Bai Jiaxuan reappeared in the streets of Bailu Village. The villagers almost didn't recognize him. His waist as straight as a rafter was stooped, and it was bent into a ninety-degree angle from the tailbone, and his buttocks were high. The ground was pouting; he was holding a truncated cane in his hand, and when talking to people, he raised his face, like a dog; when he raised his head to talk to people, his eyes tried their best to reach out. Turning up and opening, the originally bulging eyeballs became more prominent, and the whites of the eyes became even larger and dazzling; the two corners of the mouth were pulled downwards in opposite directions, and the wide mouth was curled into a curved bow, showing even more persistence and almost stubbornness. In the streets and alleys, he answered the concerned men and women in brief words. He only stopped briefly, moved his crutch almost non-stop, and followed Lu San, who was pulling the ox and carrying the plow, out of the village alley.
It is late autumn and early winter, a season when the days are so short that it is difficult for Qiao’s wife to cook three meals. The sun sets on the original slope in the west of Bailuyuan, and a shy glow rises in the sky above Bailuyuan. Bai Jiaxuan stood on the ground with a cane in both hands, looking at Lu San held a plow stick in one hand and raised a whip in the other as he plowed the land reserved for cotton fields leisurely. The yellow-brown soil rolled up on the plowshare; Bai Jiaxuan ran towards him from the glow. Bai Jiaxuan's palms were itchy, his legs and feet were itchy, and his throat was itchy. He wanted to grip the smooth handle of the plow, wanted to step on the rolling soil, and wanted to let go of his throat to shout at the animals. When Lu San plowed again and went back to the field to rein in the oxen, Bai Jiaxuan threw away his crutch, grabbed the handle of the plow and took the whip with the other hand, saying: "Third brother, go smoke a cigarette." Lu Sanzui He was ticking loudly and naively: "The sky is so short that I can't even turn around for a few times before it gets dark." Finally, he had no choice but to put down the whip and plow stick, and reluctantly squatted down to touch the cigarette pack. He watched Bai Jiaxuan insert the tip of the plow into the When Bai Jiaxuan entered the ditch, he shouted and rushed forward to grab the plow stick: "Jiaxuan, you don't dare to plow, your waist..." Bai Jiaxuan pushed his hand away and shouted again: "De'erqi" The bullock dragged him Plowshare walked forward. Bai Jiaxuan turned to Lu San and said loudly: "I want to test the fire." Lu San held the tobacco bag that had not yet been filled with cigarette powder and walked side by side with Jiaxuan, worried that something might go wrong. Bai Jiaxuan said unhappily: "I don't feel comfortable with you next to me. Go away and smoke your cigarette." Lu San stopped helplessly, looking closely at Bai Jiaxuan who was gradually melting into the glow, still holding on tightly. I can’t remember to put cigarettes in my cigarette pouch when it’s empty.
Bai Jiaxuan just stared at the land where the plow was moving. The yellow-brown soil was rolling under his feet. The smell of fresh wet earth overflowed from under the plowshare, nourishing his empty and anxious chest. He could hear the joints in his arms and legs. He shouted the concise instructions for maneuvering the bullocks leisurely, which seemed to be a kind of pleasant lyricism. He plowed until the end of the cotton field, turned over the plowshare, and plowed towards the east with the glow on his back. At that time, he shouted Qin Opera: "Hansu Wu is in Beihai..." After three back and forth plows, Bai Jiaxuan was sweating profusely and panting. After all, his body was weak, but he had lived a boring and depressing life sleeping on the kang for more than three months. It was finally over. When he returned from work at noon that day, Bai Jiaxuan threw the crutch into the shed where firewood was stored. He stood in the courtyard and took the copper washbasin brought by the fairy grass and said: "I I tried it out later in the evening and I’m okay.”
After dinner, in the room of the landlady in the hall, Bai Jiaxuan decided to convene a gathering of all family members. He called Xiaowen and his third son Xiaoyi, and the second son's daughter-in-law was informed by Xiancao that as the family's unofficial
But he is an indispensable member, Lu San. He personally went to the horse stable to invite him, and he was politely moved to a simple Taishi chair on the other side of the table. The two daughters-in-law were sitting in an orderly manner, and the mother-in-law's had already started to simmer the fire.
On the edge of the kang, Bai Jiaxuan said: "My waist is healed." He turned to look at his two daughters-in-law and said: "I curled up on the kang for a full one hundred and seven days, and you two - the eldest sister and the second sister.
