Chapter 4 loach

one The method of catching loach in this place is very special: cut the reed stalk into two feet long, tie a thread in the middle, and tie a thin bamboo branch less than one centimeter long to one end of the thread. The scissors are trimmed to be pointed, called "mans". Insert a quarter of an earthworm into the cut duck feather tube, and then insert it into the water. When the foraging loach sees the earthworm, it will open its mouth and take a bite. Swallowing hard, the awn pierced the earthworm, crossed in its throat, and was tied up so hard that it couldn't swallow or spit out, and then writhed and struggled pitifully to make a few small water splashes, then helplessly stopped moving.

People in this place call this thing "ka". Insert the card in the evening and receive it in the early morning. Shijinzi and Sanliu each have two hundred cards. In a year, the time when the card can be inserted is only about 30 days, at the end of winter and the beginning of spring.After this period of time, the paddy fields are filled with water, let the sun dry, and are ready to grow crops.Even if there is still a place to store water, the loaches have all kinds of live food, and they no longer greedily devour earthworms without thinking when they see them. The fields here in the late winter and early spring have a special scene: there are paddy fields everywhere, watery, and when the breeze comes, the water surface is wrinkled with thin water lines, driving one by one, and going far away, the water becomes thinner and thinner. If the wind is stronger, there will be a sound of water waves hitting the ridges in the fields, soft, gentle, and whispering, and the fields will no longer be so boring and lonely; if there is a good sun at noon Sprinkle it down, and the golden light will bounce widely on the surface of the water, making the world very charming and rich.

Shijinzi and Sanliu are very devoted to this kind of field. They always like to wander around the field, run wildly, or sit on the ridge of the field to be silly, ponder, think wildly, and weave absurd stories.If the sun is warm, you will lie straight on the soft field ridge, and the sound of water in your ears will become louder, which will make people tempted and puzzled.The smell of sunshine, earth, water, old grass and new shoots all blend together, and it smells very good. Of course, what attracted them the most was the heart-thumping loaches in these paddy fields. However, these two guys seem to be very estranged.

Ten Jinzi's body is as strong as an elm tree, and there is always a bit of "conspiracy" in the slender eye slits. He usually rolls around in the wind and doesn't like to wash, so his dark skin turns darker. Taut cowhide.He often glanced, glanced, and stared at Sanliu with those malicious eyes. The cowardly Sanliu couldn't resist this gaze, so she lowered her head, or avoided him from a distance. They came a little too early today, the sun is still high.Both of them knew that it was not good to insert the card early, as a small fish that would move around as long as there was sunshine would slowly suck the earthworms off the awns, so they put the card on the ridge of the field and waited for the sun to set.

At the end of the field, there are a few cranes flying leisurely, standing leisurely in the shallow water looking for food. Shijinzi felt that the slender Sanliu looked a lot like those weird cranes.When he was bored waiting for the sunset, he couldn't help laughing boredly when he found that Sanliu was similar to a crane. Sanliu felt that Shijinzi must be laughing at him, so she felt a little uncomfortable, her long legs and arms didn't fit anywhere. The sun was setting, so Shijinzi and Sanliu took up a field ridge and lay down. The sky is vast, the fields are sparse, and there seems to be only the two of them in the infinite silence.

But ten catties can't accommodate Sanliu.He has an instinctive rejection of Sanliu's card.Without Sanliu, the paddy fields in front of him are all his. He can insert cards wherever he likes. If he plants in this field today, he will plant in that field tomorrow. That is boundless freedom. Ten Jinzi looked down on Sanliu a little bit: Do you know which field to put the card in?Do you know how to insert a card in a windy day? ...you can also insert cards? ! Sanliu saw something in Shi Jinzi's gaze, and was very careful, for fear of offending Shi Jinzi.If Shijinzi arrives first, he can ignore Sanliu and just pick a piece of field to plant at will, but Sanliu arrives first, but he always has to wait for Shijinzi to go to the field first, and then he goes to the field by himself.

