Second Piano Concerto

The Diaolou of Xiaohei's house was built on a slope deep in the village, where his grandmother, parents, uncles, elder brothers, sisters-in-law and younger siblings lived.Bundles of firewood are stacked on the bottom floor of the Diaolou, and a mountain stream flows not far behind the house.

Due to the inconvenience of communication, Xiao Hei did not inform his family in advance that he would have a guest today.The younger siblings were studying outside, and the adult laborers in the family had to work in the fields, so when the four of them arrived home, only his grandma was sitting at the door of the main room basking in the sun, smoking a stick of dry tobacco leisurely.

Xiao Hei's grandma was different from the others in the village. This grandma seemed to have seen some of the world, and they didn't find it strange to see Qin Haiou. They just nodded with a smile, said a few words to Xiao Hei, and then went to the back of the house up.Xiao Hei led the three of them into the main room and poured tea, letting them rest here, while he was busy tidying up the room for them to stay.Zhao Fei drank a cup of tea, looked out the window with an itchy heart, said "I'll go outside and take two pictures" and went out with the camera in his arms.Tan Shuo walked around the room, touched the guns hanging on the wall, and couldn't stay still for a while, so he went out to find Zhao Fei.Qin Haiou wanted to go with him, but he was the only one left in the room, so he had to sit in a well-behaved manner, waiting for the master to come back.

Xiao Hei vacated a bedroom for the three of them, and then went back to the main room to carry a few bags of luggage with Qin Haiou.This bedroom and its two adjacent rooms seem to have been newly built later, and they are not connected to the main room. To get from the main room to the bedroom, you need to go downstairs through the gate of the main room, and then go up the stairs on the other side after making a small circle around the building.Carrying his hiking bag, Tan Shuo's backpack in one hand, and Zhao Fei's camera bag in the other, Qin Haiou followed Xiao Hei downstairs.The two had just passed the corner when they suddenly heard a messy barking of dogs in the distance.

The sound of dogs barking quickly moved from far to near, with people's shouts and footsteps mixed in.Qin Haiou stopped and followed the prestige, and saw Tan Shuo and Zhao Fei running towards here from the end of the path in front of the door. A group of dogs, big and small, were chasing after them. At a glance, there were at least a dozen of them.

Qin Haiou was stunned by this spectacular scene, and didn't know whether he should step forward and help drive away the dogs, or turn around and run away with the two of them.He was holding something in his hand, no matter which one he chose, it was very difficult. In such a dazed moment, the man and the dog had already rushed to his eyes.Seeing him standing still, Tan Shuo shouted anxiously, "Run, run!" Only then did Qin Haiou realize that he was afraid, and took two steps back in a hurry. He turned his head and saw the firewood pile at the bottom of the Diaolou, then picked up his luggage and went to the firewood pile. Drill into the gaps in between.

At this time, Xiao Hei also saw the scene on the road, dropped the luggage in his hand, picked up a wooden stick from the firewood pile, and went up to him.Seeing Qin Haiou hiding behind the woodpile, Tan Shuo and Zhao Fei rushed down the hanging building without thinking.Xiao Hei yelled, threw the stick towards the dogs, shouted again and again in local dialect, and hit the ground with the stick.These dogs already recognized him, and the leading ones were frightened by him, and the rest immediately slowed down their momentum, and only stopped barking at the periphery, not daring to approach.

Seeing that there was no dog rushing over, Qin Haiou gathered himself together, looked left and right, and saw that Tan Shuo had climbed to the top of the firewood pile in such a short time, lying down between the firewood pile and the second floor, Waving a stick in his hand, he was condescendingly cursing at the dogs angrily.On the other side, Zhao Fei was far less flexible than Tan Shuo because he was carrying a camera and a camera bag. He had just climbed halfway up the woodpile and was hanging there panting heavily.

Xiao Hei kept driving the dogs away with a stick, but Tan Shuo hid behind him and yelled, causing the dogs to stop and "swear" with him frequently.Xiao Hei had no choice but to turn around and stop Tan Shuo, then named the leading dogs and scolded them for a while, and the group of dogs gradually dispersed.

Seeing that the dog had finally left, Tan Shuo and Zhao Fei got off the woodpile.Xiao Hei looked at the distressed appearance of the two and smiled, "Don't run when you meet a dog. The more you run, the more you chase after it. This is common sense!"

