all the way

It was so cold, Chang'e Sun, Xiumei and the others began to prepare offerings for ancestor worship as soon as lunch was over on 29, and the ancestor worship ceremony was completed before two o'clock.

Today, Liu Changqing didn't even allow Sun Chang'e to kneel down to worship the gods and ancestors of heaven and earth. It was just him, Liu Kui, and Liu Wei. Liu Yun and Liu Lei felt curious when they kowtowed and kowtowed, so they ran over and kowtowed beside Liu Changqing. Three heads ran away again, and he didn't let the other family members come out.

With all their hearts, the gods and ancestors will definitely be considerate. In such a cold day, they would not want to see their descendants and relatives suffer.

Liu Xia ran out of the main room and stood on the low stone wall to the east to look down. Liu Changchun's side had also finished and was closing up the stalls. Mao'er waved at Liu Xia: "Uncle, you'd better not go, Lao Leng, I'll be back after a while there.

Liu Xia pulled his hat tightly and covered his face: "Your Fifth Uncle and Sixth Uncle, I will go, put on your hat, let's go quickly, baby, let's go early and return early."

At lunch today, Liu Kui said that the wind was too strong, and the road to the cemetery was frozen hard and slippery. He told Liu Changqing and Liu Changchun not to go. He and Liu Wei would go here, and Liu Mao and It was enough for Liu Yu to go, but the cat said that he was already twelve and it was time to visit grandma's grave.

Liu Xia was afraid that Mao'er would be uncomfortable staying alone with Liu Mao for too long, so he wanted to go with Liu Kui. Liu's cemeteries are all on the "Old Grave Ridge" near Pheasant Ridge in the west, which is as close as Guan's house to them. The kiln is still far away.

As soon as Liu Xia said he was going, Liu Hai and Liu Ling also wanted to go. Liu Chuan was afraid that the road would be too slippery and there would be some accidents, so he had to follow. In the end, it was decided that the five brothers plus the eldest grandson Liu Wei, the others would not go, and Liu Xin It's not okay to pout and get angry, it's too time-consuming to bring a little one, and if something happens, it won't be worth it.

Although the cold wind howled and the dripping water turned into ice, Liu Xia and the others were all covered in sweat when they walked to the old tomb.

The ancestral grave of Liu Changchun's family was not far from Liu Changqing's house, Liu Xia stood up after kowtowing and turned to look at Mao'er and the others.

The cat was so blown by the wind that it could barely kneel, was hugged by Liu Yu, and knelt together with Liu Mao on the snow in front of Di Yulan's grave. Burnt paper money.

After the paper money was burned out, the three of them kowtowed together, and Liu Xia and his brothers walked over together.

Liu Xia pulled Mao'er over, trying to untie the down jacket to wrap him, but Mao'er pressed his hand: "I'm not cold, uncle, just warm me up and I'll hit it." Liu Xia asked him to hug him in his arms, He put his hands in his armpits to warm him.

Liu Mao didn't get up, he looked at the grave next to him for a while, then lowered his head, and slowly cleaned up the offerings on the ground, Liu Yu knelt down to help clean up together.

Liu Chuan tugged at Liu Kui's sleeve and whispered, "Brother, why don't we go back slowly and ask Second Brother to talk to Second Sister-in-law?"

Liu Kui looked at Liu Mao, sighed softly, and said to Liu Xia and the others: "Let's go slowly, Yaoer, take care of the boy. Mao, it happens that there is no outsider here today, you want to talk to Xiaohong , just say a few words, it’s always cold, I dare not stay here for a long time, I will wait for you at the leeward corner at the front.”

Liu Mao looked back at them and nodded.

Liu Kui greeted his brothers and walked back together.

It’s not a custom, but people here have always thought and acted that way. Husband and wife cannot show affection in front of outsiders. If young couples don’t pay attention, even an intimate name may be called by outsiders. It is not a good-natured joke to ridicule, or even blatantly sarcastic ridicule, and snort.

