My grandfather was eighty-two years old when he passed away. It was considered a happy occasion, so the sadness did not last long.
We should still go to school, and adults should work. The dead are gone, and the living must make ends meet.
One afternoon, a few friends and I went to play next to the persimmon tree under a small slope in front of the door.
There are three persimmon trees growing in a row over there. One tree belongs to the last family in the village. There is only one old woman left in that family, and she is speechless.
As long as we play there and she finds out, she will definitely scold us for destroying her persimmons.
It’s not that we are the only ones who prefer her persimmon trees. The key is that her persimmon trees are particularly easy to be bullied.
The adult's fork is split a little higher than the knee, and it grows straight and horizontally, about one meter long, and then slowly grows upward.
It is not dangerous for children to climb up at all, so we all like to climb there and climb all the branches until they are smooth.
The second tree belongs to my fifth wife’s family. After the fifth master left, all the children in the fifth master’s family became successful, so he took the fifth wife to live in a high-rise building in the county.
The second tree is tall and slippery. It only has branches when an adult is tall. It is difficult to climb, so we don’t like the second tree.
The first tree and the second tree are leafy and intertwined with branches. We always like to go up from the first tree and fall to the second tree, just like that, He will also be scolded by the old woman.
I was scolded just yesterday, and my mother told me not to go there, but I didn’t. Thinking about it because of my grandpa, I haven’t hid the persimmons for a long time. I ate all the ones I hid last time. I plan to soak it a little more this time.
Soaking persimmons is actually very simple. Just find an empty bottle that has been canned, wash it, add water, add some alkali, and put the green persimmons in. After a few days, they will no longer be bitter. Astringent.
It tastes sweet, and children love it. When I was young, I had few snacks, so I created them all myself.
I was thinking that I must pick persimmons, so I would have to climb a tree.
I made an appointment with the little girl next door who is the same age as my sister. She got this name because of her dark appearance.
Her brother, little Japan, was named this because he had a cyan birthmark under his nose.
There are also smaller furry children Xiangxiang, Jingjing, Nannan...etc., of course Yudou is indispensable.
Slightly older boys like my brother Yulu naturally disdain to play with a bunch of girls like us.
When we set out in groups towards the persimmon tree, as soon as we reached the slope, Yudou's face suddenly changed and he took two steps back.
I turned around and looked at Yudou, whose face was getting paler.
"What's wrong with you? Do you still want to go or not? Why do you want to retreat?"
Yudou just shook his head and said nothing. When I wanted to speak, Yudou suddenly turned around and ran away. I went home and closed the door.
In the village, we don’t close the door during the day. Even if everyone in the family goes out, we will leave the door open, so we are not afraid of others coming in to take things.
I pulled Heinv and Jingjing, and said dissatisfiedly: "Let's go, let's go, it doesn't matter! Love her or not."
Yudou has been in poor health since childhood. So I wasn’t very gregarious with the children in the village. Among these furry children, I was the oldest, so I felt like a big sister.
After hearing what I said, who cares about Yudou? They all went to Three Trees.
When he came back in the evening, Yudou was lying on the kang, feeling cold all over and talking nonsense.
Even though I called Tu Langzhong, I couldn’t figure out why.
Grandma was anxious when she saw it.
Then he took a porcelain bowl, filled it with half a bowl of water, and went to the small kitchen at the back alone.
After grandpa left, grandma stayed behind alone. No matter what dad said, grandma insisted on staying in the back for the sake of peace and quiet.
When I saw that my mother had called several people, the front was in a mess, so I followed my grandma to the back.
Grandma saw me following and said, "Come in."
I followed in, and grandma closed the door and said, "Go and turn on the light."
I yelled, groped for the end of the kang, groped along the edge of the kang, and found something soft, soft, and plush.
I was shocked, I pulled my hand back, took a step back, and called: "Grandma..."
In the dark room, except for the small wooden frame window next to me that showed a ray of moonlight, the room was really stretched out. No fingers visible.
Grandma didn’t respond. My heart beat even louder, and I called out again with a trembling voice: “Grandma, are you still there?”
“Ahem~” came from the door of the kitchen. There was a low cough, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Grandma was still there.
So I said casually: "Grandma, you are still here! I thought you had gone out. Did you spread something on the kang? I touched a soft thing with a long It’s wool, is it the sheepskin blanket that dad bought last year? Why is it put on now? It’s too hot!”
