Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Jiangcun Children

1. Mother The day Jiang Caicai came to this world, April 1st in the new calendar, is the "April Fool's Day" in the West.As if to announce to this absurd world that her birth was nothing but a silly joke. But it would be years before she figured that out.Fourteen years later, on her birthday, the boy sitting behind her packed a live water snake in a beautiful gift box and gave it to her solemnly. She was overjoyed and opened the package on the spot. to the face of the pretty girl next to her.Her tablemate was crying.The boys burst into laughter—at that moment, she didn’t cry or laugh, she looked solemn, and suddenly realized the unique meaning of this day—she found the reason for her hopeless clumsiness— It turned out that she herself was a joke, a prank of fate.

She thought of the fool of fate, and her heart was filled with sorrow. In middle school, Jiang Caicai lacked friends. She had excellent grades, but she was eccentric. She was taciturn and liked to draw and write.She bought thick manuscript paper, suppressed her inner desire and passion, and wrote one clumsy text after another.She copied down the address and editor's name of the small town daily in the small reading room of the school, and she persevered in submitting, almost without any hope.Finally, her article appeared in the supplement of Xiaocheng Daily under the name of "Yuwa". She was very happy, and she read her own words over and over again, although those words were contrived and cold, completely out of proportion to her age .

She was a superfluous child, neither in line with the family planning policy nor with the wishes of her parents.The most convincing proof of this is that when she was born, a rusty birth control ring fell out of the placenta.She didn't hear the "jingling" sound of the iron ring falling to the ground, but heard her mother repeating again and again: The doctor said, it's your luck, if the birth control ring touches your head in the womb, you will die soon. Just die. The mother was very upset about this child. She had already had a boy before. According to the government policy at that time, the interval between the second child was not enough. Early childbirth would be severely punished by the government, and the poor pork certificate and cloth certificate would be lost. ticket.The child was placed beside her, crying, but the mother didn't care about her. The mother felt that the whole thing was terrible, and she couldn't help worrying about her life. With a big mouth, crying and clamoring for food.Mother's brows were deeply furrowed, her heart seemed to be filled with huge rocks, her throat was choked, tears were streaming down her cheeks, and the painful feeling overwhelmed her again and again, making her unable to move or speak.

It was the spring of the 1970s, the cold spring was still there, the drizzle was falling, and the mud soup on the surface of the rice fields was still bitterly cold.Throughout the spring, my mother struggled in the paddy fields wearing a raincoat, barefoot, and a seven-month-old belly. She did not lose a day's work points during the spring plowing.She secretly hoped that during the process of bending over to plant rice seedlings, the shapeless child would fall off automatically, so that it would be over once and for all, and this long-lasting suffering would end as soon as possible. After giving birth to her first child, she obediently put on the IUD. She felt that she had no strength to raise another child, and she didn't want to violate the government's regulations. She didn't want to suffer anymore-she had suffered enough.Standing on the threshold of years, 20 years old, 21 years old, 22 years old, 23 years old, 24 years old, 25 years old, 26 years old.Since she was 20 years old, she has reviewed her life over and over again, and every review is soaked in desolation and pain. After the age of 26, she stopped looking back. At the age of 26, she gave birth to Jiang Caicai.

She repeatedly thought of her natal family, which was a remote fishing village by the sea, deep in the mountains, closed and poor.She thought of her relatives again and again—she had no relatives. Her father died of illness when she was two years old, and her mother died when she was four years old. She and her brother were left. The neighbors had no sons, so they adopted her brother out of kindness. , and also supported her by the way. The family adopted her, but as a servant girl to do housework.Her body is weak and sickly, but her heart is also competitive.She never cried in front of other people's faces.She is smart and smart, and can please adults.She grew like grass in the crevices of stones, very lonely.It wasn't until the army opened a school next to the barracks that she began to feel happy.

