Loess Road.

Along the winding loess road of the mountain, an oxcart is wide, and the plantain grows in the deep ruts on the road, gently dancing in the mountain wind, and the exposed stones in the road quietly look at the sky. On both sides of the road is a pine forest of Hesse, on one side is an ordinary pine, brown and black pine needles spread all over the bottom of the forest, and on the other side is a fruit pine, which is sparsely grown.

This is Liaodong, the mountainous area of the Liaodong Peninsula, and there is an inexplicable place name here, Honey Lizi.

Walk more than 10 kilometers along this dirt road from Honey Lizi, called Toudao Hezi, and go back for about 20 kilometers, called Erdaogou. The National Defense Highway passes far through this barren land, and every day there is a shuttle bus from the city to the county, which passes in the morning and comes back in the afternoon, and drives along the National Defense Road with dust and sand. Whether they want to go to the city or the county, the people of Honey Lizi Village have to walk along the dirt road for an hour and a half, climb two hills, one high and one low, and then stand on the side of the road and wait. The shuttle bus does not have a very fixed time, and it is considered punctual to arrive here every two days and a half.

In the middle of summer and August, the sun hangs overhead, and it is noon, the hottest time of the day.

A few middle-aged people wearing Mao suits or Han shirts that can no longer be seen, and wearing farm shoes on their feet, squatted on the side of the national defense road, smoking dry cigarettes and chatting idly, and several people were piled up with large bags and small wrapped things, plastic bags, cloth bags, travel bags, woven bags, everything.

Not far from a few middle-aged people, squatting a fifteen or sixteen-year-old half-sizen, with a pot lid cut, wearing a white blue vest that was already all yellow, homespun trousers, and a pair of field shoes, the shoes were very old, the sides were worn out, and the stubble was turned.

"Xiaowei, are you going to the county? Go to Gaha? It just so happens that you are empty-handed, and the car will come to help me hand over the bag. A middle-aged man held a cigarette pouch and pot full of e-liquid, and shouted at the half-grown boy who was squatting there with a straw stick and teasing ants.

Xiao Wei looked up at the middle-aged man who was talking, nodded with a smile, showed a mouthful of teeth that were not very neat, and said, "Okay." I have nothing to do to go and see, Fourth Uncle, you go to the county to see my Sister Yan?"

The fourth uncle gently knocked the tobacco bag pot on the trunk of the one-meter-high locust tree on the side of the road, pinched some tobacco leaves from the cloth bag tied around his waist with his yellow, calloused hands and pressed them into the tobacco bag pot, and said, "Well, look at Xiaoyan, I'm going to give birth, send something over." ”

Xiaowei said: "Whoever stands up to the fourth uncle, an old man like you is really happy, and the girl is married and cares, and he still travels so far to send so many things." ”

The fourth uncle shook his head, looked at the big bag and small wraps around him, and said: "No way, the conditions of Xiaofeng's family are worse than my family's, Lao Tzu is gone, so an old lady will bring a sister." Besides, this is distributed to the county, although the name is good, but what can you do with the thirty or so yuan dead salary? There is no land to plant, what about the family, this Xiaoyan is about to give birth, no matter what?"

Xiaowei smiled, didn't answer, and asked, "Fourth uncle, is Sister Yan's brother-in-law in the Agricultural Machinery Bureau?"

The fourth uncle showed a proud expression on his face, immediately sniffed to cover up, nodded and said: "Well, that kid is still successful, he came back from the army and was favored by the leader, and he worked for the Agricultural Machinery Bureau, in fact, it's nothing, don't they all eat the same." ”

A few middle-aged people who were smoking together on the side praised the fourth uncle's aunt, and the fourth uncle's dark face was shining, and he was insincerely modest.

This was 1988, the first decade of reform and opening up, and the rural areas had already contracted production to households and divided the fields and land, and the cities were thriving.

At this time, the gap between the rural areas and the cities has been widened, eating imperial grain has become a very high and enviable occupation, the peasants have been reduced to the mouths of the city people, the commercial development of the whole country has entered the fast lane, and the supply of materials is abundant and sufficient.

