The most impressive thing about a place is the road. Villages are connected by roads, including cities. Cities just have more roads. Now working in the southern city, I have seen too many roads, wide and narrow streets, highways, expressways, viaducts and overpasses, and suddenly I feel that the roads in my hometown are small and narrow. In my hometown, the straight road is lined with farmland. The farmland on one side is fertile because there is a river passing by at the foot of the mountain, and the organic matter deposited on the mountain is left behind when the flood floods, so it is fertile. On the other side of the road is cold mud. The deepest mound field is called vortex mound, which seems to have no bottom. If people step on it, they can't reach the edge of the egg mound. Vortex mound is my family's responsible field, which was caught by lottery when dividing the field. The amount of labor in this land is too great to move plows and rakes, so we can only dig inch by inch by hand. Nobody likes it, because there is too much labor and too little harvest. When my father caught the lottery, the villagers applauded and celebrated, but my father's face turned into pig liver color with anger. Every time my father went back to work in the field and watched us move hard in the field, he felt that he had made an unforgivable mistake for his family. Working in the field, leeches often climb up quietly and climb above the navel to suck blood, which scares me to a fright and makes a hullabaloo about. In midsummer, the seedlings are growing happily. One side is lush, and the wind blows, like someone shaking the green carpet; On the other side, the seedlings are sparse, and ducks can be seen happily foraging in it from a distance. This road seems to deliberately cut these two different worlds, completely cut.
I don't know when houses have been built on both sides of the road. We who go out to work have worked hard to save money for many years just to build a decent house in our hometown. Beixia village is fan-shaped, and sixteen natural villages are distributed in different places on the fan-shaped. If Beixia Village is compared to a banana fan, this straight road is the handle of the fan and is definitely the transportation hub of Beixia Village. In addition, Xiaobu Middle School and Beixia Primary School are located in Dasangping. With these two schools, it has almost become a treasure trove of geomantic omen, and villagers flock to build houses. My father called me many times and asked me if I wanted to get a piece of land to build a house. If I don't do it, it will disappear. Indeed, in just a few years, the fields on both sides of the road have become houses. The house is built in the form of a street shop, and it feels like a replica of a market. In rural houses, the exterior walls are rarely painted. It's not that rural people don't know that the exterior walls of houses can only be beautiful if they are painted or pasted with porcelain plates, but that it takes rural people more than ten or twenty years to build houses, and they even owe a debt, and they don't have the financial resources to beautify the exterior walls. Many houses have no time to decorate the back room and are eager to work outside to earn money. The exposed red brick is covered with a thick layer of dirt, even on the doors and windows. It is the dust blown by the wind or rolled up by passing cars, which falls gently and then mixes with the residual water stains, giving people a sense of vicissitudes. The road is littered with garbage, plastic bags, leaves, dead branches and mud piles, sand and stones, and bricks. The door of the house is basically closed, locked and rusty. The owner of the house works outside like me, and there are only a few old people and children living in the house. Some old people go to work in the fields, some sit at the door with empty eyes, and some walk slowly on the road. The older children are on campus, and the younger ones are watching ants move under the old tree in front of the door. Their noses are like loaches sticking out, so they suck them and take them back. If it weren't for the daytime, I really doubt that I took the wrong road and went to a strange place. Yes, it gives me a strong sense of strangeness.
When I was in a trance, a man called out to me. It turned out to be Huangni brand Yellow River insurance. I asked weakly, "Are you here to play?" He pointed to the house behind him and grinned. "I am here to live." The word "live" is very long and full of pride and pride. His house should have just been built, and the window glass has not been installed, only plastic paper has been pasted. A long time ago, I opened a small shop in Xiaobu market, selling hardware and household appliances. He came to my shop and bought a color TV and a set of satellite dishes on credit. I know he is the kind of person who can't make money. He is a little reluctant, but he speaks seriously, saying that it rains and snows day and night, and there is no TV to watch. It's boring, and it's not convenient to go to other people's homes. Moreover, he will never be on credit for too long, and he will pay the bill as soon as he has money. I relented for a moment and gave it to him on credit. 1600 yuan, it's been almost ten years. At the end of every year, I go to his house to collect accounts. He can only pick a few hundred dollars, and he looks embarrassed. When he sees me, he usually walks with his head down. It seems that it was not until 20 10 that the debt was paid back to my father. Now that he has a new house, he can't help being happy for him. He told me that everyone in his small village had moved away and no one could be seen. Those who have the ability entered the county seat, but those who have no ability have to come. He said that he was the only relative in the yellow mud platoon, and he was afraid to sleep at night. After a gust of mountain wind, I was afraid that the devil was coming, and I trembled with fear. He said modestly, "I can't help it. The thin pig girl has to make a hard shit."