She is the best student in the class. Sitting in the simple classroom, she pricked up her ears and heard a lot of things that she had never heard before.She quickly learned to write, and the handwriting was dignified and delicate. Soon she learned abacus, and she did arithmetic problems quickly and well.She was rewarded, sometimes a pencil, sometimes a notebook, and a bright red certificate during the Chinese New Year.She also made friends. She always remembers the girl from West Village, who was her classmate, played Qizi with her, and hid behind the classroom with her to talk about her thoughts. On the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, she brought her a The girl who just picked the green pomelo is named Wen Xiuyu.

The knowledge in the textbooks temporarily relieved her inner hunger, and the excellent grades made her more confident.It was the happiest time of her life.Then she took the exam, and she became the only student in the township who passed the No. 1 Middle School in the city.If it weren't for the Cultural Revolution, she might have a good future. The Cultural Revolution came out of nowhere, and middle school was suddenly suspended, so she returned to the village to work in agriculture.She was surprised and regretful. She looked up at the moment when she put down the hoes one by one. She waited, waited, and waited in hunger, expecting someone to come to her and invite her back to school.But the tide ebbs and flows, but the Red Guards are everywhere, and the simple people in the mountain villages and fishing villages criticize and fight.

Until one day, her only brother was also dragged onto the stage, and many people surrounded him, cursing and kicking him. They tore strands of hair off his head, and streaks of blood flowed from his forehead to his toes. head.Her heart was broken, and she finally gave up all extravagant hopes.She gradually understood that things in the world were unreasonable, and that she should be an obedient citizen, following all the sudden waves of fate, growing old year by year, and she should not have any ambitions—not to mention ambitions, Even wishing is painful.So in the deep night, she soaked herself in the mountain stream, letting the cool stream water quench the weak flames in her heart.

She seized an opportunity and married far away, married far away, married an honest but useless farmer, and she hoped to live a peaceful life.But things backfired. Although her husband didn't bully her for the time being, he couldn't stop others from bullying her.As a foreign daughter-in-law, she suffered all kinds of difficulties from her mother-in-law.None of the women living in the same village are fuel-efficient lamps, and there are always subtle conflicts of interests-those hens who cause troubles always go to other henhouses to lay eggs, and those trouble-making winds always take her Soot blows onto the clothes of the neighbors who are hanging out.All in all, she failed to find security.She felt herself being sucked into a deep swamp filled with silt, her feet sank deeper and her sight became shorter and shorter.She quarreled constantly with her husband, smashed all the dishes in the house, and completely ruined her reputation as a virtuous person.Everything is against her, even this child is no exception.The child was growing tenaciously in her stomach, determined to become a suffering that she could not get rid of.Finally, she fainted in the paddy field, and the premature blood stained the turbid muddy soup of the paddy field.The production team took her to the hospital with a big cart, and the seven-month-pregnant baby girl was born smoothly, alive, like a little beast with teeth and claws, eyes closed, crying out of breath.

No flowers, no applause, no smiling faces, no one to welcome this child.But the child knew nothing about it, she was not even fully prepared, she suddenly left the mother's womb, left the natural shelter, and she felt like sitting on pins and needles in the strange world, so she burst into tears, her hands waved, and she longed deeply for a embrace. On the second day after giving birth, the mother walked home from the township hospital with the baby in her arms. What else could she do but cry along the way?She cursed the damn birth control ring, cursed the damn child in her arms—why did such a crumpled loser come into this world—why did she come into this world full of thorns to repeat her miserable fate?She thought of the lack of interval between the births of the children, and thought that the family would lose the cloth and pork tickets for a whole year... Thinking about it, she felt depressed, as if there was a big lump of cold mud that was going to completely smother her heart. It made her breathless.

