As soon as the winter vacation ended, Qian Aishu went back to Qianjiaao. I haven't seen Uncle Qian for a semester, Aunt Qian, and Qian Aishu thinks about them every day. But when he thought of seeing them soon, sitting in the car, Qian Aishu's heart was a little nervous, the car was bumpy all the way, Qian Aishu hoped that it would drive quickly, and hoped that the car would continue to drive like this, and there would be no end, he had a strange idea at this time, he had read the story of the "Eight Immortals", and really hoped that he could have the same immortal encounter as Lu Dongbin, watching the immortals play chess for a hundred years, and when he came back to his senses, the world had changed.

In the car, Qian Aishu also thinks of all kinds of things he used to play with his partners in the past, and the ones he thinks about the most are Xiaobao and Brother Goudan, Xiaobao's big name is Li Baomei, two years younger than Qian Aishu.

When I was a child, I played at home, Xiaobao always competed to be the "wife" of Qian Aishu, if anyone fought with her, she would have her hair, but she cried and made a fuss, originally everyone's rules were to draw lots to determine the "husband and wife", but every time regardless of whether the lottery was drawn or not, Xiaobao had to be a "husband and wife" with Qian Aishu, Xiaobao was the sharpest of the children in Qianjiaao, everyone scolded her, and Qian Aishu itself had nothing to fight for, so she went.

Qian Aishu also likes to play with Xiaobao. Xiaobao has never seen her father and mother, and she pretends to be a ghost all day long to make the house gloomy, and the walls of the house are full of portraits of all kinds of demons and monsters. Every time I went to Xiaobao's house to look for her, Qian Aishu didn't dare to look at the wall more. Usually he stands at the door of Xiaobao's house and shouts Xiaobao's name, and Xiaobao will run out immediately when he hears it.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, on the day of the New Year's holiday, Xiaobao's house is always crowded with people, divination, hexagrams, ghosts, evil spirits, and auspicious days for the zodiac. Little Bao's mother sat cross-legged on the small square table in the center of her house, and the people who came to beg her to worship her as a god knelt around the small table, with a look of piety. Xiao Bao's mother closed her eyes on the table, and her mouth was chanting, so that from six o'clock in the morning to about eight o'clock, Xiao Bao's mother suddenly screamed, and then a puff of smoke came out of her head, and her body trembled like a sheep, and after a while, the smoke dispersed from the top of her head, and she saw Xiao Bao's mother with a solemn expression and her hands folded motionless, and her eldest apprentice shouted loudly: "Li Xiangu has returned to her position!" So immediately afterwards, several of her apprentices carried him to the back room with a table, and then, in the order of first come, first served, everyone went into the house one by one to find "Li Xiangu" to answer questions or catch ghosts and exorcise evil spirits, anyway, "Li Xiangu" is omnipotent.

Qian Aishu likes to watch Xiaobao's mother "tie the floor lamp" to others. Some children who are only a few months old and can't speak, vomit when feeding, and cry incessantly at night, adults are often helpless against this, and generally think that they have fallen into evil or are frightened and lose their souls. This is to invite "immortals" (such as Xiaobao's mother) to "tie the floor lamp" to drive away ghosts and monsters and bring back the soul. Before the ceremony, a carpenter is asked to build a small wooden house, with a pole standing high on the roof of the wooden house, and a lantern hanging at the top. Then it is time to ask the "immortals" to do the work, light lanterns to drive away the ghosts, and summon the spirits of the children back. At this time, the child was carried and placed on the throne, and the "immortal" set up the altar, waved the long sword with care, lit the spell worn on the long sword, and then drew one or two sword flowers "poof" into the big bowl full of water on the altar, and the ashes left over from the burning of those charms went into the bowl of water, which was the "fairy water". The child's father was like a treasure, holding the "fairy water" and his brothers helped feed the child to drink. After drinking this kind of "fairy water", how can the child not cry, so the "immortal" said that the ghosts in the child's body began to struggle, and they wanted to lead the ghosts in the child's body to themselves. The "immortal" put a steel ring on the child's head, which is said to be a "demon circle", and then pasted a charm on the child's forehead, and then grabbed the long sword and gestured to the child. Suddenly, the "immortal" snorted, his body trembled, and then the long sword fell to the ground. "Evil obstacles, look for death!" The "immortal" took off the robe he was wearing, then grabbed the axe prepared in advance, and slashed his chest like crazy, but it was also strange that although there were several blood marks on the chest, the blood flowed out, but the wound seemed to be extremely shallow, but looking at the appearance of the "immortal", he was indeed cutting himself madly. When the "immortal" slashed to his chest and was covered with blood, he threw his head back and fell to the ground, his legs twitched, and then his head tilted, and "death" passed. The little mages danced around the "immortals" and screamed in their mouths.

This will take half an hour, and then only one shout will be heard: "The golden drums are playing in unison!" For a while, the suona gongs and drums rang out in unison, and after a while, the loudest gong with the dullest sound "bang" sounded, all the sounds stopped, and the little mages scattered to both sides.

Everyone stared at the "immortals" who were curled up and lying on the ground. The "immortal" screamed, "Evil obstacles, you dare to come back!?" A carp stood up, picked up a large bowl of dog blood placed on the altar with both hands and poured it on his head, and then collapsed and fell to the ground on his back, only this time his limbs were straight, and he still held the bloody bowl in his hand. The little mages rushed up again, lifted the "immortals" above their heads, and carried them to the whole col to ask for money, and everyone had to give them to the "immortals" in a large bowl with dignity, and respectfully presented a few yuan. It is said that if you don't enter a few yuan, you will be caught by ghosts.

