people outside of time

"Your family used to run a bookstore, right? Why do you have all kinds of books?" Qian Duoduo squatted under the sun, flipping through a yellowish physiognomy and said.

Lin Yi wiped the dust off the books with a dry rag: "My dad weighed that one in the second-hand book market. He dabbled in more genres than I did. The four great classics were torn apart. What kind of Nie Haihua Jiandeng Xinhua, I was amazed at the first moment and watched it countless times."

"I didn't expect your father to be a man of culture."

Lin Yi pointed at his feet: "The atlas of Chinese herbal medicine is his favorite. When I was a child, I had a toothache and a stomach ache. He used the herbs he dug for me, and he never went to the hospital."

Qian Duoduo was amused when he heard it: "Your father dared to do such nonsense without studying medicine? It seems...it's not easy for you to grow up so big."

He picked up a snake book again: "What is this? One night when I got up to go to the toilet, I felt something cold and soft in my slippers as soon as I put my feet in. I was so frightened that I immediately turned on the light. Guess what I saw?"

"See what?"

"Snakes all over the place!"

On this topic, Lin Yi talked about all the weird things that happened when he was a child. For example, his father learned how to catch and sell snakes because of his interest, and the snakes he caught always liked to be placed in the room. He neglected to seal the mouth of the bag properly, and all the snakes came out at night, scaring him and making him sick.

Father Lin didn't know which medical book said that snake dung can cure beriberi, and when he heard that someone had beriberi, he rushed to collect snake dung for people to smear.In the end, I don't know if it was cured or not. In short, Lin Yi has a deep memory of this matter. He must have seen an old lady sitting at her house all afternoon, just waiting for the snake to poop.

Another thing is that Lin's father read a book of physiognomy, and when it was time to eat, he wandered around with a bowl, and he had to eat for an hour or two before returning.He didn't do anything else but look at people's faces. I don't know if the words are accurate. Lin Yi only remembered that an old woman in the village asked him to look at them. After Lin's father saw it, he said to her meaningfully: "Grandma Qiao!" , your face is very wicked!"

Naturally, he was scolded.

As soon as Lin Yi talked about the funny things about his childhood, Qian Duoduo sat on the ground laughing, while the yellowed books were bathed in ultraviolet rays.

"Lin Yi, I'm hungry."

Qian Duoduo didn't realize that he was hungry until after two o'clock in the afternoon. The lotus seeds he had exchanged for his shoes had already been used for afternoon tea, and Lin Yi's family didn't have anything to eat, and even if it was made fresh, he couldn't find the ingredients.

Someone had to read the book, otherwise the cats and dogs in the village would be a disaster. Lin Yi originally planned to go to the street to buy some food, but the tires of the bicycle that had been sitting for a long time melted and he could not ride.

"How about... eat a grapefruit or a few persimmons first?" Lin Yi asked.

After a while, Qian Duoduo moved a stool to the backyard, and picked a few ripe persimmons on the top of the branches at this height. The two stood in place and ate for a while, when a taro essence fell into Lin Yi's sight.

When I was young, I often used local materials. I set up a fire to cook a series of baked and eaten sweet potatoes, potatoes, and taro.

Lin Yi put down the persimmon in his hand, turned his head to find a shovel upstairs, and dug along the edge of the taro.

After a while, more than a dozen taro cubs and three or four taro mothers were dug out. Lin Yi picked off the taro cubs and buried the taro mothers in the soil, saying that he would eat several more meals next year.

Qian Duoduo squatted on the ground, holding a taro full of mud and looking at it, suddenly a millipede came out from between his fingers. in the hole.

"Ah..." With Qian Duoduo's scream, the taro was thrown somewhere.

Lin Yi was taken aback: "What are you doing, what the hell are you doing?"

The person who was frightened by the worm bounced around and kept shaking his hands, saying in a trembling voice, "There are worms!"

