Chapter 43

People miss the old when they get old, and Lilac often goes to meet those old brothers and sisters whenever she has the opportunity. She knew that time was running out for her, and those old brothers and sisters would see each other less.

Xu Zong's sudden death made her regret it, and she felt guilty for it for many days.

Xu Zong broke off the idea of being a merchant after he failed to sell medicine in Chongqing with Qiusheng, and devoted himself to playing some brown ropes, and waited with Wu Ying for the thirty-two acres of thin fields and gravel soil. Helplessly, the population at home has increased, and it is difficult to open your mouth to eat, and you are busy making ends meet. Therefore, the wind and rain have also fallen a lot of disease roots, especially when the body is arched up when asthma, it is as stiff as a shrimp, and it has lost the appearance of a businessman who was free when he was young.

The day before Xu Zong's death was the death day of Jade Shiye, but it happened that Lilac happened to go back to her mother's house to worship her deceased father. Several nephews were not at home, and Wu Ying and his wife were happy to see it, and they were busy making meals.

After eating, Lilac proposed to go to the cemetery to sacrifice grandma, uncle and mother, Wu Ying saw this and said: "Auntie, you are also old, don't stick to that ceremony, just put a wine and food in the house to sacrifice your heart!"

"Sister-in-law, I feel that my legs and feet are not as good as before, and it is because of the blessed brothers who don't let me watch the sheep go up the mountain to make trouble. In the past, people waited in the mountains and walked like the wind in the soil for many years, and when they were idle, they would be wasted after a long time. While I have the strength to do it now, I went to the grave to tell the old man, but I also had a wish. Sister-in-law, I'm here to say goodbye, don't talk about going to the grave in the future, even if I go back to my mother's house, I'm afraid that I will be powerless! ”

Xu Zong, who was sitting by the stove and boiling water, heard the sadness in Lilac's words. After being silent for a while, he said with feeling: "I've been getting better recently, and I still coughed out of breath last month." It's dry today, just in time for the sisters to be together again, so let's go to the grave and pay respects! ”

Seeing this, Wu Ying knew that she couldn't resist these two brothers and sisters, so she hurriedly packed up the paper money, incense and candles for worship.

Along the way, the three elderly brothers and sisters laughed and talked, and staggered to each other to the cemetery.

On the edge of the grave, Xu Zong, who was hunched over, cleaned up the weeds that grew wildly on the grave. Lilac reverently kowtowed to her father, grandmother, and uncle one by one, and the old tears were in her mouth: "Old people, I am a married daughter once and again, as a grandchild, I will cut how much you are when your elders are alive, you are not strange." As the saying goes, filial piety comes first, no trace of the heart, no trace of the poor family! That's all I can do, and I'll do my best! I'm old too, and I'll be with you in a few days......"

After worshipping their ancestors, Lilac went home together.

On the way home, Xu Zong suddenly had a heart and said to Lilac: "Sister Man, I remember that when I was a child, I often went to play in the Wulei Cave, and Ziyang father and son used to hide in the cave for many days. Walk down the path and take a look, and then go back to the house closer, how about it?! ”

Xu Zong's proposal evoked the past of Lilac's childhood brothers and sisters going to Wulei Cave to escape the heat and freeze in the scorching heat and cold winter, so he agreed without thinking. Wu Ying was anxious when she heard this, and hurriedly said: "That place is still steep with seven bends and eight turns, don't be careful, break your old bones and see which one is waiting for you!" Gu Ji is also an eighty-year-old person, and that place has been unfamiliar for a long time, so it is better to walk a few more feet and walk steadily! ”

Xu Zong was a little disappointed, he was usually used to Wu Ying, and he didn't dare to provoke her, so he secretly glanced at the cloves.

Lilac understood it, so she said to Wu Ying: "Sister-in-law, it's rare that the eldest brother is in a good mood today, so it's better to praise him!" If you don't go to the place where you played naughty when you were a child, his brother is sleepy and not fragrant, and there is always a stone in his heart to block his heart. ”

Wu Ying saw that his brothers and sisters were so persistent, and it was difficult to oppose it anymore. But he said, "Alas, your eighty-year-old sister is like a child......

Seeing that Wu Ying responded, Xu Zong was so happy that he leaned over and led Lilac away like a child, just like the earthen wall behind the school with Lilac when he was a child.

Wu Ying saw it and complained in her mouth: "Old man, you are all wearing a vest, and you are still holding your aunt!" Be careful, don't roll into the thorn nest and affect the aunt! ”

Xu Zong was prosperous, and he didn't pay attention to Wu Ying, but happily talked to Ding Xiang about climbing the wall in his childhood, stealing Mr. Wang's uncle and their pen and paper, climbing rocks and breaking his head to make Ding Xiang hide from his father, and so on.

Xingtou also sang: "Human affection is as thin as paper, and the world is like a new chess game." I remember riding a bamboo horse when I was a child, and I turned my head and it was a pulsatilla......"

