On the banks of the Nulong River, there is a village called Yanshang Village. There are 58 households in the village, and they can barely live and work in peace and contentment. Since the Nulong River had a once-in-a-century flood half a year ago, the lower Heshang Village and Hexia Village were flooded.
After that, Yanshang Village is the village closest to the river.
Recently, something new happened in the village. Several men who lost their homes in the two villages below were actually coerced into committing robberies. However, they came back a few days ago, and they all looked haggard.
A lot.
On this day, several village women who were doing laundry by the river suddenly discovered that a black shadow appeared in the distance on the river. If they looked closely, it turned out to be a swaying boat. They couldn't help but stop their work in surprise.
The Nulong River is like a dragon that gets angry all the time. The water on the river is fast, the waves are high, and there are dangerous shoals everywhere. Only the most experienced boatman cannot control it.
The last time there was a flood, the only river crossing boat nearby was overturned, and the old boatman who was punting the boat was also swept away without a trace.
Therefore, the two sides of the river have been cut off from contact for several months. Even if they want to visit relatives on the other side, they have to go hundreds of miles away.
The village women stopped doing laundry and gathered together, pointing and tiptoeing to look out. They saw the boat moving slowly in the rapids, but very steadily, and it gradually got closer.
"Oh, what a handsome young man!"
"Hehehe, Mrs. Chunhua's eyes are very sharp. She can tell at a glance that the young man is handsome!"
"It's as if you weren't looking at that person's face, and that pair of tricks are almost sticking to his body! Tsk tsk, he's so skinny, but he looks very strong. He must have more than two ounces of flesh!"
"From Huang Er's family, your Huang Er is as strong as a bear. Your land hasn't been plowed yet at night."
Several village women were joking with each other unscrupulously, but their eyes were looking at the boat that was getting closer and closer. The young man holding the oar on the bow of the boat raised his head, with a look of honesty and a bit of shyness on his handsome face.
smile.
"Yo yo yo!"
The village women all screamed, and the most aggressive Mrs. Chunhua shouted: "Young man, where did you come from, and where are you going?"
The young man smiled shyly and docked the boat: "Auntie, is this Yanshang Village?"
"Yes!" Mrs. Chunhua replied, and several village women enthusiastically stepped forward to help pull the rope and tie it to the wooden stake that was already standing on the bank.
"What are you doing in our village? Looking at your fair face, you must be a scholar from some family, right?"
"I, I am not a scholar." The young man blushed at the sight of several village women: "I, I am a punter. I heard that there are no river boats in this section of the river, so I wanted to come here to make a living..."
This statement surprised the village women, and they all shook their heads to express that it didn't look like it.
However, after the young man struggled to get out of the boat, everyone discovered that he was lame in one leg. He had not noticed it before sitting on the boat, but it became obvious when he walked.
The village women were surprised, but inevitably showed a look of pity with a bit of pity, and then began to inquire about the other party's origins from head to toe.
After the young man's narration, I found out that his surname is Ouyang, and his name is Zhuzi, which is very inconsistent with his appearance. He is eighteen years old, and his family has been punting for three generations. He is from Jinsha Village on the upper reaches of the Nulong River.
people.
The flood that occurred half a year ago also flooded Jinsha Village. Most of the people in the village fed the Dragon Prince, and not even one out of ten survived. He was the only one who died in the Zhuzi family.
Naturally, Jinsha Village was scattered, and the pillars had nowhere to go. I heard that there were no punters in Yanshang Village, so I thought of coming here to make a living.
Zhuzi's eyes turned red as he spoke, and the village women also wiped away tears. They were all people who had lived by the river for generations, and they all had the same feelings.
Aunt Chunhua slapped her thigh: "Is your father's name Shuanzi? He has been running a boat on the Qimang Mountain upstream for decades? No wonder! Seeing how well you handle the boat, it turns out to be a family tradition."
Neighbors in villages ten miles apart knew each other well, and Zhuzi was not surprised and just nodded.
However, Aunt Huang suddenly stamped her feet and said angrily: "I don't know what's wrong with this world! Several generations of my ancestors were implicated in the killings between the immortal families, and they lived in fear all day long. It was easy to settle down for several years.
