Chapter 32 Chapter Twenty Nine

one The snow is already melting.The Palou Mountain is extremely clear, and you can see ten miles and eight miles at a glance.Looking up, even the red claws of the flying bird in mid-air could be clearly seen.Sima Lan led the teenagers and hadn't come back from the county seat. According to the old business habits, the business went smoothly, and the round trip took only three or four days. Even if the business didn't go well, it only took five or six days. However, they have been gone for nine days.It has been three days since Du Bo went to the city to look for it. Anxious villagers always stand on the beams and look endlessly outside the mountain at sunrise or after meals.Whenever someone walks by on the mountain ridge, they will ask if you have seen the dozen or so children from our Sansurname Village?

"What did you do?" "Go to the Jiaohuo Academy in the county to sell skins." "No, we're only in town." He just stood on a high place and waited, stretching his neck thin and long.At noon on the twelfth day, the sun was shining brightly on the top of the beam, and everyone was so worried about waiting that they stopped going up the beam, but suddenly they heard a clanging sound on the mountain beam.It was Sima Lan, Lan Liugen, Lan Yanggen, Du Zhu, Sima Lu, Sima Hu, and a group of more than ten young people, each pulling two or three carts, all of which were equipped with shovels, iron picks, poles, and ropes , Iron brazing and shovels.They tied a car together to form a convoy, limping, looking from a distance like a wounded dragon crawling on a mountain ridge.Behind the dragon, a coffin pulled by Du Bo was shining with oily black light in the sunlight, one could tell that the coffin was of the highest quality.

The matter turned out to be due to Du Zhuang's death, which brought about an excellent result.When the corpse was carried to the corridor of the ward, the hospital immediately fell into disarray. The dean, doctors, and nurses all panicked, and even the burn patients who were patched were surprised.Begging the teenagers to carry the corpse outside the hospital, they just guarded the corpse and ignored it.Finally, the stalemate reached noon the next day. A middle-aged man came from the hospital and called Sima Lan outside the ward, saying that he had heard that someone had hanged himself?Sima Lan said that the two cut pieces of skin on his body were bigger than cabbage leaves.I heard that you are going to use the money from selling leather to buy shelf carts, shovels, and picks, right?Sima Lan said that the labor force of the whole commune would go to our village to plow the land and exchange it for soil. What should we do with so many households?The man said that if you want to do this, you should have said earlier, I am the person in charge of the County Water Conservancy Bureau, and I will lead you to the water conservancy construction site of Lingyin Temple in the upper reaches of the Lingyin River. You can just use whatever tools you want.Sure enough, the man led them through the county town for more than five miles, and arrived at a dam that was out of repair.There is a willow grove on the dam, and the willow grove is full of idle vehicles, shovels, ropes and brazing irons.The man said something to the people watching the construction site, and they let them choose the car and tools.In winter, the river is small, the thin ice beside the river is as crystal clear as jade, and the sound of the water flowing is crisp and clear.Sima Lan looked at the hundreds of rack carts parked around and the shovels lying around, and said, should we just take it?The man said that as long as you quickly transport the corpse away.Sima Lan said, you won't pay us a coffin anymore?The man said you take more cars to the county town and sell one or two, isn't it just a coffin!So he let go of his courage, picked up new tires, pulled two cars with tight tires and smooth wheels, and filled a few cars with half-old shovels and picks, and left the construction site overjoyed.Such an unexpected harvest was the beginning of Sima Lan's heroic actions as the village head after Lan Baisui died.When leaving the construction site, the sound of white water flowing behind him has been flowing in Sima Lan's mind for many years. When he saw the failure of uprooting the land for soil, the green water that led the water to the village was born in his mind. idea.So far, the more tragic and long-term life journey of Sanxing Village has been decided once again.A group of them dragged their cars and tools, and the footsteps of walking back along a willow sand embankment were light and joyful.

Said: "Damn it, Brother Du Zhuang deserves to die." Said: "Sell the best car, buy the best coffin." Said: "In the future, whoever dies here will not be able to spread such a good coffin." Said: "What are you so dazed about, quickly carry that coffin to the car." When I returned to the village, it was noon on the twelfth day.Villagers cook at home.There is a warm tranquility flowing in the streets and alleys.There are chickens flapping their wings in the sun to plan food.The ox was tied to a stake, and a basket of dry white grass was placed under its mouth.They arrived at the head of the village in a calm manner, intentionally or unintentionally causing the vehicle to make a lot of cold and useless bangs.Someone ran out from home.Someone called out in the village street.Immediately, the village was filled with people from the village.They all heard Du Zhuang's mother who gave birth to Du Zhuang at the age of 18 and widowed at the age of 24, crying and bumping her head into the dark coffin. Lan Baisui hugged her and said sharply that he was dead. It's not worth changing so many things in the village.

