This ancient poem by the great philosopher Zhu Xi has always been lingering in my heart, like a dream carved in my heart, so distant every time, but appearing so clearly.
I always think of my father’s fish pond.
At that time, I was still very young, a preschooler.
My father decided to build the largest water conservancy project in the village and build a fish pond.
The reason why the project is huge is because our hometown is in a mountainous area. There are mountains and hills everywhere and there is very little flat land.
A few hundred meters downhill in front of my house is my vegetable plot. It is a small piece of rare flat land, less than half an acre.
My father went to a normal school and worked as a teacher for several years. His life was full of legends, but in the end he had to return to this village called "Zhao Dawan". Here, he always wants to do some earth-shattering things to prove himself. In this life, he will not be able to eat the royal food, nor will he accept his fate.
In order to build such a "big project", he and his mother had a big dispute. My father has traveled far and seen the world, hoping to use his own efforts to change the fate of the family, but this decision is also very risky. At that time, the household responsibility system had just begun, and my mother was a good wife and mother. She did not want to be rich and powerful, as long as the family lived in peace and contentment.
However, the mother could not stop the father's rational remarks after all. So, the family meeting was approved by the father's vote, and the project began.
It is true that it is a big project.
There were no excavators at that time, so digging was done manually with picks and hoes. There was a slope outside the vegetable field, and a ridge of about two meters high needed to be built. In other words, this fish pond is on a sloping land. On one side, it needs to be dug down to a depth of more than two meters, and all the excavated soil needs to be transported out. On the other side, a strong ridge of more than two meters high must be built around the outside to finally form it. A pond.
I have always wondered about my father's decision. From my current point of view, it is really not very wise to dig a fish pond in that place and the location selection is problematic. Not only is the project volume huge, but there are also dangers like hidden landmines at any time. This is something to talk about later.
My father showed his courage and his strong mobilization ability and appeal, mobilizing all the relatives in the village and his mother's family to start this unprecedented feat in the village and even the countryside.
Of course, not everyone comes to work together, but in batches. This may not be difficult for my father, who is a village accountant. He can always strategize and arrange in advance, who will be there these days, who will be there after a certain period of time, who are the relatives who will come to visit during the Spring Festival, and who will be able to participate in the work, he arranges everything in an orderly manner. Because there are too many people on the construction site, and there are too few people, this strenuous work cannot be completed.
I think that at that time, many relatives came to my house during the Spring Festival, and I couldn’t help but have some complaints in my heart. He originally came to pay my family New Year greetings, but he was caught by his father as a "strong young man" and they participated in the construction project of the fish pond together.
You may save a lot on wages, but you cannot save on living expenses. My father arranged for my eldest sister to be responsible for purchasing supplies. She would go to the countryside every two days to go to the market, and she would go to the street to buy pork, cigarettes, wine, etc.
My mother is naturally the head of the logistics support department for this project and is responsible for the kitchen’s three meals a day. There are many children at home, and there is a construction team of seven or eight to more than ten people. It’s easy to imagine my mother’s job in the cooking class. The second sister and the third sister, without exception, both had a division of labor and became mother's deputy. The elder brother was studying in the district and avoided the construction.
I also have a work schedule.
Every time we have lunch, my father arranges for me to guard the construction site, fearing that the work tools will be stolen by others.
I was 5 or 6 years old at the time, a playful age. What's more, the aroma of lunch is a huge temptation for a child.
My mother showed her excellent style as the head of logistics support and solved this problem with the bones picked from the meat cooked at noon every day. I was guarding the construction site, holding the piece of bone with little meat that my mother handed me in my hand, chewing it with relish.
I am not alone either. In addition to attracting the yellow dog at home to run after me, I also use these bones as a share to win over the children in the village and let them play with me.
Smoking is indispensable at home. The cigarette boxes left behind by adults after smoking have become props for me and my friends to play with. The game of shooting cigarette boxes has always been one of the happiest games in my childhood.
I have forgotten how long this project lasted. I just remember that before I went to elementary school, there were always many people working on construction in my family every day. There were always so many things to do, and I could never finish them no matter how busy I was.
The eldest sister said that the pork she bought home must have been several big fat pigs.
My mother said that this fish pond is responsible for her back problems. There are so many people eating, it gives me a headache just thinking about it!
Fortunately, the project was finally completed successfully. Although there was no grand completion ceremony.
I remember that day, when the fish pond was built, the stream flowed to the fish pond and sang a cheerful song!
The family is very happy!
After all, this was a unique fish pond in our village, and even our township, at that time.
I watched the water in the fish pond slowly rise, and watched as a vegetable patch slowly turned into our fish pond. My heart is also full of pride!
After water storage, disinfection, and precipitation, my father’s face was filled with pride.
My father personally went to other places to buy fish fry.
Those densely packed little fish, which were almost invisible to the naked eye, were carefully cared for by my father. After raising them in the small pond for a period of time, the entrance to the fish pond was dug out, allowing them to enter a wider area. in the fish pond.
Holding the Chinese cigarette bag in his hand, my father walked around the fish pond, watching the fish having fun in the fish pond, and smiled.
