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one
Laojing is at the easternmost end of the small mountain village in her hometown. The villagers affectionately called her "Dajing", and the wellhead was thick enough to fall into a cow. Well water is clear and sweet, no matter how dry it is, it will always be so prosperous. Water flows down from the mountains in the south. When I was a child, my friends and I liked to look down at the wellhead. I saw four or five heads rippling in the water. In the blink of an eye, it is as thick as chopsticks, and it is still bubbling and rippling.
In my memory, the west side of the old well is an open flat land, while the east side of the well is a square water tower made of slate. According to my elders, when I was in an agricultural society, the production team pumped water into this big water tower for everyone to use. After going it alone, the water tower is idle. My friends and I climbed up and down the water tower all day, fighting and often losing our shoes.
Next to the north side of the old well, there is a bowl-shaped stone trough that can hold a bucket of water. The villagers drew water by the well, and as soon as they turned around, they poured the water in the bucket into the stone trough smoothly, and the donkeys and horses drank water.
When the agricultural cooperative was founded, this open space on the west side of the old well was the place where the village members gathered. Every morning, the sun comes out early and shines on the western wall. Two planes were shoveled out of the rammed earth wall, then plastered with cement and painted with ink, which made two big blackboards. Yang Zeng is a person who can write and draw in the village. He drew a picture of Red Sun and the great leader Chairman Mao on one blackboard, and the captain of the other blackboard used it to record homework scores.
Every morning, members with sleepy eyes and empty stomachs raise their fists here and ask the Red Sun for instructions early, saying, "Chairman Mao, today we are going to mow the grass." Or: "Chairman Mao, today we are going to plow and grind the ground, and today we are going to plant 30 ridges of hemp ..."
Grandma hates the dirty water in the water tower. Every morning, when my little grandson, who is less than one year old, is still awake, he gingerly carries a bucket to fetch water. As soon as a bucket of water came up, those members plunged into it, scrambling to put their mouths against the bucket and have a sip of water to wash their faces. In a flash, a bucket of water was fiddled with, and grandma smiled and whispered:
Captain, you ruined my water, too ... "
Jin Tie is the village leader. He lifted his skirt with one hand and wiped the water off his face. The other hand waved like a chicken: "Let's go to work quickly …" Then she grabbed the well rope bucket from grandma and filled it with water three or two times. Shovel, shovel, hoe, thump, members flocked to the ground, and the old well was calm again. Occasionally, water drops fall from the wellhead into the well, making a "click-"sound, which is long and long.
Animals in "agricultural society" are all raised collectively, but they are all raised. Either the sheep or the donkey died, and sometimes even the cow died. The meat was killed by the old well as usual. When it was flushed with well water, it was divided equally by the well in the village. Once Jinbao was in charge of sharing meat, and it was my aunt's turn to share it. I had to share it with others, because the meat I had already shared was already cooked. Cousin is quick-talking, asking how to divide the golden meat. Jintie is famous for his good temper: "Divide it next time, divide it next time." It has been cited as a joke so far. A cow died in the production team and the beef was divided equally. Cowhide made my uncle soak in the big waterlogged dam in the slippery ditch for ten days, so it was soft and covered with a big drum. The surrounding villages have the largest number of cowhide drums. In the first month of the social fire, Fu Yuan, who was as thin as a monkey, had a round hammer.
two
In the south of the old well, there is a very high platform. On the platform is a small field, and my home is next to the field. If someone asks you which village you are from, I will say which village you are from. Whose house is in the village? I told you this was a bystander. So the questioner said "Oh" and seemed to understand.
One year at noon on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, my mother went to the backyard to fill the hole with a big belly and a basket. As a result, she went to the apple tree in the backyard and suddenly had abdominal pain. She can't get up under the tree. Grandma heard the news and helped her to the cold hut, so I was born.
My mother gave birth to me just before I was born and earned work points every day. Grandma takes care of me at home, grinding her tangled little feet, and can't be idle for a moment. Grandma is a widow. When she was in her thirties, her grandfather went out and was killed by robbers in a stone gorge in liangdang county. At that time, her father was only a teenager.