The woman stood dumbfoundedly in front of the coffin. "From today onwards," Lan Baisui said to the villagers, "Du Zhuang's mother will be able to plow and exchange land for the rest of her life." "After the laborers from other villages come," Lan Baisui called out loudly, "the village will first arrange to dig up Du Zhuang's private land." Lan Baisui finally walked up to a large group of villagers and said, "You, you, and you, I will go to dig Du Zhuang's grave in the afternoon." When Lan Baisui personally pulled Du Zhuang's coffin towards Du's house, the villagers automatically stepped aside.Du Zhuang's mother followed behind the car, suppressing her crying into thin flat strips, and the person who helped her comforted her softly, don't cry for you, Du Zhuang died for the village, didn't the village already put him down? I watched it the same way as the martyrs in other villages.Said, look at the coffin, Sima Lan said it was bought by selling two foreign cars, with paulownia planks and cypress shelves. As far as I can remember, I have never seen anyone in the village use such a good coffin after death.

Du Zhuang's mother stopped mourning and said: "He's only twenty." "It's a pity at this age, but people can't come back to life after death." "I just sewed the quilt for his wife..." "That's because someone's daughter didn't have the same fate as you to be a widow." Hei's coffin turned into another alley.The crowd dispersed on the village street, and the young skin sellers all returned to their homes.Some people began to come out of the courtyard with rice bowls.Sima Lu and Sima Hu limped behind their mother and left first. Sima Lan and Du Bo stayed behind to put the carts and shovels in the open space beside the cow trough at the head of the village. , He said cousin, it's my turn to go to the Jiaohuoyuan to sell skins in the next batch. You just need to tell the villagers and ask the doctor that my skins are not suitable, and I don't have to go.

Sima Lan gave Du Bo a sideways look, and said, look at your bear, you are not even as good as my fourteen-year-old brother Tiger. Du Bo said: "As long as I'm not allowed to sell skins, I can let my younger sister Zhucui marry my cousin Sima Lu." Sima Lan stared at Du Bo's face: "My two brothers sell skins like cabbage leaves. I'm afraid they won't find a wife in the village." Du Bo's face turned pale with a crackle, and he turned back to go home. Sima Lan chased after him until he was far away, and shouted loudly: "If you don't sell your skin, you won't turn over your land, if you don't exchange your Home soil, let your family still be short-lived ghosts."

two The matter of digging land for soil is not as smooth as selling leather for cars.Every family has prepared a lot of firewood, vacant rooms and beds, but Director Lu of the commune has fallen silent.He sent Sima Lan to the town to have a look, and when he came back, he said that the terraced fields on the edge of the town were just like the dam construction site in the east of the city, messy and deserted, only some tents that were about to collapse were still crooked on the hillside.It is said that the reason why Director Lu has not brought labor from other villages to work is because Director Lu's wife is sick and the family cannot leave.The season of spring has passed, and the weather has obviously turned warmer. Counting the time, if Director Lu does not lead the troops here immediately, I am afraid that in about one month, spring will come, and the slack season will pass quietly. Don't come thousands of horses.

Lan Baisui was so anxious that blisters came out of his mouth.The water is bright and the water is bright. Sima Lan thought for a while, and said that he should send someone to Director Lu's house to help. Lan Baisui followed Sima Lan's words and sent his wife's younger sister to Director Lu's house, saying that he was sending a helper to Director Lu. , so that he could free up his body and immediately lead the people from the commune to Sanxing Village.However, the woman returned after only two days away. Ask: "What's going on?" Said: "I'm too stupid."

Question: "What's so stupid? Can't boil medicine and wash pots?" Said: "I made a medicine pot." Lan Baisui sighed and sighed for a while, went out and knocked on the iron bell in the village, and gathered all the daughter-in-laws in the village under the tree, saying who would want to go to Director Lu's house?After the Director Lu's wife has been enshrined, Director Lu will lead the people to dig the land for the soil.Some of the daughters-in-law are carrying rice bowls, some are still wearing aprons around their waists, and the pot ashes on their faces have not been wiped off in time, and some are followed by children like a very hungry puppy.They looked at each other under the old saponin tree, but finally none of them said that they were willing to serve others.One by one asked the past, or said that there is no good clothes, can they go to other people's houses?Lan Baisui looked at the woman who was speaking, she was indeed in tatters, and the cotton wool on the jacket was blooming, so she gave up with a sigh.Ask the next woman, she is breastfeeding her own baby, it goes without saying that it will not work.When he put his eyes on the other woman, he saw that she was extremely ugly and short like a ball.Half a dwarf, half a good person, he finally set his sights on Du Yan's daughter-in-law, thinking that she is quite leisurely, she is just in her early thirties, she is cleanly dressed, and there is no burden at home.

