At seven o'clock the next morning, Yi Xu drove to my house to pick me up. My parents sent me downstairs, and they said, "It's meaningful to go back today."

I held Zhang Yi's ashes in my arms.

Zhang Yi, your life is as bright and short as a meteor. Today, we're taking you home.

The car drove to the Yangtze River, and I walked out with Zhang Yi's ashes in my arms. I was on the embankment, gazing at the other side of the river and my hometown after a long absence.

The flood, in such a brutal way, took away the hometown of 10,000 "integration people". People say that "man moves the tree to die", but no, man moves himself to live, and if he is forcibly moved, he loses his roots, and he will die like a tree. So that flood still took away the girl I had been distressed for many years.

I read the ballad from my hometown:

When you go out, you can see that the sky is full of rape yellow;

Take two steps out to see, sesame dates and cotton stalks;

Ten steps out to see, artemisia fine reeds are long, and a hundred steps is the Yangtze River;

O child,

If there's suffering outside, look back!

My beloved hometown, your children have visited you in Changsha, talked to you, and kowtowed to you, do you remember?

On October 8, 12, on the roof of my house, I folded my hands and looked into the north pole, thinking in my heart: "I have suffering, I have suffering, you want to keep it safe!" ”

Two months later, on December 8, on the roof of the building where Zhang Yi jumped, I knelt in the direction of my hometown and shouted: "Zhang Yi is in trouble, Zhang Yi is in trouble!" I slammed my head on the concrete, "She's your child, bless her from dying, bless her from dying, bless her from dying, bless her from dying......"

Yangtze:

easy to continue,

This is the Yangtze River, and across the street is my and Zhang Yi's hometown, which is called Chengchengyuan, and we sometimes call it Chengcheng. Did you know that it is a very special place, it is the only piece of land in the whole of Hunan that is located north of the Yangtze River. Is the whole of Hunan Province south of the Yangtze River? No, because the integrated wall is in the north of the Yangtze River!

I was born on the other side of the river, and in the summer of '96, my family moved to Changsha and haven't been back since. In the summer of '98, a flood devastated it. I saw the terrible flood and the weeping faces on TV! When I saw it, there was only water, and more villagers experienced that moment, Zhang Yi was standing on this embankment, heartbreaking, desperately watching his parents being swallowed up by the flood and watching our hometown turn into a sea of earth......

I said dad it's not integrated, I only see water! Dad said integrated under the water. I asked my dad if there were any integrations after that? Dad said yes, and there was one to rebuild the home. I said, oh, rebuild your home! But one day my dad came back and said, hey, the integration is gone. I said it's okay to rebuild your home! That day, I learned that the State Council had issued a directive to "level the flood and relocate the migrants", and that my villagers would be resettled in the surrounding towns and villages as migrants. Homes rebuilt, but elsewhere.

At that moment, it was like a very beautiful painting, peeling off like dust little by little, scattering into particles that wandered in the air and drifted out of the window with the wind. I watched as the tiny particles took away my paintings, and I couldn't do anything about it!

I told you that before I met Zhang Yi again, I also told people about my hometown, but some things are as precious as life to you, but if the other party is not the right person, it will be reduced to hypocrisy or a gust of wind in your ears. So I began to miss it silently. If life is a tune, that's a prelude to me no longer humming; If life were a book, I would tear up the first few chapters and hide them somewhere else, and never read them again; If life is a house, I lock up a corner and people are not welcome to enter. When those nostalgia settle in the bottom of my heart little by little, and precipitate the weight, that suffering is like a real and complete death - I can't see it! It wasn't until Zhang Yi appeared that she brought me back to life.

Zhang Yi and I are really relatives, and we have two relatives - friends and villagers.

Easy to continue, across the river is my hometown! Although what I can see now is not the bank in my memory, nor the embankment like that, and the trees behind the embankment are not so large, but yes, it is the integrated wall, I know it! Although it took far longer to leave it than to live there, I remember it! The time between remembering and forgetting cannot be converted by the length of time, not (+1)+(1)=0, nor (+1)+(2)=1. It's like no matter how many years, your mother and Zhang Yi will still live clearly in our minds and in our lives - the vicissitudes of life!

Sand beach:

easy to continue,

There used to be a sandy beach here. This is what it looks like on the puzzle!

But it's gone!

There is no more beach! Only in this way is the mud mixed with sand, gray, hard ties, no longer white and soft sand that can jump out of small puddles!

