Golden Town is located in the hinterland of Wuling Mountain, where the traffic is not developed, the entry and exit of the town is basically by walking, the communication is basically by roaring, and the Golden River that crosses from the middle of the town has become the only choice for the people in the town to travel, and the boat can go south to Mr. Shen Congwen's Xiangxi.

In most places, the river does not flow very fast, and rafts are placed on it, and it does not shake or shake. When the raft reaches a narrow section of the river, standing at the head of the raft, you can reach out to the deep green trees and aquatic plants on the shore, and the craggy strange rocks hidden by Yunxiu.

Sometimes, it is clear that there is no way to go through the mountains and rivers, but when the boat slides to the cliff that is about to capsize, then I see a cramped waterway stretching forward slowly by the long reed flat bamboo. So, he struck the cliff bank, turned the bow of the boat, and flicked the pole forward again, startling the waterfowl to circle overhead.

Sometimes you can see three or two stilted buildings on the bank, and the Tujia daughters with red temples bend down to get water by the river with a gourd scoop, carry the flat shoulder on the delicate shoulder, and walk on the wet bluestone steps. The pretty figure, the beating skirt, reflected in the clear water, made the whole valley ripple with heart.

If it is a sunny day, a round of red sun hangs on the waist of the peak, standing on the raft, the breeze blows, the scenery of the two mountains is delicate, and occasionally you can see colorful pheasants, dragging their long tails from the eyes to suddenly disappear, and maybe you can also see naughty monkeys hanging upside down on the treetops at the edge of the town, with small hands on their foreheads to look at the people on the raft.

Golden Town is located at the eastern end of Chongqing, southwest of Hubei, from some big cities in the east to Chongqing, Chengdu, Lhasa, will pass through this land, but the passengers in the car can not see it at all, because it is deep in the valley of mountains. But there are also some outsiders who come here to play, except for some pure travelers, most of them are antique dealers. INTERVIEWER At some point, most of the shops along the hill have been turned into antique shops, attracting antique dealers from all over the world. Driven by the antique economy, the old shaved head picks have become bright hair salons, the blacksmith shop has been transformed into an antique ornament workshop, the grain store has begun to sell ginseng and wild tea, the wood-stove noodle shop has been replaced by a gas stove, and large and small inns have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. From the old man to the bare-cheeked little fart, pidgin mixed with local dialect can come out of the mouth at any time: when a child encounters a foreigner, he shouts "Uncle and aunt with a big nose, good card oil (houareyou)". Young girls and young men would say, "Sir (sir)" or "Miss (miss), good oil". The old people are all brainless, and they often have to laugh embarrassedly and shout "foreign devils, so woo." "Chinese people sound funny, but foreigners think they are hospitable.

Three years ago, Li Yan and her husband Zuo Yan brought their son here to visit their mother, Shen Foyin. Ten years ago, Shen Foyin built the first orphanage since Golden Town on the edge of the town on the north bank of the Golden River, and has been working until now. The orphanage has adopted more than 50 orphans who cannot afford to hire caregivers due to lack of funds. At her mother's suggestion, Li Yan quit her high-paying job at an animation company in the provincial capital and went to an orphanage to help her mother. 2 months later, her son Zuo Yan turned 2 years old, and she didn't want to spend all her time on her son, so she wanted to send him to kindergarten. But there are only two kindergartens in the town: one on the north bank of the Golden River and one on the south bank. The North Shore facility is so simple that children can only take naps on the floor. The conditions on the south bank are better, and the kindergarten teachers are younger. She sent her child to a kindergarten on the South Bank. Since there was no bridge over the river and the children were not safe to go to school, she went to the town government with the help of her mother to apply for a volunteer teacher qualification and worked as an art substitute teacher in the primary school next to the South Bank Kindergarten. The primary school is located on the side of a mountain, backed by the Golden River, and a huge cliff with a sharp wall hangs over the head of the school building. The kindergarten is located next to the elementary school on the edge of the orange grove. In order to facilitate Li Yan's teaching work and facilitate her to pick up and drop off her children, the principal arranged a dormitory of more than ten square meters for her in the school. The dormitory was poorly furnished, with only a bed, a wardrobe, a set of wooden tables and chairs by the window, and of course a set of stoves, because the teacher's cafeteria was closed for the evening meal, and I had to make it myself. Li Yan and her son live at the school from Monday to Friday. Her husband, Zuo Yan, lives in an antique shop on the north bank of the Golden River.

