After my mother was buried, the home was very bleak. My father started smoking and drinking.

Several times, when I came home from school in the evening, the house was empty, and I thought my father had gone out, but when I went into the kitchen and saw the sparks flashing in front of the stove, I knew that it was my father sitting there smoking.

The kitchen was dark, and the cigarette butts flickered at the moment, and I saw my father's face twisted, and I felt extremely terrifying.

At this time, I always gently retreated to the front of the hall and consciously wrote my homework on the square table in front of the hall. If the clothes are still drying on the bamboo poles outside, I will collect them.

What I want to do is: not to alarm my father.

Two years ago, when we were sending my brother back to the city, I was squatting on the ground and crying, and my father was standing far away, never alarming me.

After a while, for some reason, a lot of strangers suddenly came to the village.

Here comes stubble after stubble.

They carry tools and measure something in the field or on the hill.

Then I heard that the whole village was going to be relocated.

I don't understand, okay, why relocate? If we were to move, where would we move?

I'm not worried about anything else - I don't worry about whether I have a house to live in, I don't worry about whether the place I moved to is far from the school or close, what I'm worried about is that if I do move, my brother may not be able to find me.

So I kept praying, praying not to relocate. After lying on the bed and saying goodnight to my brother, I prayed over and over again.

I don't know what my father was thinking, his face became more gloomy, and he drank longer. He smoked cigarette after cigarette. I was even a little scared to see my father.

One night, I finished my homework early and went to bed early. Hazy, I felt like someone was pushing me. When I opened my eyes, it was my father.

"Kiki, get up, get up." Father said eagerly.

"Is it dawn?" I'd love to sleep a little longer.

"Nope. It's Dad who has an accident. Get up and go with Daddy. ”

"Coming with Daddy? Where is Daddy going? "I was confused.

"I don't know where I'm going. We're going to get out of here quickly. If you don't hurry, you'll have no dad. ”

"Ahh I was startled and got out of bed, I couldn't stand it without my father. Now, my father is my only relative.

"Are we going back?" I asked as I got dressed.

"I don't know, maybe I'll be back soon, maybe I'll never be back."

"Then I'll have to bring my bag."

"What other school bags do you bring? We're on the run, you know? ”

"No, I'll have to bring my bag."

"Hurry up, then." My father spoke in a suffrage.

I quickly put my bag away. My father took me by the hand and walked out the door. I was nervous.

The house was dark, and my father didn't light a kerosene lamp at all. When I went out, my father looked out and was sure that no one had led me out the door.

I thought I was going to walk along the path at the entrance of the village, but my father took me to the back mountain, just like when my brother took me to the pond to steal a bamboo cage.

Only three or two houses in the entire village still have lights on and voices of talking. The vast majority of people's huts are pitch black.

My father's steps were very big, and I followed them with all my might.

When a dog barked, my father told me to squat down. I crouched down, panting roughly. I was tired and scared.

There was no movement, and my father stood up.

I followed and stood up.

We then walked forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Maybe my father noticed that I was tired, so he took my bag and carried it and slowed down.

We kept walking along the mountain path.

My father didn't say a word, and I didn't say a word.

The mountain breeze is blowing, the moonlight is cold, and the sky is clear and cloudless. It was very quiet. There were times when I felt the thorns catch my trouser legs and scratch my feet, but I didn't say anything. I knew I had to endure it. My father said that we were running for our lives, and since we were running for our lives, if we were slow, we might be dead.

I don't know how many trails I walked, but when I came down the hill to the road, I realized that the river was right in front of us. The sound of rushing water is endless.

After crossing the bridge, we did not walk along the village road leading to Yongtai Village, but took the ridge road. My feet were in the air several times, and the whole person slid into the field, but I quickly returned to the ridge road. Fortunately, there was no water in the fields.

After bypassing Yongtai Village, my father decided to take the right path—the same way we sent my brother back to the city.

I'm so tired. I'm hungry too. But my father still had no intention of stopping to rest. Later, he even dragged me forward.

But he finally decided to stop and rest.

There is a pavilion on the way from Yongtai to Wangwu, and there is a stone bench on each side of the pavilion, which is used for the peasants who are tired of working to rest. We sat on these two stone benches to rest. The stone bench was cold, and a chill felt in my skin. I gasped.

My father took out a sweet potato from the bag he had brought and went to wash it in the stream by the pavilion.

"Eat one and fill your stomach." Father said.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I asked.

