beginning of autumn

beginning of autumn

Winter 2007

Qiu Yunfei sat in front of the computer, his mind went blank. In the morning, the leader asked him to write a year-end report, but he was still at a loss.Snowflakes were falling outside the window, and the red couplets hanging on the booth opposite the office building were particularly conspicuous.The Spring Festival is coming soon, I don't know how my mother is doing alone in my hometown.He took out his mobile phone from his pocket and dialed the number at home, but no one answered after several calls.He was a little anxious, but he had no other way to contact him, so he had to put his phone aside and stared at the ceiling in a daze.

The mobile phone hummed and vibrated on the table. He hurriedly got up and looked, but it was an unfamiliar phone number.He hesitated for a moment, but still pressed the answer button, and a long-lost familiar voice came from beside his ear: "Is it Brother Yun? I'm Liqiu."

"Liqiu?" He was a little excited, he hadn't heard from him for five or six years, he thought he would never see him in this life, but he didn't expect to hear his voice: "Where have you been all these years? You didn't tell me when you left, which made me worry for so many years, how are you doing?"

"I have a good life," Li Qiu's voice was still as clear as before, but with a slightly astringent feeling: "I have been working in a small coal mine in other places these years, and I haven't been home for many years. I want to go back this year. Let's take a look at home."

"Okay," Yunfei said with a smile, "you can live in my house when you come back. Your house looks like that. How can you live in it? Have a great year."

"Our house should go back and tidy up, it should still be livable." Li Qiu seemed a little embarrassed on the phone: "It will disturb my aunt if I come to live at your house during the Chinese New Year. Doesn't your sister Xiaona also go home for the Chinese New Year?" , it’s not very convenient to live together.”

After hearing what he said, Qiu Yunfei hurriedly said: "What's convenient? Don't say such unreasonable words in the future. In my heart, you are my real brother. If you come back, call me. Brother will pick you up at the station." Without waiting for Li Qiu to answer, he hung up the phone, Qiu Yunfei let out a long breath, leaned on the back of the chair, looked at the snowy scenery outside the window, and felt warm in his heart .

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In a blink of an eye, it was the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, and every household was busy offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God. Qiu Yunfei still hadn't waited for Liqiu's call, and he was always in an off state when he called his cell phone. "What tricks is this kid up to, is he playing with my brother and disappearing again?" Qiu Yunfei cursed secretly in his heart.

That night, he found out from the box the somewhat yellowed black-and-white photo taken with Li Qiu more than ten years ago. He lay in bed and looked at it for a long time.Dimly, I felt that I was back under the big tree at the entrance of the village. In front of my eyes were green mountains and plains, surrounded by the fragrance of acacia flowers. A little boy was sitting on a big rock, quietly listening to the wind blowing across. The sound of the canyon. "Li Qiu, is that you?" Qiu Yunfei ran towards him, but Li Qiu disappeared all of a sudden.Yunfei looked around, and there was only a vast expanse of whiteness in front of his eyes, accompanied by the whistling wind in his ears, what he was holding tightly in his hand was only a withered and yellow grass.He suddenly woke up from the dream, his heart was pounding, his mind was full of wild thoughts, maybe something happened to Li Qiu.

The next day, Qiu Yunfei hastily finished the work at hand and asked the leader for an excuse to go back to his hometown.He took the bus from the city for more than two hours, and walked four or five miles in a row on the mountain road, and his legs gradually became uncontrollable.Yunfei sat on the stone by the side of the road and rested for a while. There was a jingle of cow bells in the distance. I don't know whose family's cows were grazing in groups on the hillside.In the past few years, my hometown has changed a lot, and the scenery along the way has become a little strange.After turning two more corners, I finally saw the big locust tree at the entrance of the village that often appeared in my dreams.From a distance, Yunfei saw a familiar figure standing under the tree, looking over here.My mother is getting old and her eyes are not very good. It was not until Yunfei approached that a smile slowly appeared on her face.Seeing his mother's weather-beaten face, Yunfei seemed to have more wrinkles, his heart ached, and he almost shed tears.His mother happily told him that her younger sister Xiaona had returned from Shanghai a few days ago, but she thought staying at home was boring, so she went to the city to find other classmates to play.Mother was nagging while walking, saying that there is nothing missing at home now, and there is no need to bring so many things home all the way, as long as the two of them can come back safely, it will be better than nothing.

