Chapter 34: The Valley of the White Dove

White Pigeon Valley. ()

Years later, when I recalled the place again, I found myself looking at a wheat field in front of the castle.

The wheat fields are green, the insects are flying, and the ears of wheat are intertwined, like the green Salander blanket. The thing I'm most proud of is helping Grandpa Bianwen make a straw man in the summer, the straw man is wearing an old clothes, and Grandpa Bianwen says that this guy can scare the birds into peeking at the crops that are tasseling.

But I don't think the straw man is very useful, because I often see birds standing peacefully on the shoulders of the straw man, and when they are hungry, they fly down to the field and peck at the ears of wheat.

I told Grandpa Bianwen, "A lot of birds are eating wheat."

Grandpa Bianwen sat on the edge of the field and leaned against the wheel of the carriage and took a nap, and when he heard my exclamation, he just squinted his eyes and said, "Let them eat, they can't eat much, we can have enough." ”

But I think it's a pity that the crops that the farmers have worked so hard to grow are eaten by the birds, so I always scream back and forth in the wheat field to scare the birds.

Grandpa Bianwen just laughed, and then told me from afar, "You can't outrun the birds."

In those days I seemed to have been running in the green wheat fields, chasing the birds that were flying, and when I was tired, I would lie down on the spot.

Lying between the wheat fields, I could hear the chirping of the birds and the shouting of the shepherd boys, and when I looked at the sky, I could see the clouds moving slowly, and the ears of wheat swaying, cutting the sky.

The afternoon was a long time, and if I think about it slowly, I always remember a lot of things.

If I remember correctly, there was a flock of sheep in the Valley of the White Pigeon, like weaving a white Nord linen handkerchief, gathered together and floated on the gently undulating slopes of the valley. I know what sheep are, they are the lamb chops soup that Jill's mother cooked for me; They were cashmere vests that my mother had cut for me; They were the horns that my father made for me, and whenever I blew my cheeks so hard that I couldn't make a sound, my father smiled and stroked my hair, "It's not too late, I'll learn it later."

Later, I learned to play the trumpet, but I didn't get the chance to play it for my father.

There were other memories that were blurred, and I was too young when I left there, just vaguely remembering some things. By the time I returned to White Pigeon Valley many years later, everything had changed.

The room I remember most vividly was the stone house where I lived until I was ten years old, on the south side of the castle, and the sun came in every morning.

My grandfather told me that the stones were collected from the south of the city of Suno.

"The sun has dried these stones for 10,000 years", my grandfather said to me, "and if you smell them carefully, you can always smell the sun".

So I literally sniffed inside the castle for an afternoon and touched my nose full of ash. Grandmother Sumi was upset by this, and she wiped my nose with a towel while counting my grandfather.

At that time, my grandfather nodded his head to accept criticism, and at the same time listened to Grandpa Bianwen tell him about the things in the fields. Those things are all too common.

"Master, the crops have been planted, and we must arrange for the young man to look at the green."

"Sir, the cow is sick, I need to ask the priest's assistant to come and see it, that guy likes to drink mead, I have to prepare a pot for him."

"Master, the tools are dull, the carpenters can't do it, and they have to go to the city."

I always felt that it was a pleasure to sit in front of the castle and look at the farmhouse in front of it. In the summer evenings, when the heat subsides, I would lean next to my mother and sit on a blanket.

She asked me what was ahead of me and I told her.

I said that there was a large field of wheat on the left, which was blue-yellow, and on the right there was also a large field of wheat, but it was golden.

The mother wondered, "Why is it different?" ”

I said, "The wheat field on the right has the sun shining on it."

The mother laughed, "Oh. ”

I said, "Mom, those sunflowers you planted are now very tall, and you can't see your head when you walk in." ”

I sat next to her all the time, using every word I had learned to describe the world she couldn't see.

I always felt sad when I learned later how much the descriptions of colors hurt my mother, and I remember being a little impatient when my mother asked me the difference between this color and that color.

"Apples are green in the summer and turn red in the fall."

"Well, the grapes are purple, but the oranges are yellow."

"Aunt Bi Anwen's face is red, in fact, it was white just now, but Grandpa Bi Anwen kissed her, and it turned red"

Aside from my mother, the first person I got acquainted with was probably my aunt Pianwen.

She was the one who took care of me at that time, and my mother, Adeline, became very weak for a while after giving birth to me, and often had to tease me in Jill's mother's arms. That's when I always waved my arms to escape from Aunt Bianwen's arms, and Aunt Bianwen giggled, "He knows his mother."

It seemed to me that I was a stranger to my father at first.

I heard Grandpa Bianwen say that once my father went away from home, and I didn't know him anymore when he came back. At that time, my father got a job in Suno under the arrangement of my grandfather, and he could only come back once a week. My father was curious about my newborn child, but he obviously didn't know how to take care of me.

Mrs. Bianwen later wiped her tears and told me that my father was always clumsy to bring back toys for me.

"But the young master brought back all the toys that the four or five-year-old children played, and he didn't know what to give you. You just looked at him with wide eyes, like a stranger. The young master just stood there at a loss, haha, that was a long time ago, poor young master"

Aunt Bianwen is very old, but she is the one who helped me get back my first memories. Many years later, when the old lady Pianwen saw me, she was able to immediately call my name, and she was able to recall the first clothes I wore and the first words I learned.

The first word I would say was 'mom' and the second word was 'eat'.

It is said that this made my father very sad, and he was full of hope to hear the word 'Daddy' in my innermost words. But at that time, after looking around, I stretched out my arms to my mother, 'Mom, eat.'"

