Chapter 21 Chapter 21

one The Lingyin Canal was dug until the winter of this year, and the sky was frosty every day.The winter cold is falling like leaves, and there is a lot of coldness on the mountains.The newly dug nine-mile channel has six miles of rocks and three miles of slopes.The slopes are all loess, so digging with a planer and shovel is enough. However, digging ditches from the mountains, drilling holes, hammering drills, and explosives blasting rocks are extremely dangerous. A hammer surnamed Du helped the Lan family Xian's hand was smashed, three fingers were broken, and blood flowed down the steel drill into the blast hole.The guy from the Lan family held up his hands and said, my mother, where did my eight fingers go?Looking down, he saw bones, red meat, and lotus roots hanging on a stone. When he grabbed it and put it on the wound, he swung the hammer and said, can it still be fixed if it falls?Thinking about losing a finger, I wrapped the finger in leaves and put it in my pocket.What are you doing with that bag?After all, it is also my meat.Smiling with a hammer, he said that there were maggots left, and the one who lost his finger took out the pack of fingers to have a look, and threw it away.Asking where you are going, he raised his left hand with three fingers missing, and the blood looked like three water pipes stretching in mid-air.I went to see Sima Lan, and he endured the pain with a pale smile on his face, saying that I can't work anymore, I went back to Sanxing Village this winter, you guys should dig ditches here.

The man surnamed Du who swung the hammer looked at the guy from the Lan family who jumped away like a sparrow from the rubble and debris on the bank of the canal. The hammer slipped from his hand, and he wanted to return to the village again. Where is the finger?If only he smashed three of my fingers off. There are fewer and fewer people on the construction site.After the first Frost's Descent, in addition to the three who were killed by the blast, and the five who returned to the village with broken arms and legs, they lost 40% of their strength at once.At night, the villagers were in the houses of the wheat threshing ground in the nearby village, and the crowded wheat straw floor suddenly came alive.People were lying on the smoldering straw, and Sima Lan's younger brother, Sima Hu, came in from the door and said, brother, my sister-in-law Zhucui is ill again.

Sima Lan folded it from the floor, but said that it would be good to die. Tiger said, lying on the bed will not move. Lan said, if she dies, I will live with Forty. Hu said, but my sister-in-law is sick, so my mother has no one to serve her. Sima Lan didn't say anything more, watching the younger brother who had just returned from harvesting grain in the village walk into the house, pulled back the quilt, got into the bed, and asked how his mother was doing.Hu said that the lump in his throat was like a red-skinned egg, and he could live for another three months or half a year at most.Sima Lan got up and went to the wall, woke up the sleeping fifth younger brother Sima Lu, and said, Lu, you will go back to the village tomorrow and carry your mother to the construction site, she is about to die.Sima Lu sat up and rubbed his eyes and said, Fourth brother, I really can't do construction work anymore, tell me to go back and serve Yidongniang.

Sima Lan kicked Sima Lu's leg. "I told you to go home and bring your mother back!" They all fell asleep.In the frost-white night, the cold air of late autumn and shallow winter flows into the house in the color of green ice, and the fire-yellow heat rising from the straw floor, especially on the quilts and faces of the villagers of the three surnames after they are asleep. It was the front of the nose that was breathing dry and cracked, and was fighting like a bandit.When I woke up the next day, the noses of all the villagers with three surnames were bleeding red, and they all wiped it with their sleeves, saying that the straw was on fire and they couldn't sleep.But Sima Lan said that it was still hot, and it would be fine if it snowed heavily.After wiping his nosebleeds, washing his face, and eating rice with sweet potato soup cooked with maize grits, he went to the construction site of Lingyin Canal four miles away.When it was dark and the setting sun was about to go, Sima Lu came from Sanxing Village with his mother on his back.At that time, the construction site had not been closed yet, and people pried off the broken rocks one by one with a drill, and then carried them to the bank of the canal.The stones rolled down from the mountain rolled against the setting sun as if rolling through the glass, and the crisp crackling sounded like firecrackers on the hillside.Sima Hu urinated on the cliff, and a stream of red water bowed there like a rainbow.Sima Lan tied himself to a rope, and while the monkey was on the cliff, pounding overhanging rocks, he saw Sima deer carrying his mother on its back in the distance, kicking and stamping like a tired cow, throwing the The grass is stepped on alas.

He climbed down from the cliff. "Tiger, our mother is here." The brothers walked towards their mother, turned over a beam, and when they saw their mother, they all stood up suddenly, a distance of more than ten feet.The ditch is as thin as a canyon, and the road hangs on the wall like a straw rope. The sunlight creaks against the stone wall, shining on the stone wall like fire reflecting on a person's face.Sima Lan and Sima Hu stood motionless, with Yi Ren's face stiffened by the sunlight.They saw the mother's head shrugged on Sima Lu's right shoulder, really like a moth-eaten melon.His hair had been eaten away by scabies, and only a few hairs hung around his neck.And those erosive sores have already formed pus, and the stench is spreading like the freshness in this ditch.Bean-sized golden flies are densely packed on the mother's head like dumplings.

