Chapter 32 Short Story The Mosquito and the Folk Song

It's time for me to visit my third uncle again.The third uncle belongs to that kind of simple old man. In the field, I saw his dark blue sweatshirt from a long distance away.He stood on the field and washed the mud off his feet, and led me home.As usual, men, women and children in the village walked over without saying hello when they saw him.Everyone in our village has serious concerns. The third uncle's appearance is a little old, a little sad, and his steps are not as crisp as before, a little sloppy.Walking with me, his old problem relapsed again, and he held me back with an unnatural expression, asking me to listen to a voice coming from the other side of the mountain.At times like this, I was often completely unsure of my own judgment, and coyly couldn't explain why, so Third Uncle got angry and left on his own.After walking for a while, he forgot to be angry again, and asked me to listen again, but I listened for a long time without any result.In this way, both of them came home with resentment.

The third uncle's house is so simple that it is chilling. It is a tile-roofed house at the foot of the mountain, using the hillside as a wall, like an old man leaning on the side of the slope to linger on his last breath.There is a large coal-fired stove in the room, which takes up one-third of the room. Next to the stove is a large storage cabinet, which is used as the third uncle's bed at night. As soon as I entered the room, my third uncle took out a small copper pot from the cupboard to make tea for me.The tea simmered on the fire for some time, and then poured into large mugs, the brown liquid had a choking aroma.I frowned and drank it, and heard my third uncle say beside me:

"Wu Shi tea can cure all diseases." I don't need to cure all diseases, I put it down after taking a sip, and don't drink anymore.Uncle San was very upset again. After a while, there was a sound outside the door, and a faint smile appeared on the third uncle's face, and the rough old skin softened a lot.He lowered his eyelids and waited. It was Ah Wei who came in.Murakami's bum, a well-known scoundrel in this area.I never understood the relationship between Uncle San and him.With the solemnity and sophistication of the third uncle, there is no doubt that he should stay away from this kind of talent, but they have a close relationship.

As soon as Ah Wei sat down by the stove, he picked up the copper pot and poured tea to drink, and drank a big cup with his neck back.He also slapped my thigh hard with his dirty hand, telling me not to "play nice".I sat a little further away from him in disgust, and he moved closer to him. "Ah Wei, have you checked your mood today?" Third Uncle asked. "I checked. I feel that I am getting more and more disgusted with you. You walked in front of me this morning, and I almost dug at you with a hoe. If you do that, it will be a good show." Ah Wei replied solemnly.

"He's so frank, isn't he?" The third uncle turned completely to me, staring at me. I can't understand them. "Third Uncle, it's time to cut the amaranth in the field, and I'll help you cut it right away." Awei got up while talking, and went out with a basket. The door was closed, and in the dark room, only a handful of light from the skylight fell on the stove.I was a little restless, and I was going to find an excuse to slip away.In the storage cabinet I was sitting in, there was a sound of paws on the wood. It was the black cat practicing its claws in it, and the sound was like scratching on my ass.Peeking at third uncle, his face has become numb.Suddenly, Ah Wei's voice came from the field ahead, singing a folk song. The singing was melancholy, desolate, and intermittent. I never knew that Ah Wei could sing, so I couldn't help but be dumbfounded.Ah Wei sang several songs, but his voice gradually faded away and finally disappeared.Obviously, the third uncle is also listening, but he is so calm that others can't see it. Face to face in silence, I remembered the past.

