Chapter 35 Chapter Thirty-One (2)

The fifth and sixth brothers are still sleeping on the bed. The quilt on my mother's bed was neatly folded.He took a closer look and saw that the sheets, pillows, and quilts were all washed extremely clean.Pulling back the quilt, I realized that the quilt had also been removed and washed.Looking at the wooden boxes, tables, stools and stools, they have all been wiped clean, even the window sills are wiped clean.Walking into his own room, he not only washed the quilt, but also took out his few spring and summer clothes from somewhere, washed them and folded them on the bedside.I also saw a pair of his trousers, the knees were worn out when digging the ground, and now the patches on the knees are square, and they are a kind of coarse woven blue cloth.Turning over the side of the clothes, I found a piece of triangular canvas, the sides of the canvas were wrapped and sewn with new cloth, and the stitches were so fine that it was rare. Only the soles of the pair of shoes that Lan Shishi gave him had such precision. the needle angle.Three long ropes were nailed to the three corners of the canvas, and it was obvious from a glance that the canvas was a protective cloth made to prevent the knees of trousers from being worn out when working with shovels.This is an invention brought by foreigners who came to work in the village this time. Many of them wear such protective cloth on the right trouser leg. The pants will never wear out again.Sima Lan picked up the protective cloth and looked at it, feeling a burning sensation in her heart. She put down the protective cloth and ran to the kitchen to see that the traditional Chinese medicine package was no longer on the table, and it was all put in the empty basket on the chopping board.He took down the basket and counted, and it was still three hangs and nine bags.

Needless to say, in the past seven days, my mother did not boil this traditional Chinese medicine.Kicked away the firewood pile in front of the stove, the medicine jars and medicine residues, all of which were still intact.Sima Lan came out of the kitchen and stood in the middle of the courtyard, thinking that the sun was already at the head of the village, so mother should have come back from the cemetery.Sima Lan came out of the house and looked towards the beam road on the other side of the cemetery. Sima Lan started to walk towards the cemetery. When he walked to the door of the Terrace Headquarters, his footsteps faded.

Director Lu, are you really going to withdraw? It's time for busy farming, sorry for your three-surnamed village. Didn't you say that before you leave, you will mention me as a village cadre? My daughter-in-law is dying of illness. Let my aunt go to wait for the funeral, please? For the past three months, I have been alone here, unable to eat well or sleep soundly. If you don't let me be the village head, I will kneel down for you. Your village should be satisfied. Look at my legs, they've grown into bark as soon as I've grown up. I've never seen a village like yours that doesn't know what to do, how much benefit you have gained out of thin air, more than 200 acres of land have been turned over...