Xu Zong was dancing with his hands, and his spit was flying. Joy and sorrow, I didn't pay attention to my feet and stepped on the air when I turned downhill. I only heard his groan, and the grunt disappeared!

Wu Ying, who was walking behind, was completely unaware, but Lilac behind her saw the truth, and suddenly shouted anxiously: "Big brother, big brother!" Ouch, sister-in-law, come on, big brother is off the rock......"

Wu Ying heard it well and hurried up. The two aunts and sisters-in-law looked at Xu Zong, who was tired and had no movement at the bottom of the mountain, and cried out for help.

The people who rushed to hear the news climbed to the bottom of the cliff and lost their breath when they fished Xu Zong up. The body is intact and there is not much blood, it may be that he lost his breath the moment he suddenly fell down after the incident, and he still has a look on his face when he was talking and laughing.

Lilac stayed until Xu Zong sent the old man back to the mountain, and on the day of the funeral, she insisted on dragging her tired body to the ancestral mountain, and watched the King Kongs bury Xu Zong's black coffin little by little with a hoe and shovel.

After the new grave was piled up, Lilac couldn't help but cry bitterly. She knew that there was no more pain in the world from now on, and she would pity her brother.

Within two months of returning home, Lilac, who was still immersed in the sadness of Xuzong's death, ushered in another bad news, and the sister-in-law of Jinhua, who had been close to her mother since she was a child, also left.

It is said that the golden flower also has a hard life, and when he was three years old, his father's whereabouts were unknown, and it didn't take long for his mother to find a short-term and live in Qiusheng's father and mother to grow up. After marrying that Xiong Bosheng as an adult, he also risked a few days of good life, a large number of children and grandchildren, and suffered a lot of sins. In her words, the second sister-in-law Lilac has the same life as her, and she is soaked in bitter water.

When she was a cub girl, she suffered a loss, and when she dragged her children and daughters after she got married, she suffered a sin. The saddest thing is that when Jinhua was seventy or eighty years old, the youngest son who only got married in his forties suddenly fell ill and died, and the daughter-in-law couldn't endure the bitterness of Lilac, so she left her teenage grandson and ran away with someone, leaving a butt of tents and the grandson who was still studying to give Jinhua and her old couple.

In her eagerness, Jin Hua cried and was blind, and Lilac was pitiful, so she asked Jin Hua to take her grandson to live at home a few times. Before leaving, he also stuffed his little personal money to Jinhua's grandparents and grandchildren a few times.

In this way, Jinhua wiped her tears day and night, and her tired body finally couldn't stand it anymore, and when the first snow of winter fell, she died in the arms of Xiong Bosheng, who had been with her for most of her life.

When he died, he said to Xiong Bosheng: "Man's family, if I die by your side today, I will be satisfied!" My sister-in-law in the house is more miserable than me, my second brother has been alive and dead for decades, and the people around me who ask for ideas and speak have taken a ......."

After hearing the news, Lilac's already overtired body added another layer. After hanging filial piety came back, it was like pulling out a bone, and after eating a few bites casually during the day, he lay on the bed and slept for several days.

Seeing this, Hu Gui'e, who lived nearby, couldn't help but be a little worried. I hurriedly went to tell a few nephews, saying that your mother was sick and slept softly in the house for a few days, unlike the usual climb up and down!

The blessed brothers came over to take a look, and sure enough, they didn't see the busy figure of Lilac on weekdays, so they called a few times but no one answered. Yougui clicked in his heart, and pushed open Lilac's door nervously, and raised his eyes to see Lilac sitting on the edge of the bed.

Youfu looked at the cloves and said, "Mother, why didn't you keep quiet just now!" Isn't it uncomfortable......"

Lilac stood up, ignored her sons, and turned to the back of the house to put the chickens in the coop.

The blessed brothers thought that Lilac was having some awkward and unhappy trouble with her uncle Hu Gui'e, and they were relieved when they saw that their mother's body was fine. Lilac and Hu Gui'e often stuffed their teeth when they touched their tongues, and after a few days, they seemed to be alone.

The brothers looked at each other and said nothing.

Hu Gui'e saw the clue. In those days, I ran three or five times a day, and I had nothing to do with Lilac to talk to a few words, and I was concerned about the cold.

Slowly Lilac walked out of the sadness of Xuzong Jinhua's parting, although she still remembered them from time to time, and would sacrifice them with the next meal, with a sisterhood for decades.

Since then, Lilac has lost the movement between the old sisters, and has never returned to Luoying Village, where she was born and raised, and now Baiying Village's mother's house.

In addition to raising chickens, planting some vegetables, or running to the reservoir dam where Qiusheng was almost beaten to see the scenery of the village, and chatting with acquaintances, he and Hu Gui'e lived in a house.

