turn into a breeze

At the back of the village, there is a dilapidated bluestone steps leading to the top of the mountain. At the end of the steps is an old wooden mansion.

The house has been abandoned for many years, the yard is overgrown with weeds, the wood is rotten, the deformed doors and windows make creaking sounds, and some house beams have even half collapsed, the whole house presents a sense of crumbling dilapidation.

When we were young, this house was a good place for our village friends to play, and then someone fell down the rotten stairs, and the adults in the village would not allow us to go to that house anymore.

After a heavy rain washed away the dilapidated bluestone steps, the adults in the village simply closed the mountain road, and the house became a place isolated from the world but far away from us.

Later, when I was ten years old, I moved to the city with my family and returned to the village. It has been 20 years since I left.

Looking at the village that is completely different from 20 years ago, I can't even find where my ancestral house is, but the house on the top of the mountain, as if time has stopped, except that the surrounding trees and weeds are more lush, There are no other changes.

With the help of the villagers, I finally found my ancestral house. Standing at the door and looking at the house in front of me, I always felt that it was much dilapidated than it looked in memory.

This time I came back to the village mainly to sort out the relics left in the house. Although I thought that everything in this house could be disposed of, but for some reason, I decided to come and have a look in person. One is to take a last look at the house. One of the places where you spend your childhood is to let yourself relax.

The gate of the yard has become very dilapidated, and one of the door hinges has been broken, so it takes very strenuous hands to lift the door a little to be able to push it open smoothly.

The vegetable field in front of the house has been completely abandoned because no one took care of it. It is already May, and the camellias next to it are still blooming very beautifully. The two camellias, red and white, were my grandmother's favorite.

Grandma is a conservative and stubborn person. After her grandfather passed away, her father and mother tried to take her out, but they were rejected, probably because of her personality. When she was a child, my grandmother was a strict and alienated person, never like other people. People would hold my hand and walk in the village like that, and they would not pat my head and secretly give me money to buy candy.

The grandmother in my memory was always dressed neatly, sitting cross-legged on the bed and embroidering shoe soles.

Talk to me occasionally, that is, say hello coldly.

So after my father and mother passed away, I didn't think about my grandmother who lived in the ancestral house, and I didn't even come back once, until I received a call and was told that my grandmother had passed away.

Walking through the decayed but tidy yard and opening the door, there was a musty smell coming from inside. It was the rainy season, and the house had never been opened since the death of my grandmother. One can imagine the situation.

I laughed at myself and blamed myself in my heart, do I really have any good expectations for such a place?

Inside the door is the main hall. The old furniture looks a bit messy, and the chairs on the side are still on the ground and have not been lifted up.On the right is the room of grandmother and grandfather. The door is open, and the bedding on the bed is piled up in disorder. Because the window is open on the wall, a lot of rain falls from outside the window. The window sill showed dark yellow traces down.

I heard that my grandmother died in her sleep, and it was three days after she was found. Maybe the distant relatives who came to help wanted to open the windows for ventilation, and then forgot to close them all the time.

At that time, I received a call. I had only met my grandmother sporadically a few times in 20 years, as if hearing the news of the death of a stranger. I just asked the distant relatives on the other side of the phone to help prepare for the funeral, and I did not come back.

Looking at the messy house, I began to regret it. I didn't have any better expectations, but I didn't expect it to be far worse than I imagined. Instead of this, it would be more worry-free to ask the demolition company to demolish them all. .

Withdrew from the room and stood in the yard, lit a cigarette and held it in his hand, but didn't smoke, just stared blankly at the small mountain village in front of him, which was completely different from the big city.

"Hey, you are here. My mother said that you must have nothing when you just came back. Let me bring you some food."

A loud, unfamiliar male voice interrupted my train of thought. I frowned and looked at the person coming, wondering who was so rude.

The visitor was very tall, wearing a shabby and dirty white vest, holding a bamboo basket in one hand, and carrying something on his shoulder in the other hand, with messy hair piled on his head, and healthy wheat-colored skin , with a cynical expression.

"you are?"

I pinched out the cigarette in my hand. There was no place for anyone to throw cigarette butts in the yard, so I had to carefully put it in an empty flower pot at the door.

"Oh, I'm your nephew in terms of seniority. Grandma's funeral is organized by our family."

When I heard that it was a relative, I quickly stood up straight, and the corners of my mouth were pulled up, trying to show a smile.

"The funeral is really troublesome. I just arrived and I was thinking of going to thank you."

The man smiled, then jumped over me and walked into the room. I saw him standing there looking around, and put the things in his hand on the table.

The food in the small bamboo basket was taken out, and some fresh vegetables were in the big basket.

"The village grows vegetables at home, so you must not have eaten them here." The man glanced at the black suitcase I put aside, "Everyone usually goes to the town to buy some oil and salt."

