The Ladder of Love (Part II) Zhang Baotong 2017.10.10

Early the next morning, after breakfast, Liu San wanted to take me and Aunt Xu to visit Uncle Liu. I'm going to the streets to buy some burning paper and incense. However, Liu San said to me, "I bought it yesterday." As he spoke, he showed me a plastic bag. I saw that there were paper-burning hemp money and banknotes, as well as incense and firecrackers. I said, "I also want to bring a small plate and bring some food to Uncle Liu." Aunt Xu said, "I was ready last night." "I saw Aunt Xu carrying a small bamboo basket with some snacks, cakes, apples, bananas, raisins and pistachios. I brought these from Chongqing, and I also had a small wine glass and half a bottle of Luzhou Laojiao.

Now that everything is ready, we go straight up the mountain. Because it has been raining for a few days, it has just been a while, and the road up the mountain is still a little damp, and some places are still a little muddy, but the road is still relatively easy to walk. On the way, we also met some tourists, who were here to play after all, and their interest was very high. Because Aunt Xu was still very sad, we didn't speak all the way up the mountain, for fear that if we didn't say a good word, it would make Aunt Xu uncomfortable.

From the foot of Liu Sanjia's mountain towards the winding mountain road for about a kilometer, I came to a place called Zhu Luzui, among the cedar forests, there is a grave, this is the place where Liu Guojiang rests. The stele is engraved with "The Tomb of Liu Guojiang". Next to the grave are many white flowers scattered by tourists. In front of the tomb there is also a pattern of a heart piled up with white flowers. In the forest, the air is still fresh, the flowing water is still clear, and the alder forest is still lush, Uncle Liu must be very peaceful.

But I remember Aunt Xu and Uncle Liu told me that if one of them left, he would be buried on the top of Banpotou Mountain, and the other person would go down the mountain to live, and when the other person also died, he would be buried with the person in front of him. If they were to follow their oath, they should be buried on the top of the hill at the head of the hill when they died. However, Liu Guojiang was buried here. This made me feel a little confused, but because Aunt Xu was in front of me, I couldn't ask Liu San about it.

We lit incense and put the food we had brought in a small plate and placed it in front of the stone monument. Aunt Xu also filled a small glass of wine with a small wine glass and put it on a small plate. Then we knelt down at the tomb and bowed three times. Then, firecrackers are set off. But fortunately, Aunt Xu didn't cry loudly, just kept wiping her tears. After setting off the firecrackers, it was time to leave, but Aunt Xu stood in front of the grave and refused to leave immediately. So, Liu San and I had to stand aside and wait.

That's when I asked the question I was about to ask. Liu San said to me, "Since my father fell that fall, people are no longer good, my mother will not eat or drink, wash her face with tears all day long, and say that after a hundred years, she will be buried with my father at the end of the ladder of love, and stick to their love vows with my father in another world." However, just after my father left, when we were going up to the mountain to repair the tomb, my mother suddenly changed her mind again, and she did not agree to bury my father on the hill at the head of the slope. She said that it was too far away, and it was not easy for her to see my dad once, and asked me to bury my dad close to home, and she could come and see it whenever she wanted. So, we built my father's grave in this place. ”

Listening to this, I think it makes sense for Aunt Xu to change her mind. After all, she is 82 years old, and it was not easy to go up the mountain last time, if she wanted to go up the mountain to visit her wife, she had to walk on the mountain road all day and climb such a high ladder, it was really unrealistic. So, I said in an approving tone, "It's better to repair here, whether it's your mother or your children and grandchildren, it's more convenient to sweep the grave and burn paper later." ”

Liu San was going to take Aunt Xu down the mountain to go home, so I said to Liu San, "I still want to go up the love ladder again and see where they lived in the past." Liu San said, "Okay, you go and come back quickly, and come back for dinner in the evening." I said, "Okay." Then, he broke up with Aunt Xu and Liu.

