grandfather's daughter-in-law

It was a stormy night when we left.I kept walking along that Bojin Highway, and I didn't know where the end point was, but there was a force in my body that kept pushing me forward, forward.There was a burning pain on the face, as if the mother's slap had not really exerted its power until now.I covered it with my hand, and there was a burning pain in my palm.I lowered my head, and through the gap between lightning and thunder, I saw the slender and broken wound on my palm.The blood was diluted by the rain, and the wound was white and swollen by the rain, and the despair in my soul seemed to be diluted.I finally regained the ability to sense, the smell, with a trace of blood, a trace of cool breeze, a little fishy, ​​and a little sweet.The cut marks on the palm of my hand were like a snake that gnawed at the bone, burrowing into the wound and sucking my bone marrow, causing my heart to spasm in pain.

I looked down, only to find that the clothes I had torn apart angrily were still open, and the chest wrap I tried to cut off was still sparsely wrapped around my chest.

What a... shame!

I cursed secretly before trying to button up my clothes.However, the tearing was too forceful, and a few buttons had already fallen off, and the rest were vaguely tied by a thread, and after being buttoned again, they were only loosely hung on the body.I eventually gave up trying.Whatever it is.

I just kept walking like this, I don’t know how long I walked, the sky became darker and darker, the occasional light flashing in the sky, with the rustling sound of the grass on the side of the road, made every footstep echo They were all magnified, and each hit knocked on my heart.I was suddenly a little scared, and my breathing became short of breath, but the sharp pain in my palm made me more awake.I looked around nervously, but I couldn't see anything clearly. This area was dim and silent, far and near, sometimes high and sometimes low, looming.I just passed out in this whirling sky.

When he woke up, the darkness had passed, replaced by an orange light, exuding a sense of warmth.I looked up and saw a smiling Bodhisattva smiling at me.Very good, I thought.So I fell asleep again.When he woke up again, there was a woman beside him.

"Are you awake?" She asked me this way, her voice was very gentle, with a little jump, and she spoke Hokkien.

My Taiwanese is not very good, but I can barely understand this sentence.I wanted to sit up, but the whirling feeling seized me again in an instant, so I had to give up.

"Be careful." The owner of the voice held my arm.A face covered with thick oil paint was in front of me.The place where no make-up is applied is also covered with white powder. I can't tell my age, I just feel that the eyebrows are drawn heroically, and I wear a costume with a tight waist, which makes me look very capable.

"Thank you." I said softly.There was severe pain in the palm of my hand again. I looked down and saw that the palm of my hand had been wrapped, and the white bandage was carefully tied on the outside of the back of my hand.He changed into a rustic flowered shirt.I touched my chest, and it was empty. The chest wrap that had been with me for three years was gone, and it was chilly.

"Did you help me change my clothes?" My attitude cooled down, and my tone was also indifferent.It occurred to me that maybe this woman had removed the broken corset on my chest. I had been naked in front of her, and I didn't know anything at the time.

She smiled, and didn't mind my indifference, and her curved eyebrows seemed not so tough anymore.She sat down on the edge of the bed, looking at me with soft eyes, she hesitated for a moment, and then said to me in very awkward Mandarin: "Yes."

I quickly pulled the quilt over my body to cover my chest.What am I fussing about?Her voice sounded older than my mother's, and she had no plans for me at all, and I wouldn't have any other fantasies, but I still felt ashamed in my heart, and my face was hot.

She still smiled, as if she saw through my embarrassment and fear without revealing it, "You bled a lot and fainted by the side of the road. It was my old Lu who passed by and rescued you. This is a theater troupe. The show is about to begin, I I don't have time to take care of you, if you feel tired, go to sleep again."

