Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

Since the men continued the project eight years ago and went to repair the last section of Lingyin Canal, the village has completely quieted down.During the day, there was not a single person smoking on the village street, and when it was meal time, there were only a few women and children in the dining field, as if the morning star, as if the men had all gone to serve in the army, and the village was deserted. Pigs and sparrows are listless.Sometimes you walk through several alleys in a row from the village street, and it is rare to meet a person. Occasionally, there is a dog lying under the shade of a tree at the door. When you walk up, it looks up lazily at you, and then lies down again. He fell asleep with his tongue out.There is a lonely and musty air in the village, which dilutes the popularity to only a wisp of cooking smoke when cooking.At night, just after supper, all the houses locked their doors.both days Rena

It's cool, and they're all bored in their own courtyard.If it weren't for Du Boqi or walking around the village with his medicine book, there would be no one in the village who could carry a bag of grain. Every time there is a big action in the village, it is Du Bo who stays behind.Sima Lan said, Uncle Teng, if you stay in the village, Du Bo won't have to go to the city to starve and suffer cold when selling human skins.Sima Lan said, Uncle Teng, you don't need to repair the canal.Du Bo stayed in the village.I read his medicine books every day and studied his Chinese medicine prescriptions.This time, Sima Lan didn't mention her uncle Teng, he said, in-laws, are you going to the construction site?Du Bo said that there must be a man in the village.Du Bo stayed again.Once, a woman from Lan’s family was grinding flour. The donkey was startled and pulled the upper fan’s grinding disc out of the shaft eye. Usually, two men carried it on their shoulders, and the grinding disc could be restored, but this time the five women could not carry the upper fan. Mopan called Du Bo away.Du Bo didn't say anything, and set the donkey up again, letting the donkey pull it in the opposite direction of the millstone's stagger, and the mill returned to its original position, and it could turn and grind flour again.

In fact, Dubo is another kind of power in the village. In many cases, what Du Bo said was the policy implemented by the outside world.Regarding policies, Du Bo said the most these days: "The town is urging our village to set up a village committee." Someone asked him what a village committee is, and he explained that a village committee is a village committee. There must be a deputy village chief, and two other committee members to discuss matters. After Du Bo said this for a few days, he collected a cart of grain and vegetables from each family, and drove a donkey cart to the depths of the rake building. The vegetables, vermicelli, mung bean sprouts and several bags of corn on the cart were piled up into a small hill. In the morning until sunset, when we reached Funiu Peak deep in the rafting building, we saw a reddish-brown strip hanging on the green hillside, like a blood sausage coiled on the mountain range.On that line of red, two pairs of villagers with three surnames, a group of three, hung a wave every 20 meters. Daily planing and digging, when he reached the canal, Du Bo was stunned. All the men were naked, wearing only one pair of underpants, and their bodies were covered with red dirt and gravel, even their teeth were stained. Earth color.He saw Sima Hu and Sima Lu sharing a part of the work together. Sima Lu was wearing a quilt with a large patterned trousers, but Sima Hu didn't even wear any trousers.Every time he straightened up, his thing would slam between his legs, like a hammer that could never be thrown.Every time you bend down, you have to "ahhh".With the sound of "ahhh", it seemed that the mountains several miles away were shaken by the hammer head.And the really loose soil under the shovel is only about half a shovel.There is a sticky earthy smell bubbling far away on the mountain range, coupled with the sound of shovels, shovels, and the rolling of gravel thrown between the grass and thorns, it seems that the entire mountain range is moving.Du Bo parked the donkey cart at the head of the canal, and the nearby villagers gathered around, long and short, asking about the situation at home.He answered one by one, and saw that among the six or seven people who surrounded him, each hand was wrapped with cloth strips, and sweat and blood soaked out of the cloth, turning black and purple in color.Someone was thirsty and stuffed the raw vegetables on the cart into his mouth.Someone grabbed a handful of bean sprouts and chewed them like a cow eating grass, and said, damn it, this is not a human job. I would rather live to be thirty and die of a throat problem than do this job.Then looking at the scorching sun above his head, his eyebrows were curled together.At that moment, his son Du Liu came over from the construction site and said, Dad, I'm going to die of exhaustion on this mountain, and each person can sleep at most half a night a day, tell Teng her father to let me go back to the village to rest for a few days .Du Bo stood beside the car, stared at his son and asked, "What did you say?" Du Liu replied, "I want to go back to the village to rest for a few days." The son kicked and sat in a clump of weeds, cursing, "You're an unworthy thing!"

