Chapter 203 Chapter Thirty-ninth Half Dirty Half Clean

Early the next morning, the young daughter-in-law opened the door early without disturbing her newlywed husband, and found that the moss on the bluestone steps was slippery and slippery, like the back of a loach, which was walked by the rain last night. trace. The gray-haired old man also got up early, but the young wife lived with him in the east of the village and the other in the west of the village.When he got up early in the morning, he saw the moss under his feet falling off the stone and curling up like the skin of a snake. The two of them were the first people in the village to rush to the well.The old man arrived first, and the young daughter-in-law was half a step behind.

The young daughter-in-law, who was half a step behind, looked at the old man standing stiffly by the well from behind. Her silver hair was blown away by the cool morning breeze, like a dandelion eager to get off the plant, and the clothes washed with rice soup made hunting sounds.She lowered her head to look at the grass beside the mouth of the well, and while being beaten to the ground by last night's raindrops, she curled up slightly like an old man with withered body. "Are you so early?" The young daughter-in-law greeted the old man timidly, her words also revealed the coolness of the morning, and her confidence was obviously lacking.

"Hmm..." The old man didn't know that someone was coming from behind, and was startled by the young daughter-in-law's sudden voice. "You also heard the cock crowing and the rain last night, right?" The old man's eyes were as cold as the night dew on the steps in the morning, and the young daughter-in-law couldn't help feeling a chill, and a layer of goose bumps appeared on her body. Of course, the young daughter-in-law also heard those strange crowing and unexpected rain last night.The old man didn't intend to ask the young wife if she knew, but to draw out what he was going to say later, just like the people at that time asked first when they met: "Have you eaten?" It's not eating, but eliciting what to say later.

A gust of wind blew by, making a humming sound.The young daughter-in-law was timid, but she dared not answer the old man's usual questions. "Listen, um, I heard it." She squirmed her thin lips and replied in a very thin voice.The voice was so soft that it seemed to be carried away by the wind just now. The old man turned his head to look at the well, but did not speak. "I heard it," she repeated, "but, is there something wrong with that?" Although she knew that something was obviously wrong, she still had a chance.She thought maybe this had nothing to do with her rituals.Her sight of looking for the mouth of the well was just blocked by the old man, maybe because the old man's clothes were wet by the wet grass in the morning, she could smell the thin rice soup coming from the old man, which faintly aroused her appetite.She rushed over to see the well before she could make breakfast.

"Don't you think the crowing of the chicken is different from before?" The old man put his hands behind his back.The young daughter-in-law couldn't see his expression when he spoke, and didn't know what he meant by asking. The young daughter-in-law thought for a while and said, "I came earlier than usual." In fact, I came a lot earlier, not earlier. She saw the old man nodded, and then the old man asked again: "Do you know that the rain last night is different from before?" It's such a question again, the young daughter-in-law thought to herself.

"Is there any difference?" asked the young daughter-in-law.Apart from the fact that the sound of the rain just happened to come at the moment when the crowing of the cock stopped, there was nothing unusual about it.The moss on the steps was not much slippery than usual.However, it may also be a coincidence that the sound of rain comes just after the rooster crows. "Huh?" The young daughter-in-law looked down at the grass beside the well again, puzzled. "What's the matter?" Although the old man asked, he didn't turn his head to look at her, as if he knew what she was surprised about, and he was very confident in his guess.

"It obviously rained last night, why is the grass on this side of the well withered and yellow, and the grass on the other side of the well is wet?" The young daughter-in-law was surprised, and hurriedly ran to the front of the old man, knelt down on one knee to touch the slightly curled up weeds. With this movement, the mouth of the well was clearly visible in front of her eyes. Her hands were still on the curled up grass, but her eyes were fixed on the mouth of the well, not letting go. The old man's eyes also kept staring at the mouth of the well.Those weather-beaten eyes lacked the fright of the young daughter-in-law, and were more pitiful and heartbroken.Another gust of breeze blew by, bringing a trace of water vapor into the young daughter-in-law's nose and into her stomach, making her feel a chill all over her body.

"What's wrong with the well water?" The young daughter-in-law slowly raised her hand touching the grass, pointing to the well water and asked the old man. When the breeze blows, the long grass beside the well is slightly lowered, and a wider range of well water is brought into the eyes.Along the dividing line between curling up and crawling on the grass, the well water is divided into two parts, one part is clear and transparent, and the other part is turbid.The difference from the ground is that the dividing line of the grassland is straight, while the dividing line of the well water is curved. Looking at the entire round well mouth, Jiufen looks like a regular Tai Chi.

"I think this has something to do with your religious affairs." The old man said bluntly, "What do you think?" The old man's voice was erratic, and he couldn't hear whether he was criticizing the young daughter-in-law's fault, or he was on the same side with the young daughter-in-law. responsibility. The young daughter-in-law raised her head, and the tears in her eyes gushed like active fountains.Tears slid down her face, as crystal clear as the other half's well water. "Hey..." The gray-haired old man sighed, supported the young daughter-in-law's weak shoulders and comforted him, "Forget it, you have done your best, and I can't blame you, but your stingy mother-in-law. Fortunately, there is still half of the clean water, which is better than none."

After this incident, people in the village often went to this small well to fetch water, but they had to be careful to avoid the other half of the dirty water.The water on the clean side is still as sweet as before, and you feel refreshed and windy after drinking it; while the water on the other side is dirty, you will have diarrhea if you drink it, just like a laxative.Some people sometimes deliberately use it as a laxative. But from the time when it was formed until now, when grandma was in her fifties or sixties and occasionally went back to her natal home to visit, the well water still maintained a clear appearance on both sides.

But now, many people have forgotten that a young daughter-in-law once threw a stone charm here.It turned out that the young daughter-in-law had moved away from the village where grandma grew up. Many people forgot this young daughter-in-law like a stone charm, but grandma still remembered her appearance clearly.When grandma told us about her, she could still talk about her from eyebrows to nose, from nose to mouth, carefully and clearly.