I remember that last winter, my grandpa’s health became worse, so dad bought him a blanket. , spread it under Grandpa to keep it warm.
I said nonchalantly, and groped to the wall again, and found the light cord. When I pulled it, there was a "bah~" sound, and the dim light came on. I turned back and looked at the door of the kitchen.
I saw grandma standing blankly, looking at the bowl in front of me. Looking at it like this, I could only see her profile.
I seemed to see a blue light from one of my grandma’s eyes. I stayed at the small window for a while, not daring to move or take a breath.
It suddenly became dark outside the window, and the cold wind blowing in from the paper window made me shiver again.
Grandma squatted down, and she didn’t know when she had half a piece of steamed bun in her hand.
She said to the bowl: "Eat! Let's go after eating! There is nothing to commemorate here." Grandma said, breaking the buns into pieces and throwing them into the bowl.
I know that this kind of ritual is the most common and commonly used ritual in our village. Almost everyone has seen it, and it is called "muliang".
Just take three chopsticks and insert them into a bowl filled with half a bowl of water. When the chopsticks fall over, those bad things will leave.
But grandma’s ones are slightly different from the usual ones.
I unconsciously looked at the bowl, and saw three more chopsticks standing upright in the bowl. I was wondering, when did the extra chopsticks appear when I didn’t see grandma holding chopsticks? I walked towards grandma, cautiously, for fear of disturbing anything.
Just when I was approaching grandma, grandma suddenly stood up, her chopsticks fell over, and half of the buns in the bowl were gone.
My eyes were full of surprise, and I asked curiously: "Grandma, where are the steamed buns?"
Grandma did not answer me immediately, but picked up the bowl and walked around her The small stove that was cooking for him turned three times, and he mumbled something. He opened the door, poured the water out, and said, "My baby is not in good health. I can't stand your compliments. I won't come here anymore."
I just looked at grandma like this, and saw grandma put down the chopsticks. He went under the wooden cabinet where clothes were stored behind her door, clasping the bowl and pressing it on the chopsticks. He took my hand and walked to the kang. I sat on the edge of the Kang and asked softly: "Did Yudou tell you what she saw?"
I shook my head and said: "We are going to pick persimmons to soak and eat together. , but as soon as Yudou reached the slope, she stopped walking and took two steps back, looking scared. Yudou has been timid since she was a child, so I was not surprised, so she ran back and closed the door. , I just went to pick persimmons and didn't care about that." Grandma nodded and said without asking me anything else: "Go to sleep on the kang! Let's go to school together tomorrow."
I groaned, and when I got on the kang, I discovered that it was still the patched black corduroy mattress that my grandma usually laid out, and the hard quilt stained with starch. There were no woolen blankets at all.
I stammered and said: "Grandma, I just... seemed to... touch..."
Grandma's face suddenly changed and she said seriously: "What did you touch? "?"
Looking at grandma's serious face, I suddenly didn't dare to speak.
In fact, grandma is a good-tempered person, a bit stubborn, and has avant-garde ideas. At least she does not favor boys over girls.
Maybe she has been the best to me since I was a child. When my father was gone, he always secretly gave me a dime or two to buy small things for me to eat.
But suddenly such a serious grandma really frightened me. She shook her head and wanted to say it was nothing? She couldn't help but say, "I touched the woolen blanket and saw grandma's blue eyes."
Grandma sighed and said, "Broken baby, what are you talking about? You must have touched it wrong." Now, your eyes have turned yellow without looking at the milk. Are there any blue eyes there? Your father bought the woolen blanket for your father. Your father loved it, so he put the milk in the coffin and let your father take it away. , this baby..."
"But..." I want to say something else.
Grandma interrupted me directly, "But what, go to bed quickly, we have classes tomorrow! But it's too late to think about it."
I curled my lips, reluctantly He took off his clothes and lay down. Sleeping with my grandma.
Grandma also lay down and turned off the light. After a while, there was a sound of "bah, bah, bah!" under the cabinet. I could tell that it was the sound of bowls hitting the floor and wooden chopsticks, and I felt nervous. He became frightened and covered his head with a quilt.
Grandma suddenly said: "You just left when I asked you to leave. Why are you still here? How many times can I help you? Even if your life is shortened, something will happen sooner or later. If you don't even look at it, what will happen to the village?" What has happened? It’s not easy for her to be alone, and the baby won’t come back.”
