Chapter 6 fish

July night.Halfway up the mountain in Huashanzhai, the drums have been played in the Tianwang Temple. Fishers along the Wuji River carry baskets and knives on their backs, and each of them holds a torch. all.There are women in the middle who are screaming sharply, like the sound of a bitch barking in the mountains at night.There was silence amidst the bustle, and everyone heard the bursting of the torches in everyone's hands.It seems that everyone wants to shorten the time from the hustle and bustle, and everything is in place, just waiting for the medicine to be released. Everyone made an estimate in their hearts, urged the time, and looked forward to the arrival of that time.When it arrived, five miles upstream, the drug dispensers fired notification cannons, beat gongs, turned the boat over at the mouth of the beach, and everyone swam ashore.All the poisonous fish medicines synthesized by lime, spicy Polygonum, and dried oil on the small boats sank into the water, melted with the water, and all the fish and shrimps in the river downstream were doomed. The surface of the water flowed down into the hands of people.

It was still early when I went to the son, and I took the responsibility, and the ship sank upstream. It was two brothers.This brother is a descendant of a well-known clan in Huashan Village.There, there are two extremely strong clans, the big clan belonging to the Gan family, and the small clan belonging to the Wu family.Because the small clan is small, they compete for survival, and their children are as strong as a tiger like a leopard.In the big clan, there are good women and rich men in the clan, and there are more people who can read and write in the clan than those who wield knives and sticks.Like any race in the world, the two races have for a very long time been feuded over trifles, and until very recently there have been fights at every opportunity.

In the past era, this hatred, the legend has come to this.The two parties gathered an equal number of people, and they bled each other innocently in Tianping. The men fought forward, and the women stood on the mountain to cheer and cheer.When they clashed, the sticks fell, the golden drums sounded, the weak were killed by heavy blows, the victors wrapped their heads with scarves stained with red blood, and the spears were pierced with human heads, and they sang home, drinking with human livers, This is especially common.The most naive thing is for everyone to bring back the captured prisoners alive, kill them like a pig, wash and scrape them, cut them into cubes, add oil, salt and spices, put the civil and military fire in a large pot, carry them to the field, and play small gongs by one person. Shouting "Eat meat, eat meat, one hundred dollars".Any stupid man who doesn't know the accident and wants to taste human flesh will get a hundred dollars if he comes to try a piece.But what is even better is that someone at the other end of the room is shouting like this, or even adding money to two hundred coins.In addition to meat eaters, there are probably people who criticize the saltiness of the fire.This matter is of course a story these days.

Recently, due to local progress, all barbaric habits have disappeared. Although sometimes it is still unavoidable that one or two people will use the excuse of fighting with weapons to gather crowds to plunder cattle and sheep. Gan's surname lives on the left side of the river, and Wu's surname lives on the right side of the river. Recently, things like fish poisoning in the river have been done through cooperation between the two clans. But the only purpose of it is to catch big fish in the water, and I don't think of it for other purposes.The brother's surname is Wu, they are twins, they look like one person, and each wears a treasured sword beside him. This treasured sword was originally a family heirloom, when his father was discouraged, when he gave the brother this sword, he also gave a word of advice, saying: This should shed the blood of the seventh faction of the Gan surname who once shed your grandfather's blood.After saying this, the father died.However, after this brother visited various places, none of the clan members of this generation with the surname Gan existed, only one daughter was washed away by the water in a flood. Things like chopping wild boar while hunting fish or hunting went up.

After a long time, this matter was gradually forgotten in the minds of the twin brothers. Tonight, they propped the boat to the place where it should have sunk, and it was just after dark.The place is a barren beach. It is said that two hundred years ago in this place, the Gan and Wu surnames gathered more than 500 strong men on the bank of the river and fought once. The result of this battle was that both sides died, and no man survived .Because of the excessive bleeding, the stones on both sides of the place were brown, as if stained with human blood.This matter does not seem to belong to all the legends, because there are still stone plaques published by the magistrate on the shore.Because of such a story, no one lives in this place, but because the boats must pass by, there was a temple decades ago. With the temple, people who sail through this place at night will not feel guilty.The temple is on the top of the mountain by the shore, and an old monk lives there. Because the mountain is also desolate, it seems that very few people go to the temple to burn incense.

