Chapter 12 stone mill

In the wing room of my house, there is a large stone mill.Niang said, this is the biggest mill in the village.Hearing the word "biggest" made me proud.It is said that this mill originally belonged to Mr. Liu's family, and it was distributed to my family as a victory fruit during the land reform.This is a "donkey mill" - a mill pulled by a donkey, not a "human mill" that a half-grown child can push around in small households. My earliest memories are associated with this disc mill.I remember that I was sitting on the straw mat outside the mill path, staring blankly at my mother and the neighbors, the fourth daughter, each holding a mill stick and walking around the mill path non-stop.The sound of grinding was rumbling, monotonous and slow. Yellow or brown flour was evenly sprinkled from the gap between the two grinding discs. circle.Occasionally, there is a time to grind wheat, which must be during the holidays.The flour that falls from the grinding of wheat is white.I sat motionless on the straw mat.The face of the mother, the back of the mother, the face of the fourth mother, the back of the fourth mother, disappearing and appearing before my eyes, appearing and disappearing.There was a rumbling sound of grinding, and the millstone was turning slowly. Everything in front of me was like flowers in the fog, sometimes very far away, sometimes very close, and I fell asleep on the straw mat.

In 1970, I was nine years old.I heard that a steel mill pulled by a diesel engine was installed in a neighboring village. The belt hummed and could grind hundreds of catties of wheat in an hour.Many people in the village have knocked off the stone mill, and if they want to grind flour, they take money to the steel mill to grind it.The stone mill in our house has not been lifted yet, and we have no money. The fourth mother has a daughter named Zhuzi, who is two years younger than me.Our two families live diagonally opposite each other. The adults have a good relationship, and the children are even closer.Zhuzhu and I hang out every day, as if we have the same head.Sometimes the sound of steel mills from neighboring villages could be clearly heard in our village, and it was so mysterious that Zhu Zi and I secretly went to see the steel mills.I got into a big disaster.I asked Zhuzi to keep it a secret for me, but Zhuzi never told anyone about it.Of course, we also have times when we turn our backs.I was dry when I was young, but my beads were as round as a little leopard. I was no match for her in a fight.Often it was she who beat me up, but cried and ran to my mother to complain, saying that I bullied her.

Zhuzi and I were studying at the primary school in this village. The teacher was a half-year-old man named Zhu with an arched waist. We called him "pig tail stick", but he didn't dare to get angry.I heard that he used to discipline students very harshly. During the "Cultural Revolution", the students who had been taught by him in turn beat him until his crotch was full of feces. Now he can be regarded as "good".When teaching us, he half-closed his eyes and stared at the roof, and didn't care if the students had a falling out.We didn't wait for him to finish his lecture, so we swaggered away with our schoolbags on our backs.There are only two books in the schoolbag with pictures of children carrying red-tasseled guns, and a pencil that gnaws with its teeth when the tip is bald.One afternoon, Pearl and I skipped school early.We agreed to go to my yard to play glass balls, and we agreed that the winner would "knock chestnuts" on the forehead of the loser, and the bead lost, and I knocked several chestnuts in a row.Annoyed, she jumped on me, put her arms around my waist, put her head on my chin, and threw me to the ground.She rides on my belly and spits in my face.Annoyed, I took her hand and took a bite.We all cried.

Niang and Si Niang were pushing the mill in the wing room, when they heard the sound, Niang said, "Ancestor, what's the matter?" "He bit me." Zhu Zi cried while holding her bleeding hand. "She hit me." I also cried. Mother slapped my ass twice.The fourth lady also patted the beads twice.This is actually a symbolic punishment, not even a single hair can be hurt, but we cried even more happily. The mother was upset, and said: "Are you really crying? I spoiled you, come to grind!" Of course, the fourth lady didn't let Zhu Zi go. Pearl and I were put on the mill like two little donkey colts.There are two holes in the stone mill on the upper fan, and two grinding sticks are inserted in the holes.Niang and Si Niang tied two ropes to the mill stick, one for me and one for beads.In front of me is the four big mothers, and in front of the four big mothers is Zhuzi.In front of the beads is my mother, and in front of my mother is me.

"If you don't pull hard, I'll kick you!" Niang said behind me, pushing the mill stick. "If you don't use force, I'll hit you." The fourth mother threatened Zhu Zi. While pulling the mill, he tilted his head to look at the rotating millstone.There was a rumbling sound of grinding, and the face was brushed and brushed.I find it fresh and fun.There are two grinding eyes on the grinding plate, red sorghum is piled in one eye, and two broom seedlings are stuck in the other eye. "Mother, what are you doing with the broom seedlings?" I asked. "Sweep the face out of the grinder."