It’s either a plague or a flood, how can we live like this!”
"Alas!"
Suddenly there was a chorus of sighs, the world is difficult, and the most miserable people are mortals like them. They have no power and power, and they have to depend on the weather. A heavy rain can kill a few of them.
Zhu Zhu looked to the left and then to the right, feeling a little at a loss.
Sister-in-law Chunhua raised her big calloused hands and patted him hard: "It's okay, it's okay! God will starve the bird to death. I saw that you were very stable when you just came over. You have the skills to steer a boat."
, there are big rivers at your disposal! Walk around, follow the aunts to find the village chief!"
The village women were very enthusiastic and picked up the clothes basin and dragged him to the village. Things went smoothly after that. The village chief agreed to let him dock the ferry in Yanshang Village, but he wanted to see his work first.
After all, the Nulong River is no different from those calm lakes and streams. The water flow is extremely fast, and there are sucking dark eddies under the water. It will be useless no matter how long you swim. If the boat capsizes on the river, the lives of all the people on the boat will be lost.
All may have been explained.
There was nothing to do in the countryside, so almost the whole village came to the river to watch the excitement. Although Zhu Zhu was a little shy, his temperament was calm, and the boat he drove was as stable as the ground, which attracted the villagers to raise their thumbs and say something.
I have never seen such a beautiful scenery before, it makes people think that it is not on the Nulong River!
Since then, Zhuzhu has been engaged in the work of ferrying people across the river. He punted the boat during the day and lived on the boat at night. The boat fee was not expensive, one copper coin per person, and he could pay for supplies without copper coins, such as food.
, fruits, vegetables, and wild animals are not limited.
It's just that the river is several miles wide and the water is fast. When his boat is full, it can only carry a dozen people, so he can only make two trips back and forth every day, barely making ends meet. After two years of this, several villages on both sides of the bank have
Everyone knew that he lived well and had never had any accidents, and they were even willing to come from afar to take his ferry.
There was nothing going on on the river, so gossiping was unavoidable, so Zhuzhu sat on the bow of the boat and paddled the oar all day long, but he knew everything about the country.
Which family had a grandchild, which family had a death, which family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law fought every day, which family's men secretly sneaked into the widow's house and listened to all the stories. They even became familiar with these neighbors, and gradually some people started doing it at home.
Ask him to help you during weddings and weddings, and have a drink by the way.
But every time like this, Zhuzi felt strange in his heart. It was like the indifference of spectators, but also like the feeling of empathy. The birth, old age, illness and death of others, the joys and sorrows, seemed to weigh lightly or heavily on his heart, making him often stare at the endless flow of the river.
I was in a trance, but I couldn't tell what I was thinking.
It seems that I have been thinking a lot, and yet I am not thinking about anything at all. For example, looking at the moon in the water, or looking at the flowers while drunk, everything seems to be separated by a layer of veil.
He had an inexplicable feeling that he should be sitting in the bow of the boat alone but not lonely every day, ferrying people across the river during the day, listening to all the things in the world, watching the water and listening to the waves at night, and chewing on those unexplainable emotions alone.
.
A ferryman is a person who uses a boat to transport people from one shore to the other. The people on the boat interact with each other during the journey, but after the trip ends, they become passers-by in each other's lives.
But there are always unexpected times, such as people who quietly pass away in the middle of the journey, but leave their souls on the boat forever. For example, people who don’t want to reach the other side, but just want to stop in the middle of the river.
Zhuzhu was concentrating on rowing, but he felt a flash of shadow in his peripheral vision. When he turned around, he saw a young woman rushing out of the cabin and jumping into the river with a look of determination!
At that moment, he didn't know where his speed came from. He rushed over in the blink of an eye and grabbed the opponent's collar!
At this time, other people in the cabin realized what was going on, and screams broke out.
"Jump into the river, someone is jumping into the river!"
Most of Zhuzhu's body was dragged out of the boat. In an emergency, he used his other hand to cling to the cabin. The turbulent river water suddenly rolled up, as if it had seen prey, trying to pull him down into the river to devour him.
But he saw the girl raising her head and looking at him with eyes full of hatred and anger: "Let go! Hands!"