Sanliu is an insignificant orphan who doesn't even have a house and lives in a brick cave dwelling that has been disused for a long time. People seem to have reasons to ignore him. Sanliu is also very knowledgeable. The sun finally sank, and Dusk Crow flew up from the field, clamoring, and headed for the woods behind the village. Ten Jinzi carried the card with a rope bag, and chose back and forth for a long time, but he did not choose a field.Sanliu was a little impatient today, thinking: You can choose slowly, anyway, you won't want this field, so I won't wait for you today.Thinking about it, he grabbed Shijinzi's head and went to the field for the first time.

Ten Jinzi felt very uncomfortable, so he jumped into a field and inserted one every five steps. He didn't, he kept moving forward with his legs, making the water splash, and turned over behind him. I picked up a white drill, went down more than ten steps, and then inserted another one.The field was very quiet in the evening, except for the noisy wading of Shijinzi under the sky. Sanliu has just planted a row, and Shijinzi has already planted a field. Half of Sanliu's card has not been inserted yet, and all the paddy fields have already been inserted by Shi Jinzi.Ten Jinzi climbed up the ridge of the field, tied the empty rope around his waist, and in the gloom, smiled at Sanliu treacherously, jumped three feet, and went back home screaming.

Sanliu stood in the paddy field in a daze for a long time, and had no choice but to insert the remaining cards in the field where he had already inserted cards, and the field was densely covered with cards. The next morning, when the sky was bright, Shijinzi and Sanliu went to the field to collect the cards.Each person carries a bucket, and if there is a loach on the card, they will round it, wind the thread back to the reed stalk, and then knock rhythmically on the side of the bucket, and the loach will be shaken and dropped into the bucket.Ten Jinzi knocked the reed stalks against the side of the bucket very loudly on purpose, and knocked the reed stalks that were not hung with loach against the side of the bucket from time to time.

On the far side of Sanliu, it took a long time to hear a faint knocking sound. Ten Jinzi had an uncontrollable joy in his heart, so he sang in a deliberately distorted and trembling voice on the lonely morning field: bride, white nose, Pee to the roof... The sky was completely brightened in his singing. In the morning of early spring, it was still cold in the paddy field, Sanliu put away the card, carried the bucket, shrank her neck, and walked forward tremblingly. "Sanliu!" Ten Jinzi called out. Sanliu stopped. Ten Jinzi came forward and looked at Sanliu, who had shrugged his shoulders and swayed his legs, and felt more and more like a crane.

