Cross the river and follow the uphill slopes.

When it rains heavily in the summer, the water from the mountain will flow down this lane, so the road surface is very bad, and the potholes are full of large and small stones, although there is snow cover, it is still not easy to walk.

Li Chun supported his father, his brother supported his mother, Zhang Xingming held his younger brother, and the family climbed halfway up the slope to the gate of the old courtyard.

Dad stood there and looked left and right, on the left was the old courtyard, where the old man's family lived, and on the right was the second uncle's house.

Dad looked back at Mom and said, "Go see my uncle?"

My mother said, "Go and see, that's not your uncle, I'm back, what's wrong if I don't take a look." ”

Dad nodded and said, "Okay, go and pay a New Year's greeting to my uncle, the old man is over sixty years old." ”

Turn right, walk more than ten meters flat, it is the gate of the old courtyard, although the gatehouse has been knocked down, but the courtyard wall is still there, the gate is nailed with thick wood, not to prevent people, to prevent livestock.

As soon as they walked to the gate of the courtyard, two dogs in the courtyard rushed out of the nest and stood in the courtyard gate and barked at the family.

The dog barked a few times, and as soon as the door opened, a young man wiped his head out to look, took a look, frowned, and came over, and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Dad squinted at the young man for a while and said, "You, are you a little pine nut?"

The young man walked and said, "Yes, who are you?" walked to the edge of the courtyard gate, looked at his father carefully, his eyes were open, and said, "Third brother, is it the third brother?" Stretched out his hand to lift the courtyard door, opened the courtyard door, kicked away the dog at his feet, and said, "Come in, come in, come in, why did you come back before, third brother? The third sister-in-law is also back, come in." ”

Dad reached out and patted him on the shoulder and said, "Just arrived, come back and have a look." This guy has grown up and become a young man, is he married?"

The old man is younger than Zhang Xingming's own uncle, he is the fifth son of the grandfather, and he is twenty-three years younger than Zhang Xingming's grandfather, that is, his eldest brother, and his son, this Xiao Song, is just in his early twenties this year.

After entering the hospital, my father said to Zhang Xingming's brother: "Call uncle." "He is the youngest of my father's cousins, one year younger than the sixth uncle.

The brother said hello to the uncle, the uncle's name was Zhang Qingsong, and his nickname was Qingsong, and the people in the castle called him easy.

Walking through the courtyard to the front of the house, the old man hurriedly opened the door of the house and let everyone in, shouting: "Dad, Dad, look who's coming." ”

"Who?" the old man's voice sounded from the main room, and as the voice the old man poked his head out to see, the room was a little dark, and he probably didn't see it clearly, and was still asking, "Who is it?"

Dad said, "Happy New Year, uncle, I'm coming to see you." ”

The old man was stunned for a moment, then walked out of the house, looked at it carefully, reached out and grabbed his father's hand and said, "The third child, it's the third child, right? It's the third child, why did you come back?"

Dad said, "It's not a New Year's Day, come back and see." Is your body okay?"

The old man said, "Okay, you can eat and sleep, now that life is better, people are fine." Come on, come in and sit down, this guy, you haven't been back in years, have you gone to that courtyard?"

Dad said: "No, why don't you come and see you first, you are the elder, you are the only one left in our older generation, you have to take good care of your body, live a few more years, and live a good life in the future." ”

The old man said: "Yes, yes, live a good life, it's okay now, it's good, you can eat and sleep well, there is nothing missing." What's going on over there? The factory is okay? In the past two years, the city has been better than the countryside, and your life has been better. ”

Entering the house, my mother greeted the old man for the New Year and bowed deeply.

Dad called Zhang Xingming's brother and his wife to pay New Year's greetings to the master, this serious eight hundred is going to kowtow, and the brother knelt down and kowtowed three times to say hello. Kowtowing to the living is not a ring, that is, the head can't really touch the ground, and the old man recognizes this reason. By now, these statements have long been gone, and they don't even clench their fists.

After talking to the old man for a while, the father left five hundred yuan for the old man, and the family walked out of the old courtyard and walked to the courtyard opposite, the second uncle's house.

The courtyard door of the second uncle's house is relatively high, unlike the average rural family that blocks more than one meter, his house is like a real door, two meters high, and it is tightly woven with branches.

There was a bell hanging on the door, and the courtyard gate was a little far from the house, and the shouting was sometimes inaudible. Inside the door is the grape trellis, on the left is the pigsty and toilet, and on the right is the vegetable patch.

Dad stretched out his hand and shook the wood door, and the bell jingled a few times, and then he heard the door of the room inside, and a person came out, and asked as he walked, "Who?"

Dad looked at my mother and said, "Second brother, it's me, the third." Mom turned her head to look around, and she could see that she was still uncomfortable.

"The third one?" The second uncle opened the firewood door from the inside, looked at his father, and then glared at him and said, "Oh, it's really the third child, this is Gaha? Come in, Gui Xin, come into the courtyard, come into the house and talk." ”

Mom forced a smile and agreed.

When everyone entered the hospital, the second uncle closed the firewood door and whispered to his mother: "Gui Xin, I know that you are angry with your second sister-in-law, she has that temperament, she has offended people in this life, and I can't control it." This will not work, just like my mother, it is estimated that this year will be about the same, people die and the lights go out, don't take the past things to heart, okay? In fact, she has also regretted it in the past few years, and she has made it, and her brothers have not come to visit the house, alas. ”

The second uncle is actually a very rare tracheitis in the rural areas of Northeast China, and he is afraid that his daughter-in-law is not generally afraid.

My mother sighed and said, "Don't mention it in the past, if I'm still angry about the New Year, I'll come to Gaha?

The second uncle was happy, nodded happily, and said, "Go into the house, warm and warm, eat here today." ”

Walk five or six meters inside, out of the grape trellis is the yard, on the left hand side is the original old house, which will be empty there, the second uncle's house is in the old house and then go ten meters inside, the newly built five brick houses.

Turning around the old house, the eyes lit up, and a large flat yard appeared in front of me.

When the grandfather's generation was divided, the entire land on this side of the lane belonged to the grandfather, and this time it was the second grandfather who inherited it, and the yard and house occupied his own land.

The house has a foundation wall, and it is going up four steps, and the second lady is holding the door and standing on the steps to look this way, looking from a distance, her belly is swollen and high, as if she is pregnant and about to give birth.

The second uncle has four children, the eldest Xinghong, who has already joined the army, the second Xingwei, who is farming at home at this time, the third is called Xiaoying, a girl, in junior high school, the fourth Xingbing, and Zhang Xingming's brother has the same name, but he is one year older than Zhang Xingming, and this is also junior high school.

At that time, I liked to use those words when naming my children, so it was normal to have a lot of duplicate names. Zhang Xingming's family used the military militia, and the second uncle's family used the Red Guards, which was changed to Hongwei soldiers after the Great Revolution was criticized.

It is said that after the end of the Great Revolution, countless people changed their names across the country.