After surviving the late autumn nights, I can no longer hear the story of crickets. In mid-October 1991, the small village on the border of Shandong Province and Jiangsu Province ushered in a new and fresh little life, and the boy was born 6 pounds and 3 full-term months. For Yuan Shizhong, who was deeply patriarchal at that time, he raised his head and straightened his waist in the village, and also made Yuan Shizhong, a 35-year-old rural farmer, temporarily forget that there was no extra food at home to greet this child who had been opening his mouth. Li Xiaofeng was lying on the bed in the hospital, blue and white striped sheets, pale face, with a little crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, his eyes kept looking at the child in Yuan Shizhong's arms, and the eyes seemed to hide infinite tenderness and turned into his own hands that were getting rough and calloused due to housework and farm work, gently rubbing the cheeks of the male baby. Since Li Xiaofeng gave birth to a female baby last year, Yuan Shizhong has never been so happy as he is now.

In September 1998, Yuan Junjun began to enter the kindergarten, and his sister Yuan Cuiping was also in this kindergarten, but she was in the kindergarten. Yuan Jun is in the small class. Xiaozhaizi Village is the township station, so the central kindergarten, central primary school, and central middle school are all located in this small village. The small township composed of 13 villages encloses an irregular oval shape, Xiaozhai Village is located in the northeast direction of this oval, it is worth saying that there is a mountain at the north end of Xiaozhai Village, which is called "North Mountain". There are also three villages north of Kitayama that fan around Kitayama in a fan. They are Yaxi Village in the northwest, Yazhong Village in the north, and Yadong Village in the northeast, and there is only one road to these three villages around the foot of Beishan Mountain, and three roads lead to the three villages at the foot of the mountain on the other side. Beishan is lush with vegetation, mainly pine trees, poplars, and some wasteland, there is a lake at the foot of the mountain, which has also become a place for Yuan Junjun and his friends to play, there is no going to the mountain, most of the children have heard from adults about various versions of the cannibal "cat monkey", human traffickers, and the legend of unjust ghosts, and no one dares to go to the mountain.

In the winter of this year, a major event happened very suddenly, in the depths of winter, the sky was full of snowflakes, the tiles of the houses, the branches, and the streets were covered in silver. Farmers know that the next year's wheat harvest will be guaranteed, and the proverb says, "In winter, the wheat is covered with three layers of quilts, and the next year you sleep with steamed buns." The widow Wang Lili in the village was found by Wang Dana's grandfather and grandson who went up the mountain to catch hares the next morning, the body was lying on the side of a crooked-necked peach tree at the outlet of the lake at the foot of the mountain, the tree accumulated a thick layer of snow, Wang Lili under the tree was wearing a red cheongsam, which was the wedding dress she wore to Zhang Mazi five years ago, and the police officer Hu De, who received the alarm, rushed to the scene with several auxiliary police, and set up a yellow cordon at the scene, persuading the onlookers to leave the scene to protect the scene. But the incessant snow could not hide the chaotic footprints of the onlookers. At this time, the villagers did not have much fear of the corpse in front of them, but more and more villagers watched. People condescendingly looked at Wang Lili's body, their faces were pale, but it was still difficult to hide the beauty of the retouched, the red lipstick was evenly smeared, the earrings were two purple pearl tears, the eyebrows turned into willow leaves and narrow eyebrows, and the slightly applied light powder was slightly cracked due to the cold environment. His eyes were closed, and there was no expression of pain, but a feeling of relief. Zhang Lili is undoubtedly beautiful, this is recognized by the villagers, Zhang Mazi was unfortunately buried in the sea when he went to sea to work three years ago, the boss lost tens of thousands of yuan, Wang Lili's uncle and sister-in-law are honest people, without any sense of law, and were scared by others to take Zhang Mazi's tens of thousands of funeral expenses and went home. After that, Wang Lili's reputation in the village began to slowly change from rumors to stone hammers, some people say that she seduced a married man, some people say that she makes money by sleeping with people, and there are also some scoundrels who slander people after Wang Lili's flirtation is not successful. Because it is the lunar month, the migrant workers have basically returned, and during the slack period, there are many idlers watching onlookers.

