On the morning of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the sky was bright, and the Fang family got up and kept busy.

For grandpa, today is a particularly important day, that is, to go to Xiangxi's hometown to have a look, which does not mean to return home.

Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, said that wealth and nobility do not return to their hometowns, such as clothes and brocade at night, who knows.

This is in line with the thinking habits of the Chinese people, so it is also very easy to be sought after, and the existence of idioms such as promotion and wealth, glory and glory to the ancestors all reveal these truths.

The people who traveled to Xiangxi included grandpa, Fang Ning, Grandpa Long, and Chen Hailin, who was responsible for driving, and the trunk was stuffed with various gifts.

This made Fang's father and mother a little envious, so they could only shake their heads and sigh, with his sister's financial support, no matter how bad the old man was, it was his own business.

As for Fang's father, Fang's mother, and Fang Wei, they went to Yueyang's grandmother's house to visit relatives, for as little as two or three days, and as long as a week.

In the end, it was the grandmother who kept the house, after all, there were still some relatives who did not come to visit these days, and they came back one after another, and she needed to entertain guests at home.

Fang Ning sorted out the wrinkles on the collar of his grandfather's new clothes in front of the mirror, and after patting it flat, he took some gel water from his father's room and smeared it on him, combed it flat, and looked in the mirror, he looked a lot younger, and even the gray hair at the root of his sideburns was gone, so he stepped back with satisfaction and clapped his hands, "It's done!"

Grandpa was irritated by the smell of jelly water, and said a little uncomfortable: "This is too fancy, isn't it?"

"That's the style. Fang Ning smiled with eight teeth.

Fang Wei covered his mouth and walked by, grandpa thought that something was wrong, was he fooled?

Fang's mother said, "Then pay attention to safety on the road, if there is anything, remember to call us." ”

"Hmm!" Fang Ning nodded.

So, Fang Ning and the four of them got into Chen Hailin's car and set off, the road was dangerous, and the old dream was hard to find.

……

Guzhang County, belonging to Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, is located in the western part of Hunan.

Guyang Town is the seat of the county seat, east to Baojing, south to Ji Prime Minister, west to Yuanling, north and Yongshun junction.

At the same time, the black car driven by Chen Hailin was calmly driving in Guzhang County.

Fang Ning leaned on the car window, looking at the scenery outside.

The mountains of Guzhang County overlap, and the endless mountains stretch all the way, as if there is no end in sight.

The mountains are high and steep, the ditches are deep and the valleys are narrow, forming a saw-like ridge, which is slightly gentle to the southeast and northwest, and the valleys of the rivers are scattered in between.

It feels like you're isolated from the rest of the world.

And it is indeed out of a very backward state, the folk customs are simple, you can see people carrying bamboo baskets everywhere Miao costumes, as well as Tujia people selling in the market.

Fang Ning and his entourage came at the right time and met the grand event of the Tujia family-the Vaulting Horse Festival.

When they stopped at the Guyang Town Market, they met a lot of people in Tujia costumes gathered together, banging gongs and firecrackers, and beaming with joy.

Fang Ning asked an old man who was obviously Han Chinese, "What kind of festival is this, why is it so grand?"

The old man saw that their group was dressed extraordinarily and spoke with a bit of a foreign accent, so he said: "This is our local activity, the Vaulting Horse Festival, which was originally a traditional festival of the Tujia family, and later the ethnic integration has gradually become a festival for all of us." ”

"Then what are the activities of this festival?" Fang Ning looked far away, and saw that the road in the market was full of onlookers on both sides, and there was a vacant place in the middle, there were special people tied to straw horses, wrapped in pulp outside, and the operator stood in it, like a horse, dancing with his hands.

"We have a lot of horses in this festival activities, worship the god of the land, exercise the flag, vault the horse, carry the master, adjust the year, rare coke, burn horses and so on. The old man explained to everyone one by one.

Fang Ning and the others stood next to them and watched, watching with relish, putting the straw horse on the fire pit, and a respected old man wearing the clothes of a Tujia elder lit it with a torch, and the onlookers dispersed violently, which can be regarded as a whole vaulting festival.

It was only then that they remembered that they were looking for someone.

Fang Ning knows the address of his old family, but he is not familiar with the place, and you will be blind if you give you an address, as long as you ask the locals for directions.

Just as the old man who had just explained the festival to them was leaving slowly, Grandpa stopped him and asked him to help him.

