"It's getting dark, are you going to the town looking for someone?"

I looked up at the sky and sighed secretly, this way was really lucky: "I wanted to go to the town before dark to take the last train to the county seat, but who knew that there would be a ...... on the road"

Before I could finish speaking, he waved his hand to block what I had not yet finished: "Do you think this will work, old man, there is no one else in my house except for an old wife, come to my house tonight to rest?" Plus you, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl, must have scared you today, so I have to apologize anyway. ”

is worthy of being a person who has gone out to see the world, and he is particularly well-educated when he speaks. I saw that the sky was indeed going to be dark, the last train had already passed the certainty, the first time I came to the town, I was not familiar with the place, and I heard that it would cost a hundred or ten yuan to stay in a hotel for one night......

I hesitated, but finally decided to follow the old man to his house.

Sitting in the hall at night, I have not seen his wife since I entered the door, and he said that her wife often goes out, and it is not unusual for ten days and half a month to go.

I asked him again where his wife had gone, and he said, "Dongcheng, Strange Street."

Daddy said, go, go as far as possible, but I have never been far away, I don't know anything about the place that the old boatman said, and I don't know where to go when I get to the county seat, so I want to ask in detail about the Dongcheng Foreign Country Street, at first, he always wants to stop talking.

After repeated questioning, he succinctly summed up a few words: "Like heaven, it is also hell." No matter what I asked after that, he was as if he were suddenly dumb and silent.

He suddenly asked me, "Where is your hometown?" ”

"Qingming Village."

After listening to what I said, he was slightly stunned: "Where is Qingming Village?" I've been doing ferries for almost twenty or thirty years, how come I've never heard of any Qingming Village? ”

I thought about it, and I guess it might have something to do with the geographical location of our village: "Maybe it's too remote, and it's normal that I haven't heard of it." ”

Unexpectedly, the old boatman waved his hand again and again, as if he was trying to recall something: "No, no, no, you answer me first, are you sure you are not from another town?" ”

"It's Qingming Village, which belongs to Sanyang Town, I'm sure and sure."

"Impossible!" He seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly stood up with a slap on his thigh, stared at me, and said categorically.

I was taken aback by his sudden movements, and asked suspiciously, "What can't be?" ”

"Sanyang Town obviously only has seven villages, but there is no Qingming Village you just mentioned."

What do you mean? Even if Qingming Village is remote, it is impossible to say that it does not exist, I am a little annoyed: "Who said that there are only seven villages in Sanyang Town? There are eight of them! "Although I don't go out often, Daddy still tells me more or less about the outside world. How could I not know such a basic thing.

"Who did you listen to? The throat of Sichuan and Hubei has been inherited from the Han Dynasty to the present, and there are only seven villages recorded in the county annals. ”

The old boatman said that he was clear-eyed, I don't know why, I was inexplicably a little panicked in my heart. If it's really like what he said, then wouldn't the place where I grew up not even have a name, isn't that ridiculous?

"I said, why don't you believe it? I am really from Qingming Village, Sanyang Town, and many people in my village have been admitted to the city to study at university. ”

"Which universities, for example?"

"Why, the corpse, Sanjiu ......" I was counting with my fingers, when the old boatman suddenly interrupted me: "I asked you to say which universities they were admitted to, what kind of nonsense are you talking about?" ”

"I'm talking about universities." Really, every child in our village who is admitted to university has to report the good news, and go door to door to inform everyone in the village to beat gongs and drums to send them to go out to study, so I remember those universities they were admitted to.

"You're not sick, are you?" The old boatman looked at me worriedly.

"If you say that, I'll be unhappy, one moment I will say that there is no Qingming Village on the county chronicle, and then I will say this and that, grandpa, I won't stay at your house if you do this again!"

I glared at him angrily, inexplicably unhappy.

It was also a long time later that I learned that the names of the universities they had been remembering were all netherworld.

"It's really not grandpa talking about you, I heard my fishermen say that there is a place where there are a lot of fish and shrimp, dense and fresh, and the size is big, so I sailed the boat there, and watched you sit on the stone pier on the bank of the river from a distance, talking to the air, and even doing some intimate movements as if there was someone next to you. I thought it was weird. ”

The more the old boatman said, the more bizarre it became: "What is it?" Who spoke into the air? Can't you see, it's me Daddy talking to me. ”

"You're daddy? Is there anyone else on the banks of the river but you? Although I am a little old, old man, I am not so dizzy as I am. ”

I really don't know what to say now, this old boatman always seems to like to mess around! I don't care if it's dark and the road is far away, I think it's better for me to sleep on the street than to listen to his nonsense here. He looked like I was packing up my things and was leaving, and hurriedly ran over and grabbed me: "Where are you going?" ”

"You don't need to care where you go! Say I'll forget it, you still orchestrate my daddy. ”

"Look at you, kid, why are you so impatient, old man, what's wrong with me telling you the truth?"

He made a look of arguing with me, and I was angry and wanted to laugh: "You tell the truth? I think you're talking nonsense! After saying that, he didn't want to entangle with him any more, so he pushed the old boat away and put on his cloth bag and walked to the door.

As soon as I stepped out of the door with one foot, he suddenly yelled at me, "Stop! What I hate the most in this life is that others don't trust me, if you really think what I say is not credible, then I will go back with you tomorrow, and I won't accept you for the ferry money, and see if there is the Qingming Village you said. If there is, the old man will apologize to you. ”

When I hear it, do I want to go back? After what happened today, I actually miss Daddy, why don't I take advantage of this reason to sneak back and look at Daddy? And I especially want the old boat family to show its original form, and dare to say that my father is air! Having made up my mind, I decided to go back secretly with the old boatman. I don't have to pay the boat fare anyway......

I didn't expect this trip back to subvert all my cognitions for the past 16 years.

Because, I can't find my way home.

Obviously, there was a sheep intestine trail leading to the Tongzilin yesterday, but when I went back today, the rolling river was wrapped in mud and sand, and it was a mess washed by the water.

The old boatman took me across the dusky river again, all the way in, there was no village, not a single house, as if I had been dreaming for the sixteen years I had lived, and when I woke up, everything was deserted.

At this time, my brain was almost unable to think, and I still ran to the top of the highest mountain in Shanyang Town, overlooking the location of the major villages in Shanyang Town.

There are really only seven, seven of them, and there is no Qingming Village. No one can appreciate how desperate my heart is at this moment. What the hell is going on with all this? It felt like a century had passed in just one day.

The former Wachang Dam, Houji Ditch, Lion Pond, Three-Step Ladder, Shengtian Bay...... Everything was like a dream bubble, gone, replaced by an overgrown desolation!