"I'm leaving." Sanliu said. Ten Jinzi put his bucket next to Sanliu's on purpose.In his bucket, those golden mud shovels weighed four to five catties.And Sanliu's bucket had more than a dozen loaches sparsely, not even covering the bottom of the bucket. "Yo, that's quite a lot!" Ten Jinzi smiled sarcastically. Sanliu didn't notice Shijinzi's ridicule, but looked up at the big willow tree in the distance—— A vine stands under a tree. "Who are you looking at?" "..." "She seems to be waiting for someone." "Waiting for me." "Wait for you?" "..." Sanliu picked up the bucket and walked forward, facing the sun that had just emerged from the ground with her back. She became more and more slender, like a dangling hemp stalk. As the sun rose, the vines under the big willow tree became more vivid, and people seemed to be able to feel her pair of bright and moving black eyes a hundred steps away. Shijinzi was dumbfounded, like a chicken. two Man was married here from a reed marsh two hundred miles away. She had only been married for half a year when her husband was killing ducks in the rain and was struck by lightning and died in the rice field. Since then, people have looked at Man with timid and gloomy eyes. The vines look a bit like the ones grown in the countryside at all.When she walks, her steps are very light, and her waist twists and turns, but it is not excessive at all, just right; her eyes are always squinted, like a cat stimulated by the sun, but once it is wide open, it looks like a cat. He is black and bright; he speaks with a western accent, very pure, soft and pleasant to the ear, probably because he grew up by the water. Man standing under the big willow tree.In fact, these days, at this time, she was always standing here, but Shi Jinzi didn't notice it. Man is wearing a blue cloth jacket and a white flower on her head.Her face looked ruddy in the morning light.She crossed her onion-like fingers and placed them in front of her belly naturally.She smiled peacefully, without a trace of worry on her face.Her husband's death seemed to have left no trace on her body or heart. Behind her are a dozen ducks, all white.After her husband died, she sold all the variegated ducks, but kept these dozen white ducks.She likes ducks in this color.The ducks are very clean, white as snow, like clouds, like suet.All of them have golden-red webs, pale yellow mouths, and eyes as black as ink dots.The ducks are very obedient, following her not far or near, screaming "quack quack".Some ducks were chasing after an earthworm, so she turned around and scolded them: "It's a mess!" Every day, she took the bucket from Sanliu, and then gave the duck to Sanliu, and she went to the small town to sell the loach on Sanliu's behalf.She always gets a good price.According to Sanliu's intention, half of the money should be paid for her to make oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar. She didn't refuse, she smiled, but only used a small amount, and put the rest into an earthen pot for Sanliu saved. Sanliu walked up to her with a mournful face. She arched her eyebrows and smiled. Sanliu picked out some very small loaches and threw them to the ducks. The ducks were already used to eating them. When they saw Sanliu put down the bucket, they would surround them. Very jubilant. "It can be sold for some money." Man said, "You chase the ducks away, the courtyard door is open, the breakfast is in the pot, the mud on the legs has been washed, the shoes are hanging on the fence, and I have dug up the earthworms. In that little black clay pot." After that, he carried the bucket on his arm and went to the town. Her back is so pretty, and she walks beautifully. Sanliu looked around, then drove the ducks up the path.At this time, Sanliu's depression was swept away, and she was in a very happy mood. The innocence, naughtiness and joy of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy came out of this thin body again.He picked up a branch at random and imagined it as a gun, a horse, and a baton, driving ducks all the way, playing and enjoying himself.Walking on the field ridges, climbing the embankment, and walking through the woods is very pleasant. It looks like a rabbit that is good at bouncing and carefree. Often depressed, often depressed, often inferior, at this moment, Sanliu broke them all free. At this moment, Sanliu is a pure boy. Sanliu even closed her eyes, and began to spin around ecstatically.Spinning, spinning, whirling, trying to stand still, he bumped his head against a big tree, his eyes splashed with golden flowers, staggered, and fell to the ground. The ducks were so surprised that they "quacked". On the embankment, Ten Jinzi jumped into the air like a frog, stretched out his arms and cheered: "Aw! Aw! If one falls to death, the radish will burn the meat; if a pair falls to death, the radish will burn the soup!" Sanliu got up, lifted his pants, lowered his head and drove the ducks to a side road... Shijinzi came