Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 4

In the scorching summer, the riverside is the coolest place to escape the heat.Under the shade of willows, the cool breeze is blowing, and the slender and soft willows are blowing on the river surface, drawing irregular ripples, which make people have endless imaginations; the clear river flows quietly and slowly, jumping into the river to swim Water battles can dispel the heat, and it is even more comfortable to lie on the sandy grass under the shade of willows after swimming.

The fish sank to the bottom of the water, but the old turtles in the river poked their heads out, showing their triangular heads on the undisturbed river surface, as if they were spying on the outside world.

Those who are bold will climb up the slope to dry their nails.Once it heard the sound, it stretched out its long neck and pushed it to the ground, then rolled sideways into the water.The children can only look at the turtle and sigh.

Liu Xiaonan loved swimming and fishing since she was a child. She would sit by the river for half a day, occasionally catching an old turtle and selling it for a few dollars.

The mine where my father works is close to the sea, and he can buy hooks and fishing lines. If he is happy, he will buy some back for him.It was a real fishhook with an inverted thorn, and the fish would not be able to run away once it bit the hook.Unlike other small partners, the fishhook is made by sewing needles. It is baked on the fire and bent into a "7" shape. The fish often dehooks.

He likes fishing because he is not good at playing with a slingshot. Liu Qishun can shoot more than a dozen birds a day with a slingshot, and roast them on the fire to eat.He played with the slingshot for several years without shooting a single bird, and since then he has thrown away the slingshot and picked up the fishing rod.

The school is on summer vacation, and Liu Xiaonan has time to fish.Early in the morning, he dug up a dozen red earthworms, picked up a fishing rod made of cotton locust trees, and brought Gu Yu to the river. He wanted to catch some big fish for Gu Yu.But after fishing for most of the day, only a few small white striped fish were caught. It seems that the situation is not optimistic.

Holding the small white strips strung on wicker sticks in his hand, Gu Yu said disappointedly, "Didn't you say you could catch catfish, carp and old turtle?"

Liu Xiaonan put away the fishing rod and said, "Catfish, carp, old turtles are afraid of you, so they are hiding."

"I'm that scary? Are you afraid of me?"

"I'm afraid! I'm afraid you won't lend me the book."

"It's good to know. However, today is a waste of time."

"No, if you can't catch fish, I'll catch river crabs for you."

Gu Yu didn't really believe it, but still followed Liu Xiaonan to a river bend downstream.The river here is rushing and swirling, and such places often hide big guys.

Liu Xiaonan took off her clothes and jumped into the river. It took a long time to show her head, holding a big river crab with hairy legs in her hand.He swam to the shore and tied it with three-edged grass, and handed it to Gu Yu.

Gu Yu took the crab and jumped up and down happily: "How did you catch it?"

Liu Xiaonan wiped the water from his face and said, "Crabs dig holes in the bottom of the river, and when you find the holes, dig in and you can catch them."

Liu Xiaonan dived into the water again, but not every time he got something.He dived at the bottom of the river with his eyes closed, and blindly groped with his hands near the embankment at the bottom of the river. Sometimes the breath from the crab hole in the river was not enough, so he had to remember the approximate position and float up to take a breath.

His physical strength was gradually exhausted, and he caught nine river crabs in a row before climbing ashore.

Gu Yu held the river crab spitting out bubbles in his hand, and said cheerfully, "I caught so many, it's enough for the two of us to have a full meal."

Liu Xiaonan stood in the sun to dry her underpants, and she could only put on her clothes and go home when the underpants were dry.He said: "I don't eat it. I can eat it whenever I want. You take it home and let your mother steam it. It's fat and fragrant."

Gu Yuduan measured Liu Xiaonan's broad-shouldered and thin-waisted figure, and asked curiously, "I don't think you like sports very much at school, why are you so good at water?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "Don't mention it, I almost drowned in the river when I was young."

When she was five years old, Liu Xiaonan went to play by the river with a group of older children including the old Jia’s fourth brother from the east courtyard.The older children took off their clothes and jumped into the river one by one, but the fourth brother asked him to sit on the bank and watch over the clothes.

