The Woman in the Mountains (novella) Zhang Baotong

And the children were so happy to see me, knowing that there was something delicious again. Caiyun asked the children to eat first, but the children saw the Want Want gift bag on the table and rushed to eat those things. Caiyun had no choice but to open the bag and share it with the children. As soon as the child eats a snack, he doesn't want to eat. Caiyun put a fried poached egg in the bowl and put one in her sister's bowl, and asked, "Did you take that medicine from our mother?" and her sister said, "I did, but it didn't seem to work." Caiyun said, "Let her go to the hospital to have a look." The sister said, "Yes, but she won't go, for fear of spending money." Caiyun said, "After a while, you go back and tell our mother to let her go to the hospital early, don't wait for a minor illness to become a major illness before going for treatment." The younger sister said, "Got it." ”

After a while, Caiyun asked his sister again, "When will you and Ma Qun go to Xi'an to work?" and the sister said, "He said that in a few days, he would wait for the two thousand yuan borrowed from his family to be repaid." Caiyun asked, "What are you going to do in Xi'an?" said the younger sister, "He has a relative who has a shop in Xi'an and wants him to come over and help." ”

After eating, Caiyun's sister left. I watched Caiyun washing the dishes and asked her, "Do you know the girl who lives next to Qiaoling's house?" "Because I wonder if the girl has learned to take responsibility for her own life. Caiyun said, "You're talking about Luan Feng, right?" I said, "I don't know her name, but she's pretty good-looking." Caiyun said, "It's Luan Feng." She ran away with others and went to Xi'an. ”

I was surprised again, and asked, "Did she run away by herself?" Caiyun said, "Did someone else take her away." I said, "Who is so bold as to dare to do this?" I heard Qiao Ling say that if her brother-in-law knew, she would have to fight hard with a knife. Caiyun put down what she was doing, stood by the pot and said to me, "That girl was secretly brought to her uncle's house, and her uncle's family also lives in the town. Her uncle has a son who graduated from high school two years ago and is now working as a foreman in a big hotel in Xi'an. People are young and handsome, and they are smart and spiritual. As soon as the two young men met, they met each other, went out to the street, and when they came back, they held hands and were inseparable. Originally, Qiao Ling wanted to take the girl back to Liping, but the girl said that she didn't want to go back and wanted to follow the boy to Xi'an early tomorrow morning. I was afraid that after I went back, my brother-in-law wouldn't let her come out. The girl's brother-in-law saw that Luan Feng did not come back at night, so he went crazy and looked for her everywhere. Two days later, someone told him that he saw Luan Feng holding hands with a boy that morning on the bus to Xi'an. A few days later, someone received a call from Luan Feng, asking someone to tell her sister that she was already working in Xi'an. I couldn't help but sigh and said, "Qiao Ling's courage is really big enough." Caiyun said, "In this mountain person, only Qiaoling can have this courage." ”

I then asked, "Did Qiaoling's sister go to Gansu?" and Caiyun said, "No, she now works at the county post office." I said, "Isn't she married to the Jiancheng who works in Gansu?" Caiyun said, "Qiaozhen doesn't want to." Qiaozhen's family graduated from high school and almost didn't get admitted to college, and her object went to college in Xi'an. I said, "I heard Qiao Ling say that her father's affairs are not all in charge of her family?" Caiyun said, "Qiao Ling's matter is like this, the family blames her father, and now her father regrets it very much." ”

After cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks, Caiyun was busy feeding the pigs again. I was idle, so I sat on a small stool in front of her house and helped her smash walnuts. I asked her, "Do you have walnut trees in your house?" and she said, "there are more than a dozen." I said, "There are so many, so who's going to help you shoot walnuts?" she said, "I'll do it myself." I said, "People beat walnuts by men, and sometimes it is very dangerous to beat walnuts, and I have heard from others that some people have fallen from trees, some have been injured and some have fallen to their deaths." Caiyun said, "I don't go up to the tree, I just fight under the tree." ”

Caiyun and I were chatting and smashing walnuts. After a while, it slowly darkened. Caiyun has to cook again. I said, "I've just eaten, so I don't need to do it anymore." But she said, "You are a guest, it is not easy to come here once, other conditions are not good, but the meal must be eaten well." With that, he began to cook. I smashed the walnuts for a while, and felt tired from sitting, so I stood up and wanted to move. So, I went into the kitchen and helped her light the fire.

