Chapter 9 Chapter nine

When Lan Shishi returned to Sanxing Village, which was deeply wrinkled in Palou Mountain, it was already mid-summer in May.She didn't expect that her business would last forever, and she planned to make up for Sima Lan's shortage of 8,000 yuan for the operation fee. She didn't expect that the day before Sima Lan was going to be on the operating table, a doctor came from the provincial capital. The low-level hospitals made rounds and looked at Sima Lan's medical records. They said that if they operated on the throat disease, they might be able to live a few more days.The doctor refused to say how long the extra life period was.If you don't say it, it becomes more and more provocative and swells people's blood.At that time, Lan Shishi was already preparing to go back to the village, and he was too lazy to pick up the returning customers who had found No. 9 courtyard.She said that it was enough for me to demean myself, and I would no longer serve no matter how much I was given.Just as he was about to leave, Ge, the second son of Sima Lan's family, rushed to the No. 9 courtyard with a dusty face, saying that her father wanted the doctor in the provincial hospital to perform an operation, and said that after the operation, he could live a long, long life, maybe he could live It is not known whether she will be fifty or sixty years old, but she is said to ask her to stay in No. 9 Courtyard for a few more days anyway.

Naturally, Lan Shishi didn't leave anymore, and stayed in the No. 9 courtyard again, continuing to steal her skin and flesh to make a living.That day Zi Teng tore her embroidered trousers, dropped her two bottles of potion, and went back to the Palu Mountains alone that day. Ge lived in Jiudu with Forty, and went back and forth every five days to send a sum of money. Hand it over to the charging window of the county hospital.Every time Ge came home, she would bring some new news. She said to Forty first: "Dad really used that new machine. The new machine was painted with yellow paint, and the light was bright, just like the barrel. Dad Get in, and people outside can even see the cracks in his bones."

Ge also said: "Father had an operation the day before yesterday, and his neck seemed to be cut off, and the scar was tied around his neck." And then said: "My eldest sister, Tenghe Shop, is married to my uncle's boss, my cousin Du Liu." The last time I came to Jiudu, as soon as I entered the door, I said: "Father is about to be discharged from the hospital, let me pick up my aunt." She went back to the entrance of the village with Ge. It was Du Bo who came to pick them up.Du Bo drove a group of sheep to the hillside with his medicine book between them, and walked leisurely along the beam path to the outside of the mountain.Summer has already covered the sky and covered the mountains in the Palu Mountains, the heat is dim yellow, and the waves are undulating on the beams.The wheat has begun to bloom, and the stalks and leaves have turned yellowish-brown.Passing the Liang Road, the smell of wheat and green smell made Du Bo want to hiccup.These days, there is a feeling of ripe fruit overflowing in Du Bo's blood, which makes him walk on the beam road, unconsciously kicking the stones and tiles on the side of the road to the road.He sang as he walked, kicking an empty wooden box from beam top to beam top, at least three miles.The sound of the wooden box flying up and down, every time, is like the sound of folk playing and singing on the empty mountain range.The troubled days when my younger sister Zhucui lived in her mother's house have passed away.He said Zhucui, don't you want to live a few more years in this world?Zhucui said that even animals are afraid of death, and they don’t want to live in a few years ago. I knew that Teng’s father and Forty had been involved every year, and I hanged myself when I plowed, cut wheat, and planted beans for her every year.Du Bo said that this is not over. Sima Lan said that he went to the hospital in order to live and come back to repair the Lingyin Canal. The canal was repaired and the water was brought in. Maybe the villagers really lived past forty, fifty, sixty. , Qilaobashili.Du Zhu?Cui stared anxiously at Du Bo, and said brother, she really wanted to shop with Shishihe.Du Bo thought for a while, and said let them go together, if he doesn't share a shop with her, will she make a living as a human flesh?If she doesn't make a living as human flesh, he won't be able to survive, who can bring that canal of water over?Is it more important to live, or is it more important for you to stay alive as a widow after you have been married for half a year and he dies with a bang?He stared at his sister and said, you are a deadhead, you can't tell him that it's okay to share the shop, first lead the canal water back, let everyone eat the water and live past the age of forty before joining the shop.Zhucui left her mother's house and went back to her own house. For the sake of the husband and wife, she even baked egg pancakes once for her daughter to bring to Sima Lan who had undergone surgery.Right now, Lan Shidu has returned to the village from Jiudu.After returning to the village on the forty-first day, Sima Lan should be discharged from the hospital in a few days.After leaving the hospital, he should lead the villagers to continue repairing the Lingyin Canal, which is linked together like a chain. When the canal is connected and the water comes in, maybe the villagers will live a long life, and he will no longer have to worry about death every day. It's messed up, and I'm drinking the bitter water of the black and red Chinese medicine.As if after a season of bitter rain, he finally saw the sun squeeze out of the cracks in the mountains. Du Bo had never felt so relieved like today. Go outside the mountain.The village was getting farther and farther away from him, and the flock of sheep behind him were flooded on the grass slope with white spots.When the sun above his head began to scorching hotly, he saw two people climbing up from the hillside, one in front and one behind, from small to large. When he saw the person in front had a red sweater draped over his shoulders, he Shouting out loud:

"It's Forty and Ge──I've been waiting for you for a long time──" "Originally, Zhucui and vines would come to pick them up, but I said there are so many people hunting wolves." Du Bo's voice was like clear water falling on the rocks below the cliff, refreshing and bright among the empty mountains.Lan Shishi climbed up from the bottom of the mountain, his face was dripping with sweat, and there was some joy. He went to Du Bo, wanted to say something but couldn't say it, turned around and took out a pack of mouth-to-mouth from Jiudu from his bag. handed over cigarettes.Du Bo smiled and said, it was for me. Lan Shishi said that everyone in Jiudu smoked this brand of cigarettes.Du Bo unpacked and lit a cigarette, took Lan Shishi's luggage, and whispered:

"The village chief will be back in half a month." Lan Shishi was stunned for a moment, and lowered his head. Du Bo said: "When you come back, you can share a shop together. Zhucui is my own sister and I treat her as her home." Forty turned his head to look at the crop fields beside the road. Du Bo carried the luggage on his shoulders and glanced at Lan Forty. "The village head of Hepu'er will lead the villagers to repair the canal. He won't live past forty and ignore you and us all." He just talked casually and walked towards the village.The last curtain of a big drama is lifted, and Forty becomes the most important role.All households in the village of the three surnames unknowingly rang out with gongs and drums, and everyone sang the drama of life and death.

Everyone in the village knew that Lan Shishi had returned from the bustling city, but no one had seen her leave home.For three days in a row, Lan Shishi did not go out.The door of Lan's house is always so ajar.Lan Shishi seemed to have completely disappeared from the village.Or she hasn't come back from Jiudu at all.But she is back.On the second day she returned to the village, someone was waiting for her at the door when she got up early in the morning. Like a month ago, I got up early in the morning to sweep the courtyard, and at mealtime and at noon, I didn't see her open the gate.One day before noon, around noon, someone knocked on the door and entered Lan Shishi's house, only to find that she had just woken up from the bed, was dressing and washing herself, and made herself closer to the people in the city.There was also a faint fragrance scattered all over her body, and she finally understood that she had been serving men in Jiudu for a long time, and she couldn't fall asleep at night, and her habit of not being able to wake up during the day had not changed.So, the villagers made an appointment to spend time with her, and the three upper rooms were filled with men and women from the village.The children ate the small candies she brought back, collected the red and green candy wrappers, neatly stacked them into a dozen, and compared who had more.The adults asked about the situation in Jiudu, and the men asked if there was a city gate in Jiudu, how much a pack of cigarettes cost, and whether they sold sesame candy and sheep intestine soup on the street.The women asked if the price of needles and thimbles was the same as that of the Jiaohuoyuan, whether there was any embroidery thread for sale, or whether the heels of the women's leather shoes in Jiudu were as high as those of women in the city.No one asked about Lan Shishi's business, no one said a word about how she served men.The Sima family brothers also came.Sima Lu sat in the corner smoking, and Sima Hu kept asking some irrelevant topics at the door.Shisi answered the villagers with his own opinions, and finally said that Jiudu's grandma hugged her grandson, and when the child was required to pay dozens or hundreds of nanny fees a month, the people in Sansurname Village looked at each other in disbelief.