This trend has continued to the situation of Liu Mao and Xu Xiaohong, and it has evolved into a custom: husbands and wives do not go to the grave, and cannot express thoughts and nostalgia in any external way, those who are fickle, or husbands or wives who are still dead, choose another spouse , will be criticized by the neighbors and neighbors around, and express chills; but these neighbors are still the same, or even worse, to those who express deep memory of the lost wife or husband.

The fickle ones will be forgotten and forgiven as time goes by; the affectionate ones will become the butt and laughing stock of people forever.

Therefore, in the past 12 years, although Liu Mao visited his mother's grave every year at a distance of only a few meters, he couldn't really go to Xu Xiaohong's grave to take a look.

Because they were far away, they came very early today, and the other people who went to the grave hadn't come up yet, so they can let Liu Mao see Xu Xiaohong, even though it's just a pile of dirt.

In fact, Xu Xiaohong would not have been buried in the Liu family's ancestral cemetery if it hadn't been for people in their family who understood Liu Mao's thoughts.

Liu Xia took the cat and walked away first. When he walked tens of meters away, Liu Xia couldn't help but look back. He saw Liu Mao kneeling on one leg in front of Xu Xiaohong's grave, slowly picking up the snow on the grave with one hand .

Liu Xia stopped: "Mao'er, I forgot about my son, you, you are actually here today, I should give you, you..." He looked at his brothers begging for help, he hadn't said anything in front of Mao'er for so many years. , he couldn't name it.

Liu Kui patted himself on the forehead: "Why am I so confused? Cat, boy, I and... are of the same generation as your mother, and the same generation is not happy to go to the grave. Incense, I'm afraid it will damage Yinde, you are twelve this year, and she is over 30 after all, since you are here today, go and kowtow to her too, baby, when you come to the grave in the future, you should burn paper and give her money gone."

Mao'er looked at Liu Xia and nodded without hesitation: "I see."

Liu Mao turned his head when he heard the voice, and saw Liu Xia and Mao'er walking carefully towards him along the edge of a ditch. He said softly to the pile of loess covered with ice and snow: "Xiao Hong, he, he again Come back, you can see him again."

Liu Xia led the cat and walked over, and went to pull Liu Mao first: "Second brother, Lao Liang on the ground, get up, I forgot to ask the boy to burn paper and kowtow to the second sister-in-law. Now that there is no paper, ask the boy to give it to me. Second sister-in-law kowtow."

Liu Mao stood up slowly, nodded, and stepped aside.

Mao'er walked to the place where Liu Mao was kneeling just now, and knelt down on both knees. Liu Xia supported him and said, "Second sister-in-law, the child is twelve years old this year, and has grown up. I'm here to visit your grave. You bless the child in the future. An Anli oh."

Mao'er looked up at Liu Xia, Liu Xia nodded to him, Mao'er swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva, and said: "I, I'm here to visit your grave, I forgot to burn money for you, I burned money for grandma." A lot, spend it with grandma, and I will burn a lot for you next year." After finishing speaking, he put his hands on the ground and kowtowed three times in a proper manner.

Liu Xia pulled the cat up, turned around and called Liu Mao: "Second Brother, let's go...Second Brother!"

Liu Mao's eyes were filled with tears, and she stared blankly at Xu Xiaohong's grave, her thin body trembling slightly, as if she might leave with the wind at any time.

Seeing Liu Mao's expression, Mao'er looked at Liu Xia with a little helplessness: "Uncle."

Liu Xia stretched out his hand to support Liu Mao, and said to Mao'er, "Boy, you carry things; second brother, Lao Leng, let's go."

Liu Mao pushed Liu Xia: "Boy, you go first, I'll wait for a while, just for a while, and I'll go by myself in a while."

Liu Xia pulled him forcefully: "Second brother, let's go, it's so cold, my second sister-in-law will definitely not want to make you suffer like this, and the baby is always cold, I want him to go home quickly to keep warm."

