"Did you hear that the dumb man froze to death in the cave?"

"I don't know, the voice is quiet, whether it's true or not, it's not good, you should say a few words. ”

I was six or seven years old at the time, and I could already remember. I listened to two elderly women, whispering to each other, they must have thought that I didn't understand, so they were very relieved to communicate, occasionally looked back at me, smiled and said: "Broken baby (Shaanxi dialect meaning child) is not allowed to listen, go to your mother."

I walked away with a stupid face, and if I didn't listen, I wouldn't listen, and I could guess what you two were going to say anyway.

When I got home, I told my mother what the two women were talking about, and I sighed and said, "Oh, you don't know, I heard that the dumb man froze to death in the cave."

My mother put down the needlework in her hand and looked at me: You are not allowed to say these words anymore, you are still young, you don't understand anything, even if people say it, you can't say it, do you know it?

I asked my mother with a questioning face: Why?

At that time, my hometown was in an alley with only 11 households, and everyone knew each other very well. At that time, I was four or five years old, and I had a lot of fun playing with only one or two people every day, grabbing a handful of soil on the ground and playing for half a day, piling up in various shapes and posing in various shapes.

Later, the county paid for the village to build a canal to make it easier to water the land during drought. For the sake of convenience, the nearby woman went to the small pool at the source of the water station to wash her clothes, which was said to be a good thing for the people and the country, but it almost cost me my life.

My mother told me that at that time, it was already slowly autumn, and the evening was already a little cool. I followed my mother all the way to the water station, where she started to do the laundry and told me not to run blindly.

I told my mother, "You see there's a baby swimming in the canal ahead, and I'm going to go down too."

The mother said, "Well, okay, don't run far."

When I agreed, I stripped naked and went into the water. It's fun to play with other children. But that's all I remember, as the sky gets darker and darker, the water pressure seems to get bigger and bigger, and I gradually lose my footing in the water, and I faintly want to fall backwards. Suddenly, a wave of water hit, and I fell down instantly, and because I was weak since I was a child, I was like a leaf in the water, drifting with the current. Suddenly, I heard an old man's voice shouting: Hey, whose child was washed away by the water?

As soon as my mother looked up, she saw that I was nowhere to be seen, threw down the clothes in her hand, and ran directly towards me. It's just that the road is narrow and there are many people, and it can't keep up with the speed of the water. At this time, a large hand grabbed me from the canal. He quickly took off the yellowed white shirt he was already wearing and wrapped me in it.

Later, my mother told me that it was a mute man who was pulling dung into the crops for the family, and that when she passed by, she saw a child floating over and quickly pulled it out of the water. I was put on his flatbed truck by the dumb man and pushed all the way home. When my mother said that when I got home, my lips turned purple from the cold, and I couldn't stop shaking. Listening to the second grandmother, I boiled ginger soup and sprinkled it with salt water and pepper noodles. Although I didn't realize it at that time, I remember the taste vividly, when I was a child, my family was poor, except that poverty is poverty, and there was nothing else. So I understand the meaning of the four walls of the family very well, because the situation of the family is the four walls of the family. My father works outside the home all the year round, and my mother takes me at home, I am frail, and she is not much better, and she often catches colds. So the bowl of ginger soup at that time was better than every soup and drink I drank later, and I remember the taste from the bottom of my heart, hot, salty, and a little numb. My mother held me tightly in her arms and fed me one bite at a time, her face full of distress and self-blame. It's like, you can play a lot of things now, you can go to the computer to play games, you can go to the arcade to play games, you can play with friends, but do you think it compares to the feeling of making pictures with Fa Xiao when you were a child? Obviously, there is no comparison.

Later, when I recovered, I could often see the mute walking in the alleys at the door of my house, and he always seemed to be so busy, either carrying a hoe to the ground or carrying a flat pole to fetch water. Every time he saw me, he would greet me with a gesture with his hand, and I would follow his example and shout while gesturing, ahhhhh He frowned, pretending to be angry and wanted to raise his hand to hit me, so I quickly ran away, looked at him standing in place and laughed, he smiled and stretched out his hand, pointed at me, it was a threat, and then turned away and was busy with his own business.