Huangnipai is really a remote village. There is no decent way to get in, only a narrow path. Fertilizers, pesticides, household items have to go in, and food agricultural and sideline products have to come out, all by hand. In the early 1990s, I worked as a village official in Beixia Village, and the whole village was mobilized to repair tractor-ploughed roads voluntarily. It's really not a road, the slope is steep and steep, but people in the small village are very happy, as if they have seen a bright future. It never occurred to them that in a few years, they would move out collectively. That's where they have lived for generations, so they waved and didn't miss it at all. I suddenly have an idea to see it. Huang Hebao said there was nothing to see, so he turned around and started an old motorcycle. We bumped all the way to Tang Ding. He said he would start walking. I said, didn't you build roads? He said, the road is long gone. The road is really gone, with weeds and thorns, and the rain has cut many gullies and even collapsed several times. This road is like many cut-off waste straw ropes, which are thrown here at will. It takes careful identification and memory to distinguish this road. Standing on the hillside of the village entrance, I saw that the weeds in front of and behind the village entrance were higher than people. Those houses are basically adobe houses during the Republic of China. The roof tiles have been blown away by the wind, and the rest are crumbling. Some walls fell down, and the tile beams and rafters hung obliquely. These uninhabited adobe houses can no longer withstand the erosion of wind and rain. Back in those days, smoke billowed from the roof of every household, chickens, ducks, geese, dogs and cats were everywhere in front of the house, and children were playing with ants attentively. All this was in a trance in a dream and suddenly disappeared when I woke up. Loss and sadness are so mindless. On the way, I met Huang, an accountant in the village. He told me that Huangnipai, Xiaochuan, Zhaixia, Keshuxia and Dongkeng are all deserted villages, and there are almost no residents in Dingtangxia, Pingli, Huameishan and Tangwo. These scattered villages in the mountains are disappearing irresistibly.
The village will disappear, because everyone in the village has gone, completely gone. In Huang Hebao's words, capable people can enter the city; I went to Jiezhen with a little skill; Those who have no ability are also transported to places with relatively concentrated and convenient traffic. So I think the city is actually an expanding village. When a village expands to a certain extent, it becomes a street town, such as Xiaobu Town in my hometown and Huangpi Town 30 miles away. Three or four hundred years ago, this was just a small village with four or five families. Because more and more people come to live here, the village grows bigger and bigger every year, and it becomes a street town. When I was a child, Xiaobujie Town was Zhutong Street, which was less than 500 meters from one end to the other. Then there is an old street, narrow and curved, with pebbles on the ground. The old street has long been a cold street, and some people have lived here for a long time. Only the new street shows the flavor of the street. Every market day on February 25, 2008, villagers from all over the country crowded here, which was very lively. Now, Xiaobujie Town has become the "Ten" Street in the capital, and many crosswalks and alleys are derived from the "cross". Although Zhutong Street is still bustling, it has become a monster. Standing on a high place, I saw the houses crowded and messy. Besides, Huangpi Street Town, 30 miles away, used to have only three or four streets. Thirty years ago, Ningdu County was only this big. Whenever I go home during the Spring Festival, I will walk on the bustling street in the middle and look at the deserted streets around me. I always feel that a few more years of expansion will turn it into a small city. Yes, small towns are the expansion of street towns, such as Ningdu County. A long time ago, wasn't it just a street town? The town later expanded into a medium-sized city. If many neighboring villages expand at the same time, they will become big cities. Although there is no data in hand, it is almost certain that cities are formed by the expansion of villages. Shenzhen, a prosperous metropolis now, is the best illustration. Shenzhen consists of more than 300 villages, which expanded simultaneously in a few years. Once the village expands into a city, once the city is shaped into a city, it will have magical power to invade and occupy the surrounding villages on a large scale. Magnets will generally attract the villages and accept them. The countryside is disappearing and the city is getting bigger. Shishan, Foshan, where I work now, used to be a pure village, but now there is no trace of the village. Expressway, railway track, fast lane, infinitely extending streets, commercial areas, residential areas and industrial parks are all elements of the city. It is said that Guangfo is priceless, rather, Guangzhou, a super-large city, has a strong root.
