After a while, her brother returned—a young man of about twenty-five or sixteen years of age, about the same age as Niu Tiangou, followed by his elderly father. Niu Tiangou hurriedly got up to say hello. At this time, my sister had already brought the food to the table.

The dishes were set on a table, and one of them was a bowl of fried shredded eggs, which was brown and browned, and Niu Tiangou had never seen it. The elder brother brought a bottle of wine, and Niu Tiangou hurriedly stopped it-the people in the mountains were simple, and they treated Niu Tiangou as a distinguished guest.

During the meal, Niu Tiangou asked about his mother's condition and Tian Meixia's condition.

My brother said: "After my mother was hospitalized, I asked Meixia to take care of her. But she often lost her mind, and she didn't know what she was thinking. Once asked her to get a potion, she actually took a bottle of distilled water, and was blamed by the doctor.

“…… We didn't know when she sneaked to you. In order to deceive us, she worked very hard in those days, rushing to do all the work. We thought she had changed her and wasn't the same anymore. When we came home that day, she had finished the meal, the pigs had been fed, and the pigweed had been cut a lot, but the people were gone. Later, I heard from Xiaomei that she was gone. ”

My sister looked at Niu Tiangou fixedly and said, "If she follows you, you will suffer in the future." Tian Meixia is very unsteady. Only 3 out of 10 of the 10 words she uttered were true. ”

Niu Tiangou didn't know if this was his sister's disgust with Meixia's sister, or if it was his advice.

My father was an honest farmer, and only occasionally asked Niu Tiangou to eat vegetables.

After eating, Niu Tiangou and his brother rushed to Huaihong Psychiatric Hospital, but did not see Meixia.

Then, they rushed to their cousin's house in Huaihong City in the dark, and the cousin said that Meixia and her mother had gone to her aunt's house.

They rested at their cousin's house for the night, and rushed to their aunt's house early the next morning, and the uncle said that her aunt had accompanied Meixia and Meixia's mother had already returned home.

They hurried back again.

My aunt's house is more than ten miles away from Meixia's house. They walked a deserted stretch of road, and then walked through a few hills along a rugged, narrow mountain road. Niu Tiangou felt that although the mountains and rivers here are beautiful, how closed and desolate it is.

Niu Tiangou followed behind his brother, just like a soldier who was led by a fellow countryman through the deep mountains and valleys during the war years.

Thirsty and tired, they walked very slowly, and finally sat down under a tree by the side of the road to rest for a while, and then went to a lonely family nearby to ask for some water to drink before continuing on the road.

Maybe it was the monotonous loneliness of the road, maybe it was Niu Tiangou's sincerity that moved his brother, and his brother told Niu Tiangou about Meixia.

Brother said: "Meixia repeated the third year of junior high school the year before last, and her grades were very good, and the total score of the exam was in the top three in the class, and the family had great hopes for her."

"Once, she accidentally fell from the second floor of the school and broke her brain. Later, due to her distraction, she did not get admitted to the secondary school in the end.

After graduating and returning home, she often read some yellow (maybe her brother regarded some idle books as yellow) books, and she was not at ease with her remote hometown, and she longed for the outside. Before going to you, she had been to Huaihong, Hongjiang and other places, and once went to Anhui Hui Province.

"She often runs out and sometimes doesn't come home for days and nights. began to look for her everywhere at home, and when she found her, she was educated. I hit her hard, but she didn't say anything, and then she had the chance to run away.

"Eight of our girls like her fled to Shijiazhuang, and then three came back and never went again. Another one came back and was sent by his family again, and finally drank the potion and died there......

"I, who was an older brother, had some things that I couldn't say, so I asked her sister to educate her, but she just couldn't listen to them, and said, 'Everyone has their own ambitions, and they can't be forced'. Forced by her sister, she was angry and said that she would travel around the world. She said that only when she went out did she feel comfortable.

"You have a high level of education, what do you say about such a sister? Her sister and I couldn't do anything about her, and my relatives couldn't do anything about her, so we had to let her go and not let her enter the house in the future. ”

Niu Tiangou thought that what his honest and simple brother said should be true, and he had no reason to pour dirty water on his own sister.

"Now even if you find her and go back with you, if you treat her sincerely and take her heart, she may live a good life with you. But if you have a slight disagreement, she will find a chance to escape. What will you think then? My brother finally said.

Niu Tiangou walked silently, speechless.

When they got home, their mother and aunt were there, but Meixia was nowhere to be seen.

When asked, my aunt said, "After she sent my mother to me, she turned around and disappeared from her, and we don't know where she went." ”

……

At night, Niu Tiangou lay on his brother's bed, unable to sleep. Thinking of his brother's words during the day, Mixia's image became complicated in his heart.

Niu Tiangou understands that Meixia's concept of survival is completely opposite to that of her sister.