Whenever my mother saw me learning to be dumb, she would scold me for not being polite and say to the dumb man: The baby is small, impolite, and ignorant.

After speaking, he will scold me: Go home, there is no politeness at all!

The dumb man looked indifferent, smiled and waved his hand, as if he was scolding my mother loudly. Then he pointed at me again and walked away, as if to say, let you mischievous, be cleaned up.

The two brothers in the mute family, he is the second in line, and because of his defects, no girl is willing to marry. The parents left early, and the brother and sister-in-law did not wait to see the mute, because they felt that the mute was dragging their feet. At that time, the mute brother already had two sons and a daughter, so the mute was kicked out of the house, and there was no meal at all.

From the edge of the ditch down a treacherous and steep path, there is a clearing, and beyond that there is a cave where the mute dwells.

One winter, it was very cold, and I heard the old man say that the stones at the door were frozen and cracked, and I had never been on the kang all winter.

Until one day, the second grandmother came to the house and said to her mother: The dumb man died last night, and after eating, he will wear a thicker coat for the baby and take it out, let's help the dumb man's house, and we must pay attention to the red and white things in and out of the alley.

My mother agreed, and after eating, she wrapped me in three layers like a meat dumpling, and wrapped me in a scarf, and my eyes leaked out. Mother and second grandmother help the dumb family with hot dishes and hot meals, and are busy in the kitchen. And I sat on a small stool, looking up at the photos of the dumb man in the mourning hall, the black and white photos, rendering the dumb face's already emaciated face even more terrifying, with empty eyes and closed lips, more like a zombie. I was too scared to look up, just looking at the crowd of men, women, old people, children, including mute family members, there was no trace of sadness on their faces, only the red oil on their lips after eating the stew, and a white-flour steamed bun that was stuffed into their pockets. Now that I think about the dumb man's terrifying eyes and face at that time, I feel that it is all reasonable.

At that time, I had no concept of the dead, so I felt that when someone was old, he could go to eat and drink when he was doing white things. I don't care who is leaving, I only worry about whether the food is delicious or not, and whether the steamed buns are white enough.

Immediately after that, I heard the opening words of the article, and when I got home in the evening, I showed my mother as it was. Mother said, your little life was saved by others, you still say people, remember, no matter who says dumb and bad things in the future, you are not allowed to say it, do you hear?

I seldom saw my mother so stern, so I nodded vigorously with wide eyes. My mother touched my head lovingly and continued to do the odd jobs in her hands. At this time, the second grandmother came into the house, holding a bowl of red things in her hand and told her mother: I asked you and the baby for a bowl of pig's blood, eat it.

My mother brought it to me, and I held the bowl, looking at the red solid, I really had no appetite, and then the second grandmother said: It is better to say that this is pig's blood, but it is better to say that this is the blood of a dumb person.

When I was young and ignorant, I instantly thought that this was the blood on the dumb man's body, and I was suddenly shocked, and hurriedly pushed the bowl away, and I no longer dared to look at it. This is also the reason why I basically don't touch blood clots since then, whether it's eating hot pot or shabu spicy hot, I never touch it, it should be the shadow left at that time.

By now, the mute has been dead for twenty years, and I have grown into a man, after twenty years, but I can always think of the mute. He smiled and gestured with his hand to me, then finally reached out and pointed at me before turning away. I don't know how he died, starved to death, froze to death, or whatever, just like I never knew why he was mute, but I had heard from afar that he had eaten the wrong thing and became dumb. Of course, this doesn't matter anymore, because he is no longer there, turning into a handful of loess, I think, with the wind away there is still a little resentment and unwillingness.

Later, when I grew up, I went down to the cave where the mute lived before his death, and when I saw the wall of the cave that was burned by the fire, I thought that he was really cold, and suddenly felt that I was not human, at that time other children were afraid of the mute, and when they saw him coming, they were far away, and the mute rarely smiled on weekdays, only when he saw me, he would tease me in various ways, even if I followed his example, he still gave me such a sweet smile. Now that I think about it, I really owe him a heartfelt smile and a word, a heartfelt thanks!