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This place by the river has always been the most seductive for me when I was a child.

Because on Wendou Village, as far as the eye can see, in addition to the mountain is still a mountain. On the other side of the mountain, it is still a mountain.

Mountains have always blocked my train of thought and limited my imagination. It seems that only the Qingshui River can lead to the outside of the mountain, to a world that is much bigger and more wonderful than Wendouzhai.

Everything that the people on the village know outside the mountain, there is only one "big place in Longli", which is the current ancient city of Longli. At that time, the women on both sides of the Qingshui River were proud to marry into the "big place of Longli".

"The new girl (bride),

Marry to the big place of Longli!

I don't have shoes to wear and wear red shoes,

I don't have anything to eat and eat the old chaff."

Of course, when I was a child, I didn't have the opportunity to go to the "Longli Big Place". The furthest I've gotten is by the river.

The mountains on both sides of the river are scattered people. But the main street is at the foot of Wendou Shangzhai and extends to the foot of Yanwan Village.

I heard that during the Republic of China, this main street was still in the market! However, now there is no market, only some shops sell some candy, department stores, cloth, salt, Wendou Zhai and Yanwan Zhai people on the mountain often come down the mountain to buy, or pick a load of yellow rice down the mountain, in exchange for a small package of daily necessities.

Although the place by the river is small, since the Dawendou Township Government moved down from the village, there are supply and marketing cooperatives, hotels, butcher shops, tailor shops and a flour shop. The people of the villages on the mountain, if they want to do something, they also have to come here, and when they leave, they bring some goods back.

Wubang Creek divides the street in two.

There is a wooden bridge over the mouth of the stream. It is said to be a bridge, but in fact it is a few pieces of wood, one side by side at random, with a few large iron nails fastened. There are no guardrails, and people walk up and sway, just like the life of a mountain person.

In the past, Wendouzhai people went down the mountain at dawn, went to the water wharf to take a wooden boat, went down the water, and arrived at the county seat Wangzhai before dark. However, the name of the county seat has long been changed, and it is no longer called Wangzhai, but Jinping. It only takes two or three hours to get from the water wharf at the foot of Wendou Mountain to Jinping, because the tails of the wooden boats are equipped with foreign machines with "beep" sounds.

On weekdays, by the river, you can listen to a few old people talk about some new things in the river under the crooked old elm tree at the head of the bridge. From time to time, I saw a sailboat coming down from the upper river, stopping for a short time on the water pier, jumping off the boat and walking up a few people, and then turning the bow of the boat and going down the river.

Everything about the river in the mouths of the old people by the river always fascinates me.

In particular, there is an old man named Huang Touyuan, who knows a little bit about culture and knows a lot of things. The old man let go of the platoon in his early years, did the timber business, and he could say a "ugly thing" about the things on the ground of Wendou. All the situations on and below the river are even more clear.

At that time, I didn't know that there was a place called Xiangxi under this river, and I didn't know that there was an ancient city called Phoenix in that place, and I didn't know that Mr. Shen Congwen who walked out of "Border City".

The old man Huang Touyuan didn't know Xiangxi and the border city, but he knew that there was a "big place" called Hongjiang in Xiahe, which was much bigger and more interesting than the "big place in Longli" he had heard before.

The old man is always proud of having been to the "Hongjiang Great Land", and often shakes his head with his eyebrows dancing and recites a ballad:

"A burden and an umbrella, come to Hongjiang to be the boss".

However, at that time, I couldn't figure out the meaning of this sentence.

When I couldn't go to the river, I often stood alone on a ridge outside the house, staring blankly at the Qingshui River below the mountain, watching the water flow down from the upper river and down the river, but I wanted to find out everything about the river from all sides.

For many nights, all my imagination focused on that river.