Grandma put up with hardships and raised five children. She is old. A few years ago, she was able to do some work in the peasant association to earn points. Later, she carried water to feed pigs at home and did housework. Grandma's pole is very smooth. This pole was handed down from grandpa and has been carried on grandma's shoulders for decades.
As long as I can remember, I was separated when I was three years old. One family went to Xinjiang, and my father bought his manor, which is next to my grandmother's house and separated by another in-laws. I often pass by my grandmother's house with my rice bowl to see if anyone is idle by the old well.
In my memory, from 1980 to 1990, it was the last golden age of the old well.
As usual, the members who have eaten will be in twos and threes, with men carrying hemp ropes and hemp rope poles, and women holding soles or holding children and chewing milk, consciously gathering in the open space on the west side of the well and spreading around. On the north side of the well, there lived a family alone. The wife of this family has a loud voice, and of course she is indispensable at this time. She giggled and sometimes ran out with a rice bowl and stood in front of a bunch of men with a fork. Anyone who marries a daughter-in-law will wear new clothes to "show his face" in the old well without her mother-in-law's orders.
If it comes to winter, according to the school regulations, the village will have lunch in the morning and evening, not dinner in the morning and evening. We all say "breakfast". After breakfast, it was late in the morning, lazily basking in the winter sun. At this time, all the men and women in the village are carrying water, leading the animals to fetch water from the old well and give them a drink. Whose daughter-in-law is handsome, whose boy is a loafer, whose mule, pony and donkey are strong, and whose donkey has given birth to a child, all become people's jokes, and the old well is very lively.
From the first day of the first month to the third day of the first month, women can't go to the well to draw water, for fear that women will cross the wellhead and offend the dragon king in the well. On the second day of New Year's Day, parents carry buckets, and children "go out" by the well with animals and fragrant horses. They call a bucket of water, light fragrant horses, insert incense on the wall on the west side of the old well, and pray for safe going out one year later. At this time, we can ignite the gun unscrupulously and throw it into the well when it is about to explode. Bang, the gun went off, especially after the explosion in the well. The old man also said happily that he would wake up the Dragon King in the well and let him bless the well every year.
My neighbor, the in-laws separated from my grandmother's house, is a big old village head and still has some prestige in the village. When I was five years old, during the Chinese New Year, he suggested that we set up a swing by the well and have a good time in the first month. There are many swings, but where did you get the rope? So I suggest that each family give two hemp ropes and lay some thick ropes as the assets of the team, which can be used in the future.
Soon, the hemp rope was collected, and the rope truck was greatly moved out of the house and stopped at the well. Several young people were running with twine, twisting and tightening the rope, and the rope carts creaked and sang cheerful songs. My friends and I all jumped around to join in the fun. In the warm winter, everyone quickly laid four thick hemp ropes, and the strong laborers in the village moved out a few rafters from the brigade yard and shouted songs one by one. It took only one day to build the swing.
The elders in the village, carrying incense boxes, respectfully burn incense horses and pray on the swing, so that the swing can be played.
This year, the old well was particularly lively. In addition to the villagers having fun, it also attracted people from neighboring villages. In Xiazhuang village near us, there was a half-partner madman named Quan Shan, who happened to go to the old well to swing with the boys in the village that year. Unable to stand the encouragement of a group of people, Quan Shan climbed on the swing and swung leisurely. The madman got bold, and the swing went higher and higher. When he pushed it up, he was even with the pole of the swing. At first glance, he was very nervous. If this madman can't catch his hand and throw it out, it will be terrible. When he was stopped, Quan Shan got off the swing, his smile became stiff and his face turned white.