In the countryside, among the literati, there are idylls everywhere. For farmers living in rural areas, it is more the meaning of home. For home, my understanding is that there must be several elements. The ideal home, the house should face south, so that it can be warm in winter and cool in summer. There should be a mountain behind the house. The mountain is not too big, just have a sense of dependence. There are ancient trees and bamboos on the mountain, which are towering, covered with vines and bushes. There should be fences around the house and moss on the walls. There's no harm in planting some weeds. It is best to cover it with green kudzu vine, which can form a small courtyard, safe, independent and not closed. There is smoke curling on the roof, twisting the waist. In the morning, teenagers go grazing and singing. The adults walked out of the gate facing the sun with hoes on their shoulders. There should be a pond in front of the house, watching the fish eat grass and the geese and ducks play in the water is the most intoxicating. When I don't go out to work, I stand by the pond every morning, sprinkle a handful of grass and watch the fish eat grass. There is a stream not far away, where you can wash clothes. The villagers' laughter began here. Another farmland, autumn is coming, golden and fragrant. This is an ideal village. In fact, in rural areas, villages are like this. Rural people, perhaps they didn't consciously construct this kind of pastoral picture, and they didn't even think about this kind of pastoral poetry. They are just for the convenience of life. For thousands of years, this pattern has been deposited in their genes, and they have built their own villages with a habit. In the mid-1990s, when I was building a house, these elements were integrated. As for the road, build one yourself.
Beixia village, a small village where my family has lived for generations, and an established village named after it, is also an irresistible desolation. It is adjacent to a straight road, just beyond the mountain. Close to the water tower gets the moon first, and the whole village drifts to the side of the road. A village is bustling in a new place. The original busy places, those houses with mud bricks and gray tiles, have been abandoned as a whole. There are few people there. They all moved to new houses on both sides of the road. I walked through the alley of the old village, and there were weeds in front of and behind the house. The weeds were sad, several sparrows were startled, and a mouse made a mistake in panic. They never thought that someone would scare them. Only ants, leisurely walking in groups. I pushed open the door of the old house, and a damp and moldy smell spread like fog. The house was covered with cobwebs, and the spiders were frightened and crawled quickly on the internet. Several mice got into the hole like lightning. There is a mouse, looking back at me at the mouth of the cave, as if thinking doubtfully. Is this the house where I grew up? Where are the laughter of childhood and the heavy sighs of parents? There is a grain drying field as big as Lanting in front of my old house, which is paved with pebbles and has a row of blue slates at the door. In those days, after dinner, villagers would come here to sit around and talk about those strange days. Nowadays, the pebbles are covered with grass and the pebbles are covered with moss. Adjacent to my old house is a big house with three entrances. It is said that it was built by a garrison commander in the Qing Dynasty. Although it is also a mud brick house, it looks like a maze because there is a room in the middle. When I was a child, my partner and I often played hide-and-seek in the park. The owner of the house, several brothers about my age, also held their wedding here. Today, this magnificent big house has collapsed and become a ruin. Further on, there are two adobe houses by a pond, and the posture is complete and clear. The owner of the house, Youcai, is in his seventies this year. These two adobe houses were built by himself. In the mid-1980s, Subcutaneous Village, like all villages, set off a building craze. Although all the houses are built with rotten soil, every builder's face is full of pride. Houses are not only used for living, but also for raising children and grandchildren. At that time, quarrels about the homestead problem occurred from time to time. When he had the money to build these two houses, he had a heated argument with his cousin. On this land near the pond, there is a place with a big desktop, which belongs to his cousin. My cousin wants to be a pigsty and refuses to give it to him, but he means to occupy it. With money, he hired a bricklayer to build a wall, and his cousin came to dig the wall, so the two brothers turned against each other. For more than ten years, a trivial matter as big as sesame seeds has been quarrelling as a bee. The rich boy also built a house on the side of the road, and his son's family worked outside. His son invited him to live in a new house many times, saying that only people who live in the house would be angry with the house, but he insisted on not going, which puzzled many people. Now, I see him sitting on the slate at the door, basking in the sun, squinting his eyes, looking serene. I suddenly understood him. He is like a veteran who sticks to his post. All his life, he stuck to his home.
