far and near

At first, Yu Kaiming thought that her daughter was acting like a spoiled child when she shouted "Can't hear you", so she just asked Yu Juan to rest at home for a day instead of going to school.

And Yu Ren was restless all day. She didn't bother to go home for dinner after school at noon, so she went straight to the door of Yu Juan's house, but Yu Jin's soft and glutinous milk voice came from behind the door: "Sister Caicai, my parents don't care about you!" Let's go out."

"Where's your sister, are your ears better?" Yu Ren asked.

After a long time, Yu Jin's words came, "My sister still said she couldn't hear me." San'er's crying came from home again, so Yu Jin had to go back to take care of her.Yu Ren, who didn't see anyone after the meeting, had no choice but to go home. She asked her grandma Hu Zefen, "Will Yu Juan be deaf?"

Hu Zefen picked up some food for her, "Why?"

"Grandpa and grandma, can you persuade Yu Juan's parents to take her to my mother's hospital?" Yu Ren's meal was not as good as usual.

Hu Zefen told her not to mind her own business, but after she gagged the child's mouth, she kept beating her heart. She waited until the child went back to the room to do homework before going to see his wife Yu Wenzhao, who smoked in the yard, "Why don't you go and persuade her? I'm afraid I'll delay seeing a doctor. That kid has real problems with his ears."

Hearing about Yu Kaiming's family being quarreled by Yu Tiankai's wife, Yu Wenzhao also scolded, "What matters between children should be settled between children, what do adults get involved in?" He asked his wife, "Did Yu Juan really not hear it at that time?"

"I cried so badly, I kept calling her that she couldn't hear. After being dragged home by her father, she may have been beaten again." Hu Zefen sighed at the family, "I am too dissatisfied to say that he is enlightened. He is a deaf It is a blessing for a dumb person to marry someone like Muzhi, who is not satisfied after having three daughters and treats his wife and children so poorly."

"You know shit." Yu Wenzhao doesn't like to hear Hu Zefen gossip the most. "I, the village party secretary, can't even take care of other people's family affairs. What do you care about?" Hu Muzhi's wife is Yu Kaiming's parents. married back from the village.Yu Kaiming was bullied by his peers and even the younger generation in the village since he was a child, and he was also suffocated.I was really afraid that he would not give up until he gave birth to a son, so after the third child was born, people from the family planning team of his village and Lianhe Township hurriedly took Hu Muzhi to have a vasectomy.Just because of this, he also suffered a run on from above, "If it's over early, it's over?"

"I know what a fart." Yu Wenzhao cursed secretly in his heart. Hu Muzhi hid outside for a few years and said that he went to work. Could it be that they are looking for a needle in a haystack?These people with iron rice bowls just touch their mouths and read the manuscripts, and those who break their legs are the grassroots.

Walking outside while smoking, Yu Wenzhao saw a bluestone road in front of him, extending from the tea garden at the top of the mountain to the city road at the foot of the mountain.There are six stone roads like this in Yuzhuang.Hundreds of families spread out along the road, lying among the green mountains and green waters.Back then, the ancestors of Yu Zhuang sought refuge from the north and chose to settle here because of the so-called "feng shui".

Perhaps because of the wind and water, Yu Zhuang was a well-known literati village in the Qing Dynasty. In the past few hundred years, there have been more than a dozen Jinshi alone.On the road from Chashan to the entrance of the village, there are three Enrong memorial archways bestowed by the imperial court. There is the Kejia Enrong archway written by Qianlong himself, the filial son Jieyi bestowed by Emperor Jiaqing, and the Zhenlie archway during the Daoguang period.Every memorial archway, including the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village for hundreds of years, is engraved with words such as "Guamian Mianmian" or "Blessed sons and grandchildren".

The two-story and three-story brick and tile buildings are the result of the tenacious management of Yuzhuang people for hundreds of years.From a certain point of view, it is also the result of having more sons.If you have a son, you don't have to leave home. Instead, you marry a daughter-in-law outside and continue to spread the branches and leaves.There was a son who died in the old age, and was finally buried in the ancestral grave of Yuzhuang, which is the destination of a man in Yuzhuang.

Although cremation has been carried out for several years, the people of Yuzhuang still pay attention to the old concept of sending their children and grandchildren to die before they can be buried in the soil.

So having a son in Yuzhuang is a big deal, but not having a son in Yuzhuang is a big deal.Even though the party and state policies have promoted the equality of men and women for decades, even if there are many neat slogans painted on the walls of the village, "Blessed are daughters".