"Then don't grind the broom seedlings into the noodles?" "It's been researched into the surface." "Then don't you eat it in your stomach?" "I ate it in my stomach." "How can people eat broom seedlings?" "My ancestors have been like this for generations. Don't ask, it's annoying." Mother was impatient. "Mother, when did you get the stone mill?" Zhuzi asked the fourth mother. "It has existed since ancient times." "Who chiseled out the first mill first?" "Lu Ban's wife."

"Who is Lu Ban's wife?" "Lu Ban's wife is Lu Ban's wife." "How could Lu Ban's wife think of chiseling?" "Lu Ban's daughter-in-law has bad teeth and can't chew whole grains of grain, so she found two stones, chiseled them, and pushed them up." In the mouths of Niang and Si Niang, everything in the world is very simple, all the answers are ready-made, and there is nothing that cannot be explained. We stopped talking, and the mill room fell silent.A ray of sunlight comes in through the window lattice on the west side, and bright window lattices are printed on the east wall.There are several straight beams of light obliquely in the room, and the beams of light are full of small dust, swimming quickly like shining needle points.The dusty torn cobwebs on the corner of the wall trembled slightly.A gecko lay motionless on the wall.The freshness of the first grind quickly fades, and the soul and body are numb.The sound of grinding, footsteps, heavy breathing, and the endless road circle after circle, did not even change at all.I always want to catch up with the Fourth Mother, but I can't catch up.Si Niang's slender waist dangled in front of me.The oblique beam of light periodically shone on her face, and when the beam of light shone on her face, she narrowed her slender eyes and twitched the corners of her mouth, which was very pretty.Stepping out of the beam of light, her face became dark. I would rather see her brilliant face than her dark face, but the brilliant and the dark always appear alternately, and the dark is always longer than the brilliant. The child passed.

"Mom, I can't move anymore." Zhu Zi cried. "Pull, your brother hasn't said that you can't pull it, you are so fat." Si Niang said, bending her waist even lower, and pushing the mill stick hard. "Mom, I can't move anymore." I said, it was the beads that reminded me. "Are you still fighting?" "do not fight." "Let's play." Zhu Zi and I ran away happily.Walking out of the mill house is like jumping out of a cage, feeling that the sky is wide and the earth is wide.Niang and Si Niang were still spinning in endless circles, the sound of grinding was rumbling, and the sound of grinding would not stop.

This punishment shows that Zhuzi and I have the ability to work, and the carefree childhood is over.Bead and I became full members of The Mill, though we never fought again.Both the mother and the fourth mother have half-big feet, and it is very difficult for them to walk with their heels on the ground.I am already ten years old, not a child anymore. Seeing my mother turning pale with exhaustion and her clothes soaked in sweat, I felt very sad.So, even though I hate grinding, I have never resisted my mother's orders.Zhuzhu is very slippery, and she runs to the toilet every ten minutes after being on the grinder. The fourth mother scolded her: "There is a lot of excrement and urine on the lazy donkey." The mother smiled softly and said, "She is still young."

Niang and Si Niang don't push the mill every day, they also go to work in the production team.Later, they chose to grind the millstone at noon or after dinner, when there were no classes in school, and they couldn't escape our errands. On this endless circle, beads and I grew up.We all graduated from junior high school, and there was only one high school in a radius of several tens of miles. We had no money to go to school, so we happily became small members of the commune.I am sixteen years old and Zhuzi is fourteen years old, and I have not yet been included in the regular labor roster of the production team.The task assigned to us by the team is to mow grass and feed cattle, and we can go if we want to, and we don’t want to pull it down. Anyway, we count work points according to the catty.