Tan Shuo said angrily: "Who the hell ran away! It wasn't Lao Zhao, the coward, that dog just barked and he ran away!"

Zhao Fei had a big opinion on this: "Can it bark if you don't provoke it! How can it be so fierce if you don't provoke it? Do you think all the dogs here are Doudou?!"

Qin Haiou smiled and persuaded: "It's fine, it's fine!"

The two obviously didn't have the strength to blame each other anymore. They were chased by dogs and ran all the way. They were already sweating profusely. They gasped for 5 minutes while holding the woodpile before they recovered.Qin Haiou and Xiao Hei were no more calm than them. When they were on the road, their sweaty clothes were not completely dry, and they were scared to sweat again.The four of them haven't taken a shower since they set off yesterday, and now they feel a bit unbearable after all this trouble, so after the three settled down in the room, they immediately took out clean clothes, towels, etc., and followed Xiao Hei out to take a bath .

Xiao Hei took them to the mountain stream behind the house and walked upstream along the stream.The stream zigzags and rushes down, and the water volume is abundant, forming small pools about half a person deep in several places with large drop and relatively open terrain.The pools are surrounded by boulders and lush bushes and trees. According to Xiao Hei, people in the village usually bathe and wash clothes in these pools.

They passed three small pools like this, until they came to a long thin waterfall.It is very difficult to go up from here, and the stockade is no longer visible when looking down, only a corner of a small pool located downstream can be vaguely seen.Xiao Hei said that it was here, and then stripped off his clothes and got into the water.Tan Shuo and Zhao Fei followed closely behind, and the three of them scrambled to rush to the waterfall.Qin Haiou was the last one. He put his shoes away from the water first, then took off his clothes and folded them up. He was about to put them on the stone beside him, but found a worm crawling on the stone. Had to find another one.There are many fallen leaves and broken twigs floating by the pool, and some water mosquitos are crawling on the relatively calm water.Qin Haiou stepped one foot into the water, stooped to fiddle with the fallen leaves on the surface of the water, and saw small fish as long as knuckles protruding from the bottom of the water, swimming quickly in a team, and there seemed to be some other creatures, Because of the staggered light and shadow under the water, I can't see clearly.He struggled a little in his heart, doubting whether taking a bath here could really clean him up, but he quickly remembered the scene of jumping into the river in Guzhen that night, and felt that the worst was nothing more than that, so he broke his heart immediately, Jumped into the water.

The four of them had a good bath in the pool, and then took turns to wash under the waterfall.When they went ashore, not only the hot sweat from their bodies was washed off, but also the original city atmosphere was washed away. Everyone exuded a dampness mixed with the fragrance of plants and the smell of earth from head to toe. The smell is quite local.

Qin Haiou did not forget Yu Doudou's instructions, and asked about the phone again after taking a shower.Xiao Hei took him to an open space in the middle of the village, where there was the only grocery store and the only telephone in the village.The grocery store is run by a grandfather and his granddaughter. The store is small and mainly sells candies, biscuits, cigarettes and instant noodles.When the two came to the shop, the old man happened not to be there. A fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl was sitting in the setting sun outside the hanging building doing needlework, humming softly.

Xiao Hei stepped forward and talked to her in local dialect.When the little girl heard that someone was going to call, she turned to Qin Haiou in surprise.She only took one look, then lowered her eyes again, pursed the corners of her mouth, put down the work in her hand, got up and ran upstairs briskly.Xiao Hei signaled Qin Haiou to follow, and the two entered the shop. The little girl came out carrying a wooden box with a brass lock on it, and put it on the counter by the door.

She found the key and opened the lock. An ordinary wired phone was lying in the box. It looked brand new, which showed that it had been seldom used for more than a year.There was a small hole in one corner of the box through which the telephone cord came out, leading to the wall.

This ancient storage method made Qin Haiou feel fresh.He picked up the box, looked at it for a moment before putting it down again, then picked up the receiver and started dialing.He first dialed Doudou's mobile phone, but after repeated calls several times, he still couldn't get through. He stopped and thought about it, and then dialed the inn's landline.This time, someone from the opposite side quickly picked up the phone, it was a clerk from the inn, Qin Haiou asked him to find Yu Doudou or Chen Ganning to answer the phone, if they were not in the room, Zhuzhu would do as well.

