Lao Yan is an electric welding master with a low education. Thinking about the "big wave" just now, he said, should I name my daughter Yan Lang? Yan Yan's daughter-in-law took a bite and said it was too old-fashioned to eat. Look at the burning clouds outside, just call it Hong Yan. Lao Yan is full of joy, and it is good for his daughter-in-law to see her daughter. He only thought that by giving him a welding torch, he could weld Nantian Island and land.
This is the story that Hong Yan told when he introduced himself to the whole class in the first grade of junior high school. Her delicate and euphemistic voice made all the boys in the class mad. At that time, Liu Dashui and Zhao Haisheng carved Hong Yan's name on the desk. Hong Yan said that, a shy blush appeared on her face, and her dimples were as deep as the water in the dock. She gently smoothed the curtain on her forehead to her ear and sat down. She picked up a book, The Story of the Sahara, and began to read it. It was soon rumored that Hong Yan liked to watch Sanmao. Several boys in the class bought Sanmao to wander around. After watching it several times, they still don't understand why Hongyan likes watching it. Hong Yan laughed when I heard that, leaned against the railing of the teaching building, looked at the direction of the pier, sighed and began to read the sentence leisurely:
"When I smile, my face is like spring flowers, which will definitely touch people, no matter who he is."
Liu Meng felt the same way when he saw Hong Yan. His face is like a spring flower, and his smile is very touching. He pinched the brakes of the motorcycle, took off his helmet and put it on his right hand. He asked Hong Yan sideways: "Girl, how to get to Yangliukeng Village?"
Hong Yan blushed, thinking that this man's voice is really nice, just like on the radio. Yes 1996. Hong Yan is in the third grade. She has read a lot of books about Sanmao and Qiong Yao, but she has never left Nantian Island. She likes her boys' six classes in grade three, but she doesn't like any of them. But when he heard this tender question from someone who didn't know where he came from, Hong Yan fell in love with him. Liu Meng speaks Mandarin and wears jeans, just like a character on TV. Hong Yan felt that the story would eventually happen to her.
Liu Meng said that he would go to Yangliukeng to find an aluminum basin that was very important to his late grandfather. When he was young, his grandfather was a soldier in the Longwangshan army on the island. Hong Yan found Liu Meng's story very interesting. Liu Meng said that his name was given by his grandfather, and he should remember the kindness of Mongolian people. Hong Yan thinks Liu Meng's name is very nice. Liu Meng said he found an aluminum basin. He wants to take Hong Yan to the seaside to catch crabs with purple pliers and lie on the beach at night to count the stars. Hong Yan thinks Liu Meng is very romantic.
"I'm sorry, I liked you the first time I saw you." Liu Meng stared at Hong Yan and said, her mouth showed a beautiful radian.
Hong Yan thought it was the sweetest love story she had ever heard, which was not in Sanmao's book, so Hong Yan got on Liu Meng's motorcycle.
Hong Yan led the way, and Liu Meng and Hong Yan rode to the grassland in Fengmen Pass, the loquat field in Fan 'ao, the orange forest in Long Hudou, the Shuiluan Tomb in Zhang Cang and the Niangniang Temple in Jinqimen. Hong Yan told Liu Meng the story of the island along the way, and Liu Meng told Hong Yan what he saw and heard along the way. Hong Yan holding Liu Meng from behind, only feel crisp. The more Liu Meng looks at Hong Yan, the more he feels like a sunset glow by the sea.
They walked around Yangliukeng and didn't get any news about his grandfather's aluminum basin. For this old story, the village hip flask elder made a concluding statement and sent Liu Meng away. "Find a basin from a big city and come to Yangliukeng. If you are full, you will have nothing to do. " Liu Meng angrily took Hong Yan to continue wandering on the island.
A week later, Liu Meng took Hong Yan to the dock. He clenched his fist and said, "Hong, it's time for us to break up. Do you want your left hand or your right hand? "
Hong Yan's eyes turned red in an instant, and she said with tears, "Can you not choose? I want to be with you. "
"You belong here, I don't belong here. Choose one, dear Hong. " Liu Meng's voice is still gentle and sweet, and she sounds like an announcer, but Hongyan sounds as sad as the falling rain on the dock.
Yan Hong Hongxuan chose his left hand. Liu Meng spread out his left hand with nothing, and then spread out his right hand. This is a boat ticket. So Hong Yan watched Liu Meng get on the boat. When he drove away, he turned around with a smile on his mouth, like a romantic knife.
Later, Hong Yan was beaten by the old Yan who had been looking for her for a week. Later, there were rumors that Hong Yan had an abortion, dropped out of school and remained single.
Aman's hometown is in Zhang Xiaobai Village, but he is a famous bachelor on Xinggang Road. His fame lies in his long bachelor years, and he seems to be in no hurry. In addition to helping the people on board, a 40-year-old man returned to the rental house on Xinggang Road, moved a chair, sat in the sun at the door and observed passers-by.
