I'm ashamed to say that my relationship with Meng Dongxue has lasted for a long time, but this is the first time I've held hands with her. In those days, people were mostly more traditional and conservative, and I was no exception. Before that, the closest time I had with Meng Dongxue was when I helped Ji Youan and her roommate deal with the group of bandit ghosts, and she rested her head on my shoulder all night.

More often, Meng Dongxue and I have always respected each other like guests, and we have never made the slightest act of trespassing. So when she took the initiative to hold my hand, my chest suddenly tightened as if it had been hit by a cold wind, and then my heart beat violently in an instant.

That was the first time I came into contact with Meng Dongxue's palm, small and soft. The chive-like fingers and my carrot fingers interlocked, making my hands more sensitive than they had until that day. In any environment, holding hands between men and women actually has the shadow of love, and Meng Dongxue held me silently, lowered her head, and walked on the field road without saying a word.

I didn't speak, I was just trying to find something to talk about, but now I was so confused that I forgot all the words I had thought about.

If you were to ask me what was going on in my mind at that moment, I would have to answer frankly, I thought a lot, but I can't remember what I was thinking. In the past half a year, Meng Dongxue and I had a relationship like a separation, and at this moment, she suddenly held my hand, is she telling me her mind and telling me a positive answer?

So I thought about it, and then said softly, Winter... Winter snow, where are we going? Meng Dongxue didn't speak, but walked slowly step by step, walking at the same speed as a daily walk. Then I noticed that she was not wearing the green uniform she always wore today, and she did not wear the two braids on her head, one on the left and one on the right, but a white dress with a headband pinned to her head. The dress I brought to her when I came back from her house.

I said again, why are your hands cold, are you not in good health lately? Meng Dongxue still didn't speak, but grabbed my hand tighter. I turned my head to look away, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief, trying to ease the tension in my heart in this way, but to no avail, I found that I was getting more and more nervous. When I turned around and was about to ask another boring topic, Meng Dongxue suddenly said as she walked, Brother Shan, do you like me?

I like it.

My answer was very simple and crisp, and I didn't hesitate in the slightest, not even in a nervous tone. For so long, I have never been able to speak, but when Meng Dongxue asked me, I spoke.

Meng Dongxue said, then do you think the two of us will be together in the future? I thought about it and said, as long as we overcome the difficulties together, I think we can do it. Meng Dongxue sighed and said, I hope so. Meng Dongxue's tone was very gentle, just like her usual personality.

When she said this, Meng Dongxue also reached over with her other hand, grabbed my arm, and then put her face on my arm. We continued to walk on the road aimlessly, and after that sentence, we didn't speak again for a long time, Meng Dongxue was because I was worried, and I was so confused that I didn't know what to say.

I wandered on the road until 12 o'clock at night, which was definitely the last time I saw her go home after Meng Dongxue arrived in the mountain village. The mountain road is already rugged and the terrain is so patchy that I can see the people around me at a glance, and at this point in time, most of them have already slept, and the rest are waiting in bed to fall asleep. So as far as the eye can see, there is not a single household around with lights on. I began to think that if I continued walking, I might go home later, and when I went out just now, Meng Dongxue and I didn't bring flashlights.

So I proposed, or let us go back, you will have to work early tomorrow morning, and I will go into the city early tomorrow morning, and it will not be good if you oversleep and make a mistake. I took Meng Dongxue's hand and put it on my face, after the night breeze blows, even on a summer night, it will be slightly cool. I told Meng Dongxue, today you led me to walk so far along your way, Brother Shan understood in his heart, for so long, I have been holding some words in my heart, not because I don't want to say it, but because I don't have the courage to say it. I feel that there is a big gap between me and you, I am a person who is not a proper person in the eyes of many people, and you are so good and so desirable. I'm worried that I'm not worthy of you.

People may be like this, when the words that have been unspeakable for a long time are opened by someone, the rest is like a flood, not to mention unpleasant. So what I said to Meng Dongxue that night was actually a question that I had been thinking about for a long time. I've always felt that there is always something in the way between me and her, and this thing, at the moment, seems to be my life experience and career. If Meng Dongxue follows me without everything, I don't know, or even don't want to know, whether she will be affected or looked down upon because of me in the future. And at this moment, I only understand that she took me by the hand and said these words, even if it was a solid relationship between the two of us.

