[Ode to Joy] My surname is Tan, my ancestor's original surname is Ming

There are only direct flights from Shanghai to Yongzhou every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tan Zongming and Wang Manchun didn't want to wait until Monday, so they boarded the plane to Lingling Airport on the twelfth Friday of the first lunar month.

Yongzhou is located in the south of Hunan, at the confluence of the Xiaoxiang River and the two rivers. It has two districts and nine counties under its jurisdiction. Among them, Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, the only Yao nationality settlement in Yongzhou, borders Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. This is also speculated by Wang Manchun. Yu’s surname The most likely hometown of Hunan embroidery merchants.It was a matter of family secrets. Tan Zongming traveled lightly and without any entourage. He and Wang Manchun had a rest overnight in downtown Yongzhou, and the next day they rented a car and drove along National Highway 207 to Jianghua.

After leaving Lingling District, the car went south along the way and at the same time went upstream against the Xiaoshui River.The beautiful Xiaoshui is like a passionate Hunan woman, sometimes close to the road, sometimes hidden in the mountains and hills, winding and winding, as if at a distance.The land of Hunan is rugged, near the water, the road is on the top and the blue waves are on the bottom. On the bank, there are half-person-high white grasses and one-person-high wild bananas. They don’t fall in winter and are green in spring. A few scattered early cherry trees are in the flowering period, pink and white. The petals fall into Xiaoshui, whirl and go with the waves.On the section of road not facing the water, patches of tea gardens, orchards, and rice fields that have not yet been sown in spring and are filled with fresh soil pass by the car window. Occasionally, there are broad leaves standing tall in the dry land, branch by branch, like small umbrellas.

"Is that a lotus? Why didn't it grow in the water?" Wang Manchun asked curiously.

"That's taro..." Tan Zongming replied with a smile.

"Well, I haven't seen it."

Tan Zongming thought that she just didn't know the grains, but later found that she was interested in observing the tractors running on the road, the micro-hydraulic generators on the fields, and even the plastic greenhouses for growing strawberries. ?” It is not possible for a private school to teach such ungrounded students.

Wang Manchun smiled awkwardly, showing a slight embarrassment.Leaving the concrete forest and complex interpersonal relationships in the magic city, the indifference and alienation around her dissipated a lot, and the heaviness at the beginning of this vague journey also gradually faded away in the early spring countryside with green mountains and green waters.When she stopped by a small restaurant by the national highway to smoke, she even whispered in his ear, "It's too indecent for a large crowd..."

Tan Zongming followed her gaze, and there were four large characters on the glass door: "Abort tires to replenish qi".

This is the 31-year-old Fan Shengmei?I really want to knock open that beautiful little head of hers to see what's inside...

The national roads were in poor condition. When the car was approaching Jianghua, it was pierced by gravel and had a tire leak. It was impossible for Tan Zongming to come down and change the tire.In the cold February in Hunan, he was steaming from turning the screws.It was easy to loosen the screw, but the tire couldn't be removed no matter what. After kicking it twice, it still couldn't be removed.He squatted beside the car and called, "Xiao Fan! Xiao Fan!"

Wang Manchun turned out from the back of the car with a thermos, "Hot water."

Tan Zongming was surprised, "How do you know I want this?"

"The tire can't be removed, pour hot water on it, it will expand when it's hot and shrink when it's cold." Wang Manchun imitated his look just now, "Who hasn't changed a few tires yet."

Tan Zongming looked at her with admiration again.What did this girl learn to grow up?Doesn't she have a driver's license?

Wait for 1 minute after pouring water, and the bad tire will be unloaded smoothly.After Tan Zongming changed the tire, he washed his hands with the water left in the thermos.Wang Manchun held the bottle and lowered his head to pour water for him. A few strands of fluffy hair on his forehead swayed in the wind, arousing his bad intentions, "Xiao Fan——"

"Huh?" Wang Manchun looked up unprepared, and was instantly slapped in the face by his hands full of water...

"Tan Zongming!" Without even thinking about it, Wang Manchun poured the last drop of water in the bottle onto Tan Zongming's face with his backhand.

Poor Boss Tan was splashed for the second time...

"Fan Shengmei!"

"What?!"

"Let's talk about interest..."

Wang Manchun ran away, Tan Zongming stood with his hips akimbo, and a Yao villager with a bamboo basket and a bamboo plaque passed by the car, baring his white teeth and singing a folk song loudly, "There are ups and downs in scooping water, and I just want to see my sister wash her face." .Sister Xi, Pago, Pa, others laugh at us as husband and wife..."

When the car entered Jianghua County, Tan Zongming connected with a county government official who had been in contact with him in advance. With the assistance of this civil servant, he found the person in charge of the county government's archives office.It was the weekend, and Tan Zongming and Wang Manchun visited the other party's home in person, presented a great gift, and supplemented with a series of generous statements and affectionate confessions, finally persuaded the other party to agree to go to the archives room the next day to help them find information.

On Sunday, the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, in the archives room of the county government, the wooden frame was moved slightly, and dust rose up, so Tan Zongming saw the following line of records in the pile of papers:

On September 21, [-], Mingcheng of the Shanghai Station of the former Central Intelligence Department received RMB [-], rice, [-] catties, and [-] feet of cloth, and a ticket from the county government to Mashi Township.

And a letter of introduction from the municipal and township governments receiving and arranging Mingcheng.At the end of the whole record, there is Mingcheng's autograph, which is neat and elegant, rigorous and measured, but the tip of the pen trembles slightly. I don't know whether it is restlessness or lack of hand strength. In Tan Zongming's eyes, there is a kind of shocking tension and depression. .

