If there is an afterlife (novella) Zhang Baotong

sequence

In mid-November 2017, I saw a report in a local newspaper titled "The old man adopted a boy, but when the baby grew up, he only sent money and did not go home, and she only knew the truth before she died". Because my hometown is in Pucheng County, very close to Baishui. The village wasn't big, it was about the same as any rural village in the Weibei region. I asked a few people in the village, and they pointed to a dilapidated and abandoned house next to the canal outside the village and told me that this is where the family of the protagonist of the story, Lee so-young, lives. I went to the front of the house and saw that it was so dilapidated that it felt like it hadn't been inhabited for a long time. In fact, the hostess has only been gone for a short time, not even a month.

In order to learn more about this touching storyline, that morning, after breakfast, I found the village director Lai Shun and showed him the membership card of the Provincial Writers' Association, saying that I wanted to know more about the story of Li Xiuying's family. He invited me to his house, made me a cup of tea, and told me that he didn't know much about the situation of Li Xiuying's family, because their mother and son had not had much contact with the people in the village all year round, so they could only tell me something about what he knew. As he spoke, he began to tell me the story of Li Xiuying's mother and son. In order to show that the stories he told were true, the village chief took me around the reeds and garbage mountains by the river. Listening to the village chief's narration and field trips, I felt that the story of Li Xiuying's mother and son was actually more touching than the report I had seen beforehand. So, as soon as I returned to Xi'an, I started writing this. In order to save everyone's time, I try to keep it short and concise. Now I will dedicate this to you.

One

Every winter, a biting cold wind blows from the northwest, sweeping across the endless Weibei Plateau, passing through a remote village called Lingquan, and blowing the dilapidated hut of Li Xiuying's family to the ground.

This hut is so pitiful, it is located in a wilderness on the edge of Lingquan Village. Originally, crops were planted in the field next to the hut, but the salinity content in the field was too high, and the wild grass grew vigorously, but the crops grown were always half-dead and the yield was very low, so people abandoned them. The abandoned land was overgrown with wild grasses, and it was very desolate when blown by the cold wind.

The hut was made of adobe, which had been shattered by the wind and sun, and was full of signs of rain erosion. The plastic sheeting on the windows was blown by the wind and leaked everywhere, making a hula and hula sound, and the door panels were rotten, as if they would break and fall apart if one pushed them harder. The tiles on the roof were blue and red, and the wind had eroded so much that they had lost their color. The roof of the hut in front of the door was scattered with tiles scattered by the wind and rain, revealing a large open hole. At first glance, the whole house looks like a dilapidated house that has been abandoned for many years.

The room was very dark, and through the dim light, it was possible to see a small bed in the empty room, with only a quilt and two pillows on the bed. The ground under the bed was a mess, with a large pile of reeds and some reed mats that had not yet been made. There is a small wooden table in the middle of the room. On the table were some items for the husband's spirit and his relics. An old and sad woman sat beside the small table, staring motionless at the statue on the table like a clay statue. In fact, the old man is not very old, she is only 48 years old. However, she was more like an old man in his sixties.

The woman's name was Li Xiuying, and she wore a blue cloth gown with a cotton coat, thick black cloth cotton pants underneath, a hat woven with blue wool on her head, and bulky cotton shoes on her feet. She was not tall, slightly chubby, with wrinkles and a bitter face. She is not a resident of this village, she has lived here since she was a child with her adoptive father, who came here from nowhere.

She and her husband used to make a living here by farming and weaving mats, but a few days ago, when her husband went to sell reed mats in Baishan Market Town, 20 miles away, he was hit and killed by a farm vehicle. However, after the incident, the farm vehicle escaped, so she did not receive any compensation. After burying her husband, she sat there without eating or drinking for two days, wiping her tears and staring at her husband's portrait.

She was not just crying for her dead husband, she was crying for her own life. She was very pitiful in her life, and she didn't even know her biological parents. She only heard from others that because she was a girl, her parents abandoned her, and let her adoptive father pick up the rags from the street. Later, this singleton who picked up rags raised her and married Wang Kuanwa, who was also a bachelor. Wang Kuanwa was also an orphan, and when he was very young, his father died, and his mother flew away, never to be heard from again.

Two people who were abandoned at the same time depended on each other like this. Fortunately, Wang Kuanwa is honest and sincere, and treats her well, which makes her feel the hope of life. However, Wang Kuanwa is not from this village, so the village did not give him land and homesteads. The place where they lived was left for them by their adoptive father. Because there was not much money, this cottage had to be repaired for many years since the death of his adoptive father, and it has not been rebuilt. Originally, they wanted to save some money and rebuild the house, because the house had been lived in for decades, and if they didn't rebuild it, they wouldn't be able to live in it. Moreover, new houses have been built in the villages, and some have built two-story houses. However, as soon as her husband died, let alone building a house, she had no idea how to live in the future.

Others live because they have houses and land, children and daughters, harmony and beauty, and they don't have to worry about food and clothing. But what did she have? nothing, nothing to hope for. She was abandoned since she was a child, her childhood and girlhood were full of humiliation and inferiority, and her adoptive father finally pulled her up and made her a family, but for many years, she and her husband were black and black, and they did not have children. If it weren't for the pity of the people in the village, they would have been driven away a long time ago, and now that her adoptive father is dead and her husband is dead, what is the point of her living alone?