"Aman, my eyes are falling off. Looking for a wife?" Passers-by always make fun of him Aman smiled foolishly and replied with a long tail, "I can't find it."
That year, a wave of soliciting foreign daughter-in-law suddenly rose on the island, helping Aman. Aman actually married a daughter-in-law in her early twenties. She is clean and speaks Mandarin well. Begging is actually buying. It is said that she is a poor woman in the mountainous area of Jiangxi, Guizhou. The bachelor gave the introducer a sum of money, and the introducer brought back part of it to the woman's family. Without family coming, he married on the island. In the late 1990s, this trend prevailed in Taiwan Province for several years. Later, because some people said that buying and selling women was illegal, it gradually decreased, so everyone said Aman was very lucky.
Because of the money spent, bachelors who invite foreign wives are always worried that their wives will run away, so they dare not give more money to their wives. They all say hello to the old man who sells tickets at the dock and ask him to help them not to buy tickets for outlying islands. Oman is an exception. He is very kind to his daughter-in-law, Xiaoling, and lets her take care of money and buy her clothes instead of doing housework. As soon as the ship entered the port, he brought home the freshest seafood for his wife.
"Oman, go home carefully. My wife is not here. " Someone made fun of Aman who came home with a net bag of seafood. Aman is still smirking, dragging his long tail and saying, "Xiaoling won't."
Xiaoling gave birth to a baby girl to Aman. When the baby girl was 3 years old, Aman was 45 years old and Xiaoling was 25 years old. She learned the language of the island and began to manage housework like a woman on the island. She also got together with the women on the island to gossip. "Xiaoling, are you willing to marry Aman so young?" A woman always asks her with a smile. Xiaoling always lowers her head and bites her lip and says, "Aman is very kind to me."
But one day Aman hurried home with a net bag of seafood and found the door closed. The three-year-old child was entrusted to Effie's house next door. Effie said that Xiaoling had told Aman to take her luggage back to her hometown. Aman let out a cry and went home to look at the empty bedside table in a daze. There should be a passbook and cash there. Now there is only a tearful note that says, "Sorry, Oman, I have to go."
Aman is still sitting in a chair in the sun as before, and her daughter is playing quietly beside her. Everyone on the island knew what happened to Aman and said sympathetically to Aman, "Foreign wives are really unreliable. You were so nice to her and ran away. " Aman always stops at once and says, "She did, but she went back to her parents' house and was delayed. "
Aman did receive a few letters and sent them, but after a long time, they gradually disappeared. Everyone knows that Aman's daughter-in-law has run away, but Aman stubbornly argues that she has returned to her parents' home.
A year later, Xiaoling actually came back. Aman smiled casually and still gave the money to Xiaoling for safekeeping. As soon as the ship entered the port, it rushed home with a net bag of seafood. Someone whispered that Aman didn't know how many cuckolds she had worn this year, but Aman just ignored it and was still good to Xiaoling.
Xiaoling became silent and took care of the housework with her children at home. The woman invited her to chat and gossip together. She always lowers her head and says that she hasn't finished the housework at hand. A month later, Aman's boatman came to Xiaoling's house and brought a news that shocked Xiaoling. Oman had an accident while operating the net machine, and he was involved. He lost too much blood and didn't come back
"Aman is a veteran. I didn't know how to be absent-minded that day and had an accident. Ah ... There will be some pensions in the boat, you can take them first ... "Before the savage finished, Xiaoling cried and grabbed the land, shaking all over. She has seen the sadness of women on the island, and she used to think it was too exaggerated. At the moment, she unconsciously is the same.
After Aman was buried, people on Xinggang Road were talking that Xiaoling might have to leave again this time. Xiaoling actually stayed. She took care of the children alone. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, she goes to visit Aman. She took some letters and read them at the grave. Someone heard Xiaoling read it.
"Come back if you want. My children and I are always here."
Last year, the island government informed the relocation of graves, and all old graves with cement surfaces must be removed, coffins carried out, cremated, put into urns and buried in government-designated cemeteries. At that time, people's resentment boiled, and they all worried that the grave would be affected by Feng Shui. Later, the government had to adopt the principle of voluntariness, subsidize all graves and provide cemeteries free of charge. Everyone thought it was much more convenient to sweep the grave after moving, so they began to look at the date chosen by the Gregorian calendar, find monks to chant Buddhist scriptures, lift the grave and move up.
When we opened Aunt Yangliukeng's coffin and faced the sea, we were surprised to find a broken aluminum basin inside, which had been oxidized and blackened for a long time, but we could still recognize it as an aluminum basin. It's almost 20 years since my aunt died. If she hadn't moved the grave, everyone would have forgotten the aluminum basin in the coffin. Grandpa Liu, who has stepped down as the village head, suddenly remembered something and patted his thigh and said, "Oh, a young man from other places came to the village to look for an aluminum basin some years ago, and I scolded him. Now I remember, there really is such a basin. "
The grave has been demolished and the coffin has been lifted. Everyone simply stopped to listen to the story of the aluminum basin pieced together by the older generation.
