I surrender my foe with a kiss

It was an unremarkable summer day, the clouds in the sky were motionless, as if frozen, and the cicadas outside the window dragged their long voices, making people feel hot and dry.

The four-year-old Xiao Ci turned over and woke up from the bed, rubbing his eyes with his little hands, and there were red marks on his back from the mat.

"Brother," the little milk voice called out in a muffled voice, but when there was no response, she simply stretched out her little feet, and her pink toes gently pinched the nose of the sleeping child beside her.

one two Three……

Xiao Yan woke up from his sleep, his little face was flushed, he looked at Xiao Ci in surprise, "Huh?"

"Brother, I'm hot." Xiao Ci said.

There is no electric fan at home, my parents are working out of town, and my hunchbacked grandma is plowing the land halfway up the mountain.Xiao Yan thought for a while, then grabbed the clumsily folded paper fan made of small drawing paper on the bed, and fanned his brother.

"now what?"

"It's still hot." Xiao Ci climbed onto Xiao Yan's lap, his big eyes flickering and flickering, black and shiny, "Brother, go and buy me popsicles."

"No money," Xiao Yan said, yawning.

"Yes," Xiao Ci said, "in grandma's house, there is money hidden under the mattress."

"Mom and Dad won't let us take grandma's money..."

"We'll just take fifty cents, grandma won't know," Xiao Ci looked at him helplessly, "buy a pack of pistachio popsicles, we'll each have three." At the end, he shook Xiao Yan's arm again, and his milky voice screamed He said, "Brother."

Perhaps he was begged by his younger brother, or tempted by the popsicles, Xiao Yan climbed out of bed, sneaked into the next room to steal fifty cents.

"You wait at home," Xiao Yan said, "I'll buy it for you at the store, if grandma comes back..."

"I said you went to the mountain to mow the sheep." Xiao Ci spoke faster than him, and the two brothers looked at each other and giggled.

Xiao Ci lay by the window, watching Xiao Yan, who was pulling his cloth shoes, walk out of the yard.Xiao Yan walked very slowly, with a slight limp, his eyes fixed on the ground.

Xiao Ci knew that there was a hole in the sole of his brother's right cloth shoe, and it would hurt a lot if he was pressed by a small stone.

The pair of cloth shoes on my brother's feet belonged to him originally, but he wore them out after playing all over the place. He didn't dare to let grandma sew new ones for fear of being taught a lesson by grandma.The elder brother decided to change shoes with him, wear the broken pair of shoes himself, and wear his own pair of good shoes for him.

Xiao Ci thought, when his parents came back, he would show them the hole in the sole of his brother's shoe, maybe they would buy him a new pair of shoes from the market, and buy him a pair along with it.

That way, he and his brother don't have to wear cloth shoes made by grandma.

Xiao Ci lay on the bed, with his head facing the window, waiting and waiting boredly, until the sun was setting, but he still didn't get his pistachio popsicles.

Grandma came back, but my brother didn't come back either.

"Where is Yanyan?" Grandma put down the burden on her shoulders and asked into the room.

Xiao Ci didn't dare to tell the truth, he only said that his brother went out to play, and he went to ask him to go home for dinner, and ran out after speaking.

Xiao Ci walked down the winding mountain road, the grass insects chirped softly, and the dog's tail on the side of the road grew very high. He broke one and held it in his mouth, thinking that when he found his brother, he must use this grass to tickle him Small feet.

At the same time, he couldn't help but think, maybe it's my brother who ate up the popsicles by himself, so I'm ashamed to go home and see him...

With that in mind, Xiao Ci walked to the canteen at the foot of the mountain. The light inside the room was very dark, and many goods were covered with a layer of dust, which smelled choking.

Standing behind the counter, the proprietress stood on tiptoe, turned on the light bulb hanging from the beam, and asked him, "What do you want to buy?"

Xiao Ci stared at the ice cream and popsicles in the popsicle, drooling with greed, but unfortunately he has no money...

If you find Xiao Yan, you must beat him up.

"Where's my brother?" Xiao Ci asked.