Liu Xianzi knocked the cigarette pouch, wrapped the tobacco pouch around the cloth bag containing dry tobacco leaves, pinned it into the waistband of his trousers, and said with a mouthful of yellow teeth full of cigarette stains: "That can be the same, Xiaofeng has eaten the imperial grain, then he will have a big future in the future, and when he becomes the director in the future, you will be a big fat in the fourth brother, and you will have to help these old brothers when the time comes." ”

The folds on the fourth uncle's smiling face deepened, and he nodded and agreed: "That's that, no one can forget that time, folks, just squeak if there is anything." ”

In the distance, a puff of yellow smoke gradually approached, and the shuttle arrived.

Several people took their cigarette pouches, stuffed the cigarette pouches and pots into their waistbands and stood up.

The old square-shaped round-horned bread-shaped bus rolled up in dust and brought hot air to the people, the door opened, and the sweaty conductor jumped down from the bus, straightened his shirt, and looked at the things piled up on the ground while pulling up his sleeves, and said: "People are five cents, bring so many old things? One piece and two cents, and put them on themselves." Be careful, don't mess it up. ”

On the roof of the car is a shelf of the same width as the car, which is covered with a fixed net, and there are ladders up and down at the rear of the car.

The fourth uncle rolled down his sleeves, climbed up to the roof of the car along the ladder, untied the tightly tied net, stacked the things on the original car, vacated a little space, and shouted down: "Xiaowei, help me hand the things up." ”

Xiaowei agreed below, picked up the package placed on the side of the road, put it on the side of the car, and pushed it up with both hands: "Oh, Uncle Four, you, what are you taking here, why is it so heavy?" With great difficulty, he lifted the pocket, and the man half-knelt on the surface of the car, set the pocket, and then took down another one.

The people in the car jumped down against the door, cooled down, stood on the side of the road and watched them load the car, someone shouted: "Slow down, I have something in my bag that is afraid of pressure, be careful, you be careful, you will pay for the crushing." ”

The conductor glanced at the man in vain and said, "What are you doing? Don't worry about you going up and pretending, what are you arguing about? You don't hold the precious things?"

The man glanced at the conductor, sneered, and said, "Look, I can't say anything?" The conductor ignored him, raised his head and shouted at the fourth uncle on the car: "Put it in place, don't be all the yards, it's too heavy, you touch it, don't overturn the car." The fourth uncle agreed while putting things out: "Zhong, I understand, don't worry, it's not the first time." Can such a big man flip?"

When I put everything on the roof of the car and tie the fixed net, it was already ten minutes later, and the car was not on point because of this, the few people were fast, and the more people and more things, I couldn't say how long it would take.

The conductor waited for the fourth uncle to climb down from the roof of the car and climbed up the ladder to take a look, pulled the fixed net, and then jumped down and shouted while patting the ash on his hands: "Get on the bus and get on the bus, let's go, you pay the money, nine bags and one eight, whose ones are they?"

Liu Xianzi took out the money wrapped in a handkerchief from his arms, and said as he took it out: "What is the price of a large bag and a small bag?

The conductor looked at the money in his hand and said, "Where do you want to divide it?" Okay, big bag five cents, small bag two cents, can you give it happy, a car of people waiting." Liu Xianzi took out a few sweat-soaked gross tickets and handed them to the conductor a little reluctantly.

After the fourth uncle and several people had paid the money, the conductor stuffed the money into the ticket pocket he was carrying and said, "Get on the bus, get on the bus, go back, don't block at the door, let's go." ”

Xiaowei was the last to get on the car, as soon as he entered the carriage, the smell of sweat and sore feet mixed with the smell of dry tobacco wrapped in the heat came to his face, he sniffed, let his breath pause for a few seconds, and then adapted to slowly panting, the conductor pushed Xiaowei's back and squeezed in, the door closed, and the car started slowly.

The conductor shouted behind Xiao Wei: "All the smokers are pinched, what are these people smoking? Can you die if you smoke less? Over there, open the window, you close the window? Are you cold?"

The man sitting next to the window replied, "It's too dusty." ”

The conductor said, "Can you choke to death?" Open it, don't you know that this car is so hot?" The man slowly opened the window, and the wind poured into the carriage with dust, and he didn't feel how cool it was, and the smell in the carriage dispersed a lot.

The dirty passenger car swayed on the mountain road, the car glass rattled with the swaying of the body, and gradually the voice of the car quieted down, and the sitting closed their eyes and pretended to sleep, standing in a pile and grabbing the handrail to look at the receding trees outside the car in a daze.