The Woman in the Mountains (novella) Zhang Baotong

After walking more than ten miles on an uninhabited mountain path, I came to a three-way intersection. Just off the edge of the three-way intersection, a path winds its way up to the top of the mountain. This young woman, Qiao Ling, took me down the path and started up the mountain. When I got up to the mountainside, I saw several houses made of adobe. The house in which it was facing straight south was her family's house.

She took the key from the door frame of the house, opened the door, and led me inside. Her family's house is not very large, with a total of two rooms. The outer room was larger, and served as both a kitchen and a hall. So, the half of the house that used the kitchen was almost blackened by smoke. And this half of the house is right in front of the gate. The light is a little brighter.

Seeing that Qiao Ling entered the house and did not close the door inside, I also followed into the house, wanting to see how big the inner room of her house was. However, unfortunately, she was changing her clothes, and she had already taken off her shirt and skirt, wearing only panties and a bra. As soon as I saw it, I immediately ran out of the house and stood on the flat ground outside the house looking at the scenery from the opposite hill.

After a while, she shouted to me from the window, "All right, come here." "That's when I went from the outside to the back room. I had just entered the back room and was about to apologize to her, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were changing clothes." But before I could speak, she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. Her kiss made me feel sweet and wonderful, so I leaned up to her and kissed her hard.

I know that sometimes a woman doesn't ask for a lot from you, and a love word is all she desires. If you can't give her this love word, even if you give her a lot, she won't be sincere to you. The same is true for men, and the meaning of life is all in a love word. Although men will desperately pursue money and official positions, the ultimate goal of pursuing money and official positions is for the love word of women. A man often shows off the money and glory he has acquired to others, but what he treasures in his heart is the feelings of women. This love is the sunshine and rain that nourish the hearts of men and women.

Sure enough, after being kissed, Qiao Ling was like a cheerful little girl, she seemed to be much younger, and her mood was like being blown green by the spring breeze, with a sweet smile rippling on her face. She picked up the bucket and shouted, "Let's go fetch water." "Take me out to carry water. Not at all afraid to let others see that she was walking with a strange man. If other women in the mountains had this heart, they wouldn't have the courage.

I followed her up the path to the top of the mountain. Further up the mountain, there are more than a dozen families on the side of the road. Several of them were her husband's parents, relatives and brothers. She told me that she didn't have a very close relationship with them, so she rarely went to their house.

The place where the water is carried is in a small puddle near the top of the mountain. There is a very thin mountain spring above the small puddle, just like a child peeing. The spring water flows into a small puddle and accumulates in the small puddle. The small puddle was the size of a bucket, and there was a layer of red bugs floating on the water. The insects are very small, and if they are not densely floated in a layer, they are really invisible to the general eye.

Qiao Ling scooped away the insects one by one with a water scoop and scooped the water into the bucket. I was so tired of seeing them eat this water that I asked, "Can you still eat this water?" she said, "People here have been eating water for generations." You know why there are places on this mountain where people live and most places where people can't, because there is water. "Of course I know that water is the source of life. Almost all the big cities in the world are built on the banks of rivers and rivers. However, this is the first time I have seen such water. I said, "How do you usually eat this water?" she said disapprovingly, "boil it and eat it." We drink tea and cook like this. "I think they're used to it, so it's no wonder. I asked, "There is a stream at the bottom of the mountain, and the water is clear and pure, so why don't you live by the stream?" she said, "There is no spacious place below the mountain to build a house, and it is damp at the bottom of the mountain." ”

Carrying the water back to the house, Qiao Ling began to cook. She makes potato slices to boil dough sheets and then brand a flatbread. So, we ate a bowl of rice and a piece of bread for each of us. As we ate, I asked Qiaoling, "Do you have any children?" she said, "My sons are five years old, and they are in the kindergarten in the town, and my mother is watching them." ”

After eating, I stood in front of the door and looked at the scenery in the distance. The afternoon sun is very bright, you can see far, far away, under the blue sky and white clouds, the mountains are like the sea, the peaks are like waves, and one peak is higher than the other. It is as if you can hear the roar of the waves. But I knew that the sky was actually very silent, as silent as the time. The mountains under the sunset are distant and confused, hazy, real and illusory, like a dream. The farther you look, the farther away the mountain, the more mysterious it is, like the place where the soul is.

But why are people fascinated and seduced by the quiet scenery of the distant mountains? Maybe there are beautiful scenery, leisurely emotions, the innocence of thoughts and our dreamy souls. There our hearts can dream back to their hometowns and get rid of the clutter of the world. Because we don't like the worldly chaos and materialistic desires. I don't like to be flattered and sycophant, and I don't like to condescend and speculate. We just want to be ourselves.

At this time, I saw a girl walking in front of me with a small blue on her shoulder. The girl, who was dressed in fresh clothes and looked very young and pretty, glanced up at me, then lowered her head and hurried by. As she walked past her two children, three or four years old, she said, in the same way that a mother treats her children, "Go back to the house and eat." ”

I think this girl is only twenty-one or twelve years old at most, so young, how can there be such a big child, so I asked Qiaoling. Ke Qiaoling smiled indifferently and said, "That's her sister's child." As she spoke, she whispered to me, "She's working as a little wife to her brother-in-law." When I heard this, I was surprised and said, "Is this possible?" Qiao Ling said, "What is possible, it is the truth, everyone in the village knows it." Or if you ask the kid who your dad sleeps with at night, the kid will tell you that he slept with my aunt. So saying, she pointed to a separate hut next to the house on the west side, and said, "That hut was built later, and it was built especially for this girl." ”

I asked Qiao Ling in confusion, "Then his sister doesn't care about this?" Qiao Ling said, "How dare her sister care, no matter how many men have to divorce her." You don't see her sister, she's only four or five years older than her, she has three children, and she looks like a woman in her forties. If she gets divorced, where will she take her children to live?" I said, "Why don't the girl's parents come and discipline her?" Qiao Ling said, "You don't know, the girl's family is just two sisters, and her parents died of illness two years ago." At that time, the girl was only seventeen or eighteen years old, and it was quite pitiful to stay at home alone, so she came to live with her sister. However, it didn't take long to get along with my brother-in-law. I said, "That's a rare thing." Aren't they afraid that the people in the village will laugh at them?" Qiao Ling said, "This kind of thing, you can only laugh at people behind your back, and they should be like that." Besides, they won't tell you about it. This is still asked by someone else from the child's mouth. Moreover, this kind of thing is not uncommon in our mountains, my cousin's sister is only sixteen years old, and she didn't want to go to the second year of junior high school, so she brought her husband to Xi'an, and there has been no news for half a year. ”

Hearing this, I felt that this girl was really a pity, so young and beautiful, but willing to live with her brother-in-law, which would not only ruin her reputation and future, but also ruin the marriage of her sister and brother-in-law, in fact, she could find herself a very good in-law.