Deep in a small alley by the river, I met my grandmother, who was helping someone make wreaths. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

An old lady in her 60s, but if you tell someone that she is in her 40s, others will definitely believe it.

Although life has not been easy over the years, my grandmother does not seem to have changed much, although she is not as young and tall as the grandmother I saw in my dreams.

I called my grandmother softly, and she looked up at me with a slightly indifferent expression, not at all like she hadn't seen me for a year and a half, and she couldn't see the slightest joy.

From the moment she lowered her head to work again, there was still a slight surprise in her eyes, which was exactly the same as the look I dreamed in my sleep when I said that I saw my dead grandmother when I was a child.

After a while, my grandmother looked up at me and said, "You wait a while, and then I'll finish my work and then go eat something and talk as we walk." The tone was calm and unfamiliar.

I nodded, sat down on the small wooden bench next to my grandmother, and watched as she glued the white, yellow, gold, silver, and even black paper flowers that had been cut and tied up one by one to the tied bamboo ring frame.

Occasionally, I would reach out and help her hand her one or two pasted paper flowers, and the mother-in-law and grandson remained silent at the same frequency as if they had made an appointment.

When my grandmother was young, her family was still good, although she was not rich and expensive, at least she had no worries about food and clothing, food and clothing.

My grandmother's father, my great-grandfather was a famous Maoshan Taoist priest in Xiangxi, and was deeply respected by the locals, and his ancestors also made a living by driving corpses.

Finally, according to local customs, he recruited a man from the north to break into the rivers and lakes, and became a son-in-law who was inverted, helping his great-grandfather to do some rough work in the wind and rain.

Originally, my great-grandfather intended to pass on his skills to his grandfather, but he found that although this son-in-law was strong and talented, he was not suitable for these businesses except for his boldness, so he had the idea of accepting another apprentice as a closed disciple or something.

Who knows, it rained heavily in Xiangxi that summer, and flash floods broke out in many places, and my grandfather went out to drive the corpse and never came back.

At that time, my mother Miao Guixiang was just over two years old, and my grandmother was pregnant with my uncle and was about to give birth.

Originally, my great-grandfather wanted to go in person, but my grandfather wanted to earn more nutrition money for my grandmother, who was about to give birth, so he volunteered to ask my great-grandfather for help.

My great-grandfather, who was already old and ill, agreed to my grandfather's request to send him there.

It was just an accident, but it was a devastating blow to the family, and the great-grandfather fell ill.

At that time, the ritual of driving out corpses had gradually withdrawn from the stage of history, and no one in ordinary families was willing to engage in this business for their own men, and the matter of accepting apprentices was put on hold.

This joke played by fate did not defeat the strong grandmother.

She endured the great pain of her husband's disappearance, took care of her sick father and young daughter with a big belly, arranged for herself to deliver herself, and gave birth to her husband's posthumous son, named Miao Guidan.

The elderly father, who is already sick, the young children who are waiting to be fed, and the grandmother who is still in confinement, have to think about earning money to support the family and pull the livelihood of the children to grow up.

Although her great-grandfather never taught her any Maoshan Taoism, I have to say that my grandmother has more wisdom than her missing grandfather.

For a while, he became famous in the ten miles and eight towns of Jinxitan, and became a more famous yin master than his great-grandfather (another name for a wizard in Xiangxi).

There is an endless stream of people who come to find grandma to draw talismans and chant spells, exorcise ghosts and demons, and pray for blessings and disasters, and special days such as the first and fifteenth days of the new year must be queued up in advance to make an appointment.

My great-grandfather's disappearance since my grandfather may be the root cause of the illness that fell in the wind and rain in his early years, or it may be that he was full of guilt and couldn't afford to get sick.

Despite the gradual improvement of life and the care of his daughter, he did not survive the winter of the following year.

Sent away his father, and his grandfather had been missing for more than two years at this time. Grandma didn't remarry, relying on the skills she learned on weekdays, she pulled a pair of children alone.

Except for the occasional loneliness and helplessness in the dead of night, no shoulder to rely on, life is still quite good, and I was stunned to send my daughter Miao Guixiang and son Miao Guidan to the key high school in Phoenix.

…………

"What do you want? Thinking so intrigued! ”

At this time, my grandmother had finished tying the wreath in her hand, stood up and packed her things and prepared to leave.