I was about five or six years old at the time, and I always liked to follow my third uncle into the mountains to collect firewood.After entering the mountain, the third uncle asked me to sit on a tree stump that had been cut down and waited for him, and then he disappeared into the woods.The time of this trip may be long or short, as short as half an hour, and as long as waiting from morning to afternoon.How can I spend such a long time?Besides, aren't you afraid?So I learned to find things to do.Those long hours left me scratching my head.It was then that I began to appreciate the charm of the third uncle.About every hour or so, I can always hear the hoarse folk singing of my third uncle. It was because he purposely went around to chop firewood nearby to reassure me.The strange thing is that he is not worried that I will be in danger at all, he is very confident.In retrospect, the folk songs of the third uncle are somewhat similar to those sung by Ah Wei today.Is Ah Wei singing to reassure Third Uncle?Could it be that third uncle is as scared as I used to be?I thought of this and peeked at him again, he sat upright motionless, obviously fearless.I can't understand how there are people like Uncle San in the world, maybe there are fewer and fewer people like this.Childhood memories are always indelible.After the third uncle hit the firewood, he went out of the mountain with me.He has a habit of always looking back after picking firewood out of the mountains, and sometimes he puts down his burden and listens attentively, saying things like "you have to be careful when you get old". It is completely different from his performance in the mountains.It can be seen that the third uncle always has something he is afraid of.I had been away from the village for many years, during which time Ah Wei took my place in the third uncle's life.According to the third uncle, Ah Wei couldn't get along in the village at that time, and his old mother lived in his sister-in-law's house, and it became a problem for him to eat by himself.One night, Ah Wei didn't eat anything, and was so hungry that he fainted, and broke into the third uncle's house. Since then, he has become a frequent visitor to the third uncle's house.When I first returned to the village, I tried to restore the old relationship with my third uncle, but later I found that it was no longer possible. With Ah Wei in the middle, I always felt that the words did not express the meaning, but the two of them always understood each other.At first I was jealous of Ah Wei, but later I realized that Uncle San only valued him, so I gave up.Now the relationship between Uncle San and me has become delicate. I visit him every few days. He comes when I come and goes when I go. He never asks me questions or cares about my affairs.Sometimes when I mentioned the time when I was with him when I was young, he said that I used to love to "make trouble" for him, and one sentence knocked down my interest.However, I always remember the long wait in the woods, the movement of the shadows cast by the sun between the tree gaps, the torment, terror, isolation and helplessness when disappointment and hope alternate, and the surprise and relaxation that finally arrived, all of which are unforgettable.The third uncle used folk songs to divide my time into sections, probably because he took pity on my youth and ignorance.As time goes by, have I changed or has he changed?The third uncle stopped going to the mountains to collect firewood a long time ago, and now he just needs to get some firewood to start the fire, because the village has long since switched to burning coal.I never heard him sing a folk song after I came back.Another thing that happened to the third uncle was that his memory was getting worse and worse. He often forgot to water the vegetable fields and fertilize the crops. He was a lonely old man and no one reminded him. The consequences could be imagined And know.He now especially likes to do one kind of unnecessary activity, which is to fight against mosquitoes at night.Uncle San is very sensitive to mosquitoes, but he sleeps without hanging a mosquito net.The third uncle has very good eyesight. Once he woke up from being bitten, he would get up and slap the mosquitoes with his palm. He would count them and write them down in a small book. Mosquitoes.I've seen him chasing mosquitoes, he was really excited, not at all like a seventy-year-old man.There were some water puddles in front and back of his house, especially for mosquitoes. I advised him to fill them up. He sneered slightly and said, "What do you know?" It made me depressed for a long time.Evening is the time when mosquitoes are active. If you go to the third uncle’s house at this time, you can hear him slapping his palms from afar, and when you come closer, you can see his hands covered with blood.He said mockingly, "I'm a little thinner, and the blood probably smells good." Every year, he would suffer from malaria, and the appearance of the disease was horrible, and the course of the disease was very long.Once I thought he was going to die, and Ah Wei also thought he couldn't make it through, but the next morning we saw him crawling to the ground to drink water from the cat bowl, because we drank all the water we poured for him the night before .In the afternoon, he gradually got better, and after three or four days he could stagger out of the door.Before he knew it, the third uncle was seventy years old, and he cherished his life even more as if he hadn't lived enough.When I thought of this, the black cat came out of a hole in the lid of the cabinet where I was sitting, jumped over the teapot, and knocked Uncle's teacup to the ground, breaking the cup into several pieces.

While bending over to scan the tiles, Third Uncle finally spoke: "What else do you want to know?" "Is there any danger in the forest?" I asked. "Probably." "Are you not afraid? Are you leaving me alone?" "How can you not be afraid? You silly boy." When I came out of my third uncle's house, I was a little lost.I always felt that it was getting dark, so I walked around as if in a daze.As I was walking, I suddenly heard singing from the mountains. It was Ah Wei who was singing, but it could never be Ah Wei. He was still in the vegetable field just now, and even if he had scud, he would never be able to fly there all at once. I went to the mountains.A gust of wind brought the singing voice over. It was indeed Ah Wei. Could it be that there is such a similar voice?When guessing like this, I saw Ah Wei sitting on the threshold of his house teasing the black rooster, with a look of anger on his face.If you want to listen again, you won't hear anything.Ah Wei's mother came out, picked up a bamboo pole, and rushed at Ah Wei, hitting the threshold heavily, making a "Dang!" sound, and Ah Wei had already disappeared without a trace.The old woman squatted on the ground, silently wiping away her tears.I quickly escaped from this scene.

