Cultivator didn't know how he fell asleep in fear, and the strange and terrifying sound of help in his ears didn't happen again after that night.

The 1988 calendar was torn out and there were only a few left, and the number 29 was red, indicating that another year was about to pass. A new calendar for 1989 is already being prepared, and in a few days it will take office and announce the arrival of the new year, 365 days.

Looking at the numbers on the calendar, his heart was happy, today is the day when his father and mother come back from their grandmother's house with their younger brothers.

A while ago, my uncle Tian Shengli went to Baoji from Longxian County to do business, and brought news that his grandmother had broken her leg and was lying on the kang and couldn't get off the ground. The mother discussed with her father, and then obtained the consent of her grandmother Wang Ying, and took her two younger brothers back to her parents' house together.

Mother Tian Mengjia's maiden family is a small village in the southeast town of Longxian County, and there are mainly people with the surname "Bian" in the village, so they take the surname as the name and call Bianjiazhuang.

For his grandmother's house, he only went to it once in his memory of cultivating at the age of four. Grandmother Zhou Jingyi is over 80 years old, she is a very thin old lady with small feet, and she always has to walk with a cane, trembling and trembling. Her little feet were tightly wrapped around with strips of black cloth, and then she wore socks and shoes, which were pointed and small, and the exposed instep looked bulging, like a big bag.

In addition to her grandmother's small feet, the old man's tears were also impressed by the cultivation, her eyes always looked moist, and she often had to wipe the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.

Grandma spoke very softly, her hands were not big, she looked skinny, and when she stroked the little head melon of cultivation, her palms were warm.

As for his grandfather Tian Fengshou, he only remembers that he is an old man with dark skin and wrinkles, and he often ties a white towel to his head, like a character costume in a movie once shown by the team.

Grandpa didn't say much, either feeding pigs and cattle, or bowing his head to weave kang mats, he was always idle, working all day long, rough hands caressed the little face of the cultivator, it felt like a cold wind blowing, some prickly meaning.

Cultivator's mother Tian Mengjia is the eldest daughter of her grandfather and grandmother, and Cultivator also has an aunt named Tian Mengli. My aunt is six years younger than her mother, she is simply a young version of her mother, she is very beautiful, especially when she laughs, her voice is pleasant and crisp, like the feeling of spring water.

Cultivation originally had three uncles, and now there is only one uncle Tian Shengli left, he is not tall, nor is he strong, but what he does is to kill pigs and sell meat for a living, because the craftsmanship is very good, in the entire southeast town to which Bianjiazhuang belongs is a famous butcher, people give the nickname "Tian Yidao".

The other two uncles, according to their mother, Tian Mengjia, were given to relatives in the mountains since they were children, because there were no boys in that relative's family. In the process of growing up, there was an accident "no", and the reason why my grandmother always shed tears was that I cried at that time.

But fortunately, the boy who gave it away later became the common child of the two families, and he also had a "mountain uncle" who had never met, and his deepest impression was that his mother Tian Mengjia always brought some local products every time he came back from his grandmother's house in Longxian County, such as pecans, sweet potatoes or carrots, and his mother would always say that these local products were given by "Uncle Shanli".

My father and mother, who had worked hard, arrived at home in the evening, and my uncle still gave me a bag full of woven sweet potatoes. Seeing her son and daughter-in-law who had been away for a few days and returned late, grandma Wang Ying's face was very ugly, but fortunately, Yan Zhangfu, the fourth uncle who came back together, explained that when he drove through Qianyangling, he encountered a big traffic jam, which delayed the time and came back late.

Yan Zhangfu drove a coal car, traveled between Gansu and Shaanxi, and often took the line of "Baoping Road". Baoping Road refers to the highway from Baoji in Shaanxi Province to Pingliang in Gansu Province, in fact, it is the common name of Provincial Highway 212 in the section from Baoji to Pingliang, and it was also called "Huangquan Road" by the common people in the early years, because there are crematoriums, execution grounds, and cemeteries along the way. However, the drivers prefer the homophonic "Baoping Road", which is taken to ensure the road of safety.

