If there is an afterlife (novella) Zhang Baotong

Thinking of this, she wiped her tears with her sleeve, got up from the stool, and opened the door. It was early afternoon, and the sun was so bright that she couldn't even open her eyes. So, she rubbed her eyes with her hand and went out.

The path in front of the gate leads to Lingquan Village on one side to the south, and to the north to the reeds by the river. She walked straight down the path to the north. The sun shines quietly on the vast barren yellow earth in front of you, and as far as the eye can see, there are patches of withered grass and barrenness, as well as endless reeds. There is a dumping area next to the reeds. Every day, there are some big trucks from the county town, dumping truckloads of garbage here, so the garbage heap is like a hill that is constantly rising.

She soon came to the edge of the reeds, because by the ditch of the river, the wind was very strong, and it blew the large reeds, and let out a torrent of sorrow and sorrow. She continued to walk along the ditch, because the deeper she went, the deeper the river became, and if she wanted to jump into the river, she would have to jump into the deep river, so that she could die a simple death.

She made it all the way to the end of the path. This is the place where the villagers release boats to fish in summer, the water is deep and rapid, the river is open, people will be washed away by the river as long as they get into the water, and there have been young men who have drowned in the water accidentally. She stood on the edge of the river, wanting to look at the sky again, to see the distance, to see the reeds. The sky was bright, the distance was quiet, and the reeds were swaying with a burst of helpless sighs. She was all too familiar with it, it had been like this since she was very little, it was still like this here, and she thought it would be like this here after she died. The world will not change in any way because of her.

Thinking like this, her mood became even more sad, feeling that life is a lifetime, grass and trees, and that's it, rather than living in pain, it is better to die. People should have hope when they are alive, but she has no hope, so she has been thinking about death for the past few days. She withdrew her gaze from the distance, closed her eyes, and thought that if she jumped into the river, everything would be over for her.

Just when she was about to jump and end her life. In the dark, it seemed that the cry of a baby could be heard from not far away. She couldn't help but be stunned, wondering if she had heard it wrong, but the cry continued, and it became clearer and clearer. She wondered, how could there be a baby's cry in this wilderness?

The baby's cry is like a call for life, awakening the awakening of motherhood. Her heart fluttered, and she searched for the place where the baby was crying. The baby's cry in the cold wind was getting closer. Beside a garbage dump near the river, she saw a wrapped baby, crying in the cold wind. Apparently, this is an abandoned baby.

This seemed to make her see what happened to her, because this is how she was abandoned by her parents when she was a child. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she picked up the baby from the ground, as if she were holding her former self tightly in her arms. The baby seemed to be back in its mother's arms and immediately stopped crying. She looked at the baby for a while, and the baby was only about three or four months old, and her little red face showed an amiable and cute appearance. She couldn't help but wonder: Which ruthless parent would throw their own flesh and blood in this wilderness?

Li Xiuying took the baby home, opened the quilt, and saw that the baby was a boy, and there was a note and twenty yuan in it. The note said July 6, 1992, apparently it was the baby's birthday. However, what makes Li Xiuying puzzled is that in the countryside, the male baby is a baby, and some people will give away the superborn female baby to others or abandon it, but how can anyone discard the male baby? But no matter what, this baby is already her child. For a woman who has never had a child in her life, how excited it must be to have a child!

This made the 48-year-old Lee so-young both surprised and embarrassed. Because she is empty-handed and destitute, let alone raising children, even she doesn't know how to live. Because she used to rely on her husband to work in the fields and weave reed mats, but when her husband died, she now has to raise a baby. How could this not make her feel embarrassed? But she firmly believed that she could raise her children.

After a while, the baby began to cry, no matter how Li Xiuying coaxed, she still cried vigorously. Li Xiuying wondered if the child was hungry and wanted to feed. So she remembered that there were people in the village who gave milk to newborn babies, but there was no milk in the village, but there were people in the village who fed the sheep. Babies can be allowed to drink goat's milk. So, she picked up the child, took the 20 yuan, and walked towards the village.

Lingquan Village is a small village, with only about 30 households, all located on both sides of a 100-meter-long road. There is also a disparity between the rich and the poor, with some families building two- or three-story buildings, while others are still adobe tiled houses built decades ago. Li Xiuying walked from the middle of the village to the door of a house with a deep well in front of the door and knocked on the door. The one who opened the door was the middle-aged daughter-in-law of the family, Yuling.

When Yuling saw Li Xiuying holding a baby in her arms, she was surprised and asked, "Whose child is this?" Li Xiuying said, "I picked it up on the garbage heap by the North River." Yuling lifted the quilt corners, looked at the baby, then frowned, and said to Li Xiuying, "But, you yourself are pitiful like this, how can you still raise this child?" Li Xiuying said, "I saw that this child was pitiful, so I brought her back." Yuling nodded and said, "You have a good heart." Then, he asked Li Xiuying, "What are you looking for me?"

Li Xiuying said, "I want to buy some goat's milk for the child, but the child was so hungry just now. Yuling said, "Come in quickly." So, he handed a large bottle of goat's milk milked in the morning to Li Xiuying, and said, "You have to boil it when you go back, and if you don't boil, you won't be able to leave it for long." Remember, bring to a boil every time you feed your child. If it is not boiled, the child will have diarrhea after eating. ”

Lee so-young said, "I see. "Just give the 20 yuan you brought to Yuling. Yuling pushed Li Xiuying's hand away and said, "I don't want any money." However, Li Xiuying said, "I will come to you every day to buy goat's milk in the future." Yuling hesitated for a moment and said, "The state purchase price is 7 dimes a catty." I'll only ask you for 7 dimes. However, this time I won't take your money. Li Xiuying put away the money and said to Yuling, "You help me prepare goat's milk every day, and I will come early in the morning to get it?" Yuling said, "No problem." Saying that, Yuling gave Li Xiuying half a bottle of white sugar from herself, and said, "This goat's milk is fishy, you'd better add some sugar, and the child will love to eat it." Li Xiuying thanked her, took goat's milk and sugar and left.

Walking on the road, standing in front of the door or walking in the village, when they saw Li Xiuying holding a child, they all showed curiosity, and people kept asking her. And she answered as she pleased. A young daughter-in-law listened to her and went home and brought her a bottle. This made her feel a burst of warmth in her heart, and she felt that the people in the village were very good to her.