home feeling unhappy all morning.He went to dig earthworms in someone's vegetable garden, and after digging, the soil was not even level, and he threw it there in a pothole. The owner asked him to level it, but he left without looking back. "See if I will let you dig next time!" The master pointed at his back fiercely. "Please don't come!" He turned around and said back.When piercing earthworms, the sharp awns are often accidentally poked out.He hoped in his heart that Sanliu was right in front of him at this moment, so that he could use sharp words to stimulate Sanliu sentence by sentence.After lunch, he wandered to the brick kiln. Sanliu is not there. Ten Jinzi touched Man's house. Even in early spring, the sun at noon here has some weight.Man took a small wooden basin and called Sanliu to the riverside: "Come here!" Sanliu kept her feet on the ground and slowly rubbed forward. "What are you dawdling about?" Sanliu walked to the river: "The water is cool." "Why is it cold? The river is warm. Take off your jacket." "I don't wash." "You look dirty, you still refuse to wash it. Take off your coat!" Man grabbed Sanliu's arm and dragged him to the edge of the water, "Take off!" Sanliu delayed unbuttoning for a long time. When Shi Jinzi came over, he stood under the fence and looked this way. "Aiya!" Man put down the wooden basin, and took off Sanliu's jacket three times. As soon as Sanliu lowered her head, she felt that her breasts, which were as thin as chicken ribs, were ugly, and it was cold, so she shrank her neck and hugged herself with both arms. Man fetched a basin of water, pulled Sanliu's hands away, and rubbed his body with a towel. Sanliu was shy for a while, and then she stopped being shy. She raised her neck, raised her arms, closed her eyes, and let Man Man wash and manipulate him. Man soaped Sanliu's body once, wiped it off with a towel, then threw away the towel, and rubbed Sanliu's body "creakingly" with her hands. At this time, Sanliu is like a warm and happy baby, obedient. Those warm, soft hands slid over his ribs and caressed his neck. Sanliu felt that the world was silent, only the "creaking" sound was heard.That voice is very crisp, very soft, very listenable.The spring sun shines through the thin translucent eyelids, and the sky is golden red.For a while, he actually forgot that the vine was washing him, and felt himself drifting into the sweet air. Sanliu vaguely remembered that when he was still four years old, his mother carried him into the pond and scrubbed him like this.After his mother fell into the pool and drowned, he never experienced this warm scrub again. Stripes of red appeared on Sanliu's black-yellow skin, followed by patches, and finally, the entire upper body turned red.That color is the color of a baby just out of the mother's womb.The sun's rays pass through the cleansed sweat pores and direct the heat into his body, making him feel that his body is being stretched and injected with strength. Man stopped scrubbing, brushed the hair that fell on his forehead, and sighed slightly. Between Sanliu's tightly closed eyelashes, two teardrops came out. Man changed him into a clean coat, turned around and called the ducks swimming by the river: "Quack quack quack..." The group of white ducks flapped their wings and came ashore, followed Man and Sanliu swayingly to the yard. Ten Jin quickly squatted down... three In the evening, Sanliu came to the field with a card, and Shi Jinzi was already sitting on the ridge of the field. Ten Jinzi squinted one eye, and looked sideways at Sanliu with only one eye, with a meaningful smile on the corner of his mouth. Sanliu's gaze still contained timidity and flattery. What made Sanliu feel strange was that Shi Jinzi only had an empty rope bag in his hand, and none of the cards were missing. The sun went down. Sanliu glanced at Shi Jinzi. Ten Jinzi looked like he was doing nothing. Sanliu couldn't wait any longer, so she rolled up her trousers and went down to the field. "Hey, hey, my card has already been inserted in the field." Ten Jinzi shouted. Sanliu looked suspiciously at the surface of the water where no reed stalks were exposed. Ten Jinzi lazily walked over, walked into the field, rolled his arms, stretched towards the paddy field, pulled out a card, and shook it in front of Sanliu's eyes: "Do you see clearly? I inserted the water card." Sanliu had no choice but to walk up the ridge and into another field. "In that field, I also inserted a boring water card!" Sanliu still looked suspiciously at the surface of the water where no reed stalks were exposed. "Don't believe me?" Ten Jinzi jumped into the field, and pulled out another ka from the water, "Look, what is this? ka!" He went up to the ridge, splashed water to wash the mud off his legs, Said to Sanliu: "A hundred new cards have been added, and I have inserted all the cards in these fields." Sanliu looked at Shijinzi, her eyes were asking: What should I do? Ten Jinzi pointed casually: "There are so many canals, ditches and ponds there." When he walked past Sanliu, he stopped on purpose, and took a good sniff on Sanliu, "The soap smells delicious! Then he winked at Sanliu, turned around and went home. Sanliu was stunned for a while, seeing that it was getting late, she had no choice but to sulking and insert the cards one by one into the ditch on the ground and the pond by the river.In those places, loaches are rare. In fact, Shijinzi is talking nonsense, and there are still several fields that he has not inserted into the card. The next day, Sanliu inserted the card ahead of Shi Jinzi, but still left two fields on the side unplugged. Sanliu didn't dare to anger Shi Jinzi too much.The three willows are all Mingka.In Shi Jinzi's eyes, the vertical reed stalks were a bit airy. "You inserted it?" "I inserted it." "Those two fields are for me?" "For you." Sanliu's answer was firm and unyielding, but her voice trembled slightly like a thread blown by the wind. Shi Jinzi didn't say anything more, and took the card to the two fields that Sanliu had left for him. Sanliu stood up, looked at the water surface he occupied, and left the field tremblingly victorious. Ten Jinzi's voice came from behind him: bride, white nose, Pee to the roof... From night to morning, when San Liu poked water through the cold air and came to the field ridge, the scene in front of him was: all the water in the fields he had stuck in had been drained, and the two hundred reed stalks Long and thin, he stood upright on the mud. Sanliu squatted down, tears rolling down the bridge of her nose. As the morning wind blew, the reed stalks made a "whining" sound, and some of them shook a few times and fell down in the mud. Over there, Shi Jinzi was collecting cards, but he didn't appear arrogant or gloated, instead he restrained himself and remained silent. Sanliu stood up, and suddenly slammed the bucket into the air, the bucket flipped a few somersaults in the air and fell on the field ridge, with a "crash", the petals fell apart. Sanliu wiped away her tears, sniffed her snot, and walked towards Shi Jinzi, like a wounded calf. Ten Jinzi was afraid of Sanliu for the first time, so he walked towards the middle of the field. Sanliu got out of the field and pressed forward.When there were still seven or eight steps away from the ten catties, he rushed over with a "crash, clatter". Ten Jinzi put down the bucket, and turned his body to face Sanliu. Sanliu strangled Shijinzi's collar, looking very ferocious. "let go!" Three willows are not loose. "You let go!" Instead, Sanliu restrained her with both hands. "Are you really not relaxed?" Sanliu pulled harder. "I'll say it again, let go!" Sanliu is not loose. Shijinzi blushed, and stretched out his hands to grab Sanliu's hair. The two entangled at first, and then exerted force. Sanliu was thrown into the muddy water, but her hands were still tightly grasping Shijinzi's collar. Ten Jinzi struggled back, trying to break free. Sanliu was still holding onto her tightly, and was dragged a few meters away in the muddy water by Shi Jinzi. Ten Jinzi lowered his head and panted. Sanliu hung the ten-jin weight with both hands and half-lyed in the muddy water. Two pairs of staring eyes faced each other. After another struggle and fight, Shijinzi finally threw Sanliu away. Sanliu was covered in mud and water, stood up staggeringly, and walked towards Shijinzi resolutely. Ten Jinzi retreated.A ten-pound bucket floated on the water. Sanliu walked over, grabbed the bucket, and threw it into the air. The bucket fell and fell into the water, and the loaches all slipped away. Shijinzi swooped over and pressed Sanliu into the muddy water. Sanliu grabbed the mud and threw it at Shijinzi's face until Shijinzi couldn't see it. At the end of the fight, the two of them were covered in mud, and only two pairs of eyes were left looking at each other unyieldingly. Ten Jinzi withdrew first. Sanliu stood in the field with her legs crossed, motionless like a clay sculpture. Shiman persuaded him to go back. When Shijinzi returned home, his father beat him severely: "I'm not happy to bully people like this!" and was chased away by his father with a stick, "Apologize to Sanliu!" Ten Jinzi had no choice but to walk forward slowly.Knowing that Sanliu must be at Man's house right now, he came straight here. There were weeping in the yard. Sanliu sat on the threshold with her arms around her knees, shrugging and sobbing. Man didn't persuade Sanliu, but sobbed softly beside her.This sobbing sound is weak, but it contains endless bitterness, sorrow and sorrow. Standing outside the courtyard gate, Shi Jinzi lowered his head heavily. The extremely restrained cries of the boy and the young woman merged together, sometimes high and sometimes low, intermittent, just hovering low in this small world under the vast sky. After a while, Man said: "Or, you don't need to insert the card. The duck is about to lay eggs, and the money is