Chapter 28 fourth quarter
At noon that day, Magpie went to help Hua Erniang divide the porridge as usual.When the last person stretched out the broken bowl, the porridge in the pot was gone.Hua Erniang said:
"Why is it such a coincidence? It's just a spoonful of you."
Magpie looked up and saw that this person was the beggar who showed up at Mr. Ding's funeral last year.Magpie stared at him for a long time, then blurted out, "Where are you from? Why do I feel like I recognize you?"
When the man panicked, the bowl in his hand fell to the ground, and he didn't bother to pick it up, so he turned his head and left.This time, the magpie took a pair of big feet and followed the man all the way to the river.She thought to herself, she must ask who this person is.The man obviously couldn't run anymore, he pressed his waist from time to time, and stopped to breathe.Finally, they chased several laps across a pond, and the magpie couldn't move anymore, so they yelled at the man:
"Don't run away. I recognize you. You are Cuilian."
With that shout, the man stopped still.After being stunned for a while, he squatted on the ground and cried with a "wow".
There is an abandoned waterwheel by the pond.The two happened to be sitting on the waterwheel talking.It was sunny and warm.The melting snow flowed into the pond along the groove of the waterwheel, making a splashing sound.
Magpie cried with Cuilian for a while, raised her sleeve to wipe her face, and asked her with a nostril, why is she dressed like a man, and how have you lived all these years?
Cuilian just sobbed silently.
"Didn't you marry that, that Long Shouwei? How did you end up in this situation?" Magpie said.As soon as she asked, Cuilian cried even more fiercely, throwing out streams of snot from time to time, and wiped it on the handrail of the waterwheel.
"Ah," Cuilian sighed, and said slowly, "It's fate like this."
She said that after she left Puji, she moved to Meicheng with Long Shoubei.But in less than a year, Long Shoubei bought real estate elsewhere, and married two concubines successively.Since then, he has never stepped into her room again.Cuilian brazenly endured another three months at Long's house, and finally, Long Shoubei sent a trusted aide to spread the word.
"In fact, he didn't say anything, he just slapped the gun on the table. I knew at that time that I couldn't stay in Long's house anymore, so I asked him if he wanted to drive me away. The confidant was an eighteen or nineteen-year-old The child, with a smirk on his face, came over with a mouth full of alcohol, and said: "No busy, no busy. Wait for the little brother to get comfortable first."
After Cuilian left the Garrison Mansion, she worked in two brothels in Meicheng successively, and started her old business.Later, the madam visited Cuilian and found out that Cuilian was from the Garrison Mansion, so she didn't dare to take her in.The madam said: "It doesn't matter whether it's true or not, you've been a wife after all, if Chief Long finds out in the future, you'll think I humiliated him on purpose, besides, you're so old."
Later, Cuilian went to another brothel, and the madam still said the same thing.So she had to beg for a living.
Strange to say, on the begging road, no matter which direction she went, she would always come to Pujilai. "It seems to be carried by the soul of the little thing." Cuilian said.
When it comes to small things, Magpie's heart tightens. "Supposedly, back in Puji Academy, the headmaster treated you kindly..." Magpie held back the second half of the sentence and didn't say anything.
"I know." Cuilian took a deep breath and sighed, "This is how life should be."
She said that when she was living in Chenzhou in the early years, she met a beggar on the way with a child under five or six years old.At that time, the child was so hungry that he had only one breath left.Seeing that the father and son were pitiful, she gave them two steamed buns and was about to leave when the blind man stopped her.He said that if you receive the favor of a meal, you should repay it with a knot of grass.He also said that he didn't have any skills, but he just told people's fortunes and fortune-telling, which was somewhat effective.Immediately, I showed Cuilian a picture, and said that she had been begging for a living in her life, and eventually starved to death on the street and was eaten by wild dogs.It is not difficult to get rid of this catastrophe, as long as you find someone who belongs to the pig to marry.
"That Long Shoubei dressed up as a cotton player and came to the village to investigate the movements of the revolutionaries. I don't know his real identity. It happened that the principal, that is, Xiumi, asked me to go to the village to see a doctor from the Sixth Division. She had a terrible toothache in those days. When passing by Miss Sun's house, she saw him smoking a cigarette in front of the door on a break from work, so she chatted with him casually. Although this bastard has a dark heart, he is a good-looking person who can speak well. Before I could figure out what was going on, I fell for him. I swear to God, I didn’t know he was a secret agent of the imperial court at the time. Even if I was killed, I would not have dared to betray the principal at that time. Later ..."
"Is it because he is a pig that you made up your mind to follow him?" Magpie asked.