I have an uncle who is born a "soft egg" and can only lie in bed all his life. At first, he could move to my house with a stick and watch the lively scene by the old well from a distance. Later, he accidentally fell off the edge of the court and was seriously injured. His face is swollen like a big basketball. His aunt called her a new mother and dragged me and my little friend to drink detoxification water for my uncle. In the first month of this year, my uncle listened to the noise of gongs and drums outside and heard that there was a swing by the old well. He was so itchy that he climbed into the alley desperately and begged passers-by to carry him to the old well, but the villagers ignored him. When my mother was going out to bask in the sun by the old well and spread the story, my uncle begged her. My mother was soft-hearted and went to the old well with her uncle behind her back in the laughter of others. Several women let her uncle sit on the swing, which satisfied her wish.
In the first month, Lao Jing will light a social fire as usual. On the eighth day of the first month, we will light a social fire and play for seven days on the fifteenth day of the first month. The elders in the village burned incense horses by the old well with incense horse trays, and then went to Laotian and Xintian to walk around the village. Every family breaks up happily.
three
When the spring breeze of reform and opening up reached this remote mountain village, it was already 1980. The agricultural cooperative was dissolved and started to go it alone again. All the animals in the agricultural cooperative were assigned to each household, but many people died in the agricultural cooperative, and the points were not enough, so several families were assigned to one family, and the three of us were assigned to "two mules".
In the production team, the old horse got off three mules, called big mule, second mule and third mule respectively. The big mule has a bad temper; Although the mule has a big skeleton, it is skinny and looks older than its mother. Only two mules are the most "winners" Although they are not tall, they are black and fat, which makes them very attractive.
At dinner that day, I was very happy to hear my parents say that there were two mules at home and asked me to drive them to the old well to drink. Every family has ten days in a month. I look forward to the stars and the moon, and I look forward to my turn to raise two mules. Two mules always bullied me when I was a child, so my mother asked me to take a long wicker and drive to the old well from far away. Even so, my leg was kicked several times. Fortunately, the second mule had a good heart and didn't really kick it, otherwise my life would be gone.
Sometimes there is no water in the stone trough near the old well, so I drive two mules to the river to drink. One day, suddenly my father came home with a donkey. When I asked, it turned out that three families used one animal, which was not enough. So I sold two mules and divided the money among the three families. My father added some money and bought a donkey.
This donkey has a good temper. I drive it to the stone trough and the river to drink water every day. At first, I led it. After a long time, it knew the way, so I chased after it. It never kicks people, never runs around and is not afraid of cars on the side of the road. It is very obedient. Mother pulled the flatbed car up the hill and drove it in the shaft, not wanting anyone to lead it. It goes wherever she tells it to go. This donkey has been in my family for more than 20 years. At the most difficult time in my family life, I gave birth to three Xiao Lv cubs. Finally, I was too old to chew grass, so I couldn't keep it anymore. My father had to sell it. My mother couldn't bear to part with it when she sold it, and secretly shed tears behind the door. I didn't go to school when I bought it, but I was in college when I sold it. When I came home from Lanzhou, I learned that the old donkey was sold and went in and out of the donkey pen several times, and my heart was also uncomfortable.
When I first went it alone, the water in the old well was still so prosperous, but after going it alone, everyone was busy making a living. There were fewer and fewer people gossiping around the old well, and the flat land on the west side of the old well became more and more empty. The villagers poured donkey dung here to "fill the pit" (the material for burning kang).
Villagers who don't want to be poor anymore have begun to plan to go to other places to fight for Xinzhuangyuan. This "Zhuangda Movement" started from the lonely families near the old well.
There was a flat plot in the west of the village, so the residents next to the old well first built a manor in the plot, which was big and bright and moved away from the old well.
My dad bought this Zhuangzi courtyard, and the feng shui is not very good. After moving in, my father broke his leg, my mother was always sick, and all kinds of unknown moths often flew at home. The old people called it a "ghost slave", so my father also wanted to build a new champion. However, in that open space, my family was only allocated three points in a long strip, so it was impossible to build a new yard. So my father tried to change a piece of land from my uncle's house, so when I was in the fourth grade of primary school, my family moved to Xinzhuang.