It's good to be filial even though you have suffered." The two daughters-in-law were frightened when they were praised by the elders of the family. They rushed to confess that this was completely the filial piety that juniors should fulfill. Bai Jiaxuan shook his head and interrupted them.
: "You still don't know what I'm most afraid of in my life. I'm not afraid of crooked people, evil people, or bandits and thieves. I'm not afraid of hardship, hard work, or going to bed late and getting up early. The thing I'm most afraid of... is death.
Lying stiffly on the kang, people were waiting to make soup, cook medicine, eat, drink, poop and urinate." The whole family was silent. Only the old mother Bai Zhao was moved by the kang: "You are a sinner." Bai Jiaxuan continued: "
I am a sinner and I can’t help it. I love to suffer and I can’t help but exert myself. Suffering is a natural thing and my whole body feels happy when I work. If I don’t work for two days, my arms and legs will become weak.
My heart is softened but I am also confused and anxious..." Bai Jiaxuan paused here, and then solemnly said what he wanted to tell every family member: "What I mean by these words is that starting from tomorrow, you
Stop hanging around me. Everyone of you should do what you should do. People inside the house should spin threads, weave cloth, sew cotton-padded clothes, and people outside should do farm work.
Do your best, Xiaowen, you and your third uncle have finished plowing the cotton fields and then plowed the rice fields. For the calves, you feed the animals left in the trough, bulldoze the soil and dry it in the air, collect enough soil for the winter pads, and cover it carefully.
Snow. As soon as the ground freezes, we have to quickly hitch a train and deliver manure. If these jobs are done quickly, the cotton gin will start to ring. In a word, how can we live the old days and how can we live from tomorrow on? I - okay."
The sad and chaotic atmosphere that enveloped the courtyard room after Bai Jiaxuan's waist was broken by bandits has been cleared, and the rigorous and diligent life and production order before the disaster have been completely restored. Not only was it restored, all the adults in the family were surprised to find that self-confidence
The parent who said "I'm okay" has undergone major changes. He gets up earlier than before with a hunchback. When the sky is dim, a majestic coughing sound can be heard in the courtyard, which often embarrasses his daughter-in-law who opens the door after him and carries a urinal to urinate.
His steps were not difficult but more nimble. He hunched his back and waved his hands and moved his legs and feet. He walked around the front yard, the backyard, the cowshed, the pig pen and the toilet in the backyard without anything to do;
Except for those who have to carry a load on both shoulders or one shoulder, he is not afraid of any farm work that is performed with both hands, legs and feet. He and his son are not afraid of any farm work in autumn and winter, such as plowing cotton fields, plowing rice fields, digging grass, rotating sieves, dustpans, transporting dung, driving ox carts, and stepping on cotton gins.
Xiaowen's long-term worker Lu San worked hand in hand; his words were fewer, more concise and more accurate, and useless nonsense and false social interactions were completely omitted from his mouth. Xiaowen and Lu San were always worried that he would get sick from exhaustion.
I repeatedly urged him to work for a while and take a break. It is best to work for one hour a day and take a two-hour break. At most, he should work for two hours every morning and evening and take a break at lunch. If he keeps working with them three hours a day like this, sooner or later something will happen.
Bai Jiaxuan turned a deaf ear and only focused on the work in his hands or at his feet. When he was annoyed by their aggressiveness, he became impatient: "You two should be quiet and don't say those words anymore. I don't like to hear it. People can only be idle.
Nothing is broken."
The entire courtyard was like a cotton gin that had been idle all summer and autumn, and then started to work in winter. At this time, a fatal blow came one after another. Bai Jiaxuan discovered Xiaowen's secret. This blow was almost devastating.
.
It was the evening when the first heavy snow fell after the beginning of winter. Bai Jiaxuan stepped on the cotton gin for a long time, and Xiaowen dragged him off. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, put on cotton clothes and trousers, and walked out of the pen where cattle and horses were raised.
Instead of walking into the courtyard diagonally opposite the door, he turned around and walked along the West Alley. The heavy snow melted and the alley was muddy. Bai Jiaxuan walked into the street of Bailu Town, which connected the village alley, with his hands behind his back, and pushed away
The door of Mr. Leng's traditional Chinese medicine hall was ajar. Mr. Leng poured him a cup of golden tea, unwrapped a pack of cigarette leaves wrapped in creamy yellow oil paper, spread it on the small table, and pointed to a teacup.
Said: "You are in luck, this tea is brewed with the snowflake water that I just received. Try it." Bai Jiaxuan took a sip of the tea, the fragrance was fragrant, and the hot water rolled down his throat.
