The middle of April on the lunar calendar is the best time of the year in the original year. The warm weather makes people feel soft all over the body. The smell of the flowering and booting wheat is similar to the scent of frankincense. The colorful flowers of the poppy remind people of
The beauty of the cauliflower snake…
Bai Xiaowen and his wife returned to the original place and finally made the trip. They each rode a horse and were led by two regimental men. Bai Xiaowen wore a long robe and a top hat, showing an elegant and benevolent demeanor. His wife wore clothes of good quality and dark color, which made her look more attractive.
He looked gentle, honest and elegant. Half a mile away from the village, Xiaowen and his wife got off the horse one after another, then walked into the village on foot, walked through the village alleys, and walked to the door of their house. Naturally, "I'm back" came out in their hearts.
" sigh. His younger brother Xiaowu happened to meet the door, clasped his fists and said to each other: "Brother, you are back." Bai Xiaowen got the opportunity to pour out the sigh in his heart: "I am back." When he entered the bright hall of the upper room, his father
Without a cane, she bent over and raised her head, waiting for his arrival. Bai Xiaowen called out "Dad" and knelt down at his father's knees. His wife immediately knelt down and kowtowed. Bai Jiaxuan helped Xiaowen and sat down on the chair. Bai Xiaowen continued
He led his wife to kowtow to her mother-in-law, Mrs. Bai Zhao, and then led her wife, two younger brothers, and two sisters-in-law to recognize each other. Mrs. Bai Zhao pushed her two great-grandsons to Xiaowen and said, "This is your dad." The child.
Shrinking back shyly. When Bai Xiaowen reached out to stroke the child's head, the two children ran behind Bai Zhao and hid. Bai Jiaxuan said to Xiaowu: "Bring the food here, let's have a reunion dinner today." Just said.
After finishing, he remembered another thing: "Xiaowen, please bring the people in your house to pay homage to your third uncle."
The ceremony to pay homage to the ancestors was arranged after lunch. Due to the order of elders and children, Bai Xiaowu could not preside over this ceremony. He could only do specific affairs, and Bai Jiaxuan came to the ancestral hall to preside over it. The adult men and women of the two surnames Bailu, as soon as they heard the sound of the gong, came early
They crowded into the ancestral hall to see the return of the prodigal son, and their inexplicable interest was in his bride. Bai Xiaowen led his wife into the ancestral hall gate accompanied by Xiaowu, and saw the tree that had been added to the ancestral hall.
The thickened locust tree suddenly appeared in his mind, with him presiding over the punishment of Xiao'e and his younger brother presiding over the punishment of himself. He felt a tremor in his heart, and a feeling of hatred, then he removed his eyes, walked straight across the yard, and stepped on
Go up the steps and stand in front of the sacrificial table that honors the founder of the Bailu clan and all generations of ancestors. The genealogy hanging from the roof beam is densely filled with the names of the deceased, and the empty red line square below is waiting for you.
The people who came after continued to fill in. Bai Xiaowu lit two red wooden tube candles filled with clear oil and stepped aside. Bai Jiaxuan stood in front of the sacrificial table with his waist bent, and facing the crowd, he uttered a voice as loud as a bell: "Our ancestors are generous, kind and virtuous.
The unfilial man Bai Xiaowen returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors and beg for their forgiveness. He offered incense——" Bai Xiaowen took out five sticks of purple incense from the incense tube and lit it on the candle. He inserted his hands into the incense burner and took a step back to stand in line with his wife.
, knelt down after a long bow, and his wife also bowed and kowtowed three times. Bai Jiaxuan recited the next ritual: "Pay homage to the hometown party——" Bai Xiaowen and his wife turned around to face the crowd of male and female villagers inside and outside the ancestral hall.
, clasping fists and bowing, and the township party members also bowed in return.