Not far away, people were fertilizing the paddy fields, and the smell of manure came to the face, stinking the whole spring. Mother dragged her two tired and numb legs and walked forward, feeling that she was walking towards the grave.However, she was not strong enough, she couldn't insist on going into the tomb, she needed to rest, she needed to have a good sleep, finally she walked to the river, she opened the wooden door, and went back to her familiar, messy home, She wiped away tears, put the baby on the plank bed, and lay down feeling relieved. After a while, the mother and child fell asleep together. When Caicai was very young, her mother had to go out to work in the fields every day, and Caicai's siblings were sent to grandma's house early in the morning.As if aware of the danger of being abandoned, Jiang Caicai is desperately attached to her mother.The mother broke her little hand apart forcefully, turned and left, and she burst into tears.Grandma was too busy doing things to pay much attention to her, and let her cry alone, let her shed her last tear, let her cry her little heart into a desert.She tore her hair desperately with both hands, she struggled desperately, and finally she was hoarse.After exhausting her little strength, she slept soundly on the plank bed. Grandma predicted that this child must be a piece of twisted wood with a crooked knife.Indeed, she was mind-boggling. When she learned to crawl, she refused to stay in the house no matter what. She struggled to get out of the tub, bravely climbed over the threshold, climbed into the bamboo forest, and stayed with the chickens. The shit is stuffed into the mouth together. Soon she learned to walk, she kept falling and standing up again, and finally she could run.Holding her grandpa's broken sunflower fan, she giggled and drove the chickens waddlingly. The poor hens had no choice but to declare their surrender, give up the small bamboo forest, and move the whole family to the head of the banyan tree to forage. But Caicai couldn't keep up with the chickens, and Caicai felt unhappy when she was alone, so she ran along the road to the field, she ran and ran, ran and ran, she fell into the ditch and was picked up again, finally she found her her mother.Her mother beat her up, and she cried a lot, but still followed closely, not giving up her stubborn thoughts at all. The mother had no choice but to take her to the field every day, throw her under the banana tree at the head of the field, and let her pull weeds and play in the mud by herself.She was happy now, and she talked to herself while playing, and from time to time someone came to tease her, so she raised her head, could not articulate the words in her mouth, and kept babbling non-stop.Tired of playing, she slept under the banana tree. When she woke up, her mother had already picked the early-ripe yellow-headed bananas, so she ate them happily. Such a big banana, only one small stomach would be full.She is almost two years old and still refuses to stop breastfeeding. Her mother smears ginger juice on her nipples, and she still wants to eat when she cries. She went to sleep when she was full, but she still clamored for food when she woke up, so her mother had to let her go. Jiang Caicai nursed until she was three years old. There is no end to the farm work, and it is done at sunrise and rested at sunset, and it goes round and round, like this every year.Hoes, sickles, and plows are all hard work, but food is always scarce, and meat can't be eaten a few times throughout the year.The child is sick from time to time, and the mother is also sick intermittently, and takes the child to work, so she can only get seven points of work points every day.At the end of the year, the family can only get enough food to make ends meet.Fortunately, my father can do carpentry. In his free time, someone would come to the house with wood from time to time, asking him to make a chicken coop, or a bench, or sometimes a door latch. All of a sudden it was spent. Such and such, all kinds of difficulties, she did not understand at all.She laughed when she wasn't crying, and she played all day long, running around the village like a naughty boy.When the East River was flooded, the little weeds climbed to the bank in twos and threes to breathe. She was so happy that she clapped her hands and chased to the water's edge. She fell into the water with the weeds several times, but she was lucky, and someone caught her every time. Get up and send it back.Her father carried her upside down, head down, and she vomited out the water in her stomach, cried for a while, and then came back to life.For the sake of safety, my father made a water hug out of driftwood, and tied it tightly to her stomach. She couldn't untie it, and after crying for a while, she got used to it.Once she fell into the water and followed the water to the downstream village, but her family didn't find out.At night, the old man on the downstream ferry was sent back.Mother beat her hard with a green bamboo branch, until she cried out, "You bastard, short-lived ghost, just wash it away, why send it back?" Her father taught her to swim. It was the afternoon of