Bead and I have been able to push the big mill around, and the task of turning the mill has been transferred to our shoulders.Niang and Si Niang are very happy.From the age of fifteen, I began to grow taller. One winter and spring, a head popped out, and a layer of black down grew on my mouth.Bead has also grown taller, but a little shorter than me.I remember that it was a day in June of the lunar calendar, and there was lingering rain falling in the sky.My mother told me: "Go and ask your fourth mother to see if she pushes the mill." I put on the bamboo hat and walked lazily to the fourth mother's house.My father sat on the edge of the kang of the eldest mother and smoked.Sitting on the top of the kang, the four mothers licked the soles of their shoes by the light from the window. "Fourth Mother, my mother asked you, do you want to push the mill?" I asked.The fourth lady raised her head, her bright eyes flashed, and she said, "Push it." Then she shouted, "Pearl, put ten catties of corn in it, and grind it with your brother." With a sound.I opened the curtain and entered her room. She was sitting on the kang, wearing only a tight-fitting little shirt, with two snow-white arms exposed, and her newly developed breasts protruding forward beautifully like flower buds.I was taken aback suddenly, my boyhood became history at this moment, and I stepped into the gate of youth with one foot.I backed out in panic, with a fever on my face, ran into the yard, and shouted loudly: "Zhuzi, I'm waiting for you in the mill, hurry up, don't dawdle." Suddenly, I felt annoyed, I don't know who I was angry with. Here comes the beads.She tidied up the mill quickly, poured the grain into the mill eye, and inserted the broom seedlings.We picked up the mill stick and turned it around in circles.The mill smelled of damp and musty, and the mill bore the smell of crushed corn.The rain outside fell in quick bursts and slow bursts, and the buckets turned upside down under the eaves were knocked rhythmically by the dripping water from the eaves.The bird's nest under the eaves has new children, and the little swallows are chirping dreamily.Zhuzhu suddenly stopped, turned to look at me, blushed, stared at me with slender eyes and said: "You are bad!" I remembered what happened just now, and my heart felt like a deer was colliding.Her small bud-like breasts appeared in front of my eyes again, and I said, "Zhuzi, you... are so pretty..." "Nonsense!" "Zhu Zi, let's be alright..." "I'll hit you!" She blushed and raised her fist to threaten me. I put down my grinding stick, rushed forward and hugged her, tremblingly said: "Hit it, hit it, hit it fast, you little Pearl, you little bad Pearl..." She was gasping for breath, stroking my neck with both hands, we embraced tightly, forgetting everything in the world... There are three wing rooms in my house, two of which are equipped with mills, and the outer one actually functions as a gate building.Father opened the door and walked in, and saw Zhuzhu and me hugging each other at a glance. "Bastard!" he yelled angrily. Zhu Zi and I hurriedly separated, with our heads down, trembling and standing in the grinding path.The grinding path was dented by the soles of the feet, like a small circular ditch. My father grabbed my hair and slapped me twice on the mouth.My brain was buzzing and the blood was dripping down my nose. Zhu Zi rushed forward to protect me, and stared angrily at his father: "Why do you beat him? You old black heart, please you two, but not us?" Father's angry arms drooped heavily, and the angry expression on his face disappeared all of a sudden. From the time when I was saving personnel, I felt that my father didn't like my mother.Mother is six years older than father.When father was at home, he rarely had a smile on his face, and was always cold and indifferent to mother.Mother treats father like a guest, and father treats mother like a guest. The two have never had an argument, let alone a fight.But my mother often wiped her tears secretly.When I saw my mother cry when I was a child, I cried too.Mother held me in her arms and kissed me hard, tears wet my face. "Mother, who bullied you?" "No, child, no one bullied mother..." "Then why are you crying?" Heard some gossip on the street, and knew that father and four mothers had a good relationship.When Zhuzi was one year old, her father got drunk at the fair, fell into a glacier and drowned, and the fourth mother never remarried.When I was young, my father often took me to the four parents' house.Mrs. Pi liked me, took me from my father, kissed me and bit my diaphragm. "Call my mother, I'll give you peanuts." She looked at me kindly with her slender eyes and teased me.Children have no position, so I let go of my throat and called "Mother!" The fourth mother grinned happily at first, but then became very sad again.She handed me the small bag containing peanuts, sighed a long time, and said, "Eat it." My mother also carried me to the family of the four great mothers, but she seemed to have nothing to say.Two people often sit dry.No one said a word, only when Zhuzhu and I laughed or wept when we got annoyed, they laughed a little or scolded us a little.One day, Niang and Si Niang sat opposite each other again.Niang said: "Sister-in-law...you don't plan to find a master, if this continues..." Niang is actually seven or eight years older than Si Niang, but Si Niang's husband is older than Dad, so Niang called Si Niang "sister-in-law".After hearing what mother said, the fourth mother stared blankly at the window, blushing and turning pale.Lying on the folded quilt, she began to cry.The mother's eye circles are also red.Later, my mother no longer went to the four major natal families.The relationship between mother and fourth mother is also the same as the relationship with father. They respect each other as guests, are cold and indifferent. Rely on me and Zhuzi to inform. The crying startled the mother.Mother ran across the yard to the mill in the rain, and as soon as she saw my swollen face and the blood from my nose, she rushed to protect me, and wiped the blood from my nose with her rough hands. While crying, she cursed: "Cruel-hearted ghost! You know that my wife is a thorn in your side, so beat me to death first..." Mother burst into