Meng Dongxue also seemed to be a little cold, so we walked back. On the way back, my mood was much calmer, and I even began to get a little excited, wanting to bark, but I was afraid of alarming the dogs in the village, so I kept suppressing it. When passing by a cornfield about half a mile away from Aunt Xu's house, Meng Dongxue suddenly stood on her feet again, then stood on tiptoe and hugged me.

Although I am in my twenties, I am late in enlightenment, and my mind is mature and stable in terms of learning, but I am blank in terms of emotions. Meng Dongxue's hug made my mind suddenly empty. Originally, she held my hand today, which made me very happy, but the hug at this moment made me a little confused. Unable to control myself, I hugged her tightly and kissed her.

So that night, I lost many of my firsts. The first time to hold hands, the first time to confess, the first time to hug, the first time to kiss, the first time to be recklessly confused. Meng Dongxue and I stayed in the cornfield like this until the first rooster crowed.

The sky was already dark, and at this moment, Meng Dongxue and I could see each other's faces clearly. After last night, we were all a little shy. Originally, this kind of thing should be in a good environment, and it will come naturally. And we are in the cornfield. I can recall every insect cry that night, the brightness and position of every star, and every corn cob that we overwhelmed, but I can't recall how it felt anyway, I just know that it was wonderful, so wonderful that I could remember it for the rest of my life.

Meng Dongxue said to me that she would go home first and let me come back later. When she said this, she was full of peach, and she looked shy and cute. So I stammered and agreed, until Meng Dongxue left first, I was stuck in the cornfield, and my heart was surging for a long time.

After returning home, Aunt Xu had just gotten up. Seeing my strange expression, she smiled and quipped, "The sun is rising in the west today, why do you get up earlier than me, an old woman?" I also smirked and said that I went to bed early last night and woke up early today. Then I asked Aunt Xu, where did Meng Dongxue go. Aunt Xu said that she was in the house, and she might not have gotten up yet. I said yes, ate some breakfast, and packed up my things to get ready to go into town.

Before leaving, it was already three poles in the day, according to the past, Meng Dongxue should be in the propaganda team at this moment. But she was still locked in the house, so I walked to her door and said, "Dongxue, I'll go to the city first, and I'll be back in a few days." When we get back, the two of us... Well, let's talk about it again, shall we?

The door didn't open, and Meng Dongxue replied in the house Okay, I want to pay attention to safety on the road and don't be strong. I thought to myself why the girl was still shy, so with joy in my heart, I set out on the road to the city.

Since I knew that his Chinese medicine shop was an information distribution center for people in the rivers and lakes, I asked Da Mao to bring me a message, if my master is not in the local area, if someone needs help, they can contact me. Master has been to Hubei for more than half a year, and he has sent two letters along the way, but I don't have to reply to them, because he often changes his address, and he is afraid that I will miss and not receive them when I reply to them.

This time, I was entrusted by an old craftsman who had been playing puppet shows on the roadside since before the liberation. I've seen his puppet shows since I was a kid, and it's a coincidence that I was able to find him this time. Coincidentally, for me, who would have thought that a person who would help him many years later would be the person who had seen his performance many years ago.

The old craftsman's surname is Xia, who is nearly seventy years old, and the puppet craft is ancestral, which is said to have been traced back to the Ming Dynasty at the earliest. In the Qing Dynasty, the ancestor used to be a famous puppet troupe, and at that time, there were time-honored branches in the entire Sichuan region, and this craft is said to be only passed down in the family, and no disciples are recruited from the outside world. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, he was specially invited to the capital to perform a puppet show for the queen mother and concubines in the emperor's palace. Until the end of the late Qing Dynasty, because of the war, the family became divided, and in the end, only one side line remained, that is, the vein of Mr. Xia.

After the liberation until 1966, the troupe was still relatively active, and it gradually began to improve again, but from 1966 onwards, it did not dare to perform in public again. Because the singing passages performed in their puppet shows seem to be considered by some people to be alluding to the contemporary era, they have been beaten down once, and until now, they have been idle at home.

And found me because one of Mr. Xia's puppets began to grow hair inexplicably.