grandfather's daughter-in-law

The performance in Beilai Town did not greatly improve the current situation of the folk music club. Xu Hong passively withdrew the performance of the song and dance troupe. She no longer participated in any performances on the grounds of raising a baby. The voice of grievance is getting louder and louder.Everyone said that Ding Yongchang was selfish and partial, and looked down on Ding Jianjun, the adopted son.Ding Jianjun has worked so hard for the theater troupe for so many years, but he is not as good as a newcomer.Regardless of whether these words are true or false, half of the hearts of the people are chilled when they are said.At that time, Ding Yongchang was dying. In order not to let people realize that he was blind, he spent most of his last days lying on the bed with lameness.This disturbing rumor finally became the straw that broke the camel's back.He had a brief period of suspended animation, and even though he was well prepared, Wang Yugui still wept half of his clothes.

When he woke up, the room was full of people, almost the entire troupe, and a few people from the town who had just established a meager friendship with him, and the room was dark.A pot of charcoal fire still burning vigorously in the corner could not dispel the painful haze.Many people told him to take care of his health and complained about his carelessness. He hadn't visited him several times since he came back from the hospital, so they didn't realize that he was dying of illness under their noses.Ding Jianjun thanked him for his adoption, and some people thanked him for his teaching.They looked back on his kindness to them in the past, and led them to travel north and south to make a living and passed through many difficult days.Some people even recalled that in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the rulers clamored to counterattack the mainland, and the people were panicked.They are the kind of people who have gone through that era. They all survived tenaciously. They firmly believe that he will also be able to overcome the disease this time.Many, many people followed the etiquette and asked him about his condition time and time again with sad expressions, telling him to take good care of his body.

Ding Yongchang nodded on the pillow to show that he heard everything.His complexion was very bad, with sunken cheeks, sunken temples, large and deep eye sockets, dark and dull eyes.Wang Yugui pulled the quilt on his body to his chest, where the skin was skinny, his skin was poor, and there was a sticky feeling of sweat.He looked weak and tired, but awake.With half-closed eyes, he searched for Yu Minxiu's figure in the crowd.

"Axiu." He stretched out his bony hand.His nose was wheezing from the constricted breath, and it sounded as if he had just paused from the drudgery of death, which was too much for him to do.

Yu Minxiu hurriedly walked through the crowd to meet it and held it.Tears welled up in her eyes, and she didn't say anything, but Ding Yongchang kept saying good boy.He thanked all the people who came to visit him, and said that he would take good care of his health, and then politely issued the order to evict him.They are gone.

It was raining patteringly, and gusts of cold wind came under the eaves.Wang Yugui and I stood outside the corridor waiting, our bodies were cold and desolate.I folded my arms tightly, breathed lightly, and looked down at the water stain on my toe, which was soaked by the rain. It looked very dirty because it was stained with clay.From the time we heard the bad news in the hospital to when Yu Minxiu and I visited him from time to time, I had told Wang Yugui countless times to comfort him, repeating the same words over and over again.Tell her to take care and hope for a miracle.In fact, they are all just pale nonsense, but when people are helpless, they are accustomed to pin their hopes on the illusory sanctity, so as to pin their mourning feelings.

"Auntie, how are you?" I said.She also looked haggard.

"Up to now, I've been prepared for a long time. Everything is fine, fine." Her throat suddenly choked, and I turned my eyes away.

"Winter seems to come earlier this year." I said.The sky is gray, like a winter rainy afternoon.

"Yeah." She answered me.

The rain is still pattering down, and the rain and the wind blow to the face from time to time.We stood for a long time without speaking.Meanwhile, she went to the temple next door to offer incense.She muttered to herself and prayed for God's blessing, opened an old umbrella and walked into the rain, the dark sky covered her head, just like she was waiting alone at the gate of the temple for Ding Yongchang on the night of heavy rain .Not long after she came back, the door behind her opened and Yu Minxiu came out.There were traces of crying on her face, her eyes were red, and there was a black wet spot on the sleeve of her gray gown.

"Mum, Dad is calling you." She said to Wang Yugui.Wang Yugui walked in silently.

