Shangqiaotou Village, Qiaotou Town

From then on, every time Hong Sheng cooks, he deliberately cooks a little more, sometimes one meal a day, and sometimes two meals a day. After a long time, it seems that every time he eats, he has a little more to worry about.

On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Hong Sheng made ten rice dumplings, soaked the small yellow rice for a day, and then stuffed them with jujubes. Dip some white sugar, and this Dragon Boat Festival will be refreshing.Hong Sheng kept five, and brought five for the young man, a bowl, and half a bag of sugar; the people in the village saw that he went halfway up the mountain again, and they didn't seem surprised.

"Hong Sheng, are you delivering food to the idiot again?"

"Oh~"

"What did you eat today?"

"I made a few zongzi."

"Ah, Hong Sheng is an idiot young man, is he still celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival?"

"I bought too many zong leaves, and I can't eat them all by myself!"

Now when young people see Hong Sheng, they don't often hide in the cave to eat. Occasionally, when Hong Sheng wants to talk, he will sit by the side and eat while "listening". Of course, it is also possible that he is just concentrating on eating.Hong Sheng peeled off the rice dumplings, put them in a bowl sprinkled with white sugar, rolled them around with chopsticks, the sugar was all around, and then handed the chopsticks to the guy whose eyes had already stuck to the rice dumplings. took a bite,

"There are jujubes in it, be careful of the pits."

Hong Sheng had a satisfied smile on his face that he couldn't even explain. Maybe it was because his family members left one after another when he was 15 years old?It may be that he was too early to be independent and too early to experience what is loneliness?Maybe it was because the big yellow dog who had been with him for 13 years died of old age, and he never had any companions?It may also be that no one in this world will care about him or who will he care about? ... When the young man appeared, Hong Sheng pitied him and sympathized with him. After a long time, it was like raising a puppy. Watching him eat very satisfied, he slowly let go of his guard, feeling that he seemed to need it very much. I would actually be happy in a different way.

One day at the end of July, Hong Sheng came back from the fields, and when he passed halfway up the mountain, he saw some naughty children who had been on summer vacation, frolicking outside the cave dwelling where the young people lived.

"Stupid, come out, I'll give you a steamed bun!"

Some people threw branches into it, some wrapped clods or stones with grass leaves and threw them in, and some laughed and threw a piece of cow dung wrapped in grass leaves; Hong Sheng saw it and yelled,

"What are you doing, little boy?"

As soon as the little guys saw someone, they suddenly laughed and ran away; Hong Sheng went to the cave, probed inside, and asked,

"Did you hit me?"

The other party looked at him with big bright eyes,

"Come out and let me see if it's on?"

The man hesitated for a moment, then came out, glanced at Hong Sheng, then poked his head to look around; his face and clothes were dark, and the naughty kid just wanted to tease him, and didn't want to hurt him. Humanly speaking, the thing thrown was not hard, and it didn't seem to hurt;

"Are you hungry?"

The young man's eyes were pulled back suddenly, and he looked at Hong Sheng brightly again, making him laugh;

"Tonight is steamed rice porridge, how much do you eat?"

The young man seemed to swallow his saliva, lowered his head and bit his lip, raised his head and stretched out his index finger. Hong Sheng was surprised for a moment. It has been more than two months since they "know each other". An "interaction", in the past, Hong Sheng said that the person ate, and occasionally seemed to be "listening", but there was no response. Today, Hong Sheng just wanted to tease him, but he did not expect this person to give him such a response How to put it this way, it’s like raising a puppy with your own hands and discovering that it is “human” for the first time. When you let it “shake hands”, it will put one of its front paws on your hand; Tried and asked again,

"Is one enough?"

The other party seemed to have thought about it, and stretched out two fingers timidly,

Hong Sheng smiled happily,

"Okay, just bring two, you wait for me, I'll go back and do it now!"

At the end of July, the buckwheat in the field could be harvested. Hong Sheng didn’t plant much, only three acres, so he cut, harvested and threshed by himself for a full week. Passing by there, the young man would follow him from a distance. When he got to the field and started working, the man would sit aside and ask Hong Sheng how long he would stay; once Hong Sheng looked at him secretly, I found that this man was fighting with a grasshopper, he grabbed it and let it go; the funniest thing is that at first he buckled it with one hand, and later he buckled it with both hands. , very much like the big yellow dog of their family before; so Hong Sheng's monotonous farming work suddenly added a lot of fun.Occasionally, the young man imitated his example to poke buckwheat. The buckwheat roots were shallow, and Hong Sheng hoeed hard, and the soil was loose. But this guy used too much force, and the first time he poked, he fell on his back to the loess and his face to the sky. Hong Sheng laughed out loud.