Sima Hu said: "No way? Are they my grandchildren?" Lan Shisi said: "The landlord of the yard I live in is like that. If my son doesn't pay her at the end of the month, she will send her grandson away. She doesn't care about it anymore, and goes to play mahjong every day." I lamented for a while the weirdness in the city, saying that they live a long life, but they don’t care about their grandchildren, they only care about money; they say that everyone in the village with three surnames loves their grandchildren, but none of them can live to the age of being a father or a nurse.After discussing some other topics, the night became dark, the stars and moonlight melted, and looking into the courtyard through the door frame, it was like looking at a lake, so calm that one could hear the ripples of the water.Suddenly Sima Hu asked again, I heard that there were nine imperial courts in Jiudu?Forty said, anyway, it is said that it is called Jiudu because it has sat in nine courts.The villagers lamented how great it would be to have another imperial court. They said that there would be another imperial court. The villagers with three surnames are also under the foot of the emperor, so they worry about not being able to build a canal?Worried about not living past forty?Worried about running eighty miles to go to the market?In the end, they scattered from the forty family, and the walking steps were like a row of oars hitting the muddy water, from near to far, and slowly the village returned to silence.The three upper rooms, two wing buildings, and one courtyard of the forty family returned to peace.It wasn't until this night that the villagers suddenly found out that forty had kept silent about the matter of cooperating with Sima Lan. It was like a farmer keeping silent about the harvest in autumn, which made the villagers feel strange. How could this be?Didn't she let Sima Lan live past forty just to live with him?Did you just go to Jiudu to serve men?It's really puzzling, the next day someone was waiting at the head of the village to see forty pick up buckets and go to the well, and then hurried home to pick up a pair of empty buckets to follow.

Question: "I heard that you no longer let Zhucui and the village head separate shops?" answer:"……" Question: "When will you share a shop with the village chief?" Answer: "Let's talk about it later." In such a situation, the whole village was waiting for Sima Lan to come back from the hospital, waiting for the male and female protagonists of a scene to be on stage together.Sima Lan came back from the county hospital when he was harvesting wheat with scythes. The weather was so hot that there was smoke on the beams, and a match fell on the ground, fearing a fire might be conceived.Because of the hot weather, I had a sore throat a few days ago. I felt that my throat was as dry as fire, and I couldn't swallow any drips, so I simply hanged myself.After burying the dead, another family’s cattle pen caught fire and burned the cattle alive in the pen. Du Bai came forward to fulfill the responsibility of the village head. , Never play with fire.It's a pity to say that people died early, but how can the village cultivate land if another cow is burned to death?How are you doing?

In the days when a match fell and the world caught fire with a bang, the wheat crackled and ripened.This is also the same as in the outside world, everyone harvests the wheat for himself.Over the years, Sanxing Village has learned to follow the outside world. People divided the land. Du Bo went to the township government to hold a meeting. When he came back, he said that Sima Lan broke a bowl, but the land was still divided.When they were divided, they had to do their own thing during the busy season. Every family built a wheat field like one or two houses on the side of the road, and harvested their own crops.This season you stand at the head of the beam, those small and messy wheat fields are like the foreheads of people shining on the beam one by one.When rushing to harvest and rush to plant, the leisurely mind has gone, and no one cares about the affairs of other families.Blue Forty was also temporarily forgotten by people.Even when Sima Lan came back from the county hospital, the people just "oh" and then went back in a hurry after being stunned for a while.

It was a fine weather, and the Palou mountain range was scorched yellow and scorched everywhere. A dozen meters away, a layer of smoke and dust from the sun could be seen rolling on the ground.At this moment, the deer, tiger and rattan rumbled Sima Lan back to Ralou Mountain in a cart.After more than three months in the hospital, he had become as thin as his wife Zhucui, her skin had turned light yellow in the room, and only a bone was left on her shoulders, which were like door panels, to carry a white cloth shirt.When Sima Lu helped him into the car, he was so light that Sima Lu jumped. "Brother, you have become so thin."