He said: "You go?" She said, "It's fine if I go. If I go, I won't let my baby Dubo go to the city to sell skins." After weighing the pros and cons, he agreed and decided that the woman Sima Taohua would go.Sima Taohua said how could I get to Director Lu's house without a new jacket?I went to Director Lu's house for the sake of the whole village.Sima's mother took out the red jacket she had treasured from the bottom of the box. Sima Taohua followed Lan Baisui, and when the sun rose, he left the village. The light was dazzling and gorgeous, and when it shone on his jacket, Sima Taohua was like a ball of fire bouncing on the mountain ridge.Leng Dinger, a villager who went to see her off, found that this woman was much younger, and she was originally a smart person.I'm surprised that after so many years, I didn't realize how small and exquisite this woman is, and she speaks tinkly, like an alarm clock in a city dweller's house.When she walked away from Sima Lan's mother, Sima's mother whispered, "You should take care of my jacket when you wear it, maybe I will use it as a shroud when I die." Sima Taohua stepped down lightly: "I will be careful." It rolled onto the mountain ridge like a ball of fire, and rolled towards the outside of Ralou Mountain. Director Lu of the commune lives in the backyard of the commune. His daughter-in-law suffers from typhoid fever and coughs all day long. Her face is sallow and emaciated.When Lan Baisui arrived with Sima Taohua, Director Lu was holding an emergency cadre meeting in the county, and his daughter-in-law wanted to spit, so she put half a pot of firewood ash in a clay pot, and spit the phlegm into the ash pot. When it was full, they arrived, and hurriedly emptied the ash basin, and put some more firewood ash into the basin. Two days later, Director Lu came back from a county meeting. Two days later, Director Lu led a few cadres to Sanxing Village, chose three clean and sunny houses to live in, and said that the three houses were the headquarters.After half a month, the village of Sanxing was full of people.The Lan family, the Du family, and the Sima family, each family of the three clans, are full of laborers aged 20 to 50 from other villages.The whole family gathered in one room, and vacated the other end of the upper room, the side rooms, the gatehouse and the unused cow houses and horse sheds, so that people from other villages could move in.There are no beds on the floor.They used up all the wheat straw on the field, so they used bean stalks and corn stalks to make beds for sleeping on the ground.In this way, people from other villages were still carrying luggage and pushing cars with red flags on them, heading towards the village of Sanxing from dozens of miles away. The sound and the hoarse green and white squeaking sound of the pole.The dust rising from the beam road was more dust than the Sanxing Village had ever blown.In the end, there was finally no place to sleep, so Director Lu let the later ones live on the village street, under a shed built in a shelter from the wind. "It's freezing to death living outside," they complained. "Who made you late for so many days?" Director Lu asked with a thin face, "I don't know if this is a pilot project to be caught by the county?" It will be a pilot project in the county, which Director Lu discussed at the county cadre meeting.The pilot project in the county is naturally more lively than the pilot project in the commune.On the day of the third day of junior high school, a pilot ground breaking ceremony was held on the hillside, and the entire hillside was covered in black and red.The red flags of each village are planted on the mountain, not far away is one side, not far away is another side, and the sound of hunting resounds in the wind.The men of each village stood under their own flags, so solemn that it was beyond words, as if what was about to begin was not a major repair of the terraced fields, but a bloody battle of bullets and cannons.Director Lu stood on the platform made of shelf trucks, put a tin horn in front of his mouth, and said that the significance of this terraced field repair was closely related to the national security. An honor is an incredible greatness.When Director Lu announced the start of construction, Sanxing Village set off a thousand whips, crackling and sending all the villagers to the designated plots.I really didn't expect that the daily farming work of plowing the ground for soil would be like this.The sound of working all over the mountains and fields, red and white, spread from this field to that field, and from this hillside to that hillside, and suddenly the whole world became the sound of colorful work.Ding dong ding dong, bang dong bang dong, the hammer head fell on the mountain range that had been sleeping for thousands of years, and the ridges and beams on the mountain range trembled accordingly.The viscous smell of red earth rising to the sky is mixed with the dry and rotten hot smell, which floats out from people's shovels and shovels, and together with the refreshing white sweat smell of people in winter, the running water diffuses soundlessly to the world outside.People in the town said they heard the sound when they were going to the market and thought it was a collapsed house somewhere.The patients in the Jiaohuo Hospital in the county asked what the sound was that made their wounds so painful.The sparrow was frightened and flew up, and never dared to land again, not knowing where to fly.When the crow passed over the hill, it was much