The two brothers pushed the boat to the foot of the beach and looked at the sky. It was still early, and there were still five sets of timing incense burning. The ×× star hasn’t come out yet.” "Then let's drink." The boat originally brought a large gourd of wine, a leg of wild mutton, and a pack of dried beans. The younger brother is ready to fetch wine.These things, together with the two big firecrackers, were all put in a basket covered with the copper gong. brother said: "Don't be busy, it's still early, let's go play." "Okay. Let's go play and fix the rope with stones."

To play, there is one mile to the upper beach, and one mile to the lower beach. Many people are waiting for the poisoned fish floating on the water to come down.It's no fun going down, and it's just getting the boat up from there.However, going up, after finishing the barren beach, you have to turn over a small ridge, or walk along the river, and make a big bend, before you can reach the houses where you can buy wine and snacks. My elder brother agreed to go ashore to play, go to the mountain, and visit the temple, because he knew that if he walked vertically at this time, and arrived at the place where the goods were sold, the person who sold the goods might have been two or three miles downstream to wait for fishing.The younger brother said no, because there was a water mill on it, and there were acquaintances in the mill to talk to.On the one hand, he was afraid that his acquaintances would not know about the fish poisoning downstream today, so he wanted to invite acquaintances to come along and chat on the boat. After the boat sank, they lifted the boat together and sat downriver to enjoy the fun.His knife had been wiped extremely sharp in the past few days, and it was the duty of this young man and the knife to chop down the biggest fish in the river.No matter what, the two had already jumped onto the dry beach by the river.

brother said: "Go to the temple to see the monk. I have been there three years ago." "I want to grind the house," the younger brother said. He saw the stars and the moon in the sky at the same time, and couldn't help shouting loudly: "Good weather!" The weather was really good, and my elder brother was overwhelmed by the scenery, trotting back and forth on the rocky beach like a pony. At this time, the sky is cloudless, the sky is dark blue, the stars and the moon are embedded in the sky like precious stones, fireflies flickering by the water are like lights guiding the way of immortals, and crickets on the barren beach are chirping in twos and threes, making people imagine that the hero is alone. The scene of wandering and strutting in the gaps between the big rocks, crying loudly for the distress of love, is awe-inspiring.

The younger brother remembered that he forgot to bring his flute because of the sound of crickets. "If brother has a flute, we can sing." The elder brother kept running, and suddenly listened intently, and heard the sound of the wooden fish on the mountain. "Go up the mountain to see that monk, and you are still chanting scriptures at this time!" The younger brother didn't agree, he was thinking of the ghosts under the moon, but as usual, the younger brother followed his elder brother for everything. The elder brother had already walked up the mountain, and the younger brother followed behind.

people walking.The moon's light shines on the beach, but one side of the boulder is not covered by the moonlight, as if hiding a ghost.The water worms were flying around under the moonlight, fluttering their wings and making a soft sound, and when they flew over their heads, it looked like there were little fairies riding on the backs of worms.There is often a kind of fragrance that comes from no reason in the nose, and the sound of the beach water in the distance is just like a mother closing her eyes and singing a song to comfort her son to sleep.The earth is sleeping, and people are all like a dream at this time.