"At that time, there were guns in Gunshan, and the troops were in Longwangshan. There had to be a platoon." Grandpa, an old hip flask, smoking a cigarette and chatting about the past 60 years ago. He said it was the early 1950s. In Yangliukeng village, bandits often flee to a desert island at sea, sometimes wearing Kuomintang uniforms.
Bandits usually go ashore from the beach by sampan at high tide at night, enter the village in the dark, and rob villagers of food, livestock and things they can use. Things to say, there were not many poor things at that time, and the most troublesome thing was to rob people. As long as they are young and strong, both men and women will rob them. After a while, men will become bandits and women will become bandits. Longwangshan troops couldn't help the bandits for a while, and the bandits came and went quickly. When the troops came down from Laowangshan, they were long gone.
Later, the platoon leader thought of an idea to let the soldiers be stationed in the hut where the laver was dried in the North Niuwotou. When the terrain was high, they saw bandits coming ashore. As soon as they landed, they beat gongs and drums to let the young people in the village run to Longwang Mountain, but the bandits were afraid to chase them. At the same time, they lit a fire and informed Longwangshan troops to come down. After several times, it was quite effective. The bandits only robbed a little food, and life became more and more difficult.
One night, my aunt, who was already a big girl, came to deliver food to the soldiers stationed in Beiniuwa. When she passed Gaotou, she vaguely heard something below. It turned out that the gangsters somehow managed to sneak in by taking advantage of the tide. My aunt was frightened and quickly hid in the cabin. The soldiers stationed thought she could run with a gong, but my aunt couldn't. She hid in the woodpile and rushed out to shoot at the beach, but she didn't run.
Fortunately, only two or three robbers rowed the boat in a hurry. As soon as the soldiers fired, some people in the village got up the courage to knock the gong, and the bandits were scared away. It's just that the soldier rushed out in the dark, tripped over the seaweed rack and broke his leg.
My aunt has a huge aluminum basin. She went to Longwangshan to visit the wounded soldiers with freshly pickled pickles. Jun said it made her take it back quickly. My aunt refused to cook a large pot of pickles for the army to burn small yellow croaker, and she was busy cooking and washing dishes until dark. The wounded soldier said that it is difficult for you to walk at night with an aluminum basin. I'll leave the aluminum basin here and bring it back to you later. Aunt blushed and said, ok.
Three days later, there was a terrible battle on Longwang Mountain. The robbers got a hull boat from nowhere, and it also had a motor. They don't need to take advantage of the trend. They actually touch the mountain from behind Longwang Mountain at night without passing through the village. Soldiers have no time to get dressed and carry guns. They picked up convenient things with bare arms and went to work with the bandits. The scene was in chaos. The soldier's leg injury is still not healed. In the chaos, he just wanted to go to the village to inform his aunt. As a tie, he sat in an aluminum basin with his feet up, sliding the wolf fern, the sea breeze whistling and the moonlight bright. He slipped all the way to the mountainside of Long Hudou, avoiding a few dangerous cliffs in the middle, and stumbled, but he survived.
Later, the bandits didn't enter the village, but this time they went for the troops. They made a phone call to get back to the boat from behind Longwangshan, robbed some troops' supplies and left several bodies. The soldier turned his foot into the village and handed the aluminum basin to my aunt. His body was covered with wounds cut by stones. He can't go back to Wang lung for the time being, so he is resting at my aunt's house.
Five days later, the troops came, asked the soldiers something at my aunt's house, and then took the soldiers away. No one believes that he slipped all the way down in an aluminum basin facing the sea. The picture is too ugly for the PLA. Later, it was said that it was characterized as a problem with life style, and then it was taken away by the army and never returned to Longwangshan.
A few years later, Longwangshan troops also withdrew. My aunt married and lived quietly until she died at the age of 70. Before she died, she asked me to take this aluminum basin into the coffin. More stories are unknown.
The cemetery built by the government is in Fenghuang Mountain, which is a sloping land with rice fields facing the back of the mountain. The old and new ancestors of the island met in the cemetery with great excitement. My aunt's tomb is not far from Hong Yan's father, Lao Yan's tomb and Aman's tomb. Everyone is discussing whether aluminum pots should be buried in the new cemetery, and naturally the story is told again.
Some people lament that this soldier doesn't even have a name.
"His name is Liu. I have heard of it. " Xiaoling, who is cleaning in front of Aman's curtains, said, then lowered her head and tidied it up quietly.
A few steps away, Hong Yan suddenly became one leng, his eyes turned red, as if he wanted to understand something, and suddenly looked up and smiled inexplicably.
I didn't understand love when I was young, and I don't understand it now. Sometimes I think love is really a very complicated thing. Why can things between two people be so complicated? Love, love and hate faint resentment, around.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think of those love stories on the island. I just think love is like an island. Some people come, some people go, some people wait, some people wander, and people come and go. Only the ebb and flow of the tide is nothing.