At that time, in spring, autumn and winter, there was a large sandy beach on the side of the Yangtze River, as thin as white as snow, lying quietly on the edge of the Yangtze River. That beach was the carnival of my childhood, it disappeared at the beginning of summer and came back at the end of summer, and stayed with me for a long, long time.

In that carnival, there was my favorite game: standing in a place on the beach, and jumping, and jumping, and then slowly the white sand grew darker, stuck together, and turned gray, and then jumped, and the water seeped out, and finally it became a small puddle. The little puddle gives me a sense of accomplishment like Superman saved the planet! Before one final exam, I ran here and jumped out of 200 puddles in a row, and then miraculously got double 100 in the number of words in the exam. I decided to jump into small puddles every time I took an exam in the future, and I would jump hundreds of them in a few classes to make up for my mother's regret that I was not beautiful enough.

It was a windfall. In order to prove that it was really an accident, the next few exams added up to 100. Then I didn't get a chance to get back, and my father decided to jump out of this small village and go outside to the bigger world, taking his wife like a flower and a daughter who was not as good as a bud.

The first words of my life were written on the beach, less than two years old. At that time, my family was very poor, and my parents took me to live in a makeshift hut made of reed bundles, and my mother taught me to write with small branches in front of the house. From that time to now, when we have stepped on these footprints, almost all the days of my life have flowed in between.

It's never easy to renew and come back.

Zhang Yi, we're really back! You land too!

Levee:

easy to continue,

The Song of Milan – Your Dates. My dates, probably here.

Unable to find previous references, I can only infer from the distances in my memory. yes, probably here.

Maybe you'll have to find the dog before you can find the tree, right? It's a good idea to follow it to find its home.

Guess what I'm going to say to it? I would say, dear dog, although I don't love you, I have missed you for many years! If you can suddenly show up and bite me, I'm worth it! Come out, even if you are old and trembling, I will recognize you!

I'll also rush over and put my arms around its neck and whisper softly in its ear, "Hey, buddy, remember me?" You've chased me, I've thought about you, after so many years, are you okay in your hometown?

Of course, I can't hope that there is still a tree that is still there, still blooming, and still bearing dates.

What I am most grateful for is not the sweetness that I stole into my mouth in that ignorant year, or the pleasure of being chased twice by a dog in broad daylight and successfully stealing! But ten years later, a girl got a lot of energy and pulled her beloved boy into her life!

Easy to continue, scatter some of Zhang Yi's ashes here! I saw that soft and delicate little girl with excellent character and learning, being held by her loving parents, bouncing on the ground, walking towards us!

Rape flowers:

easy to continue,

It used to be a large area of farmland, but now it has become a large area of unfamiliar woods, and it is like when I first arrived in Germany, I saw a completely different world, and I couldn't find a trace of familiarity! But how did the strangeness of Germany have made me so afraid, desperate and outspoken!

The large farmland of that year was the whole appearance of the place, which crop was planted in which season, and which appearance was presented in which season. At that time, the spring and summer were so beautiful and beautiful, the rape flowers bloomed endlessly, the whole world became golden when the sun shined, and everything else seemed to be stained, it was a beautiful painting, and even the air was full of sweet flowers.

The change is huge and deadly! I have watched the sunshine and clouds here, watched the winter go to spring, and watched time unfold the ever-changing world of children. In the future, no matter how many months and months are reincarnated every year, there will be no more large fields of rape flowers! It's really just a dream!

I and Zhang Yi really lost it! We have been missing for more than ten years, and we finally came back, but it is gone! We have lost the very beginning of our lives forever!

Why come back, in order to prove that it was really lost?

Easy to continue, look back, it's really so difficult!

You see, how far does this gust of wind take Zhang Yi? Maybe she's more optimistic and freer than I am now. She was better than me back then. I play with mud and she catches butterflies, I eat rape flowers and she weaves garlands, she is like an angel!

Family:

easy to continue,

Can you think of it? This dilapidated pile of cement was our home back then.

This is the yard of Dad's unit. This is a three-story building. I live on the third floor, and I can still draw the layout of the house, the furnishings and the appearance of the home.

This village is called Linjiang Village, and Linjiang means Linjiang River. The building in this courtyard was once the grandest building in Linjiang Village, but now all that remains is this pitiful pile.

