Chapter 5 five

When my grandmother was just sixteen years old, her father married Shan Bianlang, the only son of Shan Tingxiu, a well-known rich man in Northeast Gaomi Township.The Shan family runs a shochu pot and brews high-quality baijiu with cheap sorghum as raw materials. It is famous all over the country.The Northeast Township is low-lying, often flooded in autumn, and the high sorghum stalks prevent waterlogging.It is widely planted and has a high yield every year.The single family used cheap raw materials to make wine for profit, and became rich.It is my great-grandfather's honor that my grandma can marry Shan Bianlang.At that time, many families were eager to marry the Shan family, even though it was rumored that Shan Bianlang had already contracted leprosy.Shan Tingxiu was a dry little old man with a dry braid sticking out from behind his head.His house is full of money, but he wears ragged clothes and a straw rope is often tied around his waist.It was God's will that my grandma married into the Shan family. On that day, my grandma was playing jokes and games with some big girls with pointed feet and long braids by the swing.Grandma was 1.60 meters tall and weighed 60 kilograms that day. She wore a floral foreign cloth jacket, green satin trousers, and a deep red silk ribbon around her ankle.Because of the light rain, grandma wore a pair of embroidered oil shoes that had been soaked in tung oil more than a dozen times, and they made a clattering noise when she walked.A big shiny braid hangs from the back of grandma's head, and a heavy silver lock hangs around her neck.My great-grandfather was a small craftsman who made silverware, and my great-grandmother was the daughter of a poor landlord who knew the importance of small feet to a woman.My grandma started binding her feet when she was less than six years old, and it is getting worse every day.A foot wrap is more than a foot long.Great-grandmother used it to strangle grandma's foot bones, and broke eight toes on the soles of the feet. What a tragedy!My mother also has small feet. Every time I see her feet, I feel sad and want to shout: Down with feudalism!Long live the freedom of human feet!After suffering so much, grandma finally wrapped up a pair of three-inch golden lotus.At the age of sixteen, my grandma was plump and beautiful. When she walked, she waved her arms and twisted her waist, like a willow blowing in the wind.That day Shan Tingxiu walked around my great-grandfather's village with a dung basket in his hand, and saw my grandma among the many flowers.Three months later, my grandma was carried away in a sedan chair.

Grandma sat in the stuffy sedan chair, feeling dizzy.The red cloth covering her head covered her eyes, and there was a strong musty smell from the red cloth.She slid her hand and lifted the red cloth. Great-grandmother Zeng Qian urged her not to remove the red cloth by herself. A heavy silver bracelet of twisted silk slipped onto her forearm. Grandma looked at the snake-shaped pattern on the bracelet and felt in her heart. It was chaotic.The warm smoky wind blows the verdant sorghum on both sides of the narrow dirt road.From the sorghum field came the cooing of pigeons.The silver-gray sorghum tassels that have just emerged are flying with light pollen.The car curtain facing her was embroidered with patterns of dragons and phoenixes. The red cloth on the car curtain had been faded because the sedan chairs had been rented out for many years, and there was a large area of ​​oil stains in the middle.In late summer and early autumn, the sun is shining outside the sedan chair. The light movements of the bearers make the sedan chair tremble. The raw cowhide tied to the chair pole creaks. A relatively cool breeze came into the sedan chair.Grandma was sweating and her heart was beating like a drum. Listening to the even footsteps and heavy panting of the bearers, the smooth coldness like pebbles and the rough scorching heat like peppers alternated in her mind.

Ever since grandma was favored by Shan Tingxiu, I don't know how many people congratulated her great-grandfather and great-grandmother.Although grandma also wants to live a happy life with money and silver, she is looking forward to having a good son-in-law who can read and understand Chinese, has good features, and knows cold and hot.Grandma embroidered the wedding dress in her boudoir, and embroidered beautiful pictures of my future grandpa.She used to look forward to getting married as soon as possible, but she vaguely heard from the words of her female companion that the son of the Shan family is a leprosy patient, and grandma's heart sank.Grandma confides her worries to her parents.Great-grandfather kept secret and didn't answer, and great-grandmother scolded grandma's female companions severely, which probably meant that the grapes were sour if the fox couldn't eat them.The great-grandfather later said that the son of the Shan family had read poetry and books, stayed at home, was white and clean, and was a man of talent.Grandma was in a trance, not knowing whether it was true or false, thinking that there are no cruel parents in the world, and maybe the female companion is really talking nonsense.Grandma began to look forward to getting married as soon as possible.Grandma's plump youth radiates intense anxiety and a little loneliness. She longs to lie in the arms of a stalwart man to relieve anxiety and eliminate loneliness.The wedding day finally came, and grandma was loaded into the big sedan chair for four people. The big trumpet and the small suona were played miserably in front of and behind the sedan chair, and grandma couldn't stop tears streaming down her cheeks.The sedan chair set off.Flickering like flying through the clouds, the lazy drummer stopped playing not far from the village, and the bearers got up quickly.The taste of sorghum is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.Rare birds in the sorghum field sing high and low.When a ray of sunlight shone into the dim sedan chair, the image of her husband in grandma's heart gradually became clear.Her heart felt like being pricked by a needle, the pain was deep and powerful.