the flood in June. The flood flooded over the threshold, and the floor became a vast ocean. Weds climbed up the balcony of her house along the red brick wall. By the side, leaning forward, eating the fat water lotus leaves intently.Jiang Caicai was playing in the shallow water naked, "Gege" smiled and splashed water on the pigs. The pigs didn't care, they didn't lift their heads, they just flapped their ears leisurely and wagged their tails a few times.Father swam over, picked her up, and threw her into the deep water.The child fell into the water with a "boom", but he didn't sink immediately. His hands and feet were desperately pumping water, but he couldn't swim back no matter what.The father laughed loudly, swam over to hold her little hand, and brought her back. Sitting on a wooden stool, the mother twisted the hemp rope, looked up at them from time to time, and suggested, "You might as well teach Apo first, Caicai is still young, and her hands and feet are weak and weak." But Jiang Caicai raised her hands to her father and asked him to throw it again. Again and again, she liked and was afraid at the same time.She became addicted to playing, drank a lot of water, and finally learned to swim back alone.From then on, no matter how fast the current was, the wild child could not be washed away.That year, she was four years old. On market days, peasant women in Jiangcun would pick up two baskets and go to the city. They would walk along the Dongjiang River for more than an hour before arriving at the market. Before the dew in front of the door dried up, my mother quietly picked out the baskets, closed the door and quietly set out on the road.Soon, Jiang Caicai woke up and found that her mother was not there, and she ran towards the road barefoot without washing her face.She ran and cried, ran through two or three villages, and finally caught up.Her mother asked her to go home with a straight face, but she actually grabbed her mother's basket and refused to let go.The mother broke off the green bamboo branches by the roadside, and after a while of beatings, she burst into tears, and hung her whole body on the mother's burden even more.The mother had no choice but to throw the bamboo branch and agreed to take her into the city.She wiped away her tears, ran barefoot all the way, skipped and ran to the front.After entering the city, she gradually fell behind. Her mother stopped at a roadside shop and bought a piece of lard candy for a penny. When she arrived, her mother peeled off the candy wrapper and stuffed the candy into her mouth. I jumped up and down again, and followed my mother vigorously.Soon they arrived at the market, and my mother found an empty seat and placed the sweet potatoes and eggs in the basket on the ground. At noon, when things were sold out, they went to the wanton shop to eat noodle soup.After eating and resting for a while, my mother went to the market to pick piglets.Jiang Caicai followed her mother's example and bargained with the pig farmer. She lowered the price loudly and was not shy at all.When buying piglets, other people like to buy fat and strong ones, and only buy one at a time. In order to save money, my mother always buys the thin and small ones, and buys two each time.After negotiating the price, Jiang Caicai rushed to carry the piglets into the basket, one on the left and one on the right. She whistled and made faces at them, making them open their mouths and howl. The mother picked up the piglets, walked around a few streets, and bought all kinds of rapeseed, planning to go back and plant them in the reserved land.Once or twice a year, my mother would go to the cloth market to pull a few feet of coarse cloth to make clothes. That was the most exciting moment for Jiang Caicai. She liked every kind of cloth with flowers. Touching those beautiful lines with her hands, she longed for a flower dress.However, my mother will always only buy blue cloth.Her father's clothes were blue, her mother's were blue, and her brother's were still blue. As for Jiang Caicai, she didn't have any new clothes of her own, and she wore old clothes that didn't fit her brother all day long. Mother bought all the things, the sun had already set in the water, the river was shining with golden light, and the western sky was full of colorful clouds.Mother picked out a basket and took Caicai to a small restaurant by the river to eat a plate of fried rice noodles.The fried rice noodles are hot and fragrant - if only I could eat this every day!While she was eating, she suddenly raised her head and smiled at her mother: "We have fried rice noodles, but my father and elder brother don't have fried rice noodles." The mother stared at her with a straight face: "Hurry up, it's getting dark." Cai Cai looked out the window, it was really dark. The way home got longer and longer, and Caicai walked slower and slower, her legs and feet couldn't move, her eyelids kept fighting, and she gradually distanced herself from her mother by a long distance.Mother ignored her, didn't wait for her, and just rushed forward by herself.The sky is getting darker and darker, and the misty mist rises from the river layer by layer, blurring