Chapter 406 Chapter 14 Jujube Memory

Then, I saw the shadow of a tree in the upper left corner of the ground, with very few branches and leaves, like the skeleton of an umbrella that had been stripped of tarpaulin.The strange thing is that there is a shadow of a tree on the ground, but there is no tree beside the shadow. Apparently the old farmer also saw the shadow of the tree, he was startled, turned his head and asked his son in panic, "Well, isn't that the jujube tree we planted in our family? I had it when I was born, I remember its shadow!" The old farmer's son was at a loss for a moment, looked at the shadow on the ground, looked at his father, then looked at the grave-eyed grandfather, coughed, and said, "I see that it hasn't grown dates very much in recent years, and it hinders autumn Dry the grain on the ground, cut it off and dig up the roots before the Chinese New Year. The tree is gone, why is the shadow still there?"

I thought of the jujube tree in front of my grandfather's house, and for a moment I imagined this jujube tree, which I had never met, as the one in front of my grandfather's house.If grandpa or uncle wanted to cut down that jujube tree, I would be the first to oppose it.Because I have tasted the sweetness of fresh dates countless times when I was a child.Although the fruits on the jujube tree have been beaten by the children of the neighbors with clothes poles or fishing rods before I go on vacation, for me, the jujube tree bears not only a few fruits, but also Carrying my nostalgia for the past.Many years later, when I was going to school in the far northeast, the thin but tenacious jujube tree often appeared in my dreams.

Several times, my grandfather and I thought that the jujube tree had come to the end of its life.Because in the spring of several years, it was lazily unwilling to bloom small yellow-green flowers, and it was unwilling to grow small green shoots. It withered like a chicken with plague, and dried up like hanging on the end of grandpa's cigarette. The soot in the air seems to fly away in pieces like the soot in grandpa's hand with a light breath. But my grandpa and I were needless to worry. When it comes to the season of cicadas singing, it always miraculously gives birth to red and green jujubes one after another.At this time, my grandfather and I breathed a sigh of relief for the jujube tree.

I don't know if the old farmer and his son have the same experience and relationship with their jujube tree.In our area, there are many peach trees and orange trees, but there are very few jujube trees, so they are very precious.So I believe that the old farmer and his son have tasted the fruit it bears countless times.Its nutrients have supported them for two or even three or four generations. The old farmer asked: "Master Ma, there is indeed a jujube tree planted in the corner of my house, and everyone who passes by my house knows it. But how do you say that every year there is a jujube that cannot be harvested on that jujube tree?"

Grandpa sighed, and said: "Maybe you are not careful enough, and you didn't find a seed hidden in your jujube tree. Not only jujube trees, but also orange trees, pear trees, etc., they all want to hide one or two seeds." Seed the fruit. Have you ever had such an experience? Every year you think you have picked all the fruits from the peach tree or jujube tree, but after a long time, when you go to see it, you find that there is still a fruit hidden in the leaves. " The old farmer nodded and said, "Indeed, I often feel this way." After being reminded by his grandfather, the old farmer's son suddenly realized: "Yes, yes. Master Ma is right. The jujube tree in my house is like this. Every time I climb up the tree, I will beat up all the jujubes I can see. After the season of picking, I occasionally look up and see a jujube somewhere on the tree. It’s just that the jujube has become dry and tasteless at that time, so I don’t care about it. This happens almost every year. But I didn’t take this The matter is on my mind, so I didn't see one or two dates!"

The grandfather glanced at the old farmer's son, nodded slightly, and said, "Of course not every tree hides seeds, but once you say that, I'm sure." "What are you sure about?" the old farmer asked anxiously. It was the old farmer's daughter-in-law who was smarter, and she said abruptly, "What else can I be sure of? Of course it's a ghost." Grandpa nodded and walked to the shadow of the tree.We followed lightly and leaned over. The shadow of the jujube tree swayed gently under the smoky moonlight. It seemed that our footsteps did not disturb it.

"No wonder it gave you a few shriveled dates." Grandpa said to the old farmer, "It turns out that it is reminding you that when you destroy its trunk, you also destroy its seeds, so that its life cannot be obtained." Continuation. It has resentment against you." Grandpa squatted down, groping in the shadow of the tree. The old farmer and his son looked at each other for a while, and then the old farmer said to himself: "It has a grudge against us?" The old farmer's son said: "We have raised it for so long, how can it have resentment?" Grandpa was still groping in the shadow of the tree, "What are you talking about? The tree grows by the sunlight and the nourishment of the rain. How can you raise it? People want to eat its fruits every year."

What he said made the old farmer's son bow his head. Grandpa withdrew his hand from the shadow of the tree, reached out to the old farmer, and asked, "Did you lose these dates?" The old farmer's eyes are not good, so he can't see clearly what his grandfather is holding.The old farmer's son standing aside widened his eyes and was very surprised: "Can this tree shadow bear fruit? How did you get some dates?" The old farmer heard that his grandfather was holding dates, so he hurriedly grabbed the dates from his grandfather's hand and looked carefully at the moonlight.After a long time, he said: "Isn't this the date that the man in white clothes handed me during the day? Why did you come here?"

The old farmer hurriedly ran into the house with the dates.The old farmer's daughter-in-law shouted, "Father, why are you running into the house?" The old farmer shouted as he ran, "I'm going to see where the dates I put on the table have gone." A few of us hurriedly followed into the house. When he entered the door, the old farmer's son secretly asked his grandfather, "Did the shadow of the tree appear tonight, or did it exist before and we just didn't find it?" Grandpa thought for a while and replied: "It should have existed before, but you didn't notice it carefully."

Seeing us coming in, the old farmer turned around and spread his hands, "The dates I put on the table during the day are gone. Who threw the dates outside?" Asked his son, his son said no; asked his daughter-in-law , His daughter-in-law also said it wasn't her. "Could it be that it grows its own legs and runs outside?" the old farmer laughed at himself. Before the old farmer could finish his sentence, he heard a strange voice from his granddaughter from the boudoir: "You said that old man outside is from Thrush?"