In the later introduction, I learned that the old man's name was Kong Dexin, who was three years younger than his grandfather, but he looked much older than his grandfather, after all, he was a person who worked in the field, and his grandfather had not worked for nearly ten years.

Kong Dexin wore reading glasses and glanced at the handwriting on the paper a few times, and found that this place name was a little familiar to him, so he looked at Fang Ning and them strangely, and said, "What are you doing here?"

Grandpa said: "We went to look for relatives, we didn't have a contact information and location before, and it was difficult to find someone, but now we finally found it, so we came over to see if we could find our relatives." ”

Kong Dexin frowned, "What's your last name?"

"Our surname is Fang!"

"We don't have the surname Fang here, only the surname Kong, I'm afraid you're in the wrong place, right?"

Grandpa explained: "Our ancestor was surnamed Kong, and later fled to other places to escape the disaster, so he changed his name and surname. ”

Kong Dexin was silent for a moment and sighed, "It's all poor people." ”

He sighed inexplicably, Fang Ning was confused, and he didn't know what was going on, so he heard Kong Dexin say, "The person you are looking for is someone from our side, I'll take you there." ”

Grandpa had a bottom in his heart when he heard it.

Chen Hailin and Fang Longxing glanced at each other, estimating that the old man in front of him had a deep relationship with the relatives that the Fang family was looking for.

Kong Dexin got into Chen Hailin's car, and there was a bamboo basket inside, which was stuffed in the trunk.

He followed the direction of Kong Dexin's direction, crossed the mountains and mountains, and drove all the way to the mountains far away from Guyang Town, until the sun was about to set, and they crossed a high mountain before they arrived at their stockade.

This is indeed a village, a very backward Tujia cottage, surrounded by mountains, it is winter now, you can only see the dry vines, if you wait until spring and summer, what kind of green it should be.

Fang Ning took a closer look, the cottage is halfway up the mountainside, surrounded by mountains and rivers, most of the houses are the kind of stilted building pattern, bamboo and wood houses, old, aging, and there is not even much shadow of modernization, the only sign of modernization is still those few telephone poles, criss-crossed.

Or because after the New Year, they do not have the habit of walking relatives, you can see that the house is full of walking Tujia people, the most significant feature is that both men and women and children are carrying bamboo baskets, for them bamboo baskets are the continuation of their own hands, picking medicinal herbs or winter bamboo shoots and other things in the mountains, or it is the season of tea picking, you can see a group of girls carrying bamboo baskets to pick tea, beautiful and delicious.

Kong Dexin got out of the car and pointed to the old stilted house on the mountainside not far away, with a fence made of bamboo planks outside, a pig coop, a chicken coop, and two dogs playing in the yard.

As soon as they heard the movement outside, the two dogs pricked up their ears and barked, and the people in the house also heard the movement and came out to see the situation, and saw a car parked on the side of the road outside, and five people were walking towards this side, one of whom they knew was Uncle Contex from the next door.

Out of the house were two young girls, dressed in modern clothes, jeans, and painted eyebrows, looking into questioning eyes, "Who are you looking for?"

Kong Dexin directly mentioned Fang Ning and said, "They said that they were relatives of your family, who came all the way to see you, are you Apu at home?"

"I'm not back yet. The older Kong Yuexin glanced at Fang Ning and the others and didn't ask more.

As for the younger Kong Yueming, she stared at her with a suspicious expression.

However, it turned out to be a guest, and they reported that they were relatives, so Kong Yuexin didn't want them to wait outside.

Kong Yueming made some tea and brought it to everyone, Kong Yuexin inquired from the side, and heard that they came from Yueyang, smacking her tongue slightly, I am afraid that it is a long way away, if you drive. It takes at least six or seven hours to arrive, and the appearance of wading through mountains and rivers has already relieved her doubts, this is estimated to be her own relatives, after all, they don't have anything valuable at home, and they can't make people worry.

"You go to the hillside and call Grandma and our Apu back. Kong Yuexin urged her sister to call someone back.

When Grandpa heard that the aunt was still working in the field, his eyes widened, you must know that even his father Fang Miqing was already an ancient man, and that aunt should be older than his father, and it was estimated that she was ninety to one hundred years old, "Your grandmother can still go to the ground?"

Kong Yuexin said: "My grandmother is only 80 years old, she is strong and healthy, her teeth are all there, and she can carry a bamboo basket to dig winter bamboo shoots and pick tea leaves in the bamboo forest!"

