Guoguo is five years old, and her wish to go back to her hometown in Anhui has finally come true.
For Guo's father, taking his son home to recognize his ancestors and return to his ancestral home has some heavy "sense of mission", and he has some complicated emotions of "being close to home" after not going home for many years; For Guoguo, my hometown is a place full of mystery. Where do my grandparents live? What floor do they live on? Is there a subway like Beijing? ...
First, Ye Jiren.
For the convenience of traveling in our hometown, we chose to drive back. From Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway to Beijing, all the way south, through Shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou, to Luoyang to Shanghai-Shaanxi Expressway, through Gushi, Henan, to Ji Ye. Historically, Ji Ye and Henan are separated by a river, which is called the west gate of Anhui.
Named after, it is said that during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, a family named Ye did business here. Passing through Huangchuan, Henan Province, I saw the "Huang Ancestral Hall" and learned that this place is the birthplace of Huang's surname. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the kingdom of Huang in Xia Qifeng was in Huangchuan, Henan. Close at hand, there are many people surnamed Huang.
There is not much farmland in Ji Ye, so it has been a commercial town since ancient times. Guo's father said, needless to say, people in the town, in rural areas, each person only has three points, and he has to eat food (rice) for several months, and the rest has to be made up by small businesses. The environment determines that Ji Yeren is smart and capable. Guo grandma is a typical example. She has sold tofu and cement boards at home, and now she has opened a small family hotel, which has supported a large family. Nearly seventy years old, I stubbornly open a family hotel and refuse to let go. Drivers are welcome to eat and stay every day, which is much darker and more stubborn than when I took care of fruits in Beijing. The stubborn old lady is unwilling to lend a helping hand to her children when the pension system is not perfect and most rural elderly rely on their children to feed them for survival. As long as she can do it, she must rely on herself. If one day she fails, she will definitely support herself by renting out the land rent. Whether indifferent, stubborn or strong, she recognizes her own survival logic. After all, it's just for the dignity of her own life.
Pursuing practical interests is a character that Ye Ji people can see. Those who go out from Ye Ji are either trusted officials or trusted businessmen. However, there is also literature here, which is quite a bit of an opening.
In the mid-1920s, an unnamed society appeared in Beijing, which was a literary group under the leadership of Lu Xun. Among the six members of the unnamed society, except Lu Xun and the others-Wei Suyuan, Wei Congwu, Tai Jingnong and Li are all Chinese. King Yulie is proud of this. In the middle and late 1990s, Yu Liewang also founded his own literary publication "Unknown Literature and Art". Guo Da went out from Ye Ji, a rare scholar. The issue of "Unnamed Literature and Art" was given to Guo's father. When I went back to my hometown this time, I was very concerned and held a forum with local literati.
Ji Ye's market is prosperous and its economy is not backward, but it still can't get rid of the reality that most people are struggling for survival. In such an environment, it is hard for Malaysia to imagine that literature will grow, but it does exist here and is a form that is completely integrated with this environment.
A middle-aged female literary and art worker went home enthusiastically several times when she heard that Guo Da had gone home. As a thank you, Guo's father took us to her house. Her home is beside the road. Like many families in Ji Ye, she runs a small restaurant on the street to attract tourists and a small grocery store. Arrived at her door, she was at the grocery store, surfing the Internet, waiting for the door-to-door business. She looks like a rural housewife in Ye Ji, with a dark face and simple clothes. Judging from her appearance, she has nothing to do with literature. However, she loves literature persistently and has published many works in some important newspapers and periodicals in Anhui. She is not rich, but she is trying to prepare her own collection. ...
There I heard the name of another middle-aged literary woman who opened a Zhou Shengsheng gold shop in her collection. Poetry lovers who open gold shops make me curious.
After leaving her, we went shopping and drove around the street. I saw this gold shop at a glance. We went to her shop. She was surprised and happy when she saw us. Judging from her appearance, she is a sharp-tongued and shrewd proprietress. She told me that it's only because she likes books and poems, but she will go to the city to pursue another life she likes after graduating from primary school. She said that her greatest happiness was to marry her husband. She is a big woman outside and a small woman at home. In her gold shop, there is a poem written by her best friend. She opened QQ and showed me her new poem. ...
I lament the existence and form of local literature. Guo's father said that as long as there is a gap in life, literature will grow. Yes, I forgot, people here are very stubborn, very stubborn.
Second, the beauty in memory.
The next morning's breakfast was fried dough sticks. Grandma said that Guo's father urged her to buy it. In the nearly ten years of living with my father, my mother has only eaten fried dough sticks no more than five times. Two of them are in Ji Ye. When I got married in Ji Ye, he took me to the street in Ji Ye, chanting childhood memories: in winter, if I can eat a fried dough stick, I will have a bowl of grass skirt soup, which is a very happy thing in his memory ... At a street corner, I bought two fried dough sticks without hesitation and ate them in the newspaper. At that time, I was surprised that people who were almost neat in daily life didn't care about gutter oil and lead poisoning at all. I still want to eat fried dough sticks when I come back this time, but I still don't care about gutter oil. Fried dough sticks in my hometown were considered to be delicious in the world by the teenager who had insufficient food and clothing decades ago. After decades, I know I can't find it back, but I'm still stubbornly looking for it.
