Hunger for a hundred years

Chapter 34 (14)
He has no time for a toothache, working on the slopes, eating, and midnight. It's all possible.As soon as he fell ill, first a long cry was squeezed out from between his teeth, and then he squatted down.Once, when a collective fired a kiln and repaired a boar pen, He Da’s task was to go to Zhushiban to cut firewood. He climbed up with a bundle of firewood on his back, but suddenly suffered from a toothache, squatted down, and fell straight down for several minutes. Fortunately, he caught an unpicked miscellaneous tree and saved his life.Under Zhu's Board, which is a whole stone like a millstone, is a steep cliff, leading directly to the Liangqiao.Usually there are trees to cover it, so you can’t see its danger. Once the firewood is cut down, the timid dare not stand on the stone plate and look down. He Tuanjie squatted on the stone plate with his butt facing outward After a while, many years later, if anyone wants to boast about his boldness, people will use this example to ridicule the boaster.People in the mountains are very poisonous when chopping firewood. When the machete goes down, not only the heads of the miscellaneous trees will be cut off, but the thin layer of soil will also fly far away with the raised blade.The men cut all the firewood, and the women immediately scooped up all the leaves with the fence. Therefore, as long as any piece of firewood is cut, that piece of firewood is combed like a castor.A few years ago, because of dead children hanging on the branches, people always left a piece of firewood uncut. Since He Jiangao’s youngest daughter was buried, everyone followed suit. There was no need for Zhu’s board to keep firewood. Therefore, if you want to chop it, you must chop it naked.He Da was lucky to be able to catch a piece of miscellaneous wood that had not been picked.When he came back that time, he slept in bed for three days.

What the family feared the most was that he fell ill on the mountain, but we couldn't see the terrible situation when he fell ill on the mountain, but we had to witness the whole process when he fell ill at home.If in the middle of the night, when the screaming had passed, he would turn over and get out of bed, cover his mouth with his hands, and run from room to room, even upstairs, stomping his feet vigorously, and the wooden building gave out a thunderous roar, mixed with it. And his desperate moans of pain made our bones shudder.He has survived so many hardships, but he never thought that after he was 50 years old, a small toothache would make him so embarrassed.To make matters worse, he fell ill while eating.Once, He Da came back from the slope with his face covered in sweat, and he was so hungry that he had just served the bowl when he suddenly covered his mouth with the hand holding the chopsticks.This time, even the excited cry was omitted, and the great pain suddenly overwhelmed him. He only heard a "pop", and he threw the bowl full of corn paste on the ground heavily, and ran to another place. A house went.He Kou looked at the broken bowl and the food on the ground, and said loudly angrily, "It may not be that painful!" He was blaming He Da.He Da's head hit the wall, firstly because of the pain, and secondly because the eldest son broke his heart.He Kou ignored it, he valued that bowl and that bowl of glutinous rice paste too much, and he didn't have any more thoughts to think about the pain on his father.

He Da's toothache came and went suddenly, often when he felt that he was about to die, he suddenly stopped moaning and patted his cheek: "Okay!"
At this time, we let out a long sigh of relief.

We were relieved, but He Da couldn't.As long as toothache and back pain don't torment him, his heart aches.He couldn't help feeling bitter about He Ji's failure to pass high school.Is it true that, as others said, when Lord Luo's grave is opened, the feng shui here will be gone?He was puzzled and sad because he thought of me, his third son.Although my grades were better than He Ji's, He Da couldn't see any hope from me.

One night, after He Jiapo's most conscientious dog fell asleep, He Da went out secretly by himself.

He went to the ancient village, burned paper in front of Luo Siju's dismal "new grave", and put a red cloth on the shallow grave.

He Da hoped that the gods would bless him, but he didn't know that he was about to face a greater challenge.

The sound of spring thunder "exploding" woke up the land that had been sleeping all winter, and the dry and monotonous mountains and fields quickly became bright and colorful.Peach blossoms, plum blossoms, apricot blossoms and all kinds of wild flowers are blooming.Spring is the season of light and also the season of color. Light and color are the most mysterious symbols in nature.On a certain early morning this spring, at the entrance of the village on the other side of Hejiapo Yantang, a strange child with a round head appeared.Girl, about eleven or twelve years old.When she climbed up to the entrance of the village, He Jiangao and his wife, Mrs. Gu, were pulling wild weeds growing wildly next to the rapeseed seedlings in the private plot. Seeing the girl, Jiangao straightened his waist and stared at her with great interest.People in Hejiapo look at strangers with this kind of eyes. If strangers are polite, they will say hello, and the people watching will respond before continuing to work; when they look at strangers, they mainly want to understand strangers. Once a stranger speaks, the secret will be reduced by more than half, so there is no need to delay the way to survive and read on.If a stranger doesn't say hello at all, those watching will watch him go away until he can no longer be seen.

