Chapter 4 Arctic Village Fairy Tales (4)

Grandma wanted to get up early, and grandpa came back from the phone call. It was only after five o'clock in the morning, and she was about to make dinner.I didn't ask her any more, and when she fell asleep, I struggled out of her arms, pushed out the quilt, and took a few deep breaths.I was thinking, what kind of old Soviet Union lived in that big wooden house in Dongtou? This night, I had a dream.I dreamed that there was an old lady living in a big wooden house in Dongtou. She stood under the bright yellow sunflowers and threw me a lot of stones.She told me that these are stones from Heilongjiang.She also said that she would round the stones, poke holes with a spindle, and put a collar on me.

It was daylight, and the sun was high. In the yard, there was a fishy smell, and my uncle sat on a wooden pier and squeezed the fish.The scales twinkled like stars dancing.After he squeezed it, he mixed it with salt, strung it on a wire, and hung it on the wall. The chicks jumped up and down.I took out the intestines and other filthy things in the basin and threw them to them, and poured the remaining red soup into the pig trough.Then, rinse the basin clean again. Doing this, as soon as my uncle is happy to praise me, I can forcefully order two small fish for fools to eat. After dinner, each was busy with his own business.

I walked along the dry and cracked field ridge to the corn field.The corn field in my grandma’s house is next to the vegetable garden of the old Soviet Union. Now, the corn has spit out brown-red tassels. I broke off a section of sweet stalks and stuffed them into my mouth to chew. After eating enough, I looked towards the house; There are sunflowers in the yard, and a bunch of bright red peppers, a bunch of snow-white garlic, and a handful of parsley left as rapeseed hang on the wall covered with yellow mud. The door was open.As far as I can remember, it never seemed to be open.But it really opened today, isn't it a dream?

When she came out, it was a tall, thin old woman in a long black dress and a bronze headscarf! She moved across the yard step by step, pushed open the garden gate, and came close to the bean stand. I was standing in the cornfield, and she was standing there, and what separated us was a row of low, sloping, rotten oak trees. My heart was pounding like a drum. "Little girl, little girl." The voice was slow and dull, "Why are you here alone?" "I pick pig food." "What vegetables are you picking?" "Grey vegetables, amaranth, wheel vegetables, and ruthenium, Zhu Xiangya!"

She giggled dryly, her mouth kept moving, as if she was chewing something: "Why don't you pick a basket when picking pig food?" "I'll pick it first and put it here. Uncle will come to pick it up at noon." "How old are you?" "Seven years old." "Have you gone to school yet?" "No." "Would you like to read?" "Yes!" The answer is crisp and quick, and I think she will be satisfied. She held the oak pole, and I held it too.I looked up, she lowered her head, and our eyes intersected.I couldn't tell if it was a dream, so I said it casually: "You are a grandma! I have seen you. Didn't you promise to wear a collar?"

I run my hands around the neck.She opened her eyes wide at first, then pulled the siege, accompanied by a crackling sound of oak wood poles falling, she leaned over and hugged me tightly! "It's grandma's granddaughter! It's grandma's granddaughter!" Her arms firmly held me like a pair of pliers, and my face was burning hot from her kiss.Maybe she heard me humming, and she let me go, and I was finally able to breathe heavily. "Grandma, can the stones in Heilongjiang be rounded?" "Yes. It can be rounded." She nodded affirmatively. "That's good." I smiled reassuringly.

Before I knew it, I followed her through the vegetable garden, into the yard, and into the door. The house is not big, but very clean.The walls were whitewashed.In the main room, the most noticeable thing is a black wall clock and a red sandalwood table under the clock, and a black wooden chair beside the table. She made me sit down, took out the rock sugar, took off the bronze triangle scarf, spun around a few times, and said to me: "Eat it, and then I will give you roasted hair." She went to the kitchen.After a while, she held the hair on an iron sheet and licked it out: "Eat it, it smells delicious, it's freshly baked."

She danced excitedly. I watched her dance, dancing fast and anxiously, not at all like grandma, even her chest was raised high. "Grandma, are your feet big?" "Big yo." "Why does my grandma have small feet? The walk is like a duck, twisting and turning. Why are your feet so big?" "It's long. Grandma doesn't bind her feet." She dug out poker, checkers, literacy textbooks, and old broad beans, and piled them all over the table. She said she wanted to teach me how to read, sing, cut window grilles, and be a dough maker.She told me not to tell others when you come to her place.

