The Woman in the Mountains (novella) Zhang Baotong

Many things that people experience will be forgotten, and many will be kept in their hearts and precipitated into a kind of memories called years. In this kind of memory, there are always some stories that will often stir our feelings and nostalgia, so that we can't help but feel and reminisce, and want to relive the precious and beautiful feelings. People sometimes travel just to regain old dreams. To find and satisfy an emotion that has been fascinated for a long time. Revisiting and returning to one's hometown is to write a sequel or find an ending for one of your past experiences and emotions. People walk all over the green mountains, travel all over the world, looking for a certain emotion lost in the soul, good mountains and rivers may make people get some beauty and comfort, but can not let go of that romantic feeling. And the emotions of the past during the journey are the most difficult memories in people's hearts. After leaving Daxigou, I often think of Qiao Ling, and often recall those ordinary and beautiful scenes when I was with Qiao Ling, she has become a kind of concern and yearning in my heart, hoping to get together with her again and be romantic.

When the bus came to the commercial town, I got out of the car. I walked along the creekside path in the big creek ditch while singing "The Sound of the Waves Remains" and walked inside. At noon, the sun is shining, the blue sky is high and bright, the white clouds are blooming, and the mountain peaks are constantly showing the brightness of green, filled with the full feeling of being soaked in enchantment and vicissitudes. Wherever I have walked, the hillsides are still full of fragrant flowers, and flocks of birds are streaked across the forest like petals scattered in the wind. It's just that there is not a single figure to be seen on the whole road.

Walking to the side of the road not far from Liping, where Qiaoling's family lived, there lived a mountain family, in front of two low houses, a cow was tethered, cow dung was all over the ground, the smell was unpleasant, and flies were flying everywhere. As I was about to walk past the door, a woman in her early thirties came out of the house and looked at me, and I smiled at her. She said to me very politely, "It's hot, come in and have a drink?" The people in the mountains are always very sincere and welcoming, which is very difficult to meet in the city. So I went into the house, which was a little dark, but I could clearly see the poverty and chaos in the house.

The woman poured me a glass of water in a large bowl. The water was hot and it was placed on the table. But immediately there were flies crawling on the edge of the bowl. Actually, I wasn't thirsty and I didn't want to drink water. I just wanted to talk to women because I had a crush on women in the mountains and thought they were kind, pathetic, and cute.

I took out a small bag of preserved fruit from my travel bag and let the woman eat it. However, in the blink of an eye, seven or eight children gathered around from outside. Among them were her children, as well as the neighbors' children. The woman herself was reluctant to eat, so she gave the children their food. However, I still couldn't share it, so I took out another pack of biscuits and asked the woman to share them with the children. It was as if the children had never eaten them, and they scrambled to snatch the biscuits from the woman's hand. So, I took out an apple and asked the woman to eat it herself. After only one bite, the woman was reluctant to eat it, but used a kitchen knife to cut the apple into many small slices and shared them among the others.

I was about to leave because I was in a hurry. At this time, the man in the house returned. I took out a cigarette and let him smoke it. The man was very polite and insisted that I stay for lunch, but I didn't want to eat here, I wanted to see Qiao Ling early and ask her to cook for me.

The man asked me who I was looking for in the mountains. I said come to Qiaoling. He said, "Is it Qiao Ling from Li Ping?" and I said, "Yes." He immediately waved his hand at me and said, "Don't look for her." She didn't live there for a long time. I was stunned and asked, "She moved away?" the man said, "She is divorced and married to a man who is several years younger than her." As soon as I heard this, I said, "Is that man a teacher in Luan Town?" The man said, "Where, that man lives at the end of our big ravine, and he is an idle man who has no job." I was very surprised, even a little incredulous, and asked, "How did she find an idler who had no job? And what did she live on?" said the man, "I don't know how she lived, because the man was so poor that he had not built a house until now, and he still lived in a low, low house that he had built more than twenty years ago." Because his family was too poor, he refused to go home after graduating from middle school, and he didn't say that he would find a job to do, so he wandered the streets all day long. ”

The woman next to her chimed in, "I met people singing in a song hall. I said, "Whether it's in a cabaret or a dance hall, you have to find a man who can support you." However, even he doesn't have a job, what does he rely on to support you?" I was very angry and puzzled by Qiao Ling's stupid behavior. Then I asked, "What about her children?" said the man, "and she still goes to school in the town." Qiaoling's mother helped watch. I asked again, "What about the child's father?" the man said, "Qiaoling had this incident, divorced, Fusheng was ashamed, and he didn't want to stay at home, so he went out to work." I said, "Doesn't he have rheumatism?" said the man, "and that doesn't affect his part-time job." Besides, what can he do if he doesn't work? He will have to find a woman in the future, and if he wants to get married, what can he do if he has no money?"

At this time, the children finished eating and came around me again. The man asked the woman to take the child outside. So the woman coaxed the children out of the house. Then, it's time to cook for me. I hurriedly waved my hand and said, "Don't do it, I'm going to leave soon." The man said, "Don't go to Qiaoling's house, it's a locked room, and I passed by his door a few days ago." ”

It was already early afternoon, and I didn't have time to get to the streets of the commercial town to take a ride back to Xi'an, because it would take at least five or six hours to get back to Xi'an, and now there was no car to go back to Xi'an. So, I said, "Where Qiaoling lives now, I want to meet her." The man said, "I can't say, some people say that she lives in the man's old house, there is no car there, and she has to walk more than ten miles along the path into the mountain." But others say that she and the man rented a house in the county seat. But where they lived, no one knows. ”

I pondered for a while, and then asked, "Do you know where Qiao Ling's cousin lives, she doesn't seem to be far from here." The man asked me, "Which cousin do you mean?" I said, "that is the cousin whose sister followed her husband to Xi'an." The man immediately nodded and said, "You said it was Caiyun." She lived in the village that went from the river to the mouth of the big stream. As long as you go there, as soon as you say that you are looking for Caiyun, there is nothing you don't know. ”

So, I started walking in the direction of the mountain with my travel bag on my back. Along the way, I thought all the way: Qiao Ling should be a smart person, how could she do such a stupid thing? If she is divorced, she should also find a similar man, this man should have a formal job, if there is no formal job, he must be able to bear hardships and stand hard work, have a strong sense of responsibility, and be able to meet her life needs. But why did she find a man who didn't have a job and was idle? I really don't know which medicine she took wrong.