Out of the ancient village of Dong Township (novella) Zhang Baotong

It was a hot day in the summer, because of the rainstorm just after the rain, the temperature quickly dropped, and a cool breeze blew through the dense woods at the edge of the village from the mountains and the river behind the village, not only making people feel a refreshing coolness, but also making people smell a smell of grass and green moisture. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Wen Li, as usual, left the house early and sat down under the pergola at the entrance of the village. The pergola is made of bamboo and wooden planks, about seven or eight meters wide and twenty-four or five meters long, very simple and even a little dilapidated. The pergola was built at the expense of the village, not only for tourists to take shelter from the wind, but also for villagers to gather and chat. There are some small stalls in the pergola with some locally produced monk fruit, mango and plums, as well as some common food and drink. There is a parking lot in front of the pergola, and an outward-facing road leads to the national highway between Guilin and Yangshuo.

Although the ancient village of Dong Township is not far from the Guiyang Highway, only seven or eight kilometers away at most, the local Dong people have never intermarried with foreign people, nor have they interacted with foreign peoples, and have maintained the life form of the matriarchal society that they have inherited for thousands of years. However, since the implementation of the new rural construction plan, the government has asked them to continue to maintain the original ecological lifestyle and environment of the Dong villagers, and on the other hand, it has asked them to develop the economy and get rid of poverty and become rich. Not only did they begin to associate with foreigners, but they also brought tourists from all over the world to visit their homes

Wen Li is a receptionist selected by the government in the village, with a salary of 500 yuan a month. This amount of money is a very large amount of money for Wen Li and all the Dong villagers, because Wen Li's family has a total of five people, and the total amount of money spent on farming, raising pigs, and selling fruits last year was only seven or eight thousand yuan. Therefore, Wen Li has a strong sense of satisfaction with her work and income. She is always the first to arrive every day, sitting here with enthusiasm, waiting to welcome the first train of tourists.

She wears a black lace-trimmed cardigan with a belly pocket, and a black pleated skirt with lace underneath. The thin skirt was short, leaving the thin white legs bare above the knee. On his feet, he wears embroidered boat-shaped heel hooks. The most dazzling thing is the bun on her head, which is wrapped in red cloth and inserted with a few silver hairpins. And she wears silver earrings on her ears, silver bracelets on her wrists, and a wide silver belt around her waist. This silver belt not only helps her ward off disasters and diseases, but also is a sign that she has grown up.

Dongxiang Ancient Village is a newly developed tourist spot, and there is no admission fee to visit the village. This is basically unprofitable for the tour guides, so they don't want to take tourists here at all, because they can take a decent commission from the ticket revenue wherever they take them. The reason why they want to come here is because the government and the tourism board have assessments and requirements for them, and if they don't come here to check in a few times a month, they will be fined. Therefore, Guilin's tour guide will only take time to stop here for an hour on the way when the time is relatively free and the whole trip has been completed. Tourists who have seen some scenic spots in Guilin or Yangshuo and then come here generally have to wait after ten o'clock at the earliest, so although Wen Li came early, she could only stay on the bamboo bench under the pergola while embroidering and waiting.

After a while, the sisters came to the pergola one by one. They were all the youngest and most beautiful women selected from the village, wearing the same clothes, doing the same dress, and even being fat and thin, because there were almost no fat people among the Dong people. So, they look like sisters in the family. They consciously sat on the bamboo benches in the order of arrival, took out white cloth and embroidery needles and threads from their bags, and waited for the arrival of tourists while embroidering flowers.

Yuhua sat next to Wen Li, and saw that Wen Li's embroidered flowers were a little scattered and rough, so she pointed to Wen Li's embroidered cloth and taught her to say, "Embroidery is a fine job, and the needle and thread should be fine and even, so that it looks neat and full, but the things you embroider are too dense in some places and too thin in some places, so they look more scattered." As he spoke, he picked up Wen Li's embroidered cloth and demonstrated it to Wen Li.

Yuhua is the sister closest to Wen Li, only two years older than Wen Li, although she has only been in school for two or three years, she seems to be much more mature and sensible than Wen Li, not only is she good-looking, but also farming, singing and embroidering are counted in the village.

Yuhua's craftsmanship is good, the flying needle is fine, fine and dense, which makes Wen Li envious. However, after seeing Yuhua's demonstration, Wen Li felt that she couldn't embroider anymore, holding the embroidery cloth and embroidery needle, she felt that her fingers and toes were like the toes, clumsy and clumsy, and the embroidered patterns were even more crooked and unsightly. Yuhua was so anxious that she reprimanded angrily, "So smart and smart Ah Mei, she just let the reading be stunned." ”

Listening to Sister A's blame, Wen Li felt very frustrated, feeling that she had worked hard to go to elementary school and junior high school, and had learned so much knowledge, she felt useless as soon as she left school. In fact, cultural knowledge is really not of much use in their village, as long as they can know some Chinese characters, recognize money, and settle accounts, it is almost like this for the sisters who are with her, there is no need to go to school too much like her.

Thinking that it is better to be able to embroider a good flower than to have so much schooling, Wen Li felt a little depressed and sad. Born into the Dong family, she knows that embroidery is the basic skill of a woman. A big buttocks, a big voice, big feet, a big mouth and clever hands are called "four big and one small", which is the basic criterion for the Dong family brother to choose a sister. And she has been studying in school almost since she was a child, and she has little contact with work such as needle money embroidery, and she has little interest. Therefore, when I learn it now, it seems relatively dull and clumsy. However, Wen Li has been a good student who has to be ahead of others in everything since she went to school, so she can't lag behind her sisters in embroidery.

Not long after, a tourist bus came from the other side of the road and stopped in the open space in front of the pergola. Then, a large group of tourists got out of the car and began to go into the pergola to shop, or stand under the door sign engraved with "Dong Township Ancient Village" to take pictures.

A guide in a checkered shirt came to the reception and asked the receptionists, "Who will greet us?" Wen Li stood up from the bamboo bench and said, "It's me." The tour guide tilted his head and looked at Wen Li carefully, and said, "Little sister, why don't I see that you don't look like a Dong person?" Wen Li raised her eyes to look at the tour guide, smiled contemptuously, and asked, "You say that I don't look like a Dong person, which tribe do you like?" The tour guide said, "I think you look like we are Han Chinese." Wen Li snorted and asked, "Why am I like you Han people?" The tour guide said, "The Dong sister wants to be four big and one small, but I don't think you have any characteristics of four big and one small." Wen Li said, "Those are the beautiful characteristics of our Dong women, but I am not good or beautiful, so I don't have these characteristics." The tour guide shook his head and said, "From the perspective of our Han people, you are the most beautiful and beautiful girl." Some tourists next to him also responded, "Yes, you are the most beautiful Dong sister." Wen Li smiled embarrassedly and said, "It's a pity that I'm not from your Han nationality." ”

(Please pay attention to Zhang Baotong's signed work "Poetic Emotion" documentary, short prose, life essays and short stories, and is uploading "Painting the Soul" (9. Marriage and Love))