Entering the village and turning eastward, there is an abandoned well. Next to the well is a dilapidated yard. The walls and roof of the yard are covered with withered grass. There is a big crack in the side wall and two big holes in the gate , Looking in through the door, the paper on the window panes of the house has long been blown away by the wind, and the yard is overgrown with weeds. It looks like no one has lived in it for more than ten years. "Mom, has Li Qiu been back?" Looking at the rusty lock hanging on the gate, Yunfei turned around and asked his mother, who hesitated to speak, and remained silent for a long time before saying, "He hasn't been here for many years?" Are you back? Why did you ask him properly?"

"He called and told me that he will go home for the New Year this year. If he comes back, how can people live in this dilapidated house?" Yun Fei seemed to feel that something was wrong with his mother's expression when he was speaking, and hurriedly asked : "Mom, is there something wrong with you?"

"It's okay. Mom is just a little older, but she is in good health. She is much better at doing farm work than those little daughters-in-law." Mom smiled and said, "It's very windy here, and it's so cold, so be careful. I have a cold, so let's go back early."

Yunfei nodded, and when he was about to go back with his mother, he turned his head and took a look at the rusted lock, and those dusty memories flooded his mind again and again.

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Autumn 1989

Time seems to have returned to 18 years ago, on an autumn afternoon, when Yunfei was 11 years old.The teacher let the students move freely on the playground. The boys were swarming and playing, while the girls gathered together to play rubber bands and throw sandbags.Yunfei doesn't like excitement by nature, so he sits alone under the tung tree on the edge of the playground and reads a book.At some point, there was a little boy beside him, who was concentrating on the comic book in his hand, with fair skin, big eyes, and a lot of patches on the dark blue clothes.Yunfei sensed that there was someone beside him, and when he looked back, he saw that the little boy's face was slightly red, and there was a trace of fear in his eyes, his body shrank back involuntarily, then he got up and ran to the other side of the playground to play alone.

The dumb uncle who weaves mats in the village is stepping on a stone mill to press reeds with a stick in his hand. He keeps making "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", beckoning the naughty children around him not to disturb his work.He got off the stone roller and ran outside the school wall to take a break. When he came back with his trousers up, he saw five or six boys playing with each other holding a reed that was put aside.Immediately, he became furious, picked up a stick and chased after them. Seeing that the situation was not good, the children all ran away, and the neatly arranged reeds were turned over in a mess.Unable to catch them, the dumb uncle yelled and picked up the little boy who was playing alone, and walked angrily towards the principal's office.The little boy screamed and struggled in his hands, but to no avail.Yun Fei followed from a distance, and saw the mute forcibly stopped the principal, yelling "ahhh" at him, and kept gesticulating.The headmaster seemed to understand what he meant, and ignored the little boy's helpless explanations and pleadings, and slapped him several times in front of the mute, leaving dazzling streaks on his fair little face. red seal.The little boy wept and did not argue for himself any more.The mute patted the principal on the shoulder with a proud expression on his face.

"Chen Liqiu, go stand at the school gate and don't leave without my permission." Seeing the dumb man leave with a smile, the principal turned around and gave Liqiu a look, straightened his clothes, and returned to his office.As night fell, the school bell rang, and the children left the school one after another in groups, fighting with each other.When Yunfei walked to the school gate with his schoolbag on his back, he saw Liqiu standing there alone.

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On Sunday afternoon, Qiu Yunfei finished his homework early and had nothing to do, so he sneaked to the pond at the west end of the village to watch fishing while his mother was not paying attention.When I just walked to the small stone bridge, there was a sound of husband and wife arguing not far away, which seemed to be mixed with the cry of a child.Following the sound, Yunfei saw a woman standing at the gate and kicking a little boy fiercely with her feet. The boy's eyes were full of tears, but he didn't dare to cry out.The woman yelled loudly for him to eat the food that had been poured into the slop bucket. The man in the yard rushed out to stop him, but the woman gave him two slaps in the face, and the man stopped making a sound.There was a girl in the yard who was so frightened that she cried loudly. The woman cursed inside while grabbing the boy's head and forcing it into the slop bucket. The boy resisted with his weak body.Although there were a lot of people around, most of them were watching the excitement, and no one went to cheer it up.

"Li Qiu?" Although he couldn't see his face, Qiu Yunfei immediately recognized that boy as Li Qiu.