When I was born, my family was poor. When I was younger, I moved with my parents to five or six locations – and I didn't leave the site. Of course, I didn't suffer anything, I ate and drank all day long, slept and played in the mud, can I know what suffering is? By the time I arrived at this home, my brain began to build vivid memories. It was my first real home.

I once moved a stool here facing the Yangtze River, uncharacteristically, I didn't go wild, I didn't run away, I didn't knock on other people's doors for food and drink, I sat stupidly for a day, stubbornly waiting for my mother to come back from Jianli on the other side of the Yangtze River. I planted whole rows of henna in this yard, dug holes, planted seedlings in them, covered them with soil, watered them a little, and almost died in a few days. Zhang Yi got them for a few days and rescued them again. Later, my family moved and completely moved out of the integration. I moved with my parents several times. I myself have gone from this place to that place, from this city to that city, from this country to that country, and in the past ten years there have been at least eight or nine places that I call "home".

But on top of this pile of cement, my truest and most abundant emotions are preserved.

All the children in our yard listened to "Look at people's clothes, they never lie in bed!" "Why does Zhang Yi get a full score in the exam?" "If I had an obedient, beautiful and excellent child like Zhang Yi...... "You also learn from Zhang Yi's ......" to grow up, the strange thing is that we children like her as much as adults.

At that time, there were many, many people who liked her, and there was a lot of love around her!

Zhang Yi, this is also your favorite home, right?

School:

easy to continue,

This is Linjiang Primary School, which is our former school.

My memories are still vivid - where is the classroom, where is the playground, where is the flag-raising platform, where is the cafeteria, where is the tree, which grass has the most wildflowers, I remember them all!

All that beautiful campus is now these low, low, broken red bricks emerging from the earth, timidly hidden in the weeds, showing the appearance of a rough foundation. How is it so small? It seems like you can go from the easternmost to the westernmost and from the southernmost to the northernmost in just a few steps! Was it because it was too young to see a bigger campus, or were the only foundations it had displaced by the brutal flood?

I remember that day my father came to the school to transfer me to a place where there were a lot of cars, high-rise buildings and airplanes. I almost jumped home sideways after school. Yes, it's the crab's ugliness, but it lacks my speed!

At that time, I didn't know what it meant to leave, I thought that I would not change why, I could come back, jump on the beach, jump into the rape field, pick rape flowers, catch butterflies, plant henna in the yard, steal other people's dates, and be chased by dogs. I thought that all that had changed was that I would hold my head high and tell my classmates and friends that there were a lot of cars, a lot of high-rise buildings, and airplanes. I've been a vain scum since I was a kid!

At that time, I was far from knowing what pressure was, what the future was, and what loss was. Until I lost my hometown, lost my clothes, and almost lost you.

Zhang Yi, you also heard the sound of reading, right? Yes, I have a copy of it, scattered and disorganized! Suddenly tidy again! Lang Lang's children's voice is like a waterfall falling vertically, the sound is huge and clear! That's because the bell rang for the end of class! are urging the teacher to shout "Class!" "What! It was good then, learning was playing, and playing was playing.

Growing up, it hurts!

Road:

easy to continue,

Something just flew over my head, forcing me to look up with it. So, I seriously saw the sky here, the sky in my hometown, the blue sky, the cloudless, not what I had in my dream.

My hometown has long been unrecognizable after that flood, and it is not that I have no time, no opportunity, and no ability to come back in the past ten years, but it is just a distance of a car and a boat. I know how much I miss it, how much I love it, and how sad I am to lose it, but I never say I want to come back and see it right away, and I don't tell myself!

I always avoided it, as if I didn't really lose it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. I don't dare to face the ruins of being let down by reality, and I don't have the courage to face the reality that the beginning of life has long since lost the possibility of witnessing!

But look at it, it's still this highway that connects to the sky.

It was the only road that ran through almost the entire embankment.

How grateful I am that it's still there! Because no matter how you go, you can know where you were back then. I stood here, clearly knowing that the Yangtze River and the beach were not far behind me, the woods on both sides were low-lying farmland and the high point was probably the house, my house was in the left rear, the school was in the right front, and the jujube tree and the puppy were next to the right back embankment.

That flood eighteen years ago, many, many years before that flood, and all these eighteen years, do you know how much rain and snow it has experienced? When people move, houses collapse, and weeds grow, it's the only one who stands firm here! Its persistence is so that those who come back occasionally can find their way home; It persists in proving that the land has never really fallen; It sticks because it's the spine of the entire integrated wall!