Zuo Yan's antique shop is at the east end of Stone Street, called "Flame Treasure Ancient Shop", only more than 60 square meters, divided into two sections: the first half of the section occupies more than 50 square meters, with bright glass containers, most of which are placed with bronze, porcelain, jade, which are sold to antique dealers who come here to shop for goods; Others are slices of biological reefs collected from the local mountains and sold to biologists who come here to investigate geology; In addition, there is a small number of fashionable toys, including pearls, gold and silver jewelry, and Tujia Xilankapu brocade imported from Zhuji, Zhejiang, the first two of which are sold to locals, and the latter to outsiders. The back half of the antique shop is only 10 square meters, which is the bedroom and bathroom of Zuo Yan.

The antique industry is often not open for half a year, and it is open for half a year, so although the store is open every day, there are not many customers who come to the door, and no one is invited to stand at the counter, and only Zuo Yan is one person to deal with it.

Zuo Yan has three hobbies, one is to drink tea, and put a set of antique tea sets behind the counter; the second is to love reading, holding tea and reading as the enjoyment of the gods; The third is to go to the provincial antique market and the countryside to shop for goods, often walking for ten days and a half months.

If I change to other parents, I definitely don't like my son-in-law going out for a long time, but Li Yan's mother is very supportive, because she is also an antique fan. She also likes to go to the store to drink tea and chat with her son-in-law, and often sits for hours at a time. Before Li Yan was born, her parents were both working in the very international city of Milan, Italy. His father taught at the University of Milan and was a respected archaeologist, while his mother taught a Chinese workshop. After Li Yan became sensible, her father took her from Milan to travel all over Europe. It was also in Milan, the capital of design, that Li Yan entered the palace of art and became an animation painter. In college, Li Yan tried to bring Chinese ink painting into animation creation, so that her paintings have both European realism and strong oriental charm, realistic depictions, and ethereal and elegant, which are sought after by many teachers and students. Her works are always highlighted by editors in the school year album. After graduating from university, with the support of her parents, she did not embark on the old path of job hunting or working in the government's art department, but opened her own animation studio, while absorbing students and supporting herself, while ambitiously delving into Chinese ink painting, hoping to find a new path between realism, expressionism and Chinese ink style, and open up a new school of animation. At one point, her attempts were successful, and she also held a solo exhibition at the Milan Art Museum.

However, just when Li Yan's art exhibition was in full swing, her father died in an accident. Her mother, out of the desire to protect her, did not let her go to the scene of the accident to see her father for the last time, but only told her that her father had been accidentally shot and killed by a young black man. Li Yan saw the report of the shooting in the newspaper: the young man's name was Alessandro, an African American black man, and when the police arrested him, he said that he was shooting birds on the side of the road with a gun made in the Italian Beretta Arsenal. Li Yan thought that her father could not have appeared in the woods behind the road, and she knew that her father usually just liked to visit the art market, and had no habit of going out at all, and that the black man was obviously lying. The young man had hired one of Milan's most prominent lawyers to fight for him, and he had been released on bail at home.

Li Yan was full of anger and wanted to go to Alessandro. She knew that her father had always had a gun in his cupboard. - Adults in Italy are allowed to possess firearms after obtaining a gun license.

It was a delicate black pistol with a magazine that could be loaded with five rounds at a time.

She hid the pistol in her chic handbag, looked up Alessandro's home address in the residents' phone book provided by the telecommunications bureau, drove to the street where it was located, but never found Alessandro's home, and asked the residents on the street, who said that there was no one named Alessandro here.

Could it be that the address on this is wrong?

She was going to go to the relevant departments of the Milan Telecommunications Bureau to find out. But when she re-entered her car, she found her mother sitting in the back seat. Her mother harshly criticized her and told her that the matter was handled by the police, and that if she went to the Arijandro, it would only cause trouble for the police.

