Wang Tianxiao opened his eyes and found himself lying in the snow.

Ever since he lived in the south with his children, he rarely saw snow, and sometimes it would snow in his dreams.

Suddenly I saw the silver snake dancing in the mountains, and I felt very happy.

But this place...

He sat up suddenly, shocked.

A dilapidated "Phoenix" brand weighted bicycle fell in the snow beside him. It had been buried for an unknown period of time, and the snow had buried the front wheel.

There was a military-yellow backpack hanging on the handlebar, and the mouth was opened, revealing half a light yellow cornmeal cake inside, which was also half buried in the snow.

He was wearing a light gray burlap Chinese tunic suit. This kind of fabric had not been seen for some years, and the large leather shoes on his feet were full of a sense of the times.

Because the pants were a bit too short, the exposed red socks had some bright yellow words embroidered on them: Happiness Card.

Wang Tianxiao looked at the word happiness stupidly.

a long time.

He murmured: "I thought that all the hardships had finally come to an end, but in the blink of an eye, it was back to thirty years ago. Do the sufferings we have experienced have to happen again?"

How are you playing with this shitty fate?!

When you are sad, you will run out of ammunition and food. You want to get over it quickly, but the days are like years of delay;

I finally felt better, hoping that time would pass slowly and enjoy peace and happiness, but I soon had to reshuffle the cards and start again.

Could you be more shameless?

Wang Tianxiao sat in the snow for another half an hour. He lifted up his bicycle with a wry smile, looked at the small mountain village shrouded in night, and spat.

"Oh shit."

He has been honest all his life and has rarely used any foul language, but now that he has said it, he finds it really enjoyable.

damn it!!

He howled toward the mountains.

The shouts were mixed with the wind and snow, and were carried deep into the mountains.

.

Wang Tianxiao pedaled his bicycle quickly in the snow. The snow was thick and slippery, but he had ridden this bicycle from his teens to his forties, and he knew its performance well.

Even if you scold me, you can't escape what you have to face.

During the ride, he gradually recalled past events and why he appeared in the snow on this day.

December 12, 1984.

My wife was harmed by evildoers and gave birth prematurely. Her son, who was supposed to be born next month, will be born in the early morning of tomorrow. He was bleeding heavily and almost couldn't be saved.

Fortunately, he went home temporarily to do some work, otherwise the consequences would have been disastrous. It was precisely because of this incident that he harbored a trace of resentment toward his indifferent mother for the rest of his life.

Thinking about his family, Wang Tianxiao rode fast. At the age of twenty-five, he was in the prime of life. He was full of energy and not physically disabled.

The bicycle moved quickly in the snow, leaving two black tracks.

At around one o'clock in the morning, Wang Tianxiao returned to the village.

Wangjia Village is backed by Yangziling and is a small village at the foot of the mountain. The village has about eight to nine thousand people. The villagers farm the land when they are busy, and go hunting and collecting herbs in the mountains when they have time. Their life is not bad.

Wang Tianxiao is a ranger at a forest farm in the next county. Because he had a bad relationship with his leader, he was stationed out of town for a long time.

Although the straight-line distance from home is only a few dozen kilometers, to get back you have to go around half a mountain. The total distance is nearly 150 kilometers. It is not easy to go home.

It was quiet in Wangjia Village in the early morning, except for the occasional barking of dogs.

He was so anxious that he didn't have time to rest. He stepped on the edge of the cliff of his pit yard and leaned over to see that his cave dwelling was completely dark.

Dikengyuan is a common living style in Longdong.

A large pit several feet deep was dug in the ground, with a length and width of about ten feet each. A dozen cave dwellings were dug out on the sides for people to live in. When viewed from above, it looks a bit like a huge unearthed cemetery.

Because it is more than ten meters underground, it is warm in winter and cool in summer, and can avoid the severe weather with great temperature differences in the northwest. There will be a huge seepage pit in the middle of the yard. If there is too much rain in summer, the water will seep into the seepage pit and prevent it from flowing back.

cave dwelling.

No matter how many children there are in each family, they all live in a kang courtyard before the family is divided. Each family has a cave dwelling, and everyone, regardless of gender, old or young, lives in it.

When I have a daughter and it is really inconvenient to live in the same house with my father, I will move up and build a courtyard on the ground, which is what the saying goes: splitting up the family.