the shadows of trees in the distance. She can't see her mother's back, can't hear her mother's voice, she is anxious and afraid , she stood alone on the road, crying loudly.But it was useless to cry, she stomped her feet vigorously, and ran forward with all her strength. At the intersection ahead, her mother put down the basket and was sitting on the road in the dusk, waiting for her.When she came to her and wiped away her tears, the mother put the two piglets together and carried her into the basket, but the mother took up the burden.As they walked, the basket swayed, the little pig fell asleep, and so did Jiang Caicai. Back at the door of the house, mother put down the basket and the basket hit the ground, Caicai woke up, looked up and saw the sky full of stars, each of them blinked at her, and she yelled happily.However, the mother ignored her and just took the piglets to the next piggy house, busy cooking pig food for them.Then her father came over from under the longan tree and took her out of the basket.Caicai suddenly screamed—her calf was scalded by the burning cigarette in her father's hand. She pushed her father away and struggled to stand up. She hated her father, was not attached to him at all, and wanted to push him into the river.She ran up to her mother and followed her every step. Her mother was squatting on the ground stirring the pig food, her hands were covered with chaff. She grabbed her mother's clothes tightly to prevent her from standing up.My mother told her to go away softly, but she didn't listen, and my mother told her to go away loudly, but she still didn't listen, my mother raised her hand all of a sudden, and a slap fell heavily on her face. She sat on the ground, her face was covered with wet pig bran, she whimpered, the grievance in her heart rose up like a river, filled her body in an instant, up her throat, nose, and eye sockets , rose above her head.She sat alone in the deep sea of ​​sorrow, loneliness enveloped her small body like darkness, her hands were empty, and she desperately needed a hug, and then she ran to the old waterweed tree and hugged the trunk tightly. It took a long time before she stopped crying. It was late at night, and my mother carried her into the house, and lit the water lamp. My mother poked the wick with a matchstick, and the flame suddenly brightened.At this time, she saw her brother, who was sitting on the wooden stool alone, staring at the door in a daze. When Jiang Yibo was about to go to school, his father suddenly became interested and began to teach the two children to count, first counting from one to ten, and then counting from ten to one hundred, and then he taught the children to add the two numbers, first one The digits are added, followed by the two digits.The child is also very interested, the numbers are reliable, and the calculations are fast and accurate. After learning to count, Jiang Caicai went to count the small stones on the ground, the trees in the village, and the stars in the sky. "Brother, there are 73 stones under the water weng tree!" Her brother thought she was so stupid and wanted to get rid of her.But wherever he ran, she followed him. "Brother, there are 28 water weng trees at the end of the village!" Jiang Yibo couldn't take it anymore, he looked around, but fortunately no one heard them, fortunately no one laughed at them. "You are so stupid, silly girl! Go away, don't follow me." He scolded her viciously and drove her away. At this time, many children gathered around, clapped their hands, sang songs, and spat at her: "When the windmill turns around, the idiot is one inch taller." This is a joke from a Hong Kong TV series that was currently on the air. Like those people, my brother clapped his hands, sang songs, and spat at her: "Turn the windmill, and the idiot will be an inch taller." She gritted her teeth and stared at them fiercely. Suddenly she picked up a brick on the ground and threw it at them with all her might.The children laughed loudly, dispersed and ran away. She was small, but she was fast enough to overtake the worst boy in the village.Her words and deeds were ridiculous, and everyone laughed at her, but since then, no one hit her again, and everyone knew that her retaliation was fast and hard - she once smashed someone's head with a brick, although the bully Her boy is many years older than her. They don't beat her, but often beat her brother.Every time they made Jiang Yibo cry, she would stand by the side and cry for no reason, crying more sadly than her brother.They thought it was a lot of fun.For this reason, Jiang Yibo hated her even more. However, sometimes, Jiang Yibo would also like to play with her.Father taught them how to count, and soon he taught them all the mathematics he knew.He wanted to change his subject, so he went to the store and bought a chess set.Line up the formation and explain the Chuhe-Han boundary, where horses travel like rows of fields, cars can run rampant, and artillery cannons need a fort to hit people.The father played chess with the child and always won at the beginning, but after five days, Jiang Yibo turned the tables and beat his father to checkmate with two