Liu Mao didn't make any more effort, stretched out his hand to catch the thing in Mao'er's hand, stretched out halfway and retracted it, Liu Xia took the thing from Mao'er's hand and handed it to him, and the three of them walked back step by step.

On New Year's Eve, the house was as lively as in previous years. The two naughty boys made a lot of noise when they took a bath. They almost knocked over the tub, and the water spilled half the room. Xiumei and Xiaohui poured a basketful of ashes to dry the ground;

Little fatty Liu Xuan was crazy, he was not allowed to wear clothes after taking a bath, and crawled on the kang with his bare buttocks, his fleshy appearance was really rare, he was hugged next to each other by the whole family, and finally wrapped in a padded jacket by Liu Yu, Drooling and fell asleep.

Xiaohui bought a nursery rhyme book with pictures, and the two little Hades threw it aside after reading a few pages. Mengmeng liked it very much, and learned all the nursery rhymes on it. She performed well tonight and won rounds of applause .

In France, Liu Hai learned a few tricks of high-speed hip-swinging dance from a black classmate. He wanted to compete with Liu Xia.

In order to celebrate his uncle's victory, Mao'er went up and joined hands with Liu Xia for a while, and finally recruited the two little Hades, Liu Xin, Liu Rui, and Liu Wei, and the big and small danced wildly.

Xiumei laughed so hard that she was pulled up by Liu Wei, who said she wanted to teach her ballroom dancing. Many people in Rongze are now obsessed with this, and Xiumei pulled Liu Wei's ears so hard that Da Rebelled didn't The shameless bastard let go of his hand.

Liu Hai and Liu Xia rushed the encrypted passbook and 1095 yuan in cash that the adults were very happy to present, but Liu Kui, who was sober-minded, took it back unceremoniously.

Liu Yu refused to take it.

Liu Hai yelled: "Invest in shares, invest in shares, and share dividends with my mother as private money. In the future, if our daughter marries a daughter-in-law, my mother can also give her a jade bracelet, a gold ring, a family heirloom, and a marriage certificate. Those without bracelets are concubines and concubines, so they don’t count.”

Chang'e Sun crackled and slapped Liu Hai on the back a few times: "Little turtle, you haven't had enough to eat for three days, yet you want to live in a side room. You'd better come back honestly and farm for me."

Liu Hai yelled injustice: "The point is the family heirloom, mom, it's always played like this in movies, didn't Yang Xiaodong give Yinhuan the red heart ring at home? @Mom, if you give your daughter-in-law a family heirloom, set them up The status, if you put them in their hearts, isn’t the status higher?”

Sun Chang'e said: "I haven't given your sister-in-law anything, and they haven't said a word about me, so you can be filial."

Liu Hai fell on Liu Kui: "Brother, why doesn't our mother understand humor?"

Liu Kui said: "When our mother has a lot of jade bracelets and gold rings, she will naturally understand."

Liu Xia said to Liu Yu: "Fourth brother, my money is the same as my sixth brother's. All the money is invested in shares, and the dividends are all used as private money for my mother to buy family heirlooms."

Liu Yu's expression was tangled: "Baby, me, if I don't do well, what if I lose money?"

Liu Xia said: "It's a big deal that we don't buy jade bracelets, what's the big deal, don't eat or drink.

Didn't you marry my sister-in-law without the bracelet?One is more beautiful than the other, and one is better than the other. "

Liu Wei put her arms around Sun Chang'e's neck and said: "Grandma, if I bring back a little girl in the future, you can see it before you give me the bracelet. Don't always want to eat lazy persimmons and come back with me, classmate, you give him a bracelet." , then we will lose a lot.”

Back to school during the National Day holiday, Liu Wei brought back a big bag of lazy persimmons, but was robbed by his classmates. His female classmates at the same table only ate one, and they were not satisfied, so they asked to come to Liujialing with Liu Wei to have a full meal.