The little girl didn't say hello today, so Jiangao looked at her, and then Gu Shi who straightened up also looked at her.The little girl passed the Yantang, bypassed the cemeteries of He Di, Xu Lian and Chen Yuexiang, passed through a clump of bamboo forests, and went directly to the village.

"Which one is that?" Jiangao asked.Since Yao's daughter died, he spoke less than before, and was silent for a long time. His voice sounded like a gear that was out of oil.

"I don't know," Gu replied, "I'm so familiar with the road on the slope, I'm afraid it's a relative of some family."
"I've never seen it before." Jiangao grumbled.

Gu said: "Is it the daughter of Team Leader Wang?"
Jiangao is also suspicious.At that time, there were working groups sent by the district or the township to take turns to Laojunshan to supervise production and resolve disputes.Team leader Wang is the deputy team leader of the latest working group. Three months ago, he was having sex with a local woman in a piece of Berlin on Laojun Mountain, and was caught by an old sheep herding man (the woman's father) on the spot. The County Public Security Bureau arrested team leader Wang, and the working team in the Laojunshan area was also temporarily disbanded.
"I heard that Team Leader Wang is a golden man, how could that woman come here so early?" Jiangao said.

"Maybe she went out in the middle of the night. She thought her father was still in Hejiapo, but she didn't expect to be imprisoned a few months ago." Having said that, the two bowed their waists again, sticking their buttocks to the sky, Pull up those weeds without saying a word.

It was very quiet in the fields.

But at this time, the village was not quiet at all.That little girl was not the daughter of Team Leader Wang at all. She came to Hejiapo not to visit relatives, but to "go home"!She walked through the bamboo forest beside Xu Lian and others' cemetery, and didn't go directly into the village, but climbed up the plum tree that grew by the rock, and climbed up from a steep path to the big field ridge.She stood on the ridge of the big field and looked around, as if she was so familiar with everything, so nostalgic, she was still rambling, as if she was talking about the changes in Hejiapo.In fact, in recent years, in Hejiapo, apart from a few more people died, some children were born, and the pine forest was turned into fields, nothing else has changed.This is the case in all villages. If people from hundreds of years ago come back to life, although they don’t know the people there, they know the road there.The little girl watched for a while, then stepped down a hurdle and entered the yard.She first went to look outside He Zhongbao's house, and then went to He Zhongcai's and He Mangzi's houses respectively.The family felt very strange and asked who she was, but she didn't answer, and went straight out of He Da's house again.

At this time, news about a strange girl entering the village had spread throughout the village, and a large group of men, women and children followed her.If she hadn't been a child, the militiamen on the team would have tied her up and taken her to the commune, but she was a child, and a girl at that, so of course she couldn't do that, and everyone followed her just to watch.

When the little girl was standing in front of He's family, He Da was cooking pig food.The room was shrouded in smoke, and the little girl called out to He Da's hazy back, "Dog." He Da didn't hear clearly, so he got up and came out to check.His eyes were red and wet from the smoke, so he walked all the way to the door before he saw that it was a little girl he didn't know.He Da thought it was someone from our Aunt Yao's family who came to see him (I haven't moved around for a few years, so it's a little vague who is in Aunt Yao's house), and said kindly: "Come in." girl's hand.The little girl refused to let him lead her. She turned to the onlookers and said in a very old-fashioned tone, "I want to see my land deed."
Title deed?What is the title deed this year?This is He Da's house, why come to see "my title deed"?

The little girl's words not only surprised He Da, but also surprised everyone present.He Zhongbao, who was standing behind the crowd—according to witnesses' description—had bulging eyes as long as a foot, staring straight at the little girl.

Finally someone asked: "Which one are you? Why did you come here to ask for a title deed?"
The little girl said: "This is my house, why shouldn't I come to ask for it?"
"Your house? It was allocated to He Da before, but it was burned down after it was allocated to him. He and Chen Yuexiang started a new one."
"Although it's a new house, the foundation is still mine."
"You are a ten-year-old doll, and people in Hejiapo don't know you, so how can you say this is your foundation?"
The little girl said: "It seems that I have to find out the title deed before you will believe it. My title deed was first placed in the tile ditch on the roof, and then I hid it under the stone slab behind - fortunately I changed the place, otherwise It was burned by fire; it cannot be burned under the stone ladle, and besides, I see that the stone ladle was not changed when the new house was built, which proves that the title deed is still under it."
She turned her face to He Da: "If you don't believe me, dig it out with a pick and see if I'm telling lies."
He Dazao was confused by the little girl's words, and said very bluntly, "Why can't I understand a word?"
"Pull out the title deed and you'll understand."
Before the little girl finished speaking, He Zhongbao rushed forward, turned over and fell in front of the little girl, crying:
"Daddy! Daddy—"
The little girl pinched He Zhongbao's ears and slapped him hard.He Zhongbao's face was red from the beating, and he said with tears streaming down his face, "Father, my son is not filial, and he didn't keep your family business."
Only then did everyone realize that this little girl is none other than He Huaqiang!
He Huaqiang has been reincarnated and has become the little girl she is now.