Lin Yi rolled his eyes at him, then bent down, picked up a ground worm, and held it up in front of his eyes: "An old man is actually afraid of worms, so it's not ashamed to throw it away. Here, feel it, it's very soft."

He took two steps back in fright: "Take it away, white and soft things are the most disgusting."

"I've known you for so long, why did I only find out today that you have an arrogant nature, hurry up and flick your big tail, I'm not used to you like this."

"If you want to scold me, you have to feed me first!" Qian Duoduo urged.

There were firewood all over the floor, but there were no leaves that could be burned. Lin Yi made some cardboard shells from the house to light the fire, and it didn't take long for the fire to burn vigorously.Qian Duoduo couldn't wait to throw all the taro in, squatting on the spot and waiting for the delicious food to come out.

This is a veritable picnic!Qian Duoduo thought about this in his heart, and looked at his own rabbit, and suddenly felt that happiness was just that - the two chatted and laughed around the fire.

For about 10 minutes, Lin Yi said that it was ready to eat. He picked up a branch and pulled out the blackened taro one by one.

Qian Duoduo threw the hot taro from his left hand to his right hand, and then from his right hand to his left hand. It took him a long time to peel off the skin.The pink and white taro meat emits bursts of aroma when the skin is torn off. Although it is scalding hot when you bite into it, it is a rare delicacy.

"Is it yummy……"

"good to eat."

Lin Yi, who got a satisfactory answer, wiped the face of the other party with ashes when he was unprepared. Qian Duoduo suddenly became a bobcat, and his expression of opening his mouth and breathing was even more vivid.

The two were playing and eating, throwing all the torn taro skins into the woodpile. At this time, a man passed by the backyard of Lin Yi's house, carrying a hoe. There was a vegetable basket hanging on the hoe, and tender green leaves sprouted. Come.

"Yuanyuan, you're back!"

It was Uncle Jinshui who greeted him. Just a few days ago, the Liu family told Lin Yi a rumor about him.

He nodded, and naturally gave birth to a smiling face: "Yes, I just came back."

Uncle Jin Shui asked, "Is this your friend?"

"Ah."

Qian Duoduo called Uncle in standard Mandarin.

Uncle Jin Shui nodded with a smile, and asked Lin Yi: "Do you live here at night, do you cook? Your father is in the new house, why didn't he come back with you..."

Lin Yi's new house used to be a suburban area, but later the town became a city-level town, and the general trend began to be large-scale construction, and there were new developments everywhere, and the housing prices doubled within a few years. Fortunately, Lin Yi's My father bought it some time ago, and it is said that there was nothing on the land when the down payment was made.

The new house that Uncle Jinshui bought for his son is in the same neighborhood as Lin Yi. He doesn't usually go to the town, and Aunt Jinshui is there all year round. One is to take care of the grandson and the other is to take care of the retarded son.

He handed Uncle Jin Shui a cigarette: "My dad is at work and will probably be back in a few days."

Uncle Jin Shui took the cigarette with a smile, his exposed teeth were yellow and black, to prove his decades of smoking.He looked at the cigarette for a while, and found that he had never smoked it before, so the conversation changed from greetings to cigarettes.

The three of them chatted in the backyard for a while, throwing seven or eight cigarette butts on the ground, some of which were Jin Sheng smoked by Uncle Jin Shui, and some Hei Lanzhou smoked by Lin Yi.

The scorching sun gradually receded its edge, and the setting sun scorched half of the sky in full swing. Uncle Jin Shui poured out all the vegetables in the basket before he left, and said to him: "I'll go to the field to get you some vegetables that can be stored, you Take it back to the town, put it in the refrigerator for ten days and half a month, and you don’t need to buy vegetables.”

Lin Yi kept saying no, but he couldn't stop the strong and strong calves of the countryman, so Uncle Jinshui left barefoot.