Sitting alone for a while, he felt very boring.Seeing the big brothers swimming in the water and fighting in the water, shouting and yelling very lively, he took off his clothes and jumped into the river with greed, and then he didn't know anything.

Later, I heard from my mother that the fourth brother looked ashore by chance, but he was nowhere to be seen, so he hurriedly looked around.But he saw two little hands flopping about on the river not far away, and he swam quickly to fish him out of the water.

The man was saved, but he was scared out of his soul.For several days in a row, he sat on the small bench all day long, staring at each other without saying a word, eating whenever he was offered, and would not know that he was hungry if he was not given.

Grandma was frightened and asked her mother to go to the river to call him Huner.Grandma said that his soul was taken away by the drowned ghost in the river.

Holding him with one hand, his mother slapped the bamboo pole on the river with the other, calling out his name loudly, and let his soul go home with his body.In this way, after calling Hun'er continuously for more than half a month, his mental head slowly returned to normal.

Liu Xiaonan talked about this dangerous matter in a normal way, but Gu Yu shed tears, touched the back of Liu Xiaonan's head and said, "Aren't you stupid! You jumped into the river when you were young, and almost lost a little writer. "

Liu Xiaonan asked: "What is a writer?"

Gu Yu said: "He is someone who can write books. The books we read are all written by writers."

Liu Xiaonan smiled: "Don't tease me, it's so easy to be a writer? I can't be a writer."

Gu Yu insisted: "I said if you can become one, then you will be."

Liu Xiaonan usually doesn't like to talk, but when she is with her, especially when discussing books, she will become another person again.

She didn't quite understand "How the Steel Was Tempered", especially the names of the people were too long to remember, and she couldn't bear to read it after reading halfway through.After reading it, Liu Xiaonan told her about the friendship between Paul and Dongia and why it could not stand the test of time.

Gu Yu felt that this rural boy's thinking and vision were quite different from others, and it was quite in tune with him to study, read and play.She felt that he had good reason for his reticence, since no one could talk to him except herself.Inevitably, some girls are full of self-satisfaction and complacency. In the heart of a 13-year-old girl who is more knowledgeable than her peers, she takes it for granted that she can become a writer.

Inadvertently, Gu Yu sowed a seed in Liu Xiaonan's heart, engraving the imprint of a writer.It's just that at this time, his heart is barren and covered with weeds, which will take several years to take root.

The pants on her body were still half dry, so Liu Xiaonan put on the pants and walked home with Gu Yu.Gu Yu asked Liu Xiaonan: "You almost drowned, how did you learn how to swim?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "After that accident, my mother forbade me to play by the river again. After about two years, I felt that the more people who almost drowned, the more they should learn to swim, otherwise they would be sorry for themselves.

"I practiced secretly in shallow water at first, and then I tried to swim in deep water after I practiced well. At first I learned to dog-plan, and later I learned to breaststroke and backstroke. I held my breath for a long time, otherwise I would not have dived to the bottom to catch river crabs. .

"I practiced hard for a summer, and in the second summer, I decided to show my mother. My mother went to the river to wash clothes, and I followed quietly, took off my clothes and jumped into the river behind my mother.

"My mother's face was so frightened that she jumped into the water with her shoes on and tried to pull me ashore, but the water was too deep to reach me, so she stretched out her hands and begged me to come up quickly.

"I waved to my mother and plunged into the water. I could hear my mother yelling in the water. I showed my head more than 20 meters away and smiled happily at my mother.

"Mom just breathed a sigh of relief, I plunged into the water again, swam towards the direction where my mother was standing, and poked my head out in front of my mother. My mother smiled and slapped me, and since then I have no restrictions I swam."

Gu Yu admired: "It's really you, and it's a very good narrative if you just tell me one thing."

Liu Xiaonan said proudly: "At school, I can't run or jump, but in the river, they are all defeated by me."

Gu Yu said: "I really want to catch river crabs with you, when will you teach me how to swim?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "Come on, I dare not teach you how to swim. My father never allowed me to play with you. If I let him know that I took you to swim in the river, he would beat me to death. If you want to eat river crab, I will give it to you." Grasp."

