Hunger for a hundred years

Chapter 43 (23)
The rain kept falling, and it was getting heavier and heavier, and even those who spared no expense in order to take care of their private plots all returned to their houses.

At dusk, the rain stopped, but the sky was still pale yellow.The dogs and cows, which had been silent for a whole day, barked to the sky.The barking of dogs and cows also seems to be yellow.Bats slamming around.How can there be so many bats in this season?He Jiapo called the bats eaves mice, and they spit out from the tile ditches, intertwining into an ominous black net over the courtyards on each floor.Whenever there are eaves mice, it is the happiest time for Xiwa sisters. They would rather give up the opportunity to listen to He Kuiyuan's storytelling, hold a big broom, jump up and beat those flying low.In the past, even though those guys flew low, it was not easy to catch them down, but today, within a short time, the yard was covered with a dense layer. They are not dead, they are still wriggling, struggling.Thus night descended on their fallen wings.

When night comes, the real rats on the ground come alive.Although there are many mice in Hejiapo, when did you see them flying over the stove in the kitchen with great fanfare, and tripping the kerosene lamp recklessly?Today's rats are so weird, they jump out from unknown places and gather in unknown directions like a coup d'état.

The night breeze didn't rise like it used to. Except for the noise of the rats, there was silence between the sky and the earth.

It was a really strange day, everyone felt it.He Zhongbao felt it even more.After the kerosene lamps were extinguished in the village, the kerosene lamps in his house were still on. He Jiapo disappeared? . If so, what about the blood of his ancestors?What about the humiliation of his family?What about the future of his children and grandchildren?Under the bleak oil lamp, he sneered softly.There are mountains on the ground, there are rivers under the mountains, and there are mountains under the rivers, and there are rivers. How could He Jiapo disappear?

At this moment, the hairy dog ​​on the mountain began to cry again.He Zhongbao knew that the moon had come out, and the moon was bigger than before, because there was no wind and Maogou felt the presence of the moon.Nothing has changed in this world.

He Zhongbao fell asleep to the lonely cry of the hairy dog.

The extraordinary movement happened after the third watch.

He Zhongbao slept on the building (the building that Carpenter Li went up to steal potatoes), maybe he was dreaming, maybe he wasn't dreaming, anyway, when the building shook violently, he didn't wake up until there was a click, Two purlins of the building broke, and He Zhongbao and his wife Wen Shi fell into the cattle pen under the building, and he woke up.The cow dung was so thick that it almost drowned them. He Zhongbao turned over, and then pulled up the confused Wen, "What's going on? What's going on?" He Zhongbao shouted scream.The house was still shaking, and the tiles on the ridge of the roof were pouring down to the ground.Wen's yelled, and He Guanghui and his sister who were sleeping in the main room also yelled.The pigs and cows in the whole village were slamming into the pens frantically.The dog also barks at the sky.

He Zhongbao wanted to take Wen's out of the cattle pen, but the moon had long since disappeared, and it was dark all around, so he dared not move because he didn't know where the danger lay.

At this time, He Tuanjie's voice came like thunder from the central courtyard dam: "There's an earthquake! There's an earthquake in Hejiapo!"
The sound came from far and near.The torch was also lit.In the whole Hejiapo, He Tuanjie was the only one holding a torch and shouting everywhere.Those people who were dormant in fear heard He Tuanjie's cry and saw the torch he raised, and their desire for life sprang up.According to their seniority, people shouted loudly: "Unity!" Caigen, Nuozhu and others, Kui Yuan and others lit torches again, and handed them over to more than a dozen young people who came out one after another.

A rescue of villagers by villagers started like this.

The house is no longer shaking, the pigs and cows have stopped bumping into the fence, but the dogs are still barking.The dog barked eeriely, the sound came from its lungs, as if passing through a long alleyway, barked once, paused for a moment, and then barked twice.In the countryside, this way of barking a dog is a herald of someone's death. Before Chen Yuexiang died, the dog barked like this, and before He Jiangao's youngest daughter died, the dog also barked like this.More than a dozen search and rescue personnel were divided into several groups and went deep into various courtyards.Most people's houses didn't collapse, so it was easy to lead people out, but some houses collapsed, including the virtual building where I slept. Fortunately, only half of them collapsed, and I didn't fall downstairs.

He Zhongbao's empty building collapsed the most.His building is too old.When the search and rescue team was divided into groups, for some reason, He Kou only wanted to go to He Zhongbao's yard.The thought made him shudder with excitement.However, when He Tuanjie asked him where he was going, He Kou changed his mind.For a brief moment he was overwhelmed by his own morbid agitation. "How can I do that kind of thing?" He said to himself, "That would be a thunderbolt from the sky." What exactly it was, even he himself didn't realize it clearly.
When He Tuanjie got into He Zhongbao's cowshed through the rubble and cracks in the boards, he saw He Zhongbao and his wife standing among the cow dung. Wen's forehead was bleeding, and he was trembling against He Zhongbao.He Zhongbao was not injured. He fixed his eyes on the tall He Tuanjie, his eyes were red and bloody.He Tuanjie stepped forward, and He Zhongbao flinched instinctively with his arms around Wen's. He Tuanjie ignored them and separated them, holding He Zhongbao in his left hand and Wen's in his right hand holding the torch, and strode towards the edge of the cowshed. .The slit was too narrow, and he couldn't take the two of them out together, so he put the two of them down, planning to let them get out first, but after putting them down, He Zhongbao collapsed on the ground.He Tuanjie was stunned for a moment, first pushed Wen Shi outside, then grabbed He Zhongbao by the collar, and lifted him out.