There were no fewer than five people passing by in this space, and only Uncle Jin Shui greeted him. Qian Duoduo was a little surprised by this, so he asked: "Everyone in your village seems to be very cold except Uncle Jin Shui, you rarely come back Once, why are they still so indifferent?"

Lin Yi said, "It's like this in the countryside. Even if you know I'm gay, you can't hide. Who would want to get close? In their eyes, I'm a plague, and I'm used to it."

Qian Duoduo was surprised: "You... came out?"

"Come out? It has to be voluntary. I was pulled out of the closet alive."

"How do you say that?"

Lin Yi's face suddenly turned cold, as if thinking of something unhappy: "There was an accident in the first year of high school, and my sexuality was known to the whole school for a while. There was a classmate in the village who went to the same school as me. Of course he's heard about it too, and mother's the kind of radio, but anything she knows the whole village knows too."

After hearing what he said, Qian Duoduo felt a little distressed: "So, you have been drifting away from home for more than ten years?"

"Almost! At that time, I just felt ashamed to face my dad. Other people's eyes are not that important to me."

At such a time, maybe it would be more appropriate to say a few words of comfort, but Qian Duoduo just kept silent, and his indescribable feelings seized him completely.

After a while, Lin Yi told him about Uncle Jinshui's family, and said with a self-mockery: "At first, I thought that Uncle Jinshui's family was close to mine because he had a mentally handicapped son who could be used by the villagers. It’s a joke, but now I feel that he probably thinks that I, like them, have done the same thing that violates ethics, so that’s why he feels sorry for each other.”

The listener felt a little uncomfortable: "Lin Yi, don't talk about yourself like that, you and I... are the same."

Lin Yi looked at him straight, and found that he was like a tabby cat full of grievances at this moment, and couldn't help being amused by this appearance, making a 'puchi' smile, and the gloom between his brows was instantly wiped away.

At this moment, Uncle Jin Shui came back and turned the basket upside down. On the ground were eggplants, bitter gourds, gourds, green peppers, and a few plowed melons that were bigger than a fist.Both of them were a little stunned. Where did he get these in just a moment?

"The plow melons belong to your grandma Qiao. I just picked a few of them. The rest are grown by myself. I didn't spray them, so there are insects. It doesn't look good, but it's definitely better than the ones sold on the street." Said. Then I went to load the vegetables that had been dumped by the courtyard gate before, and the leaves of the vegetables had already fallen down.

Uncle Jinshui came back again, carrying a brand new rice cooker, saying that it was a gift from buying a mobile phone, and asked Lin Yi to take it to the town for Aunt Jinshui.

Maybe it was premeditated, maybe it was a temporary idea, so the enthusiasm of the country people became less pure.Lin Yi took the rice cooker, feeling a fleeting sense of loss in his heart.

Before leaving, it was another huge project. The inside and outside padlocks were rusted, dull and heavy. Lin Yi took some effort to lock the upper and lower locks. After checking the doors and windows, he found that there were no small locks. The thief took advantage of this opportunity, and together with Qian Duoduo, they went out of the courtyard with vegetables and a snakeskin bag of grapefruit.

It was getting dark gradually, and the malicious people who had no sun were willing to come out for a walk. On the way out of the village, they met a few people, some exchanged greetings with Lin Yi, and some looked at them and pretended not to know them.

The last train at the end didn't carry many people, and the seat was optional. The two sat in the last row, each staring at the scenery outside the window in a trance.

Qian Duoduo stared at his side face and saw the Wanjia lights hitting Lin Yi's face, casting a hazy and ambiguous halo. He suddenly felt that the whole day was like a dream, crazy and messy , Until now, my heart still can't calm down for a long time.

In the night, the lights are lit up, illuminating the houses lined with roads. The dim and warm lights are scattered in front of the door through the screen windows, and the house is full of the smell of firewood, rice, oil and salt.

Toil and triviality are revealed in the hopelessness.

This is the early autumn of 2016, the weather is getting cooler, and the air is filled with the aroma of rice flowers and bean drums.