The simple and frugal villagers seem to disappear all night. The table is full of fish and meat every day, and they are thrown away after eating. The old things used in the family for decades are all replaced. Cultivation, a kind of proud eyebrows enveloped the entire village.

We can never go back to the dried fish pond, and can no longer enjoy the fun of digging fresh river mussels from the cracked ground. Since then, we have been away from the happy time of touching the snail, and we will never see crayfish drilling holes in the soil. We can no longer hide in slices of cropland, plan sweet potatoes or pick tomatoes. We can’t even find a small piece of bright red wild strawberry, the little thing that used to be sweet and ubiquitous.

Grandma’s old house started leaking this year. Tick-tick like a clock, playing mourning music on the floor of the old house.

The swing on the vine has long been disconnected, and the once lush vine leaves are now sparsely hung on it like old age, and the whole body trembles when the wind blows. The bitter particle tree and the big jujube tree next to the pig pen have been sawed down for many years. The newly planted jujube tree by the pond in front of the door always refuses to grow. Only the obscure loquat tree bears some hard little fruits every year, but it is also obvious Malnutrition.

Years ago, the children helped to move a small amount of the second old to the idle two-story building. The ruined old house is black, and there is no bright room anymore. There are scattered pieces of wood and discarded broken toys scattered on the ground.

Grandma closed a group of ducks in the back room and released them during the day. Now, only they still cling to the old house, yelling quacks. Ducks are stupid, but at least they are happy. They can continue the route that their grandparents walked through, swimming in the pond in front of the gate, eating the grandmother ’s feed under the grape rack, and then returning to the old house to spend a quiet night.

Sometimes I think that if there is an afterlife, it is actually quite good to be a duck. Sillyly, I do n’t have to think about anything else if I have to eat or live. It is simply a single life.

The rain lingered throughout May. Grandma syncope again and was taken to the hospital.

The whole family organized the work in an orderly manner without any confusion. The next day, the aunt fed the poultry and came to the uncle’s class.

The grandmother had regained consciousness and was lying on the hospital bed tossing and turning. She was not accustomed to the strong smell of disinfecting water in the hospital, and declared that she had recovered and strongly requested to go home. “The chickens and ducks are still waiting to be fed. I will wake up and eat something.” Grandma asked the children like a child without autonomy.

“You don’t have to worry about it, I just feed it, and I know you will say that every time.” After being robbed by the aunt for a while, the grandmother didn’t say anything. Gu Zi sat up and began to wear clothes.

After work, my mother pushed in. The aunt hurried forward to ask for help, pointing to the grandmother who was about to get up and complaining: “Sister, you came just right. Mom insisted on going back and refused to rest. I said she did not listen.

So, grandmother was taken to my house tonight.

The next day, my parents went out to work, I went to school, and my grandmother was at home. We specially kept a key to help grandma go out.

When my parents and I stepped into the house around six o’clock in the afternoon, we always felt weird. It wasn’t until the grandmother walked out of the kitchen with her usual smile and rubbing her wet hands with her apron around her neck, we found that all the furniture had been wiped by her, the floor was cleaned, and the pots and pans were scooped. The pots were also baptized. Obviously, grandmother is busy with cleaning work this day.

“Come back.” Grandma greeted us enthusiastically, with a trace of satisfaction in her smile.

“Mom, what are you doing, letting you come here is for rest, not housework.”

“Do whatever you want, it’s not tiring.” Grandma still looks the same.

“Grandma, why don’t you watch TV or go out to play? Didn’t we leave the key for you?” I was so distressed that I was full of blame.

The grandmother was still stunned and smiled a little embarrassedly on her face: “TV doesn’t understand much. If you walk down the street, there are too many cars, shops, and people. I’m afraid I won’t find my way back.”

My parents and I looked at each other for a moment and fell into silence.

Grandma has never traveled far in her life. She doesn’t even spend money. All her daily necessities are bought by her grandfather. She guards the one-third of an acre and takes care of the children.

The grandmother went out every year to visit her stepmother and half-brother.

I remember that year, she carried earth eggs and her own pork on and off for a few hours. When she finally arrived, the grandmother and her children took what the grandmother brought, and they walked away on the pretext of being busy and did not even greet the tea. .

The long walk made the grandmother physically weak. When she arrived, it was past lunch time. The grandmother’s family had probably eaten, and no one ignored her. The grandmother was sitting alone in the living room so awkwardly, and the long years of forbearance made her fall into permanent silence, as if she lost her temper.

