MTL - Shanwa Small Rich Farmers-Chapter 19 old house

  Passing through more than half of the villages, Wen Xu found that several houses didn't even have a gate, so he opened his mouth and asked, "Fifth brother, how many of these houses have gone out?"

"Let's move away. Now there are not even half of the previous ones left. Many of them go out to work. If they are good at it, they move away. We used to have a hundred families, big and small, but now there are only forty families left. It's not here..." Wen Shiqing said.

   "Did the Guangsong family move?" Wen Xu asked.

Guangsong and Wenxu's ages are not much different, seven years older than Wenxu, although there is a difference in generation, but when they were young, they often ate and drank at Wenxu's house, so the old house of Wenxu's family was entrusted to Guangsong and Guangsong Daughter-in-law couple.

   "Guangsong's family hasn't moved, but now his old mother-in-law is here alone to take care of the children, and the two of them have gone out to work to earn money." Wen Shiqing said and went to his door.

   "How about Shixu, you can live in our house tonight. The old house has not been lived in for so many years, so I don't know if we can still live in it," Wen Shiqing invited.

  Wen Xu said: "I'll go back and have a look first, and if I can't live here, I'll trouble you, Fifth Brother!"

After speaking, Wen Xu and Wen Shiqing greeted each other, carried his gift and his big backpack, and then continued to walk along the path in his memory based on the impression, walked across a small stone bridge, and arrived at the village. At the end of the village, more than 300 meters away from the end of the village is the old house of Wen Xu's family. Why is it so far away? Because that place used to be the village's barn. Didn't it used to be a commune? Grandpa, later Wenxu's father made some money and knocked down the old mud house and built a brick and tile house on it.

   Arriving at the end of the village, the second house, Wen Xu walked to the door gently.

   "Wow, woof, woof!" Before Wen Xu could speak, the dogs in the yard immediately barked.

   Soon there was the sound of someone pushing the door in the courtyard, and asked loudly, "Who is it?"

   "I'm Wen Xu!" Thinking that this is Guangsong's mother-in-law, Wen Xu explained again: "It's in the old house on the slope, I'll come back today to take a look"

   "Oh, it's that Wen..." The old lady thought for a while but couldn't remember Wen Wen's name.

   "Warm!"

   "Yes, Wen Xu, come back, I'll get you the key." The old lady went back to the house and took the key to the door.

"This is what I brought you!" The most presents that Wen Xu brought were for Guangsong's family. After all, they helped her to look after the old house and did not confiscate the money. Sometimes it's not just the ones put on the car, but also the piles of large and small ones that are placed warmly in the space.

   "How good is this!" The person who opened the door was an old lady in her sixties, with a benign face and a tough body.

  The old lady was polite, but soon a small head stuck out from under the boss's arm, staring blankly at the color-coded bear in the pile of warm gifts, and shouted: "Xiong Da!"

   "Yuanbo, he's grown so big in a blink of an eye." The last time Wen Xu saw this little kid, he was still suckling. If he didn't pass by the door, he wouldn't know him now.

   "Are you Uncle Xu?" Xiaowazi asked immediately, denying his identity.

"you know me?"

  Xiao Yuanbo said: "Our family has your photo, and you said that the family on the slope, now there is only Uncle Xu left in the family on the slope, besides you..."

  Before she finished speaking, the old lady slapped her grandson on the head: "Can the child talk?"

"It's okay!" Wen Xu said with a smile, what the child said was the truth, and now he is not alone in his house, so he put the gift directly at the door: "It's late, I won't go in, I'll come back tomorrow morning to give it to you Say hello, I'm going back now."

The old lady said: "Although I help dry the quilt and clean things from time to time, but no one has lived in the house for many years, why don't you stay at home tonight! I will clean up the house for you tomorrow before going back! Let's talk Now in the old house there are still some grains that our family dried.”

   "It's okay, I'll do as long as I have a quilt." After hearing this, Wen Xu waved to the old lady, and walked to her old house with the key.

  The moon was shining brightly in the sky, and the road it illuminated was silvery. When we arrived at the gate of the old house, Wen Xu tried to open the courtyard door with the key. It seemed that the old lady came here to be more diligent, and the lock opened with a click!

Wen Xu pushed open the door, and saw a piece of silver-white moonlight shining in her small courtyard. An old jujube tree planted in the center of the courtyard now only has bare branches, compared with the old jujube tree in the image It seems that even the branches are too poor, and the tree shadows cast in the courtyard have an indescribable loneliness.

  Turning around and gently closing the courtyard door, Wen Xu came to the old jujube tree, reached out and gently stroked its rough old bark, the bark was still as rough as before and rubbed a little bit.

According to my grandfather, this old jujube tree was planted by my distant grandfather when he was young. It has been more than two hundred years now. In Wen Xu's memory, it seems that he has never seen this old jujube tree bear fruit.

  The old people say that it is because the descendants have harmed the Yin virtue, and the old jujube trees planted by the ancestors refused to bear fruit for the descendants to eat. The reason is that old jujube trees were originally planted in the courtyard of the ancestral hall. After liberation, everyone knows that in the crazy age, ancient temples were smashed and old things were demolished, which is called breaking the four olds! The whole society was so destructive to the point that even the bones of Emperor Wanli were dragged out of the underground palace and burned after the criticism. Not to mention a small Wen family ancestral hall?

The Wen Family Ancestral Hall, which existed since the Ming Dynasty, just disappeared in the fire of the Red Guards, leaving only this old jujube tree. Since then, the old people have said that those who burned the ancestral hall hurt Yin De , so this old jujube tree never hung a fruit again.

