Father's Land Mother's River

Chapter 6 Hazy Expectations

"Honghu Lake, the waves, the waves, the waves"

With the singing, no matter what Liu Xiaonan is doing, he has to obediently walk out of the house, follow the singing to the bank of the river, and meet Gu Yu.

It's already the second summer, and Gu Yu hasn't learned how to swim yet.Liu Xiaonan said she was stupid, she said Liu Xiaonan didn't know how to teach.

At first, Liu Xiaonan asked Gu Yu to learn from the simplest and most basic "dog planing" style.Gu Yu stood on the shore and asked Liu Xiaonan, who was standing in the shallow water, to demonstrate first.

Liu Xiaonan fell into the water, with her head raised upwards, her hands placed side by side under her body, like a dog's front legs bent forward and backward to dig the water, and her two legs straightened up and down to pump water vigorously, making a series of "plop, plop" There was the customary sound of splashing water, and there was a huge splash.

Although it is very hard, the movement is magnificent, but the speed is too slow.The body rises and falls together, like a soybean bug crawling (wriggling) on ​​the water.

Gu Yu lost his temper with a smile, bent down and pointed at Liu Xiaonan and said, "What's all this? It's so ugly, I don't want to learn this."

Standing in the waist-deep water, Liu Xiaonan said: "This is the best way to learn. You can put one foot on the bottom of the river, let your body half float, paddle with both hands, and slowly swim. I didn't That's how I learned it."

Gu Yu said, "Didn't I have you to teach me? I want to learn freestyle."

Liu Xiaonan's freestyle is not a standard swimming style either, it's a dirt road for a wild swim, no matter how hard it is.After demonstrating several times, Gu Yu took off her military uniform and went down into the water. Yang Xiaonan asked Yang Xiaonan to wrap her arms around her stomach, making her float on the water, and began gesticulating with each move.

Liu Xiaonan felt that girls in the city were different from girls in the countryside.Guan Xiaoyun wore a big vest and shorts when playing in the water, swimming like a butterfly floating on the water.Gu Yu was wearing a tight-fitting vest and shorts, her waist was thin and soft, her back was white like little white stripes, and her stomach was as slippery as holding a big catfish.

Sometimes, watching Gu Yu swim well, Liu Xiaonan would quietly let go of her hands, and when she saw Gu Yu's body sinking, she quickly picked her up again.He really didn't want to teach Gu Yu how to swim, so he bent over and hugged her belly, how tiring it would be.

After learning for two summers but failing to learn it, Liu Xiaonan felt a little slack. He said to Gu Yu, "Don't learn it as soon as possible. After you learn it, you don't dare to swim alone in the river. There are monsters in the river."

Gu Yu stood up from Liu Xiaonan's arms, staring at Liu Xiaonan fiercely with flashing eyes: "The crab spirit in the sea has come to the river again?"

Liu Xiaonan took two steps back and said, "It's not a crab spirit, it's an old turtle spirit. Really, I won't lie to you, my uncle met it before. Once my uncle was standing in neck-deep water stepping on a clam, and suddenly felt his feet I stepped on a big rock with grooves and edges. I walked around the edge of the big rock. It felt like a big rolling plate. I was wondering why there was a rolling plate in the river. The rolling plate suddenly moved and knocked my uncle out of the water. He raised his body halfway up. My uncle was so frightened that he swam ashore quickly, and after thinking about it, he might be an old turtle."

Gu Yu asked: "Have you met?"

Liu Xiaonan said, "If I meet him, I will die."

"Do you always like to scare people with these strange things?" Gu Yu pushed Liu Xiaonan hard.

Liu Xiaonan took advantage of the trend and went into the water, and sank to the bottom of the water on his back.Gu Yu stood on his stomach and shouted into the water: "You are an old turtle, drag me to the bottom of the water to see."

Liu Xiaonan turned over and threw Gu Yu into the water, and Gu Yu chased and beat him in the river.

