Chapter 7 Death River (3)

Has anyone seen such a strange fish? Ji Xi sent Hu Dao home to boil a pot of hot water.She ate a potato, drank a bowl of hot tea, put away her fishing gear one by one, closed the stove door, put on a silver-gray kerchief, and went out. Ajia fishing village with more than 100 houses looks even smaller in the snow.The houses are like candied dates pickled in sugar in the snow.Jixi looked at the River of Death, it looked so thin in the first snow, she seemed to be able to feel the subtle tremor of the river before the arrival of the tearfish.She thought of Hu Dao's grandfather, Hu Hui, who was buried in the pine forest on the other side of the River of Death.The poor old fisherman fell prey to a black bear at the age of seventy.When he was young, Hu Hui was good at riding and shooting, and he was the most experienced in encircling and suppressing turtles and fish.Despite his short stature and plain appearance, he is the idol in the heart of Miss Ajia.At that time, Jixi could not only catch fish and eat raw fish, but also embroider, cut and make wine.Hu Hui often came to Jixi to beg for cigarettes and food at that time, and Hu Hui helped Zhang Luo build Jixi's wooden house.At that time, Jixi had a naive idea, thinking that she would be Hu Hui's wife, but Hu Hui married Caizhu who had no beauty and no ability to manage a house.On the day of Huhui's wedding, Jixi was chopping raw fish by the river of death. She saw the welcoming procession and the stupid red flower on Huhui's chest. Poured towards him, and let out a happy laugh.Hu Hui smiled at Ji Xi apologetically, and went to pick up the bride with a fishy smell all over his body.Standing by the river of death, Jixi picked up a pike with dots of patterns, chewed it with big mouthfuls, and tears fell down.

Hu Hui once told Ji Xi why he didn't marry her when he was fishing for tearfish one year.Hu Hui said: "You are too capable, you can do everything, you can stir up a family to live, men will gradually lose their ability to live under your roof, you can go too far." Ji Xi said bitterly, "Is it a crime for me to be capable?" Jixi thought, if a fisherwoman can't catch fish, make dried vegetables, dry fish, brew wine, and weave nets, but can only bear children, what's so cute?Ji Xi's thoughts brewed the tragedy of her life.In Ajia, men all appreciate her, like to drink the wine she makes, the tea she cooks, the tobacco leaves she makes, like to see her lively expression when eating raw fish, and like her distinctive white teeth , but no man married her.The river of death flows day and night, Jixi grows old day by day, but the forests on both sides of the river become more and more lush.

Ji Xi especially likes to sing after middle age.She sang when she was chopping raw fish standing on the bank of the dying river, she sang when she went to the mountains to pick mushrooms in autumn, she sang when she dried vegetables on the wooden roof of her house, and she sang when she fed poultry in the evening.Jixi's singing filled Ajia fishing village like cooking smoke, and the men felt as heartbroken when they heard her singing as if hearing the cry of a tearfish.Whenever Jixi sang, they came to ask her for cigarettes and food, and they called "Jixi Jixi" affectionately over and over again.Jixi stopped singing, she crushed the tobacco powder deftly, and polished the tobacco pot to make it brighter, and the copper and wood grains showed their true colors.She likes to hear the voice of men calling her "Jixi Jixi", and then she will show the sweet demeanor of a little bird.However, most of the men who finished eating her cigarettes patted their soles and put on their shoes and went home. What was left to Jixi was the mottled tree shadows in the yard under the moonlight.Jixi stopped singing after the age of forty. She began to calmly welcome the first gray hair on her head, and frequently went to and from each house to deliver women. For a moment.

In the history of Jixi's delivery, no child was born on the day when the tearfish arrived, never before.She prayed to God that the child would be born before dusk, so that she might be one of the tearfish on the banks of the dying river.When she was praying to God in the snow like this, she felt extremely ridiculous, because she had just said many bad things about God. Hu Dao's wife was lying upright on the kang, sweating profusely from the labor pains. When she saw Ji Xi, she gave her wet eyes.Ji Xi washed his hands, asked how long it had been the reaction, and what felt wrong.Hu Dao was walking around in the middle of the room in a hurry, kicking over the wooden basin for a while, and the water flowed all over the floor;Ji Xi couldn't help but said to Hu Dao: "You should prepare the tools for catching tearfish, and stop busying yourself here."

Hu Dao said, "I've been ready for a long time." Ji Xi said, "Are you ready to chop firewood?" Hu Dao said submissively, "It's ready." Ji Xi added: "You need a piece of No. 3 fishing net." Hu Dao still didn't understand, "There is a No. 3 fishing net." After finishing speaking, he knocked over the tea tube while making tea, and there was another sound, and the mother convulsed. Ji Xi had no choice but to scare Hu Dao: "You are so capable, you can deliver your wife." Hu Dao turned pale with fright: "Aunt Jixi, how can I deliver a baby, how can I pick up this child?"