That night, the moon was high and a strong wind was blowing from the southeast.

Wu Zhenren stood on top of the old well, his hair and robe fluttered like a red flag in the night wind, he sighed softly, and then suddenly looked at where I was, he frowned, his eyes showed suspicion, I don't know if he found me, I didn't dare to come out, and quietly patted the scalper's neck and asked it to take me away quickly.

When I woke up the next day, I faintly heard the crying of a woman, a voice I had known since I was a child, a mother.

My mother saw me wake up and kissed me on the forehead, I only felt so tired, my body was soaked with sweat, and when I turned my head, I saw myself in the closet mirror, my face was pale, I looked very unenergetic, and my eyes were a little dark.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" My mother held me in her arms, crying with a sense of helplessness.

I whispered, "Mom, three more people died in the old well." ”

When my mother heard what I said, she whispered, "You had a fever last night, and I didn't leave all night after seeing you, where did you see that!" Mother couldn't stop crying as she spoke. Why the hell is my daughter who has been killed by that well, why should I come to harm my son! ”

I wiped the tears on my mother's face and said, "Mom, don't cry, I will tell the scalper to come back at night." ”

"Okay, the child is fine, you can rest for a while, I'll take him to the hospital to check his body." Thinking I was talking nonsense, my father took me from my mother's arms and rubbed it on my mother's head, his eyes were bloodshot, and it was clear that my father hadn't slept all night.

After my father finished speaking, he carried me out of the hall, and when I walked to the gate, my grandfather happened to come to meet me, and my grandfather's face was also ugly, he seemed to have aged a lot overnight, and his original black hair had become yellow, and there were a few faint white hairs between his temples.

Grandpa said, "I'll bring the child, take this packet of medicine and fry it over low heat for three hours, and drink it with your daughter-in-law." ”

Grandpa couldn't help but carry me from my father's hand, my father obediently took the packet of medicine that my grandfather handed him, I lay on my grandfather's shoulder and looked listlessly at my father's helpless and fearful gaze, my father opened his mouth as if to say something, his hand reached into the air and then retracted.

When my grandfather was walking away with me, I saw my father anxiously chasing after me from behind, and he stopped him.

"Dad, that's all you have for this grandson." Father's gaze was a little evasive, and he could see that he had mustered up the courage to say this.

Grandpa snorted and didn't say anything, and I just put my chin on his shoulder, not wanting to move, not wanting to speak, I waved at my father, who at first looked like he was about to cry, and when he saw me waving to him, he waved at me and squeezed me a smile that was more ugly than a grimace.

Grandpa took me to the empty wheat field mountain, put me in the middle of the wheat field, I felt the warm sunlight shining on my face, and I suddenly remembered a person.

"Grandpa, I miss grandma."

Grandpa froze in place, as if he didn't expect me to suddenly mention grandma, his eyes were a little gloomy, as if he remembered something sad.

As I said earlier, my grandfather was a local doctor, and in his early years, he had traveled north and south to learn a lot of home remedies to cure diseases and save people, in fact, the purpose of his medical studies was to save a person, and that person was my grandmother, who had a disease that even the current hospital could not cure.

At that time, it was 1968, during the Cultural Revolution, my grandmother was pregnant with my unborn father in her belly, my grandfather was tired all day long, neglecting to take care of my grandmother, and there was a famine in the county for a while, so my grandmother was always in a state of half-fullness.

At that time, it was not like now that every household has a water heater, it is very inconvenient to take a bath, it is to play a tank of water during the day and expose it to the sun, and at night the moon just comes out and take a bath while the water is warm, but the pregnant woman can't afford to toss, grandma caught a cold one night, leaving the root of the disease.

That is, from that time, grandma from time to time a little chest tightness and breathlessness, in the winter season, grandma is about to give birth, although our Wangjia Village has been dry for a hundred years and there is no snow all year round, but that year there was a surprisingly severe cold, grandma finally fell ill.

Grandma was lying on the hospital bed, when she woke up, she heard the village midwife and grandpa arguing outside the door, the midwife said that grandma's body is weak, can not afford to give birth to the toss, most of the big ones die, most of the small ones will die, most of the big ones will die, and more importantly, grandma may not be able to give birth in the future.

Grandpa didn't agree to live or die, he had to save both, grandma heard their conversation and called them into the house, grandma said that her life was small, and the incense of the old Wang family could not be broken.

In the end, grandpa couldn't resist grandma, he said to the midwife with red eyes to keep small, so my father was able to survive, but my grandma did not die, after she gave birth to my father, her body was extremely weak, and she gasped when she said a word, grandpa borrowed a lot of money and failed to cure grandma's illness, her body was not as good as day by day, until late one night, she coughed up two mouthfuls of blood.

The grandfather under the kerosene lamp looked at the grandmother who was coughing with blood all over her face, he was frightened, he carried his grandmother all the way to the midwife's house, the man who opened the pharmacy in the village, he said that the grandmother had tuberculosis, it could not be cured, and it would be contagious, so let the grandfather carry it back to prepare for the future.