Another important activity after ancestor worship is to visit the ancestor's grave, and Xiaowu still accompanies him. Xiaoyi, carrying a bamboo cage filled with Yin paper and Yin coins, also accompanies his eldest brother to pay homage to the ancestor's grave. The three brothers stand closest to them
In front of his mother's grave, Bai Xiaowen called "Mom" and fell on the grave. Only then did he feel his true feelings. He cried heartily and returned home with dried tears in his nose.
, only then did I feel that the hard wall between myself and this family was beginning to be dismantled. My mother’s weaving machine, the old chair my father sat on, my grandma’s twisting rack of hemp rope, the stacks of rough porcelain yellow bowls, and the wooden beams of the old house.
The hanging spider webs and the smell of this old house resurrected the distant memories hidden deep in his heart. Especially the taste of the soy noodles at noon, which is something that no famous chef can make.
Yes, only a large iron pot with wheat straw, cotton stalks and firewood can cook this kind of flavor. Bai Xiaowen clearly discovered that these resurrected emotions can only arouse nostalgic interest, but he does not want to experience it again, just like a
A rooster with a red crest like a blood tail and feathers like a banner found the eggshell that had nurtured him, but he could no longer curl up in it and experience all the beauty inside the eggshell. He still preferred to jump up the wall and onto the firewood.
Bai Xiaowen asked his wife to distribute the gifts brought back to everyone, including a large bag of various famous snacks. For his father, he gave an authentic Lanzhou hookah, for his mother-in-law, a Ningxia leather jacket tube, and for the two
His brother and sister-in-law were given clothing materials, and Lu San was given a handful of Sichuan Shifang cigarettes. But he went to Bailucang alone to visit Tian Fuxian. Not long after Tian Fuxian entered his home, he sent someone an invitation. Bai Xiaowen arrived.
Bailucang paid a purely courtesy visit and left after walking around for a while. Tian Fuxian had already ordered a meal at a restaurant in the town, but Bai Xiaowen still declined. He had to return to the county security team at night. He was afraid that Tian Fuxian was suffering from hypochondriasis.
, and said cheerfully: "Mr. Tian, you come to the county town anytime, just say hello and I will pick you up, I'll treat you." Bai Xiaowen also wanted to pay a visit to Lu Zilin, who introduced him to the security team. Lu Zilin
When he was not at home, he asked his younger brother Xiaowu to bring him a handful of Shifang cigarettes.
The last thing to deal with was the house. Xiaowen said to his father, "Come on, I want to build the gatehouse." Bai Jiaxuan said, "Xiaowu has already prepared the wood. If you want to build a house, build another yard."
"Three brothers squeezed into one gatehouse will not be able to build a gate after all." Bai Xiaowen said openly: "I should build this gatehouse." The gatehouse was demolished by Lu Zilin after he sold it, and building it again by him means that he has to wash away the snow.
Shame spreads glory. He explained: "You can build this house to house people. I don't want it anymore. If I want to stand on the original site, I will choose another foundation to build a house." Bai Jiaxuan said: "I understand your intention. Just do it."
No matter who is with whom, you and your three brothers work together to build the gatehouse, and the yard will be in order." Bai Xiaowen said: "That's okay."
After thanking his mother-in-law and his sisters-in-law for their sincere efforts to stay, Bai Xiaowen and his wife set off back to the county town at the same time of day. He refused to see his father off on crutches, and Bai Jiaxuan walked in the street in front of the gatehouse.
He stopped. Bai Xiaowen still insisted on walking a long way out of the village, and then he separated from his brothers who were seeing him off and mounted their horses. He walked silently for a while and then turned back, and saw a tall tower standing on the cliff at the east end of the village.
There was the sound of moths flapping their wings. The memory of that cave dwelling was as silent as the memory of demolishing the house and selling the land, and it felt a bit like a rooster facing an eggshell. He lit a white cigarette and took a deep puff, and said to his wife coldly.
He said: "Whoever cannot get out of here will never make a difference in his life." The wife smiled tenderly: "But you still want to come back." Bai Xiaowen said: "Coming back is another matter." Bai Xiaowen stopped talking and urged his horse to speed up.