He ran to Liqiu's side, collected himself and said, "Chen Liqiu, didn't you ask me to explain those math problems to you on Sunday? I waited for a long time and you didn't come. What's the matter?" The woman heard the sound Let go of Li Qiu, looked up and down at the gentle and clean intruder in front of him, and said with a slightly sarcastic smile: "Talk to him? Are you his rescuer? I don't want him to read the book, what else is there to talk about?" Question?" Li Qiu also raised his head, looking at Qiu Yunfei foolishly.

The man next to him saw that it was Yunfei, and hurriedly smiled at the woman: "Daughter-in-law, you don't know him. This is the son of Minister Qiu in Dongtou County of the village. A well-known child prodigy. Let him help Qiu’er, and Qiu’er’s grades will definitely improve.” He entered the room, took out his schoolbag and hung it on Li Qiu’s shoulder, saying, “Qiu’er, quickly take your schoolbag and follow this Brother, go, listen carefully, and don't always think about playing." Li Qiu nodded, and left behind Qiu Yunfei.When the woman heard that she was Minister Qiu's son, she couldn't say anything more, so she went back to the house angrily, and the people watching the scene slowly dispersed.

Yunfei took Liqiu to the big locust tree outside the village. The tree was hundreds of years old and the trunk was as thick as a grinding plate. Three adults could barely hug it by holding hands.The crown of the tree is like a big open umbrella, the wind blows gently, and a few yellow leaves fell down and hit Liqiu's schoolbag lightly.The two sat under the tree, looking at the pine forest opposite the mountain in a daze.There is a shallow canyon at the bottom of the mountain. When the wind blows, the sound is like a river flowing. Li Qiu said that he likes to hear that sound very much.

Yunfei gently pulled Li Qiu's hand and asked: "Have you eaten yet?" Li Qiu lowered his head and did not answer.Yunfei took out two baked potatoes from his pocket and put them in his hand, but Liqiu refused to take them.Yunfei peeled the skin and put it in his mouth, and he ate it with big mouthfuls, tears fell down like beans.

"I don't think your mother will let you eat the contents of that slop bucket. You may have misunderstood her. She may just want to scare you..." Yunfei really didn't know how to comfort him .

Li Qiu looked up at Yunfei, and said with teary eyes: "Brother Yun, my mother is long gone, she is not my mother."

On the day Liqiu was born, it happened to be Liqiu, so his father gave him this name.On the day he was born, his mother passed away, and the one who beat him was a second-married woman whom his father had just married last year, and brought a little sister with him.Although Li Qiu is only nine years old, he is very sensible.As long as I have time, I do laundry and cooking, take care of my sister, and do almost everything.The woman didn't want him to go to school at first, saying that it was useless to study, and she might as well save the money to build a house.She finds a reason to hit Liqiu every now and then, her body is bruised and purple, and Yunfei feels distressed when she looks at it.The woman also made Liqiu eat leftovers every day, saying that the food was hard-won and should not be wasted, but she and her sister made new ones every day.What she made at noon today was millet rice, and she let Li Qiu eat the leftover corn gnocchi from the morning before yesterday.Li Qiu couldn't eat anymore, just as his father helped him empty it out, the woman found out and insisted that he take it out of the slop bucket and eat it.Dad was tightly controlled by that woman, and he didn't dare to show his temper in front of her. If Yunfei hadn't helped him, he didn't know what he would suffer today.

The sun slowly set, and the sky gradually dimmed.The sunset glow on the other side of the mountain was as red as blood, which made Liqiu's little face red and simple, with a slight smile. "Liqiu, it's getting dark, let's go back." Hearing Yunfei calling him from behind, Liqiu reluctantly followed him to the village.While walking, Li Qiu would turn his head to look at the sunset over there from time to time, and was suddenly hung up by something, and staggered and fell into the grass by the side of the road.Yunfei was startled, and hurriedly helped Liqiu up from the ground, and asked him if he was hurt.A young man in his 20s stopped his bicycle, spit out the smoke on the ground, smacked his foot a few times, and cursed at Li Qiu: "You son of a bitch, you want to die." Yun Fei heard this Just as she was about to argue with him, Li Qiu held her tightly.The man gave them both a blank look, spit on the ground, and rode away arrogantly.

He is the son of Uncle Zou in the north of the village, named Zou Xiaohui.Uncle Zou was a soldier in the past and was disabled. Xiaohui was brought by his mother to marry him.Uncle Zou had no son under his knees, so he treated Xiaohui like his own son.After Uncle Zou's death, Xiaohui became the village's scourge.