"Brother, be careful of snakes." As the younger brother said, he pulled out a knife from his waist. "Are men afraid of snakes?" said the elder brother, still walking forward dignifiedly. On the high bank, people are already thirty feet away from the boat.Seeing the boat in the moonlight, a boat of black poisonous fish material looks like a buffalo.The boat is swaying gently in the sparkling waves, as if it is very sensible, if there is no tether, it seems that it will automatically play games in the water.I saw Pinggang in the distance across the river, bathed in moonlight, a smear of gray.There is a layer of white mist floating on the water surface in the distance downstream, like evaporated milk, and there is still a fire in the mist, one o'clock and two o'clock. They did not move on the shore, and my brother remembered the old things. "Five hundred men from our clan died here. Five hundred of them also died." Having said this, the elder brother drew the knife out of its sheath in a hurry, and chopped down the small tree beside the road. With a loud noise, many branches were cut off, and the younger brother followed suit.Brother waved the knife and said, "Do you remember what Dad said when he passed by? Our knife is sharpened for the blood of the enemy. As long as I meet this enemy one day, I think this knife will drink This person's blood. But I heard people say that the fireworks of Chaozi generation are really gone, and we can't avenge our revenge. This knife is really wronged, and now it is used like this, only to chop fish in the water and pigs on the mountain." "Brother, let's go up and go." "Okay, let's go up, I'll be the first." The two brothers walked to the top of the mountain from a very small and uneven road. They slowly kicked over some stones, and then walked through some grass. The closer they walked, the closer they were to the mountain temple, and the farther they were from the river.The two brothers paused for a while halfway up the mountain, and looked back down the mountain. Everything down the mountain was like a scene in a dream.When walking up the mountain, sometimes I suddenly heard the sound of the wooden fish getting closer, and sometimes I felt that it was getting farther away.When I reached the mountainside, I paused and calmed down for a while, and then I could clearly hear the sound of chanting scriptures besides the sound of the wooden fish.After a short pause, the two brothers walked up again. The elder brother chopped the knife to the left and right, as if in a dangerous place, talking to the younger brother while walking. "..." They arrived at the gate of the mountain temple. In front of the quiet temple gate, there was still a dim light like a bean in the small stone house on the land of the mountain god.The moonlight sprinkled all over the place, and there was a wide flat with stone slabs and stone tables and chairs for people to sit on.The monk seemed unconscious, the sound of the wooden fish came from the temple, and the younger brother was unwilling to knock on the door. "Brother, don't make noise with others." Saying so, he sat down on the stone bench.Moreover, the knife was also placed on the stone table, and at the same time, he saw some grass flowers, which seemed to have been picked by someone not long ago and scattered there.The younger brother was surprised, because he thought this was definitely not something the monks in the temple did.The young man had many things in mind, so he picked up the flowers and showed them to his brother. "Brother, someone is here!" "That's not surprising. Young people who chop wood will come here to burn incense and pray to God, hoping to win a woman's heart from God." "I think so. I think it's a woman's legacy." "That's it. This flower is also very common." "But what if this is the most beautiful woman in the Gan clan?" "It's bordering on a joke." "Since it can be guessed that it was left by a woman, it can also be said that it was left by a beautiful woman. I will take it back." "Only children do this kind of thing. You are young, so you can take it if you want, but don't worry about it. A smart person often makes himself unhappy." "Could it be that the monk hides..." The younger brother who said such words suddenly restrained himself, because the wooden fish's voice became urgent, as if it was the last chapter of the sutra.That elder brother danced the knife under the moonlight in Pingzhong, performing all kinds of graceful postures of stabbing and chopping. His heart was only moving back and forth in the wind of the knife.As for the younger brother, he picked up the wild osmanthus and wild chrysanthemum that was half emaciated and threw it on the stone table, and hid it in the suede belly. At this time, he only imagined irresponsibly that this was a flower left by a woman.According to the customs of Wujihehua cottage, the flowers left by a woman are picked up by a strange man, and the man can further make friends with the woman and sing, and win the woman's heart.This young man still doesn't understand what women are, but because all women's voices, colors, and shapes tend to be soft, a curious desire makes him crazy about women, and now he is using this flower as a basis to draw The idol of woman is set in the heart. This child usually likes to play the flute and sing, but when he came to the top of the mountain, the bright moon and the breeze made him feel misty, first he would not let his elder brother slap the mountain gate, for fear of disturbing the monk's homework, but at this time, he couldn't help himself, gently He sang the folk songs. He used the rhyme of Hua Shanzhai language, and sang the following meaning: You white-faced and kind-hearted woman, don’t forget to bring a bunch of flowers in your