Flesh and blood

When Weiliang was a child, he often listened to his grandmother telling him about the things in the village.

What made him remember the deepest when he was a child was the big pit in his grandma's mouth. Grandma always led him to play by the pit. He piled soil on the ground while listening to grandma sitting on the big rock and telling the story of the pit.

This small village is a poor mountainous area where it is difficult to get in touch with the outside world. People in the village never leave the village. The village is terribly poor. There is not much edible food, and there are not many water resources. Electric appliances are even less pitiful.During a period of time, many people and many children died in the village, all because of the smallpox disease not long after the child was born. There was no doctor or medical equipment in the village, and all those who got sick had to wait to die.

Later, there was this big pit. People threw sick and dead children into this pit. Every time Ji Liang heard this, he would turn his head and look into the pit to see if there were any dead people. The inside was pitch black, and nothing could be seen at all. At that time, Jiliang didn't know what a dead person meant, but thought the story was very fresh and interesting.

Grandma said that she picked Ji Liang back from this pit.

Then Ji Liang always remembered in his heart that he was born in a big pit in the village.

When he was ten years old, Jiliang had never been to school, and he didn’t know a single word, because there was no school in the village, let alone teachers, and many children were taught by their parents, just like the little chubby next door, who was always in front of him. Show off: "My parents know everything. I already know a lot of words. Why don't you even know this word?"

Ji Liang ran home, holding on to grandma's clothes with her little hands, begging her to teach him how to read.

Grandma picked up a small green stone from the quilt with her dry hands, pointed to the two characters and a few letters on it, and said to Ji Liang: "Grandma only knows the name of Ji Liang, so just read these two characters. It’s cold, grandma doesn’t know a few words, so she can only read it by looking at pinyin, Xiaoliang should put this thing away, and keep the two characters on it in her heart. If you can write these two characters, grandma will teach you you other."

From that day on, Ji Liang listened to her grandma's words, and always carried that green stone with her. When she was free, she took it out to have a look, then picked up the small wooden stick on the ground, and wrote stroke by stroke according to the shape.After practicing many times, Jiliang quickly memorized these two words. He showed his learning results in front of his grandma as if asking for credit, and wrote the word "Jiliang" on the ground in an upright manner.

But every time grandma sees the characters written by Ji Liang, she shakes her head frequently: "Xiao Liang learns very quickly, but the writing is not as good-looking as on the stone. Grandma can't teach you new characters."

In the days after that, Jiliang practiced writing very diligently, only writing these two characters. He didn't understand why grandma said that his writing was not as good as the one on the green stone, but in his opinion, he had combined these two characters. The writing was exactly the same as on the stone, but grandma didn't teach him anything else.

In half a year, Ji Liang has not learned the third character, he already understands that grandma will not teach him other characters, he often reads with that green stone, and at night lies next to grandma on the kang, Ask her in a low voice: "Grandma, it's cold, what do you mean?"

Grandma looked out the window. It was midwinter outside, and there was heavy snow falling, and large chunks of snowflakes piled up on the window sill.

"When it's cold in winter, let's call it already cold."

Knowing the meaning of his name, it turned out to mean very cold in winter. At that time, he didn't like this name at all, because it was really too cold in winter, and there were very few coals in the house that could not be burned too much. Save it to survive the winter, and then you have to cover the thick cotton-padded clothes and quilts to survive the cold winter.

A little older, Ji Liang has grown to 11 years old, that year was the poorest year in the family, because grandma's health gradually became ill, and the daily food and clothing at home were all given to the village by grandma People sewed clothes and shoes in exchange for it. This year, grandma’s hands gradually became inflexible. When Ji Liang watched those hands slowly become thin and only a piece of skin remained, and he could no longer move, his heart began to grow. There is a strange feeling.

Ji Liang leaned against the edge of the kang, guarding the old man lying on the kang, holding grandma's hand with his little hand: "Grandma, are you asleep?"

Grandma's fingers moved slightly.

Ji Liang clenched those hands: "Grandma, I'm hungry."

Grandma didn't speak, but looked at Ji Liang with her eyes open. Knowing that grandma must be hungry too, because they hadn't eaten for two days, he whispered to grandma, "Grandma, today Xiaopang's family is eating pastry. I'll go to the next door and steal half of the pastry, okay? We each have half."

Ji Liang raised her face, waiting for the answer from grandma on the kang, but grandma just shook her head.

Jiliang understood what grandma meant, she forbade her to steal other people's things by herself, and said again: "Grandma, wait for me, I'll ask them to give us some pastry, Xiaopang will definitely give it to me, we will immediately There's something to eat."

As if he had thought of a good idea, Ji Liang didn't wait for grandma's answer, he immediately turned around and ran out of his small courtyard, and ran directly to the little fat house next door, knocking on the door of the little fat house.