As long as the family separates, Dikengyuan basically has nothing to do with the son. In the end, Dikengyuan will be left to the youngest son, and the parents will usually live with the younger son.

It is now 1984, and Wang Tianxiao has not yet separated his family. He lives with his four brothers and one sister in the Dikeng Courtyard.

He works outside for a long time, leaving only his wife Li Yali at home.

Three years ago, I had my daughter Xiao Wang Fang. My daughter is very sensible. Although she is very young, she can already help her mother wash socks, sweep the floor, and do some simple housework.

Thinking of his daughter, Wang Tianxiao felt nervous and knocked hard on the dilapidated door.

"Dong dong dong."

The knocking on the door was particularly loud in the quiet night, and more dogs were startled, one after another, and their barks resounded throughout the small mountain village.

"Who is it?" someone shouted in the yard.

"Me!" He heard that the voice was that of his third sister-in-law, Yu Xiaofeng, and a trace of anger flashed in his eyes, and he said angrily.

It suddenly became quiet inside. After a moment, someone slowly opened the door.

But it was his fourth brother Wang Tianyi.

Wang Tianyi works as a clerk in the village. When his elder brother is not at home, he always likes to be the head of the family and likes to speak in an official tone, as if the clerk is a very big official.

"Second brother, why are you back so late at night?" Wang Tianyi looked surprised.

"Yeah." Wang Tianxiao responded lukewarmly, carried his bicycle across the threshold, and walked down to the yard.

For a moment, he didn't know how to face these brothers who had a tense relationship in his previous life and were almost enemies. Seeing them and hearing their voices made him feel sick.

Leaning the bicycle against the wall, Wang Tianxiao pushed open the air leaky door of his house.

It was pitch dark inside.

He stood on the ground in the room, closed his eyes tightly for a few seconds, his eyes were slightly moist, and he hesitated to light the lamp.

He knew what kind of scene he was going to see next. Thirty years later, he was heartbroken every time he thought about it.

There was a rustling sound in the darkness, and a crisp and tender voice asked cautiously: "Who?"

Wang Tianxiao took out a match from behind the railing and tried to light the kerosene lamp on the railing. He lit it twice and found that it could not be lit. Using the weak light from the match, he saw that there was no kerosene in the kerosene lamp.

But just with this little light, I heard a loud cry "Wow" suddenly coming from the kang, and there was the sound of small footsteps approaching quickly, and soft and tender little arms hugged Wang Tianxiao's neck.

"Dad...Dad...my mother is dying."

His daughter Wang Fang just held his neck and cried, unable to say anything else.

Wang Tianxiao couldn't help but shed tears down his face.

My daughter, Wang Fang, lived a hard life as a child and was severely undernourished. Although she was very good, she was always discriminated against because of her height. She was too depressed to start a family. In the end, she suffered from moderate depression and even had the idea of ​​committing suicide.

As a father, it is ultimately his dereliction of duty to fail to let his children live a good life and leave him with lifelong regrets.

"Fangwa, be good, your mother won't die. You sit down first while dad goes to find kerosene to turn on the lamp."

His daughter's limp body softened Wang Tianxiao's heart. Thinking about his previous life, when his daughter became strong and independent, but was not very close to him, he felt very guilty.

In order to survive, he had no choice but to work around for a long time to make money, but because of this he missed the beautiful years of spending time with his children.

Reasonable……

But it left him helpless.

"My mother said there is no kerosene at home." Wang Fang said playfully, her hand still hanging around her father's neck, unwilling to let go.

Wang Tianxiao can only go home once every half a year, and every time he comes back, his daughter is so clingy.

"Then... let's go find grandma and get some."

"Grandma said she's gone too."

"Then, let me ask you about Wu Da."

"Wuda and Sixda are not here, only Three and Four are here."

Wang Tianxiao was silent for a while, gritted his teeth, and came to the cave dwelling in the north and east. This is the cave dwelling of the fourth Wang Tianyi's family.

He has just been married for more than four years and has not separated yet.

"Fourth brother, do you still have kerosene? I have no more oil for my lamp. Give me some."

After a long time inside, he whispered: "Second brother, it seems there aren't many of us... Just wait, I'll show you."

Wang Tianxiao held his daughter and waited in the snow for five or six minutes before the door opened. Wang Tianyi was wearing a sheepskin jacket and holding a small bottle in his hand.

"Here, this is all that's left."