The sunlight on the beam path was transparent and glaring, shining down from the top of the head, piercing into the top of the head and shoulders like bamboo thorns.It was as if a fire had ignited in Sima Lan's brain, which was roasted until it was burnt and burned, and the blood all over his body was boiled to a boil.He walked aimlessly to the beam on the opposite side of the village. When crossing the river, he took off his coat and draped it over his shoulders. , Cylinders, and firewood are loaded on the car.Look at those tall and strong laborers who came out of each household carrying their bedding, gathered at the entrance of the village, like a herd of cattle about to disperse from the cultivated land collectively.He saw Du Bo put a piece of luggage on the car of an acquaintance, said goodbye to his mother Sima Taohua at the door, and happily walked out of the village with the stranger, going to the town to see his father.Lanliugen and Lanyanggen are helping out-of-town laborers carry things from their homes to the door, loading them onto the cart one by one, and then tying them up with ropes.Walking out of the village and sitting on the mountainside, you can still see Lan Baisui's home.Lan Baisui remained motionless, smoking a cigarette in the courtyard and basking in the sun. People who had withdrawn from the village walked past his door, and he looked up from time to time.I haven't seen him for a few days, Lan Baisui seems to be paralyzed and old, his hair is as pale as a layer of snow. He is only in his thirties, but he looks like he is in his fifties.The villagers said that he wanted to evacuate the foreigners because of Director Lu.Actually, only Sima Lan knew why he was growing old.At that time, his head should be beheaded, Sima Lan thought, I would be the village head if I beheaded.But then I thought, he also spent so much effort to change the village's soil and land to get old. He is so weak and weak, and it is really urging to let him be the village chief just because he intends to let the villagers live past forty. He is old, urging him to die.Sitting on the beam, leaning against the persimmon tree and watching carefully, I saw that Lan Shishi had washed the clothes and was drying them on the branches in the yard. The old red and old blue were like earthen flags.He remembered that when their two families agreed to let them get married this year, he regretted beating her so hard that day.Sima Lan thinks she will marry me?Are you still willing to be my daughter-in-law?He stared obsessively at Lan Sishi in Lan's courtyard, seeing that she had finished drying her clothes and carried a wooden basin and carried a basket of quilts down the river. She seemed to be washing the house inside and out. , The basket and basin bent her waist.Sima Lan kept staring at Lan Shishi, but he saw Director Lu standing in the courtyard of the command headquarters, someone was carrying his desk to the car outside the door, and saw Aunt Sima Taohua go to Liangdao to send her children back, The command took a look, but didn't stop talking to Director Lu, and went straight to her home.Sima Lan's heart thumped, like the doors and windows of a dark room being kicked open, and light rushing in with a bang.

He stood up and finished putting on the padded jacket with three strokes. He wants to go back to the village to find his aunt Sima Taohua. Sima Taohua was lighting a fire and cooking, smoke curled up from the stove, and blue and white silk threads were drawn to the sky.Sima Lan got off the beam, crossed the ditch, and climbed up the hill again.When crossing the river, he saw Lan Shishi washing clothes, he stopped downstream, and left without saying a word.When he arrived in the village, many outsiders nodded and talked to him.He said that you don't need to rush to load the car, even if you drag it back home, you still have to drag it back home.Outsiders say you can go dreaming, we will never come again if you kill us.Does he believe it?Don't believe me, just wait and see.Then I went into my aunt Sima Taohua's house, and after calling out to me, I leaned on the door frame to watch my aunt light the fire, watch my aunt chop vegetables, watch my aunt roll out noodles, and finally I moved a stool, sat under my aunt's stove, and watched my aunt pull. Pushing and pumping her bellows.The kitchen is warm and warm, with thick fire gas swirling and flowing.Sima Lan just sat like that, and if she didn't ask him, he wouldn't speak, and remained silent for years without rest.Finally, when the meal was almost ready, he said that his cousin Zhucui was not there?Gu said that she went to town with her brother to visit your uncle.He said:

"Gu, Director Lu is leaving too." Sima Taohua's hands froze on the handle of the bellows: "He goes his own way." Sima Lan said: "You are the only one in the village who can keep him... aunt." Sima Taohua's hand froze on the handle of the bellows for a while, then got up again and lifted the lid to stir. "Why keep him? He doesn't live in our village." Sima Lan's face was filled with excitement. If you keep him, you can keep the foreigners, and you can reorganize all the more than 200 mu of land in our village. " Sima Taohua sat down and lit the fire again.

"I don't have that ability." Sima Lan raised his voice a lot, "You have that ability, you are the only one in the village." Sima Taohua didn't say anything immediately, she still rattled the bellows.The sunlight coming from the door frame, which was square like a door, made a subtle golden sound like water in the gap where the sound of the bellows stopped.There are small insects flying in the sun, and small balls that look like particles roll dangling in the air.Sima Taohua remained silent, as if she couldn't see that her nephew Sima Lan was sitting beside her, she just put the noodles into the pot, just turned the pot with chopsticks, and just blew the hot air sprayed on her face aside.Sima Lan's eyes were fixed on her busy hands, and she would go to the mouth of the pot, the case, and the woodpile.Waiting anxiously, he said aunt, I didn't expect you to be so ungrateful, uncle went to the commune to clean the yard and cook, and in the future, he can also take his cousins ​​out to find a job, so that your family can drink outside water and eat outside food, Although I don't live to be more than forty, I can live at least half of my life as an ordinary person. I don't have to suffer the death penalty in the village. Even if I die in my thirties, it's not in vain, but what about me?Aren't the deer and the tiger both your nephews?Just ignore it?So young to make them exhausted to death?If it takes three to five years, the land in the village cannot be completely plowed, and if it can't keep up with eating new soil grains, what if you get throat problems?