Li Yan said, Mom, Alessandro is lying, can't you see it?

Her mother stared at her in the rearview mirror for a long time before speaking. "I warn you not to go to Alessandro again!"

Li Yan could feel that her mother was trying her best to restrain the pain in her heart.

"Why?" Li Yan is not a person who loves to cry, she hasn't been since she was a child, but at this moment she finally couldn't help crying.

"Because I don't want to lose you again." Her mother said word for word.

Li Yan wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her fingers and said, "What happened?" Mom, are you hiding something from me? ”

"Don't ask again, kid."

"I want to know why," Li Yan emphasized, "that he is my father." ”

"It's safer not to know than to know."

……

Later, an unnamed person helped Arisandro pay a large amount of money to Li Yan's mother and daughter, and Alessandro himself disappeared without a trace, and the authorities did not pursue it further, and the case was closed.

Perhaps, a Chinese person will not get real justice in this country. Driven by this reason, of course, and because my mother no longer wanted to live in an environment where my father was always there, I decided to move back to China. And Li Yan also wanted to return to the motherland to study ancient Chinese ink painting techniques, so the mother and daughter hit it off and returned to China.

On the journey back to China, there was a young man who was destined to occupy a place in Li Yan's life, and that was Zuo Yan. He was a student of his father and claimed to be Li Yan's senior brother. But in Li Yan's opinion, he and his father are more like year-old friends, and the two talk about everything together. Among Li Yan's many suitors, her father liked Zuo Yan the most, and always created space for the two to meet alone. However, Li Yan's mother was very opposed, and once warned Li Yan's father not to ruin the happiness of the child in his own hands, and even threatened to divorce his father. Under such circumstances, the father stopped mentioning it. However, Li Yan found that he had fallen in love with this somewhat young boy at this time, he was not as chic and romantic as an Italian man, polite, he blushed when he saw girls, and he didn't know how to talk to girls. But perhaps because Zuo Yan has been studying ancient Chinese painting for a long time, he can always give moderate praise to Li Yan's paintings, and very precise suggestions to broaden Li Yan's creative ideas. He doesn't say much, but he is full of infinite charm, so that Li Yan always wants to show him his new work first. If she can get his praise, Li Yan will be happy like a child. It was in this process that Li Yan suddenly found herself giving her life to art, and art was hidden in Zuo Yan's heart. So, she pondered Zuo Yan's state of mind repeatedly, and felt more and more that he was a mysterious boy. The stronger this feeling became, the more she wanted to go to the bottom of Zuo Yan's heart to find out. It wasn't until one day that she unexpectedly found that this state was the state of falling in love with someone, and she realized that she had unconsciously fallen in love with this brother who was rich in heart and few words.

Less than a year after returning to China, the two went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a certificate, and then they had Yanyan.

After the family of three came to Golden Town, Zuo Yan often took the mother and son to the Golden River to take a boat.

The most enjoyable thing about taking the boat of the Golden River Boat is that you can drink the purest camellia. When the boat reaches the middle stream, the boatman will let the boat go down the river, take out the red clay stove from the canopy, support it in the bow of the boat, take the middle water, raise the charcoal fire to boil the water and throw tea, use the bamboo teapot and teacup to brew high and low, and put a cup of tea in the hands of tourists. This kind of tea, after taking a sip, you will feel that your body is open, refreshed, and the wind is blowing on both sides, and you will feel a faint fairy aura rising from the soles of your feet. Looking at the river again, the figures and the clouds flew together, and suddenly felt that it was a boat in the heavenly river and a fairy world. It's dreamlike, wonderful, and occasionally you can hear the graceful singing of the tea picking girl:

"Yo-sing a tea-picking song-yo-"

When he looked around, he saw no human figure, only the mountain birds flew in shock, and the wild birds crossed the water, as if the song had come from the clouds. People can't help but fall in love with this valley, the towns in the valley, and the simple mountain people. Li Yan likes this kind of carefree day very much, but Zuo Yan has to go on a business trip every once in a while, going out of the mountains to shop for goods, although he will come back every few days, and he will bring back some things that are not available in the town for the children and Li Yan, but every time her husband goes out, Li Yan has an inexplicable nervousness in her heart, and now that she thinks about it, it is the evil omen that a woman's sixth sense knows in advance.

