beginning of autumn

On the eve of Chinese New Year 2008

Yunfei was busy inside and out for many days before tidying up the small West House.After the walls are painted, the fire is lit, and the kang is laid, the place slowly feels like home.

Li Qiu's phone still failed to get through, Yunfei looked at the green smoke drifting in the wind, feeling a little uneasy in his heart.Xiaona hummed a little song and came in from the outside, seeing that the place was organized in an orderly manner, she said happily: "Brother, I have something to discuss with you. You go to the big house to accompany mom, and leave this place to me." "Yun Fei pulled her to sit down, and said with a smile: "You have been like this since you were a child, and you will grab all the good things from your brother, but this time you can't do what you want. You and your mother still live in the big house, wait Li Qiu is back and I will stay here with him." Xiaona looked a little uncomfortable after hearing this, and said coyly for a long time: "Why is it that Li Qiu again? Aren't his sister and brother-in-law very rich now? I heard they are all in the city I bought a house. Why doesn’t he go to their place, but instead wants to come back to this poor mountain valley?” Yunfei said without thinking, “No matter how good the city is, it’s not my home after all.” Xiaona couldn’t help but sneer He said: "Hey, so this is his own home?" Yun Fei smiled and didn't say anything more when he heard that he had said something wrong.Seeing Yunfei sitting there silently, Xiaona thought he was angry with her, and muttered in a low voice: "You treat him like a baby, but he doesn't. You say it's a big New Year's Eve, so leave an outsider behind." Home, what do you mean?" Yun Fei deliberately smiled and teased her when he heard her say this, and said, "What outsiders are no outsiders, after two years I will ask my mother to entrust a matchmaker to tell you to him, then we will be successful." We have a family, and we are afraid that others will make fun of us."

Xiaona couldn't sit still now, she stood up abruptly, her face flushed purple, she was about to say something when she saw her mother pushing the door open, so she had to hold back and stop making any noise.When mother saw the situation, she guessed the best part in her heart, and smiled at Yunfei while coaxing Xiaona: "Xiaoyun, you are so old, why do you keep bullying your sister?" Xiaona pulled Mother wiped her eyes with her hand and said: "Since I was a child, my brother only pretended to be that poor boy in his heart, and he only wanted to leave him with any good things. He never thought about his own sister. Until now, for him He even made fun of me in a different way. He said that for a few years, I asked my mother to ask a matchmaker to marry me to him. It depends on his virtue. It doesn't matter what he wants. Why should I marry him? If you want to marry, you can marry me After hearing this, my mother gave Yunfei a blank look and said, "I'm not talking about you. Liqiu is a nice kid, but there is no room in this house, and there is no stretch of land. Let your sister marry him and drink Northwest wine with him." Feng, it's thanks to you as a brother who can figure it out." The more Yun Fei heard this, the more he felt uncomfortable, it was originally a joke, is there any need to belittle others like this?After thinking about it, he became angry, and said with a sneer to Xiaona: "So what if you don't have a room or a row of land? Don't look at you as a college student, but when it comes to virtue, you really don't deserve it at all." When you go to someone else, your mind is full of money and money, it's not vulgar, I think if you really marry, you can only harm him for the rest of your life."

Hearing this, Xiaona didn't care to call her brother anymore, and said to Yunfei angrily, "Why do you say that about me? What do you mean I'm not good enough for him? He's nothing but a bunch of disgusting Mud, a pile of mud stuck on your body for more than ten years. You like him is your own business, even if you marry him home, I have no problem. Looking at the man who is almost 30 years old, even a You don’t even have a girlfriend, do you know what people outside are saying about you? I feel disgusted for you. If you really care about him so much, don’t sit here and wait, go to the provincial capital as soon as possible Let’s go to the coal mine to collect his body, or he will be cremated if it’s too late.” Mother knew that she was talking nonsense because she was in a hurry, so she hurriedly pushed her out of the door, and turned to Yunfei Said: "Xiao Yun, don't listen to her, what she said is not true, I haven't got any definite information about Li Qiu's matter, maybe... maybe it's okay." Yunfei was against Li Qiu He had doubts about the matter, and now hearing what Xiaona said, it was as if his soul had been blown away, and he sat there blankly without saying a word.Seeing that his dementia had occurred again, his mother was so frightened that his "flesh" grew and "flesh" cried for a long time. She waited for him to recover, and then slowly told him the whole story.

