land certificate.She later became the well-known female village head of Maple Poplar.This is a kind of suffering.People pointed to the female township head and said that it was Chen Sanmai's woman, the woman Chen Sanmai left behind.You can see the constant slaughtering relationship between my aunt and my uncle. Even if my uncle escapes to the sky and his life is still uncertain, the spiritual relationship between him and my aunt is still constantly slaughtering. I once saw a piece of land certificate of my aunt. It was the first time she wrote after she attended the women's literacy class. name. Land certificate Household head: Chen Sanmai Land: five mu Family members: Chen Sanmai and I child (dead) But can anyone tell me where my aunt Chen Sanmai fled to?Why didn't he come home?It was many years later that I received my uncle's letter, which is not really a letter.My aunt said that in the autumn of 1960, the village postman delivered the heavy envelope.The envelope was signed with the words "Northeast Chen Yan". She opened it and saw that there was a stack of food stamps from Heilongjiang Province, but nothing else.My aunt said that she immediately smelled Sanmai's hands from the food stamps.She said she really smelled Sammai.Chen Sanmai knew that there was a food shortage, so he sent two hundred catties of Heilongjiang food stamps.My aunt's hands were shaking and she kept saying that I want Heilongjiang food stamps, what's the use, I want Chen Sanmai's heart.My aunt laughed and cried to recognize the postmark on the envelope. The postmark was engraved with a completely unfamiliar place name: Yichun, Heilongjiang. The second time my aunt went north by train was to Yichun.Her account of the trip to Yichun is so heart-wrenching that I sometimes doubt its veracity and wish it were a dream my aunt had.I will never believe that the distant Yichun is my uncle's lifelong destination. There are forests and ice and snow everywhere, which is not a suitable environment for maple and poplar people to live in. But according to my aunt, my uncle died in the forest of Yichun. , what my aunt said is absolutely true. It was snowing when my aunt arrived in Yichun. In Yichun, no one knew Chen Sanmai's name. Someone told my aunt to go north, saying that people from the south were working in the woods. When you see a woodcutter, look for your man carefully.My aunt walked northward, stepping on the half-foot-deep snow, gnawed dry food and inquired about Chen Sanmai's name. At dusk, my aunt met a group of workers carrying fallen logs.They looked at my aunt, and suddenly said: "Are you here to collect the body?" "What? Is Chen Sanmai dead?" My aunt gasped. "There is still a breath, let's go." "What the hell happened to him?" "He got hit by a falling log yesterday. Tell him to get out of the way and he can't hear you." "Where is he?" my aunt screamed, "Who lured him into this place?" "You Go to the kite and you'll find him. Ask him anything." My aunt saw a kite hanging on a treetop far away.My aunt ran desperately towards the kite and smelled the smell of Chen Sanmai blowing in the Yichun wind.The kite made by Chen Sanmai hangs on the treetops like a flag. You might as well regard the kite as the call of the soul.My aunt ran into the wooden house with tears in her eyes. She saw a person lying on the kang, his whole body buried in a dirty quilt, his white head turned sideways out of the window. "You are still chasing me, and I can't escape even if I run to the sky." My uncle only said this sentence to my aunt when he was dying.My aunt turned his head and rubbed it to enjoy the last conjugal love.She found that my uncle's appearance had changed strangely after he left. Although his hair was gray, his face became clear and young.Even when he was dying, his eyes were still black and full of vitality.My uncle tried his best to break free from his aunt's arms and turned his head out of the window.My aunt said, Sanmai, who are you waiting for?My uncle shook his head and pointed out the window with his finger.Outside the window is the wind and snow in Yichun, the boundless forest is covered with silver, the sound of chain sawing and falling trees is born from the silence, as if it is a poem from the sky, there are kites with broken strings hanging on a row of birch trees outside the window , the eight kites were silent in the wind and snow, and the paper tapes were fluttering leisurely.My uncle stared at the eight kites.Who do you say he is waiting for?Maybe he was waiting for eight kites to float down from the trees.My aunt attended the funeral of my uncle Chen Sanmai in Yichun.According to the customs of the maple and poplar trees, she wore sackcloth and filial piety and followed the coffin towards the deep mountains. The coffin was carried by four lumberjacks whom she had never met.They were walking on a snowy road, along the way someone was burning, the flames were burning on the slopes and the sky was snowing heavily.That is the scene of fire burning snow, the world is white, the fire is golden, and the mourners are black.According to the customs of maple and poplar trees, my aunt cried for ten miles.But when she said it was time to cry, there were no more tears.She saw goose feather snow fall on the fire, and it was magical and beautiful to see the fire burning on the snow.When she remembered that Chen Sanmai was dead, her heart was clean and she didn't worry about it anymore.