I didn't ask what Ding Yongchang had said to her, and walked back to our residence with her.During the time when Ding Yongchang's accident happened, Xu Hong used half of the troupe's funds to buy the sound equipment, and asked the female dancers in the troupe to perform in costumes, and some female dancers left the troupe because of this.The vacant beds were not reassigned, so Yu Minxiu moved in.Her expression was very solemn along the way.When passing by the compound, she stared for a long time at a solitary begonia that had been destroyed by the wind and rain in the corner.The rain fell on her shoulders along the edge of the umbrella.

Before dinner, Ding Yongchang gathered all the troupe.The cast on his leg was gone, and he was wearing a starched brown suit and was supported by Wang Yugui to sit on the main seat.An old woolen blanket was covering his legs.Eyes half-closed, more spirited.

"I called everyone today, the first thing is that I decided to formally accept Yu Minxiu as a disciple." He announced.

Yu Minxiu came out from the crowd, she was wearing a yellow and white diagonal stripe sweater and a blue coat - I guess it was the most solemn clothes she could find.Her hair was neatly tied up in a bun.Before going out, she also took a cold shower in the early winter afternoon with light rain.

Ding Yongchang said: "Before worshiping a teacher, we have to pay homage to our ancestors."

The patriarch of Gezai Opera is Marshal Tian Du.According to legend, Marshal Tian Du was a musician in Tang Dynasty and was favored by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty.Later, in the Anshi Rebellion, he was loyal and died for the country, and was posthumously named Marshal Tiandu.Because he was lost in the fields with his mother when he was young, he was raised by soaking in the foam of hairy crabs, so all the troupe members who respect Marshal Tian Du as their ancestors do not eat hairy crabs.The statue of the patriarch I saw when I was taken in by Ding Yongchang followed us everywhere.After settling down in Wutong Town, a special altar was arranged in front of the lobby, and an incense burner was placed in front of the statue.It turns out that Wang Yugui's compulsory homework is to wipe the statue's body with incense and pay homage every day.

Yu Minxiu nodded, and Uncle Ming handed over the incense to her. She twirled three sticks of incense and bowed sincerely for three times before inserting them into the incense burner. She then took the tea tray from Uncle Ming and held it up He bowed his head humbly, knelt down in front of Ding Yongchang and called Master, but Ding Yongchang didn't take it.His half-closed eyes were fixed on the center of the tea tray, as if Yu Minxiu's eyes were there.He said: "Since you have worshiped the teacher, you must abide by the rules of the teacher's school."

"Please teach me, Master."

"Industry is good, work is hard, work is done, thought is ruined. Exquisite skills depend on personal talent and hard work. I don't ask you to have great achievements. But Gezai Opera respects the Tao of Marshal Tian Du, and the way of Marshal Tian Du. We have to abide by loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness. Theater quality is like character, watching a play to see life, we must not perform loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness on stage, but be obedient and vicious offstage."

"The disciples respectfully follow the teachings of the master."

He took a deep breath, then took his hand out from under the old woolen blanket, took a sip from his teacup, and said, "Get up."

No one raised any objection, but everyone witnessed this apprenticeship ceremony solemnly and solemnly, just like the national flag of the motherland is rising, and everyone is in awe, it is just a deep-rooted form.She stood up and returned the tea tray to Uncle Ming.Everyone congratulated her.She responded with a smile, half-bowed and very humble.Such humility made me deeply jealous.Since I entered the troupe, the opera troupe has never accepted apprentices in such a formal and grand manner, because we are just dispensable shrimp soldiers and crab generals. My apprenticeship ceremony, which was temporarily postponed, was postponed for the rest of my life. I have never paid homage to my ancestors.

"We're calling everyone today, and there's a second thing to do." Ding Yongchang's weak voice penetrated the crowd, calming down the exaggerated bustle.

"I have been learning Gezai Opera from my master since I was a child. I have traveled to many places, experienced a lot of hardships, and also experienced wars. I finally founded this Gezai Opera Troupe when I was 25 years old. It has been more than 20 years now." On the one hand, he felt sad because of looking back on the past, and on the other hand, his weak body was no longer strong enough to support him to say so many words in one breath.Wang Yugui pulled the slipped blanket back to his chest.