Half a month ago, my mother overheard someone saying that there was a coal mine collapse in the provincial capital, and it is said that many people died.Hearing from the people who came back from the neighboring village that Li Qiu seemed to be working in the well there, he was extremely anxious.Mother learned from Xiaona that the elder brother of a classmate in her city was a team leader over there, so she asked her to inquire about the situation.But when I got there, I found out that something happened to someone else's house, and the family was anxiously driving there to find someone. Judging from the tone of their family members, it is estimated that Liqiu is already in danger.

※※※※※

The sun passed through the clouds, leaving a smear of red on the dark blue sky, and it was New Year's Eve again in a blink of an eye.Qiu Yunfei sat under the big locust tree at the entrance of the village, looking at the rolling hills in the distance, tears gradually blurred his eyes.He would sit here almost every day, waiting for those warm little hands to gently cover his eyes from behind, waking him up from the deathly darkness.But every time it's a disappointment...

The phone in his pocket rang suddenly, he sighed, took out the phone and glanced at it lazily.At this glance, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Li Qiu, is that you?" He pressed the answer button and asked softly.

"Brother Yun, it's so cold, why are you sitting here alone? You'll catch a cold." Li Qiu suddenly hugged him from behind and smiled, "You've been waiting here for me, haven't you?"

The mobile phone slipped to the ground inadvertently, Yunfei turned his head and looked at him, tears welled up in his eyes.The boy in front of him is still the same as before, but there are a few vicissitudes in his eyes...

"You little bastard, I can't get through the phone, and I didn't send a message. I thought you..." Yun Fei punched you lightly in the chest. Although there was a smile on his face, there was a shiver in his throat. Astringent.Li Qiu looked at him, with tears in his eyes, and said with a sob: "Brother Yun, do you think that something happened to me in the mine, that's why I'm like this? Sister Xiujuan was also big when she called me. I cried a lot. In fact, I had already left there before the accident, but I didn’t have time to tell you.”

"Then where have you been these days?" Yun Fei asked with some doubts.

"Brother Yun, I found my sister. When I went to the mine to finish the formalities and was about to leave, I saw a girl selling rice noodles on the side of the road. When she saw me, she froze there. I just thought That look was very familiar, but she couldn't remember where she saw it for a while. She saw me waiting for the bus on the side of the road, so she ran over and asked me if my name was Chen Liqiu. I was a little surprised, so I asked where she was from, and she immediately She cried. She said that shortly after her stepmother took her away from home, she was tricked here on the grounds of recruiting, and sold them to an old and ugly man. That man only knows how to gamble every day, and he is a little unsatisfactory , he would fight them. Although the stepmother resisted, she would be beaten to death every time. The man died of illness two years ago. I thought I could live a few days of comfortable life, but the stepmother unfortunately contracted The village is deep in the mountains, and there is no mobile phone signal there. Most of the villagers have moved out, and only a few old people are still there. The stepmother just turned five years old. Ten, her hair was all white, and she was so thin that she almost lost her shape when she lay on the bed. After so many years, she still recognized me, held my hand and kept crying. She didn't drink a drop of water for many days, She vomited after eating and couldn’t feed her at all. I stayed there and took care of her until she passed away with a smile on her face. I asked my sister if she would come back with me. She shook her head and looked at the helper in the yard. The boy she was chopping wood and boiling water secretly laughed, and I understood right away."

Yunfei also suddenly remembered that carefree girl, so he quietly asked: "Does Xiaomei know that you are back?"

"Well, she said that she would come here to see us after the new year."

"Then after the new year, do you want to go back there?"

Li Qiu shook his head.

"Why?"

"That's because...because...my heart is always here..."

……

(Finish)