"Mashi Township is the current Mashi Township, about [-] kilometers away from our county government." The person in charge of the archives reminded him friendly.

So Tan and Wang drove straight to Mashi Town. There is no decent archives in the town, and the records from 60 years ago are gone. A retired veteran cadre who worked in the town government.

"It's been so long, I think you can only ask Pan Yigu."

"Who is Pan Yigu?"

"The old man was doing odd jobs in the village when she was first liberated. No one in our town knows about things she doesn't know about!" The old cadre stroked his beard and pointed the way, "Panyi went back to live in the village when she was old, you go Wu Shichong should look for her."

When Tan Zongming parked his shabby SUV, which had traveled through mountains and rivers, under the hanging feet of the old lady of Pan Yigu in Wu Shichong, it was already past seven o'clock in the evening on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month.

The 81-year-old old lady of the Yao ethnic group wore gray and white braids, green crepe, and a brocade headkerchief. While pouring fragrant tea for them, she recalled leisurely in a strong Gaoshan Yao accent, "Mingcheng..."

Tan Zongming listened attentively while drinking tea, while Wang Manchun moved towards Pan Yigu.

"I don't remember the name. But at that time, a military officer really came to the village and asked me where the boss of a Hunan embroidery business was buried. I don't know, so he left. I heard that he went to stand by the Xiaoshui I got a clothes mound, and I don’t know about the rest.”

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know, I left after standing up, and I haven't seen him again."

"Who did he erect the tomb for?"

"I don't know. It seems to be a woman. I don't know if it's his wife."

Tan Zongming glanced at Wang Manchun, "Mingcheng has never been married."

"Where is that grave now?"

"It's been bulldozed a long time ago! The small hydropower station was built in [-]s, and all the unattended wild graves by the Xiaoshui River have been bulldozed!"

"Who told you that he was going to set up the Clothes Tomb?"

"I am a distant brother who fishes on Xiaoshui. You don't need to ask him, he will die immediately!"

"Grandma Pan, think about it again, what's so special about that officer?"

"It's special...he's in very bad health, he has a problem with his leg, he's been on crutches all the time, his eyes are bad, and he keeps coughing so badly, I'm afraid he'll cough up his lungs..."

Wang Manchun looked suspicious, "How can you remember all these years so clearly?"

A bit of embarrassment appeared on the old woman's walnut-like face, "Oh... you don't know... In the past few years we have received only one unit! Besides... that officer is so good-looking ...I was 15 years old at the time, but I have never seen such a good-looking little brother...But he is suffering from illnesses, which is not good and that is not good, what a pity..."

Tan Zongming thought more, "Mingcheng is not low-level, so he came alone? Is there no one in the village to accompany him?"

Grandma Pan shook her head, "I don't know what rank he is. I thought he was a soldier, and he didn't wear any medals. He came alone... No, no, it seems... It seems to have a baby..."

"Xiaowa?" Tan and Wang called out together.

"Well, a little baby, standing far away waiting for him, I can't look carefully..."

"Boy or girl? How old are you? What's your name?"

For a series of questions, Pan Yigu answered that she didn't know, and couldn't remember.Tan Zongming can't force it. For an old man who is over 60 years old, the events of more than [-] years ago have long been indistinct. The fact that he can recall so many details is thanks to Mingcheng's strong sense of personal presence. I am afraid that the information he can get is zero at all.

All clues came to an abrupt end in Mashi Township in the autumn of 1950, except for a child who appeared unexpectedly.To be able to "stand far away and wait for him", this child will definitely not be born after the war, and Tan Zongming is 100% sure that Mingcheng was never married until he was arrested, so why such a big child?

"This child...could it belong to grandpa?" Tan Zongming asked Wang Manchun cautiously.

"how is this possible?!"

To be honest, Tan Zongming didn't know anything about Minglou's life before he married his wife. When his father Tan Zheng was born, his grandfather was already over [-] years old. It is impossible for him to have any experience before that?Wang Manchun insisted, "It's absolutely impossible."

Well, no, no, God knows where her belief is so firm.So where did Mingcheng pick up such a child?Or was he homeless himself, so he adopted fellow war orphans?But his legs are not good, his eyes are not good, his lungs are not good, how can a disabled body bear the life of the next generation?Obviously there is Mashi Township who is willing to accept him, so why did he take the child away?

Pan Yigu's small stilted upstairs, Tan Zongming and Wang Manchun looked at each other.It seems that there is nothing to ask if I continue to ask, but I have traveled thousands of miles to this remote mountain Yaozhai, and I am a bit unwilling to let it go.It was getting dark outside the window, and at some point, it began to rain heavily, falling on the pond, eaves and wild banana leaves, making low and dense sounds.Pan Yigu stood up from the firepit, touched the gift boxes piled up to half a person's height under the window, turned around and said, "It's raining, it's not safe to walk at night, you can stay here with me, if you don't mind, the old lady will give me a gift." If you cook something to eat, you can't let the two of you dolls go for nothing."

The author has something to say:

Don't blame me for letting the plot slow down when it should be tense, because the author wants Wang Chu and Lao Tan to develop a good (crossed out) relationship in the picturesque scenery...

Finally, I have to say something long-winded. As I said before, the setting of this article is that only Tan Zongming looks like Minglou, Zhao Qiping doesn’t look like Mingcheng, Guan’s mother doesn’t look like Mingjing, and Fan Shengmei doesn’t look like Minglou. Like Liang Chu, Ying Qin doesn’t look like a Japanese soldier, 2102’s female neighbor doesn’t look like Zhu Huiyin, and Guan Guan’s colleague doesn’t look like A Xiang... Otherwise Wuli Wang’s mental breakdown O(∩_∩)O

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