Just quietly accompany you, I just hope that time will go slower, grow up slower, grow old slower, and let us sit together for a longer time.

At dinner, Ah Luo talked to his mother about his grandfather, and his mother lamented that his grandfather was confused in his old age, and some things were no longer remembered, and even his memories began to be casually connected.

"It's something that hasn't happened, but your grandfather must have said it happened. I also asked you to find the information left by your grandfather at that time, and insisted that it was kept here by me, and I was urged to find it for three days, and you said that I was in a hurry or not, and I didn't know where to find your grandfather. Some things have happened more than ten years ago, and your grandfather must have said that it just happened recently, and he desperately flipped through those photos at home, saying that he must not be mistaken. I also blamed me for being only forty years old, how my memory was worse than his. I can't help him no matter what I say, I really don't know what to do with your grandfather. ”

The most important thing is that at that time, grandpa began to be nostalgic, and he had turned out all the photo album materials at home, and listed them in chronological order, so that his mother accompanied him from time to time to recall the past, and his mother was a little helpless, but he still didn't dare to disobey his father's orders, so he could only be on call, but he was bitter for his uncle, and the free driver did a very good job.

Ah Luo held his mother's hand and comforted him:

"At that time, grandpa should just miss you, and find some reason for you to go back to accompany him more."

Mom listened to Ah Luo's words and nodded slowly

"I know, people are getting old, they are starting to be lonely, I am also in my forties, and I also feel it, you are not around, I really want to see you, I always ask you to call home, I am worried that it will affect your studies, and I can only endure it."

Mom said that once, my grandfather clamored to go to the house where he used to live, and said that he must go back to see more while his body is still good. My mother said that she didn't have time, so she and her uncle went to my grandfather's house on time to pick up people the next day.

Grandpa's ancestors were big landowners, and then declined, so the old courtyard is the kind of ancient castle of civil engineering buildings, and still maintains the ancient charm, like the big courtyard at the end of the Qing Dynasty, with a large well in the village and the front and back yard, huge stone grinding plates, heavy loess walls, etc. are still intact. There is an old apricot tree in front of the gate of the earthen fort, which is a gathering place for the children of the whole village in the middle of summer every year. In the fifties and sixties, there were several families living in such a courtyard, and everyone got along well.

"When I was a child, I wore small black cloth shoes, and when I arrived at the meal, I looked for the smell of rice, smelled the fragrance of someone's house, ran to whom's house, and when I went to that station, the neighbor gave you a bowl of rice and pulled you to sit down and eat together. I can eat several meals in one night. Mom smiled and said:

"Mom, when you were a child, you must have died of fat." Ah Luo deliberately teased:

"It's okay, I didn't eat anything good at that time."

"At that time, there was a well in the house, and sitting at the door, I could see the stars in the sky, and when I was a child, I used to sit there and look at the stars in a daze.

Every time I sat at the door, after a while, your grandfather came to sit with me, and your grandfather sat for as long as I sit, and we didn't talk much.

Girl! Thinking from the heart is important, as long as I am not happy, I like to sit at the door. Later, when I had your brother-in-law at home, I didn't care about me at all, so I should have been lost at that time! It felt like something had been snatched away. But your grandfather didn't comfort me, anyway, he just sat with me. ”

My mother said that my grandmother has loved my uncle since she was a child, and I feel that she has given all her love to my uncle. The girl was originally more dependent on her mother, and she was snatched away by her uncle all of a sudden, so she naturally felt a little complaining and uncomfortable! But I don't know how to express it, I can only bear it silently, so I like to be alone in a daze, and often sit at the door for hours......

"I don't know when it started, your grandfather sat with me, and he didn't talk much at first, but then I listened to your grandfather, and I remember that my grandfather had a quarrel and said something like this to me: 'I'll tell you! Don't be afraid, Mom and Dad just have some disagreements, you don't have to worry. Anyway, Dad will always be with you, if you really want to leave, Dad will definitely take you away, your mother now has your brother, your brother is still young, and he will be more attentive. But I'll take care of you. If you have something, tell your dad. At that time, I felt that I had found a sense of dependence, so I really liked to tell your grandfather about anything later. ”

My mother said that when she was a child, she always wrote badly, especially after being criticized by her teacher several times, she had some fear of writing essays. Once, at night, I sat at the door with a composition paper and looked at the stars in the sky with a sad face, and my grandfather soon sat next to her, and she sadly handed over the composition paper to your grandfather, telling the teacher how she said that she wrote poorly.