Cuilian thought for a while, then nodded, then shook her head.Said: "It's not all. You haven't met a man before, so you don't know the benefits of this man. This **** dragon guard, tall and heroic, with a dignified appearance, is really a good skill. We are women, as long as we are pinched by their men If you live in a soft place, you can't help but make one wrong step, one wrong step, and in the end you can only close your eyes and let him manipulate you."
What he said made the magpie blushed and bowed his head in silence.
After a while, Cuilian asked about Xiumi's recent situation, and asked if she had mentioned herself in recent years.Magpie said: "What's more, she hasn't said a word in these years, I thought she was dumb."
"Not dumb, she can talk."
"how do you know?"
"Only I know what's on her mind. She doesn't speak to punish herself."
"Why? I don't quite understand."
"It's not because of that little thing." Cuilian recalled, "In fact, when she was in school, others thought she was crazy, and she didn't even care about the child she gave birth to. In fact, she thought about this child every day."
"And how do you know?"
"One day, I went to the Garan Hall to talk to her, and I asked her why she was so cruel to that little thing? Anyway, this child is a piece of meat that fell from your body, how can you bear it. You know what she said ..."
Magpie shook his head.
"She said that once she embarks on this path, she must have the determination to die, just like Xue Juren and Zhang Jiyuan. She should be more aggressive with the child, so that the child will not miss her after she dies."
Hearing what she said, the magpie cried again.After finally stopping her tears, Magpie asked her what she planned to do in the future.
"What should I do?" Cuilian asked back, as if she was asking the magpie, more like asking herself. "I don't know where I went. But, Puji, I will never come back again."
Magpie Zhai has a kind heart, and when he heard her say such words, he felt a little sour in his heart.After a while, he said in a low voice: "Otherwise, I'll go and talk to Xiumi, you stay in Puji, we live together."
"No, no." Cuilian said, "Even if she is willing to take me in, I will have no face to see her. Although Xiumi sold the Lu family's 180 mu of land to Long Qingtang and his son, I was the one who came up with the plan. Although the little thing didn't die by my hands, it did die because of me..." She suddenly remembered something and asked, "I heard that she gave birth to a child in prison..."
Magpie said: "It is said that he was carried away three days after he was born, and he doesn't know where he is now, whether he is still alive in the world."
The two talked from noon to the west of the sun.At that time, the northwest wind was blowing fiercely, and unconsciously, the magpie felt that his limbs were frozen.Cuilian picked up a dog-beating stick and wore a tattered straw hat, and she seemed to be leaving.
The magpie didn't know what to say, so he was stunned for a long time before saying: "If it comes to a time when there is really no other way, let's come to Puji."
Cuilian turned around and smiled wryly, but left without saying a word.
Magpie walked back with red eyes, unable to bear to look back at her.Walking to the entrance of the village, I saw Xiumi standing at the door waiting for her from a distance.She looked at the magpie, then at the endless wilderness behind her, where the wind and snow were howling, and said, "Why, Cuilian still refuses to come?"
Twelve years later.
By the beginning of November, all the rice in the fields had been harvested, and the bare rice fields were covered with a thin white frost.The clusters of tallow trees by the stream and on the side of the road all turned red overnight.White berries are dotted on the branches, like snow, catkins, and plum blossoms.
Xiumi said that when the rice in the field is ripe, its time has come, and it will be cut off next.Xiumi said again that even the tallow tree was turning red.When its leaves are gone and its snow-white fruit turns black, it will snow.
There was no reason for these words, making Magpie unable to guess what she was thinking.The day was surprisingly good.On a windless day, the sky is a vast expanse of blue, which is exactly what people in the south of the Yangtze River call sunny spring weather.The sun is warm and the time is quiet.From time to time, a flock of geese flitted across the treetops.But Xiumi said that once the geese had passed, the jackdaws followed.Her words seemed to imply something.Fortunately, the magpie has long been used to it, although he was surprised, he didn't pay much attention to it.
Xiumi has been tending her plants and flowers in the backyard for more than ten years.The yard is filled with pots, pots and buckets, large and small.The genera of hosta, peony, hollyhock, ditang, rhododendron, chamomile, and wintersweet are full of them.On the shelf, on the steps of the attic, in the vegetable field, at the foot of the wall, and beside the bamboo forest, they are all full.
Although the oath of forbidden speech has been broken, Xiumi usually speaks very little.It's late autumn now, and the late chrysanthemums are in full bloom. Sometimes, Xiumi will copy a few chrysanthemum poems for the magpies based on what she can remember.The meaning of those poems also deeply disturbed the magpie.for example:
or:
or:
There seems to be a lot of melancholy, knotted in my chest.Suddenly one day, they were cutting flowers and branches in the yard, and Xiumi said to the magpie:
"Have you ever heard of a place called Huajiashe?"