Xiaopang and Xiaopang's parents both came out, Xiaopang was still holding an unfinished piece of pastry in his hand, Ji Liang's eyes were fixed on the yellow piece of pastry, he swallowed a little , Said to Xiaopang: "Little Fatty, can you share some of the pastry with me? Grandma and I haven't eaten yet, so only half a pastry is enough."

Xiaopang looked at the pastry in his hand, and then at the cold one in front of him. He was about to hand over the things in his hand when he was stopped by his parents. Xiaopang's mother picked up the broom by the door and beat him. Ji Liang beat and cursed at the same time: "You bastard who lacks a father and a mother is here to bully my chubby again! Don't think that our family is so easy to bully, you dare to knock on the door, get out of here quickly, our family can't bear you!" There is no food for the dying!"

The broom slapped his body in burning pain, and Ji Liang was so frightened that he turned around and ran out. He didn't dare to stop, and kept running until he could no longer hear the woman's cursing, so he stopped and looked Four weeks, before he knew it, he ran back to the big pit where he used to come with his grandma when he was a child.

Ji Liang sat on the ground, picked up the thick clothes on his body, there was a deep red mark on his left arm, the cold wind blew the pain, Ji Liang hurriedly put on his clothes, and slowly returned home from the pit , The faint feeling in my heart is getting deeper and deeper.

When he got home, Ji Liang didn't dare to tell his grandma what had happened at Xiaopang's house. He walked to the kang and held grandma's cold hand, a little annoyed: "Grandma, Xiaopang's family refused to give me meat, They won't give me half of it."

Ji Liang slowly rubbed his grandma's hands with his small hands, trying to warm them up, he took a few breaths and suddenly remembered what Xiaopang's mother said, and Jiliang asked grandma: "Grandma, Xiaopang's mother said they don't give things to dead people. Eat, but no one died in our family, and no one got smallpox, why did she say that?"

Grandma's hands were trembling slightly, and he raised his head, seeing that grandma's eyes were already wet, he asked grandma: "Grandma, when will you rest well? When you rest, teach me how to mend clothes and shoes. I won’t learn to write anymore, and I can’t get food in exchange for writing, so I’ll go give grandma something to eat later, okay?”

Thinking that there will be food and useful things at home in the future, Ji Liang happily smiled at grandma, he saw a lot of water dripping from grandma's face, he didn't know what the water flowing from eyes was, he raised his little hand, Wiping off the water from grandma's face little by little, he saw grandma's mouth open, but she didn't say a word.

The next day, Ji Liang drank some cold water when he was hungry. A thick layer of ice formed on the surface of the cold water. He smashed the ice and put one piece in his mouth. , ran back to the kang, and took it to grandma's mouth: "Grandma, eat some ice, I will go to the uncle's house behind to ask for something to eat."

Ji Liang's little hands were red from the cold, and he kept holding on to the ice, but grandma didn't open her mouth. Ji Liang carefully put the ice cubes aside, and gently pushed grandma to call her, but grandma didn't open her eyes, Ji Liang was stunned. Standing on the edge of the kang blankly, his palms were cold, he slowly rubbed the back of his warm hand against grandma's face and hands, but grandma's face was colder than the palms he had held the ice, at this moment, the strange feeling in his heart was already cold The feeling filled his entire chest, and he realized that this feeling was called fear.

Grandma is dead.

When he died, his whole body was icy cold, even colder than the cold winter. Ji Liang thought that grandma was frozen to death. Since then, he no longer likes winter, and what he doesn't like even more is his own name.

The people in the village carried grandma to the edge of the big pit, and Ji Liang followed behind him. Looking at the place where he used to play when he was young, he felt a deep sense of fear. The faces of the people in the village were expressionless, and they were very relaxed Throwing grandma's body into the big pit, then turned and left without hesitation, leaving only Ji Liang alone.

Dakeng gave birth to himself, but ate his grandma.

This was Ji Liang's own thoughts. He carefully took out the green stone from his pocket and grabbed it firmly. He didn't think about anything, and didn't dare to think about it. He felt his face was wet and closed his eyes. Turned and ran.

The small village is built in the mountains, and it is surrounded by continuous mountains. The mountains in this area are all bald mountains, densely packed with sharp rocks, and there is hardly a tree or a grain of grass. This is why the village It is basically impossible for people who want to go out of the mountains, unless you can climb over these mountains by yourself, no one knows how many other mountains are behind this mountain, and no one dares to take this risk, because dare to take risks None of them came back.

When Jiliang decided to leave here, he made a bag from his grandmother's leftover cotton padded clothes at home, put the remaining water and ice cubes in a big bottle, and then carried the simple bag like this Something that couldn't be more crude, set foot on the opposite road to the village.