She stood up and paused for a moment, probably wanting an answer from me, but I kept silent and she left.Not long after she left, I heard the sound of beating drums and cheers scattered in my ears, and I suddenly realized that she said this was a theater troupe.I don’t know much about Taiwan’s traditional dramas. I only know that there are many kinds of them. They were favored by the gentry and common people decades ago. However, due to wars and the development of technology in recent years, they have long since declined. There are very few dramas that are still being performed. And less.When my father was still there, there was a Beijing opera troupe performing in the small town, but I was still too young at that time, and my memory has long been thin. I only vaguely remember riding on my father’s neck and making a fuss. Very few happy hours.

I lay on the bed and thought a lot in a trance, and tears flowed down unconsciously.My young life, all my experiences in the past 15 years, have already carried too much, and it seems that I have to find a gap to let it flow out.The cheers still sounded in my ears, and the sound of those gongs fluttered lightly or loudly, near or far, and I walked out following that sound somehow.

When I came outside, the show had already started for a long time. From the gap in the backstage, I could see the play "Luotong Sweeping the North" hung high on the side of the theater.The densely packed audience sat under the stage, full of high spirits and high-spirited talk. From far away, I could vaguely hear the audience say: "Wait a minute, Luotong vs. Laofan will be the most exciting!"

"Yes, yes, General Luo Tong once swore that he would die at the hands of 99 people, so when the 99-year-old general appeared, the oath was fulfilled." Another person happily echoed.

I looked up to the stage.On the high stage, a man turned himself into Luo Tong to the stage amidst the sound of gongs and drums, and fought with the 99-year-old General Fan.The battlefield is rustling, and under the afterglow of the setting sun, it seems that the whole scene is infected with a chill.The two fought fiercely at first, but in an instant, Lao Fan swept the knife, stabbed and dragged fiercely, and Luo Tong immediately ripped open his stomach.At that time, I still didn't understand that the scattered colorful cloth strips symbolized Luo Tong's stomach. I saw the man rolling, tossing his hair, and running for his life.In the midst of the drumbeat, I seem to see Luotong running in a hurry on the rugged mountain road.The sound of gongs and drums hit my heart, which made my blood surge and I almost fainted.

I hurriedly supported the pillar at hand, not even caring about the injury on my hand, just staring at the plot on the stage intently.Luo Tong's son, Luo Jiang, saw his father's intestines leaking out, and was impatient for a moment, so he hurriedly held up the sand to stop the bleeding for him.Unexpectedly, as soon as the dust fell, Luo Tong struggled even harder, rolled and fled to the edge of the stage symbolizing the cliff, fell from a high place, fell to the ground and died.Once Luo Tong died, the hot battlefield ceased, the gongs and drums fell silent, the bleak autumn wind whizzed by, and the afterglow of the setting sun reflected the heartbroken people on the stage.I couldn't tell the difference between the on stage and the off stage. I just felt that the afterglow of the setting sun dazzled my eyes, and I couldn't see clearly the fragmented room that was shining brightly.I raised my hand to push it away, only to realize that tears were streaming down my face.

"What's wrong with you?" A voice woke me up.

It was the man who played Luo Tong. He was still wearing a costume, and the colorful ribbons that symbolized the stomach were hung messily on his body. His eyes were very deep, and the deep grooves in the eyes could be seen through the thick oil paint.

He lifted his foot and took a step and then stopped, still feeling uneasy, and asked again: "Are you okay?"

I shook my head, the pain in my throat made me unable to make a sound, but a certain string in my heart was inexplicably plucked, tears flowed down like a broken thread, and there was no time to wipe them dry.I tried my best not to cry, but he stood in front of me as if he had seen through it, and said softly, "If you want to cry, just cry."

I couldn't hold back my tears anymore.It was sobbing at first, then weeping slowly, and then it turned into howling.My heart seems to be very painful, but I don't know where the pain is and why it hurts.In the end, it turned into crying just for the sake of crying, as if to dry up the tears before giving up.

The man was allowed to be held by me. In the ray of sunset shining through the cracks in the rough stage set, I hugged a "dead" man, weeping bitterly and mourning endlessly.