The fish pond is not far from our home, about 500 meters away.
If someone goes to steal fish, naturally they cannot hear it. There was no high-tech stuff at that time, but now, I wouldn't worry about it. Installing two cameras can solve the problem.
So my father built another hut on the edge of the fish pond.
It is said to be a hut, but it is not made of thatch. My father studied as a carpenter and even became a carpenter. For a while, he was considered a well-known carpenter in the local area. At that time, when the whole village had mud walls, my father relied on his carpenter skills to build our house into a large tiled house with a pure solid wood structure by getting up early and working in the dark!
When I think of the old houses that have been demolished by the years, I can’t help but feel a little pain in my heart. It is now difficult to find a house made entirely of solid wood.
Naturally, my father would not build the fish pond hut poorly. In today’s terms, it was not low.
It was a small cabin made of wood. The room is not big, only one bed is set up. The house is very bright, with excellent lighting and ventilation conditions. The three walls are made of water bamboo weaved by my father. They are very artistic and dense, but they can also leak. The side facing the fish pond is actually a fully ventilated and unobstructed floor-standing windowless design. Lying on the bed, you can clearly see the entire periphery of the fish pond from 180 degrees without blind spots! That area is the outer ridge of the fish pond, a key defense area that is easily targeted by people who steal fish.
The roof is still covered with tiles. My father said that a thatched house is a sign of poverty. Our family cannot build a thatched house.
I admire my father very much. He has had an inherent confidence since he was a child. No matter how poor he is, he still wants to arm his family to be clean and decent. He always said: "People must live a decent life and cannot fall behind others."
This can be regarded as a kind of spirit. Starting from building the fish pond and building the hut, he was actually building a future for our family, a beautiful future.
After the hut was built, my father went to the fish pond every night after dinner to work and sleep - guarding the fish pond.
My father always took me with him.
My father likes to read and read newspapers. At that time, he ordered the annual newspaper "Sichuan Rural News". When I was illiterate, I would watch my father read the newspaper with gusto, and he would tell me some truths that he understood.
A kerosene lamp hangs on the bow of the bamboo woven boat. My father leaned slightly against the bamboo wall. He changed his usual stern look and had a gentle smile on his face. I wonder if it was because of the content in the newspaper or because he heard the sound of fish jumping out of the water in the fish pond?
I was opposite my father, lying next to his warm feet, listening to him reading the newspaper. In my ears, I heard the sound of the stream flowing into the fish pond, and the night wind blowing by. The rustling sound from the bamboo forest and the endless chirping of the frogs in the rice fields next to the fish pond slowly make you fall into a sweet dreamland!
When the dazzling light of the morning sun penetrated the "floor-to-ceiling windows" without glass and shone on the quilt of the hut, I opened my eyes. My father was walking leisurely on the ridge of the fish pond, a dry cigarette in his mouth, and a burst of morning mist-like smoke floated from the back of his head. Sometimes he paced with his hands behind his back, looking at the fish pond and meditating; sometimes he picked the pumpkin flowers in full bloom on the fort ridge and threw them into the fish pond. A group of fish immediately surrounded me, and there was a "chunk" sound, and a pumpkin flower disappeared immediately...
When my father saw me waking up, he called me over and taught me. How to cut the grass that fish like to eat, taught me some knowledge about fish farming, and told me to remember to disinfect the fish regularly and check the water level in the fish pond every day...
Father's fish The pond brings together all the family’s expectations and dreams of happiness.
Father, how much bets have you made to harvest his heroic words in this fish pond?
He read books and newspapers and collected all the techniques and experiences related to fish farming.
Regarding science, my earliest term came from my father. He always warned us that we must understand science and technology. A person must work hard to get rich and get rich scientifically...
He integrated these scientific elements into his father's fish pond. a testing ground.
However, the God of fate showed too little favor to his father.
The nightmare came late one night. It was a night after a heavy rain, and the quiet village was broken by a loud noise. That night, I was the only one who didn't go to the fish pond hut with my father. I got up in a daze, but my family was nowhere to be seen.
I rushed to the fish pond, and what I saw in front of me shocked me: the water in the fish pond had dried up, and the fort outside had collapsed! Although the stone fortress was seamed with cement, it still could not withstand the influx of floods. Under the pressure of the rapidly rising water level, a bloody hole was ruthlessly torn open...
My mother and sister, with buckets and basins, followed the crack in the fish pond all the way to the creek to catch the fish that had not yet been swept away by the stream. But there is little hope. The fish, those lively and jumping fish, those fish that carry the father's dreams and hopes, have been swept away.
This is a disaster. For a family, they watched the harvest they were about to harvest evaporate overnight.
My mother used her tenacity to support her father's back. She didn't blame her father. Accept this reality silently.
The father rolled up his cigarette and sat blankly on the edge of the bed in the hut. He frowned, and the firelight of the dry smoke emitted a very faint light under the "click" of his cheeks. The smoke floated in front of his father's forehead like a lingering cloud of sorrow.
