1. Gengzhuang

In the midsummer of 1998, it was the scorching summer season on the Loess Plateau.

The fiery red sun hung high in the sky, drying everything on the earth. The water in the river was steaming, the grass in the fields was wilting, the trees on the side of the road were hanging their heads, and even the loess on the road was hot. As soon as the breeze blew, the dry soil foam filled the air, and the choking passers-by coughed for a long time.

Since the ambush, the sun in the sky has become redder and hotter day by day. After another seven or eight days of sunshine, the wheat in the field will turn yellow. There was not a single cloud in the sky, and not a drop of rain fell for half a month. The farmer who sharpened his sickle at home looked at the hot sky and grinned one by one, they didn't want it to rain these days.

The Loess Plateau is no different from other places in terms of its special climate and topography. The summer here is full of horrors, and no one can see the danger when it doesn't rain in the summer. But as long as it rains, it will definitely be a torrential rain, and it will definitely be a disaster.

In the summer on the Loess Plateau, the precipitation is very large, and the rainfall of about 200mm can be completed in a few minutes or ten minutes. Instantaneous heavy rainfall can bring landslides, mudslides, flash floods and other disasters, and then farmers' houses collapse, fields are flooded, and livestock are swept away by floodwaters.

If there is a heavy rainstorm before the crops are ripe, it will hurt the croppers and the year's efforts will be wasted. God let you plant, and God didn't let you harvest it, it's in vain. This is another meaning of the Loess Plateau's dependence on the sky for food.

Every year when the wheat is ripe, experienced old farmers will always pay attention to the crops in the fields. Looking at the red sun in the sky, it has been sunning for seven or eight days, and the wheat is ripe, so hurry up to harvest and hurry up to collect grain. As long as the food in his home is recovered, his heart will be steady. After packing all the grain into their own granary, they began to hope that it would rain. They no longer have to worry about it, just so that the Akita in the field can have a good harvest.

This year's weather is quite good, the red sun has been drying for a week, the color of the wheat in the field has been turning from green to yellow, and the ears of wheat with their heads held high are gradually drooping. Every ear of wheat glowed golden, and the whole sky shone yellow.

The old farmer who sat under the big tree on the side of the road to enjoy the shade, looked at the glossy wheat in the field, smelled the wheat fragrance, squinted his eyes and muttered: "There are four or five days before the harvest, if God doesn't disturb it, this year will be a good year!" ”

The old man sitting on the side was smoking a dry cigarette. A few children ran along the road, and the smoke flew along with the dust raised by the roadside. The old man coughed for a while, coughed, wiped his mouth and said, "Yes, if it is a good year, there will be trouble on the thirteenth anniversary this year." ”

"Trouble thirteen" is a festival in Gengzhuang, and only Gengzhuang has this festival in the eighteen villages.

Gengzhuang is a village in the north of the Loess Plateau, there is no family tree in the small village, and I don't know when it was completed.

There are more than 400 households in the village, which is the largest village in this eighteen villages. Originally, Gengzhuang was not big, but since the founding of the People's Republic of China, a commune was established here, and Gengzhuang has become the hub of the eighteen villages in Yuantou. A health center has been built in the village, a veterinarian station, and a grain management center that "feeds grain" every year has also been set up here.

The unique geographical location, coupled with the right time, place and people. When an adult girl in the neighborhood gets married, she will marry to Gengzhuang. The population of Gengzhuang is increasing, and Gengzhuang has an unbeatable glory! In the eighteen villages of Yuantou, everyone knows.

There is a strange thing in Geng Zhuang, that is, the people in this village are not surnamed Geng!

There are three surnames in this village. The Zhang family, who lived on the north side of the Woo River, and the Li family, who lived on the south side of the Woo River, were the big surnames in the village, and the Sun family, who lived in the far reaches of the Woo River, was the small surname.

Zhang and Li are the surnames, and each accounts for half of the number of this existence. The Sun family lived alone at the end of the village, and I don't know how many years had passed, and more than a dozen families had multiplied, forming a system of their own. It has not been touched for many years, far away from Gengzhuang, and people who don't know think that it is another village independent of Gengzhuang. But in fact, it has always belonged to Geng Zhuang, and it is very likely that the history of the Sun family is earlier than that of the Li family and the Zhang family. But now it seems that the lonely Sun family is like the gatekeeper of this village!

There is no one surnamed Geng in this village, and I don't know why it is called Geng Zhuang. No one knows, only the elderly people in the village can know a little bit of fiction and real stories, it seems to be just legends. But these old people are also secretive and unhappy when they speak. The people in the village couldn't ask, and everyone forgot about it after a long time. There is only one thing that everyone knows very well. That is, everyone knows the details of the Sun family, and even the seven or eight-year-old children know that the Sun family living at the end of the village is an outsider.

Farmers have innate limitations, and most of them are in groups to keep warm, forming gangs. The Zhang family, who lived on the north side of the Whimpering River, and the Li family, who lived in the south, seemed to have a deep hatred in their previous life or in their previous life. Separated by a river, but old and dead do not get along. The Zhang family's baby does not marry the daughter of the Li family, and the men of the Li family look down on the girl of the Zhang family. This has been the case for decades, and even today, the Zhang and Li families have never intermarried. The Zhang and Li families are like this, not to mention the Sun family who lives at the end of the village, no one has taken care of them since ancient times.

However, there is only one day when the Zhang and Li families can do business and make friends. That is the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year, which is the "thirteenth day of trouble" in the mouth of the old farmer.

On this day, the Zhang and Li families became intimate, even if it was a year, no matter how many unpleasant things were, on this day, they must let go of their previous suspicions, live in harmony, and no unhappiness can occur, which is an ancestral rule. At the same time, it is necessary to invite the Sun family at the end of the village to be the abbot and be a referee.

Once a year, every year.