Of course, I agree with all of them. On the way home, I wanted to laugh when I looked at the sky, and I wanted to laugh when I looked at the ground.Every white cloud, every green leaf is so kind.I hummed a song, stepped on the hot ground, and bounced back. The idiot came up to meet me, and I hugged it tightly like a grandma hugged me, put it close to its ear, and whispered: "Idiot, I will tell you a secret, but you are not allowed to tell it to others." After lunch, the air became hotter and duller.After a while, the wind picked up.The clouds turned pale gray and huddled together into a leaden mass.

The wind is gone.The swallow murmured down.The thin raindrops are like silver embroidery needles, piercing the ground in one go. The chickens lined up neatly, flapping their wings, standing under the eaves.The fool stepped on his paws proudly, and kept licking the wet fur with his tongue. Grandma kowtowed three times happily, and kept muttering: "I didn't ask for rain in vain, but it came as soon as I said it." She walked to the window and looked at it happily.There were drops of water in her eye sockets.Could it be that the rain beat in? I looked at the window: the window was closed, and the rain was dripping down the glass.Then, grandma was so excited that she wept.

I moved a small bench, stood on it, and looked out the window sill: the rain was getting heavier and more urgent, and there were many blisters on the ground, like the copper coins I used to kick the shuttlecock. I'm thinking of the old grandma in Dongtou.What is she doing now? By the way, why is she alone? I really want to figure it out right away.I wanted to ask grandma, but when I remembered what grandma said, I immediately dismissed that idea. The rain stopped.The grasshoppers in the grass jumped happily, and the grasshoppers also screamed crisply.The idiot kicked his feet in satisfaction, and the chickens kept digging the wet soil. Grandma is cooking with firewood.From the kitchen came the crackling of the fire and the chopping of vegetables.Grandpa got up from the kang, put on his boots, took a shovel, and jumped into the pigsty to pick up dung. I put on plastic sandals and ran to the old grandma. The tits hopped ahead of me.They seem to have just come out of the nest, and they can't fly high yet. They just stick to the ground, shaking their immature wings with difficulty.In the northeast corner, there is a rainbow, like a colorful bridge. I held my breath and pushed open the door.I'm afraid of grandma sleeping. Did opening the door light up the room, or did I accidentally make a noise?Anyway, she spotted me right away. "Oh, it's raining, it's raining!" She ran over, squatted down, and patted my face. "Grandma, your skirt is like a petunias." I pulled her shoulders and said to her. She pursed her lips, blinked her eyes twice, stood up with her shoulders on her shoulders, turned around slowly, then squatted down suddenly, and exclaimed: "That's right. It's like morning glory. Be smart!" She picked me up, pushed open the door, walked around to the back of the room, and put me on the ground. This time it was my turn to scream.Colorful morning glory blooms in the wild grass.Grandma picked one of one color and stuck it on my head.A few wasps buzzed overhead, scaring me into hugging her. "What's the matter? What's the matter?" "Bee! I'm afraid of bees!" She smiled, picked me up, put her hand on my forehead, and sang as she walked: "Hello wasps, hello wasps, don't sting my little baby. Give you pollen, give you good pollen, as long as you don't come, scare my little baby." I laughed.Seeing me laugh, she laughed even harder.Shaking uncontrollably, I took advantage of the situation and slid down to the ground, thumping into the house. She brought a plate of freshly boiled fava beans, peeled off the skin one by one, and delivered them to my mouth one by one.The beans were so fragrant and soft that I forgot to go home. "Grandma, why are you the only one in your family?" She tilted her head slightly, something lit up in her eye socket, but it disappeared again.She stuffed broad bean skins into her mouth, then spat them out slowly, making a skirt. I asked this way, how could the grandmother not be sad?I planned to wrap my arms around her neck and act coquettishly.Unexpectedly, she smiled and said: "It's getting late, your grandma is waiting impatiently. It's time for dinner." "Hey." I agreed, stood up, and walked slowly towards the door.When he opened the door, he couldn't help but look back at her. "I forgot to ask, what's your name?" A hoarse, muffled voice filled with phlegm. "Yingdeng. My nickname. My mother said that when I was born on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it was just dark and before the ice lanterns were lit, my father gave me this name." She let out another horrible laugh.Scary Granny!I ran home in a hurry and hugged the fool tightly. "Where did you go? You won't be home all day! Call your grandpa for dinner." Grandma poured the washing pot water into the pig trough, and greeted me with a high-pitched voice.I let go of the fool and walked towards the vegetable garden stupidly. Grandpa was barefoot, his trousers were rolled up to his knees, and he was sitting on the ridge with his arms crossed.When the wind blows, the vegetable garden is covered with a layer of green light.Grandpa's hair was disheveled and fluttered in the wind. On his gloomy face, his eyes were fixed on something. I clutched my chest, stepped across the dim, swaying, rippling puddles, and stood behind him.He didn't notice it at all.