After sitting there for two hours, the grandmother’s daughter-in-law brought a bowl of plain noodles with little water and said that it was for the grandmother to finish eating before she could go back. It’s already half an afternoon, and then walk back to fear that it will be dark.

At that time, my family lived relatively close. My grandmother was still clever. She knew the way and knew to stay in my house. When my mother heard it, she felt distressed. My father hurried out and bought a lot of big fish and meat, like trying to make up for my grandmother’s hard work and grievances.

My grandmother never went to dinner at home. She was always busy until the big guy had eaten more than half of it. She walked around with her apron rubbing her hands and said with her usual smile: “No food, eat more, eat less.” Just eat enough. “

This kind of thing has been going on for many years. Although I told my grandmother eloquently at the age of twelve or thirteen: “Now it is a new society, don’t you still be an old feudal thought.” She just smiled, and I couldn’t help it.

On this day, under my persecution, my grandmother stayed restlessly at the table for three or five minutes. After that, as usual, scoop a scoop of clear soup, sandwich a few slices of chili peppers, and then stepped aside to make up for it.

The next day, we had breakfast and went hiking.

The sun soon rose into mid-air, shining through the gap between the trees. We hid under the tree shadow on the side and rested. Grandma pointed to a pine forest halfway up the mountain and said, “I remember, I lived at the foot of this mountain when I was very young. That’s the location.” Grandma’s finger pointed to Yi Ruo There are pine trees.

She said that the servant who sent her away had heard the old grandmother talk and determined that there were gold bars buried under the four large pillars in the ancestral house. Presumably, they plan to escape first, settle down and then take out to live. But I never thought that this disintegration would never end, and life and death were scattered everywhere, and no one could come back.

When grandma said “she remembers” these past events, her expression was as serious as a child. Later, my mother told me that when she was young, her grandmother talked about the gold bars under the pillars of those ancestral homes. We laughed at each other.

Perhaps this has always been a good thing in grandma’s memory. If we don’t dig it, it will always exist.

My grandmother was not used to living in the city. After another day, she still wanted to go home. We had to send her back to the country.

Along the way, we kept telling my grandmother not to be too tired, not to spend money, eat more nutritious food, we also need to eat supplements on time, do n’t go to work in rainy days, do n’t allow pigs in the future Keep a few chickens and ducks at most, don’t grow too many dishes, just eat it yourself …

We Barabara talked endlessly, and my grandmother smiled unchanged. I really doubted whether she was listening to us.

As soon as I returned to the countryside, I found out that the old wooden planks of the outside public built a ventilated latrine, located on the left of the old house. The structure is very simple, a few pieces of wood are placed on a large cylinder, there is an iron nail behind the wooden door, and the thick rope covered with it can be hooked on the other side of the door. Squatting there and shit, you can see the pond and grass outside the bamboo bushes through the cracks of the wood, and on the other side are the vines that cover the half of the wall.

To be honest, I also prefer life in the country, but all this will soon disappear.

On the way back, parents talked about their childhood stories, and countless bitterness rolled out from the words. In those days, my grandmother fell ill due to years of malnutrition and overwork, so she often experienced symptoms of syncope.

Mother sighed: “When I was very young, your grandmother looked so old. Now I want to come, she should be younger than you are now. In our memory, your grandmother never seemed young. Ever. “

I was shocked by my mother ’s words, and my grandmother ’s appearance began to appear in my mind many years ago. Weaving two thick black marijuana braids, silently withstanding the pressure of the outside world, wasting away the pale language and replacing it with the infinite persistence behind the suffering . It is this experience that makes grandma often smile rebelliously.

This demolition war finally caused family conflicts. The always thin but tough grandfather endured the torture of his heart for a long time, and finally couldn’t get sick.

The tiger gave birth to a few litters of puppies, and one of its children has been staying by his grandfather just like it was back then. When my grandfather was ill, it followed him step by step. But suddenly one day, it left the house. A few days later, the grandmother found it dead near the corner of the wall.

Not long after, Grandpa also passed away.

When I was very young, I found that my grandfather and grandmother had prepared the coffin for myself. A few days after returning home from the hospital, my grandfather quietly went to someone to paint the portrait.

The last impression was that he was sitting alone in front of the house, looking at the green mountains not far away. The tiger’s child was lying at his feet and accompanied him quietly.

Until now, every time I think of my grandfather, his gentle smile comes to my mind. He spoiled every child in his family, never willing to fight or scold. He always loves his grandmother silently and everyone in his family. lifetime.