My name is Yin Chuba. My family lives in a small mountain village called Heishizhai Village under the jurisdiction of Yunnan Minority Autonomous County, and it takes more than 50 miles north to reach the town; To the south is a natural environment reserve of more than 100 miles, next to the national border.

My grandfather said I was a ill-fated child.

When my mother was working in the county, she talked about a partner, but she was unexpectedly pregnant, and then the man's family did not admit the account, said that he would not let my mother pass the door, and slandered my mother that she had ill intentions. At that time, it was a very shameful thing to get pregnant out of wedlock, and my mother insisted on giving birth to me under the pressure of being poked in the backbone, and as soon as I was born, she choked. And my father, whom I never met, just dropped the surgery fee before my mother gave birth and never showed up again, so I took my mother's last name.

In the village, only men who have passed away can enter the ancestral grave, and my mother can only be buried in the small forest next to the house. My grandfather said that my mother was suffocated to death, so since I was sensible, he told me to go to my mother's grave every day to offer incense, so that I could comfort my mother more, hoping that she would vote for a good family as soon as possible and stop suffering from the humiliation of this life.

When I was born, I was thin and small, my body was weak, and the doctors who delivered the baby said that the child was estimated to not live, and my grandfather was distressed and said that this was his daughter's flesh and blood, and said that he would feed me, so he took me back to the village and asked Uncle Hong, an old man of the Miao nationality in the neighborhood, to help me take a look. Uncle Hong said that I was in the bardo and my soul was unstable, so he did 7749 days of Dharma for me, and gave me Miao medicine, so I got better and survived.

Heishizhai was originally owned by the Miao family, and the Han people came in later. Until now, most of the Miao people have moved to a few villages near the county seat, and there are only about a dozen Miao families left in the villages of seventy or eighty families.

The children in the village are very afraid of Uncle Hong, saying that he is the great witch of the Miao nationality, and they usually dare not approach his house. Although Uncle Hong looks very serious, I don't think Uncle Hong is terrible, and I often go to his house to play with his granddaughter Sayuri, sometimes my grandfather picks medicine or goes to the county seat, and I eat and sleep at his house.

My uncle has always been dissatisfied with Uncle Hong's set, he said that these are superstitions, if the spell can save lives, why not go to the big city to hang a pot to help the world, then make more money, and there must be no real ability to stay in this village. My uncle is such a person, everything can be linked to money, he is greedy for money, but he is still very good to me, because my mother has always been very good to him when she was alive.

Uncle is a good gambler. I remember when I was a child, he worked in the county, but he was late for work and absent from work, and he drank and played cards with a group of fox friends all day long, and the salary was not enough for him to squander, so he became a thief, and as a result, he stole from a big brother on the ground, and people found out that he was beaten up, and he chopped off an index finger before he was willing to stop.

Everyone in the village called my uncle Yin Laojiu, because he only had nine fingers, and from that time on, he didn't dare to steal anymore, but he still couldn't quit gambling. I have always remembered this incident deeply, because at that time, my uncle was recuperating at home, and my grandfather asked him what bear-hearted leopard gall he ate and stole the body of the ground snake, but my uncle said that the eighth year of junior high school was about to reach the age of school, and the family's income from selling medicinal herbs was not enough, and he couldn't keep the money in his hands, so he wanted to steal the tuition fee for the eighth year of junior high school and put it back.

Although I was still young at that time, I was very touched to know that my uncle was also for my good, so I became my uncle's accomplice for a period of time afterward. Sometimes he lost a lot of money gambling in the county town, so he went back to the village to ask his grandfather for money to pay off his debts, but his grandfather was willing to hide all the money, and my uncle asked me to help him get the money. It's okay once or twice, but I took too much, and finally one day when the East Window incident happened, I was caught by my grandfather and beat me up, saying that I couldn't even afford to go to school after helping my uncle get money. My uncle seemed to be aware of his mistakes, and since then he has not asked me to help him get the money, and he has come home less often.

My grandfather is a medicine picker, he knows a lot of Chinese medicine and Miao medicine, often goes into the mountains to collect medicine early and returns late, sometimes it even takes two or three days to come back, he said that now the medicinal materials in the mountains are getting less and less, and they have to go deeper into the forest to have a harvest. I can't help but feel sad when I look at my grandfather's more and more rickety back, my grandmother died early, my grandfather pulled my mother and my uncle, and now I am in my sixties and still have to support me, I really can't bear it.