After grandma finished speaking, the bowl stopped ringing. Although she was only in the fourth grade of elementary school, I was convinced. Scientifically speaking, after all, I am a member of the new generation born in the 1990s, born under the red flag, and raised in New China.
Our teachers have told us since we were young that we must believe in science and not be superstitious about these things. We are just too backward here, so we let those goddesses in the village eat and drink everywhere.
But at this moment, my belief in science was shaken.
I slept like this until the next morning, not daring to look under the cabinet or the bowl. I washed my face in a hurry and wiped it with the persimmon vinegar face oil made by my grandma. He ran to the front room.
My mother and Yudou fell asleep on the hot bed, and Yulu slept in the corridor. Usually, Yulu and Yudou played against each other, rolled up two quilts and slept on the hot bed. My mother was there. Sleeping in the hallway.
When my mother saw me coming out, she went to see Yudou. There was a towel on Yudou's forehead. My mother picked up the towel, and Yudou opened his eyes, sat up, and got down. After getting on the kang, my head no longer hurts and my body no longer feels uncomfortable.
In my heart, I feel that grandma is a god.
I went to school with Yudou, and asked Teacher Chen, who I am most convinced of, the youngest, and the most opposed to superstition, and asked Teacher Chen, "Teacher, when you say muliang, it means inserting three chopsticks into the "It stood up in the water, how can we explain it scientifically?"
Actually, I still don’t quite understand what science means? I just know roughly that science is something that can explain all magical things and turn magical things into ordinary things.
It is something more magical than superstition, something that can reveal all mysteries and mysteries.
When Teacher Chen saw me asking, he immediately took three chopsticks and half a bowl of water to demonstrate to me, "Teacher can also do this ritual." After that, he inserted the chopsticks into the water and did it with the goddess. Using the same movement, I poured the water in the bowl onto the chopsticks, and the chopsticks stood upright as expected.
I opened my eyes wide and said quickly: "Teacher is so amazing, please tell me how you did this?"
The teacher didn't show off and said directly: "Actually! The principle of this ritual is to use the balance of three chopsticks to stand up when the wood encounters water and increases the friction. You won’t understand it even if you explain it deeply. It’s probably like this. In short, it’s a lie. ”
I nodded and asked, "How do you explain why the eyes turned blue?"
Teacher Chen shook his head with a smile, "Teacher, I haven't seen how my eyes changed, so I don't know. What's going on, but those deceptive tricks can all be explained. You have to believe in science and not be fooled by them."
I nodded, knowing that no matter how hard I asked the teacher, I couldn't explain anything. Just left.
After school in the afternoon, I walked back with Yudou and a group of children in the village. When we arrived at the Nianpan area at the entrance of the village, we could see the three persimmon trees.
Yudou glanced at the persimmon tree, threw down his schoolbag and ran back to the house. My mother hasn’t come back from the fields yet. It’s time to hoe the bag. It’s almost dark before she comes back. Go back into the field.
In autumn, it gets dark quickly. A few of us were playing with wooden figures at the door. It felt like it would be dark soon.
My mother carried a big cage of green grass on her shoulders. My mother was famous for her ability in the village.
But I think my mother was born in the wrong child and should have been born as a man. She is famous for her strength in the village, and she doesn't like to stay at home and do housework like other women. My grandma does all the housework at home, and my mother only does the work in the fields.
Grandma has already cooked the soup. Usually she just eats a steamed bun in the evening, mixes any vegetables with her, and drinks some boiled water, which is what the village calls soup.
If there are leftovers at noon, heat the leftovers and eat them for dinner.
When it was time to drink soup, we naturally dispersed. When we entered the door, we saw Yudou lying on the kang, covering himself tightly.
My mother washed her face, looked at the jade beans on the kang, and said: "It's not beautiful yet. How about I ask for leave from your teacher tomorrow and take you to Yaohe Children's Hospital for treatment?" "Hazi."
After hearing my mother's voice, Yudou stuck out his little head, blinked, bit his lower lip, hesitated for a long time, and then said: "Mom, I can see it. "
I didn't know what Yudou saw. I looked up at my mother, but my mother became solemn, looked at my grandma, and said, "Mom, what do you think? What's going on, why don't you pick it up? Last night, I quietly told me that I saw a monk hanging on the persimmon tree in front of our door. Although I arrived in the village late, I also heard someone say that there was a monk on the opposite side of the temple. A monk was hanged in our village."
When my grandma heard this, she stood up from the wooden post where she was sitting on the stove and said, "It turned out to be him. I thought he was back. "Yes, Mengmeng saw his father. I thought he had told the baby."