The surrounding villagers were all stunned. This is the child they have seen Du Bo beat their own in their lifetime, and it is the child who has just married and is now an adult. Du Liu looked at his father inexplicably in the weeds, and tears welled up.He said I was just talking, so I really replied. I don’t know which is more important, life or contribution, and I don’t think long-term. Du Liu walked away from his father to work. Other villagers also went to work again. Sima Lan walked along the broken mountain canal line. The mud-red canal was two meters wide and half a meter deep, just below his neck, with his head sticking out of the canal, like a piece of water swimming in mid-air. black stone.He would say something every time he came to a section, and sometimes he would pick up a shovel to plan a few times, or use a shovel to shovel the completed canal wall.When he arrived in front of Du Bo's grain and vegetable cart, Du Bo first saw that he suddenly became thinner, as if he hadn't closed his eyes for several days and nights, but the red of the snake scar on his neck faded, and his pale yellow color was similar to normal skin.Du Bo said: "Your scar is healed." Sima Lan said: "Du Liu is crying and homesick. Next time let him go home to transport food and vegetables, and meet Teng." Du Bo said: " It’s not that I’m homesick, but I heard that the town urged the village to set up a village committee and elect one or two village cadres, and told me he wanted to be the deputy village chief, so I kicked him.”

Sima Lan was like someone who patted his shoulder behind him, was slightly startled, looked at Du Bo for a while, and asked: "Are you reminded again?" Said: "Are you urged?" Sima Lan said: "It is time to choose a deputy villager. Long, there is someone who runs errands when something happens." Du Bo said: "I think so, the canal is repaired, people live longer, and life is normal. You and Forty live together for a few years. You decide on big things. Small things Let someone else do it." A mass of shade moved over.After driving the donkey cart to the shade of the tree, unloading the donkey to eat grass, they whispered beside the cart.

Sima Lan said: "If it doesn't work, let Du Liu be the deputy village chief." Du Bo said: "That's not going to work, he is your son-in-law, you can't let the villagers talk behind your back." Sima Lan said: "If it doesn't work, let the villagers choose, and whoever they choose will be his mother." Du Bo said: "I'll tell the town to wait until the canal is repaired before adding village officials. At that time, the water will flow to the village, and you nominate and recognize the villagers for election. Whoever you mention will be elected by the villagers. "

Sima Lan said: "After all, it is my own child." Du Bo said: "I am afraid that he may not be able to be selected if he is really selected." Sima Lan thought for a while, then got up from the grass and patted the dirt on her body. Seriously, we couldn't choose, and we were worthy of the baby. After returning from the construction site, Du Bo cared more about the villagers.Every day, like looking for a doctor, he carried his medicine book, going from one house to another, and from that house to the next house.Every time he went to a house, he would first ask the hostess who guarded the house if he had any difficulties. If the village head was gone, he would let me know if there were any difficulties.Then he asked everyone in the family if they were in good health, and I would prescribe a prescription for any illness, and finally he said: "Hey... the town is always urging us to set up a village committee. It seems that one or two village cadres will not be replaced. It’s really not good. You will have to vote when the deputy village chief is elected.”

The hostess said: "I'm a woman, does the vote count?" He said: "Women are human beings, and votes over the age of 18 are counted." The hostess said, "Brother Dubo, who shall I choose?" He said: "Your nephew Du Liu's crop has grown up to look good, you can choose anyone." The hostess said: "Then I will vote for my nephew Du Liu." Du Bo finished the prescription and confessed that he was not seriously ill and he would be cured with just one dose of medicine, and then went to the next family.In a few days, Du Bo walked around every household. The hostesses of each house said that there is a difference between being literate and illiterate, and that there is no man in the village who is as careful as Du Bo.