Soon, seven or eight other households hit Xinzhuang, moved to the flat land in the west of the village, and left the old well far away in the east of the village. I have to walk from the west of the village to the east for five or six minutes to get water from my new home to the old well.
Alone, people are busy making a living. Even in winter, fewer and fewer people enjoy the sunshine, and the old well is getting quieter and quieter, without the laughter and laughter of the past. When I was at school, I occasionally passed by the old well, and sometimes I couldn't help running to the well to look in. As always, the holes on the south side of the shaft wall still burst, causing ripples.
four
At the end of 1980, the weather was particularly dry, and the water in the old well suddenly disappeared. First, put down the bucket according to the original well rope, so the water can't reach the surface. Then the villagers took a piece from the well rope and came out of the water. Looking into the well, the ripples on the water surface disappeared, the water was getting less and less, and there was a fishy smell, so I stopped drinking mules and horses.
With the help of his uncle, the village organized several strong laborers to go down to the bottom of the well and found a lot of dirt, stones and the rotting body of a dead cat-that's why mules and horses don't drink well water. The old man in the village said that animals have smart noses and people are not as good as animals!
The fourth master is called Genchang, who is mainly responsible for digging underground. I was too young to go down to the bottom of the well at one o'clock, so I watched by the well. Grandpa four shouted at the bottom of the well, but he didn't find any holes in the south wall. According to him, there is only a hole as thin as a mat in the north of the well, which is only enough for several families to use.
His uncle kept chanting by the well. According to feng shui, this water should flow down from Nanshan. How can it come from the north? Is it the water seeping from the North River? Everyone in the village can't figure it out.
So many people in the village began to find a way to find a teacher of Yin and Yang to see if there was a place to drill wells near their manor. In the past, the villagers said that it was more important to drink water to save lives than to drill wells in Zhuangyuan. Some residents first dug wells in the champion, such as my neighbor, but in the west of the village, the water was not as strong as that in the east. Some people also dig wells, but there is no water.
A few years passed like this. When I was a sophomore, my father said, I'm throwing caution to the wind. I play in the garden near the village, and I can make money by pumping water. If I can't pump water, I'll pitch the tent again. So in the first month of that year, we drew a circle in the garden and began to drill wells.
Father hung the soil in the well, and my second brother and I took turns digging under it. Digging a well is a technical job as well as a bending job. In the well, I can only squat, the cat is hunched, a small basket is placed under my crotch, and I slowly dig with a small shovel. Then I stand up, put the basket on my head and shake the rope, and my father hangs on it and falls to one side. It took about ten days to dig down inch by inch. When it is about 70 or 80 feet deep, the sand layer is wet. Everyone expected that if we were lucky and the sand layer was deep, there would be water, but only two feet later, the sand layer was exhausted and a hard red soil layer appeared.
The hard red soil feels wet, but its hardness is beyond people's imagination. The shovel can only dig a little, and it can't dig two or three feet a day. We kept digging for three days before we dug less than one meter deep. We were completely disappointed and gave up completely.
I took a look at the dry well, but my mother was most disappointed. She gets up early every day to fetch water from the old well, but when she is late, she can only pump half a bucket.
There is less and less water in the old well. One day, a woman in the village accidentally dropped a shoe while fetching water. Looking down from the wellhead, the shoes didn't sink, but floated on the well surface, so she took a bamboo basket, tied it to the well rope, and put it down for fishing. Shoes were salvaged, and the well water was even less prosperous.
The elders in the village said that the shoes fell into the well, collided with the Dragon King and washed him away!
Many families in the village have no water to eat, so they choose buckets to beg for water from people who dig wells. It's okay to carry two loads, three loads and four loads. I'm embarrassed myself! This is not a long-term solution! So his uncle and several of them went to the old well again, but this time, they were even sadder. The smell of the old well is lighter, there is no hole, only water seeps from the wall.
