The Ladder of Love (Part II) Zhang Baotong 2017.10.10

Uncle Liu has been telling the story of his past, and the oil in the oil lamp has been picked again and again, and the oil in the oil lamp is about to run out. But none of us said we were going to sleep. Suddenly, a wind blew outside the house, and the oil lamp flickered and almost blew it out. I quickly closed the door. However, at this time, I saw that Aunt Xu was already sitting on the chair and dozing off, and Uncle Liu was also tired. They have all been tired all day, and they are all old, and it is impossible for them to stay up late like me. So, I said to Uncle Liu, "Uncle, go to bed quickly, and continue to talk tomorrow." ”

Uncle Liu nodded, and hurriedly woke up Aunt Xu, who was dozing, and then helped her into the room inside to sleep. I went out and went to the ground in front of the house to urinate. At this time, I saw that the night was already very deep, the stars were dense, the moon was in the sky, and the distant mountains and the near view were dark and black. The wind blew silently, it was very cold, it was even a little cold. I think if you were in Chongqing, the temperature would be at least 30 degrees, so hot that you can't sleep without turning on the air conditioner. However, I don't know how comfortable the wind on the mountain is compared to the air conditioner. Because the wind at the top of the mountain is very cool, even mosquitoes are rare in the house. Unlike the people at the bottom of the mountain, if you don't use a mosquito net at night, you can almost let the mosquitoes eat. We stayed at a hotel in Zhongshan the night before, and because there was no mosquito net in the room, the mosquitoes kept flying around my head and face that night, buzzing, and I didn't sleep well all night.

Suddenly, I felt something approaching me, and I was startled, and when I saw that it was rhubarb, it probably felt lonely and wanted to accompany me to see the scenery. I stroked its head and neck with my hands, and I felt that this rhubarb lived on the top of this mountain with my aunt and uncle, and it was very pitiful. In addition, it also serves as a guard at night to prevent monkeys and wild boars from stealing and eating the corn and potatoes of its owner's house.

After looking at the night scene for a while, I felt really tired, and stroked the rhubarb for a while, and then went back to my house. This house is for the children of the aunt and uncle, but I don't know how long the children have not come, so there is a strange smell in the house. The room was small and occupied by a large bed. The bed is made of thick wood, which is very solid and stable. I shone my flashlight, pulled back the covers, and got ready for bed. The quilt is very thick, because it is not only used in summer, but also in winter and autumn, but this thick quilt does not feel hot on the body, but feels quite comfortable. It was quiet outside, so quiet that you could hear the sound of the stream rushing very clearly, which made people feel like they were in a dream. Outside the window, it was the misty moonlight urging people to fall asleep.

As soon as I fell asleep, I was fascinated by the noise of birds. I half-opened my eyes and looked out the window, it was still not very bright, and I wanted to sleep a little longer. After a day's work yesterday, I was really tired, and I felt that my whole shoulder, back and waist hurt at night, and I slept late last night, so I didn't feel like I had enough sleep, and I wanted to sleep a little more. However, the chirping of birds on the hill and in the trees behind the house disturbed me from sleeping, and I could only lie in a daze with my eyes closed.

I don't know how long it took, but the birds were not so noisy. When I opened my eyes and looked again, it was already getting dark. However, I still didn't want to get up, so I continued to fall asleep, trying to relieve the pain in my body a little more. When the pain in my body was almost gone, I lazily got out of bed. When he came out of the house, he saw the door of the aunt and uncle's house open, but the man did not know where he had gone. I guess I went to work in the fields. I myself came from the countryside, and my parents have been farmers all their lives, so I still have some understanding of life as a farmer.

I first ran to the edge of the mountain forest to relieve my hands, and then went to the creek to wash. When I came back from the stream, I saw my aunt coming back from the field with a basket of potatoes on her back. As she poured the potatoes into a corner of the kitchen, she said to me, "Last night there was another disaster in the field, and the potatoes ate a lot of the wild boars." ”

I said, "Why didn't you hear Rhubarb call?" said my aunt, "Rhubarb called, but I slept too hard with your uncle and didn't hear it." I immediately apologized and said, "It's all my fault that I let Uncle tell the story too late, which affected your normal rest." But the aunt said, "You can't be blamed for that." ”

My aunt was still digging potatoes, so I followed her to the potato field, and I saw a large field of vine seedlings spread out in a mess, and the marks of the wild boar coaxing with its mouth and picking up with its front paws were clearly exposed. I dug the potatoes with a rake, and my aunt followed behind to pick up the potatoes. In a few moments, the dug potatoes filled the basket. So, I carried a basket full of potatoes on my back and followed my aunt back to the house to cook.

Today's rice is rice, and the dish is stewed smoked pork with small potatoes, and the aroma is so delicious that people are mouthful. When the meal was served on the small table, the aunt stood in front of the house and shouted to the side of the crops, "Young man, you have come back to eat." Immediately he replied, "I'm back." ”

After a while, I saw Uncle Liu walking over from the woods with a very long bamboo pole in one hand and a bamboo basket in the other. When he put the bamboo basket in front of the house, I saw that the bamboo basket contained most of the walnuts in half a basket. Some of these walnuts still have green skins, and some of them have been blackened a little. Uncle Liu told me that the walnuts with green skin were cut down from the tree, and the walnuts with black skin had fallen from the tree long ago and were soaked by the rain.

I asked the uncle, "Do you want to buy these walnuts in the market?" because I think these walnuts are a little small, and they will definitely not sell them at a good price in the market. Uncle Liu said, "This walnut can't be sold for money, so it is peeled, dried, and eaten as a snack for children." I asked, "How old are the children?" he said, "and they are all quite old, almost all of them are married, and only the youngest son's children are still in middle school." ”

Today's meal was particularly delicious. The rice is dry and hard, and the bacon and boiled potatoes are incomparably fragrant. I haven't had such a delicious meal in many years. I wondered what we wanted to eat and buy in the city, and we didn't usually like this kind of bacon and small potatoes, so we didn't buy them at all. However, no matter what we buy, we don't feel how delicious it tastes when we do anything. However, these usually inconspicuous small potatoes and bacon made Aunt Xu feel incomparably fragrant and delicious as soon as they made it. I wondered at first, and then I began to analyze. I think it could be the water, or the fire. Because the water here is a clear spring of mountain streams, the fire here is burned with pine branches and firewood, the cooking pot is a primitive thick iron pot, and Aunt Xu's cooking skills, this meal naturally has a unique taste. Not to mention the rice and bacon stewed potatoes, even the corn stickers and boiled potatoes in the consommé also make people feel extraordinarily delicious.

I ate three bowls of rice in a row, and my uncle also ate three bowls of rice. He said he hadn't eaten meat since the Chinese New Year. Actually, I also know that if I hadn't lived here, my uncle wouldn't have bought rice and meat yesterday. They treated me like a guest. Because in the forty or fifty years since they reached the top of the mountain, no one has ever been here.