God, bless me!The prayer in Grandma's heart moved her lips.There is a layer of delicate down on grandma's lips.Granny is tender and lush with plenty of moisture.The whispers she uttered were completely absorbed by the thick car walls and curtains.She tore off the sour hood and laid it on her lap.According to the tradition of getting married, grandma also wore three new padded jackets and trousers in hot weather.The sedan chair was tattered, dirty and filthy.It is like a coffin, filled with countless brides who are destined to become corpses.The yellow satin lining on the car wall was filthy and greasy, three of the five flies were buzzing above the grandma's nipples, and two were lying on the car curtain, wiping their bright eyes with their stick-shaped black legs.Grandma couldn't bear the boredom, so she quietly stretched out her bamboo shoot-shaped feet, opened a crack in the car curtain, and peeked out secretly.She saw the graceful and slender legs of the bearers in their bulky black shirts and silk trousers, and their plump feet wearing double-nosed hemp shoes.The bearers' feet kicked up puffs of dust.Grandma guessed the bearer's thick upper body, and couldn't help moving her toes up and leaning forward.She saw the smooth acacia poles and the broad shoulders of the bearers.On both sides of the road, the plate-like sorghum is solid and stagnant, connected as one, crowded and looking at each other. The gray-green sorghum ears are sleepy, and one ear is indistinguishable from that ear.Sorghum never ends, like a gurgling river.The road is sometimes very narrow, and the sides of the sedan chair are rustled by the sorghum leaves covered with aphid secretions.

The bearer smelled sour, and grandma breathed in the man's scent obsessively. There must be waves of spring in her heart.The bearer carried the sedan chair from the street, walking in a figure of eight, known as stepping on the street. On the one hand, it was to please the master's family and get more rewards; on the other hand, it was to show an elegant professional demeanor.When stepping on the street, it is not a good man to walk in unison, and it is not a good man to hold the sedan chair pole. Qualified bearers have their hands on their waists and walk in unison. Every person can appreciate that behind every happiness lies an equal amount of pain.When the sedan chair reached Pingchuan wilderness, the bearers withdrew. One was to hurry, and the other was to disturb the bride.Some brides vomited loudly after being bumped by the sedan chair, spewing dirt all over their beautiful clothes and shoes; the bearers got a kind of venting happiness from the sound of the bride's vomiting.These young and strong men must feel uncomfortable for others to sacrifice to the bridal chamber, so they want to toss the bride.

Among the four bearers who carried my grandma that day, one became my grandfather, Commander Yu Zhanaoyu.At that time, he was in his twenties, and he was a leader in the industry of coffin-building and sedan-carrying in Northeast Township. According to the rules, the bearers make jokes about the bride on the road, just like the guys on the shochu pot drink shochu. The sorghum leaves rubbed the sedan chair loudly, and a melodious cry suddenly came from deep in the sorghum, breaking the monotony of the road.The cries are very similar to the tunes played by trumpeters.When grandma thought of the music, she thought of those bleak instruments that must be carried in the hands of the drummers.Granny supported the car curtain with her feet and could see the sweat-soaked waist of a bearer. Grandma saw more of her own feet in red embroidered shoes. The light that came in covered them, they were like two lotus petals, they were more like two little goldfish lying in ambush at the bottom of the clear water.Two tiny reddish tears like sorghum grains jumped out of grandma's eyelashes, flowed down her cheeks, and flowed to the corners of her mouth.