dreams, because there are also men who dream in this world. You can give flowers to the unprovoked dream when they are together. After singing a section, the wind blew slightly on my face, and my face seemed to be rubbed by little hands, and then I sang again: The soft wind rubbed my face, and I seemed to be standing at the gate of heaven——At this time, I am waiting for you to open the door, Regardless of the day, I'm not too late. Out of their expectation, the small corner door next to the mountain gate suddenly opened suddenly, and the monk called to inform, saying: "I'm sorry, I was alarmed." When the elder brother saw the monk coming out, he also said: "I'm sorry, Master, I disturbed Master in the middle of the night." The monk said "Where is that?" and walked to the younger brother.This monk is wearing a short monk's uniform, with big head and broad shoulders. Although he is old and energetic, he is just like the good monk described in the novel.Seeing that the two brothers had knives, they asked, "Are they from the Ninth Clan?" The elder brother respectfully said: "Yes, it belongs to the Zongzi generation." "That's Mr. XX's son." "I'm ashamed, the useless brother insulted the surname Wu of the Ninth Clan." "It's been a long time since Mr. ××." "Yes. The master is familiar with my father." "Yes. We also..." The monk remembered something and didn't speak again. He looked carefully at the brother's face under the moonlight, while being silent in a memory. The elder brother said, "I went to this temple once four years ago, and I didn't talk to the master." The monk nodded.The monk was originally thinking of another matter, but when he heard what the man said, he nodded casually to cover up his thoughts.When he saw the knife, he was full of praise, saying it was really a precious knife.The younger brother showed him the knife, he held the knife in his hand, and waved it slightly, but it was whizzing, and the cold light was everywhere.The younger brother caressed his palm innocently: "Master is very clever, very clever." When the monk heard this, he still put the knife on the stone table, and sat down on a stone bench himself.The monk smiled and said, "The two young men each bring such a good knife. Why are you here today?" brother said: "Because the poisonous fish in the village sent us to pour the medicine by boat." "All living beings are in eons, Amitabha." "We heard the sound of wooden fish at the bottom of the beach, so we thought of going up the mountain to have a look. When we got here, I was afraid that it would hinder the master's evening class, so we played in front of the door." "I heard you singing, first of all it's very strange, because no one will come here at night. Who sang this song, it's great, who is the elder brother? I only heard people say that Mr. X has passed A pair of twins." "Can't Master see?" The elder brother was talking and laughing, and the funny old monk pointed at him: "You are the eldest brother, for sure. Then this is the one who sings." The younger brother was appointed, so he said shyly: "It's a ridiculous thing, I heard it for the master." "It doesn't matter, the master has heard a lot, and he didn't stop listening. He did this kind of thing when he was young. After some days. You said the gate of heaven, but unfortunately there is only one temple gate here. Apart from the Bodhisattva, there are only old monks in the temple. .But since you are here, please come in. Take a look at this temple and drink a cup of honey tea, the weather is still very early." The brother could not refuse, so he accompanied the monk into the temple through the small corner gate. Once inside, there was a small courtyard with a trellis covered by pumpkin vines, henna flowers, fish tanks and tall incense burners, and the moonlight filled the courtyard. The scenery is beautiful.They stood briefly in the courtyard, the younger brother was just here and was finishing singing, the mood was as poetic as this place, so he said: "It's such a good place, I didn't expect it to be so good!" "It's a matter there. The place is small, so it's not too dirty. I'm here alone, and I have nothing to do to plant some flowers and plants. The pumpkins are doing well this year. You see, without a shelf, I'm afraid they will all collapse." The monk showed the pumpkins to look at, and after arriving, several people entered the Buddhist hall. The master’s residence was on the left side of the Buddhist hall. They went to the Zen room, sat on the big rough wooden chairs, and drank the honey tea specially made by the monk. . We talked for a while.Taking Wuji River as the center, many stories about the past of the two clans were discussed, some of which were unknown to the two young people, and some were not so clear even though they knew it, and the two young people were very satisfied.Moreover, from the side of the monk, he also vaguely knew that the so-called Chaozi generation Gan clan still existed.The brothers kept all this in their hearts, without saying a word.After they arrived, they talked about the women along the Wuji River... The monk knew too much, just as he knew too much, so he became a monk. When the two brothers got up to say goodbye to the monk, they made a final appointment.The two young men went down the mountain one after the other, and within a short while they reached the high bank near the river. The moonlight is like silver, and everything looks beautiful and peaceful.The scenery turned desolate due to the silence of the night, when dew was falling from the sky.The younger brother whistled softly and followed behind his elder brother.They got off the high bank and landed on the dry beach, deliberately jumping from one rock to another, and soon came to the side of the boat. The younger brother