Magpie nodded.
Xiumi asked again: "Do you know the way to Hua's House?"
Magpie shook his head.
Except for going to the market in Cheung Chau, Magpie has never traveled far.She raised her head and looked at the sky.Huajiashe is like a floating cloud in the sky, although it can be seen, it is as far away as a dream.Magpie didn't know why Xiumi suddenly wanted to go to such a place.
Xiumi said that she wanted to visit the island.
However, since she wanted to go, all the magpie could do was to inquire about the route to Hua's house, and started to prepare the package and dry food on the way.
What Magpie thought in her heart, it would be good to take a long trip, at least it could relieve her worries and relieve her boredom.A few days later, Xiumi suddenly proposed to ask Magpie to invite someone to repair the graves of his wife and the little thing, and then set out on the road after everything was settled.
The magpie prepared dry food for three days.In her opinion, three days is too long, enough to travel to every corner of the world.Along the way, Xiumi refused to hire bearers even if she was too tired to walk.They walked unhurriedly among the hills and ravines. Along the way, Magpie saw Xiumi crying non-stop, handling people, walking and talking very slowly, and Magpie's heart was suspended again.
They asked for directions when they saw a village, stopped to fetch water when they saw a well, lost their way seven or eight times, and settled in six or seven strange farmers' homes.On the way, Xiumi also suffered from dysentery once, and her high fever made her talk nonsense all night.In the end, the magpie had no choice but to drive on her back.When they arrived at Huajiashe at noon on the eighth day, Xiumi fell asleep on her back.
Xiumi opened her eyes in a daze, and tears overflowed her eye sockets again.Their location happened to be next to a wine shop at the entrance of the village.The wine flag was rotten and faded, floating obliquely outside the window.There were hardly any customers in the store, and the Spring Festival couplets on the door were also faded, faded and faded. A little girl in a flowered jacket sat on the door railing and spun wool, looking at them from time to time.
This village built on the mountain was much smaller and shabby than she remembered.The broken walls left by the fire many years ago are still vivid.It's just that the long corridors connecting each courtyard and each household have been demolished long ago, leaving shallow round pits with pillars on both sides of the road. When the strong wind blows, dust will fly.
Most of the trees on the mountain have been cut down and are bare.The houses that were about to collapse were one after another, and it seemed that they would collapse at any moment.The ditches on both sides of the road are still flowing, and a few old ravens fly over the gray scale-like roofs, cooing, bringing a little vitality to the village.
They were about to leave there when the hotel window opened suddenly.From it protruded the face of a fat, puffy woman.
"Want to eat?" she asked.
"No." Magpie smiled and answered her.
The window slammed shut again.
They came to the lake.The small island is a stone's throw away from the village, and from a distance, it is gray.The house on the island (where Xiumi and Han Liu lived for a year and three months) no longer exists.Densely planted with mulberry trees.They saw a fisherman who was fishing in the lake with his boat.Other than that, there is no second person to be seen.
They waited by the lake until noon before the fishing boat docked.Xiumi asked the fisherman if he could take them to the island to have a look.The fisherman looked at them for a long time before saying:
"No one lives on the island."
Xiumi said: "We just want to go up and see, can you take us there?"
"There is nothing to see. The island is full of mulberry forests, and there is no one there." The fisherman said.
Seeing what he said, Magpie took out a bank note from his waist.give it to him.When the fisherman saw the silver ticket, he didn't reach out to take it, but murmured, "Since you want to go up, I'll take you there by boat, and you won't need any money."
The two got on the boat, and the fisherman said, since the day he came to Hua's House, the island has been like this. However, he heard that there was an old house on the island, and a nun once lived there.But at some point, the house was demolished.The nun didn't know where she went.
"So you're not a local?" Magpie asked.
The fisherman said that it has been five years since he joined his second aunt's house as the son-in-law.He fished the lake every day and never saw a soul.Only in March, when the black-haired silkworms hatched, did the women of Hua's house go to the island to pick mulberry leaves.
He said that his tenants also raised silkworms, and there were four or five plaques.Once, when silkworms were hungry in the middle of the night, she begged him to accompany her to pick mulberry leaves on the island with a lantern.But she didn't know that the mulberry leaves were soaked in dew, and silkworms would die if they ate them.The next day, all the snow-white silkworms were poured into the lake.He also said that he likes listening to the sound of silkworms eating mulberry leaves, just like rain.