As soon as grandma finished speaking, I couldn't help but look at the shadow. It was just me. The shadow of one was stretched so long by the light that it was cast on the wall. It looked like he had a big head, and his hair was messy, with thorns on one end.
I saw my father. When did I see it? Why didn't I know?
But I didn’t ask, and my grandma didn’t continue. She took out the steamed buns, picked up half of the bowl in a big old bowl, and brought the wild vegetables she prepared to the small kang table. The kang table is never placed on the kang. It is placed next to the pillar at the head of the kang. It is usually used for eating.
I asked Yu Dou to come down and we had dinner together. Yu Lu just came back and took a steamed bun with oily spicy seeds. It was dinner.
After washing the pot, grandma did not pour out the water for washing the pot. Instead, scoop it into a basin specially used to hold pot water. Pick it up and turn it three times on Yudou's head.
In the village, pot-washing water is called bad water, which may mean disgusting water, dirty water, used water, or other meanings. But in my grandma's eyes, it definitely means something else.
Rural people use whatever they have, if they can use it. If there are cows and dogs at home, this kind of bad water with a bit of oily smell is from cows! Dog's drink. If there are chickens, the dregs at the bottom of the bad water will be settled and kept to feed the chickens.
If the smell of oil is very strong, it will be given to neighbors or people with a good relationship who have cows at home to feed the cows.
Just like my grandfather's funeral, the sweet water and pot water that were taken away from the banquet had a strong smell of oil, and they were all used by the villagers to feed the cattle.
If you need to borrow someone else's cattle for farming or other purposes, you only need to wash a pot of bran (which is the wheat hulls sifted from the flour) with bad water and feed it to the cattle.
It’s easier to borrow someone, just ask for a meal, just a common meal, just mean it.
The bad water in my house today was not meant to be fed to the cows. Grandma said to my mother: "Go to the cooperative and buy us two pieces of black paper."
Me Mom wiped her mouth, knowing that this matter could not be delayed, so she took a flashlight and hurried to buy black paper. There was only one small store in the three villages. My grandma still used to call it a cooperative. In the next village, it takes twenty minutes to walk back and forth. After going up the twisting plate to the falling head, you can reach the village next door.
And my grandma grabbed a handful of mung beans from under the cupboard and threw it into the dirty water. She walked out of the door with the basin of dirty water and walked around the doorway with the small broom used to sweep the stove dust. After three rounds, the evil water was sprinkled out with a small broom, and it was finished.
< /p>
I made a hush, stop talking gesture, covered my mouth and let Yu Lu watch. Yu Lu felt it was boring, so he entered the corridor and turned on the TV.
I watched my grandma take off the maroon square wrapping cloth used to wrap her head, and put a bowl of Bao Guzhen upside down on the wrapping cloth spread on the chopping board. There was not a single grain in it. Spread out. Anyone who has eaten corn porridge knows how small the grains of corn porridge are.
Grandma picked up the four corners of the turban and wrapped it tightly around the bowl. Holding the turban, she picked up the bowl and turned the mouth of the bowl three times towards Yudou's head. She didn't know what was in her mouth. What are you talking about?
He walked from the kang to the big pot, turned the bowl three times clockwise and three times counterclockwise along the lid of the pot, and placed the bowl with the wrapping cloth on the lid.
The wooden pot lid is flat, like a chopping board, with an extra crossbar in the middle to make it easier to pick up.
When the chopping board was occupied, we also cut vegetables on the lid of the large pot. What's strange to me is that grandma clearly didn't tie the four corners of the wrapping cloth, but the wrapping cloth that grandma grabbed seemed to be tied up and didn't come apart at all.
At this moment, I no longer know what science is and what superstition is, because I just want to know what grandma is going to do?
Grandma took out three incense sticks from the drawer of the cupboard, without lighting them, and inserted them into the gaps between the wooden boards of the pot lid and the spliced ??wooden boards. What are you still mumbling about?
Grandma's face changed when she saw that the bowl under the cloth suddenly moved. Pick up the bowl with the mouth of the bowl facing down and place the bowl with the mouth of the bowl facing up. The cloth will spread out on its own and cover the bowl. The four corners that come together will also spread out and spread evenly around the mouth of the bowl. The round outline is clearly highlighted under the wrapping cloth.
Grandma held the two corners and lifted up the wrapping cloth. She suddenly turned around and said to me: "Mengmeng, come and take a look."