Grandma's heart was filled with sadness and bitterness. The image of her usual portrayed husband, who had the same appearance as the characters on the stage, was first blurred and then wiped out in tears.Grandma was horrified to see Shan Jiabianlang's blooming leper's face, and grandma was heartbroken with coldness.Grandma thought that this pair of jojo golden lotus, this peach cheek and apricot face, all kinds of tenderness, all kinds of romance, should a leper really endure it?If so, it would be better to die.In the long cries in the sorghum field, there are lumpy words: blue sky, blue sky, colorful sky, club, brother, if you die, it will be my sister's sky.I have to tell you that women in Northeast Gaomi Township mourn as beautifully as they sing. In the first year of the Republic of China, mourners from Confucius’ family in Qufu County made a special trip to learn how to cry.On the day of great joy, when a woman cried for her dead husband, grandma felt that this was an ominous omen, and her already heavy heart became even heavier.At this time, a bearer spoke:

Little lady in the sedan chair, say a few words to your brothers!The long distance is boring. Grandma quickly picked up the red cloth and covered her head.The tiptoe of the car curtain was also quietly retracted, and it was pitch black again in the car. Sing a song for my brothers, my brother will carry you! The trumpeter woke up like a dream, and suddenly blew the big horn behind the sedan chair. The big horn said: Mdong Mdong Someone imitated the sound of a trumpet in front of the sedan chair, and there was a burst of wild laughter back and forth. Grandma was dripping with sweat.Before getting on the sedan chair, her great-grandmother repeatedly told her not to quarrel with the bearers on the road. The bearers and drummers are all vile, treacherous and eccentric, capable of doing all kinds of bad things.

The bearers shook the sedan chair vigorously. Grandma's buttocks could not sit still, and she grabbed the seat board with both hands. No sound?Bump!If you can't tell her, she will piss! The sedan chair was already like a boat in the wind and waves. Grandma was holding on to the seat board with all her might, the two eggs she ate in the morning were churning in her stomach, and flies were buzzing around her ears.Her throat tensed, and the eggy smell rushed to her mouth, and she bit her lip.Can't spit, can't spit!Grandma ordered herself not to vomit, Fenglian, people say that it is the biggest unlucky thing to vomit in the sedan chair, and if you vomit in the sedan chair, you will have no good luck for the rest of your life

The words of the bearers became even more rude. Some of them called my great-grandfather a villain with an eye for money; It is said that standing outside the Shan’s yard, one can smell the smell of rotten meat, and in the Shan’s yard, swarms of blowflies are flying around Little lady, you can't let Shan Bianlang get on your body, you will die if you get on your body! The big trumpet and the small suona whimpered, and the smell of eggs became stronger. Grandma bit her lips tightly, as if a fist was hitting her throat. She couldn't help it, and when she opened her mouth, a rush of dirt rushed out Come out, painted on the car curtain, five flies shot on the vomit like bullets.