Grandpa just touched her head, pulled her into the house, lit a kerosene lamp, and told her to write quickly. She held the pen with interest, but her grandfather sat beside her, smoking a pot of dry tobacco, and then stared at her intently.

Mother said: "There is a small attic on the high platform of the old earth fort, very small, maybe not even five square meters, push the door into the kang is the kang, then I lived in that small attic, in the winter, your grandfather used the basket to pick up some sheep dung and donkey dung, and then carried it to the high platform, lit the fire and filled it into the kang hole, I kept warm." ”

Ah Luo only then knew that his grandfather had often accompanied his mother to finish the essay at that time, and then annotated some incomprehensible parts of her essay with a pencil for her to revise. After a round of revisions, grandpa told her a lot of writing skills, and taught her some rhetorical techniques and the like, she followed her grandfather's opinion, and revised again and again, the two of them did this back and forth, and the more they wrote, the more excited they became, and they were reprimanded by their grandmother who got up in the middle of the night, and the two gave up, and went back to the room to rest.

"Since then, the old man has often accompanied me in writing essays, and both of us find the process very fun. I never criticized my essay to the teacher again, and it was always A, and it was posted on the school's bulletin board as an excellent essay, but it was beautiful. Now that I think about it, all my homework was accompanied by your grandfather. Then the Cultural Revolution broke out, the school was closed, and all the children in the village who were my age were engaged in agricultural production cooperation, working in the fields every day to earn a share of the work. ”

"Mom, didn't you go to high school?"

My mother was silent for a while and said, "Well, after the end of the Cultural Revolution for ten years, I thought that I would not have the opportunity to go to school again, and this life is only the fourth grade of primary school." We have always valued sons over daughters here, and so is education, and the labor force in the family has always been weak, and my grandmother wants your brother-in-law to go to school, and then I will stay at home and do farm work, and when I reach the age in a few years, I will wait for others to come to the door to talk to the matchmaker, and then get married. Fortunately, your grandfather has always been very tough, saying that as long as I want to continue my education, he will provide for my tuition. ”

"So, grandpa is going to school for you and your brother-in-law at the same time?" Ah Luo asked her mother:

"Well, at that time, your brother-in-law went to primary school in the village, and after the Cultural Revolution, I jumped directly from the fourth grade to the junior high school, the junior high school was in the town by the river, fifty kilometers away from home, and it was all mountain roads, there were no buses at that time, and I rode my bicycle home almost once every two months. At that time, I was the only female student in the school, and the school couldn't arrange a dormitory for a girl like me, so I stayed at the teacher's house, crammed into the same room with the teacher's daughter. Mom said:

"You're the only girl in the whole school? It's still fifty kilometers from home! Oh my God, how long do you have to ride? Ah Luo was stunned.

"It's okay, I'm young at that time, and I don't feel tired, and I will leave tomorrow at a slight light, and it will be in the evening. The main thing is that the road is uneven, the downhill is easy, the uphill is slow, and you have to push the car to walk. Mom said:

"Aren't you scared along the way?" Ah Luo asked again:

"What are you afraid of, it's not a person to go, many times it is the classmates in the township who make an appointment to go together, if you want to say that you are afraid, there are also many wolves in the mountains at that time, and they often jump into the sheepfold in the village to bite the big sheep to death, and take away the little sheep.

The most feared time was when I was almost halfway up the mountainside in front of my house, and the gray wolf had been lying on a small flat ground in the middle of the mountain, and I was really frightened that time, and I was so close to it that I could see the wolf's bright eyes. Fortunately, it was daytime, and the wolf watched me walk not far from it, and it remained on its stomach and did not move. ”

"Mom, if it moves, I guess there won't be me today." Ah Luo said:

"Sometimes I don't go home for two months, and I ask someone to bring a letter home, and your grandfather will drive the donkey to the family, carrying apples picked in the yard, and a bag of sorghum flour or cornmeal. And your grandmother made steamed buns, who came over the mountains and mountains to come to see me at school and send me some supplies.