There is a eucalyptus tree outside the cattle pen. Just as He Tuanjie put He Zhongbao under the eucalyptus tree, the building collapsed completely.

"Golden Flower Brilliance" Wen called her children's names.

The main house did not collapse, and her children were not in danger.

He Tuanjie looked at He Zhongbao, who was squatting on the eucalyptus bump, and went elsewhere with a torch.

Search and rescue work continued until dawn.As a result, the mother of the sow was beaten to death by a purlin.She was the only one who died in the whole Hejiapo.The woman who was under 60 died standing up.At the beginning, although her house was shaken greatly, it did not collapse. After her son went out to rescue the disaster (the only ones left at home were she and her grandson, and her man died of starvation more than ten years ago), the ridge of the roof collapsed. With the sound of breaking, she panicked and ran out of the house with her grandson in her arms. Before she could go out, a purlin fell down.The purlin didn't break completely, just hit her head, and then stabilized, and a few thick iron nails on the purlin pierced into her skull.She died standing like this, but the child in her arms was safe and sound.She was still hugging the child tightly until she was discovered.

People lifted the purlins and took out the few nails stuck to the milky white brain of the woman.The sow hugged her mother's corpse, neither crying nor barking.After he laid his mother's body horizontally on the door panel of the main room, he knelt down in front of his mother, slapped himself hard, and the corners of his mouth turned up with two slaps.He remembered that he had slapped his mother at the poker table, and he wanted to use this method to apologize to his mother.Someone tried to drag him, but He Da stopped him.The sow continued to slap herself with slaps.Half of his face was burnt by gunpowder several years ago. He was originally dead, but now he fanned it alive, and it swelled up rapidly, and it was smoking, like the gunpowder remaining in the flesh being ignited by the noisy blood. Like.It wasn't until this time that He Da went to hug him. He Da said: "Baby, your mother just ordered you to spoil yourself at that point. What about your son?" All men, women and children on the slope were present, all crying
Under the auspices of the team leader He Zhongbao, the funeral of the sow's mother was jointly discussed and organized by all team members, not only jointly contributing funds and materials, but also jointly contributing.The woman's body stayed in the main room for seven days and seven nights. During the day, everyone cut down cypress branches to tie the mourning hall, and the carpenter made a coffin for the deceased. At night, a few horse lanterns were hung in the middle courtyard dam, and lions were invited from the Drum Tower. Team, Gong and Drum Team, Suona Team, see off the souls of the dead.When everyone was busy, they did not forget to talk about the benefits of the deceased, but also about the earthquake, the disaster relief team on the slope, and of course unity.He Tuanjie usually seems to be hanging around and not serious, but at this critical moment, he is counted on the slope as capable and successful, and even He Zhongbao and his wife were rescued by him!
At first, the people on Poshang didn't know that He Tuanjie rescued He Zhongbao and his wife, because He Tuanjie didn't show any merit at all. It was He Zhongbao who walked up to He Tuanjie in front of everyone and bowed deeply to him.He Tuanjie is He Tuanjie after all, he squinted at He Zhongbao, and walked away.He Zhongbao blushed, coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment, and took out the remaining half bag of dry cigarettes to smoke.In the yellow smoke, He Zhongbao frowned deeply and narrowed his eyes.

However, this did not affect the atmosphere of mourning for the deceased as a whole.After seven days and seven nights, it was time to send the dead uphill. Early that morning, the sow was walking ahead with a filial basin, and behind her was his mother's coffin. Since the coffin was newly made and very heavy, He Tuanjie, He Kuiyuan, Eight big men, including He Ji and Cai Gen, carried them on wooden poles and sent them to the cemetery through the narrow mountain road.
Ann buried the dead, He Zhongbao went to the brigade, and then to the commune.That afternoon, the cadres of the brigade and the commune sent representatives to Hejiapo along with He Zhongbao.They are here to comfort the people.The officials of the commune said: "Don't worry, everyone, our place was originally a big lake. Later, the earth's crust squeezed together, and the lake receded, forming a big mountain. It is said that the big mountain in the northeast of Sichuan is a huge old bastard. As everyone knows, it is durable and long-lived. It will protect our children and grandchildren to enjoy peace. Our place will not be affected by earthquakes for [-] million years! Our houses have collapsed—not just your Hejiapo, but many in the commune Houses collapsed everywhere—it was because of the Songpan earthquake. During the Songpan earthquake, the earth’s crust was lifted up, and our houses collapsed.”
Songpan?People in Hejiapo have never heard of Songpan.The commune cadre explained that he didn't know Songpan either, but heard that it was in the Minjiang River Basin on the western Sichuan plateau.Since it is on the plateau in western Sichuan, it is a far away place. An earthquake happened far away, how could the crust of Hejiapo be lifted up?The man on the slope shook his head, stopped to think about it, and then began to shake his head again.

In the minds of Hejiapo people, for the first time, they had a geographically external concept, and they vaguely understood that what happened outside may affect Hejiapo; then, what happened in Hejiapo, Will it also affect the outside world?
(End of this chapter)