"My father doesn't care about me, why does your father control you so strictly?"

"I don't know, I'm afraid of him anyway."

"Let's act in secret and keep your father from knowing."

"That's not okay, you are a city girl, I can't afford to pay for anything."

"What could happen? You don't have to pay for anything."

Seeing Gu Yu's firm attitude, Liu Xiaonan knew that she couldn't hold her back, so she thought of a story her father once told him.Dad tried to scare him with that story and keep him from swimming in the river.

He added more details and repeated it to Gu Yu: "The ancestors of our old Liu family moved here from Shandong. Three brothers came here, and one of them settled in Stone Buddha Temple, which is about 30 miles away from us. Most of the younger generations farmed land. Only one family makes a living by crossing the sea.

"One day my father took two sons to the sea in a small boat. The eldest son was the best at water. He dived into the bottom of the sea first to see if there were any valuable seafood. After waiting for a stick of incense, the eldest son did not come up. However, a huge black shadow appeared on the seabed under the side of the boat, as big as the roof of your house.

"The father realized that the eldest son might be in danger, so he tied a rope around his waist and handed the other end to the second son, and said: 'When I pull the rope, you pull me up. If it doesn't work, It means that I am also in danger, and your brother and I are both killed. You don’t have to take risks to save me and your brother, you can’t save it, throw the rope and row ashore quickly, and don’t go into the sea again.’

"The old father dived into the sea and came up after a while. He hurriedly climbed onto the boat, trembling with fright. Guess what, the black shadow under the sea is a giant crab spirit, with eyes as big as light bulbs, and two big crabs. The pliers were as thick and long as an electric pole, and one pliers held his eldest son, and the other held a large copper anchor.

"After a long time, the black shadow under the boat disappeared. The old father dived into the sea again, and he found that the crab spirit was gone, and his eldest son was gone, leaving only a big copper anchor. The crab spirit used a copper The anchor traded for one of his sons.

"He and his second son salvaged the copper anchor, sold it for a little money, bought a few acres of land, and never dared to venture into the sea again."

Gu Yu listened with gusto, but was frightened at the same time, without blinking his eyes, subconsciously grabbed Liu Xiaonan's sleeve with one hand.Seeing Liu Xiaonan grinning and snickering again, she came to her senses and twisted his ears and said, "Okay, scare me with a bad story, I think you don't want to borrow books anymore."

Gu Yu's threat was immediate, Liu Xiaonan thought for a while and said, "Well, I'll take you to play a more interesting game, fishing for dragonflies."

There is a large pond full of reeds and cattails by the river, and groups of green dragonflies fly around the edge of the pond.Liu Xiaonan used a spider web to catch a female dragonfly in advance, tied the connection between the dragonfly's tail and body with a thin cotton thread, and tied the other end to a small wooden stick that was one foot long.

Standing by the pond, he saw a dragonfly flying over and released the female dragonfly in his hand. When the male dragonfly saw it, he would fly over and wrap around the female dragonfly.Put the small wooden stick in your hand on the ground, cover the pair of dragonflies with both hands along the thin cotton thread, and you can easily catch a green dragonfly.

Gu Yu gently pinched the dragonfly's wings with his fingers, and watched the green dragonfly's big head turn around curiously.There were more and more dragonflies in her hand, and she asked Liu Xiaonan, "It's so strange, how can a female dragonfly catch so many male dragonflies?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "The male dragonfly is stupid."

"How do you know it's male or female?"

Liu Xiaonan pointed to the junction of the dragonfly's tail and belly and said, "The flat part is the female, and the bulging part is the male."

Gu Yu opened her eyes wide and blushed slightly: "How do you know?"

Liu Xiaonan explained foolishly: "I was figuring it out myself. I used to catch dragonflies flying on their backs. A male and a female are connected end to end, and the body folds and flies like a small plane. After I caught it, I found that it was always a dragonfly. The strong one is thin, and the strong one flies with the thin one, I think the strong one is the male dragonfly.”

"The things you think about are different from others." Gu Yu raised his hand, let all the dragonflies fly in the air, and said angrily, "It's not fun, you have to teach me how to swim."

(End of this chapter)