My lovely hometown prose
We met the old couple in Zhang Xiu Village. It's an extremely dilapidated and closed small mountain village. There is only a narrow dirt road leading to the village. The road surface is badly damaged and pitted, so the driver can only drive at snail speed. Along the way, our companions followed the dust behind the car, leaving silent, bare and terrible stone mountains on both sides. It was already noon when we arrived at the village. The old man's home is at the entrance of the village, an extremely old house with no simple fence around it. Below the window of the house is an adobe stove. The old man was cooking, and when he saw us from afar, he said happily, "Go home and sit down." As we approached, the old man pointed to the foremost age and said with a smile, "Oh, look at my eyes, I still regard her as my granddaughter, thinking that she has come back. What do you do? Just eat at my house. "
I have never seen him before, and we were warmly received at his home for dinner. This enthusiasm really flattered me, and I couldn't help looking at the old man and his home carefully: the old man was wearing a faded and outdated gray tunic suit and a pair of flat shoes. Bronzed face, a pair of deep-set eyes but full of vitality, big mouth when talking, teeth are almost falling out. The wall behind the house is a thick earth wall, and the window is still in the old-fashioned small lattice style, covered with a layer of wool paper, and the pot on the stove under the window is steaming.
The old man talked enthusiastically with us and tried his best not to let us eat at his house. At this time, an invitation came from the cabin behind him: "Come in and sit down." A group of us went into the old man's hut.
The room is dimly lit, the ceiling of the house is damaged, the blackened sorghum stalks are exposed outside, the furnishings in the house are extremely simple, and there are few electrical appliances. There is only one TV squatting alone on the table, and the desktop has faded its original color, but it is spotless. This is a simple but clean hut. It can be seen that they have lived here for a long time. When the old woman sitting on the edge of the kang saw us coming in, she warmly greeted us to sit down and explained, "I can't move my legs, so I can only sit on the edge of the kang and roll my noodles." Sit down! Let's eat at my house today. If it is not enough, I will do it again! "
"That is, they are all Yushe people. Just eat at my house, and there is nothing delicious. " The old man who made a fire outside the house once again kept us.
Obviously, the old man has regarded us as his own relatives. Looking at two elderly people over eighty, I can't help but be deeply moved, and a warm current surges from the bottom of my heart. I seem to see their seemingly poor but extremely rich hearts beating vigorously.
Perhaps in the eyes of those who are more and more sophisticated by modern civilization, the sentence "All people from Yushe" seems a little pale, but I know that what is revealed in this sentence is the feelings of old people who regard passers-by as relatives. The two old people in front of me are like a fire, which ignited my desire for warmth between people and melted the hard ice accumulated in my heart bit by bit.
I suddenly remembered an experience of my friend. It was last year that a group of friends got together to climb Wuyun Mountain and got lost. They met a family with an old couple. At that time, the old couple took out the only honey at home to entertain a group of friends, and then took them out of the ravine overnight. This matter has touched his friends so far. He said that in today's increasingly indifferent human feelings, he didn't expect anyone to touch him. I wonder how my friend would feel if he were here today.
Because we didn't give up the warmth, we sat in the old man's hut for a long time before leaving. Mr. Su, a colleague, is a particularly emotional person, and he has been chanting good things about the two old people since he came back.
The retention of two old people made our trip full of warmth, and another old man we met at the entrance of the village moved us even more.
Before we went to Zhang Xiu, we learned that there was a tomb of Qi Jiguang in the village. Although it is only a legend, we still want to see it, but we can't find it after walking around the village. Later, we heard from the villagers left behind that it was on the mountain outside the village, and they didn't know where it was. Looking up, we can see the mountains around us. Where should I find such a big mountain?
We are lost because of expectation. When we were dejected and ready to leave the village, we met an old man who was too old by the river at the entrance of the village. The old man is coming back from the field, covered in dust, but hale and hearty. When he saw us, there was a kind smile on his face. As soon as he heard that he was looking for Qi Jiguang's tomb, he enthusiastically pointed it out to us. Later, when he saw us, he still didn't understand, so he simply said, "Why don't I show you around?" Hearing this, we almost jumped up with joy, but on second thought, it was already noon, and this trip was bound to delay the old man's going home for dinner. However, the old man immediately dismissed our concerns. "Not far, you can catch up when you come back for dinner." So, we quickly helped the old man into the car and followed the old man's instructions to a clearing outside the village.
The old man stood on a relatively flat stone, pointed to the surrounding mountains, and enthusiastically told us the legendary "Phoenix Mountain, with a headrest and a hand to support the mountain". Feet in Huanglongwa, wearing an old fish bend. "The story. The old man told us that the place where he is standing now is the legendary cemetery of Qi Jiguang. The mountain behind the cemetery is Phoenix Mountain, the mountain in front is Huanglongwa, the mountain on his left is Pengjia Mountain, and the place where the tomb is built is Laoyuwan. Legend has it that this cemetery was chosen by the emperor himself as a treasure trove of geomantic omen, but as for whether Qi Jiguang was really buried here later, he didn't know, and there were no descendants named Qi in their village. I look around this overgrown land. There is no trace of a cemetery here, or even a decent mound. It seems that Qi Jiguang's tomb is really just a legend. But this legend is his deepest memory of the old man in front of him. I turned my eyes to the old man again ... The old man's eyes sparkled with excitement, telling the distant story endlessly, and sometimes using body language to help express it. It can be seen that he is telling us everything he knows. The old man in front of me has become an all-powerful veteran, pointing out the maze.
We listened attentively and remembered carefully with a pen. The old man asks us from time to time if we have recorded it, for fear that we have missed something. After that, he pointed to a clearing and said regretfully, "There used to be an archway in this place. I used to come to play when I was a child. Unfortunately, I don't mention it now, and even the stone bars that built it are gone. " Then I looked up into the distance ... the old man's face full of regrets and vicissitudes will always be engraved in my heart. ...
Since it was past noon, we asked the driver to send the old man back quickly. The old man refused to live or die: "If you send me specially, you don't have to. The village is not far away, so hurry back, or you will miss lunch. " This is our lovely hometown! Regardless of the reward, he showed us the way enthusiastically and told us everything, but he was still thinking about us when he was hungry. Perhaps in the old man's mind, we are never outsiders, but his neighbors. Qi Jiguang's tomb is gone, and the ancient village is gone, but the kindness and strong neighborhood friendship of the people here have never been far away.
We forced the old man into the car, but we repeatedly pushed him out of the car, but our old man raised his arm and wiped his red eyes in the car ... We could see that the old man was very moved. In fact, we should be moved. We watched the old man drive away, and the sun shone on the roof, forming a halo that looked like Buddha's light.