Wow -

Wow -

Oars, paddling in the satin-like water, one paddle lighter than the other, one paddle softer than the other.

A first quarter moon passed over the top of the mountain and was cast into the river. The sand, stones, and grass at the bottom of the river were sparkling and glowing. The surface of the river is like a mirror, reflecting the moonlight on the stone cliff, the people, lamps and shadows, trees, and stone steps on the stone cliff flow under the blue sky and white clouds, and occasionally a dog pokes its head out of the cliff with its legs crossed to look at it, and then turns around and disappears into the dark night.

The boatman still wears the hat of the day, and when the boat reaches the center of the river, he lowers the oars and lets the boat flow downstream. He sat down cross-legged at the bow of the boat, took out half a bag of dry tobacco from his bosom and lit it, smoking it slowly, spitting it slowly.

A curtain hangs from the arch of the canopy. The curtain was made of linen, with two holes in it, and the light from the canopy leaked out and sprinkled behind the boatman.

In the canopy hung a tall tung oil lamp, the glass cover of which was polished clean and transparent, but the wick was twisted with cotton rope and crackled from time to time.

Under the lamp sat two women, an old man and a young woman: the old man had shriveled skin on his face, crow's feet hanging from the corners of his eyes, gray hair, an apron tied around his waist, a slightly thin figure, and a whisk in his hand, called Shen Foyin, known as Shen Ma, and his public occupation was the director of the Golden Town Orphanage. He has few bright eyes and bright teeth, delicate facial features, a well-proportioned figure, a little dark complexion, wearing a navy blue long dress, and holding a sleeping little boy in his arms. Her name is Li Yan, a young painter who combines the Italian Renaissance painting style and the Chinese ink landscape painting style, and is now an art substitute teacher at the Golden Primary School in Golden Town. If you are careful, you can find that the appearance of this old and young is somewhat similar, because they are mother and daughter.

Since the left flame disappeared three years ago. Li Yan could only meet her mother secretly at night and on the boat. This way of meeting was proposed by the mother. Mother said. This is for the safety of their mother and child. Once, Li Yan's father was bizarrely shot dead by a black young man in Italy. She went to the young man for revenge, but her mother insisted on stopping her, and her mother had said similar things to her at the time. She married Zuo Yan, and two years after the birth of the child, Zuo Yan suddenly disappeared, and she had to trek through mountains and rivers to find it, and her mother said similar things to her in order to stop her.

Li Yan is not a naturally timid person. But as soon as she heard such words, she inevitably felt frightened, not for herself, but for her young son Yanyan. Out of deep love for her son and responsibility for her son's safety, she has always followed her mother's words to the letter, and insisted on meeting her mother in this way.

The unexpected departure of her father and the mysterious disappearance of her husband made Li Yan feel like a piece of glass, although she had seen everything in the world. It looks strong on the surface, but it shatters with a little pressure. In order to give her children an absolutely safe environment for them to grow up, she is careful not to allow herself to make any mistakes. But. The longing for her husband eroded her soul all the time, and the long wait gradually flooded into inexplicable fear. She was afraid to find out about her husband from her mother, and she longed for news of her husband. Sometimes. She even felt like a rope was tightening her neck and spinning, making her dizzy. Suffocation, life is worse than death. She desperately needed to find an outlet where she could release this emotion. But this exit is pitiful, and can only be found by her mother, Shen Foyin. Because only Shen Foyin knew Zuo Yan's whereabouts. Although Li Yan knew that her mother was a tight-lipped person and would not tell her anything about Zuo Yan, she couldn't help but try to get a few words from her mother's mouth, even if it was just a hint that Zuo Yan was still alive.

Yesterday, she called her mother and asked Zuo Yan if she had any news.

The mother sighed and said very sadly: "Don't ask, child, I have said it countless times, and today I still want to say that for you, Zuo Yan no longer exists." You're a highly educated person, just forget about him. The words are full of love, mercy and persuasion.