  Whether this is the case, Wen Xu doesn't know. As for whether the old jujube tree didn't bear fruit after the ancestral hall was destroyed, Wen Xu doesn't know. Anyway, the old man in the village said so, and Wen Xu, who was wearing crotch pants at that time, listened to it.

There are still many memories about the old jujube tree. The deepest one is that one night, Zhengshu, who was sleeping in Wenxu, was pulled out of the bed and dragged into the yard. Under the old jujube tree, a lot of people surrounded him Looking at himself, soon someone put a white hat on his head, and then someone stuffed a reed stick wrapped in white paper, and some white paper was cut into strips, Wen Nu knew What is this thing: a mourning stick!

  Wen Nuan felt confused when he went out with it, and then followed the adults' instructions step by step, and didn't know what happened until he saw the black and white photo of his parents put in the frame.

The second time was when my grandfather passed away. At that time, I had already entered high school, and I was able to start a family. With the help of my uncles, nephews and nephews of the same age, I sent my grandfather safely for the last journey. The black color of my grandfather The coffin was also transported out of the main room, passing through the door of this old jujube tree, just like my parents back then.

   It can be said that this jujube tree has witnessed the joys and sorrows of Wen Xu for more than 20 years.

Gently patted the old jujube tree, Wen Xu raised his foot to the door of the main room, took out the flashlight from the space, opened the door to take a photo, found that it was not locked, pushed the door open, and heard a creak With a sound, there was a sound of the doorpost rubbing against the stone doorpost nest, and the black main room appeared before Wen Nuan's eyes.

  He took a flashlight and shone above his head, and quickly found the light switch rope.

  Children living in the city probably have never seen this kind of switch. A plastic rope is pulled out of a round black plastic box. Pull it to open and then pull it to close!

   With a light pull, the light in the main room turned on, and it was said to be on, but Wen Xu still couldn't get used to it, because the brightness of the light was not much better than a candle, and it flickered from time to time.

   This is not haunted, but the voltage in the village is unstable. What's more, it's my old house, even if it is haunted, Wen Xu is not afraid of it, since I am a single seedling from the generation of my great-grandfather, and it has been passed down for five generations, if my ancestor kills me, who will spread the branches and leaves for them.

  Walking around the main room, I saw that there are indeed many drying plaques in the main room. The drying plaques are round, shallow and huge bamboo baskets, which are used to dry food. Looking at the things on the plaque, it turned out to be white dried sweet potatoes, Wen Xu touched a piece of dried sweet potatoes, gently broke off a piece with his hands, put it in his mouth, and slowly chewed.

  It is the taste of childhood! It's a little hard, but after chewing it has a little sweet taste, not only sweet but also a little dry.

This thing is made by cutting sweet potatoes into slices and drying them in the sun. In the past, when cooking porridge in the countryside, they would put some in the rice. It is not easy to feel full after drinking the porridge, even if it is temporarily full. After a few pisses, the stomach is empty again, so in the past, farmers used this thing to cheat their stomachs.

Facing the door of the main room is a large table placed against the wall. It looks more than two meters long and is more than fifty centimeters long. This thing is not for eating or something, but for placing things. , now there are a pair of inferior vases on the table, a feather duster and a quilt are stuck in one vase, several glass frames are hung on the wall above the table, and there are photos inside, all of which are from Wen Wen's family The photos range from the grandpa who has no teeth to the warmth of a little **** sitting on the bench. Each small black and white photo records the whole family. The big photo frames next to it are family portraits, and one is grandpa hugging Wen Xu, with grandpa and grandma sitting next to her, and her parents standing behind her, there is another picture of Wen Xu sitting on her grandfather's lap, with her parents also standing behind her, and the other is a group photo of her grandparents and grandchildren. Wen Xu supported his hunched grandfather for a group photo under the old jujube tree.

Wen Xu stretched out her hand and gently wiped the frame, and saw some dust on it, so she picked up a feather duster and swept it lightly on the frame, thought for a while, took off the frame, and found After washing the frame with water and a towel, it was carefully placed in the space.

I looked at several rooms, and the general furnishings were no different from when I left, but because I hadn't lived in it for a long time, there were many cracks on the wall, and the original powder and white ash on the wall also fell off in some places, revealing Bricks inside. On the box rack with four legs, there are several old wooden boxes. The copper water on the inferior iron sheet has been peeled off, and even the keyholes on the top are rusted. Fortunately, the boxes There was no lock, and the box was opened with a slight flick.

There are several quilts inside, and another box is opened, and there are two big red quilts. The red quilts are embroidered with dragon and phoenix patterns. These are the wedding quilts that my grandfather prepared for himself when he was dying. When I came back last time, Wen Xu brought that kind of vacuum bag, and kept these two quilts like this. The third box contained nothing but a small box that took up half of it, and the box was locked. Wen Xu took out the key on her body, and opened the box. Inside were some gadgets, things from Wen Xu's childhood, what? Pinball, paper cubes, and small pistols, all of which are full of memories in my hands.

Feeling here and there in the old house, waiting for Wen Xu to spread out the quilt and lie down on the bed, it was already half past one in the night, and she lay down in her childhood room, sleeping on the bed she had slept in for more than ten years However, Wen Xu couldn't fall asleep no matter what, with her eyes open and her hands behind her head, she looked at the dark beam top.

The quilt has not been used for a long time, and it seems that it has been dried from time to time, but it still smells like mothballs, which is a bit pungent, and there is indeed some peculiar smell in the room, as the saying goes. . After tossing and turning, Wen Nu finally got into the space, lay down directly in the small hut, and fell asleep very quickly.