Hu Gui'e and Lilac have known each other since they fell into Yingzhai, and they have been accustomed to each other for decades.

From the bits and pieces of their children and grandchildren, to the hardships they have suffered over the years.

One day chatting, Hu Gui'e talked about the years when she was abducted and exiled when she was young, and it was not until she met Xia Sheng that she had a real foothold, although she had been treated by her mother-in-law for many years.

When he talked about the sad place, he wiped his tears, and Lilac accompanied him to comfort him.

Hu Gui'e felt that her marriage history was a little confused, glanced at Lilac, seemed to explain and seemed to say to herself: "Alas, people who don't know that I am a lowly and lascivious person. At that time, my mother-in-law was sassy, and I could only cry alone in the middle of the night, and the rooster crowed, and the pillow was wet at dawn! At that time, I was deceived by Zhang Shunsheng when I was young, and I had to go to Meicheng with him, and later he sold me to Yao Wuqiang without treating me as a person. Yao Wuqiang was an honest man, but when he encountered the chaotic season, he participated in the Mozi Agricultural Association, and he squatted in prison and couldn't control my life or death. In order to save him, I committed myself to Company Commander Yang as a last resort, and after I came out, he didn't sympathize with me at all. It's not as good as a pig or a dog, except for doing it at night, beating and scolding all day long, and even a chicken woman in the house is not as good as ......"

At this time, she shed tears again, and Lilac hurriedly comforted her when she saw this: "Uncle, don't think about those bad things. As the saying goes, all evils and fornications are the first, and you are not comparable to such a person who is in the twilight and twilight! People don't take it seriously. ”

"Well, people's mouths can't be stopped, and people in my eighties don't care about it. To be honest, except for his blessed uncle, only that Yang Company Commander was kind to me. Although he was in Luoyingzhai back then, lonely and greedy for my body, he was usually good to me. Three points are true and seven points are false, but I am content! If Yao Wuqiang hadn't been alive in prison back then, I really wanted to lick the blood on the knife with him to mix a few mouthfuls, and die with him under the guns and shells. When he sent him, he sent a bag of rice and left, and then I secretly chased more than ten miles with the team, and when I came back, my heart was empty. Sister-in-law, do you think I'm really cheap, how good I am like you, I only have one autumn birth in my life, and I risk a little gossip to let others chew the root of my tongue. All evils and fornications are the first, and you are not good at heart, but you are perfect in all your heart and deeds, not like ......me."

After hearing this, Lilac replied lightly: "Alas, Mo Zi is perfect, Qiu Zi is born and dies, there are a few mouths in the house to drink, and Mo Zi thinks about the West, it is not bad to live!" People say that bitter gourd is just bitter, I am a lifetime of bitterness! ”

After Lilac finished speaking, she changed the topic and talked about the past when her eldest grandson was admitted to college and went to Yiyang.

For the rest of the years, the two old people got better day by day, and they had a headache and brain fever to help each other, and they also saved a lot of worries about their children and grandchildren.

Since the unprecedented freezing and snowstorm in 07 came, Lilac, who was sick and bedridden, finally did not survive the snow. Just after the night when she sleepwalked in the past and was accompanied by Hanxiang, she didn't wake up at all.

With endless thoughts of her ancestors, Qiusheng, and children and grandchildren, Lilac finally burst out of her chest and abdomen at noon the next day in the heavy snow, closed her eyes and let go of everything she had been thinking about, and went with her soul chasing Qiusheng who was haunted by her dreams.

On the day of Lilac's burial, the snow stopped, but the heavy snow in the past few days froze the earth into a large ice cap, and it was impossible to distinguish the fields, roads, and rivers.

On the day of the funeral, Hu Gui'e dragged her sick body and cried with the funeral team despite the ice and snow. She knew that she had never had a confidant of her age to speak from since.

She later said to Youfu, your mother is gone, and half of the uncles are dead!

The lilac cemetery is the same ancestral mountain as Qiusheng's four sons, and a family of three passed away at different times, and they were buried in three different positions at the bottom of the mountainside, just forming an isosceles triangle.

Yougui had some feelings, and after the tomb was built, he reverently read to the new tomb of Lilac: "Mom, now you live with your father and the four brothers, usually you chatter a lot, there is a spirit in the yin, bless our children and grandchildren in the world, everyone is prosperous, and the body is healthy!"

Everyone was silent when they heard this, and after making a decision one by one, they reluctantly returned to the house.

On the night after the burial, it snowed heavily in the sky, and the next morning, the bare grave of the lilac loess was covered with snow clothes again, and the chaos of Cangshan could not distinguish each other, and the four sons of Qiusheng were integrated.

Lilac has gone through more than 80 years of mediocrity and bumpy life in this way.

In the Fan Dai Field, the chaos of heaven, earth and rivers covered all the footprints that Lilac had walked, as if she had walked through this experience in this world in the future.

End of book