From the end of August to the beginning of September, after the beginning of autumn, there was a week of autumn rain this year. As the saying goes, "One autumn rain and one cool", after the rain, the weather was not so dry; another lightning flash After the thunderous rainy night, Hong Sheng got up in the morning and opened the courtyard door. He was startled when he saw a dark mass at the door; surprise"?

"Why are you sitting here?"

The man stood up, lowered his head, his body was still wet, strands of hair stuck to his forehead, and there were black marks on his face, like a poor cat,

"Is it raining?"

"Collapsed..."

The voice was a little low, a little hoarse, and a little hesitant. Hong Sheng was taken aback for a moment, thinking he had heard it wrong.

"what?"

"Collapsed!"

This time, he spoke more clearly. Hong Sheng couldn't tell what he felt. This was the first time he heard this person's voice. Before, everyone thought he was dumb; was it a surprise?Still moved?Anyway, I can't tell;

He dragged the man into the house, and the guy found a corner and squatted there, and then he glanced at Hong Sheng, and then again, as if he was not going to leave; looking at the cat-like face, Hong Sheng sighed , boiled three pots of water, and went to the village to pick up two more loads (one load and two barrels) before washing the "flower cat"; his dirty clothes were burned on the spot, and he took some of his own and put them on first. In fact, it may be because he is too thin. The clothes on him are like hanging on an empty shelf. It may be because he has been wandering outside for a long time. The young man's face, neck, back, and even legs Pimples of ringworm, washed hair drooping on the eyes, the young man shook his head when he felt uncomfortable, so Hong Sheng cut it for him. Although the cut was uneven, he looked much more energetic, especially the eyes From the beginning to the end, the man remained silent. When Hong Sheng asked him to squat, he squatted, and when he asked him to stand up, he stood up. However, he seemed a little shy when he took off his pants, with his hands covering his legs. For a while, Hong Sheng laughed while watching.

In the afternoon, Hong Sheng went to the town again, bought ointment for ringworm and came back, took the young man, and applied it up and down on him. At dinner, Hong Sheng brought him a bowl, and he hugged it He squatted in the innermost corner of the wall with a bowl in his hand, still eating that way, stuffing his mouth full and chewing hard; Hong Sheng wanted to try to chat with him,

"You can talk?"

That man eats very seriously,

"What's your name? Do you still know?"

That man eats very seriously,

"My first name is Wang Hongsheng, and my nickname is Hong Sheng. Are you there?"

That person still eats seriously,

"Is it enough? Have another momo?"

The man raised his eyes, hesitated for a moment, moved to the dining table, and stretched out his hand to Hong Sheng; Hong Sheng smiled helplessly,

"You just know how to eat! Okay, it's good to know how to eat, very good!"

There are two rooms in Hong Sheng’s house. To be precise, they are also called kilns. The roof of the house is semi-circular arched, and the inner wall is made of mud and mud. One, when his grandparents were alive, they lived there, a two-meter-wide corridor called the outer room, used for the kitchen, and the right side of the outer room was when his parents were alive, a family of three lived, now, he lives in one room, and the other room There are some sundries piled up; don't look at this house as inconspicuous, the wisdom of the older generation is all inside, the walls of the house are thick, it keeps you warm in winter and resists the heat in summer; the young man said,

"You just sleep here!"

The next day when the weather cleared, Hong Sheng took the sack and prepared to go to the field, and the corn could be harvested; the layout of the village was very simple, with one road, and people on the left and right sides. The older generation said that in the past, Qiaotou Village was just a road In Hegou, the first family moved here was named Wang, and later the Wang family multiplied and thrived here, and their ancestors have become the current village, so now most of Qiaotou Village are surnamed Wang, and every family can get some relatives; Qiaotou The village is bounded by the brigade (village committee), and about [-] households are divided into ditch inside and outside ditch. Hong Sheng’s family lives in the ditch. , the donkey was also sold, and every spring plowing and autumn harvest, he had to go to his second grandfather's house outside the ditch to borrow. The second grandfather was about the same age as his father, but he was senior, so he called him grandpa; I followed behind, neither far nor near, there was a stranger, everyone looked at him curiously, someone asked,

"Hong Sheng, do you have relatives here?"

Hong Sheng smiled and said,

"no!"

"Who is this young man (meaning young man)? Why haven't I seen it before?"

"The kid who lives in the middle of the mountain!"

"Is that the idiot in the middle of the mountain?"

Hong Sheng hummed; someone asked again,

"Hong Sheng, are you cleaning him up and preparing to raise him?"

"Much more chopsticks, no effort!"

"Oh, Hong Sheng is so kind!"

"This idiot is not like the people here. He is a good young man after he has been washed clean."

"Oh, it's a pity that I was stunned, otherwise I could run to our place?"

People were talking about it in a hurry, and the young people who cleaned up had another day of entertainment for the boring people in the village.