Isn't this like our life? Who can guarantee that they will be bright and glamorous for the rest of their lives? If destruction cannot be escaped, and if destruction cannot be spared, is it more fortunate that we have kept our spine upright?

History is an eternal existence, we have to face it, forgive it, accept it, love it, and move forward well!

It's so quiet here that only the sound of the wind, Zhang Yi, you also feel it, don't you? The earth is reaching out her hand, caressing these two cowardly, selfish, and stupid daughters who have escaped for eighteen years! What a good mother she is, such a short reunion is also teaching her daughter the truth!

Reed:

easy to continue,

It's a field of reeds, overwhelming! As I walked, I moved the reed pole beside me, and the white snowflakes floated into a white curtain like flowing water in the air one meter above my head, I had never seen such beauty! When I was a child, my parents strictly forbade me to run into the reeds, saying that pigs were afraid of the slaughterhouse, and people were afraid of the reeds. I, a pig who is not afraid of the slaughterhouse, finally stood in the reeds and appreciated the ultimate beauty of the reeds!

I don't know if any authoritative organization has done statistics on how many people in the world are lucky enough to live in their hometowns for the rest of their lives.

In addition to language and grammar, the word "home" is given an additional meaning by reality: home.

You don't live here anymore, your relatives don't live here, you don't have any contact with it for many years, but here are your roots, the origin of your life, the place where your soul is connected, and the "home" you want to return to in your sleep.

My dad used to be in the reed farm, and then he left the reed business and has been in the reed business, and I am actually a child raised by the reed.

Dad, I'm back to integration, I'm back to me after I left for twenty years and missed twenty years of integration! I told you that I always dream of integration, and you say that you dream of your childhood home...... My dad left his hometown as a teenager and came to mine, and he said he would dream of his childhood home too. We only talk about this when we don't even think about it, and I know we're both ashamed to say something, but there are times when we can't hide it.

Does everyone who leaves their hometown at a young age have an unforgettable attachment to their hometown? Does everyone have a piece of land in their heart that is as important as their own life? Dad, do you want to go back to your hometown too?

Mom, I'm integrated! Here thou hast conceived and begotten me, and hast given me a name; Here you teach me to write and send me to read; I started counting rape petals "1,2,3,4" when I was one year old, I wrote my name on the beach at the age of two, and I began to recite Tang poems to the Yangtze River at the age of three, but I failed to become a mathematician, I didn't even write my name beautifully, and I can now recite Tang poems and Song words no more than when I was three years old...... Mom, I'm sorry! Mom, thank you!

I closed my eyes, listened to the wind blowing through the reeds, and smiled.

Zhang Yi, I completely returned you to this land, and you are smiling, right?

We all know now that even if it takes another eighteen years, two or eighteen years until the vicissitudes of life, this land, this sky, will always be there!

Isn't it?

They have always been there - the parents who gave birth to us and raised us, the Yi Xu and Zhang Hengli we love deeply, and the hometown that I just came back to see today...... Time and experience have gone through a hundred turns and thousands of times, and these loves have always lived in the place where our hearts are the most determined!

Artemisia:

"Easy to continue, this is Artemisia!" I picked up a sticker and said, "Pick some and go back and let my mom make them for you!" ”

"This?" He half-convinced and picked one too, "Can this be eaten?" Your mom made it for me? ”

"Of course it's not that cheap! After calling 'Mommy', you can eat what she makes! ”

He pretended to be angry and picked two more: "Forced marriage, this is!" ”

I laughed.

"It's a pity."

"Huh?"

While picking artemisia, he asked me, "Why did you say yesterday that even if it wasn't for Zhang Yi, you still want me to accompany you back?" ”

I walked over, put my hands on his waist, looked into his eyes, and said, "Do you remember that when we first got together, there was an agreement that you didn't talk about Dad, I didn't talk about hometown." ”

"Of course I do."

"If you talk about your father, I should talk about my hometown." I put my right hand, which was not holding Artemisia, on his face, and stroked him affectionately, saying, "The fallen leaves need to return to their roots, and they live up to the first cry." Yi continued, one day we will have our own destiny, so today, I want to exchange souls with you! ”

He nodded deeply and held me tightly in his arms.