It turned out that the third uncle had expected danger in the forest!This discovery is so important to me.He is just like everyone else, just an ordinary old farmer. Where did he get that premonition?I remembered that people said that he was brought to the village by one of his aunts, but the aunt left soon after her arrival, leaving Third Uncle in the village.At that time, the third uncle was extremely thin. Everyone said that he would not grow up, but of course everyone was wrong.What was the situation like before the third uncle came to the village?I couldn't ask a definite answer, no matter from himself or from others.My relationship with my third uncle was very early. I was only five years old at the time. One morning, I was fishing for shrimps by the stream by myself. The tall and thin shadow of my third uncle casted in the water and said on my head: "Hey Little guy, do you want to go into the mountains together?" I jumped up and walked with him.That relationship went on for years.What is it about Uncle San that attracts me?He was taciturn, and the walk into the forest was long and lonely, and when he left me to collect wood, the time was even harder.But I still follow him into the mountains again and again, sometimes just can't wait.I have heard wolves howling and seen wild boars in the distance.The time I saw the wild boar, I was so scared that I fainted, or maybe I fainted on purpose, I was so scared at the time, I thought I was going to die.When I woke up, I heard my third uncle singing nearby, but the wild boar had disappeared.I always suspected that it was just my hallucination, hallucination of extreme tension.At that time, I told my third uncle about the wild boar, and my third uncle thought about it for a long time, and finally left without saying anything.I left the village when I was fifteen, with a strong sense of boredom.Before that, I had not been with my third uncle to go to the mountains to collect firewood for a few years. Of course, we still had close contacts. I went to help him in his vegetable garden when I had nothing to do, just like Ah Wei is doing now.I was bored to death and decided to change my lifestyle.I sat on top of the new storage cabinet made by my third uncle’s house and said to him: "Please show me a way." I remember that my third uncle replied at that time: "How can I show you the way? I don’t know the way myself. I know. Just walk on indiscriminately, don't look back." "Is this what you said from experience?" I asked again. "Of course," he said.

I came back to the village when I was 30 years old, and I kept wandering around until one day I saw an old camphor tree at the head of the village. When I was almost home, someone behind me hurriedly caught up with me, it was Ah Wei.Ah Wei didn't yell like usual, but looked depressed. "You can sing well." I said. "Hmph." He lowered his head, full of thoughts. I entered the house and he also entered the house, and sat on the threshold. "Look, Ah Wei sometimes gets depressed." I couldn't help but say again. "You know what, the third uncle is going to abandon us, what should I do? The reason why I sing is because I feel desperate."

"It's strange, you can't leave him so much, don't you hate him?" "It has nothing to do with whether you hate it or not, and it's not like you don't know. Let me ask you, have you heard the singing on the mountain over there? You must have heard it once, maybe more than once, and I am the same. But What's the use of this? I'm sick? I can be like the third uncle, who can hear what he wants. We are really confused." "That's really not what Ah Wei said." "So what about Ah Wei? Ah Wei is an idiot, can't an idiot think like this? See how vulgar you are, I really didn't expect it."

"How did you see that Uncle San wanted to abandon us?" "We've all heard the singing in the mountains over there, that's why he's abandoning us. I'm tired of talking to you, can I sleep here..." He fell down the threshold, his face full of pain and weariness. expression. In August, Third Uncle refused to allow Ah Wei and me to visit him.We stood outside the door, looked in through the window, and saw the raging swarm of mosquitoes besieging his lean body.He was lying on top of the storage cabinet, struggling to breathe, and occasionally slapped himself on the face weakly.We ended up suffering from mosquito bites ourselves, and our faces were swollen.Ah Wei said to me, if I want to leave, I can leave, it is enough for him to stay here alone, he is not afraid of mosquitoes, only one thing.He looked at me with red, swollen eyes as he said this.I want to persist, but I really can't, my nerves are too fragile. I was forced to leave.On the way home, I heard the long-lost folk song again. It was sung by the same person, and some seductive elements were added to the singing, which reminded me of a charming vixen.My vision was hazy, and I seemed to meet many villagers along the way. They all bowed their heads not to say hello to me, and walked straight past. Could it be that my face was so swollen that they couldn't recognize it?It suddenly occurred to me that I also had a lot of mosquito eggs in my blood, which was a maddening thought.Maybe those mosquitoes could also hum this kind of folk song, it was the beautiful music that my third uncle heard when he was dying.Ah Wei must know everything, that's why he looks at me like that, does he also want me to know those things?If it rained at night, would he force his way into the house?