Seeing me sitting on the small wooden bench in a daze, he reached out and patted my head gently, which gave me that familiar warmth.

Putting away my thoughts, I stood up and walked out of the alley with my grandmother.

ordered two bowls of noodles at the beef rice noodle shop at the entrance of the alley, and the mother-in-law and grandson chatted while eating.

My grandmother never asked me about my studies, because she knew that I was very self-conscious, and she never worried about my studies since I was a child.

She just asked lightly, did anything happen all the way back?

I thought about it for a moment and told me what I saw on the train, the strange woman in black.

My grandmother looked up at me and said, "Don't worry, she's not malicious." ”

It turns out that grandma already knows?

I would have liked to talk about the dreams I had on the bus. I have been struggling with some questions in my heart for a long time, but in the end, I still can't help but say nothing.

Grandma's meaning, after eating the beef noodles, she set off to Liaojiaqiao, and it is estimated that Liu Jingjing and they are also in a hurry.

From here, it doesn't take much time to get to Liaojiaqiao, and the shuttle bus is quite convenient.

Liaojiaqiao, in recent years, under the vigorous support of the government, the development of tourism and planting, the living standards of residents are getting higher and higher, but Liu Jingjing and her grandmother's family still live in adobe houses.

The most valuable thing in the house is only an old inlaid ceiling fan, and a 21-inch color TV that can't collect a few channels.

Knowing that we had come here for the past two days, Liu Jingjing, her grandfather and grandmother had been waiting at home, while her aunt was locked in her room.

I looked through the window a few times, and my aunt was sitting on the bed in the room, about twenty-eight or nine-year-old, with willow eyebrows and phoenix eyes and apricot lips, and she was a standard beauty embryo.

More than a month before the onset of illness, my aunt was still working at the Liaojiaqiao Post and Telecommunications Office, but she was just a temporary worker without staffing.

It stands to reason that in a township like Liaojiaqiao, my aunt is so good-looking, she should have married a wife a long time ago, and taught her husband and children at home.

But my aunt has become an older single leftover girl, and she is too good-looking, which is sometimes not necessarily a good thing.

Through Liu Jingjing's narration, we learned that after Liu Jingjing's grandparents gave birth to their eldest daughter, they always wanted to have another boy with a handle, after all, the countryside believes in raising children to prevent old age. Who knew that she couldn't get her wish after all, and she was over forty years old and had a daughter, so she was always raised as a son.

The eldest daughter and son-in-law both died in a car accident, and the younger daughter took charge of the niece, who was not a few years younger than herself, from Liu Bo Township and brought her with her, and then dropped out of school to work for Liu Jingjing to continue to go to school, and was stunned to shoulder the burden of the family like a man.

Two years ago, my aunt met Wang, a foreign businessman who came to Liaojiaqiao to help local residents promote the development of the fruit industry, and it didn't take long for her to work in the post and telecommunications office.

Although she is only a temporary worker, after all, she has a stable income and a decent and easy job, and her aunt is very enthusiastic and takes her work very seriously.

It's just that there are also some gossips in the town, and some peach-colored scandals about my aunt and Wang are also coming into the village from the town from time to time, and they are in the ears of Liu Jingjing and her grandfather and grandmother.

The old man didn't want to ask his daughter openly, so he asked his granddaughter to go to the house in private, and the answer was:

"Don't listen to the nonsense that boring people make up."

I only repeatedly told my niece Liu Jingjing that she must review carefully, strive to be admitted to a prestigious university, and go to study and work in a big city.

Who knew that a good person suddenly fell ill, and it was the most difficult madness.

When the disease first fell ill, the leaders and colleagues of the post and telecommunications office also brought fruits to visit their homes, and told them to recuperate with peace of mind and return to work at any time after they were well recuperated.

Wang, who had an affair with his aunt, also came, and he came secretly at night to visit a friend.

However, he proposed to Liu Jingjing's grandfather and grandmother that he would send his aunt to the Psychiatric Center for Disease Control and Prevention for treatment, saying that he could pay for the expenses. was driven out by Liu Jingjing with a broom and a hoe.

Auntie's illness is getting worse and worse, and there are rumors in the village that she is fascinated by the fox spirit in the mountains.

Others described it vividly:

"On a full moon night, outside the house where my aunt lives, I saw a white unknown object floating by."

Since then, the leaders and colleagues of the post and telecommunications office, as well as the person surnamed Wang, have never appeared again.