I was startled, but I was also curious about the bowl. What can Bao Guzhen see? When I walked over and stood on tiptoes and saw the rice dumplings in the bowl, I was completely surprised.
On the plain surface of Baogu Zhen, there were a series of sunken footprints. They were very shallow, but they could be seen clearly. I was just about to say what I saw, when Yudou suddenly turned pale and pointed in the direction of the back door. His eyes were wide open and white, as if his eyeballs were about to fall off. I was frightened, but I couldn't say a word. I couldn't even shout out "Ah~". I was about to turn around.
Grandma grabbed my head and prevented me from looking back. She picked up the bowl and dropped it to the ground. With a "bang~" sound, the porcelain bowl fell to the ground without making a big sound. .
However, the bowl was broken, and Bao Guzhen fell to the ground. I secretly lowered my head and looked at Bao Guzhen, and a series of footprints appeared on the ground.
Yudou suddenly made a sound and fell on the kang. Grandma let me go and stomped on the grain on the ground. She kept mumbling words that I didn’t understand. The sound is getting louder and louder.
I quickly ran to the kang head to see Yudou. The sweat on Yudou’s forehead was rolling down. His body was shaking and he curled up into a pile. He looked in pain. His mouth was open, but he didn’t make a sound. sound.
Mom bought the black paper at this time and wanted to ask grandma something. She opened her mouth, but in the end she didn’t ask. She put the paper on the stove and came over to look at the jade beans.
Grandma grabbed the paper and covered it on the pot. She pulled out the three sticks of incense sticks on the pot lid and threw them on the paper. She picked up the match, lit one and threw it on the black paper. .
The black paper ignited, and Yudou suddenly opened his eyes and glanced at me. His wide-open eyes, the strange and distant look in his eyes, scared me into a cold sweat.
After the black paper was burned, Yudou lay down and fell asleep again.
I breathed a sigh of relief, my mother hugged me, and we looked at grandma at the same time.
Grandma seems to have finished dealing with it, and she feels a lot more relaxed.
He said angrily: "You are an ungrateful person. I helped you once but helped you wrongly. You don't know the heart of a good person and you even found my grandson. I'm teaching you a lesson today. You won't be so good in the future." Something happened.
"
After saying that, he stood up, picked up her wrapping cloth, folded it into a triangle, wrapped it around her head, and said to the kitchen behind her: "If you can't leave, stay here and watch. Just leave it alone. If there's nothing to do, just tell the baby and take her into the house without even looking at who she is! If you don't look, then you have no good intentions. The baby is fine today. If something happens to the baby, see if I will let you come back in the future. "
After grandma finished nagging, she sighed and said to my mother: "Heat some hot water and wipe the baby. It will be fine. "
My mother nodded, and while boiling hot water, she asked grandma what was going on.
Grandma explained: "It's the one in the temple opposite. He was not a good person when he was alive. , got together with the guy from our village, and finally the guy from our village got married, and ended up hanging from the tree at the head of our village. "
"The motorcycle was disposed of at the time, thinking that it would be easier for him to travel in the future, so he directly let the Feng Shui master from Yaojia He'er inspect the ground and bury it properly. Because of this, I was buried under the honey locust tree because I didn't listen to the motorcycle. As a result, I became dependent on him and wanted to come back to find him. She is not alone now. ”
My mother and grandma were still chatting about the past years, but I couldn’t listen at all. I looked at the dark back door and wondered what I saw there? Yudou sighed. I went into the corridor to watch TV with my brother. Yulu knew nothing about what had just happened.
The next day, I couldn't help but ask Yudou what he saw. She said she saw a monk hanging on the branch we often played with. I said it wasn't that, but what she saw at the back door. But Yudou shook his head and said I was talking nonsense.
Yudou was scared again. After a while, the tree was rarely mentioned again. I still didn’t dare to walk that way when it was dark, which made me afraid for a while. I watched the persimmons change from green to orange.
I never dare to climb that tree again to pick another persimmon
(Things are true, my memory may be biased. After all, my grandma has been gone for ten years and is currently writing. A novel called "Biography Becomes an Ancestor" reminded me of the "superstitious things" in our village and wanted to record them. My grandma is a legend. I have wanted to write a biography of my grandma from a very early time, but I couldn't. I'm still too young, my grandma is gone, and I can't write if I want to. I only have some fragmented memory fragments, and my dad doesn't like to talk about these things, hehe~)