My sister has the simplicity and generosity of a farmer in a mountain village, maintains the traditional virtues of loving her hometown and sticking to poverty, and is determined to take root in her hometown and dedicate herself to her hometown like most local girls; Meixia, on the other hand, saw the huge contrast between the wonderful world outside and the closure of her hometown and the barrenness of the mountain village, and decided to go out of her hometown to pursue her own life.

In the dilemma that she failed to achieve her wish through study, she could only change her fate through marriage, and although she was repeatedly frustrated, she was still stubbornly fighting against fate with her weak body.

In Meixia's eyes, instead of living in poverty like her ancestors, it is better to take advantage of the years of her flowers to go outside and fight; In the eyes of her sister, brother and local villagers, Meixia's behavior is tantamount to deviant and outlier, and of course she will be despised and disdained by everyone.

Although his brother and sister were extremely disgusted and distrustful of Meixia, their intuition told Niu Tiangou that if she saw Meixia, she would definitely follow him without hesitation, and he would definitely be worthy of her.

Because Niu Tiangou felt that she was sincere to him, and she was indeed a rare good girl. In addition to the dark spots on her skin, she is not only beautiful, but more importantly, her written expression skills are not under Niu Tiangou, and her handwriting is beautiful and her thinking is extremely clear.

She is sentimental, not only in her speech, but also in her writing, her rich and delicate emotions can be expressed heartily, which makes people deeply immersed in it and can't extricate themselves, and makes people deeply moved but can't help themselves.

This, among all the girls who applied, she was the best, and it was also the reason why Niu Tiangou, as a Chinese teacher, admired her the most.

But now, he is too late.

He felt that he had lost a childish, intelligent and cute little sister, and a soulmate who had woven a rainbow with a pen.

Thinking of her pitiful appearance when she sent Meixia away twice, Niu Tiangou's eyes couldn't help but moisten:

Meixia, my poor little sister, it was my hesitation and procrastination that made you choose another one.

I'm late!

Meixia, I will not forget, I once said in the letter that I would be worthy of you, so, you a girl, with a lifelong entrustment, found me without hesitation, I actually decided to send you back, you cried at the time, crying so aggrieved, so sad;

I will not forget how you wished I could stay a little longer when I sent you to the hostel, but I was gone, leaving you with the loneliness and desolation of a foreign land, and I don't know how you got through the tears that night;

Meixia, I will not forget, the first time I urged you to leave, your sad and painful look, when I sent you away, you turned back again, once again with a glimmer of hope that I would leave you, you sat on my bed in a daze, wanted to write something for me, wrote and tore, tore up, I know, how much you want to stay;

I will not forget that when I sent you to the train station again, you deliberately delayed and missed the time to get on the train, and I knew that you didn't want to go, and I didn't want to go, but I still sent you away;

Meixia, I will never forget the scene of tears streaming down your eyes when you finally got in the car and ran over desperately;

I will never forget your last heart-wrenching cry: "You must come!" ”

Mixia, my poor little sister, you know what? Now that I'm here, I'm staying in your cabin.

I can't live up to your affection, I can't forget the sincerity of an 18-year-old girl who gave me, otherwise, my conscience will not be at peace for the rest of my life.

You said that you would take me to see Xuefeng Mountain, but now I have come to Xuefeng's side, and I have come to the foot of Xuefeng, but I can only shed tears of long-hatred under Xuefeng Mountain, which gave birth to you and raised you.

Meixia, my poor little sister, I'm here, where are you drifting now?

The mountains are bitter, the mountains are difficult, the end of the world is vast, the road is unpredictable, your immature feet must be full of bitterness and tears, I can only bless you silently at the foot of Xuefeng Mountain with a heavy heart - I hope you can find a person who understands you and loves you as soon as possible, and has a good home.

Although I have some resentment against you, your happiness is the greatest comfort in my big brother's heart, and your smile is the most beautiful Caixia in my big brother's eyes, because we once met, intersected, and trusted each other, and have eternal concern for our hearts......

……

In the morning, Niu Tiangou said goodbye to the two old men and went on the road.

The elder brother and sister kept sending Niu Tiangou to the roadside station. When he got into the car, his brother gave Niu Tiangou 30 yuan for the journey, but Niu Tiangou didn't want it, so his sister took the money and stuffed it into Niu Tiangou's pocket.

The car started, Niu Tiangou poked his head out of the window, and looked at the brother and sister who had broken their hearts for their sister, the amiable and respectable mountain people who were tenaciously rooted in the barren land like weeds, and his eyes were astringent.

Thinking that he would never see the poor and lovely little sister Meixia again in this life and this life, a heavy sense of loss gnawed at Niu Tiangou's heart like a poisonous worm, he felt his heart trembling for a while, and he could only hold back his tears and silently read in his heart:

Farewell, beautiful Snow Peak Mountain;

Farewell, Tian Meixia in my heart!