The road was too bumpy, and the donkey couldn't carry the eggs on his back, so your grandfather cooked the eggs before going out, wrapped them in a cloth or a towel, put them in his pocket, and sent them to school. ”

The soup boiling in the kitchen pot gurgled again, and my mother looked out the window in a panic.

"Mom, when you were in school, what was the most important thing you remember about your grandfather?" Ah Luo said:

"The most memorable?" Mom looked back at Ah Luo, thought for a moment and said:

"Oh, it's time to pay tuition for school, and the grain in the field has not been confiscated at that time, and there is no surplus food at home to sell, so your grandfather sold all the dry tobacco that he originally planted for himself." Mom said:

"All sold? So what does grandpa smoke? Ah Luo said:

"I don't know, anyway, there are no tobacco leaves, and he smokes less, and when the smoking addiction is really strong, he goes to rub other people's dry tobacco, as if he has smoked willow leaves." Mom smiled as she spoke.

"Can willow leaves also be used for tobacco?" Ah Luo said:

"I don't think I can't, anyway, I don't have a dry tobacco leaf to smoke. Later, the dry tobacco didn't sell much, and the tuition fee was still not enough, so your grandfather had no choice, so he sold his own cigarette pot mouth. Mom said:

Ah Luo was so happy when he heard this, he smiled and said, "Can the mouth of the smoke pot be sold?" ”

"Well, I am very impressed by your grandfather's smoking pot mouth, it is agate, it can be worth a few dollars, and your grandfather has used it for many years. When I remember, your grandfather used that smoking pot, and the old man went out in the first half of his life, and he was the most valuable on his body, and he could show off the most with his hand, which is probably the smoke pot mouth of the agate. At that time, my family was poor and patriarchal, but your grandfather was always very supportive of my schooling. ”

Mom took a deep breath and continued, "Before I moved last time, my grandfather would often sit quietly at the door by himself, which is the position I used to sit in when I was a child......

When we went back that day, we sat in the door for a while. Facing a big water tank, that water tank when I was a child, your grandfather was full of fish, I was ignorant when I was a child, and often gave those fish to friends in the village who came to our house to play, and later I learned that those fish were raised by your grandfather and sold them, that is, to use the money from selling fish to me and your uncle for some delicious and fun. It's all given to me, and your grandfather doesn't blame me, I remember knocking me back and scolding 'loser girl'. ”

When Ah Luo heard this, he couldn't help laughing, and while laughing, he begged his mother to continue to tell the story of that era.

For the last time, my mother and grandfather were still sitting in front of the door:

"Dad, it's good to sit like this, it's good to have you with you."

I didn't get a response from my grandfather for a long time, and my mother looked up at my grandfather, and it turned out that my grandfather began to close his eyes and recuperate.

helped my grandfather tidy up his clothes, but my grandfather opened his eyes and looked at the tank where he used to raise fish.

"Go back and buy you a fish tank, and you can continue to raise fish!"

"If you don't raise it, you're too old, and it's no fun to raise fish."

She shook her head a little helplessly, she just wanted to move her body, but her arm was grabbed by her grandfather

"Sit down for a while, sit with Dad for a while!"

The two of them sat quietly just like she did when she was a child....

This summer, Ah Luo deliberately went back to her grandfather's old house, and she wrote in her diary on the day she returned:

Standing in front of the gate of the old castle and village, I guessed that more than 30 years ago, my grandfather was smoking a cigarette pot under the kerosene lamp in this high-platform hut, and accompanied his daughter to read and write. There was no me in the world at that time.

On behalf of my mother, I went back to my parents' house to find the memories of the childhood of two generations, the ancient well is still there, but the grass is overgrown next to the well, the old apricot tree in front of the earthen fort is luxuriant, and the mulberry tree next to it does not know when it died early.

Uncle is old,

My cousin got married,

I used to climb on the old apricot tree and take a nap, I grew up,

Nine years ago, my grandfather also left......

——The courtyard of the Cai family with a light rain