Sima Lan said, "Lu, is mother dead?" Sima Lu said, "Alive." two Niang said, "I'm afraid I won't survive the winter." Blue said, "It's fine." Mother said: "You let me die at home." Lan said: "Who will serve you when you go home? Zhucui?" Niang said: "You have to go back and see Zhucui, you are her man." Lan said, "Mom, is she nice to you?" Niang said, "She is a filial daughter-in-law." Lan said: "Just say she's not good. If you say she's not good, I'll split the bed with her. If we split the bed, I can live with Forty."

Mother said: "Bah! You send me home." Sima Lan stood up from her mother's side. Niang said: "You carry me to Zhucui's side. If I die, I will die with her." Sima Lan said, "If you die at home, who will bury you?" Niang said, "It doesn't matter where I die." Sima Lan said: "Here I can sweep you up. I'll buy a bundle of reeds and weave a coffin for you. It's better than a real coffin." After saying this, Sima Lan led the people to the construction site. three The days passed by like a flash, and the Lidong Festival came to the construction site of Lingyin Canal.Snowflakes fell that day, the wind was so cold that the ice was piercing, and the white mountains and plains froze on the ground.The canal stretched two miles forward, and it was sunken straight on the mountain. The people of Sansurname Village were at the head of the canal, and they pushed the canal forward inch by inch. .

Sima Hu came from the other side of him.He threw the iron rods that had just been dipped in the fire on the ground, walked up to Sima Lan and said, "Mother is dying, brother, I even drank water and vomited up."Sima Lan was swinging the hammer on the cliff, he condensed the hammer in the snow, saying no, I saw the lump in my mother's throat was getting smaller yesterday.Sima Hu said she is our mother, she is dying, can I lie to you?Said that you want to be my brother or mother's child, you go back and see her, she will call your name loudly. Sima Lan dropped the sledgehammer and left the construction site.

In a hut on the wheat field at the foot of the mountain, he pressed his mother's tongue with his chopsticks, struck a match and stuck it into her mouth, looked deep into it, pulled out his chopsticks, and threw away the matchstick. Say what you want to eat, just say it, mother. Niang put her eyes on Sima Lan, and said that I really thought I could survive this winter.Sima Lan said, isn't the scabies on your head mild?Even her hair had grown another layer, and the mother turned over on the raised wooden bed, sat up giggling, and leaned her bony back against the raw wall. "Is it snowing outside?"

"How many days has it been since Lidong?" "Didn't you say that you would weave a reed mat coffin for me in winter?" She said that I was thirty-eight years old, which is considered an advanced age in Sanxing Village. Although Zhucui gave birth to a dead child, she still made me a grandmother.How many people in the village have been grandparents?But I have been a nurse and held my granddaughter. Today, my life is up and I am about to die, and I am content.She said that it has been three years, and there is no need to bury a person in a coffin after death, right?Say I am dead, if you can weave me a coffin out of mats, then I will not feed you in vain in my life, nor will I feed deer and tigers in vain.