At noon, Yuan Junjun, who got up sleepily, lifted the aluminum kettle for boiling water from the stove in the hall, poured hot water into the old-fashioned aluminum washbasin, picked up the cold towel and put it in the basin, and after the towel was warm, applied it to his face and rubbed it to wash away the night's sleepiness. The houses in the north are all sitting in the north and facing south, because Yuan Junjun's grandparents died early, Yuan Junjun has never seen them at all, and he has not left any valuable belongings for their family, so he can't afford to build a Daping house, Yuan Shizhong just renovated his three brick houses when he got married, and added a row of corridors outside the house, the top of the corridor is used to dry some peanuts and corn during the busy farming period, and the corridor can only rely on wooden ladders, Yuan Junjun when he was a child can't move at all, It is only when the parents go to the corridor to dry food that they can experience the feeling of climbing a height, and feel the pleasure of walking on the wall in the martial arts world.

After brushing his teeth and washing, he poured the water in the aluminum basin out of the yard, Yuan Junjun found that the snow in the yard had been cleaned up by his father, and at this time there was only a thin layer of snow on the ground. Prepare for the New Year to greet relatives and friends. Yuan Junjun picked up a piece of pancake, grabbed three or four balls and put a pack of them into the pancake, and then put a green onion, ate it with relish, and shouted to his mother: "Mother, is there any paste bean soup?" "Yes, in that aluminum pot, just lifted off the stove, hot, did you wash your face?" After eating, go to Xiaofang's house and call your sister home, and I will take her to your aunt's house in the afternoon. Yuan Junjun sat on a small brown stool, his mouth was full, looked at his mother and said, "What time did my sister get up, I didn't hear her get up." Li Xiaofeng wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sleeves, and the gown made of gray coarse cloth he bought was covered with a cotton jacket, which looked a little bloated, Li Xiaofeng was very beautiful when he was young, with a melon seed face, slender eyebrows, and a pair of big eyes, which made the whole face particularly exquisite. This is the feeling that Yuan Junjun felt when he grew up and saw the only black-and-white old-fashioned photo taken by his mother at the age of 18.

After eating, Yuan Junjun wiped his mouth with his sleeve, the red cotton jacket was a little short, a small section of his arm was leaking outside, and the light blue cotton pants looked a little fat, and he didn't fit well on his body, and walked out of the hall, Li Xiaofeng was busy baking pancakes in the yard, an iron concave, supported on the stove temporarily built with red bricks, only a brick high, and a wheat stalk burned underneath. I saw Li Xiaofeng skillfully use a wooden spatula to dig out a small piece of thin flour oil in the basin and quickly put it on the concave, and then use the spatula to control the oil to coat the whole concave, less than 30 seconds to wait for the water to evaporate, the oil on the round concave becomes a pancake, use the scraper to slightly the corner of the "open mouth" pancake, pick up the whole pancake, put it on the concave in turn, take it down after 10 seconds and put it on the round lid collar made of the pole at the sorghum tassel, turn your head to look, There was already a thick stack of pancakes on the lid collar. This is an indispensable thing in the countryside before the Spring Festival every year, the rich people at home will go to the pancake shop to book in advance, do not want to suffer this smoky fire, some capable people go out to work, and when they come back for the New Year, they bring outside specialties, strange things.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, when the sky began to get dark, the police of the survey withdrew the guard, Wang Lili's body was taken away by the criminal police and the forensic doctor, Wang Lili's family only came to the mother and brother, the mother sat paralyzed on the snow, the tears on her face were still dry, Wang Lili's brother Wang Fugui stood next to him, bloated figure, protruding eye bags, and a drunken look, at this time he shouted to the gradually dispersed crowd: "This matter is not over, whoever harmed my sister, I will let him die a good death, blood debt and blood repayment, Listen to the people of Xiaozhai Village, my sister lives alone in your village, and now she is forced to die, you have to pay, otherwise I will not finish with you. The surrounding villagers were afraid of getting into trouble and sped up the pace of the two of them, and the night was completely dark, Wang Fugui picked up his mother with dull eyes, attached his mother to the bicycle, and walked down the mountain with a curse in his mouth. Caught in the crowd, Jiang Haitao's heart was surging, and he also watched the lake for a day during the day, if Wang Lili really has a lover, that person must be Jiang Haitao. Jiang Haitao, who has not married a wife at the age of 28, is a high school graduate, because the family is poor, he has no choice but to drop out of school and go home to farm, to be honest, Jiang Haitao and Zhang Mazi's family still have some relatives, Haitao's mother Zhang Jinhua's second uncle Zhang Shu and Zhang Mazi's father's uncle are brothers.