Although the food was still hot, it looked messy and didn't arouse my appetite. I stood there smiling and thanking him. I thought he would leave, but I didn't expect to pull out the chair and sit down.

"Hurry up and eat, I'll clean up for you after you're done eating. There's no room for people in this house if you don't clean it up."

I barely suppressed the boredom in my heart, so I had to make it to the table.

Originally, I planned to come over and take the last bus to live in the hotel in the town at night, and then discuss the demolition with the demolition company tomorrow. Now that I am like this, I am embarrassed to say that I am leaving.

The food was very rough, not as delicious as the farm food I imagined, and the rice was not good rice, which was a bit hard to swallow. Even so, I tried my best to eat the small bowl of rice in my stomach to avoid embarrassment.

When I was eating, the man stared at me intently. Such behavior made me feel very uncomfortable, but there was only one bowl of rice and one pair of chopsticks, so I couldn't get him to eat together.

"Wow, you people in the city really don't eat much."

After I only ate a third of the rice and put down the bowl and chopsticks, the man spoke loudly.

I couldn't tell if there was any ridicule in his words, but the words "city people" made me a little ugly.

From the time I came back, I greeted those people who looked very strange to me, and everyone kept muttering "city people" and "city people", with a curious look in their eyes, as if I was out for a parade in a circus monkeys in general.

"Well, maybe I'm too tired."

I said lightly, and pushed the bowl in front of me towards the center of the table.

"It may be that my mother's cooking is too unpalatable. My mother's cooking is the most unpalatable in the village."

I smiled awkwardly, didn't answer the call, and didn't know how to answer the call, so I could only say "thank you" in a low voice

"Aren't you going to eat this?" The man pointed to the food on the table, I nodded, and saw him take the bowl over, just when I thought he was going to pick up the leftovers, I saw him take the food He picked up the chopsticks and pulled out the rice.

"what……"

"If the rest is too wasteful, you don't have any chicken or duck here to taste, so I'll just eat it."

The man was talking while moving his stuffed mouth.

I didn't say anything, but I saw him finish the rest in a few mouthfuls, and then put all the bowls and chopsticks into the bamboo basket.

"Okay, after dinner, let's exercise."

The man stood up, stretched his tall and slender body, and then looked around, as if looking for something, I stood aside and looked at him, a little confused.

"Where are all your cleaning tools?"

I was a little dazed by the man's question, and subconsciously looked around.

"It should be in the kitchen..."

Whispering, before the words fell, I saw the man striding towards the kitchen.

When I reacted and followed behind in a panic, he had already started rummaging through boxes and cabinets to find cleaning tools.

"No, I'll clean it myself. Besides, I have something to do in town tomorrow morning. It's better to go back to live there tonight."

I stopped the man, and I saw him turn his head and open his mouth to look at me, neither of them spoke for a while.

"Oh, that's it, I'm really sorry, I'm troubled."

The man stood up and touched his head awkwardly.

Standing face to face with the man at such a close distance, I can feel his tallness, a strong sense of oppression from him, and his shoulders are much wider than mine. Maybe it is because of long-term farming work, the muscle lines on his body are very beautiful. Stretching.

At this moment, a sense of fear surged up in me. I was too defenseless to let someone who I didn't know at all and was stronger than me enter the house.

If he's a bad guy, I might not even be able to resist.

"Wow, I didn't notice just now, are you too short?" The man looked down at me, and then compared himself with his hand on top of my head, "You still eat so little, you won't grow taller like this."

The smile disappeared from my face, such words are too rude to meet someone for the first time, even if it is a relative.

Besides, at the age of 30, I will no longer grow taller.

Retorting in my heart, I turned around and walked out of the kitchen. The man saw that I didn't reply, touched his nose with his taller hand, and followed me back to the living room resentfully.

"You have to hurry up if you want to catch the bus. The last bus is less than 10 minutes away."

Glancing at the old-fashioned wall clock on the wall, the man looked at the sky outside the house again.

"Huh? Isn't the last bus at nine o'clock in the evening?"

"That's right, but it was canceled because no one was sitting." The man walked out of the room, holding the door frame and continuing to look at the sky, "It's going to rain, you'd better wear an umbrella."

At this moment, I just want to leave this place immediately. Although I am very grateful to the man's family for helping me with the funeral and bringing me food, I really don't want to have more communication with such a rude person.

I went to the corner and picked up my pitiful looking suitcase, picked up the key to the house and walked outside the door to look at him.

The man glanced at me, picked up the bamboo basket again, picked up the frame and walked out of the room, and I immediately locked the door and walked out.

"Do you want me to see you off? It's still a while before we go to the station."

Hearing the man's voice from behind, I refused without looking back, then said "thank you" and walked towards the entrance of the village.