I saw those wrinkles, which seemed to be a little deeper.
Some of the neighbors in the village came to comfort me, while others were secretly happy!
This world will always be like this. Some people wish you well, and some hope you will be knocked down by difficulties!
Father, how could he give up?
My father was not defeated by setbacks. He hired people to repair the fort again.
After that painful lesson, my father realized that the bunker was a key part of the entire fish pond and needed to be reinforced. Then emergency drainage holes were built to allow for emergency flood discharge in the event of flooding.
Whenever it rains heavily, my father takes me with him, and we patrol the fish ponds and check the water levels in the fish ponds. At the scale mark marked by his father, as soon as the water level approached the warning level, he would immediately jump into the fish pond and open the gate to release the flood.
Summer is the thunderstorm season, and heavy rains in the mountains come at any time.
Since I built this fish pond at home, our family has become nervous in the summer. My father was even more worried, especially on nights when it rained heavily, and he stayed up almost all night.
Our family cared for her day and night and was so worried.
Finally it’s winter. Before the Spring Festival, my father opened the floodgates to release the water, and he and his brother lowered the nets to collect fish. The whole family was so happy to see the white and tumbling fish, bouncing and bouncing against the fishing net, and then being collected into the bucket one by one!
The father's dry smoke lit up, "click, click, click", with curling smoke, and his face was illuminated by flashes of light, as well as his joy and pride!
The sisters picked fish to sell on the street. In our village, other people don’t have fish ponds. Only our family has one. We raise it in the living water of our own fish pond. There are many people buying the fish, and the fish are sold out in less than half a day.
In the evening, our family sat together, and my mother fully demonstrated her cooking skills, braised fish, pickled fish, dry-fried small fish...
That was After all the hardships in life, our family sat together and had the happiest reunion dinner.
The dissatisfaction caused by not having time to play because they usually cut fish and grass, the dissatisfaction of not being able to enjoy the warmth at home because of guarding the fish pond, and the family running around to discharge floodwaters and guard fish in the thunder and lightning rain due to the heavy rain. The hardships of Tang all disappeared at that moment.
"Diligence is fundamental, and science is indispensable." My father always used wine to teach us a "political lesson" at the table. He still remembers that he was once a teacher. He still remembers that even to be a farmer, you have to be different from others!
After I entered elementary school, my father gave me the job of guarding the fish pond at night.
I was scared alone, so I called my brother together.
We lived in that small wooden house. Under the kerosene lamp, I read books and newspapers that my father had read. I don't like the news on it, but I can't put it down because of the poems, essays, and story series published on it. There are also starlit nights, when you do nothing, just lie in bed and watch the stars in the sky pour into the quiet fish pond outside.
My father has a good habit of ordering a newspaper on time every year. At that time, newspapers delivered by the postman could only be delivered to the township government. Following my father's reminder, I went to the township government every now and then to pick up newspapers delivered by the postman. So there was a chance to take a sneak peek.
My father collected the newspapers he had read and stacked them neatly, not allowing us brothers and sisters to take one randomly. During the Spring Festival, he sorted out all the newspapers as if making a summary, used thick kraft paper as a cover, and bound them with hemp rope. This was a thick collection of newspapers every year. My father hung newspapers on the wall, like a cultural showcase, covering the whole wall.
There is really a lot that can be learned from newspapers. Young people who liked it all came to my house to borrow it. My cousin, who was across the river, would come to my house and read it for a long time before leaving. I don’t know what I learned there.
Only once, the teacher and the principal came to me and asked: "Your Chinese scores have always been so good, do you have any secrets?"
I thought for a long time and replied weakly: "Maybe, maybe there is something at home. Stack newspapers?”
My father’s fish pond, no, it is also our fish pond, which runs through the daily life of the family.
My primary school life was also accompanied by the fish pond and that small house.
I left the small village in junior high school and lived and studied in the town. Only during summer and winter vacations would I come back to the fish pond hut.
Later, my sisters got married one after another and my brother started a family. This fish pond, which brought economic income to the family, gradually withdrew from the stage of our family’s history.
After I went to college, my brother used the fish pond to grow rice. Later, I didn’t even bother to plant rice anymore. I planted a few bunches of bitter bamboo directly inside.
It has been several years since my mother and father left us.
This year during Qingming Festival, I went back to my hometown. I saw the fish pond again, and the hut had long since disappeared.
The bitter bamboo grew rapidly in this fertile soil where fish were once raised, and had already covered the entire fish pond.
My father’s fish pond and my hut have disappeared in the long river of time.
But no matter how time passes, my father's fish pond has always been in my heart, swaying in the sentence "When the half-acre square pond is opened, the skylight and cloud shadows linger endlessly"; that A fish pond cabin that grew up with me, in my memory and in my sleep, always has a floor-to-ceiling, frameless, glass-free window open, welcoming the rising sun and glow in my heart!
Father’s Day is here. My father in heaven wishes you a happy holiday! By the way, you also say hello to your mother!
(Besides the Mahu Lake, written in Chongqing on the eve of Father’s Day, June 19, 2021)
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