His wife couldn't understand his mood. She had never tasted the leftovers he had asked for. She didn't know what rancid and moldy food tasted like, let alone what Bai Xiaowen's life tasted like at that time. In
The moment he was treated as a dead body by wild dogs and almost eaten by wild dogs in the trench, he almost fully expected that he had reached the end of his life. He could no longer summon up any strength or ignite a ray of enthusiasm to step out of the trench. The trench became
The last stop in his life journey. Ah Lusan made a mocking remark - "You go and eat Shafan", and pushed him in front of the big iron pot boiling with life juice. He walked through the trench to Shafan.
After that journey of death, what followed was not a bowl of glorious gruel, but a glorious beginning of life... To live well, you must remember that the most painful and desperate moment in life is the most difficult to endure.
A moment, but not the last moment of the end of life; if you survive it, you will start an important turning point and a new glorious journey; if you become soft-hearted and cannot survive it, you will die, and if you die, everything will be over. Bai Xiaowen now uses this
This profound life experience calls for the future life, and there is an infinite enthusiasm and desire for life. He once again said to his wife: "If you live well, there is hope." His wife pursed her lips and smiled: "You feel very happy when you return to your hometown.
OK." Bai Xiaowen still felt that his wife could not understand his mood.
What Bai Jiaxuan got from the enthusiastic response from his tribe was not only a kind of honor, but also a kind of psychological compensation. When he heard people talking about "dragons are dragons after all," he felt that the heart that Xiaowen had hollowed out in the past was being emptied by himself.
The compensation was substantial, and people no longer had any reason to criticize the patriarch Bai's moral integrity. He still walked into the house on crutches and walked out of the streets, walked into the barn and went to the fields, inspecting the cotton fields for plowing and watching the wheat ears.
You can listen to Xiaoyi Rabbit scolding the livestock in his young voice, or smoke a bag of dry cigarettes in front of the pot with Lu San, who is getting more and more clumsy and demented, and chat with the tribesmen in the village lanes and fields.
Discussing the quality of the crops and the time of sowing or harvesting does not show the arrogance or momentum of the camp leader. At noon on the day when it was decided to plant cotton, he threw away his crutch and picked up the bamboo cage containing the cotton seeds that had been mixed with ashes, and followed
Throw some cotton seeds into the furrow behind the rabbit's buttocks. He's not afraid that Xiaowu Xiaoyi will scatter the seeds evenly, but he wants to walk in the wet field. He's not giving a demonstration, but keeps doing it until the cotton seeds are completely removed.
After planting the cotton fields, he and his sons finished work and went home in the evening. He picked up the millet yellow porridge that his daughter-in-law had served and drank it loudly. The sound was like tearing a long piece of cloth. Bai Jiaxuan happily told his sons
Said: "Man is a bitch. He feels uncomfortable sitting all day long. He doesn't eat well and sleep well, and he always feels panicked. When a man works, eats well and sleeps well, he feels like an emperor.
I'm not timid anymore." The sons smiled incomprehensively. Bai Jiaxuan slept soundly that night, and he didn't wake up until Xiaowu yelled in the yard in despair. When he woke up, he saw the random flashes of bullets on the window.
Lightning. Bai Jiaxuan heard panicked and suppressed cries in the yard. They were the cries of his daughter-in-law and grandchildren who were frightened. He concluded that another bandit had entered the house, so he slowly got dressed before opening the door. The people outside couldn't wait any longer and knocked the door open.
They knocked him to the ground, and they searched the house. Someone picked him up by his collar and asked, "Where is he?"
"Who are you looking for?" Bai Jiaxuan asked.
"Why are you still pretending to be hiding something?"
"I really don't know who you are searching for."
"Where is your daughter Bai Ling hiding?"
"..."
The whole family was driven out and stretched out and gathered in the courtyard. One person held a pistol and forced them all to squat on the ground. About five or six other people took every piece of board, cabinet, porcelain urn, noodle, and vat that could be hidden in each room.