Zhang Hengli's phone call came suddenly, and the mobile phone only had one signal, and it actually came in.

"Sorry!" He called nervously.

I don't know if it's because the wind is too loud, or if his voice is too quiet, or if it's a signal problem, but I hear both words by feeling. I turned on the megaphone.

"Do you want to say goodbye to Zhang Yi?" I asked him.

"No," he said hoarsely, "I want Zhang Yi to stay in Changsha!" ”

"Why?" I was surprised.

"Didn't you say who loves her decides"

I almost couldn't answer: "You love her?" ”

He paused for a few seconds and finally said, "Love." ”

"What kind of love?"

"You're the same kind as Yi Xu."

I really, irrepressibly, laughed straight out loud! This makes me feel unbelievable even more than when Yi Xu said that Zhang Yi likes Zhang Hengli!

"When?" I asked.

"It's been a long time." Zhang Hengli said.

"Why did you never say that?" I still can't believe it.

Yi Xu's expression was calm and firm, as if Zhang Hengli said this, he didn't feel surprised or surprised at all.

"Don't dare."

"Don't you dare, what?"

"Love when you don't see it, ...... when you see it"

"What's that?"

"I don't dare to love, she's too much like an exterminator."

The orange sun is rushing down, and the reeds not far away are like gilded with gold leaf, and with the wind, the reed flowers are jumping like thousands of birds on the tips of the reeds.

Zhang Yi, is that you? Did you hear him too? Did you know that he loved you?

The call time between Zhang Hengli and me on the mobile phone changes second by second, and I seem to see two worlds: in the footsteps of the clock, Zhang Hengli exercises, works, falls in love again, gets married, has children, becomes a grandfather or grandfather, and lives a complete life as an ordinary person; Outside the footsteps of the clock, he was bullied, loved, and accompanied by this girl he had known since he was 10 years old, from children to teenagers, from green silk to white heads.

Zhang Yi, my dear, you don't have to listen to "1874" anymore! You were both born in 1988, and you finally fall in love!

Suddenly I remembered the ashes that I had scattered, and the artemisia and mobile phone in my hand fell to the ground, and I knelt down next to the urn at once, and there were no ashes left in it!

I was so annoyed that I couldn't breathe, why didn't Zhang Hengli change his habit of being late for many years? Why did I act too early when I should be late? He only said now that he wanted her to stay in Changsha, but I scattered her here early!

I can't catch a single speck of dust in this wind!

Yi Xu picked up all the artemisia unhurriedly and put it in the palm of my hand. He picked up my phone with one hand and put his arm around my waist with the other to get me to my feet. My eyes were hazy with tears, I shook my head in frustration, and I couldn't speak.

"Zhang Yi's ashes are in Changsha, and we didn't bring them here." Yi continued.

"Really?" Zhang Hengli didn't seem to believe it.

"How is that possible?" I pointed to the urn, "So what is this?" ”

"It's my mom." He said.

"Your mother?"

"Don't you remember? I told my mom on my birthday that we would meet again in the best place! The best place is where I want to meet her; The best place is where I want to stay with you; The best place to be, is where you want to be! ”

"Will Mom like it here?" I asked.

In the future, there will be no "aunt", no "your mother", only "mother".

"Yes!" He said.

Yi continued, I once told you that I want to tell you the story of "hometown", and I hope this story is not shared or shared. I've been waiting until I get to know you very well, until I find the right time to introduce and tell you about my hometown. But even though I know you very well, and even when I am confident that I am the person who knows you best in the world, I still haven't found the "right" time.

It turns out that I don't need to know you very well, but you need to know me very well! It turns out that the most right time is not what I found, but you! It turns out that this story is both sharing and sharing - you took the initiative to share the pain on my way home, and you also took the initiative to transform sharing into sharing!

I hugged him with all my strength, so grateful and touched, I wanted to squeeze my life into his body!

"Easy to continue, how about looking up? The sky you see, the land you step on, is the life I want to share with you! ”

He put his lips on my forehead and I could feel him nodding deeply. He was looking at my hometown, where my mother had come, and where our souls would return in the future.

I just kept holding him, holding him all the time. The artemisia in my hand is my bouquet, this is our wedding, no dress, no ring, no wine and food, no full of friends, only two hearts to live and die!

This is my wedding with Yi Xu, with me and him, it is enough!

Zhang Hengli's voice came again:

Happy Birthday!