He Zhongbao stood up, hugged the little girl and cried.The little girl cried too. "Father and son" cried for a while in full view, and He Zhongbao took the little girl home.
More than ten days have passed, and people on the slope are still talking about that incident enthusiastically.Not to mention such a strange and miraculous event, even when a daughter-in-law peed in a pigsty and a passer-by saw a line of buttocks through the cracks in the boards, the villagers were willing to repeat it endlessly for several months.Their world is so big, there is no repetition, and there is no life of the villagers.Just when people were talking about it and wondering how He Zhongbao would treat it and how He Da should deal with it, the incident came.

It was a Sunday, and vice-captain He Jianshen went to the courtyard in the middle and knocked on a wooden clapper, conveying the order of captain He Zhongbao: rest today.At about ten o'clock in the morning, He Da's family collected the bowls and was about to split up to get pigs, cattle, grass and firewood, when they suddenly heard extraordinary movements behind the old house.He Kou ran out first, and was stunned by what he saw: the three brothers He Zhongbao, He Zhongcai, and He Mangzi, plus their descendants, six or seven of them, had already climbed up from Liang's private plot. On the ridge of our roof, the three adults held big axes in their hands, squatting on the rafters, half-up, kicking down the tiles one after another.Those tiles covered with dark green moss due to the wind and rain flew down the eaves like running water and fell into pieces.The courtyard is full of sad broken tiles.

Our whole family was dispatched collectively when we saw the first tiles flow down.General He stomped his foot and scolded: "Damn it, I already knew your tricks!" After that, he went to find the wooden pole.He wanted to jump into the room from the back of the house and fight those men with wooden poles.He Kou held him back, and He Kou said loudly, "I'll take care of this matter!" He Da didn't listen to his son's dissuasion, grabbed the wooden pole and rushed to the back of the house.This is his home, the home he has wanted for the rest of his life, how can he not care if others want to destroy his home!He Kou hugged him, and said angrily, "Don't tell me to do it!" He Da was so powerful that he threw He Kou far away, and He Kou shouted, "He Ji!" He was stunned. Ji reacted, rushed over and hugged He Da's waist, He Kou got up and snatched the pole from his hand.

The tiles on the ridge were almost kicked out, and He Zhongbao was about to raise his ax to chop the rafters.He Zhongcai's daughter, Yinghua, has a square face and dense hair growing on her arms. If it weren't for the pair of big breasts on her chest that make you breathless, you must think she is a man.Yinghua thought she had been fighting with her father for several years, and usually looked down on us a little, but now that she climbed on our roof, she is even more condescending.Yinghua's behavior doesn't surprise me, but He Zhongbao's son, He Guanghui, both surprises me and makes me sad; He also called "Da Da Da Da Da", and sometimes he took the initiative to ask me to go up the mountain to mow the grass. However, today, he also climbed on our roof to lift the tiles. He uncovered the tiles one by one, and then kicked them down.He has webbed hands, why can he do it so neatly? .
The three brothers He Zhongbao led their descendants to work on the beams of our house for a whole day, demolishing an old house and two new houses, leaving only a few shiny empty dams.

They didn't drive us off the empty dam, but it was enough to soften Ho Da's anger into genuine sadness.The roof has been removed. When cooking pig food and cooking, the smoke will not be blocked by the floor and roof, but the smoke is part of the home. Without smoke, it is not a home, it is a wilderness , He Da and his sons and daughters also became savages.

What made him sad the most was when he was sleeping. Although the bed and the quilt were still there, at a glance, there were so dense and confusing stars.He Da recalled his life decades ago, and also picked up his scars from decades ago.He thought that the scar had healed, but now he found that it was not only not healed, but also very fresh, and it was transmitted from him to his children.He was sad about it.That day, in the middle of the night, He Da sat up and smoked. Before he could take two puffs, he knocked the pipe on the bed sill, and then called out weakly: "God, you need to have eyes." The one who called Yiwu in the golden autumn of 1914 was also called by all the helpless people on the mountains and rivers in this area.God has become the only hope for them to beg for a fair fate, and at the same time, God has also become the only object for them to vent their anger.

He Da seems to have never been so pessimistic as he is now.

He is pessimistic because he cannot protect his children.

We stayed for three days and three nights in the empty dam covered with broken tiles and sun dust.

Fortunately, those few days were sunny -- this cannot but be said to be God's favor.

On the third night, when the rooster crowed three times, He Kou got up quietly and disappeared.After dawn, we all thought he was going uphill to work. Unexpectedly, just after noon, a group of people came up from Leichao Bay under his leadership, passed Yanjiapo, Suanlishupo, Yantang, and came straight to us. in the courtyard dam.

He Kou invited cadres from the commune and brigade.

(End of this chapter)