Yu Wenzhao understood Yu Kaiming's inner pain, and also knew the difference between them.Yu Wenzhao is the village party secretary. His wife was pregnant with a second child and had a miscarriage.He has to be a party member, and he can't divorce just because he can't have a son, so he calms down to raise his daughter Yu Xiaomin.The daughter who graduated from college and is now a doctor can always keep up with most of the sons.And Yu Kaiming can't listen or speak, so he can't be considered a complete person.He needs a mouth to speak for him, and a pair of ears to help him catch messages.The wife can't replace it, and neither can the daughter.In the hearts of most Yu Zhuang people, only sons can listen and speak for Lao Tzu.

Before he knew it, Yu Wenzhao let his thoughts lead him to the foot of the archway at the entrance of the village.Looking up is the "Gate of Chastity of Yu Xiaolian's Wife Ma" written by Daoguang himself. The old branch secretary smoked half a cigarette underneath, and people passing by greeted him from time to time, "Secretary, busy."

"Walk around," Yu Wenzhao said.

"Does Kaiming slap his daughter deaf?" someone asked.

"I don't know, how can I be deaf with just a few slaps?" Yu Wenzhao said.

"It's not certain. Kaiming is a deaf-mute. His daughter may have inherited something. The other children may be fine if they are slapped a few times. The Kaiming family is not sure." The man plausibly chatted with the old party secretary. After a few words, he walked leisurely towards the tea garden on the mountain with his hoe on his shoulders.

Yu Wenzhao thought for a while, then turned around and walked towards the tea mountain.

A few days later, two pieces of news finally came. The good news was that Hu Muzhi took Yu Juan to transfer to the central hospital with a polio sequelae leg.The bad news is that Yu Juan no longer wants to go to school after seeing her illness.

Yu Ren went to her house many times to find her, and gave her crispy noodles and popsicles, and also showed her his comic book with coloring pages.But Yu Juan always sits sleepily in the corner and doesn't want to talk to her.She asked Yu Jin who was drenched in sweat after coaxing Saner, "Is Yu Juan talking at home?"

"Sometimes." Yu Jin bit her lower lip and looked at her elder sister, then at her infant younger sister. Her eyes were shining brightly, and she finally stopped talking.

Yu Ren lost a good friend in the village primary school, and she didn't want to stay in the playground after school.Because she was not happy to see Yu Shifei who was still arrogant and ignorant, and she was even more afraid of recalling Yu Juan who she was cheering for the scuffle with Yu Shifei that day.Vaguely, Yu Ren felt that if Yu Juan hadn't fought in the village that day, or if she had beaten Yu Shifei for Yu Juan, there would have been no subsequent series of events.

Half a year later, one weekend, when Yu Ren heard the words "instigating" and "accomplice" while watching a legal program on TV, she suddenly understood, and immediately went to find Yu Juan from the opposite door, and patted the door of her house and cried. Out of breath, "Yu Juan, Yu Juan blames me for instigating you to fight, blames me..."

Yu Juan still didn't take a step out of the house, and Yu Ren was dragged home by Hu Zefen. When she was crying, she was suddenly kicked by her grandpa angrily, "There's so much bullshit in the girl's house, can't you stop it?" ?”

It was the first time Yu Wenzhao hit his granddaughter, and Yu Ren was also stunned by the kick. After the crying stopped, she froze, and then went back to her room and slammed the door heavily.

That fall seemed to herald the arrival of Yu Ren's puberty.A month later, Yu Ren had her period, and her grandma Hu Zefen was heartbroken about it, "How can this happen?" On the phone with her daughter Yu Xiaomin, the doctor's daughter on the other end was not surprised, "Mom, this is normal, our colleagues My child still has menstruation at the age of ten, which is more common in foreign countries. But you have to buy less snacks for her, because there are more hormones in them."

"But she's only 11 years old." Hu Zefen herself had her period at the age of 17, and her daughter Yu Xiaomin was 15 years old. When Yu Ren came here, she couldn't help but feel distressed.

Yu Xiaomin dispelled the unspeakable pain in her mother's heart with one sentence, "This is not the past, when a child gets menstruated, she will get married. She should go to school and work.

"Wait until the weekend when I go back and buy her some sanitary products, and then teach the child some basic physiological knowledge."

Hu Zefen gave her granddaughter her first adult lesson, "We, Caicai, are big girls now, so we can't get too close to our male classmates in the future."

"What is intimacy?" Yu Ren asked.

"..." Hu Zefen found that her granddaughter didn't feel ashamed after menstruation. She was so shy when she had her first period that year that she hid at home for a few days and dared not go out.Because the little sisters around me often say that when this happens, they have to sleep with men and have children.In the end, Hu Zefen evaded her granddaughter's questioning, "Just...don't pay attention to them."

