I didn't fulfill my promise to see Hao Junqi the following summer. My parents were busy decorating the family room assigned by the school, and I begged and begged in every possible way, but I didn't agree.

I was depressed, always imagining Hao Junqi squatting at the head of Dongmen Village, waiting for my arrival.

I imagined that Hao Junqi would definitely wait from sunrise to sunset, and still couldn't bear to go back until it was getting dark.

Hao Junqi must have thought that maybe Zheng Qihang would appear at the next moment. She must let Zheng Qihang see her expectations with her own eyes. Grandpa Hao must have pulled her hand, and he would definitely say, "Silly boy, Zheng Qihang won't come, let's go home, it's going to be dark." Hao Junqi's eyes must have been filled with tears, and she said: "Brother Qihang said that he would definitely come." ”

But the brother who set sail did not go.

It's another year in a flash.

Because of the delay in my studies at the East Gate, I struggled to read in the fifth grade, and I barely passed the Chinese and math grades. Although my parents were not happy, they couldn't bear my soft grinding and hard bubbles and agreed to take me to the East Gate.

"It's time to go and see it, too." Father said.

"yes, it's been more than two years. I don't know if Grandpa Hao's body is still tough. "My mother always called Hao Junqi's grandfather Grandpa Hao the same way I did.

On the first day of going to the East Gate, my mother went to the store to buy a lot of food. The father made a snakeskin bag of old clothes and shoes that they didn't wear. I quietly stuffed a ring-shaped jade pendant that I had bought a long time ago into my pocket. This is my gift to Hao Junqi. The jade pendant she gave me I wear around my neck all the time.

We woke up very early the next day. We walked to the bus station.

The father carried a snakeskin bag, and the mother carried a cloth bag filled with sunflower seeds, printed cakes and other snacks. I walked among them with my bag on my back. The bag was bulging, containing exercise books specially taken out of school, old books, and pens, erasers, and stationery boxes that I had bought at the store.

The bag also contained a porcelain mug in a delicate wooden box and an ornament for a baby. The porcelain cup was a special gift from his father to Hao Junqi, and his father was vague about who the jewelry was going to give to, and for some reason he hid it from his mother.

At that time, the bus station was still near the train station, and I sat on the green painted wooden benches in the waiting hall and heard the chirping of trains as they entered or left the station. It's hot in the waiting hall. Even though it was morning, the old electric fan at the head was already working.

Later, sitting on the shuttle, the morning breeze poured in through the window, and I felt cool.

I haven't seen Hao Junqi for a whole year and a half, and she's fourteen years old. I guessed her height, guessed if she had long or short hair, and guessed if she was fatter or thinner, and then I fell asleep before I knew it.

At noon, we had dinner in Yangjiang County. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the shuttle bus to Tangwu Commune started. An hour and a half later, we got off at Wangwu. That's where Hao Junqi and I said goodbye.

Farmers are busy grabbing - rushing to harvest one crop of rice and at the same time rush to plant seedlings for the second crop. In the paddy fields, some people are harvesting, some people are planting seedlings, and some people are harrowing fields. Some of the fields were raked flat by the farmers, and the freshly harvested pockets were crushed into the soil. The slightly lower part of the paddy field is covered with a shallow layer of water, and the surface of the water reflects the sun's rays. In some of the fields where the seedlings have been planted, the seedlings are lined up in straight rows, as if they had been precisely cut.

It's close.

We passed the ridge where Grandpa Hao sent us to Wangwu to rest when we returned to Hua'an.

It's close.

We arrived at Yongtai Primary School.

We couldn't help but walk into the campus. This campus without walls, gates, playgrounds, and glass windows has left me and my parents with beautiful and painful memories.

It's close.

We've stepped onto the boardwalk. Hasn't it only been a year and a half? Why am I a little scared when I walk on the boardwalk? The water is still so clear, the aquatic plants are still floating in the water, and the fish are still swimming freely in the water.

Close, close.

You're going to cross the trail that sits between two hills. As soon as you cross the trail, you can see Dongmen Village. Will Hao Junqi still wait at the intersection?

The parents also seemed excited.

"Zheng Qihang—" I vaguely heard someone calling my name.

At this time, we were walking on the path through the rice fields. The previous stretch of the road runs along the foot of the hill on our left, and here, it passes through the rice paddies to the foot of the hill on our right. After another 100 meters, turn right onto the trail that sandwiches between the two mountains.

It can't be Hao Junqi calling me, right?

"Zheng Qihang!"

"Lao Zheng!"

We should go with prestige. In front of us, there were more than a dozen hills at our feet, and several people were waving at us.

Two people, one big and one small, waved to us. They walked from the rice paddies to the path at the foot of the hill, and the shorter one was already running ahead.

It's Zhu Jinshan. Two of his trousers rolled high, a foot of mud. Why is his skin so dark? is so tall, almost as tall as Uncle Zhu.

Zhu Jinshan and I hugged each other excitedly, regardless of whether the mud on his feet would rub against my trousers.

Uncle Zhu also caught up.

"It's finally your wait." Zhu Jinshan said.

"I said I was going to see you. I've brought you a lot of stationery. ”

"But didn't you say you came here last summer?"

"My mom and dad aren't available."

"Hey, you don't know, there's a lot going on in the past two years."

"What happened?" I was shocked. A sense of foreboding arose.

"Our village is gone, it's a reservoir!"

"Ahh

The parents were also amazed, and Uncle Zhu was talking to them about it.

"The entire Dongmen Village has moved out?" My father did not believe what he heard.