taller than before.Villagers with three surnames don't have to do it themselves. According to Director Lu's instructions, their families and everyone must do what the landlord wants.The water that should be boiled for others is boiled, and the water is boiled and carried to the fields where the terraced fields are built in various villages.When people cook, the firewood they bring is freshly cut branches and roots, and they bundle the bean stalks and cotton stalks and send them to light the fire.When eating, someone forgot to bring a bowl, or the bowl was broken by household items, so they quickly poured their own food into their stomachs, washed it roughly, and gave the bowl to others.Wait until the children are full, and then take the bowl to eat.The well water in the village was not enough, so they led people to a spring on the mountainside.When it's cooking time, the whole village is like a fire, and the streets and alleys are filled with smoke and fire, steaming so that there is no trace of winter chill in the village.When you eat three meals a day, if you walk over the beam, you will hear the sound of the river bursting its embankment.The adults are busy, and the children are also busy. Leng Dinger found that there are so many people in the world, and they all live in the village. , ran from the canteen of this village to the canteen of that village, and reported to the adults which village’s canteen steamed yellow corn buns with a layer of white noodles in it, and which village cooked noodles in a big pot. Eat as much as you like, and a small layer of oil is put in the garlic juice. This is how the raking world is turned upside down, and the days of changing the world just fall out of thin air.Even though they went to the town to look for Director Lu, even though they sent the woman Sima Taohua to Director Lu's house, which made Director Lu make up his mind to transfer thousands of troops here, but this still surprised the villagers with three surnames and caught them off guard. As if they hadn't woken up from a long winter dream, they felt that the white and thin director Lu was really powerful and unbelievable. It seemed that every word he said would shake the mountains and the village of Sanxing. The land collapses, or the flowers bloom in spring. Lan Baisui is always like Director Lu's child, following Director Lu step by step.Director Lu said that a village had run out of firewood, so he led the boys in the village to carry the firewood to the canteen.Director Lu said that the land on both sides of which road should be merged, so he said to merge it. We don't want the road in the middle, and we will just walk around a bend in the future. Director Lu said: "At present, there are no village heads in the communes across the country, and there are no village heads in the brigade. Why do you still call them village heads here?" Lan Baisui said, "What's that called?" Director Lu said, "Are there any party members in your village?" Lan Baisui said, "What is a party member?" Director Lu sighed and said, "Are there any members?" Lan Baisui stared blankly. Director Lu said, "Are there any militias?" Lan Baisui shook his head. Director Lu said: "There are always landlords and rich peasants, right?" Lan Baisui said: "No." Director Lu thought for a while, and said, "You guys almost didn't even draw the map of the commune. If you call the village head, you can still call it the village head." Lan Baisui could hear it from Director Lu's tone. How dismissive the village chief is, how insignificant.He knew that the heads of the outer villages were called directors, and there were other cadres in the village, such as deputy directors, militia and battalion commanders, brigade accountants, etc. These people were under the supervision of the director, and they would do whatever the director asked them to do. If you don't let them do anything, they can't do anything.He thought that the Sansurname Village should be similar to the Outer Village, and if kids like Sima Lan and Du Bai were to be cadres, Sima Lan wouldn't say every day that he was going to be the village head, but he was afraid that Sima Lan would become a village cadre. I stopped listening to him, and called the wind and rain alone, thinking that there are no other cadres in the village.One day, he said behind Director Lu: "Director Lu, let me be the director of the village, can you not use other cadres?" Director Lu said, "Didn't you say that there is no party member in the village?" He asked: "Do you have to be a party member to be a director?" Director Lu, who was inspecting the quality of the terraced fields, turned around and stared at Lan Baisui, like staring at a monkey, without saying a word for a long time, his eyes were neither sharp nor soft, just strange.Lan Baisui didn't know where his words were wrong, but he knew that he must have made a mistake, so he panicked and didn't know what to do or say to make up for it, so a layer of coldness appeared on his face sweat beads. "The oldest person in the village is thirty-eight or nine years old?" Director Lu asked abruptly. Lan Baisui said: "Since I can remember, few people have lived to the age of forty." "how old are you?" "Thirty-five." "Then you are considered old," Director Lu said, "If you really want to change it to a committee, the director must be a young man like Sima Lan." Said: "Sima Lan told me that if you want him to be the village chief, he will You can make this terraced field as level as a mirror." He also said: "Actually, Sima Lan is really