The Ladder of Love (Novella) Zhang Baotong

The rain was still falling, not very much, but the road was covered with fallen leaves, and it was slippery in places. Usually when I go down the mountain, when I go to a dangerous place, it is the young man who holds my hand and I dare to go down. However, at this time, I couldn't care about anything, turned on my flashlight, and stumbled down the ladder towards the bottom of the mountain. Usually, I talk and walk all the way down the mountain with the young man, and I feel that the mountain road is not very far, but this time, I feel that the mountain road and the ladder in this rainy night are so long and so far that I can't end in a hurry. I fell down again and again, got up again and again, and didn't care about anything, I just wanted to get down the hill as quickly as possible.

It was almost dawn in the morning that I came to the door of Liu San's house. When I came to Liu San's door, I banged on his door hard. Liu San and his daughter-in-law opened the door, and when they saw that I was unkempt and covered in mud, they fell in front of the door at once, and they were immediately frightened, because they never expected that I would go down the mountain alone in the middle of the night. He helped me up and asked, "What's wrong?" I cried and shouted, 'Liu San, your old man is no longer good, you go up the mountain to save him.' As soon as Liu San heard this, he immediately called his daughter-in-law and everyone in the family and ran up the mountain. Originally, I was going to go with me, but when he saw that my shoulder, back, and waist were broken, and I couldn't walk fast, he wouldn't let me follow.

Liu San and the others soon went up to the top of the mountain. But the young man could no longer speak. Everyone wanted to carry him down the mountain, and he pointed to the top ten classic love certificates in the country and the portrait drawn by a Japanese friend for him and me on the cabinet with trembling fingers. Liu San understood that his father wanted him to take these things down the mountain together, because it was a testimony that the young man and I loved each other for a lifetime.

After Liu San and the others went up the mountain, I stood alone in front of the door of the house and waited. The temperature was so cold in winter, so I put my arms together and waited anxiously. Time passed little by little, but Liu San and they never came back. I was so anxious that I didn't eat or sleep, so I just stood in front of the door and waited, looking towards the mountain.

Carrying the young man all the way down the mountain was difficult. Everyone walks and rests, and the road goes so slowly. Originally, it took four or five hours to walk down the mountain, but they walked for more than ten hours carrying people. I started descending the mountain at one or two o'clock yesterday afternoon, and I didn't return home until dawn the next day.

The young man was carried to his house and placed on the bed, and by this time the doctor of the town had been called. He conducted a diagnostic examination on the young man, saying that the young man's disease was a rupture of a cerebral blood vessel, which led to cerebral congestion, and the person was not saved. I took his hand and cried, saying, 'When the classic love story was awarded, you went to Hunan and took a plane. Top 10 moving people in Chongqing, you went to Chongqing again, and you have seen such a big scene. Every time, you say I'm not in good health and won't let me go. You said you were going to take me on a plane, on a train, and take me out to see the sights. You also said that you are in better health than me, younger than me, and will take care of me for the rest of your life. However, you yourself are in a hurry to leave. You don't talk much. ’

However, the young man was in a semi-comatose state, and when he was more awake, he could only hold hands with me. I was so sad, so I took him by the hand and told him the story of our past, how we eloped up the mountain together, built a house together, went up and down the mountain together, and loved each other together. As I spoke, I put the certificates and portraits that I had with me in front of his eyes. His eyes lit up as he looked at the certificates and portraits.

Since the boy fell ill, I had scarcely eaten or eaten, and I had been with him day and night, and I knew that our days were numbered, so I said to him, 'Our days are getting better and better, but you are going to leave me behind, what is the point of me being alone?'

On the afternoon of the 12th, the lad suddenly seemed so agitated, and he pointed to the certificates and portraits with a trembling hand, and told me to keep them by his side. I took the certificate and the portrait and put them in front of him. However, he was still pointing to the corner. Then I took the axe and the steel drill in the corner and placed them beside him. Only then did he calm down. By 4:40 p.m., the lad had closed his eyes forever. ”

When Aunt Xu said this, she couldn't help crying again.

Liu's third daughter-in-law came over to wipe Aunt Xu's tears with a towel and said to her, "Don't cry, my father will be so sad to listen to it." When Aunt Xu heard this, she couldn't help crying. At this time, Liu's third daughter-in-law said to me, "She is much better these days, my father just left for a few days, she cried all day long, and no one could persuade her." ”

Then, Liu's third daughter-in-law said, "After my father died, the mourning hall was set up in this hall, and the mourning music kept playing, and my mother knelt on the ground and kept saying, 'Young man, young man, what should you do if you leave me alone?' Some people persuaded her to say, 'Aunt don't be sad, your life is worth living, so glorious, Uncle Liu has built a 6,000-step love ladder for you, which is a monument that will forever commemorate the love between you and your uncle.'" When my mother heard this, she cried even more sadly, and she said, 'I don't want a ladder of love, I just want my boy.'" The young man is everything to me, he is gone, he takes everything from me, I have nothing. Hearing this, there was no one present who did not shed tears. As she spoke, she put her face against my father's coffin and stroked it with her hand, bursting into tears. She also asked people to write her heartfelt words as elegiac couplets: 'If tears can build a ladder, if memories can pave a path, I will go to heaven and watch the ladder of love with the young man.' ’

That day, she sat all day by the black coffin, like a sculpture, motionless, and no one told her to look down, nor to eat, nor to sleep, but to weep vigorously, and to say, 'If only he hadn't fallen on that head.' ’

December 18 is the day of the funeral. At 4 o'clock in the morning, it was still dark, and my mother got up, and she went to the shed where the coffin was kept, and opened the coffin to see my father again. She had been crying for days, and she had dried her tears and could no longer cry tears. She just kept watching like that.

There are still four hours, three hours, two hours, one hour until the funeral. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the funeral was going to be held. The lid of the coffin should be nailed. My mother cried loudly again and said, 'Young man, let me look at you again.' So they lifted the lid of the coffin and asked her to look at her husband again. And she threw herself and wept bitterly. The people erected her and nailed the coffin lid shut.

On the day of the funeral, it was raining. The rain wasn't heavy, but it kept falling, like crying for my dad. The firecrackers began to crackle, and the sound of suona frightened the heavens and the earth, and people looked at this side in amazement. The coffin was lifted, and the funeral procession began to walk towards the foot of the mountain. The funeral procession was getting longer and longer, and more than a dozen media reporters also came to attend the funeral, and many people who knew or didn't know each other came, and they all joined in and silently walked in the procession to mourn my father's funeral. There are many villagers who can't figure out how the death of an ordinary old man in the mountains can get so many people to pay attention and participate.

My mom stood in front of the door and watched my dad's coffin move into the distance. Since she could not bury him, she stood under a tree in front of the door, grasped the little tree tightly with her thin, cold hands, lifted her wrinkled and tearful face, and watched as the funeral procession slowly walked away and disappeared at the foot of the mountain. And she was still standing there, braving the falling drizzle, and her whole body was still shaking in the rain. ”

After listening to Liu San's daughter-in-law's story, I was so sad in my heart, but Aunt Xu kept crying, and I couldn't persuade her, so I wanted to go out for a walk so that my mood could calm down and soothe. So, I went out. By this time, the sky was clear, and the sun had come out of the clouds, illuminating the river and the mountains brightly. I came to the door of the Love Ladder attraction and watched the cold wind, many tourists watched and walked in front of the door, talking and laughing. I think so many tourists come here to visit and pay their respects just to make their love more beautiful.