I walked out of the jungle and came to the beginning of the ladder of love. I stood at the beginning of the ladder of love, looked around for a while, and there was a blood boiling in my heart. Uncle Liu is gone, and the couple who have not been separated for a day in 50 years will be separated from each other by yin and yang, and the sky will be separated; they can no longer hold hands with their beloved at the end of the ladder; they can no longer sing "Seventeen Wanglang" with their beloved, and the mountain will be even more lonely from now on. Uncle Liu is gone, leaving behind a couple who has been with him for 50 years, a 6,000-step "love ladder", and a touching love classic. This story may not be so romantic and tender, not so poignant and sad, not so tragic and decisive, but the simple and unpretentious love, the unswerving life together, is enough to move people to tears. This is destined to become a classic in the history of love in our ancient nation.

I walked all the way up the ladder of love, maybe because it was early and I couldn't see tourists on the road, and I walked fast, but every time I went to a scenic spot, I would carefully look at the introduction of the attraction and the surrounding scenery, and some places I simply took pictures with my camera. I want to make this trip more profitable and accumulate more material for me to write. But I first have to write a travelogue to report to the outside world on the ladder of love after Uncle Liu's departure.

The sun was very bright, and through the gaps in the forest, the mottled light was sprinkled into the forest, and the wind in the forest was calm and silent. But as soon as he came out of the forest, a cold wind came to his face, and it blew coldly on people's faces. The mountain road is full of fallen leaves, and it is depressed. After walking across the single-plank bridge and over the cliff ladder, I walked briskly, and by close to noon, I had already reached the top of the half-slope.

The top of the hill was in ruins, and the crows flew over the sky in large numbers, croaking and croaking. The house sat deserted, but empty, the doors and windows were closed, and the house near the pigsty, where I had lived, had collapsed by some point, and the improvised shed of the pigsty was gone. All that can be seen are the half of the bedroom and the hall where Uncle Liu and Aunt Xu live. The ground in front of the house was also overgrown with tall weeds, and the dog and the chickens were nowhere to be seen. Everywhere there is a sadness and desolation of being abandoned.

When I came to the front of the house, the wooden door in front of the house was filled with various messages written by tourists with pens. On the wall next to the door, there is a very large poster of the scenic spot. There are portraits of Uncle Liu and Aunt Xu on it, and under the portrait are a few lines of introduction, which read: In the 50s of the last century, in Zhongshan Ancient Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing, Liu Guojiang, a 20-year-old peasant youth, fell in love with Xu Chaoqing, who was 10 years older than him. They eloped hand in hand to the half-slope head of the deep mountain and old forest. In order to make Xu Chaoqing's travel safe, Liu Guojiang has been busy digging stone ladders on the cliffs all his life to lead to the outside world, and now there are 6,000 stone ladders, known as the "love ladder".

I followed the path down to the stream, and the spring was still flowing as usual, but it was no longer the joy it used to be. Maybe it's winter, and the fields are barren and overgrown with weeds. The weeds were more than a foot tall and covered the ground tightly. The fence built on the edge of the ground has been destroyed by the wind, and it is no longer visible to see the original situation, and it is estimated that wild boars and monkeys will no longer come here to feed and harass them. When you come to the edge of the forest, you can still see the beehive hanging on the stone wall, but the beehive is like a commemorative object, hanging there silently, but no one will pay attention to it anymore.

I walked along the half-human-tall grass to the side of the mountain, where Uncle Liu once took me to watch the sunrise. I was amazed and ecstatic by the spectacular sunrise, but when I stood here and looked at the scenery, it was a gloomy and gray scene everywhere. The wild walnut trees and wild date trees on the side of the mountain have lost their leaves and are swaying helplessly in the wind. I don't know if it's because the scenery here has changed, or if my mood has changed. I felt that everything in front of me was so cold and depressed.

When I returned to the flat ground in front of the house from the forest, I seemed to see a yellow dog barking at people, a group of local chickens foraging in the grass, an old man chopping wood in front of the door, and a kind old lady shouting to the tourists, "Do you want honey, do you want local chickens?" This is a picture of how many people yearn for the slash-and-burn farming, the man ploughing and the woman weaving, and it is also the home where the two old people love each other all their lives. Suddenly, a flock of birds flew over my head, waking me up from my slumber, and I was once again greeted by a gray and dilapidated scene.