So, as soon as I graduated from junior high school this summer, I didn't plan to continue studying, I wanted to learn medicine from my grandfather, and when I learned it, I would be able to shoulder the burden of earning money to support my family. It is said that the children of the poor are in charge of the house, and I am 16 years old this year, so I should let my grandfather rest, but my grandfather said that he would not do anything, he said that he was in good health, at least for me to finish college.

In fact, my grandfather had to sleep on his stomach every night with back pain, and he could no longer go into the mountains every day to collect medicine as before. I said to my grandfather, I didn't study well, my grades were not good, and I guess I couldn't get into college, and sooner or later I would have to follow you into the mountains to collect medicine, so why waste the time and tuition fees in the past few years?

When my grandfather heard this, he slapped me directly, saying that if you don't study well, you should study harder, you must continue to study and take the university entrance examination, and you will go to live outside the mountains in the future, otherwise how can you be worthy of your dead mother?

Whenever I talk about my mother, I lose my temper. Before my mother's death, she was said to be a poor child in the mountains who wanted to marry to the county seat to live a good life by virtue of her own beauty, so my grandfather must let me continue to study and rely on my own skills to get out of this ravine.

In fact, people have backbone, but backbone can't be eaten, and it will always be easily wiped out in the face of reality. My argument with my grandfather would not be fruitful, so as usual, I slipped away to Uncle Hong's house next door.

Uncle Hong's granddaughter Sayuri is in the sixth grade of primary school this year, and it is the summer vacation, so she returned to Uncle Hong from the county seat to play. I watched Sayuri do my homework sullenly, and Uncle Hong asked me what was wrong when he saw this.

I told my grandfather about the quarrel, Uncle Hong smiled and said I was a stupid child, your grandfather is for your good, you can go to the big city to beg for a life after studying more, do you want to stay in this ravine for the rest of your life?

I muttered, you don't want to die or leave this black stone village, your son has tried to take you to the county seat several times to live a good life. Uncle Hong was speechless for a while, and at this moment, a shout came from outside the door: "The eighth day of the first month!" Go check it out! Something happened to your uncle! ”

As soon as I heard this voice, I knew that the person who came was Erba, he was my good buddy who had played since I was a child, and he and I could play the best together in the village. I hurriedly walked to the gate and answered, he saw that I was at Uncle Hong's house, a little frightened, and beckoned me to come out to talk.

I walked up to Erdan and asked what was going on, and Erdan wiped his sweat and said, "I heard Li Dafu say that your uncle stole other people's things again!" As a result, I was found to be beaten! Li Dafu happened to go to the county to sell tea and bumped into it, so he brought your uncle back, and it was at his house, you hurry up and take a look! ”

Grandpa also heard Erdan's loud voice, and hurriedly walked out of the house, so angry that he threw the bitter gall grass in his hand to the ground, and said angrily: "Dogs can't change eating!" Let him steal! You deserve to be beaten to death! "Although my grandfather said this, he was still very worried about my uncle, and told me to hurry up and take a look and bring people back.

I was just about to leave, but my grandfather stopped me, he took a basket of eggs from the house, asked me to give it to Li Dafu, asked me to thank people, I took the eggs and followed the second egg to Li Dafu's house at the entrance of the village.

When I entered the courtyard of Li Dafu's house, I saw my uncle lying on the wooden cart, his body was blue and purple, his eyes were bloodshot and tearful, and even the skin around his eyes was red, and he whispered "I won't leave...... I hurriedly handed the eggs to Uncle Dafu, said a few words of thanks, and hurriedly pushed the wooden cart home.

My house and Uncle Hong's house are located on higher ground, built on a small hill, and it took me a lot of effort to push the wooden cart uphill and return home. My grandfather greeted him, and he was angry, but when he saw my uncle's appearance, he immediately looked nervous and worried.

Helping my uncle to the bed, Erdan said that he would help return the wooden cart to Li Dafu first, and then he left first. My grandfather took out the freshly boiled eggs and handed them to me, and asked me to use the eggs to roll on my uncle's wound to promote blood circulation and dissipate stasis.

While rolling the hot egg back and forth on my uncle's wound, I asked my uncle in a low voice, "Didn't you say that you wouldn't steal it?" Why are you doing this again? You are short of money to come back to me......" My uncle didn't seem to hear me at all, and kept saying "Don't dare...... I don't dare anymore", I thought to myself, is it difficult to make people stupid?

At this time, Uncle Hong came over.

Uncle Hong walked to the side of the bed, squinted his eyes and looked at my uncle carefully, and then said solemnly: "He was scared out of his soul!" ”