Deliberately coldly said: "Snow water is just water, it makes no difference when I drink it." Then he pinched out a piece of cigarette that was cut very neatly, tore it open gracefully and spread it on the cotton pants at his knees.
, then take a short section of broken cigarette pieces and sandwich them evenly, then roll them up, twist them repeatedly between two thick palms, use the tip of your tongue to sip a little saliva on the open cigarette pieces to stick them, and then make
He took out a beautiful cigar. He picked up the fragrant cigar that had been burning silently from morning to night from the table, lit it against the end of the cigar, and puffed out a puff of thick blue smoke.
.
After the second son Xiaowu's daughter-in-law came to the house in the first month of the year, the relationship between him and Mr. Leng changed profoundly. It developed from a fraternal friendship between fathers and sons to an in-laws. I am grateful to the in-laws for their careful and sincere treatment, and finally he was able to survive for a hundred days.
After that, he walked back to the streets and alleys of Bailu Village without turning into a stiff and paralyzed waste. He never visited the house before, let alone now. Only after some days or during the rainy and depressing days, he would
Come and sit down and chat at the traditional Chinese medicine hall of Mr. Leng, your in-laws. Mr. Leng’s traditional Chinese medicine hall has become a vent for Luoguo Jiaxuan to learn about the happenings in Bailuyuan. People seeking medical treatment and medicine will promptly report the abnormal events that occur in each village to the traditional Chinese medicine doctor every day.
In the hall, Mr. Leng sifts through the numerous events, big and small, and picks out those worth mentioning and tells them to Bai Jiaxuan. The two of them then discuss the matter. Sometimes they sit across from each other, drinking tea and smoking.
Each person has a bamboo fan and a charcoal fire in winter. Mr. Leng doesn’t talk much, and Bai Jiaxuan doesn’t speak much. The two of them just sit there without even saying a word. Both of them understand in their hearts that only true trust is the best.
Only the relationship between Yu and Yu can achieve this kind of situation where hypocrisy is eliminated and reality remains. Bai Jiaxuan sipped the tea washed with snow water with a peaceful and happy attitude, and found that Mr. Leng was particularly eager to refill the tea for him. A little excessive politeness only caused a stir.
Uncomfortable and awkward; he glanced at Mr. Leng carefully, and finally found that his eyes, which were always air-conditioned, were evasive and gleaming with a ray of light. He said bluntly: "Brother Leng, don't act blindly. Sit down and slap you."
Let's smoke. I can pour tea and roll cigarettes. You seem to have something on your mind and it's inconvenient for me to leave here." Mr. Leng saw that he had made a mistake and hurriedly took Bai Jiaxuan's hand, and he could no longer turn around.
He said: "Brother, sit down, I have something to tell you..."
"We brothers are still talking in such a roundabout way."
"I heard a gossip——"
"..."
"Although it is just a piece of gossip, it is not an ordinary gossip."
"Well, I haven't seen you for a few days. Your straight intestine is twisted into a knot. Forget it. I'll go back to sleep."
"I'm afraid you won't be able to handle this gossip. Brother, don't get angry when you hear this gossip. I can't help you not talking about this gossip. If I say it, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it..."
"My yellow goods and white goods were robbed by bandits, and my waist was broken. I am not like a human being, but like a dog. I didn't even curse a word and still stepped on my cotton gin; I don't believe there are still people in the world."
What 'gossip' can make me angry to death, and what can bring me down is just trying to calculate my food bill and be executed."
"Brother Jiaxuan...I heard people gossiping about Xiaowen..."
"What kind of gossip can Xiaowen Xiaowen have?"
"Said it was with the guy from the rotten kiln at the entrance of the village..."
"Well……"
Mr. Leng saw Bai Jiaxuan's red face suddenly turn into a piece of yellow paper, his stooped body trembled violently, he squeezed the cigarette between his fingers, and at that moment his eyes widened to the point of being absent-minded.
None of this exceeded Mr. Leng's expectations. It was a good thing that Bai Jiaxuan didn't hold his breath at the moment. He finally said this unspeakable gossip. Bai Jiaxuan recovered quickly and asked with a cold face: "Brother, according to your opinion, this is
If there is any truth, someone is still smearing shit on my face." Mr. Leng said: "I don't think so. Just take it as gossip." Bai Jiaxuan asked again: "Who did you hear this from? How did it come out?
Mr. Leng said lightly: "As the saying goes, 'Dew has no seeds, gossip has no shadow.'" Bai Jiaxuan shook his head and said, "Every gossip has a shadow."