The old well has been scoured, and the well water just scoured is still muddy. Covered with plastic bags by villagers, you have to "lie" for seven days. After seven days, the water was "put down" and several families could barely eat. However, Lao Jing is really unfortunate. A beekeeper in Sichuan put bees on the northern floodplain and went to the old well to get water every day. He didn't know that the well he had just dug was going to lie down, and the villagers forgot to tell him. Beekeepers picked up plastic sheets to pump water the next day, and the water in the old well never recovered to clear. The pumped water is always white and does not become clear until it is precipitated.
Maybe this is the fate of the old well People in the village don't blame bees, so the days passed day by day in the white well.
five
Grandma is like this old well, getting older every day, but still carrying water by herself. During the winter and summer vacations, I went to see my grandmother, talked to her, helped her draw water from the well, printed tickets for her and burned them for my grandfather who died in his early years.
Grandma wrapped her feet. When the sun is shining in summer, I help her fetch water. She cleaned the urinal and poured well water in the sun. The sun was warm and she swallowed. Then she untied her feet layer by layer, revealing her pointed deformed feet. The little finger and toe were squeezed into the soles of her feet. Can walking be painless?
Grandma's foot scraper is old and dull. She scraped off layers of old scabs on her feet with difficulty. Later, I polished two foot scrapers for her with a hacksaw. They are so sharp that grandma can't tell how much she likes them.
Grandma was widowed in her thirties and brought up three men and two women, which was miserable. She was always worried about her dead grandfather, and sometimes she was flustered, so she scooped up water from an enamel cup and held a ticket. In the dark, she asked me to accompany her to the old well to burn paper money.
As far as I can remember, grandpa has been dead for more than ten years, but every time I burn a ticket, grandma will cry sadly, saying that she is crying for grandpa, but she is actually crying for her own sadness. Her three sons are married and so are her two daughters. Grandma's life is not as good as Chinese medicine!
I knelt on one side, holding her arm with me until grandma finished crying, and I helped her to go home slowly.
1995, when I was in senior three, I went home in winter vacation. As usual, I visited the old well to see how it was. Alas! In recent years, the villagers' life is getting better and better, but the old well has completely declined. Its east is covered with Artemisia capillaris, and the open space in the west is no longer flat and dusty. The well wall is covered with black moss, but the well surface is calm, but it is a stagnant pool. The water is covered with a layer of turbidity, so it is inedible.
Many people in the village want to dig wells, and my family really can't help it. My mother will go to this house to carry buckets today and go to that house to carry loads tomorrow, which is also very difficult.
After seeing the old well, I went to see my grandmother, who was not there. Third Aunt said that she had gone to menstruation's house, and I didn't know when she would come back, so I was unhappy.
It was the thirteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, and an old man in his eighties died in the village. I went to help others write obituaries and print tickets, and the old man was buried the next day. When I got home, I put my shovel at the gate and prepared to go to the cemetery to help the next morning.
I slept until midnight when someone slammed the door and I woke up from my dream. It's impossible to bury a person so early. But it was the third aunt's voice: "I came to see his grandmother, and her sister sent her down the mountain ..." When my mother heard that things were not good, she put on her clothes and ran to her grandmother's house, urging my father to get dressed and hurry over. I followed my mother and rushed to my grandmother, who was unconscious and so weak.
It turned out that grandma went out to live with her elder sister-in-law for more than a month and suddenly fell ill at night. Grandma closed her eyes forever when her elder sister-in-law sent her back to her hometown.
Grandma left before I could have a word with her.
Grandma is gone, and my life in this old well is basically over. From college to work, only when I go home, or occasionally or deliberately come to the well to have a look, and then leave silently.
Laojing's life is also like grandma's life, from youth to old age and then to death. Lao Jing selflessly contributed his sweet well water to the villagers, just like a mother feeding her children with milk, and supported generations of villagers. But the old well can't hide from the day of death after all.
The villagers basically moved to the west of the village, and few people left this road to go to the old well. The old well is even more lonely, and those once lively are gone. Wormwood, which is one person tall in summer, shivers in the cold wind in winter, giving out strong or slight swish sounds, like sighing and crying.
six
Grandma's death made me believe that there really is a soul in this world, and all the good people in this world are blessed by God.