The time of flowing water gurgled slowly in the fineness of Du Bo, leaving many clear sounds of him in the village.The men walked for two months, harvested the wheat, and planted it in autumn. The maize had already taken off its body and grown wildly. At night, you could hear their soft and warm growing sound, like the sound of furry rain.At this time, Du Bo came out from home, from Du's alley, to Lan's alley, and then to Sima's alley.He told all the women that it was time to hoe the corn a second time. It's time to hoe the third time. It's time to hoe the fourth time.

Amidst his urging, the maize grew to waist depth, and his woman Lan Sanjiu suddenly lay on the bed, not drinking tea, tears streaming down her face, calling out to me that my throat hurts and the water is blocked. I can't swallow it.He called the woman to the bright place of the door, asked her to open her mouth, put a chopstick in, and pressed down, she let out an ah, and Du Bo's heart exploded.He saw a caterpillar-like swell in the back of her throat.Tears slowly came out of Du Bo's eye frame.So, his woman cried in grief, saying that I am only thirty-six years old, why is it my turn to die?At least I should live to be thirty-eight years old.Du Bo handed her the job bowl and said that your life is really bad. The canal is opened, and the child will soon become the deputy village head. In the future, you and I will drink Lingyin water and live as old people, Sima It's time for Lan to give up the village chief to Haiwa. At that time, the villagers with the three surnames belonged to our Du family's village. It's a pity that you don't have this life.He also said, but then again, thirty-six years old is not that old, but isn’t there still people in the village who died of throat blockage before twenty, compare them, you are worth it, you have children, Du Liu also Both are married.The woman stopped crying after thinking about it, and called vines to the yard——I want to drink some chicken soup at noon, and I have never had chicken soup in my life.At noon, the daughter-in-law Teng killed a non-laying hen, boiled the meat, and stewed a bowl of white soup with the skeleton, and brought it to her mother-in-law.The young mother-in-law drank half a bowl and said it was really delicious.Keep the other half bowl and say that I will drink it at dinner.But when it was time for dinner, Teng warmed up the half bowl of chicken soup, brought it to the bed, called mother three times, but received no response, shook her with his hand, like shaking a piece of wood, and gently put his hand on his nose, a burst of icy air Born from the ground.Fujichao took a step back, stunned for a while, and came out to stand in the door frame of the house. The setting sun was shining on the upper room, and it was bright red and sultry.She closed her eyes slightly, and called to her uncle in the yard:

"Father, my mother is dead." Du Bo was flipping through the "Huangdi Neijing" under the shade of a tree in the side courtyard, still holding a pencil in his hand.Hearing the call, he raised his head, one hand was frozen on the page of the book, and the other hand was frozen in the air with the pencil. He looked at his daughter-in-law Vine for a while, and said: "So fast? I haven't prepared a Chinese medicine prescription yet." "It's really dead, come and take a look." Du Bo retracted his pencil from mid-air, closed the pages of the book, and calmly drove a few sheep running around in the yard into the pen, closed the pen gate, and stamped the sheep dung on his shoes. When he went into the house, his daughter-in-law was indeed dead. .Not only was there no breath, but even his face was blue.He let out a long sigh and said cook, your man is about to become the deputy village head, your mother-in-law is not blessed to drink Lingyin water to be the village head's mother, she is dead, we have to live, I will call after dinner The villagers hoe the millet for the fifth time, and then find a few people to help you guard the spirit. The men are gone, and the funeral can only be kept simple.As he spoke, he went out and sat on the threshold of the upper room, looking at the setting sun in the west, like a plastic model, and as he watched, tears fell again.Teng rewarmed the half bowl of chicken soup, and when he brought it to him, he opened his mouth and said Teng, look at my throat, I suddenly felt that my throat was tight, I should die too.Taking advantage of the sunlight, Teng supported his father-in-law's chin, and pressed his tongue with his chopsticks to look at it, saying that your throat is not swollen or swollen, and that your throat is tight because of your mother's death. Then he felt relieved, took the bowl and drank the half bowl of chicken soup, and the sun came to Xishan Liangzi. Looking out from the gate, he could see a corner of the sloping field, where the maize was luxuriant, and the red copper was shining. light color.It seems that I can still vaguely see mosquitoes flying on the top of the corn.Du Bo pushed the bowl on the doorpost, saying that I'm going out to arrange funerals, and if you're afraid, don't come in.The rattan poked its head out from the stove, and said, what are you afraid of, who will die before the end of the month?Then asked whose house you went to, Du Bo said that he had to tell Lan Shishi first, she was your mother's sister anyway. It seems that it was only at this time that Teng remembered that her mother-in-law had the surname Lan, Lan Sanjiu, Lan Sanjiu's youngest daughter, and the only younger sister under Lan Forty.She was slightly stunned by the frame of the door, looked at her father-in-law Du Bo and said: "My mother-in-law will never recognize her as a sister all her life. If you tell her, I won't wear filial piety clothes, and I won't be a filial son." Du Bo said: "Without her, your father Sima Lan would have died a long time ago, how could he have earned that monument of merit and virtue to stand on the beam." Teng said: "She is the king of meat, she is a broken shoe, without her my father might not be sick." Du Bo just fell silent and didn't say a word. The next day, Lan Sanjiu was buried quietly. There were no young men in the village, no sounder squad, and no coffin-carrying boys, so they took the coffin to Du's cemetery with a trolley.Dead bodies tend to smell bad in summer, and people are buried in a hurry, even firecrackers are saved.There was a bit of crying, because Teng and some juniors of Du's family cried a few times because the funeral of nine rites and twelve knocks was avoided.Du Bo said, forget it, you can't cry when you die, so don't cry anymore. Another person disappeared from this world, quietly shattered like a blister, and disappeared like a bird moved away.When he was hoeing corn for the fifth time, Du Bo walked confidently to the head of the village, and suddenly saw a field of corn with wormwood growing wildly, and the crops were as thin as willow branches in autumn.The adjacent sorghums are all waist-length and shoulder-length, showing a strong black color, but in this one-acre crop field, the grass is flourishing and the grass is thin.Standing on the ground, seeing the vaguely written name of Lan Shishi on the wooden sign under his feet, he couldn't help but suddenly remembered that he had never seen Siyiyi since the men in the village went to the back beam of the Palou Mountains to repair the canal.Thinking of Lan Sanjiu's death, most of the women in the village went to see the dead face. Forty was Sanjiu's own sister, but they didn't inform her of Sanjiu's death. I couldn't help but felt a bit sad, so I went around the field and went to Shisi's house. . Forty at home. Forty days barred her door. Du Bo pushed it a few times but didn't push it away, and a neighbor's daughter and neighbor came over, saying that the gate of Forty Aunt's house had been locked like this for many days, and that it seemed that since Sima Lan led the men out of the village, she had never been seen out of the two villages. He opened the door, so Du Bo's face turned white with shock, thinking that a man who was forty or thirty-seven years old was also on the verge of death, so he hurriedly called out again and again, and wanted to call a few more times, and smashed the door if he didn't respond. When the