In the past, when Li Yan asked about Zuo Yan's news, her mother usually said a lot of things as a matter of course: I didn't approve of your marriage to Zuo Yan at the beginning, and I had countless quarrels with your father about it. Zuo Yan is a restless person. You chose her yourself. Now I don't know if Zuo Yan is alive or dead, the biggest possibility is that he is dead. My opinion is that you can't always live in the past. You should be strong and brave enough to harvest new feelings and start a new life. The math teacher at your school, surnamed Zhang, is not bad, and people are very interesting to you......

She knew that her mother said this to make her understand that combining with Zuo Yan was the wrong choice, so that she could recover her senses and correct her mistakes. But, to be honest, she can't pass the hurdle of Zuo Yan, from abroad to China, from the university to her studio, from her painting creation to her current work, there are Zuo Yan's shadows everywhere, and Zuo Yan is also the biological father of his son, now he can't see anyone in life, he can't see the corpse in death, and it's already a great sin for him to fail to find him, how can he still abandon him and marry?

Li Yan felt panicked in her heart, and wanted to find a place to breathe, so she called her mother, and only then did she have an appointment with her mother on the boat tonight.

I said a long time ago that Zuo Yan no longer exists, you don't keep going back and forth on this issue. Shen Foyin said to his daughter's hatred.

Mom, but I feel like he's still alive.

Have you ever met him?

No.

You don't have me, how can you say that he doesn't live?

That doesn't mean he doesn't exist anymore. Li Yan thought about it and said, Mom, let's call the police.

Shen Foyin's image was touched by electricity, and his eyeballs suddenly doubled, and said, Call the police? He was assassinated by someone else-Shen Foyin's eyes suddenly became smaller again, and his tone changed-I mean, if ah, he was assassinated by others, just like your father, remember, didn't you expose yourself and Yanyan as soon as you called the police? You are an adult, I won't talk about it, but Yanyan is still a child.

But Mom, he is Yanyan's father after all, I can't ignore it. If you know anything about him, tell me.

……

Shen Foyin was angry about her daughter's brain, and she didn't get angry. Li Yan complained that her mother was unreasonable and begged bitterly. In order to convince each other, the two of them were quite intense, but the boatman outside the curtain seemed to be deaf, swallowing smoke and spitting smoke, leisurely, and reveling in the dreamy moonlight water town.

When the boat reached the bottom of the stone bridge, a large fish jumped out of the water with a bang, as if it could be caught.

After crossing the stone bridge, a young girl carried a wooden barrel down the steep and high stone steps, squatted on the stone slab by the river, and washed her clothes with a mallet.

After a while, a young woman with a flat shoulder on her shoulders sucked two buckets of water from the river, and walked to the top of the stone steps with her willow waist and buttocks twisting and twisting.

Shen Foyin couldn't resist her daughter after all, and said something that made her regret.

"I suspect something has happened to him, and his phone has been unreachable this week."

Li Yan suddenly heard the sound outside the strings, "In other words, have you always been able to get through before?" ”

Shen Foyin pinched his leg. Damn it!

Li Yan never let go of this opportunity, and asked one sentence at a time:

"Which phone is it?"

"159, or 130?"

"Is it the old phone he used to use?"

"It's not ......" Shen Foyin said: "Ah, don't ask, let's go home." I'll send you and Yanyan back first. ”

"Mom, what's his number now? Tell me, I'll just say a few words to him. ”

Shen Foyin stood up and stretched out his hand to grab the curtain on the canopy, wanting to call the boatman to dock the boat. Li Yan hugged her son tightly with one hand, and pulled Shen Foyin back with the other, "Mom, just tell me, let me have hope." You believe me, for Yanyan's sake, I won't go to him. The voice was so sad that it almost cried.

Shen Foyin's tears couldn't help but fall down, she understood the feeling of a woman who loved a man deeply and couldn't predict the life and death of a man, she had also had this feeling in the past. She decided to sit down and explain some things to her daughter, thinking that it might be better for her daughter to say it, at least it would help her stabilize her emotions, but she was afraid that letting her daughter know completely would ruin the life of her daughter and her little grandson, so she covered up the names of some real people and the real place where the incident occurred, so that the whole thing sounded a little vague and even incomprehensible, but for Li Yan, who was completely kept in the dark, it was already the greatest disclosure, which made her feel very satisfied. She listened almost with tears in her eyes. (To be continued......)