"Where did you move? Where did Grandpa Hao's family move? "I'm in a hurry.

"Don't interject, children, listen to Uncle Zhu." Mother said.

"It's the whole village that has moved! Don't you move? Our village was completely flooded. ”

"Wouldn't that be the whole Dongmen Tianfu flooded?" Mother asked.

Uncle Zhu nodded.

"Then the area of water will be large." Father said.

"I heard it's the largest reservoir in the county."

"Then let's take a look." Father proposed.

We came to the foot of the hill on our right, put things on the side of the road, and followed Uncle Zhu up the mountain. Both father and son were barefoot. The trail between the two mountains has been buried.

The mountain is high and the road is steep. We often have to push through the bushes to climb up. I was extremely anxious, but because my mother had been Zhu Jinshan's teacher, she said that children should not talk much, and Zhu Jinshan wanted to say something but swallowed it. I knew I couldn't ask anything, so I climbed up with my face shutting down in trepidation.

Finally climbed to the top of the mountain. As soon as we reached the top of the mountain, we were stunned by what we saw.

Water. There is water everywhere. It's water everywhere! It's so vast and misty, it's really an ocean. There is not even a shadow in Dongmen Village. The hill behind the village was also half flooded.

Tiger Slope is still so majestic. The two uneven stone walls split by the Optimus Pillar were still silently facing each other, like two lovers staring at each other.

"Then my brother and I will be of the same heart and never leave us. Brother, would you like to? ”

"Of course my brother does. The two of us will never leave each other. ”

The conversation between Hao Junqi and me rang in my ears.

"That's a big deal. Since when? "My father's questioning brought me back to reality.

"We were notified in October last year, and the whole village moved out by the end of the month." Uncle Zhu said.

"So fast?" Father and mother spoke in unison.

"It's an order. The leaders of the commune came every day to squat and solve any problems. Make up the field and make up the money, what else do you have to say? Almost all of the people we moved out of had new houses. ”

"Where have you all moved?" Father asked. That's what I want to ask the most.

"Everywhere you go. Some went to Luwan, some went to Yongtai, and some went to Shangsong. Anyway, it's a few villages in the brigade. We were decided by lottery. ”

"So which village have you moved to?"

"Teacher, we are in Yongtai. I live near Yongtai Primary School. Zhu Jinshan hurriedly said.

"I said that how many houses were built on the vegetable garden near Yongtai Primary School, and you all live there?" Father said.

"Yes. The six families who moved from the village were all resettled there. Uncle Zhu said.

"Have all six of them made houses?"

"It's all done. And they are all tiled houses with earthen walls, and they are many times more comfortable to live in than thatched huts. ”

"Does Hao Youde live with you?" Father asked.

"Yes, Grandpa Hao should be with you, right?" I'm in a hurry.

"No," Zhu Jinshan tugged at my hand.

"Hao Youde? It's hard to say anything about their family. Uncle Zhu's tone was heavy.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's go down the mountain, say as we go down. Lao Zheng, you will live in my house today, and I will call Lao Wu and Zhang Beizi over to drink with you. ”

We went down the hill.

"Lao Zheng, in the year and a half you have been gone, the Hao family has had accidents one after another. First of all, Grandpa Hao accidentally fell and couldn't get up on the ground, waiting for Hao Youde to help him, who knew that he would lose his breath. ”

"So fast. What's the bump? Mother said.

"It is estimated to be a cerebral hemorrhage." Father said.

"I don't know what the hell I saw. The people in the village said that they had hit the evil spirit. Less than half a month after burying Grandpa Hao, probably at the end of September, Hao Youde's wife had an accident again. ”

"What's wrong?" Mother asked.

"Giving birth to a child is life and death."

"Born a child, life and death?" My father asked in surprise, his voice changing a little. The expression on his face was extremely complicated.

"yes. You can't give birth to any of them. That shout resounded throughout the village, and everyone who heard it panicked, and it was the middle of the night, so it was not miserable. ”

"Didn't you get to the hospital?"

"Which hospital to send to? How do I get to the hospital? Mother asked rhetorically.

"The midwife always screamed, didn't she? Isn't there a midwife? Father raised his voice.

"Will you call a midwife? The midwife used scissors to cut it open, but the baby still couldn't get out. What do you say about the umbilical cord around the neck, the child suffocated to death, and the adult bled to death. I heard that there was blood on a bed, on the floor, and in a room. ”

"Ahh

We went down to the path. All of a sudden, the air became very dull. I was anxious to know where Hao Junqi's family had moved, but I didn't dare to say anything. I think my father's expression is very serious.

The sun hasn't set yet.

Because of our arrival, Uncle Zhu decided to call it a day early. Aunt Zhu and Zhu Jinshan's two sisters have already put down all the rice stalks in their fields.

"Why don't you finish the rice and go back? It's still early. Father said. I noticed that my father's hands were crossed over his chest and then on his back.

"It's fine. Lao Zheng is here, it's rare. Our brothers have to drink well and talk. ”

"Is it okay to spread the rice stalks in the paddy field?" Mother asked.

"It's fine. I'll fight tomorrow. ”

"Is there anything you want Lao Zheng to do? Or call Lao Zheng Tui Guzi. ”

"Yes, yes, let me push the grain." Father shook his senses.

"No, I don't. Why do you still need to push the grain? Tell you, my son will push it. He Hu was thrown in the field, and no one wanted this thing. ”

"How many bags of millet can Jin Shan push?" Mother looked at Zhu Jinshan.

"I can push four bags," Zhu Jinshan said proudly.