"Huh? Didn't he go back?" The proprietress listened to the radio, rattling, "It was past two o'clock in the afternoon, and he left after shopping."

"He didn't go back, I couldn't find him..." Xiao Ci said.

"Find someone to play with, why don't you go to the river to have a look?"

Xiao Ci went to the river again, his feet were tired from walking, the grass beside the river was green, and an old yellow cow lowered its head to drink water, mooed, and flicked mosquitoes back and forth with its tail.Under the big tree, an old man in a straw hat was smoking a pipe.

The sun was about to set on the other side of the mountain, the sunset glow was smoky red, and the birds began to return to their nests, but Xiao Ci still couldn't find his brother.

Maybe the brother has come home?Xiao Ci started to walk back, halfway up the mountain road, his calf hurt so badly, he sat on a big rock to rest, dangling his calf.

Looking at the sun on the other side of the sky, slowly, bit by bit, it sank into the mountains.

The sky darkened.

Just about to get up, I looked down and saw a large group of ants crawling around in the crevices of the stone.

Smelling a sweet smell at the tip of his nose, Xiao Ci turned over the big rock and saw a pack of pistachio popsicles on the back of the rock.

There was a shoe print on the packaging, which was trampled and collapsed. After the popsicles melted, a small piece of sweet water flowed out, and a bunch of ants surrounded the outer edge of the colored sweet water, densely packed.

Xiao Ci looked at it for a while and thought it was a pity.

The first thing I did when I got home was to call "Brother". The old tile-roofed house was filled with cooking smoke. Grandma had cooked the meal and raised the curtain to look at him, "Didn't you find it?"

Xiao Ci was taken aback, "Brother didn't come home?"

Both of them were a little silly, grandma pulled him, washed his hands with soap, and let him sit at the small wooden table to eat first.I wiped the sweat off my face with an old oil-stained apron, and bent over to find Xiao Yan without taking a rest after a day's work.

"It's getting dark, don't run around, wait at home, there are big bad wolves outside." Grandma told her before leaving.

Xiao Ci was drinking porridge with a big bowl, and nodded when he saw the deep wrinkles on grandma's forehead.

Grandma didn't find her brother either.

Grandma left for a long time, and when it was time to go to bed, Xiao Ci didn't even open the door, and listened to the owl's hooting with his eyes open and trembling.

There are wolves on the mountain, will some wolves come into the house and bite him later?

Why don't we just lock the courtyard door?

But that way, if he fell asleep, grandma and brother would not be able to enter the door.

Xiao Ci fell asleep in such a state of shock and fear.

The next day, it started to rain heavily. Xiao Ci had a fever and lay sick on the bed. Grandma wore a straw hat and went out to find her brother in the heavy rain.

On the third day and the fourth day... the rain was getting heavier day by day, the sky seemed to have leaked, the wind was raging, lightning flashed and thunder thundered, a tree in the yard was knocked down by the roots, and when it fell down, it sounded like thunder .Dense raindrops hit the roof, and the musty smell of rotten wood filled the room.Xiao Ci was startled and frightened. In the dark, he always felt that the roof would fall and crush him to death.His whole body felt like a fire, and his throat was throbbing.He didn't have any strength at all. He was really hungry, so he got up tremblingly with his little hands supporting his body, touched the big bowl on the bedside table, drank water by the bedside, bit the hard steamed buns, and filled his stomach. Grumbling little stomach.

Besides, he almost slept in black and white upside down.

When he didn't know how many days it was, he vaguely heard someone talking in the sound of the rainstorm. The voice was unprecedentedly old and hoarse, with a hint of depressive crying, like a tree that was about to rot: "The second idiot in the east of the village said , When he was herding sheep, he saw someone pulling a child away. I don’t know if it’s from our family. The clothes on the man’s body were not like those in our village, and there was a car parked at the bottom of the mountain, at the bottom of the mountain... "

"Go and call him out, I'll ask him what's going on." A man's voice.

car?Xiao Ci was dizzy from the fever, thinking that when he had money in the future, he would also buy a car for his brother so that his feet would not hurt when he walked.Let my brother drive a big car to the canteen at the foot of the mountain to buy popsicles for him, making all the children in the village envious...