Grandpa took a closer look, I'm afraid that he misunderstood, Dad's aunt is not necessarily older than him, some husbands are younger than wives, and some husbands are older than wives, it seems that the aunt is estimated to belong to the latter.

It didn't take long for Kong Yueming to lead an old man and a middle-aged man back.

The old lady looks a little old, her body is thin, she doesn't look like she weighs much, the skin on the back of her hands is close to the bones, her face is wrinkled, but her eyes are very bright, Fang Ning has seen many old people, all of them have godless eyes and cloudy eyes, but I have never seen an old man of this age still have such eyes, just looking at you seems to be deeply penetrating.

Later, I learned that the old man was a pure Tujia person, and there used to be gods and old men in the family, and then the four old ones were gone, but she learned to go to the mountains to collect medicinal materials, such as those angelica yams and so on, to prolong life.

The old man put the bamboo basket on the corner inside and outside the stilted building, took off his plastic shoes, and looked at Fang Ning and them.

Another middle-aged man, at first glance, is the kind of person who is very honest in the countryside, walking on the side of the road can carry a few out, public face, deep head lines, short hair, wearing old clothes, rubber shoes are all muddy water, his clothes are also covered with muddy water, it seems that he has waded through the muddy water, he took off his rubber shoes, barefoot, stood on the wooden steps and washed with a wooden spoon with clean water, cleaned up, and then came to greet Fang Ning and them.

Kong Lianshun knew through Kong Yueming's mouth that this group of visitors was relatives, he was used to living in isolation, basically not much contact with the outside world, and only two daughters grew up and went to the city to wander, and they naturally lived the days of sunrise and sunset in this small cottage.

Kong Lian obediently took out a pack of red packaged soft cigarettes from his crumpled clothes, and took out a few, grandpa hurriedly stepped forward to continue, Chen Hailin and Fang Longxing were the same, and there were smiles on their faces, for fear that they would think that they were not enthusiastic enough, only Fang Ning was not old enough to take cigarettes.

After the group sat down, Sister Kong Yuexin went to cook the meal, each with their own things.

The old man's name is Dora Cap, and his Chinese name is Dong Wen.

As I said before, the old man's pure Tujia family, while his husband is Han, and the Tuhan intermarriage is conducive to ethnic integration......

Because of the relationship between the old people, don't look at Kong Yuexin and Kong Yueming's young age, that generation is very big.

Later, even the grandfather was a little confused, so she could only tell them about it, our family is your relative, and you took out the old photos that were saved before to the old man, which will make her feel a little touched.

Fang Ning was very good at looking at the eyes, looking at this lively scene, so he nodded at Grandpa Long, and the two of them took the time to go out, looking for various gifts in the trunk, which was also prepared in advance, but because I didn't know how many people there were, and what they liked, I bought some of everything, in addition to some jade, there are also local specialties in Pinghai County, tofu, dried soy sauce, longevity noodles and so on.

Kong Lianshun was honest, seeing so many gifts and didn't dare to accept them, the old man spoke, and finally accepted it, it is estimated that he was also a little embarrassed later, rummaged through the cabinets in the back room, turned out a bottle of jar wrapped tightly in a bag, and said to grandpa, "This is royal jelly, which was picked this year, and the royal jelly produced by pure pollen honey can be beautified and prolonged life after eating...... That's what my grandma drinks. ”

Grandpa had no choice but to accept the gift, and the smile on his face was even brighter.

Kong Yuexin made a table of meals, her skills are not bad, the main meal has braised wild rabbit, wild boar, and Tujia sauerkraut, meat and vegetarian hot and cold table full of table.

There was old wine on the table, and Kong Lianshun said that it was a sweet wine made from glutinous rice and sorghum, and the degree was not high, but the taste was pure.

Fang Ning had also learned before that whenever a guest came to his home, the warm host would entertain him with sweet wine.

Because the Kong family lives here all the year round with the Tujia family, it can be said that it has been soiled, according to the customs and habits of the Tujia family, Kong Lianshun wants to give a bowl of wine to his grandfather first, and the name of this wine is called "Jiao Cup Wine".

The two drank together, showing mutual respect.

When drinking, don't say drink but please, don't say toast but say use first as respect.

When both parties drink to the end, they exchange wine bowls and pour wine, raise the bowl with the right hand, hold the bottom of the bowl with the left hand and raise it to the other party's mouth, both sides say please at the same time, drink it all, in order to show the integration of feelings.

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Tujia dialect: crawling, Apu is the meaning of father, grandma is the meaning of grandma, grandmother.