When the RMB is finished, it is generally almost midnight, and the "building lamp" should enter the finishing stage, that is, lighting the lamp. It is said that the lantern is lit to light the way for the soul of the child to return home. The lantern was already hanging high above the pole. There is a small opening at the top of the lantern, and above it hangs something with a red string, facing the candle in the lantern below. The "immortal" drew his bow and drew the arrow, and with a "whoosh" arrow shot out, hitting the red rope, the rope broke, and the piece hanging on it fell into the lantern and lit the candle. Judging from the means of archery, these "immortals" are not something that anyone can fool around.

Everyone in this col knows that the village chief and Xiaobao's mother are old enemies. In Qian Aishu's eyes, Brother Goudan and the village chief Brother Liudou are both men who stand up to the sky, and Brother Liudou is more sensible than ordinary villagers. Qian Aishu clearly remembers that it was Brother Liudou who took him to the elementary school outside the Aowai to open Meng. Shortly thereafter, Liudou quit the village chief and went to Guangzhou, where he was the first person in the village to go to Guangzhou to work. When Qian Aishu was in the 5th grade, Liudou returned to Qianjiaao. When Liudou came back, he didn't come back alone, but a family of three.

Liudou came back just in time for the re-election of the village head. Liudou's prestige is still there, and after he became the village chief again, he was determined to take the villagers out of poverty and become rich, and then he completed three things in a planned way; The first was to convert the ancestral hall into a primary school, so that the children would not have to go to school outside the mountains, as they had done in the past. Second, there is a big stone mountain behind the village, and Liudou funded it himself to build a lime factory in the name of Aoli, and the lime factory recruited dozens of laborers in Aoli. Third, there is no road leading to the outside of the col, and Qianjiaao, the mountain road is nine bends and eighteen bends, and the ravines are full of ravines. Liudou knows that if transportation is not solved, the lime plant business can only be a dead end. The road could not be repaired, so Liudou thought of a new way, there was a ready-made canal in the col, which could be transported by boat. However, the width of the existing canal was not enough, and the whole village worked together to widen the canal to accommodate the boats carrying lime. This is an equally great feat in the eyes of the people of Qian Jiaao. After the canal was repaired, some villagers began to object, because the canal was used to transport lime, so the water flow had to be blocked to prevent the canal from flowing after the water of the Xuefeng River fell.

Liudou also called on everyone to build a reservoir to store water, and paid for a high-horsepower pumping machine with his own money. In this way, the problem of spring ploughing is also solved. Unfortunately, the canal only leads to the Xuefeng River, and there is no smooth highway around the canal. When everyone goes to the county seat, they can still only walk to the outside of the mountain to take a car. Even so, it is not easy for Qian Jiaao, and the most important thing is that the sales of lime have opened, and the banks of the Xuefeng River are rich in the land of fish and rice.

After so many years of reform, more and more farmers went to Guangzhou and Shenzhen to work, and everyone began to have a little money in their hands, and the first thing they did was to build a house. The demand for bricks and tiles will definitely increase, and another brick and tile factory will definitely make money. The brickyard's business also outperformed Liudou's expectations. Lime and bricks were transported to the banks of the Xuefeng River through a newly widened canal. The hard-working people in the col began to have a surplus of money. School-age children are starting school. This is after Qian Aishu left the village to study in the city, before he left, everyone still had cattle at home, and the children also had to go to herd cattle, but now many families have sold their cattle. If the land is gone, what are you doing with a cow?

When Daddy Qian mentioned these things in the letter, Qian Aishu was happier than getting the first place in the exam. Father Qian also said that he was too old to work in the factory, and everyone's life was getting better day by day, but their family still did not improve. However, Daddy Qian never mentioned it to Qian Aishu, and Goudan often came to their house, asking if the family was short of money and whether Qian Aishu's living expenses were enough. Daddy Qian doesn't want to be favored for no reason, so he always says that it's enough.

Everyone in Qianjiaao respects Liudou, except for Xiaobao's mother. The enmity between Xiaobao's mother and the village chief began with the establishment of a lime factory. As soon as Liudou began to plan to build a factory, Xiaobao's mother preached everywhere that the big stone mountain behind the village was the backer of Qianjiaao, and if it was destroyed, it would destroy the feng shui in the col, which would have an impact on future generations.

Xiaobao's mother's words made many older villagers come out to oppose Liudou, Liudou originally wanted to treat her because Xiaobao's mother played the sign of "immortal", but she couldn't pull her face for the sake of the villagers for many years. It just so happened that the township cracked down on illegal superstitious activities, and Liudou asked a few guys in the col to tie up Xiaobao's mother and hand it over to the township for the government to deal with.

Xiaobao's mother was imprisoned for 3 months, and by the time she returned to the col, the lime factory had already made money. After that, the feud was settled.

Qian Aishu sat in the car and thought a lot along the way, "I haven't been back for half a year, I don't know what new changes are in the col?" ”

Thinking like this, the car is almost at the place outside the mountain where it should get off. After a long absence, thinking that he would soon be able to lie on the verdant grass and count the clouds in the blue sky, Qian Aishu was full of irrepressible joy.

Daddy Qian was waiting for Qian Aishu on the side of the highway, he was carrying a hoe on his shoulder, and a dustpan was hanging on the handle, and when he saw a bus coming, Daddy Qian put down the hoe and dustpan.

Qian Aishu opened the car window and poked his head out to wave to Daddy Qian.

Daddy Qian smiled with his mouth open, his eyes couldn't be opened by the slanted sunset, and the wrinkles on both sides were stretched so long.

Qian Aishu felt that his father was much older again, and the sunset shone on Father Qian's beard, which was not as golden as he had in his impression. He looked at it from a different angle, but his beard was still dull.