pawns and a cannon.The father was very unconvinced and fought against his son again and again, but he was defeated and never recovered.His son teased him and ate his sons one by one, leaving only the bare commander in the end.Seeing that the little pawn was pressing every step of the way, the father had no choice but to raise his hands in surrender.The father felt bored, and instead invited Caicai to join the battle.Cai Cai came up, and she really lived up to expectations, and lost in a mess.The father was very happy, and the father and daughter played one game after another.When his father walked away, Jiang Yibo came up, Caicai was defeated like a mountain, and the brother and sister played game after game. Cai Cai doesn't like her elder brother when playing chess, he wants to kill all her chess pieces so that she can't fight back.But Cai Cai’s father likes to play chess. Every time he has the chance to win, his face shows imperceptible complacency. He walks by himself while teaching the children how to deal with it.Immersed in the fun of the game, he forgot the hardships of life and the hardships of the years.For a small victory, the father showed a rare smile, and he taught all the tricks to the child without reservation——Later, Caicai went to elementary school, middle school, middle school, and finished college. She met all kinds of tricks. They are all more knowledgeable than her father, but in her heart, her father is always the best teacher.No one taught her with more joy, no one explained to her more simply and clumsily, no teacher more common and humble than his.Gradually, even Caicai mastered the tricks of chess to win, and finally one day, she also turned defeat into victory. Jiang Caicai clearly remembered the moment when she won with difficulty, her father suddenly slapped the table, lifted her up, and said happily, "Caicai is so sharp, so sharp!" Caicai suddenly lifted her feet off the ground and was lifted high into the air. She felt that she flew up like a bird. She was full of joy, and she smiled embarrassedly when she thought that she was "so sharp, so sharp". While mother was cooking dinner, father and children sat by the river and played chess under the water weng tree.On both sides of the Dongjiang River, every kitchen chimney emits smoke, the color of the sunset gradually fades, and the sky is light blue, bright and vast, boundless.In order to deal with Jiang Yibo, his father and Caicai teamed up and discussed every step for a long time. Often after losing several games in a row, they gradually gained the upper hand.Seeing that they were about to win, the father and daughter were so excited that they couldn't sit still, but Jiang Yibo suddenly couldn't let go.Caicai had no choice but to put the chess pieces and chess paper into the box.When everyone went back to the house for dinner, Jiang Yibo sat alone with a gloomy face all night, without saying a word.Caicai doesn't care about winning or losing like her elder brother. Like her father, what she likes is the game itself. After the passion for chess had passed, the father decided to teach his children carpentry.He showed the two children his toolbox and explained what each tool was for.He has an axe, two long saws, three hammers, four planes of different lengths, many large and small chisels, and a row of square nail boxes on the floor beside the wall, which contain densely packed iron nails.While sawing wood, my father explained the skills of sawing wood, with steady hands and precise eyes.The father's voice was low, Cai Cai pricked up his ears, and stood beside him listening attentively.But his father didn't even look at her, he just stared at Jiang Yibo.Jiang Yibo is a boy, it would be more appropriate to learn carpentry, but he has no interest in carpentry, carpentry is very hard, and people look down on him, and he can't earn money.Before his father could finish speaking, he turned around and ran away. Father sawed the wood, took out the plane, and planed the wood smooth and smooth.Every time it is planed, a wood flower will grow out of the wood.After a while, the ground was covered with rolls of beautiful wood flowers.The hens chased Muhua in groups and ran, calling happily: "cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck!" It was a cold day in winter, and Caicai was wearing a thick cotton padded jacket, dangling in front of her father like a big brown child. She held Muhua in her arms, feeling the softness and warmth of wood, and felt at ease in her heart. stable.Sometimes, a strong wind blows from a distance, and the wood flowers are blown into the river one by one. They float happily on the water, as if a river of flowers has bloomed. Look for a long time. "Caicai come over to help, I'm playing the ink thread." My father often asks her to help. She quickly threw away the small triangular and square wooden block in her hand, ran over to pick up the ink cartridge, and her father pulled the long line to the other end of the wooden board: "See clearly, just like this—" Gently, my father picked up the long line with two fingers, and with a "da", a clear ink line was printed on the smooth wooden board. (End of Chapter 1)