Sure enough, in the summer of three years ago, Zuo Yan never came back after he went out, and he didn't even have a phone call, so he didn't know what happened. Li Yan called, the phone was connected, and a strange man answered the phone, claiming to be a police officer. Li Yan was about to ask Zuo Yan what happened? The other end hung up. The call is still through, but no one answers, or an automatic voice prompt that the other party is on the phone, and after a few days, the phone is shut down, and no clues are lost.

Li Yan went to ask her mother.

The mother said she didn't know.

Li Yan packed up her salute and went to the provincial capital to find it.

But her mother said that Zuo Yan was injured and could come back after a period of recuperation.

Li Yan waited, and waited for a year, but there was still no news of Zuo Yan, and she pestered her mother to ask for Zuo Yan's address.

But her mother told her to wait. A year has passed, and Zuo Yan still doesn't see anyone alive or dead. Li Yan must ask her mother to tell her Zuo Yan's address.

Mother said, for Yan'er's sake, you can't go to Zuo Yan.

Li Yan saw her mother's expression, which was no different from when her father was "accidentally shot", and she was very nervous, she was afraid that her mother would tell her that Zuo Yan had also suffered an "accident." ”

She knew that her mother must be hiding the truth, but she looked at her mother's old face, gray hair, and thought of the young Yanyan, so she bit this huge question between her teeth and swallowed it into her stomach.

Li Yan lived like this for three years.

The blood-red sunset slid down from the top of the mountain to the back of the mountain, and the night fell from the cliff into the valley, and countless stars seemed to be plucked off the mountain with a single hand. Under the starlight, the school building is faint, fireflies are flying, and there are croaking frogs under the corner, which seems so quiet and peaceful.

To the east of the playground, the mother and son live in a school building, with brick and stone classrooms on the first floor and a tiled ceiling on the second floor. Mother and son live on the second floor, with a long corridor upstairs.

Li Yan took the birthday cake to the small wooden table in the corridor, opened the box, and lit the candles one by one with matches. Yanyan sat on the pony, her two little arms on her knees, her fleshy palms holding her immature chin, and she looked at the cream cake with a smile, as if she was a little bee waiting to collect honey. Xiao Yanyan's expression is quiet and comfortable, and she is happy, which is simply a miniature version of Zuo Yan.

Li Yan sat on another pony next to her son, inserted a five-character figure in the center of the cake, and said, "Baby, let's sing a birthday song together." ”

After singing, Li Yan said: "Our little Yanyan is a year older, I wish our baby a happy birthday." Leaned over and kissed Xiao Yanyan's red face very loudly. Blow out the candles! ”

"I haven't made a wish yet!" Xiao Yanyan said sensibly.

"Oh, Mommy forgot. What do you wish for? ”

Yan Yan put her two little hands together and raised them to her chest, raised her face like a flower, and looked at the bright starry sky.

Seeing her son's innocent appearance, Li Yan really wanted to cry, but she smiled cutely and said, "Baby, make a wish to close your eyes to be effective." ”

"Hmm." Yan Yan closed his eyes very obediently, pursed his lips, and thought silently in his heart, and after a few seconds, he opened his eyes and asked, "Mom, do you know what I wished?" ”

"Mom, let's guess and see if I can guess."

Li Yan said several wishes, but Xiao Yanyan said that she was not right.

"Looks like Mom didn't guess right." Li Yan pretended to be shy and said.

"Mom, I'll tell you."

"Hmm. All right. ”

"My wish is for Dad to come back soon."

Li Yan's heart hurt like a pinprick, she quickly raised her hand and wiped it from the corner of her eye, and hugged her son deeply into her arms. The candles were still burning, casting the shadows of the mother and son on the long corridor, magnified in the empty playground, looking so lonely.

"My enemy—will you come back?"

Li Yan asked at the ethereal Milky Way.