Grandpa was anxious when he heard this, and he quarreled with Dr. Wang without saying a word, at that time Grandpa was not yet thirty years old, this Dr. Wang was in his fifties, Dr. Wang was not used to his grandfather's style in the village, and now he put up a score as an elder in front of his grandfather, scolding my grandfather for being a single breed who has no one to raise.

Speaking of this matter, I have to mention my grandfather, grandfather and Dr. Wang are fellow villagers, they used to be brothers when they were young, and then the two went to the sea to do business, I don't know why there was a conflict, became a sworn enemy, and later the great famine, Dr. Wang, who was surplus in rations, watched my grandfather and grandmother both starve to death and did not give them a bite of relief food.

After the death of grandpa and grandma, grandpa became an orphan, he grew up eating hundreds of meals, but he never ate a mouthful of food from Dr. Wang's family, and then during the Cultural Revolution, Dr. Wang's son became one of the main soldiers of the Red Guards.

Therefore, this Dr. Wang has always held a grudge, and there was a later incident, turning away the grandfather who took his grandmother to see a doctor, and the grandfather was a strong person, so he naturally would not intercede with Dr. Wang, but he would not let his grandmother's illness go, so he took his grandmother to the health center in the county town.

But the people at the county health center said that grandma was not tuberculosis at all, but ordinary tracheitis, and grandpa was finally a little relieved, but he remembered that grandma coughed and her face was full of blood that night, and he was not at ease, so he took grandma to another town health center to see it again, and the doctor also said that it was ordinary tracheitis, and he hastily prescribed some medicine and asked grandpa to take grandma home.

A month later, my grandmother's condition worsened, and when we went to the hospital in our own town for examination, the old Chinese medicine doctor of the hospital directly gave my grandfather a critical illness notice, and he asked why my grandfather didn't bring my grandmother over earlier, if it was a month earlier, maybe my grandmother would have lived for ten more years.

Tuberculosis was equivalent to a terminal illness in that era, and having tuberculosis was equivalent to tying the hook and soul chain of the king of Hades on the legs, the old Chinese medicine doctor was a famous doctor in ten miles and eight villages, and the strong grandfather had never been sick, so naturally he had never heard of it, and he only heard about it after his grandmother was sick, and the old Chinese medicine doctor said that a month ago, grandma probably didn't have tuberculosis.

Grandpa was naturally dumbfounded when he heard this, he was angry and remorseful, he had always been as strong as iron, he cried tears, he knelt down and begged the old Chinese medicine doctor to let him help grandma prolong her life.

I don't know what happened after that, but I only know that my grandfather ran away from home the next day, and he told my grandmother that he would definitely come back in two years, and at that time, even the king of Hades would not be able to kill her.

Grandma thought that her grandfather didn't want her to say this, and she lived in torment for two years because she had tuberculosis, so she couldn't breastfeed her young father, and she often took her young father to beg other women in the village who had given birth to a mouthful of milk for her father, and his father was a gluttonous person, always unable to eat, and often cried with hunger. Grandma can't always ask for people without giving benefits, so she learned the craft of weaving a cloak by ingenuity, and in less than half a year she became the first person to weave a cloak in Wangjia Village and even the entire county, and no one can be better looking and sturdy than my grandmother's cloak.

Grandma endured the pain and waited for her grandfather to come back, until two years later, when they agreed, but grandpa did not come as scheduled.

Grandma sat on the small bench at the door that day and kept serving the leeks in her hand, the leeks were served by her from morning to night, completely rotten seedlings, the father who had not eaten all day was so hungry that he cried Grandma ignored him, and the next day Grandma asked someone to inquire which family wanted to raise a boy and give it away for free, and the only request was to give her a decent coffin after her death.

At first, there were many people who wanted a father, but I don't know who told me that my grandmother had tuberculosis, and no one dared to ask for a father anymore.

Grandma finally couldn't afford to get sick in the midst of illness, and the old Chinese medicine doctor in the town who promised grandpa to help grandma prolong her life for two years saw grandma's condition, and he said that grandma would not live for three days.

Grandma knew that the news of her death was very calm, she wanted to strangle her father to death, afraid that he would suffer in the world, but the kind and gentle grandmother couldn't do it, she said to her father: "Except for the family of Doctor Wang at the back of the village, you will kowtow to them from the head of the village to the end of the village tomorrow morning, and they will always give you a bite to eat, and the people of Wangjia Village will not be so desperate." ”

Grandma fell asleep groggily after speaking, and when she woke up again, she saw her grandfather squatting next to her, looking at her tenderly, and grandma asked in disbelief, "Are you back?" ”

After she finished speaking, she couldn't help crying, crying so much, how many sins she has suffered as a woman in the past two years, how many people have disliked her, and she has not said a word, but when she saw her grandfather come back, she cried like a child.

Grandpa nodded, hugged grandma in his arms, and kept repeating two words in his mouth: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid." ”

Then, my grandmother, who had only three days to live, lived for another 30 years, and she didn't die until two years ago.

My impression of my grandmother is like a bodhisattva, always smiling kindly and gently at me, and she sang a lullaby when she put me to sleep, which I can still remember, as beautiful as a wind chime, warmer than a warm breeze.