My family lives in the east of Zhuang, relying on the avenue into the village, which is connected to the west gate of the county seat in the east, which is the main road in the west of the county seat in the old days, and leads to the west of the county and the adjacent Tibetan area. Since the construction of a car road along the river in the north, this road has gradually changed from an official road to a village road.

Where my house is located, there is also a long alley that intersects with this avenue, forming an intersection that leads to the car lane to the north and to the foot of the hill and the farmland on the hill to the south. Therefore, it is the only way for Zhuangli people to go out early and return late.

The two most important roads in the village meet here, and it is naturally the place where the crowds gather the most. Throughout the year, as long as it is not windy and rainy, there are always people at this intersection who gather together to bask in the sun, broadcast news [Note 1], lift flowers [Note 2], rub twine, accept shoe soles, walk dolls, and even eat and play babies.

The most prosperous meeting center in this village is just outside the back wall of my house.

That morning, I had just woken up from my sleep and heard a loud noise behind the house. Look at the alarm clock, it's just over six o'clock. In the western region, the day dawns late, and at this time, the people in the village are still boiling tea at home, and there will not be so many people at the intersection, and it will not be so lively.

Curious, I got up from the kang and rushed out of the gate.

People are talking nonsense.

"A fire at dawn. ”

"It's almost burned this time, let's go. ”

"Go to the well and fetch water. ”

"Look at the water in my bucket, in the jar. ”

With the flow of people, they came to the place where the fire started, and it turned out to be the sailor's house.

At the gate, people carrying buckets and basins came in and out to fight the fire.

Amid the disgusted gazes and voices of the adults, I squeezed through the door. The two tiled houses to the east have been reduced to black piles of charcoal, with smoke and water vapor rising from them.

I often come to the sailors' house, and I am familiar with it. Half of the two rooms on the east side are separated by the sailor's grandmother, and the other half is open, usually stacked with firewood and wheat straw. The sailor and his parents lived in three tiled houses to the north, and this time they were not harmed.

The sailor's mother sat under the eaves of the north room and cried to death, and the sailor's father followed everyone to water the charcoal pile.

There were no sailors in the courtyard, so I ran into the north room, and there was nothing in the hall, but into the east side of the room, where the sailors slept. I saw him sitting on the kang in the corner of the wall, motionless, and he was silent when he saw me enter.

"Sailor, go, go to my house. "Frightened by the scene outside the house, I instinctively said.

The sailor Mu Mu got off the kang and went out of the room with his heels on his heels. I followed him.

When I got out of the gate on the road to my house, I felt like I had a pair of inexplicable eyes behind me. When I turned around, I saw that five or six hundred meters away from the sailor's house in the opposite direction, there was a man standing on the mound looking at the place where the fire was burning, leaning over like a clay statue about to collapse. It's Daddy.

I thought to myself, so many people, whether they were fighting fires or watching the excitement, came closer, why was he the only one looking so far away. Other than that, he didn't care, turned around and continued to chase the sailors.

"Xiao Yuan, do you say there are any monsters in the world?" As soon as I entered the door of my sleeping room, before I sat down, the sailor asked thoughtlessly.

I stood on the threshold in a daze, my mind clouded, not knowing why he was asking this question or how to answer it.

"The monster is here!" the elder brother, who was sleeping with his head covered, suddenly lifted the quilt and sat up with a shout.

Seeing the two of us panicking, he burst out laughing.

There was a banging at the door, and my dad entered the hall with a bucket.

When he saw me open the curtain and look into the hall, he said, "Why don't you go to bed early in the morning, and go to join in the fun? Wake up your brother, you can't always sleep lazy on Sundays, your sixth master told him to go over and practice earlier. So saying, he put the bucket behind the door of the hall and entered the east side of the room. Then I heard him talking to my mom.

"The two rooms in the east room were all burned out. It's weird, everyone dug for a long time, but they didn't find the bones of Shiwa's mother. Shiwa said that he locked the door last night, and he opened it in the morning, and the outer wall of the house did not burn down, where the hell can he go. ”

"They all say it's evil, and I don't know where this fire comes from. ”

"Be quiet, the sailors are over there. ”

"Did you see the Buddha in the morning?" my mother lowered her voice visibly.

"How could he go. ”

"Alas————, what a wickedness. ”

Topics related to daddy usually end with a long sigh.

All day long, the sailor and I watched the eldest brother practice martial arts at the sixth master's house, and by the way, we harmed a tree of cherries that had just ripened.

The sixth master is my grandfather's cousin and the son of my second grandfather. My second grandfather gave birth to three sons, and the sixth master is the second, but counting my grandfather's four brothers, he ranks sixth among the seven grandsons of my grandfather, so the grandchildren in our relatives call him the sixth master. But outsiders still call him the second or second master.

The sixth master has been fond of martial arts since he was a child, and when he was young, he was cynical and refused to farm. After the liberation, there was no injustice in the world, and the chivalrous spirit was useless, so he could only farm at home obediently. Now that people are old and weak, I am afraid that my martial arts will be wasted, and when I saw that the eldest of my family was a piece of material, I decided to teach him the mantle.

At noon, the sixth master looked at the sailors and said, "Hasn't your grandmother found it yet?"

I said, "I don't know." ”

My brother squirted a mouthful of rice on the table: "Who asked you, our grandma is cooking in the back garden." ”

"I said it for the sailor, he was with us early in the morning and never went back, how do you know. ”

The sixth master said: "Yes, yes, yes, you came here early in the morning, but I was confused." Sailor, your grandmother won't go to the Buddha to replace you. ”

The sixth grandmother coughed, and the sixth master hurriedly put away the strange smile and nibbled on two mouthfuls of steamed buns.

Speaking of my father, I remembered the scene of him standing on the mound in the morning. I had heard that he had eaten in prison before liberation, so he asked the sixth master curiously: "Why did the Buddha go to prison on behalf of the old father?"

"Rapist!"

Grandma Six began to cough again. The sixth master said "eat, eat" twice, stuffed the remaining half of the steamed bun in his hand into his mouth, got up and went to tidy up the gun stick.

Note 1: Broadcasting news: refers to the discussion of strange things by the elderly.

Note 2: Flower Flower: Flower Flower is a card game popular among the elderly in Northwest China, also known as Flower Flower. Flip Flower is to play this kind of flower card game.

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