Having a driver who drives a coal truck as a son-in-law is a more face-saving thing in the countryside. Of course, there is also the practical convenience, that is, the coal used for cooking at home will be cheaper if you buy it through your son-in-law. In addition, this son-in-law can get fine coal like sand and gravel, which solves part of the old father-in-law's honeycomb coal consumption in winter.

When Niu Yonghou, the father of the cultivators, and Yan Zhangfu, the fourth uncle, struggled to pile the five bags of fine coal on the car under the windowsill of the old man Niu in the corridor, Niu Chuanqing hurriedly beckoned his son-in-law to come into the house to drink tea, and his wife Wang Ying said while dusting his son-in-law with a whisk: "You know how to drink tea, and don't look at what time it is?" Zhang Fu, this kid is tired from driving for a day, so let the baby eat early and Xiaoxia go back to rest. ”

Niu Chuanqing didn't know what to say in the local area, so he sighed lightly and entered his house. He knew that he had no say in this family, especially after his brother-in-law Ye Shifang came. But he will no longer complain, after all, at the age of seventy-six, what else is there that he can't see? Not to mention that he now has children to take care of and grandchildren to share his family, and his life should be complete.

He remembered that when he first settled in Yuchi Village, he was over half a hundred years old and led his young or young children to dig a four-hole cave in the middle of the mountain. But even in such hard years, his heart is full, a home is like a home, and he is an indispensable member of this family.

Today, the family has moved from the middle of the hill to a flat place, and has built four brick arched cave bungalows as the upper house, and two adobe wooden tiled houses as the lower house, along with the firewood shed, the cattle pen, and the courtyard enclosed by a low wall.

All this seems to be what he imagines his home to look like for him who is too old. However, he became a loner in the courtyard, and the room was a separate of the four upper rooms, and a wall separated the three worlds from this side and the hall to the other.

It's like at this moment, after the family has eaten, on the other side of the hall, in the room of the son and daughter-in-law, the daughter Niu Xiaoxia and the daughter-in-law Tian Mengjia are talking, and the two little grandsons are sleeping on the kang head, and the two little grandsons are sleeping on the kang and the cattle are ploughing and herding; And on his own side, if it weren't for Sun Tzu Niu's hard work, it would really be extremely lonely.

The room was silent, and the aluminum-skinned kettle of boiling water whimpered on the stove, a sign of impending boiling. The grandfather and grandson sat quietly by the stove, and next to them stood five electric kettles of various sizes with boiling water, which was one of the daily tasks of Niu Chuanqing in winter, providing an uninterrupted supply of boiling water for the whole family.

When the boiling water in the electric kettle was filled, and the cultivators carried it to the hall one by one, Niu Chuanqing filled an aluminum kettle with cold water and put it next to the stove, so that there was no need to boil the water at this time, and their grandfather and grandson sat down next to each other, and they could quietly roast the fire for a while and drink today's tea.

The furnace fire was vigorous, with faint flames coming out of the twelve holes of the honeycomb coal. The slight firelight reflected the faces of the grandfather and grandson, Niu Chuanqing was full of vicissitudes, and the wrinkles on his face outlined the years, like a picture of thick ink, stubbornly crashing into people's hearts. His hair was gray, about an inch long, neatly combed backwards, and his roots stood upright, and he looked very energetic; the ox cultivator was immature, and his little face was red from the cold wind of winter, and his skin was not very white, but under the backdrop of the fire, it showed a little pink color. The most striking thing is his eyes, which are like a dark and flickering starry sky at this moment, reflecting the light of the fire, like two red stars embedded in it, full of smart and warm brilliance.

"Yunyun, do you want to eat a snack?"

With the old man's inquiry, the cultivator unconsciously moved his eyes to the middle of the grandfather's bed, where there was a bamboo paper paste screen wall against the bed, and on the screen wall hung a flat basket woven with plastic strips, and in the basket there were the snacks that the grandfather said, and of course there were other delicious gadgets.

The basket for decorating snacks and eating is the place where he cares and gazes on weekdays, and in addition to that, he cares about the enamel teapot in his grandfather's hand.