enough." Man said again: "Or, I'll talk to Shi Jinzi, Shi Jinzi doesn't look like a bad boy." Ten Jinzi didn't enter the door, and squatted down along the courtyard wall... Four Ten Jinzi quietly dug the canal and filled the dry fields with water, but he pretended that his stomach hurt all day long, and he didn't go to the fields to insert cards for three days in a row. On the fourth day, Shi Jinzi came to the edge of the field again, but he still clutched his stomach from time to time.Both of them were very polite, starting from the easternmost and westernmost fields respectively, and inserting them to the end, leaving the two fields in the middle empty.It was like this for several days in a row.In the end, it was Shijinzi who spoke first: "Let's all insert more sparsely." On this day, the two got together only by a field ridge.Sanliu took out two duck feather tubes of moderate thickness from her bosom and gave them to Shijinzi, saying that they were taken by Mann from her duck and asked to bring them to him for wearing earthworms.Ten Jinzi looked at it and liked it very much. When it comes to using cards to catch loach, Shijinzi is naturally much more experienced than Sanliu.Sitting on the ridge of the field, Shi Jinzi taught Sanliu all these tricks in a eloquent manner: "Earthworms should not be too thick, otherwise they will easily slip off the awns. After wearing earthworms, put them in the sun and let them dry in the sun. On the awn. Insert the card, stir around it twice with your feet, to stir up muddy water, otherwise, Luohan Gouzi (a small fish) will eat earthworms, but loach is not afraid of muddy water. The wind is strong, so follow the wind Insert the stuffy water card. Think about it, the stalk is straight and straight, the wind blows the stalk straight, the thread is shaking in the water, do the loach dare to bite? If the loach is able to burrow into the mud, it gains strength and can break free, but when it hangs in the water, it loses strength..." Sanliu listened very carefully, her eyes flickering. Apart from talking about these secrets, Shijinzi always likes to ask Sanliu about Man.There is one point that neither of them seems to understand: Why do people not want to approach the vine? One day, Sanliu told Shi Jinzi that Man could help them both dig earthworms, and asked Shi Jinzi to take the card and go to her yard to wear earthworms. Although Ten Jinzi was a little embarrassed, he was very willing. In this way, Shijinzi spent most of the day at Man's house with Sanliu. Man's face became more rosy, and his eyes became more vivid.She talked and laughed with the two children and participated directly in their labor.She has endless benefits for the two children to enjoy: for a while, she gave each of them a fresh and tender reed root as white as ivory, and for a while she gave them a handful of shiny red water chestnuts.In addition to raising her flock of white ducks, Man focused all her attention on the two children who caught loach. The courtyard is warm and charming. The adults watched with great interest the two children coming and going in and out of the yard. "Do you call her Aunt or Sister?" Ten Jinzi quietly asked Sanliu. Sanliu hadn't thought about this question yet, and was very confused: "I don't know either." It's getting warmer, the paddy fields have been filled with water, and crops are about to be planted. Ten Jinzi and Sanliu can't be plugged in. However, whenever I have time, I still come to the vine's yard to play. Around the end of autumn, Sanliu came to tell Shi Jinzi, "She's leaving with a man far away." "What about you?" "She's taking me away." "Are you going?" "I don't like that guy. He's too rich, but he likes me." "Then you go with her." "..." "Do you call her Aunt or Sister?" Sanliu still couldn't tell. The night before Sanliu left, she brought all his two hundred cards: "She asked to leave the cards to you." Naka's stalks are bright red after one summer and one autumn. "Give it to you." Sanliu sent the card in front of Shijinzi with both hands. The ten jinzi also caught it with both hands. The two looked at each other silently, and their eyes became wet. On the day Man and Sanliu set out on the road, Ten Jinzi sent them far, far away... At the end of the winter of the second year, Shi Jinzi came to the field with four hundred cards.Sanliu is gone forever, and all the paddy fields belong to him.When he inserted the card, his heart was empty.When the card was collected the next morning, there was no sound in the sky, only the monotonous sound of water that he made alone.The water was so cold, and there was a vast expanse of white everywhere, and there was no trace of life around.Ten Jinzi suddenly felt very lonely. He only collected half of the cards, and then stopped accepting them. Since then, he has washed the collected cards and hung them on the roof beams forever. As a result, the fields in between were empty. Room 106, 21st Floor, Peking University, May 20, 1990