Spit, spit, bump!The bearers yelled wildly, bumping, sooner or later she would talk. Big brothers, please forgive me. Grandma was hiccupping, talking in pain, and burst into tears after she finished speaking.Grandma feels aggrieved, grandma feels that the future is dangerous, and she will never escape the sea of ​​suffering for the rest of her life.Father, mother, money-greedy father, cruel-hearted mother, you ruined me. Grandma burst into tears, and the sorghum trembled.The bearers are no longer crazy, adding fuel to the flames, and the drummers who make waves stop talking.Only grandma's sobbing was left, and a weeping little suona was added. The cry of suona was more beautiful than all women's cries.Grandma stopped crying amidst the sound of the suona, listening to the music that seemed to come from heaven, as if she was listening to the sounds of nature.Grandma's noodles are withering, shedding tears, from the sad tune.She heard the sound of death, smelled the breath of death, and saw the sorghum-like crimson lips and corn-like golden smiling face of the god of death. The bearers were silent and walked heavily.The choking of the sacrifice in the sedan chair and the accompaniment of the suona behind the sedan chair made their hearts flutter, and the rain beat the soul streamers.Those who walk on this sorghum path no longer look like a procession to welcome relatives, but rather a guard of honor at a funeral.The bearer at grandma's feet, my later grandfather Yu Zhan'ao, had an unusual premonition in his heart, which illuminated his future path like a blazing flame.The crying of grandma aroused the pity and love that had been hidden in his heart for a long time. The bearers took a rest halfway, and the sedan chair landed.Grandma cried so drowsily that she unknowingly exposed her little foot outside the sedan chair.The bearers looked at the exquisite and incomparably beautiful little feet, and for a moment they lost their souls.Yu Zhan'ao walked over, bent down, and gently, lightly held grandma's little foot, like holding a fledgling bird, and gently sent it back into the sedan chair.Grandma was in the sedan chair, touched by the tenderness, she really wanted to open the sedan chair curtain to see what kind of person this bearer with his big warm young hands was like. I think that a marriage of thousands of miles is threaded by a thread, and a lifetime of love is a perfect match, which is an impeccable truth.It was because Yu Zhanao shook my grandma's foot that he awakened the great inspiration to create a new life in his heart, which completely changed his life and my grandma's life from then on. The sedan chair set off again.The trumpet blew out a long sound like the cry of an ape, and then there was no sound.The wind picked up, the northeasterly wind, and the clouds gathered in the sky, covering the sun, and it became even darker in the sedan chair.Grandma heard the wind blowing the sorghum, rattling, rattling, rattling, rattling far away.Grandma heard thunder rumbling in the northeast.The bearers quickened their pace.Grandma didn't know how far the sedan chair was from Shan's house, she was like a bound lamb, the closer she was to death, the calmer she felt.Grandma held a pair of sharp scissors in her chest, which might have been prepared for Shan Bianlang, or for herself. The fact that grandma's sedan chair was robbed while walking to Toad Hollow occupies a prominent place in my family's legend.Toad Hollow is the largest of the Dawazi, the soil is particularly fertile, the water is particularly abundant, and the sorghum is particularly dense.Grandma's bridal sedan arrived here, and a blood-red lightning flashed in the northeast sky, and an incomplete apricot-yellow sun shrieked and shot towards the road from the thick clouds.The bearers were panting and sweating.Walking into Toad Hollow, the air is heavy, the sorghum on the side of the road is black and shiny, bottomless, and the weeds and flowers on the road are almost dead.There were so many cornflowers, slender stems flying high among the weeds, with purple, blue, pink, and white flowers.In the depths of the sorghum, the cry of the toad is sad, the chirping of the grasshopper is desolate, and the mourning of the fox is melancholy.Grandma was in the sedan chair when she suddenly felt a burst of cold, and a layer of tiny goose bumps appeared on her skin.Before grandma could understand what was going on, she heard someone shouting in front of the sedan chair: Leave the road money! Grandma groaned in her heart, not knowing whether to be happy or not, God, I met someone who eats pancakes! The bandits in Northeast Gaomi Township are like hair. They haunt the sorghum fields like fish. They form gangs, pull donkeys and kidnap tickets. One, let the released people report back to the village, and send a number of flatbreads rolled with eggs and green onions that are as thick as two sticks and long.When eating big pancakes, you need to hold them with both hands and stuff them into your mouth, so they are called pancakes. Leave the road money!The man who ate the pancake yelled.The bearers stopped, staring blankly at the robbed passers-by lying in the middle of the road.The man was not tall, his face was smeared with black ink, he was wearing a bamboo hat made of sorghum strips, and a big coir raincoat.Pinned to his belt was a bulging thing wrapped in red silk.The man pressed the cloth bag with one hand. In a flash, grandma felt that nothing was scary anymore, she was not afraid of death, so what else was there to be afraid of?She raised the car curtain and looked at the person eating the pancake. The man shouted again: "Leave the road money!"Or I will break you!He patted the guy wrapped in the red cloth on his waist. The drummers took out from their waists the strings of copper coins that their great-grandfather gave them, and threw them at the man's feet.The bearer put down the sedan chair, and also took out the newly acquired copper coins, and threw them down. The man kicked the strings of money together into piles, staring fixedly at my grandma sitting in the sedan chair. All of you, get behind the sedan chair, or I will shoot you!He patted the guy on his waist with his hands and shouted loudly. The bearers walked slowly behind the sedan chair.Yu Zhan'ao walked last, he turned around suddenly, his eyes were on the person eating the pancakes.The man's expression changed instantly, his hands tightly covered the red cloth bag in his waist, and he screamed: "Don't turn around, if you turn around