"After dying once, can a person not lose weight?" However, he was in good spirits, and there was a radiance in his sunken eyes.Like two sunny meadows sunken in a mountain nest in March.During the turbulence on the eighty-mile dirt road, he sat upright without lying down.From the Shisanli River to the rake beam, when approaching the village, the villagers with three surnames scattered in the wheat field, like black bees busy in the wheat field.No matter who came to the field, he would call out at the top of his voice: "Hey—it's Uncle Teng—I'm out of the hospital. The doctor said that I can live to be at least fifty years old. This time I won't take Lingyin I didn’t come out from between my mother’s legs when the canal water was brought to the village.” Seeing another person, he coughed, pulled his neck into a dry stick, and held his long hair and dry head in the air. He said: "Nephew—after harvesting the wheat and starting to repair the canals in autumn, whoever wants to do business this time will not work, I will burn his house down." The young man called nephew Standing far away in the wheat field, he said: "You live past forty to fifty, you want to have a happy family with forty, and you can still take care of making the villagers live past forty-" He said: "I Pull up the militia, whoever does not go to the construction site, the militia will not break the law in Japan, when the time comes, you join the militia—" Calling like this, the mountain ridge was filled with his boundless cry, and the cart turned unhurriedly in the sunlight, and his words rolled along with the wheels into the wheat fields on both sides of the mountain ridge.When he crossed the ridge, he got off the car suddenly, looked towards the bottom of the ditch, and saw the yellow and white ears of wheat swaying neatly in mid-air, like smoked white clouds in the field Float up and down.A golden-purple wheat scent flew over lively from there, hitting the tip of people's noses and it would not go away.Right now, Lan Shisi is cutting wheat continuously in a bend in the field. A shirt that looks green and blue looks like a castor-bean leaf fluttering in the yellow. Green-blue spring.Sima Lan put her eyes on the ball of green and blue, but Teng stared at him from behind him. For a while, she tried to ask: "Father, do you really want to share the shop with my mother?" Sima Lanyuan It was the stretched neck that suddenly stiffened, and he couldn't see his face, only his hands were moving on the trousers as if there was no place to put them, and he wiped the sweat from his palms on the trousers.For a while, the beam road became quiet, and the sunlight creaked overhead.In the surrounding fields separated by mountains and beams, the sound of wheat harvesting sounded like a burning fire.In this sweltering embarrassment, Sima Lan said a word without turning his head: "Teng, without you Forty Gu, you will be ruined to see who you marry in your life." Teng immediately hooked his head on his chest, Boundlessly silent.Thinking that everything was over, unexpectedly Sima Lu murmured: "It's better not to separate or not." Sima Hu fixed his eyes on Lu and said: "A woman like my sister-in-law should have been separated if I wanted to." Stay by my side and save my life." Finally, as if she had received help, Sima Lan said nothing more, looked gratefully at her sixth younger brother Sima Hu, and walked down the ridge of a wheat field that was about to be ripe. Sway over. A scene is in full swing. Lan Shishi's wheat field is a triangular piece of land, and the wheat at the sharp corners has been harvested.The felled wheat is neatly connected to each other, and the scent of pink and white wheat and the scent of yellow wheat stalks are thick and thick like fog covering the field.The wormwood and horse amaranth that had finally seen the sky from among the fallen wheat trees shriveled and tilted their heads in the scorching sun.A dry willow tree on the ground didn't have many leaves, and the few branches and leaves were still curled by the sun.It seems that there is a beam and several hillsides. In the whole mountain range, only the forty cloth shirt is left with lush green.Sima Lan stared at the lush green and walked forward. He was just recovering from a serious illness, and his vitality was injured like an old tree without soil and roots. He shook a few wheat fields and an earth embankment, and panted to the blue forty. In this field, I stood there, supported the willow tree, and looked at the back of Lan Sisi, who was a few feet away, bending over to cut the wheat. She was like a big frog struggling and jumping in the wheat field. "forty." Lan Shishi was still heaving in the wheat field. "I'm out of the