tears. The fourth mother also rushed over after hearing the sound.When Zhu Zi saw her mother, she grinned, wrinkled her nose, and tears fell down. "Poor mother, my daughter is so miserable..." Zhu Zi hugged the fourth mother, nagging and crying like a married woman.The fourth mother always loved to shed tears, but this time she found an opportunity. She hugged her daughter and cried all day long. Dad hurriedly closed the door, lowered his throat, and said, "Don't cry, please. It's all my fault. If you want to kill or chop, you are up to you. I am guilty, and I kneel down for you..." He was tall and tall. His father knelt down in front of the stone mill like a half wall, tears streaming down his pale cheeks.My father has a high nose bridge and big eyes. It is said that in the early years he was in social dramas, and he even played the role of a girl. The father's kneeling has great shocking power.The crying of Niang and Si Niang stopped abruptly, and Zhu Zi and I shut up immediately.The mill was very quiet, and the brown stone mill was squatting like a serious old man.The rain had stopped, and there was a small wind blowing in the yard. The old pear tree shook slightly, and the rustling of the leaves was mixed with the sound of water droplets hitting the ground.On the beams of the mill, a fringe of damp ashes fell slowly and landed on the father's shoulder. Mother let go of me, moved her little feet, walked in front of Dad, pinched away the tassel of ashes on Dad's shoulder with her fingers, knelt down in front of Dad slowly, and said: "It's my fault, it's all my fault... ..." My heart that was impacted by the joy of first love, the heart that was beaten and wronged by my father felt like it was being torn apart. A tide of emotions more complicated and stronger than joy and grievance was surging in my chest. , I couldn't stand upright, I staggered and leaned on the stone mill... We no longer have to grind our flour with stones.Although it is still difficult for Sun and Moon at home, it has entered a new stage after all, and the money to push noodles on the steel mill is gradually not a problem.The mill is seldom entered, and it has become a paradise for mice, and they can be seen tossing there in broad daylight.Bats lived in it too, and flew in and out of the window lattices at dusk. I have grown into a real youth.Someone proposed a marriage for me. The woman was the daughter of an old Chinese doctor in Nantuan, and she helped her father rub the pills at home.I refuse to do so. Dad said, "I know what you're thinking, it's absolutely impossible." "No, I don't want to! I'll be a bachelor for the rest of my life!" "If you don't want it, you have to! We will be engaged on June 6th." Dad said sternly. "Son, listen to your father's words. My ancestors have come here for generations... At noon, I sent the wheat to the steel mill for pushing, and I want to steam forty big buns..." In the field in June, the high and low are full of green crops. In the end, I still pushed three hundred catties of wheat and walked towards the steel mill along the yellow dirt road in the green ocean.I walked slowly, and the hum of the steel mill was getting closer.On that day of that year, Zhuzhu and I went to see the steel mill, and we also took this path.In the steel mill, there are two girls with white flour hanging from their eyelashes, pouring grain into the iron horn, and the long bag connected to the bottom of the steel mill is swollen and round.I was so fascinated by the steel mill, it stood there like a straight stick.The beads hit me once, and asked me to look at the horsepower belt. The horsepower belt was running in the brick ditch between the engine room and the mill. Urinating, the belt made a squeaky sound, then slid down into the ditch, and the sound of steel grinding gradually weakened.Two girls ran out of the mill, shouting, "Catch!" Beads dragged me and said, "Run!" We ran out of the village and into the fields, panting and sweating. I said, "Zhuzi, please, don't go home and talk about it." She said, "Will you marry me when you grow up?" I said: "Marry!" "Then I won't tell," she said, and sure enough, she hadn't told anyone about my peeing on the horseback belt. I walked forward step by step full of sorrow, I really wanted to cry a few times, and cried a few times.Suddenly, a woman in a red plaid shirt emerged from the sorghum field.It's beads! "Stop!" she said harshly to me. "What are you doing here?" I stopped. "Don't pretend to be confused. Are you engaged to the pill rubbing guy?" she asked sharply. "Why do you ask if you know?" I said dejectedly. "What should I do? You don't have me at all in your heart?" "Zhuzi... haven't you heard? Some people say that we are brothers and sisters..." My heart was full of anger, I overturned the car at once, squatted down, and covered my head with my hands. "I asked my mother, we are not brother and sister." "what is the problem?" "Your father loves my mother. Your grandpa and grandma married your mother to your father, and my mother married my father—that bastard who died. That's all." "What should we do?" I asked hesitantly. "Registration of marriage!" "I'm afraid my father won't agree." "Did you marry me or did your father marry me? It's been more than 30 years since liberation! Let's go, I'll tell them." I married Pearl. In the second year of marriage, Zhuzi gave birth to a girl, who was so cute that everyone in the village wanted to hug her when they saw her. After a few years of good weather, the farmers have saved a lot of money.Zhu Zi was scheming and set up a small flour processing factory with me.We vacated the wing room to install the machine.The wing room was full of dust, and the stone mill was covered with rat feces and bat guano.I, Zhuzi, father, and my eldest mother carried out the two stone mills and threw them into the corner of the wall.My mother watched our work with my little daughter on her back. "Grandma, what is this?" "Stone mill." "What stone mill?" "A stone mill that grinds flour." "What kind of stone mill for grinding flour?" "It's a stone mill for grinding flour." The sun is shining brightly.I shouted to the door: "Zhuzi, go get some lime water; disinfect the mill!" We worked happily and earnestly, as if we had completed some important historical mission.