A pair of warm hands gently stroked his forehead, unlike grandma's hands, which were rough and full of calluses, which made him painful.Those hands were very soft, with the smell of soap, which smelled very good. When touching him, it made him feel very comfortable and at ease.

Xiao Ci opened his eyes in a daze, and saw his mother's hazy face.

"Mother?"

His voice was so hoarse that he almost wondered if it was his own.

Xiao Ci was carried out of bed by his mother, and when he went outside, he was shocked when he saw his father.

Dad seemed to have changed, he was no longer handsome and tall as before.He was completely soaked, his hair, trousers, and rain boots were all covered with muddy water, his eyes were scarlet, his face was haggard, and he looked very scary.

"Xiao Ci," Dad stared at him, his voice was cold and unfamiliar, "How did your brother get lost that day?"

"I..." Xiao Ci bowed his head, rubbing his little feet on the dirt floor, "Brother... bought me ice cream... I went to find my brother, but I couldn't find it..."

Xiao Ci raised his head and said seriously with a small face: "Father, when will brother come back? He agreed to buy me ice cream."

Hearing this sentence made Dad furious, he picked up the fire stick on the side and threw it at Xiao Ci, "When is it time, do you still remember to eat?! Your mother and I didn't close our eyes for several days and nights and came back by train! Say! That day What the hell is going on? Explain it completely to me!"

Xiao Ci was so frightened that he burst into tears. He didn't understand why he didn't see his father for more than half a year, and his father would attack him as soon as he came back. He tried his best to hide behind his mother.Mother protected him and said, "What are you calling? How old is he? What can he explain?"

As mother spoke, tears came down, "Xiaoci...has a high fever all the time, and he is trying not to make trouble for adults, so he just doesn't even hum..."

Dad was stunned for a moment, watching Xiao Ci's eyes become cloudy little by little, he threw away the fire stick, waved at Xiao Ci, and tried to make his voice as kind as possible: "Xiao Ci, come here, Let Dad... hug you..."

It's a pity that his vocal cords seemed to be broken, and his voice was hoarse and unpleasant. Xiao Ci cried even harder, calling for his mother all the time, trying to hide behind.

Dad's outstretched arms just froze in mid-air, and mother carried Xiao Ci into the room and coaxed him to sleep.

Xiao Ci rested on a big pillow, turned his small head to look at his mother, and said in a small voice: "Mom, I'm afraid of thunder."

Mom fed him antipyretics, held him in her arms, and patted his back, "Don't be afraid, Mom is here with you."

"Won't Mommy leave me all night?"

"Um……"

Xiao Ci turned over happily, held his mother's hand, smelled the fragrance of her mother's hand, and said with a smile, "Mom, will brother come back tomorrow? I miss him."

Mom shook her head for a long time, "I'll be back, sleep, sleep..."

Xiao Ci slept very soundly that night, he hadn't slept in his mother's arms for a long time.

But he didn't know that his mother lied to him and his brother would never come back.

At least, he never saw his brother again.

Even his father, he saw less and less.

At that time, Xiao Ci didn't know what child abduction meant. He only vaguely remembered that after his brother disappeared, he often couldn't see his father once a year.

And his mother also aged at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He could vaguely feel that the atmosphere in his home was not right. At a young age, he learned to be considerate of adults, and imitated adults, carrying baskets taller than others up the mountain to mow grass and feed sheep.After I started going to school, I wore worn-out cloth shoes and ran for more than ten miles to the school every day. Sometimes my feet were scratched by sharp stones in the field, and the pain was so painful that I couldn't sleep all night and dared not make a sound.

What I am most afraid of is that during the Chinese New Year, thousands of families are reunited, with lanterns and festoons, fireworks all over the sky, and even their small mountain village, which is closed, is full of excitement.Only his house is deserted, and the family is relatively silent about the cooked dumplings. Next to him, there is always an empty stool, a bowl, and a pair of chopsticks...

That kind of feeling always made him flustered for no reason, and he couldn't breathe like suffocation.