Sima Lan said: "My mother is dying and lent you a new jacket, but she has had a sore throat for two months." Sima Taohua didn't move while holding the firewood. Sima Lan said: "You are doing a chaste thing for the sake of the whole village." Sima Taohua didn't look at anything, carried the firewood under the stove, stuffed it into the stove, pumped the bellows with a dull face, and said coldly: "I went last night, the night before, and the night before the New Year's Eve. Director Lu will no longer You love me, you have already done me wrong by saying that you let your uncle go to the commune, and you have repaid my favor."

As Sima Taohua said this, tears hung on her eyelashes, which were red and bright by the fire, like transparent beads tied there with her eyelashes.Sima Lan suddenly saw lines like plow furrows in the corners of her aunt's eyes, and the dust in those lines was as thick as the days.He suddenly discovered that his aunt was also old, as lifeless as the saponin tree in the middle of the village, and his aunt's beauty back then was entirely due to his mother's red jacket.Now that she has taken off that coat, the old age rushes in her face without any scruples. He said, "You should put on my mother's coat when you go."

She was busy with her own work: "It's not difficult to keep foreigners." He asked, "Why do you stay?" She said: "Go for someone else. Go for the unmarried girl with yellow flowers, the most delicate one." He asked, "Who?" She said: "If you are not your engaged daughter-in-law at 40, she should go. She looks light and fresh, and her father is the village chief. Who will go if the village chief's daughter-in-law does not go?" Sima Lan was silent for a long time: "She is not my engaged wife, I beat her up seven days ago."