"I'm not hungry." I took the sweet potato and took the skin into my mouth. I ate a few bites, then handed the sweet potato to my father's mouth, who took a bite of it.

"What the hell is going on, Dad?" I still couldn't help but ask.

"Dad beat the old village chief's son to death." Father said.

"Ahh Is it the brother named Zhang Yingjie? I said.

It's weird, why is it dead again?

"Yes. Today, the old village chief came to mobilize us to relocate, and I really can't tell you how annoyed I was. ”

"Why relocate? I heard that our whole village was going to be relocated. ”

"They're going to build us into a big reservoir here."

"Is it a big, big reservoir?"

"Yes. Big, big, big. If we want to flood our village, we will also flood the graves of our grandparents and mothers. ”

"Why do you want to do this?" If the graves of our grandparents and mothers are flooded, where will we go to worship them?

So Dad always disagreed. How can I let them flood the graves of your grandfather and mother? But they didn't think so, and the old village chief persuaded me again and again to understand the government's intentions, and said that this was everyone's will, and that it was useless for me to resist alone, so I got angry and quarreled with the old village chief. In the evening, I drank again. ”

"You're still drinking when I'm doing my homework."

"You're asleep, I'm still drinking. You don't know, Dad is really sad. I know that the old village chief is right, and it is useless for me to resist alone. In other words, your grandfather and mother's graves will definitely be flooded. It wasn't a tomb that had been built for a few days. Later, when I walked out of the house and wanted to go outside, who would have thought that I would meet Zhang Yingjie on the road? Who would have thought that he would warn me at such a young age? I took advantage of his lack of attention and pushed him so hard that he fell to the ground without warning. I kicked him a few times, but he didn't move, and I probed his breath to find out that he was dead. ”

"Ahh

The father then said, "My wine has suddenly woken up, and I hastened home and taken you to escape." You know what, Kiki? Murder is paid for life. I thought that if I paid for my life, you would be the only one left in this world, and you would be so young. Have you finished eating? ”

"I'm done." Actually, I still have a small half of a sweet potato in my hand.

"Then let's go." Father was already on his feet.

I don't know how many miles I walked that night. After getting on the main road, we walked along the main road in the direction of the county seat. There are always some small gravels on the road, and sometimes if you accidentally step on the small gravel, a burst of pain comes from the soles of your feet, and the pain is so painful that you die.

Brother, it's the same as stepping barefoot on the stone on the night when the cage was stolen.

My father and I just kept going.

It was so quiet all around, as if all the bugs, all the birds, all the little animals were asleep. Sometimes there is a fluttering sound in the mountains and forests, and it may be night birds flying in the forest. The moon gradually walked behind us.

I thought that maybe I would never return to the East Gate again in this life, never see the graves of my grandfather and mother again, and never sit on the date tree again to meditate.

Everything can only be buried deep in memory.

But it's not that I don't know that the impression in my memory will become more and more indifferent. It dawned on me that my father and I were moving away from everything we knew and toward the unfamiliar.

I couldn't help but be terrified. What makes me even more sad is that I may never see my brother again.

The thought of this made my heart ache and hurt, and my tears began to fall.

I also thought about how sad my brother would be if he didn't see me.

Of course, this emotion was quickly expelled by fatigue. Needless to say, my feet were blistered for a long time. I even limped forward. It was then that I realized what a luxury it was to have a bed to sleep in.

My father's feet must have hurt too, and I felt like he was limping when he walked. Perhaps I was too tired, but when my father decided to sit down on the side of the road to rest, I fell asleep on top of him.

But I don't know why my father woke me up. I tried to open my eyelids to my father.

"Kiki, what are you talking about? Is it uncomfortable? ”

"No, I'm saying goodnight to my brother."

"Hey." The father sighed, but said nothing.

I don't remember how many times I took a break, but anyway, I finally got to the county seat. It turns out that the legendary county seat is like this. They are all blue bricks and red tiles, and there is not a single thatched house. Some houses are so high, they are really as tall as optimus pillars. That should be a high-rise building written in a book, right? Could anyone live on such a high place?

The streets are so straight, so wide, so flat.

The sweet potatoes that my father had brought were almost eaten.

It was not yet dawn and the streets of the city were deserted. We found a place to sit and rest in the alleys near the station.

The weather is getting colder. My father regretted not bringing a sheet with him, because the wind was blowing and the sweat-soaked clothes were sticking to our bodies and making us feel cold.

I soon fell asleep again.