again, I'll kill you!" The passer-by held the dick in his waist, rubbed his feet in front of the sedan chair, and stretched out his hands to pinch grandma's feet.Grandma smiled brightly, and the man retracted his hands tightly as if they were scalded. Get off the sedan chair and follow me!He said. Grandma sat still, the smile on her face seemed to freeze. Get off the sedan chair! Grandma got up, stepped over the sedan chair graciously, and stood among the brilliant cornflowers.Grandma looked at the people eating the pancakes with her right eye, and at the bearers and drummers with her left eye. Go to the sorghum field!The robber said while pressing the guy wrapped in red cloth around his waist. Grandma stood comfortably, the lightning in the cloud hummed and trembled with a copper tone, and the bright smile on Grandma's face was split into countless intermittent fragments. The passer-by urged grandma to walk into the sorghum field, his hands still holding the dick in his waist.Grandma looked at Yu Zhanao with excited eyes. Yu Zhan'ao walked straight towards the passer-by, his thin lips stretched into a firm straight line, one of the corners of his mouth turned up and the other drooped. stop!The passer-by yelled feebly, I will shoot if I take another step!His hand was on the guy wrapped in a red cloth around his waist. Yu Zhan'ao calmly walked towards the person eating the pancakes, and when he took a step forward, the person eating the pancakes shrank a little.Green sparks jumped out of the eyes of the person eating the pancakes, and rows of snow-white sweat dripped from his face in panic.When Yu Zhan'ao was three steps away from him, he yelled in shame, turned around and ran, Yu Zhan'ao flew forward, aimed at his buttocks, and kicked him lightly.The passer-by's body stuck to the tops of the weeds, rubbed against the cornflower flowers, and flew out in parallel. His hands and feet scratched in the low air like an innocent baby, and finally fell into the sorghum tree. Man, please forgive me!There is an 80-year-old mother in the villain's family, so she has to eat this bowl of rice as a last resort.The robber yelled skillfully under Yu Zhan'ao's hands.Yu Zhan'ao grabbed the nape of his neck, lifted him to the front of the sedan chair, threw him on the road hard, and kicked him on the mouth, which was noisy.The passer-by screamed, spat half of it out of his mouth, swallowed half of it into his stomach, and blood flowed out of his nose. Yu Zhan'ao bent down, pulled out the guy from the waist of the robber, shook off the red cloth, revealing a small twisted tree bump, and everyone sighed. The man knelt on the ground, begging for mercy repeatedly.Yu Zhanao said: Those who robbed the road all said that there was an 80-year-old mother at home.He stepped aside and looked at the bearers and drummers, like the leader of a pack looking at the dogs. The bearers and drummers yelled loudly, swarmed up, formed a circle, and aimed at the robbers, showing off their fists and feet.At first, I could still hear the sharp cries of the robbers, but after a while, I couldn't hear them anymore.Grandma stood by the roadside, listening to the muffled sounds of beatings, she glanced at Yu Zhan'ao, and then looked up at the lightning in the sky, her face was still radiant, noble and resplendent like gold smile. A trumpeter waved a big trumpet and slashed at the road robber's head. The round blade of the trumpet went into the skull, and it took a lot of effort to pull it out.The passer-by gurgled in his stomach, his convulsed body stretched out, and he lay softly on the ground.A line of red and white liquid slowly squeezed out from the deep crack. died?The trumpeter said with a deflated trumpet. Killed, this thing, so unbeaten! The bearers and trumpeters all looked bleak and panicked. Yu Zhan'ao looked at the dead and then at the living, without saying a word.He tore off a handful of leaves from the sorghum, wiped off the dirt vomited up by his grandma in the sedan chair, held up the lump to have a look, wrapped the red cloth around the bump a few times, and threw it out with force. Pimple first, red envelope behind, like a big red butterfly, landed on the green sorghum. Yu Zhan'ao helped his grandma into the sedan chair: It's raining, hurry up! Grandma tore off the car curtain and stuffed it into the corner of the car. Breathing the free air, she looked at Yu Zhan'ao's broad shoulders and slender waist.He was so close to the sedan chair that grandma could kick his bluish-white firm scalp with just one kick. The wind was strong and strong, and the sorghum pushed forward and then embraced, and the ground shook in waves.The sorghum on the side of the road stuck its head into the middle of the road and bowed to my grandma in salute.The bearers are flying horses and meteors, and the sedan chair is surprisingly stable, like a boat sliding fast on the wave.The frogs croaked excitedly, welcoming the coming torrential rain in midsummer. The sky hung low, and they stared gloomyly at the silver-gray face of the sorghum. The blood-red lightning cracked on the head of the sorghum. The thunder was so powerful that it shook the eardrums. Grandma was excited, and fearlessly watched the green waves created by the black wind, the sound of clouds whirling around like a mill, the wind direction was changing, the sorghum was swaying in all directions, and the fields were in a mess.The first batch of ferocious raindrops made the sorghum tremble, the weeds were beaten, the fine soil on the road condensed into balls and then burst immediately, and the roof of the car was cracked.It hit grandma's embroidered shoes, hit Yu Zhan'ao's head, and shot obliquely to grandma's face. Yu Zhan'ao and the others sprinted like rabbits, but they still couldn't escape the pre-noon thunderstorm.The rain knocked down countless sorghum, the rain reveled in the field, the toad hid under the sorghum root, shaking the snow-white skin under its chin, the fox squatted in the dark hole, watching the fine water splashed from the sorghum Beads, the road will soon be muddy, weeds are lying on the ground, and the cornflowers are soberly holding their wet heads.The baggy black trousers of the bearers clung to their flesh, making them slim and smooth.Yu Zhan'ao's scalp was washed clean and bright, like a full moon in grandma's eyes.The rain wet Grandma's clothes, she could have hung up the car curtain to keep out the rain, but she didn't, she didn't want to.Grandma saw the chaotic and uneasy world through the bright sedan door.