When Yu Xiaomin rushed home from the city on the weekend to give her daughter a psychological enlightenment, the courtyard door of Yu Kaiming's house on the opposite side of the stone road happened to open—Yu Juan took a rare step out of the house.When she saw Yu Xiaomin, she called out "Hello Second Aunt" like a mosquito. Yu Kaiming and Yu Xiaomin were distant cousins, and according to Yu Zhuang's rules, she called Yu Xiaomin "Second Aunt".Looking at Yu Ren again, Yu Juan grinned and smiled suddenly, the little girl has grown into a watery form, and the innocent dimples at the corners of her mouth dispelled her long-standing gloom when she smiled.

Yu Ren also laughed, stepped forward to hold her hand, and asked loudly involuntarily, "Yu Juan, are you coming to my house to play?"

Yu Juan couldn't hear it, but still smiled, she shook her head, pointed to the tea garden on the mountain, "I'll go help my mother with something."

"Then come and play with me after you finish your work." Yu Ren shouted behind her, Yu Juan turned her head and smiled at her again, Yu Ren noticed that she was wearing her favorite aqua blue dress .Yu Juan said that it was brought to her by her cousin in the city who came to the house last time. She was usually very nervous about this skirt and only wore it once on Children's Day.

"She can hear it, she can hear it!" Yu Ren said happily. Yu Xiaomin looked at the child who had gone away with compassion in his eyes, and when he went home and chatted with his mother, he said, "Muzhi brought it to our hospital. The laryngologist at the throat department looked at it, first thought it was a temporary perforation, and then checked...the nerves were also damaged. We advised her to take the child to the provincial hospital for another look, and I don’t know if they have gone.”

"I probably didn't go, and the child didn't go out after coming back. This is the first time I've seen her in so many days." Hu Zefen was still peeling beans, "This must be really deaf, what a crime."

"Casting the wrong baby is a crime." Yu Xiaomin looked at her daughter who was still fishing for goldfish beside the little flower ruler in the yard, "If I don't get divorced, I will commit even more crimes. Ren Songhong really has someone outside."

Hu Zefen's hands trembled, and the edamame grains leaked out of the basket, "How long has it been?"

"It's been three or four years now. This bastard still wants to be a secretary. I wrote to the Disciplinary Committee." Yu Xiaomin said angrily. Although her life has recovered a bit after the divorce, the wrinkles and anxiety on her face It didn't decrease.

"You -- nonsense," Hu Zefen lowered her voice to reprimand her daughter, "It's not easy for him to be the magistrate, if you ruin him --" She glanced at her wife who was watering flowers in the yard again, "He is also Cai Cai's relative dad."

"Why didn't he think about Cai Cai when he cheated?" Yu Xiaomin put down her teacup and was about to leave. Every time she heard her mother speak for Ren Songhong, she became angry, "He brought other women to my bed, so he should have thought of this day !"

The mother and daughter always had a cold war before they could say a few words. Hu Zefen, who was still happy, went to the kitchen to sulk, but Yu Xiaomin called her daughter into the room and asked her to study, and then explained in detail the precautions during menstruation.

The singing of cicadas outside the window has gradually become louder. There is no wind in Yu Zhuang today, and the sun is quiet.After a family of four and three generations finished their lunch, Yu Xiaomin took a rare nap with her daughter in her arms.Hu Zefen looked through the door at the two similar handsome faces, one big and one small, and went in to cover them with blankets.

Yu Xiaomin woke up suddenly, and asked in a daze, "Mom, what time is it?"

"It's early, it's hard to get more sleep." Hu Zefen glanced at the wall clock on the wall, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

Yu Xiaomin lowered her head to wipe the sweat off Yu Ren's forehead, "This kid is very angry." She smiled.

"You're not bad either." Hu Zefen cast a reproachful glance at her daughter.She simply sat on the head of the bed, and wanted to talk about her mother and daughter again.

A cry broke through the quiet Yu Zhuang, and the sound seemed to come from the opposite side.The two looked at each other suspiciously, Yu Xiaomin got out of bed gently and went out with her mother, only to see the lame Hu Muzhi crying and running out the door, followed by Yu Kaiming with a livid face.Standing at the door was Yu Jin, who was hugging San'er, and she looked at her parents blankly.

Gradually, several neighbors came to Yu Kaiming's house, and Hu Zefen was about to ask Yu Jin what's the matter, when the sister-in-law Kaixiang next door pulled her over and whispered something in her ear, Hu Zefen's face turned pale instantly, and she murmured, "What a crime! .”

"Mom?" Yu Xiaomin moved closer to her.

"The eldest daughter of the Kaiming family just... disappeared in the woods near the corner of the tea garden."