Sima Taohua looked at Sima Lan's face: "Your cousin Zhucui is thin and thin, she is not someone Director Lu likes, if I let her go." Then she said, "I am going to serve Director Lu when I am 40, so I will let her go." Your cousin married you." When I left my aunt's house, someone in the village street had already taken up their jobs.He heard the voice of his younger brother Sima Lu calling his mother to eat, floating over the village like a cloud, and then eagerly drifting elsewhere.Mother is still at the cemetery and has not come back.He thought that if it was really his mother who went to the cemetery last night, she should be back now. The sun shines straight into the village from above, and the ground of the village street has thick and humid air rising upwards.Sima Lan stood in the hot air for a while, instead of following Sima Lu's calls to go home, she walked towards the river ditch below the village. Sima Lan met Lan Shishi on the hillside.She had just come up from the river, her right arm was full of blue and green bamboo sheets, she was covered with red quilts, and she had a wooden basin in her left arm, and there were bits and pieces of washing in the wooden basin, and she was struggling to go up the mountain with her head down. While walking, she saw Sima Lan, so she stood in the middle of the path and did not move. He said, "I'll pick you up." She gripped the basket tighter, "The Lan family and your Sima family are no longer interfering with the river water." He looked at her silently for a while and said: "After I sold the skin once, all the girls in the village begged me to marry me. I came to tell you that I want to marry you. My cousin Zhucui has long wanted to marry me. " Lan Shishi didn't say anything anymore, a layer of white slid across his face, stood on the road for a while, and silently climbed up the mountain.He saw that when she was walking, her body was no longer as straight as before, her back was bent forward deeply, and her legs were braided together as she walked.Sima Lan looked at her back, thinking that his words were pouring on her like cold water, so she chased her a few steps and said, "You can marry me if you want. Before Director Lu of the commune leaves, you go and serve him two." God, let him keep all the people from other villages and turn over all the land in our village. This year, every household will be able to eat food from the new soil. After hearing Sima Lan's words, she didn't stop, she just slowed down her pace, and after he finished speaking, she quickened her pace again without looking back. Four Sima Lan's mother Du Ju hanged herself. Hanged in front of Sima Xiaoxiao's grave.Sima Lu was looking for his mother on the mountain ridge for a long time after lunch, and saw a little red burning brightly in the dim yellow sunlight.He walked towards the cemetery, but before reaching the cemetery, he saw clearly that it was his father Sima Xiaoxiao hanging in front of the grave, and his heart pounded, thinking that it must be his mother, and it really was his mother.He saw that in front of his father's grave there was no cypress tree as thick as a small bowl, and the feet of the hanging man were drooping on the ground.He knelt down towards the cemetery carefully, and when the grass in the cemetery tripped him and almost tripped him over a grave, he immediately turned around and ran back, leaving behind his livid cry along the way: "My mother hanged herself!" "My mother hanged herself!" "My mother hanged on my father's grave—" His call beat the trees, houses, livestock, chickens, dogs and poultry in the village.The outsider who hadn't left, when he heard the call, his face turned blue, he sat up and stood up, and ran towards the village street while standing.Hearing this, the villagers of the three surnames were stunned at first, and then said that if they had a sore throat, they would not be guilty of hanging themselves. Didn't the land be turned in half?Maybe you will be able to eat new grains after cooking. The village head's daughter-in-law had a throat problem two years ago, and her throat didn't hurt after eating the new grains from the private plot, so she survived. Sima Lan had just climbed up the hill when he heard his younger brother calling.At that time, his gaze was still on Lan Shishi's back, and when he heard Sima Lu's call, he averted his gaze first, and then ran to the top of the mountain ridge.When the footsteps passed through the village, they passed through the quilt like a needle, unimpeded, and the chickens and dogs on the village street were so startled that they ran towards their own house screaming strangely.Whose hen didn't avoid him and tripped over him, so she kicked the chicken against a gable wall, and the chicken fell to death on the spot.When she caught up with Shishi, Lan Shishi was already stunned by the side of the road. She looked at Sima Lan who was running over, and suddenly called Brother Lan, and before she could say anything, Sima Lan told her it was you Dad's pig killed my mother.Then the footsteps did not slow down, crossed the village street, and ran to the mountain ridge. When Sima Lan arrived at the cemetery, the little cypress tree had completely bent down.His mother was standing in front of the grave with both feet, the bowed tree body, the cracked bark showing a tragic white.Sima Lan thought he could see his father still sitting on the edge of the