The Ladder of Love (Part II) Zhang Baotong 2017.10.10

As soon as I saw this scene, I thought about it completely, but I was afraid that the young man would not die. I cried out, 'Lad, boy,' and ran down the steep slope. I came to him, touched his nose with my hand and roared, he still had breath. I picked him up and cried out loudly, 'Open your eyes, open your eyes, young man.' When he heard my shout, the young man opened his eyes, let out a long breath, and said to me for a long time, 'My head is so faint, let me lie down a little longer.' ’

So I put his head on the grass again and crouched down beside him and waited. It was about half an hour before he sat up hard from the ground and pointed to the basket and steel drill not far away. I immediately went over and put the hammers and axes in the basket and carried it with me. He slung the basket on his shoulders and let me hold it and begin to walk back.

After walking for a while, he stopped asking me to support him, and asked me, 'Why did you come down here with your baby?' and I said, 'I waited for you on the cliff so anxiously, it was getting dark, and I didn't see you come back, so I was so worried that I came down from the cliff to look for you.' ’

By this time, it was completely dark and it was raining lightly. Hand in hand, we walked slowly towards the top of the mountain. It was already night when I got back to the house. His clothes were soaked and covered in mud. I helped him take off his clothes, and found that his back and arms were full of scars, especially his back and legs were very painful, there were patches of bruises, and when I touched it with my hand, he screamed in pain. I used the powder of the purple pearl leaves he had picked in the past to apply to his wounds.

He lay in bed for days on end before he could get out of bed. However, he wants to build a road again, and I resolutely refuse to let him go, and I would rather never go down the mountain for the rest of my life than let him build a road again. But he said, 'You won't go down the mountain, but the boy will come up to see us.' If the road is not repaired, how can the children go up the mountain to visit us? The last time I fell was because the slope was too slippery, and I was careless, now I will definitely be extra careful, and this will never happen again. You can rest assured. ’

However, it didn't take long for the steel drill I bought, and the tip was polished into a bare state. That day, he took the bald steel drill and grinded it on a large stone. So I asked him, 'What are you doing with this drill?' I am afraid that you will grind it into a needle like the ancients?' and he said, 'The drill has been polished and worn bald, and it is no longer usable.' I said, 'If you sharpen this steel drill, it won't be sharpened for ten days and a half months, and you don't know how much effort it will take.' Why don't you go down the hill and buy a few more?' he said, 'I don't have any money, so I'll buy something for you.' ’

We couldn't even eat enough for ourselves on the mountain, so how could we take anything down the mountain to exchange for money? In the past, he went back to his parents' house and cheekily went to get it. However, his parents' family is also very poor, especially the three children are now raised in his parents' house, how can he be embarrassed to go back to the house to reach out for things and ask for money?

I went back to the house, opened the small cloth bag next to my pillow, and looked for something inside. This cloth bag was the most valuable thing I took with my family when I ran away from home. There are two silver bracelets, a gold ring and a small amount of money. The money had long since been spent, but there was also a gold ring and two silver bracelets inside. These were all given to me by my mother before I got married. I've always cherished it by my side. So, I took out the gold ring so that he could take it to the bottom of the mountain for some money to buy a steel drill. But he waved his hand and said, 'I don't want it, your mother gave it to you, and you can't sell it.'" I said, 'We're staying in the mountains, it's useless to ask for this thing, you can go down the mountain and exchange it for money, buy some steel drills, and then you can continue to build roads.' When he heard me, he took the ring and went down the mountain.

This time, he bought more than a dozen steel drills and a new axe in one go, as well as fishing nets and rabbit clips. As soon as he came back, he said to me, 'My brother told me that the villagers had issued a notice that the mountain people were not allowed to hunt in the mountains, and that monkeys and tigers were not allowed to be hunted casually, not even eagles, and that if they did, they would be sentenced. I asked my brother if he could fight the wild boar, but he couldn't tell me not to fight either. So, I bought these sets of rabbit clips and fishing nets. ’

At this time, the baby was almost half a year old, and I was pregnant again. He wanted to stop hunting wild boars when I had more children, so he bought these rabbit clips and fishing nets, so that I could put some rabbits or catch some fish to replenish my body.

Winters are rainy and sometimes snowy. But this is a relatively quiet time of the year. The young man had to go down to the mountain almost every day to build a road. Every time I go out, I ask him to put on a robe and a hat. However, it would be more troublesome and dangerous to go down the mountain in a robe, especially when going down the ladder, so every time he went out, I had to tell him again and again to be careful, and to return to the house before the sun went down, otherwise I would not be at ease.

Another time, he didn't know how, when he was digging a hard stone, he didn't have to be careful, he used too much force, and the axe did not hit the steel drill, but smashed into the air, and his forehead suddenly lay on the steel drill, his eyes were swollen and high, and the blood was flowing incessantly. He covered his forehead and eyes with his hands, and ran back a long time ago. He was bleeding from his forehead and his eyes were swollen so high. When I saw it, it was so scary, and even if it was a little closer, it hurt his left eye. I didn't dare to wash him with water, for fear that the wound would become infected. I licked his wound with my tongue. Because we usually have a little wound or bleeding on our hands, we lick them with our tongues for a while, and the blood will not flow again. However, he said that the wound was very dirty and that he would not let me lick it with my tongue. I said I don't have to lick with my tongue, how can I be fine? And when I have a wound on my hand or foot, he also uses his tongue to lick me. I licked the wounds on his forehead and eyes for a while, then applied the powder of the purple bead leaves to his wounds, and then bandaged them with a cloth band. ”

Speaking of which, Aunt Xu pointed to a scar between Uncle Liu's left eye and forehead for me to see. I picked up the lamp and looked at it carefully for a while before I saw the scar. It's just that because a long time has passed, the scar can't be seen clearly.

At this time, Uncle Liu said, "Don't talk about this kind of thing again, if you want to talk about the losses and injuries suffered by digging stones and building roads in those years, you can't finish talking about it for three days and three nights." You see my hands, and my feet, and my bodies, and the falls, and so many. So saying, he showed me the calluses on his hands, the scars from the axe, the shovels on his feet, and the scars on his arms and waist. I feel like a brave soldier who has been on the battlefield for a long time and has been scarred, which makes people feel sincerely admired and moved.