Tired of swimming and having enough trouble, the two of them lay on the sandy ground under the shade of willows by the river bank, looked at the sky, listened to the chirping of birds and cicadas, and let the wings of youthful imagination fly carefree.

The location was chosen by Guyu, far away from the village and located in the upper reaches of the river. The river is wide, the water is clear, the flow rate is slow, the depth is moderate, and there is a large dense and straight poplar forest on the river bank.

Gu Yu wanted to get into the poplar forest, but was pulled out by Liu Xiaonan.There are hairy peppers on poplar trees, and if the wind blows it off the body, it will be terrible, and it will sting and swell a lot.

It is also safe and secluded under the willow trees on the bank of the river.At this time, Gu Yu will tell Liu Xiaonan some things he has seen and heard in the city: Children's Palace Library, tram trolleybus, high-rise shopping mall park zoo.

She said that she learned singing and dancing in the Children's Palace since she was a child. Her family used to live in a two-story building. She had her own independent room and bathroom, and she could take a hot bath all year round.

Unlike in the countryside, the living conditions are simple, the houses are old and broken, small and crowded, and you have to squat in the hut, which is dirty and smelly; in winter, there is no place to take a bath, the dirt on your body seems to be covered with a layer of rust, and there will be rust on your body and head. Lice come out.

Liu Xiaonan couldn't imagine what Gu Yu was talking about, so she asked each and every one carefully.How big is the library and how many books are there, and can the books be read casually?There are houses on top of houses, how do people go up?Are trams the same as trains?He hadn't seen the train yet.

Seeing Gu Yu's unhappy look, he asked, "Do you still want to go back to the city?"

Gu Yu sighed quietly and said, "Dad made a mistake, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back."

Liu Xiaonan comforted her: "The countryside is also pretty good, there is food and fun, and we are still companions."

Gu Yu raised his back and said, "Liu Xiaonan, you really shouldn't have been born in the countryside. The countryside is too backward, which limits your growth."

Liu Xiaonan didn't care at all: "You were born in the city, so you still have to rely on me to write your speech."

Gu Yu tugged at Liu Xiaonan's ear: "If I ask you to write a speech for me, I think highly of you, do you understand?"

The establishment of friendship is a matter of course, natural and magnanimous.During the cold, long and dry winter, Gu Yu became a frequent visitor to Liu Xiaonan's house.Thirty degrees below zero, there is only a small stove in the classroom, and there is not much coal. Most of the students have chilblains on their faces, hands, and feet. The school was forced to put winter vacation early.

Every winter, the mine would sell some anthracite coal to rural workers at a low price. Liu Xiaonan's family was able to keep a coal stove, and the temperature in the house was relatively warmer than that of ordinary farmers.

Gu Yu also had chilblains on her hands and ears. With her parents' permission, she often went in and out of Liu Xiaonan's house with books.

Gu Yu was also attracted by Liu Xiaonan's big gray tabby cat, which is proficient in fishing, catching birds and mice, and does not need to be fed at all.

Gu Yu has seen the ability of the big cat with his own eyes.Surrounded by several people, a fat big mouse had already got into the crack of the wall, and there was no way to tear down the wall, so Liu Xiaonan had no choice but to go home and hug the big cat out.

The tabby cat calmly sniffed the cracks in the wall. The long white whiskers at the corners of its mouth stretched out one by one like radio antennas, shaking irregularly.After confirming the position, he stretched out a paw calmly, and dragged the mouse out from another crack in the wall.

The tabby cat is not eager to enjoy the delicious food, but puts the mouse down to play a game of cat and mouse.The tabby cat sits on the same spot and lets the mouse run as it pleases. As soon as the mouse is about to run out of its control range, one of its paws strikes out like lightning, knocking the mouse back.

No matter how much the mouse tosses, it still can't get rid of the control of the tabby cat's two paws, which is amazing.

The tabby cat seldom goes out for activities during the day, and spends most of its time sleeping on the kang.The tabby cat is Liu Xiaonan's younger sister's plaything. She is often held in her arms or on her lap, as if coaxing a child.