"Due to various reasons, the troupe has changed many places over the years. They were in Tainan in the early years and Taipei in the past few years, but they have been wandering and have not been able to stop completely." He sighed With a sigh of relief, "Now, I can't walk anymore. Whether this troupe can take root here or move to a better place, I can't do anything. Now, I will hand over this troupe to Axiu to take care of it. She will decide how the theater troupe will behave in the future, and no one else will be allowed to intervene.” He said the last sentence loudly, but it also caused his frail and thin body to shake back and forth due to coughing, and his bony chest heaved violently.

Xu Hong muttered something in a low voice, but Ding Yongchang's weak gaze suddenly covered her mouth like a powerful hand.Death, because guilt and intolerance became an invisible weapon, made the surrounding air heavy, as if Ding Yongchang breathed heavily and sucked up all the air.

No one spoke.People exited the suddenly narrow space.For most people, it doesn't really matter who is in charge of the troupe. It is enough for someone to lead the troupe and have performances, dividends, and food. As for whether it is a traditional Gezai opera or the fashionable Yinggeyanwu, it makes no difference.They are just some poor people from the poor and lower class. Few of them can read a basket of big characters. Under the impact of the traditional idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and the tide of the new era, few people can clearly explain the persistence and plunder of culture. difference between.

Yu Minxiu walked out of the lobby and stood at the door for a long time.The expression was exactly the same as when he walked out of Ding Yongchang's room.She looked serious and said nothing.Finally, she let out a long sigh of relief, and left the compound alone without letting me follow.A gray drizzle began to fall from the sky, and the sky was getting dark.

After Ding Yongchang fell asleep that night, he never woke up again. He was quiet and serene, as if he was just asleep.It can be seen that death is really a kind of sleep, a kind of rest, a kind of care.Before leaving, he asked Wang Yugui to wet his hair and comb it back neatly.Wipe yourself with hot water.The injured leg was well wrapped inside the trouser leg, and no signs of injury could be seen.He tidied himself up and maintained the dignity of his death with integrity.

While wiping her tears, Wang Yugui babbled about these and other things, but I couldn't hear her clearly because the tears drowned out her voice.Yu Minxiu helped her to sit beside her and comforted her non-stop.

At that time, there were no cemeteries or cremation grounds in the countryside, and most people would be buried in random graves in the outskirts of the country.There are families in the town who specialize in helping with funeral arrangements.Ding Jianjun went to Zhang Luo.Ding Jianye went to the convenience store in the town and called Ding Jianguo.Xu Hong and several girls in the class are sorting out Ding Yongchang's belongings.Uncle Ming set up the mourning hall in a hurry, and everything was divided in an orderly manner, as if we had rehearsed it many times in our hearts.

After Ding Jianguo rushed back to see him for the last time, he was buried in a hurry. Four men in old clothes carried him with a noose.At the foot of Cuiping Mountain to the west of the town, they lifted the coffin, slowly lowered it into the grave, and pulled out the rope.They shoveled the earth into his grave, shovel by shovel, and the damp earth thumped and thumped on the lid until it formed a mound.No tombstone, no epitaph, just a bare mound.He lay there alone.It was still raining heavily, the wind was blowing, and there was mud on the ground.The mourners formed a half-circle irregularly in front of the tomb.I was inside, and Yu Minxiu was also inside, wiping the corners of her eyes.Ding Jianguo hugged her shoulders tenderly.Then, the mourners left one after another.

I remembered that day they told him with shining eyes full of hope that he would definitely overcome the illness.Now they turned away with indifferent faces, afraid that the dirt on the ground would stain their shoes.But soon, we'll all be gone too.From now on, he will be lying here alone, and his body will become food for thousands of maggots.After a year, he will be a pile of bones.There is no such person in this world anymore, and I will never see his smile, his hurried figure, or his spare no effort to die.I think of the day when I first met him, the afterglow of the setting sun reflected the desolate stage, on which he rolled, tossed his hair, and ran for his life, running in a hurry amidst the clanging drums.His life, which was full of compactness, haste, difficulty and struggle, from now on has become an unreal, immaterial, infinite nothingness.Maybe it wasn't that way and it was just an unfortunate accident.He disappeared unexpectedly.My sadness rustled down.

In the early winter of [-], on a rainy night, Ding Yongchang left forever.