Not long ago, I met my hometown Lin Sheng in a market in the south. He told me that his hometown was building roads and built two. A highway, Changning Expressway, passes through the back of the village and goes straight into the brain mountain area of Yanbei. The other one is the provincial highway, which turns from Fengjiangping Shuikou and passes through Xizhuping, opposite the village. Somehow, I remembered the huge bluestone on Xizhuping, which was square and flat as a desktop. I think it's a creature carved by thousands of years of wind and rain. Xizhuping is a concentrated grassland and a paradise for young people to graze and play. When I was a child, we used to play there, playing gobang, mahjong and punching sandbags. Bluestone is polished by our palms, soles and buttocks. I suddenly began to worry about bluestone, which is a natural creature. I'm afraid I can't hide from the corner where the roaring forklift is buried, and it's dark from now on. I am always used to sadness, but my hometown is very excited. My hometown, Beixia Village, is a very remote mountain village, where the rocky mountain is blocked like a wall, and the country road has come to an end. Now, it's really exciting to have provincial roads and highways running through it at the same time. I am imagining how different the two roads will be when they divide the country into three.
Villages are connected by roads, including cities. I was thinking that in the past, there must be a village to get to the road. The direction of the road depends on the location of the village, because the decision on how to build roads and how to build roads lies with the people in the village. With the process of industrialization, a large number of motor vehicles appeared, and the villagers lost the right to decide how to build roads and how to build roads. So the village began to drift with the road. For example, in Beixia village, people from all villages flocked to the straight roads to build houses, and those ancient villages were drifting away. Thought of here, I suddenly a little nervous. It is not the highway that has changed the countryside beyond recognition. Expressway does not belong to rural areas, rural farmers, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese. The highway belongs to cars, and the wheels are rolling. Although the highway crosses the countryside and cuts the countryside at will, it is only a new landscape of the countryside, relatively independent and closed, and misplaced with the countryside. The provincial highway is different. It also belongs to the automobile world, because it allows farmers, cows, sheep, chickens, geese and ducks to come up with an open attitude. This is undoubtedly a great temptation. Especially those of us who go out to work, are used to fast lanes, wide roads and streets. The relative convenience of transportation makes us want to move. Isn't the disappearance and drift of the natural village in Beixia Village lured by the convenience of that straight highway? A country road still has a great temptation, and the magic of a provincial road leading directly to the outside world can be imagined. With the construction of provincial roads, the rural roads in Beixia Village will become shabby and miserable, and even be cut into many gullies by rain, like an abandoned old straw rope. This new village, Beixia Village, is also facing cold and desolation. It is not very lively in itself, because the young people in the village are making a living outside. The new village will be stillborn before it can be expanded and developed. During this period, I received many phone calls from fellow villagers. They said to make money quickly and build a house on a wider road. Even my children are in a hurry to move. Dad, where do you suggest to build a house by the roadside? I seem to see the village drifting in the near future again.
The village in my hometown is changing and drifting away from the village. Waves of the wind, like leaves on a tree, fall and float to one place and then to another. The leaves themselves do not know where they will fall. Maybe it won't stop at all, and it will be rolled up by another gust of wind. The village in my hometown is the memory of our wandering hearts. Memory is a stubborn thing, which often freezes at a certain moment. For example, I am walking on the way out of the mountain with my backpack on my back. I turned around and saw the smoke on the roof, the seedlings in the field, the fish in the pond and the geese and ducks on the water. When I came back one day, I dug up my deep memories. In contrast, everything in sight is not everything in memory, so sadness happens. Hometown is changing, quietly and unstoppable, bit by bit. Sadly, one day, I returned to my hometown, but I didn't recognize my hometown, thinking that I had come to a strange land.