door was opened, Lan Shishi opened the door with a bang.Immediately, there was a faint red smell of traditional Chinese medicine gushing out from the courtyard one by one.In that breath, Lan Sisi was still wearing a plain flowered blouse, the buttons were red and bright like stars and moons, but her face was slightly yellowed, like the frost color of autumn chrysanthemums falling on her face.Looking at Du Bo, looking at the women in the village, she held the two wide-open door frames with both hands, as if preventing the villagers from entering. Du Bo said: "Forty, your sorghum has gone crazy." "Crazy is crazy," she said. And said: "Your sister Sanjiu died." Her gaze fell down with a bang, and immediately became soft, the yellowish color on her face turned pale, and the lines at the corners of her mouth fluttered like hair in the wind. "What did you say?" "Your sister is dead." "When?" "After twenty-seven." "No way? I'm still alive at thirty-seven, why did she die at thirty-six?" "As soon as the throat hurts, you will die, and you will pass the 27th." Lan Shishi didn't say anything anymore, and stared at Du Bo's mouth, as if he couldn't believe it.However, Du Bo said that he should have told you when he died, but he didn't tell you because you sisters never got in touch with each other when they were alive.She also said that she has also reached this age, and thirty-six is ​​considered a long life, so don't be too sad.At this point, Lan Shishi suddenly slid softly down the door frame, slumped on the threshold, tears dripping down, and said, Du Bo, Du Bo, how can I, Lan Shii, be sorry for you? Our sisters are not reconciled, and you still don't let me meet her after she dies.Also, poor Sanjiu girl, the Lingyin Canal will be repaired soon, and you will drink Lingyin water after living another year and a half, and you will live past forty years old, and you will live to fifty or sixty. Why is life so hard? Why is life so short?If you die, I will go to Jiudu for nothing to do that shameful human flesh business.She talked like she was muttering to herself, or she was talking to a girl alone, she said three or nine, I have humiliated our Lan family in my forty-one lifetime, but why did you leave when I was still alive?Why don't you let me die and you live?Why don't you go to Jiudu to make a meat business again while I'm still alive, and send you to the county hospital for an operation?Saying this, Forty's eyes moved away from Du Bo, looking at somewhere in the distance, the tears in his eyes gradually stopped flowing, but the whites of his eyes gradually grew bigger, and even his lips gradually turned from blue Black, and then purple blue, she also collapsed on the ground, speechless. Du Bo looked at Lan Shisi lying on the ground, dragged her out of the gate in a hurry, put her on the air vent in the corner of the courtyard, and pinched her Renzhong acupoint and temple with his hands in a calm manner , when the several acupuncture points on the face were left with red nail marks, the whites of the eyes of the forties receded, and the portrait was tired for a day, lying down and sleeping, slowly opened the eyes, and looked at the eyes that were still there. Du Bo's face pinched her tiger finger. Du Bo said: "Are you awake? It's time to hoe the millet. There can't be a season of food shortage. If you miss your sister, go to the grave to have a look. She is worth it. The coffin is an inch and a half thick board, and the coffin is three inches thick. A synthetic cypress wood stall, I may not have such a good coffin after I die. My father has wanted a good coffin all his life, and finally swept away." Sitting up from the ground at forty, he said that Sima, a blue-collar worker, was at the construction site There is no black and white work, maybe the village will die after autumn and winter?It's fate, Sima Lan should come back from the canal.As soon as he comes back, I will treat you as my sister's house and ask you to share a shop together. Dubo said a lot to Forty.After talking a lot, forty only answered: "What did my sister say before she died?" Du Bo said, what she said before she died can't be said. Liu was a village cadre, and said that one day Sima Lan quit, and Du Liu took over as the village head and took charge of the village's affairs.Du Bo said, Forty, why do you think your sister has such thoughts? Dubo left after saying this. A few days later, I arrived at the graves of my father Lan Baisui and my mother Meimei for a long time, looking at the tombs endlessly. No one knew what she was thinking in front of the grave in the wilderness. Memories of a lifetime are still summaries of one's own life, fragmented thoughts about the village, or some views on the world.In short, this is the last time she stands silently on this grave.Then I stopped at the graves of my elder sister Lan Jiushi, my second sister Lan Bashi, my third sister Lan Seventy, and my fourth sister Lan Fifty. At dusk I arrived at the grave of my younger sister Lan Sanjiu.The Du family cemetery is on a hillside in the west of the village. The setting sun is slanting, and the cemetery is blood red. In the open space between the piles, there are thatched mountains, mountains, seas and seas, and thick clouds and fog. Often, one or two hares or weasels will drive holes into the tomb, and the hole will stay in the thatch.The maize fields in the four fields are billowing with the stench of