The Woman in the Mountains (novella) Zhang Baotong

Night in the mountains came quickly, and soon after the sun set, it became dark. Originally, I thought that Qiao Ling would arrange for me to spend the night on the small bed in his house, but she said to me, "No way, my husband has to come back to live in the evening, so I can only arrange for you to live with my uncle." So, I took a flashlight and a pack of white sand cigarettes out of my travel bag and followed her to the door of a shabby house behind her house. She knocked on the door and shouted, "Uncle, went to bed so early?"

The door opened, but there was no light in the house, so I couldn't see anything clearly. We stood in front of the door and waited. Qiao Ling whispered to me that this was her third uncle, her husband's third brother, who was still beating a bachelor because he was poor. There are quite a few people in this mountain who are beating singles. There are personal reasons for this, mainly because he is too dull, honest and pimple, and perhaps some bad habits such as laziness and slumps, which do not please the girls. Of course, the main thing is because the family is poor. If your family can build four or five new houses, and you can give someone a bride price of 6,800, even if you are pockmarked or stammering, someone will send your daughter to your door. Qiao Ling's third uncle has no other problems except for some laziness and nesting, but there are four brothers in the family, the first three of which are one or two years apart, and after the parents have worked hard to marry a daughter-in-law for the eldest and second, they are already in debt, exhausted, and no longer have the ability to marry a daughter-in-law for the third child, so the third child is delayed. When they regained their breath, the third child was over thirty years old, and although the house was built, it just couldn't attract the golden phoenix. This is the greatest debt and regret of a parent's life.

Soon, a match was struck, and as the light of the fire moved, an oil lamp was lit. In the light of the oil lamp, we saw a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing trousers and a shabby gown, standing in front of us. Qiao Ling said to the man, "Uncle, this is a boss I knew in the past, come here to play, and stay here with you at night." ”

The middle-aged man said, "Okay." "I gave the white sand cigarette in my hand to the middle-aged man. He was polite, but seemed pleased. Qiao Ling saw that things were arranged, so she left.

The middle-aged man bolted the door and went to bed. Let me, too. It was only then that I saw a dirty, thick old quilt piled up on the bed. Even though it's summer, you still have to cover yourself with a quilt at night in the mountains. It's just that this quilt is too dirty. However, there is no way, there is no woman in the single's family, and life is not a blind ball, as long as you can have food and shelter.

I was afraid that the quilt would be dirty, so I wore a T-shirt and shorts into the quilt. The quilt is very large and thick, and I am afraid that it is common all year round and can cover a large family. I don't feel hot in the summer, and I don't feel cold in the winter. I was seen in the quilt. The middle-aged man blew out the oil lamp and fell asleep one by one.

After sitting in the car for half a day and walking for half a day, I also felt tired, so as soon as I lay down, I fell asleep. However, after a while, I felt that my body was itching terribly, and it was that hot feeling. As soon as I touched it with my hand, I felt a few large bumps. I picked up a flashlight from my pillow and shone it, and I saw a few big red bumps on my ribs, apparently bitten by fleas. I'm most afraid of fleas, and whenever I encounter them, my skin will get big red bumps. So, I lifted the quilt and shone a flashlight into it. Immediately, I saw three fleas jumping up in the quilt at the same time. I slapped it hard, but the flea jumped and disappeared.

I was very scared, but when I saw Qiao Ling and her third uncle were snoring loudly and sleeping soundly, I didn't dare to get up, for fear that it would affect people's sleep. I shone half of my quilt with a flashlight, so I had to quickly take off all my clothes, shake it vigorously, put it away from the bed, and sleep with only a pair of underwear. Because I was afraid that fleas would burrow into my clothes and pants, and that would make me not at peace during the day.

At this point, I just didn't want to sleep here and had no choice but to burrow into the quilt and let the fleas bite at will. In this way, I spent the whole night worrying about my heart, and after sleeping for a while, I had to wake up and catch fleas, and then I slept for a while, and then I got up to catch fleas.

In the middle of the night, I also got up and went out to urinate once. I came out of the house with a flashlight and stood in front of the door urinating down the slope while looking up at the mountains and the sky opposite. It was very quiet and dark in the mountains, and I could only see the outline of the mountains opposite, and hear the sound of the rushing water of the stream below. However, the moon was round and large, and walked tirelessly against the starry sky.

At this time, it may not be far from dawn, and I was really sleepy, so I returned to the house and slept until dawn. As soon as dawn dawned, I woke up, got up in a hurry, and left the bed and quilt that had scared my heart. I came to the door of Qiaoling's house and saw that Qiaoling's family hadn't gotten up yet, so they went to the mountainside and walked around, looking at the scenery.

It wasn't until the sun rose from the top of the east hill, and the mist drifted slowly down the hill like a light cloud, and the dew shone with excitement in the sun, that I saw several women hurrying down the path into the cornfields with hoes. In fact, there was a lot of dew in the cornfield at this time, but in order to work more, they always wanted to hurry. The women in the mountains are really diligent. And the older women, who stayed at home, started cooking. After a while, you can see smoke billowing from the roofs of farmhouses. Smoke also rose from the roof of Qiao Ling's house. So, I walked back to Qiaoling's house on the dew-covered path.

The door of Qiao Ling's house is open, and the window is also open, and from the outside of the window, Qiao Ling can be seen combing her hair in front of the mirror in front of the window. Qiao Ling, who was combing her hair, seemed to have just washed her hair, her long hair was scattered with a damp shawl, and she was shaking it while combing, and after a while, she would comb it neatly and leave behind her, her face had just been washed, and she was wearing a half-new long-sleeved white shirt, the neckline was the kind of semi-circular style, and a very chic hairpin was inserted on her head. So, when the morning sun shines on her face from the window, it makes her confident and delicate face look particularly handsome and charming.

I looked at her in fascination and amazement, and of course she knew that I was admiring her, so she smiled at me with joy and coquettishness, and then beckoned to me. So I went into the house, and into the back room, and said to her, "She's so beautiful." She smiled like a flower and said, "Yes?" I said, "Yes." She looked out the window, and then, all of a sudden, she put her arms around me, kissed me, and said, "I had a dream last night, and I slept with you, but when I woke up, I realized that it was a dream." With that, she sighed and asked me, "Did you sleep well last night?"

I shook my head and said, "I'm afraid I've fed the fleas." With that, I lifted my shirt and showed her the big red bumps on my body. She watched, stroked it lightly with her hand, and then said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I'll find you another place tonight." Then we hid behind the door of the back room and kissed each other. Immediately, however, we heard footsteps approaching, and we parted.

It was a neighbor who came in and asked Qiao Ling to borrow a ladder. But Qiaoling said that the ladder was borrowed by Youkang, and it has not been returned yet. So, the man went to Youkang's house.