Gu Yu exchanged the rag doll she played with when she was a child for a big tabby cat from Liu Xiaonan's sister.The big cat is like a sensible and obedient child, actively cooperating with Gu Yu in playing various games, catching a string ball to jump high, or rubbing its head against Gu Yu's hand and making "meow meow" and acting like a baby.

It was windy and snowy, and it was freezing cold, and I could still feel the chill while sitting on the hot kang head covered with a quilt.There is no entertainment, except for one or two open-air movies occasionally.The wooden poles supporting the screen were shaken by the wind, the screen buzzed, and the movie screens jumped and overlapped and deformed.

The villagers were still full of enthusiasm despite the severe cold. People were crowded together close to each other. Those who were standing surrounded those who were sitting, covering their ears and stamping their feet. over.

When the weather is fine, I will go out of the house, build a snowman, have a snowball fight, ride a top skating car, and most of the time I still sit around on the hot kang.

Tired of reading head to head, Liu Xiaonan would take out a few big sweet potatoes, cut them into slices, and put them on the stove lid to roast sweet potato slices to eat. It doesn't matter if the soybeans or corn kernels don't pop into flowers, just put them in your mouth and chew them.

Or bury a few potatoes in the hot ashes under the hearth, and it tastes delicious after peeling off the burnt skin, but the corners of the mouth, lips and hands are all black.

Liu Xiaonan said that Gu Yu looked like a cat with a painted face, and Gu Yu said that Liu Xiaonan looked like a black pig whose head had just kicked the ground, and his sister clapped her hands and laughed happily.

Conditions are much better now, at least there is something to eat.In the first few years, Liu Xiaonan used a kitchen knife to cut bean cakes for pigs to fill their hungry bellies.

As a result, once accidentally, the left palm was cut by a kitchen knife with a length of more than an inch, leaving a long and permanent scar, which became an eternal commemoration of that era of material scarcity.

What should I do if I am thirsty?Liu Xiaonan shoveled a few pieces of ice into the water tank with a spatula, put them on the kang with a water ladle, the three of them chewed the ice cubes shivering, and quenched their thirst from the inside out.Although the water tank was tightly wrapped with thatch or thin quilts, there was still a layer of solid ice more than three inches thick on the walls of the water tank.

Sleepy, laying down under a quilt to sleep, the younger sister hugged the doll, and Liu Xiaonan and Gu Yu hugged the tabby cat together.The big tabby cat snores softly and evenly and long.

If Liu Xiaonan's father comes home in time, Gu Yu will also improve the food.Every time Liu Zhixin goes home, he asks his fellow workers who live by the sea to buy some miscellaneous fish or cockles. The fish that the production team sells to the commune members are very cheap.

Liu Zhixin's cooking skills are very good - growing up Liu Xiaonan has always suspected that his father lived in a dormitory for single workers for a long time, where did he learn to cook - stewed mixed fish, cold cockles, big pancakes with corn noodles, delicious.

At this time, Gu Yu is often left behind, and when Gu Yu's mother finds him, Gu Yu is already full.

The small circle of the two did not enter at all. Liu Qishun and Guan Xiaoyun tried to squeeze in, but Gu Yu ruthlessly blocked them out.

Liu Xiaonan sometimes feels that Gu Yu is overbearing, restricting his freedom, making people scratch their heads, but she falls into it willingly.

Liu Xiaonan was a little sleepy, she closed her eyes and wanted to sleep under the shade of a tree.Gu Yu shook him vigorously: "I'm talking to you, you are not allowed to sleep."

Liu Xiaonan struggled to open his eyes and said, "You are so annoying, what do you want to say?"

Gu Yu asked: "Have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up?"

Liu Xiaonan said: "My mother said, when I grow up, I will take over from my father and work in the mine as a worker."

"That's so worthless!" Gu Yu was intoxicated in her own expectations: "You have to have ideals and aspirations, study hard and become a writer, then you can leave the countryside and live in a big city."

(End of this chapter)