tender green corn, and the sun shines brightly on the stench, covering the mountain ridges.It was very quiet, and the flowing sound of the highland barley breath was like water.Lan Shisi stood in the midst of the gurgling, in front of a lonely new grave. There were grasshoppers jumping on the grave, and a grasshopper croaking on a small jujube tree, happily and happily.Looking at the grave of his younger sister Lan Sanjiu, Lan Shishi's face was covered with hard wood gray, like a layer of mountain ridges that had not been plowed for thousands of years. Sanjiumei, Forty said, I have humiliated our Lan family. A cool voice came over, saying that you did that meat business for nothing. ——I know that you refuse to recognize me as a sister until you die. ——It doesn’t matter if I die, it’s better to die early, and I don’t need to open my eyes to see that you will be like a pig for the rest of your life. ——Sister, I already have my retribution. ——Then you die, I am waiting for you here.Unless you are dead, you are considered a member of the Lan family, and you are considered my sister. ——But what will Sima Lan do if I die?He went to repair the canal for me, and I promised him that I would live with him when he returned from repairing the canal.All my life, I wanted to give my body to him, to share a bed with him, to give birth to a boy for him, to cook for him, to wash pots and dishes for him, to bring water for his face and feet.As long as I can sleep on the same bed with him at night, and sleep with him on the same pillow, I am willing to be a cow or a horse. - You are still a pig.It's still a broken shoe, a bitch, and a meat king. You are not worthy to be my sister to Lan Sanjiu until you die. Forty stopped talking.Her eyes were blurred, and the hard paleness on her face made her tremble with Sanjiu's words, as if a green leather whip was whipping her face.The red water of the setting sun splashed over and splashed down her face, and the graveyard immediately turned into plasma.She stood numbly, when she heard footsteps, she swung towards her like an oar, but she didn't raise her head, but a thin figure squeezed into her field of vision in all directions. It was Du Zhucui, Sima Lan's woman. Du Zhucui was planted under her eyelids like a bamboo that had turned green after winter, and there was an irrepressible joy and light on her face. If it weren't for the furrow-like wrinkles on her forehead, maybe there would be a good place there. She looked at Lan Shishi, her eyes narrowed into a line. "My brother said that you came to the cemetery." She said, "Sanjiu has a son and a daughter, and she has become a mother-in-law. You don't have to be too sad when you die." She said: "Sima Lu went back to the village to collect food and said that half of the remaining canals of more than ten miles had been dug. The people in the village were dying. It was Sanjiu who didn't have a long life without drinking water." She said: "Let me tell you something. I know I can't stop Sima Lan from working with you after he finished repairing the shop. When he left, he wanted to share the shop with you. I knew he was I am so fascinated by you that I have no soul. The eyes are green without soul." Taking a step forward, she paused and said, "I, Du Zhucui, am actually a sensible person. As long as he can cultivate well, as long as I really If I drink that water, I won’t get a sore throat, and as long as I can live to be forty or fifty years old, I’m willing to part with Sima Lan and fulfill you and him.” "I don't know how good it is to be alive today. I gave birth to three girls, Vine, Ge, and Man. I never knew that being a woman can be so happy. I didn't know until a few days before Sima Lan went to repair the canal. Only then did I understand why women have the cheek to support men." "I was living for nothing," she said. Then he said: "You two share a bed together. I want Sima Lan to come back to my place for one night every ten days every half month. I worked for nothing before, but now I'm afraid of living in an empty room. I just want him to be with me once every half month. I don't care." What did my brother tell you, he can't control my business. He wants Du Liu to be the village head, so it doesn't matter to me. I just want you to let Sima Lan go home for a night every half month. Don't forget that I am also him. I will never call you the meat king again. I am ugly and old, and if I want to be as handsome as you, I am willing to be the meat king. I figured out that being the meat king is a blessing for our women. She said: "As long as you and Sima Lan guarantee that I can live to be forty or fifty years old, let him go home and live with me every half a month, and I will step aside from the middle of the road and let the two of you walk into the same room." After finishing speaking, she felt a little relaxed, like a few butterflies fluttering on her cheeks. Lan Shisi has been listening to her quietly, and when she finished speaking, as if she hadn't heard anything, she half-turned her body and stared at her, wanting to say something but just licked her lips with her tongue , walked between her and Sanjiu's graves.Seeing that Forty was speechless, Zhu Cui turned her body to let Forty walk over, followed her shadow and yelled, "What if I die? I won't live until forty or fifty, and you won't let him go?" Go home once in half a month, and you two will never have a good day."