Fog Township

Deep in the mountains, more than 100 kilometers south of Chongqing, there is a little-known small mountain village.The village is built along the river, high and low along the west bank of the small river, and the blue-gray rough tile roofs are densely connected together, looking from a distance like a green dragon winding by the river.The local people call this river Chaba River, and the village is named after the water, which is called Chaba River by the mountain people.

This tea dam is right at the turn of the small river running from north to south. It is nourished by the monsoon from the south. It is surrounded by clouds and fog all year round. The clouds, rain and fog seem to love this place very much. Even in the hot and dry midsummer, the air is slightly cooler in the morning and evening. When it is time, the mist often rises, like a fairyland.

A few steps upstream along the river from Chaba, there is a separate small courtyard.The owner of this yard is the "pharmacist" in the village - Mrs. Zeng, whom everyone affectionately calls her Grandma Zeng.Grandma has only one adopted grandson to live with her. She originally had an adult son who married a wife. The three of them live together, and the life is happy and harmonious.It's a pity that God's wishes failed. In the summer 16 years ago, there was a rare flood in Chaba, which destroyed many houses. Unfortunately, his son was swept away by the flood in order to save a family in the village. The river was so fast that even his body I didn't find it either.At that time, the wife was already two months old. Hearing the sad news, she was distraught and shed tears all day long. On the seventh day of her husband's first seven days, she went up the mountain to collect medicine and unfortunately fell off the cliff, and finally went with her husband, leaving only the poor grandmother All alone.If it were an ordinary old man, after such a blow, he would describe it as haggard and ashamed.This Grandma Zeng is an unusual woman.The daughter's family mostly learns needlework, and medicine is the responsibility of the man's family, but the young Granny Zeng has strayed into this men's business. She is smart and clever, even better than the boys in the same school. Look at the master who teaches medicine. With such good fortune, she made an exception and passed on this mantle to her.

After the daughter-in-law left, the grandmother bored herself for three days and three nights.Everyone in the village was very anxious, worried that she would not be able to pass this hurdle.Finally, on the morning of the fourth day, Grandma opened the door, pushed open the windows, and cleaned up the yard inside and out. The windows were pasted with new paper, and fresh firewood was piled up at the door.The days seem to have returned to the peace of the past, and Grandma lives alone calmly.On the night of the daughter-in-law's first seven days, the night was very late.Grandma walked under the two big yellow kudzu trees at the entrance of the village as usual, and suddenly heard a cry from the grass under the trees. The voice was petite and touching, like a kitten's heart-wrenching call.Grandma Zeng hurriedly pushed aside the grass, and a baby wrapped in a gray cloth swaddled the baby crying. He was born with delicate features, and his skin showed a lavender red that hadn't left the mother's body.

"Whose child is this! What a crime!" Granny picked up the child, and went to check if there were any tokens about the child's life experience in the swaddling baby. There was nothing but a delicate wooden plaque with the word "Ming" engraved on it. other things.Grandma turned over the wooden sign, and on the back was engraved the child's birth date in exquisite lowercase letters. Grandma thought to herself, "It must have been abandoned by a foreigner who couldn't raise him. I don't know which family is pregnant in this village. It's not wrong to be an outsider." Tea The dam is an extremely hidden place, surrounded by mountains and clouds, and the clouds, mountains, fog and rain are like a veil guarding this unknown secret.

Granny calmed down as if she understood, maybe it was because God took pity on her, a lonely old man, and gave her a grandson to accompany her.Thinking of this, Grandma wrapped the child carefully, and made up her mind in her heart that she must raise him.Because of the fate of the small wooden sign, the grandmother gave him an auspicious name - "Zeng Muming".Chaba people love bamboo the most, and there are lovely moso bamboos everywhere in the surrounding mountains, forests and valleys.Bamboo is very useful in the eyes of Chaba people. Bamboo must be used to make chopsticks, bamboo must be used to weave bamboo baskets, and woven bamboo strips are also used to support the skeleton of the wall, so bamboo has the implication of wealth and abundance.Because Grandma Zeng is the only doctor in the village, everyone in the village is pleased with the arrival of this little life, and they affectionately call him "A Ming".

The days flowed quietly like the water of the Chaba River. In a blink of an eye, sixteen springs and summers have passed.Amin is also handsome and tall. His eyebrows are well-defined, and his face is as round as the moon dam on the half slope. It is said that the moon dam is a section of bluestone stairs leading to the mountain. The half moon in the night sky got its name.

The teenagers in Chaba were born by the water and grew up in the water. They are familiar with the water and are as vigorous as water ducks. Every summer, when the weather is slightly hot, there will be half-sized boys unfastening their clothes and pants, jumping into the river in twos and threes to swim and fish. They are very happy. .The juvenile's laughter wafted through the entire river valley, and it seemed that the dull and humid air had also become active.

A Ming is a person who doesn't know water. Maybe he is naturally quiet and shy and doesn't like the publicity of the rushing water. He goes into the water.Grandma Zeng obviously loves Ah Ming very much, and reminds her repeatedly whenever she goes out: "Don't go play in the water, or the big fish in the river will eat you!" He no longer believes that there is any fish that can eat him, but he knows his grandmother's painstaking efforts and dare not go against her wishes.

It was almost dusk, and a thin mist began to rise from the quiet water surface, and the afterglow reflected on the river surface, as if it had been covered with a layer of golden tulle.Amin took the bamboo basket full of zheer roots from his back and placed it on the bluestone slab by the river. He took out a piece of coarse cloth from his pocket and spread it on the stone slab, and poured out all the zheer roots from the bamboo basket, piece by piece. Carefully stroke the soil above.

At this time, a familiar shout came from the stone steps behind: "Hey! Brother Aming! Is that you? You are scratching your ears again. Let me help you!" The footsteps of stepping down the stone ladder, and after a while, a delicate and sweet girl appeared in front of Amin. She was Tan Yaniang—the baby girl whose adoptive father sacrificed his life to save her 16 years ago, and who has now come out. Slim and graceful, charming and charming.Her skin is a little brown, which is the healthy wheat complexion that people in Chaba admire, and the expressions in her two black eyes are pouring down on Amin's face like clear water.A Ming blushed with embarrassment from the affectionate eyes, and hurriedly said: "Yes. I just picked it. It has rained a lot recently, so I picked a big basket!" A Ming scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Don't stand around stupidly, come on! We'll go faster together." After finishing speaking, Jiao Niang rolled up her sleeves, skillfully grabbed a large handful of folded ears and began to wash them.