However, even if you try harder, you may be more disappointed. The Shihe River, which separates Ji Ye from Henan, was once a haunt of Guo Da. He told me and my son countless times about the wonderful time he spent there: a big sand river with fine white sand, fishing and swimming in the river in summer, and sleeping by the river under a blanket at night. When I was in high school, I was under great pressure to study. I often carry a book on my back by the river. I will stand by the river and overlook it at intervals ... After returning to Ji Ye, I can't wait to take my son and me for a walk by the river. It's just not what it used to be. The Shihe River in the past has been dug beyond recognition. Without the river, it looks like a big puddle. The sand digger rumbled back and forth, and the river smelled of diesel. Those beautiful white sands have already become the footstool of the building, and the river can't enter the water. Come back disappointed.
The beauty of the stone river, coupled with the delicious fried dough sticks, wants to share with us, but can only stay in memory. The good and bad things in my memory can't be retrieved or erased. The things in my bones have never been separated from this landscape, but I really can't go back. I feel scared when I am close to home, and I feel more homesick when I am in my hometown. Maybe these unclear clues ...
Third, Guoguo returned to his hometown.
Unlike Guo's father's complicated emotions, Guo Guo found happiness in a strange hometown.
Guoguo knew for the first time that he had so many relatives-besides his grandfather, there were three grandfathers and two aunts; There are three uncles and four aunts; Six brothers, when eating, two big tables are put together, but they still can't sit down. Everyone loves this "newcomer", so the fruit has a goal to run wild-let my brother take him to play with a bike, let my uncle take him to play with a hammer and scissors, let my aunt take him to see fireworks in the vegetable field, and let my brother throw it high. The house is big, so if the stool at home is used as a big building block, it will be arranged in a train, and the locomotive will be built high, so that my brother can get up. He wants to be a "driver"; Brother-in-law fell asleep, GuoGuo holding his nose; Cover your aunt with a quilt again and again ...
There are no tall buildings, no subways, cars but no buses, only big trucks that move more than ten meters, and the roads are dusty. There are also things that can't be seen in the city: pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, longicorn, cicadas, toads and mantis. Grandma's garden is full of gourds, peppers, beans, melons and corn cobs. ...
At night, one or two big longicorn beetles will fall into the yard. My brothers told Guoguo that as long as you grasp its tentacles, the longicorn will not bite him. Guoguo tried and tried, and finally got tired of playing. He tried to eat the longicorn, and the test result was that the pig really ate the longicorn.
Before leaving, Guo's mother told Guoguo that geese bite, but what Grandma bought doesn't bite. Guoguo grabbed the goose by its long neck and lifted it up. The poor goose has no strength to fight back except to cry.
Grandma's pig is really fat. She doesn't like to move in the pigsty every day. Grandma feeds the pigs, and the fruit comes, rushing to feed the pigs. The pig is fierce when fighting for food, as if to jump up and grab the spoon in her hand, which makes the fruit both scared and happy. The pig is dirty, so Guoguo thinks it should be bathed. One morning, Guoguo took pains to carry water back and forth for more than 20 times to bathe the pigs, and proudly said to Malaysia, "I bathed the pigs and they were very comfortable";
Cicada is a "summer musician". The story of cicada in The Tale of Insects has always interested Guoguo in cicada, but in Beijing, cicada has always been "only heard its voice, but not seen its body". When I got to my hometown, I visited the West Jiuhua Mountain, and the trees were full of cicadas, because few people bothered me. The cicadas here are not afraid of people, and they don't hide from people. They do what they want. Guoguo finally saw the cicada at close range and distinguished the male cicada from the female cicada. Hold it in your hand. If you scream, it's male, otherwise it's female.
Besides cicadas, Guoguo saw and caught all kinds of insects that he had never seen or even dared to touch. These are different toys.
In the hot summer in the south, Guoguo ran back and forth around the house with bare arms, shouting, which made Malaysia once in a trance-Guo Da was like this when he was a child!
The weather is so hot that it almost makes people suffer from heatstroke. Deep in the Dabie Mountains, Dad Guo struggled to clean up the weeds beside the ancestral graves and set off firecrackers. Guo Guo asked many times: Who is buried in the grave, why do you want to go to the grave, why do you want to kowtow, why do you want to set off firecrackers ... Then he knelt in front of the grave and kowtowed to Guo Dad very obedient.
At that time, for a better life, Guo's grandparents moved out of Dabie Mountain and took root. Later, Guo Dad left this land under the heavy eyes of his grandparents. Now if the urchin runs wild here, he is destined to be a familiar stranger here. However, rooted here, the initial hope has never changed, but it has gone further from generation to generation. ...