Liu Chuan said: "Xiaowei, what are you doing? Your grandma hasn't bought the bracelet yet, so you took one for your daughter-in-law?"

Liu Xia raised his hand: "Then I'll take one for the cat too. Mom, if you don't have jade, you'll win the gold bracelet. I'm not too rich. The bigger and thicker the better."

Liu Xia raised a lot of hands in the room, and the two naughty bastards who didn't know anything also followed suit: "I'll take one too, and I'll take one too."

Liu Kui fished Liu Yun into his arms: "You bastard, you know what a daughter-in-law doesn't know, so you just take it?"

Liu Yun said: "I know, the daughter-in-law Hua is just like my grandma Ye Erhei, she wears Hua Qua Ga, she looks so good."

……

It was already 11:30 when Liu Xia and the others returned to their cave dwelling. In half an hour, the new year would begin. They were so excited in the main room just now that the three brothers and the cat couldn’t sleep, so they lay under the blanket, Chatting while listening to the howling wind outside.

Liu Ling sat beside Liu Xia and rubbed his buttocks.

Liu Hai said: "When I mentioned that our mother didn't give our sister-in-law a family treasure, I saw that my second brother seemed very uncomfortable. He must have thought of our second sister-in-law again."

Several other people were silent, and after a while, Liu Xia said: "Today, when we turned back, my son, my second brother was still there talking to my second sister-in-law. It's been so many years, if I want to let others forget it, but second brother ..."

Liu Ling said: "Yaoer, you are young, you don't know how good the second brother and the second sister-in-law are. It's true that they have never quarreled or blushed once. The second brother is also really good.

After she got married, she didn't even ask her second brother to recruit her handkerchief again. She always said that her second brother was always working hard in the coal mines, and every time he came back, he ran so far away that he always panicked, and felt sorry for his second brother. When she came back, she didn't want to ask her second brother to do anything. "

Liu Hai said: "Now I still sometimes think of my second sister-in-law, Changli is so beautiful, and she is so kind, so it's gone;

Fifth Brother, Younger, I am in France. When I miss you, I really feel like my heart has been dug, and my heart has been dug into a big hole. It is hard to describe, but I know that you should stay at home and take care of yourself. , as long as I save enough money or graduate, I can always see you, and the pain is only temporary.

You think about our second brother, he will never see our second sister-in-law, forever, it is useless to think about it, there is no hope, never see, it must be worse than death. "

Liu Xia felt that Mao'er's small hand in his left hand tightened: "Well, then, if he goes to talk to the Bodhisattva, he can still marry my mother in the next life, will he win or not?"

Liu Hai said: "The Bodhisattva is really spiritual. If I agree, what about this life? No matter how good the next life is, isn't the second sister-in-law gone in this life? Isn't the second brother still not seeing the second sister-in-law? Besides, we don't either. Know if there is really a next life."

Liu Xia cooperated with Mao'er's little hand, and interlocked his fingers: "I don't know if a person really has a soul after death, it would be great if there is one, and the second sister-in-law should also go to the Bodhisattva to bless her in the next life and marry him back." Second brother."

Liu Hai turned over and put his hands under his chin: "What's the use of that? No matter what happens in the next life, won't this life be uncomfortable? I still want to let the second sister-in-law live and live happily with the second brother for the rest of my life, watching them Well, maybe they don’t need to beg, and the Bodhisattva will call them husband and wife in the next life.”

Liu Xia said: "I am the old poor second brother, the second sister-in-law will never come back, and there will be such a long life, how can he get through it!"

……

The new year came quietly in the dark, Liu Xia turned over, pulled up the quilt twice in his sleep, and wrapped the cat tightly.

A figure sat up slowly, put on a padded jacket, leaned against the window sill, and quietly looked at the boundless night outside the window.

The author has something to say: Liu Hai's story about 'Yang Xiaodong' is a plot in the movie "Wildfire Spring Wind Fights the Ancient City".