When winter comes, grandma spends the winter at her elder sister-in-law's house. One day, when she was washing her feet at her aunt's house, she said to herself, "This foot scraper is too old to be used. When my eldest grandson has a winter vacation, grind another one for me. "
But she left without waiting for me to come back.
The night grandma left, she suddenly wanted to relieve herself. She got up from the kang, went down to the ground and used the urinal to relieve herself. Before she got on the kang, she suddenly said to her elder sister-in-law, "Your father just asked me to come and take me away. I'm afraid I can't. Please send me to the third home under my feet! "
My elder sister-in-law was in a daze in her dream and complained to her grandmother, "What are you talking about? Come up and sleep, don't catch cold. " But at this time, grandma was too weak to get on the kang.
My elder sister-in-law was so scared that she didn't know what to do. She quickly woke up her uncle, who quickly set up a shelf car and sent her grandmother to her uncle's house overnight. When I entered the village, there was a small stone slope in my uncle's house. My aunt stopped the car, ran to knock on the door, knocked on the door and pulled the car. She gently lifted the quilt and asked her grandmother, "Mom, are you all right?"
Grandma "well" agreed, and his uncle opened the door and went in behind his back. Grandma said, "Are you at home?" Too many cooks helped her lie on the kang, and grandma closed her eyes, so weak that she gradually disappeared.
Grandma's dozen grandchildren have no time to come back, only my granddaughter Lan Xin and I are around. It hurts!
Grandma left, and one night I dreamed that grandma came in from the door trembling and asked me for a needle and thread, saying that she didn't have a needle and thread and wanted to make her own clothes. Grandma has been poor all her life. She doesn't have enough food and clothes to keep warm. She raised five children, but she didn't enjoy a day's rest ...
Grandma left, no matter in the morning or sunset, what was sprinkled on the old well was faint desolation. Every year or two, I will take time to go back to my hometown. Back home, I can't help but think of going to the ditch, to the old field and to the old well. At this time, the old well was so depressed that the original appearance could not be seen clearly, and the big slate around the well platform collapsed and deformed.
A plant called "Ma Xian" grows on the drilling platform. People accidentally touch its leaves, they will be stabbed, poisonous and itchy. I heard the old man say that it is necessary to wipe with the nose to detoxify.
I remember when I was a child, there were many red fruits on the small cliff next to the well platform. Later, I learned that it was the famous "Lycium barbarum". No one picked these red fruits, and they hung on the branches from autumn to winter. They are so dazzling in that barren wasteland.
Besides cranberries, there are wild grapes, which are sour and sweet. Only the ripe ones with deep purple in the red can be eaten, otherwise they are poisonous, but they dare not eat more for fear of poisoning. There is also an edible wild fruit growing in the wasteland beside the well. We call it "grandma's steamed bread" and can't eat more. However, after returning to the old well after the New Year, these small wild fruits can't be seen, which is probably the reason why the villagers moved away. Even the wild fruit lost its dependence and died. Only "Ma Xian" and wormwood as tall as one person are wild. As the original residents have moved away, the original high wall of the champion has gradually collapsed and weathered into a grotesque small mound.
The old well is so quiet. People in the village, such as Fu Yuan, who is skinny, and Ge Hu, who loves playing chess, have all gone to Xinjiang. There is no Fu Yuan in the village, and not many people can play drums. Later, I heard that Fu Yuan played drums very well and was famous in Xinjiang.
Without gongs and drums and swings, the prosperity that once belonged to it is gone forever. Even the big stone trough for drinking donkeys seems to be gone!
But at home, walking by this desolate well, grandma's footsteps still seem to reverberate there for a long time.
The old well has completely declined, perhaps because it has sent away too many simple villagers with bad karma like grandma. The old well can't stand the wind and frost of the years and the vicissitudes of the world. It is always silent, covered with weeds and moss.