(xiii)

The uncle's house is the third in the east of the village, the courtyard wall is surrounded by straw, and the wicker gate is braided, these Zhongshan remember it clearly. When he appeared at the gate of the courtyard, the eldest lady was carrying a basin to wash the bowl of water and pour it into the swill tank, and saw a child standing outside the courtyard, wearing a white cloth half-sleeved shirt, blue cloth shorts, and a yellow schoolbag, not like the dress of a country child, so she stood down with a basin, rubbed her eyes vigorously, and then patted her thigh, "Isn't this the little mountain of his second uncle's family!" Who are you coming with? ”

Zhong Shan was silent, and slowly moved his steps towards the courtyard. He imagined that his "mother" would hold him in his arms and rub his head one by one. The brothers and sisters would rush out of the door and scramble to take him by the hand and get him inside. But no, the eldest lady just took two steps forward, then turned around and shouted into the house, "His father, his second uncle's little mountain is here!" The uncle walked out of the room slowly with a dry tobacco pouch in his mouth. Zhong Shan stood in the middle of the courtyard with some disappointment.

The uncle led Zhong Shan into the house, sat on the edge of the kang, knocked the cigarette pouch pot on the kang wall, and asked, "You kid came out, can you tell your parents?" ”

Zhong Shan was silent and nodded after a while.

"If you sneak out, your parents will die."

Zhong Shan was still silent, and he was a little flustered in his heart.

"Child, if you haven't eaten, my aunt will make you a bowl of gnocchi soup."

The eldest lady brushes the pot, adds water, scoops noodles, and burns firewood.

When a large bowl of gnocchi soup with eggs was served, Zhong Shan saw that two or three flies were following unrelentingly, and some were already standing on the edge of the bowl, so he couldn't help but feel a little nauseous. I barely ate half a bowl, and then sat on the edge of the kang again and was silent.

When the bell rang for the production team to work, the eldest cousin of the eldest aunt and aunt was going to work in the field, and the younger sisters and brothers were going to school, and Zhong Shan was the only one left in the family.

One afternoon, Zhong Shan sat on the edge of the kang in a daze, watching the flies buzzing around, and occasionally the smell of manure in the pigsty and chicken coop wafted into the house through the window, and his heart was lonely and uncomfortable like never before. When it was almost dark, his cousin Huzi, who was two years older than him, came back, with freshly dug wild vegetables in the basket, carrying a bundle of grass on his back, putting down his schoolbag, first throwing the grass into the pigsty, and then squatting on the ground to chop wild vegetables on the broken wooden board, chopping them and mixing them with bran feed, and pouring them into the wooden trough to feed the chickens and ducks. After finishing all this, he stood against the door frame and looked at Zhong Shan, and did not talk, like looking at a monster.

In the evening, the family came back, a table was placed in the center of the courtyard, and a rope made of dried artemisia grass was lit to drive away mosquitoes, but Zhong Shan's arms and legs were still bitten with strings of bags, and the eldest mother said that the mosquitoes in the countryside were bullied, and they loved to bite the fat dolls in the city. The uncles, aunts, cousins, and cousins ate sorghum rice left over at noon, green onions, cucumbers, eggplants, and dipped in sauce, and what was placed in front of Zhong Shan was the half bowl of pimple soup he had eaten at noon, which was heated in the iron pot, and there was a little black paste on the bottom of the pot. Zhong Shan imagined how many flies had eaten this bowl of pimple soup in an afternoon, so he shook his head and said that he was not hungry. Under the persuasion of the eldest mother, she barely ate half a cucumber and half a piece of cornmeal. This bowl of noodle soup was finally eaten by the uncle, the uncle was the main labor force of the family, and the good food at home was eaten by the uncle, followed by the youngest son Huzi, and the eldest mother and several cousins could only eat a big pot of rice. At dinner, the uncle opened a salted duck egg, and today he made an exception to pick half of the egg yolk to Zhong Shan and Huzi.

The countrymen were tired from a long day's work, and went to bed early after dinner. The uncle who slept next to Zhong Shan was snoring one after another at this time. Zhong Shan couldn't sleep, lying on the kang and tossing and turning. He began to miss his home in the city. At this time, my mother would put down the gauze mosquito net and use a fan to fan him lightly outside the mosquito net, and I don't know when I fell asleep and when my mother stopped. Today, how would my mother live the night without him? Does mom cry urgently? Thinking of this, he suddenly became afraid, he guessed that his mother would cry, when he was a child, he had a cold for a few days and did not get better, his mother was so anxious that he cried, and his mouth chattered that if Xiaoshanzi had three long and two short, I would not live.

In the haze, his mother came, helped him take off his schoolbag, led him to the basin to wash his hands and face, and urged him to eat the hot steamed buns that had just been served on the table while they were hot. When he reached out to grab it, the steamed bun rolled to the ground, and a swarm of flies flew over to grab it. When he was about to reach out and grab it again, his hand trembled and he woke up.

Zhong Shan couldn't sleep anymore, staring at the dark ceiling with big eyes, listening to waves of buzzing mosquitoes in his ears, until the rooster crowed outside, and the morning light appeared on the window paper. When the uncle sat up from the kang, Zhong Shan stepped forward and said in a low voice: "Uncle, I want to go home, my mother doesn't know that I'm coming out." ”

Uncle said that your kid is really brave, your father and your mother can't find you all night, I don't know how anxious you are! I went to the production captain's house to take leave, and took the morning car to send Zhongshan back to the city.