When he was a little older, when he was grazing sheep on the mountain, looking at the continuous mountains and vast plains, he often held a sheep whip in a daze under the setting sun, imagining that he would drive on the winding mountain road A car with his brother sitting on it.

My brother ran out of the car and gave him a big hug. He would lead him to the canteen. He would buy whatever flavor of ice cream he wanted, and he would never steal a bite from him.

Then I took my brother home, looked at the surprised expressions of my parents and grandma, and secretly laughed, my heart was sweeter than eating honey...

If my brother hadn't lost it, then the mountain road to school for more than ten miles every day should be full of laughter...

Grandma had a stroke and was paralyzed. Xiao Ci learned of his father's death when he was washing dirty clothes for grandma by the river.

My father borrowed all his foreign debts, offended his relatives and neighbors all over again, lived in the wind and slept in the open, and searched for his brother for ten years.As a result, he was targeted by someone with a heart, maliciously arranged fake news about his brother's whereabouts, deceived his father, and robbed him of all his money.Dad didn't carry it and jumped into the Pearl River. When the body was picked up, it was already soaked in water.

When the relic was sent back, Xiao Ci was holding the bottle of medicine, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

It turned out that my father suffered from severe depression and had been taking medicine for many years.

He didn't tell anyone about his mother, wife, or son. He had to bear all the hardships and hardships he had traveled for thousands of miles by himself.

After all, this matter could not be hidden from grandma, and not long after, grandma also passed away.

When my mother passed away, she was so thin that only a handful of bones remained in her body, and she had been tortured by the disease.She was lying on the hospital bed, holding Xiao Ci's hand, looking at her young boy's still childish face, and refused to close her eyes until she died: "Xiao Ci, I'm sorry, mom is going to see dad, I'm very sad, I can't...grow up with you. But baby, don't be afraid, you have to go forward bravely. Because in this world, you are not alone. You also have an older brother who belongs to your mother who landed on the same day as you Heart and soul. Although you can't see him, somewhere in this world, he bleeds the same blood as you, does the same things, and experiences the same joys and sorrows as you. When the sun rises, you bathe In the dead of night, he is also looking up at the same starry sky with you. You have to believe that when you miss him, he must also love you deeply. Just like... Mom and Dad treat you As deep as my love. Xiaoci..." Mom breathed out the last breath of her life, and her withered hand slipped down his cheek: "You have to find him."

Xiao Ci held his mother's hand tightly, and gently pressed his cheek against it, feeling the remaining warmth, and nodded desperately: "I will, Mom."

After dealing with his parents' funeral, Xiao Ci sold all the salable belongings in the family, exchanged them for money, and used part of the money to buy himself a ticket to Guangzhou.

Take the bus from Jiange to Guangyuan, then take the train to Chengdu, and then transfer to the train in Guangzhou. The journey takes a total of 38 hours, with hard seats.

Before that, my father had been looking for the whereabouts of my brother in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, narrowing down the scope step by step, and finally learned that my brother might have been sold to Guangzhou.

It was there that my father died.

No matter how hard or tiring his father was, he would finish the journey for his father.

When the sunset dyed the sky red again, he got on the bus and left Jiange, the land where he was born, for the first time in his life.Along the way, fallen leaves fluttered down, and the earth was dry and covered with melancholy clouds.He watched the continuous mountains recede to the horizon, forming one piece with the fiery red sunset; he watched the rolling waves of the Jialing River rushing all the way, and after the train crossed the bridge, it turned southeast abruptly, and he said goodbye to him.The mountain wind is howling, the birds are wandering, and everything in the hometown finally disappeared when the train drove into the cave.

The world is quiet and dark.

He finally embarked on the road that his father had trekked dozens of times but failed to return. He went to a strange city thousands of miles away and started a journey of life with an uncertain future.

In her arms, there is only a faded family portrait.

Dad, mom, grandma, brother, and him.

A complete home.

Goodbye, Jiange.

Goodbye, Kawakita.

Goodbye, dear... Mom and Dad.

That year Xiao Ci finished junior high school and had just turned 15.