Chapter 74 The Six Encounters Between My Fifth Uncle and I (Beginning)

Uncle Wu and I actually met more than six times. The fifth uncle, surnamed Zhang and named Zhigao, is my uncle's younger brother, a relative who can barely get along.The village of my uncle’s family is more than ten miles away from our village, which is also in Damahechuan.A simple road in Sichuan leads from the county town to Chuanzhang.Both our village and my uncle's village are by the road.When I was young, I often went to my uncle's house with my mother to visit relatives.However, there were no roads at that time, and we went to Zhangjiabao along the uneven stone path beside the Dama River.At that time, I knew Zhang Zhigao.He ranks fifth among my uncle's brothers, so I call him fifth uncle.At that time, I remember that Uncle Wu often wore a tattered yellow military uniform, with an old belt around his waist, and the broken parts of the belt were tied with hemp rope. He was tall and tall, although he was young, his mustache had begun to take shape.At that time, most people in the village were bald. In order to keep cool and save grooming, they generally did not keep their hair.But Uncle Wu is unique. He keeps his hair parted like the people in the city, but it is usually rusted by dust like a dirty felt piece; Looking at the mirror, he carefully divided his hair into two, and a white seam appeared in the middle.

Uncle Wu has great strength, loves to talk, laugh, sing, and even fiddle with musical instruments.In the field, on the crop field, he often wrestled with others, and there were almost no opponents in the village.I heard from people in my husband’s village that Uncle Wu was a soldier, only because the army was going to the south. He heard that the weather there was extremely hot, and the people there spoke as badly as foreigners, so he reported his demobilization. Come home.It is said that if he does not come back, he may have already been promoted to an officer. Uncle Wu was illiterate, but he heard that he had already joined the party in the army. This alone could not but make people respect him.At that time, most of the party members in the countryside were old men. It was not easy for him to "be in the party" at such a young age!

When my fifth uncle went out to work in the mountains, he would often fasten a plum flute to the rotten belt around his waist, and would play it a few times when he was resting.Sometimes when carrying things on the back, the plum flute is stuck in the collar, like a sign of something. Generally speaking, people like him in rural areas often hang out for a few days, have a little knowledge, and don't like labor very much. in the bed. But Uncle Wu doesn't have these problems.He loves to work, and he also loves to help the people in the village.Whenever there is a group event, he always runs to help everyone, so everyone in the village likes him.Perhaps because of these reasons, everyone later supported him as the party secretary of the Zhangjiabao Brigade.When I was young, every time I went to my uncle's house, I always liked to hang out with my fifth uncle.At that time, Uncle Wu had not yet married and was single, so his attitude towards children was not as arrogant as adults with families.I sometimes went to farm with him, or cut firewood with him, and many times I ate the papaya he picked for me from the cliff.I remember we also partnered together to steal a watermelon from an old man in a neighboring village.After we ate the stolen watermelon in a river channel under the moonlight, Uncle Wu suddenly felt guilty and said that he shouldn't eat other people's food for free.He fumbled in his pocket, as if he was looking for money, but he didn't seem to have any money with him, so he led me to his private plot to break off a dozen ears of tender corn, then turned back to the old man's watermelon field in the neighboring village, secretly put them in Under the vines of the watermelon.This incident has remained long in my memory.

And what I remember most clearly is that whenever we came back home in the evening, Uncle Wu would pick up his beloved three-stringed sanxian, sit in the middle of a pile of rotten firewood by his door, and play jingling jingling. Stop and play until the sun goes down behind the big mountains of our village to the west.At this time, I would lie beside him with the old yellow dog he fed, quietly listening to his intoxicated plucking... Time flies by with the life of childhood.Thirty years have passed since I left.Some people and things in childhood have been gradually blurred by the complicated life experiences in the future.

After I grew up, I was admitted to a university. After graduation, I worked as a reporter for the provincial newspaper. Because I covered the industrial sector, I often traveled around the city. In addition, I became a family, and the number of times I went back to my hometown was limited.Even if I go back, I seldom visit relatives at my uncle's house because of my busy schedule.As for Zhang Zhigao—my fifth uncle, I heard from my father that he became the secretary of the Zhangjiabao brigade in the early years, but I haven’t seen him for many years; in my memory, he belongs to those who have been It's just an acquaintance I forgot from a long time ago.However, in the past few years, due to various reasons, I had the opportunity to meet this acquaintance from my early years several times.The same meeting can be said to be extraordinary, and the change of Uncle Wu also left a deep impression on me.

Now let me record the circumstances of these encounters with Uncle Wu, not in order.These things may be too plain to constitute a novel, but I always feel that there is something interesting in them.