When the guy was looking for someone, Qin Haiou waited patiently holding the receiver.His other hand rested on the counter, his five fingers were loose and slightly spread, long and beautiful.At first, the little girl couldn't stop staring at his face, but after a while, she suddenly saw his eyes turn, thinking that she had been spotted, her cheeks turned red and she didn't dare to look up, she just peeked at his fingers.Qin Haiou didn't notice all of this. After talking on the phone, he lowered his head and looked for change in his wallet.The little girl took the change from him, turned around and found a few coins from the drawer, then reached under the counter to feel for something, and put them into his palm together with the coins.Qin Haiou retracted his hands and saw that they were two big white rabbit toffees. He didn't think too much about it, and took it as a sign of hospitality from the villagers, thanked her with a smile, and put the candies into his pocket.

Although there was no preparation in advance, Xiao Hei and grandma used the ingredients at home to make a hearty meal.The staple food is hand-grabbed glutinous rice, served steaming in a basin, which can be grabbed and eaten alone, or mixed with vegetables.Qin Haiou is very unfamiliar with this unrestrained way of eating, and his fingers are very sensitive. Feeling the hot steam from the rice grains, he couldn't help but retract his hand that had already reached the side of the basin.

Tan Shuo grabbed Qin Haiou's wrist to prevent him from shrinking back: "Do as the Romans do, you have to experience it!"

Xiao Hei smiled and said, "Brother Qin, may I bring you a pair of chopsticks?"

Tan Shuo said seriously: "Using chopsticks is not as delicious as grabbing with hands, I won't lie to you!"

Qin Haiou struggled for a moment, and finally reached into the basin and tried to grab a handful.The glutinous rice is crystal clear, with distinct grains, soft and sweet, and the appetite and sense of taste become unscrupulous without the standard of tableware and dining.After a while, Qin Haiou, like everyone else, began to lick the rice grains stuck to his fingers.

After dinner, everyone sat around and chatted.Tan Shuo knew that his grandmother could sing, so he wanted to invite her to sing a local folk song, but the grandmother just smiled and held her cigarette holder in her mouth and said nothing. Xiao Hei's parents, brother and sister-in-law all presented songs one by one to welcome the distinguished guests from afar, only the grandmother did not. Open your mouth.

Xiao Hei explained: "No one else can sing the songs my grandma can sing, so she doesn't sing them easily for outsiders to hear."

Tan Shuo was thoughtful and stopped talking about singing.Qin Haiou saw that he was silent, and he didn't seem to give up. After returning to the room, Qin Haiou asked him what his plans were.

Tan Shuo didn't answer his question right away, but instead asked him: "Do you know the peoples living in these areas, how do they record history?"

Qin Haiou said: "They only have language but no writing, so they make up their history into songs and pass it on word of mouth..." When he said this, he suddenly understood what Tan Shuo meant, and asked with wide eyes, "You mean, Grandma can sing 'ancient songs'?"

Tan Shuo said: "It's probably like this. This kind of narrative ancient songs that record history is usually only sung by old and respected singers in the tribe, and usually they are not sung casually for outsiders. The lyrics of this kind of songs are often very long and have a lot of content. It contains the most quintessential part of the nation's spiritual culture. If we can hear her sing with our own ears, it will be a worthwhile trip."

Hearing what he said, Qin Haiou was also very excited: "Then think of a way and let grandma sing it to us!"

Tan Shuo yawned and said, "What's the rush? This is just the beginning! Wait until we see the situation. I'll ask Xiao Hei first tomorrow."

They had been busy all day, and by this time they were very tired.Tan Shuo and Qin Haiou shared a wide bed, and fell asleep as soon as they touched the pillow.Although Qin Haiou also felt sleepy, he was still a little excited, and the moisture leaking from the quilt and the hard bed board under him also made it difficult for him to fall asleep.There was no electricity in this village, and a biogas lamp hung on the ceiling of the room, which was on and off. Zhao Fei sat on the single bed opposite and wiped the camera with this light, silently repeating boring and trivial actions.Qin Haiou stared at it for a while, and finally his mind was gradually emptied. While half asleep and half awake, what he saw and heard during the day turned into hazy fragments, surrounding him like clouds rising from the mountains.After an unknown amount of time, the gas lamp went dark again, and everything sank into a quiet night. Only a singing sound seemed to come from a distant place, lingering in his dream endlessly.