the material of the village head and director." There was a wind on the mountain ridge, and the soil particles raised from the terraced fields beat Lan Baisui neither softly nor hard.Standing under a terraced field, his face turned pale yellow.Director Lu said that he was old.Director Lu said that a young man like Sima Lan should be the village director.Lan Baisui suddenly felt weak in his legs.He stood there for a while, and said to Director Lu that the village head should be the village head, and it would be wordy to change it to a committee, and calling the director is not as smooth as the village head.Then he asked Director Lu if it was cold, and if he wanted to go back to the village to warm up by the fire. Director Lu said that you would bring me two poached eggs when you go back to the village, and he walked silently to the village. Director Lu loves poached eggs the most.He said that the stupid chickens in the mountains are good, the eggs are small and highly nutritious, and he said that chickens have not been allowed to be raised in the town for a few years, and who kept a few in cages, and they were all ocean chickens sold and raised from the city. Big, but tasteless.It is Sima Lan's mother who is responsible for cooking poached eggs for Director Lu once a day.Sima Lan's family raised eight chickens, and each chicken laid one egg every five days in the cold winter, almost providing Director Lu with two poached eggs every day.Lan Baisui walked to the gate of Sima Lan's house, but he didn't go in immediately.Standing under the locust tree in front of the gate for a while, the light yellow color on his face from Director Lu's place gradually turned blue.He sat under the tree and smoked a pipe of cigarettes, without turning his head and yelling loudly, telling Sima Lanniang to burn the poached eggs quickly, and he wanted to bring them to the mountain ridge immediately. From Sima's house came the sound of the wooden chirping bellows, which was even and long, as if the erhu had obviously lost its pine butter, but it was still pulling non-stop.Amidst the sound of the bellows, Lan Baisui smoked a bag of cigarettes, and another bag of cigarettes, the bruises on his face were a little red, and the flesh on his face was also bulging, as if there was a puff of breath in his mouth. Can't spit it out.On the opposite beam, the terraced field team of an unknown village pushed the newly dug up soil on the green wheat seedlings with a cart. He stood up from the ground, but he didn't call out when he wanted to call out. After knocking out the soot, he suddenly said to himself He said to himself, if I don't live to be more than forty, let him be the village chief, Sima Lan, if I want to live past forty, even if he is my son-in-law, I can't let him be.He thought Sima Lan, you are smart, why didn't you think of digging up the land in the village?Isn't it because I sent Sima Taohua to Director Lu's house that Director Lu transferred all the people to Sansurname Village?Said that I have promised to marry my daughter to you Sima Lan for nothing, what else do you want?You are deceiving me that I am a hundred years old and incompetent, to be honest, if you want to marry my daughter for nothing, you will also snatch me away as the village chief.Lan Baisui had a black-purple strength flowing in his blood, and he felt inexplicably wanting to move and release the strength from his body.He heard the sound of eggs cracking on the pot ears and then being boiled into the water from Sima's house, and he looked through the door to the door of Sima's stove, where white smoke sluggishly flowed. It flowed out and rose into the air with great effort.Lan Baisui seemed to have swallowed something, and his Adam's apple twitched on his neck.There was the sound of the pot being covered, and the white smoke flowing out of the stove became thinner.He rubbed his sore eyes, and the sound of the bellows fell before his eyes. Lan Baisui entered Sima's house, and he locked the door. "Who?" Sima Lanniang called, "What are you doing barring the door in broad daylight?" Lan Baisui stood in front of the stove. She said, "What's wrong with you? Your face is blue from a beating." He walked towards her, with a white and thick cooing sound from his throat, as if talking through a mouthful of phlegm, he didn't know what he said, while talking, he threw the firewood in front of the pot on, and pulled her waistband with his hands.She was still ignorant at first, and then when she understood, she used her hands to protect herself, and then grabbed him.When he put his hand on her waist, she slapped her across the face, and the whole kitchen was filled with bluish-white and cold crackling. He was cold and Ding Ermu stayed down. She said: "You are a pig, you are a dog, you deserve to be the head of this village, Lan's father thought you were an honest man, and he made you the head of this village because he was blind." The kitchen immediately fell silent, so quiet that the sound of the flames in the kitchen was deafening.He stared at her in a daze, as if a slap had woken him up, they just stared at each other blankly for a while, then he suddenly knelt down in front of her, his face was ashen, and lifted himself up He kept slapping his face with his left and right hands, as if he was slapping a dirt wall with both hands, until dust was everywhere, continuously, and he kept staring at Sima Lanniang's face, as if she didn't say stop , he will never stop his hand. However, she finally knelt down softly and grabbed his hands.