Under the snowy light, Wang Tianxiao saw that there was only a small amount of kerosene inside, and he gritted his teeth secretly, "Okay, these are enough. I will pay you back if I buy it tomorrow."

"It's okay, it's okay. Just use it. Then I'll go to bed first."

"good."

Seeing the door in front of him closed, Wang Tianxiao went back to his cave dwelling.

He walked past the caves of Lao Liu and Lao Wu, stood in front of his mother's cave for a moment, and then came to the door of Lao San's house, with a trace of indifference flashing in his eyes.

Finally returned to the cave dwelling.

After lighting the kerosene lamp, he got on the kang and held his wife, who was so feverish that she was unconscious and shivering with cold, in his arms.

This is the second time he has experienced this night.

Just like thirty years ago, he went home temporarily and saw his wife in a coma.

It was a cold kang. I wanted to make a fire but there was no wheat straw. I wanted to boil some hot water for my wife. There was no firewood in the pot. There was only the bottom of the water tank, which was still frozen solid. The handles of the steel knives were knocked.

Not broken.

He put down his wife, helped her wrap up all the quilts, and then went to the woodshed. He saw that every firewood stack was piled high, but his own was empty.

After my wife got married, the land was not allocated yet, and he did not have a rural registered permanent residence, so the family did not have any land. Without farming, there was no crops and grass to use for heating, and the winter was like a year.

Of course, since this place is located on a mountain, there would be no shortage of things to burn, but my wife is pregnant with a child and has limited mobility, so it is impossible to go several kilometers away to collect firewood.

When he left, he asked Lao Wu and Lao Liu to help his wife get firewood, but he didn't know why. Lao Liu was unreliable, so Lao Wu would not ignore it.

Wang Tianxiao looked at all the firewood piles for a while and came to the first pile on the left, which belonged to the family of his third brother Wang Tianren. He directly filled a large basket and took it back to his cave dwelling.

They owe themselves more than a basket of firewood, and they will pay off if they get back some.

Soon, the kang was burning hot.

The kang in the northwest is similar to the kang in the northeast. No matter how cold the room is, as long as the kang is heated, it will slowly warm up. Warming the kang for wife and children is also the simplest and most beautiful life goal for northwest men.

Wang Tianxiao worked hard to pound out some ice cubes from the jar, put them into a pot, boiled them, poured some into a thermos bottle, and filled two infusion bottles into his wife's bed.

Wang Fang sensibly lay on the railing and talked to him, running over from time to time to put her mother's outstretched hand back into the quilt.

A child from a poor family has long been the head of the family. As a young child, she already knows how to feel sorry for her mother.

Wang Tianxiao rummaged through the box again and found a piece of Analgin. He raised his wife's head and prepared to feed her. After thinking about it, he took off half of the tablet and fed only half of it.

Although metamizole is very effective, it also has serious side effects for special groups of people. My wife is about to give birth now, so she should be careful.

After doing this, he leaned against the wall and lay next to his wife, looking at his wife who was frowning in her sleep. She was so young at this time. She was twenty-three or four years old, which was the time to be beautiful.

Thinking about how hard she worked with him for half her life, she worked in the fields when she was busy, and did small jobs on construction sites during her spare time. She was only in her fifties, and she already had gray hair, and her lumbar muscles were so strained that she couldn't straighten her waist.

anemia.

In raising three children, she not only fulfilled her responsibilities as a mother, but also helped her husband share many of his burdens.

He... didn't give her a stable life, let alone wealth. He tried very hard, but he still failed to be a qualified husband.

Because the kang was getting warmer, little Wang Fang began to feel drowsy. She pressed close to her father's body, hugging his left hand and kissing the back of his hand with her tender mouth from time to time.

"Dad...Dad...Dad."

After falling asleep, he still called daddy in a daze.

Wang Tianxiao gently rubbed her little hands, which were as cold as little steamed buns.

The family was poor and could not afford cotton. The children still wore jackets in winter, and their little hands developed habitual frostbite, which gradually improved until they were in high school.

I don’t know how long it took, but my wife Li Yali slowly opened her eyes. She was a little confused at first, thinking it was a dream, so she held her husband’s hand and put it on her face.

But soon, she realized that this was not a dream, her husband was lying next to her, and she shouted in surprise: "Shopkeeper, when did you come back?"

The new book is opened, signed, and ready for investment.
Chapter completed!