Everything was shaken down, the firewood room was also overturned, and there was a continuous sound of various farm equipment and furniture colliding, falling, falling, and falling over. Finally, those people all came to the courtyard empty-handed and continued to shout: "Hurry up and hand over this person!" Bai Xiaowuzhuang
Bai Jiaxuan dared to say: "She has not recognized this family for many years." The searchers still refused to let her go easily: "We have already got the news that she has fled back to her hometown in the countryside." Bai Jiaxuan said: "Your information is inaccurate.
She won't go home even if she dies. She doesn't recognize me as my father a long time ago, and I don't recognize her as my daughter." The man said a series of threats and threats and ran out. Bai Jiaxuan ordered his family to pack their quilts as soon as possible.
The furniture was messed up, but all the sons and daughters-in-law gathered around the house of their ancestor Bai Zhao. Bai Zhao burst into tears and completely lost her mind. She cried loudly, "Lingling baby, I miss you..."
The two grandsons and daughters-in-law, who had made their eyes soft, also sobbed and shed tears. Bai Jiaxuan was impatient with his mother's irrational cries and said a little stiffly: "What else do you want that sea beast to do?" Bai Zhao became increasingly angry: "It's all
You...forced my Lingling baby...to this point..." As he said this, he slipped off the kang and walked out the door: "You don't want a daughter, I want a granddaughter. I'll go to the city to look for her." Bai Zhao
It's not about intimidating Bai Jiaxuan, but her true thoughts. Her old age and little tiptoe jumped out with an anxious mind, but Xiaowu Xiaoyi and her two grandsons and daughters-in-law couldn't pull them apart. Bai Jiaxuan changed his tone of compromise and begged his mother.
"Heitian Gudong, why are you going out? Let Xiaowu go to the city to look for her tomorrow morning." After everyone comforted her, Mrs. Bai Zhao was helped to the kang again.
The sudden chaos within the family subsided for the time being, but intensified further when the sun rose tomorrow. Several relatives from the original family came in one after another, reporting the same horrific experience. Almost at the same time, at midnight, they were all arrested.
People in black uniforms blocked the house and searched through boxes and cabinets. Their tone and words were surprisingly consistent: "Hand over Bai Ling quickly." Bai Jiaxuan could not explain the cause of the common disaster to his relatives, which only aggravated his suspicion.
The last person to arrive was Mr. Zhu. His academy was also searched last night. After dawn, Mr. Zhu Bai urged him to go to the original place to ask what happened. Mr. Zhu turned a corner and left first.
In the county town, Bai Xiaowen told Xiaowen what happened last night. Bai Xiaowen said: "Judging from the situation of the people you mentioned, they must be military commanders." When Mr. Zhu saw Jiaxuan and saw so many panicked relatives, he expected that he would suffer roughly the same fate.
, he said: "Xiaowen said those people are military barrels." Bai Jiaxuan opened his eyes wide and confused and asked: "What are military barrels for?" For the first time in his life, Mr. Zhu mispronounced the word "white": "military barrels"
I can't figure out what the bucket is for." It wasn't until late at night, when Bai Xiaowu rushed home from the city, that he roughly explained the whole story of the disaster: Minister Tao of the Central Ministry of Education came to the province to lecture the students, and was met by the students.
He was scolded and beaten, and the one who threw the first brick was the girl Lingling. Bai Jiaxuan listened attentively, and couldn't help but said "Oh" and then tightened his face. Bai Zhao stared in horror with a pitiful look on his face. Bai Xiaowu
Narrating, the second aunt's fur shop was smashed, and the second uncle was taken and tortured for three days and three nights. He couldn't tell Bai Ling's whereabouts, but he told our relatives. Bai Jiaxuan said "Oh" again and asked:
"What else have I heard?" Bai Xiaowu said: "My second uncle only told me these things. The family that suffered the most this time was my second uncle. My second uncle was lying in bed recovering from his injuries. The leather goods shop was closed, saying that he had committed a crime."
The crime of harboring..." Bai Jiaxuan said: "I'm so sorry for your second uncle."