Speaking of this, the fisherman looked up at them again and asked, "Where is your house? Why do you want to go to that island?"
Xiumi didn't make a sound, just stared at the large mulberry field in the distance in a daze.The wind blows the mulberry branches.
The boat gradually approached the shore, and the magpie could already see a section of the collapsed wall foundation in the mulberry garden. At this moment, she heard Xiumi sigh and say:
"Forget it, we won't go up, let's go back."
"Why don't you want to go again? The boats are already docked," said the fisherman.
"After traveling for seven or eight days, it's not easy to come here," Magpie advised, "It's better to go up and stay for a while, and it's a matter of peace."
"I've already seen it. Let's go back," Xiumi said.
Her voice was not high, but her tone was cold, hard, and irrefutable.
They decided to leave Hua's House that day.
A black-covered boat carried them back to Puji along the waterway.Funato said that if you are lucky and the wind keeps going, you will be able to sail into the Yangtze River at noon the next day.Xiumi lay in the dark and cold cabin, and fell asleep listening to the sound of splashing water above her head.From time to time, reed branches brushed against the canopy, making a crisp rustling sound.She once again dreamed of the small island surrounded by the lake, the blue tombs under the moonlight, the mulberry fields, and the broken walls and tiles in the mulberry forest.And of course Han Liu.I don't know how many times, the two of them sat by the window and talked, watching the night fade away a little bit, the morning sun trembling like molten iron jumped out of the water, and the woods on the shore were all red.She heard Han Liu say in her ear: In fact, the heart of each of us is a besieged island.
But now, where did Han Liu go?
In the middle of the night, a dim light illuminated the cabin.Xiumi put on her clothes and sat up, looked out through the cabin door, it turned out that there was a fleet passing by.In every boat there is a lamp burning.Xiumi counted, there are seven ships in total.These boats are linked together by iron chains. From a distance, it looks like a group of people traveling at night with lanterns.
The wind is blowing, and the sky is full of stars.At midnight in this late autumn, watching the fleet gradually go away, Xiumi couldn't help shivering, and tears welled up in her eyes.She knew that at this moment, what she met was not a passing fleet, but herself twenty years ago.
One early morning this winter, Xiumi woke up from the attic as usual.The weather was so cold that Xiumi lay in bed for a long time, unwilling to get up.The sun is coming out.The magpie yelled at the attic in the vegetable field.She said: All the wintersweet plants under the trellis have bloomed.
Xiumi got up from the bed and went to the chest of drawers to comb her hair.She saw that a thin layer of crystal clear ice had formed in the earthen cauldron on the table.She remembered washing her face with this earthen kettle last night, probably because the water had not been poured out completely, and a layer of ice had formed at the bottom of the kettle.Xiumi just casually glanced at Nawa Ke, and her eyes froze for a moment.Her whole face was distorted with horror.
She saw the face of a person in the patterns woven by ice flowers, and this person was her father!She couldn't believe her eyes. Her father seemed to be smiling. He was sitting on the side of a wide road, playing chess with someone.
It's too dark in the attic.Xiumi casually tossed the comb away, picked up the cauldron and went to the gazebo outside the house.
Just a ray of sunlight came from the top of the treetops on the east courtyard wall, Xiumi sat on the stone bench by the gazebo and watched the ice flowers carefully under the sunlight.There was another person sitting opposite her father, but she could only see his back.The two were sitting under a big pine tree, with a low hillside behind them, and there seemed to be a flock of sheep grazing on the hillside.There was a road beside them, and beside it was a rushing river.The characters, trees, vegetation, river water and sheep are all clearly visible and lifelike.
There was a car on the road with the door open, and someone in it (a bald man) stepped off his foot and was about to get out of the car.Xiumi felt that this person's face was dark but familiar. She wanted to identify it carefully, but the picture became more and more blurred.Under the warm sun, the ice flowers are melting.It is melting bit by bit, but helplessly.
This melting ice flower is Xiumi's past and future.
Ice flowers are fragile, and so are people.Xiumi felt a sharp pain in her heart, and wanted to lean against the pillar to rest for a while, to catch her breath.So she just lay there and died quietly.
In May 1952, the new magistrate of Meicheng County was driving on the winding mountain road leading to Puji Reservoir in a brand new jeep.The county magistrate Tan accidentally saw two old men sitting cross-legged under a big pine tree playing chess from the car window, so he asked the driver to stop.Secretary Yao, who was in the same car, knew that the county magistrate was a chess fan, and when she saw him order the driver to stop, she pushed the magistrate Tan's arm tenderly, and said with a smile, "Old Tan, is it possible that you are addicted to chess again? "
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