Sima Lan pulled out a gray-white hairpin from her mother's hair, saying it was silver, right?His mother nodded and said that it was the most valuable thing in the family, that her grandmother pulled it off her head and gave it to her mother when she married Sima Xiaoxiao, and said that her mother pulled it off her head when she married Sima Xiaoxiao I gave it to her, saying that the hairpin can be exchanged for at least two coffin boards, and it is obviously a loss for a bundle of reeds.Sima Lan didn't say anything else, he walked out of the house holding the silver hairpin, and went straight to Xiaomazhai Village to the east. Needless to say, most of the people in Xiaomazhai Village have the surname Ma.The Maichang house where they live is the house in Xiaoma Village.In the southwest of Xiaoma Village, there are several acres of stinky ponds, and every year there is a crop of reeds distributed to each household, so every house has a few bundles of reeds leaning on it in the front and back of the house or in the corner of the toilet.Sima Lan walked in from the east end of the village, saw that the gate of the first house was locked, and left the second house. "Do you sell your reeds?" "Sell it, you buy it?" "I'll exchange this silver hairpin for you." The one talking to Sima Lan was a young daughter-in-law who was scouring the yard for grain, half wheat and half beans.He said that you are really rich, and you usually eat fine noodles when you eat.The daughter-in-law smiled at him, took the hairpin and walked out the door, and walked back after a long finger, saying that your hairpin is real silver, and you will lose money in exchange for a few bundles of reeds. He said, "All I need is a bundle of reeds, and one bundle is enough." She said, "Then you are at a disadvantage." He said, "I want you another basket of wheat. People on the construction site haven't eaten white flour for three months." The woman looked at the half-washed wheat on the ground, looked up after a moment of silence, and went over to lock the door.When she turned around from the gate and came back, Sima Lan saw a heavy layer of red suddenly appear on her face, and said, "I know you are the foreman who digs the canal there, and you are the village chief. I met you in the village, and said that in our village The land is divided, the responsibility is assigned to the households, and each farms and harvests separately. This wheat is for others to eat when it is hired to plow the field. How can I hire someone to plow the field if it is given to you?As she said that, she poured her hot eyes on Sima Lan's face, and asked, "Have you not been home for a few months?" "I haven't been back to the village for almost two years," he said. She said, "You have become a family? I can see that you are a family." After that, she didn't wait for him to reply, and pulled his arm into the house, saying that I can't give you the food, But I want your silver hairpin again, saying that I will give you my body once, and you will have nothing to lose.Saying so, she dragged him into the room, closed the door again, and then went to unbutton her clothes. In a panic, a button fell off. When she bent down to pick it up, she saw Sima Lan standing In the window light, she remained motionless, with her hands curled up into curls, her eyes burning so brightly that the whole room was glowing red. She said, "You don't want to be like me, big brother?" He stretched out his hands, turned around and wiped the sweat from his hands on the adobe wall. She said: "I look older, but I'm actually only thirty-one. My man died the year before last, and I went to your Sansurname village to help them make a few coffins and dowries. Dong died. Aren’t everyone in your village under forty years old?” Sweat dripped from Sima Lan's hands suddenly, and a gust of cold air pierced into his palms. She said: "Really, I just passed 31 a few days ago. Do you think I am more than 31?" Asking this, she put the button into her pocket and went to unbutton it again .When she went to unbutton her again, she calmed down and her hands didn't shake anymore. While undoing the button, she asked Sima Lan, how old are you, big brother? Sima Lan said, "I'm over twenty." She suddenly stopped unbuttoning her hand again, handed the hairpin to him, and said that you are only in your twenties, and I thought you were thirty years old.I can't see your face if you say you are covered with dust, say you are holding a hairpin, go to another family, you, you are only in your twenties, I can't hurt you, I am ten years older than you, it is too much .Sima Lan didn't accept the hairpin she handed over.While listening to her say these words, he stabbed his eyes hard on her face.He saw a mole on her face, he cast his eyes on the mole, the blood on his body burst like a torrent, and there was a rumbling sound in his head, he threw himself on her and carried her to the bed. She is: "I'm ten years older than you, don't you regret it?" She said: "I don't come here easily, just relax." She said: "My man has been dead for a year. Can you tell me your name?" She said: "Why don't you talk? Seeing that you treat me like an enemy, you bit off my eyebrows. If it doesn't work, I'll return the hairpin to you." Her voice was soft and moist, and there was a sweet smell of sweat in her voice.The cry from the foot of the bed was rapid and hoarse.His sweat fell on her face, jingling and flowing down her forehead, washing her mole like a black star.There was a thick fishy smell of fog in the air.The sound of panting beat the fishy fish intermittently like a bamboo stick.Daylight came in with violent quick steps through the window, and time flew away like an eagle. He said: "You can marry anywhere, but don't remarry in the Sansurname Village. No one in the Sansurname Village can live past forty years old." He said: "But once the Lingyin Canal is repaired, our village will be able to live in seventies and eighties just like you." He said, "That mole between your eyebrows is pretty." He said: "I miss you from now on, can I come to see you empty-handed?" He said, "Then I will carry this big bundle of reeds away." She sent him outside the gate and then to the head of the village, watched him turn a corner, and when he turned to leave, he came back with the reed on his shoulders, stood in front of her, and said what did you just say?Did you say that all the land in your village has been allocated to each household? She said yes, every family can do business. He stared at his face obsessively and remained silent for a while. She said, don't stare at me like that, it's not good for people to bump into me. He said, can everything be bought and sold at the fair? She said that the world has changed, why don't you know anything? He asked, can human skin be sold? She squinted at him and said what are you talking about?Is it human skin? He said, I didn't say anything, I will come to see you again in a few days, and I left with the bundle of reeds on my back.Scattered black reeds rose from the bundles of reeds and flew into the sky in the daylight.And those withered white auras shook down from the bundle of reeds and flowed behind him. Four The coffin mat was woven under my mother's bed.It was raining and snowing that day, and the stones on the construction site were as slippery as fish, and the villagers all stopped, so the Sima family brothers broke open the reeds, sprinkled them with water, rolled down the stones on the side of the site, and rolled them, the reeds and thin White ramen was the same.There was a milky sweet smell emanating from the reeds, and every one of my mother's huts had the yellow and refreshing smell of reeds like millet rice.When it was dark, the bottom of the coffin had already been woven into a herringbone shape, two feet wide and six feet long. Put a wooden square frame on the coffin film, and then spray a few mouthfuls of warm water on the reed, and the The reeds stood up flexibly one by one, showing the appearance of a mat coffin.