My mother would reach out and take me from Aunt Bianwen's arms, but I never knew that my mother could not see me. Later, I learned that my mother was invisible in my early years, and I always thought that it would be difficult for my mother to take care of me at that time, but Aunt Bianwen told me that when my mother helped me change clothes, "I never made a mistake, and every knot was tied so thinly as if she could see everything." ”

Dim sunshine, warm afternoon.

I think I had a grandfather in Rhodoc, he was always busy, but he would send me some gifts during the holidays, I remember one time a southerner brought me a pair of boots made of lambskin, which looked very beautiful, but the day after I wore them, I accidentally put my left foot in the brazier, and by the time I hurriedly pulled out my foot, the boots were no longer in shape.

And I also have an aunt who, when I was six or seven years old, brought me a toy crossbow, loosely wound to make sure it didn't hurt anyone, and a few thick and short bolts. This gift made Grandmother Sumi angry, and she asked Grandpa Bianwen to polish the arrows like pebbles before giving them to me.

I saw a strange pattern at the end of the arrows, and I didn't know what it was, so I took it to my mother and asked it.

My mother touched it a little and said to me, "It's a sunflower."

Auntie Bianwen's two grandsons are older than mine, and their father is an honest young farmer who looks a lot like Grandpa Bianwen.

The two little children were always playing with me, and we sat on the back of the cow and walked slowly through the valley. As we walked through the wheat field, if the cow reached over to chew the wheat, the older boy would kick the cow in the head, and the cow would moo aggrievedly and then look back at us with big eyes.

The boy will shout: "No wheat"

The cow would bark again, and then go on steadily.

Later, when the three of us could not sit on the back of the ox together, the eldest child led us by the reins of the ox. I have always been very envious of him, saying that I want to lead the cow again, but he said that Grandpa Bianwen won't let me lead it.

But I kept pestering him, and at last he finally promised me to let me lead the cow, and I happily took the reins and walked in front of the cow. The cow was the least afraid of me, and kept pushing my ass with its wet nose, so scared that I dodged left and right, and the two brothers laughed happily on the cow's back.

This scene was seen by Grandpa Bianwen, and the two of them were beaten that night.

I don't know why Grandpa Bianwen hit them, and neither of them either. They just said that when Grandpa Bi Anwen beat them, he scolded an uncle who had never met them, and told them to 'don't think of themselves as young masters'.

I never understood what that meant.

Those days went by so quickly that when I look back, I always have the illusion that all the memories in White Pigeon Valley were completed in one afternoon.

This delusion always made me feel that those afternoons in White Pigeon Valley were long and eternal.

In those days, my grandfather seemed to be copying documents endlessly on summer afternoons; Grandpa Bi Anwen sat on the edge of the ridge and took a nap, while Aunt Bi Anwen kept by a jar of mutton soup boiling and chattered; The mother would sit in the room and talk to Grandmother Sumi, who would tell her about the past; The most exciting thing is the fireworks that are set off at night, which is not found in the entire Suno-Plain, and it is not uncommon for people to walk long distances to see the freshness.

On the edge of the castle, I saw several tombstones.

My father took me to the cemetery once, and he told me that the one on the far left was Sumi's grandmother's mother, the one in the middle was my grandfather's wife, and the one in the back was a respected old housekeeper in the family.

I asked my father, "Who is the old housekeeper, isn't our housekeeper Grandpa Bianwen?" ”

The father would look a little embarrassed, "You'll find out later." ”

As for who the old housekeeper was, my father didn't tell me after all, and these were all told to me by Aunt Bi'anwen a long time later.

At that time, the family was very comfortable, and I liked autumn the most, because there were always many things to eat at that time: sweet and sour oranges, crisp apples, soft pears, frosted plums, fat pomelo, jewel-like pomegranates, all kinds of things.

Aunt Bianwen always let me eat as I like, but she didn't like it when I didn't wash my hands and went to get the fruit, "Wash your hands first, little things, reach out to me to see"

This is the Valley of the White Pigeon.

In the winter, it snows here, and often when you wake up one night, the whole world is silvery white, and you can only hear the sound of Grandpa Bianwen shouting to the servants to clean up the courtyard.

From my bedroom, I could see the whole world shining, but when I looked at the snow, I always felt that it was just a piece of wheat in the morning light. When it snowed outside, my grandfather would prepare a banquet in the hall, which would be attended by my father and mother, my grandfather and my grandmother, my grandfather and my aunt and you, as well as some servants of the family or tenant farmers on the estate. I love sitting behind a stool and seeing these people covered by piles of food.

Her mother brought a maid from her hometown, the daughter of a small merchant's family. She taught me how to origami and spell out a bird; or teach me how to direct a doll with a rope; She also taught me how to help girls tie their hair. I always messed up her hair when she wasn't looking, and then ran away happily, and I hid when she woke up and pretended to be angry at me.

One time I fell asleep hiding in the closet. One afternoon, when we were looking around in a hurry, my mother, who had heard the news, pointed to the closet and said, "He is hiding in the closet, and I heard him." ”

Then I was pulled out in my sleep, and I was inexplicably slapped on the buttocks. I was so angry with the maid that she made me kumquat candy from the south, and I fell to the ground in anger and turned around and left. My mother told me that the maid had cried all night, and I felt guilty, but I never said anything to apologize. When I was four or five years old, my father, at the request of the lady's family, with the help of Uncle Cesar, found her a family in Rhodoc and married her back to Rhodok.

She cried and kissed my mother and me on the face before leaving, and she said we would never see each other again. I never expected her to be right.

At that time, I had just learned how to write, and I followed the method taught by my grandfather, and I dipped the ink with a quill tube and spelled out a few crooked letters on the paper.

"Grandpa, what is this?" , I asked my grandfather.

"White Dove Valley, Timmy."

My name is Timmy, and it is said to be in honor of a lord of the White Dove Valley.