went to the boat to fetch wine and meat. He touched the gong that was already condensed with dew, and wondered whether the timing incense was still burning.Going over to see that there are still three turns left on a mark that has gone out, the younger brother said to the elder brother on the shore: "The incense is gone, and there are still three plates left. I don't know when it will go out?" "Then look at the stars. The sister star appears from the north. It's the third watch. Look, it's still early!" "There seems to be wind in the far sky." "It doesn't matter, the wind is from the south, and the cloud is from the east, it doesn't matter." "Look, the stars are all in the eyes!" "Yes, it doesn't matter." Elder Brother also approached the side of the boat while talking, holding a pole on the bow of the boat with his hand, swinging it, and said: "Drink on the boat, it's easy to sit on." The younger brother disagreed. After all, this man was more innocent in his heart. He wanted to drink the wine on the big rocks on the river beach, because it was more interesting than in the boat.Naturally, he still won the matter. While they were drinking on the rock, they drew their knives and cut the musk meat to eat. The elder brother lifted the wine gourd upside down, and poured it into his belly with his mouth connected to the mouth of the gourd. The weather suddenly changed.Before the two had finished drinking a bottle of gourd wine, they first saw the small cloud in the east, and it was getting wider and wider, and there were more and more stars flickering. "The weather is bad, what should I do?" "We shall wait here. I think it will never rain in the middle of the night." "I'm afraid there is no star, and I can't tell the time." "Then there is a rooster crowing. When the rooster crows at three o'clock, pour medicine into the water." "I'm afraid of the rain." "If it rains, it will always be dawn. At this time, it should be about to turn to the third watch." "..." "how?" "I think if it's raining, it's better to go down by boat and sue them, so as not to save the water from flooding and waste the medicine on the boat." "Look, where does it rain here? Look at the moon, it's so bright." The elder brother looked up at the moon in a daze, and after a while, he suddenly said: "The monk on the mountain is not bad, he said he knows our enemy, and he also knows my father." "Why did we forget to ask his common name?" "Then he can say whatever he wants." "He also talked and sang. That monk didn't know what bad things he did when he was young. At this age, when he became a monk, he still pays attention to these things!" ... Taking the monk as the center, talking about the later, the gourd wine was finished, and the leg of wild lamb was also finished.When there was only a pile of beans left, a rooster crowed somewhere in the distance. If the rooster only crows once, it is still unreliable. It should be crowed back and forth and passed on to each other.The sound of the rooster, first in one place, echoed in distant places. The elder brother searched for the sister star among the northern constellations in the sky, but he has not seen the star yet.The younger brother said: "Fortunately, the weather is still good tonight. The rooster is crowing, let's fire the gun." "No, it's still early, and the stars haven't come out yet!" "Isn't it good to push the boat into the river?" "The stars haven't come out yet, but the stars will come out then." The younger brother, although he heard what his elder brother said, he had run out of wine and meat, and there was no reason to sit on the rock, so he jumped off the rock and ran to the side of the boat. He looked at the flowing water for a while, then raised his head to look at the stars in the sky. By this time the wind had died down.The sound of wooden fish on the mountain has also disappeared.Although the sound of the chickens in the distance and the insects on the nearby wasteland never stopped for a moment, it did not appear that the world was awake.All the scenes can only be said to be dreamlike and unreal, which seems to be one or two, and other descriptions are almost superfluous. After a while, the two took off their clothes, put everything on the dry place on the beach, and slowly rolled the boat into the river naked.The boat should prop up to the urgent place at the mouth of the beach, and the younger brother will go into the water first, push the stern forward, swim in the long pool, pat the water with his feet, and the waves behind him are like silver under the moonlight. Not long after, the people downstream heard the sound of cannons. The torches had already been extinguished, so they were all lit again, and the torches were shining for several miles along the river. Everyone shouted in low voices, as if they were going to the enemy. Sister Star just found out.About an hour later, the Wu family brothers were already knee-deep in the lower reaches of the Wuji River, chopping up fish with their knives.That elder brother, as brave as a warrior in the past, brandished a knife under the moonlight to slash at the water snake drunk with medicine, and it seemed that he had also avenged himself.The younger brother was preoccupied with other things, without any success. About revenge, about women's love, it's not about tonight, tonight is "fishing".There were really many lucky people that night, and before dawn, they got a lot of fish and went home, which surprised the family members with joy.The younger man of the Wu family, he only has a bunch of haggard flowers. In the Wuji River where the drug was used, until the next day, there were still children picking up fish and shrimp in the shallows.This happens once a year, like rowing a dragon boat during a festival. written in 1929