pit on the grave just like last night, but when he got there, he didn't even see his father's shadow.After unloading the mother from the tree, the tree bounced and straightened again.Holding his mother on his shoulders, he looked at the pit beside the grave, and saw a deep butt mark where his father had sat.Looking at his feet, I saw his knees when he slumped last night.So he thought, maybe it was his father who forced his mother to hang herself.I also thought that maybe it was my mother who wanted to hang herself. Didn't she put on the red jacket long ago, didn't she wash and wipe the things that should be washed in the house?From the cemetery to the beam, Sima Lan walked across a wheat field and took a shortcut towards the beam.In the empty field, a strong blue color had already begun to appear, and the wheat seedlings kept being stepped out of white and bright roots from under his feet.The terraced fields that have been repaired, in the blue, are like pieces of red muddy water emerging from the lake.Sima Lan said, Mother, how can you just say you're going to die?As long as there are Chinese herbal medicines for throat disease, it may last for half a year. After half a year and a year, isn't it possible to eat the first season of Xintu's grain?Didn't I say nothing about you and Lan Baisui?Why did you hang yourself when I went home?It is he, Lan Baisui, who should hang himself, not you, mother.He said how wonderful it would be to be alive, to be able to eat, drink, wear clothes, sleep, touch with hands, see with eyes, hear with ears, and speak with a mouth, but what about death?What else can a person do after death? Can he still talk?Can you still work?Can you go to the door to bask in the sun in winter, and blow the westerly wind on the beam in summer?Sima Lan thought, there are thousands of good things in the world, what could be better than being alive?What is more realistic? Sima Lan asked, Mother, did my father speak ill of you? Dad has always been as broad-minded as the sea, what can he say about you. Besides, the people in the village with the three surnames can’t live to be more than forty years old, and the life span is as short as a chopstick. If you go to hang yourself again, are you stupid or stupid?What good is dead?After death, there is nothing left, even the corpse, clothes, and coffin will be turned into dust and ashes in three to five years, and the bones will be eaten by moths, leaving many honeycomb-like holes, and finally become gray-white powder and buried in the ground.The hair is the most resistant to retting, and it is still a black bunch after thirty or fifty years in the ground, but people are gone, they can’t eat, they can’t wear clothes, they can’t talk to people, even if they are cut with knives or pricked with needles, they still can’t bleed. What's the use of having a bunch of unrotten hair when there's a drop of blood but no scream of pain?Sima Lu and Sima Hu led the villagers to run from the village, their footsteps sounded like chasing wolves, muddy and muddy on the beam path.Lan Baisui and Lan Shisui ran at the end of the crowd, sweat poured down like rain, and every drop made a nest on the road.Sima Lan raised her head and glanced at the villagers, thinking how real and specific it is to be alive, to be able to get from here to there as soon as you walk, to make a sound when you speak, to be able to eat when you are hungry, to grow There is food on the ground, pain and blood flow when the body is broken, and then there is nothing left after death, drifting away like a cloud, and even if there is a cloud, it is not the same as before life.Why don't you understand this simple truth?Mother, Sima Lan yelled and said, you are like Aunt Sima Taohua, as long as you are alive, you are better than dead.Isn't Aunt Sima Taohua living a happy life?Didn't he send his uncle Du Yan to the commune, and when he found out about his aunt and director Lu, didn't he smile at the villagers and say that it was a good deal, as long as he was alive, it was more cost-effective than anything else.Rather than dying like this, you might as well live like you and my aunt, as long as you live, it's better than anything else.You look better than your aunt, you are one year older than your aunt, but you look two years younger than your aunt.Auntie served Director Lu only in your red coat.Aunt returned the red jacket to you, and Director Lu no longer loves Aunt.If you die like this, you might as well live to serve Director Lu. Now Director Lu has withdrawn laborers from other places. Thousands of laborers have already gone halfway. They disappeared in three days and five days, like a house collapsed, terraced fields The project fell by the wayside.The two hundred acres of terraced fields that have been repaired are just piled up with scales of soil, and the ground is flattened to make a big appearance, but the ground can be really turned over to replace the soil—turn up the new soil that is two feet below the ground, and bury the old soil on the ground. Go on, most of them haven't started yet.Once the thousands of laborers are gone, hundreds of acres of land in the village will be turned over, which will take at least five or six years.In five or six years, I don't know how many people will suffer from laryngeal death.However, the thousands of laborers stayed here, that is to say, Director Lu tried to get Director Lu to stay.Director