hospital," he called, "Forty, I'm out of the hospital." Lan Shishi straightened up, half-turned her body to look at him, as if looking at a stranger, but her eye circles turned red.He stared at Lan Forty's hot and sweaty face for a long time, looking at each other across mountains and rivers, the sunlight shone bright white in their eyes, and they made subtle but clear sounds .Such time was spent bit by bit, until he realized that there was a sudden dry cry on the dry willow, and he took a few steps forward and stood in the thin shade of the dry willow. "I thought you were going to pick me up from town," he said. She said: "Busy day, you have a brother and a daughter, what's the point of me picking you up?" He froze for a moment, and walked towards her. "I've made up my mind, let's go to Yitaer after I'm busy with Maitian." She stood still, a light gray flitted across her face, "Let's talk about it after you have recovered." He came to her, he raised his head, "Look at the scar on my neck, it's entwined like a snake, anyone who sees it will be afraid." She looked at him, rubbed her eyes, "There is nothing to be afraid of. I am also a person who is on the verge of death. There is nothing to be afraid of." He stared at her bewilderedly. "If you are not afraid, I will not go home, and I will live with you tonight." She was stunned for a while, then threw a handful of wheat in her hand on the wheat shop, "You go, such a big matter, how can you rush, I don't necessarily go to Jiudu just to get married with you." He looked puzzled and remained silent for a long time. "Why don't you get married?" forty says: "You go, Zhucui and her brother are waiting for you at home. I don't want men at all now, I don't even want to see men. Whoever tells me about men and women makes me feel sick, and my stomach turns out. Like eating shit." He froze in a daze, the layer of vivid light red under the livid face was gone, pale white crept onto his face, and the corners of his twitching mouth began to bend upwards.She said that she never had to see a man again, seeing a man was like swallowing a mouthful of excrement. As she spoke, the sickle in her hand also shook, and the barley juice on the blade was glowing blue in the sunlight.Sima Lan didn't know what to say, it goes without saying that all of this was for him.He took half a step back, looked at her dumbly for a while, and said softly that he was afraid that you had too many guests in Jiudu, so I will go home first if you are upset. From now on when I am discharged from the hospital, I, Sima Lan, will be you My man, you let Zhucui and I split the shop today and I will split the shop today, and let me split the shop tomorrow and I will split the shop tomorrow.If she doesn't tell me, she won't step into that house.Anyway, the sky is high and the emperor is far away. If it doesn't work, I will go to your house and we will live together.As if expressing his heart, he danced his hands in front of his chest while speaking, gesticulating and stroking, as if he wanted to dig his heart out of his chest, and the more he spoke, the louder he got, he stuttered a little at the end, and finally said: " I, Sima Lan, have to tell a half-truth, I am your forty-year-old son." After making a swear, she stopped talking and stared at her face, thinking that she must be a little moved, but she But he still didn't say a word, and the excitement on his face not long ago had subsided, his face was numb and calm, as if he hadn't heard anything he said at all.So, I just stood there for a long time, and when someone walked over with a load of wheat on a distant mountain ridge, Sima Lan said again, I will go home first and have a look, if I don’t look at Zhucui, I have to look at kudzu and vines. , turned around slowly, and walked slowly along the field ridge by the ditch, shaking and shaking, like a dry dry grass floating towards the distance.Lan Forty stared at her neck that suddenly grew a lot, and the bright red snake-like scar on her neck, until he walked farther and farther away, looked back when he was about to disappear, and called out: "Tomorrow, let the deer and tiger come to harvest the wheat for you. Just boil a pot of boiling water and send it to them." At this time, she seemed to remember that she still had to harvest the wheat, and she was here to harvest the wheat.So she bent down again, scythe by scythe. However, she no longer had the strength she had before, as if she had exhausted her strength for a while, and she had to use the strength of her hair and heels every time she cut a scythe. Finally, she sat in the wheat field as if paralyzed from the sun. For a moment, tears flowed down her face, drowning the whole world silently.