I said, "Do you know where Qiao Ling lives now?" Caiyun said, "She came to my house once last month, and she told me that she now lives in a village next to the county seat. That village seems to be called Wanhua Village. I said, "I want to visit her, do you think it's appropriate?" Caiyun stopped what she was doing, pondered for a while, and said, "You better not go to see her." She is always surrounded by someone now, and I have heard that the person is very evil, and he does not let others come near her. It's not good if you go. Don't go, just stay at my house for a few days. ”

I said, "I'm going back to Xi'an tomorrow, and the unit will arrange for me to be on duty the day after tomorrow." "Because I'm here to see Qiaoling this time, since I can't see her, I want to go back early. She said, "You can't just make a phone call and ask someone to help you? I said, "No, I heard that the highway is being built here, and after the highway is repaired, you can come from Xi'an in two or three hours." It will be much more convenient for you to come back in the future. ”

After dinner, it was getting dark. The children soon fell asleep one by one. Because it is a mountainous area, after dark, it is very quiet outside, and you can hear the sound of the stream flowing down from the mountain. I sat outside for a while, it was cold outside, and there were toads. The toad is a larger insect than a mosquito, and its bite is not as strong as that of mosquitoes, but it is also very uncomfortable to bite people.

So, I wanted to go to bed early because I was a little sleepy. Caiyun put me in the room where they usually slept because there was a mosquito net in this house. And she slept on a cot with her three children over there. I was too embarrassed to let her and the children sleep in a bed without mosquito nets, so I had to sleep in that little bed by myself, but Caiyun pushed me into that room. I just went as I pleased, and slept comfortably under the mosquito net.

When I woke up the next day, Caiyun had already made breakfast. After I finished eating, I prepared my travel bag and prepared to take the bus back to Xi'an in town. When she came into the house from outside, she took me by the hand and said, "Don't go, will you stay a few more days?" and I said earnestly, "I really have to go back in a hurry, or I'll stay with you for a few more days." But she still held my hand very tightly, and did not want to let go, as if I would take all her good things with her when I left. I stroked her hair with my hand and said, "I'll come back next year for a few more days." She sighed and said, "It's still early next year." ”

At this time, the eldest daughter, who was eight or nine years old, came in crying from outside and said, "Mom, I have a toothache, it hurts a lot. She hurriedly let go of my hand and yelled impatiently at her eldest daughter, "Don't cry at me, I don't have the money to give you teeth." Seeing this, I took out two hundred yuan from my pocket, put it in her hand, and said, "Take the child to the hospital quickly." "She didn't want my money, but I knew that her husband never sent her money, and she had a very difficult life with her three children, so I asked her to take the money so that she could go to the doctor's treatment. She nodded gratefully at me and said, "Then you go, you must come next year." I said, "I see." She said to me again, "I'm not going to send you off, I'm afraid that others will not see it well, and they will gossip." I said, "No." With that, I grabbed my travel bag and went out. Then walk briskly along a large road leading to the town.

I wanted to see Qiao Ling again, and I wanted to spend a few days with her like the year before. However, I haven't seen her for two years, but she has undergone such a big change, which is really unexpected for me, and I didn't even think about it. I am not against her divorce, but I want her to live happily and well. However, she made herself so miserable, so bad, so embarrassed and discouraged, that I felt sorry for her. However, I am still willing to understand her. She had never been in love before she got married, and she hadn't really loved each other since she got married, so she had an extreme hunger for love, and this extreme hunger made her hungry and did this paranoid and extreme behavior. I don't think she'll be happy because of this, but I'll regret it for the rest of my life.

If I had known that this would be the end, I would rather not come this time, so that Qiao Ling's cheerful, bright and beautiful image would remain in my heart forever.

2018.2.8 Second draft