Lu has no other luxuries, and he doesn't pay much attention to food and clothing. If he wants to stay, he just needs to have good women to serve him.But who will serve him now?Since I don't want to live anymore, why not serve Director Lu, and let him lead the people to exchange the land in the village for the land before we talk about life and death?Sima Lan thought, mother, after all, you are the best-looking among the widows in the village. After all, the red coat that the girl wears is still yours. It would be great if you went to serve Director Lu, but you went to serve Lan Centenarian.What is Lan Baisui compared to Director Lu?What if he is the head of the village?Sima Lan looked back at her mother, her hair covered her face and floated on Sima Lan's shoulder.Sima Lan saw many withered forks on the tip of his mother's hair, which looked like tiny flowers blooming, and he remembered what the villagers said, that a man's hair turns gray overnight before death, and a woman's hair turns gray overnight. flowering. Sima Lan thought, Mother thought of dying many days ago, she thought that even if I, Sima Lan, stayed at home for seven days and didn't expose her affair with Lan Baisui, she would still hang herself like this one day .Mother is a shameful person after all. Sima Lan thought: If you die, you can die, mother, I will take good care of them, brother deer and brother tiger.Said that I will be the village head, I will give our family the best new land in the village, I will let the deer and tiger brothers marry the best daughter-in-law, and let them all live past forty, fifty or sixty, Seven old and eighty years old. Sima Lan walked from the wheat field to the beam with her mother on her back. Sima Lu and Sima Hu led the villagers to come.The crowd surrounded their mother and son in disarray. Sima Hu asked: "Brother, mother is hopeless?" Sima Lu said, "My body is stiff." The villagers said: "The deer should have unloaded her earlier and then went to the village to call people." Sima Lu buried his head on his chest, as if he had killed his mother, guilt fell from his face in front of the villagers, and dust flew up. Sima Lan said that if you blame me, you should blame me. If I don't go to the beam to look after other people's car tools these days, my mother will not hang herself because of a sore throat.He also said, "Lu, come and carry your mother on your back, and let me rest for a while."Sima Lu rushed forward like atonement, took Mother's arm from Sima Lan's shoulder, and when he carried it on his shoulder, he found that his hand was holding Mother's arm, like two soft ropes, and a gust of wind swayed in his heart Lang put his ear to his mother's mouth, and he heard a slight rushing sound from his mother's throat, like water rushing through a blocked cave, the sound was distant and clear.Sima Lu pulled his ears away from his mother's mouth suddenly, his face was bright red: "Mother is still alive!" He said, "Listen, there are voices coming and going from his throat." Everyone in the village was stunned and looked at each other in blank dismay. Sima Lu put his mother on the ground and said, "Listen!" Sima Lan stepped forward and listened, a thick red light suddenly appeared on his face. Sima Hu stepped forward to listen, and threw himself to sit on the ground, half crying and half laughing, and kept touching his mother's hand. A villager came forward to listen, and looked at the small cypress tree at the cemetery, the half-shocked and half-stupid joy on his face was thickened. Another villager heard this, straightened up, leisurely lifted up his clothes to wipe his sweat, and smiled as if he was pretending. At this time Sima Taohua came, hugged Du Ju in his arms, and said that you have to watch the children finish their homes before leaving.In the end, Lan Baisui slowly walked into the crowd from the outside, his face became more and more old and dull, making his whole body a handful of ashes.Lan Baisui looked at Sima Lan, as if he wanted to do something, but he glanced at the villagers and turned his eyes elsewhere.Lan Baisui struggled from Sima Lan's gaze, hooked his head in his arms, and carefully tried to move two steps forward. Seeing that Sima Lan didn't turn his head around again, he squatted down and pulled up Sima Lanniang's other side. With one hand, tears fell on the back of her hand, rolled into her fiery red jacket sleeve, and whispered in her mouth, "It's good if you come back to life. If you come back to life, I will definitely let you eat new soil food this year. If I don't try to turn over the land in the village so that you can eat new food, I, Lan Baisui, will be sorry for you. At that time, I, Lan Baisui, will die in front of you in front of the whole village.When Sima Lanniang heard this, tears rolled down the corners of her eyes silently with the loud voice in her throat. Sima Lanniang came back to life again, and lived for a few more years, until a few years later, she really died in the mat coffin that her son Sima Lan made for her out of reeds. She also said that it would be nice if I died at that time, If I had died a few years earlier, I would have suffered less from the world.At that time, if you were a little later, I would have died, or if the cypress tree was a little thicker, and it could have held me a little longer, I would have passed to the other side of the world and lived a life in heaven.